Farmland preservation in Chatham County, North Carolina: A program overview

Introduction

North Carolina is at the epicenter of America’s farmland loss crisis. A 2022 study by the American Farmland Trust (AFT) estimates that 18.4 million ac (~7.4 million ha) of farmland will be lost in the United States by 2040. AFT’s analysis indicates North Carolina will lose 11.6% of its current agricultural land, or nearly 1.2 million ac (~485,000 ha), if current development trends continue, ranking the state second behind Texas in total projected loss (Hunter et al. 2022).

As a rapidly urbanizing area in North Carolina’s vibrant “Triangle” metro region, Chatham County is experiencing the worst of this crisis. AFT’s analysis is that Chatham County will lose 19,400 ac (~7,850 ha) of farmland by 2040 under its “Runaway Sprawl” scenario, approximately one-fifth of its current farmland (AFT n.d.). Much of this loss will be due to rapid population growth. Between 2010 and 2022, population growth in Chatham County was 25.8%, compared to 11.7% for the entire state (US Census Bureau 2024). The county is home to two of the state’s most significant economic development projects: a 450 ac (182 ha) site for Wolfspeed, billed as the world’s largest silicon carbide manufacturing center, and the 2,000 ac (809 ha) Vinfast electric automobile manufacturing plant (Chatham County 2023).

Population growth is driving intense residential development. The 7,100 ac (~2,800 ha) Chatham Park development in the county seat of Pittsboro was already slated to be the county’s largest-ever residential project with up to 22,000 planned residential units when it was recently announced that the Walt Disney Company would bring a “Storyliving by Disney” branded residential community to the development—only the second “Storyliving” community in the United States (PR Newswire 2023). As development increases, housing prices continue to skyrocket. A recent …