Dear Mayor Lyles; Dear Members of the City Council:
The Mecklenburg Audubon Society wrote to City Council last year
to express our opposition to Rezoning Petition 2022-121, by RK Investments
Charlotte LLC, which seeks to modify 53.07 acres of land currently zoned as
Single-family District (R-3) to an Urban Residential District (UR-2(CD)). We
understand the Petition will be heard during the City Council Zoning Meeting
scheduled for Monday, March 18. We write again to reiterate our opposition
to this Petition.
Mecklenburg Audubon Society began in 1937 as the Mecklenburg
Audubon Club and became the first official North Carolina chapter of National Audubon Society in 1970.
Our members are committed
to the appreciation, protection, and preservation of birds and other
wildlife through inclusive, community-based education
and conservation activities.
Our organization’s reasons for opposing Rezoning Petition 2022-121 center on the protection of the birds and wildlife
currently living and thriving in this area. We also want to remind you of the
ongoing need to provide affordable housing options,
well-functioning
government services and infrastructure, and high environmental quality. We
believe this rezoning petition meets none of these needs. Our specific concerns
include the following:
· The
property in question sits
near the Four-Mile Creek greenway, which is widely used by walkers, runners,
bicyclists, and our members, as they search for resident and migratory birds.
The area is rich in bird life and other wildlife precisely because the greenway
is surrounded by undeveloped or minimally developed land, wetlands, and an
impressive tree canopy.
· This
land supports a nesting
site for our national
bird – the American Bald Eagle – and many other species of nesting
birds, including pileated woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers, and
red-shouldered hawks, as well as breeding migratory birds, such as scarlet
tanagers, prothonotary warblers, and ruby-throated hummingbirds. As birds are
currently migrating to
their summer breeding habitat, it is estimated
that over 850,000 birds pass through Mecklenburg County on a single night
during peak migration.
These birds need land such as the property in question in order to feed, find water, and rest before
they continue their
journeys.
· We
recognize that Charlotte
has an acute affordable housing shortage, but this rezoning proposal does
nothing to address the lack of affordable housing. We urge you to focus on
affordable housing needs as a priority, and to therefore reject this rezoning
proposal as failing to meet those needs.
· The Charlotte Tree Ordinance emphasizes
the importance of Charlotte’s tree canopy for maintaining air quality, minimizing increases
in temperature via tree cover, preventing
soil erosion, and managing stormwater drainage problems, among many other aims.
We share the city’s urgent need to protect and enhance Charlotte’s tree
canopy, and we caution
you to keep in mind the goals of the Charlotte
Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan (particularly
Goal 7: Integrated Natural and Built Environments) as you consider this
rezoning petition. Given
the propensity of this area to flood after heavy rains, further destruction of existing protections will only exacerbate
these and other environmental risks in the area.
· We
urge you to ensure that a thorough assessment is conducted as to how the
significant expansion of residential
units in this area will impact the ability of emergency services to reach and
react to the demands of an additional
642 housing units in this densely populated area.
There is no clear justification for allowing a rezoning petition that will not further
any of the most urgent needs of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg
County community. This petition
will not expand the availability of affordable housing, it will not improve the
livability of this city, and it will not address ongoing environmental and
climate-change concerns.
The Mecklenburg Audubon Society invites you to join us on a
bird walk along the Four Mile Creek Greenway, so you can experience first-hand
the incredible bird life and other natural wonders in this area. We encourage
you to contact us if we can provide any additional
details, and we hope you will allow us to address the Council before you
consider a vote on this Rezoning Petition
2022-121.
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