CHARLOTTE — Business leaders, including real estate executives, have almost uniformly lined up behind the $25.3 billion transportation expansion proposal. With a referendum on the main funding source — a 1-cent sales tax increase — expected to be on the fall ballot, the business community is targeting a $3 million ad campaign to build support.
One exception to the blanket business backing is Bobby Drakeford, a residential real estate developer who started his locally based firm, The Drakeford Co., in 2001. As he told CBJ, he’s not against more transit and roads options, he’s against the proposal in its current form.
Drakeford declined to name names but said he has found supporters of the tax and the 30-year expansion plan unresponsive and uninterested in discussing changes.
“We have to have a very specific economic package for displacement,” he said. “Other (places) do it. It’s very clear what’s going to happen on Wilkinson and West Boulevard.”
He was referring to the 10.3-mile portion of the east-west Silver Line light-rail project included in the transportation proposal, a route spanning Bojangles Coliseum down Independence Boulevard through uptown and on to Wilkinson Boulevard to the airport.
Light rail tends to bring gentrified development, as seen by the multibillion-dollar investments along the existing Blue Line corridor along South Boulevard since it opened in 2007.
Read the full story on CBJ’s website here.
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