CHARLOTTE FUTURE | 2040 COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

OUR CITY. OUR PLAN. OUR FUTURE.

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY (FINAL RECOMMENDED PLAN) Published July 20, 2021

CITY OF CHARLOTTE

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ADOPTED PLAN POLICY UNDER SEPARATE COVER:

2

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY

• SHORT-TERM ACTIONS
• PLANNING APPROACH
• COMMUNITY AREA MAPPING
• UNIFIED DEVELOPMENT ORDINANCE
• ANTI-DISPLACEMENT TOOLS
• FISCAL CONSIDERATIONS
• CIP PREPARATION
• ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY
• AMENDING THE PLAN
• TRACKING PROGRESS

COMPANION DOCUMENT UNDER SEPARATE COVER:

CHARLOTTE FUTURE 2040 COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY

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INTRODUCTION

This section sets out an Implementation Strategy with a focus on the initial five years of after adoption of the Comprehensive Plan. The Implementation Strategy includes recommendations for short-term actions to implement the Plan’s policies, projects and programs; a revised approach to coordinating and aligning planning in Charlotte; highlights of the update to the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO); a framework for an Anti-Displacement Strategy; findings from a Fiscal Impact Analysis; funding and financing tools; a suggested approach to identifying and prioritizing public projects; organizational considerations; and a road map for tracking progress moving forward.

1 SHORT TERM ACTIONS

The following tables identify short-term action necessary to implement the Plan’s policies, projects and programs within the next five years. The table includes recommendations organized by goal, suggested action to implement that recommendation, identifies the type of action (Regulatory Change, Supportive Policies, Recommended Projects & Programs, Public Investment, Other City Initiatives, Strategic Partnerships), designated lead, and designated support.

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GOAL 1: 10-MINUTE NEIGHBORHOODS

All Charlotte households should have access to essential amenities, goods, and services within a comfortable, tree-shaded 10-minute walk, bike, or transit trip by 2040. Not all neighborhoods are expected to include every essential amenity, good, or service, but every resident should have access within a ½ mile walk or a 2-mile bike or transit ride.

GOAL 2: NEIGHBORHOOD DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Charlotte will strive for all neighborhoods to have a diversity of housing options by increasing the presence of middle density housing (e.g. duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, townhomes, accessory dwelling units, and other small lot housing types) and ensuring land use regulations allow for flexibility in creation of housing within neighborhoods.

GOAL 3: HOUSING ACCESS FOR ALL

Charlotte will strive for all neighborhoods to have a diversity of housing options by increasing the presence of middle density housing (e.g. duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, townhomes, accessory dwelling units and other small footprint housing types) and ensuring land use regulations allow for flexibility in creation of housing within existing neighborhoods.

GOAL 3: HOUSING ACCESS FOR ALL, CONTINUED

GOAL 4: TRANSIT AND TRAIL ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT (2T-OD)

Charlotte will promote moderate to higher-intensity, compact, mixed-use urban development along high-performance transit lines and near separated multi-use pathways or trails.

GOAL 5: SAFE AND EQUITABLE MOBILITY

Charlotte will provide safe and equitable mobility options for all travelers regardless of age, income, ability, race, where they live, or how they choose to travel. An integrated system of transit and tree-shaded bikeways, sidewalks, trails, and streets will support a sustainable, connected, prosperous, and innovative network that connects all Charlotteans to each other, jobs, housing, amenities, goods, services, and the region.

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GOAL 6: HEALTHY AND ACTIVE COMMUNITIES

All Charlotteans will live and work in safe and resilient neighborhoods that enable healthy and active lifestyles by reducing exposure to harmful environmental contaminants, expanding and improving the quality of tree canopy cover, encouraging neighborhood investment in walking, cycling, and recreation facilities, and providing access to healthy food options and health care services.

GOAL 7: INTEGRATED NATURAL AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Charlotte will protect and enhance its surface water quality, tree canopy, and natural areas with a variety of trees, plantings, green infrastructure, green building practices, and open space at different scales throughout the entire community as a component of sustainable city infrastructure that addresses the threat of climate change.

GOAL 7: INTEGRATED NATURAL AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT, CONTINUED

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GOAL 7: INTEGRATED NATURAL AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT, CONTINUED

GOAL 7: INTEGRATED NATURAL AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT, CONTINUED

GOAL 8: DIVERSE AND RESILIENT ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY

Charlotteans will have opportunities for upward mobility to align education and skill levels with a diverse mix of employment opportunities, especially in targeted and supported industries.

GOAL 9: RETAIN OUR IDENTITY AND CHARM

Charlotte will retain the identity of existing neighborhoods by intentionally directing redevelopment, limiting displacement and cultivating community-driven placemaking that elevates the importance, quality and design of places.

GOAL 9: RETAIN OUR IDENTITY AND CHARM, CONTINUED

GOAL 10: FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE

Charlotte will align capital investments with the adopted growth strategy and ensure the benefits of public and private sector investments benefit all residents equitably and limit the public costs of accommodating growth.

2 PLANNING APPROACH

The following describes a revised approach and hierarchy for aligning and guiding planning efforts in Charlotte. The Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan is the guiding document that directs the City’s long-range development efforts and the other types of plans critical to realizing the community’s vision and goals. The intent of a new planning approach and revised hierarchy is to ensure that planning at all levels in Charlotte is completed in an efficient and effective manner with meaningful participation and buy-in from individual residents, neighborhoods, property owners, business owners, partner agencies, major institutions and other key stakeholders. The four planning levels are summarized and described below.

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It should be noted that existing plans at levels 1, 2, 3 and 4 are not nullified upon adoption of the Comprehensive Plan. Current Community Plans, especially those completed within the last 10 years, should be used as inputs into Level 3: Community Area Plans and future Level 4: Specific Plans. The guidance established in adopted Future Place Type Mapping and Community Area Planning (described in more detail in the following section) will take priority over existing Community Plans and District Plans once completed. Community Area Plans will utilize existing neighborhood and area plans as a foundation and provide the platform through a coordinated planning effort for updated neighborhood level recommendations and priorities. Where conflicts occur between plans types, the direction within the Comprehensive Plan, as the overarching vision for the City, should take precedence.

Level 1: The Comprehensive Plan

The Comprehensive Plan is developed in collaboration with community members, departments across the City, elected and appointed officials, partner agencies, and other community and regional partners to provide the highest policy level guidance for future development and redevelopment, infrastructure improvements and other public investments, transportation and land use connections, and a host of factors contributing to quality of life, affordability, equity and sustainability.

Level 2: Citywide and Countywide Strategic and Functional/Action Plans

Citywide and Countywide Strategic and Functional/Action Plans direct specialized components of city and county planning such as transportation, economic development, parks and recreation, housing, natural resources and sustainability. Due to the shared governance between the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County for many service areas, it is important to align community-wide plans for both jurisdictions and ensure that they align with and support the vision, goals, policies, and place guidance in the Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan and the guiding principles and strategies articulated in Livable Meck, the County’s road map for protecting and enriching our quality of life. Citywide and Countywide Plans typically come in two varieties, although variations exist and sometimes the two primary types of plans are combined. Strategic Plans build on the higher-level policy guidance and direction set in the Level 1 Comprehensive Plan and set more specific goals, objectives, policy direction and performance measures/metrics for a specific topic with consideration for the entire City or County. An example currently being developed is the Tree Canopy Action Plan. Functional/Action Plans are guided by the Comprehensive Plan and applicable Strategic Plans and identify and prioritize a particular type of community investment or service. These plans involve analysis and typically the definition, mapping and listing of specific projects. Most Functional/Action Plans also include phasing and funding strategies. An example is the City’s Bicycle Master Plan (Charlotte BIKES).

Level 3: Community Area Plans

Community Area Plans provide detailed strategies and recommendations regarding land use, built form, transportation, infrastructure, parks, recreation, open space, and facilities for sub-geographies of the City. The purpose of Community Area Plans is to engage and unite neighborhoods to plan their own communities within a framework that efficiently and effectively uses the resources available to ensure the entire City has neighborhood level input and guidance. More information on the recommended approach to Community Area Planning is provided in the next section.

Level 4: Specific Plans

Specific Plans address smaller scale geographies and are focused on implementation. They should be guided by higher order plans (Levels 1, 2 and 3 above), but generally focus on further conceptualizing, planning and sometimes designing a specific small geography. Thus, the Functional/Action Plans and Community Area Plans typically provide the relevant guidance and direction for a single large property, a grouping of properties, or a Place. Examples of these types of plans include transit station area master plans, area reinvestment plans, campus plans, and corridor plans.

