Charlotte City Council State Legislative Briefing - January 13, 2025
STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
Charlotte City Council State Legislative Briefing - January 13, 2025
The Charlotte City Council held its first state legislative briefing of 2025 on January 13, 2025, from approximately 12:00 PM to 1:10 PM at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center. The meeting brought together Mayor Vi Lyles, city council members, and members of the Mecklenburg County legislative delegation to discuss the city's 2025 state legislative agenda, with a focus on transportation, public safety, water infrastructure, and growth preparedness. The session featured presentations from city staff and an open discussion with state senators and representatives.
Introductions & Welcoming Remarks
- Mayor Vi Lyles opened the meeting, thanking the delegation and emphasizing the importance of regional collaboration, particularly on transportation and community safety.
- Senator Joyce Waddell (newly selected delegation chair) and Senator Vicky Sawyer (the lone Republican senator from Mecklenburg County) each spoke, pledging to listen and work collaboratively with the city.
- A round of introductions followed, with all present city council members and state legislators identifying themselves and their districts.
Discussion Items
City Legislative Agenda Overview (Dana Fenton, City Manager's Office)
- Dana Fenton provided updates on several legislative priorities:
- Hurricane Helene recovery: City resources (fire, police, water) were deployed to Western North Carolina; city council will hold its annual strategy session in Asheville Jan 26–29, 2025.
- Civilian crash investigation program: Launched after 2023 legislation; 71% of all car crashes are minor, and sworn officers currently spend 40,000 hours annually on those crashes. The program allows civilian investigators to handle these, freeing officers for other duties.
- Arcade fish game parlors: The city supports legislation to address zoning and crime issues associated with these parlors, which the council views as a drag on communities.
- Local court support: The city backs increased appropriations for prosecutors and court resources.
- Airport expansion: The $231 million Concourse A expansion (Phase 2) added 10 gates, funded in part by the North Carolina Airport Improvement Program (approx. $30–35M annually).
- Stowe Regional Water Resource Facility: Under construction on the Catawba River; consolidation of wastewater treatment for Mount Holly, Belmont, and part of Mecklenburg County; completion expected in 2026.
- Interbasin transfer (IBT): Charlotte Water filed a notice of intent to increase water diversion from the Catawba River Basin to the Rocky River Basin. Required studies are ongoing; some upstate localities oppose it. The city is engaging local officials and state lobbyists.
- Down-zoning (Senate Bill 382): The city seeks collaboration on language modifications to retain local planning authority regarding uses like fish game arcades and short-term rentals.
Mobility Update (Ed McKinney, City Manager's Office)
- Ed McKinney presented a comprehensive multimodal transportation funding strategy developed through multi-year regional collaboration.
- Key statistics:
- Total investment over 30 years: $19.4 billion.
- 60% ($11.64B) for roads and bus investment; 40% ($7.76B) for rail.
- Roads portion includes $7 billion over 30 years (year one revenue growing with sales tax) allocated directly to the city and towns for local priorities (safety, sidewalks, street lighting, congestion mitigation, bus investment).
- The strategy could leverage an additional $6 billion in federal funds.
- Multimodal components:
- Bus: Better Bus System, microtransit (first/last mile, door-to-door service planned for northern towns), improved frequency and amenities.
- Red Line: Breakthrough after 20 years – Norfolk Southern agreed to sell the corridor; city council approved purchase in September 2024. The corridor is set up to extend into Iredell County/Mooresville upon their decision.
- Silver Line: Planning for rail connection to Charlotte Douglas International Airport is ongoing; alignment will be discussed at the January 22, 2025 MTC meeting. The airport director affirmed support for the Silver Line to serve employees and passengers.
- Process: The MTC (Metropolitan Transit Commission) began updating the transit plan with financial constraints. Public conversation on proposed sales tax referendum (likely November 2025) will follow. McKinney cited successful multimodal sales tax referendums in Phoenix, Nashville, and Columbus in late 2024 as models.
Q&A and Discussion
- Senator Waddell asked about the draft legislation timeline; noted a Feb 17, 2025 deadline for bill requests in the Senate. Dana Fenton responded that the draft has been submitted to bill drafting and is pending.
- Representative Laura Budd asked about airport rail connection; airport director Haley G. confirmed ongoing coordination with CATS on the Silver Line.
- Council Member Tariq Bokhari inquired about alternative modes for airport connection (e.g., bus rapid transit); staff noted the MTC will explore financial feasibility of options starting Jan 22.
