The Charlotte City Council convened for its third zoning meeting of the month on October 20, 2025, to address a motion to modify the MPTA appointment process and to review eight zoning petitions, including decisions, hearings, and administrative deferrals. The session highlighted significant deliberation on community notification standards, traffic infrastructure capacity in single-family neighborhoods, and the specific conditions for redeveloping existing hotel structures into multifamily housing.
One and welcome to the October Twentieth zoning meeting. We're going to start with introductions, and we will start with the clerk. Billy Thomas, Deputy City Clerk. Good evening, I'm Renee Johnson, and I'm honored to represent District Four. Good evening, everyone, James Mitchell at large. Keep pounding. Good evening, Lawana Mayfield, Councilmember at Lawrence. And our invocation by a council member is meant to underscore our proceedings. And we celebrate all religious diversity of our community, including those that do not practice a religious faith. And it's less of an invocation, but more of a thought that I've been having over the last several weeks. Right here in Charlotte in our region and across the U.S., you know, we are experiencing a sense of hopelessness and apathy. And when we allow apathy and hopelessness to take over, it it robs us from our joy. It robs us of being able to practice things that bring joy to others. And it clouds our outlook on the art of possibility and what can happen if we put the work in and work together collectively. And so I tonight I'd like to extend a prayer that we all uh combat apathy and hopelessness by having a renewed fervor in our spirituality, um, a renewed connectedness and looking out for our neighbors and reaching out to our neighbors, checking on friends and family members that you may not have seen or heard of in months. Check on them. Do wellness checks, do something that you believe brings you joy, whether it's taking a walk in the park, um, or playing playing with animals, adopting time with children, but we need to ensure that we are prepared to do the work, and in order to have that level of preparation, we have to stave off apathy and hopelessness. So that is my prayer for myself and this council, as well as all of the residents here in Charlotte, North Carolina. If you are able to stand, please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Amen. Pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and fans one nation. So this is our third meeting of the month, which is our our zoning meeting. Uh but before we uh continue with zoning proceedings, we have a topic that the council would like to uh have a conversation around this evening. Um I will pass it over to uh councilmember Mitchell to jump start this conversation with the understanding that we need to have a vote to actually put this on the agenda. Uh mayor council, I would like us to consider the vote to uh unanimous vote tonight to put on a new process for our MPT MPTA point appointment process okay. Any comment hearing none, all in favor of placing this item on the agenda, raise your hands. Any opposed? That is unanimous. I will uh again hand it over to Mr. Mitchell to guide this discussion. Mayor Pro Tim, thank you. And and cut Council members, I have at your point of order. Hold on, point of clarification from Ms. I just wanted to ask the question because I know that uh Councilmember Melina uh is intending to request recusal. So before we got into the discussion, I just wanted to make sure that we gave an opportunity to do that if now is the appropriate time. Mr. Fox, um we just we just made a motion, a unanimous motion to discuss the process and procedure of the MPTA, the transit authority appointment, because we previously voted on that process, so we need to vote to make those modifications. Mr. Fox with this introduction of this the motion was made and seconded and the vote was called for. Ms. Malin did not acknowledge participation, but by her presence will be deemed to have voted in the affirmative unless she chooses to ask for a recusal at this point on the appointment process. The recusal relates to the appearance of impropriety. Yes, even though, as I've opined before, there is there is no financial peculiar interest that would otherwise prohibit it from participating at this point in time. I'd like to make a motion and if I stand to recuse uh councilmember uh Marlene from this process. Second okay. We have a motion and a second, any discussion. All in favor of recusing councilmember Molina from this process. Well, now my mayor, I would also reflect that and if the vote passes that to acknowledge her her that she did not participate in the prior action of the body, which was a vote to bring this on for consideration. Yes. Would you consider that please?