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Chatham is a REALLY interesting county in terms of where it's located and how it's categorized in the game of MSAs. Its more rapid eastern side growth is being driven by Cary spilling over into it from the Raleigh MSA, while Durham pushes into it from the north. Cary continues to inch closer and closer to Durham proper. Clearly, this part of Cary acts more like a suburb of Durham than it does of Raleigh.
Then, on its slower growing western side, Chatham abuts the Greensboro MSA.
Massive growth potential in Chatham exists with the enormous Chatham Park development that will bring 22,000 new homes and 22 million square feet of commercial development on 7100 acres to the east of Pittsboro and south of Chapel Hill. In the Triangle, Chatham is a sleeping giant.
Greenville Spartanburg... BMW... 9,000 employees not to mention other jobs that followed to be near or directly tied to BMW. Not quite the same as a Harris Teeter distribution center. If Triad scores some major manufacturing, sure
Distribution and manufacturing facilities tend to cluster in the same locations, especially in areas with developed infrastructure. The Triad obviously has what it takes to score a major manufacturing outfit (it's really just a matter of time; AL and SC don't have an unlimited amount of megasites to offer) and it already has a decent amount of smaller manufacturing facilities like Honda Jet.
Has that happened in any significant manner in GA where other cities have grown from ATL spill over?
Albany, Rochester & Baltimore doesn’t seem to be getting much spill over
You do know that Baltimore has the second-highest concentration of non-military federal jobs after DC, right? If SSI, CMS, NSA/Ft. Meade, etc. aren't spillover, then I don't know what is.
You do know that Baltimore has the second-highest concentration of non-military federal jobs after DC, right? If SSI, CMS, NSA/Ft. Meade, etc. aren't spillover, then I don't know what is.
Well, I stand corrected. Baltimore can be a template for success for the Triad to emulate.
Well, I stand corrected. Baltimore can be a template for success for the Triad to emulate.
I didn't say all that but maybe it should be. In spite of its social ills, Baltimore performs surprisingly well on most economic metrics on the metropolitan level and a lot of that has to do with the well-paying federal government jobs (spillover from neighboring DC) in the area.
Chatham is a REALLY interesting county in terms of where it's located and how it's categorized in the game of MSAs. Its more rapid eastern side growth is being driven by Cary spilling over into it from the Raleigh MSA, while Durham pushes into it from the north. Cary continues to inch closer and closer to Durham proper. Clearly, this part of Cary acts more like a suburb of Durham than it does of Raleigh.
Then, on its slower growing western side, Chatham abuts the Greensboro MSA.
Massive growth potential in Chatham exists with the enormous Chatham Park development that will bring 22,000 new homes and 22 million square feet of commercial development on 7100 acres to the east of Pittsboro and south of Chapel Hill. In the Triangle, Chatham is a sleeping giant.
So
Growing up in Louisburg and entering Raleigh from the Northeast, I never would have thought that the epicenter of growth would be the SW quadrant, I guess because it wasn't as obvious that Durham and Chapel Hill would be as popular as Raleigh for newcomers.
So Franklin County will not only be the last border county to be "Trianglified", it will take longer than expected.
If there is a God, Franklin will learn from the other counties what worked and what didn't, because I do not want what happened in Rolesville to happen near Louisburg.
Rolesville could have started building rectilinear streets outward from its one-stoplight quasi downtown on US401. It could have been a modern day traditional, and walkable small town.
But anyway, the media campaign with photos of all of that undisturbed tree canopy in Chatham makes me not want that mega-development to happen at all.
The area has enough large tracks built by a single developer's vision. The larger the scale, the more generic it will be with hasty construction standards.
If Chatham wanted to become a special and different place, I think starting small with a traditional American town with a grid of streets and blocks that are walkable.
Even though I wouldn't want to live in one the many treeless, tiny lot subdivisions scattered across the Triangle, the one advantage they have is leaving so much of the canopy of trees intact. I don't think they interact with or integrate into the beautiful landscape that is NC's main attraction.
You cannot help but enjoy flying into RDU and seeing the blanket of green trees.
I don't want Chatham's climate-change mitigating, air-cleaning, oxygen-producing, heat island-reducing tree canopy to be replaced with OSB-sheathed, hardiplank-clad, heat sink subdivisions, and NO MORE CUL-DE-SACS or subdivisions accessible from only one major arterial.
The only way for the Triangle's Single family homes to not eventually cause traffic problems is streets with more connections to multiple roads.
For now, it's ok because NC has so many roads going in all directions that they resemble capillaries in the body. But y'all must stay on top of it, chiding developers for worsening future mobility on what are finite intown thoroughfares.
Growing up in Louisburg and entering Raleigh from the Northeast, I never would have thought that the epicenter of growth would be the SW quadrant, I guess because it wasn't as obvious that Durham and Chapel Hill would be as popular as Raleigh for newcomers.
So Franklin County will not only be the last border county to be "Trianglified", it will take longer than expected.
If there is a God, Franklin will learn from the other counties what worked and what didn't, because I do not want what happened in Rolesville to happen near Louisburg.
Rolesville could have started building rectilinear streets outward from its one-stoplight quasi downtown on US401. It could have been a modern day traditional, and walkable small town.
But anyway, the media campaign with photos of all of that undisturbed tree canopy in Chatham makes me not want that mega-development to happen at all.
The area has enough large tracks built by a single developer's vision. The larger the scale, the more generic it will be with hasty construction standards.
If Chatham wanted to become a special and different place, I think starting small with a traditional American town with a grid of streets and blocks that are walkable.
Even though I wouldn't want to live in one the many treeless, tiny lot subdivisions scattered across the Triangle, the one advantage they have is leaving so much of the canopy of trees intact. I don't think they interact with or integrate into the beautiful landscape that is NC's main attraction.