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3 COMMUNITY AREA MAPPING AND PLANNING

It became readily apparent during the development of the Plan that detailed mapping at the neighborhood and community level would not be equitable and inclusive if conducted on a citywide scale. Thus, a first step in the implementation of the Equitable Growth Framework and the Comprehensive Plan will include mapping of Place Types and then developing Community Area Plans for the entire city.

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FUTURE PLACE TYPE MAPPING

A first step in implementing the Comprehensive Plan will be using the palette of Place Types in Charlotte’s Place Typology to map the desired future of the community.

Mapping Geographies

Establishing geographies for the mapping of Future Place Types and for Community Area Planning should consider geographic size, as well as existing and future populations. An initial attempt at establishing Community Areas for the City divided Charlotte’s planning area into a set of 15 smaller geographies. These draft Community Areas should be used as a starting point to further refine the boundaries (and potentially the number of geographies) using the following considerations.

• Allow existing and projected population to drive the size of areas, but avoid creating areas that are too large. Future Place Type Mapping should be conducted at the Community Area Planning Geography or subgeography. For larger Community Areas, it may be beneficial to further divide the area into two or three smaller geographies to 1) make the geography more manageable and 2) increase the likelihood that community members are familiar with most or all of the area they are being asked to help map.

• Consider existing neighborhood and district boundaries and avoid dividing an area that generally identifies with one another into two or more Community Areas.

• Limit the use of highways, major thoroughfares and major natural features as boundaries. This practice often leads to an existing asset or potential barrier getting less attention in the planning process. Barriers can become even greater divides and opportunities may be overlooked. Also, the Community Area process can help facilitate discussion, coordination and connectivity between neighborhoods and districts that are rarely engaged in the same conversations.

• Engage community members and neighborhood representatives in the exercise of refining and finalizing Community Area boundaries.

Future Place Type Mapping

Future Place Type Mapping should be conducted at the Community Area Planning Geography or subgeography. Using a defined methodology and the Place Type guidance provided within this section, staff should create an initial starting map of Future Place Types. Inputs into the initial starting map should include direction provided in previously adopted plans, existing zoning, and development plans and entitlements. The community should be educated about the Comprehensive Plan and the Place Type palette before being asked to respond to and revise the starting Future Place Type Map. A community process with in-person and online opportunities to provide meaningful input and feedback should be organized and conducted for each mapping geography (Community Area Planning Geography or subgeography). Community members should be provided with adequate time to review various iterations of the Future Place Type Map, as well as the final Public Review Draft map. After the initial Future Place Type Map is adopted as an amendment to the Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan, any future changes should be incorporated into the appropriate Community Area Plan or an amendment to that plan.

Key Steps in the Future Place Type Mapping Process

Key steps in the Future Place Type Mapping process include:

• Confirm and/or refine the Community Area geographies (and sub-geographies as applicable)
• Develop a starting data set of Future Place Types that reflects future land use and development expectations and desires articulated in adopted plans and approved entitlements
• Establish a process that is inclusive of residents, employees and business and property owners in the given Community Area or Community Area sub-geography
• Educate community members about the vision and key direction articulated in the Comprehensive Plan
• Educate community members about the ten Place Types in Charlotte and how the Future Place Type Mapping exercise will help to inform 1) the mapping of the Unified Development Ordinance’s new zoning districts and 2) follow on community area planning
• Share and build upon the Place Type priorities identified by the community, Ambassadors and Strategic Advisors for the Community Area in the Comprehensive Plan effort
• Review, revise and refine Future Place Type maps generated from the starting data set created by staff
• Facilitate conversations between Community Areas (and sub-geographies as applicable) to ensure that the Future Place Types mapped at the boundaries are complementary and that access to places in adjacent areas is considered in mapping new places
• Compile a citywide Future Place Types map and data set
• Provide an opportunity for the entire community to review and comment on the compiled citywide Future Place Types map
• Adopt the Future Place Types map as an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan

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Mapping Guidance by Place Type

The following table summarizes mapping guidance for use by staff and the community in mapping Future Place Types. It includes general mapping guidance developed throughout Place Typology and Comprehensive Plan development, preferred adjacencies and adjacencies that should include major transitions or buffers. For many of the Place Types, the General Mapping Guidance column also includes input from the Plan Ambassadors and Strategic Advisors (ASAs) regarding priority geographies for each Place Type. The ASA members identified priority Place Types using the Equity Metrics from the Equitable Growth Framework, existing conditions, and community input from earlier phases of the project. The final column of the table outlines specific considerations for each Place Type when it is located in the Uptown area. The increased density, walkability, and activity in Uptown lead to exceptions or differences in how the Place Types are applied there.

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COMMUNITY AREA PLANNING

The Benefits of a Community Area Planning Approach

Community Area Plans are intended to provide a more coordinated, efficient and effective structure for neighborhood planning. A neighborhood-based approach to more detailed planning of Charlotte presents logistical challenges related to the number of plans that would be required. This a Community Area Planning approach establishes an achievable approach to 100% coverage of the community, facilitates conversations between neighborhoods, and allows major barriers that often serve as neighborhood boundaries to be addressed in the planning process. Existing and future neighborhood planning will be integrated into the planning for Community Areas. Neighborhoods and districts will become integral sub-geographies of these sub-areas. And existing neighborhood and community plans should be respected and recommendations carried forward, as appropriate, as they are integrated into the Community Area Plans.

The Community Area Planning Process

Community Area Plans should protect and enhance Charlotte’s neighborhoods. They are plans intended to provide detailed strategies for places, transportation, infrastructure and community facilities and amenities. These plans should catalog and celebrate community character and develop and enhance places through the designation of Place Types and community assets. As described in the previous section, the city’s corridors often serve as focal places within and between neighborhoods. The Community Area Plans should drive the creation of place along these corridors and focus on the scale and design of public spaces.

The Community Area Plans should integrate previous neighborhood plans and community plans. The purpose of the Community Area Plans is to develop actionable strategies for the city’s neighborhoods at a manageable and implementable scale. In addition, developing a single plan that represents multiple neighborhoods is a more effective way to elevate neighborhood-level issues for consideration of policy changes and funding

priorities. These plans can also serve to protect specific communities within or adjacent to larger Community and Regional Activity Centers.

The planning process for Community Area Plans will generally range from nine to twelve months and should include a robust community engagement strategy. They should be updated approximately every 10-12 years. Criteria for determining prioritization will take into account the Community Area’s proximity to regional centers; degree of change reflected in Future Place Type mapping; Equity Metrics; existence and age of existing subarea plans; new large scale development planned, underway or recently completed; new large scale infrastructure planned, underway or completed; and amount and type of public investments recently made in the Community Area.

The Key Components of a Community Area Plan

The following provides the major plan components and steps for a Community Area Plan.

Project Team and Initiation

• Organize Planning Team and Key Stakeholders
• Refine boundary of the Community Plan Area with Planning Team
• Develop community engagement strategy
• Review and confirm community engagement strategy with Planning Team

Community Area Vision and Goals

• Interpret the Comprehensive Plan’s Vision Elements and Goals for the Community Area
• Identify additional unique goals for the Community Area

Detailed Place Type Review and Focus Area Planning

• Review adopted Future Place Type mapping
• Identify community focus areas
• Identify neighborhood opportunities and public benefits for focus areas
• Identify more detailed land use guidance (as applicable)
• Identify transition and buffer strategies for applicable Place Types and focus areas

Infrastructure and Amenities

• Identify neighborhood assets and amenities
• Develop list of desired assets and amenities
• Identify planned and needed infrastructure improvements
• Coordination with project partners in infrastructure improvement identification, design and implementation

Implementation

• Key Investments
• Prioritization of needed improvements
• Phasing strategy and CIP coordination

Prioritization of Community Plan Areas

While establishing 15 Community Plan Area geographies will help to ensure that neighborhood level and place specific planning can occur within a timely manner, it will likely be impossible to initiate all 15 planning processes at once. Prioritization criteria should be established to better understand each area and establish groupings for phased implementation of the Community Plan Area planning processes.

