Updated Thursday, 9/24/09, 5:13 p.m.
Mayors from north Mecklenburg spoke out at Wednesday night’s Metropolitan Transit Commission in Charlotte in hopes of keeping alive the North Corridor Commuter Rail Line, which they fear is being lost in the shuffle as Charlotte leaders push for other projects.

DavidsonNews.net could not have a reporter at the meeting. But Davidson Mayor John Woods told us Thursday afternoon that the mayors and other town officials from Davidson, Cornelius, Huntersville and Mooresville have been increasingly concerned that the MTC and Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) might be drifting away from working on the north project. The proposed 25-mile North Corridor line would run from Charlotte to Mooresville.

“They’ve taken any work off the table. There’s nothing happening,” Mayor Woods told DavidsonNews.net. At the moment, CATS appears to be focusing solely on the 11-mile northeast extension of the Lynx Blue Line light rail. So he said the towns are pushing back to make sure that the MTC sticks with the policy adopted in 2006 that favors working on multiple transit projects at once.

The Charlotte Observer this morning quotes Cornelius Mayor Jeff Tarte as saying at Wednesday night’s meeting, “I feel like we’re being thrown under the bus.”

Mayor Woods said the towns became concerned last week when they received the agenda for Wednesday’s MTC meeting, which included a vote on a proposed plan for lobbying over the next two years. “The problem with the statement CATS sent to us was it reprioritized,” Mayor Woods said.

It appeared to put the North Corridor “in mothballs,” he added. “We called them on it.”

After the discussion, the MTC tabled the measure until its next meeting.

CATS chief John Muth said later Thursday afternoon that a vote on the legislative agenda “was not imperative” at this meeting. “I am confident that CATS staff and the MTC will finalize a legislative agenda that will satisfy all involved parties,” he said in a statement in response to questions from DavidsonNews.net.

Mr. Muth also said the system likely will have to revise its current long-range plans for the transit system to reflect economic realities.

On Monday, the Lake Norman Transportation Commission – comprised of representatives from Davidson, Mooresville, Cornelius and Huntersville, endorsed a statement asking the MTC and CATS for assurances that they’re still taking a system approach to building mass transit and that earlier plans to proceed with the North Corridor have not changed.

The battle over funding for mass transit in Charlotte has become increasingly competitive as sales tax revenues have fallen, federal funding has tightened, and as supporters of the various projects in the Charlotte area have begun pressing their cases. Last week, the Charlotte City Council overturned a veto by Mayor Pat McCrory of funding for an engineering study of a proposed central Charlotte street car. The council voted to go ahead with the multi-million-dollar study of the streetcar, which would run from Beatties Ford Road through downtown and to Eastland Mall on Central Avenue.

Mayor McCrory worried at last night’s MTC meeting that un-coordinated lobbying efforts could cause problems. “We are starting to see renegade groups on behalf of themselves, or towns. It will cause confusion,” the Observer quoted Mayor McCrory as saying.

Some north Mecklenburg officials think the area isn’t getting its fair share of transit funding. In email to supporters Thursday afternoon, Cornelius commissioner and Lake Norman Transportation Commission member Jim Bensman said he thinks the Charlotte streetcar is a “colossal waste of money.”

“The towns that belong to the MTC contribute millions of Transit Tax dollars to CATS and get little in return. All the Towns should receive their fair share of Transit dollars rather than everything being spent in Charlotte,” Mr. Bensman wrote.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE

See Sept. 22, “Towns seek to revive focus on north commuter rail,” including full text of the LNTC statement.

RELATED COVERAGE

Sept. 24, 2009, Charlotte Observer, “Area Mayors Resist CATS.”