Foxx rescinds PCCO revision veto

Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx vetoed a City Council decision Monday — at least briefly.

The veto, the first ever for Foxx, who’s running for re-election to a second term next month, came after the council approved, in a 7-5 vote, a revision to the city’s Post Construction Controls Ordinance to remove a tree-save requirement that also appears in the city’s recently approved tree ordinance.

Foxx rescinded the veto after council members said they would send the natural area requirement back to the city’s environmental committee, which next meets Oct. 24.

Environmentalists have argued that removing the duplicative tree-save requirement would reduce the number of trees being saved.

The council did, however, approve other revisions to the PCCO, allowing developers to pay a mitigation fee of $60,000 to $90,000 an acre in lieu of installing stormwater devices if they are redeveloping a site in the city.

Joe Padilla, executive public policy director for the Charlotte-based Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition, lauded the mitigation fee option, saying it “has a bigger impact on incentivizing redevelopment.”