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Potential criteria include:

• Age of Existing Plan Guidance (District and Community Plans)
• Coverage of Existing Guidance (District and Community Plans)
• Rate and Direction of Population Change
• Rate and Direction of Employment Change
• Access to Amenities, Goods and Services Equity Metric
• Access to Housing Opportunity Equity Metric
• Access to Employment Opportunity Equity Metric
• Environmental Justice Equity Metric
• Populations Vulnerable to Displacement Equity Metric
• Market Readiness/Pressure
• Presence of Major Planned or Current Development/Redevelopment
• Presence of Major Public Infrastructure Investment
• Development Capacity
• Degree of Future Place Type Change (comparison of Existing Place Type Map to Future Place Type Map)

It is often helpful to look at both ends of the spectrum for several prioritization criteria. One potential example is market readiness. A neighborhood that has little development and/or investment activity may suffer from a lack of housing diversity, a lack of access to nearby or quality amenities, etc. Initiating a Community Area Plan for this the area that includes this neighborhood may help to 1) ignite some market interest and 2) allow the community to plan ahead and prepare for potential gentrification and displacement. On the other hand, a neighborhood that is market ready to the extent that it is experiencing rapid transactions and investments is likely experiencing dramatic increases in land values, property values and rents and change in mobility, culture and character. Initiating a Community Area Plan for this area can help to provide more detailed guidance for future development, identify infrastructure to support recent and impending growth, and help to ensure that public benefits are communicated and achieved.

Community Area Toolkit

The Community Area Planning approach sets out a framework to provide an area plan for every area in Charlotte within the next 5 to 10 years, with multiple areas of the city undergoing a planning process at a time. As the new planning approach makes its way around Charlotte, Community Areas that want to get a head start on the planning process can lay the groundwork by taking advantage of one or more tools that will help them establish valuable resources to guide planning and decision making.

These tools provide ways to connect to existing community resources as well as self-guided activities, some of which are intended for groups or organizations. None of the activities are required for a successful planning process and completing the activities does not mean a Community Area planning process will be scheduled sooner. The activities will help individual and groups to think about and document the Community Area’s unique characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses. This can help residents begin to identify, articulate and research ideas before planning begins.

Existing and potential tools include:

• Connect with your City Council representative/s;
• Identify key stakeholders, including residents, businesses, employees, students and others in the Community Area;
• Develop a facility and/or venue inventory;
• Perform a sidewalk inventory to determine the presence, character and conditions of sidewalks in the Community Area;
• Identify and map public and private art installations throughout Community Area;
• Complete or collect a photo inventory of public spaces throughout the Community Area;
• Participate in one or more Housing & Neighborhood Services Training Programs;
• Apply for a Neighborhood Matching Grant or other City grant program;
• Organize one or more neighborhood clean-ups throughout the Community Area;
• Document important and/or unique architectural and design characteristics in the Community Area;
• Identify and map potential opportunity sites or areas;
• Participate in the City’s Planning Academy;
• Collect an oral and/or visual history of the Community Area; and
• Conduct a safety audit of a particular corridor, center or other subarea within the Community Area

Updates to Community Area Plans

Depending on staffing availability and capacity, it is feasible to complete the Community Area Plans for all 15 geographies within approximately three to five years from when they are initiated. With that said, it may take five to ten years to complete all of the plans depending on the length of individual planning processes and resources available. It is important to note that Community Area Plans should not be initiated until Future Place Type Mapping is completed for all parts of the City. Once adopted, Community Area Plans should be updated every seven to ten years. Prioritization criteria should be updated annually for all Community Area Plans. The order of updates can be adjusted and the timeline for initiating an update can be accelerated if there are significant changes in one or more prioritization criteria.

CASE STUDY: SA TOMORROW REGIONAL CENTERS

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The City of San Antonio’s Comprehensive Plan, SA Tomorrow, identified 13 regional activity centers. These Centers are a major building block of the plan and were designed to organize the economic geography of the community and to provide direction and vision for the City’s major employment and activity hubs. The centers were identified based on the presence of major economic, civic, and cultural assets (e.g. large employers, major education institutions, cultural attractions/facilities) and the existing density of employment. Three regional center types were identified including Activity Centers (e.g. downtown), Logistics/Service Centers (e.g. airport area), and special purpose centers (e.g. military bases). Each type identifies the desired mixture of uses and the associated land use strategy. The City has worked to organize its economic development tax incentive policies and affordable housing policies to focus efforts and resources towards the Centers. A set of seven elements needed in a regional center were identified to guide planning efforts in these areas: anchor institutions, enhanced urban planning/design, area identify/brand, partner organizations, enhanced mobility network, capital investments in to place-making and community amenities, and funding/incentive tools.

Image source: https://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2019/12/06/city-council-approves-downtown-development-plan.html

4 UNIFIED DEVELOPMENT ORDINANCE

A critical step in implementing any Comprehensive Plan is updating the corresponding municipal codes. This includes updating the community’s zoning code, but also has important implications for many other aspects of the code. Unlike many other communities, Charlotte has not waited for the Comprehensive Plan to be complete before beginning its update to the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). The typical sequencing of code updates coming on the heels of a new Comprehensive Plan typically leads to a two to four year lag between the adoption of the community’s primary guiding policy document and the enactment of a new or updated municipal code to implement it. This section highlights Charlotte’s unique approach overlapping and coordinating these efforts and summarizes the path forward to completing the UDO update.

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UPDATE PROCESS

The Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) is the regulatory tool that will shape future development so it results in the type of complete communities and places defined by the Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan goals and policies. The UDO is also instrumental in implementing other City policies that will nest under the Comprehensive Plan’s overarching guidance such as Charlotte Moves, the Urban Street Design Guidelines, the Strategic Energy Action Plan, the Urban Forestry Master Plan, and the Tree Canopy Action Plan.

Zoning is a regulatory tool used by local governments to control the physical development of land and the types of land uses that may be put on individual properties; it is a primary regulatory tool for governing building and development. The purpose of zoning regulations is to implement local land development polices expressed in adopted plans and protect the health, safety, and welfare of the larger community. Zoning regulations are found in the Zoning Ordinance. The ordinance defines a number of zoning districts that are used within a community. The official Zoning Map identifies the zoning district for each property. When a zoning ordinance is combined with other development-related ordinances (ex. subdivision, tree, and stormwater), this document is typically called a Unified Development Ordinance (UDO).

In Charlotte, regulations and standards from eight (8) different development ordinances will be combined into a single comprehensive document. The UDO will consolidate and update regulations and standards currently found in the City’s Zoning Ordinance, Subdivision Ordinance, Tree Ordinance, Chapter 19 (Streets and Sidewalks), Floodplain Regulations, Erosion Control Regulations, Stormwater Regulations, and Driveway/Access Standards.

The update effort is reliant on the input of the Unified Development Ordinance Advisory Committee (OAC). The OAC is a volunteer committee composed of individuals representing neighborhood and sustainability interests as well as design and development professionals. OAC members provide a wide range of technical expertise and community perspectives. The committee’s primary role is to provide advice and feedback, helping City staff and consultant teams evaluate and test elements of the UDO prior to their inclusion in the draft.

A few short-term initiatives have been completed ahead of the full UDO update. These include revised Transit Oriented Development (TOD) zoning districts and the subsequent rezoning of over 1,500 parcels along the Blue Line light rail corridor to one of the new TOD zoning districts (TOD Alignment Rezoning No. 2019-102). The revised TOD zoning districts were approved and adopted in April 2019 and most recently amended in June 2020.

In addition, new Sign Regulations (Chapter 13) were approved in October 2019, and are now being refined through Rezoning #2020-104. Further, a small but significant text amendment was approved to the Tree Ordinance, focused on allowing better integration of trees into urban sites.

A Tree Canopy Action Plan (TCAP) is now being prepared by staff and community stakeholders. This plan will lay the foundation for a more comprehensive assessment and update of Charlotte’s tree-related policies and regulations.

Leading up to and following the Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan’s adoption, the City’s UDO team is working with the OAC to develop the various components of the Unified Development Ordinance, which will serve as a primary implementation tool for the Comprehensive Plan. The first public draft of the complete UDO will be available in the second half of Summer 2021.

