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From Indian Trail, 6am commute time takes 30 min to S. Kings Road, uptown. 3pm commute takes 35-45 min. Of course these are not "rush hour" times but that 3pm commute is usually bumper to bumper from 277 to Indian Trail all the way down 74.
As a Charlotte resident for 30+ years, I have seen the town grow into a city. I don't sell real estate, work for a developer, or have any other axe to grind. Anyone moving within 40 miles of Charlotte will be facing increasing difficulties, in the form of increased commute times, overcrowded facilities, and inevitable higher taxes. The city of Charlotte will encompass the majority of the county of Mecklenburg by 2010 or 2012.
There are several problems which have plagued Charlotte(and therefore the surrounding areas) ever since I arrived here and I'm sure long before:
The power structure has never seen a development they didn't like.
Area zoning/development plans are formulated over several years and immediately disregarded when a contradictory request is made.
Most infrastructure needs are funded by the state legislature and
the state legislature is controlled by rural, eastern NC legislators, who seem to have an inherent distrust (maybe even dislike) of urban dwellers.
Charlotte Mecklenburg leaders seem to have an inordinate amount of vanity and arrogance compared to other NC urban area leaders, "nothing or no one in the state is as good as things/people from Charlotte Mecklenburg."
Couple 2 & 3 and Charlotte/Mecklenburg winds up getting the leavings when funds for schools/roads/etc. are disbursed.
All of that is a preface to say:
The counties which are within 40 miles of Charlotte have been/are/will be experiencing tremendous growth from people and companies moving into the area. We have a young couple in our neighborhood near SouthPark who moved here from Syracuse, the husband had gotten a job with Wachovia. The parents came to visit, both sets are now living here, aunts & uncles came to visit and more moved down. At least 5 new households are in the Charlotte area in less than 4 years as a result of the initial move. Reality has this happening repeatedly.
As far as schools go, our son was in the 1st International Baccalaureate class @ Myers Park. Charlotte Mecklenburg does have some excellent and some horrible schools. If you go where the money and involved parents are, your children can get an excellent education. CMSchools have more Advanced Placement classes than probably any system in the Southeast. I know there are more kids in the IB curriculum than anywhere in the US. Any random group of 10 IntBac students will record higher SAT scores than any group of 10 students from any other high school in North or South Carolina, public or private.
Union County has county officials who have played good ole boy politics for years and a pro-developer governing body was elected in November. The former council had passed a responsible growth agenda to try to get infrastructure in place to catch up with the phenomenal growth the county is experiencing. That has been/will be killed. There will be no efforts to handle road or school funding to counter the growth. Union County will be facing severe commuting gridlock and immediate needs for mobile units at brand new schools.
I can't speak except in generalities re: other adjacent counties. Most have governing entities who are ill-equipped to deal with the influx of new inhabitants and are unable to abandon their archaic ideas against zoning so you wind up with a mobile home next door to a $300000 house.
South Carolina has some better ideas, they are at least attempting to distribute road funds to stay ahead of needs, without penalizing urban areas because of jealousy, etc. You would be better served to look in the Tega Cay/Fort Mill area for housing and jobs. Affordable, mixed use developments, good schools, lower taxes, cheaper fuel are just some of the reasons it makes sense to go to SC.
We have friends who live near Tega Cay and they can get to the airport or downtown in 25-35 minutes on a bad commuting day, i. e., rain or wrecks.
Last edited by Jimbob; 03-03-2007 at 12:28 AM..
Reason: addition to content
So what numbers are the areas/towns that Providence and Myers Park high schools service? Always find this confusing. Thanks
South of Hwy 51 (closer to Union County) the kids go to Providence HS.
North of Hwy 51 goes to Myers Park HS. The areas that go to Myers are the homes that are on Rea Rd & up Colony Rd. (I know there are more areas, but these are the ones I know for sure- unless the schools zones have changed in recent years)
Thanks for the reply but do you know what numbers those zones are so if I do ans MLS search I know what to put in. I'm sorry if I am being dense and just not gettig it.
Jimbob - what a fabulous post. Well researched and objective. And it explains well why we're fleeing to Tega Cay next month. We love our area of Charlotte and our daughter's school, but going anywhere outside the immediate area is getting increasingly more difficult. And with more and more Union County residents commuting uptown on the same roads, it will continue to get worse. That's the crux of the quality of life issue for me - as a working mom I don't want to spend 2+ hours of my day in the car away from my kids.
And incidentally to another poster, 485 just looks bad -- it's usually faster than the surface streets. It moves slowly, but it usually keeps moving. It's only convenient for me in the summer when I'm dropping daughter #1 at camp in Ballantyne, so I don't use it during the school year. But if were more convenient to get on, I'd use it rather than snaking through 12 different neighborhoods to get uptown.
Thanks for the reply but do you know what numbers those zones are so if I do ans MLS search I know what to put in. I'm sorry if I am being dense and just not gettig it.
Your realtor can set up a search for you that sends you listings only for the schools you want. Let me know if I can help, and best of luck
This changes year to year, see my post under Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools for other links.
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Development & Commute Times
