New Retail Coming to Huntersville

Either it is a sign that the economy is picking up or it has taken a really, really long time for the zoning in Huntersville to be finished. Regardless, it looks like there is new retail coming to the south west corner of Hwy 73 and Beatties Ford Road.

No matter which it is, looks like dirt may be moving in the area soon!

Race Week at Lowes Motor Speedway

The LKN region's kick-off for summer is arriving this weekend at Lowes Motor Speedway. Starting with the Sprint All-Star Race and ending with the Coca-Cola 600, this promises to be a fun week in area. 

You should prepare for a bit more traffic and a few more folks at your favorite eatery but thank everyone for leaving their travel and tourism dollars as they head back home. And of course, enjoy some racin!

It Just Keeps Getting Easier to get to Lake Norman

The Harris Development Group is planning a retail/residential development close to Caldwell Station. For those familiar with the area, that is right on the highly anticipated light rail line. 

In the 12+ years we've lived at LKN, we've heard about the completion of the outer belt loop and light rail. Now that the economy is slumping and new construction is slowing to less than a crawl, please forgive me if I am less than excited by the news. What I can tell you is that in those 12+ years, the population and traffic have shot off the charts. 

However, if this development DOES come to pass and light rail DOES make it up our way, then I promise to be excited. I might even do some shopping there. Until then, I am going to enjoy looking out the window at LKN, which makes a little traffic worth it all!

A Faster Way to Lake Norman

Finally! Believe it or not, the new Northwestern leg of I-485 opened this weekend! Friday at 2pm, the state DOT opened the 5 mile leg of the yet to be completed outer beltway. From the south, the west or even downtown, there is now a new and faster way to make it to Lake Norman. 

We took a drive down the virgin pavement Friday night and outside of the very dark surrounding area, the only thing we felt was a smooth, un-congested cruise (much like a mid-week cruise on LKN :-)

So, come see us up here! LKN, not only a great place to live, work, and play but now easier to get to!

Lake Norman Traffic - or is it just smoke on the water?

I work from home and because our neighborhood is still one of those well kept secrets of Lake Norman, traffic really doesn't impact my daily life. But on those rare occasions when I do have to leave the tranquillity of our lakeside oasis, I only need to drive to the end of my street to meet the harsh reality of suburban traffic.

Now, the communities of Huntersville, Cornelius, and Davidson are proposing some sort of organization that will lobby and keep the traffic issues we face on the forefront of those in Raleigh that dole out road improvement funds. Of course, to set up such an organization, will require funding and guess what, we residents will need to pay for that.

The intra-town committee that is proposing this new organization has also proposed seven (7) sources of funding and only one (1) of those sources doesn't include a fee from my pocket! All of this might make sense if we weren't dealing with a Highway Funding scheme in Raleigh that was developed to build roads to farmland in eastern North Carolina regardless of where the traffic was really based. So, by putting an organization together to represent the highway funding needs of our three lakeside towns might get us noticed but as long as Raleigh has legislated that only half of the funding set aside for road work in NC can be spent in the Western part of NC, road improvements here will not be made any faster and without more money from our pockets!