2030 Comprehensive Land Use Plan - Pitt County Government

General Location and DescriptionPitt County is located in the central Coastal Plain section of eastern North Carolina. TheCounty covers 656 square miles of total area with three (3) square miles covered by water.County boundaries are defined by the seven surrounding counties - Beaufort County to theeast, Martin County to the northeast, Edgecombe County on the northwest, Wilson andGreene Counties on the west, Lenoir County on the southwest, and Craven County to thesoutheast. The City of Greenville, located approximately in the geographic center of theCounty, is the county seat.Roughly diamond-shaped, Pitt County is approximately thirty-four (34) miles long north tosouth and thirty (30) miles wide at the widest point. Topography is gently rolling with landelevations ranging from twenty (20) feet above sea level in the southeastern portion of theCounty to two hundred ten (210) feet above sea level in the extreme western portion of theCounty. Slopes are typically less than 4% except for the steeper southern banks of the TarRiver and its tributaries.The northern portion of the County (58.7% of the land area) is within the Tar River Basin, whichdrains into Pamlico Sound just east of the County line. The southern and extreme westernportions of the County (41.3% of the land area) are drained by Swift Creek and ContentneaCreek, which flow into the Neuse River at the southeastern tip of the County.Global TransPark Development ZonePitt County is located in a thirteen-county region organized as the Global TransPark (GTP)Development Zone by an act of the NC General Assembly in the early 1990s. GTPheadquarters is located thirty minutes south of Greenville at the Kinston Regional Jetportin Lenoir County north of the City of Kinston. The GTP is a combination air cargo airportand transportation, manufacturing, and distribution complex.The purpose of the GTP is to provide industries with direct access to multi-modaltransportation alternatives to enable industries to maximize efficient and reliabletransportation. The GTP also has an on-site education and training facility to providetraining opportunities. The GTP is designated as Foreign Trade Zone 214 where companiescan export and import products without many of the usual customs restrictions and tariffs.Although the initial projections for fast growth of employment opportunities associatedwith the GTP have yet to materialize, the GTP concept still holds promise as a long-rangeinfluence on the economy of the region.2030 Comprehensive Land Use Plan Appendix A: Inventory and AnalysisPitt County, North Carolina A-7