Buying Land in Randolph County, North Carolina

From furniture belt to megasite: a real, operating $14 billion plant

Randolph County sits in North Carolina's historic furniture- and textile-manufacturing belt, and Asheboro, its seat, has long served as a regional hub for that older industrial economy. More recently, the county has become home to one of the largest single economic development projects in North Carolina history: Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina, an 1,800-acre, $13.9-14 billion plant at the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite near Liberty that held its ceremonial grand opening in November 2025 and is expected to employ roughly 5,100 people at full ramp. Getting the site zoning-ready required the county to first change its growth classification, then rezone it Heavy Industrial -- see our dedicated Randolph County zoning page for that specific mechanism and what it means for land nearby.

For a land buyer, the practical implication is straightforward: land near Liberty and the broader Megasite corridor is subject to real, ongoing development pressure -- new industrial and supplier-facility construction, workforce housing demand, and associated infrastructure and road improvements. If you're evaluating a parcel anywhere in that corridor, ask the county directly about any pending rezoning petitions, planned utility extensions, or transportation projects nearby before assuming a rural land price reflects the area's likely near-term trajectory.

The North Carolina Zoo: a long-standing, land-defining institution

Asheboro is also home to the North Carolina Zoo, widely described as the largest natural-habitat zoo in the country by land area, and a long-standing regional tourism draw. While it doesn't carry the same acute development-pressure dynamic as the Megasite corridor, its presence has shaped land use and tourism-adjacent business activity (lodging, dining, agritourism-style attractions) in its surrounding area for decades, and is a useful marker of Randolph County's broader mix of long-established institutional land uses alongside its newer industrial growth story.

Zoning, septic, and the rest of the state framework

Randolph County administers its own Zoning Ordinance through its Planning & Zoning department, coordinated with building and environmental health sign-off through a Central Permitting office -- a one-stop-shop structure worth using to your advantage if you're planning new construction, since it reduces the number of separate offices you need to track down. Septic and well permitting specifically runs through the county's On-Site Water Protection Program (part of Environmental Health), using North Carolina's standard two-stage process: an Improvement Permit confirming a site's suitability, followed by a Construction Authorization once you're ready to build.

Beyond zoning and septic, the rest of North Carolina's statewide framework applies in Randolph County as elsewhere: riparian water rights under the 1967 Water Use Act for higher-volume users, the Right to Farm Act's nuisance protections (and their 2018-2019 limits) for land near an existing farm operation, and the real-property test for a manufactured home already on a parcel. See the North Carolina state overview for how each works, and confirm current zoning district, setback, and permit-fee specifics directly with Randolph County before finalizing any purchase.