As NC cities grow, suburbs sprawl. In Durham, rural residents are pushing back

In North Carolina, there’s much concern about the urban-rural divide, but what’s getting less attention is what happens when urban and rural collide.

Rising housing costs are pushing development from the state’s cities into unincorporated areas and into adjacent, less developed counties. It’s the classic dynamic for what urban planners try desperately to avoid — suburban sprawl..

Unchecked development overwhelms roads, overflows schools, degrades the environment and cuts the greenery that distinguishes the state. North Carolina, with millions of acres of farmland, is still a rural state, but the American Farmland Trust ranks it as the second-most threatened state when it comes to the conversion of agricultural lands to other uses.

Pam Andrews, who lives on what was once farmland belonging to her husband’s family, is witnessing urban pressures transforming her area in southeastern Durham County. Housing developments are sprouting along two-lane roads leading to Highway 98, which runs by her property.

“All of the sudden this area has gone crazy,” she said.

The traffic passing her home has surged. “Just to get out of my drive every day is a challenge,” she said. “You’d better hit the gas or you’re going to get T-boned.”

Andrews, whose husband, Mike Andrews, is a former Durham County sheriff, is fighting back. In February she formed a group now called “To Preserve Rural Durham.” More than 100 people attended the group’s first meeting.

Andrews, a retired middle school science teacher, said new housing should respect the environment and not overwhelm roads, schools and emergency services. “I’m OK with development,” she said, “so long as it’s smart development.”

City and county comprehensive plans seek to stem the rippling outward of development by encouraging more housing density in cities and trying to channel new housing along mass transit routes. But North Carolina’s growth is outrunning those goals. Farmlands and forests are giving way to housing developments that can only be reached by automobile.

Legislation passed in 2012 requires that involuntary annexations be approved by the majority of registered voters in the area, but that requirement does not extend to voluntary annexations requested by property owners in Durham and elsewhere.

Developers purchase parcels, some as small as a few acres, and apply to be annexed into the city to gain access to municipal water and sewer lines. Then they propose filling the annexed land with houses and townhouses.

County residents living nearby have no influence over what happens with a property once it becomes part of the city. “We are so frustrated because we have no say in city elections and yet they control everything in our community,” Andrews said.

David Morgan, a member of Durham’s joint City-County Planning Commission, said developers are “kinda working around” the annexation law by moving parcels into the city before they are developed. The Durham City Council, concerned about gentrification in the growing city, tends to go along in hopes that more development will provide more affordable housing.

But Morgan and the majority of the planning commission’s members worry that the expansion is happening too fast. “We’ve voted down eight applications and the City Council has overridden them because they feel we need housing,” he said. “Mostly, it’s going to be suburban sprawl. They don’t like it, but they are allowing it.”

Cassie Gavin, senior director of government relations at the North Carolina chapter of the Sierra Club, said sprawl is increasing in and around North Carolina’s urban counties.

“What we’re seeing is how North Carolina has neglected its transportation infrastructure,” she said. “If we had more of that, we would have more planned and targeted development. Right now, it’s just everywhere.”

This story was originally published April 3, 2022 at 4:00 AM.