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for growth?
It’s easy to disregard the town of Bolton.
Sitting just off the highway, Bolton doesn’t have a business district. It doesn’t have a shopping center or other commercial landmark. Like many small towns in North Carolina, Bolton is just another small town of families and working folk. It’s the type of place many consider “sleepy.”
But Bolton is about to wake up and greet the new day.
Poised between the growth of Whiteville and Wilmington, on the edge of an ever-exploding Brunswick County, Bolton defines potential. With a major highway leading to the northern Brunswick growth areas just a few hundred yards away, and a straight connection to those in the southern end of that county as well, it’s natural that developers and potential homeowners trying to escape escalating prices and crowding would look toward Bolton.
Mayor Frank Wilson and the Bolton Board of Aldermen recognize this trend and are meeting it head-on.
They witnessed the reaction-based planning so common in New Hanover and Brunswick counties, and are working to make sure the same mistakes aren’t made in Bolton. Too often, the long-time residents of communities are pushed out because of rocketing property values, destroying the character that drew new residents in the first place. The result is a homogenized, poorly planned community no different from any other planning mistake.
Wilson and the board are trying to make sure Bolton is a vibrant, involved community; they have a long way to go, true, but the recent town meeting is a good example of a first step.
While the board presided over the meeting, it was for the townspeople. They heard from the town’s engineer on the pending sewer project, a developer interested in bringing new homes to the town, and representatives of the NC STEP (Small Town Economic Prosperity) program.
Modernizing the town’s sewer system will help improve the quality of life and the value of property; a sanitary sewer system is far more attractive than septic tanks to investors, developers and yes, potential new residents.
Derrick Blanks, one of those working to bring a new (modestly priced) housing development to the town, said the new system was one thing that makes the development viable.
Bolton’s participation in STEP means local residents who dream of owning small businesses can turn their ideas into reality.
By investing in infrastructure, Bolton is opening the door for new development and new residents. Some of that development is already knocking on the town’s door because of the town’s investment, and the town’s entrepreneurs will be prepared with the knowledge and planning skills to create small businesses to serve those new residents.
Mayor Wilson and the Bolton board know growth is coming their way, and they are preparing for it. We think their pro-active example is one that could be profitably followed by other towns.