"As used in this Agreement, 'allocation' is not the same as 'service' to any vertical improvement on the Subject Property. 'Service' comes after 'allocation' of water and sewer capacity."
That sentence comes from Franklin County's Utility Development Agreement for Triple B, the 609-acre project on the south side of Franklinton. In August 2026 the county commissioners authorized their manager to sign the agreement. What they approved is a list of conditions. It does not schedule any construction.
If you're comparing Franklinton with Youngsville or Wake Forest, this matters in two ways. The new supply will come in small pieces over many years. The road piece that comes first doesn't connect to anything yet.
What has actually cleared
Triple B covers six parcels totaling 609.15 acres at Cedar Creek Road and Hicks Road, between the CSX S Line rail corridor and US 1. Longtime residents knew the land as Triple R Ranch, a horse farm and event venue where county couples held weddings for years. The approved master plan calls for:
- 3,000 residential units on 449.4 acres
- 480 mixed-use units on 24.1 acres
- 52.9 acres of commercial use
- About 50 acres of manufacturing, office and research uses along the rail line
- A roughly 32-acre public park around an existing pond and an 1840s-era house facing Cedar Creek Road, offered to the town
- A three-acre site donated to Franklin County for an EMS and fire station
The approvals came in two rounds, more than a year apart. On April 15, 2025, the Franklinton Board of Commissioners voted 5 to 0 three separate times. The votes rezoned the parcels from agricultural and single-family residential zoning to Planned Development, approved the master plan, and adopted a development agreement. The county's turn came on August 17, 2026, at a special called meeting in the Franklin Plaza Training Room in Louisburg. Commissioners authorized the utility agreement by unanimous voice vote.
Two governments have to sign off because Franklinton doesn't run its own water and sewer system. Franklin County Public Utilities does.
The agreement plans for a possible land sale
Triple B Ranch and Farm, LLC, a Henderson company that its attorney described to county commissioners as belonging to the Boyd family, is developing the property. The engineering and land-planning firm is Bass, Nixon and Kennedy of Raleigh.
The county agreement also covers the case where the owner isn't the one who builds. Section 2.0.1 says any owner may sell the property to help development get started. An owner that isn't a developer must finish selling to a developer that intends to build before the county allocates any water or sewer capacity. Before any such sale, the owner has to certify to the county that the buyer was given full disclosure of the entitlements. The owner also has to certify that the appraised value isn't based on hypothetical or extraordinary assumptions.
Every phase passes through the same gates
The county doesn't hand over capacity all at once. The project is split into three phases made up of 19 sub-phases. Each phase runs on its own five-year schedule within an overall 15-year term. Under the agreement, each sub-phase works through its own set of conditions:
- A sub-phase becomes eligible for allocation when the county receives a Notice of Intent to Develop for it.
- Before the county commits capacity, the developer must complete the off-site water and sewer infrastructure the county needs to serve that land, the county must review and approve the proposed infrastructure, and the county must be paid the system development fees for those units.
- The fees are due within ten business days after the county accepts the notice, at the rate in effect when the county makes the commitment.
- On-site water and sewer lines for each approved notice must be finished and dedicated to the county within two years, with a possible one-year extension for good cause.
- Service, meaning water actually reaching a house, comes after allocation.
The total commitment is capped at 479,100 gallons per day for water and the same for sewer, which works out to about 138 gallons per unit. The agreement also tells the owner that the county "could possibly but not likely" impose a moratorium on additional water allocation if the project ever asks for more than the cap. At the August hearing, county staff member Christopher Daugherty summed up the county's position, as Wake Forest Matters reported: "Failure to pay and perform under this agreement will result in the termination of the agreement should milestones not be met."
The town agreement adds its own gate. Each section is annexed into Franklinton only as it is completed, through a voluntary petition the Town Board has to approve. According to Wake Forest Matters, the Boyd family's attorney, Gray Styers, told the town board that finished portions "would be annexed into Town before houses could be sold."
What "about 200 a year" adds up to
Franklin County's own estimate projects roughly 200 certificates of occupancy a year from 2027 through 2030, rising in stages toward full buildout by 2045.
