The Charlotte City Council convened on February 19, 2024, at 5:00 PM for a Zoning Meeting to consider numerous rezoning petitions. The meeting included deferrals, a consent agenda, separate votes on pulled items, and public hearings for several additional petitions. Major themes included affordable housing, community benefits, traffic impacts, and historical land-use injustices.
Zoning meeting to order. Um we are going to have a motion to the meeting is officially open, and then I'm going to ask the city attorney to read a motion for a closed session. And we'll need a motion to go into closed session to instruct city staff concerning the position taken by the city in negotiating material terms of a contract for the acquisition of real property interest under GS one forty three three eighteen eleven A five. Do I have a motion and a second? So I miss Mayfield is a second. And so with that, all in favor of the motion, please raise your hand. Since 1879, Washington's birthday has been a federal government holiday observed since 1968 on the third Monday of February every year. The day is also an official state holiday in most states, but it's optional. It has names like Washington's birthday, President's Day, Washington and Lincoln's birthday. In fact, the various states use 15 different names, depending on the specific law, the state holiday may officially celebrate Washington alone, Washington and Lincoln, or some other combination of U.S. presidents. Since we are all here tonight, it does not appear to be an official state holiday in North Carolina. I believe it's appropriate today to honor the memory of arguably our two greatest presidents. Founding Father George Washington led the Continental Army to victory in the American Revolutionary War, presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and was the first U.S. President. Abraham Lincoln led the nation through the American Civil War, preserved the Union, abolished slavery, bolstered the federal government, and modernize the U.S. economy. To honor the legacy of these two historic figures, let us challenge ourselves to continue to fight for what they believed in and sacrifice so much for. In their respective ways, they shaped a great nation. Today we should all remember them and work together to live up to the promise they created all those years ago. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Please stand if you choose for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the Act of the United States. And to the Republic for which it stands. Thank you. Okay. So I'm going to take a minute or so to those of you who don't frequent our space often on these days of zoning meetings to explain the zoning process. The process begins with applications submitted to the planning staff for review. There are two types of cases on the agenda. They are decisions and hearings. Decisions on cases for which a public hearing was previously held. Hearings. Anyone wishing to speak is asked to see the clerk before the start of the hearing. And then after we have on that, we have the staff presentation, which has no time limit. And then the petitioner and those in favor get three minutes to combine to present a case unless their opponents signed up to speak. If staff is in opposition, the petitioner gets 10 minutes. The opponent gets 10 minutes combined. And petitioner gets a two-minute rebuttal. If no one is opposed or signed up to speak, the staff provides a short presentation, and then we move on to the next public hearing. The petition then goes to the zoning committee of the planning commission for review and recommendations. And with that, I'd like to introduce the chair of our zoning committee, Douglas Welton, to introduce his information as well as his members. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, and thank you, Council. My name is Douglas A. Walton, and I serve as the chairman of the zoning committee of the planning commission. Allow me to introduce the uh my fellow members of the uh committee, Will Russell, uh, Shauna Neely, Rick Winnaker, Terry Lansdale, Rebecca Wilden, and uh Clayton Seeley. The zoning committee will meet on Tuesday, March 5th at 5.30 p.m. here at the Government Center. And at that meeting, the zoning committee will meet to discuss and make recommendations on the petitions that have a public hearing here tonight.