Charlotte Residents Force Zoning Change

When the city ignored their faxes and phone calls, 17 neighborhood opponents of a shopping center project took Charlotte and the developer to court.

To everyone’s surprise, they won.

Even more stunning, at least 50 projects--from multimillion-dollar shopping center expansions to apartment buildings--are on hold in one of the fastest-growing cities in America.

Superior Court Judge Ben Tennille issued the ruling this week, ordering the city to change how it makes about 80% of its zoning decisions.

The judge said the city’s fast-track, one-step rezoning process needed to become a two-step procedure: first, changing a property’s zoning; then, approval of specific projects after a hearing with City Council members serving as judges.

“We’re not here for fame and glory. We’re protecting our homes,” said Judy Jeffries, one of the 17 homeowners who sued over plans to rezone 42 acres nearby for the new shopping center.

City attorneys said they should be able to overhaul the zoning rules within 90 days. But in the meantime, developers will have to mark time--something they haven’t done in Charlotte in a long time.

“It throws into question the whole long-term development process for Charlotte,” said Walter Fields, a land-use consultant and former city planner. “Why would you spend money on a project when you don’t know a process is in place?”

According to Fields, Charlotte rewrote its zoning rules in 1983 and 1991 specifically to eliminate trial-like hearings, which were considered time-consuming and cumbersome.

Since then, fast-track zoning has played a role in Charlotte’s boom.

The Charlotte metropolitan area, North Carolina’s largest with about 1 million residents, grew 25% from 1990 to 1999. From 1988 to 1998, 7,838 new businesses arrived, creating more than 68,000 jobs, according to the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce.

Area Development magazine predicts Charlotte will become one of the five fastest-growing U.S. metropolitan areas in the new century. Demographers say Mecklenburg County will grow by 300,000 people over the next 20 years.

Charlotte is home to Bank of America, the country’s second-largest bank, and First Union, which is No. 6. Charlotte is the biggest hub for US Airways, the sixth-largest airline in the United States.

Companies such as Duke Energy, Nucor Steel, SeaLand and Hearst Corp. call Charlotte home. Large international companies like IBM and Continental Tire have major operations here.

Its glittering skyline is a work in progress. Near the end of 1999, there were 28 buildings with 4.4 million square feet of space under construction.

While boosters extol the virtues of Charlotte’s blistering growth, the boom has brought severe traffic jams and smog.

“It wouldn’t bother a lot of people to sacrifice maximum growth and development for quality development,” said H.L. Owens, the lawyer for the homeowners who fought the shopping center.