Information Items:
Arena Events/Disney on Ice Show
Staff Resource: Danny Pleasant, 704-336-3879 - dpleasant@ci.charlotte.nc.us
The Mayor and several Council members received complaints related to parking for last week's Disney on Ice shows at the new arena. Traffic management for Disney on Ice shows went routinely except for the Thursday morning show provided especially for school groups. This event was attended by students from outside Mecklenburg County.
For that event, we learned that parking had to be found during the work day for 76 school buses. Normally, the Bobcats organization is responsible for all parking arrangements. However, the Bobcats were not prepared to accommodate the needs of young children on buses, especially the need to cross as few streets as possible. Therefore, the City agreed to provide parking on 5th and 6th
Streets so the children would only need to walk a short distance to the arena. The Bobcats agreed to reimburse the City for the cost of using our contractor to park buses.
While the bus parking plan worked out well, we were confronted by another situation that we did not anticipate. Twenty to twenty-five passenger cars carrying chaperones arrived with each bus.
The drivers of the passenger cars assumed we could provide them parking along with the buses they followed. Since we were not able to provide parking, the chaperones had to find parking elsewhere. Many of them were unfamiliar with the area and had difficulty finding spaces in close proximity. Several of them expressed frustration to WSOC, who in turn contacted Donna Julian of the Bobcats organization.
We have enjoyed great success in managing traffic for arena events. In the short term, we are working with the Bobcats to make sure better information is available in advance of school-oriented events. This will give us the opportunity to respond to these events in the same manner as we do for all other events. Long-term, a wayfinding system in the center city for locating available parking spaces should lessen this problem in the future.
NCDOT Review of Subdivision Streets in the ETJ
Staff Resource: Danny Pleasant, 704-336-3879 - dpleasant@ci.charlotte.nc.us
Over the past several months, City staff has been working with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to resolve problems with reviewing subdivisions within the City's extra-territorial jurisdiction (ETJ). During the process, we discovered forty-two subdivision projects that fell short of meeting all State standards for street design. In meetings with developer groups and the Attorney General's office, we agreed that both the City and NCDOT would send letters to developers explaining the problems with their specific subdivisions. The letters were to describe how to obtain record plat approval through NCDOT, including use of maintenance bonds to cover potential risk of drainage structure failure. The City's letters were sent on Wednesday, November 30. NCDOT has not sent its letters.
City and NCDOT staff also agreed to continue to discuss options for resolving plats that were previously recorded with the non-standard stamp. City staff is continuing to evaluate the extent of variations in the non-standard stamp and the potential number of affected record plats. We expect the initial effort involving research at the Register of Deeds to be completed in 30 days. When completed, the City, NCDOT, and the Attorney General's Office will meet to determine possible actions to resolve this issue.
A number of developers have expressed their desire for the City to maintain streets within ETJ subdivisions. They believe this would help avoid conflicts with NCDOT over street design issues. Senator Dan Clodfelter has stated he will consider introducing legislation that would have the City maintain ETJ streets. CDOT is evaluating the cost and revenue implications to the City if a bill were introduced in the 2006 Legislative session.
We will continue to provide you periodic updates in the future.
