The Monroe Expressway Means Business For Anson County

By the end of 2018, cars, trucks and the occasional motorcycle will be able to bypass the snarl of stop lights that has choked traffic on U.S. Highway 74 through Union County for the past two decades and travel unimpeded from southeast Mecklenburg County to near the Union-Anson county line. The impact of the Monroe Expressway, long-delayed due to environmental issues, will be huge for already booming Union County, but transformational for Anson County, which has to-date not participated in the economic growth radiating out from metro Charlotte.

Beginning near the I-485 interchange, the Expressway runs 20 miles across Union County, ending just before Marshville, less than five miles from the Anson County line. The road, which will cost nearly $750 million, will charge an as-yet-undetermined toll in exchange for the opportunity to cross the county 30-40 minutes faster than is currently possible. Those minutes are critical for Anson, because they put most of the county within a one-hour drive of Uptown Charlotte and the Charlotte Douglas International Airport, a critical consideration for companies looking to set up shop in the area and for residents seeking a rural small town environment with a reasonable commute.

Almost one-fifth of the traffic on the U.S. 74 corridor is currently commercial, with that percentage expected to grow as Charlotte expands its presence as a regional logistics hub and new Infrastructure investment at the Port of Wilmington makes it a viable alternative to the larger ports along the east coast. Anson County's location along this corridor, along with relatively inexpensive land and available workforce, makes it a natural fit for distribution and manufacturing operations seeking a low-cost alternative to Charlotte or Monroe. From an economic development perspective, the Expressway will open opportunities for companies who might previously have considered the county "too far out" from the metro area to attract the necessary workforce or too far removed from major Interstates to facilitate freight movement.

On the residential and retail side, the western side of Anson County, especially the community of Peachland, is already getting attention from developers who view the Peachland-Marshville area as the next regional hotspot. While the town is still several years away from the sort of explosive growth seen in formerly rural places such as Waxhaw, Denver and Locust, it is all but a certainty that new housing and retail will begin to spring up there by the early 2020's.

To prepare for the opportunities and challenges the Expressway will bring, Anson County and its municipalities are proactively developing plans to guide development in a sustainable and cohesive way. Similarly, the Anson Economic Development Partnership (AnsonEDP) has adopted a strategic plan called READY 2020 that will guide its efforts to capitalize on opportunities to recruit distribution, logistics and advanced manufacturing projects to the county. For its part, South Piedmont Community College (SPCC) is working with AnsonEDP to develop the future workforce for these new sectors, including educational tracks focused on truck driving, material handling, mechatronics and welding. It seems that after years spent languishing in the shadow of its faster-growing neighbors, the Monroe Expressway will be the key that finally unlocks the extraordinary economic potential of Anson County.