Lawmakers Give Wilmington MPO Map Act Relief

RALEIGH — The Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization may have dodged a costly court fight after Gov. Pat McCrory signed Senate Bill 654, a measure relieving the MPO of legal liability regarding the organization’s Hampstead Bypass. It requires the state Department of Transportation to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Wilmington’s urban area MPO and its members for any claims arising out if its filing a corridor map under the state’s Map Act.