East Charlotte Residents Upset Over Proposal for New Road Through Neighborhood

CHARLOTTE, N.C.–More congestion and more headache.  That’s what people in one neighborhood are saying about a proposal to turn a cul-de-sac into a major thoroughfare.

Roy Clegg from East Charlotte  says, ” There’s going to be just a tremendous increase in traffic.  I  don’t think they looked at that.”

Mary Seely who also lives in the East Charlotte neighborhood says, ” We know in the past there were a lot of wrecks when it was open and  I ‘m afraid that could happen again.”

People who live on Wilora Lake Road are upset.  The road has been closed off and turned into a Cul-De-Sac for decades.

Now  a new petition plans to re-open it and make it a shortcut for drivers to go between Sharon Amity Road and Albemarle Road.

Martin House lives here and says he sees the amount of traffic first-hand.

“The traffic for Albemarle and Sharon Amity is 45,000 a day that’s from 2012.  We think they’ve gone up quite a bit.  Just thinking about 1 percent of those cars that’s 100 cars a day,” says House.

House shared this letter from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg planning Department explaining why it was originally closed, it reads;

“Due to an increase in development near Wilora Lake Road and Albemarle Road and the inadequacy of Wilora Lake Road to handle the resultant increase in traffic.

“This is 40 years later why should they think they should open this road?  Over 40 years, there has been way more traffic way more population,” says Clegg.

But some say it is needed.  A petition to bring a new church and the addition of a new school could add hundreds of people needing access to the roads.

Others who live here disagree.  “It’s fine as it is don’t fix it if its not broke,” says Seely.

Charlotte city council will hold a pubic forum and vote on the issue June 20th.