That’s the way HOT was described at today’s grand unveiling.
I was pleased to see a bit of skepticism on the part of elected officials, though. Maybe it dawned on them that they’re being asked to pitch in toward the $1 billion “total capital cost approach.”
Of course roads will be a major part of that cost, and you have to give DOT board member Nancy Dunn credit for coming right out and saying that local governments are going to have to help build roads as they never have before. Why? Because NCDOT had so much money at one time they couldn’t figure out how to manage it properly.
Among the skeptics were Bruce Davis, who wanted to know when local governments were going to get “some hard numbers we can work with,” Winston-Salem City Councilman Robert Clark, who questionned whether or not a format for revenue sharing could really be established, and PTI board member Walt Cockerham, who expressed concern over existing plans surrounding the FedEx hub, telling HOT planners “if it’s not broken, then please don’t fix it.” Interestingly enough, fellow board member Henry Isaacson, stood and fully supported HOT, saying it would provide the market for more carriers at PTI.
As you can imagine, the words “public-private partnership,” “air quality” and “urban sprawl” were mentioned several times. One speaker noted how bad single-family homes on large lots are for the environment. Of course it’s all about funding, from the states, from the federal government and now from local governments. Thank goodness, said steering committee co-chair Robbie Perkins, that “we have a vehicle like PART with a pot of money to get this thing started, or we wouldn’t be here today.”
As a former public official, Perkins certainly knows where PART got that pot of money.
