Mecklenburg commissioners renew opposition to I-77 tolls

Unlike their counterparts on Charlotte City Council, Mecklenburg County commissioners on Tuesday again took a stance against the $650 million plan to build toll lanes on Interstate 77.

After over two hours of debate, the board voted 8-1 to direct its delegate on the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization to vote in support of canceling the state’s contract with Spanish developer Cintra for toll lanes on I-77.

But if that option never manifests, commissioners voted 8 to 1 on Plan B: to direct their CRTPO representative, Vice Chair Dumont Clarke, to vote against the strategy of using optional toll lanes for the Charlotte region.

Clarke dissented both times. The board first commandeered his vote in August when CRTPO passed the State Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), a bundle of road projects the N.C. Department of Transportation plans to pilot in the next decade.

At the urging of Gov. Pat McCrory, CRTPO will decide Jan. 20 whether to reaffirm or stop the strategy of using optional toll lanes for the Charlotte region. If the planning group reverses its decision, McCrory wants its members to start work on a new regional transportation strategy.

Ahead of this latest vote, Commissioner Jim Puckett last week proposed that the board again direct Clarke’s vote. Tuesday, he criticized McCrory for “abdicating his responsibility” by placing the burden on CRTPO. He also implored Charlotte City Council to reverse its apparent support of tolls.

Puckett is part of a contingent of toll opponents hoping to use a CRTPO statute to pull the I-77 contract from TIP and turn it back over to the N.C. DOT in favor of a new roads plan.

“If the N.C. DOT cannot find a way to alter a road project, then the next private public partnership ought to be to outsource the management of the department to someone who can,” he said.

The county’s influence on CRTPO is relatively minimal when compared with the city of Charlotte, whose representative holds 31 of the 68 votes cast. Clarke has two. City Council has always directed its delegate’s vote and, after deciding Monday to continue with a plan to build toll lanes in the region, appears likely to again endorse toll lanes for the region.

“The city of Charlotte dominates the voting, but it does not control it,” Ned Curran, chairman of the N.C. Board of Transportation, said after reiterating warnings that canceling the tolls contract puts other area projects at risk and would cost the state up to $300 million.

Many commissioners were unswayed. Pat Cotham railed against the partnership with Cintra, which she said is beset with many problems.

“Even though you’re peddling this deal, I cannot believe that you’re buying this,” she told transportation officials. “I believe the people in North Mecklenburg deserve better than this.”

This story was originally published January 5, 2016 at 10:53 PM with the headline "Mecklenburg commissioners renew opposition to I-77 tolls."