Senate leader Phil Berger is less than impressed by the Charlotte City Council’s reversal of its support for adding toll lanes to Interstate 77 from downtown to the South Carolina border. The council’s 6-5 vote earlier this week could — if it holds up — set the stage for the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization […]
House Speaker Destin Hall doesn’t want to see the ongoing controversy about how and whether to widen Interstate 77 around downtown Charlotte turn into a request to legislators for additional funding. Charlotte and N.C. Department of Transportation officials need to resolve the issue “in a way that they’re not coming back to us and asking […]
State Auditor Dave Boliek thinks Charlotte’s government is borrowing entirely too much money. The latest such request, reviewed and approved by the Local Government Commission on Tuesday, involves money to pay for upgrades to Charlotte Douglas International Airport. These include the construction of a new, fourth north-south runway and the renovation of one of the […]
Volkswagen-backed Scout Motors says its all-electric pickup and SUV assembled in South Carolina will be on sale next year, firing back at a published report that the multibillion dollar project will be delayed. The report in the German publication Der Spiegel cited unspecified “technical issues” for causing a delay to the multibillion-dollar project until 2028. […]
Charlotte’s time in the national spotlight might be making the city a political lightning rod, but the country’s three major bond-rating agencies all agree it’s a well-managed economic powerhouse. Fitch, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s all recently reaffirmed the city’s AAA bond rating ahead of its move to refinance some of its existing debts. Typifying […]
Hundreds of workers at commercial construction sites aren’t showing up for work this week in Charlotte and Raleigh because of concern over federal immigration enforcement efforts. “Commercial construction contractors are very concerned in the wake of ICE agents coming to Charlotte and Raleigh,” says David Simpson, CEO of the Carolinas Associated General Contractors, or AGC. […]
Charlotte’s landed its second corporate headquarters project in as many weeks with Tuesday’s announcement that international shipping giant Maersk will put one of its subsidiaries in the city. Maersk Agency USA is moving its HQ from New Jersey to Charlotte, expanding here on an operation that already employs about 670 people. The move represents a […]
Meanwhile, in Charlotte, officials announced that Scout Motors, an upstart electric vehicle company that plans a $2 billion assembly plant in South Carolina, is putting its headquarters in the city’s Plaza-Midwood neighborhood. A $207 million investment is projected, along with as many as 1,200 jobs, at an average salary of $172,878, state officials said. Scout is […]
LGC members didn’t voice any concerns about the Durham project, but they did have questions about two other affordable-housing initiatives in Charlotte and Raleigh. The Charlotte project envisions building 238 units off West Boulevard near Charlotte Douglas International Airport, for people making up to 60% of the area median income. Backers see that project costing […]
Officials in Charlotte have rolled out a new financial incentive to convince homeowners not just to add a granny flat to their property, but to rent it to a tenant who makes less than the area’s median income. The Queen City ADU Program is offering them a forgivable, interest-free loan of up to $80,000 that […]
Local government leaders in both Durham and Charlotte are trying to figure out how to get a couple of long-stalled public-private redevelopment projects moving again. The common thread in both is the involvement of Florida-based Peebles Corp.. Charlotte officials have been working with Peebles since 2016 on the Brooklyn Village project, which targets a chunk of the city’s […]
State Auditor Dave Boliek has notified Charlotte officials that his office is going to investigate its rumored “settlement” with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings. “The Office of the State Auditor will be asking how much money has reportedly been paid, whether a payment exists, where did money for a payment come from, and several other […]
Charlotte Water’s interest in obtaining an additional 30 million gallons a day allocation of Catawba River basin water continues to draw opposition from Hickory-area lawmakers. Wednesday saw the House Agriculture committee endorse House Bill 850, which would put a moratorium on the approval of a new interbasin transfer of 15 million gallons a day or […]
A trio of state senators are trying to clamp down on Charlotte’s quest to gain a larger share of the Catawba River’s water. Filed Monday, Senate Bill 428 would alter the state’s interbasin transfer law to create a new “major transfer” category and subject it to stricter rules. Sen. Warren Daniel’s bill defines major as […]
A House spending bill looks to claw back and reallocate $20 million the budget for the 2023-25 biennium earmarked for “Project Breakpoint,” an abortive effort to build a pro tennis stadium complex in Charlotte. House Bill 74 passed the chamber on March 5, and for now is parked in the Senate Rules committee. It’s an […]
