Development Along Rail a Focus of Transit Tax Debate: Opponent: `Land-Use Plan Masquerading As a Transportation Plan’

By Steve Harrison, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Sep. 20–Charlotte’s transit plan was dissected and discussed for nearly three hours Wednesday morning in a debate that included national experts on transit and city planning.

Charlotte city council member and transit tax supporter Pat Mumford reiterated his message that the Charlotte region is growing rapidly, and that building only roads can’t solve congestion problems.

He was joined by Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute in British Columbia, who said that a highly developed transit system offers other benefits, such as encouraging people to walk and cutting down on traffic fatalities.

Transit skeptics also took a micro and a macro view.

Jeff Taylor, chief blogger at The Meck Deck, criticized the Charlotte Area Transit System’s plan as too expensive and doing little to solve congestion. He said it was a “land-use plan masquerading as a transportation plan.”

Sam Staley of the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation argued that public transportation struggles to capture riders in a sprawling city like Charlotte, where the majority of trips aren’t made to the central city.

The debate was sponsored by the Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation, a think tank that favors repealing the tax. Polls taken by the Charlotte Observer and others suggest the Nov. 6 election will be much closer than in 1998, when the tax was passed with 58 percent of the vote.

About 40 people attended the debate.

County commissioners discussed the transit tax Tuesday night, with some saying they were against the tax because they believe the government is trying to move people into high-density housing along the rail corridors.

Much of the debate also focused on the development that rail will likely bring. The first light-rail line along South Boulevard hasn’t opened yet, but developers are already building new residential and retail units near stations, especially close to uptown.

Litman said that some demographic trends show that more people, such as the elderly, will want to live in cities, in walkable communities. He also said there is an untapped market for young people who want an alternative to suburban living.

Mumford said the city’s goals of combining rail with so-called “transit-oriented development” isn’t meant to change how the majority of people live in Charlotte.

“This isn’t about saying we can’t have a suburban lifestyle,” Mumford. “Nowhere are people being told where to live. But we are saying we have five corridors that are appropriate for high density development.”

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