Big development related decisions are on the agendas for Mooresville/Davidson on Monday/Tuesday this coming week, and each is likely to yield some controversy.
Social media sites are encouraging people to attend and show their displeasure with the Lake Davidson development rezoning request in Mooresville on Monday and with the Beaty Street RFP developer selection in Davidson on Tuesday. See here and here for the details on each.
Citizens opposed to both projects have been working diligently - pursuing any and all options to derail these large scale projects that will occur in close proximity to each other, on similar propose6thd timelines, on already overcrowded NC115. To date, those efforts appear to have fallen largely on deaf ears at local Town Halls.
Enough shenanigans have certainly come out of those halls of power to have earned officials the ire of the people they supposedly represent. See here, here, here, and here for examples.
aShortChronicle has received indications that both meetings could see some surprises as activists pull out all the stops before potential votes that could change this portion of the Lake Norman area from bucolic small-town America to Birkdale on steroids.
Stay tuned as this story unfolds over the next few days.
Showing posts with label Mooresville. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mooresville. Show all posts
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Monday, June 5, 2017
Legal issues outlined against "Lake Davidson" rezoning request
Yesterday, aShortChronicle told readers about tonight's hearing and vote on the massive Lake Davidson neighborhood rezoning request. As part of that we mentioned the possibility of pursuing a move towards conditional zoning instead to give citizens more control.
Well, a petition has just started on Change.org with outlines a whole host of legal issues against the rezoning - including moving this to conditional. The tone of the petition sure sounds like this one is headed to court if tonight's decision doesn't go the right way.
This certainly amps up the drama for the hearing. The action starts at 6pm at Mooresville Town Hall.
Here are the details:
We are petitioning the Mayor and Board of Commissioners of the Town of Mooresville to DENY an Application for Rezoning of land located at 1814 and 1828 Mecklenburg Highway in Mooresville, North Carolina.
The developer, Hinckley Gauvain, is requesting that the land be rezoned from Single Family Residential (R3) to Corridor Mixed Use (CMX) and Neighborhood Mixed Use (NMX) to build a proposed commercial and highly dense multifamily neighborhood development called "Lake Davidson Development." The developer has filed its Application for Rezoning as a "straight" rezoning request rather than a "conditional" zoning request.
We are strongly opposed to the rezoning request for the following reasons:
·The rezoning request is not a narrowing of the scope of the base zoning district, but rather an expansion from existing residential to high density multifamily and commercial; therefore, it cannot be reviewed as a "straight" rezoning request under Town Ordinance § 2.3.1(4)(A). Conditional zoning is critical to maintain control over development of this area.
·The subject land is identified in the Town's Comprehensive Land Use Plan as Employment Center - Office, not CMX and NMX. Additionally, the majority of uses allowed in the CMX and NMX zones will fail the 25-to-50 job test request required by the Comprehensive Land Use Plan for the Employment Center - Office classification.
·The subject land's existing watershed is "Lake Norman IV Critical," meaning that 50% of the land must be used for Single Family Residential (R3) in order to protect the lake. Neither CMX nor NMX allow the subject land to remain 50% Single Family Residential.
·Rezoning the subject land to CMX and NMX is inconsistent with the Town's Comprehensive Land Use Plan for Highway 115 to remain historic, scenic and rural.
·The rezoning request would significantly burden traffic. The Town's own Traffic Impact Analysis shows serious degradation of numerous roads surrounding the subject land to a level of service of F.
·Town Officials have repeatedly commented that this rezoning request should not happen until the East-West Connector is complete; however, no construction on the East-West Connector has even begun. The rezoning request should be denied until the East-West Connector is complete or there is a commitment from the State, Norfolk Southern, the Town and the developer to widen Highway 115.
·Upon information and belief, approximately six (6) landowners are funding the East-West Connector and will be paid for their property by a developer who will then develop and benefit from rezoning by the Town of subject land on Highway 115 up to and including Langtree Road. This gives an appearance of impropriety, particularly where tax payer dollars are used and rezoning benefits the developer and Town to the detriment of residents.
·There is no current need for the rezoning and the proposed Lake Davidson Development.
·There are no current changes in condition, such as a large corporate addition to the area, to necessitate this rezoning request and proposed development.
·This kind of development is too early. This area is still thoroughly pastoral and undeveloped and almost exclusively residential.
·The rezoning request and proposed development will destroy the lake, environment and rural nature of this area.
·Numerous public records requests, under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-1, have not yet been responded to by the Town. Until citizens are provided with said public records, no rezoning request should be approved and public comment should remain open.
·The subject land and surrounding neighborhoods are in Mooresville's Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ). Rezoning the subject land without giving adjacent neighborhoods the right to vote and other rights afforded to non-ETJ citizens is unconstitutional. As recently noted by the North Carolina Supreme Court in Town of Boone v. State, "Extraterritorial jurisdiction remains extraordinary because it broadens a municipality's jurisdictional reach beyond its corporate limits. This extension of extraterritorial jurisdictional authority deprives the residents of the extraterritorial area of meaningful representation and the right to vote for local government representatives who shape policies affecting their property interests." Further, no one residing in the adjacent neighborhoods has ever been represented on the Town's planning or adjustment boards.
Well, a petition has just started on Change.org with outlines a whole host of legal issues against the rezoning - including moving this to conditional. The tone of the petition sure sounds like this one is headed to court if tonight's decision doesn't go the right way.
This certainly amps up the drama for the hearing. The action starts at 6pm at Mooresville Town Hall.
Here are the details:
We are petitioning the Mayor and Board of Commissioners of the Town of Mooresville to DENY an Application for Rezoning of land located at 1814 and 1828 Mecklenburg Highway in Mooresville, North Carolina.
The developer, Hinckley Gauvain, is requesting that the land be rezoned from Single Family Residential (R3) to Corridor Mixed Use (CMX) and Neighborhood Mixed Use (NMX) to build a proposed commercial and highly dense multifamily neighborhood development called "Lake Davidson Development." The developer has filed its Application for Rezoning as a "straight" rezoning request rather than a "conditional" zoning request.
We are strongly opposed to the rezoning request for the following reasons:
·The rezoning request is not a narrowing of the scope of the base zoning district, but rather an expansion from existing residential to high density multifamily and commercial; therefore, it cannot be reviewed as a "straight" rezoning request under Town Ordinance § 2.3.1(4)(A). Conditional zoning is critical to maintain control over development of this area.
·The subject land is identified in the Town's Comprehensive Land Use Plan as Employment Center - Office, not CMX and NMX. Additionally, the majority of uses allowed in the CMX and NMX zones will fail the 25-to-50 job test request required by the Comprehensive Land Use Plan for the Employment Center - Office classification.
·The subject land's existing watershed is "Lake Norman IV Critical," meaning that 50% of the land must be used for Single Family Residential (R3) in order to protect the lake. Neither CMX nor NMX allow the subject land to remain 50% Single Family Residential.
·Rezoning the subject land to CMX and NMX is inconsistent with the Town's Comprehensive Land Use Plan for Highway 115 to remain historic, scenic and rural.
·The rezoning request would significantly burden traffic. The Town's own Traffic Impact Analysis shows serious degradation of numerous roads surrounding the subject land to a level of service of F.
·Town Officials have repeatedly commented that this rezoning request should not happen until the East-West Connector is complete; however, no construction on the East-West Connector has even begun. The rezoning request should be denied until the East-West Connector is complete or there is a commitment from the State, Norfolk Southern, the Town and the developer to widen Highway 115.
·Upon information and belief, approximately six (6) landowners are funding the East-West Connector and will be paid for their property by a developer who will then develop and benefit from rezoning by the Town of subject land on Highway 115 up to and including Langtree Road. This gives an appearance of impropriety, particularly where tax payer dollars are used and rezoning benefits the developer and Town to the detriment of residents.