- Council Member Tiawana Brown asked about lack of a stop between Charlotte Gateway and Dorita on the Red Line; CATS director acknowledged community feedback and said MTC can modify the locally preferred alternative (LPA) after public conversations.
- Council Member James Mitchell asked about cost-control best practices; Mayor Lyles noted past study trips and offered to provide more information.
- Senator Woodson Bradley asked about public safety priorities, referencing the pretrial integrity act and 48-hour hold for new charges. Staff promised to follow up with data from the police chief (who was unavailable due to a funeral).
- Representative Laura Budd asked about youth violence intervention programs; Mayor Lyles said information would be provided.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken during the briefing.
- The city will share follow-up materials on public safety metrics and cost-control best practices from peer cities.
- The MTC’s January 22, 2025 meeting will initiate public discussion on transit plan alternatives and financial feasibility.
- Draft legislation for the transportation sales tax referendum is under development; the city intends to have a public vote in November 2025.
- City council will continue its public safety strategy sessions, with another scheduled that evening (January 13).
- The meeting adjourned at approximately 1:10 PM.
Meeting Transcript
There we go. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for the time and attention that you've given to us today. We really appreciate it. This is our first legislative briefing for the new delegation and for all of you that have taken these positions and are going to help us with the work that was that needs to be done for our community. I want to say thank you very much. And so welcome. And I want to say that we're really glad to have the General Assembly being here today for every thinking about all of the things that you do in Raleigh, even for our city, region, and our state. The city really wants to develop a relationship with our groups of people that help us advance our interests. And so I want to say to everyone, thank you for your time and your attention and what you're going to do. So we've got some themes that we want to talk about today. You know, we all have ideas of what we can do to make our community, our residents, happier, safer, and all of those kinds of activities. And so we wanted to do this in a way that engages all of our delegation, engages our city council, and engages our residents. We're working across jurisdiction, you know that. You know, you can know that we have gotten opportunities to work with the towns to the north and the towns to the south, as well as many other groups that we have in our community that work with us. And we're preparing for growth and community safety, all of these things that we've been working on for quite some time. So I know that most of you know how important transportation is, and it's a regional issue. I think I called a lot of you, and I said, you know, when we start talking about transportation, we're not talking about Charlotte. We're talking about our region and what's necessary for our growth and how we do this. And so I hope that every one of you has some attention or some idea about how to move this forward so that we can support the people that need jobs, poor people that need a way to get to work so that they can be successful in their own family lives. So I want to say it has never been more important right now for us. We have worked for a number of years trying to make sure that we can build a city that you can see the growth in, but also the ability that growth could give us a way to make sure that people would thrive. And that's our goal. Our goal is to get people to work, to get them to their jobs, to be able to actually be a part of our community, and so that's what we're here. We're looking forward to that topic, but we're also looking forward to the other topics that we have that mell into that. And so today I want to say thank you, and I'd like to actually bring on to our first speaker of the evening, and that is Senator Waddell. If you would join us, um, we're really glad to see that you have been chosen to lead the delegation, and so thank you for taking the time to be here today. I want to thank the mayor for that wonderful introduction. And I want to thank all of you who are here today as we talk about transportation as we talk about working together and moving forward. We know how important it is in Raleigh. When we address the needs of our communities, when we think about the citizens and our constituents who are in these areas. We're here to listen, we're here to move forward, and we are here to serve. You elected us to serve you, and that's what we're going to do. We're going to be open with our ears, with our eyes, and do the research that's necessary so that we can move forward and so that we can work together and so that we can listen and we can take on the agenda that you've assigned us to do. We always listen, we're productive, and we want to always be able and willing to serve. Want to thank you for all that you do because we're in this together. It's not an I, not a we, it's all of us working for the citizens. And the mayor just mentioned about getting people to work and moving forward with the small towns. She also mentioned about how important transportation plays when people can get to work and get out of their cars, and when they can really enjoy the things that you've planned so that things are peaceful and so that things move smoothly. This is not the really beginning. We've been working on this sometime. And some of you have been working more diligently and longer than others. So we'll continue to work to make things better. And really the best is yet to come. Thank you very much, Senator. And now I have the great honor of introducing Vicky Sawyer, who has worked with us for a number of years, it feels like now. Maybe it's just 24 months or whatever, but it feels like a few years. So Senator, please, remarks. Thank you. Um I often joke that um a politician usually runs to a microphone.
openpublica.com