Preservation in the News

By: Sharif Durhams

Elected Cabarrus County officials will hold a summit on growth next month to talk about the ways local leaders should handle the county's population boom, county officials said today.

Participants are expected to talk about county's overcrowded schools and congested roads as well as efforts to control residential and commercial development.

The Sept. 10 summit is being billed as a way to help the county stay ahead of growth, rather than play catch up.

County Manager John Day has been trying to organize the meeting for months. He and the board of County Commissioners have wrestled over how the county can pay for new schools to keep up with the new homes that are being built in the county.

In June, commissioners boosted a fee developers pay for each new housing lot that's approved from $4,000 to $8,076 to offset the expense of building schools. But the county is still expecting tight budgets over the next five years to pay for new school facilities.

Town and city leaders have also debated over the numbers and kinds of housing and commercial development they've been approving.

County commissioners and leaders from Concord, Kannapolis, Harrisburg, Mount Pleasant, Midland and the county's two school systems are expected to participate.