County pulls all permits for 4th of July fireworks at National Whitewater Center

CHARLOTTE — Mecklenburg County has rescinded permits for the National Whitewater Center to hold fireworks shows for both July 3 and Independence Day, Channel 9 confirmed on Friday.

The National Whitewater Center had planned a big fireworks display Monday and Tuesday to celebrate the Fourth of July. It was announced Friday afternoon that Tuesday’s events will have to go without the rockets’ red glare. Hours later, officials with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department told Channel 9′s Joe Bruno the Mecklenburg County fire marshal pulled permits for the July 3 show at the Whitewater Center.

This news comes after Charlotte’s police chief wrote a letter to Mecklenburg County Manager Dena Diorio and Charlotte City Manager Marcus Jones with an outline of lingering safety concerns after he learned that a permit had been approved for the Whitewater Center to host a fireworks show.

Channel 9 has reported on those issues in the past, including traffic problems from popular events, and visitors trespassing onto neighboring properties.

“I am hoping that we can get in front of a potential problem that we have voiced concerns with for several years,” Jennings said in his letter.

Jennings said he received a copy of the event plan from the Whitewater Center on Thursday, less than a week before the first fireworks display scheduled on Monday. He said he has several concerns with the event plan, adding that it doesn’t include critical recommendations previously made by CMPD.

Here are the issues, according to Jennings:

• There’s no plan for the large influx of vehicles, and no backup plan for blocked or stalled traffic.
• A private road is listed as an emergency exit route, and it’s currently blocked by residents who live there.
• The plan doesn’t address the highway impact.
• The center says it will have crowd management for 7,500 attendees, but there are 10,000 attendees estimated based on previous years.
• CMPD didn’t have a chance to review the safety plan before a permit was issued.
• There are 1,500 parking spaces, with an estimated 4,500 vehicles expected.

According to Jennings, CMPD will only have a small staff monitoring the event, and they won’t be providing any planned traffic control. “Any major response to the Whitewater Center will require pulling staff from patrol working across our jurisdiction, which jeopardizes our responsibility to our citizens,” Jennings said.

Jennings asked Diorio and Jones for help to “come to some amenable solution that ensures a safe event with minimal impact on the citizens of Charlotte-Mecklenburg and visitors to the Whitewater Center.”

On Friday, the Mecklenburg County Fire Marshal’s Office sent a letter to the CEO of the National Whitewater Center, Jeffrey Wise, informing him that the permit for July 4 had been rescinded because of CMPD’s concerns.

The Whitewater Center had originally sent a statement to Channel 9 before the July 4 permit was pulled, saying it wasn’t commenting on the correspondence from Jennings.

It’s not clear if the Whitewater Center will be able to get a new permit issued ahead of Tuesday. The center still has a permit for Monday’s fireworks.

Sheldon Scruggs lives on nearby Hawfield Road, which is a private roadway.

He’s been one of the neighbors that has battled with the center for more than a decade.

“The concrete barricades are to keep the vehicles out,” he said Friday. “The chain link fence is to keep bicycles out.”

The roads get clogged up, he said.

“And they just can’t keep the traffic down, which is dangerous.”

You can find a list of scheduled Independence Day events at this link.

Officials with the Whitewater Center did not have a comment about the permit that was pulled for the Fourth of July.

However, they did release this statement prior to the permit being pulled for July 3: “We have a permit to shoot fireworks on Monday, July 3rd, and will still have fireworks on Monday evening. We look forward to welcoming everyone on Monday and Tuesday night to celebrate Independence Day. All other festival programming for both days including races, live music, yoga, and activities will continue as previously scheduled.”

This is a developing story, check back for updates.

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