Charlotte.com: Cabarrus Neighbors
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• Rev It Up
  CHILDREN'S BOOK CLUBThe Concord main library will kick off its new book club for all fourth- and fifth-graders from 3 to 4 p.m. Thursday. The group will discuss Barbara Robinson's "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever." There also will be holiday activities and a discussion about future books the club will read.Regular meetings will be 3 to 4 p.m. the first and second Thursdays of each month in the Children's Room of the library, starting Jan. 10.Children will read an assigned book and meet for a discussion on the first Thursday. There will be planned activities that deal with the book on the second Thursday.The club will be limited to 15 children. If more are interested, a waiting list will be made, or a second club may be formed.To register or for more details, call 704-920-2058.MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIPNorthwest Cabarrus High School is collecting donations for a scholarship fund that is a memorial to the late Micah Rhea Arrants.Micah, 17, was a senior at Northwest Cabarrus, a leader of the cross country team, an Advanced Placement student, an artist and a musician who played the bass, mandolin, trumpet and guitar.He died Nov. 22 at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill of complications from a rare blood clotting disorder.His parents -- Joe Arrants, a math teacher at Northwest Cabarrus, and Gail Smith-Arrants, a reporter with the Observer's Cabarrus bureau -- and his sister, Kate, 20, a student at UNC Chapel Hill, have established a memorial scholarship in Micah's name. Donations can be made to the Micah Arrants Scholarship Fund, in care of NCHS, 5130 Northwest Cabarrus Drive, Concord, NC 28027.SCRAPBOOKSend us your snapshotsWe're looking for your memorable photos of vacations and other activities for our Thursday Scrapbook.We're also interested in your photos of the drought: your dried-up garden or playground, your sad tomato plants, your stressed trees, etc.Here's how to send your photos:• E-mail them to cabarrus@charlotteobserver.com. Please send photos as large JPEG files.• We don't accept photos with alterations or effects. Corrections such as red-eye removal are OK.• Include the W's: Who's in the picture, what is it, where was it taken, when, who took it.• We can't print all photos, but we'll try our best.Details: 704-786-2185.Inside NeighborsWest ConcordHow countryside gave way to subdivisionsNot that long ago, what is now western Concord was farmland and dirt roads before subdivisions and schools got there. 6KNorthwest CabarrusSchool cafeteria hosts worship on SundaysA new congregation finds a temporary home at a middle school while it seeks a permanent site. 6KNews Briefs 2KGarden Q&A 3KSchool news 8K
• Once-bucolic N.C. 73 in throes of growing pains
  A coordination challenge As you drive west on N.C. 73 away from Concord's center, the cars dwindle and the scenery softens.Open fields ringed with copses of trees line the two-lane road. Lake Howell sits serene.But more and more often, you'll come upon subdivisions of 500-plus homes growing up in a former expanse. At the Mecklenburg-Cabarrus line, stores, medical offices and homes crowd around Poplar Tent Road.At its intersection with four towns and two counties, N.C. 73 is quickly shedding its past as one of the Charlotte area's last undisturbed spots."With so much traffic, people are realizing this is one of the future hot spots for retail and commercial growth," said Ben Warren, Kannapolis' assistant planning director.Planners know they can't stop the conversion from rural to suburban, but they've worked together to lay down a blueprint so that the area's growth avoids some past mistakes.The challenge, they say, is getting elected officials and developers to adhere to the plans.They envision a central business district around N.C. 73 and Poplar Tent Road to balance housing with jobs; a new network of roads, trails and sidewalks to reduce car trips; and preservation of the community's open space and natural heritage.Developers are "looking at a three- to five-year timeframe, and we're looking at 2030," said Davidson Planning Director Kris Krider. "But unless you honor the land-use plan, 2030 will come and go and we will have sprawl."Part of the problem is that the towns involved -- Concord, Davidson, Huntersville and Kannapolis -- aren't closely connected to the area under pressure. Each town has assumed future planning authority for a section, but the traditional town centers are miles away.Almost 5,000 residences are either under construction or planned for this border area with no real center that's growing in importance as a corridor between I-77 and I-85."It's sort of like the Wild West," Krider said. "It's everybody's edge."Huntersville, which controls the area south of N.C. 73 in Mecklenburg, hasn't seen a lot of development proposals yet, but planners know they're coming.Already they've sparred with Concord officials about a property that straddles the towns' zoning jurisdiction, said Zac Gordon, project manager for Huntersville planning.A developer with 11 acres -- two in Concord and nine in Huntersville -- received approval for retail on the Concord piece, although the plans to which the towns agreed call for an employment center with limited retail, he said.Concord Development Services Director Margaret Pearson said developers withdrew their request for a drugstore at the site after the city pushed them to conform to the corridor's planned architectural standards.A project the planners herald is Renaissance Square, a mixed office-retail development around Poplar Tent Road in Kannapolis, in the area designated for business. Developer Steve Brumm said the project made sense because of all the housing slated for the area.That new housing is crowding out longtime resident Wayne Westmoreland, 52.Subdivisions have sprung up on both sides of his 200-acre dairy farm, which is mostly in the Huntersville portion of N.C. 73. Real estate agents mail and call constantly, he said, asking whether he'll sell.His family has owned and worked the land for more than 80 years, and he doesn't want to leave. But the traffic might soon push him to change his mind. It's a problem particularly when he tries to move farm equipment between his farm and another 400 acres he leases close to the Mecklenburg-Cabarrus border."It used to be no problem getting farm equipment around," he said. "You didn't get all the obscene gestures and the dirty words hollered at you because you were in their way and slowing them up from getting to their golf game or whatever."Learn MoreFor more information on long-range plans for N.C. 73, go to www.nc73.org.Davidson EastWHAT: A mixed-use development of 518 residences and 228,100 square feet of commercial space. Residential includes 272 single-family homes, 97 townhomes, 142 apartments and seven live-work units.WHERE: On N.C. 73, about one mile west of the county line in Davidson.WHEN: Construction likely to start next fall.River Run (Phase V)WHAT: The last phase of a 838-home subdivision, golf course and country club. Phase V has 122 homes.WHERE: On the southeast side of River Run at the end of Shearer Road in Davidson.WHEN: Finished in 2009.Summers WalkWHAT: A mixed-use development of 579 residences, 224 of which are townhomes, and 20,000 square feet of commercial.WHERE: On N.C. 73 about a half-mile from the county line in Davidson.WHEN: Residential complete in 2009; commercial finished in 2012.The Farm at RiverpointeWHAT: A 825-lot single-family subdivision.WHERE: On the west side of Shiloh Church Road south of its intersection with Placid Road in Kannapolis.WHEN: Final plats have been recorded for 224 lots. Total buildout proposed for 2012.Renaissance SquareWHAT: A mixed-use development of office and retail of about 130,000 square feet.WHERE: On the north side of the intersection of Shiloh Church Road and N.C. 73 in Kannapolis.WHEN: CMC-NorthEast, CVS store, ABC store and First Charter financial center completed. Lowe's Foods and McDonald