·There is no current need for the rezoning and the proposed Lake Davidson Development.
·There are no current changes in condition, such as a large corporate addition to the area, to necessitate this rezoning request and proposed development.
·This kind of development is too early. This area is still thoroughly pastoral and undeveloped and almost exclusively residential.
·The rezoning request and proposed development will destroy the lake, environment and rural nature of this area.
·Numerous public records requests, under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-1, have not yet been responded to by the Town. Until citizens are provided with said public records, no rezoning request should be approved and public comment should remain open.
·The subject land and surrounding neighborhoods are in Mooresville's Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ). Rezoning the subject land without giving adjacent neighborhoods the right to vote and other rights afforded to non-ETJ citizens is unconstitutional. As recently noted by the North Carolina Supreme Court in Town of Boone v. State, "Extraterritorial jurisdiction remains extraordinary because it broadens a municipality's jurisdictional reach beyond its corporate limits. This extension of extraterritorial jurisdictional authority deprives the residents of the extraterritorial area of meaningful representation and the right to vote for local government representatives who shape policies affecting their property interests." Further, no one residing in the adjacent neighborhoods has ever been represented on the Town's planning or adjustment boards.
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Davidson Commissioners to send ironic letter opposing Mooresville's Lake Davidson neighborhood
"The one thing I don't see in here is this whole concern about the intensity of the neighborhood - how big it is; how many houses it is; how many people you're trying to put in that space compared to the R3 zoning it was.
It seems a little bit like it's not strong enough. It's like we have some concerns, but basically, we don't like it at all."
That was Davidson Commissioner Stacey Anderson referring to a draft letter put together by Planning Director Jason Burdett on behalf of the Board. At last week's Board meeting the Board discussed sending the letter to Mooresville expressing their concerns around the proposed Lake Davidson neighborhood in Mooresville's ETJ right on Davidson's border. Anderson's comment came as the discussion opened. See video at minute 160 here.
Commissioners spent several minutes critiquing the Mooresville project. There were questions and concerns about Mooresville's process, by right versus conditional zoning, and whether this plan fit within the stated plans for the area. Mayor Woods told of speaking to area land owners and there being little detail on the actual future plan at this point. They also danced around the fact that it's a bit unusual for one local Board to offer direct criticism or even suggestions to another elected Board.
However, what may have been the most unusual thing of all was the level of seemingly unnoticed irony in this discussion considering that what Mooresville is doing is effectively the same thing as what Davidson just recently did itself with its mass RAP rezoning. To allow for more density in major portions of its rural area, Davidson uptiered the zoning of 1100 acres from Rural to Neighborhood Edge, Neighborhood General, or Neighborhood Services - all of which allow much more density than Rural.
During the RAP debate, many of the concerns expressed by Davidson's citizens were the exact same ones expressed by Davidson's Commissioners in the discussion about the Lake Davidson neighborhood. One has to wonder if Davidson Commissioners could hear themselves as they expressed them. Did they hear the irony?
When the citizens expressed them about the RAP, Davidson Commissioners rammed through their plan anyway. Those same Commissioners shouldn't be surprised if they get the same treatment from Mooresville on June 5th.
It seems a little bit like it's not strong enough. It's like we have some concerns, but basically, we don't like it at all."
That was Davidson Commissioner Stacey Anderson referring to a draft letter put together by Planning Director Jason Burdett on behalf of the Board. At last week's Board meeting the Board discussed sending the letter to Mooresville expressing their concerns around the proposed Lake Davidson neighborhood in Mooresville's ETJ right on Davidson's border. Anderson's comment came as the discussion opened. See video at minute 160 here.
Commissioners spent several minutes critiquing the Mooresville project. There were questions and concerns about Mooresville's process, by right versus conditional zoning, and whether this plan fit within the stated plans for the area. Mayor Woods told of speaking to area land owners and there being little detail on the actual future plan at this point. They also danced around the fact that it's a bit unusual for one local Board to offer direct criticism or even suggestions to another elected Board.
However, what may have been the most unusual thing of all was the level of seemingly unnoticed irony in this discussion considering that what Mooresville is doing is effectively the same thing as what Davidson just recently did itself with its mass RAP rezoning. To allow for more density in major portions of its rural area, Davidson uptiered the zoning of 1100 acres from Rural to Neighborhood Edge, Neighborhood General, or Neighborhood Services - all of which allow much more density than Rural.
During the RAP debate, many of the concerns expressed by Davidson's citizens were the exact same ones expressed by Davidson's Commissioners in the discussion about the Lake Davidson neighborhood. One has to wonder if Davidson Commissioners could hear themselves as they expressed them. Did they hear the irony?
When the citizens expressed them about the RAP, Davidson Commissioners rammed through their plan anyway. Those same Commissioners shouldn't be surprised if they get the same treatment from Mooresville on June 5th.
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Davidson announces Mi-Connection CEO leaving
On Wednesday, the Town of Davidson announced Mi-Connection CEO, David Auger, will be stepping down sometime before June 2017.
The town public information office called it a "retirement", but "moving on" may be a better description since he will be focusing on another business he owns - National Food Equipment Services with offices in Mooresville, Winston-Salem, and Raleigh.
Auger was brought in by former Mi-Connection Chairman John Venzon to help right what was then a fast sinking ship that was about to take the Town of Davidson with it.
In FY 2011 which ended 6-months before Auger's arrival, Davidson's subsidy to the cable company was over $2 million per year and approaching a quarter of its general fund budget.
Venzon and Auger formed something of a dynamic duo to help pull the town back from the abyss the town had been brought to by its elected officials who decided getting into the cable business was angood idea.
Political, financial, and operational moves all helped achieve this.
Six months after Auger arrived, Venzon helped orchestrate a restructuring of the agreement between Mooresville and Davidson that capped Davidson's annual payment at $1 million. That single-handedly cut the subsidy in half from its 2011 peak. It also bought Auger the time needed to implement operational reforms at the company to make it run better.
In 2015 Mooresville was also able to refinance a portion of the MI-Connection, debt saving the towns hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest payments that contributed to the reducing subsidies.
There is no doubt filling Auger's shoes will be a big task.
What may be the most interesting question is why get out now?
For years, citizens have been told that 2017 was the year the towns could first really start talking about selling Mi-Connection due to the structure of most of the debt. That's just next year.
After such hard work, it might seem curious why Auger wouldn't stick it out until the company is sold and off the backs of taxpayers. The answer likely lies in the fact that even with all the improvement over the past few years, the company is still deep in debt and requires millions in subsidies.
Auger's planned departure may be a sign that 2017 will come and go with Mi-Connection still on town books for the foreseeable future.
Whatever the reason though, the citizens of Davidson and Mooresville owe a big thank you to Auger for his efforts.
The town public information office called it a "retirement", but "moving on" may be a better description since he will be focusing on another business he owns - National Food Equipment Services with offices in Mooresville, Winston-Salem, and Raleigh.
Auger was brought in by former Mi-Connection Chairman John Venzon to help right what was then a fast sinking ship that was about to take the Town of Davidson with it.
In FY 2011 which ended 6-months before Auger's arrival, Davidson's subsidy to the cable company was over $2 million per year and approaching a quarter of its general fund budget.
Venzon and Auger formed something of a dynamic duo to help pull the town back from the abyss the town had been brought to by its elected officials who decided getting into the cable business was angood idea.
Political, financial, and operational moves all helped achieve this.
Six months after Auger arrived, Venzon helped orchestrate a restructuring of the agreement between Mooresville and Davidson that capped Davidson's annual payment at $1 million. That single-handedly cut the subsidy in half from its 2011 peak. It also bought Auger the time needed to implement operational reforms at the company to make it run better.
