Dreaming big: Meet N.C.'s booming small towns

Jun. 13--Two things are driving the growth of North Carolina's fastest-growing small towns: spillover from nearby big cities like Raleigh and Charlotte and retirees looking to settle down in small communities.

That's the assessment of demographers and town officials, and it shows in U.S. Census data released in May.

Raleigh and the Research Triangle Park area especially is driving growth of nearby small towns. And retiree-oriented Brunswick County, southeast of Wilmington, is the fastest-growing county in the state, according to recently released population estimates.

From July 1, 2010, through July 1, 2019, the fastest-growing incorporated community in the state was Rolesville, a once-tiny town just east of Raleigh. In those nine years, the Census said, Rolesville more than doubled in size, from 3,811 people to 8,501.

Other Raleigh-proximate small towns that grew fast over the past decade include Knightdale, Clayton and Wendell.

"We're kind of the next ring of suburbs in growth," said Rolesville Town Manager Kelly Arnold.

The rising price of housing has pushed some people out of Raleigh and Durham to other towns, said research analyst Jessica Stanford of Carolina Demography at the University of North Carolina Population Center.

Job growth in the technology and to a lesser extent the health-care industry has drawn new residents to the Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle area, Stanford said. Charlotte is drawing healthcare and banking jobs, she said.

The people moving to the urban areas tend to be younger, Stanford said, and many are moving from North Carolina's rural areas where job opportunities have declined. Now the populations of many rural counties and towns far from the urban areas are declining.

Population growth tends to be self-sustaining, Stanford said, and so does population decline.

Not all rural areas are in decline. The towns of Leland, Navassa, St. James, Southport and Calabash are among North Carolina's rapidly growing small towns.

Brunswick County's beaches and its proximity to Wilmington are factors in its growth, but the key factor is retirees looking for an affordable community, Stanford said.

"What really Brunswick County benefits from is the fact that North Carolina is a 'half-back' state," she said.

"You've got a lot of retirees -- baby boomers -- who want to move from, say, the Northeast area or the Midwest down to Florida," she said. "And Florida at this point is getting fairly expensive to live in many places. It's quite hot. And North Carolina ends up being the state that a lot of people move 'halfway back' to."

Town officials said they welcome new growth, but they acknowledged that it can create challenges.

For example, small towns near larger cities can become bedroom communities with most of the residents' employers outside the town limits and few commercial or industrial properties in town, said Arnold, the Rolesville town manager.

That puts most of the tax burden for town services that the residents want and need on the residents' homes, he said.

"Our No. 1 challenge is diversification of our community and our property tax base," Arnold said.

Meet the towns (based on growth rate 2010-19, descending order)

#10 Mebane (2019 pop: 13,223)

Mebane splits the distance between Greensboro and the Research Triangle. Location and tax incentives, locals say, fueled commercial and diversity growth in this west Orange County community.

"We've been fairly successful in bringing in the kind of things that provide jobs, provide shopping, and we provide recreation and arts for the community," said Mebane Councilman Tim Bradley, who acknowledged the tedious traffic that has accompanied expansion.

Mayor Ed Hooks points to the 41 industrial companies located in Mebane, including the headquarters of Kidde, one of the nation's largest fire safety product manufacturers.

This development, the mayor says, has changed the face of the town.

"We're seeing a lot of diversity," he said. "I think we're seeing different cultures, different nationalities, different racial makeup."

#9 Wendell: (Pop: 8,577)

Wendell Mayor Virginia Gray said her town was "a little sleepy secret" just east of Raleigh until the recent past because it wasn't on a main highway.

Then the population in Wake County expanded in Wendell's direction, a new highway opened up, and a large subdivision called Wendell Falls -- where Gray expects 4,000 homes to be built -- was annexed.

The town grew by nearly 45% between 2010 and 2019, from 5,877 to 8,577, according to the Census Bureau.

"And honestly, it was bound to happen," Gray said.

The highway makes it easy for residents to commute to work in Raleigh, Durham and Research Triangle Park to the west, she said, and to Wilson and Rocky Mount to the east.

Residents want Wendell to grow not just with homes, but amenities, Gray said.

"We have a really unique mix of -- kind of the feeling that you live in the country, kind of even in a really small town. But you have some of the extras of larger town and we're getting more of those all the time," she said.

#8 Clayton: (Pop: 24,887)

When Christi Thompson wished to escape the dizzying development around Wake Forrest in the mid-2000s, she moved south to sleepy Clayton. In 2015, she opened The Market at Three Little Birds, a furniture and gift shop on Main Street.

