North Carolina Transportation Secretary Daniel Johnson confirmed in a letter Tuesday that he believes the Interstate 77 toll lane project could help fund grocery stores in west Charlotte, as part of an effort to build support for the controversial project.
Johnson wrote that the DOT will work with community partners to help close the funding gap for efforts to address food deserts on Charlotte’s west side. He added that he is confident the DOT and a private contractor can “solve this problem.”
The letter said the grocery stores would be part of up to $300 million in community benefits for the west side, meant to offset any negative impacts from the highway expansion. The package would also include building bike lanes and sidewalks, coordinating relocation efforts with “compassion and transparency,” requiring the contractor to have “meaningful” engagement with small businesses, and placing concrete caps over parts of the highway near uptown.
If the DOT were building the toll lanes on its own, it wouldn’t be able to spend money to help build grocery stores. But since it’s partnering with a private contractor, the state believes it can use those private dollars to support the stores, which are said to be on West Boulevard and near Johnson C. Smith University.
Motorists would pay for the $300 million in benefits through higher tolls.
The total cost of the toll lanes is projected to be $4.3 billion. The state is contributing $600 million, with the rest to be financed.
The Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization is scheduled to hold a vote in late September on whether to reverse a decision from May and support the toll lanes again.
Before that, the Charlotte City Council will decide whether or not it will change its position on the project. Council members rejected the public-private partnership model to build the toll lanes in a 6-5 vote.
In his letter, Johnson warned that a second rejection of the project would lead him to recommend that the project be pulled from a list of approved projects.
“If this project is not going to move forward, I hope to have the allocated funding reprogrammed as soon as possible to meet the growing demand for infrastructure investment throughout North Carolina,” Johnson wrote.
Johnson's letter was first reported by WSOC.
