[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] a as soon as I see it change it's kind of tough for me I'm 5 foot two and I'm behind a screen so we'll go ahead and see where we are there we go thank you everyone yes you want to sit at a table and talk with your back this way so everybody can hear me I think I'm okay you can't hear okay you can't be I can't be heard you want a mic let me give you a mic yeah mayor Dana thank you all right thank you for being here this afternoon I guess I need to learn how to turn on the mic there we go good afternoon everyone thank you for the time and attention that you've given to us today we really appreciate it this is our first legislative briefing for the new delegation and for all of you that have taken these positions and are going to help us with the work that was that needs to be done for our community I want to say thank you very much and so welcome and I want to say that we're really glad to have the general assembly being here today for every thinking about all the things that you do in Raleigh even for our city region and our state the city really wants to develop a relationship with our um groups of people that help us Advance our interests and so I want to say to everyone thank you for your time and your attention and what you're going to do so we've got some themes that we want to talk about today you know we all have ideas of what we can do to make our community our residents happier safer and all of those kinds of activities and so we wanted to do this in a way that engages all of our delegation engages our city council and inv engages our residents we're working across jurisdiction you know that you know you can know that we have gotten opportunities to work with the towns to the North and the towns to the South as well as many other groups that we have in our community that work with us and we're preparing for growth and Community safety all of these things that we've been working on for quite some time so I know that most of you know how important transportation is and it's a regional issue I think I called a lot of you and I said said you know when we start talking about Transportation we're not talking about Charlotte we're talking about our region and what's necessary for our growth and how we do this and so I hope that every one of you has some attention or some idea about how to move this forward so that we can support the people that need jobs po people that need a way to get to work so that they can be successful in their own family lives so I want to say it has never never been more important right now for us we have worked for a number of years um trying to make sure that we can build a city that you can see the growth in but also the ability that growth could give us a way to make sure that people would Thrive and that's our goal our goal is to get people to work to get them to their jobs to be able to actually um be a part of our community and so that's what we're here we're looking forward to that topic but we're also looking forward to the other topics that we have that melt into that and so today I want to say thank you and I'd like to actually bring on to our first Speaker of the evening and that is Senator wadell if you would join us um we're really glad to see that you have been chosen to lead the delegation and so thank you for taking the time to be here today I want to thank the mayor for that wonderful introduction and I want to thank all of you who are here today as we talk about transportations we talk about working together and moving forward we know how important it is in Raleigh when we address the needs of our communities we think about the citizens and our constituents who are in these areas we're here to listen we're here to move forward and we are here to serve you elected us to serve you and that's what we're going to do we're going to be open with our ears with our eyes and do the research that's necessary so that we can move forward and so that we can work together and so that we can listen and we can take on the agenda that you have assigned us to do we always listen we're productive and we want to always be able and willing to serve want to thank you for all that you do because we're in this together it's not a I not a we it's all of us working for the citizens and the mayor just mentioned about getting people to work and moving forward with the small towns she also mentioned about how important Transportation plays when people can get to work and get out of their cars and when they can really enjoy the things that you've planned so that things are peaceful and so that things move smoothly this is not the really beginning we've been working on this some time and some of you have been working more diligently and longer than others so we'll continuing to work to make things better and really the best is yet to come thank you very much and now I have the great honor of introducing Vicky Sawyer um who has worked with us for a number of years it feels like now maybe it's just 24 months or whatever but feels like a few years so um Senator please remarks thank you um I often joke that um a politician usually runs to a microphone I'm actually one to runs away from them um so I appreciate being here and um thank you for not directly throwing arrows into my back as a lone Republican in the senate for meinberg County um I appreciate being here but I also want you guys to know that I'm Charlotte through and through I mean 1993 I went to Left My Home in Davidson County to be a UNCC Charlotte um graduate with a degree in special needs and teaching and um I have stayed in the Charlotte region ever since and as mayor l knows um transportation is very important to me and as my job in um that the folks in Northern meinberg and ell County have elected me to do is to help Transportation networks not only in our own District but also Statewide and I hope you'll see that approach as we move forward um through this next upcoming I'm excited I mean you know what let's try it either either we win or we lose right let's just give it a shot um I'm excited to get to know each and every one of you more um my door is always open um but I'm only open for conversation that moves us to a certain point together um destructive behavior is something that I cannot tolerate um and so I just wanted to make sure that everyone know that I will collaborate and work with each and every one of you as we work together but will not work apart thank [Applause] you I want to say thank you to both of you for the way that you um allow us to be out here thinking about what we can all do to make this place