Text Box: Beauty of the lake shines through Living Here 2007-08 The Charlotte Observer By Joe Marusak   The only problem with living near Lake Norman for 18 years is that sometimes I have to show up at the office.                  Not that I don’t love my colleagues, but I’d rather be out with folks on boats or in their lake homes.                  How fast we’ve grown in those years continues to amaze me.  We’re almost a mini-metropolis that happens to be surrounded by the state’s largest manmade lake.  I’ve met folks who’ve moved here from every part of our country and many parts of the world.                  I’ve witnessed how growth climbed up I-77 like our “beloved” kudzu, only quicker.  Many folks I know have been here before there was an I-77 at all, and that was only the early ‘70s.                  Growth has since spread to Mooresville and Lincoln County’s Denver and continues its westward march to Sherrill’s Ford in Catawba County.  See me fuming in another traffic backup and you know I’m as thrilled as the rest of you with some growth’s byproducts.                  But I can tolerate it as long as so much undisturbed beauty remains.  I hope you will walk some of the preserves around the lake.  Take the kids to Lake Norman State Park in Troutman.                  Or go for a relaxing drive like I do along the still-rural roads in our towns, including Huntersville, despite the town’s population of 40,000.                  I can accept the growth knowing that most newcomers and long-timers are as concerned as I am about preserving our beauty amid all the development.                  You can see the depth of that concern in the volunteer Lake Norman cove and island keepers.                  I can’t wait to see the Blue Sky Nature Center that volunteers are creating in woods behind the LifeSpan center in Troutman for folks with disabilities.  We’ll all be able to go there soon to sit, walk or rest for a while.                  You can see the same concern in the eastern Catawba County residents keeping on their elected officials to properly manage the enormous housing developments coming their way – all again, because of the beauty of our lake. Or the Brawley School Road residents fighting to control rampant growth on their Lake Norman road in south Iredell. Growth had diversified our region and delivered many new shops and a wider dining selection that keeps trying to widen my midsection. Growth is here because we love what Lake Norman offers.  The challenge will always be to make sure it stays that way.