Success may pave way for more housing

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CHARLOTTE – Many people left Tuesday’s City Council meeting carrying with them heavy adjectives. Some were disappointed, others were shocked and a few were incensed.

The majority of those people were from south Charlotte, and their emotions were brought on by a City Council vote that didn’t go in their favor. The Council voted 9-2 to approve a rezoning that would allow a 70-unit workforce housing project in their relatively high-income neighborhood.

Despite a city initiative to sprinkle more affordable housing among affluent areas, the south Charlotte residents came out in droves to protest the rezoning. They got more than 1,000 signatures on a protest petition, created a Facebook page and made signs in opposition, citing traffic and parking concerns. All to no avail.

Republicans Ed Driggs, of District 7, and Kenny Smith, of District 6, both south Charlotte districts, were the only councilmembers to vote against the rezoning, which needed a supermajority to pass.

That it was able to gain the supermajority shows city officials take seriously the initiative to add more affordable housing across Charlotte, even in the midst of fiery protest.

And a private nonprofit housing developer is looking to continue helping achieve that end.

A mission to build

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership, a locally based affordable housing developer, asked for the rezoning in south Charlotte, off Weddington Road between Simfield Church Road and Portstewart Lane. With all the opposition to the project, Julie Porter, president of the Housing Partnership, said she hadn’t been sure if the rezoning would be granted.

But even if City Council would have rejected the proposal, Porter said, there was only way to respond: Keep trying.

“If rejected, we have a mission that propels us to provide workforce housing in Charlotte,” she said. “We’ll continue to look for sites that are appropriate for our developments. We have other areas that we’re looking at.”

The purpose of workforce housing is to provide a place to live for those who work in areas of the city that they otherwise may not be able to afford to live in.

In the case of the south Charlotte project, the 70 units would be set aside for those making no more than 60 percent of the area median income, or no more than $35,000. By contrast, the median income in the 28270 ZIP code, where the project will go, is $89,503, and the median income in Mecklenburg County is $55,961, according to the American Community Survey done by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Claire Green Fallon, city councilwoman at large, said such projects aren’t built for the struggling and unemployed, but rather for teachers, policemen and firefighters who may just be starting their careers or don’t make much money.

“These are the people that support the community,” Fallon said, adding that she doesn’t think it’s right to force people who work in an area to live outside that area, which Porter said is a regular occurrence.

But with the City Council’s approval, the Housing Partnership will be able to provide that type of housing in south Charlotte.

Grants needed first

Porter said the next step for her organization is to begin applying for grants for the project. The earliest the Housing Partnership could get the grants would be September, she said. Should that happen, Porter said the Housing Partnership would start entering into contractor and subcontractor agreements before site work could start. Porter said she expects construction to begin by March 2015.

City Council showed Tuesday that it plans to honor the city’s plan for more affordable housing across the area, but 70 units of workforce housing is more a grain of sand than a sandcastle.

Bryman Suttle, principal planner with the city of Charlotte, said getting an affordable housing project in south Charlotte was a goal of the city’s, but said it is not the only area that needs it.

“We have adopted some programs and regulations for mixed-income housing and density bonuses,” Suttle said. “Those qualifying areas have to be above the area median income. It changes year to year on the five-year estimate. There are areas all across the city in which we need this type of housing – a large swath in the south, southwest, northeast (of Charlotte).”

A map provided by the city of Charlotte shows the higher-income areas of the city in which affordable and workforce housing have been suggested. (See map.) The maps shows the areas with higher incomes are nearly the whole of south Charlotte, southwest Charlotte and a broad, yet thin, section of north Charlotte.

Suttle said the city in 2013 approved the voluntary mixed-income housing development program, which directs city staff “to pursue regulatory and financial incentives that would encourage private sector development of affordable housing units. This program seeks to encourage mixed-income housing developments in targeted locations through a voluntary, incentive-based density bonus within the R-3, R-4, R-5, and R-6 single-family zoning districts and the R-8MF and R-12MF multifamily zoning districts,” according to the city website.

The program is voluntary, which means the city can do little to force developers to add affordable housing to lacking areas, but Suttle said if a developer voluntarily joins the programs they are required to add the specified amount of affordable housing.

District 5 Councilman John Autry said he’s seen firsthand the difficulties associated with finding affordable housing in some neighborhoods of Charlotte. In his district, when the existing affordable communities have closed for renovation, the displaced tenants haven’t been able to find other places to live nearby. This would be less of a problem if more workforce housing were approved, he said.

“I understand the need for diverse housing options in this city,” Autry said. “We’ve had difficulty finding housing options for those with means below the average.”

Porter said she knows this all too well. That’s why the Housing Partnership has stepped up its efforts in recent years, trying to cater to more areas in town. Right now the organization has its sights set on three projects, including the newly approved one in south Charlotte. The other two are 84 units in Brightwalk, a new subdivision just north of Uptown that Porter said was the exemplar of mixed housing in the city, and a project planned for somewhere along a transit line. Porter wouldn’t disclose exactly where the Housing Partnership was looking, but said an announcement isn’t far off.

But with the new initiatives by the city of Charlotte seeking more, widespread affordable housing, Porter said there are many areas of interest.

“We have some places where (affordable housing) is pretty concentrated and we’ll try to stay away from those areas,” she said. “Those areas in District 2 and District 3 and even District 1, we have quite a few units. But districts 4, 5, 6 and 7 are growth opportunities.”