In 2015 Mooresville was also able to refinance a portion of the MI-Connection, debt saving the towns hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest payments that contributed to the reducing subsidies.
There is no doubt filling Auger's shoes will be a big task.
What may be the most interesting question is why get out now?
For years, citizens have been told that 2017 was the year the towns could first really start talking about selling Mi-Connection due to the structure of most of the debt. That's just next year.
After such hard work, it might seem curious why Auger wouldn't stick it out until the company is sold and off the backs of taxpayers. The answer likely lies in the fact that even with all the improvement over the past few years, the company is still deep in debt and requires millions in subsidies.
Auger's planned departure may be a sign that 2017 will come and go with Mi-Connection still on town books for the foreseeable future.
Whatever the reason though, the citizens of Davidson and Mooresville owe a big thank you to Auger for his efforts.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Mooresville Mayor repeating history with vote on HOT lanes project?
The saying "if we don't learn from history we are doomed to repeat it" could not be more true after last night's vote in Mooresville to approve the I77 HOT lanes project.
In a 3-3 tie vote, broken by Mooresville Mayor Miles Atkins in favor of going forward with the terribly flawed Cintra contact, Mooresville voted on Tuesday to support the CRTPO long-range transportation plan that includes the horribly unpopular toll project. The critical CRTPO vote came Wednesday night where where it also passed.
The situation in Mooresville on Tuesday was eerily similar to the 2007 vote where former Mooresville Mayor Bill Thunberg cast a tie breaking vote that effectively created MI-Connection - the money losing cable company owned by Mooresville and Davidson. That vote effectively ended Thunberg's elected career when he narrowly lost reelection in 2009 once it started to become apparent MI-Connection was going to be a financial disaster.
Here is Mayor Atkins's post on his Facebook page to explain his tie breaking vote. What do you think voters will say next time he has to face them?
In a 3-3 tie vote, broken by Mooresville Mayor Miles Atkins in favor of going forward with the terribly flawed Cintra contact, Mooresville voted on Tuesday to support the CRTPO long-range transportation plan that includes the horribly unpopular toll project. The critical CRTPO vote came Wednesday night where where it also passed.
The situation in Mooresville on Tuesday was eerily similar to the 2007 vote where former Mooresville Mayor Bill Thunberg cast a tie breaking vote that effectively created MI-Connection - the money losing cable company owned by Mooresville and Davidson. That vote effectively ended Thunberg's elected career when he narrowly lost reelection in 2009 once it started to become apparent MI-Connection was going to be a financial disaster.
Here is Mayor Atkins's post on his Facebook page to explain his tie breaking vote. What do you think voters will say next time he has to face them?
Thursday, December 3, 2015
As technology leaps ahead, towns need to focus on MI-Connection sale
The Board of MI-Connection, the cable company owned by the towns of Davidson and Mooresville met last week to hear the latest numbers on its operations . Fortunately, while the company is still a long way from being profitable, the numbers are at least headed in the right direction. A press release provided by Christina Shaul, Davidson’s Public Information Officer provided the following positive news.
“April Bell of auditing firm Dixon Hughes Goodman shared results for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2015. She stated that MI-Connection is seeing a very positive trend in financial results.
During his review of the financials, MI-Connection CEO David Auger shared that revenue is up 3.74% in Q1 2016 versus Q1 2015. Expenses are favorable in Q1 FY 2016 versus Q1 FY 2015, by .62% . EBIDA (Earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization, a key metric used by cable operators to measure performance) grew by 17.41% from Q1 FY 2015 to Q1 FY 2016.”
That’s definitely what taxpayers who have been subsidizing the company want to hear, rather than things are headed in the opposite direction. It is validation that the operational improvements at the company over the past few years are paying off.
The release went on to say MI-Connection will soon offer whole-home DVR, the ability to stream content on any iOS or Android device, and the ability to remotely program your DVR.
Again, that's good to hear, but those are new services for the company, not new to the industry. As a small company, innovation will always be the company’s Achilles heal.
A recent telecom industry announcement exemplifies that and should hopefully ensure the political decision makers keep their eye on the ball and continue working to get the company ready for sale at some point in the relatively near future.
The impact of this recent announcement actually was foreshadowed here locally a few years ago.
Back in 2011, I remember sitting at a political event in Davidson just as election season was ramping up. Davidson Commissioner Rodney Graham, was making some comments about Mi-Connection. Graham had made an unsuccessful attempt at the Board in 2007 as one of the few candidates at the time to question the idea of the town getting to the cable business. He was getting ready to make what would be a successful run in 2011.
At that meeting I remember Graham holding his phone in the air and talking about some day being able to get internet speeds over wireless that rivaled what one could get from a cable company. That would be the day things started to look much more difficult for the municipally owned cable operation.
Well, that day may have quietly gotten a significant step closer with an announcement by T-Mobile three weeks ago for its new "Binge On" service.
While wireless phone carriers can't offer data speeds that match the newest offerings being rolled out traditional cable companies – including Mi-Connection’s, the newest 4G LTE wireless networks offer speeds sufficient for high quality video streaming as well as many other uses. The one drawback has been the cost of streaming lots of data over these wireless networks – until now.
T-Mobile’s “Binge On” product removes that barrier by allowing unlimited DVD quality video with the purchase of a minimum wireless data package. All of the top name streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu are available with “Binge On” as well as Sling TV which offers many of the top live TV channels including ESPN. Now, a customer can become truly mobile with their video, voice, and data all coming from a single provider, and that provider is not the traditional cable company.
Are there drawbacks and limitations to going fully wireless? Yes, there certainly are. If you are into lots of gaming or have other high-bandwidth needs for business uses, going completely wireless may not be for you – today. Long-term this type of continued change in technology could make it a different story.
Commissioner Graham was holding his phone at that meeting just four years ago. What will things look like four years from now. Hopefully, our current crop of political leaders won't make us find out.
Bonus Observation:
Ran out of room for this in the version for the Herald Weekly.
Not only will MI-Connection be facing more competition from new technologies in the future, but they will also have to go head-to-head against Time Warner. In a conversation with the developer of a large new neighborhood underway in the MI footprint, it was made clear that both MI and TWC have been offered the opportunity to supply service to the new neighborhood.
The developer wished to remain anonymous because details had not been finalized. However, it does show that competition is going to be growing particularly around the edges of the MI footprint.
How MI stands up to the challenge will be critical. New customers from new neighborhoods have been critical to the company's recent growth in subscribers. The Langtree development at Exit 31 would be the prime example.
Can the company continue attracting large numbers of new customers in these neighborhoods if it has to face real competition with relatively unlimited resources? That will be the big question going forward.
This post first appeRed in this week's Herald Weekly at HuntersvilleHerald.com
“April Bell of auditing firm Dixon Hughes Goodman shared results for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2015. She stated that MI-Connection is seeing a very positive trend in financial results.
During his review of the financials, MI-Connection CEO David Auger shared that revenue is up 3.74% in Q1 2016 versus Q1 2015. Expenses are favorable in Q1 FY 2016 versus Q1 FY 2015, by .62% . EBIDA (Earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization, a key metric used by cable operators to measure performance) grew by 17.41% from Q1 FY 2015 to Q1 FY 2016.”
That’s definitely what taxpayers who have been subsidizing the company want to hear, rather than things are headed in the opposite direction. It is validation that the operational improvements at the company over the past few years are paying off.
The release went on to say MI-Connection will soon offer whole-home DVR, the ability to stream content on any iOS or Android device, and the ability to remotely program your DVR.
Again, that's good to hear, but those are new services for the company, not new to the industry. As a small company, innovation will always be the company’s Achilles heal.
