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'We can't do this just as Charlotte' | CLT leaders hopeful for regional transit approach

On Flashpoint, Charlotte's Mayor Pro Tem lays out the city's 20-year transit and transportation strategy.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte's city council is pushing forward with plans to implement a sweeping, multi-decade plan to expand transit around the region.

"It's very organic and very methodical," Mayor Pro Tem Julie Eiselt said.

Eiselt also serves as chair of the city's Transportation and Planning committee.

Last week, the council was updated on the Transformational Mobility Network, or TMN, a multi-pronged plan for transit and transportation. The plan includes having 110 miles of rapid transit corridors like the light rail, 140 miles of bussing, 115 miles of a greenway system, 75 miles of a bicycle network, and more. 

RELATED: Charlotte City Council discusses proposed sales tax hike to fund Transformational Mobility Network

Funding for it would come from multiple outlets, with the taxpayers being one of them. There is a proposed one-cent sales tax to create revenue for the network.

"We can't do this just as Charlotte, it's gotta be a regional effort," Eiselt said.

If allowed by the North Carolina General Assembly, the referendum would show up on the ballot in 2022 and the sales tax would kick in in July of 2023. Twenty percent of the revenue would go to non-transit allocation like roadways and greenways. The other eighty percent would go to transit projects, which include buses and the rail system.

The funding will first go to buses, allowing for new routes and faster pick-up times. Eiselt acknowledged the process can seem incremental and slow.

"Until we can build all of that out, we've gotta be patient about it," she explained.

On WCNC's Flashpoint, former GOP chair Dan Barry echoed the demand for a big-picture approach to transit issues, that involves all stakeholders.

"We need a serious conversation with the General Assembly, in the urban core, in the feeder areas, about how to get employees to employers, or labor to manufacturing, in an efficient way," Barry said.

As far as rail projects, they're all still 10-plus years away according to the TMN.

Flashpoint is a weekly in-depth look at politics in Charlotte, North Carolina, South Carolina, and beyond with host Ben Thompson. Listen to the podcast weekly.
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