Rep. Rayne Brown
The House Transportation Committee on Tuesday took the first step toward making the Map Act history by giving it a favorable report. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Rayne Brown, R-Davidson, now goes to the House Finance Committee for further review.
Brown said she toured an area in Forsyth County where the Map Act has been in place. She said she’d never been to Beirut, but had seen pictures of it. “Without the rubble, that’s what it reminds me of,” Brown said.
Brown said that 37 states manage to build their highways without a Map Act, which can prevent local governments from issuing building permits for properties in proposed highway corridors for up to three years.
“The state cannot save money on the backs of a few thousand of its citizens,” Brown said.
Last month, property owners in that Forsyth County corridor won a lawsuit in the N.C. Court of Appeals. The appeals court ruled that the Map Act filing amounted to a taking of their property, which requires the state Department of Transportation to pay just compensation for the land.
Nick Tennyson, chief deputy secretary for the DOT, told the committee that the department is appealing that ruling to the N.C. Supreme Court.
Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, has filed his own Map Act bill. The Rabon bill would not repeal the Map Act, but lower the moratorium for a building permit from three years to two years.