A recent telecom industry announcement exemplifies that and should hopefully ensure the political decision makers keep their eye on the ball and continue working to get the company ready for sale at some point in the relatively near future.
The impact of this recent announcement actually was foreshadowed here locally a few years ago.
Back in 2011, I remember sitting at a political event in Davidson just as election season was ramping up. Davidson Commissioner Rodney Graham, was making some comments about Mi-Connection. Graham had made an unsuccessful attempt at the Board in 2007 as one of the few candidates at the time to question the idea of the town getting to the cable business. He was getting ready to make what would be a successful run in 2011.
At that meeting I remember Graham holding his phone in the air and talking about some day being able to get internet speeds over wireless that rivaled what one could get from a cable company. That would be the day things started to look much more difficult for the municipally owned cable operation.
Well, that day may have quietly gotten a significant step closer with an announcement by T-Mobile three weeks ago for its new "Binge On" service.
While wireless phone carriers can't offer data speeds that match the newest offerings being rolled out traditional cable companies – including Mi-Connection’s, the newest 4G LTE wireless networks offer speeds sufficient for high quality video streaming as well as many other uses. The one drawback has been the cost of streaming lots of data over these wireless networks – until now.
T-Mobile’s “Binge On” product removes that barrier by allowing unlimited DVD quality video with the purchase of a minimum wireless data package. All of the top name streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu are available with “Binge On” as well as Sling TV which offers many of the top live TV channels including ESPN. Now, a customer can become truly mobile with their video, voice, and data all coming from a single provider, and that provider is not the traditional cable company.
Are there drawbacks and limitations to going fully wireless? Yes, there certainly are. If you are into lots of gaming or have other high-bandwidth needs for business uses, going completely wireless may not be for you – today. Long-term this type of continued change in technology could make it a different story.
Commissioner Graham was holding his phone at that meeting just four years ago. What will things look like four years from now. Hopefully, our current crop of political leaders won't make us find out.
Bonus Observation:
Ran out of room for this in the version for the Herald Weekly.
Not only will MI-Connection be facing more competition from new technologies in the future, but they will also have to go head-to-head against Time Warner. In a conversation with the developer of a large new neighborhood underway in the MI footprint, it was made clear that both MI and TWC have been offered the opportunity to supply service to the new neighborhood.
The developer wished to remain anonymous because details had not been finalized. However, it does show that competition is going to be growing particularly around the edges of the MI footprint.
How MI stands up to the challenge will be critical. New customers from new neighborhoods have been critical to the company's recent growth in subscribers. The Langtree development at Exit 31 would be the prime example.
Can the company continue attracting large numbers of new customers in these neighborhoods if it has to face real competition with relatively unlimited resources? That will be the big question going forward.
This post first appeRed in this week's Herald Weekly at HuntersvilleHerald.com
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Update on Mi-Connection new internet speeds
Looks like the upgrade will be even more impressive than originally thought based on the company's earlier Facebook postings.
This upgrade is also definitely needed for the company to keep up with its competition.
We checked in with Standard Pacific, the developers of the new Davidson East neighborhood on NC73 that recently broke ground. That neighborhood will be one of the largest new developments in town in several years. It is a potential cash cow for new Mi-Connection customers.
The representative we spoke with said they will likely be making a decision on whether to go with Mi-C or Time Warner in the next 30 days. One thing for sure, without this upgrade announcement Mi-Connectiob would be at a disadvantage to Time Warner and its new TWC Maxx product.
Announcement below...
MI-Connection to Offer Faster Internet Speeds
Some customers will see an increase of up to 275%
Mooresville, N.C. – MI-Connection, the cable and telecommunications system owned by the towns of Mooresville and Davidson, will increase residential Internet speeds as much as 275% around the November 16th timeframe. Current Internet customers, with a speed of 10Mbps or higher, will experience the faster speeds automatically, and at no additional monthly charge. Please see the chart below:
“The recent investment we made to our network and infrastructure allows us to deliver these new speeds with even greater reliability,” said David Auger, CEO of MI-Connection. “We are thrilled we can do this for our customers.”
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Mi-Connection to increase speeds in Q4 of this year
Back on September 8th, the municipally owned cable company, Mi-Connection, quietly announced on its Facebook page that faster broadband speeds are on the way to subscribers in November.
According to a series of posts to its page over the past few days, subscribers will see speed increases from 233% to 275% depending on the tier they currently receive. The increases will be "free of charge".
Users who currently get 15Mbps download speeds will see their service bumped to 50Mbps. 20Mbps becomes 75Mbps and 30Mbps becomes 100Mbps. Upload speeds remain unchanged for each tier at 5, 10, and 10Mbps respectively.
Readers may remember back in May, we told you about MiC testing faster service in response to the rapidly changing competitive environment. It would appear that these service increases are part of that same response.
When asked about the speed upgrades, Mi-Connection CEO, David Auger, had this to say:
According to a series of posts to its page over the past few days, subscribers will see speed increases from 233% to 275% depending on the tier they currently receive. The increases will be "free of charge".
Users who currently get 15Mbps download speeds will see their service bumped to 50Mbps. 20Mbps becomes 75Mbps and 30Mbps becomes 100Mbps. Upload speeds remain unchanged for each tier at 5, 10, and 10Mbps respectively.
Readers may remember back in May, we told you about MiC testing faster service in response to the rapidly changing competitive environment. It would appear that these service increases are part of that same response.
When asked about the speed upgrades, Mi-Connection CEO, David Auger, had this to say:
"We periodically have increased internet speeds over the last few years. The decisions to do so, and the amount of each speed increase, are mostly driven by market demand and competitive activity. Technical considerations do play a role and that is primarily what we were testing some time ago. We are confident the speed increases that will be implemented this fall will allow us to grow broadband customers at the same rate as the previous five years."
Whether that is true or not remains to be seen.
When Time Warner began rolling out its upgraded service dubbed TWCMaxx its top speeds were considerably faster that what Mi-Connection customers will receive after the upgrade. While the lowest tiers will be the same for download speeds at 50Mbps. The TWCMaxx top speeds for its middle and upper tier services will offer speeds of 200Mbps and 300Mbps respectively - considerably faster than what Mi-Connection will offer.
Of course the argument can be made that few users actually need the TWCMaxx top speeds, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out with new developments in the Mi-Connection footprint - particularly around its edges.
A big chunk of Mi-Connection's growth in the past couple of years has been from exceptionally high penetration rates at the new Langtree development at Exit 31. If Mi-Connection loses out on some of the new developments in the area because it doesn't match the top speeds of its competitors, that certainly could impact growth projections.
Mooresville and Davidson taxpayers better hope that is not the case.
More information should be on the way soon. Auger said the company "will be sending out an additional press release early next week announcing the speed increase migration path for residential customer".
Be on the lookout for that.
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Which LKN town is the most debauched and depraved?
Well, according to the data that was released by the Ashley Madison website hack a couple of weeks ago, it would appear to be...
You are going to have to read to the end to find out.
Last week, Spanish software company, Technilogica, released a map using their cartography software that breaks down over 30 million subscribers to the adultary enablement site by location. You can check it out here .
So, which LKN town had the highest user base? The answer depends on which way you look at it.
Mooresville (5712) had the largest number of users followed by Huntersville (3650). Cornelius (2360) and Davidson (835) were in the middle of the pack. Troutman (350) also had a number of folks apparently dabbling in the site's online activity.
That order is about what you'd expect based solely on population. Though "expect" is a relative term here. It is simply stunning (and kinda creepy) there are that many people around who are willing to sign up for a site like this.
Even if you believe the site ballooned its numbers with a lot of fake accounts, the numbers are pretty high. Cut it by 90% and you still have over 500 in Mooresville and 360 in Huntersville.
