My reply to your question is likely no surprise to anyone who has read this forum for a while
....but Sanford is indeed a good option for folks in the Fayetteville area that are looking for a "small town" feel with mid-sized city resources.
Sanford is about 25k population, and has most of the services that people "need", such as big-box stores, chain restaurants, a local hospital, but is just 20-30 minutes away from the larger metros that have just about anything else one might "want".
Sanford is ideally located, almost dead center to the Greensboro, Raleigh/Durham, and Fayetteville area. Commutes to any are less than an hour, and in the case of Raleigh or Fayetteville can be in the 30-40 minute range depending on destination. And of course, Cary is just 30 minutes away.
Here are some maps showing Sanford's relative location to other cities and resources:
Live Well Centered.
We moved to Sanford from San Jose, CA via a 1yr stint in Cary and have been very pleased. We've found the schools to be very good and certainly no worse than Cary or San Jose. Being a smaller school district it is true that some of the activities or more esoteric(such as Japanese as a foreign language) classes found in large districts are absent. But that's not to say that there is a shortage of core and extracurricular classes and programs.
And much of Lee County's schools are relatively new, and we've just opened a new HS a few years back. The only major infrastructure issue was the well known problems with the main HS, which was quite old. That now is being renovated and is slated to be completed by 2012-2013.
We've also got a great local theater presence with The Temple Theater. They have two children's conservatories in the summer, and our children have attended for the last 3 years and loved it.
Housing is Sanford is very affordable, although one can also find several hundred thousand $$ homes if that is something one is looking for. Being smaller, Sanford has everything from rural farm land, gated golf communities, builder spec subdivisions, and historic downtown districts.... all within 10 minutes of each other.
Also being smaller, Sanford has retained much of its small town look and feel. Sanford has a strong blue collar manufacturing and railroad background, and has that look and feel. If one is looking for a carefully groomed "Cary Jr", then Sanford may not be what one is looking for. But Sanford takes pride in its appearance and history, and it shows.
Another benefit of being smaller, is that Sanford city government, and also Lee County government(Sanford is the county seat) is very approachable. Sanford is the kind of town where the mayor probably knows you by name and will make an effort to greet you in public. And city council members are more likely than not to come by your house to chat if you've expressed an interest in an issue.
Sanford isn't perfect of course, but with BRAC and the general growth of the surrounding area, we've seen slow and steady investment that even in our short 4 years has shown a distinct improvement.
We're happy with our choice and like to let others know that Sanford is a good alternative to the larger metro areas if a more rural or small town atmosphere is what you are looking for.
Good luck, and here are some more informational links:
Downtown Sanford, INC. | Sanford, North Carolina
City of Sanford, North Carolina | Official Government Website
Sanford Area Chamber of Commerce
Al
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Sanford has a lot to offer, and is conveniently located.
