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HARRISBURG AREA LAND USE PLAN Housing units in Cabarrus County and the Charlotte MSA grew at slower rates of 36.4% and 35.3 %, respectively, during the same period. In 2000, the 3,810 housing units in the planning area were approximately 92.5% single - family. Another 6.9% were mobile homes and 0.6% were multi- family. Comparatively, 74.2% of the housing units in Cabarrus County and 66.3% of the units in the Charlotte MSA were single - family. The planning area also had a considerably lower share of multi - family units than both Cabarrus County (13.4 %) and the Charlotte MSA (26.4 %). Owner - occupied units account for 87.8% of all housing units in the planning area, higher than 68.4% for Cabarrus County and 61.9% for the Charlotte MSA. The share of renter - occupied units is 22.5% less than the Charlotte MSA. The extremely limited stock of multi - family units in the planning area indicates that renter - occupied units are primarily investor -owned single - family properties. The planning area has a stabilized vacancy rate of 5.1 %, less than 8.1% in Cabarrus County and 8.5% in the Charlotte MSA. More than 11,000 new single - family residential permits have been issued in Cabarrus County since January 2003. New single - family closings since 2007 have strongly outpaced building permits, impacting the existing supply of new construction in the area. If closings continue to outpace building permits, new unsold residential units will be quickly absorbed. There were 242 new townhouse closings in Township 1 (an area greater than the planning area) between 2003 and September 2009, averaging 40 units annually. New townhouse closings were primarily located in the Harrisburg Town Center development. Refer to the Harrisburg Area Land Use Plan Market Analysis in Appendix D for more information about housing trends and activity. 2.5 Urban Design and Community Character Overall Character The study area is predominantly suburban in character, with a dispersed development pattern. Low structures of one to two stories are typical in the developed areas, and such structures are separated from each other and the public streets by large setbacks, creating a very open, low density appearance. The auto - oriented design of most of this suburban style development has led to parking that surrounds structures, allowing it to become a prominent feature of the development pattern and streetscape, and to disconnected subdivisions in which single - family homes on large lots have been built. PART II: EXISTING CONDITIONS AUGU MAIA number 1 G -1 Page 329