Belmont has no rules for data centers. So on Sept. 8, Council was asked to ban them for 431 days while somebody writes some, a number specific enough to suggest someone sat down and counted. Also in that packet: a survey in which nearly a third of city employees said they would not recommend working here, and an entire new chapter of traffic law, fine schedule and impound powers included, parked on the consent agenda between a defibrillator grant and five retired police cars.
🏛️ CITY COUNCIL
Belmont has no data center rules, so it may ban them for 431 days
Regular City Council · Sept. 8, 2026
Council took an informal data center presentation on July 6 and asked planning staff what the Land Development Code says about them. The answer came back Sept. 8, and the answer is nothing. Data centers are excluded from the commercial use category, which leaves them landing under the code’s broad definition of industrial use, a category staff say does not begin to account for the size, scale and utility demands of the real thing. That is the entire rulebook.
So staff asked Council for a temporary moratorium under state law while Freese and Nichols finishes the Land Development Code rewrite the city put under contract in April, a rewrite whose scope already includes defining land uses nobody previously thought to define. Proposed duration: 431 days from passage, with an extension available if the new code is not adopted by then.
The draft covers data centers, cryptomining facilities, server farms and other high-impact digital infrastructure, and it would stop the city from accepting or approving any zoning permit, special use permit, site plan or building permit for one. Projects with valid permits or vested rights are exempt. The concerns staff named: energy consumption, noise, water usage, and building size and scale.
A public hearing is required before adoption, and the draft ordinance in the packet is dated for adoption on Oct. 5.
Bottom line: With no code to regulate them, a temporary ban is the only tool the city has until the Land Development Code catches up.
Nearly a third of city employees would not recommend working here
Regular City Council · Sept. 8, 2026
The city surveyed its own workforce in 2025 alongside the UNC School of Government’s Local Government Workplaces Initiative. 151 people took part, a 73.3% response rate, and they left 618 written comments. The Sept. 8 packet carries the City Manager’s status update on what has been done since.
57% of respondents would recommend Belmont as a place to work. 30% would not. Almost 40% report feeling at least moderately burned out. More than a quarter say they stay silent at least sometimes when they have an idea or a question. And 32% at least somewhat agree that they are thinking about leaving. The written comments point at high workloads and understaffing, fear of retaliation, and a desire to understand the how and why behind decisions.
The survey also found real strengths. More than 90% say team relationships are good, nearly 95% feel empowered by their supervisor, and more than 83% believe they can voice a differing opinion. The low ratings landed on the organization itself.
An employee task force turned all of that into 17 recommendations, and the September update is an honest ledger of which ones got money. Panic buttons and an emergency alert system are funded this year inside a Planning Department security project. Wellness programming got a budget increase. A fire station study turned into budget lines for property acquisition for a new north Belmont station and a new main station.
Then the other column. A full-time communications director was written up and priced during budget season and left unfunded, replaced by regular all-employee updates. An in-house IT help desk was declined because the city cannot carry a new hire and the existing third-party contract at once, leaving one IT Director covering everything. A citywide facilities assessment went unfunded too.
Bottom line: Employees flagged real problems and the city funded some fixes — but a communications director and an in-house IT help desk stayed on the wish list.
The scooter ordinance is up for adoption, filed under Consent
Regular City Council · Sept. 8, 2026
Chapter 75, the e-bike and scooter rewrite we walked through in July and again in August, came up for adoption on Sept. 8. It arrived on the consent agenda, the batch of items a council approves in one motion without discussing any of them.
That batch also held a $2,938 defibrillator grant, a housing authority tax waiver and five retired police vehicles headed for GovDeals. Sitting among them: a new chapter of the traffic code with a three-tier fine schedule and language letting the Police Chief impound your scooter and dispose of it after 90 days.
Sidewalks are generally off-limits to e-bikes and micromobility devices, with narrow exceptions for riders 16 and under, for designated multi-use paths at least eight feet wide, and for sidewalks along roads posted above 25 mph. Where riding is allowed, the cap is 10 mph for e-bikes and 5 mph for scooters and boards, and pedestrians always have the right of way. Micromobility devices and motor-driven bicycles cannot operate before sunrise or after sunset at all.
