Trey Robertson

♦ Age: 35
♦ Address: 226 White Apple Way, Statesville
♦ Education: Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from West Point
♦ Professional Background: 11 years as an active-duty Officer in the United States Army with postings at Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Yongsan Garrison, Korea; Fort Campbell, Kentucky, including a deployment to Afghanistan. After leaving active duty in 2022 I took a job with Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing in Statesville as their Senior Process Engineer. I am celebrating three years in that role. Additionally, I co-own the Bee & Barrel in Downtown Statesville, which has been open for almost a year and a half. I am beyond blessed to have a great job that allowed me to buy a home and support a wonderful life in my hometown. That’s a goal that I want all of my neighbors to be able to achieve.
♦ Volunteer/community service experience: I am currently the Board Chairman of Downtown Statesville Development Corporation (DSDC) and serve on its Economic Vitality committee. I am also the Vice Chairman of the Iredell County Zoning Board of Adjustments, a member of the Statesville Planning Board, a member of Friends of Fort Dobbs, a volunteer with BSA Troop 171, where I earned my Eagle Scout rank, a member of the Iredell County Young Farmers and Ranchers, a lifetime member of the NC Cattleman’s Association, and the NC Soil Health Coalition.

Q&A

IFN: What motivated you to run for this office? If you are elected, what will your top three priorities be? What can the council do to move the needle in these areas? 

ROBERTSON: This election is going to be a massive change in direction for the City of Statesville with six seats open and only one incumbent running. We can redirect the city’s goals with this opportunity to choose a new direction. My priorities for our future are:

Encourage Industry: Industry is what provides great high-paying jobs to Statesville residents. It builds a property tax base to keep residential taxes low, and it makes us a center of employment and commerce for the region. City government should make it easy for existing businesses to operate and expand, lift up the existing entrepreneurs in our community, and attract existing businesses to make their home here.

Control Sprawl: Nobody likes sprawl. We have seen what happens when national homebuilders run wild over a community. We do not want to make the same mistakes that Huntersville, Mooresville, and Troutman made. If we don’t want Broad Street and US 21 to look like Highway 150 and Perth Road. then we need to make decisions to allow property owners freedom to build within our city, and take steps to protect the fields, forests, and farms that surround and feed our city.

Improve Infrastructure: Statesville has a $180 million a year budget and doesn’t have a rainy-day fund to address infrastructure. The council you elect this year will need to plan and fund very expensive maintenance and expansion of water, sewer, electric, sidewalks, and roads to meet the needs that the current council already promised out-of-town developers. I will make sure that we prioritize maintenance projects so that the utilities you rely on will meet your needs at an affordable rate today and in the future.

IFN: Voters want their elected officials to understand their lived experiences as they consider policy/budget decisions. Tell us about your family (spouse/partner; children/children; parents/grandparents) and how your family’s experiences in Statesville have shaped your views on major issues where the city council can make a difference.

ROBERTSON: My family has a farm east of Statesville. I stood with them and my neighbors as we spoke in opposition to two massive sprawl projects on US 64 that will not only destroy hundreds of acres of prime farmland and forest but will also drag down the city’s finances with massive exurban annexations that will be a drain on police, fire, trash, streets, and utilities. Those developments are as bad for the city as they are for the county.

While council was eagerly gobbling up land outside of city limits, it was perfectly happy allowing our industrial core along West Front Street, Garner Bagnal Blvd, and the railroad sit vacant, rot, and decay. Alongside that industrial blight, they allowed sidewalks to crumble and potholes to grow in core neighborhoods where minimum housing standards were not enforced.

My family has at times lived on Wood Street, Armfield Street and West Bell Street. Statesville works best when it looks after the 100-year-old neighborhoods, like those, that pay tax to the city and never feel like they get that money back in services. Statesville doesn’t work when it takes that tax money to subsidize new subdivisions instead of maintaining old sidewalks and parks that sit at the heart of our existing communities.

IFN: The City Council has or will soon approve the rezoning and annexation for the massive Compass Data Center project. This project will add an estimated $1 billion or more to the city’s tax base and generate millions of new tax dollars for the city. What will your priorities be for spending this money? As part of your plan, will you support a reduction in the property tax rate to give homeowners some relief? 