a better place for everyone so I will tell you now we're going to have a few updates that we want to provide with you around our legislative agenda and so I most of you know Dana he's been walking the halls of the legislative building for a very long time and he's going to lead us in a discussion around the city of Charlotte um I think what we would call our legislative agenda [Applause] Dana thank you everybody it's really uh uh nice to be here today uh in addition to myself um Ed mckenny from our city manager's office will be making uh the presentation the part that addresses the mobility issue and Ed has a lot of experience in that field and uh so I'm really glad he's here to do that uh but one thing I'd like to bring up to you first is an update uh of all the efforts that the city and the staff put in to helping out Western North Carolina in the wake of hurricane Helen there were quite a few resources that were deployed from Charlotte Fire from Charlotte meinberg Police Department Charlotte water to help out uh with the recovery efforts and also with the rescue efforts as well and in fact in a few weeks on the 26th through the 29th the Charlotte City Council will be holding its annual strategy session in Asheville to help support uh the area they were very very happy uh that the the city council will be coming up there and I heard all about it last month at the Metropolitan mayor association meeting and just heard it from the mayor and from others who were in the room from Asheville they were just very very pleased about that Dana before you go to the next one I failed in my um MC role to in have everyone that so that we all know each other to have everyone introduce themselves and so I know that we have just had heard from Senator wiel and the Sawyer but I'd like to go ahead and have us go around each table and make sure that we have our names and people know who we are ma'am good afternoon everyone I'm want to may feel serve you on Charlotte City Council as at large member good morning everyone I'm Becky Carney representative and what with and I feel like I'm at home started commission out here 28 years ago so welcome and thank you for having us good morning everyone I'm representing Mary Bel and I represent District 8 and I am so glad that Joyce wadell is our new uh delegation chair and I'm not laughing because I'm happy it's over but I'm I'm very happy that she has taken over and it's going to do a great job there so thank you good morning my name is Julia Greenfield and I am representative for house District 100 and this will be my first term in the legislature and I'm looking forward to working with each of you thank you good afternoon my name is Malcolm Graham a member of the Charlotte City Council and a former North Carolina state senator for about 10 years I serve as a member of the city's Transportation committee and chair of the city's jobs and economic development committee good morning I'm state representative Trisha cam in my seventh term I serve M Hill Matthews and a part of South Charlotte and our wonderful Senator Graham here was our delegation leader as well and he was phenomenal during those tough times glad to be with you all thank you for having us um iish should do newly elected first term I guess that's about 70 something hour and uh house district 107 so right in the center of the county hello everyone glad you're here James Mitchell charot city council okay hello everyone my name is Caleb Tedros representing Senate District 41 this is my first term a lot of familiar faces for when I interned here about 5 years ago morning everyone this is morning Madam mayor city council counc staff thank you for all your service my name is mush Muhammad I to people good afternoon everybody my name is oops representative Jordan Lopez uh serving in my first term representing house district 112 which is the East Charlotte Area uh looking forward to working with each of you and thank you for having us May hi everyone Beth hrid serving District 98 which is the North End of the county I say if you just Lop off from Exit 23 and up that's my turf so I'm really excited to be here and working with all of you in the upcoming bium it's going to be an exciting two years good afternoon everyone I'm representing carolan I represent District 101 West Northwest meinberg County and I'd like to say thank you to Charlotte for what you're doing for Western North Carolina as you know Asheville is my home thank you uh good evening I'm the j i serve house district of 99 University let's see uh Valley bat Creek area um and I'm looking forward to working for you on your agenda good afternoon I'm Woodson Bradley uh newly elected freshman North Carolina Senator District 42 which is min Hill Matthews all the Providence Valentine South Charlotte South Park half of Myers Park and half of Eastover so it's ay but I'm really excited to be [Music] here well welcome Senator barley I'm dmle air Charlotte City Council woman at large I chair the budget governance and intergovernmental Relations Committee and our committee was so proud of the work that we have done to deliver the legislative agenda and I look forward to working with each and every one of you thank you hey good afternoon everyone my name is Deandrea Salvador proudly serving in Senate District 39 which is right to the west of uh Senator Bradley so Southwest mecklinburg and Charlotte area and thank you so much for having us here today good afternoon everybody my name is Ed dggs I am a Charlotte city council member for district 7 which is the south of Valentine area between Matthews and Pineville I chair the transportation planning and development committee which means a lot of what we're going to talk about here is very relevant I'm also a member of Mr Graham's economic jobs and economic development committee and a former two-time chair of our intergovernmental Relations Committee which means I spent quite a lot of time in the past walking in the halls of the general assembly and our relationship with Raleigh is a particular importance to me I very very pleased to be here today thank you your done yes please introduce yourself hey uh what are we say the your name and who you are okay uh Hey Y'all I'm Mar Molina uh I have my second term I represent East Side District 5 and nice week good job hi I'm Laura bud I represent house District 103 which now consists of a few streets in Matthews Valentine Pineville South meinberg and a few streets in South Charlotte so much like Senator Bradley um pick your poison good afternoon my name is Victoria watlington I see many familiar faces hello again friends um I serve on