Charlotte committee goes underground with $89 million uptown bus hub design
The Charlotte City Council’s transportation planning committee Tuesday endorsed a plan to move the uptown bus hub underground.
The decision means the Charlotte Area Transit System will continue with “concourse option” replacement plans for the Charlotte Transportation Center at its current location, Brevard and East Trade streets. Replacement is expected to cost $89 million.
CATS was previously considering between a concourse (underground) option, street-level option and terrace (two-level) option. Planning director Jason Lawrence told Axios in October the agency eliminated the street-level option.
The Metropolitan Transit Commission is expected to take formal action Jan. 25, solidifying the underground CTC as the path forward.
City and CATS recommended the underground option, which received unanimous committee approval among those present. City Council member Dante Anderson, who attended virtually, was absent for the vote. Mayor Pro Tem Braxton Winston and at-large County Commissioner Leigh Altman attended the meeting and offered input, but they are not committee members and did not vote.
Safety and security ranked among the public’s top priorities for the new space. With an underground space for customers with tickets, it’s easier for security and police to keep an eye on who’s going in and out, CATS senior transportation planner Jason Lawrence said.
Pros and cons of design
The underground option also will make it easier for bus-to-bus transfers and somewhat easier for bus-to-rail transfers, CATS’ presentation said. A terrace option, which included two levels and a ramp, made it easiest for bus to rail transfers but more difficult for bus to bus transfers.
The underground option makes it easier to heat in the winter and cool it the summer, but harder to include natural light in the space. Staff recommended adding more natural light through the design, including emerging autonomous vehicle technology to assist operators and adding electric vehicle charging stations to make the center multimodal.
CATS compared the price of the underground option to a separate, standing transit facility on a completely different site. The latter would be about half the price of the concourse option, but Tracy Dodson, assistant city manager and director of economic development, said millions in costs for land would have to come from a different funding source than a federal grant the city is expecting to land for the project.
Hornets practice facility?
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The CTC design would include a mix of uses and, potentially, a Charlotte Hornets practice facility.
The City Council approved a $275 million deal with the Charlotte Hornets in June that showed plans to build a practice facility in the same building as the transit center, extend the NBA team’s lease and renovate the Spectrum Center.
“We have done more study on the practice facility being integrated into the concourse more,” Dodson said. “The terrace level would be possible, but it would be more complicated.”
Of the total, $60 million for the NBA team’s practice facility would come from yet-to-be-determined naming rights for the creation of a sports and entertainment district around the Spectrum Center. Early renderings showed the transit center and new practice facility in a high-rise building on the site of the existing Charlotte Transportation Center.
The deal approved by City Council in June extends the city’s lease with the Charlotte Hornets, originally set to expire in 2030, to 2045. The Hornets are expected to begin paying $2 million per year in rent in 2030 and $1.1 million in annual capital investments beginning in 2024.
When to expect new uptown transit hub
After the MTC votes on the below-ground design at the end of the month, staff members and the City Council in February will begin discussing a public-private partnership to fund the development, Dodson said Tuesday morning.
Next steps would be to finalize the funding for public infrastructure. Design review is expected to last until 2024, when a temporary bus facility is set to be built near the current CTC. Construction on the new CTC is expected to begin in 2025 and last three years.
The full Charlotte City Council would need to approve a memorandum of understanding and a master development agreement to move forward on construction. The council meets Tuesday night to discuss the committee’s endorsement.
Price options for Silver rail line presented to committee
Charlotte also is moving forward with an uptown route for the Silver Line, a planned 29-mile, 31 station east-west light rail line that would go from Gaston County, through Center City Charlotte and Matthews, into Union County.
The $5.9 billion design was chosen last month over two other options, using the Blue Line or the Gold Line tracks, without providing estimated ridership numbers to the committee, WFAE first reported.
Using the Blue Line and Gold Line would be significantly cheaper, about $500 million to $600 million for each option.
In Tuesday’s meeting, CATS presented expected 2050 ridership numbers for each of the options to the committee.
▪ The locally preferred alternative, the approved uptown route, would have 31,400 riders daily.
▪ Sharing the existing light rail Blue Line, an option 43% of the public opposed, would cost $500 million to $600 million and have 30,500 riders daily.
▪ Sharing the uptown streetcar Gold Line, an option 43% of the public supported, would cost $500 million to $600 million and have 31,000 riders daily.
This story was originally published January 3, 2023 at 3:06 PM.
