Two key votes by the Charlotte City Council in the past month have left some residents and business leaders wondering how much influence the city’s business community still has — and whether the so-called “Charlotte Way” is fading.
The Charlotte City Council voted unanimously Monday night to approve a 150-day moratorium on new data centers in the city to study their impact on neighborhoods and the environment.
After the vote, a crowd inside the Government Center chanted, “The people, united, will never be defeated.”
That rallying cry is not new to Charlotte, but it is more often heard at protests than inside council chambers after a legislative victory.
One of the groups celebrating was the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a group of about 60 left-leaning Charlotte residents.
PSL member Susanna Chen, an MIT graduate, said she supports the potential benefits of artificial intelligence but backed the pause.
“I understand the great benefits it’s going to have for people and like the ways it can be used,” Chen said. “I’m mostly just against the ways that people have been going about building these data centers.”
Business concerns grow
As activists celebrate recent wins, some in Charlotte’s business community are sounding alarms.
Last month, Rob Nanfelt, head of the Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition, wrote a sharply critical newsletter describing what he sees as a leftward shift in city policy, citing both the data center moratorium and the cancellation of the Interstate 77 toll lane project.
He wrote that at a public hearing on data centers, he witnessed “an unbelievable group of radical and angry socialists circling our camp,” referring to PSL, and added, “Prosperity is in their crosshairs.”
REBIC attorney Larry Shaheen said some council members are pushing to dismantle a longstanding approach to governance.
“There’s this desire by some council members to completely tear down and destroy the way in which this community has been built over the last 80 years,” Shaheen said. “And by all records, it’s been pretty successful.”
Shaheen described the “Charlotte Way” as local groups working with government to develop solutions collectively and then move forward together.
Wells Fargo economist Mark Vitner told the Charlotte Business Journal that the city’s success has come from cooperation among government, labor and business.
“Government, labor and business all work together, and we don’t have that right now in Charlotte,” Vitner said.
Power and politics shift
Others define the “Charlotte Way” differently, arguing elected officials have too often deferred to business interests.
Newly elected City Council member JD Mazuera Arias, a progressive Democrat, said a broader distribution of influence is healthy for democracy. He voted against the I-77 toll lanes and supported the data center moratorium, and has also pushed for higher pay for airport contract workers.
“When people who have always had access to power are asked to share that power, they call it instability,” Mazuera Arias said. “I call it democracy.”
Council member Dimple Ajmera, who supported the data center pause, said the decision reflects careful evaluation.
“Businesses make investments every day,” Ajmera said. “Those decisions are based on due diligence, and they should expect the same level of due diligence from our government. I believe that is what this council is doing.”
Other North Carolina municipalities have approved similar moratoriums, and the Republican-led legislature is considering eliminating some tax exemptions for data centers.
Toll lane turning point
Weeks earlier, the council took a more consequential step when it voted, 6-5, to reject the I-77 toll lane project, walking away from $700 million in potential funding.
The Charlotte Regional Business Alliance had lobbied to keep the project alive, and the state Department of Transportation had sought to improve its design. Under past norms associated with the “Charlotte Way,” a compromise might have emerged.
Instead, the vote marked a significant break, with the city now potentially waiting until the next decade to secure funding for a scaled-back version of the project.
Council member Malcolm Graham, generally viewed as business-friendly, cast a key vote against the toll lanes after hearing concerns from residents in west Charlotte.
“In some cases, the corporate community is in the passenger seat and not the driver’s seat,” Graham said. “And so the community in some respects is driving where the city is headed.”
Graham added that he hopes the city’s direction aligns with other major global cities.
“I hope they are driving it in the direction of major cities like New York, Barcelona, or Paris,” he said.
A mixed direction
Despite talk of a leftward shift, the City Council’s recently approved budget includes 10% pay raises for police officers and firefighters.
Meanwhile, the progressive group Action NC had called for a $200 million affordable housing bond, but the council approved a smaller $125 million measure.
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