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.
I actually think that Chapel Hill and Orange County's restrictions on development in rural areas is half of a sound policy, but they haven't properly followed through on the other half which is looser zoning, less restrictions, and more predictability to make it easier to build more densely in town. NIMBYs still rule that roost.
What?? There's crazy dense development in Chapel Hill. Everywhere I go there's another luxury apartment complex going up. How many do we need? Are they all full??
It's balanced by supply and demand. In smaller towns, there isn't enough of a population to require high rises (having said that, the town I grew up in is turning many of the three and four story businesses into mixed-use buildings now).
If a time comes in which demand dictates more available living space in the downtown area, the market will respond accordingly. But demand is not always organic. The local governments can generate demand through incentives and ordinances that promote growth in targeted areas. For many cities, I could see this happening as a smart way to control growth and sprawl, while minimizing the impact on infrastructure.
Maybe Apex isn't "there", yet, but can see that as a possibility for some areas in Cary.
If the town government is only about demand and not about the residents' wants, then they're not going to get very far.
I'd guess that if you polled 1000 people in Cary, 900 of them would be against any sort of high-rise building. People move to Cary for the suburban experience. Neighborhoods, parks, green space, convenient shopping.
In my opinion these suburban "mixed use developments" like Park West in Morrisville for example, don't work. They don't end up being anything like what was envisioned/sold. They end up being giant clusters of traffic and messed up parking lots, with some mid-rise apartment buildings thrown in. The majority of people moving to Cary or Morrisville aren't looking to live in an apartment, they're looking to live in a subdivision on a culdesac with a white picket fence.
Ag in the coastal plain does very well. In the mountains and foothills there are orchards, Christmas trees, wineries, etc. But in the Piedmont, aside from tobacco and pasture for grazing animals, ag is more difficult -- at least without big expenditures on chemicals.
One reason why RTP is where it is: it was very poor farmland, so it was sparsely settled as late as the 1950s. Low land value made it easy for the state to buy all of it.
I don't think that's true at all orulz. We have a LOT of farming in NC, but the growing conditions are different than in WI so what grows there doesn't necessarily grow here. Obviously everyone knows that NC used to grow tobacco like crazy, but we have diversified since that went out. Lots of livestock because they do well here. Lots of cotton in SE NC. Take the Carolina Farm Stewardship Farm Tour sometime and see what grows around here: https://www.carolinafarmstewards.org/pft/
It's a very rich area agriculturally, but the Southeast would be one entire forest if left to mother nature, so what BC1960 says is true. Abandoned farms can go back to forest in a flash.
Not saying there's not farming here. Though the Triassic Basin really is terrible for farming, there is plenty of farmable soil in NC. Clearly we have a history of it, and clearly there's still quite a lot of it still going on. But why is so much acreage of farmland in NC getting abandoned, when that's not happening in Wisconsin?
Basically, you just can't get as much yield per acre here as you do there. And the main factor in that is the soil.
If the town government is only about demand and not about the residents' wants, then they're not going to get very far.
I'd guess that if you polled 1000 people in Cary, 900 of them would be against any sort of high-rise building. People move to Cary for the suburban experience. Neighborhoods, parks, green space, convenient shopping.
It really depends on the areas they target. It doesn't have to be in the original downtown area. I would think the area near the planned development for Wegmans and Ikea would be more likely and acceptable. The high-density housing and development would have to be in areas where it made sense to do so. Working in areas where the infrastructure is already in place or needs just minor tweaking would be the best places to start.
Additionally, "high rises" don't have to be 20+ story buildings. They could be 10 stories or less and still satisfy many of the requirements.
Much of eastern Chatham County is in the Triassic Basin which to my understanding means the soil is very poorly suited for agriculture.
Though it was all clear cut at some point and much of it was once used for farming (in the late 19th and early 20th century) that didn't last very long since it was never very productive and was abandoned for those purposes because the soils just basically sucked. And around here, when you leave land alone for a few decades, it basically turns back into a forest. Trees aren't as picky about soil, I guess.
It definitely wasn't some forward thinking individual who tried to save this forest for future generations or anything. Just happenstance of history and geology. And it also means that this land is less valuable than land that does have some potential for farming - which may also partly explain why development does tend to happen in forestland rather than farmland.
Getting off topic here.... but highly productive soil is pretty hard to find in North Carolina. A few years ago when my grandmother passed away, I went to her funeral at her hometown in rural Wisconsin. I was struck by how every single acre of land as far as the eye could see was being farmed actively and intensively. I wondered why that was so, when in rural North Carolina, comparatively little of the land is being farmed, with much of it obviously abandoned, and what agriculture there is tends towards less intensive things like grazing, hay, or forestry. My first thought was something cultural (Work ethic? Upper midwesterners are stereotypically hard-working...) I also considered climate factors (rainfall, harsh winters, shorter growing seasons, longer sunlight hours in the summer?) before my father told me that the real answer is the soil.
i both agree and disagree with this north carolina is seen as an agriculture state with a history in cotton and tobacco
Not saying there's not farming here. Though the Triassic Basin really is terrible for farming, there is plenty of farmable soil in NC. Clearly we have a history of it, and clearly there's still quite a lot of it still going on. But why is so much acreage of farmland in NC getting abandoned, when that's not happening in Wisconsin?
Basically, you just can't get as much yield per acre here as you do there. And the main factor in that is the soil.
Thank you for posting a map of a crop with little history in NC
Wisconsin is a terrible farm area look there was no farming there according to this map
We can better preserve the communities that are beyond the edge of our cities if we changed our development model to a more urban model, but it won't happen for the following reasons:
1. Most people want the biggest single family house that they can afford on their own plot of land.
2. Land owners will continue to sell their land for big dollars to developers.
3. We don't have an appetite to fund infrastructure that will support denser development in our growing cities, while we continue to think that more/expanded roads and free parking are a "birthright". The lower taxes narrative always seems to win the argument.
4. We seem to prefer accessing our communities by car with drive-thru everything, instead of by foot or bike.
5. Our national, car dependent, suburban development model is such a fast moving train (pun intended), that's is almost impossible to stop.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
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.