ZONING DISTRICT MAPPING

After the adoption of the updated Zoning Ordinance as part of the UDO update and after the completion of Future Place Type mapping as the first step in the Community Area Planning approach, the necessary tools and information will be ready to map the new zoning districts. As stated previously, Place Types will provide a strong indication of the community’s desire for an area, but the palette of Place Types is not nuanced enough to facilitate a one-to-one mapping of a particular Zoning District to each Place Type. With that said, the Zoning Districts are being crafted help the community realize the aspirational characteristics of Place Types and as such, Place Types will narrow the potential set of Zoning Districts that are applicable to an area. In other words, an area that is mapped as a particular Place Type can then consider a smaller set of potential Zoning Districts. The correct Zoning District for a particular property will be dependent on existing conditions and context, location considerations (e.g., adjacencies to other Places or Zoning Districts, proximity to transit, frontage on a major arterial, access to an interchange), market readiness, and other temporal considerations (e.g., facilitating more gradual change over time).

Changes to existing zoning (mapping of new Zoning Districts and adoption of new designations) will be implemented in a transparent public process that will include informational meetings, conversations with property owners, neighborhoods, and other interested parties, public hearings, and a final decision by the Charlotte City Council. The recommended zoning district for each parcel will be identified using the Future Place Types Map and a set of criteria developed by Charlotte Planning, Design and Development for each district. These criteria will be outlined in a Rezoning Guide as part of the UDO update.

FUTURE UPDATES

While the City is making significant strides in updating its Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) and aligning regulation with policy, it will be necessary to revisit the UDO moving forward. In part, this is due to the extent of the revisions and new content included in the UDO update. Although the writing of ordinances is based on best practices and includes aspects uniquely Charlotte, a process of observation and evaluation will likely result in corrections and adjustments in the form of amendments to the UDO. In addition, the Comprehensive Plan sets a 20-year vision and it will not be achieved over night. A number of the recommendations in the Plan’s Policy Framework have been identified as medium-term (5-10 years) and long-term (11-20 years), including several that will likely require amendments to the UDO. Therefore, while the current UDO update will be largest in the foreseeable future, it is most definitely not that last as the community adapts to how the updated UDO is interpreted and utilized and responds to changing trends, preferences and advances over the course of two decades.

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5 ANTI-DISPLACEMENT TOOLS AND STRATEGIES

Many of the goals and policies included in the Plan have the potential to contribute to gentrification and involuntary displacement across Charlotte, especially in neighborhoods most vulnerable to displacement. Factors contributing to involuntary displacement can impact residents and businesses. These factors and the loss of long-time residents and local, small businesses in key neighborhoods can weaken the social fabric of a community.

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Involuntary displacement must be addressed at multiple levels to make the most progress in protecting those residents and businesses that are most vulnerable. Key aspects of combating involuntary displacement include:

1. Produce enough housing for residents at all income levels.
2. Preserve the affordable housing that already exists.
3. Protect current residents from displacement where neighborhoods are changing rapidly.
4. Provide sufficient and affordable commercial space to support new, small, and locally owned businesses.

Goals and policies within the Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan and existing housing programs provide a strong foundation to provide a sufficient housing supply and to preserve subsidized affordable housing. While the existing tools are robust, additional tools should be explored to produce and preserve affordable housing, and specific action should be taken to better protect vulnerable households from involuntary displacement, especially in neighborhoods changing most rapidly. In addition, tools and strategies should be explored to provide sufficient and affordable commercial space to support vulnerable businesses, especially those that are locally owned.

While there is no silver bullet to combat the involuntary displacement that can result from public and private investment in areas of need, there are a myriad of tools that have been proven to contribute to residents and businesses staying in place, even when their neighborhoods are changing relatively quickly. As a key aspect of implementing the Comprehensive Plan, the following measures should be enacted upon Plan adoption.

• Establish the Charlotte Neighborhood Equity and Stabilization Commission (Charlotte’s NEST);
• Develop an Anti-Displacement Strategy including new and existing tools with greater community participation in strengthening existing tools and developing new tools and strategies to meet housing needs and protect vulnerable residents and businesses from displacement;
• Establish a Displacement Dashboard including, but not limited to, Recent and Current Change (Neighborhood Change Score), Planned Change (Place Type Changes and Public Infrastructure Improvements), and Vulnerability to Displacement (Vulnerability to Displacement Index); and
• Track and Update the Equity Metrics included in the Comprehensive Plan.

Policy direction provided within Section 3 of the Comprehensive Plan under Goal 2 recommends that the City commission an Anti-Displacement Stakeholder Group/Commission composed of neighborhood leaders, housing advocates, community organizers, developers and residents threatened by housing displacement. A major charge of Charlotte’s NEST should be launching an Anti-Displacement Study that evaluates and results in an Anti-Displacement Strategy with specific tools and strategies for protecting residents of moderate to high vulnerability of displacement.

As Charlotte’s NEST begins this work, it is important to note that different tools and strategies are often appropriate in different circumstances. The Anti-Displacement Study should acknowledge the intended and unintended consequences of recent, current and planned public and private investments and improvements, especially in neighborhoods most vulnerable to displacement. Key considerations should include:

• People: The Comprehensive Plan’s Equitable Growth Framework establishes an initial index to measure and identify populations most vulnerable to displacement. Anti-Displacement strategies and tools should be targeted to neighborhoods and households with moderate to high vulnerability to displacement.
• Place: A key implementation action of the Comprehensive Plan will be mapping Future Place Types. When completed, the adopted Future Place Type map can be used to assess the degree of change planned for each area of the community and generally organized into three types of Place Type change:
  • Improving Existing Place Types: The Comprehensive Plan includes 10 Place Types and a set of aspirational characteristics for each. Even in areas where the Future Place Type mapping does not propose a change from the existing development pattern on the ground, change will likely be necessary to improve access, make neighborhoods more walkable, and to add appropriate amenities and services.
  • Evolution to a New Place Type in the Same Category (Live, Work or Play): In comparing Future Place Type mapping to existing development patterns, there will be some areas that evolve to a new Place Type, but one that is similar to what exists today. For instance, an area currently fitting the description of a Community Activity Center may have a Future Place Type designation of Regional Activity Center.
  • Transformation to a New Place Type (in a Different Category): The most significant planned change will result from a Future Place Type designation that is dramatically different from existing conditions, especially across the general categories of live, work and play. For instance, an area that is currently a Commercial place that is designated as a Community Activity Center in Future Place Type mapping is planned for significant change.
• Projects: Public improvements can also contribute to gentrification and involuntary displacement, especially in the most vulnerable communities that often are most need of investment in their community. An assessment of planned public improvement projects should include consideration of:
  • Improvements to Existing Infrastructure: Repaving a roadway or replacing an aging water line may not contribute to involuntary displacement, but the addition of pedestrian and bicycle facilities to an existing roadway or an increase in utility capacity will likely attract private investment and contribute to the beginning of a cycle of gentrification.

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» New Local Infrastructure: The creation of new local roads, trails, parks and open space in an area that lacked them can also signal to the private sector (individuals, families and the development community) that an area is ripe for investment. This can also lead to gentrification and potential involuntary displacement.

» New Community/Regional Infrastructure: Larger scale infrastructure investments are often attributed with contributing to gentrification and involuntary displacement. While the public investment is not always the cause of displacement, understanding the correlation between new community and regional infrastructure and displacement is critical. Examples include regional parks, trails, roadways and transit facilities, as well as community facilities.

• Pressures: Market pressure and rising costs of housing and commercial property is perhaps the greatest threat to vulnerable residents and businesses. The City's Housing Locational Scoring Tool includes a Neighborhood Change Score that should be used to better understand recent and current market trends and development pressures. Using median income, change in housing sales prices and permit volumes, the Neighborhood Change score indicates areas of increased real estate and construction activity. A high score in neighborhood change helps to identify the neighborhoods undergoing the most rapid price increases, property transfers and increased likelihood of resident displacement.

Identifying the appropriate tools and strategies for combating involuntary displacement should consider the various aspects and implications for People, Place, Projects and Pressures. An initial set of Anti-Displacement Tools for residents is included below for consideration and evaluation by Charlotte’s NEST. Efforts should be taken to identify a similar set of candidate tools and strategies for commercial property owners and tenants.

POTENTIAL ANTI-DISPLACEMENT TOOLS FOR NEIGHBORHOODS

6 FISCAL CONSIDERATIONS, FUNDING AND FINANCING TOOLS

This section summarizes key findings from a Fiscal Impact Analysis and then highlights a set of existing and new funding and financing tools that respond to the expected fiscal impacts of the Comprehensive Plan policy guidance and opportunities to evolve the manner in which the community is currently paying for and benefiting from new growth across Charlotte.