You cannot help but enjoy flying into RDU and seeing the blanket of green trees.
I don't want Chatham's climate-change mitigating, air-cleaning, oxygen-producing, heat island-reducing tree canopy to be replaced with OSB-sheathed, hardiplank-clad, heat sink subdivisions, and NO MORE CUL-DE-SACS or subdivisions accessible from only one major arterial.
The only way for the Triangle's Single family homes to not eventually cause traffic problems is streets with more connections to multiple roads.
For now, it's ok because NC has so many roads going in all directions that they resemble capillaries in the body. But y'all must stay on top of it, chiding developers for worsening future mobility on what are finite intown thoroughfares.
I hear loud and clear.
First of all, data hasn't yet shown that Durham and Chapel Hill to be as popular with newcomers as Raleigh. More popular than it used to be? Certainly. Hyped to that end? Absolutely! Data that emulates what's happening in Wake? Not yet. In fact, between 2017-18, the Census estimates that Johnston outgrew Durham County.
As for Chatham Park, time will tell if the vision unfolds like described. That project is pretty far removed from much of the Triangle and has Jordan Lake between it and the fast growing northeastern side of the county near RTP. Nearly all of the traffic between it and Wake County has to funnel through the same road: US64 and that could turn into a nightmare. Chapel Hill is the most convenient of the three core cities at about 15 miles away, but it's also the slowest growing part of the Triangle. Using Google maps, much of Chatham Park will be ~25 miles to RTP, ~32 miles to downtown Durham, and ~29 miles to downtown Raleigh by the suggested routes. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see what happens..
As for northeast of Raleigh, it might surprise you that Rolesville, in NE Wake County, is one of the fastest growing towns in the state, and not too far from Franklin County. So, it's heading that way. That said, I presume that developers will want to exhaust Wake County opportunities in that direction before seriously jumping into Franklin in a big way.
Growing up in Louisburg and entering Raleigh from the Northeast, I never would have thought that the epicenter of growth would be the SW quadrant, I guess because it wasn't as obvious that Durham and Chapel Hill would be as popular as Raleigh for newcomers.
So Franklin County will not only be the last border county to be "Trianglified", it will take longer than expected.
If there is a God, Franklin will learn from the other counties what worked and what didn't, because I do not want what happened in Rolesville to happen near Louisburg.
Rolesville could have started building rectilinear streets outward from its one-stoplight quasi downtown on US401. It could have been a modern day traditional, and walkable small town.
But anyway, the media campaign with photos of all of that undisturbed tree canopy in Chatham makes me not want that mega-development to happen at all.
The area has enough large tracks built by a single developer's vision. The larger the scale, the more generic it will be with hasty construction standards.
If Chatham wanted to become a special and different place, I think starting small with a traditional American town with a grid of streets and blocks that are walkable.
Even though I wouldn't want to live in one the many treeless, tiny lot subdivisions scattered across the Triangle, the one advantage they have is leaving so much of the canopy of trees intact. I don't think they interact with or integrate into the beautiful landscape that is NC's main attraction.
You cannot help but enjoy flying into RDU and seeing the blanket of green trees.
I don't want Chatham's climate-change mitigating, air-cleaning, oxygen-producing, heat island-reducing tree canopy to be replaced with OSB-sheathed, hardiplank-clad, heat sink subdivisions, and NO MORE CUL-DE-SACS or subdivisions accessible from only one major arterial.
The only way for the Triangle's Single family homes to not eventually cause traffic problems is streets with more connections to multiple roads.
For now, it's ok because NC has so many roads going in all directions that they resemble capillaries in the body. But y'all must stay on top of it, chiding developers for worsening future mobility on what are finite intown thoroughfares.
I don’t quite follow. SW Wake was always destined to grow faster than Franklin County/Louisburg. It’s much closer to RTP, Durham, and Raleigh. Johnson County is also much more geographically friendly.
And building a city plan after the fact is hard expensive. Pittsboro isn’t going to start building out a grid now. I have family land in Chatham, and the encroachment of Goodnight’s fantasyland is not wholly appreciated. But there simply isn’t money in building a denser downtown alternative. Rebuilding the courthouse was enough. It will keep its small downtown core street intact, but otherwise it will just be a hodgepodge as family farms are broken up in piecemeal.
If Chatham wanted to become a special and different place, I think starting small with a traditional American town with a grid of streets and blocks that are walkable.
Unfortunately I doubt that will happen. Developers will follow the path of least resistance that gets them the most revenue. That usually involves buying up large tracts of land, clear cutting, and sprawling unwalkable subdivisions with no real thought to interconnectivity.
Density usually comes decades and decades down the road when there's nothing left to clear cut / build upon.
Chatham is a REALLY interesting county in terms of where it's located and how it's categorized in the game of MSAs. Its more rapid eastern side growth is being driven by Cary spilling over into it from the Raleigh MSA, while Durham pushes into it from the north. Cary continues to inch closer and closer to Durham proper. Clearly, this part of Cary acts more like a suburb of Durham than it does of Raleigh.
Then, on its slower growing western side, Chatham abuts the Greensboro MSA.
Massive growth potential in Chatham exists with the enormous Chatham Park development that will bring 22,000 new homes and 22 million square feet of commercial development on 7100 acres to the east of Pittsboro and south of Chapel Hill. In the Triangle, Chatham is a sleeping giant.
The town of Apex also has two developments under construction that literally touch the Chatham County Line. I'm not sure what the zoning is like on the other side of the fence from these developments since it's so close to Jordan Lake, but the west side of Apex is fast approaching Chatham as well.
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