Charlotte City Council reverses itself on I-77 toll lanes in a 7-4 vote, with two members flipping

Charlotte City Council voted 7 to 4 on Monday night, September 21, to restore the city’s support for the I-77 South toll lane project, reversing the 6 to 5 vote in May that had appeared to kill it. Council members Malcolm Graham and Joi Mayo, who both voted against the project in May, switched their votes, according to WFAE.

The reversal came under direct financial pressure from the state. A provision in the July state budget allows the North Carolina Department of Transportation to recover design costs from any local government that withdrew support, and city leaders were told the penalty for Charlotte could reach $64 million, according to WCCB.

Here is where the vote stands.

• Seven members voted to restore support: Dimple Ajmera, Dante Anderson, Ed Driggs, Malcolm Graham, Joi Mayo, James Mitchell and Kimberly Owens.
• Four voted to keep the city’s opposition: Renee Perkins Johnson, LaWana Mayfield, JD Mazuera Arias and Victoria Watlington.
• The Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization, where Charlotte holds 31 of 74 weighted votes, takes the final vote on Wednesday, September 23.
• Davidson’s town board is expected to vote on its own position on Tuesday, September 22.

The two votes that changed

Graham had told WFAE earlier this month that he was listening to both sides and that his decision might be made for him if other local governments voted first. Statesville, Monroe and Cornelius had all voted to restore their support in the weeks before Monday, according to WBTV, which left Charlotte as the vote that decided the project.

Owens voted to restore support while calling the outcome an indictment of the toll lanes as the DOT has planned them, according to WFAE. That framing ran through the majority side of the room: most of the members who voted yes did not describe themselves as supporters of the project.

The four who held out

Mazuera Arias, whose district borders the corridor, said his community had been here before and pointed to Independence Boulevard, which split neighborhoods in half without the economic opportunity that was promised, according to WFAE. He said he could not vote for a project based on what he called an unconstitutional mandate.

Mayfield compared the DOT’s pledge of community benefits to a political promise that had not been kept, according to the same report. Johnson, who made the original motion in May to pull support, and Watlington voted with them.

What the state has spent and promised

The Department of Transportation has spent about $69.6 million on the project from November 2018 through August, according to a breakdown WBTV obtained. Against that, the state has pledged up to $300 million in community benefits for Charlotte’s west side, which could include green space, bike lanes, public art and grocery stores in areas considered food deserts, according to WBTV. That pledge is not binding, which is the point the four opponents pressed.

A chamber that would not settle

The room was packed and grew unruly after the vote, with people shouting over council members. Mayor Robert Harrington threatened to clear the chamber and several people were escorted out by security, according to WCCB.

One speaker during public comment asked why the council was being asked to make a $4 billion, multi decade decision without answers on money, legal justification, alternatives and procurement, and told members that pressure was not an answer, according to WCCB.

What happens Wednesday

The CRTPO vote is the one that formally restarts the project. Charlotte’s 31 weighted votes now go to yes, and with Statesville, Monroe and Cornelius already switched, the arithmetic favors the project. Mecklenburg County’s three votes remain no, and county commission chair Mark Jerrell told WFAE earlier this month that none of his colleagues had indicated a change of mind.

Our read: the council did not change its mind about the toll lanes. The members said so from both sides of the vote. What changed is the cost of saying no, and Monday established that the state can set that cost high enough to reverse a local decision. The project will now almost certainly be built, and the precedent will outlast it.

We covered the run up to this vote yesterday. Know about something we should be covering? Send us the details.