A majority of Charlotte City Council members say they want the North Carolina Department of Transportation to pause planning work for the Interstate 77 express toll lanes from uptown to the South Carolina line.
Many westside residents are opposed to the project, which will add two toll lanes in each direction.
Last fall, the DOT unveiled two designs for the highway, which is one of the most congested in the state.
One would build the new toll lanes on the same level as the existing highway, while the other design would build the new toll lanes on top of the existing highway through uptown.
The state chose the elevated option. It said that would create a more narrow footprint and impact fewer homes.
But many west Charlotte residents say the elevated toll lanes will be ugly and increase noise pollution. They want the project either stopped entirely or placed underground.
Now at least six council members — Joi Mayo, Victoria Watlington, JD Mazuera Arias, Kimberly Owens, Malcolm Graham and Dimple Ajmera — say they want the process slowed down.
Renee Johnson has previously said she wants to discuss the issue with the full council before making a decision. Other council members — James Mitchell, LaWana Mayfield and Dante Anderson — couldn’t be reached. Ed Driggs is in favor of moving forward with the project.
Ajmera said Wednesday that “pausing this process is about making sure we move forward responsibly.”
Ed Driggs has said it’s too late for the city to stop the DOT from continuing work on the highway. He has pointed to an October 2024 vote in which council members backed the DOT’s plan to partner with a private developer to build the toll lanes.
But Owens said it “defies credulity” that the city of Charlotte and the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization can’t change course after the designs were released.
The key decision-maker for transportation projects is CRTPO. It’s made up of numerous governments in the region, and the city of Charlotte has a weighted vote that’s worth more than 40% of the total votes.
It’s unclear whether the City Council members will push the issue, however, and try to get CRTPO to take an official vote to pause or stop the highway expansion.
CRTPO staff, which works for the city, has said it’s too late for a second vote. WFAE asked CRTPO for a reason why there can’t be a second vote, and the organization declined to provide one.
The Southern Environmental Law Center has said that CRTPO has voted to remove projects after seeing road designs that members didn’t like. It did that for a road widening project in Matthews.
