High Density Developments Putting Strain On Iredell County Resources

IREDELL CO., NC — House after house, apartment after apartment, the streets of Iredell County are lined with new homes. Many are being built, many more are already filled with the county’s newest residents.

That growth from Mooresville to Statesville, is the biggest reason for the county’s 7% growth in three years. County Commissioner, Bert Connolly, would like to see that growth cut in half.

“Our biggest problem is just overcoming the out of control residential growth. We’ve got to get control of that,” explained Connolly.

The high density, cluster developments are putting a drain on county resources. Just ask Iredell County Manager, Beth Mull.

“One housing development with a thousand homes in it, that could, in a district where a school is already at max capacity, that means you’ve got to build another school,” Mull said.

Mull explained to WCCB scenarios like that make it difficult to plan for the future.

“When it happens so quickly and it’s so rapidly, you transition from being proactive to having to be reactive and that’s just not a good situation to be in,” Mull explained.

The county just surpassed 200,000 residents this year. Mull projects the population will increase another 10% in 2029 as more New Yorkers and Californians are retiring to Lake Norman for the views, cheaper property and one of the lowest county tax rates in the state.

We’re a conservative county and we’re very fiscally responsible. But at some point we’re going to have to look and say, okay, how do we afford to accommodate this growth, keep up with this growth, and how do we do it on a 50 cent tax rate?” Mull asked.

A tax rate isn’t in the immediate future but the idea has been toss around.

Mull and Connolly agree there’s another approach to bring money to the county by holding developers accountable with a common charge used in other states called impact fees.

“These developers coming in, they got to pay for a little bit of this infrastructure, pay for this type of stuff. The state’s not going to allow that to happen, because those folks are the ones who are the big campaign contributors to their campaigns in Raleigh,” said Connolly.

The county growth is making it’s way north. Mull expects the town of Harmony to be the next municipality to see a population boom in Iredell county.