The Map Act empowers the North Carolina Department of Transportation (DOT) to create “transportation corridors” within which “no building permits shall be issued for any building or structure or part thereof…nor shall approval of a subdivision…be granted.” There are no time limits on these development moratoria, and the DOT has been using them to control large tracts of land for years, without initiating condemnation proceedings and without compensating the land’s owners.
The Map Act is economically inefficient, it is unfair, and it is unconstitutional. And making piecemeal statutory changes cannot solve these problems. It is time to repeal the Map Act and develop a new approach to transportation planning in North Carolina—one that delivers the roads and other transportation infrastructure we need, while simultaneously protecting our rights and promoting our economic well being.
