By Richard Sullins | richard@rantnc.com
Sanford was recognized in 2020 as the fifth fastest growing micropolitan area among 100 other similar-sized cities in the United States. And for the past three years, the City Council has tried to manage that growth through its processes for annexation and application of the Unified Development Ordinance it shares with Lee County.
But even so, a steady stream of petitions continues to find its way onto the council’s agenda as the city continues to expand, and the council has scheduled May 3 as the date for public hearings on three new petitions for contiguous annexation into the corporate limits.
If approved, the new annexations would add another 83 acres into the city’s land mass.
The first petition was filed by Forge Investment Group LLC and Swartz Properties for a 29.429-acre tract with frontage along South Franklin Drive near the intersection of Wicker Street, and a second petition from MAD M&R, LLC Properties requests the annexation of 21.067 acres off Kelly Drive near Calcutta Lane and Winslow Drive. Both of these tracts are managed by developer Mark Lyczkowski and would be zoned for residential use.
A third petition is for another 32.719 acres along West Main Street in Jonesboro near the intersection with Lemon Springs Road. This tract, owned by Kelly, Foushee, and Boles Properties, was approved by the Council several months ago as part of a project called West Main Townhomes.
Despite the impact of COVID on its public meetings in 2020, the council has been very active in its consideration of requests for zoning reviews. Mann told a recent joint meeting with the Broadway Town Board and the Lee County Board of Commissioners that during the three year period that began in 2019 and ended in 2021, the council approved more than 6,200 single-family dwellings to be constructed within the City.
Today, 1,453 homes are now under construction, another 2,793 have been approved to be built. Still another 1,983 homes are in review.
And that’s just single-family homes.
Multi-family units (apartments) are also seeing an explosion in growth. From 2019 to 2021, the city approved 1,054 units that are now under construction, 1,436 others have been given approval, and 970 more are under review. That’s a total of more than 3,400 new multi-family units under way in the City.
If you add the number of approved single-family homes and apartments that are either now under construction or soon will be, that’s a total of more than 9,600 new dwelling units or lots.
Think about that for a minute – 9,600 new places for families to live in Sanford.
That number includes the construction that is continuing on the 995 lots that will soon make up the Galvin’s Ridge development at the intersection of Colon Road and U.S. 1, and work will begin this year on two other large developments approved in Sanford last year – Ashby Commons with 800 homes just off South Horner Boulevard, and another 900 single-family dwellings and townhome development at Colon and Lower Moncure roads called Midtown Village South.
There is another large development approved on N.C. 87 just south of South Park Village Apartments. This one, to be called Laurel Oaks, is another Lyczkowski project that will add 600 homes in the city’s strip mall district.
Growth areas
So, where will Sanford see growth coming by 2030? Mann’s presentation to the joint board meeting points to areas in both the northern and southern edges of the city.
One of the hottest growth regions will stretch from U.S. 15-501’s intersection with U.S. 1 northward to the Colon Road area, encompassing Galvin’s Ridge, Central Carolina Enterprise Park, new economic developments along Colon Road, and the city’s fifth fire station. Another follows U.S. 421 north from its intersection with U.S. 1 to the Village of Cumnock and Brookshire developments.
To the south, future development is forecasted along Tramway Road from U.S. 1 all the way to the intersection with Horner Boulevard in Jonesboro. Likewise, the same is predicted for the region that lies between South Horner Boulevard and Lee Avenue near the location where the U.S. 421 bypass begins.
Many dimensions are involved in city growth, particularly when it comes to infrastructure, and the City Council took steps to begin planning based on recent and projected growth by approving the Public Works Department’s request to apply for grant funding. The state of North Carolina now has $80 million in planning funds and will give each municipality that applies up to $400,000 to determine its capacity needs and explore what options to meet them are available.
Where is the infrastructure for all of this????
The water lines are all there.
The roads are there.
The developer pays to extend the sewer line.
The City builds a fire station when the distance between an existing one and the growth causes the response time to be a problem. However new construction tends not to burn when properly inspected when built.
The radios work in the Police Cars.
Yes Hawkins Avenue and Colon Road will have to be widened. Old US 1 will need to be widened. A road from NC 87 to Lee Avenue will need to be constructed South of the New ABC Store. Something has to be done about the mess at Tramway and US 1. They make dirt and asphalt for this.
In a perfect world the Volunteer/Part Time fire Departments at Tramway, Broadway, Trace, and Northview would be assumed and the City hire these fellow full time, but Volunteer Fire Departments can be difficult, temperamental things.
Deep River will see the need return for a High School to go with a Middle School.
All of this was forecast decades ago.
Hiring Firefighters that are paid from those volunteer departments would be absolutely tragic. Even as poor as the firefighters are in Sanford, adding those would not be a good idea.
They need some quality firefighters like they have now; ones that do a excellent job manicuring their yard and watching the tired dry rot while they sit in the bay.
So people on Colon Rd will loose their homes they worked hard to pay off! The little guy doesn’t stand a chance. Loosing good brick structured homes to the tooth picks, small lots that will take their place🤔
These folks will regret the annexation. Sanford makes promises but doesn’t provide the services. My neighborhood was annexed 20 years ago. No fire protection. We depend on a volunteer fire department from Tramway. Our property taxes are 3x what county residents pay. You know what they say about politicians, those that work do; and those that can’t go into politics and take welfare from tax payers.
