CHARLOTTE, N.C. —
The new Charlotte Streets Map that classifies city-owned roads into different categories has been OK'd by Charlotte City Council, but residents in a Steele Creek neighborhood are unhappy with the outcome.
The neighbors live on the two-lane residential street Woody Point Road. The street is fairly quiet besides an occasional car, but soon that will change.
"There’s gonna be noise, there’s gonna be congestion,” David Hannes predicted.
The longtime resident of Woody Point Road is upset that a Steele Creek fire station is moving in next door.
"It just is gonna be so out of place on a residential street,” Hannes added.
The new Charlotte Streets Map classifies Woody Point Road as a minor collector street; which allows government buildings like a fire station to be built in the neighborhood.
The road has been classified as a collector since 2000. However, Hannes argued that it should really be labeled as a local street, solidifying its residential status.
"There are no other streets on Woody Point Road," Hannes explained. "The classification of a local street is just that, where there are no feeder streets coming off it."
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In 2021, the first draft of the new Charlotte Streets Map fixed the problem, labeling Woody Point as a local street. But city planners changed course in the final draft that was released in June 2022. The final version of the map allows the quiet dead-end road to stay labeled as a collector.
“There’s only one reason the city is calling Woody Point Road a collector street, and that’s to allow the fire station to be built," Hannes accused. "There’s nothing right about it.”
So why does this matter?
How a road is classified determines not only what can be built on it, but how it’s designed -- including sidewalks and bike lanes. Neighbors along Woody Point Road believe their road has been classified incorrectly and worry it could lead to more development.
The city backed up its decision to WCNC Charlotte, saying the map creation process included, “extensive community engagement.”
Spokesperson Gregg Watkins explained:
"Street types (for example, Parkways, Boulevards, Collectors, etc.) are used to categorize streets by common attributes such as their network function and/or characteristics. Collectors serve an important role in the overall street network by “collecting” traffic from local streets and distributing it to the nearest arterial street. Collectors are also defined by the Zoning Ordinance as carrying low to moderate traffic volumes at low to moderate speeds. Woody Point Road meets all of these definitional criteria and has therefore been classified as a collector since 2000."
Hannes and his neighbors aren’t giving up on the fight against the collector label and incoming fire station. An appeal hearing with the Zoning Board of Adjustment is scheduled for Sept. 27.
The Steele Creek Fire Department shared with WCNC Charlotte in March that the new fire station coming to Woody Point Road will help them better serve the community and shorten response times.
Construction is set to begin later this year and finish by the start of summer 2023.
Contact Julia Kauffman at jkauffman@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.