Morrisville Land Use Plan 2021

Foreword

The Morrisville Land Use Plan represents a three year effort that brought together a range of community stakeholders, citizens, agency representatives, business representatives, and elected officials to lay out the framework for Morrisville’s development over the next 10 to 20 years. Given the rapid growth Morrisville has seen in recent years and the shrinking availability of developable land, a fresh approach to land use planning is needed more than ever. At this moment, the Town has an opportunity to move beyond the status quo and put forward innovative, sustainable land development policies that positions Morrisville as a leader for communities seeking a better way to grow. This Plan aims to serve as a guide for all land use policy decisions moving forward and seeks to emphasize the issues most important to the Morrisville community. Specifically, the Plan’s robust community engagement effort identified four leading issues that must be considered as the Town moves ahead into the future:

Though it’s true the Plan’s primary focus on land use policies presents limitations on how comprehensively these issues can be resolved, much is recommended in this document to better address them. In essence, the Plan emphasizes six overarching policy directions for the Town worthy of note here, but discussed and broken down into further detail within subsequent chapters:

1. Proactively seek out opportunities for the creation or preservation of parks and open space.

2. Enhance the standards for tree protection and tree replacement to better safeguard the Town’s remaining forested areas. 3. Limit higher density residential development, outside of key strategic areas warranting increased density, with particular emphasis on maintaining single-family detached housing as the predominate housing type west of NC-54. 4. Refrain from approving new, higher-intensity development without first ensuring nearby infrastructure can support such development. 5. Continue offering a flexible and open-minded approach for siting new public schools within Morrisville and maintain a strong partnership with the Wake County Public School System. 6. Establish mixed-use, walkable, transit-supportive development within the strategic locations of the Transit Oriented Development (TOD), McCrimmon Extension and Town Center areas.

1. Mitigating the loss of green space and setting aside more land for parks and recreational uses.

2. Ensuring that roadways and other infrastructure improvements are concurrent with new development.

3. Moving to better coordinate with the Wake County Public School System to ensure school facilities can accommodate continued residential growth.

4. Enhancing the image and identity of Morrisville in future land development.

Implementation of these policies may prove challenging at times, but their fruition will further guarantee that Morrisville remains one of the top places to live and do business.