A new North Hills? Johnston County unveils multimillion dollar Waterfront District

A multimillion-dollar plan called 'The Waterfront District' is in the works near Highway 42. It would bring along hundreds of housing units, restaurants, and shops with waterfront views. Could Johnston County be home to the next ‘North Hills’ type of development?
A multimillion dollar plan called ‘The Waterfront District’ is in the works near Highway 42. It would bring along hundreds of housing units, restaurants, and shops with waterfront views over North East Lake. Nearby, an area called Flowers Crossroads is 'glowing with activity,' and right across the lake is where CEO Reid Stephenson says the Waterfront District will be located. It's a huge undertaking for a rural county - and bringing about mixed responses from locals.
Signs of growth and expansion can be spotted in Johnston County, with most recent census data showing that Johnston County was the fastest growing county in the state for the last decade. Developers are making room for the large-scale development. Stephenson describes the area as the neo-urbanism section of town.
"Currently under construction are 312 apartments. The views and North District is going to be 315 townhomes with the Waterfront District adjacent to the lake," says Stephenson.
With the Triangle’s growth creeping across the Wake County line, Dana Wooten with Clayton Chamber of Commerce shared what makes Johnston County a draw for developers.
"The appeal of Johnston County is land is more affordable," said Wooten.
However, locals have some concerns about the rapid growth and new developments. "Knowing more people are moving into this area, it shows that this is going to be even more crowded," said Julia Morin, who lives nearby.
"You’re increasing traffic," worries Jeanine Fogarty, who also lives nearby. "You’re increasing just congestion in general." However, Fogarty also sees an added benefit.
"Convenient shopping, more diversity of places to shop for food, to go out for dinner," said Fogarty.
The growth could transform Johnston County into an economic powerhouse.
They are set to break ground in the middle of 2023, with everything else slated to be built within a 3-5 year phased approach.
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[@dariusx4829]

Game changer for Clayton and JoCo...

[@daves9355]

Homes are being built but still zero quality restaurants and retail.

[@debra2700]

Exactly. If there's going to be over 600 townhouses and apartments, there's little land left for what they're describing and to call that area a waterfront area is a real stretch. We have to drive either to Garner's White Oak or into Raleigh for almost everything and Smithfield and Selma don't excite me. I wish we had stayed in Raleigh.

[@daves9355]

@@debra2700 Yep same here Debra. It's White Oak or Raleigh for us every time. Been waiting 10 years for quality restaurants and still nothing. Then when they finally build one it's McDonald's, Taco Bell, or Smithfield Chicken. Ugh. Total waste of space. Mellow Mushroom is supposed to be coming to The Waterfront. That would be great. But I'll believe it when I see it.

[@debra2700]

@@daves9355 Every other community grew with the influx of people: Wake Forest, Wendell, Knightdale, Garner, Cary, Briar Creek, even Selma is getting a bunch of stuff and Clayton did nothing. Mellow Mushroom is great and I'm waiting to see about the Italian restaurant next to Don Beto's but I'm expecting much. Becky Flowers is making dumb decisions like putting in a Smithfield's when there's already one at the corner of 70 and 42, We lived in Hedingham for 19 years and we could walk to the I-440 entrance to the beltline that took us everywhere and we had Wake Med right there and we were five miles from downtown. We sold our house for an insane amount of money but were priced out of buying what we wanted in Raleigh so we came to Flowers. We love our townhouse and Flower's is pretty but sooooo sick of having to drive everywhere.

[@daves9355]

@@debra2700 Haha - so true! I say that to my wife all the time - every other community around Raleigh has quality restaurants but somehow Clayton doesn't. Its dumbfounding. Clayton is the only town around Raleigh that doesn't have a Panera or Chick-fil-A. Flowers was supposed to get one but of course that "fell through" aka another bad decision.

[@debra2700]

@@daves9355 We're retired and at least have the time and the ability to work around high traffic times so it makes it bearable. Also, having trouble meeting people in our age group (we're 70 an 72) and really miss our friends back home in Buffalo NY even though we moved down here in '96.