North Charlotte Today

Anyone looking to develop in Charlotte has some heavy reading ahead of them.

The Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) is a document that's nearly 700 pages long, but it provides key guidance on how development will progress in the city over the next 20 years or so, Queen City News reported.

"It sets out the rules and the regulations that you have to follow in order to develop in the community," Alyson Craig, interim planning director for Charlotte, told Queen City News. "The comprehensive plan … is the overarching vision of how we want to see Charlotte grow and evolve over time."

While the 700 pages are probably not easy reading, community members can learn about UDO through upcoming engagement sessions, Queen City News reported. UDO is under consideration now, with a public hearing scheduled for July 11 and a vote to follow in early August.

Council member Tariq Bokhari told Queen City News there are some specific things people need to pay attention to.

"First and foremost is single-family zoning," Bokhari said. "If you have a neighbor that has a single-family house after this is done, that could be bulldozed, and they could put a duplex, a triplex all the way up to a quadplex, without having to get any additional approvals or anything like that."

Council member Victoria Watlington also expressed the need for a well-defined blueprint.

"My neighborhood itself is already over half owned by out-of-state investment companies," Watlington told Queen City News. "And because of that, when you start to look at how development happens, and what the incentives are to develop on already-cheap land, especially in places where it's easier to assemble larger parcels because the people who live there don't have an ownership stake in the property. That's where you start to see gentrification."