An N.C. 24/27 bypass has been in DOT plans years, aiming at a future four-lane road between Charlotte and Fayetteville -- a "strategic highway corridor."
At stake are homes and gardens, family lands. The state will condemn property for a right-of-way big enough to build an Interstate divided highway, though only a two-lane road is in the works to begin with.
On enlarged aerial photographs, three 1,000-foot-wide swaths curved around Carthage, two above and one below.
"My house is right there," one woman said, her finger tapping one path. "I paid $400,000 for it, and I just moved in last week."
DOT has some $2 million now to pay for right of way.
Property in this part of Moore County appears to be going up faster than DOT expected. One 19-acre section crossed by the southern path is already on the market for $850,000 -- almost half of DOT's total budget.
That is the asking price. When a state takes land, it does so under eminent domain. The fifth amendment to the U.S. Constitution limited that right two ways: seizures must be "for public use," and property may not be taken "without just compensation."
That was news to some residents.
"When did they pass that law?" one man asked. "You mean I don't have any say about it?"
The state will offer payment based on actual market value appraisals, engineers explained, over and over. Their informational sessions started in a Police Department training room at 2 p.m. for town officials, then moved to a larger room at the Agriculture Center for members of the public at large. Some had received notices in the mail, but many said they only heard about it from neighbors.
Over the next few months, the state will narrow its path study until final plans are drawn.
"We will look at more than one track," said engineer Drew Joyner. "There will be detailed studies and time for public comment."
Land acquisition is to begin in 2008. The right of way eventually obtained will be 250 feet wide, a quarter of the wide areas shown in broad gray and purple curves passing like large Magic Marker lines around the town center. Two of them affect residents of Needmore, a historically black section Carthage takes pride in having brought into the city some years ago.
Six years ago, town commissioners presented a plaque of appreciation to Milton T. Dowdy for bringing the Needmore Community into Carthage and for assisting with the town's Community Development Block Grant to extend sewer lines and to upgrade water lines there.
Milton T. Dowdy Jr., is president of the Needmore Improvement Association. He was present Monday afternoon as was O'Linda Williams, president of the Moore County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The paths that cross Needmore are the shortest and most direct, but residents there fear the road will disrupt an ethnic community and close ties that took years to build. They favor the southern route.
Controversy over which route the state will take is only starting to heat up.
"If you have questions and concerns and ever want us to have a meeting with your group, call," Joyner said, again and again. "We will be more than happy to do so."
Dowdy was quick to take Joyner up on the offer. He will set up a meeting between Needmore residents and DOT engineers.
"In a couple of days, I will give you a call," he said. "We will set a date, and give you the opportunity to come down with me."
Other local groups -- civic clubs, churches, or organizations -- are encouraged to seek such meetings, engineers said.
Residents in downtown Carthage and those who live south of town, oppose building the road along the earlier path between city center and the intersection of N.C. 22 (McNeil Street) and U.S. 15-501 at Hillcrest.
Putting in a limited access road will build a wall between the heart of Carthage and its growing edge where millions of dollars are soon to be spent developing Little River Golf Resort -- the land between courthouse and fairway is the future of Carthage, they say.
Whether and where the bypass will come is very much on the table, according to engineers and town officials alike. This is not the first time DOT has come to Carthage with a budget and a plan. The maps they used Monday are two years out of date. None of the DOT representatives were aware of the Little River plans. They had to be shown new developments like Stonegate (north of town) and the water plant (squarely in the way of the southern route).
At the earlier session, town officials were surprised and dismayed that DOT has no plans to do any origin-and-destination studies of potential traffic.
"At this point, all the lines on the map are preliminary," Joyner said. "We don't know where it's going to be."
John Chappell can be reached at 783-5841 or by e-mail at jchappell@thepilot.com.
