Charlotte City Council

Charlotte Council Took Two Votes on I-77 Monday. The Resolution Passed. The Binding Vote Didn't.

Charlotte City Council passed a non-binding resolution on I-77 South Monday night and rejected the binding rescission that would have given it teeth. For uptown readers, the gap between what was said and what was voted matters.

A 49-Unit Faith in Housing Petition Reached Public Hearing at Council Monday

Mission City Church, Freedom Communities, and the True Homes Foundation walked Charlotte City Council through their 49-townhome affordable-housing petition Monday night. The 5.38-acre Faith in Housing rezoning is petition 2025-027 in District 2 — all units sold (not rented), House Charlotte eligible, with a seven-year deed restriction. Council Member LaWana Slack-Mayfield used the floor for what is now her third public Faith in Housing argument of 2026: the program label, she said, is not "an automatic check."

Manor Theater Redevelopment Approved

Charlotte City Council on Monday unanimously approved a partial rezoning of the Manor Theater site on Providence Road, clearing the way for SLRH Acquisitions to redevelop the long-closed Eastover landmark into 120 to 130 residential units and roughly 35,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. Three council members — Kimberly Owens, Danté Anderson, and J.D. Mazuera Arias — walked the room through their first memories of the building before the vote.

On Data Centers, Mecklenburg County Wants a Voice It Mostly Doesn't Have

Mecklenburg commissioners got a deliberately neutral briefing on data centers at their May 19 meeting and signaled they want a position on the fast-growing industry. The catch: under North Carolina law, nearly all the zoning power belongs to the cities, not the county.

A Budget Hearing, an I-77 Reset, Data Centers — and the Question Malcolm Graham Wouldn't Answer

Council convened in special session at 4 p.m. Monday to take up three of Charlotte's biggest active fights — a $4.5 billion budget hearing, a resolution on the I-77 South toll lanes, and the council's first formal floor discussion of data centers. Council Member Malcolm Graham, who chairs the budget committee, was asked twice on television Sunday whether he is a candidate to fill Mayor Vi Lyles's seat after she steps down June 30. Both times he answered with the public hearing.

Charlotte Council Votes Unanimously for 150-Day Data Center Moratorium. Two Weeks Ago, It Was 5-5.

Two weeks after a 5-5 deadlock that required Mayor Vi Lyles to break the tie, Charlotte City Council voted unanimously Monday night to schedule a public hearing on a 150-day moratorium on new data center approvals. The hearing is set for May 26. Council could adopt the moratorium as early as June 8.

Charlotte Council Passed an I-77 Resolution Monday Night. Then Came the Vote That Actually Mattered.

Charlotte's $4.5 Billion Budget Drew More Than 30 Speakers Monday Night. Nearly All of Them Asked for More.

Brendan Maginnis Offers to Serve as Interim Mayor

Brendan K. Maginnis, the runner-up in Charlotte's September 2025 Democratic mayoral primary, has volunteered for the interim mayor appointment — from Copenhagen, where his family moved in January, and with a demographic-counter argument the Mercury did not solicit. By his count — initially approximately 46, revised to 44 in a follow-up email — none of those Democratic elected officials representing Charlotte at various levels are white males. The pitch collides with Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP President Corine Mack's public call for the council to elevate the Mayor Pro Tem rather than install a placeholder.