At first, business didn't take off.

"There would sometimes be multiple days in a row where we wouldn't see a customer come in the store," Thompson said.

Fast-forward five years, and growing customer demand propelled Thompson to upgrade her initial 1,000 square-foot store to a 10,000 square-foot space. Today, Thompson sees Clayton brim with the kind of growth she once fled: a renewed downtown, incoming corporations and a total population that's jumped threefold this century.

And this time, Thompson didn't mind the activity.

"There's a lot happening that's very family-focused, art-focused, nightlife-focused," she said. "There's a huge revitalization going on within the culture of our community."

Clayton offers residents proximity to Raleigh (25 minutes with light traffic) and more afforable land than around the capital. Four major corporations: Novo Nordisk, Caterpillar, Bayer, and Grifols draw new residents and bolster the economy.

"I think many small towns of this size don't have that kind of billions of dollars of investment," said Patrick Pierce, Clayton's economic development director. "For a town of its size, I think it really kind of punched above its weight."

#7 Navassa: (Pop: 2,306)

Opportunity.

Walking down Navassa's sleepy main street, Billy Williams said that's what he sees for this small -- but growing -- town in northeastern Brunswick County.

Founded in 1977, Navassa hasn't always had a lot going for it. The community's main industries used to be fertilizer factories, with the railroad shipping the product all across the state. But the plants left, leaving behind environmental challenges and economic hardship for many of the town's mostly black residents.

But Brunswick County is booming, and Navassa has a lot of developable land.

Interstate 140, Wilmington's northern ring road, now offers quick connections to the Port City, and industry and developers are taking note of Navassa's attractive riverfront areas. Growth from Leland, just to the south, also is pushing into the town.

Williams said Navassa has what a lot of people, and businesses, are looking for these days -- open spaces, a lower cost of living, and kind and quality people.

"I don't think I'm going to recognize this place in 10 years," he said.

#6 Knightdale: (Pop: 17,843)

Just east of Raleigh, Knightdale had just under 2,200 people 30 years ago.

"Knightdale, of course, was one of those little sleepy towns," said Mayor James Roberson, who moved there with his wife 27 years ago.

Knightdale isn't so sleepy anymore.

Now it's one of the booming communities in the Research Triangle, with an estimated 17,843 people as of July 2019 -- a nearly 56% increase over 2010.

Knightdale attracts newcomers for the same reason it attracted Roberson and his wife, he said: It's centrally located to the job sites, shopping, hospitals, schools and amenities in the Raleigh area and its housing prices have been affordable.

"Our demographics have changed. We now have more millennials moving to the area -- professional millennials," Roberson said. "And they can't quite afford to live in Raleigh or do not want to pay the high price it costs to live in Raleigh."

With the growth, Knightdale is trying to retain its small-town character and provide for the new resident's needs, Roberson said.

Knightdale's downtown has been mostly residential property, but now businesses and retailers are coming, Roberson said.

"So I think in the next five to six years you're going to see this major transformation take place in our downtown area," he said.

#5 Leland: (Pop: 23,544)

The bright lights of Wilmington aren't hard to see from Leland.

But then again, that they aren't right next door is one of the attractions of the fast-growing Brunswick County town.

Leland, incorporated in 1989, isn't small anymore.

Between 2010 and 2019, the town's population boomed by an estimated 10,000 residents to more than 23,000.

Mayor Brenda Bozeman, who has spent more than five decades in Leland, said her town's combination of location, climate and affordability has proven to be a popular selling point for many.

"I believe word has gotten out about our 'little' Southern town," she said. "Southeastern North Carolina, in general, has long been an attractive place to live for people across the state and country. But in recent years, as this region has grown, Leland has gotten more attention for its unique blend of small-town culture and big-city amenities."

While Leland has drawn its fair share of retirees, Bozeman said her town isn't just for older residents.

She notes that being a bedroom community for Wilmington has drawn lots of young families, while others are attracted to the affordable housing options.

But the town's rapid growth hasn't come without a few bumps, notably the increased traffic. Schools also are showing the strain of all the new residents.

Still, she's excited about the direction her town is headed in.

"The biggest change I have seen is, in a word, everything," Bozeman said. "Nothing here is like it used to be. It is like a completely new town."

#4 Waxhaw: (Pop: 17,147)

Angie Marrow recalled a time before Waxhaw had a stoplight. Marrow, 40, only has to think back to the early 1990s. Now, she and her fellow Waxhaw residents face daily traffic jams.

