The Wake County Planning Department is beginning the process of updating the Southwest Wake Area Land Use Plan. An initial public open house to discuss the plan update is set for Tuesday, October 19, from 5 to 7 p.m., at the CC Jones Building, 309 Holleman St. in Apex.
This is the first comprehensive update of one of the County’s five Area Land Use Plans (ALUP). Significant public participation is sought in defining how southwest Wake County should grow over the next 25 years.
Adopted in 1997, the County Land Use Plan included a vision, goals, strategies and maps showing unincorporated areas into which municipalities were expected to grow. Within those areas, however, the maps generally did not show activity centers, parks, residential densities and other future uses. The Wake County Land Use Plan directed staff to develop more detailed area land use plans.
The County Commissioners decided those future uses would be "filled in" on the more detailed area land use plans. They also decided, because of the County’s size, the best way to fill in those uses would be one geographic area at a time. The Wake County Planning Department chose the Southwest plan first because of that area’s rapid growth.
In addition to the Southwest ALUP, Wake County Land Use Plans developed since 1997 include the East Raleigh-Knightdale, Southeast, Northeast and Fuquay-Varina/Garner ALUPs.
The Southwest ALUP was adopted in 1999, and the Land Use Plan calls for comprehensive reviews every five years. New municipal comprehensive land use plans have been developed by the towns of Apex, Cary and Holly Springs, whose Urban Services Areas comprise the Southwest study area. Other County plans adopted since 1999 – transportation, open space, watershed – have a direct bearing on future land use in southwest Wake County.
For more information, call Santiago Abasolo, Wake County Planning Department, 919-856-5477. The Southwest ALUP can be viewed on the Web at www.wakegov.com/county/planning/landuse/SouthwestALUP.htm