At that pace, the first four years would produce about 800 homes. That's less than a quarter of the 3,480 approved. The rest is spread over the following decade and a half, and every sub-phase has to clear the fee and infrastructure gates before it starts.
| Milestone | Status as of October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Town rezoning, master plan, development agreement | Approved April 15, 2025 |
| Development agreement recorded | May 7, 2025 |
| County utility agreement | Signing authorized August 17, 2026 |
| Sale to a developer, if the owner isn't building | Required before any allocation |
| First certificates of occupancy | County estimate begins in 2027 |
| Full buildout | County estimate, toward 2045 |
| Southern Bypass construction funding | None programmed |
For a buyer, this means Triple B won't flood Franklinton with new inventory next spring. It adds a slow, long-running supply of new homes. Whether it competes with a resale home in any given year depends on how many sub-phases have cleared their gates that year.
The road piece arrives first and goes nowhere yet
The town agreement requires the developer to design and build two lanes and a sidewalk of the planned Southern Bypass along the property's own frontage, inside a 100-to-110-foot right-of-way. The town's April 2025 presentation called that "about half of the overall southern bypass project length." Triple B is dedicating 7,910 linear feet, or 19.61 acres, of right-of-way, and construction is estimated at about $1.9 million.
Wake Forest Matters reported that when commissioners asked about connections, Triple B attorney Karen Kemmerhecht answered directly: "it's a bypass that goes to nowhere… it does not connect" beyond the property's frontage.
No construction funding for the bypass is programmed in the current 2026-2035 Transportation Improvement Program. The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization's FY2027 work program includes a $100,000 alignment study to find a feasible route and possible connection points to US 1. The town has agreed to consider eminent domain for right-of-way beyond Triple B's land, with Triple B covering that cost.
The corridor many Franklinton commuters use today stays as it is for now. State counts put about 22,000 vehicles a day on US 1 at Franklinton, rising toward 39,500 near the Wake County line. The state's Capital Boulevard upgrade to six lanes from I-540 through Wake Forest is scheduled to begin construction in 2031. North of that project, through Youngsville to Franklinton, US 1 stays four lanes with no funded widening.
So the homes will arrive gradually, while road relief hasn't been funded. If you'll be driving US 1 every day, plan around the road as it is today.
What Franklinton new construction costs right now
Since Triple B's first homes depend on a sub-phase clearing its utility conditions, today's Franklinton new-construction choices come from builders already selling. I checked builder pages on October 13, 2026. Prices and availability change quickly, so treat this as a snapshot:
- Mason Grove, DRB Homes, townhomes: advertised from the mid-$200,000s, with a quick-move-in home listed at $253,465.
- Mason Glenn, DRB Homes, single-family: a quick-move-in home listed at $364,990.
- Whispering Pines, DRB Homes, single-family: quick-move-in homes at $412,795 and $442,085. The page labels the community "Final Opportunity" and also describes a newly released phase.
- Maple Ridge, Lennar, single-family: temporarily sold out, with starting prices advertised in the upper $300,000s.
One community is temporarily sold out and another is labeled "Final Opportunity," while Triple B's first certificates of occupancy are projected for 2027 at the earliest. Put together, the next year or two of Franklinton new construction depends more on these existing communities than on the 609 acres south of town.
Questions buyers ask about Triple B
Is Triple B inside Franklinton's town limits? Not yet. When the town voted, the property was in Franklinton's extraterritorial jurisdiction. Sections are annexed one at a time as they're completed, and the Town Board must approve each petition.
Can more than one phase be built at once? Yes. The agreement allows phases to be developed at the same time. Each sub-phase still has to clear the infrastructure and fee conditions before it's eligible for capacity.
Where can I follow the next step? The Franklinton Planning Board meets the second Monday of each month at 6 p.m. The Board of Commissioners meets the third Tuesday at 7 p.m. Both meet at Town Hall, 101 N. Main St. Public hearings on future phases will be advertised in The Franklin Times legal notices.
If you're weighing a Franklinton home against Triple B's timeline, I'd be glad to go over how the phasing could affect your plans and what today's builder inventory offers by comparison. Reach out to me at Alexander Realty, LLC.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.