Harrisburg Area Land Use Plan
a collaboration between Cabarrus County and the Town of Harrisburg

I just read through the Land Use Plan:  Inventory & Assessment of Existing Conditions, dated  January 2010.  The recurring theme is that residents want to keep the small town feel, along with the scenic benefits of a rural/farm community.  It is mentioned time and time again how residents enjoy having a farmer’s market and being able to purchase local grown food. There is much mention of keeping some land undeveloped to help maintain the quality of the area, and that some soils are prime farmland soils and are suitable for local agricultural purposes.  With this said, it must be understood that the farm land that everyone enjoys viewing  is owned by some individual that is paying property tax, and most likely is not a farmer, but someone who had property passed down from previous generations.  If the move is to preserve these open spaces by restrictive zoning, so that everyone benefits from having a rural feel to the community, then some means has to be made to provide tax relief for the land owners who own land in these restrictive zones.  Please don’t just look at the land as something to preserve for everyone’s benefit, but rather from the eyes of the individual land owner.  For most large tract owner’s, this land is a financial asset for them.  If you impose restrictive zoning on their asset, you are reducing the value of that asset for the benefit of all, but at the cost to one.

Another consideration to keep certain areas undeveloped, is to encourage local grown food with a thriving Farmer’s Market.  The people who started the current Farmer’s Market deserve a big pat on the back, but to encourage the direction that people are pushing for, I think the following is needed:

1-Move the Farmer’s Market either to Harrisburg Park or to Harrisburg Town Center with a permanent facility including shelter for the farmers to set-up.

2-The current facility is difficult because of access off of Stallings Road, lack of paved parking and no shelter.  Making a left turn out of the market is very difficult and dangerous.  This site will always be limited and can not support the type of Farmer’s Market that is mentioned by everyone in the study groups.

3-Harrisburg Park and the Town Center both provide paved parking and ease of traffic.

4- The picnic shelter at Harrisburg Park could be used in the interim until demand necessitates a larger facility, possibly in front of the library.

5-Harrisburg Park provides for large numbers of front traffic from parents attending games and practices for most of the year.  The same is somewhat true for the Harrisburg Town Center.

6-Place requirements on vendors that all items sold have to be raised within a 50 mile radius of Harrisburg to encourage local grown food, unlike the Charlotte Regional Market, which brings food in from all over.  You never know what you are getting at the Charlotte Market or where it came from.  

7-Extend the days open to Monday’s and either Friday/Saturday.

8-Refer to the Matthews Farmer’s Market for a good example of how to do this.

After the County wide flooding of 2008, it appears the Harrisburg area is  already overdeveloped and cannot support further development. Areas that never flooded before have flooded due to excessive run off  into the creeks and river created by the development. Where does the Hazard Mitigation Plan fit in, specifically the section on Flooding? Is the plan simply words on paper that the Town nor the County will follow or implement? The flood plain has been adjusted since the 2008 flood. Your property may not be in it now, but with additional development,with no regard to the Hazard Mitigation Plan, more and more properties will be included and subjected to flooding. Flooding hazards need to be addressed and corrected before further development is approved. Nothing should be built in or near a flood plain nor by a creek or the river.

Why does Cabarrus County want to continue to build on land that floods?  We have homes that every rain (last one 1/25) flodded our development.  NO ONE from Cabarrus County comes down to help the families out.  WHAT are we to do?

Harrisburg needs to STOP developing on flood land!!  This is causing major flooding in areas that didn't even flood before and also worse flooding in areas that did already flood.  No help is extended to the families that flood and we are told nothing can be done about it.  The first thing that can be done is STOP building!!! 

