The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners have signed off on a new land use plan to guide future development in the Linden, Shaw Heights, and Carvers Creek State Park area in Cumberland County — which includes one of the fastest-growing populations in the county. The board unanimously voted to adopt the plan at its meeting Monday.
The plan, though not legally binding, will “serve as a guide for land use decisions while highlighting the issues most important to area stakeholders,” the plan states, “providing a framework for thoughtful development and redevelopment in the area for the next 10 years.”
Rawls Howard, director of the county’s Planning and Inspections Department, presented the North Central Land Use Plan to the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners at its Sept. 12 agenda session. Howard said the plan has not been updated since 2011, and other land use plans in the area are also relatively outdated.
“Best practice is that we should be updating these plans, on average about every five [years],” Howard said. “So these are some of our older plans and they were in dire need for some updates.”
According to the new plan, the North Central area has a relatively high rate of population growth compared to both Fayetteville and Cumberland County.
- There are about 17,000 residents living in the approximately 38,000 acres that make up the North Central area.
- Since 2010, the area has seen a 9% increase in population, which is higher than Cumberland County’s growth rate of 5%, and the City of Fayetteville’s growth rate of 4%, according to the new plan.
- The population is also “relatively young,” with more than half of residents under 40.
About the area, existing plan
The North Central area shares a border with multiple jurisdictions, including Harnett County to the north, Fort Liberty and Spring Lake to the west and Fayetteville to the south. The area is also bordered by the Cape Fear River to the east.
While the county did not provide the exact percentage of farmland in the area, the plan notes that 49% of the plan area is enrolled in North Carolina’s Present Use Value program — “a deferred tax program available to landowners,” the plan notes, with “agricultural, horticultural, or forest land,” which indicates “agricultural lands in the plan area.” The North Central area also includes parts of the Carvers Creek State Park.
According to the future land use map currently in place, the area primarily reflects a rural landscape, with vast tracts of agricultural land and open space. However, there are also significant zones designated for low-density residential development and suburban density residential, as well as pockets of high-density residential, commercial development and industrial use. Howard indicates this residential growth is a result of increased infrastructure there, as well as commuters from the Triangle area and Fort Liberty.
“So this is an area of the county that is growing, we anticipate it’s due to the proximity of Fort Liberty, to the fact that you have some pretty good utility infrastructure out in the area,” Howard said, “and you have traffic that’s kind of growing down from the RTP [Research Triangle Park] area that’s coming into the northern part of the county to buy homes.”
Notably, the area includes the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Plant, which is the sixth largest employer in the county, employing about 2,500 people. The factory is the largest employer in the North Central area of the county, Howard said. About 12% of the land in this area is under the City of Fayetteville’s jurisdiction, having been annexed in recent years, according to the new land use plan.
What’s in the new plan
Development of the plan has been ongoing since 2022, and thousands of residents have been engaged in the process, Howard said.
“We started with a vision statement — to be harmonious with the existing agricultural operations, to preserve rural character, to further expand upon economic opportunities in the Shaw Heights, north Fayetteville areas,” Howard said. “And then, of course, preserve a sense of community. That was one of the larger things for the folks that are in this area is just preserve that sense of community.”
The largest land classifications in the North Central area are rural/agriculture (40.6%), open space (17.1%) and suburban density residential (14.7%). The open space designation is “primarily used to preserve and protect environmentally sensitive areas and natural resources from development, encroachment, and pollution,” but can also include space for parks and recreation.
Howard said the new plan aims to reflect the housing needs of the area’s growing population by allowing for expanded residential options.
“This was mainly just the need for having a mix of uses, a mix of density of uses, and to basically try to address some of the code enforcement issues that we have with abandoned vehicles, litter and clutter that you have out in those areas,” Howard said.
The new plan would also include a small “flex area” that would give developers flexibility to pursue a mix of uses, which in turn would “drive what the future land use designations will happen around that [development].”
The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to set a public hearing for the plan’s adoption at its regular meeting on Sept. 16. The plan has already been approved by the Town of Linden, Howard said, and by the County’s Joint Planning Board.
To review the full plan, download the packet for Sept. 16. agenda session on the county’s website.
Contact Evey Weisblat at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608. This story was made possible by donations from readers like you to CityView News Fund, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.
