Today I'm sitting here in Leland in a rocking chair just to give you a little bit of an overview of Leland.

I've been coming to the area since I was a child, and I remember when Leland was really just a section of Village Road, which only included a grocery store, a post office, and a library.

So when you are headed to Leland from Wilmington, you're going to come over the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, or you could come from Isabelle Holmes Bridge. It takes you maybe about twelve minutes to get from downtown Wilmington to Leland. You're going to cross over the Cape Fear and the Brunswick River, and it does split off into 17, or you can go to Old Village - Old Village Road.

Leland consists of natives that have been born and raised here. I remember back when Leland was farmland and a lot of the property was handed down from one generation to the next. As we have grown, we have people that live here from everywhere, from the Northeast, the Midwest, all the way from the West Coast.

People find that Leland has much to offer, yet still has that small town feel. As you can imagine, over the years, it has expanded to also kind of a business district. So Leland offers lots of shopping. You have your chain restaurants all the way through to your high end restaurants. We have Cape Fear Seafood, we have Christopher's Steakhouse, we also have Chick-fil-a. And we have your Arby's and your Applebee's. We have shopping in the area. We have unique boutiques for the neat little finds, to your everyday grocery stores and your Walmart, which are all conveniently located to the majority of these planned developments.

We are continuing to grow. Leland's population in 2020 was 23,500. As we have more developments, I anticipate that population to increase significantly. Where we have communities that - planned communities - that have developed along Highway 17.

And a couple of those communities that I'll mention today is Waterford of the Carolinas. That particular community has about 19 smaller neighborhoods within that community. Some of them are gated and they're connected by pathways, bridges and streets to give you that intimate feel. In Waterford, you also have pool, clubhouse, fitness center. You have tennis, pickleball, bocce ball courts and children's playgrounds. It's a very large but yet welcoming community.

My community is right off of Highway 17. My community is Wedgewood at Lanvale, a nice little suburbs.

So Leland is one of the fastest growing communities in the area. Brunswick County overall is the fastest growing in the state. And in the United States. Leland offers lower property taxes than, say, Wilmington.

Entertainment in Leland, you have several parks with nature trails, bike trails. But if you did want to go to Wilmington and you wanted to do some of the downtown activities, you could be there in less than 15 minutes.

It's just a short drive or an Uber ride away.