Starlet city council at large as well as the chair of the housing safety and Community Committee and have the pleasure of serving under Mr Driggs on the transportation and planning committee hello everyone good afternoon my name is TI Brown it's an honor and privilege to serve Charlotte City Council District 3 unapologetically thank you tar Cari city council District s all right I did we miss anyone feel free to stand up if you were Miss so that we can make sure that we document this wonderful occasion um so with that um we will now go to the staff revieww of our legislative agenda hello again let's go ahead and get into our legislative agenda we we do have just so you know we we are looking at issues that uh address our safe communities Vision addresses being prepared for growth but also we will have a an update on a u on a breaking topic that you all have been dealing with for the last uh in the last part of of uh the 24 uh General Assembly uh first thing um update a couple years ago legislation went through that enabled cities all cities to establish civilian crash investigation programs without without um having sworn officers okay I think we need more volume here is uh Amanda can you help out with this I think if I speak closer to the microphone youall may be that that's better I'll just have to lean over I to hunch over I'm good thank you Amanda uh thank you yeah two years ago the civilian crash investigation program legislation passed and uh like a lot of other police departments around the state Charlotte meberg Police got on the job and and started training uh the uh investigators and that program just launched and it's a good idea that I just launched because these stats are really pretty stunning to me over the last 3 years 71% of all car crashes are minor and these are the type of crashes that the civilian investigators can handle and those in swor officers were working about 40,000 hours forign resources we can put onto more uh more pressing matters and in our legislative agenda uh for this year under Public Safety uh there is an issue that the council feels very strongly about that needs to be addressed and that is the issue of all the arcade fish games and parlor bedding parlors that are springing up around the city in fact this is happening all around the state and my understanding is that a uh member of the House Republican leadership is going to be taking the charge this year to try to get legislation through and what we want to do was to show our support for addressing that issue and especially the Planning and Zoning issues we're going to that that is where that is where a lot of our issues come in now there are issues with the uh with the crime that does occur but when these uh when these arcade Fish game parlors are located in certain areas they tend to be a drag on those communities a lot of other businesses do not want to go into areas with these types of parlors so those are issues that we're looking at you also do have the crime issues that are inherent in these places so we are very glad that the general assembly is going to be taking that up again this session and we'll be uh looking forward to uh working with the sponsors to help try to move legislation along the next issue is one that I think all of us have seen in past years and this has to do with the amount of support that's provided to the local court system by uh in the Appropriations process we have heard a lot of different things uh from uh members of the uh of the court system especially the district attorney talking about the number of prosecutors that they are low in the pay rates that they are provided so uh the city is joining uh business and other community interest in supporting the local court system and let's talk about let's to preparing for growth uh one of the best things that happened this past year my estimation was the opening of of a second phase of The Concourse a expansion at Charlotte Douglas International Airport another 10 Gates have opened up that was a $231 million project and there were North Carolina airport Improvement program funds that the that the airport received that were committed for that project so that's a that's a program that was established several years ago that uh the airport receives about3 million $35 million each year from that and uh and what this allows us to do is increase capacity we can bring in more flights including more flights to other North Carolina cities so that's a good thing for not just the airport but for the entire State and our legislative agenda uh related to Aviation is to continue supporting this program the North Carolina airport Improvement program then moving on to another uh big issue that we all take advantage of is the uh Stow Regional Water Resource facility this is a new plant that is being built under construction right now on the west side of the county along the kabra river it's going to consolidate the wastewater treatment for the towns of uh Mount Holly and Belmont and uh also for a growing portion of mecklinburg County and the commissioning is expected to be completed in 2026 and it's not I think I said this last year but it's not usual I can get up here and talk great about a wastewater treatment plant [Music] so and on the other side uh on on the Charlotte wat side another issue has um that they're working on that you all need to be aware of that uh we're going to we're taking very very seriously is the notice of intent from Charlotte water to increase the amount of water that's U diverted from the Kataba River Basin to the Rocky River Basin the Rocky River Basin is essentially the eastern part the Eastern third of mecklinburg County roughly and includes uh not just parts of the city of Charlotte but includes parts of the towns of Matthews and Mill uh Huntersville Cornelius and Davidson there is not a natural source of water or or a enough water that goes through that Basin in order to tap into it to provide the water that that area needs to continue growing but in state law if you want to move water from one Basin to another you have to file what's called um uh you have to apply for a interbasin transfer certificate in Charlotte water did that about one year ago and uh and other systems around the state are doing likewise just like the town of moresville is but the rub is that some of the localities in our region are opposing it uh because they feel like it's going to be taking water from what's available for them and one thing about the process that's set out in state law that we are following is that we had to file the notice of intent to get the IBT before having the required