CHARLOTTE, N.C. —
The Palisades is a popular neighborhood in Mecklenburg County and is known for its luxurious living on Lake Wylie. However, many people don’t know it’s in a radio signal dead zone.
A county commissioner and resident of The Palisades is ringing the alarm on the safety issue as the city works to fix it.
"We're putting more and more residents in harm's way because of development," At-Large Mecklenburg County Commissioner Arthur Griffin said.
The area around The Palisades neighborhood is booming with development, but Griffin thinks there shouldn't be growth before having adequate signal.
"I think it’s crazy not to have minimum health and safety protections in place," Griffin said.
He added that cell phone signal is, "spotty at best," but what really concerns him is that the dead zone affects first responders.
Griffin started looking into the lack of radio signal after witnessing a house fire in November in his neighborhood.
"All of the neighbors were calling 911," Griffin recalled. "All 911 calls were going to South Carolina 911, and South Carolina relayed it back to North Carolina. So, there was just simply a delay."
He said firefighters were struggling to communicate while on the scene.
"Outside of their vehicles, their radios either don't work or don't work with any fidelity at all," Griffin said.
The green on the map above shows where Mecklenburg County has a radio signal. The blank areas sprinkled throughout the county and on its edges are dead zones. The Palisades area in the bottom left corner is the largest dead zone.
A city spokesperson told WCNC Charlotte city staff members have been working on the issue since 2021. In 2023, the city leased a temporary tower to improve the signal in some areas while it installed a new one nearby.
The spokesperson said the new permanent radio tower is expected to fix the radio signal issues in the Steele Creek area completely. It's set to come online on March 15.
Griffin thinks new development shouldn't have been allowed in the area until the radio signal was fixed. On Monday, he asked the Charlotte City Council to pass a building moratorium until the problem is resolved.
Contact Julia Kauffman at jkauffman@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.