Morrisville Land Use Plan 2009

5.2 Future Land Use Map, cont’d

• More park space is included, showing parcels recently acquired by the Town for future park development. • The 2009 map reduces the overall acreage of industrial use, but keeps the designa- tion in core areas around existing industrial development. The previous plan map showed industrial use for virtually all land east of NC 54 south of Airport Boulevard and north of Aviation Parkway. This has been changed to a combination of office, corridor commercial, and future master planned areas. • The name and purpose of some of the categories have changed. Mixed use and commercial categories from the 1999 plan have been traded in favor of several different activity center categories and a corridor commercial category. A float- ing Transit Oriented Development category has been created so that it may be applied via rezoning to land in the future when transit services exist. These cat- egory name and definition changes reflect the desire for flexibility in the future land use map. School Siting During the planning process, numerous comments were received from mem- bers of the public requesting the plan to call out locations suitable for future schools in the town, specifically for a middle school, so that their children can attend school close to home. Although the Town is responsible for land use planning, Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) is responsible for locat- ing school sites and pursuing their development. The Town can only make suggestions to the school system, which is not currently pursuing school sites in the vicinity of Morrisville. For a middle school, WCPSS requires a minimum of 30-40 acres of land that is not too expensive (e.g., not located near highway interchanges or along major commercial corridors). Given the shortage of vacant land located outside the Airport Noise Overlay District in Morrisville, few sites meet those criteria. The following potential sites were discussed: • Build “up” at the current Cedar Fork Elementary School site. A commu- nity center currently located on the site may move to another location, providing enough space for a 6th grade center. • Redevelop areas within the Town Center Planning Area. • Redevelop the Holly Creek subdivision, located off Davis Drive, which is currently a very low density residential area. This site was considered and removed as a potential site. Following are strategies recommended by the Town Council for staff to pursue additional educational opportunities in Morrisville: • Continue coordination with Wake County Public School System. • Consider “adaptive reuse” (redevelopment) of sites within Morrisville for schools. • Work collaboratively with Cary and RTP to locate suitable sites outside Morrisville’s jurisdiction for schools that would serve Morrisville residents. Potential sites may include vacant land west of Davis Drive (in Cary’s jurisdiction) between Morrisville- Carpenter Road and McCrimmon Parkway; and vacant land in RTP on the east and west sides of Davis Drive, just north of the town’s boundary. • Pursue attracting private schools to locate in Morrisville. • Coordinate with Wake Technical Community College for the proposed campus in Morrisville to offer the “Earn and Learn” program, which provides unique high school and college classes addressing the health and sciences theme. 5.3 Future Land Use Categories Following is a description of land use categories from the Future Land Use Map. The categories were modified from those used in the 1999 Land Use Plan, in order to address the changing circumstances in the Town since the adoption of the 1999 Plan and to better reflect the public and Plan Advisory Committee input received during the Plan update process. The overall land-development strategy in the Land Use Plan is to protect existing, stable residential areas where a continuation of the compatible low-density resi- dential pattern is envisioned and to encourage compact, mixed-use develop- ments that provide people with the opportunity to live, work, recreate, and shop in a pedestrian-friendly environment in strategic locations. The exceptions are for areas within the Airport Noise Overlay District east of NC 54, where residential uses are not allowed. Because much of the Town’s land area is already developed, this Plan envisions that new projects will be modest in scope and therefore will be evaluated based on their compatibility with the larger community of which they will be a part. However, there are a few larger areas of vacant land in Town as well, such as the large, vacant area in the McCrimmon Master Plan area. The overall future land use catego- ries and policies guiding their development for the Town are described on the following pages. For each future land use type, function, preferred uses, and policies are listed, with photos illustrating encouraged and discouraged design. In addition, Section Six divides the town into several community areas in order to describe how the recommended future land uses described in this section will combine with the recommended improvements from the Transportation Plan to affect the look, feel, and function of areas of the town.

Cedar Fork Elementary School and Community Center.

Morrisville residents enjoy a day at the Morrisville Aquatic and Fitness Center.

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