CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The North Carolina Department of Transportation unveiled new renderings for a railroad maintenance facility in the South End area of Charlotte.
This project has gotten some pushback because of concerns about how it would impact the neighboring community and businesses in the area. However, NCDOT said following public input changes have been made.
“It’s really been a great experience for NCDOT and working with our neighbors here listening to their concerns, responding to those concerns, and doing it in a way that really brings an excellent project to the City of Charlotte where we can see great passenger rail service come into the city here,” NCDOT Rail Division Director Jason Orthner said.
The meeting took place in the Pritchard building at South End Church on Monday. People were able to get a look at the updated designs for the passenger rail facility and have a chance to speak to NCDOT reps.
The rail maintenance complex will be located along Summit Avenue. It will support the future Charlotte Gateway station where the rail, bus, and Amtrak will connect. The gateway station will take over the current Greyhound Station near South Graham Street and West Trade Street.
“I think Charlotte needs more transit options in general and this is a great idea for such a large growing city,” Dave Finch, a Wilmore Neighborhood resident, said.
NCDOT is building the passenger rail facility nearby and the two facilities will be connected directly by the tracks.
“It’s an important support facility for the station,” Charlotte City Councilman Ed Driggs said. “If you look at other locations … they are further away and that makes it difficult to manage the trains. There is a logic to having it that close and NCDOT already owns the property for that purpose.”
Some who live and work in the area are worried about the facility’s footprint with some business owners concerned about their properties.
“The primary concern that we have is protecting the environment and protecting our property owners' rights," Caren Wingate, President of the Gold District, said. "This facility will bring many compromises to our soil quality and our air quality, perhaps our water quality."
Wingate said the proposed facility could hurt the economic development in the area.
"We're afraid that this facility if it's allowed to develop in the way that we've seen in the plans, would build a wall between the gold district and the iron District, which is where the Pipe and Foundry property is. We believe that it would limit connectivity and that it would compromise the growth of historic areas in our town."
“I’m hopeful that they can have a reduced rail facility because I realize that it is necessary to further public transportation," a local resident said. "But I’m hopeful that they will not need to enact eminent domain to take away some of the businesses just along Main Street."
Map of the project study area in purple, made available to the public on Monday with the new design:
The yellow shows the revised project footprint and there are some key changes. NCDOT said any impact west of Summit Avenue will be minor and it will no longer need any significant property acquisitions for this project.
Although this is a state project, Driggs said he is aware of the concerns, adding that NCDOT is making a big effort to be a good neighbor and take those into account.
“They have scaled back any thoughts of making it bigger,” Driggs said. "It’s going to be smaller, and they are trying to integrate better with the people around them."
NCDOT is now looking to build the facility primarily on the land it currently owns without expanding further.
“One of the great things about the way that we've adjusted the site is that because it's not crossing Summit Avenue, we will not have to sound horns to cross the crossing,” Orthner said. “We will be working to make sure that we have a great methodology to make sure that noise is maintained. Basically, it's sort of the ambient levels of with what's in this city and following the city requirements for lighting of the facility.”
NCDOT will be taking comments through the end of April. Construction is expected to start in 2026.
Contact Jesse Pierre at jpierrepet@wcnc.com or follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.