North Carolina Senate Bill 382 began as a disaster relief bill, a widely supported and necessary measure to help our State recover from Hurricane Helene. But in a stunning act of political deceit, a last-minute provision was quietly slipped in to strip local governments of their zoning authority. This bait-and-switch tactic, buried inside an emergency relief bill, is […]
NC General Assembly
State Reps in Waxhaw
On Thursday, May 22, 2025, at 7:00 PM, the Western Union Municipal Alliance (WUMA) will hold its monthly meeting at Waxhaw Town Hall. This session will focus visiting State Reps in Waxhaw on critical legislation that directly affects our communities’ ability to guide and manage local development. We will discuss Senate Bill 382, which has […]
NC’s Housing Study Funded by Industry
The NC Chamber Foundation’s recent housing “study” claims North Carolina faces a crisis: 764,000 homes needed by 2029. But let’s not mistake this for an honest analysis. It’s a developer-backed narrative, crafted to justify legislation like HB 765—a bill that guts local authority, silences elected officials, and invites lawsuits against towns that dare to regulate […]
HB 765 – The Gory Details
The Gory Details – Here’s a summary of each change that HB 765 makes: 120-36.7.(e) – Adds a significant burden to the Fiscal Research Division of the state government, requiring them to analyze the five-year impact of bills and resolutions on the costs of “constructing, purchasing, owning, or selling a single-family residence, either directly or […]
House Bill 765: A Hostile Takeover of Local Government
District 55 Representative Mark Brody (of Union County) is sponsoring a bill (HB765) in the NC House that would virtually eliminate regulation of residential development by local governments in the entire state of North Carolina. Rep. Brody is a contractor by trade (as stated on his page), who if still active would be likely to […]
Waxhaw Embraces State Handcuffs
As discussed in this previous post, the NC state legislature eviscerated local control over zoning on December 11th by placing onerous restrictions on down zoning (any change that reduces density). This seems intended to lock in profits for developers, as higher density residential developments tend to be more profitable than those with lower density. Waxhaw […]