
MEMORANDUM
Date: March 20, 2013
To:
Leon Howe, Ashton Watson, Bret Canipe, Scott Cole,
CC:
James Mitchell, Rick Grochoske
From: Alan Morrison
RE:
Meeting Minutes for the Mt Holly-Huntersville at Brookshire Project
The purpose of this memorandum is to document the discussion of the meeting held on
March 14, 2013 regarding the proposed expanded scope of improvements at Mt HollyHuntersville Rd and Brookshire Blvd intersection. City and State staff had invited the
business owners and managers that have property adjacent to the project site including
representatives from Cook’s Memorial Presbyterian Church.
The meeting was held at Cook’s Memorial Presbyterian Church and staff from the City and
other agencies included the following:







Leon Howe– Engineering Services, In-house Design
Alan Morrison – Engineering Services, In-house Design
Ashton Watson- CDOT
Rick Grochoske- CDOT
James Mitchell- Charlotte City Council, District 2
Bret Canipe, NCDOT
Scott Cole, NCDOT
The meeting was opened with Ashton Watson providing the background for the project
initiation. Concept plans were presented at a public input meeting last October to provide
an exclusive eastbound right turn at the intersection of Mt Holly-Huntersville Rd and
Brookshire Blvd. As explained by Mr. Watson, the funding was limited to make
improvements and some of the goals were to find an improvement providing greatest impact
for improving capacity, do the work within existing right-of-way and avoid major overhead
utility relocations.
With these goals, the City planned to widen the east bound approach of Mt HollyHuntersville Rd and utilize the existing pavement width to provide one single left turn lane,
two thru lanes and an exclusive right turn lane. The proposed schedule planned to
complete the widening and re-striping for the lanes by the end of 2013.
Mr. Watson stated NCDOT had evaluated potential funding and approached City staff about
partnering funding from the City and NCDOT to do a bigger project to obtain more impactful
capacity benefits. Scott Cole, NCDOT Deputy Division Engineer, shared a power point
presentation with an outline of proposed changes in the lane usage and other improvements
to improve capacity. The proposed scope included the following:







Northbound double left turn lanes off Brookshire Blvd,
Pedestrian Crossing with refuge island (north side of Brookshire Blvd),
Widen eastbound & restripe approach to provide single left turn lane, two thru lanes
and an exclusive right turn lane,
Construct concrete median as directional cross over Callabridge Commons and Mt
Island Marketplace shopping center driveways,
Signalize the intersection at Couloak Drive and Mt Holly-Huntersville Rd(utilize funds
committed by private development for signal installation),
Construct U-Turn bulb for westbound traffic at Couloak and Mt Holly-Huntersville Rd,
Proposed schedule with best case scenario would be completed by December 2013
and the worst case scenario would be complete by mid-year 2014. The schedule is
greatly dependent upon the utility relocations and this could delay the project
completion.
The floor was then opened up to questions from the attending business owners. Questions
focused on the creation of restricting movements at the Callabridge Commons and Mt Island
Marketplace Shopping center driveways. The business owners expressed concern over the
ability to turn left out of the driveway. CDOT and NCDOT responded by stating that allowing
two thru lanes westbound creates a different dynamic for drivers to navigate safely. The full
movement was not planned to remain in place permanently but was expected to be
restricted to a right-in and right-out only as shown on the approved rezoning plan.
The discussion continued on how to improve the ability to head east out of the shopping
centers access point. Options discussed included providing direct access to Brookshire
Blvd from the Callabridge Commons development site and improving the internal circulation
to Couloak Drive. NCDOT responded that the property purchased to construct Brookshire
Blvd was acquired with a control of access. This control can be broken but requires
approval from NCDOT and would likely require payment for the control of access
purchased. CDOT staff pointed out that the U-turn movement at Couloak provides a safe
and cost effective way for vehicles to head eastbound from Callabridge Commons. It was
also pointed out that the rezoning did not provide for left-in access at the driveways between
Callabridge Commons and Brookshire Blvd as these improvements have proposed. The
rezoning indicated the driveways would be restricted to right-in and right-out only.
2
CDOT staff committed to performing some traffic counts in order to fully assess the impact
of redirecting traffic to the U-turn location or through the parking area for access to Couloak
Drive. The data for this assessment is not expected back until after the planned meeting on
March 21 to meet with the general public about the expanded scope of the project.
However, this data may be helpful as the Callabridge Commons businesses collaborate on
the internal circulation patterns and how to serve the development site.
An attendee inquired about the existing street lighting that is not working and if additional
lighting can be added along the corridor and at the intersection. Staff responded by stating
the best way to handle street lighting outages is to contact Duke Energy directly. Additional
street lighting would be accomplished through the installation of breakway/decorative light
poles along Brookshire Blvd. These poles are similar to the ones closer into town along
Brookshire and are very expensive to install. Such an installation would typically be funded
by the City of Charlotte and Duke Energy through the Encroachment Agreement process
with NCDOT. The City does not currently have any plans or the funding to add street lights
along Brookshire Blvd.
A representative from Cook’s Memorial Presbyterian Church inquired about the existing
driveway adjacent to Couloak Drive and if there were plans to restrict or eliminate that
access point. NCDOT responded by stating the driveway appeared to be a low volume
driveway and there is no apparent crash history to indicate that this access is a problem.
Based on current data and trends, the driveway is planned to remain as it is currently
operating.
One of the business owners inquired about how to maintain communication with interested
parties. City Engineering & Property Management staff will update with postcards on a
quarterly basis and through the City’s project website at:
http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/epm/Projects/azlist/Pages/A-Z%20Index.aspx
3