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[Fwd: 2 towns' battle for new mall widens -Charlotte]
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Subject: [Fwd: 2 towns' battle for new mall widens -Charlotte] - _ '
From: Melba McGee <[e-mail]> ~~ ~~~ ~~ ~ ~~ ~~~
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 09:19:59 -0400 y ~~~
To: Alex Marks <[e-mail]>, Shari Bryant <[e-mail]>, Ron Linville
<[e-mail]>, Cyndi Karoly <[e-mail]>, Tom Fransen
<[e-mail]>, Phil Fragapane <[e-mail]>,Sarah McRae
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Subject: 2 towns' battle for new mall widens - Charlotte
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 08:22:47 -0400
From: Diana Kees <diana.keesc~ncmail.net>
Organization: NC DENR
To: Robin W Smith <Robin.W.SmithCncmail.net>, Jimmy Carter
<Jimmy.Carter:~ncmail.net>, Richard Rogers <Richard.Rogers:anemail.net>, Johanna Reese
<Johanna.ReeseC~ncmail.net>, Mary P Thompson <Mary.P.Thompson~tincmail.net>, Don Reuter
<Don.ReuterC~ncmail.net>, Steve Wall <Steve.Wall~ncmail.net>, "Ji11.Pafford"
<jill.pafford~~:~ncmail.net>, Diana Kees <diana.keesr`~ncmail.net>,
max.zygmontC~ncmail.net, John Morris <Jo1~n.MorrisC~ncmail.net>, Melba McGee
<Melba.McGee~ncmail.net>
2 towns' battle for new mall widens
Stallings mayor says Black was behind key road improvement
EMILY S. ACHENBAUM AND DIANNE WHITACRE
Staff Writers
The legislature is the newest player in the battle between two towns over a regional
shopping center.
The new N.C. budget includes $6 million to widen Lawyers Road near Interstate 485, a
critical improvement in the area where Mint Hill wants to build an open-air shopping
mall.
Stallings Mayor Lucy Drake -- who wants to build a mall in her Union County town
instead -- is not happy.
"This is outrageous," she said.
Both towns have said only one mall, not both, can be supported.
Mint Hill Town Manager Todd Lamb said the money is "exciting." The improvements to
Lawyers Road are something Mint Hill needs, mall or no mall, Lamb said.
But he said the town didn't request the money and said he didn't know how it ended up
in the budget.
Road projects are planned and approved by the N.C. Board of Transportation, so it is
rare for the legislature to get involved in specific projects. The new budget
includes two -- a roadway extension in Wake County and the Lawyers Road widening.
Drake accused N.C. House Speaker Jim Black, a Matthews Democrat, of engineering the
Lawyers Road money. Black could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
"If Jim Black has money for roads, he should use it to build the Monroe Bypass,"
Drake said, referring to a long-stalled project to relieve congested U.S. 74.
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[Fwd: 2 towns' battle for new mall widens -Charlotte]
Drake complained Mint Hill had promised the mall's developer would pay for road work.
"Now taxpayers are paying for it," Drake said. "Stallings does not want that road
widened."
Lamb said the mall developer's pledge to pay for road improvements around the project
site still holds. He said Drake's criticism is unfair because Stallings previously
has received road improvements of its own.
"I understand the bitterness -- if it (the mall) comes to Mecklenburg County, it'll
be a windfall for Mecklenburg," not Union, Lamb said. Plans for Mint Hill's mall --
conceived after Stallings' -- is moving forward while Stallings' is stalled.
Drake has voiced concerns that Mint Hill's mall, which would straddle Goose Creek,
could threaten the endangered Carolina heelsplitter mussel. The Southern
Environmental Law Center has warned that Mint Hill may violate the Endangered Species
Act if it permits the mall without taking adequate measures to protect the
heelsplitter.
N.C. Department of Transportation engineer Benton Payne said it might be difficult to
widen Lawyers for $6 million. If the work costs more than that, the extra money
likely would come from other road projects in the Charlotte area, the state says. The
1.5-mile project includes a traffic signal and turn lanes at four intersections.
The state had no plans to widen Lawyers in Mecklenburg, but the new budget says the
$6 million will come from an additional $44 million the legislature budgeted for
major maintenance projects.
The state already planned to spend $2 million to add extra pavement to six miles of
Lawyers in Union County, from the county line to U.S. 601. That work will not add
extra lanes but will increase the width of the two narrow lanes to make them safer.
Diana Kees
Public Information Officer
N.C. Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources
1601 MSC, Raleigh, NC 27699-1601
[phone]; fax [phone]
Melba McGee <melba.mc~ee~~ncmail.net>
Environmental Review Coordinator
NC DENR
Office of Legal Affairs
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