I wish I could promise you new and flashy spending or a massive tax cut, but the last council was busy approving thousands of homes that will need water, electricity, and sewer. We have streets that are crumbling all over our city and yet the new asphalt and concrete is something we plan to borrow money for, because there is no rainy-day fund. Most of the tax revenue we will gain from the data center will need to be spent on our significant backlog of maintenance projects and deferred or upcoming utility expansion projects. I know that may not be what you hoped to hear, but you want a councilman who will tell you what needs to be said.

Be mindful as well that most of the taxable property at the data center will rapidly depreciate over time in accordance with tax law. That means I ask you to be skeptical to any candidate that wants to spend this money on new pet-programs or discretionary spending; eventually the taxes from this golden goose may not pay for their dreams and your taxes will need to go up to make ends meet. Also, be careful of drastic tax cuts that will make excellent headlines, only for the next council to raise them even higher. The new data center will pay for a number of the problems the last council is leaving us, but it isn’t a never-ending money printer, and we need to remain disciplined in our approach to keeping spending under control so we can keep taxes low and life affordable.

IFN: The cost of housing, including monthly rent and purchase prices for starter homes, has increased dramatically in the last five years. As a council member, would you support the use of taxpayer dollars to help first-time homebuyers? If so, what is your vision for such a program? If not, do you have any ideas for helping residents struggling to pay rent or buy their first home?

ROBERTSON: We get the city that our zoning code allows people to build. Our zoning code is designed to get a certain type of new neighborhood on the outskirts of town and to make it difficult or financially impossible to strengthen our existing core neighborhoods. In 2026 the city will redo its code. You want a councilman like me who has sat on the planning board and attended the open houses with community members to be fighting for you during that re-write. The focus should not be on a term or class of housing, the focus is on how city regulation adds cost and restricts the freedom to build the types of housing that are naturally affordable. “Affordable Housing” is a government term that is meant for banks and loan brokers; what the people of our city care about is if they can find a house or apartment they can afford.

If you use an FHA loan or are a veteran using a VA loan, you can buy up to a four-unit home, live in one unit and rent the other two or three units. Best of luck finding one on the market in Statesville; our code makes it very hard or very expensive to build those so there are hardly any available. I am concerned that we take away housing from our community when we make a new duplex illegal in a core neighborhood that is desperate for new housing. I am also concerned about the ability for all people in our city to build wealth. Regardless of race, class, or family history, these loans are available if you can get permission from the city to build. These small unit homes allow families to age in place, communities to look after their most insecure members, and for communities to build wealth in their neighborhoods.

IFN: Iredell-Statesville Schools previously asked the City Council to help fund a pre-K classroom for low-income children to ensure that they are ready to begin kindergarten. The cost was in the neighborhood of $200,000. The council declined to provide funding. If elected, would you support such an initiative? Explain your decision.

ROBERTSON: Education is a vital building block in a person’s life and in a community’s future. I support pre-K programs because if students are behind on the first day of kindergarten, they will have to fight even harder to keep up. I support the city exploring grants, partnerships, and non-profit support for school system, religious, and non-profit ran programs. We may find in time that there is revenue to support direct funding from the city’s general fund but the first step is dedicating staff time to find and resource existing outside funds.

IFN: There are six candidates running for two seats in this race. What makes you the best candidate to represent the interests of ALL Statesville residents during the next four years?

A vote for Trey Robertson is a vote for young and dynamic leadership, new ideas and a fresh perspective. I have the organizational skills and direction of a West Point-trained soldier, the commitment to integrity of an Eagle Scout, and the understanding of municipal government and planning that an engineer provides.

Statesville is weighed down because we all know we live in an amazing city filled with talented and amazing people, but looking around there is a feeling we aren’t living up to that potential. You want someone that does life here. I live here, work here, go to church here, attend the American Legion here, own a business here, volunteer here, and live my life in Statesville with other Statesville people. That’s the kind of person who sees what life is like here and how city government can do its part to enable the potential here to be unleashed.

Let me use the gifts and experiences I have accumulated serving our country, farming, in industry, and in business to make Statesville as strong as possible moving forward into the future. I don’t do this for ego, I am running for City Council to be the dependable leadership the City of Progress deserves.