Agenda - 06-04-1981 - Laserfiche WebLink

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• HILLSBOROUGH TOWNSHIP PLAN TOWNSHIP PROFILE: SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS Hillsborough Township, located in central Orange County, occupies 15,100 acres and contains 6% of the total County land area. The major growth and development center in Hillsborough Township is the Town of Hillsborough, located at the Township's geographic center. The Town, including its planning jurisdiction, divides the Township into northern and southern sections. The section located to the south of Interstate 85 is influenced to some degree by the urbanizing area of Chapel Hill and Carrboro due to the pre- sence of both Old and New N.C. Highway 86 routes which provide a trans- portation link between the areas. The level of influence will signifi- cantly increase if proposed Interstate 40 extension is constructed through Orange County. Access to Chapel Hill and. Carrboro, as well as to the Research Triangle Park,would be upgraded, perhaps contributing to the attractiveness of Hillsborough Township as a residential area for commu- ters to these employment centers. This attractiveness, however, may be mitigated in the future by either the scarcity or prohibitively high costs of gasoline. In either case, the Town of Hillsborough, as it grows in population and area, will remain the dominant urban influence in this area of the County. Soda-Economic Features The 1980 U.S. Census figure for Hillsborough Township is 8599 persons or 11.2% of the total population for Orange County. This represents an increase of 2744 persons over the 1976 population of 5855, at an average annual growth rate of 4.7% during the past ten years. The 1980 Census figure for the Town of Hillsborough is 3019 persons. Sixty-five percent of the people in Hillsborough Township live outside the corporate limits of the Town. Development patterns indicate that a large portion of this non-corporate area population Lives in proximity to the corporate limits of the Town, generally within the one mile extra-territorial planning jurisdiction. The economic charater of the Township is strongly influenced by the pre- sence of the transportation corridor formed by Interstate 85, U.S. Highway 70 and the Southern Railroad line. Historically, the Town of Hillsborough has been a good site for industrial uses because of its location on this important east-west transportation corridor connecting major towns and cities in the expanding Piedmont Crescent region of North Carolina. The second major influence on the Township's economic character is the Town- ship's proximity to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro urbanizing area and the employment opportunities available in that area. The current economic base for Hillsborough Township consists of manufacturing, agriculture, and public sector employment, including education, medical-hospital and county government employment.