Before the General Assembly will charter a town, the Joint Legislative Commission on Municipal Incorporations applies two hard tests. The proposed Gray's Creek fails one of them and clears the other only by including land the first test rules out.
1. Proximity (G.S. 120-166). The statute is blunt: the Municipal Incorporations Subcommittee "may not make a positive recommendation if the proposed municipality is located within" 5 miles of a city of 50,000 or more (Fayetteville) or 3 miles of a city of 10,000 to 25,000 (Hope Mills), unless that city consents by resolution. Because any part inside those buffers triggers the bar, and the proposed boundary sits well inside both, the petition as drawn cannot be recommended at all without written consent from Fayetteville and Hope Mills.
2. Density and population (G.S. 120-167). A new town must have at least 100 residents and a population density of at least 250 people per square mile. This rules out land too rural to be a community.
These two tests pull in opposite directions here. The people live near the cities, where proximity bars incorporation. The land far enough from the cities is too sparse to qualify. Watch what happens when you apply both.
Starting from the petitioners' 50 square miles and applying each test in turn, using 2020 Census block population.
| Footprint | Area | Population (2020) | Density |
|---|---|---|---|
| The petition, as drawn | ~50 sq mi claimed (~61 in our trace) | 17,658 | ~290 / sq mi |
| The actual developed community (blocks at or above 250 / sq mi) | ~18 sq mi | 13,646 | ~749 / sq mi |
| After removing land barred by the proximity rule | 85% of that developed community sits within 5 miles of Fayetteville or 3 miles of Hope Mills, where G.S. 120-166 bars incorporation without those cities' consent. | ||
| The only legally-eligible dense core (around Gray's Creek High School) | ~5 sq mi | ~2,000 | ~393 / sq mi |
Red outline: the proposed 50 square miles. Shaded: land barred by the proximity rule. Green: the only dense, legally-eligible core.
The green dot marks the Gray's Creek High School area — the only dense, legally-eligible core. Tiles © OpenStreetMap, © CARTO.
Start with the blunt fact: as drawn, the petition already fails the first test. The Commission cannot positively recommend a town located inside these buffers, and the proposed boundary is well inside both. Everything below is what happens if the petitioners try to fix that by shrinking the boundary.
A legally-clean Gray's Creek is about 5 square miles and roughly 2,000 people, a ninth of the population the petitioners claim. It clears the statutory minimums, but a town of 2,000 cannot fund the police, fire, sanitation, and staff in their budget.
That is why the boundary is 50 square miles. The fundable population lives in the areas that are either legally off-limits (too close to Fayetteville and Hope Mills) or too sparse to qualify. The only way to assemble a town large enough to tax is to combine both, which is exactly what the proposed boundary does. It is not drawn around a community. It is drawn around a tax base.
If the petitioners want a town that meets North Carolina's standards, there are three honest paths: obtain written consent from Fayetteville and Hope Mills, shrink to the small eligible core and accept a town too small to fund the services they have promised, or withdraw the petition. The 50-square-mile version is none of these.
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