The Downtown Dismount Zone runs Main Street from East Woodrow Avenue on the north to the McLeod Avenue and Myrtle Street intersection on the south. Inside it nobody rides the sidewalk. The clause reaches “any human powered device of the like,” a phrase that appears nowhere in the chapter’s definitions, and it sweeps in the kick scooter and skateboard crowd along with anyone on a plain pedal bike. The rest of Chapter 75 is about electric and motorized devices. This one sentence is where a regular bicycle gets caught, and only on the sidewalk. Riding in the street is untouched. Fines run $100, then $200, then $500 for a third offense and every one after. A guardian who knowingly lets an under-16 ride without a helmet faces a civil penalty up to $100, waivable the first time with proof a helmet was bought. Staff recommended passing it as presented.
Bottom line: A whole new traffic code, tiered fines and impound power, passed without a single question because it rode in on the consent agenda.
One river intake project lost its grant. The other is riding $10 million.
Regular City Council · Sept. 8, 2026
Two projects at the Catawba River intake landed on the same agenda, having very different years.
The first is the excavation work, and it lost its funding. Staff determined it is not eligible for reimbursement under the State Revolving Fund agreement that was supposed to cover it, so a budget amendment would strike $1,397,940 in Hurricane Helene SRF revenue and replace it with a $1,794,690 transfer out of the Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund. Ratepayer money standing in for Helene recovery money.
It also had to be re-bid, because the original May 22 procurement did not comply with State and City purchasing requirements. The do-over drew one bid by the Aug. 10 due date that could not be opened under procurement rules, so the city readvertised to Aug. 21 and drew exactly one bid again, from the same firm that had bid in May. The award item asks Council to give the $1,794,690 contract to H.G. Reynolds Co. Inc. as lowest bidder, a phrase doing considerable work in a field of one. Scope grew between May and August too, including $280,000 more dredging, which pushed the 15% contingency up another $51,750.
The second project has the good news. A separate capital project ordinance would set a $10,267,100 budget to rehabilitate the raw water intake system, funded by a $10,000,000 Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Helene award plus $267,100 from the city’s own enterprise fund balance. Of that $10 million, $8,750,000 is principal forgiveness and the remaining $1,250,000 is a loan at 0% interest over 20 years. NCDEQ has issued a letter of intent to fund, and a $377,564 task order to WithersRavenel would produce the engineering and environmental reports the state requires first, including an evaluation of whether the primary intake should be restored where it sits or relocated.
Bottom line: One intake project lost its funding and had to be rebid twice; the other landed $10 million in mostly-forgivable Helene recovery money.
Your trash cart is about to get a legal parking spot
Regular City Council · Sept. 8, 2026
Chapter 50, the solid waste chapter, is up for a full repeal and replace. Staff frame it as housekeeping, catching the code up to how Public Works actually runs the route. The effective date written into the draft is Sept. 9, the day after the meeting.
What changes for your collection morning: carts out no earlier than 6 p.m. the night before, out by 7 a.m. on collection day, back in by midnight. Within two feet of the curb, handle facing away from the road, three feet clear of vehicles, mailboxes, poles and low limbs. Lid fully closed, and anything stacked beside or on top of the cart does not get picked up. Storing your cart in front of the house, forward of the building line, is prohibited.
Crews are not required to collect where access is blocked or unsafe, which covers locked gates, loose animals and blocked approaches. A missed collection has to be reported within one business day, and no return trip is owed if the material was not prepared or placed correctly. Yard waste limits get codified at 8 inches in diameter and 4 feet in length, one truckload. The prohibited materials list runs long and specific: hazardous and medical waste, hot ashes, tires, construction debris, and raw seafood waste, banned unless double-bagged in leak-resistant bags.
One structural piece sits under the housekeeping. Routes, leaf season and holiday schedules move into a companion Solid Waste Operations Manual that expressly cannot create penalties. If the city wants to fine you, it has to point at the ordinance.
Bottom line: Curbside pickup gets a real rulebook, and Public Works can now say no to blocked or unsafe routes without owing a return trip.
