Your metro area's fastest-growing portion

[urbanjim]

Most metro areas expand out from the city's center in all directions, but they tend to grow fastest in just one.
This area typically experiences a population boom followed by rapid growth in retail and business developments. Often times, the basic infrastructure of the area struggles to handle the demands placed upon it.
Which suburb, unincorporated region or county of your metro area is currently experiencing the fastest growth? What makes this particular portion of your metro a real magnet for growth?

[Trae]

The West and Northwest side of metro Houston.

[Geaux Tigers]

Pretty much anywhere on the north side of Dallas or Fort Worth. The northern Ft. Worth suburbs are growing at a faster rate than the northern Dallas suburbs but both areas are on fire.

Living in a northern suburb of Ft. Worth myself (Keller), I can tell you the infrastructure in this part of town is under tremendous stress.

[Trae]

I thought the Southwest side of Fort Worth was the fastest growing side, and the area most resembling the northern Dallas suburbs?

[karim aboussir]

south east orlando and northen suburbs of orlando are growing fast
west orlando is garbage

[urbanjim]

For some time, St Louis has grown fastest toward the northwest. St Charles County's "Golden Triangle" has been the real hot spot for at least 2 decades. Now that St Charles County is filling up, neighboring Lincoln County has become the new fastest-growing county in Missouri.
I think some of the main reasons this area attracts growth are: mostly affordable homes, easily developed flat land, good school districts, and easy access to jobs in St Louis County.

[Geaux Tigers]

Originally Posted by Trae

I thought the Southwest side of Fort Worth was the fastest growing side, and the area most resembling the northern Dallas suburbs?

South Ft. Worth going towards Burleson and Mansfield is growing, but is nothing compared to the ridiculous growth on the north side. In fact, most of the growth on the north side is technically within Ft. Worth's expansive city limits.

[Xusein]

Probably east of the Connecticut River. Houses are cheaper there, and less NIMBYs.

Especially in Tolland County, which has grown almost 10% since 2000.
That's very fast growth here in stagnant New England.

[Trae]

Originally Posted by Geaux Tigers

South Ft. Worth going towards Burleson and Mansfield is growing, but is nothing compared to the ridiculous growth on the north side. In fact, most of the growth on the north side is technically within Ft. Worth's expansive city limits.

Oh I remember Mansfield coming up from 287. They have a lot of hotels for such a small area.

[Stuck in Bama]

Birmingham's fastest growing areas are South and East of the city, especially for 2 metro counties

"Shelby County had the highest growth rate between 2000 and 2007, with an increase of 27.09 percent, from 143,293 to 182,113. The most recent annual rate was 2.7 percent, up from 177,305 in 2006."

"St. Clair County had the highest growth rate in Alabama between 2006 and 2007 with an increase of 4.1 percent, from 74,954 to 78,054. The county's population has increased 15.8 percent since 2000, when the census recorded 64,742 residents."

The metro as a whole in the last census estimate has grown a mere .7%.

[Hia-leah JDM]

Extreme western and southwestern parts of Miami-Dade County.
In Orlando Southern Orange County is growing the most.

[Chicagoago]

The south side of Chicago has really taken off during the past 10-15 years.

From 1990 to 2007, Will/Kendall Counties grew from 396K to 772K.

[UrbanTom]

In Indianapolis, its the North / Northeast areas that have been growing the fastest over the past 20+ years with the Northwest side picking up quite a bit too lately. North / Northeast is Carmel, Fishers, Geist and Noblesville; Northwest is Zionsville and Brownsburg, primarily. Reasons: Traditionally the north side of Indianapolis was where people moved to get "away" from the urban areas. Railroad tracks ran across the southern part of urban, "downtown" Indy and more industry and smelly stockyards etc. were down that way. More of the ethnic german, Italian, etc. working class neighborhoods were more on the south side. Moving north and away from the "city" initially meant going north on Meridian Street and then further north to Meridian Hills and Washington Township. As these areas filled in, the continued pattern was to keep moving further north to Carmel, Fishers, Zionsville, etc.

[urbanjim]

Originally Posted by Chicagoago

The south side of Chicago has really taken off during the past 10-15 years.

From 1990 to 2007, Will/Kendall Counties grew from 396K to 772K.

That's interesting, because on the map, it looks like Chicagoland has been spreading fastest toward the north and northwest.

[prelude91]

Originally Posted by Chicagoago

The south side of Chicago has really taken off during the past 10-15 years.

From 1990 to 2007, Will/Kendall Counties grew from 396K to 772K.

Since when are Will/Kendall Counties part of the south side of Chicago?

[xzmattzx]

Without looking at numbers, the Wilmington metro's fastest area of growth over the last 15 years has been southward. The Bear and Glasgow area in southern New Castle County boomed in the 1990s, and is starting to level off. In the late 1990s and in this decade, The M.O.T. area (meaning Middletown/Odessa/Townsend) and Smyrna in Kent County have seen the wave of growth reach out towards them. The growth southward can be directly attributed to the building of Delaware Route 1, which is an expressway that provides a fast connection between the Wilmington/Newark area and Dover.

This is actually probably the only real direction of growth for Wilmington. The suburbs to the north, collectively called Brandywine Hundred, are built up completely, from development from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Additionally, the Brandywine Hundred area has collided with Philadelphia's suburbs at the state line.

The Hockessin area, northwest of Wilmington, saw a lot of growth in the 1990s. That growth has leveled off, and it looks like the area is done growing for the most part.

Also in the 1990s, the Landenberg area in Pennsylvania, northwest of Wilmington, saw some big growth, but Philadelphia's suburbs are creeping into that area now, and the growth into another state just isn't as big because living in another state cuts you off from the way of life in Delaware, even if you work here.

Suburbs between Wilmington and Newark, commonly called the Pike Creek area, filled up in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, much like Brandywine Hundred.

In the future, if the metro keeps expanding outward, Wilmington's suburbs will start to collide with Dover's suburbs, which don't reach outward too much. Kent County is the next place that will get hit with the Wilmington wave of growth.

[Audiomuse]

The complete northern half of San Antonio is on fire.

Unfortunately, most of the southern half of San Antonio is poor but it's getting much better.

[vivo]

I'm going to guess for Baltimore's MSA it's carroll co or queen anne's maybe Harford

If you include the south pa exurbs which may be part of the msa in 2010 then you could say south pa, not sure if york or adams co is faster growing

[SRG]

Since nobody really knows which counties around OKC are where.. I'll just say that the fastest growing area of OKC is the western half, for the most part. The western half is typified by large expanses of land spanning 3 counties that is mainly 1-lane roads, large square mile chunks of tract housing that isn't even showing up on maps yet. In Moore for example, west of I-35 they're having to completely close down these 1-lane streets a couple years after folks move in, force them to detour and take another "main road" to reach their homes, while they widen the main roads to make them more suitable for an area with a lot of development.

The fatal flaw with all of this growth happening around OKC right now is that Okies have a small-town mentality and they absolutely refuse to believe that their city is growing a lot and becoming a lot bigger than they think it is. Of course this is convenient because it reinforces a propensity to NOT want to pay for quality roads and infrastructure.

[kevinkagy]

In Miami, growth is in Downtown, Midtown, Sunny Isles Beach, Brickell, and in the southwestern regions towards Homestead.