SALISBURY — The Spencer Board of Aldermen and the Rowan County Board of Commissioners held a joint meeting Thursday to discuss updates on developments to Long Ferry Road and the possible traffic impact that could necessitate some changes.

County Planning Director Ed Muire provided the start to the updates, bringing the commissioners and council up to speed on the study that the county and town have recently conducted. The study looked at potential upgrades to Long Ferry Road in the area between Highway 29 and Dukeville Road, which is where the Duke Energy Plant is located.

The study was started because the county and town view the area as one likely to be developed in the future. Red Rock Developments has started construction on a new industrial park on the road and Chewy’s fulfillment center was built in the area in 2020.

“When we reviewed the Red Rock project’s traffic impact analysis last year we noticed that there were 2.6 million square feet of warehouse and distribution that was proposed, and that would generate about 11,200 trips. Based on that project, we had serious concerns about how that project would affect the Long Ferry corridor,” said Muire during the background explanation.

WSP USA was the consulting company that helped perform the study. Bradley Reynolds, who works in traffic engineering for the company, explained to the two boards what the firm proposed for upgrades to help improve the road’s capacity. The proposal broke up the road into multiple sections. Some sections would be widened to four lanes, or in the case of the bridge over I-85, six lanes, and some sections would have additional turning lanes added, for example.

Reynolds said that the total cost of the upgrades as proposed was projected to be around $67 million.

Phil Conrad, the director of the Cabarrus-Rowan Metropolitan Planning Organization, suggested avenues that the funding could come from. He noted that some could come from collaborations with the developers themselves and some could come from the N.C. Department of Transportation as assistance.

Members of both boards had questions for all three of the speakers as well as Spencer Planner Steve Blount.

Commissioner Judy Klusman compared the potential developments to Jake Alexander Boulevard in Salisbury and raised questions about whether the new developments did enough to ensure the safety of drivers. She also asked about the potential to incorporate roundabouts into the plan.

Spencer Mayor Jonathan Williams noted that the development is certainly going to be happening, but that he worried that the town and county would have to have the developments underway before they could prove to the NCDOT that the road upgrades were needed.

“Because we see the writing on the wall, and what I don’t want is the people that are here tonight to have to suffer because the development is coming. It’s going to come,” said Williams. But, he said, he doesn’t want the town to end up in a position where improvements to the roadway fall behind because of requirements of definite evidence of the number of cars.

Commissioner Greg Edds answered concerns that the project was too numbers oriented and did not focus enough on the human beings it was affecting. He compared the issue to when the textile mills in the area closed down, leaving many unemployed. Edds noted that the reason the county was working to attract these companies is to provide large swaths of jobs for those that need them, and that developments such as Red Rock close to I-85 were necessary to do that.

“If we could have a hundred 10-person small businesses and that would carry us, of course we would love that,” said Williams. “But we need to diversify.” The goal, both he and Edds said, is to draw companies with good-paying jobs that will in turn allow people to own homes in communities in Rowan County, like Spencer.

“We have residents who ask for businesses like banks and pharmacies,” said Williams, “but right now, we are being told we don’t have the base to support that. So we need the growth, and the companies that pay salaries that can support a family, in order to have the base to draw in those smaller local businesses that everyone wants.”

Edds did make a point of reassuring the more than 50 residents in attendance that he has no desire to see industrial development “all the way to the lake,” and thinks holding that kind of development to within a mile of the interstate is reasonable.

Muire stated that the next step in the project would be to bring the plan to the public to generate feedback. He said they hope to send out mail to residents on the Long Ferry corridor and then bring the public together for feedback. They would then be able to present an entire package of the plan and community response to the Spencer and Rowan County planning boards.