City Hall’s $3.5 million makeover, with the architect on the same page
Regular City Council · Sept. 8, 2026
Two consent items, one project. The first would set a capital project ordinance for the City Hall renovation at $3,512,334. The FY2026-27 budget carried $3,303,000 for the work, and current all-in estimates range from $3,211,104 to $3,512,334, so the ordinance is being set at the top of that range. Staff note it can be amended once the job is bid, which is the polite way of reserving room.
The second would award $279,500 to Helt Design for the design work: $239,230 in basic services, $35,270 in supplemental services and up to $5,000 in reimbursables. Design runs through FY2026-27, with bidding, award and construction anticipated in FY2027-28. Start to finish, roughly 20 months.
Helt was selected out of four firms interviewed in November 2022. Concepts and rough numbers went to Council in September 2025, and the project was greenlit for funding at the February 2026 retreat. The 2025 estimate sheet breaks the baseline into a basement upfit at $648,230, an elevator at $130,000, first-floor improvements at $1,373,382, a terrace at $123,905 and site improvements at $194,876, plus a 10% contingency. An add-alternate trades the terrace for a building addition.
Bottom line: The $3.5 million renovation is inching toward construction, with the ordinance set at the top of the estimated range and design in the hands of the firm picked back in 2022.
Revenue beat the forecast. The cushion shrank anyway.
Regular City Council · Sept. 8, 2026
The preliminary, unaudited fourth-quarter numbers for FY2026 came to Council as an information item, and they read better and worse than the totals suggest.
The good column: ad valorem taxes (the property tax, Latin for “according to value,” because it is charged as a share of what your property is assessed to be worth) landed $1,962,773 over budget at $17,279,071. Local option sales tax came in at $6.73 million against a $6.05 million budget, roughly $680,000 and 11.3% over. Intergovernmental revenue beat budget by $357,282. Water and Sewer revenue reached $14,076,027 against an $11,028,292 budget, about $3.05 million over. Staff are careful to flag that this is not audited profit.
The General Fund looks at a glance like it missed its revenue target by several million. The final budget included an $8,257,887 fund balance appropriation the city never drew, which accounts for the apparent gap.
The harder column: available fund balance above the 25% policy reserve is estimated at $14.65 million, down about $3.93 million from last year’s $18.57 million. Because available fund balance decreased, no additional 5% Capital Formation transfer is generated this year, and the capital reserve ended near $717,000. The practical effect is that the city added nothing new to its capital savings this year, leaving future projects to lean harder on the annual budget or on borrowing. The Powell Bill street account drew down $303,000, or 22.5%, finishing at $1,045,858, which staff describe as planned use of accumulated restricted money on paving and resurfacing.
Spending ran tight almost everywhere, with Police at 98.8% of budget, Sanitation at 99.0% and Debt Service at 99.9%. Administration used 49.3%.
Bottom line: Tax and utility revenue beat budget, but the city’s savings cushion shrank by nearly $4 million and capital reserves added nothing new this year.
🏙️ DOWNTOWN & MAIN STREET
NCDOT offered to give the trolley its land, and that set everything back
Tourism Development Authority · Sept. 9, 2026
Belmont Trolley had already cleared contingent design approval from the City. Then NCDOT offered to donate the trolley property to the City outright, and the timeline went backward. In a written update to the Tourism Development Authority dated Aug. 27, the group argues the delay buys something worth having: rezoning the property to match its neighbors allows better use of the land and the building, and building through the City is far less complicated than building through NCDOT.
By the group’s own account to the board, the City is moving ahead with the rezoning, and the trolley team expects a Planning Board hearing on Sept. 17 and a City Council vote around Oct. 5. The group is targeting major City and County permitting wrapped in early 2027, construction documents approved by February, and grading started before the end of this year. A ground lease and water and sewer extensions are still under negotiation.
The fundraising line is the part to watch. A recent anonymous gift has opened the door to a matching campaign, with the first push planned for September through December, though no dollar figure is attached to the gift or the target. Some of that money could underwrite a temporary facility to show off the project’s STEM and green rail research before a permanent building exists.
That research is happening on the Belmont tracks. UNC Charlotte recently won an NC Innovation grant to continue wireless power transfer work there, part of which will finish a battery cart built as a senior design project, timed around an on-track demonstration planned for April.
