Gastonia officials are preparing to ask the state for a share of federal disaster recovery money to fix sewer lines damaged by Hurricane Helene, and they want residents to weigh in first. The City Council will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, September 1, at 6 p.m. at City Hall, located at 181 S. South Street, to gather citizen input before submitting an application for Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funding through the Renew NC Community Infrastructure Program.
According to a public notice shared by the City of Gastonia Government, the city plans to apply specifically for sewer infrastructure repair projects targeting areas of the system that were negatively impacted by the hurricane. The CDBG-DR funds themselves come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, while the Community Infrastructure grant program is managed by North Carolina's Division of Community Revitalization. That state division has allocated $55 million for this first, competitive round of funding, with individual grants ranging from a minimum of $500,000 up to a maximum of $15 million.
Why Gastonia Qualifies for the Money
Gastonia's eligibility traces back to Gaston County's designation as a State-Identified Most Impacted and Distressed area, a category that comes with its own regulatory wrinkle. Because the county falls under that state-level designation rather than a HUD-identified MID area, according to the North Carolina Division of Community Revitalization, projects like Gastonia's are capped at sharing no more than 20% of total grant funds. The Community Infrastructure Program overall was designed with roughly $193.5 million in total CDBG-DR funding, meaning the $55 million now on the table represents just the first slice of a much larger pool tied to Hurricane Helene recovery statewide.
That $55 million round is part of North Carolina's broader $1.428 billion CDBG-DR allocation from HUD, formally granted in January 2025 under federal disaster recovery law to support long-term rebuilding after Helene. The Division of Community Revitalization was created under Governor Josh Stein in 2025 specifically to manage those funds under the Renew NC umbrella, separate from the state's existing Office of Recovery and Resilience.
What Counts as Eligible Infrastructure
The notice states that eligible Community Infrastructure projects must address documented unmet recovery needs and strengthen community resilience. Beyond sewer repairs, the program can fund water and stormwater infrastructure, public parks and recreational facility improvements, access roads, and transportation and pedestrian infrastructure. Gastonia's application, however, is focused on sewer repairs tied directly to Helene-related damage.
The scale of the regional problem helps explain why. A December 2024 damage assessment by the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management found that Hurricane Helene damaged 163 water and sewer systems and hundreds of miles of distribution piping across western North Carolina. Gastonia has already drawn on state help once before: the city was awarded more than $2.1 million in state disaster repair grants in January 2026 to fix municipal infrastructure damaged by the storm, as reported by WCNC-TV. The new CDBG-DR application would build on that earlier repair work with a separate, larger funding source.
Deadline Extended, Second Hearing Still to Come
State officials pushed back the Round 1 application deadline for the Community Infrastructure Program from early September to September 16, giving municipalities like Gastonia more time to hold hearings and prepare submissions. Federal rules require two separate public hearings for CDBG-DR applicants — one before submitting an application, which is what Gastonia is holding now, and a second after any award is received, to satisfy federal citizen participation requirements.
Residents who cannot attend the September 1 meeting can submit written comments on the proposed application to Emily Matthews at [email protected] through the day of the hearing. City officials say all comments received will be considered as part of the application development process. Copies of the proposed applications are available through the city's Grants Management/Financial Services Department.
The notice also states that any activities involving temporary or permanent impacts to property owners or occupants, though none are currently anticipated, would be conducted in accordance with applicable federal and state requirements. Accommodation requests must be submitted at least 48 hours before the meeting, and the hearing information is available in Spanish or any other language upon request by contacting Candice Owenby, Deputy City Clerk, at 704-866-6720. Residents with hearing disabilities can reach the Relay North Carolina Service at 711, 800-735-2962, or 888-825-6570.
Part of a Larger Recovery Push
Gastonia's application is one piece of a much larger regional recovery effort. Federal emergency management officials separately released $179 million in FEMA Public Assistance funds and $18 million in Hazard Mitigation funds in July to reimburse local utility and road repair projects across western North Carolina, as Hoodline previously reported. Community organizations have also stepped in on the household level — Gaston County United Way distributed $83,448.19 in UW Helps NC grant funds by August to help local families cover storm-related utility and housing costs.
Together, those threads point to a recovery effort still very much underway nearly two years after Helene struck. Whether Gastonia's sewer repair proposal ultimately wins funding will depend on how it scores against other applications from across western North Carolina before the extended September 16 deadline, and on the feedback the city gathers at next week's hearing.
