Whole Study Extent - ANIMATION

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24-County Region

The 24-county Carolina Piedmont region covered by the study includes Alexander, Anson, Burke, Cabarrus, Caldwell, Catawba, Cleveland, Davidson, Davie, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, McDowell, Mecklenburg, Montgomery, Randolph, Richmond, Rowan, Rutherford, Stanly, and Union counties in North Carolina and Chester, Lancaster, and York counties in South Carolina.

Most of the region’s increased development has occurred in and around the Charlotte metropolitan region. Mecklenburg County itself has seen much of its undeveloped land converted to development. Counties adjacent to Mecklenburg have also experienced growth: Iredell County to the north, Cabarrus County to the northeast, Union County to the east, York County to the south, and Gaston County to the west. The location of major roads is fairly obvious on the maps of development growth. Corridors along the region’s interstates have seen a high rate of development – it is not difficult to trace the paths of Interstates 40, 77, and 85. Davidson, Davie, and Randolph counties have experienced an increase in development as a result of growth in the Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point Triad. But most of the counties on the periphery of the Charlotte metropolitan region experienced little growth over the time period studied.

 

Expansion of Development in the Piedmont Region (1976-2030)

Regional Indicators Project Study Area

The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute has just completed its Charlotte Regional Indicators Project, a regional benchmarking initiative. The Regional Indicators Project focuses on fourteen counties: Anson, Cabarrus, Catawba, Cleveland, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Rowan, Stanly, and Union counties in North Carolina and Chester, Lancaster, and York counties in South Carolina. The Charlotte Regional Indicators Report is designed to be an annual progress report on a wide range of economic, social and environmental issues facing the Charlotte Region. The Indicators Project will include benchmarks in ten categories related to quality of life.

 Within the 14-county Regional Indicators study area, the model shows that much of the growth in developed has occurred in and around Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. Charlotte-Mecklenburg has experienced dramatic growth during the years studied, and its growth has extended into neighboring counties along high-traffic commuter corridors like Interstate 77 (Iredell and York counties) and Interstate 85 (Cabarrus and Gaston Counties) and Highway 74 (Union County). Counties outside the immediate metropolitan region have seen far less development, and have retained much of their undeveloped open space through the years.

Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord MSA

 The Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord metropolitan statistical area (MSA) consists of Anson, Cabarrus, Gaston, Mecklenburg, and Union counties in North Carolina and York County, South Carolina. Within the MSA, the study indicates 876,000 acres of development in 2006, compared with 74,000 in 1976, a thousand-fold increase. Much of this growth has occurred in Mecklenburg County as the City of Charlotte has grown tremendously. Nevertheless, several locations within the MSA are becoming important urban areas in their own right. The western edge of Union County has seen much of its undeveloped land converted to development since 1976. Similarly, Rock Hill in South Carolina has grown dramatically. Cabarrus and Gaston counties – located along the Interstate 85 corridor – have also seen much of their undeveloped land become developed. Anson County, in contrast, has retained much of its undeveloped land, as the development pressure from Charlotte area does not seem to have extended that far east.