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INTRODUCTION The primary growth center in Cabarrus County is the west central portion and is defined for this plan as the "Western Area." Growth ranges from new subdivisions along Weddington Road, to commercial establishments popping up around the Charlotte Motor Speedway, and to the expansion of Philip Morris USA's manufacturing plant. It is also an area, however, with large undeveloped and farmed tracts of land, some of which are already under economic pressure to make the transition to some type of developed land The plan will be an analysis of the existing conditions in the area, the major issues affecting the future of the area, and resident goals for ttmt future. The analysis of the existing conditions, issues, and goals will be used to help project the most proper future land use for the area and to make recommendations to help bring that about. This plan covers a large area as evidenced by Maps 1 and 2. The exact boundaries of the area are: to the north, N.C. 73 W (Dav~dson Highway); to the west and southwest, the Mecklenburg/Cabarrus line; to the south and southeast, the Harrisburg extraterritorial jurisdiction, Township Two boundary, and N.C. 49; and to the northeast and north, U.S. 601 Bypass, U.S. 29, and Irish Buffalo Creek. The majority of the area is in Township Two, Poplar Tent, but there are also portions of Townships Three, Four, and Eleven. There is a great amount of variation of land use and issues within this plan area, but there are also a number of similarities. The overall area is affected by the four spokes of access to Charlotte-Mecklenburg: N.C. 49, U.S. 29, 1-85 and N. C. 73 W. These main transportation corridors have drawn growth into Cabarrus County and will continue to do so. In addition, the area has been the site of a good portion of the growth of Concord. The effect has been the gradual merging of the metrol~litan areas of CharIotte and Concord particularly with the development of University City between them. Economic growth and growth pressure have been a benefit to this area but they also have had some negative effects. The development of residential, commercial and manufacturing areas has led to an increasing amount of services and employment opportunities. It has also caused property values to escalate. At the same time, incompatibilities between land uses have arisen, and the area has gradually lost its rural character. Just as the plan area shares these corru-'non effects and concerns, there are dissimilarities. Large parts of the western area remain open and agricultural while others have developed over the years. Other areas are almost completely urbanized with a mix of different uses and little usable open space. In the land use recommendations text, which is one of the most important parts of this document, the plan area will be divided into three subareas (Map 3) to try to isolate these dissimilarities. WESTERN AREA PLAN DRAFT 4 PAGE2