studies completed and those studies are ongoing right now there will be an environmental impact statement there will be a a estimation of what the safe yield is from the Kataba River in order not in order to to continue providing water to others not just uh Upstream but also Downstream and also impacts upon the environment and so forth so um you may may hear some Rumblings from members of the general assembly up in the uh other areas like in the Kataba Caldwell Burke counties and so forth and uh right now we don't have the answers to a lot of their questions because those are under study but I do want you to know that we do have resources that Charlotte water has committed and they have sub subcontracted with people who know the local landscape of in these areas and they are meeting with local officials up there and uh and also we'll be using utilizing our state lobbying resources uh for that work as well with especially with the general assembly so we are we are taking this very seriously again we are very cognizant of the fact that Charlotte water Pro provides water not just only the city of Charlotte but to the other parts of mecklinburg County we take that responsibility very very serious seriously so there'll probably be more to come there's no legislation that we're asking for but in the event other legislation is filed that would impact it we will be in touch with you so uh more to come on that one and moving on to the next issue under uh uh growing communities is an emerging topic that has to do with planning this has to do with the down zoning Clause that was part of Senate bill 382 uh since the legislation was passed or since it was introduced and then ultimately passed uh cities counties and towns around the state have been examining what the impacts are of this legislation and and I will be really honest with you is that the impacts are being looked at uh but uh there's a lot of understanding that has to take place there's a lot of work going on among our planning directors and our attorneys around the state uh to come to an understanding of what impacts this bill actually has and but we do see some some issues coming forward as U as we as we try to go through the process of of planning for our community you could have some impacts on the ability to further limit any uses like the the fish game arcades like short-term rental and any reduction in density for certain areas um and also uh looking at the non-conforming structures and so forth so we're looking to uh collaborate on any language modifications uh that uh that retain for us the ability to pursue the solutions that we need to respond to the community and we have our uh planning director Allison Craig back there in case there are any additional questions about this later on and then moving to uh the big topic that's on everybody's mind is mobility and for that I'd like to have Ed mckitty come up to present thank you Dana again Ed mckenny with the Charlotte City Manager office and certainly this is a great opportunity to provide an overview of essentially multi-e of of work and collaboration but certainly a lot of big events and and uh conclusions that have happened the last year to get us forward so what I want want to do is highlight the uniqueness of the efforts and the success that we've had in the conversations over this past year and there's a couple key points one is this is a result of a multi-year regional collaboration there's been a lot of work again over multiple years but certainly some intense work that has happened this past year with the managers of the city the county and the towns to really dive into this strategy couple of really key big Milestones that happened as part of that work is the update of the mtc's uh interlocal agreement sort of reestablishing that working relationship uh a lot of work it's it was a big lift to get that uh adopted and and supported by the communities and then finally uh this work is to where we stand today around the draft legislation so uh that collaboration to set set really a a funding strategy to move us forward and it was really important to get that support across the county and successful at getting the majority of our jurisdictions to support that publicly this past fall secondly this is unique in its approach from a funding strategy so it's multimodal and I'll I'll talk about the reasons for that in in a couple of different ways and and I'll also reference some success that we've seen around the country in in successful uh sales tax referendums it's multimodal so it cut it touches roads it touches our bus system it touches our rail system roads uh certainly isn't important because of the needs that we have across the county uh and the city and the town so we all know that growth is is pushing our infrastructure in a way that is requiring us to think differently about how we how we invest and that's across things like safety that across things like sidewalks Street lighting certainly congestion mitigation but it's really across the board some of the basic needs when our we need in our our roadway Network dedicating bus funding is is also a really important part of this strategy so cats has been working on their better their better bus system The Envision my ride all of that is leading to a really Innovative and Forward Thinking approach about how we invest in our bus system I'll talk a little bit more in detail but that's frequency that's amenities that's microtransit uh some really unique things that we're seeing across the country that we think we can invest and imply here in our city uh with the right funding strategy and then certainly Rail and that's giving us the ability to move on the priorities of our Transit our 2030 transit system plan uh but again do it in the balance of our multimodal approach lastly and and this is really unique across the country it it takes that road funding empowers all the local jurisdictions including the city to utilize those funds in a way that reflects the needs and uh priorities they have individually uh we have I think certainly similar needs across the county but every city every town uh has their unique situation unique scale and unique uh context so this is this is a unique way to uh essentially Empower our local jurisdictions with this funding strategy uh to add address that the needs that they have uh in each of their jurisdictions now let me uh go into the detail there's a lot here to unpack on this slide uh and certainly a lot of these details we've discussed before uh but let me let me highlight again a few things first is the scale uh so it's really important to sort of pause on