RTP growth spills into area
By: Andrew Dunn, Senior Writer
Issue date: 10/23/07 Section: State & National
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It wasn't long ago that Apex had just a Hardee's and a Scott's Galaxy Foods to its name and Cary was a tiny railroad and tobacco town.
Many of the formerly rural communities surrounding Raleigh have seen triple-digit population growth during the past few decades and commercial expansions to match.
A reaction to that growth was evident in this month's Wake County municipal elections, as several incumbents, including Cary's mayor, were booted out of office in favor of candidates taking a tougher stance toward growth.
Chapel Hill and Carrboro have also experienced a high level of growth with controversies to match, including Carolina North, the Chapel Hill Greenbridge development and Carrboro's Alberta condominiums.
But professors and politicians say differences between Wake and Orange counties will likely prevent such a sea change from occurring in the Nov. 6 municipal elections.
"The electorate in Chapel Hill moved here because of special characteristics," said Ferrel Guillory, director of the UNC Program on Public Life. "Chapel Hill's self-image is of a university town, a village."
He said because of that perception, both Chapel Hill and Carrboro have taken steps to limit growth.
The towns have placed a moratorium on development in the northern part of the area, and each town has built in a rural buffer.
"Carrboro and Chapel Hill have been developing mechanisms to control growth for the past 20 years," Carrboro Alderman Dan Coleman wrote in an e-mail. "By comparison, Wake County is playing catch-up."
Guillory said Wake County in general and Raleigh in particular are more diverse communities centered around government and the Research Triangle Park.
As Wake has expanded, many of its former small farm towns have seen skyrocketing populations.
"When I moved here in 1987 … I'm not sure you could buy a decent meal," said Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly. "You could buy lard, hog jowls and bib overalls. Those were the shops."
Apex's population has increased from 2,234 in 1970 to 30,000.
The primary driver of growth in Wake, Weatherly said, is RTP.
Some candidates in the Chapel Hill and Carrboro elections said they fear the Orange County region could be on the path of Wake County's small towns.
Cary saw the influx of growth first because it lies adjacent to the park's - and Raleigh's - borders.
"Since 1960, Cary's population has at least doubled each decade," said town public information officer Susan Moran, also fingering RTP as the force behind growth.
While Cary has largely embraced the growth in the past, Guillory said that the shift from pro-expansion to pro-limits movements is the latest in a pendulum of reactions that Orange County hasn't seen.
Much like the Orange County rural buffer, vestiges of Apex and Cary's past still pop up.
Down Apex's main street from where a four-story office building was proposed lies the house where a man was found with more than 70 sheep living in his home.
And chickens living on a small peach orchard on Highway 64 now strut under a sign promoting the future Orchard Villas luxury condominium complex.
"You're in farmland within 10, 15 minutes max," said William Rohe, director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at UNC. "We're going to lose some of that attractiveness."
The entire region, Chapel Hill and Carrboro included, will likely see more than a million new residents in the area by 2030, Rohe said, citing State Data Center projections.
Chapel Hill's population has almost doubled since 1970, from 26,199 to about 50,000.
Carrboro's has more than tripled in that time, growing from 5,058 in 1970 to 18,500 this year.
While Orange County growth is also in part spurred by business expansion and RTP, the University is still the main draw and therefore remains a focal point.
"The politics of Chapel Hill is much more dominated by town-gown relations," Guillory said.
That's one reason why the proposal of Carolina North, a satellite research facility, has carried such weight. Other concerns are balancing economic growth, residential expansion and infrastructure.
"We know that people are still moving to our area," Chapel Hill Town Council candidate Penny Rich stated in an e-mail.
"If we stress our resources such as water, schools and roads, we become the next Cary, and I know the citizens of Chapel Hill and the surrounding Orange County folks are trying to avoid that."
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
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