West Craighead did not win a place in the Red Line plan Wednesday night. It won something more concrete than another promise to look at the idea later.
The Metropolitan Public Transportation Authority voted unanimously to begin a separate study of a future West Craighead infill station, giving the proposed stop a formal planning track without changing the 11-station Red Line plan moving into federal review.
The distinction is the story. The board did not approve a station, authorize construction or promise that West Craighead will ever get a stop. It ordered Charlotte Area Transit System staff to begin the planning work now, independently of the current project and in partnership with the City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, property owners and other community stakeholders.
For the Sugar Creek-area coalition that spent roughly two years pressing its case, the vote converts a July rejection into an assignment for the transit authority. The station remains outside the project being built. The work that could make a later station possible is no longer being left for later.
From rejection to a second track
West Craighead reached the full board after a close defeat. On July 8, an MPTA planning committee voted 5-4 against recommending the station, accepting staff warnings that another stop could slow service, force changes elsewhere on the line and weaken the project's competitiveness for federal money.
Supporters argued that the planned rail line would pass a community that had organized, attended meetings and produced its own case for a stop. The committee vote did not settle the issue. It sent the decision to the full authority, where trustees spent much of Wednesday night trying to separate two questions: whether West Craighead belongs in the Red Line plan now, and whether the authority should begin preparing for a station later.
The motion to add West Craighead to the locally preferred alternative, the route and station plan that advances into federal review, was ultimately withdrawn.
Trustee Bob Menzel then offered the second track. The authority could protect the current Red Line commuter rail project, he argued, while beginning the planning needed to determine whether West Craighead could support an infill station after that project is complete.
"We're going to start looking at it right now," Menzel said. "And we're making that formal decision to direct our team at CATS to do that."
The first version of that idea was not precise enough. CATS staff said advancing another station project in parallel could affect the current project's operating analysis, passing-siding locations and federal environmental review. Chair David L. Howard argued that the authority should not signal a change in land use without involving Charlotte, which controls zoning in the area.
Trustee David Longo supplied the boundary the motion needed. The final language directs the authority and CATS staff to initiate a "separate West Craighead infill station project study," independent of the current Red Line project and for planning purposes. It requires engagement with the city, county, property owners and other community stakeholders.
Menzel and the motion's seconder accepted Longo's language.
A study, not a station
The study gives West Craighead a place in the authority's workload, not a place on the rail map.
It could examine the area's land use, economic-development prospects, private development and engineering needs. Trustees raised each of those subjects while defining the work, but their motion set no deadline, budget or guaranteed outcome. Any station proposal would still have to return with its costs, operating effects, funding and approvals addressed.
Menzel said his research suggested the preparation could take three to four years. He also said the Red Line could be eight to 10 years from service, leaving time to develop a future proposal without burdening the current project. Those were his estimates, not a schedule adopted by the board.
What the board did adopt was the separation between now and later.
When a trustee asked what stations would remain after the vote, Howard said the 11-station locally preferred alternative would stay "exactly the same."
"So this doesn't change anything," Howard said. "All in favor of a study, the way David read the motion, let it be known by raising your hand. That is unanimous."
The board then moved directly to the resolution advancing the 11-station plan into the federal process.
For the authority that took control of CATS on July 1, the result is a test of whether planning can carry weight before construction begins. West Craighead is not on the Red Line map approved Wednesday. It is now on the authority's work list.