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FISCAL IMPACT ANALYSIS KEY FINDINGS

The following major findings were identified during evaluation of fiscal impacts of the desired growth pattern in the Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan process.

The desired growth strategy generates a more fiscally beneficial growth pattern for on-going operations for the City and County.

Growth forecasts developed by City Explained for the Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan, CONNECT Our Future, and other regional entities were used to evaluate the net fiscal impact of new development on the City of Charlotte’s General Fund and Mecklenburg County’s General Fund. EPS evaluated a “Business as Usual” growth pattern based on development trends over the past 20 years and a “Future Place Types” growth pattern based on the growth strategy developed for the Comprehensive Plan. The evaluation of the fiscal impact of these growth patterns (using the regional forecast for new households and jobs in the City’s Sphere of Influence between 2020 and 2040) revealed that the desired “Future Place Types” pattern generate a 17% greater net positive fiscal impact on the City’s General Fund annually. The greater net fiscal impact is due to the lower amount of expenditures generated from the more compact and coordinated growth pattern. Specifically, expenditures needed to provide fire services and street/highway operations and maintenance, which are major expenditure items in the City’s General Fund, would be lower.

Activity Centers designed to attract new development generate a substantial return on investment that can be leveraged to funded local area and community wide infrastructure and amenities.

The attraction of new development to the City’s Regional Activity Centers, Connected Corridors, and Neighborhood Centers is a major tenet of the Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan growth strategy. The fiscal impact analysis has found that these denser high growth areas most often create benefits (i.e. increased tax revenue) that outweigh the costs the public sector must pay to support the growth of these areas. The added benefit these growth areas can generate (compared to average new development) can be redirected to help fund both local area improvements needed to support growth and also improvements that support the community as well. In addition, using value capture tools to fund improvements needed to support high growth areas can alleviate the need to utilize CIP funds to keep pace with new development and as a result allow for the redirection of capital funds to underserved areas or areas lacking investment.

Certain major expenditures/departments lack dedicated and/or reliable funding sources to support the community’s desired future vision.

Four specific expenditure areas were identified as lacking funding tools to support new development including transportation and mobility, schools, public spaces, and community amenities:

Transportation and Mobility

• Street and highway maintenance is provided by the Charlotte Department of Transportation (CDOT). The City’s expenditures on street and highway maintenance are accounted for through two major funds – the General Fund and the Powell Bill/Street Aid Fund. The Powell Bill (or State Street Aid) Fund is funded primarily from the State gas tax revenue that is distributed to the City based on population and lane miles maintained and dedicated to mobility expenditures.
• Maintenance of streets is a major cost item for the City. The direction of maintenance and repair dollars is driven primarily by the condition of the pavement/roadway. Streets that have a lower pavement rating will be resurfaced sooner. Impacts on pavement quality are related to the level of travel, the types of vehicles, and construction impacts on roadways. Infill development has varying impact on pavement quality but is correlated with lower pavement scores generally. Large infill projects will require reconstruction of portions of roads but the developer is required to pay for this cost. However, for smaller, by-right infill development this is not required and likely not feasible, and projects are not subject to the same level of review and regulation. A street with multiple small infill projects can result in multiple cuts of the pavement and individual/piecemeal repairs. This has been resulting in pavement quality in these areas degrading more quickly and focusing more resources to these areas.
• New development in the City is generally responsible for providing the infrastructure and improvements needed for streets that directly access and serve the development. However, the impacts of new development on collector, arterial, and regional roads are not accounted for. Increased traffic volume caused by new development creates additional need for maintenance on the overall City network and enhancements and new street systems to address more modern mobility challenges. The City currently does not have a mechanism to fund the impacts of new development on streets beyond the existing funding sources used for existing street maintenance. This can result in a disproportionate amount of funding going to areas that are attracting new development either to address impacts of infill and/or to ensure the regional network can support growth.
• A cost recovery mechanism can help address lack of funding for network growth and enhancement needed for new development. Tools, such as Impact Fees or Improvement Districts, applied to new development should be explored to generate revenue and address impacts of new development.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools

• Funding for schools in North Carolina is complicated with funding coming from Federal, State, and local (county General Fund) revenue sources. Historically there has been a lack of ability for school districts to obtain funding outside of these traditional sources. CMS has no dedicated funding source and does not have taxing authority. Capital improvements needed to keep pace with a growing city/county are a major challenge for CMS. Traditionally, CMS has been able to rely on the private sector support through land dedications and other contributions as new neighborhoods need school facilities to attract buyers/renters. As the City reaches build-out and

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new housing is being built in smaller, and more infill oriented, developments, CMS is challenged with obtaining locations and funding to build (or enhance) schools to support new students. Furthermore, the school facility models needed to support the community are more diverse and different in scale than the traditional models (e.g. large schools serving several neighborhoods). The development review process provides CMS opportunity to highlight facility needs to developers and the City of Charlotte. More proactive planning between the City and CMS can help identify needs before development applications come in, but schools may need to become a priority community need that can be obtained through discretionary approval processes or capital investments. Even with more proactive efforts, a mechanism for obtaining land and/or funding to offset the impacts of new development is needed to support CMS. Tools such as land dedication requirements and/or impact fees should be explored.

Open Spaces and Trails

• Traditional parks, trails, and open spaces in Charlotte are built, operated, and managed by the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department. The Park and Recreation Department have their own Master Plan (Meck Playbook) that guides the policies, programs, and investments for the department in order to serve the community. However, as the City attracts more mixed-use and denser development, there is a growing need and demand for more public open spaces (e.g. pocket parks, urban plazas, off-street bike/pedestrian ways, and trail connections) that are not within Park and Recreations purview and outside of their financial ability to support. As well, the City and County lack tools or a cohesive strategy for the capital funding and long-term management of these public spaces. These types of places in some cases can be provided and managed by the private sector (e.g. plaza next to an office building or a pocket park maintained by a HOA), however with more piecemeal and infill development occurring the ability to ensure the private sector can or the public sectors’ ability to provide amenities is becoming more challenging. A collective approach to the funding, construction, and long-term maintenance (and activation where necessary) of these open spaces is needed to guide the private sector and ensure the public sector has the resources necessary to provide these non-traditional public open spaces.

Community Amenities

• Lastly, the plan policies call for a variety of community amenities to be built to support the major plan goals such as 10-Minute Neighborhoods. The community amenities identified in the plan include daycares, healthy food stores/vendors, health clinics, banks, affordable housing units, and green infrastructure. These amenities are often provided by the private sector and can become scarce or non-existent in lower income neighborhoods due to market dynamics. Furthermore, the capital hurdles to building amenities in areas lacking them currently can be too high to overcome by a private business operator even if there is demand from the community. The City and County in many cases do not provide or have control in the availability of these amenities. Many of these amenities have been identified in the Plan and by the community as essential elements to complete neighborhoods or well-rounded employment areas. Creative solutions to leverage investment from the private sector to create desired community amenities are needed to help support the private and non-profit sectors in building and supporting these essential community assets. The Plan has identified new tools for shaping and incentivizing development (eg. Place Types, Community Benefit partnerships, etc.).

NEW FUNDING TOOLS/APPROACHES

The outreach the community and fiscal impact analysis has helped generate the consensus that for Charlotte to achieve the goals in this plan, a collective approach to funding infrastructure and amenities is needed. As well, a greater partnership with citizens and businesses in identifying and maintaining improvements over time is needed. The Comprehensive Plan calls for a "Shared Prosperity" approach to creating new funding tools in partnerships with the private business sector and overall community.

Cost Recovery Programs

The City will implement cost recovery funding programs that can mitigate the increased cost of infrastructure and services cause by new development. Programs focused on funding growth of the regional mobility network, school system, public spaces, and community amenities will be considered including impact fees and land dedications.

Value Capture Programs

Value capture is the use of funding tools to redirect the increased tax value/revenue generated in an area from new development to fund improvements in that area. The increased tax value is spent locally to support and mitigate impacts of new development instead of going to the City’s general fund or funds. The use of tax increment (the increased tax revenue from the value of new development generated by new development in an area/project) is a common value capture technique. The City of Charlotte currently uses the Tax Increment Grant Program (TIG) to provide repayment of costs for public improvements provided by a private development. The expanded use of tax increment should be considered to help fund improvements from new development. Other value capture techniques include the use of sales tax sharing and improvement districts (additional property or sales tax) that can support improvements on a district/small area scale. The City will expand the use of value capture tools in conjunction with new development in Regional Activity Centers, Connected Corridors, and Neighborhood Centers, or to support developments that provide priority benefits to the community (i.e. affordable housing).

