Breakup of Mecklenburg County

[monsoon]

I was surprised when right on the front page of the Huntersville Herald there is a column from the owner and editor of the paper suggested that Huntersville, Davidson and Cornelus would be better off if they seceded from Mecklenburg country. Everyone in Huntersville reads this paper as it is delivered to all residents free of charge. I can imagine this will fan up some flames.

"On second thought,maybe seceding from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools system wasn’t such a bad idea after all. And while we’re at it, pulling out of Mecklenburg County, and getting as far away from Charlotte as possible, might not be a bad idea, either. This is not the most logical reaction to last week’s recommendations from the School Building Solutions Committee....."

This is of course being caused by the continuing failures of CMS to address problems and issues of the 6 municipalities outside of Charlotte. What do you think?

[MZT]

I've wondered how long it would take for someone to make this suggestion. But this writer isn't laying out any logical case toward splitting the county. In fact, I'd even call it an off-the-cuff remark, in an editorial mostly about the Mecklenburg school board.

I do think that breaking up CMS itself needs to be seriously considered. It's too large, too unresponsive, and the board members are such petty grandstanding embarrassments.

[RiverwoodCLT]

I do not think th state would go along with this.

[MZT]

There's very little precedent for successful county splits. I know High point (tucked intto the southwest corner of Guilford co) and Rocky Mount (which straddles a county border) have tried at various times, and got nowhere.

CMS structure and the NC DOT road funding priorities, are two examples of Raleigh being too entwined into local needs.

[Spartan]

Would it actually benefit the communities to be separate?

[Jerseyman4]

Would it actually benefit the communities to be separate?

It depends. If Cornelius, Huntersville and Davidson became part of Iredell County, the cost of living would be cheaper but county services would likely not be as good as Meck. County.

[voyager12]

White flight anger against majority urban school districts is not unique to Charlotte. Only exacerbated because of the busing the area experienced for years. CMS needs to stay together and work on becoming less bureaucratic and territorial. Easy to say but I think it can be done. Peter Gorman sounds progressive and ready to make change happen, it will take awhile but a new face will help. Allowing Lake Norman towns to form their own school district would create a 99.9% white very affluent school system flush with cash because of the land values of the area and leave urban Mecklenburg in worse shape. Even more impoverished and struggling. The idea is fundamentally unfair to all the children in the county and would never happen because civil rights groups would file federal lawsuits that would cause expensive litigation for years. Which is exactly what is happening in Omaha, Nebraska right now. All the children in Charlotte-Mecklenburg deserve equally excellent educations regardless of socioeconomic, or geographic location. Proponents of splitting the district are acting out of selfishiness for the few and not thinking of the greater good, which is sad.

[AuLukey]

I think this is a funny issue that I actually hope comes true. Once they have seceeded, yes, they will get more attention from whatever county, their funding will also drop significantly. It's different when you have 600k people overbearing you, but they are also providing a reasonable tax base to pull from at the same time. They're better off in Meck, but they would get more of the spotlight if they were in Iredell. Maybe they should just form their own county so they won't be forced to be jealous of Statesville and Mooresville too. Maybe if they formed their own county, Cabarrus and Rowan could combine to keep our county system at a cool 100 counties. I'm sure that would make Kannapolis happy.

I love Pineville and Matthews in that they are pretty much just a neighborhood of Charlotte and interact directly with the city. Huntersville, Cornelius, and Davidson are the whiny step-brothers and sisters. If they leave it will benefit Charlotte more than it will them and, for that reason, I hope they do it.

[Miesian Corners]

Yeah, leave big, bad old Charlotte-Meck behind. The ONLY reason Huntersville and Cornelius exist in their present state is BECAUSE of Char-Meck. How utterly rediculous is this idea that they should leave? I can only hope that this actually does take place. Then Charlotte can plop a big giant payroll tax on the secessionists.

