Sustain Charlotte weighs in on UDO text amendments

On April 17, 2024, Sustain Charlotte Executive Director Shannon Binns submitted the following letter on behalf of Sustain Charlotte to the Charlotte City Council members and Mayor Vi Lyles regarding proposed changes to the UDO that they will be voting on soon. We offered our take on addressing the text amendment in a way that supports smart growth and sustainability.

Read the full letter:

Dear Mayor Lyles and Council Members,

We would like to express our strong support for the proposed changes in text amendment 2024-043 to the Conservation Residential Development option and urge you to support these changes as well.

We recognize that the current conservation residential development needs to fulfill its original purpose of preserving natural areas and essential habitats while providing useful and high-quality open space. This is not currently happening today.

Instead, most proposed new developments are taking an approach that results in inadequate useful and high-quality open space, and limited conservation efforts (see image below as one example).

Conservation Residential Development

Also, with regard to other proposed UDO changes that you have been discussing and will vote on soon:

  1. We believe in achieving density in the right places without limiting affordable housing from being built. This is something we support alongside our Neighbors for More Neighbors coalition partners.

  2. We recommend a balanced approach to any modifications to the N1 zoning districts. To ensure this, if new restrictions are put in place on N1-A, B, or C, we should create more opportunities (such as allowing unrestricted placement of triplexes and expanding quadruplexes and townhomes) for the remaining N1 zoning districts (N1-D, E, and F) to allow for more housing options and density to occur. A critical follow-up step will require requesting staff to include N1 zoning districts in the realignment rezoning process scheduled for 2025.

  3. We support the Compact development option for subdivisions allowing smaller lots (allowing a zoning move upwards of two districts) within one mile of centers, transit/bus corridors, or affordable housing projects.

Thank you for your service and for your time and attention to this matter.

Please let me know if you would like to discuss further.

Kind regards,

Shannon

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