JD Mazuera Arias
District 5 · Term 2025–2027
JD Mazuera Arias represents District 5 on the Charlotte City Council. His district covers East Charlotte, including the Eastland Yards corridor, one of the city's largest redevelopment sites. First-term council member in the 2025–2027 term.
Mazuera Arias voted yes on the Crosland Southeast affordable housing project, which is located in his district. He has also been active in discussions about the CMPD staffing crisis and East Charlotte townhome density disputes. On April 13, 2026, Mazuera Arias emerged as the leading voice on Housing Trust Fund policy reform, questioning why developers can apply for HTF funding before their rezonings are approved, and arguing that the current system reconcentrates low-income housing in areas that lack amenities rather than coupling it with high-opportunity zones. He pointed to the Willora Lake proposal in his own district as the most expensive per-unit project in the round, a half mile from an identical concept already under construction at Eastland Yards.
Mazuera Arias was born in Pereira, Colombia, and immigrated to the United States as an infant. He grew up in East Charlotte and is a former DACA recipient. He holds a political science degree from Queens University of Charlotte and an MPA from NYU’s Wagner School. Before running for council he worked at The Century Foundation, served as a CHCI Public Policy Fellow in the office of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and joined Kyndryl in a global public-policy role. He chairs the Hispanic Democratic Caucus of Mecklenburg and founded the North Carolina Latino Political Caucus. When he took the District 5 seat for the 2025–2027 term, he became Charlotte’s first Hispanic and first openly gay Latino council member. He defeated incumbent Marjorie Molina in the September 2025 Democratic primary.
In August 2026 he called a provision in the Justice Department’s Model Cities terms a “blank check for a future federal operation whose trigger, scope, and cost have not been defined.” In September he said his repeated votes against affordable housing projects in his district were about spreading them across the city, and called the housing bond plan’s high-opportunity goal a way to avoid “reconcentrating poverty in just one area.”
In The Mercury
Charlotte Housing Trust Fund Staff Picks Are In. The Questions Are Already Louder Than the Numbers.
HTF staff recommendations · Rezoning timing question · Geographic equity argument
Charlotte City Council Passes First Post-Sales-Tax Transit Budget, Sends Street Vending Back to Committee
April 13 business meeting recap
Six Council Members Voted for Affordable Housing in East Charlotte. Four Who Champion Equity Voted No.
Crosland Southeast · In his district · Yes vote
Charlotte City Council Approves $4.3M Transit Authority Start-Up
Transit authority funding
When Neighbors Push Back: Far East Charlotte Residents Challenge Dense Townhome Plan
East Charlotte density and neighborhood pushback
Charlotte Police Union's National Guard Plea Signals Staffing Crisis
CMPD staffing and public safety
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