I agree with the earlier post concerning a Farmer's Market in Harrisburg.  If certain areas surrounding Harrisburg are going to be zoned Agriculture in an effort to control growth, then something has to be done to actually encourage farming in these areas.  To zone an area Agriculture just to preserve the eye appeal of farm land is in injustice to the land owners in these areas.  If increasing the amount of local grown food is used as part of the justification for zoning land as Agriculture, then there needs to be steps taken by the local Harrisburg government to actually encourage farming.  This includes more tax incentives than are currently provided by the Farm Use Program, and a facility in Harrisburg for local farmers to sell their items.  The Harrisburg Park is a great idea.  I can't think of a better way to bring the community together than to have families attending football and soccer games on Saturdays and being able to stop by the Farmer's Market near the Picnic Shelter or in front of the Library.  The current Market on Harrisburg Road is difficult because of parking and traffic.

We have lived in the Harrisburg area for 17 years and have chosen to stay here even after the unfortunate incidents. However, it is very discouraging that even after living here for so many years we seem to get swept under the rug when we have continual problems due to the area development.  We all want to see the area grow for financial viability, but the leaders of the community do not seem to care about what this growth is doing to the "CITIZENS" of Harrisburg!  We have seen our little creek turn into a raging river several times over the years.  This creek then becomes strong enough to move cars, tear down concrete secured fences, flood homes, and forever affect the lives of the people that live here.  We now see the flooding occur much more frequently and with less rainfall.  We do see a lot more construction, houses and schools, that increase the amount of run-off that flows into the small creek that flows down toward Rocky River. We do see two neighborhoods get completely isolated from our "community" during these rain storms because the water is covering the bridge on one side of Middleton Subdivision and covering Stalling Road on the other side of Flowers Farms. What we do NOT see is the assistance from the city and county on some kind of strategy to fix this problem. We are told "Sorry" but the flood zoning continues to change.  Several homeowners were told they had no choice but to raise their houses 6-8 feet.  Now these COMMUNITY CITIZENS have no choice to stay in the area because to sell their homes will be nothing short of a miracle.  I am sure that Harrisburg does not want to be known for that.   

I agree with the previous comments regarding what they call "flooding" in Harrisburg which in city government terms is actually "Storm Water Runoff".   We moved to Harrisburg 9 years ago during a minor drought, and behind our house was a charming brook but when the rains finally came that charming brook turns into a rushing river with rapids.  We invited a representative from the Town of Harrisburg over to view our situation and was told on two different occasions that it was our problem that Harrisburg did not have a "Storm Water Program".  We decided at our expense to put in Rip Rap to slow down the water in the river just to save our back yard.  Over the years the water has worsened & now the water  is coming over the top of the rip rap again into our back yard.  Why does Harrisburg not have a storm water program? It seems to me that Harrisburg was the one that approved for all the new houses to be built and all the new paved streets and concrete drives that came along with those houses but did not consider the storm water run off that this would create?!  Excuse me, Flood Zones keep changing - oh please give me a break.   Does Harrisburg need another Park, it would just add to the problem already at hand.   And I know the next thing out of the Town's mouth would be higher taxes.  Is there not grants from the state or county that help with such matters?  Why should the citizens have to pay more taxes for something they did not create.  I do believe that in larger cities they require the Contractors-Builders to include "Storm Water" in their planning and designs prior to building. 

The current economic environment is not the time to place restrictive zoning on individual property owners.  Cabarrus County had over 1400 home foreclosures in 2009, the current unemployment rate for Cabarrus County is over 12%, Cabarrus County is facing a $6.2 million revenue shortfall next fiscal year, 76 county employees were cut last week, the Education Lottery monies are being held to pay for school construction, and the County Manager states that these fiscal issues will remain at least through 2013.  There is approximately a 2 year supply of homes for sale in Cabarrus County.  Developments are going bankrupt and current development is at a standstill.  There is no need to change zoning designations at this time.  Planning and Zoning Boards already have jurisdiction to control future development.  Is this the time to spend over $100,000.00 for an outside evaluation of land use in this area?

Another cost-cutting measure that Cabarrus County has taken is to stop running the sedimentation and erosion control program on behalf of the state, and 2 erosion control inspector positions were cut last week.  This does not look good for flooding issues in the Harrisburg area.