Union County Dealing With Traffic Concerns Amid Growing Population
UNION COUNTY, N.C. — Growth in Union County is on the rise.
“The the county has grown so much. I can easily remember when there were 40 or 50,000 people here. Now we have, you know, 250,000 people,” said J.R. Rowell.
Rowell was born and raised in Union County and is now the Chairman for the Union County Board of Commissioners.
“With any growth, it comes with some good things and some not so good things,” said Rowell.
The good, is a growing economy bringing in plenty of new business. The not so good, is a drastic influx of high density housing and traffic along the western part of the county. In the more rural eastern part of Union County, Rowell said utilities, clean drinking water and preservation of agriculture are top of the priority list .
“Even though it’s one county, we have different issues in different areas of the county,” Rowell explained.
The census shows the county as a whole, grew 7.6% in a 3 year span. Pushing the population to 256,000 people. Making it the second biggest county in our area and the 8th largest in the state.
Indian Trail is a big reason why. It’s close proximity to Charlotte has made it a cheaper and still convenient place to live.
Yet, it’s Waxhaw seeing some of the most impressive growth in the county. A town once well known for it’s furniture store is now a town known for new business, new homes, and the same old traffic as you come into town. Traffic that will certainly get worse with each new development.
“It’s a big concern. The oversaturation as a result of townhomes and apartments is a huge concern, especially when you get closer and closer to downtown,” said Waxhaw’s new mayor, Robert Murray.
Murray tells WCCB’s Gary Brode there’s not much the town can do to help with the traffic especially along NC-16 because it’s a state road. There one response is to attempt to control the new builds.
“One of the things that the town of Waxhaw has done a really good job of is implementing a lot of mitigations or kind of mandating mitigations with new projects,” explained Murray.
Murray credits the historic downtown, coupled with a low crime rate, as major draws for a town that added 10% to it’s population in recent years.
With an additional 1,200 homes in the process of being built, that number will soon grow for the town and the county.
