That's what a community task force studying growth from 1995 to 2002 projected would happen. Members assumed that the urban areas would be Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough. They also assumed that the unincorporated areas of Orange County would all be rural. They didn't foresee the growth of Efland and eastern Mebane.

Historically, from 1987 to 2000, only a handful of homes were approved annually in western Orange County's unincorporated area, says Craig Benedict, Orange County's planning director. In the last five years, 1,500 housing units have been approved, including the Ashbury, Collington Farms, and the Village at Lake Michael communities.

What has made the area so popular for developers is not only its location -- approximately equidistant from the Triad and the Triangle -- but the fact that Efland and Mebane have water and sewer services.

Jessica Bollinger and her husband, David, live on an acre of land in Efland that has been in his family for generations. David works as a cable satellite alarm technician, and his wife was a bartender, until her trash collection business increased so much in 2007 that she could devote herself full time to it.

"I can tell an increase in growth due to people moving here," said Jessica. "Two of my new customers are in a brand new-home subdivision: Whisper Ridge off of Ira Road near Lebanon Road."

Bollinger has about 85 customers in 75 neighborhoods in five different communities: Efland, Cedar Grove, outskirts of Chapel Hill, Mebane, and Hillsborough. She says the area is still mainly farmland -- most of it corn, tobacco, soybeans and dairy farms. But she's also seeing more stick-built homes amid the mobile and modular homes.

Orange County Planner Jennifer Leaf said several new subdivisions are being considered for unincorporated areas. Almost all are under 30 lots (any subdivision over 30 lots has to go through a longer review process). Two are near the Orange/Durham county line: Swallows Ridge and Cape Ford Crossing (Pleasant Green Woods, also on the Durham/Orange county line, has already had several phases approved). Efland Commons is a 40-lot subdivision that will have to go through the special-use permit and public hearing process. Efland is unincorporated, but has water and sewer provided by Orange County because of the area's poor soils which resulted in well water contamination by failing septic systems.