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This project involved the preparation of a report by the Town of Apex and submitted to Wake County that requested and justified the expansion of the town’s extraterritorial planning and zoning jurisdiction. The town’s extraterritorial planning and zoning jurisdiction (ETJ) has not been increased in area since 1997. Since that time, Apex has undergone unprecedented growth and much of the existing ETJ area has been incorporated. The Western Wake Partners (consisting of the Towns of Apex, Cary, Morrisville and Holly Springs) have sited a Regional Water Reclamation Facility in the New Hill area. This facility will open up over 13,000 acres of land for development, primarily in West Apex. The Town requested an ETJ extension to prepare this area for future growth to more urban standards. The future growth areas need to be within the ETJ so that the Town’s land use regulations can be administered and infrastructure improvements can be adequately planned to accommodate the anticipated urban growth in this area.

The Wooten Company prepared the following support documents for the ETJ Expansion Request:

• Concise statement delineating why the ETJ expansion is necessary/desirable.
• Details of utility, transportation, recreation, and other public facility improvements planned for the expansion area and the existing ETJ.
• Description of capital improvements within the expansion area and funding plans for planned projects not in the current CIP.
• Projected land use patterns and density/intensity levels in the expansion area.
• Proposed land use plan amendments applicable to the expansion area.
• Proposed zoning plan for the expansion area.
• Listing of any special land use/development regulations that would be applicable to the expansion area.
• Population projections and projected water and sewer demand.
• The plan for meeting the projected water and sewer need.
• The town’s annexation strategy for the existing ETJ as well as the expansion area.
• Listing of annexations (with data detailing acreage, type of development annexed, density/intensity of annexed areas, etc.) since the last ETJ expansion request.
• Documentation demonstrating why annexation of the existing ETJ has not been feasible.
• Documentation of development and building permit activity within the existing ETJ.

The ETJ Expansion Request Report also included the following maps:

• General location map of proposed expansion area.
• Map of proposed water and sewer improvements, road improvements, other public services in the proposed expansion area as well as in the existing ETJ.
• Map of recent annexations.
• Map of recent development activity within the existing ETJ.
• Map of recent development approvals by Wake County (subdivision plat approvals, site plan approvals, building permits, etc) within the proposed ETJ expansion area.

The Wooten Company has assisted other municipalities with similar ETJ expansion studies including Nashville, Shelby, and Elizabethtown.