North Carolina Construction News staff writer
Greensboro’s planning department’s Growth and Development Trends Report covers recent local, regional, and national trends in metrics like population density, demographics, income rates, and more.
Highlights include:
- After a record-breaking year for building permits value in 2023, Greensboro consistently set a high level of building and development review in 2024.
- Employment figures are back to pre-pandemic levels and average wage continues to increase.
- The city continues to grow and remains the state’s third largest.
The report shows that Greensboro is still seeing substantial growth throughout the city and points to challenges in terms of housing choices.
“As a community we need to get comfortable with gentle density increases, a greater variety of housing choices, and appropriate infill development,” Planning Director Sue Schwartz said in the report. “We need to address barriers to building housing without compromising the health, safety, and general welfare of the public.”
She suggests tackling the issue on “multiple fronts.”
“ Greensboro is not starting from scratch; we have a strong policy framework in adopted documents, like our GSO2040 Comprehensive Plan and Housing GSO. Implementation of these strategies needs to pick up speed,” she said. “There are also efforts at the state and federal levels. Finally, the building, development and real estate industries are focused on the housing issue.
“The solutions are not simple, quick, or easy. Efforts will need to be focused and sustained for a substantial period of time. It is hard work! But then, building a great place where we want to live, work and thrive for generations to come is worth it.”
The full report is available online.