Sustainability

One lucky parking spot in NoDa gets to become a park for eight hours this Friday. From 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. volunteers will transform a space on North Davidson Street into a place for many people, instead of a place for one car. In doing so, they’ll make sure Charlotte once again joins an […]

Mecklenburg County is considering ordinance changes that could require residents to recycle plastics, aluminum cans, yard waste and paper. It would be up to the county’s municipalities whether to adopt the changes, and each municipality would be responsible for enforcement – although civil fines of up to $100 could be possible if residents put too […]

Charlotte-area residents will have an additional opportunity to voice their opinion on the region’s growth. The Centralina Council of Governments added a fourth Mecklenburg County workshop, and a second location, to the “CONNECT Our Future” planning program at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 24 at Mahlon Adams Pavilion in Freedom Park. The public workshop is one of […]

It took them two years to design and build it, but over the next two weeks, a team of UNC Charlotte architecture, business and engineering students will tear down their solar-powered home, Urban Eden. But that’s only because the home must be deconstructed, loaded on a flatbed trailer and shipped to Orange County, Calif., where […]

Charlotte area planning and sustainability enthusiasts can have their say about the future of the region in coming weeks by taking part in two long-range regional planning efforts. In Mecklenburg County, volunteers are being sought to help draft the Mecklenburg Livable Communities Plan. Mecklenburg County residents can apply to participate in a work group through […]

Last month, after about a year of study, consultants for the City of Charlotte delivered their assessment of the city’s zoning ordinance and associated development regulations. The study, which can be viewed at this link, was delivered in two parts, the Assessment Report and the Approach Report. Like the two parts of the report, after […]

Charlotte’s current zoning ordinance sometimes gets in the way of carrying out the city’s adopted plans, a consultant’s report concludes. It also can be a Byzantine set of confusing and sometimes contradictory requirements. The ordinance “does not include many modern zoning tools that would help ensure effective implementation of Charlotte’s land use policy goals,” says […]

Charlotte’s current zoning ordinance sometimes gets in the way of carrying out the city’s adopted plans, a consultant’s report concludes. It also can be a Byzantine set of confusing and sometimes contradictory requirements. The ordinance “does not include many modern zoning tools that would help ensure effective implementation of Charlotte’s land use policy goals,” says […]

You’d think I would have known better. After all, I’ve been writing about growth since before they called it Smart Growth, and I’m still writing about it now that it’s “resiliency,” or “sustainable growth” or whatever the next term is. I can’t count how many times I’ve explained that when you decide where you want […]

“Smart Growth was an intellectual fetish of a self-selected liberal Eastern elite.” Robert J. Grow, president and CEO of Envision Utah, a public-private collaboration in the Salt Lake City region, told about 400 Charlotte region residents that his Western region calls what it does “quality growth.” “It was our growth,” he said. “It was our […]