"It has grown in leaps and bounds," Marrow said of her lifelong hometown. "It's still a really quaint little town center, but there is a lot that has happened."

Sitting 30 miles south of Charlotte, Waxhaw has developed a stronger connection to its nearby urban center in recent years -- many new residents commute north for work -- yet the town maintains its own separate, unhurried pace.

A train runs through the middle of Waxhaw, past a Main Street filled with mom-and-pop shops. Lisa Vigil co-owns a Main Street staple, Provisions Waxhaw, offering locally-sourced food, antiques and a community room for events.

Waxhaw real estate agents, Vigil says, bring prospective new residents to Provisions to showcase scenes of a gentler country lifestyle.

"A lot of people who move here, they're from a larger town or maybe a busier place," Vigil said. "I always greet them with open arms and then I just remind them to slow down because it's something that I had to learn myself."

#3 St. James: (Pop: 6,248)

Just a bunch of Yankees.

When John Muuss first moved into St. James 25 years ago, he used to hear that quite a bit about his community -- which wasn't even a town back then, just a gated golf course community with about 100 homes.

Not anymore.

"We really have reached out, worked to develop good relationships with our neighbors," said Muuss, who is the town's official photographer, "and I credit a lot of that to the people we have here, who come from all walks of life and from all over, and the work our volunteers do both inside and outside St. James."

What's also changed is the size of St. James, which now has nearly 5,000 homes.

Mayor Jean Toner said the growth hasn't cost the town its small town, rural feel, something she said is partly due to the developer's decision not to clear cut everything in the community and instead preserve nearly 2,000 acres as woods and open space.

Like other booming communities in Brunswick, Toner said the climate and coastal location have helped lure a lot of new residents.

But so have St. James' neighbors.

"Although St. James itself is new, Southport has the history," Toner said. "If we didn't have Southport and we didn't have Wilmington, this community wouldn't have been as successful."

#2 Holly Ridge: (Pop: 2,827)

Prior to World War II, Holly Ridge was a bump on the road between Jacksonville and Wilmington with around two dozen residents.

Then the military came to town, and the population surged to more than 110,000.

Today, Holly Ridge has gone back to being a sleepy little town.

But it's not as sleepy as it once was.

A sweet location between two fast-growing coastal metro areas and easy access to the beach has seen the town's population more than double in the past decade.

Mayor Jeff Wenzel, who has lived in Holly Ridge for 13 years but only been mayor for four months, said the town's growing popularity is all about that famous real estate adage -- location, location, location.

"We're snap dab right in the middle between two of the fastest growing areas in the state," he said. "And we're also the self-proclaimed gateway to Topsail Island."

Affordable housing options, at least compared to neighboring communities, coupled with the town's rural feel has made Holly Ridge attractive to retirees, military folks from nearby Camp Lejuene, and young families looking to start out.

"The challenge for a growing small town like us is how do you preserve the history of the past while also retaining that small-town feel even while you're still growing," Wenzel said.

#1 Rolesville: (Pop: 8,501)

In 2000, Rolesville had 995 people.

How does a town grow by 850% in just 20 years? Why did it more than double in size in 10 years?

"Proximity to Raleigh and Wake County," said Rolesville Town Manager Kelly Arnold. "We're kind of the next ring of suburbs in growth," he said, referring to both Rolesville and other quickly growing towns outside Raleigh. "And so that growth over the last 10 years has moved to the north and to the east."

Rolesville prepared itself for the growth by creating attractive housing areas, Arnold said. "One of the things that we've been kind of ... turning towards is top-tier housing subdivisions."

They attract families and seniors to a small community where they feel safe, Arnold said.

The town has many commuters and many who work from home, Arnold said, and that creates Rolesville's top challenge -- with 85% of the town's tax base in residential property, it needs more commercial development to take the tax burden off its homeowners.

The town is identifying the best places for commercial and industrial growth and adjusting its transportation plan and zoning code to foster that growth, he said.

Meanwhile, Rolesville has a Main Street (which is U.S. 401) but it lacks a traditional downtown. The town plans to invest $5 million to $6 million, with 80% covered by grants, to create one, Arnold said.

"And we're going to actually be able to build a real Main Street," he said.

Reporters Brian Gordon of the Asheville Citizen Times and Gareth McGrath of the Wilmington StarNews contributed to this story.

Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at [email protected] or 910-261-4710.

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