Jerry Bielfeldt and Doug King attended a government meeting on long-range transportation planning for this region on Wednesday, April 20, 2005. We were told that there will be an important NC Dept. of Transportation Public Comment meeting on May 18, to be held at the Cornelius Community Hall, 21445 Catawba Ave. The meeting time is 2 – 4 PM, and registration starts at 1 PM for speakers. If you cannot attend the meeting in person, please consider submitting your comments or concerns online by e-mail.

This meeting will be the only public opportunity for local citizens to comment on funding priorities of federal/state highway projects planned in Mecklenburg County. The newly updated schedule has the last remaining segment of I-485 starting construction in 2011, a 3-year delay from the current plan. However, there has been some talk of delaying that project even more by shifting priorities to another project that widens the highly congested southern leg of I-485 between Ballantyne and I-77. Residents of northeast Charlotte should oppose this idea.

On July 7 the NC Board of Transportation is scheduled to approve the 7-year spending plan, called the Transportation Improvement Plan. A copy of the draft is posted at  https://www.ncdot.gov/initiatives-policies/Transportation/stip/Pages/default.aspx. The Mecklenburg road projects are located in Division 10. The web site also has an online form for public comments, which are accepted until June 3.  This deadline does not apply to the “Mecklenburg-Union Metropolitan Planning Organization” (MUMPO) counties.  MUMPO will prioritize the road development to be done by the state in our county. Citizen input must be sent to the Mecklenburg county officials, the MUMPO officials, the NC DOT and State Officials. It must be sent by May 5th so the MUMPO staff can review and provide their findings to the MUMPO committee prior to the May 18 meeting in Cornelius. At this meeting MUMPO will discuss the staff recommendations and ultimately provide their prioritization report to the state by June 7th. The State will not override the MUMPO direction. It is the MUMPO’s responsibility to get citizen comment for the counties represented by MUMPO.

Following is the contact information for citizens to use to express their views on these highway funding priorities:

Mecklenburg-Union Metropolitan Planning Organization (MUMPO)
All members of MUMPO – PDF format   MS Word format