that that number at the top 19.4 billion uh that is uh one of the biggest efforts that we will see across the country in the next several years so we should we should take that pause for a moment and realize that opportunity we are one of the fastest growing cities in the country in the region and U having this source is really this source of funding is really a a way to continue for us to be successful and to address the transportation infrastructure we need have uh the needs we have over the next 30 Years again it is multimodal so I want to talk a little bit about the details of that uh defines uh 60% of this funding for roads and bus investment and again that's across the needs we have for our safety our sidewalks our street lighting congestion mitigation expansion of our roadway system and again it includes a bus investment on that road Network that road network is the foundation of a good Transit plan and the and the vision that we have for our bus system builds upon that Foundation a key part of that uh foundation in the bus system is microtransit I want to emphasize that the funding that you see on this slide is essentially set up to to implement uh the vision that cats has put forward in their better bus system frequency additional frequency on our high priority corridors amenities physical amenities to make uh our bus stops and our Transit stations uh essentially dignified for our Transit users we as we all know we've got many uh uh bus stops across our system that simply aren't up to uh the dignity that our Transit Riders deserve this gives us the funding to do it and then microtransit we're about to implement as I think many of you know the the microtransit in the northern towns this is first Last Mile uh this is doortodoor service and this is the ability to put that service across the county in a way that we've never done before putting it in places that don't have and are almost impossible to serve from a typical Transit standpoint this this will give us coverage in a way that we've never seen before it requires certainly a scale of thinking that this funding uh would give us the ability to do and then certainly 40% of this funding is dedicated to rail that gives us the ability uh to first and foremost implement the red line but then work to prioritize our other corridors and invest in them given that scale of of funding opportunity last part of the slide talks about the federal funding uh dollars that we can leverage again that 19.4 billion gives us the ability to to potentially pull down another six billion invest in our transit system and and really make us competitive across the country with a local source and a local match uh to take and uh essentially take advantage of the federal funding that will be available and this is you know not just the current period of time but over the next 30 Years this gives us the ability to to really take advantage of that uh funding opportunity the last thing I wanted to say about this slide and we many of us on staff have been able to spend over the last year uh some deep dieses with other cities across the country that have taken this approach uh we've talked with the city of Phoenix we've talked with the city of Nashville Columbus uh all three of which had successful uh sales tax referendums just this past fall they have all taken this approach so this notion that the way we invest in trans transportation is multimodal uh just like us they have all the same needs they need Transit service and extension but they also have the same kind of roadway needs that we have and their Transit funding and strategy reflects that and I think we're excited to say they were all successful that this past fall all three of them uh were successful we talked about why and how they were successful and the first thing they told us was this approach that this resonated uh with the community it reflects the needs that they have and was uh really the the right way for their for their needs to move forward with funding so it gives us a path forward and and certainly some uh lessons to learn as we move forward with this with this effort let's talk a little bit now and focus in on the road piece which uh again uh it's important to think about the scale I've sort of highlighted a couple numbers here this is large significant amount of funding over a 30-year period period as I know Council knows we've talked with City our city set our city council over the last couple of years we're working to really Define certainly the needs that we have and our approach and our strategy for investing in those needs uh those needs are are immense and go beyond our current funding strategy and our current funding ability and this investment gives us the ability to take a big step in in dealing with those needs and certainly again at different scales the towns have the same name same need needs at at their own uh in their own context if you look at their plans they're just like our plans they're just at a different scale we all have the same safety concerns we all have the same uh concerns about congestion and pedestrian safety and and convenience uh so these plans are the same we all just need uh the right amount of money to invest in them emphasize again those dollars through this sales tax would go directly to the towns directly to the city to invest in their own way with their own priorities it's also a commitment the city has made to extend that investment uh in the etj and the county to address some of the existing needs that are out there on that roadway system it's an annual revenue which you see here is year one the total there is 7 billion over over 30 years that year one continues to grow with the growth of the sales tax um and that's an annual revenue that every city every town can and and and and um gives us also a way to partner so this these are dollars that we can think about across the county across jurisdictions to partner on projects work with ncdot to partner on other big projects this is a way for us all to to sort of take responsibility and accountability for our own needs but partner in a way that helps lift the region from a transportation standpoint you can't have a Mobility discussion in the county in this region and a funding conversation without talking about the red line so it's important to uh remind ourselves about both the history and where we've gotten over the past year it has always been a commitment it has always been on and part of the 2030 Transit plan there's never been a a doubt or debate about that the issue has always been access uh and getting uh either through full control of that Corridor the NS