At the end of August a total of 11,282 single family home lots are in the inventory of contractors and developers in Johnston County but have not yet been built upon. The latest numbers on subdivision lots and growth was presented by Johnston County Planning Director Berry Gray to Johnston County Commissioners during their September 5th meeting.
Gray said a total of 27 major subdivision have been approved so far this year, up from 26 at the same time in 2016. However the total number of lots is actually lower – 797 – compared to 1,376 August of last year. A total of 131 small subdivisions have been approved in 2017, more than the 92 approved by the end of August in 2016.
The existing number of 11,282 lots approved for construction in Johnston County could go even higher. Gray said developers are working on two projects that haven’t formally been presented to the planning department for review, but the two projects combined would total 500 new lots.
Johnston County officials have no plans to slow down residential development but hinted at their Sept. 5th meeting they may look at decreasing the density of the new lots. This could force builders to install septic tanks on new home lots instead of relying upon county sewer which is near capacity. Instead of 2 to 3 homes per acre, it could reduce the density to about 1 home per acre.
Since 2003, the county has connected 4,149 homes onto county sewer.
Developers had 11,112 lots in inventory on August 1, 2017. During the month of August an additional 170 lots were adding bring the total number of residential building lots approved for construction to 11,282. Some of those lots have been recorded for years and there is no indication when they will be developed.