[Spartan]

Perhaps they could seceed and form their own county.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

Cornelius, Huntersville, and Davidson should be free to leave if they should choose, but if I were them, I would leave the school district first and see how that works out. They shouldn't have to foot the bill for innercity Charlotte's wastefulness and inefficency.

As for the tax base argument, Weddington and the other Union County border towns do just fine with their schools - there's a lot of money to go around in what is now North Meck, it would probably work out just like it does in Western Union County.

IMO the South Side of Meck should form it's own district as well.

[monsoon]

It depends. If Cornelius, Huntersville and Davidson became part of Iredell County, the cost of living would be cheaper but county services would likely not be as good as Meck. County.

The only primary service the 3 towns get from the county is the school system. The towns operate independent police, fire, garbage, E911, animal control, etc. There is the dept of social services and the court system, but the towns probably don't get their money's worth on those two items since most of the crime and public housing is in Charlotte.

[nyxmike]

Personally, I think this would be a bad idea. We all talk about how we don't want to be like Atlanta - when things like this happen, the more independent everything becomes. The metro area becomes very disconnected and it's harder for everyone to work together on certain issues, like transit. The only real issue seems to be the school system.

[monsoon]

My guess would be that if given the choice, Huntersville, Cornelius, and Davidson would gladly leave Mecklenburg to form a Lake Norman county. They would probably want Mooresville and Troutman to join them who are not real happy with Iredell either.

[Raintree21]

I think it would probaby benefit the residents of that area since there is so many rich people living up there and they already practically fund everything themselves (with the exception of CMS) but isn't there a state law preventing that from happening?

[monsoon]

It would be a matter for the NC Legislature who would have to create the county and that isn't likely to happen. However assuming they were agreeable to such an event, I would assume they would put it to a county wide vote. My guess is the vote would also fail as I would assume the residents of Mecklenburg might not want to see 1/5th of the county disappear.

About 10 years ago, a small section of NW Mecklenburg was transferred to Iredell county at the requests of the residents there and without a vote in the county. This is why more recent maps of Mecklenburg show an angle in the top left corner instead of a square. The missing part is in Iredell county now.

[Charlotte_native]

About 10 years ago, a small section of NW Mecklenburg was transferred to Iredell county at the requests of the residents there and without a vote in the county. This is why more recent maps of Mecklenburg show an angle in the top left corner instead of a square. The missing part is in Iredell county now.

[Raintree21]

I thought they were still Mecklenburgers but just received services from Iredell.

[monsoon]

I thought they were still Mecklenburgers but just received services from Iredell.

[Raintree21]

Hmmm, Iredell Neck doesn't have quite the ring to it as Meck Neck. I wonder how much tax base the county lost due to them?

[monsoon]

Hmmm, Iredell Neck doesn't have quite the ring to it as Meck Neck. I wonder how much tax base the county lost due to them?

[BobbyDav]

If the driving force behind split is that charlotte gets an unfair amount of the attention from public services (like schools) then could it not be equally beneficial for these towns to seek incorporation instead? If the arguement is that the CMS is just inept then isn't the split unfair for the residents without children recieving public education, who have no reason to leave the county(especially if their property value goes down)? If they merely seek a chance to simplify county operations and lower their cost of living, then are these people not leaching off of charlotte by opting to accept the benefits of living close to an urban center without having to share the costs?

(I realise "benefits" is vague, but they should be more or less self evident. Also, these questions are not just rhetorical; I'm acutally curious.)

[monsoon]

I am not exactly following you as all of the towns that I mentioned are fully incorporated. In many cases they don't use county services such as police, fire, the 3 northern towns operate an independent 911 system, and they handle their own garbage service.

[Raintree21]

CMPD answers all 911 calls, then reroutes them to a northern dispatch center for those towns if they need police. For all fire calls not in the City of Charlotte and all Medic calls (regardless of location), they are sent to Medic communications which then dispatches either the respective fire department and/or a Medic ambulance if it is a medical emergency.

[monsoon]

CMPD answers all 911 calls, then reroutes them to a northern dispatch center for those towns if they need police. ....