Community leaders opened the Greater Fayetteville Chamber’s 2025 State of the Community event with an optimistic picture of Fayetteville and Cumberland County’s economy.
Fayetteville’s housing market is moving faster than other metropolitan areas in the state, David Zeitz, president of the Longleaf Pine Realtors, told about 600 attendees at the event on Tuesday. Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin lauded investments in small, local businesses and news of national companies that have established a presence in the city like Amazon and American Titanium.
Colvin also touted the Fayetteville Regional Airport as a key tourism and economic driver of the city, highlighting recent federal investments that will be used to build new international arrivals facilities.
But Kirk deViere, chair of the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners, took to the podium with a more somber message.
“Today, we must make the hard and pivotal decisions that will shape our future,” deViere said in his opening remarks. “I didn’t come here just to talk about all the rosy things. We need to have real talk in this community sometimes, and I think it’s important, with this body, that we have that conversation. We have incredible strengths here in Cumberland County, but we also have real challenges.”
Cumberland County’s household income is falling behind neighboring counties like Moore and Harnett, deViere said. An average household in Cumberland County makes $61,643 a year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, over $8,400 less per year than a household in Moore County and over $9,000 less per year than one in Harnett County.
DeViere also said Cumberland County Schools are lagging behind others in surrounding counties. However, Cumberland County Schools had a lower ratio of low-performing schools for the 2023-2024 school year than almost all neighboring counties, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s most recent school report cards. Fifteen of CCS’ 86 schools, or over 17%, were designated as low-performing; the only surrounding county that had a lower percentage was Moore County.
Ongoing water infrastructure issues and lack of mixed-use development and walkable communities are also among deViere’s list of challenges. Residents have fought against more dense development, including against an ongoing effort from an out-of-state residential property investment company to build duplexes and quadplexes near the south end of Rosehill Road.
DeViere raised these issues in conjunction with what the county commissioners were doing to address the problems. He spoke of his board’s investment into the school system this year at over half a billion dollars, providing funding for school facility maintenance and the construction of new schools. The board also provided a quarter of a billion dollars to improve sewer systems and expand water access into communities like Gray’s Creek, deViere said.
“Twenty-five years from now, let’s look back and say that this was a moment when we turned potential into progress, challenges into opportunities and partnerships into prosperity,” deViere said. “That we show the grit of our ‘Can Do’ community.”
Colvin also said collaboration would be critical to continuing the successes of the city and county’s economies. The mayor emphasized that projects like the airport — which he said was the city’s “pathway to opportunities” — would also require help from the federal government.
“The airport is not just about flights, but it’s about our future competitiveness,” Colvin said in his remarks, directing his attention to North Carolina’s U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis and U.S. Rep. David Rouzer sitting in the crowd. The pair helped obtain the federal funding to expand Fayetteville’s airport, Colvin said.
“We ask for your continued support, to continue to bring federal resources to help us to build an economic engine in our airport.”
During his speech at the State of the Community, Rouzer said he is working to bring North Carolina greater funding for transportation projects. Specifically, he cited his work on the U.S. House’s Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The committee is revamping legislation around surface transportation to ensure funding is directed “back towards the traditional definition of infrastructure, which is roads and bridges,” he said.
Tillis wasn’t surprised at Colvin’s request for additional funding, stating that “it’s exactly what he should be doing.” He said Fayetteville and Cumberland County representatives on Capitol Hill are doing their jobs lobbying for the community.
“You always have to work on getting better,” Tillis said. “Don’t just rest on your laurels and be proud of a few things where you’re performing well. Always be expecting that you can do a lot better, and that’s exactly what you all have done in this county and in Fayetteville.”
CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the News Foundation of Greater Fayetteville.