Charleighboro?

[Jerseyman4]

This is true, Fayetteville and Spring Lake are both annexing Ft. Bragg. Fayetteville will gain about 30,000 bringing it's population to 212,000 and Spring Lake will gain about 5,000 giving it roughly 13,000.

Fayetteville is trying to annex Eastover now.

By the way, Hoke county and southern and western Harnett county are considered part of the Fayetteville Metro now.

Like you said, annexation has already occured along Raeford Road from the Hoke/Cumberland County line to the former city limits of Fayetteville by 71st High School.

[Roger67]

I live in the Eastover area and there is going to be a battle. Eastover is trying to incorporate, and if successfull would have a population between 4,000 and 5,000. The Eastover Planning group met with Fayetteville City Leaders this past week and there isn't a lot of support, although some council members do support it. Eastover Planners have already stated they will move further with or without Fayetteville's support. I believe this will be an interesting fight. I live about 2 miles north of the current Fayetteville city line, however I am in the proposed Eastover city limits area. Keep an eye on this story, I think it will draw a lot of attention. Eastover community has local politicians living within its boundaries, so I believe there is going to be a fight. Not only is Fayetteville trying to annex Eastover, it is also planning to annex toward the Harnett county line along Hwy 401 and also has been fighting with Hope Mills about annexing the Cypress Lakes and Grays Creek area along Hwy 87 South toward the Bladen County line. As mentioned previously, the local water system (PWC) already provides water service to eastern Hoke county and my uncle works for them. By the way PWC reports to Fayetteville, it is technically a Fayetteville agency, and he has confirmed that Fayetteville is planning on annexing into Hoke County. I am not certain of the populations of these areas, but I can assure you that if these annexations take place, Fayetteville's population will be close to, if not at the 300,000 mark.

[Jerseyman4]

^Great stuff!

Keep us informed about the Fayetteville annexation in and out of Cumberland County. Id find that crazy someday that you can be in Fayettevlle starting just northwest of Tar Heel, Bladen County and still be in Fayetteville in Harnett County. Thats a wide range of elevation and topography changes. I can even see Parkton and St Pauls in Robeson County being part of Fayetteville someday, its not too far away either.

[Creasy336]

^Great stuff!

Keep us informed about the Fayetteville annexation in and out of Cumberland County. Id find that crazy someday that you can be in Fayettevlle starting just northwest of Tar Heel, Bladen County and still be in Fayetteville in Harnett County. Thats a wide range of elevation and topography changes. I can even see Parkton and St Pauls in Robeson County being part of Fayetteville someday, its not too far away either.

wow, this power to annex so much has got to drive south carolina forumers crazy. Wow Fayetteville...The third largest city, thats kind of hard to imagine.

[triadcat]

This is true, Fayetteville and Spring Lake are both annexing Ft. Bragg. Fayetteville will gain about 30,000 bringing it's population to 212,000 and Spring Lake will gain about 5,000 giving it roughly 13,000. Keep in mind that a lot of the new military housing is being built in Harnett County along Hwy 87. I have to wonder how Fayetteville will play into the picture. I know all the growth is along I-85, but if you look at the latest population info from the census bureau, both Hoke and Harnett counties are among the top 50 counties in the U.S. in terms of population growth. By the way, Hoke county and southern and western Harnett county are considered part of the Fayetteville Metro now. I believe that the I-40 corridor to the I-95 corridor will end up in that grouping. Fayetteville and Raleigh's metro areas are now in Harnett county which I predict will be meeting each other within the next 10 years. Come on, over 20,000 military and civilian jobs are going to be created by 2011. They are predicting at least 30,000 new people in the Fayetteville area by 2011. Don't underestimate Fayetteville, I have lived here most of my life and Fayetteville has taken great steps in improving itself over the last 10 years. I think that Fayetteville will end up surprising many.

I go down to Fayetteville occasionally and have to say that the city is really working HARD to clean it's image up. Downtown Fayetteville is actually very nice, historic and quaint.

The city still has a long ways to go, but they are really trying to improve the city.

Even though Pope Air Force Base (Fayetteville metro...Spring Lake) is closing, as you said above tens of thousands of jobs are supposed to relocate to Fayetteville in the next 5-10 years.

That is amazing!!

Plus, there are already people from the southern Raleigh area that commute to the Fayetteville area frequently.

I think you are right in that the Triangle and Fayetteville areas will grow together in the coming few decades.

I will say that Harnett County (Between Wake and Cumberland Counties) is still very rural, but as you said it is growing fast.

[DCMetroRaleigh]

So with the recent "big bang" annexation, what is Fayetteville's current population?

