Issue link: http://townofcary.uberflip.com/i/791958
CHAPTER 6:SHAPE there have also been some losses since the district was created in 2000, including the loss of the Barbee-Williams farm house along Morrisville-Carpenter Road, and the Ferrell Rental House adjacent to the Crossroads. The Town's other rural Na onal Register Historic District is southwest of Carpenter, in the Green Level community. As noted in the Green Level SPA sec on of this plan, the planning and preserva on approaches used there from 2004-15 met with li le success in preserving Green Level's historic buildings. The lessons learned in Green Level should inform the implementa on steps that will be required to achieve the vision for Carpenter. Historic Character The Na onal Register Historic District documenta on for Carpenter makes clear that the rural character embodied in the district is just as important as the contribu ng buildings. The buildings and landscape, taken together, informs and defines the special history of Carpenter. As development con nues to press in on Carpenter, a key challenge will be how to preserve a sense of the area's historic rural character as development occurs. The Na onal Register provides federal-level iden fica on of historic and architectural resources, but provides no protec on for those resources. It is up to local governments – such as Cary – to protect buildings and districts through local historic district zoning, by designa ng local landmarks, and/or through targeted programs and incen ves that encourage preserva on. Evolving Character of Area Development pressures are squeezing Carpenter from all direc ons. To the west, NC Hwy 55 has been widened from a 3-lane road to a 4-lane median-divided highway. To the south, Morrisville Parkway now cuts across what had been farm fields in 2000. Carpenter Elementary was built in 2004, and the West Regional Library on Louis Stephens Road in 2005. Louis Stephens Road changed from being a short, unconnected sec on of roadway to a major collector extending from High House Road to McCrimmon Parkway. New shopping centers have arisen in Morrisville just a mile east of Carpenter at the Davis Drive/Morrisville-Carpenter Road intersec on. Good Hope Bap st Church underwent a major expansion. Within the SPA itself, the Olde Carpenter subdivision was built during 2006-09. Most significantly, the Carpenter Village mixed use Planned Development, which defines the eastern edge of the SPA and began as 411 acres of farm and forest in 1995, today has over 1,000 residen al units, along with a pocket of commercial uses, in a compact, new urban community. Morrisville-Carpenter Road Realignment One of the biggest changes and challenges facing the historic Carpenter community is yet to come: Morrisville-Carpenter Road is envisioned as one of the region's key east-west thoroughfares, linking Amberly at the western edge of Cary with NC Highway 54 in Morrisville, and con nuing eastward as Avia on Parkway all the way to RDU Airport. As such, regional traffic plans recommend three things: (a) that Morrisville- 180