Current Legislative Efforts

One of the GCAA’s core activities is legislative advocacy. We represent our members’ interests at all levels of government to ensure multifamily-friendly legislation and regulatory policies. It is vitally important to our industry that elected officials, from City Council to the US Senate, hear the apartment industry’s story and concerns. 

Local Efforts

  • Planning and Development: Actively engaged with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission, the Development Services Technical Advisory Committee (DSTAC) and Mecklenburg County Building Development Commission, monitoring the proposed Draft 2040 Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), Zoning Ordinance rewrites, changes to Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and other land use and building code related issues.

  • Housing Affordability: Participate in the conversation on Affordable Housing, Housing Choice Vouchers and Evictions. Providing market proven approaches and ideas to address housing affordability concerns.

The following local efforts are in collaboration with the Rental Housing Alliance, GCAA’s Super PAC

  • Source of Income and Criminal Screening
    Continue to promote stremlining the Housing Choice Voucher Program and educate members and elected officials about improvements to the program and the current shortfalls of the voluntary program.

  • Election Year Initiatives
    Educate members and advocate against proposed regulatory barriers to housing affordability in the proposed Charlotte Unified Development Ordinance. Advocate for easing regulatory barriers to housing and support local efforts to eliminate counterproductive land use restrictions, etc. Also, educate elected officials and indirectly support campaigns of candidates that share our legislative priorities.
Voter Education and Registration

Provide information to increase voter awareness and conduct voter educate activities for our members such as hosting voter registration drives at local apartment communities and educational videos and blogs.

If you are new to North Carolina or do not have an NC license or ID yet, you can register to vote by accessing either Vote411.org or ncsbe.gov and downloading the voter registration form. These must be filled out signed and mailed to your local Board Elections.

Last November, the Charlotte City Council approved a new district map that adjusted existing boundaries that balances district populations by moving sixteen voter precincts to different City Council districts. If you are a Charlotte resident and want to know if you've been impacted by the new redistricting map, check your precinct location here.

For more information regarding your county’s election, click on the corresponding link below:

Cabarrus County

https://www.cabarruscounty.us/departments/elections-board

Catawba County
https://www.catawbacountync.gov/county-services/elections/

Cleveland County
https://www.clevelandcounty.com/main/departments/board_of_elections.php

Gaston County
https://www.gastongov.com/government/departments/elections/index.php

Iredell County
https://www.co.iredell.nc.us/162/Elections

Lincoln County
http://www.lincolncounty.org/index.aspx?NID=112

Mecklenburg County
https://www.mecknc.gov/boe/Pages/default.aspx

Rowan County
https://www.rowancountync.gov/191/Elections

Stanly County
https://www.votestanlycountync.gov/

Union County
http://www.unioncountync.gov/government/boards-and-committees/board-elections

York County, SC
https://www.yorkcountygov.com/244/Voter-Registration-Elections

State Efforts

    • Emotional Support Animals: Working with other apartment associations to find strategies and legislation that will help stop abuse as well as provide protections and parameters for emotional support animals and housing providers.

    • Expanding Magistrate Training: Advocate that magistrate training be expanded to include summary ejectment training.

    • NC Building Code Changes & Council Hearings: Educating our membership on changes to the North Carolina Building Code and advocating for changes to those requirements that impact apartment communities.

    • Property Tax Incentives: Currently, municipalities and counties are prohibited from offering certain property tax exemptions by state law. Unfortunately, COVID -19 has financially strained renters and by extension housing providers, who have remained fully operational at a significantly reduced income. Granting municipalities, the authority to offer tax rebates or exemptions at will, would create an opportunity to alleviate so of the burden of housing providers across the state.

Federal Efforts  

We also support and collaborate with the National Apartment Association in efforts to address issues that impact the multi-family industry.  Issues such as: