Information Items:
Campaign Signs Update
Staff Resource: Walter Abernethy, 704-336-4213 - wabernethy@ci.charlotte.nc.us
At Council's request, the attached letter was distributed electronically to all candidates registered with the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections. Information concerning the placement of campaign signs was also distributed to the candidates upon registering.
In addition, Code Enforcement staff will follow up to Council's request for ways to strengthen enforcement for signs in the right-of-way, including looking at other cities such as Charleston, South Carolina. Staff will report back to Council in 30 days.
CDOT's Rezoning and Traffic Impact Study Review Process
Staff Resource: Danny Pleasant, 704-336-3879 - dpleasant@ci.charlotte.nc.us
CDOT staff recently completed the attached document describing our practices for reviewing rezoning petitions and traffic impact studies. Land developers who routinely work within the city's jurisdiction are familiar with our practices. However, some have asked us to update our documentation to affirm our expectations. We will distribute this information to land developers who work in the city. We will also make it available in our offices and on our website.
The document describes CDOT's role in the rezoning process, our expectations for preparing traffic impact studies, and the approach for determining when and how developers should mitigate traffic impacts. Over the past months, we have looked with representatives from the development community to review this and earlier drafts. Their comments and suggestions have influenced the document.
We expect to update this document as we implement Transportation Action Plan policies that City Council adopted last May. We will keep you and the developer community informed as we work through future revisions.
Concord / Kannapolic Inter-Basin Transfer Request
Staff Resource: Doug Bean, 704-391-5070 - dbean@ci.charlotte.nc.us
Prior to the October 31 deadline, Duke Energy filed comments opposing Concord-Kannapolis' request for an Inter-Basin Transfer (IBT) of up to 36 million gallons of water per day from the Catawba River basin to the Rocky River/Yadkin River basin.
Duke's water capacity modeling, which was conducted during the FERC relicensing process, indicated this withdrawal would not have a significant impact on the availability of water in the Catawba. Their new position is based on "issues raised and the depth of concern that has been expressed across the region," according to an October 25, 2006 letter to stakeholders in the Duke/FERC relicensing process. Duke is supporting basin-wide water resource planning - which we also support, and which is an integral part of the relicensing process.
We continue to believe the City does not need to take any position of support nor opposition to the Concord-Kannapolis IBT request, since the State will be reviewing the technical data required by this established process. The State is scheduled to consider this IBT request at their January 11, 2007 meeting.
Media Inquiry - Storm Water Bill Updates
Staff Resource: Doug Bean, 704-391-5070 - dbean@ci.charlotte.nc.us
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities has been interviewed by a WSOC-TV reporter regarding how storm water accounts and bills are updated when properties transfer. The reporter's inquiry apparently stems from a case whereby a customer mistakenly continued to receive a storm water bill long after the customer sold one or more properties, and after the customer attempted to contact us about the change. The account problem has been corrected with the customer. The situation raised by the reporter appears to be the result of human error, not due to a lack of business process.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities depends primarily on notification from customers whenever water, sewer or storm water accounts change.
The reporter felt rather strongly that the City and County's computer systems should be upgraded to interface directly so storm water accounts are updated instantly whenever properties transfer. That is a good idea that Utilities will explore; however, each technology improvement must be prioritized along with many other competing needs.
