Analyzing the Future of the Triangle Fringe Cities | Pittsboro

As the Triangle continues to grow, the arc of fringe cities surrounding the region will start to evolve. Sanford has started to see the growth pressure.

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Continuing our Triangle Fringe City series with a look at the future of Pittsboro. Be sure to check out the introduction, Henderson, Rocky Mount, Wilson, Goldsboro, Smithfield / Selma, and Sanford features if you missed them.

Pittsboro is a Town of 5,000 of roughly 35 miles West of Raleigh and 30 miles Southwest of Durham located along US-64. The previously rural Town has seen an explosion of growth in the past few years.

The modest Downtown features a collection of historic shops and restaurants located around a traffic circle. There’s also a small grid structure extending a few blocks from the center. While a small town at heart, Pittsboro has seen strong rates of occupancy and no signs of Downtown decline like many cities earlier in the series.

In recent years, strip centers have popped up around the interchange of US 15-501 and US-64. This has rapidly accelerated as Chatham Park begins it’s build out with the mixed-use Mosaic center and Lowe’s Food shopping center across the street.

Currently, there’s only two properties within the walkshed of Downtown for under $300,000 as Pittsboro’s transformation to a suburb has already become evident As time goes on, through infill and densification, and diversification of housing choices, hopefully these properties will once again appear.

Looking toward the future

Pittsboro’s future is vastly different any other municipality in this series due to the presence of Chatham Park and other mega planned developments. If these developments were to fully build out, Pittsboro’s population would soar from under 5,000 now to at least 100,000.

Chatham Park is a mind-blowing 8,000 acre development containing up to 22,000 homes, 22,000,000 sqft of non-residential development, and at least 1,300 acres of open / recreational space.

While it’s a bit far for a daily driving commute to Raleigh, Durham, and Greensboro, if the current plans come to fruition, Pittsboro will be a self-sufficient community. There’s also easy access to the forthcoming mega sites.

While most of the places earlier in this series focus on the potential growth, it seems that Pittsboro has it all planned out.

Stay tuned next time as we explore the future of Siler City.

Cover photo via GoogleEarth

Phil Veasley is a registered Professional Engineer in NC and GA. Opinions and insights are my own and are not representative of my employer or any organization. Any ideas displayed on this site are purely that – just ideas to help improve the future of the built environment and begin discussions.

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