Correction (Oct. 8, 2026): An earlier version of this story said the benefits included $20 million for grocery stores on West Boulevard and Statesville Avenue. The signed agreement between the city and NCDOT sets at least $10 million on each of three corridors, including West Trade Street and Beatties Ford Road, for at least $30 million in all.
The regional transportation board that killed the Interstate 77 South toll lane project in May brought it back Wednesday night, with a state penalty hanging over any local government that kept saying no. The Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization voted to reinstate its Oct. 16, 2024, request that the N.C. Department of Transportation deliver the project through a public-private partnership. Only Matthews and Mecklenburg County voted no.
Two board members who had opposed the project then announced they were leaving the board: Matthews Mayor John Higdon, who in May moved to put the vote to withdraw that request on the agenda, and Davidson Mayor Rusty Knox, the board's vice chair. Knox voted yes Wednesday, in his words "under duress."
"We decided not on the merits of a good or bad DOT project," Knox said, "but on the possibility of being fined because we asked for better."
The bill that changed the votes
The fine Knox meant is a provision Republican legislators wrote into the state budget: local governments that voted against the project would reimburse the state for its design costs dating to 2018. Charlotte City Attorney Andrea Leslie-Fite gave council the figure, $69,577,547.67, on Sept. 14.
The bill comes due only if the project stays dead. Under the budget's text, repayment requires the state Board of Transportation to approve removing or canceling the project, and a local government that voted in May to withdraw the request is also excused if it votes within 90 days to reinstate it. Matthews and Mecklenburg County, which voted no Wednesday, did not take that second route.
The project would add two toll lanes in each direction on 11 miles of I-77, from the South Carolina line to uptown, with the free lanes left in place. Wednesday's vote does not start construction. It restarts environmental analyses, community meetings and formal proposals from developers, and the lanes are projected to open next decade.
Charlotte moved first
Votes on the regional board are weighted by population, and Charlotte holds 31, more than 40 percent of the total and the largest single bloc, as this paper explained in May. The Charlotte City Council voted 7-4 on Monday to rescind its own rejection of the project. On Wednesday no board member spoke on the motion before the roll call.
The two council members whose districts hold those 11 miles, Council Member Malcolm Graham of District 2 and Council Member Joi Mayo of District 3, voted against the project in May and for it Monday. Both cited the state's offer of at least $300 million in benefits for west Charlotte. At Monday's council meeting, Graham said, "I don't like Senator Sawyer putting the poison pill in the budget."
"Suing the state makes no sense either," Graham told council on Sept. 14.
He added that even if Charlotte had joined Mecklenburg County in voting no, the city and county probably would not have had the votes to block the project, because Monroe, Cornelius, Huntersville and Davidson had already said they would vote yes.
Higdon cast one of the two no votes. "When legislative power and private influence converge to override local judgment," he said, "the result is not collaborative transportation planning. It's political engineering that rewards the influential few at everyone else's expense." He also called the budget provision, in his view, "an illegal and unconstitutional provision," and said the $300 million benefits figure "is pitifully inadequate."
What west Charlotte was promised
The benefits: $150 million for a concrete cap over part of the highway near uptown, $50 million for a new recreation center in the Steele Creek area, and at least $30 million for facilities to address food insecurity on three corridors: West Trade Street and Beatties Ford Road, West Boulevard, and Statesville Avenue. The city and NCDOT signed an agreement on the benefits Tuesday.
Eight days earlier, there was no agreement at all. Asked on Sept. 14 what responsibility the state had to make sure the benefits were delivered, Leslie-Fite told council, "At this time, there is no agreement or requirement by NCDOT," and said the request for proposals to developers would be the binding document, according to the meeting transcript. The Mercury has not obtained the agreement reached Tuesday.
Update, Oct. 8: The Mercury has since obtained the signed agreement. It makes the developer responsible for putting up at least $300 million, and only the city can hold the state to it. Read what it says.
Mecklenburg County is not persuaded by it. At the board meeting Wednesday, Commissioner Leigh Altman, the county board's vice chair, called the deal between NCDOT and the city "really just an agreement to agree" and said one section would let the city ratify a change to the benefits if NCDOT thought one necessary.
Charlotte Mayor Rob Harrington said in a statement after the vote that the city "must move forward together with accountability from leaders for the commitments that have been made, meaningful collaboration, and dedication to sustained community engagement."
What drivers would pay
The toll for a one-way trip at rush hour is unclear. Critics point to the 26 miles of toll lanes in north Mecklenburg, where traffic is still heavy, particularly around Lake Norman.
A third party could still sue to stop the project. The Southern Environmental Law Center has gone to court against two other highways in the region: the Monroe Expressway, which was built, and the Garden Parkway, which was not.