Mark Briggs of Parsons Brinckerhoff Advisory Services, left, and Cornelius Commissioner Jeff Hare Photo: Lake Norman Chamber

The Lake Norman Regional Transportation Commission is urging the nine governments along the proposed Red Line from Iredell County to Charlotte to use the full 90 days allotted to complete a financial review.

The $452 million Red Line is under enormous scrutiny, with Iredell County’s Board of Commissioners in January stopping just short of voting against it. Meanwhile, the word from Norfolk Southern is that the proposed joint freight/commuter rail line doesn’t fit in with their plans for the “O Line” that runs north out of Charlotte, bisecting Huntersville and skirting downtown Cornelius on its way to Davidson and Mooresville.

Still, the overall plan has approvals from many levels of Charlotte’s region-wide transportation governance, ranging from the Metropolitan Transit Commission to Mecklenburg County voters who approved a half-cent sales tax for region-wide transit improvements.

Getting everyone on the same page — including whether a complex new funding plan can tap into owners of commercial property — is the order of the day for some local leaders, including Cornelius Mayor Jeff Tarte. Condemning the Red Line is not the issue at hand, despite unbridled criticism of the plan from some quarters.

Cornelius Town Commissioner Dave Gilroy said the plan was “completely nonsensical” at a discussion session hosted by the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce late last month.

But Tarte said how to finance, design, build and operate the Red Line as one of five rail lines that are part of an agreed upon regional intermodal transportation plan — “that is where we are.”

The goal during this 90-day regional review is to see if the plan can be tweaked and modified so that Iredell County, Norfolk Southern and skeptical landowners get on board

“In the next month, candidly, what we have to do is…make sure the concerns expressed by Norfolk Southern, by the Iredell County Board of Commissioners, by land owners, are addressed at a high level, and adjust the plan accordingly,” Tarte said.

Norfolk-Southern executives have started to attend Red Line briefing meetings, shedding a little light on the railroad’s symbiotic relationship with the state of North Carolina. With some 600 employees in Linwood, N.C. and Charlotte, as well as 1,300 miles of road, the railroad has a vested interest in the economic health of North Carolina.

The Red Line is expected to throw off some 23,000 new jobs as well as $4.9 billion in new development around the proposed stations.

Behind the scenes, local government officials are saying there is a brief window of opportunity to advance the Red Line now — partly because of the economy.

Rising real estate values can be captured to help finance the Red Line through Special Assessment Districts and Tax Increment Financing. Because the MTC has earmarked $113 million for the Red Line and the state has agreed to match it, the total cost of the rail project is achievable.

“But if you don’t advance the plan now, the money will be spent somewhere else in the county,” one official said. “This is all about accelerating the project, not approving it.”