But, raw numbers aren't the only way to slice and dice this data. When looked at as a percentage of the population, here's what you get. Mooresville 16.4% Huntersville 7.2% Cornelius 8.8% Davidson 7.1%. Troutman 14.2%
So, while Davidson eeks out the "moral victory" with only 7.1% of its population supposedly on the site, one has to ask - what in the world is going on in Iredell county's Mooresville and Troutman!!!
With both the highest raw number and highest percentage Mooresville takes the "prize".
Congratulations???
You are going to have to read to the end to find out.
Last week, Spanish software company, Technilogica, released a map using their cartography software that breaks down over 30 million subscribers to the adultary enablement site by location. You can check it out here .
So, which LKN town had the highest user base? The answer depends on which way you look at it.
Mooresville (5712) had the largest number of users followed by Huntersville (3650). Cornelius (2360) and Davidson (835) were in the middle of the pack. Troutman (350) also had a number of folks apparently dabbling in the site's online activity.
That order is about what you'd expect based solely on population. Though "expect" is a relative term here. It is simply stunning (and kinda creepy) there are that many people around who are willing to sign up for a site like this.
Even if you believe the site ballooned its numbers with a lot of fake accounts, the numbers are pretty high. Cut it by 90% and you still have over 500 in Mooresville and 360 in Huntersville.
But, raw numbers aren't the only way to slice and dice this data. When looked at as a percentage of the population, here's what you get. Mooresville 16.4% Huntersville 7.2% Cornelius 8.8% Davidson 7.1%. Troutman 14.2%
So, while Davidson eeks out the "moral victory" with only 7.1% of its population supposedly on the site, one has to ask - what in the world is going on in Iredell county's Mooresville and Troutman!!!
With both the highest raw number and highest percentage Mooresville takes the "prize".
Congratulations???
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Towns Ask Feds at FCC to 'Preempt' NC State Law
In a case with potentially national repercussions, the Towns of Mooresville and Davidson have waded into the fray over municipal broadband network ownership.
On August 28th, both towns submitted comments supporting petitions to the Federal Communications Commission by Wilson, NC and Chattanooga, TN asking the FCC to 'preempt' North Carolina law governing municipal owned communications networks. This State legislation passed in 2011 as H129 with strong bi-partisan support and commonly goes by the name - the 'Level Playing Field' law. This law outlines the requirements municipalities must meet to operate their own retail communications networks. It does not strictly prohibit them from doing so, but it does ensure that public coffers are not a limitless backstop for any funding shortfall. Maybe most importantly for taxpayers it requires that any debt incurred for this type of operation be voter approved. (In a bit of irony, Mi-Connection is actually exempted from most provisions of this law because it was created before the law passed.)
In their comments, the towns that own the money losing Mi-Connection cable operation "strongly support and encourage" the Federal Government to invalidate this State legislation and force North Carolina to allow municipalities unfettered access to make the same mistake they have made by entering the competitive telecommunications marketplace. (See here and here for the Davidson and Mooresville submissions.)
Mi-Connection was formed without voter approval of the massive debt which now weighs down the operation. For residents of these two towns there can be little doubt that the decision to form Mi-Connection is the most damaging financial decision in their towns' histories. This is particularly true for tiny Davidson where at one point its annual subsidies to the cable company equaled nearly a quarter of the town's annual budget.
This damage was caused by a lack of due diligence prior to getting into the business, a poor initial management team that needed to be replaced, and operational decisions that took years to reverse - all examples of exactly why local government should not be involved in a private sector business. These are all examples of exactly why a law like H129 is needed. Mi-Connection is the poster child for the Level Playing Field. These things combined with a brutally competitive industry landscape have resulted in millions of dollars in annual subsidies from the towns. However, in the towns' submissions one gets the impression a large part of the failure of Mi-Connection is actually due to the Level Playing Field law - a law that would not pass until four years after Mi-Connection was formed in 2007 and began wracking up deficits.
Here's what the towns told the FCC:
"Numerous plans that were in the works by various local North Carolina communities to build fiber networks for retail business and residential use ground to a halt with the passage of Section 160A-340 (known as “H129”). The uncertainty caused by the proposed legislation was a major reason a collaborative effort by the towns of Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, Mooresville and Troutman and Mecklenburg County ended with 3 of the entities dropping out."
Really??? An unpassed law was the reason for these town's dropping out and that's why Mooresville and Davidson were left holding the bag when a risky decision went south? That seems a bit unlikely, so we checked with a couple of elected officials from towns that dropped out who were involved with this decision back in 2007.
When asked if the threat of Level Playing Field legislation impacted the decision-making process to join Mi-Connection here's what State Legislator Charles Jeter had to say.
"I was a member of the Huntersville Town Board at that time. I was also one of the two Huntersville Commissioners to be assigned to the working group committee of the parties that met often on behalf of the Town of Huntersville.
As to your question regarding the level playing field law… I don’t remember it being discussed. In fairness it was some eight years ago and there were a great number of moving parts that were discussed."
Cornelius Commissioner David Gilroy was more direct.
"Absolutely no role whatsoever. We pulled out because it was stupid in countless ways frankly."
So, there you have it. The failure of Mi-Connection lies at the feet of the politicians who supported it and not with some blocking state legislation.
There are also other issues with these submissions...
Documents obtained by aShortChronicle show that the towns' comments were hardly more than canned copy provided to Mi-Connection by the local government telecom lobbying group SEATOA with instructions to customize the letter as needed. (If you look at the two links above, you will notice that the two documents are identical except for the names of the towns.) It appears the towns did hardly any customization of this lobbyist content and where they did update this copy it was more of an attempt to rewrite the history of Mi-Connection as described above than to provide any real justification for why the Level Playing Field law should be preempted.
Making matters worse, it appears the decision to submit these comments to the FCC was not fully discussed by the town Boards before these supporting comments were submitted by staff on the towns behalf. This created a somewhat uncomfortable moment in Davidson when Commissioner Beth Cashion brought the issue up at the town's September 9th monthly meeting expecting to engage in further discussion on the subject only to be told by Town Manager Leamon Brice that the comments had already been submitted - a decision that was clearly made by staff on its own.
So, here you have our towns asking for the Federal Government to overturn a state law - a law that has bi-partisan support. They are using canned lobbyist content modified in a way that is factually incorrect. And the effort appears to driven more by staff than our elected officials.
Wonderful!
Action Opportunity: If you want to submit your own comment to the FCC telling them how bad an idea it is to overturn this type of state law, they are taking comments until September 29th. Here's the link. It's for proceeding 14-115.
Correction: Commissioner Cashion brought up this issue at the September monthly meeting for further discussion - not August as was incorrectly reported earlier.
On August 28th, both towns submitted comments supporting petitions to the Federal Communications Commission by Wilson, NC and Chattanooga, TN asking the FCC to 'preempt' North Carolina law governing municipal owned communications networks. This State legislation passed in 2011 as H129 with strong bi-partisan support and commonly goes by the name - the 'Level Playing Field' law. This law outlines the requirements municipalities must meet to operate their own retail communications networks. It does not strictly prohibit them from doing so, but it does ensure that public coffers are not a limitless backstop for any funding shortfall. Maybe most importantly for taxpayers it requires that any debt incurred for this type of operation be voter approved. (In a bit of irony, Mi-Connection is actually exempted from most provisions of this law because it was created before the law passed.)
In their comments, the towns that own the money losing Mi-Connection cable operation "strongly support and encourage" the Federal Government to invalidate this State legislation and force North Carolina to allow municipalities unfettered access to make the same mistake they have made by entering the competitive telecommunications marketplace. (See here and here for the Davidson and Mooresville submissions.)
