The Charlotte City Council on Monday approved a 41.26-acre rezoning of the Atrium Health University City hospital campus, authorizing the institution to expand its healthcare facilities and surface infrastructure under a new set of design exceptions. The vote was unanimous.
The petition — number 2025-135, filed by The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority, the public-authority entity that legally owns Atrium Health's properties — sought to rezone the entire University City hospital campus from Institutional Campus 1 to Institutional Campus 2 with Exception provisions, or IC-2(EX). The property is at 103 East W.T. Harris Boulevard, south of North Tryon Street and north of Johnson Alumni Way, directly adjacent to UNC Charlotte. The rezoning authorizes healthcare institution uses on the campus under the standards of the IC-2 zoning district and the specific exception provisions the council approved Monday.
One of those exceptions was added between zoning committee and council. The petitioner had filed a new exception provision to allow surface parking, driveways, and circulation between buildings and the property's frontage — a design need not present in earlier drafts. Charlotte's standard process sends any post-zoning-committee modification back to the committee for re-review unless the council, by a three-fourths vote of all members present, determines the modification "is such that further review is not necessary." The council voted unanimously to skip the re-review. Then it approved the petition.
The actual approval did not proceed cleanly. Council Member Danté Anderson (District 1) made the motion to approve the petition before any discussion had occurred. The first call for a vote was already underway when Council Member Renée Johnson (District 4) interjected to say she wanted to speak. After a member of the council noted, on the record, that the body had voted before any discussion, Anderson re-stated her motion. The council voted again, this time after Johnson spoke. The petition passed unanimously on the second call.
Johnson's statement included a personal note about her family's recent experience with the hospital. "This is for the atrium system, the university," she told the dais. "And most of you all know I just got back from, you know, some health issues with my husband. And this hospital did a fabulous job. So I look forward. It started at the atrium university ER department. So I look forward to supporting whatever it is they need."
The 41.26-acre campus sits in University City, the city's northeastern district adjacent to UNC Charlotte. The IC-2(EX) rezoning gives Atrium broader development latitude for buildings, parking, and circulation infrastructure under healthcare-institution uses, subject to the specific exception provisions the council approved Monday.