Sanford Fire Department could not keep up with what they had already. Bet that department on Colon Rd never happens. 3 fire stations and no EMS service from them? What a joke
What neighborhood you talking about?
If the County Tax rate is 93 cents and the City’s rate is 60 cents how is it that your total is 3 x higher than the county. When you say you “depend” on a fire department in Tramway, maybe you better the 911 people you are paying City taxes.
Enough is enough!!
We love Sanford for the small town is it/was🙁
They ruin Cary and they are doing us the same way.
We should worry about fire protection, EMS and school systems. Our schools will bust at the seams! Our schools, fire departments and police are understaff and not paid enough to keep the younger ones here. These are the problems we need to worry about!
Goodbye small town Sanford! Welcome big city Sanford! Let’s just enjoy paying higher taxes! Heck, look at our home values! It’s no wonder we need more homes/apartments. If I lived and worked in Raleigh I would buy a house here in Sanford too and drive to Raleigh in 45 minutes to make double plus pay because it’s so much cheaper than paying double plus for a much smaller home in Raleigh! We have to keep building homes or we won’t be able to accommodate all the people who laugh at us because we are not “smart enough “ to figure this out! And yes, I have been told that many times. I now have to keep my blinds closed on the back of my house or I will be able to see my new backyard neighbors eating their dinner while I wash my dinner dishes! And let’s not talk about all the HUGE pot holes in our city, county and industrial roads that will bust a tire or knock the heck out of your newly aligned tires in a hot minute!
Explosive growth is traumatic. Unfortunately that’s the capitalistic system at work. What is better, to complain about growth or complain about decay? I except Sanford’s population to double in the next decade, maybe to double again in 10 more years. 30K now, 60K in 2030, maybe 120K by 2040.
I’m old enough to remember when people were ashamed to say they lived in Cary.
People in Sanford want a lot of things they can only get in the Triangle or in Southern Pines. You will now get those things over the next decade. 99% of the rest of America will consider you lucky.
People are going to complain regardless. People talk about the infrastructure not being in place. What do they expect the city to do buildup all the infrastructure before it is know there is demand? I suspect a lot of people are worried about just who will be our new neighbors.
Not Sanford’s fifth fire station, the fourth🙄
FOLLOW THE $$$$$
Politicians and their greed.
I hope that Elon buys the Rant next! maybe, just MAYBE then it will be an unbiased platform
Oh bless your poor heart. If you don’t like the rant, you can always go read the Epoch times. I’d say infowars, but Mr. Jones is going through a bit of a rough spat at the moment.
I bet the people that own the RANT wish Elon would buy them too. Poor little snowflakes bothered by the RANT. Haha!
Tramway charges Sanford Residents a fire tax. State law requires city to absorb the areas they annex. In other words Sanford should compensate Tramway for their tax base loss. A few years ago there was a house fire. The house burnt to the ground waiting on fire department. So the city, Lee County, and Tramway municipalities have proven themselves to be absent during times of need.
https://leecountync.gov/Portals/0/Content/Departments/uploads/fire_districts_1.pdf
I don’t want to call you a liar, but how do they do that? Is there an agreement with the City of Sanford and Lee County to do that. When you look at the 911 Fire District maps above there is not indication of the Tramway District and the Sanford Districts coexisting in the same official space.
Are you talking about a property where part is in the city and part in out in the county? That’s not uncommon. It’s also not uncommon for 911 to dispatch both at the same time if there nature of the call seems to indicate that it’s needed or the exact location is not well understood.
I suspect that Tramway and the City are somewhat particular about the calls along US 1 because they are often expensive with high dollar clean ups that involve multiple jurisdictions. A multi car deal in Tramway can involve the City, the County, and the State. Can involve the City and Tramway Fire Department. Can involve Duke Power and ATT fiber.
What are the details on this situation? Properties are mislabeled all the time. Discoveries of an entire building happened in downtown Sanford as late as the 90’s – it was a filled in alley way off an ally that was platted in 1927 and enclosed in he 50’s. It happens.
The City would need an exclusive contract from the County to run EMS. The small size of Lee County makes people think they can have urban services without understanding that to do that means turning some things over to the City that have traditionally been private. A pain in the ass volunteer fireman saved my daughters life when she was choking. You have to learn to accept the bad that comes with a lot of good. Certain professions draw certain kinds of people.
By 2040 Sanford will need 7 fire stations that double as public safety where someone can fill out a report, etc. The first one needed is Station 4 – New Northview along Colon Road – yes it will be built. It will also become he hub for the Highway Patrol south of Apex.
The next one – Station 5, will be a new Deep River Station moved closer to the Airport with a robust public service center because a new Middle School and High School will be needed for the area.
The battle between Broadway and Tramway comes next. Serious road improvements are needed in Tramway and I don’t know how they meet fire flow issues at some of the business in the area as it is now. The Station also needs to be back off the highway much further for safety.
Broadway will need a new station closer to Sanford, but bigger and with a new water tower for pressure. This station is also needed to serve a rural population going down NC 42 and to help out with CCCC.
Finally a new Northview Station located nearer to the Sewer plant so that the old station can be sold for commerical.