Clean Air Carolina and the Catawba Riverkeeper contend that the 22-mile highway would destroy homes and communities, pollute the Catawba River basin and add to air pollution. Read Clean Air Carolina’s press release here.
The group says, “In their complaint, conservation groups allege many of the same concerns that were raised in the recent victory challenging the Monroe Bypass.” In May, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rebuked the N.C. Turnpike Authority, finding it had erred in its environmental review and misrepresented key facts. “The conservation groups allege that many of the same flaws infect the analysis for the Garden Parkway,” the CAC press release says.
And in today’s Charlotte Observer (read the article here), attorney Kym Hunter of the SELC, says, “We think (the Garden Parkway study) is worse than Monroe.”
Here’s a 2011 piece I wrote while at The Charlotte Observer about the Garden Parkway and the Monroe Bypass: “Road planning from the disco era.” The link to the Observer piece must have died but thanks to the Yadkin Riverkeeper for re-running the article. And if you’re really really interested, here’s an Observer-sponsored blogpost I did on the same topic: “Road planning from the disco era – the rest of the story.”
(Editor’s note: Those articles are the opinions of the Observer associate editor, a post I held at the time, and are not necessarily the opinions of the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute or the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.)