Although the widening of Sam Furr Road will be completed this spring, it's only the beginning of a list of significant road improvements the Town of Huntersville has on its wish list. And if commissioners and staff want any of them to happen, two things have to happen by this fall.
First, the town must adopt a Comprehensive Transportation Plan to replace the current thoroughfare plans, and then commissioners must decide if voters will have the appetite to approve some $18 million in general obligation bonds to finance the projects in November's election.
The state requires a new Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP) that includes the projects to be adopted by the town, Huntersville Transportation Planner Bill Coxe told commissioners at last week's town board planning retreat. The CTP must include a highway map, a public transportation map, a bicycle map and a pedestrian trail map, all overlaid to define and address deficiencies in the overall transportation program.
"The purpose is to protect future options in order to build the various components of the transportation system as the need arises and the funds become available," Coxe told commissioners. "You never know where that developer is going to come in and you need the right-of-way established to protect the system and you need to have that system plan in place."
A CTP is a long-range, multi-modal transportation plan that must be developed cooperatively with the North Carolina Department of Transportation, the Mecklenburg-Union Metropolitan Planning Organization (MUMPO) and the town. The CTP emphasizes incorporating local land use plans and community and statewide goals and objectives such as strategic corridors. Its recommendations are concepts and any project will undergo a rigorous environmental evaluation process before final alignments and designs can be determined. A CTP can also be used in the same manner as a thoroughfare plan for local land use planning, such as protection of right-of-way for future development.
The schedule to get from the myriad thoroughfare plans to a CTP is aggressive, and has in fact already begun. Draft highway and draft rail and transit maps have already been developed, and draft bike and pedestrian maps are scheduled to be completed this spring. The public involvement process will begin in August, MUMPO action is scheduled for September and NCDOT action is set for October and November.
The CTP will have to be in place before the town can proceed with the first of its primary transportation objectives — intersection improvements at Gilead and Statesville roads, a $3.175 million project that headlines a list of four primary projects that will total some $18 million. The town is eligible to be reimbursed for up to 80 percent of the cost of the project in 2016, providing the project design follows all state guidelines and conforms to the conditions set forth in the new CTP. Those are federal dollars that are administered by the state, in this case through MUMPO.
"We want to make sure that whatever we do gets our money back," said Coxe.
But first, the town must have the money to spend.
The other three major projects on the towns' list include a connecting bridge across McDowell Creek to extend Townley Road from Birkdale Village to Northcross Drive ($2 million); upgrading Main Street including links to Old Statesville Road to the north and Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road to the south, plus an extension of Fourth Street ($10.275 million); and intersection improvements at Stumptown and Ranson roads, perhaps featuring a roundabout ($525,000).
Rounded up, that would require about $18 million to do it all, although Town Manager Greg Ferguson said bonds would be sold only as needed during the seven years they are eligible to be issued. The town, he said, would not incur the debt service on all $18 million at one time.
The funding reimbursement will require, Coxe told the board, the Gilead/Statesville intersection improvement to include a pedestrian crossing component. Commissioner Charles Jeter, convinced that's not possible at that location, challenged Coxe on that assessment.
"I would like to see that in writing," Jeter said. Coxe responded that, while specific, black-and-white proof of that point may not be available, he said, "That is my belief." Then he told a still-pressing Jeter, "If you would like a letter stating that fact, I can probably get it for you."
Coxe told commissioners of several intersections in Charlotte where similar pedestrian crossing challenges were met successfully, and offered a field trip in the near future to check them out for themselves. Not convinced that what he called taking on debt to build sidewalks was a prudent use of taxpayer money, Jeter took a strident approach to the idea. If the intersection improvement plan includes a pedestrian crossing component, he said, "I will do everything in my power to defeat the bonds."
That brought a genteel, yet equally provocative response from Commissioner Sarah McAulay. "That's fine," she told Jeter, "I will counter you on that."
"And you will probably be successful in that," Jeter replied.
That brought Commissioner Charles Guignard, new to the board after a decade's absence, into the conversation. "You can be assured she will be successful," Guignard firmly told Jeter.
Opposed by Jeter or not, if there is to be any bond referendum on this fall's ballot, work must begin soon. The timeline, Ferguson suggested, would likely preclude any chance for a referendum on the ballot in time for the May primary.
