BY STACIE LETT CAIN

In three seemingly unrelated presentations to the Statesville City Council Monday evening, the issue of homelessness and the need for more affordable housing options became very evident to some council members.

“We have said previously that housing isn’t an emergency but we are seeing that maybe it is,” Councilwoman Kimberly Wasson said. “When we are discussing the need to regulate where we will allow multi-family housing to be built at the same meeting as an ordinance to remove people from sleeping on public property or streets, I think it’s safe to say it’s an issue.”

The discussion was first visited during the public comment section of the meeting with a plea for more shelters to be built to accommodate the homeless during inclement winter weather.

“The homeless population is on the rise here in Statesville,” Tyler Phifer of Boots on the Ground ministry explained to council. “During the winter months it got cold and the shelter was full and turning people away. Where could they go? No one should have to sleep on the streets or in a tent in the cold. We need adequate shelters.”

Phifer, who walks the streets of Statesville to provide care to the homeless population, asked council to do better by next winter and be able to provide refuge for the city’s homeless population.

But as a lengthy discussion ensued later in the meeting discussing a possible change to the Uniform Development Code allowing for a more streamlined process to develop areas around major roadways, there was some resistance. The resistance was not to the development of multi-family housing, but more as to where it was allowed to be developed.

“We need to be careful about our infrastructure here,” Councilman Steve Johnson warned. “We need to protect our road frontage for commercial development. Multi-family developments need to be somewhere behind our highway frontage that is more valuable for commercial development.”

Text Amendment TA-23-08 is a revision to the UDC that would allow similar density standards for other zoning districts that is allowed in R-5 and R-8, two residential zoning districts. That standard, which allows 7,500-square-foot minimum lot requirements for the first two units, with an additional 2,500 square feet for additional units, would provide the ability for more units to be built in Office and Light Industrial zones.

That change didn’t sit well with some.

Lori Brown, who lives in the Beverly Heights neighborhood, was very concerned about the failure to plan where multi-family development is allowed, citing the long-term effects of such a decision. In her opinion, this issue needs to be part of a much larger discussion within the context of strategic planning.

“Allowing multi-family development in this way has the potential to destabilize some of our oldest family-friendly neighborhoods and the potential to diminish the economic viability of our strategic highway corridors,” she advised. “I am not against multi-family development. But allowing it in an area where it is not the highest and best use for that land is a waste of that valuable, limited highway frontage.”

According to Brown, the city is not facing a housing emergency.

But when Police Chief David Onley updated the council about a proposed ordinance that would give city staff the authority to dispose of abandoned personal property left on city property, as well as making it illegal to camp on city property or on city streets, Wasson pieced the issues together, citing a need for “affordable housing.”

“We are seeing a time that what is considered affordable housing is still unattainable to people who are working full-time jobs and still not making it,” Wasson explained. “The homeless we are seeing aren’t just people who are choosing that lifestyle. It is people who have families, are working, and still not able to make enough to find a place to live that they can afford. We don’t have enough housing for those people.”

The council passed the ordinance against camping on public property unanimously, but tabled the discussion on multi-family housing until the mid August council meeting, allowing for a workshop to fully investigate the ramifications of the decision.

“This is too important of an issue to decide without having all of the facts,” Councilwoman Doris Allison said. “We need to research what the city needs and how we can accomplish that before we decide anything.”

Council restricts vape shops

The council also voted to restrict areas where tobacco/vape shops could call home, as well as how they were allowed to maintain those buildings.

“We are seeing more and more of these tobacco and vape shops popping up and we are concerned about some of the areas they are doing so,” Planning Director Sherry Ashley explained. “We are also getting some concern from citizens as well.”

The council approved the first reading of the ordinance allowing establishments dedicated to the retail sale of tobacco, tobacco products and/or tobacco paraphernalia as its primary income, or more than 50 percent of its income, to only be allowed in districts that are zoned B-4 and B-5, which are more intense commercially populated districts. In addition, shops would not be allowed to be run within 1,500 feet of another shop operating with the same purpose. Restriction on the use of LED or neon lighting would also be in place disallowing such lighting on buildings operating as a tobacco or vape shop, which is in keeping with city ordinance. Already established shops would be grandfathered in, but if the shop is closed and not reopened for six months or a year, depending on what zoning district they are in, they would not be allowed to open for use as a tobacco shop in a non-designated district.

Youth Talent Show set for Thursday

The Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council, who presented at the start of the meeting, is hosting Middle Schoolers Got Talent on Thursday, May 18, at the Statesville Civic Center. The program starts at 7 p.m. and is free of charge, with a goodwill donation. Donations will be returned to the city council for use toward the future construction of a teen center.

“It is really encouraging to me as mayor and a member of this community, to see such fine young people who are going to be the future of our community and this society and what a good representation you all are,” Mayor Costi Kutteh said.