Mi-Connection was formed without voter approval of the massive debt which now weighs down the operation. For residents of these two towns there can be little doubt that the decision to form Mi-Connection is the most damaging financial decision in their towns' histories. This is particularly true for tiny Davidson where at one point its annual subsidies to the cable company equaled nearly a quarter of the town's annual budget.
This damage was caused by a lack of due diligence prior to getting into the business, a poor initial management team that needed to be replaced, and operational decisions that took years to reverse - all examples of exactly why local government should not be involved in a private sector business. These are all examples of exactly why a law like H129 is needed. Mi-Connection is the poster child for the Level Playing Field. These things combined with a brutally competitive industry landscape have resulted in millions of dollars in annual subsidies from the towns. However, in the towns' submissions one gets the impression a large part of the failure of Mi-Connection is actually due to the Level Playing Field law - a law that would not pass until four years after Mi-Connection was formed in 2007 and began wracking up deficits.
Here's what the towns told the FCC:
"Numerous plans that were in the works by various local North Carolina communities to build fiber networks for retail business and residential use ground to a halt with the passage of Section 160A-340 (known as “H129”). The uncertainty caused by the proposed legislation was a major reason a collaborative effort by the towns of Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, Mooresville and Troutman and Mecklenburg County ended with 3 of the entities dropping out."
Really??? An unpassed law was the reason for these town's dropping out and that's why Mooresville and Davidson were left holding the bag when a risky decision went south? That seems a bit unlikely, so we checked with a couple of elected officials from towns that dropped out who were involved with this decision back in 2007.
When asked if the threat of Level Playing Field legislation impacted the decision-making process to join Mi-Connection here's what State Legislator Charles Jeter had to say.
"I was a member of the Huntersville Town Board at that time. I was also one of the two Huntersville Commissioners to be assigned to the working group committee of the parties that met often on behalf of the Town of Huntersville.
As to your question regarding the level playing field law… I don’t remember it being discussed. In fairness it was some eight years ago and there were a great number of moving parts that were discussed."
Cornelius Commissioner David Gilroy was more direct.
"Absolutely no role whatsoever. We pulled out because it was stupid in countless ways frankly."
So, there you have it. The failure of Mi-Connection lies at the feet of the politicians who supported it and not with some blocking state legislation.
There are also other issues with these submissions...
Documents obtained by aShortChronicle show that the towns' comments were hardly more than canned copy provided to Mi-Connection by the local government telecom lobbying group SEATOA with instructions to customize the letter as needed. (If you look at the two links above, you will notice that the two documents are identical except for the names of the towns.) It appears the towns did hardly any customization of this lobbyist content and where they did update this copy it was more of an attempt to rewrite the history of Mi-Connection as described above than to provide any real justification for why the Level Playing Field law should be preempted.
Making matters worse, it appears the decision to submit these comments to the FCC was not fully discussed by the town Boards before these supporting comments were submitted by staff on the towns behalf. This created a somewhat uncomfortable moment in Davidson when Commissioner Beth Cashion brought the issue up at the town's September 9th monthly meeting expecting to engage in further discussion on the subject only to be told by Town Manager Leamon Brice that the comments had already been submitted - a decision that was clearly made by staff on its own.
So, here you have our towns asking for the Federal Government to overturn a state law - a law that has bi-partisan support. They are using canned lobbyist content modified in a way that is factually incorrect. And the effort appears to driven more by staff than our elected officials.
Wonderful!
Action Opportunity: If you want to submit your own comment to the FCC telling them how bad an idea it is to overturn this type of state law, they are taking comments until September 29th. Here's the link. It's for proceeding 14-115.
Correction: Commissioner Cashion brought up this issue at the September monthly meeting for further discussion - not August as was incorrectly reported earlier.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Threats, promises, and holes in the HOT lanes dike...
Fat Boys in Mooresville may turn out to be the unlikely place where the struggle to stop unwanted HOT lanes in Mecklenburg and Iredell counties took a momentous turn. Or, what happened there Sunday may turn out to be just another bump in the road before NCDOT, MUMPO/Charlotte, leaders in the General Assembly, and the consultants all get their way over the rising voice of the people. Whatever the ultimate outcome, the press conference held by Rep Robert Brawley along with members of WidenI77.org ensures this story gets much messier before its conclusion.
And as a backdrop to all this drama in Mooresville? There was a wall of petitions on display representing the thousands of signatures WidenI77.org has collected. One member claimed 15 full sheets were collected on Saturday at the Cornelius Dragon Boat festival.
Rep Robert Brawley's statement and his switching positions from support to opposition to I77 HOT lanes makes him the most senior elected official and the only member of the General Assembly to publicly oppose the project. This is significant - so significant that a reporter present asked if Rep Brawley was concerned about any consequences from Raleigh for speaking out. This reporter relayed being told by other area politicians that "the moment you step out and start saying you are against the toll road, you get a phone call from Raleigh and they either tell you 'get behind the toll road or you lose other projects'. The folks in Davidson were told, 'get behind us and we'll do the Red Line.'"
Rep Brawley's response?
"Threats do not bother me."
He also went on to clarify that he did not expect to be threatened over changing his position - something we should all be glad to hear.
However, if one Representative in the General Assembly breaks what has effectively been a "code of silence" in opposing toll roads, might others not be far behind?
Maybe more importantly though is the horse trading that is possibly going on to garner support for the HOT lanes project. The reference to Davidson being bought off by ensuring the Red Line goes forward is disturbing to say the least. This question was asked on camera by a reporter with multiple competitors in the room. It was asked seemingly without concern of being called on it. If there is any truth to that, it needs to be cleared up exactly what that means.
And as a backdrop to all this drama in Mooresville? There was a wall of petitions on display representing the thousands of signatures WidenI77.org has collected. One member claimed 15 full sheets were collected on Saturday at the Cornelius Dragon Boat festival.
Those petitions contain the email addresses of the signers. Email addresses are the lifeblood of any political campaign. With WidenI77.org planning to put out a voter guide this election season, those politicians - unlike Rep Robert Brawley - who end up on the "wrong" side of this issue will likely face an email list of several thousand telling voters who wants to toll them and who doesn't.
Monday, February 4, 2013
UPDATED: HOT Lanes: Municipalities Exert Influence with NCDOT on Monday?
In a classic case of "watch what they do, not what they say" Lake Norman municipalities have for weeks said they have no real influence over the decision by the State to pursue widening of I-77 with High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes via a Public Private Partnership (P3).
As recently as Tuesday this past week Davidson Mayor John Woods told a room full of Davidson residents at a Town Community Chat...
"The community is engaged in a rather confusing and complex discussion," Davidson's Mayor John Woods said. There has been a lot of back an forth discussion and opinions on what is right or wrong about this, but we are under the direction of the state. The town of Davidson doesn't manage I-77, nor does the City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County or Iredell County." Huntersville Herald 1-31-13
Yet, two days later on Thursday the Lake Norman Citizen reported on meetings being organized for Monday Feb-4 between the LKN Towns and NCDOT...
The meetings are open only to elected officials and selected town staff, but similar public sessions are planned in the coming weeks. Because only two elected officials from any one town will be present at any one time, the sessions are not subject to open meetings regulations. The meetings were organized by mayors Lynette Rinker of Cornelius, John Woods of Davidson, Jill Swain of Huntersville and Miles Atkins of Mooresville. - LakeNormanCitizen.com 1-31-13 breaking news
Also, this isn't the first time Davdison Mayor Woods has exerted municipal influence in support of HOT Lanes. Back in 2010 when the project was in its infancy Mayor Woods submitted this letter in support of the HOT lane concept on behalf of the Town of Davidson.
So either the municipalities have no influence or they do. It would appear to be the latter. Why they feel the need to exert this influence in meetings coordinated to circumvent State open meetings law is a different question.
