Land Use Plan – 2002 - Stanly County, North Carolina

SECTION 3: THE LAY OF THE LAND
Natural Resources Analysis
STANLY COUNTY
An analysis of environmental conditions within Stanly County will provide a framework for
decision-making about future development patterns in the county. For a variety of environmental
reasons, certain areas of the planning area are better suited for development than others.
Factors such as soil conditions, lands subject to wetland conditions and flooding, groundwater
supplies, and steep slopes must be considered during the planning process.
The process of determining the suitability of land for development involves analyzing the
attributes of the natural environment and identifying restrictions placed on development by each
attribute. The major natural systems that have been analyzed to determine land suitability and
the county are soils, wetlands, geology, groundwater, surface water, and floodplains. A variety of
sources were utilized in the environmental analysis including the Soil Survey of Stanly County,
and information obtained from state and federal agency web sites.
Geology of the Region
Stanly County is located in the Piedmont Province of North Carolina, between the Blue Ridge
Mountains and the Coastal Plain. The land can be defined as gently rolling. The Uwharrie
Mountain Range, which is considered to be the oldest mountain range in North America, is
partially located within the County. North Carolina is divided into nine geological belts, areas with
similar rock types and geologic history. Stanly County is located within the ‘Carolina Slate Belt’
that consists of rock of sedimentary and volcanic origin formed during the Cambrian Period
around 550 to 650 million years ago. When the rock underlying Stanly County today was formed,
the land was comprised of oceanic volcanic islands.
That geologic history left Stanly County rich with mineral resources. Stanly County participated in
the nation’s first “gold rush” beginning in the late 1790s. North Carolina led the United States in
gold production prior to the gold rush in California in 1849. Some gold mining has continued in
the area to this day.
Today, mineral extraction in the Carolina Slate Belt generally consists of surface mining of
crushed stone for streets, and pyrophyllite for refactories, ceramics, filler, paint, and insecticide
carriers. Triassic Period basins containing sedimentary rocks that were formed from streams
carrying mud, silt, sand, and gravel are also found in the county. These mudstones are mined in
order to produce brick, sewer pipe, structural tile, and drainage pipe (North Carolina Geological
Survey web site).
Soils Soil characteristics play an important role in determining the ability of the land to effectively
support various forms of land use from farming to the construction of a residential subdivision to
more intensive activities such as commercial or industrial development.
There are six general soil units in Stanly County as shown on Figure 3-1. Each unit usually is
comprised of one or two major series as well as minor series. Table 3-1 provides a summary of
each of the six soil units present in Stanly County. These units can be used to determine soil
suitability for large areas. Because of the large number of individual soil phases within a general
series—and the widespread availability of soil surveys from various federal, state, and local
agencies—they are not mapped. In order to determine individual property soil suitability the Soil
Survey of Stanly County, North Carolina should be consulted (U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA), 1997).
Land Use Plan 3-1 6/02