[Creasy336]

So now we are developing a Charleighboroville (lol thats the best I could do when adding Charleighboro to Fayetteville sorry) with Fayetteville's Metro connecting with Raleigh's in coming years.... Have there been any talks of some sort of commuter or inter-city rail between the two areas?

[Jerseyman4]

I wonder if a Fayetteville forum could do well on UP or do you all think its premature right now for one?

[krazeeboi]

wow, this power to annex so much has got to drive south carolina forumers crazy.

Not really. We do wish our annexation laws were as flexible as North Carolina's, but ours have a few advantages. Furthermore, it's the metro area figures that receive the most attention anyway, and municipal figures really don't detract from the amount of investment an area receives; our Greenville (with a municipal population less than 60K) is a good example of that.

[Creasy336]

Not really. We do wish our annexation laws were as flexible as North Carolina's, but ours have a few advantages. Furthermore, it's the metro area figures that receive the most attention anyway, and municipal figures really don't detract from the amount of investment an area receives; our Greenville (with a municipal population less than 60K) is a good example of that.

Greenville was the particular city I had in mine when I made that statement

[Roger67]

According to the City of Fayetteville's website, the current population is at 173,000. If the Ft Bragg annexation is approved, and according to the Fayetteville Observer, it will; then the population would go to 212,000. And, according to the Fay Observer that would move Fayetteville ahead of Winston-Salem and Durham in size. I believe the article stated that Fayetteville would move into fourth largest city in the state. One of the things that disturbs me is that Fayetteville doesn't really have a skyline. I just hope that will change with all of the redevelopment starting to take place downtown.

[triadcat]

According to the City of Fayetteville's website, the current population is at 173,000. If the Ft Bragg annexation is approved, and according to the Fayetteville Observer, it will; then the population would go to 212,000. And, according to the Fay Observer that would move Fayetteville ahead of Winston-Salem and Durham in size. I believe the article stated that Fayetteville would move into fourth largest city in the state. One of the things that disturbs me is that Fayetteville doesn't really have a skyline. I just hope that will change with all of the redevelopment starting to take place downtown.

Man, that's crazy!! Fayetteville is annexing like crazy. It definitely won't feel that big. Fayetteville is overall very flat and spread out. I was on an overpass? once in Fayetteville and I could see most of the city lit up at night. I can't remembewr what road it was, but it loops around and you can peer over and see much of the city bacause this road is fairly high up. It looks like one of those larger cities out west when on this road. Do you know which road I am talking about?? I think I got on 87 north after it.

This particular road gives a fantastic view of the city at night and the city just looks like a huge mass of white lights as far as the eye can see.

I remember just last year when the Fayetteville city limit's were just 130K+. Now if they annex Ft.Bragg it would be close to 215K. That's crazy!

[krazeeboi]

I guess that's the flip side of NC's annexation laws: they can make a place appear larger on paper than what it feels or looks in person.

[ncguy06]

I dont think that Fayettville will stay NC's fourth largest for long if they do approve the annex. Winston's population is expected to grow to around 213,000 once(probably) the annex is approved. And even if the two cities do become neck and neck in population, I believe Winston is growing at a faster pace.

[Carbo04]

This place at 215? What a joke. No skyline, and no oppotunity unless you join the army or work in a hospital. Nothing really of note to do here either. We don't deserve to be #4 if approved.

[Jerseyman4]

^Fayetteville at 215K is pretty much ALL low density sprawl. Thats the "ville" for ya

[triadcat]

This place at 215? What a joke. No skyline, and no oppotunity unless you join the army or work in a hospital. Nothing really of note to do here either. We don't deserve to be #4 if approved.

Why are you in Fayetteville if you think it's a "hell hole"??

Are you in the military?

At least the city is trying to improve itself. You have to give it some credit.

[davidals]

I was watching FOX 8 News and they said that technically NC is part of a megapolis that stretches from Raleigh to Atlanta and will be the fastest growing corridor in the nation. some urban researchers are even saying that the Triangle and Triad will one day become one metro. The megapolis has been dubbed "Charleighboro", combining the city names of Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro, the largest cities in their metros. It is predicted that over the next 30 to 40 years, there will be continous sprawl stretching between Raleigh and Charlotte as if its one massive 170 mile long city along I-85. What do you think "The urban cresent" will look like in 50 years?

I know I'll be a bit redundant, but I just discovered this thread, and it reminds me of a debate I got into on Wikipedia over what a megalopois is, or isn't.

