Lawmakers to Gov. Stein: Pause I-77 South toll project

CITY OF CHARLOTTE

Uptown Charlotte is encircled by I-277 loop and I-77, which cut into historically Black neighborhoods in the urban core and west in the 1960s. A proposed $3.2 billion toll project for I-77 South would further impact those communities by displacing residents and businesses.

A pair of Charlotte lawmakers are pushing to delay procurement for proposed I-77 South toll lanes.

State Sens. DeAndrea Salvador and Caleb Theodros urged Gov. Josh Stein to direct the North Carolina Department of Transportation “to pause procurement and undertake a transparent review, including a genuine alternatives analysis, before proceeding further.”

NCDOT announced it will delay release of the first Request for Proposals for the $3.2 billion project until June in order to conduct community meetings. Final design of the project isn’t expected until the end of 2027 at the earliest and construction would begin in the early 2030s.

The erasure of the all-Black Brooklyn neighborhood in the 1960s – fueled by equal parts urban renewal and highway construction – is a rallying point for opponents. Salvador and Theodros each represent communities that would be impacted by NCDOT’s planned elevated toll lanes on I-77 South from John Belk Freeway to Brookshire Boulevard between Third and Fourth wards in Uptown from Wesley Heights, Seversville, and McCrorey Heights and other historically Black neighborhoods in west Charlotte.

“This is not the first time a decision of this magnitude has reshaped the landscape of our community,” Salvador wrote. “When I-77 was built through Charlotte, my family’s church was forced to relocate to make room for the interstate, and an ancestral burial ground remains alongside that corridor, no longer directly connected to the community it once served. That history is part of a broader, documented pattern of displacement that reshaped Charlotte’s historically Black neighborhoods and institutions during construction of the interstate system through the city.”

NCDOT officials announced the launch of a Community Engagement Center where residents in the impact area can meet with the project team members in person or online. Office hours will be posted in April for the center, which the agency touts as a resource hub for project information, meetings with staff, and discussions on potential community enhancements and programs. NCDOT leaders insist every home north of Belk Freeway will be preserved and the elevated design – as opposed to new lane construction – diminishes impacts like home and business displacements.

In addition, NCDOT will implement a discount toll program for qualifying low-income residents while carpools, public transit, and emergency responders will have free access to the express lanes.

“This project design is in its very early stages, and we want the public to know there is significant time remaining for their voices to be heard,” NCDOT Secretary Daniel Johnson said in a statement. “We are committed to meeting with residents along the corridor, engaging with neighborhoods, and ensuring that community feedback is reflected in how this project moves forward.”

A coalition of 24 mobility, environmental and community advocates signed a letter in December urging Johnson to scrap the toll lanes, citing economic inequality and Charlotte’s legacy of transportation projects cutting through historic Black neighborhoods. The most prominent example is the Brooklyn neighborhood, which was leveled to make way for the I-277 loop in the 1960s. Thousands of families, businesses and schools were displaced in the process as part of a federal urban renewal campaign.

Shannon Binns, founder of Sustain Charlotte, which is working with neighborhoods and activists to alter the project, said NCDOT hasn't done enough to develop alternative plans that mitigate the impact on neighborhoods that have been previously disconnected through highway projects in the 1960s. Residents in Historic West End, including Biddleville, Oaklawn Park, McCrorey Heights, Dalebrook, Wesley Heights and Seversville, were pushed out. So were households and businesses to the south in Wilmore and the West Boulevard and South Tryon corridors.

“Before public funds are further committed — including payments to private proposers — the community deserves an independent review of alternatives, including options identified in the adopted Beyond 77 Corridor Study and the city’s Strategic Mobility Plan,” Binns said.

Said Salvador and Theodros: “We raise this history not to re-litigate the past, but because it establishes the standard of care the state and its transportation agencies owe to the neighborhoods and institutions rooted along this corridor as expansion is considered. When infrastructure has previously divided communities, weakened generational wealth, and disrupted longstanding institutions, that standard demands deliberate transparency and meaningful engagement before proceeding further.”

Toll opponents are pushing Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization – which is responsible for development projects in Mecklenburg, Iredell and Union counties – to halt the initiative in favor of greater access to information and public input. The agency consists of voting representatives from 24 cities and towns within its footprint and CRTPO’s support is essential to the project.

“Decisions that reshape neighborhoods and corridors for generations require more than procedural compliance,” Salvador and Theodros wrote. “They require deliberate review, full transparency, genuine alternatives analysis, and authentic engagement with the residents, families, and institutions most directly affected. That confidence cannot be built while procurement continues to accelerate.

“We support infrastructure solutions that meaningfully address congestion and strengthen our region’s economic future. Growth demands action. But solutions must not come at the expense of established neighborhoods or at the cost of public trust.”

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