Morrisville Land Use Plan 2009

3.1 Land Use cont’d

and within walking distance of some of Morrisville’s residents. • Parks in Morrisville are dispersed throughout the town, with the exception of the eastern area between Airport Boulevard and Aviation Parkway. • Offices in Morrisville, which comprise 9% of the total land area, are clustered north of Airport Boulevard and east of NC 54. This area is home to the Perimeter Park of- fice complex, which includes older 1- to 2-story buildings as well as newer mid-rise buildings. While some of the buildings are within walking distance of each other, they are largely separated from other uses, such as restaurants or convenience retail. • The Airport Noise Overlay District, which does not permit residential uses east of NC 54, is largely comprised of industrial uses, vacant land and some offices. There is a large piece of vacant land located between Airport Boulevard and Aviation Park- way. This is the largest undeveloped area remaining in the town. • Industrial uses are prominent in Morrisville, comprising 12% of the total land area. There are relatively few industrial manufacturing facilities, but many distribution fa- cilities. This is not surprising because Research Triangle Park does not permit dis- tribution facilities in its jurisdiction, and the adjacent Raleigh-Durham Internation- al Airport creates a significant volume of truck freight traffic. These facilities are a concern from a planning perspective because they place a large number of heavy trucks on Morrisville’s roadways. • Vacant land in Morrisville, while comprising 23% of the total area, is largely confined to the eastern, noise-restricted area. The remaining vacant land outside the Air- port Overlay District, located at the intersection of McCrimmon Parkway and Town Hall Drive, is planned as an office and neighborhood retail center. A large piece of vacant land north of Perimeter Park Drive has been purchased by Wake Technical Community College for a future campus. 3.2 Recent Development In addition to showing existing land uses, Figure 3.1 shows recently approved develop- ments. These are categorized according to their final land use on the map even though they may not have completed construction at this time. Numbers on the map correspond to the numbered list of recently approved developments shown in Figure 3.3. The total number of approved developments since October 2004 is 3,062 residential dwelling units, and 2,691,499 square feet of nonresidential building space. The quantity of recently approved development for a small town like Morrisville is quite substantial. Several of the projects are large, and are likely to have considerable impact on the character of the town. Two major residential projects have taken up much of the remaining vacant land outside the airport noise overlay (Kitts Creek and Providence Place subdivisions). These subdivisions are in the process of constructing more than 1200 new homes in Morrisville. Two major development projects with commercial space are Shiloh Crossing, at the far north end of town, and Park West Village, at the far south end of town. These two developments, while very different in style and com- position, will together contribute 1,428,427 square feet of commercial building space. Shiloh Crossing will offer a Wal-Mart and other major retail stores in one-story highway retail buildings. Park West Village will include multi-story buildings, structured parking and commercial uses including office space, a movie theater, major retail anchor, hotel and restaurants. Park West Village also incorporates a substantial residential component. Some of the public comments received during the planning process were centered around the need for more shopping and other services in the town. Unfortunately for residents, there is an inevitable disconnect between residential and commercial development. Commercial businesses cannot afford to locate in an area that does not have the population to support them; many will go out of business waiting for the population to catch up. So businesses follow the population. In the meantime, especially in areas experiencing rapid growth, there is a disconnect between the residential population and the commercial services available to them. As the amount of available land for residential development dwindles in Morrisville, the commercial devel- opment will catch up. 3.3 Zoning Current zoning in Morrisville is shown in Figure 3.4 for the purpose of documenting the cur- rent baseline conditions. Unlike a land use plan, zoning has the weight of law and deter- mines how a property owner may develop his or her land. New developments sometimes require rezoning to an appropriate category to permit the desired development type. Rezoning involves an application and public hearing process. Much of the vacant land that is left in the town is currently zoned either Industrial Management (in the case of the eastern portion), Office & Institutional, or Agricultural (which allows very low density resi- dential). For full information on what is allowed in each zoning category, please see the Town Ordinances (a link is provided in the References section in Appendix B). The Town of Morrisville currently plans to revise its zoning codes starting in 2009, creating a Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). A UDO combines the zoning ordinance and the subdivision ordinance into one document, which is easier to understand and interpret. Additional changes to better address future development, such as allowing for small-scale mixed use development (the current zoning ordinance allows mixed use only on parcels larger than 10 acres), may be included.

Residential construction at the Savannah subdivision.

Mixed use construction (rental flats over retail) at Grace Park.

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3 Existing Conditions