CHARLOTTE — A Charlotte neighborhood is on edge after finding spray-painted markings in their yards connected to the new Interstate 77 toll lane project that will run to south Charlotte.
Channel 9’s Evan Donovan spoke with neighbors in the McCrorey Heights area after they found red markings and orange markings around the street. They want to know what it means for their homes after the North Carolina Department of Transportation decided last week to move forward with the new toll lane project.
NCDOT’s contracted surveyors spraypainted a rainbow of colors in people’s yards this week. Some neighbors claim they were never told about what’s going on.
“It’s not just the emphasis on the street or right of way, this is actually physically in people’s yards, so they did it for probably 30 to 40 homes,” one neighbor told Donovan.
We saw NCDOT crews in the neighborhood on Wednesday, and a spokesperson confirmed to Channel 9 that it sent a letter to homeowners saying it would be conducting this kind of work. But that letter was sent two years ago to thousands of homeowners, not just people who live in McCrorey Heights.
Sean Langley, the McCrorey Heights Neighborhood president, says there’s a whole history behind this.
[ RELATED >> NCDOT announces $3.2B plan for elevated express lanes on I-77 in south Charlotte ]
“This only affects those neighborhoods along the I-77 corridor, which happen to be mainly Black and Brown neighborhoods,” Langley said. “Historically, they built these interstates through here – not only in Charlotte but across the U.S. And oftentimes, it would be because the land was the cheapest. But the land was the cheapest because of redlining."
That history includes building both the Brookshire Freeway, then I-77 in the late 1960s and early ’70s.
Now, NCDOT wants to build elevated express toll lanes for I-77 stretching from near this neighborhood down to the South Carolina line.
An NCDOT spokesperson said the “current” design doesn’t remove any homes, but they stressed the word current and noted that all of this is still in planning. NCDOT said they’re looking for every opportunity to reduce or eliminate impacts wherever possible.
(VIDEO >> The cost of saving time: Amid high prices, NCDOT says I-77 toll lanes are ‘effective’)
This browser does not support the video element.