Corridor or access to it to run the service the commuter rail service that has always been envisioned as again we all know this year has been a huge breakr breakthrough 20 years in the making uh we thank we are thankful for the partnership of n of northr Southern their ability now to be this past year in a position where they were ready and open to having detailed conversations about the the transfer of that Corridor the city spent over a year worth of detailed negotiations to make that happen city council supported that purchase back in September those detailed conversations uh were important to certainly protect the city's interests in the short term but protect the interests and the ability in the long term for the current cats or the future transit authority to utilize that Corridor in a way that's consistent with the plan certainly the sort of one of the final points to put on that and it's important to think about this from a multi-count perspective everything we've done that purchase and access that we've got to that quarter is set up to expand and uh extend into aale County to to morisville very important that's that's only upon their their determination of their decision we've made sure that that's possible it's ultimately their decision uh to do that in the right time and the right way so it's really clear uh that we see that as an important partnership but certainly the the uh leadership and their decision is is all of theirs uh in partnership with us finally let's just talk about what's really the next few steps from a Transit perspective and what's happening again in the next six months that would really be fundamental to the public conversation around Transit and this opportunity of funding so the MTC has already started uh the process to update the transit plan to reflect the the funding strategy that I've just described another thing that's really important to pause on here is this will be the first time in in over over 20 years that this planning process from a Transit standpoint will be done in the context of a financial opportunity potentially a financial constraint but real dollars at the table and a real conversation about what we can build so this gives us the ability to have a a Frank and transparent conversation with the community about what our priorities are what our vision is for Transit but then commit to how we would actually do that having money on the table is really an important part of the public conversation we cannot continue to Simply think about our plans in absence of a way to fund them and so this is this process that MTC and the cats has set up will allow us to do that the decision is mtc's uh that includes essentially representation elected representation across the county the towns the city uh and the county that gives us both a public way through a public conversation and ultimately a decision that the MTC will make about that plan there will be certainly hard decisions right the financial constraint uh and the structure of that funding strategy is real and it will require uh detailed analysis that's already underway with the MTC public conversation and ultimately a decision by the MTC about what that plan looks like that sets the stage uh for uh ultimately a broader conversation as we all know the hope and the the intent that we would have the ability to let the public decide on this later this year with a true Transit plan a real transparent and and honest way in which we can Implement that plan with the right funding a real sense of what we could do with the other dollars for our our towns and our city around Road Transportation weaving those things together and talking about the community about that funding uh their their um support the public support for that funding strategy and and essentially a vision for our Mobility investment over the next 30 Years that our intent our hope is that we can continue that conversation uh in the next several months and through this year to conclude in November with the hope of having the public U weigh in on and essentially make that decision for themselves with that I will stop I think it's um time to put it back to the mayor and open up for discussion thank you very much Ed um I think Ed knows this by heart he could do this in his sleep but we as a community and as the elected officials here um we really are at a point in our agenda that we want to hear from you um what you have heard and what you see as opportunities for us so I'd really like to start with our Senate um leaders and members and then go back to our house leaders and we would be glad to address any question that that you have um to be able to think about what we've been discussing and I think especially as we're talking about the red line so I'm going to open this up to um Senator Sawyer and Senator di there we are we back in the back would you like to begin with us no go ahead go ahead Andrea I I always like a little bit of time to process but um let's just I guess logistically um from looking at the request here um you're mentioning the draft legislation and advancing that um in the Senate with our roles we do have a limitation on when bills can be requested and then ultimately introduced um so I'm wondering what is the state of the draft legislation um kind of what is that timeline just more logistically I've certainly seen things floating around but I'm not sure of the current status and just making sure we can be on top of uh meeting I think it's February 7 te we have to submit our request um so that's going to come up rather quickly take it oh no I'd love for the senator to take this I think you got a little bit more of a leadership in this way thank you um it's always a joyful day to come down to the city of Charlotte me put on the hot seat um so yeah thank you um for that question and um we have been working through um the draft legislation nothing is really different different than what the media has reported I don't know that there's anything changed um the one thing that will never change is Bild Drafting and their ability to get it out quickly and so I can tell you that um the draft had been submitted a while ago um and we are awaiting um their response but I have not seen anything come back from them any other questions or comments ideas that you think that we should um incorporate or that we should not incorporate anyone all right it is an open question and I have um Miss Bud here who's raised her hand I'm sorry thank you the green is on is on I thought so but it was just on so I thought positive um I had a question with respect to our airport so as one of the largest growing cities in