Tremendous Morrisville Growth !!
Morrisville Tops Growth List!
Fast growth has brought more amenities,
but some fear losing a small-town climate.BY TOBY COLEMAN: The News&Observer
tcoleman@newsobserver.com
June 30, 2005 : 6:15 AM
A few years from now, Branch's one-story house on Kitts Creek Road will be surrounded by the multistory homes of Kitts Creek subdivision."All this used to be farmland, where you raised your tobacco and your corn and you had your hogs and your chickens," said Branch, who has called this area home since 1960.
Not many crops grow in Morrisville these days. It's houses, townhouses and condominiums that are popping up now. Three shopping centers also are under construction in the town, which is in western Wake County, just south of Research Triangle Park.
Morrisville leaders are quick to say that everyone in town stands to benefit from the meteoric growth rate of 122 percent since 2000, documented in new U.S. Census Bureau figures. That rate makes Morrisville the fastest-growing municipality in North Carolina.
New people and new homes bring more money into town, create more businesses and allow government to provide better parks, new green space and other public amenities, said Jodi Ann LaFreniere, president of the Morrisville Chamber of Commerce.
But not everybody is putting out the welcome mat for growth. Some longtime residents say the influx of newcomers has turned a sleepy town of neighbors into a busier town of strangers.
And even some relatively new residents have begun opposing proposed subdivisions that they fear will choke roads with traffic.
"Growth is not always good," said former Mayor Wade Davis.
For years, Morrisville was a place where people either worked or drove through on their way to RTP or Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
That has changed in the past decade, as developers have laid out more than a dozen subdivisions, with more than 6,500 homes.
'It's the location'
The people who have moved into those homes have settled on Morrisville for one reason, said Monika Papenhausen, an agent with RE/MAX realty.
"Before anything else, it's the location," she said.
Traffic-wary RTP workers often pick Morrisville to avoid the gridlock that many of their colleagues from Cary, Durham and Raleigh suffer through every day.
"That's why we live here," said Rebecca Boyd, who has lived in a Morrisville townhouse with her husband, Kirk, for about a year. "Since traffic is a bear around here, it's good to get to your work location pretty quickly."
Kirk Boyd works at IBM in the park.
Many newcomers also are drawn by the area's stock of housing priced under $200,000, said LaFreniere, the chamber president.
"That's attractive to a lot of different people," she said. "Single people, first-time home buyers, retired people who don't want the hassle of taking care of a yard anymore and people who work a lot."
BY THE NUMBERS +122%
No town or city in North Carolina matches Morrisville's growth rate since 2000. New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show that between 2000 and 2004, the Wake County town's population surged from 5,219 to 11,595.
That growth rate of 122 percent is higher than any of the state's other 547 incorporated places, and it ranks 26th in the nation.
Other things the census estimates reveal about growth from 2000 to 2004:
+15%
growth in Raleigh, the fastest-growing North Carolina city with a population of 50,000 or greater, from 283,025 to 326,653. The city's numeric growth of 43,628 people was highest in the state.
+8%
Durham was the fifth fastest-growing large city, from 187,567 to 201,726.
+48%
growth in Clayton
from 8,222 to 12,173
5
Number of state's 10 fastest-growing towns that are in the Triangle: Morrisville, Holly Springs, Clayton, Fuquay-Varina and Wake Forest.
+7%
growth in Charlotte
from 557,902 to 594,359
+3%
growth in Chapel Hill
from 47,831 to 49,368
-2%
Carrboro was among the 10 incorporated places that lost the most people. Its population dropped by 370, from 16,799 to 16,429. Those numbers are a surprise to Carrboro officials; the state demographer has Carrboro adding 627 people, to 17,585, said Roy Williford, Carrboro's planning director.
-3%
Hillsborough was the only other Triangle town that shrank.
COMPILED BY MICHAEL EASTERBROOK AND DAVID RAYNOR
