Thirty years ago, Lake Norman – 25 miles to the north of Charlotte – was primarily a weekend retreat, its shores dotted with tin-roofed boathouses, mobile homes and fishing cabins.
That began to change, however, with the completion of Interstate 77 in 1976. Suddenly it was possible to live like you were on vacation all year round only a quick 20-minute drive from work, shopping and entertainment in the big city.
Lake Norman is a “working” lake, created by Duke Energy for the generation of hydroelectric power. It covers 520 miles of shoreline in four counties – Mecklenburg, Iredell, Lincoln and Catawba. At nearly 34 miles long and eight miles across at its widest point, it is larger than the Sea of Galilee and often referred to as “The Inland Sea.”
As any developer will tell you, retail follows rooftops and the Lake Norman area is no exception. Lake shoppers can now browse unique boutiques, quaint village shops, upscale specialty stores or national chains. In the town centers, entrepreneurs are converting homes, warehouses, old mills and train depots into craft, consignment, antiques and clothing shops. Restaurants, which used to look at Lake Norman as a secondary location, are now opening here first, then branching out to Uptown and other parts of Charlotte.
Unless you’re on a boat or have access to private land, 1,600-acre Lake Norman State Park in Troutman is the only place public swimming is allowed from Lake Norman shores. The park features a new beach, boat ramps, picnic shelters, campsites and mountain biking and hiking trails.
North Mecklenburg
When Charlotteans refer to the Lake Norman area, they usually mean the area north of the Harris Boulevard/I-77 interchange, which includes Huntersville, Cornelius and Davidson in Mecklenburg County. In less than 20 years, the three towns have been transformed from sleepy rural hamlets into thriving towns with all the amenities of city life, from business parks to bistros, housing to health care.
In 1990, 3,000 people called Huntersville home. But proximity between the Queen City and the lake, lower home prices, less traffic and quiet communities has catapulted Huntersville’s population to about 40,000 today.
Birkdale Village on Sam Furr Road in Huntersville includes apartments and offices above boutiques, restaurants and national retailers such as Williams-Sonoma, Gap, Talbot’s and Ann Taylor Loft. Live bands play on warm-weather weekend evenings, and parents from around the lake bring children to splash and play in the village square fountain. The Nantucket-style shopping center’s quaint Main Street is lined with locally owned stores, a pizza parlor, ice cream shop, wine room, a 16-screen stadium-seating movie theater, bookstores and clothing shops.
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