Road construction, voting districts bring Steele Creek residents to annual meeting

Roads are coming faster than expected. Answers on voting in Steele Creek? Not so much.

Hundreds of residents gathered Thursday night at Christ the King Church for the annual Steele Creek Residents Association meeting. Candidates for nine elected offices made their pitches ahead of the March 15 primaries in North Carolina, primaries that will be tricky for voters and election officials.

“We’re under numerous lawsuits,” said Kristin Mavromatis with the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections. “Please keep checking our website (meckboe.org), because that’s where we’ll have the latest information.”

The issue is about three U.S. House seats, where district lines were challenged in court after election officials finalized the ballots.

“Who is representing you today will not change,” Mavromatis said. “What may change is who you will vote for to represent you in the future.”

The primary results could stand on those races, or there could be re-votes this summer if a legal decision changes the districts. Results from the March 15 vote won’t be made public unless the vote is determined to be the final one. Election officials encourage people to cast votes for those House races and others.

“Vote your full ballot,” Mavromatis said, “and let us handle it after that.”

New this year, North Carolina voters will need photo ID to cast ballots. Of the hundreds at the Feb. 25 meeting, almost all indicated they had a driver’s license, one of several forms of accepted photo ID.

The issue Mavromatis sees is people may not look exactly like the photo on their licenses, especially older ones. Weight change, hair color, could create confusion. Mavromatis suggests bringing another form of ID – passport, government or military ID work.

“It does have to be a reasonable resemblance,” Mavromatis said.

Voter registration deadline has passed, but address updates and same-day registration are available March 3-12 at 17 locations in Mecklenburg County, including Steele Creek Public Library.

The other top topic at the meeting was roads.

“That last five years it’s been roads, for obvious reasons,” said Karl Froelich, president of the 35-year-old resident association. “Just drive around this area at rush hour.”

The Steele Creek area had about 5,000 residents in 1986. Now it has about 60,000.

Bob Cook, planner with Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization, said construction should begin next year on the Steele Creek and Hamilton roads intersection, between RiverGate and the state line. Widening of Steele Creek Road from Shopton Road West to N.C. 49 should begin in 2022. Both of those timelines are two years ahead of pace.

“In the year that’s elapsed,” Cook said, “the project has advanced two years. It’s trending in the right direction.”

The intersection widening was a tradeoff from earlier plans to widen the full stretch of Steele Creek Road from N.C. 49 to the South Carolina line. That project didn’t make the current list but is back on the table for future planning.

“That is being re-prioritized,” Cook said.

More planning efforts are coming this year. Public meetings will be held in spring for a comprehensive transportation plan – outlining road needs such as public transit, bike lanes and more in three counties for 20 years or more – expected to be adopted this summer.

“It’s usually the first time we’ve brought all these together under the same umbrella,” Cook said.

Another transportation plan through 2045, which sets dollars and timeframes for funding projects, will be adopted in 2018. Public meetings will begin in fall.

Cook said previous input from Steele Creek residents was significant enough to boost road projects on the funding lists. In fact, meetings, including Thursdays, see record crowds each year.

“Word got out,” said Dave Wiggins, who runs steelecreekresidents.org.

This story was originally published February 26, 2016 at 2:15 PM with the headline "Road construction, voting districts bring Steele Creek residents to annual meeting."