the nation the Charlotte meinberg Metropolitan region as I refer to it now does not have a line from the airport into Uptown which is critical for growth as the economic Powerhouse in the state and by that I don't just mean Char the city of Charlotte McClurg County I'm talking about the adjacent counties around us and the growth that they are seeing where are discussions with respect to that aspect when we talk about Mobility all right we're going to ask our airport director to address that who luckily happens to be sitting beside of our cat's director this was I'm so glad that I timed that while both y'all were here so Haley and I have worked together for a long time and we always appreciate our collaboration and partnership uh I can assure you as we look at the Silver Line we uh at cats as well as at the airport are um focused on creating a connection um fast Rel reliable service from uptown Charlotte the rest of the region into the airport um so that um not only can airport employees have good connections as well as passengers um but that is something we're focused on and have been focused on and from the airport perspective I can tell you that we're very enthusiastic about the opportunity to have the Silver Line we think it will be great for our employee base uh we think eventually it could see some ership um from certain types of passengers depending on where they're coming from but it's definitely an asset that we look forward to having one day all right any further comment on that okay other questions or com did I hear someone yeah had a question for the uh following up on the airport um piece uh the MTC meets in February I believe to kind of the things had they go over alternative plans correct and just out of curiosity is there any consideration for rethinking what the silver loun to the airport uh looks like uh Boston for example has a Silverline funny enough from its airport but it's bus it's not so much bus Rapid Transit but it's buses that operate on a pretty higher frequency um they're segmented buses so they have a higher capacity and they also operate for free from the airport to downtown not free from downtown to wherever else they're going but just as an alternative for I know there were concerns about taking rail all the way to the airport and that it was going to have to stop about a mile or so away uh maybe there's a way to kind of thread the needle to get uh connections all the way to the terminal itself back to wherever people need to get to for many years the airport has had a plan in place and the parking lots have even been designed around the effort to have electric transportation of some kind and I say of some kind because depending on when the year is that this occurs that is to be determined however I can tell you that the airport is encroaching on Wilkinson Boulevard and it will continue to move closer to I85 so we are planning for the future of the airport by locating the silver line where it is now Brent can speak to exact alignment or any further details about that but that's the airport's position for many years and and it hasn't changed yeah when when we think about the silver line and the MTC uh meetings when we think about all of the rapid transit corridors which the Silver Line serves two of those uh Southeastern and the Western Corridor um we'll be meeting with the MTC on January 22nd is our next meeting we'll be talking to them we've been we spent the last uh two or three months working through our financial um model and now that we've updated the financial model we'll really be talking to them about opt options and alternatives for how to serve the corridors the Silver Line uh Western Corridor to the airport as well as the Silver Line Eastern Corridor but all of that's going to be in context of financial feasibility right we we need to bring forward um options and Alternatives both to the MTC and to the community that um meet their needs but also o can be built that are financially uh feasible to build and the start of that conversation with the MTC and then ultimately with the public is uh January 22nd that will be a multi- um month process as we go through um understanding working with the MTC to understand those Alternatives and with the community and then ultimately asking the MTC to support and updated transit system plan all right Mr maade okay uh I have a question I was noticing on this Mobility update on the red line uh between the um Charlotte Gateway station and derer D is the the first stop but in between that's a long distance and I noticed the distance uh going on up to uh Northern uh mecury county is there a reason why isn't there a stop in between Charlotte and the D station that's a very long segment I know I've gotten a lot of emails about that segment not being appropriate so I'm sure that I'm BR probably had the same opportunity or is that in the budget for future situ situation I think it is something that people are we're beginning on this plan and we are hearing from our residents our neighborhoods and talking through this so but I I don't think that we have any um specific on that one yeah um so Katz has heard that as well um so a couple points to make about the map that you see so in transit speak we have what's called a locally preferred alternative that LPA is approved so the LPA the map that you see that we put up up on the screen today is the currently approved LPA that LPA can be modified by the MTC and that is the point of having these public conversations so that as we understand Community desires and um uh and we start to look at actual station placement we can bring forward alternatives to the MTC I would anticipate that um we will have a conversation with the MTC about stations or um about that that segment of the red line there in the northern part of Charlotte or or kind of closest to Uptown um but that is a process that we need to engaging in the MTC as we hear the comments that we we are receiving currently okay I also want to be very conscious that we said that we would talk about this for about an hour been giving you every opportunity I expect that you have other things to do as well as mle over what we're trying to accomplish so um but I want to go ahead and ask the members of the house if they had any questions specific to this discussion Madam mayor I did have one more question over here yes uh Mr mckenny had mentioned that uh there were several other cities that we were looking at um that had a multimodal plan similar to ours um not withstanding the total spend was the the the fun was the spending like broken down in a similar way that we are say 40% roads 40% rail 