Ryan Pitkin, Monday, June 12, 2023
Charlotte City Council kept its meeting short and sweet on Monday, unanimously approving the Fiscal Year 2024 budget, hearing an update on Brookhill Village and moving forward with a few other notable projects.
On the Agenda:
- Brookhill Village Update
- Budget Adoption
- Eastland and Project Break Point Funding
- Affordable Housing Projects
Brookhill Village
Monday night’s meeting began with Brookhill Village, which hadn’t been discussed by council in over a year. A recommended city/county collaborative investment — $3.5 million each — would help fund extensive renovations at the site and retain housing for 78 currently occupied households.
Griffin Brothers Companies has not yet finalized the development plans for the parts of the property expected to include market-rate, mixed-use development, but city/county investment would ensure that 100 housing units remain affordable/transitional through 2049.
Seventy-eight of the 100 affordable units would be legacy housing for those currently living there, with rents currently averaging $466, and the remaining 22 would be transitional workforce housing run by The Harvest Center.
The city’s piece of the investment would come from ARPA funding.
Budget Adoption
The first order of business on Monday was to adopt the $3.3-billion FY 2024 budget. You can learn more about the details of the budget here.
Although there is no property tax increase, the adopted budget does include fee increases for solid waste, storm water, and water services. Increases for the typical customer equate to: Solid Waste ($0.72 monthly increase), Storm Water ($0.43 monthly increase), and Water ($3.10 monthly increase).
“This is going to be the last budget I vote on but it will be the first budget I vote against,” said Braxton Winston. He added that the pay raises for city employees were “nominal” and won’t match inflation. “It’s going to be harder for people to live in this city this year.”
Council approved the budget in a 9-1 vote; Winston was the only dissenter and Ed Driggs was not present at the meeting.
Continue reading the full story here.