Community and Economic Development in North Carolina and Beyond

Receivership: A New Tool for Addressing Vacant Problem Properties in North Carolina

Municipalities across North Carolina have long employed code enforcement tools to address problem properties and abandoned structures. A prior blog post describes the code enforcement options for repair and maintenance […]
Maintenance of vacant or neglected commercial buildings: options for NC local governments

The downtown buildings in the Town of Old Well have “good bones.” The structures lining the four downtown blocks of Main Street are solid brick and reflect their historic character, […]
Legal and Business Reasons Why Downtown Development Programs Should Involve Secured Loans—Not Grants

Dr. Blaine Beeper is a retired hospital administrator who was recently elected to council in the Town of Bushwood. Dr. Beeper thinks he has figured out how to jumpstart revitalization […]
The Tortoise, the Hare, and Demolition in Historic Districts

A few blocks from downtown in the town’s historic district sit two houses built in the early twentieth century: the Hare House and the Tortoise House. The houses retain their […]

The Community and Economic Development program at the School of Government provides public officials with training, research, and assistance that support local efforts to create jobs and wealth, expand the tax base, and maintain vibrant communities. We deploy the resources of the University to support the development goals of communities in North Carolina.

Land Revitalization and Brownfield Grants

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Program has the power to transform communities. Since 1995, the federal program has assessed over 30,000 properties and designated 92,000 acres for anticipated reuse. North Carolina has been working in tandem under state statute since 1997, and has issued more than 550 brownfields agreements to protect projects ranging from $100,000 to over $70 billion in committed private investment through brownfields redevelopment.[1] To be clear, the EPA defines a brownfield as “a property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.”

The Community and Economic Development Program in UNC’s School of Government has written extensively about brownfield grants and agreements over the years. This post will dive deeper into the connection between brownfields and land revitalization. Land revitalization, defined loosely as “sustainable redevelopment of abandoned properties,” is a key aspect of the brownfield grants program, but it is not always perceived as part of the “bread and butter” grants (i.e. Assessment Grants, Cleanup Grants, and Revolving Loan Fund Grants). Read More…

A COVID Silver Lining for CED Professionals: Innovation

Last October a CED post highlighted the importance of understanding the capacity of nonprofits who work with local governments to provide needed social services. The focus at the time was on the program participation tipping point, where community partners disengaged from participating in a program because they lacked the capacity to be able to meet program guidelines and requirements. The program in question was one that provided healthy meals for school-age children during the summer, when they couldn’t access the school cafeteria as they would do during the school year.

The post presented four key aspects of organizational capacity: Administrative, Financial, Infrastructure, and Personnel. As explained in that post, an example of administrative burden would be required paperwork in applications or reporting. An example of financial burden would be required financial security, match, or ability to carry costs. An example of infrastructure burden would be the need to have storage or transportation capability. An example of personnel burden would be the need to provide staff or volunteers, with or without a particular expertise.

Unfortunately, COVID has forced a much brighter spotlight on the key issue of nonprofit capacity. When schools were forced to close this spring, almost 1,000,000 children across North Carolina who would normally receive free and reduced-price lunch through the school system still needed to be fed, regardless of an unfolding pandemic. Schools, local governments, nonprofits, and scores of volunteers had to develop entirely new systems to meet this need in a matter of days. What was different this time was the significant new capacity issues that emerged. Read More…

Regulating Short-term rentals in the Staycation Future?

While COVID-19 is changing many facets of our world, one thing that seems unlikely to change is the proliferation of short-term rentals (e.g. Airbnb, VRBO, etc). With current interest in local travel outstripping 2019, pre-existing questions around if and how to regulate these businesses are only going to be more urgent. This post examines the current state of the short-term rental market and note the ways that COVID-19 and the economic downturn may, and may not, influence the conversations around short-term rentals for local governments. Read More…

Evicted in a Pandemic

Even in the best of times, evictions are all too common and generate excessive public costs – but COVID-19 has brought the crisis to a boiling point.

In recent months, housing security has not received the same degree of public attention as employment and health, though these issues are inextricably linked. Yes, unemployment – the rate of which approached nearly 25% in some parts of North Carolina in April – can lead to eviction, but the reverse is also true. Job loss is significantly more likely for those who are forcibly displaced from their homes, and eviction precipitates a host of negative health, social, and housing outcomes for years afterward, partly due to a public eviction record permanently limiting housing options and enabling discrimination. In other words, it’s not just that evictions disproportionately impact the vulnerable, but that evictions make previously-resilient households more vulnerable. This is especially obvious during a pandemic, where “doubling up,” a common response to eviction, undermines public health goals and increases transmission risk. Read More…

Seats on the Street: Changes to Outdoor Dining in the Time of COVID-19

With Governor Cooper’s announcement of Phase II reopening on May 22^nd, restaurants are allowed to seat customers for the first time since March 17^th. Many communities are breathing a sigh of relief; downtowns have suffered dramatically from the loss of business due to COVID-19, and the reopening of restaurants is hoped to bring more foot traffic and inject much-needed revenue. However, this is not a return to the pre-COVID dinner rush: restaurants are limited to seating no more than 50% of their capacity within their dining areas and must comply with all DHHS guidelines around social distancing. This poses a dilemma for many businesses: if you need a full staff to offer dine-in services, but can only serve 50% of your volume, can you justify reopening? Restaurant owners across the state and across the country are wrestling with this decision, and for many, 50% capacity simply won’t cut it. In order to offer a full range of dine-in services, they need to be able to serve more guests. To serve more guests and comply with social distancing, they need more dining space. Which brings us to the essential question: where can local restaurants get more space?

The answer, according to many local governments, is simple: sit outside! Allowing restaurants to expand their outdoor dining areas allows them to serve a greater portion of their capacity while still meeting social distancing guidelines. Local governments across North Carolina are in the process of implementing temporary changes that will allow restaurants to expand their operations into their parking lots, onto the sidewalks, and in some cases, onto main street itself. Questions about permits, regulations, and public safety abound, and local governments are managing these challenges with a variety of temporary processes. This post reviews some common initiatives from examples across the state, and offers some practical considerations for local governments looking to implement similar programs. Read More…

Taxes In Troubling Times

Tax administration is obviously not at the top of any local government’s list of pandemic concerns. But social distancing and other remedial measures made necessary by this public health crisis are creating some unusual challenges for tax offices, and some of those challenges relate to community and economic development. This post addresses a few of the pandemic-related questions I’ve received from tax officials recently. Read More…

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