20% bus um or were they thought of in their own unique ways and how did that work out for them I guess is the final question sorry sure yeah again the cities that I reference that we've done some you know deeper conversations with were um Phoenix Nashville Columbus uh they've done all done it different ways and certainly I don't want to answer that in detail certainly can provide some we'll we'll put together a little package that sort of describes some of the more details of that all of them were multimodal they they again kind of divided it in their own ways some of them were more focused Nashville for example was a completely bus investment with roads Phoenix was a mix of those uh Columbus was a bus investment with Road as part of it uh the success I'll just reiterate I think your question at the end uh the lesson we've learned and again their their success this past November was about a conversation that puts it all together unique to each city right what we've I think we've tried to do here is put together the the the right strategy for Charlotte all of those cities though have done it in a way that's similar in terms of looking across the modes to think about how you would invest all of them were sales tax all of them went to a public referendum and uh again one of the key messages they told to us was that multimodal strategy was one of the most important parts of their success certainly glad to we could probably put together a little bit of a one page on that and proba a little bit more detail all right thank you yes go ahead did you have a question oh um I guess in the beginning even when we talked about the um number of funds that we'll need for the entire project and had appreciation for the size I I think relative to other projects are there any more kind of cost cutting or cost control measures that were introduced or maybe even best practices from previous Transit jobs or even sort of best practices we learned from other projects around the nation in terms of uh cost control measures I'm not sure if the manager wants to address that or Brent because I know that we've had um many many people come in and provide for us how did they do it um and it's been all the way up on the East Coast we've also um gone through Washington DC see in places like that so we are including that um but I'm not so sure that we have anything specific today it may be that we can give you some information about places that we have looked at and talked about how they have um operated and how they were able to complete the some of them them you know Phoenix was really pretty successful but I think we went um Mr Mitchell did we go to see Phoenix like 20 years ago 20 years ago so you can see how some of this works it does take a long time it's it it is something that we really have to invest in so that we can give you more information Senator thank you if you'll just allow me to do a little bit of a housekeeping moment um I want to thank the woman in front of me representative Becky Carney and the other woman in front of me representative Trisha cotham for stepping up to be um the two leaders on this in the house and for the meinberg county delegation so as we move forward I'll really be um leaning on both of you to help me through this um and so for those of other of you that that will be our line of communication our city council I believe in the Charlotte Regional business Alliance had reached out to the general s about the pre-trial Integrity act Mur county is one of the few counties that actually wanted it um about holding criminal defendants for additional 48 Hours uh if they pick up new charges so I was wondering about the status of the success of that um if anybody knew about it and I'm happy to connect with Dana or someone else just to take a look back about the successes of it and what else supports the the city could use thank you Senator I'd be glad to get that information to you unfortunately our our chief of police cannot be here today he was attending a funeral for a u for a for for an officer who had um who had passed away unfortunately so I apologize for that but uh I'll be glad to get you that information and we'll we'll be glad to send that out to everyone so that you all have have the same information as we address the responses that you've requested today yes I just want to reiterate um what Senator soya said about moving forward with legislation and that they already have bills and drafting so all of us can contribute and we have a committee that's already in place working with the business Community here for that to take place and was already mentioned that senator representative Carney and representative cam are already working they have been working previously with legislation and with bills to move forward in this regard thank you thank you um yes Miss Bud yes I had a question and it may be included in the materials that you're going to provide with respect to Public Safety as I also had a question and that was with respect to the city's efforts um in Youth and Young adults and where are the violence intervention programs and how can we as your um legislative delegation how can we help with those um not just with respect to the city of Charlotte but as a whole as we know it sprad thank you very much that's a great question really appreciate that we'll get that information um as we said from a lot of our colleagues that will be working with us this evening and we can Pro produce that information as well I know that it is now 10 after 10 and we said that we would end at 10 so I want to know one I'm sorry I'm looking at the clock and it's 1 after and I can't I can barely see it I don't have my glasses on so it is now 10 after 1 whatever and so I want to say to you that we greatly appreciate your time thank you so much for taking the phone calls to say would you please come because we believe this is important to the our future and I just want to say to all of you how much we appreciate your ability to um help us work through the kind of issues that we believe are important to our city to be able to be a successful and continue to grow like we can and to continue to have people that can thrive in this community so that we can have people that go to work every day and have the opportunity to live with their families and housing every one of those initiatives are very important and thank you very much for standing with us on them so with that I think we will have a motion to adjourn move I move for adjournment at this time second all right we have a motion and a second all in favor say I thank you all very much for being here question [Music]