If voters approve, streets would get bulk of Charlotte bond money (Charlotte Observer)
Despite the recession, the city of Charlotte will ask voters to approve $204 million in bonds on Nov. 2, mostly for transportation.
The city said it has already budgeted money to pay for the debt, and that the property tax rate won’t increase to pay off the bonds. The city, however, said that the poor economy means it’s unlikely to have enough money to ask voters to approve bonds in 2012.
The city usually asks voters to approve bonds every two years.
More than 75 percent of the money is for transportation, mostly road improvements. If passed, it would be the 19th transportation bond city voters have approved since 1961.
The city said the 2010 and 2008 bonds will plan or build 8 miles of roads, 10 intersections, 29 miles of sidewalks, 10 miles of bike lanes each year and will better synchronize 200 traffic lights each year.
If the bonds are passed, $15 million would go into the city’s Housing Trust Fund to help build affordable housing. And $32 million would be set aside for neighborhood improvements.
Here is a list of what the city said the bonds would pay for:
Transportation: $157 million
Sidewalk construction: $15 million
Pedestrian and traffic safety: $2 million
Traffic calming: $3 million
Area plan projects: $5 million
Bridges: $2 million
Farm-to-market road improvements:
Oakdale Road: $8 million
Johnston-Oehler Road: $14.3 million
Minor roadway improvements: $1.5 million
Intersection improvements:
Ballantyne Commons/Elm Lane: $7.2 million
Scaleybark/South Boulevard: $2 million
McKee Road/Providence Road: $7 million
Arrowood Road/Nations Ford Road: $2 million
Public-private participation program: $3 million. (When a developer has a project that requires road improvements, the city may choose to partner with the builder to make transportation improvements beyond what the developer has to do.)
Thoroughfare and street projects:
Beatties Ford Road (Capps Hill Mine to Sunset): $13 million
Brevard and Eighth Street: $5.5 million
Idlewild Road (Piney Grove to Margaret Wallace): $8 million
State highway participation program: $3 million. (This improves some state road projects by bringing them up to city standards. For instance, the N.C. Department of Transportation doesn’t put sidewalks on both sides of a road.)
Street connectivity program: $4 million. (This provides money to make small connections between neighborhoods, to increase traffic flow).
Traffic control devices upgrades: $4 million
Bicycle program: $2 million
City center transportation implementation: $4 million
Northeast corridor access improvements: $20 million. (This would improve the areas around planned light-rail stations for the Lynx Blue Line extension, including lighting and landscaping.)
North Tryon redevelopment: $9.5 million
Business corridor/pedestrian scape infrastructure: $4.6 million. (This funds sidewalks, new curbs and gutters, on-street parking and landscaping, among other improvements.)
Neighborhood improvements – $32 million
$15 million would be set aside for general improvements.
$7 million would help rebuild Boulevard Homes, one of the city’s oldest public housing complexes, in west Charlotte.
Affordable housing – $15 million
This money would go into the city’s Housing Trust Fund, which could be used by groups such as the Charlotte Housing Authority or Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership to build low-income housing throughout the city. City staff originally budgeted $10 million for housing, but the City Council added $5 million during its budget workshops. Affordable-housing advocates had pushed for $30 million total.
By Steve Harrison
sharrison@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Monday, Aug. 30, 2010
