Not too long ago, the intersection of Mitchell Mill and Forestville roads was little more than a rural crossroads, with a country church, a smattering of businesses and some homes.

Now, it's a bustling area. New businesses along with hundreds of new homes are built or planned nearby. To serve it all, the city will open a fire station next year.

The area is booming.

And so is much of the rest of District B -- the City Council district that stretches from Five Points to Wakefield Plantation and east to the growing neighborhood off U.S. 401 and Buffaloe Road. It is home to 85,000 people.

But city spending on major street improvements and parks bond projects for the northeastern part of the city in the past five fiscal years has lagged behind other parts of the city despite the growth.

Population increases in the city's so-called Northeast planning district, which includes most of District B, accounted for 26 percent of the city's growth since 2000. The neighboring North planning district, which stretches east of Creedmoor Road and north of Millbrook Road, took in 19 percent.

It has been more than three decades since a community center was built north of Millbrook Exchange Park. And roads such as Mitchell Mill are packed with commuters.

City Manager Russell Allen said officials strive to balance the needs of the entire city.

It is up to the City Council to decide what projects get funded. And Allen points out that the district hasn't been forgotten.

The city has bought hundreds of acres of land for greenway along the Neuse River, opened Buffaloe Road Athletic Park a few years ago and is building a new fire station.

Still, there always are needs.

"There's more pressure for services and facilities than clearly there are resources to provide," he said.

Northeast Raleigh's District B stretches from established Five Points to the ranch homes of Brentwood and the mishmash of strip malls, apartments and townhouses off Capital Boulevard. It includes the split-levels of Quail Hollow and mansions in Wakefield Plantation. In its farthest reaches, new transitionals and colonial homes are rising off U.S. 401 and Buffaloe Road.

Some neighborhoods, such as Falls River, have a wealth of developer-provided neighborhood amenities, including parks and sidewalks. Others, such as Berkshire Downs West, must work to raise the money to add a swing set or picnic table on their own in a vacant lot.

Inexpensive land, fallow farmland, city water and sewer extensions, and Interstate 540 have fueled northeastern growth.

Off U.S. 401, Centex Homes is planning more than 1,100 homes in a new neighborhood called Highland Creek. Wake Technical Community College will open its Northern Wake Campus next fall near the intersection of U.S. 401 and I-540, bringing in as many as 3,100 students, staff and faculty. And the city is reviewing plans for 5401 North, a 260-acre project mixing offices, homes and shops at the interchange.

Real estate agent Brian White said he often steers homebuyers to the area. Once they see they can buy a 3,000-square-foot house for less than $300,000, they're interested.

The problem is there is no big commercial development or park that gives the region an identity, White said.

"To me, it's value right now. It's not community," White said of the area. "If they [the city and business community] make that a community, it will be a gold mine."

Neighborhood worries

Dona Van Dusen, who moved from Illinois two years ago to be close to her grandchildren, lives in the 350-home McKinley Mill neighborhood off Forestville Road. "I like our neighborhood," she said. "It's pretty quiet. It's kind of tucked away."

Still, Van Dusen and neighbor Amy Gerbos said there are plenty of concerns.

Motorists speed along Hopper Street as they seek to avoid the light at Mitchell Mill and Forestville roads. One traveled so fast it slammed into Gerbos' home this summer. Traffic lines up along Mitchell Mill Road, which is set for improvements several years from now.

And, except for a small playground and a pool, there are few places to congregate.

Both would welcome a community center at Horseshoe Farm, a mile or so from their neighborhood. City officials are debating whether to put a community center and ball fields on the 146 acres of pasture and forest off U.S. 401. Some in the area say they prefer a nature park with few buildings.

"I really think the environmental people have a more organized voice," Van Dusen said. "There really are a lot of people who would like for it to have both."

In Wakefield, James Dvorak said residents feel like they've gotten little from the city for the taxes they are paying. The neighborhood has been clamoring for years for a new bridge over Falls of the Neuse Road. Money has been set aside for the project, but a new bridge won't be completed until at least 2010.

Residents are "wondering why it's not taken care of like it should, given how much in tax dollars they give to the city," said Dvorak, the homeowner association's president.

But, in the older Brentwood neighborhood off Capital Boulevard and the Beltline, Bob Mulder has no complaints about funding in the district. Mulder is chairman of the Northeast Citizens Advisory Council, a volunteer group that advises the City Council about the area. "I don't feel like I've been shortchanged," he said.

Pieces of the pie

Between fiscal years 2002-03 and 2005-06, the city's budget for major street projects in the district ranged from 5 percent to 31 percent of the funding. For park bond projects, it ranged from no funding to 11 percent.

That changed during the current fiscal year, when the percentage jumped to nearly 47 percent of the city's budget for major street projects and 38 percent for park bond projects.

Projects include the widening of Perry Creek Road and work on Falls of the Neuse Road.

Those figures don't include major state-funded projects, which have widened Capital Boulevard, built I-540 across the district and upgraded other roads there.

Still, Jessie Taliaferro, who represents District B on the City Council, said the city needs to find a better balance.

Although it has done a good job buying parkland in the district, there is no money to develop the land, she says. "Where I think we've fallen behind the most is with our parks," she said.

"We've shifted our attention very much to downtown," she said. "We have to balance everything and, sometimes, I think that's a challenge."