Lauren Blackburn

Lauren Blackburn, a Davidson planner for six years and the planning manager since 2010, is leaving to become director of the new N.C. Department of Transportation Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation. Her last day will be April 20 and she starts her new job April 30.

Here’s an announcement from the Town of Davidson: Read the full story

Bill Thunberg

By BILL THUNBERG
Lake Norman Transportation Commission

Recent discussion of the Red Line Regional Rail Project has been intense – and so has the dissemination of misinformation about the project. This discussion is the result of the Red Line Task Force’s referral of a draft business and finance plan for review by the communities along the line.

Public discussion of the project has included a considerable amount of very thoughtful input and intense questioning, as was intended. Unfortunately, this regional conversation has been seen by those opposed to transit and the transit tax as a surrogate target for the failed effort to repeal the transit tax. Transit is a part of the transportation plan for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg region, and rail is a part of the transit and transportation systems designed to serve this region. Read the full story

A public hearing April 18 will seek comments on four scenarios being considered for toll lanes that would help pay for widening I-77 north of Charlotte.

The Mecklenburg Union Metropolitan Planning Organization will hold the hearing Wednesday, April 18, from 5-8 p.m., at Huntersville Town Hall, 101 Huntersville-Concord Road, Huntersville. Read the full story

A Norfolk Southern train on the tracks near Zion Street in Cornelius. (Chip Dawson photo)

By CHRISTINA RITCHIE ROGERS
DavidsonNews.net

CHARLOTTE – A formal review period for the Red Line Regional Rail Project business and finance plan is coming to a close, but the next phase – asking local governments to adopt the plan – is delayed indefinitely, project officials said at a Red Line Task Force meeting Wednesday. Instead, project leaders will be meeting with Norfolk Southern Railroad Corp. in hopes of ironing out the track owner’s concerns about the plan.

Under the project’s original schedule, a 90-day formal review period was to be followed by revision and then adoption of the plan. Instead, project officials are putting the adoption phase on hold, amid Norfolk Southern’s concerns about combining commuter and freight service on the 25-mile line from Mooresville to Charlotte. Read the full story

The Metropolitan Transit Commission’s Red Line Task Force is scheduled to meet Wednesday afternoon in Charlotte, where members will get updates on the proposed rail project and on revisions to the draft business and finance plan, and discuss plans for new station in Charlotte and a relocated station in the Mount Mourne area, south of Mooresville. Read the full story

To the Editor:

I’ve been pretty outspoken about pedestrian safety in Davidson over the past few months. (See Dec. 26, 2011, “Pedestrian safety, through the eyes of an obssessive walker”) But I want to report that I’m finding pedestrian safety along Griffith St., between Watson St. and the new convenience store/gas station, is surprisingly safe. I have been walking from Armour St. (along Watson) and crossing Griffith, heading toward Snap Fitness, for three months now and have never had a close call. Read the full story

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A group called the Davidson Think Tank has produced a one-hour video interview with officials involved in the Red Line Regional Rail Project. Members of the group interviewed Davidson Mayor John Woods, who chairs the Metropolitan Transit Commission’s Red Line Task Force, and Mark Briggs, a consultant to the NC Department of Transportation from engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff. Read the full story

Lake Norman Transportation Commission director Bill Thunberg speaks at the Chamber's Focus Friday event. Also pictured (from left): Bob McIntosh, Bill Russell, MattGallagher. (David Boraks / DavidsonNews.net)

By CHRISTINA RITCHIE ROGERS
DavidsonNews.net

While many property owners say they’re in favor of a commuter rail line north of Charlotte, it’s hard to find one in favor of the current proposed Red Line Regional Rail financing plan. Matt Gallagher, who works for developer Gandy Communities, said the special assessments on commercial property owners proposed under the draft financing plan is “a big burden to carry.” He spoke Friday at a Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce Focus Friday event in Cornelius, joined by speakers Bill Thunburg, the Lake Norman Transportation Commission Director and a member of the Red Line Task Force, and Bob McIntosh, of McIntosh Law Firm in Davidson.

Developers have been meeting regularly to discuss the draft financing plan, which asks commercial property owners along the rail to pay an additional “special assessment” tax of as much as 75 cents per $100 of assessed value that will go towards funding construction of the rail line from Charlotte to Mooresville. Read the full story