Study: 77S Toll Lane expansion would impact parks, greenways and streams

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A multi-billion dollar highway expansion project to expand toll lanes on 77 South will impact is set to impact communities in Charlotte. A new study shows the plan will also impact 11 county parks along with several greenways and waterways.

NCDOT is adding new toll lanes on 77 south to help ease congestion. The $3.2 billion dollar project will expand 11 miles of highway while impacting 11 parks including Wilmore Park that sits on Spruce Street.

“A lot of kids in this neighborhood still use this park, a lot of dog owners a lot of people come to this park to meet up the highway is already pretty close,” Katie Campbell who lives in the neighborhood said.

The impact to the park depends on the location. Wilmore Park would be eliminated in the current plan. The elevated design would build concrete highway to hover over Frazier Park’s tennis and basketball courts. Other parks could lose an entrance.

“We are going to see significant impacts in terms of air quality living near the road, we’re going to see major impacts in multiple places to our stream network, our greenway network and parks and to our stream quality,” Shannon Binns, CEO of Sustain Charlotte said.

Binns says environmental advocacy organizations are still working to understand the full impact of the project. They plan to get a comprehensive cost benefit analysis of the project.

“The elevated option is meant to reduce the footprint and the impacts in some neighborhood near uptown we don’t believe it’s a better outcome,” Binns said.

Community members are now turning their focus to Governor Josh Stein since he has authority of NCDOT. Some community members want the state to look for other options to control the traffic.

“I’m not sure if its the right way, I do think congestion is a problem, we can see it from our house but anything that is going to impact the neighborhoods around it i don’t think is the best way,” Katie Campbell said.

Mecklenburg County Commissioners on the Environmental Stewardship Committee will hear results of the study on how the project will impact land, air and water Tuesday at 12:30 at the Government Center.