City Council approves new vendor rules for NoDa, increases fines for violations

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — From an intense argument about electric vehicles to changes for street vendors, Charlotte City Council members tackled a packed agenda Monday night.

The council kicked off its final meeting of the fiscal year with a long, heated conversation about whether

to purchase electric vehicles from Tesla. Charlotte leaders were looking at a program to buy 45 EVs from a list of several companies, including Tesla.

Council member LaWana Mayfield wanted the company, led by Elon Musk, removed from the list, citing safety and quality concerns with the vehicles.

Council member Ed Driggs claimed other companies on the list have those same problems and said the argument was politically motivated.

“The reason this has been isolated out of this long list is political. It has to do with the majority owner of the Tesla company,” said Driggs.

Mayfield clarified that her actions were not political.

“First of all, he is not a mind reader, nor does he know the research that I have done on the other companies, which I tend to do quite a bit of my research before I bring something forward,” she said. “If it was mainly or predominantly political for me, I would’ve said that because I don’t have a problem calling that out.”

Council members ultimately voted to purchase the electric vehicles but remove Tesla from the list of potential vendors.

Street vendor changes

Changes are on the way for street vendors in the Queen City.

Officials voted to move forward with a pilot program, creating what’s called a Congested Business District in NoDa. This will allow them to regulate activity on the neighborhood streets highlighted red on the map below.

Sellers will have to apply for permits costing less than $100 in order to operate. Currently, the penalty for street vending without a permit is between $10 and $50. It’ll now be up to $500.

City leaders are working on the application process and on a model to rotate vendors. The pilot program will be up and running by the end of July. It will last until about February.

Council members emphasized that the changes were mostly made in the name of safety, since those selling food and beverages are not subject to official inspections. Some also mentioned how vendors made sidewalks difficult to maneuver and some entrances to the brick-and-mortar shops there were blocked.

Currently, vending is banned in the Congested Business District except in the Tryon Street Mall area, where vendors can operate legally with a city-issued permit.