Community Investment Programs

Community investment programs are created to integrate the residents and the business community directly into the identification and funding of infrastructure and amenities that benefit their community. These types of programs are most typically used in a partnership between a business area and a local municipality. Business improvement districts are the common example of where business and property owners in a non-residential area choose to assess additional fees or taxes to fund services and capital improvements. In some communities, neighborhoods have decided to create similar programs to help fund desired amenities. A neighborhood improvement district is similar to a home owners associations often used for suburban subdivisions. Beyond improvement districts, there are a wide variety of programs that can allow for a specified area (neighborhood or commercial area) to increase their participation and advocacy in the identification and funding of desired improvements. One of the two “Big Ideas” within the 10-Minute Neighborhood Goal is to create a culture of developer-community collaboration through Community Benefit Agreements. Community Benefit Agreements are a newer type of community investment programs that cities are using to directly tie improvements funded or built by new development projects directly with input and direction from the community for which the new development will impact. Charlotte will be creating new community investment programs to increase participation and influence of local neighborhoods and districts into the growth of their areas.

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Moving forward, it is intended that the Future Place Type Mapping efforts include a Market Demand and Development Suitability Analysis, as well as a Fiscal Impact Analysis. The Suitability Analysis will explore potential absorption of plex housing, industrial, commercial, and mixed use development. As part of the UDO studies and process, an Economic Impact/Development Feasibility Study will be completed.

The development of the Future Place Type Map will provide where each Place Type is appropriate. This effort will include technical analysis of existing conditions, recently planned projects, previously adopted land use plans, market readiness and opportunities, and fiscal impacts to develop the map. The community outreach process, which will include robust engagement with residents and the development community, will help translate the vision of the plan into an achievable Future Place Type Map. This process will help alleviate concerns over undesired growth patterns and unintended consequences.

The creation of the UDO will provide the regulatory implementation of the plan vision. The UDO effort will align zoning under the Place Type categories and will provide more certainty and direction for desired growth patterns to the development community and the public. To support the UDO effort, evaluation of the economic/development feasibility of the most impactful regulatory changes in the UDO will be completed to address any barriers to development and unintended consequences. This evaluation can be used to help illustrate how the real estate market is impacted by the objectives of the plan that are being implemented through the UDO and where public assistance is needed to address market barriers.

The Plan recommends a collective approach to funding infrastructure and amenities, of which Community Benefits and other tools identified in the Plan are a few of many that will be needed. The Plan provides direction for and the City will explore and implement cost recovery programs, value capture programs and community investment programs in line with the strategies suggested by the development community. The inclusion of recommendations to explore the use of some tools or approaches not currently legal in North Carolina is meant to ensure the implementation efforts consider all potential options so that strategies can be tailored to Charlotte and to identify barriers to use of strategies that may need to be addressed collectively through legislative changes at the state level.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN A FISCAL IMPACT ANALYSIS AND OTHER RELEVANT ECONOMIC ANALYSES

Source: Economic & Planning Systems

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7 CIP PREPARATION, PRIORITIZATION AND SCORING

The City of Charlotte currently develops a 5-year Community Investment Program (CIP) that funds capital investments into the community via large bonds (repaid with dedicated CIP revenues), a PAYGO (pay as you go) program that funds annual capital improvements, and dedicated capital improvements revenues in non-governmental funds (e.g. Charlotte Water). The City’s CIP plan is developed annually through the budgeting process. The CIP process starts with city departments identifying projects for consideration from a wide majority of sources including (but not limited to) Strategic/Action Plans, Community Area Plans, Specific Plans, community outreach, city council recommendations, and others. Prioritized projects are vetted through a community outreach process. Then City Council and City Staff hold budget workshops to refine the CIP project list. Lastly, the CIP plan is posted for public comment and goes through a formal adoption process by City Council.

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The City uses a set of loosely defined, high-level criteria to review and prioritize projects for the CIP. Identified projects much support or further guiding principles for the CIP including: address one of four City Council priority areas; support neighborhoods, street network, and/or housing opportunities; preserve and enhance the tax base; and retain the City’s credit rating. Projects are also organized based on how they fit within fund strategies (bond program or PAYGO). General CIP “projects” fit within two groups; large/high cost major investments or investments that fit within a package/group of investments addressing a major initiative (e.g. ADA investments or Opportunity Corridors program).

The Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan provides substantial direction for the future development of the CIP. As well, the plan lays out an updated and comprehensive set of goals the community wants to achieve over the plan horizon. The plan also introduces new frameworks for considering where and how investments should be made in the community to achieve desired land use patterns and to address systemic racial and demographic inequities through the plan’s Big Ideas and Equitable Growth Framework.

The City’s approach to the CIP should change to:

• Reflect the vision for the community identified within the 10 Plan goals;
• Prioritize the implementation of the Plan’s Big Policy Ideas; and
• Use the Equitable Growth Framework to direct investment into areas lack in access or are vulnerable to displacement.

Changes to CIP to integrate the Comprehensive Plan should be made in two ways to achieve the plans goals and objectives. First, the approach to identifying projects can be modified to align with the plan’s direction. Second, the approach to prioritizing projects and building the CIP can be modified to align with framework of the plan.

PROJECT IDENTIFICATION

The following recommendation changes should be considered to modify the City’s process for CIP project identification:

• Create a process for cross-departmental efforts to identify and promote projects for the CIP.

• Use the Equitable Growth Framework to promote projects that address access to job opportunities, access to housing opportunities, access to essential amenities, goods and services, and environmental justice issues.
• Use the Implementation Committee to develop CIP programs/ project lists to implement the Plan's Big Policy Ideas.
• Integrate the Comprehensive Plan Goal's into the community engagement process to organize projects by Goal and illustrate how potential projects align with the Plan.
• Require promoted projects to include estimates for on-going operational cost impacts and identification of a funding/ management plan to address these impacts.

PROJECT PRIORITIZATION

The following recommended changes should be considered to modify the City's project prioritization process for the CIP:

• Develop a more formal scoring process for evaluation of priority projects that aligns with the Comprehensive Plan.
• Align City Council Priority Areas with the Plan's Goals to develop evaluation criteria for the prioritization projects.
• Prioritize projects that address multiple Plan goals.
• Prioritize projects that implement the Plan's Big Policy Ideas.
• Prioritize projects that serve and/or benefit the vulnerable areas identified in the Equitable Growth Framework in order to direct at least half of public infrastructure spending over next 20 years to the most vulnerable communities.
• Prioritize projects that are promoted by multiple departments or have financial support/partnerships with Mecklenburg County or other project partners.
• Prioritize projects that have a plan to address on-going funding and maintenance of investments.

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8 ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY AND COORDINATION

This section of the Implementation Strategy focuses on various aspects of enhancing organizational capacity and coordination. Place management is explored for Regional Activity Centers, neighborhoods and other small areas and districts. An Implementation Committee is recommended to help champion the Comprehensive Plan and shepherd the many aspects of Plan implementation. Finally, recommendations are provided for staffing related to implementing the Comprehensive Plan and the other layers of the Planning Approach presented earlier.

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PLACE MANAGEMENT

The policies, programs, and projects identified in the plan are going to increase the need for place management organizations to support with the implementation of the community’s vision. Examination of successful places nationally has identified that high-quality places (i.e. employment areas and community gathering places) within communities typically rely on partner organizations to provide and maintain them.

The City should create a place management program and hierarchy that aligns with Future Place Type designations. Funding and technical resources should be provided to support the formation and initial operation of new place management organizations.

Regional Activity Centers

Regional Activity Centers are the location of major destinations for Charlotte including cultural, historic, civic, entertainment, education, health, and economic assets. To facilitate the continued health and growth of these regional activity centers, investment and stewardship is needed to support these areas. Major cities and communities throughout the US and the world have utilized urban place management organizations to help steward there important places.

An urban place management organization is typically a non-profit entity that brings together the public and private sector to jointly invest and support districts and areas. The organizations manage improvements and investments in the districts they cover. The organization allows the private property and business owners (and even residents) invest in the curation and management of their community. They also create a partner with the public sector to guide infrastructure investment, policy creation, and management of urban services.

