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Charlotte is a city of neighborhoods, most of which are not interconnecting, which forces traffic onto primary roads. The result is that the area has notable traffic.
York County planners are following the same prescription in new neighborhoods around Lake Wylie: neighborhoods are packed onto dense lots, and none of them are connecting, forcing motorists onto main roads to get to work, stores, restaurants, etc.
Yet, unlike Charlotte, whose developmental pattern *requires* that commercial districts be planted however many miles from each other, York Co. gives little consideration to commercial zoning - requiring residents to drive long distances to stores, restaurants, etc.
Since the neighborhoods aren't interconnecting, residents are forced onto main roads as their main means of travel.
The end consequence, once all of this is built out, will be congestion far worse than Charlotte.
What's wrong with York County? I see all of these dense housing developments being created around Lake Wylie, yet there are few commercial zones to accommodate residents.
It all comes down to planning and I really don't want to call it the small town mentality, but I feel that is part of the problem. There has been no vision on how they want the area to grow and no planning for the infrastructure that is needed support the increasing population. There is also nothing to stop someone from building homes if the property is zoned for homes. So as long as it is zoned that way it can be built without any input from the county and my guess is that most of York County is zoned that way.
I've moved out here in 1997, started in Indian Land area of Lancaster County and I remember my dad flying out here around 2005 when attempting to sell my grandmothers land (45 acres), so that he could go to a Lancaster County council meeting to try and convince them to rezone the land to commercial. The council didn't want the land rezoned. They wanted to only have residential in Indian Land, and have the commercial in the City of Lancaster. They figured that all the new residents would drive the 18 or so miles into Lancaster for their shopping. We pointed out that Pineville was only 5 miles away for most residents and that most were driving into NC to do their shopping. The Lancaster County Council wouldn't hear it and kept stating that people would drive there for their shopping and they kept approving new housing developments.
It took them a long time to finally realize their mistake and you are now seeing more commercial projects in Indian Land, but now the infrastructure can't support everything that has gone in. 521 is a mess and I'm so glad my grandmother is not alive to see it, since I don't think she would have been able to leave her house and merge on 521 how it is now.
York County is the same way, they just don't want or can't see that rubber stamping new homes is not the solution. You need to make sure that the roads can handle all the added traffic, and that there are shops and commercial properties that people can go to for their shopping.
The two counties let the genie out of the bottle and they are never going to get it back in and get everything back under control.
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