Charlotte officials mapped out the rapid deployment of “Big Moves 2030” at the annual City Council retreat.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. โ Charlotte City Council members spent much of their annual budget retreat in Ballantyne on Tuesday, focused on one central question: how to turn newly approved transportation funding into visible progress across the city.
After voters approved a one-cent sales tax increase in November, council members and city staff are now mapping out how to deploy those dollars. During the retreat, leaders highlighted what they are calling โBig Moves 2030,โ a slate of major, multi-modal projects designed to have citywide and regional impact.
Ed McKinney, special assistant to the city manager, presented the roadmap and emphasized speed.
โWe need to be doing things quick,” McKinney said. “Across the city, weโre gonna expand quick projects with the funding. It’s not just one by one or two by two. We need to be out there and talking to people, building excitement about what weโre doing.”
City leaders identified seven projects that are either designed or partially designed but lacked full funding until now. They include improvements along Dearmon Road; the Ashley, Freedom and Tuckaseegee intersection; the Lastway Drive and Shamrock Drive intersection; complete streets upgrades for Shamrock Drive; Robinson Church Road; Brown Grier Road; and a new corridor known as Bryant Farms Road.
โThey have been in the works, but don’t have full funding, or behind the scenes they didn’t have full funding,” McKinney explained. “They all have partnership, they are ready to go, shovel ready. With these dollars, we can advance them, these seven projects can get done in the next five years.”ย
In addition to project planning, council members heard from the mayor of Denver and former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt about strategies for implementing the new sales tax funding and addressing community concerns.
Recent debates over the I-77 South toll lane project and its impact on historically disenfranchised neighborhoods were also part of the broader conversation about transportation equity and public trust.
City leaders said the retreat was about more than balancing a budget. Instead, they framed it as a strategy session focused on delivering tangible results from funding voters approved.
Officials expect further discussion and refinement of the mobility plan in the coming months as projects move closer to construction timelines.
Contact Walker Lawson at wlawson@wcnc.com or follow him on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok.
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