Letter supporting HOT Lanes from Davidson in 2010.
UPDATE: Scheduled Town of Davidson Attendees and Times. Received Monday AM, after a Sunday request. Mayor Woods responded Sunday with instructions to provide the information Monday morning.
Under North Carolina law there was still no quorum for Davidson at the 1pm meeting even though half of the Board Members were there. See here from the UNC School of Government for more details on that. Comm Brian Jenest did not attend, but as the former Chair of the LNTC he likely knows the State position well.
MUMPO Presentation from January 18th meeting on I-77 project. Unconfirmed report that Jim Ray of RayStrategies would be at today's meeting. Mr Ray is mentioned on Slide 2.
UPDATE #2: Another unconfirmed report that Parsons Brinckerhoff gave a pro-P3 presentation at Monday's meetings as well. PB is also the leading consulting company on the Red Line P3 proposal.
As recently as Tuesday this past week Davidson Mayor John Woods told a room full of Davidson residents at a Town Community Chat...
"The community is engaged in a rather confusing and complex discussion," Davidson's Mayor John Woods said. There has been a lot of back an forth discussion and opinions on what is right or wrong about this, but we are under the direction of the state. The town of Davidson doesn't manage I-77, nor does the City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County or Iredell County." Huntersville Herald 1-31-13
Yet, two days later on Thursday the Lake Norman Citizen reported on meetings being organized for Monday Feb-4 between the LKN Towns and NCDOT...
The meetings are open only to elected officials and selected town staff, but similar public sessions are planned in the coming weeks. Because only two elected officials from any one town will be present at any one time, the sessions are not subject to open meetings regulations. The meetings were organized by mayors Lynette Rinker of Cornelius, John Woods of Davidson, Jill Swain of Huntersville and Miles Atkins of Mooresville. - LakeNormanCitizen.com 1-31-13 breaking news
Also, this isn't the first time Davdison Mayor Woods has exerted municipal influence in support of HOT Lanes. Back in 2010 when the project was in its infancy Mayor Woods submitted this letter in support of the HOT lane concept on behalf of the Town of Davidson.
So either the municipalities have no influence or they do. It would appear to be the latter. Why they feel the need to exert this influence in meetings coordinated to circumvent State open meetings law is a different question.
Letter supporting HOT Lanes from Davidson in 2010.
UPDATE: Scheduled Town of Davidson Attendees and Times. Received Monday AM, after a Sunday request. Mayor Woods responded Sunday with instructions to provide the information Monday morning.
10:30-12:00 – no representatives from Davidson
1:00-2:30 – Comm Rodney Graham, Comm Laurie Venzon, Mayor John Woods and Cristina Shaul (Town Communications Officer)
2:45-4:00 – Comm Connie Wessner and Comm Jim Fuller
*Asst Town Mgr Dawn Blaubaum will attend either 1-2:30 OR 2:45-4:00 meeting
Under North Carolina law there was still no quorum for Davidson at the 1pm meeting even though half of the Board Members were there. See here from the UNC School of Government for more details on that. Comm Brian Jenest did not attend, but as the former Chair of the LNTC he likely knows the State position well.
MUMPO Presentation from January 18th meeting on I-77 project. Unconfirmed report that Jim Ray of RayStrategies would be at today's meeting. Mr Ray is mentioned on Slide 2.
UPDATE #2: Another unconfirmed report that Parsons Brinckerhoff gave a pro-P3 presentation at Monday's meetings as well. PB is also the leading consulting company on the Red Line P3 proposal.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
UPDATED: Media Watch: Is Lake Norman Media in the tank on I-77 HOT lanes?
Most local news outlets seem to be doing a decent job of getting out both sides of this story - covering the WidenI77.org efforts to promote investigating alternatives. Most are at least making an attempt to give space to alternative opinions in their letters to the editor or commentary pages. Most aren't aggressively attacking those alternative opinions when they should know better.
DavidsonNews.net & CorneliusNews.net have covered the story well - posting notifications of WidenI77.org meetings, multiple articles about the citizens group's efforts, and even giving space for a lengthy commentary on the subject by Mr Vince Winegardner. See articles here, here, and here with Mr. Winegardner's commentary here. DNN has even posted links directly to WidenI77.org information and links to audio and video of the Iredell County Commissioners and Cornelius Board meetings where those boards voted against the proposed toll plan. They are doing a good job of giving citizens all sides of this important story as it unfolds. (Note: Posting Mr. Windgardner's commentary shows a particular willingness to give hearing to all voices. During the last municipal election in Davidson, there was a bit of tension between Candidate Winegardner and DavidsonNews.net, but the publication does not appear to let that impact it's editorial choices.)
The Huntersville Herald has also done a fair job of reporting. It's coverage of the WidenI77.org January 14th meeting was nothing but a presentation of the facts of the event. The publication has also allowed letters to the editor from the citizens group's members to be published. See here and here.
Cornelius Today has had similar reporting to the Herald - covering the January 14th meeting here as well as the Cornelius Board resolution against the project here. They also posted the announcement for the December North Mecklenburg Republican Women's (NMRW) meeting in December where this topic was discussed as did some of the other publications.
Incidentally, the NMRW hosted both Kurt Naas, founder of the WidenI77.org group, and Bill Thunberg of the Lake Norman Transportation Commission (LNTC) at their December monthly meeting. There was a conscious effort on the group's part to include both sides of the discussion at the meeting to ensure attendees heard as much information as possible. For a group that's not a news organization, this effort at evenhandedness was nice to see.
Then we get to the Lake Norman Citizen. The Citizen is one of the Lake Norman area's main sources of local news. They have a history of poking at some of the Lake Norman area municipal governments and have regularly posted biting letters to the editor on controversial subjects. However, on the I-77 HOT Lanes the Citizen has fallen down on the job. In fact at times, they have veered into actively attacking those who are questioning the proposal. They seem to have thrown objectivity into the backseat on this ride.
Here are some examples:
Citizen coverage of the WidenI77.org January 14th meeting painted a much different picture than what actually happened. The post-meeting article focused almost entirely on comments by State Rep Bill Brawley rather than the presentation which was the reason for the meeting. It very incorrectly painted the meeting as "tense". If anything, the presenters from WidenI77.org did an excellent job throughout the evening of keeping what could have been a tense evening rather light. Everyone was treated with respect including those on hand from the NCDOT and the elected officials willing to express support for the project. The Citizen apparently didn't see it that way. (Watch the whole presentation here if you want proof.)
They took their disdain for opposition to toll lanes a step further when they also attacked a fellow member of the media - Mark Washburn of the Charlotte Observer - for writing this piece. The Citizen's anonymous Talkers page took a few cheap shots - anonymous cheap shots - at people who might want to speak out on the subject. And here's the kicker, they paint Mr. Washburn this way...
"Talkers just love it when one of the Charlotte daily paper's professional pontificators practices his profundity on a topic impacting we suburban pioneers (Did you know there are towns north of Charlotte that actually are in Mecklenburg County? Astounding!)."
...as if they didn't know Mr. Washburn actually lives in North Mecklenburg himself and certainly would have an opinion on what it's like actually driving I77 every day.
The Citizen has also refused to open it's pages to the members of WidenI77.org for commentary pieces and letters to the editor - at least since that January 14th meeting when the subject has become a much hotter topic. Based on what members of the group have made available to aShortChronicle, multiple pieces have been turned down from multiple writers. That's a sharp diversion from the openness to differing opinions the paper has shown in the past.
Finally, Citizen coverage of Cornelius's vote to oppose the current toll lane plan focused almost exclusively on why supporters thought opposition should be muted, and it reinforced the status quo position that there are no other options.