I think the I-85 corridor - generally - from Raleigh to Atlanta is definitely becoming one, though not quite there yet. Another individual on Wikipedia clung to the 'official' origins of the term, with a geographer who specifically referred to the DC-Philadelphia-NYC-Boston, Milwaukee-Chicago, Detroit-Toledo-Cleveland-Akron-Pittsburgh, SF Bay Area and Santa Barbara-LA-San Bernardino-San Diego-Tijuana as megalopolises.

The precise definition is as follows:

Historically, the only time this term has been used to describe regions of the United States is by Jean Gottman in 1957, to describe the huge urban area along the eastern seaboard of the United States from Boston to Washington, D.C. According to Gottman, it resulted from changes in work and social habits.

Specific geographers - perhaps to honor Gottman's concepts - bristle at expanding the definition of the term; geographers seem to go out of their way to not refer to several other North American urban or suburban corridors (Florida East Coast, Florida West Coast, Portland-Seattle-Vancouver, Detroit-Toronto, Atlanta-Greenville-Charlotte-Greensboro-Raleigh) as megalopolises, emerging or otherwise. Nonetheless, I think the term will become approriate, if not already along the I-85 corridor.

For better or worse, sprawl is filling out the spaces between the bigger and smaller cities along the route, and any number of small, distinct towns (Cary, Hillsborough, Burlington, Mebane, Clemmons, Kernersville, Concord, Mooresville NC, Rock Hill, Greer, Taylors SC) have, or are swiftly on their way to being absorbed into a greater suburban mass. Of those towns - all once small-ish - some - Cary, Concord, Rock Hill - have grown astronomically and now rank among the largest and/or fastest-growing in their respective states. Ditto for the NE counties in the greater Atlanta area.

It would be more interesting - and I think advantageous - for the seperate metro areas along the Atlanta to Raleigh stretch of 85 to think and plan a bit more regionally. Economically and in transportation, developments (positive or negative) in Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte, Greenville or Atlanta have increasingly profound effects upon each other before they affect anyone else - anyone who's ever sat in gridlock on a once-isolated stretch of 85 between those cities knows this. A greater regional focus on road planning, intra-metro mass transit (like an Atlanta-to-Raleigh or -DC) high speed rail line would be suggestions. States and cities do (and will continue) to compete for economic perks - BUT - the financial and business hubs, academic and tech hubs, manufacturing hubs, and even adjacent tourist or arts meccas (Athens, Chapel Hill, Hendersonville, Asheville) are all very much interconnected already in a multitude of ways. Our leaders, planners and academics need to acknowledge this a bit more proactively.

[krazeeboi]

^Welcome to the forum, and good stuff. Currently there's a discussion going on in the Upstate SC forum about the number of cars doubling on I-85 going through that area in about 20 years and the need for better regional planning.

[davidals]

Is Charlotte or Raleigh planning to annex this summer? If so how many sq mi. and pop.

Charlotte does yearly annexations, of widely varying size - all the towns in mecklenburg have carved the county up into 'spheres of influence' and each city or town essentially auto-annexes everything developed along the city limits within a year or two. Huntersville - immediately north of Charlotte - has surged from just over 1000 people (in 1980) to over 35,000 now by annexing sprawl.

The Wake County cities have also divided the county into annexation zones, but are more reliant upon voluntary annexations, often initiated by developers at the beginning of constructing new suburban projects. There have been some nasty fights over involuntary annexations in Cary, Carrboro and Wendell (all in the NC Triangle) in the last couple years.

[Creasy336]

Fayetteville is making good strives to be the solid #4 metro area. Having a good central city is a good thing. After reading these post I can understand the reasoning behind I-295 better. I do believe these fayetteville should be moved to their own seperate topic. I believe someone mentioned earlier having a Fayetteville sub forum if it could substain good traffic. I've only been to Fayetteville twice. The first time I found out how spread out fayetteville really is when driving on NC 87 from the Sanford area. From Spring Lake on in.

[CarolinaDaydreamin]

Charlotte does yearly annexations, of widely varying size

Actually I found out the annexations come every two years. The next one is due June 2007.

[Carbo04]

Why are you in Fayetteville if you think it's a "hell hole"??

Are you in the military?

At least the city is trying to improve itself. You have to give it some credit.

Only 19 and still in college. In the military? Never.

[Creasy336]

Wow...Drove to Fayetteville yesterday from Charlote. I was determined to take notice to the sprawl talked about on this forum and I found it in a major way. While driving along US 401 north a raeford I noticed subdivision after subdivision. When I got to the Cumberland county line I saw the Fayetteville city limits sign followed by a mileage sign saying "Fayetteville 12 miles".

[Eastwestrob]

^Welcome to the forum, and good stuff. Currently there's a discussion going on in the Upstate SC forum about the number of cars doubling on I-85 going through that area in about 20 years and the need for better regional planning.

My bad