Bottom line: Building through the City instead of NCDOT is the slower path this fall, but the trolley team is betting it’s the faster one for everything after, with a Sept. 17 Planning Board hearing and an early-October Council vote next up.
⚡ QUICK HITS
The city is about to explain how it plans to borrow. Council’s Sept. 21 workshop has one item on it: bond counsel Parker Poe presenting a proposed Limited Obligation Bond structure to finance the Stowe property reimbursement, the fire engines, and design work for City Hall and the North Fire Station. It would create a new nonprofit, the Belmont Public Finance Corporation, and pledge City Hall as collateral so the city can borrow against it again later without asking a bank’s permission. No authorization is being requested that night. Staff want direction, and any actual borrowing would still need Council and the Local Government Commission.
One committee, four boards, one T-shirt. Arcadis, the Center City Small Area Plan consultant, wants a Steering Committee named before community engagement begins. Three boards take up their appointments in the same week, Parks and Recreation and the Main Street Advisory Board on Sept. 16 and Planning and Zoning on Sept. 17. Staff proposed a 12-member body drawn from Council, four boards, the chamber and three staff departments, running September 2026 through August 2027. Members attend a kickoff, a public open house and a design charrette, and at the two closing presentations they wear a bright project-provided “ASK ME” T-shirt. Volunteer accordingly.
Nine parks are getting a veterans-only parking space. The Police Department proposed one designated space each at Rocky Branch, Reid, Davis, Stowe, Ebb Gantt and Crescent parks, plus City Rec, Kevin Loftin Riverfront Park and the boat ramp. Cost is $150 to $300 per location, $1,350 to $2,700 total, with no handicap space replaced and the existing Purple Heart space left in place.
Free defibrillator, no strings. The Fire Department asked to apply for a 100% funded, no-match Frontline Support Grant to buy a $2,938.52 Stryker LIFEPAK 1000, shipping included, for an existing fire response unit.
The Housing Authority wants $33,315.22 forgiven. Belmont Housing Authority asked the city to waive its payments in lieu of taxes for FY2025 and FY2026, $18,744.61 and $14,570.61. The obligation traces to a 1969 cooperation agreement, and Council waived everything through 2009 back in 2010 in exchange for an annual report. Staff recommend approval.
Downtown keeps filling up. The tourism marketing report logs Woodson’s Toys open as of August, Elizabeth & Co Bridal Studio opening in September, and Blue Petal Co. planning an October opening. Five Belmont businesses (Nellies, Wandering Cup, Tastebuds, Bookshop and Banana Bar) are stops on the 21-location Gaston County Dino Trail ahead of the Schiele Museum’s new exhibit on Sept. 26.
Instagram is outrunning Facebook. Belmont Tourism’s Instagram has fewer followers than its Facebook page and generates more than twice the interactions, 943 to 426 last month. Website traffic hit 3,375 users against a 2,463 average, 55% of it on a phone. Home2 Suites has been secured for Wilkinson Bridge crews.
A documentary about Belmont screens Sept. 16. The Black Copperhead Sting film has an invitation-based screening at 7:15 p.m. at 115 Main in McAdenville. Five video reels are already posted and more footage has come in.
The Board of Adjustment had nothing to do again. Its Sept. 10 meeting was cancelled for lack of business, the second month running. The agenda was one line long.
The tourism board posted minutes, and they came with a $46,000 receipt. The Sept. 9 packet carries the full Aug. 12 minutes, the first Tourism Development Authority minutes to actually surface after three meetings running without them. They show the Downtown Belmont Development Association asked for a single consolidated $50,000 grant and the board unanimously approved $46,000, split $6,000 for LitFest, $10,000 for Bavarian Holiday Fest, $25,000 for Friday Night Live and $5,000 for everything else. The June 10 and July 15 minutes are still not posted.
The entry sign item had funding in the title and nowhere else. “Funding Entry Sign Design Vendor” appeared on the tourism board’s Sept. 9 agenda with no attachment, no vendor, no scope and no dollar figure. Boards talk about things before they paper them, but the word “funding” raises expectations.