Vanishing Farmland
Land Use
Between 2011 and 2021, Cabarrus County steadily converted farmland and forest to developed land. National Land Cover Database records put numbers on a transformation visible from any county road.
Land Use
Between 2011 and 2021, Cabarrus County converted roughly 2,241 acres of farmland to other uses, a 4% reduction in its agricultural land base. Over the same period, developed land (roads, subdivisions, commercial areas) expanded by 5,370 acres. The NLCD’s consistent multi-year methodology makes these comparisons reliable: unlike agricultural classification products, the NLCD is designed specifically for tracking land cover change across time. The pattern mirrors the population trajectory documented in the growth analysis: the same suburban expansion that pushed Cabarrus into North Carolina’s top growth rankings was built, in part, on converted open land.
Resources
Data Brief Cabarrus County’s Vanishing Farmland (PDF)