Abstract
Charlotte-Mecklenburg, in the midst of years of strong growth, has adopted a Centers and Corridors Vision to sustain its prosperity and check the potential loss of jobs and residents to adjacent suburban jurisdictions. Successful integration of land use and transit planning is needed to avoid choking gridlock and gradual stagnation. Recent development is extensive but typically at very low suburban densities. This is the first paper in a series of three papers that show how an intensive six-month study assessed transit opportunities in five corridors and showed how to alter current land use trends to better support transit and the Centers and Corridors Vision. Innovative approaches to ridership projections and a scheme for regional governance are also features of this strategy that helped convince voters to approve a 0.5% sales tax for transit system construction and operations.Overview
Culminating a ten-year planning process, an intensive six-month effort has resulted in a regional Transit/Land Use Plan for Charlotte-Mecklenburg through the year 2025. One unusual aspect of the planning effort was the attention paid by the City to land use. This plan proposes a rapid transit system as a means of supporting land use initiatives to attain the vision of the Centers and Corridors Plan. The fundamental goal of the Centers and Corridors Plan is to sustain economic growth while protecting citizens' quality of life. The Centers and Corridors plan, adopted by the Charlotte City Council and Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners in 1994, and reaffirmed through inclusion in the approved 2015 Plan, identified five major transportation and development corridors extending from the Center City of Charlotte to the County's border and beyond (Figure 1).
The deve
