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During public hearings for proposed new developments in eastern Lincoln County, opposed residents only care about one thing, according to commissioner Bud Cesena.
“It’s almost exclusively traffic.”
It’s with good reason: traffic on roads in Huntersville, Denver and surrounding Lincoln County have become increasingly jammed with more motorists. And it’s confusing for officials because they have curbed incoming development.
Lincoln County commissioners have approved only one large development in the town of Denver since 2018, Cesena said.
That project involved adding homes to an existing subdivision so the county could turn over maintenance of all roads within the neighborhood, which were private, to the N.C. Department of Transportation. Doing this would allow school buses to enter the subdivision.
School buses are required to travel on “state-maintained highways, municipal streets, or other streets with publicly dedicated right-of-way,” according to state law .
Despite the lack of approvals by the board, traffic in eastern Lincoln County is getting worse because of recent population growth.
More homes on the horizon
Denver’s population is growing rapidly, recent data show. The Denver-area population grew by 17% from 2010 to 2018, according to figures from Lincoln County.
In 2020, the population of the 28037 zip code, which includes nearly all of eastern Lincoln County and a small portion of Catawba County, reached 25,600, according to the 2020 Census .
The population is growing partly because of the number of approved homes currently under construction, with more are on the way.
There are roughly 2,100 approved homes that have yet to be built in the eastern part of the county, Lincoln County Development Services Director Andrew Bryant told The Charlotte Observer in an email.
“The reasoning for each of those unbuilt lots varies on a project by project basis,” Bryant said. “That ranges from those lots being a part of future phases that are still in design, to phases that have infrastructure installed but are just waiting on buyer demand all the way to projects that are completely stalled.”
Though developments cannot be retroactively denied, commissioners have made other efforts to curb growth in the county.
In June, the board amended the county’s Unified Development Ordinance to allow only one single-family home per acre in new developments, but projects that were approved before then won’t fall into this category.
“There were many, many meetings between the developers, the folks in east Lincoln and the commissioners,” Cesena said about the change. “When they agreed to it, I thought, ‘wow, we’ve really done something here that made everybody happy.’ ”
Growth around the lake
On the other side of the lake, Huntersville has traffic woes of its own.
In 1990, Huntersville had a population of 3,014. Thirty years later, that number ballooned to 61,376.
Mayor Christy Clark attributed the recent growth to the quality of public schools in the area. She noted that Huntersville is “attractive to young families” because the town is a place where the schools are good.
Similar to Lincoln County, the Huntersville Town Board hasn’t approved many large new developments recently.
Clark explained that the board hasn’t heard many cases for new projects because developers who want to build in Huntersville stay within the confines of the town’s 2040 Community Plan , which outlines the town’s vision for land use and development for the next 20 years. Those projects don’t require approval from the board.
When the board hears a case, Clark said commissioners weigh many factors, including the project’s environmental impact, the amount of open space included in the plan and the impact it will have on roads.
Working with NCDOT
DOT has delayed a number of road projects in the Lake Norman area that would alleviate traffic, including the project to widen N.C. 73 . The highway that would connect Denver and Huntersville is now slated to begin in 2026.
The $640 million project calls for a four-lane superhighway in the Lake Norman region spanning three counties, the Observer previously reported.
Some of the delays can be traced back to 2019, when storms that ripped through the Carolinas caused millions of dollars in damage, NCDOT Communications Officer Jen Thompson told the Observer last year .
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in further funding constraints for NCDOT, she said.
“We were losing more money because we rely heavily on the gas tax,” Thompson said previously. “We lost about $300 million in the first quarter of 2020. That made us have to take a step back and suspend a lot of work.”
To get some of those projects rolling, Huntersville voters approved a $50 million transportation bond last year, which allows the town to get the projects “shovel ready,” Clark said.
“We’re doing some of the pre-engineering and pre-evaluation for the right-of-way,” said Clark. “By getting some of those things done ahead of time, that helps speed up those projects.”
The push for new businesses
Though most of the focus has been on how new residential projects could impact traffic, Huntersville and Denver officials are working to improve their respective economies.
To attract new businesses, Clark said she has been directing town officials to “find places in the town of Huntersville that need to be redeveloped, and getting folks to invest in redeveloping areas.”
For example, Clark said there is a large plot of land in downtown Huntersville, which officials are seeking development proposals for. Another is the recent acquisition of Cashion’s Quik Stop that she hopes the town can turn into something “unique and wonderful.”
“We’re putting that message out to developers that we have these spaces that need some love and attention…and we have several that are interested,” Clark said.
Cesena said Lincoln County commissioners have worked with the Lincoln Economic Development Association , an organization that helps new and existing businesses grow. The group also provides incentive grants to attract jobs to the area.
The board’s effort paid off this year, when it was announced that Lincoln County power tool maker Bosch will add 400 jobs in a $130 million expansion of its Lincolnton-based North American operations, the Observer reported in June .
While more jobs are beneficial to the county’s tax base, some residents could see it as another traffic headache, Cesena said.
“You have a double-edged sword here,” said Cesena. “It’s going to bring 400 jobs, but as far as many of our residents are concerned, it’s going to bring 400 people into this county. They all have to have a place to live, right?”
When asked if the board’s focus would shift back to creating new residential areas in eastern Lincoln County, assuming all NCDOT projects are completed in a timely manner, Cesena provided a succinct answer:
“Probably not.”
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