Crossing over the Catawba River, the highway would end at the Interstate 485 (I-485) and West Boulevard interchange in Mecklenburg County, immediately southwest of Charlotte/Douglas International Airport.

[7] They asserted that the toll road would discharge 20,000 vehicles through the York-Chester neighborhood, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, and that the project would not meet the purpose of providing the east–west connection that was originally conceived.

"[8] During the middle of 2009, at public meetings in the towns of Belmont and Gastonia, pro-parkway residents arrived to show their support with green signs and t-shirts featuring the slogan, "Build The Garden Parkway!

"[7] Originally scheduled to be completed in 2015, delays resulted in required environmental permits and funds from the North Carolina General Assembly, pushing the opening into 2016.

In June 2012, the General Assembly continued to fail to provide funds to the Garden Parkway after advisement from the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) that they expected lawsuits that would further delay the project.

The reason for the withdrawals was because of impending threat of legal battle with environmentalists; however, it was also believed it was withdrawn because it had a similar environmental study done like the Monroe Connector/Bypass, which was struck down by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.

The goal was to toss out federal regulations that signed off on the Garden Parkway, forcing NCDOT officials to either start a new environmental impact study (further delaying the project by years) or kill it.