Councilman Marc Seelinger

09/02/2026

The next City Council meeting is Tuesday, September 8 at 6pm. You can find a copy of the agenda here: https://cityofbelmont.civicweb.net/Portal/MeetingInformation.aspx?Org=Cal&Id=8216

There is quite a bit on this month’s agenda. Highlights include:
First Reading of the new E-bike Ordinance, which you can find here: https://cityofbelmont.civicweb.net/Portal/MeetingInformation.aspx?Org=Cal&Id=8216 . The adoption of this ordinance requires two readings. The second reading will be at the 9/21 Workshop.

A development moratorium on data centers, which is proposed to last through November 2027. This is scheduled to align with the adoption of the updated Land Development Code at approximately that date. There are currently no pending or anticipated development applications, but this is designed to hit pause on any new applications until the rewrite of the development code is complete, which would also include appropriate regulations for this type of development.

There is also a proposal for designated veteran’s parking spaces at various parks and facilities around the city. The proposed sites are in this attachment: https://cityofbelmont.civicweb.net/document/176176/8284CECC5B984F96BCBEA5F8346A4064-.pdf?handle=E88CD825321140AA91BE04C1F087AE67

We will also be receiving a year-end update on the City’s finances from our finance director as well as receiving check-in on progress made around the Workplace Climate Survey.

Let me know if you have any questions!

09/02/2026

Further clarification on the proposed "Dismount Zone" that is part of the proposed E-Bike Ordinance. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you all for the concerns shared with me and my council counterparts. I had the opportunity to meet with our City Manager, police chief, chief-in-waiting, and code enforcement and it was determined that the language in this revision did not reflect the intent of the city, pd, or discussions in various council meetings. A further revision has been made and uploaded to the city website for review. This revision does not prevent bicycles on our downtown streets. If you have any questions feel free to reach out to me, I appreciate the attention brought to this matter.
See you around Belmont, on a bike!

08/25/2026

Update on last week's workshop! We're talking about city apps and a follow up on the new e-bike ordinance.

08/21/2026

08/14/2026

Here’s a surprising finding: Despite rising property tax bills, incomes actually grew faster than estimated county tax bills in 58 of North Carolina’s 100 counties.

That wasn’t true everywhere, however. Faster population growth and rapidly rising home values were associated with greater pressure on affordability and a tighter squeeze on household budgets.

The latest Tar Heel Tally breaks down what happened county by county.

https://open.substack.com/pub/tarheeltally/p/are-property-taxes-becoming-more?r=3ffqea&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

08/07/2026

Monday's City Council meeting kicked off with a swearing-in of several new police officers, which was a nice ceremony. The consent agenda had several administrative changes, largely related to the end-of-year (fiscal year) financials. However, we did also approve some updates to our ordinances involving fireworks and fires.

There was only one item on the regular agenda, which was the establishment of a joint committee with the Belmont Tourism Development Authority to design and install gateway signs at the main entrances to the city (think "Welcome to Belmont" or something along those lines). The project will be jointly funded by the city and the tourism authority, with representatives from both boards on the steering committee. I will be representing the city in this endeavor (along with Councilman Rumfelt), so if you have suggestions on what they should look like (or if you see a cool one while you are out traveling), feel free to send those ideas my way. We are very early in this process, so very little has been nailed down at this point.

Let me know if you have any questions!

07/31/2026

📢 Reminder: Focus Group Applications Due Friday, August 7!

Want a voice in shaping Belmont's future? We're looking for representatives to join focus groups as part of the Land Development Code (LDC) update:

🏘️ Community & Neighborhood Representatives
🏗️ Development & Design Representatives
💼 Business & Economic Development Representatives

Applications close this Friday, August 7 — apply now: https://tinyurl.com/ldcupdate

07/28/2026

Property taxes continue to be a hot topic, and with several proposals floating around to potentially limit or change how property taxes are assessed, I thought it would be interesting to look at how that has been done across the state at the municipal level over the last decade or so. Interestingly, while a lot of the political conversation focuses on tax rates, those turn out to be much less important than the actual value of your home. The other interesting aspect of this is how closely changes in city tax bills track changes in county tax bills.

All that and more below, plus a cool graphic that lets you see how all 540+ cities and towns in NC have changed over the last 10 years.

https://www.tarheeltally.com/p/the-other-half-of-your-property-tax

07/23/2026

Our workshop Monday primarily focused on reviewing a draft of a proposed ordinance to regulate e-bike/e-scooter usage in the city. You can find a link to the initial proposal here: https://cityofbelmont.civicweb.net/document/175520/AAB5D4FA08964CC78C2905F8B981A047-.pdf?handle=0D27ED257BCB478D9DAEBF09A6452E0A

Much of the discussion focused on trying to sort through some of the definitional difficulties of classifying the rapidly expanding set of e-vehicles (e-bikes vs. e-scooters vs. micromobility devices vs. mopeds vs. motorcycles). We also discussed various ways to attempt to balance the popularity and legitimate usage of these devices with public safety concerns.

My view is that since a lot of the heavier users of these devices are children, the rules governing them need to be simple enough so that your average teenager can comprehend them. Parents obviously have a role to play here too, but if we make it too difficult for someone to know if they are in or out of compliance with the rules, I am concerned that they will just disregard the rules.

My other concern was that the ordinance as written pushes most riders over 16 years old off the sidewalks and into the streets. There are several areas in town where I believe it would be dangerous for someone to be on an e-bike in the street vs. the sidewalk and would create hazards not only for the e-bike user but also the cars on the road who have to navigate around the e-bike. On the other hand, we do need to be mindful of the safety of the pedestrians using the sidewalks and potential conflicts with the e-bikes. Other towns (like Holly Springs) have approached this by setting what is effectively a speed limit on their sidewalks, which I think has the dual advantage of being easy to understand and getting at the heart of what it is we are trying to regulate, which is the behavior of e-bike users.

There's still quite a bit to chew over as it relates to this proposal. Our police department is going to continue researching and revising the ordinance based on our discussion, so this will likely come back up at some point in the next few weeks.