Roles/Responsibilities

These place management organizations are traditionally found in downtown type areas. Charlotte utilizes a mechanism known as Municipal Service Districts (MSDs) to help support the management of major regional activity centers including Uptown, South End, and University City. These MSDs raise ad-valorem tax to fund and maintain improvements and provide promotion/marketing for these areas. In many communities, these improvement districts are coupled with non-profit membership organizations (e.g. Charlotte Center City Partners) that provide a wide variety of services. The function and use of MSDs in Charlotte function much like other improvement districts and organizations nationally, but don’t provide

an enhanced level of services (e.g. area cleanliness services or enhanced security and safety services) that other organizations provide. However, the function and purpose of these organizations can be simple in structure and mission. Typical responsibilities of urban place management districts include the following:

• Enhanced public safety and patrolling
• Enhanced cleanliness and maintenance of public spaces
• Public financing and capital investments mechanisms
• Policy, infrastructure and amenity planning
• Public space management and activation
• Marketing, branding and events
• Mobility and transportation demand management
• Community outreach, engagement, and advocacy
• Economic development
• Area leadership and management

Contexts

For each regional activity center, an organization(s) should exist to create a public/private partnership for the stewardship of the area. Each organization and regional activity center should have defined roles and responsibilities.

Management Organizations Sequence

These districts often evolve over time. The organization options can be formed in a variety of ways and can grow to increase the scope of their services and purpose. Organizations do not need to start from the beginning or continue on to a greater scope of purpose. The essential element is the willingness of private entities to collaboratively create an entity to support their geographic area. The public participation within the organization can vary and is typically greater when dedicated funding streams are included. However, public participation is typically an important element.

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Organization Types

The following are types of organizations most often found in these regionally significant areas.

Membership Organization – An organization of area stakeholders (business owners, property owners, HOA's, etc.) convened to discuss area issues. Typically are funded through membership fees and have limited ability fund or maintain major projects.

• Example: Economic Development Partnership
• Typical Primary Roles
  • » Policy, infrastructure and amenity planning
  • » Marketing, branding and events
  • » Community outreach, engagement, and advocacy

Improvement District – An entity formed to funding and/or managing capital investments and public spaces for a specific area or district. These districts are typically funded through a dedicated revenue stream that is most often a public financing tax or fee charged on property and business owners in the district.

• Example: Municipal Service Districts
• Typical Primary Roles
  • » Public safety (not provided by MSDs currently)
  • » Cleanliness and maintenance of public spaces (not provided by MSDs currently)
  • » Public financing and capital investments mechanisms
  • » Policy, infrastructure and amenity planning
  • » Public space management and activation

Special Purpose Organizations - Entity formed to address one or two specific issues/tasks needed for a specific geographic area. Funding can vary but typical is from a dedicated revenue source or through membership/private funding.

• Example: Transportation Management Association (TMA)
• Typical Primary Roles dependent on agency mission. Typical examples include:
  • » Marketing, branding and events
  • » Mobility and transportation demand management
  • » Community outreach, engagement, and advocacy
  • » Economic development

Organization Potential Funding Strategies/Tools

• Membership fees
• Dedicated property tax
• Dedicated sales tax
• Dedicated lodging tax
• Assessment fees
• Retail Sales fees
• Ticket fee/tax
• Charge for services, facility use fees, program revenue
• Grants funding
• Donations

Neighborhood/Small Area/Specific Purpose Districts

For mixed use corridors, community and neighborhood activity centers, and even neighborhoods, an organization can support the growth of specific areas or specific mission needed through a public/private partnership or through a non-profit entity that acts as a steward for the area. Each organization should have defined roles and responsibilities that are needed beyond existing services. Significant property/business owner or community support and participation are needed to make an organization viable.

Management Organizations Sequence

These districts often evolve over time. The organization options can be formed in a variety ways and can grow to increase the scope of their services and purpose. Organizations do not need to start from the beginning or continue on to a greater scope of purpose. The essential element is the willingness of private entities to collaboratively create an entity to support their geographic area. The public participation within the organization can vary and is typically greater when dedicated funding streams are included. However, public participation is typically a required element and formation should be driven by the community and not by the City.

Organization Types

The following are types of organizations used for place management at this scale.

Membership Organization – A loose organization of area stakeholders (business owners, property owners, or residents) convened to discuss area issues. Typically are funded through membership fees and have limited ability fund or maintain major projects.

• Example: Business Merchants Association
• Typical Primary Roles
  • Marketing, branding and events
  • Community outreach, engagement, and advocacy

Improvement District - Entity formed for funding and/or managing capital investments and public spaces for a specific area or district. Typically funded through a dedicated revenue stream that is most often a public financing tax or fee charged on property and business owners in the district or neighborhood.

• Example: Business Improvement District
• Typical Primary Roles:
  • Marketing, branding and events
  • Community outreach, engagement, and advocacy

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» Cleanliness and maintenance of public spaces and infrastructure » Public space management and activation » Policy, infrastructure and amenity planning

Special Purpose Organizations - Entity formed to address one or two specific issues/tasks needed for a specific geographic area. Funding can vary but typical is from a dedicated revenue source or through membership/private funding.

• Example: Community Development Corporation, Naturally Occurring Cultural District (NOCD), Arts Collective/District
• Typical Primary Roles dependent on agency mission. Typical examples include: » Marketing, branding and events » Community services coordination » Community outreach, engagement, and advocacy » Economic development

Potential Funding Strategies/Tools

• Membership fees
• Dedicated property tax
• Dedicated sales tax
• Assessment fees
• Retail Sales fees
• Charge for services, facility use fees, program revenue
• Grants funding
• Donations

IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE

The level of community engagement and cross-department and agency coordination that has occurred in the development of the Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan can provide a strong foundation for ongoing collaboration for aligning implementation efforts, leveraging available resources, ensuring maximum collective impact, and holding each other accountable. The composition of an Implementation Committee should include community representatives and a representatives of all departments, agencies and organizations that participated in crafting the plan. The Implementation Committee should meet at least quarterly, contribute to an annual reporting of implementation progress and evaluation metrics, and participate in an updated Implementation Strategy at least every five years. Additional roles of the Implementation Committee may include:

• Contributing to the finalization of Policy Objective Metrics
• Collecting and sharing of Equity and Policy Objective Metrics
• Sharing of process and content updates related to Strategic Plans, Functional/Action Plans, Community Area Plans, and Specific Plans
• Reviewing and providing feedback on Future Place Type mapping
• Participating in Community Area Planning
• Coordinating existing and new programs recommended in the Comprehensive Plan or targeted at achieving a Plan goal and objectives
• Identifying and/or discussing potential Plan or Implementation Strategy amendments

PLANNING PROGRAM

In order to implement the recommended approach to Future Place Type Mapping and Community Area Planning, the City should review existing staffing and assignments to ensure that those priority items and other aspects of the four level planning program can be implemented.

Based upon similar programs in several of Charlotte’s peer communities, there are typically teams established for each Community Area and/or Future Place Type Mapping geography. The planning staff on each team typically focuses on one area at a time for Community Area Planning and up to three areas for mapping. The portion of an individual’s time required depends on experience, the Community Plan Area, and whether consultants are engaged to assist with one or more portions of the effort. Teams generally include two to three planning staff members, as well as staff from other departments and agencies for coordination on mobility, parking, parks and open space, utilities, resiliency, etc. Planning team members from other departments can typically engage in several Community Area Plans at one time. Thus, the number of planning staff is usually the limiting factor in the number of plans that can be in development at once and the length of time required to complete all Community Area Plans. The considerations identified here should be used to establish a specific Planning Program to better understand staffing needs or adjustments, funding requirements and estimated timelines.

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9 AMENDING THE PLAN

This section addresses the process for amending and updating the Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan (the Plan) and its various components. It outlines a suggested amendment process and recommended timeframe for amendment cycles as well as for the more extensive periodic update of the Comprehensive Plan every ten to fifteen years.

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REGULAR MINOR UPDATES

The City should establish a 6-month cycle for minor plan amendments in an omnibus revision package to maintain its relevancy to the community, staff and elected and appointed leaders. The amendment process should provide an opportunity for individuals, groups, or city agencies to propose minor amendments to the Comprehensive Plan to address changing social and market conditions or reflect new plans and work programs. Minor amendments may include changes to the text, maps or graphics of the Comprehensive Plan.

5. First six months. The first of the two packages of amendments should include minor amendments compiled throughout the previous year and documented in an annual inconsistency report.