For all these reasons, the Citizen deserves 4 tanks out of 5 on their I-77 HOT Lanes coverage.
UPDATE: The Citizen has finally published a piece that is just "the facts" on the subject of I-77 HOT Lanes for their January 31 issue. Nice to see they were finally able to get there. See here.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
HOT Lane Opponents Pack Cornelius Town Hall (Video)
The WidenI77.org activist group generated an overflow crowd at Cornelius Town Hall on Monday night to present information on the proposed High Occupancy Toll (HOT) Lanes for widening I77 through North Mecklenburg and South Iredell. To say the least they did an excellent job communicating some very important and useful information!
Every major local news organization was there covering the event. Various elected officials from the North Meck towns were present. NCDOT sent representatives. Our state officials were represented by newly minted Senator Jeff Tarte. Rep Bill Brawley was there as a representative of the legislature's House Transportation Committee.
The major takeaways from the meeting were these:
The meeting ran over two hours with the attached videos covering about 1:45. The first covers the WidenI77.org group's presentation itself. The second finishes the presentation and most of the QA. The third includes comments from Rep Bill Brawley on the Legislature's take on the project.
The videos obviously speak for themselves, but maybe the most important comment of the evening came from Bill Brawley just after the recorder ran out of space. While recalling how he was involved in stopping an unwanted road in the Matthews area as a councilman on the Matthews town board, he said it requires citizens to work on the State Legislature. That was also the major point of this recent post here at aShortChronicle, Understand Whole Story on I-77 Toll Lanes. Municipal leaders can are our best and most effective channel to the Legislature. Use them for that purpose.
For those of us here in Davidson, Commissioners Graham, Fuller, and Venzon were present Monday night. It was encouraging to see them there after a note sent to the Davidson Board regarding the meeting seemed to fall flat with Mayor Woods. He described the citizen effort questioning HOT lanes as spreading "errors and wrong assumptions" and effectively wasting our state officials' time.
Judging by Rep Brawley's attentive comments, the presence of numerous other elected officials, and the active participation of NCDOT, the Davidson Mayor's perception seems to be far from reality on this one.
Video WidenI77.org Cornelius Town Hall - January14, 2013
(Please excuse the shakiness. There are also a couple places with lost audio - just skip ahead a little.)
PART 1 - Presentation
3:45 - Cornelius Tranportation Advisory Board Member Kurt Naas put on a clinic on MUMPO, HOT, and I77.
PART 2 - Presentation Cont and QA
18:30 - Cornelius Mayor Lynette Rinker defends her non-position on HOT lanes.
32:50 - Lewis Mitchell of NCDOT makes comments on state toll efforts.
PART 3 - QA Cont and Rep Bill Brawley's Comments
10:30 - Cornelius Commissioner Gilroy wants study of alternatives before going forward.
12:30 - Huntersville Commissioner Julian opposes HOT.
14:30 - Rep Bill Brawley explains how we got where we are with this decision.
Every major local news organization was there covering the event. Various elected officials from the North Meck towns were present. NCDOT sent representatives. Our state officials were represented by newly minted Senator Jeff Tarte. Rep Bill Brawley was there as a representative of the legislature's House Transportation Committee.
The major takeaways from the meeting were these:
- HOT lanes would be a $500m project where only a small fraction of that cost, perhaps as little as only $50m - $125m, could do the job of relieving the bottlenecks in the Lake Norman area with general purpose lanes.
- NCDOT's primary motivation for doing the project is to relieve congestion in downtown Charlotte, not Lake Norman. However, Lake Norman commuters would be the primary payers of the project's tolls.
- HOT lanes require congestion on the existing general purpose lanes to entice people to pay the toll. This project will therefore do nothing to actually relieve congestion for existing commuters and will actually make the situation worse for many current users of the existing HOV lane since they will now be required to have 3 people in the future HOT lane to avoid the toll rather than only 2 in today's HOV lane.
- Compared to other HOT lane examples around the country, the LKN area does not contain the population to make the project work financially. This could lead to extremely high tolls in the future or an additional State bailout.
The meeting ran over two hours with the attached videos covering about 1:45. The first covers the WidenI77.org group's presentation itself. The second finishes the presentation and most of the QA. The third includes comments from Rep Bill Brawley on the Legislature's take on the project.
The videos obviously speak for themselves, but maybe the most important comment of the evening came from Bill Brawley just after the recorder ran out of space. While recalling how he was involved in stopping an unwanted road in the Matthews area as a councilman on the Matthews town board, he said it requires citizens to work on the State Legislature. That was also the major point of this recent post here at aShortChronicle, Understand Whole Story on I-77 Toll Lanes. Municipal leaders can are our best and most effective channel to the Legislature. Use them for that purpose.
For those of us here in Davidson, Commissioners Graham, Fuller, and Venzon were present Monday night. It was encouraging to see them there after a note sent to the Davidson Board regarding the meeting seemed to fall flat with Mayor Woods. He described the citizen effort questioning HOT lanes as spreading "errors and wrong assumptions" and effectively wasting our state officials' time.
Judging by Rep Brawley's attentive comments, the presence of numerous other elected officials, and the active participation of NCDOT, the Davidson Mayor's perception seems to be far from reality on this one.
Video WidenI77.org Cornelius Town Hall - January14, 2013
(Please excuse the shakiness. There are also a couple places with lost audio - just skip ahead a little.)
PART 1 - Presentation
3:45 - Cornelius Tranportation Advisory Board Member Kurt Naas put on a clinic on MUMPO, HOT, and I77.
PART 2 - Presentation Cont and QA
18:30 - Cornelius Mayor Lynette Rinker defends her non-position on HOT lanes.
32:50 - Lewis Mitchell of NCDOT makes comments on state toll efforts.
PART 3 - QA Cont and Rep Bill Brawley's Comments
10:30 - Cornelius Commissioner Gilroy wants study of alternatives before going forward.
12:30 - Huntersville Commissioner Julian opposes HOT.
14:30 - Rep Bill Brawley explains how we got where we are with this decision.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Understand Whole Story on I-77 Toll Lanes
 |
| Info session Monday, 1/7. Click for larger view |
What you have heard is that toll lanes are the only way to widen I-77 in the foreseeable future.
What you have heard is that other options do not exist.
However, that's not the whole story.
Residents of North Mecklenburg and Mooresville will be the primary funders of this project if tolls become a reality, and we should encourage our municipal leaders to have all the information before they throw their support behind this decision. To date, that has not been done. Only one side of the story has been presented to most local bodies.
Below are some links to an effort to get out the rest of the story.
I would encourage people to reach out to their local boards in Huntersville, Cornelius, Davidson, and Mooresville. Ask them to go into this decision with their eyes wide open. Ask them to have all the information before they throw their support behind this effort. Don't let them off the hook with a simple "it's a State decision, not local". Your municipal representatives can be your most effective channel to the State representatives. Ask them to do that job.
But first, they need the information. Here are some resources that can provide just that.
www.wideni77.org - Citizen activist group leading effort to look at alternative solutions.
Lake Norman citizens group opposes toll lanes on I-77 CharlotteObserver.com
Opposition to I-77 Toll Lanes Grows FoxCharlotte.com
Update: Here is another link that comes at this from a different point of view.
Unequal at Any Speed: How the Beltway's New 'Hot Lanes' Divide Us into Speed-Rich and Speed-Poor - thebreakthrough.org
Update #2: In a response to an email to the Davidson Town Board encouraging them to take in all sides of the story, Mayor Woods indicated that the Lake Norman Transportation Commission (LNTC) may be in the process of organizing a meeting that would bring all parties to the table including NCDOT, the Towns, and those presenting another point of view. No date given, but it is a potentially encouraging sign that at least nobody will be able to claim they "didn't know" about other viable options.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)