Kannapolis City Council considers plan to widen N.C. 3

By Emily Ford

eford@salisburypost.com

KANNAPOLIS — The highway that connects Kannapolis and Mooresville may grow to four lanes and carry three times as many vehicles, but a plan for expansion suggests maintaining the road's rural character.

Recommendations in the N.C. 3 Corridor Study would limit development along the highway and prevent it from becoming a "commercial strip."

"One of the key motivations here of the study was to make sure that traffic flows," said Bill Dustin, planning director for the Centralina Council of Governments.

Dustin presented the study Monday night to Kannapolis City Council members and encouraged them to consider recommendations such as banning direct access to N.C. 3 by small subdivisions.

"That's a hole I would like to see plugged," he said.

Council did not take action.

Widening N.C. 3 will not happen soon. It could take 10 years to secure funding for the project, which does not appear on the N.C. Department of Transportation's improvement plan.

The study, which includes Kannapolis, Mooresville and Iredell County, started in 2007 to bring local jurisdictions to agreement and give property owners some idea of future plans.

Cabarrus County has pulled out of the study.

Kannapolis City Council member Roger Haas said Jay White, chairman of the Cabarrus County commissioners, told him the county pulled out because improving N.C. 3 would make it easier for people to live elsewhere.

The commissioners want people who fill new jobs at the N.C. Research Campus to live in Cabarrus County, Haas said White told him.

Haas said he argued that improving N.C. 3 would make it just as easy for people working in Mooresville to live in Kannapolis.

Without Cabarrus County's participation, project leaders might have a harder time securing funding, Dustin said.

"In a perfect world, all players would be at the table," he said.

County commissioners have long held the view "that making N.C. 3 a four-lane divided highway will destroy the rural character," Kannapolis City Manager Mike Legg said.

But the remaining three jurisdictions have agreed on a plan that does not include high-density development anywhere along the corridor, he said.

The road has drawn attention because two economic engines stand at either end — Lowe's Corporate Headquarters in Mooresville and the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis.

"N.C. 3 is expected to really boom in traffic," Dustin said. "There will be lots of jobs coming at both ends."

While highway could carry 30,000 vehicles by 2025, Dustin said the 12-mile stretch of road should not become a shopping destination.

"There are two places to buy a candy bar now," he said. "We're only adding one more."

The plan recommends allowing commercial development at Odell School Road.

During public forums about the expansion, most residents expressed a desire for "keeping that rural, open atmosphere to the greatest degree possible," Dustin said.

Watershed restrictions already limit development along the road in many areas, he said.

The most residential development would occur south of the Iredell County line, where the plan recommends low- to medium-density housing with one or two units per acre.