6. Second six months. The second of the two packages of amendments should occur six months after the cycle described above and be aligned with annual reporting on Plan metrics and implementation progress so that suggested amendments are informed by progress made and lessons learned over the previous year.

LESS FREQUENT THEMATIC UPDATES

In addition to regular annual updates, to maintain the Plan’s currency, the City should undertake periodic thematic updates of the Comprehensive Plan that take a deeper dive into specific topics of pressing concern. These updates should be undertaken every two to three years and should address topics where the Plan needs more significant amendments to keep pace with a changing world. Examples could include responding to new transportation technologies, adapting to a changing climate, structural changes in the local economy, or evolving dynamics in the housing market. A broad-based and authentic public participation process should accompany these periodic updates. The Implementation Strategy section and Manuals and Metrics section of the Plan should be reviewed and amended as necessary during this thematic update cycle, if not more frequently. The Implementation Strategy should be updated to reflect changes in state statutes, the accomplishment of action items in the then current Implementation Strategy, and progress toward Plan Goals and target metrics. The Manuals and Metrics should be updated to maintain consistency, incorporate new data, and reflect progress made.

PERIODIC MAJOR PLAN UPDATE

While the planning horizon for the Plan is 20 years, it is recommended that a more substantial update to the document be conducted every 10 years. This periodic

major update to the Plan should include revisiting the guiding principles, vision elements and goals. The Plan structure and organization may require updating at this time, but the emphasis of the Plan update should be confirming higher level direction established with the Plan and updating policies, projects and programs to reflect the City’s progress and the community’s priorities.

UPDATING THE 2040 POLICY MAP

The Charlotte Future 2040 Policy Map (2040 Policy Map or Future Place Types Map) will be created through the mapping of aspirational Place Types across the community. It is anticipated that the 2040 Policy Map will be adopted by City Council along with the Implementation Strategy document and Manuals and Metrics document in the first quarter of 2022. The 2040 Policy Map will be a guide for Community Area Planning, but will also be reviewed and confirmed through the more localized community conversation that will occur at the Community Area scale. It is expected that at least a portion of the Community Area Plans will include recommended adjustments to the 2040 Policy Map. When Community Area Plans are adopted, inconsistencies with the citywide 2040 Policy Map should be documented. All inconsistencies with the 2040 Policy Map should be documented throughout the year and compiled in the annual inconsistency report to highlight where planning is needed or where the 2040 Policy Map needs to be amended. Changes to the 2040 Policy Map driven by site-level rezoning are addressed below.

ALIGNMENT OF ZONING AND THE 2040 POLICY MAP

New zoning districts included in the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) will be designed to correspond with Place Types. As a part of the UDO initiative, there will also be a two-step process to align a property’s zoning with its Place Type designation.

The first step will occur as part of the adoption of the UDO. In conjunction with adoption, existing conventional zoning districts will translate to the corresponding new zoning districts. The second step will occur after UDO adoption through an alignment rezoning process. Zoning for each property will be assessed to determine whether it is aligned with its designated Place Type, as shown on the 2040 Policy Map. For each property for which zoning is determined to be misaligned, a rezoning will be initiated to align the property’s zoning with the property’s Place Type. These alignment rezonings will follow the typical rezoning process and will include extensive community engagement.

Maintaining alignment between the 2040 Policy Map and the Zoning Map may be impacted by future rezonings approved by City Council. There are two likely types of rezoning scenarios that will occur following the adoption of the 2040 Policy Map. The first scenario is a rezoning that aligns or is consistent with the corresponding Place Type. For example, a rezoning request from one Neighborhood 2 (N2) zoning district to another N2 zoning district for a property within the N2 Place Type. In these instances, the 2040 Policy Map would not be impacted and no change to the map would be required.

The second likely rezoning scenario is a request for a zoning district that does not align or is inconsistent with the current 2040 Policy Map. For example, rezoning a property from a Neighborhood 1 zoning district to a Commercial zoning district. In this scenario where there is an inconsistency between the rezoning request and the 2040 Policy Map, a method to amend the 2040 Policy Map prior to rezoning approval may be needed. As staff develops the 2040 Policy Map and UDO, the appropriate process to amend the 2040 Policy Map under this scenario will be further developed and defined. This process will be developed collaboratively among City staff, City Council, the Planning Commission and the community.

CASE STUDY: RALEIGH’S COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENT CRITERIA

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The City of Raleigh’s Comprehensive Plan includes a subsection within the Implementation section that discusses updates to the Plan and a set of Amendment Criteria. The criteria require proposed amendments to demonstrate clear need and justification, as follows:

• Significant changes have occurred since the adoption of the Comprehensive Plan.
• Inconsistencies in land use or other plan policies exist in the adopted Comprehensive Plan that affect the city’s efficient growth and development.
• The city’s ability to achieve the goals of the Comprehensive Plan will be increased, or the operations of city government will be enhanced.
• The Plan’s policies or actions inhibit the ability of the city to achieve other public policy objectives.
• Substantial improvement in the quality of life for city residents will be achieved.
• Adoption of the proposed amendment is necessary to incorporate public policies established by the city government that are not reflected in the Plan.

Raleigh’s Plan also includes a policy stating that all amendments to the 2030 Comprehensive Plan shall be reviewed for consistency against adopted policies. The Raleigh Department of City Planning has formalized the process for any applicant to request an amendment petition form that applies to text, maps or content.

Image source: https://raleighnc.gov/news/2021-06-07-raleigh-city-council-adopts-fy22-budget

10 TRACKING PROGRESS

The Plan uses and identifies several data points and measures that can be used to track the success of the plan over time. These measurements fall into three major categories. These categories are described below and guidance on how and when to update these measurements is provided.

Equity Metrics – Equity metrics are measurements to identify how equitable opportunities are available within the community and how equitable are the impacts of change on the community. The Equitable Growth Framework provides a number of measurements to create an index for assessing access to job opportunities, access to housing opportunities, access to essential goods and services, the areas experiencing environmental injustice, and areas that are vulnerable to displacement due to new investment and/or development. These equity measures are used to identify systemic issues related to equity and track progress over the long term. As a result, the equity measures cannot track change over short time period. These equity measures should be re-evaluated at major plan review milestones (e.g. every 5 to 10 years) to recalibrate the focus of equity efforts. The exception of this rule is the identification of areas that vulnerable to displacement. Market and demographic conditions can change quickly in vulnerable areas and evaluation of these areas on a more routine basis (annually) is likely needed.

Policy Framework Objectives – Each plan Goal includes a set of policy objectives. These objectives are measurable changes that are desired as a result of the plan policies in that goal. A target metric needs to be identified and defined for each objective including the data source and methodology for measurement. The objective measurements should be updated annual to track the success of the plan. A committee should be formed to create defined methodology for measurement and tracking of the objectives. The committee should also provide direction on whom (e.g. which department) is responsible for tracking of each objective. The Implementation Committee recommended above could serve this role. A suggested list of metrics for each plan objective is provided in the Plan Manuals and Metrics.

Charlotte Future 2040 Dashboard – The Charlotte Future 2040 Dashboard is the public facing tracking of success and implementation of the plan. A narrower, publicly consumable set of measurements from the Equity Measures and Policy Objectives should be created and updated regularly and presented to the public. Measures that address major plan objectives/big ideas and can be more regularly updated should be included. The Dashboard should also include tracking of implementation by illustrating which major programs/projects within the plan have been implemented.

CASE STUDY: INDY VITALS

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Plan 2020 is the Indianapolis regions community vision plan (much like a comprehensive plan) that lays out the future vision for the City of Indianapolis and Marion County. IndyVitals is an online tool that was created to help measures the impact of Plan 2020 on the community. The tools tracks trends aligned with 7 goal areas (aligned with Plan 2020) for Marion County’s Neighborhood Areas. IndyVitals compares trends since 2010 in each neighborhood to other neighborhood areas, the county, the Indianapolis metro area, and the State of Indiana. The tool is similar to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Quality of Life Explorer. However, the platform goes further through its use of indicators and desired directions/outcomes for each metric that tie the measurement to the desired community objective. The comparative structure highlights neighborhoods that are lacking in any of the topic areas compared to other geographies. This platform could also be used to help track private and public investment in each area.

Image source: https://polis.iupui.edu/polis-in-the-news/indyvitals-in-the-news/

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OUR CITY. OUR PLAN. OUR FUTURE.

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