The Charlotte City Council on Monday celebrated what it said was a win: getting the North Carolina Department of Transportation to delay issuing a Request for Proposals to build the Interstate 77 toll lanes by a little more than three months, until June.
"All Things Considered" host Nick De La Canal talks with WFAE reporter Steve Harrison about whether the delay is really a win for the impacted neighborhoods, as City Council claims.
DE LA CANAL: Steve, let’s first catch everyone up on the toll lanes and why they are controversial.
HARRISON: The DOT wants to build express toll lanes from uptown to the South Carolina line on I-77, which is one of the most congested highways in the state.
Many neighborhoods, such as Wilmore and McCrorey Heights, are furious at the two proposals, one of which calls for the express lanes to be built on top of the existing highway. They say the project will harm their historically Black neighborhoods, just as the original highway construction did decades ago.
And they are furious that the DOT waited to release the detailed maps until last fall — after a supposed deadline to stop the project had passed.
DE LA CANAL: And the City Council was feeling that heat, right? Toll lane opponents had packed the council chamber a week and a half ago.
HARRISON: They did. And at the time, council members were very sympathetic.
They said they wanted to pause the project. But many council members also wanted more: They wanted the DOT to rethink the whole idea, to look for new alternatives.
Here’s what City Council member Malcolm Graham said:
GRAHAM: Both proposals that were submitted in October were awful in the impact they had to communities and people.
HARRISON: Council member Joi Mayo said the state needed to think outside of the box on toll lanes, and she particularly criticized the idea of elevated toll lanes.
Council member Kimberly Owens wanted the DOT to:
OWENS: Dig in on exploration of options, to ask hard questions about whether the data shows the project will deliver the promised reduction in congestion. I implore our governor to direct the NC DOT to meet the moment with focus on broader options for moving people and freight. Not just moving a few cars with people willing to pay a toll.
HARRISON: So Nick, that’s how council members were talking on February 23rd. In addition to the pause, they wanted real change — many essentially wanted the DOT to start over.
DE LA CANAL: So the DOT agreed to wait until June to issue the RFP. The council members got that pause. That’s a win. But what about the idea of rethinking the road?
HARRISON: There is simply no commitment to doing that.
The DOT said it’s going to listen more, and it will establish a Community Engagement Center where residents can meet with the project team.
DE LA CANAL: But listening is very different from listening and acting.
HARRISON: I think that’s correct.
The DOT said there would be time for a “refinement of design options.”
But there was nothing in the DOT statement that said it would consider significant changes to the project, like placing part of the highway near uptown underground, or perhaps expanding it with one toll lane in each direction instead of two.
DE LA CANAL: So what could the city have done?
HARRISON: Council members arguably had a lot of leverage. They have more than 40 percent of the votes on the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization, which has to greenlight the project. The Southern Environmental Law Center, Sustain Charlotte and neighborhood leaders have called on the City Council to demand the DOT study those changes they all talked about on February 23rd.
DE LA CANAL: But they didn’t.
HARRISON: Not at all.
And then on Monday of this week, many of those same council members who disparaged those designs were celebrating a deal with the DOT that doesn’t force the state to make any changes to those same designs.
And remember when Graham said how awful the designs were on Feb. 23 when he was in front of the angry residents? On Monday, he talked about how bad the traffic is on I-77 and the need to expand the highway, and then praised the DOT for being willing to listen.
GRAHAM: They recognize that the community engagement efforts were not sufficient. They have acknowledged the need to improve from talking to residents to talking to them.
NICK: And what are some of the opponents saying?
HARRISON: The Southern Environmental Law Center and Sustain Charlotte both criticized the deal if there isn’t a meaningful reevaluation of the project.
And Sean Langley with the McCrorey Heights neighborhood said he met with the DOT on Tuesday. He said the state reiterated its plans to move forward with the highway basically as is. Langley said the new public engagement was “pointless.”
