The four-town Transportation Task Force meets today (Wednesday, April 2) at 5 p.m. at Cornelius Town Hall to discuss what its final report to local mayors should say. A draft report proposes an interlocal agreement in which the towns of Davidson, Cornelius, Huntersville and Mooreville would join forces to lobby for and in some cases fund local transportation projects and advise one another on regional implications of planning decisions.

Today’s meeting is likely to feature significant back-and-forth on many issues, as task force members attempt to reach a consensus on how to best to attack the region’s traffic and transportation problems. The draft report was prepared by task force chair Randy Kincaid, the former mayor of Davidson, and Andrew Grant, the Cornelius assistant town manager. (Download a copy of the draft below)

“Everybody who is in the room can have his two cents’ worth,” Mr. Kincaid said last week . After today’s meeting, Mr. Kincaid said the report will be revised and sent to the mayors for action – which Mr. Kincaid hopes will include drafting and passage by all four towns of an interlocal agreement – a sort of regional compact agreeing to cooperate on transportation issues.

The interlocal agreement likely would be written by a newly constituted regional transportation committee, possibly including members of the current task force. The draft report suggests that organization also would have dedicated revenue from a variety of sources, including town-by-town automobile registration fees, a new ¼-cent sales tax, borrowing, a property tax district, federal rail funding and local property taxes collected by each town and contributed toward the group’s operation.

Mr. Kincaid said the task force report “asks the four members to seek the endorsement of it by their respective boards within two weeks and then for the four mayors to assemble a new group – or it could be the old group – to actually write the agreement.”

Mr. Kincaid said he would like to see the new group up and running by Labor Day.

Mayors John Woods of Davidson, Jill Swain of Huntersville, Jeff Tarte of Cornelius and Bill Thunberg of Mooresville formed the task force last December with a goal of studying and seeking solutions to regional transportation issues. In meetings nearly every Wednesday since January, they have looked at highway problems, public safety, land use, the proposed North Line Commuter Rail project and other issues.

INTERLOCAL AGREEMENT

After studying various alternatives, including a regional authority that would have taxing power, Mr. Kincaid and other task force members have settled on an interlocal agreement as the form of cooperation going forward.

While it would not have the power of an authority, Mr. Kincaid said other interlocal agreements between area towns have been “very powerful.” He pointed to the formation of a regional cable TV consortium last year, under which Davidson and Mooresville have joined forces to buy the local cable system, and an economic development agreement signed among Cornelius, Huntersville and Davidson several years ago, which “is going gangbusters.”

GOALS OF THE AGREEMENT

The draft report said the new organization should try to achieve several goals – goals that task force members appear to be in consensus on, despite philosophical differences. Those goals include:

• Lobby for widening I-77
• Speak as one voice in support of the North Corridor Commuter Rail Line, and negotiate jointly with CATS.
• Develop a four-town road priority system focusing on regional corridors, including north-south and east-west connectors.
• Review and comment on one another’s major development plans to ensure that developments approved in one town don’t have adverse effects on neighboring towns.
• Provide guidance to police and other public safety agencies on regional transportation safety issues, such as traffic and emergency response issues on I-77 – a topic discussed in one of the task force meetings
• Speak with one voice in dealing with state and federal agencies on transportation matters.
• Support the Carolina Thread Trail, a regional trail system.

The draft reports calls for the organization to operate with its own staff, albeit a minimal staff to begin with.

TOWNS’ RESPONSIBILITY

The towns would still be responsible for most local transportation decisions and funding, such as with intersection and road improvements within town borders. The task force, or regional organization, would deal with issues of regional significance.
Mr. Kincaid said he is optimistic about the ability of the task force to hash out an agreement.

“I’ve been enormously pleased at the kind of cooperative spirit I’ve seen in that room, and we’ve all educated ourselves. A lot of our gripes were just ignorance,” he said.
“There’s nobody in there who has any goal other than to solve public problems. I don’t see anybody in there who has a personal agenda,” he said.

Besides Mr. Kincaid, who retired as Davidson mayor in December, the task force has included elected officials and citizen representatives from the four towns. Retired mayor Gary Knox of Cornelius was co-chair. Newly elected Commissioner Brian Jenest and resident Lawrence Kimbrough represented Davidson.

Representatives from other towns have included Cornelius – Commissioner Jim Bensman and resident Carroll Gray; Mooresville – Commissioner Mitch Abraham and Chris Ahearn of Lowe’s Corp.; Huntersville – Commissioner Charlie Jeter. Planning officials and town administrators from the four towns have also sat in on the meetings, as have the mayors.

DOCUMENTS

March 21 draft of the Task Force report. (Requires Adobe Reader software)