Why Update the Comprehensive Plan?
It’s a great time to live, work, study, and play in Belmont – a city with a rich history and an equally promising future.
This future is guided by several documents and policies, including Belmont’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan (“Our Belmont”). This serves as the master plan for the City, detailing a broad, long-term vision for the community’s future land use, infrastructure, programs and goals. All policies are supported by data analyzed at the start of the process.
Over the next few months, a team of City staff, professional consultants, elected officials, and many others will be leading efforts to revise Belmont’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan, which was last updated in 2018.
Most important to this process is that every citizen and stakeholder will be able to have their voice heard! Throughout the following months, there will be recurring public engagement activities including online surveys, public meetings, meet-and-greets and more where everyone can participate and contribute. Together, let’s weave Belmont’s future, one thread at a time!
What Does our Community Think?
In addition to our presence at city events throughout this spring and summer, the City of Belmont conducted 8 public workshops throughout the month of June. Though these workshops varied in their focus, each one presented the community with the same facts, maps, and questions about Belmont that will help us ensure the updated Comprehensive Plan aligns with the public’s vision.
Thank you to everyone who attended and for your help providing us with over 1,300 comments!
Why is Belmont Doing This?
Like many states, North Carolina’s general statutes require cities, towns and villages to update their long-range planning documents on a regular basis. These documents typically consist of zoning regulations (ordinances), master plans, land development codes and land use plans. Each municipality goes about this a little differently, but the reasons for the updates are similar. These include keeping pace with development trends, changing demographics, urgent infrastructure needs -and growth.
The City of Belmont has been guided most recently by its Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) which was last updated in 2018. The time has come to re-examine this document and revise it to adapt to where Belmont is today… and where it wants to be in the future.
Our Team at Work
TEAM KICK-OFF TOUR (Mar 28, 2024)
The team toured every major area of Belmont by vehicle, as well as a downtown-specific visit on foot.
SHORELINE TOUR (Apr 26, 2024)
The team was led on a shoreline tour of Belmont by the City’s Fire Department, and observed the community’s development status along the Catawba and South Fork Rivers.
CITYWIDE WORKSHOPS (Jun 6-8, 2024)
During the first week of June, our team hosted a presentation and workshop series at Belmont’s CityWorks, where we collected feedback through interactive and informational boards, as well as live polling.
OUTREACH AT CITY EVENTS (May-Jun, 2024)
Throughout May and June, you might have seen us around town! We collected public feedback and spread the word about upcoming workshops at the Belmont’s Farmer’s Markets, Friday Night Live, Juneteenth Celebration, and Go Skateboarding Day.
CHARACTER AREA WORKSHOPS (Jun 25-29, 2024)
The core of our public engagement outreach, our team hosted five workshops during the last week of June, including two general events with informational/ summary presentations, as well as dedicated workshops for Northern, Central, and Southern Belmont at North Belmont Elementary (6/26), Gaston TechWorks (6/27), and the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens (6/28).
Educational Videos
Want to learn more about city planning topics that impact Belmont? Check out this playlist to help you better understand what the “Our Belmont” Comprehensive Land Use Plan will address!