SECTION 3: PLANNING AREA PROFILE
2023 in the form of a $1.09 billion discretionary federal grant, would also include direct stops through multiple municipalities of Wake County and could subsequently generate many promising economic and development opportunities in the future. There are also several intra-county bus lines that provide service between Wake County municipalities. 3.6.2 UTILITIES Electric power for the county is provided by Duke Energy and Wake Electric Membership Corporation, with Duke Energy providing service to a majority of the county. Water and sewer service is provided by the City of Raleigh Public Utilities, Western Wake Partners, and various municipal public works departments. Natural gas is provided by Dominion Energy (formerly PSNC Energy). 3.7 CURRENT AND FUTURE LAND USE Current and future land uses in Wake County are predominantly regulated at the jurisdictional level. The Wake County Planning Department provides public planning services to the unincorporated areas of Wake County. The department plans for general land use classifications, water supply watersheds, and development of small area land use plans. Figure 3.7 below shows these general classifications along with the areas planned for in more detail as part of the PLANWake Comprehensive Plan. Further information on land use planning in Wake County is available on the department website 3 . As shown in Figure 3.8 and Figure 3.9, the City of Raleigh has a significant land use footprint in Wake County seeing as it represents nearly 17.6 percent of the County’s total land area. Its position as a large financial and industrial hub means that its land use policies may have far-reaching implications both in and around its jurisdictional boundaries. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT TRENDS According to the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM), Wake County is projected to reach a population of 1,489,610 by 2035, which represents a 31 percent increase from the 2020 population estimate. The PLANWake Comprehensive Plan, adopted April 2021, contains a broad development framework map as shown below to help identify targeted areas of growth planned throughout Wake County. This includes areas specifically identified as a transit focus, walkable center, community, community reserve, rural, and water supply watershed in addition to proposed commuter rail and BRT corridors for an idea of anticipated development trends. Multiple area-specific plans have also received updates in recent years and now serve to steer future growth and development throughout the unincorporated parts of the County.
3 Wake County Planning. https://www.wake.gov/departments-government/planning-development- inspections/planning
Wake County, NC Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan
WSP June 2024 Page 45
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