If Summerfield were an ice cream, it would be Rocky Road, but now it appears as though things are calming down, the town is unlikely to lose its charter, and city leaders are moving forward with a new comprehensive plan that hopefully will be acceptable to most of the town’s residents.
For a town that’s spent the last several years fighting for its very existence, simply moving forward now feels like quite an accomplishment.
Summerfield, after enduring zoning wars, legislative threats, and the loss of roughly 1,000 acres of land removed by the state following battles with developer David Couch, is likely to continue to exist as a town – and is beginning, cautiously, to turn its attention from survival to what comes next.
That future remains unsettled, however: Growth, development, water, and the pressure of Greensboro’s steady expansion continue to divide residents.
And distrust built during years of conflict hasn’t evaporated. But recent signals from Raleigh, combined with a renewed effort to update the town’s comprehensive plan and solicit public input, suggest that Summerfield is trying to move forward after a period that many residents describe as exhausting and traumatic.
At the height of the turmoil, it wasn’t clear the town would even survive.
Legislation introduced in Raleigh targeting so-called “paper towns” placed Summerfield squarely in the crosshairs. House Bill 801 raised the possibility that towns incorporated after 1995 could lose their charters unless they met specific service and taxation benchmarks.
In Summerfield, the threat was taken seriously – even if opinions varied on how likely it was to happen.
On a scale of 1 to 10, longtime Summerfield observer Don Wendelken said concern about losing the charter probably peaked around a six.
“It was serious,” Wendelken said. “But it wasn’t panic-level.”
Wendelken runs the Summerfield Scoop website and newspaper and has covered Summerfield government for years, attending meeting after meeting where zoning, development, and the town’s future collided.
From that vantage point, he says the temperature in the town has cooled somewhat.
“I think some of the chaos has calmed down,” he said.
That cooling appears tied in part to recent comments from Rep. John Blust, who addressed the Summerfield Town Council recently and gave a legislative update and suggested that House Bill 801 has stalled.
“I’m told that House Bill 801 is not going anywhere,” Blust said, while cautioning that nothing in Raleigh is ever guaranteed. “That’s not official. You’ve seen things in your time following this where something’s resurrected and suddenly that day it’s on the calendar when you’ve been told that it’s not going to be taken up at all. But I don’t think it’s going anywhere.”
Blust also pushed back on the broader narrative behind the legislation, which labeled certain municipalities as “paper towns.”
“I’ve tried to convince my caucus that these ‘paper towns’ are mostly in red areas,” Blust said. “You’re going after these towns, and you’re really helping blue areas take over the red areas – and the red areas tend to vote for us.”
While Blust stopped short of declaring the issue resolved, his comments left the clear impression that the push to revoke municipal charters has lost momentum and is no longer an immediate priority in the General Assembly.
For Summerfield, that alone marks a turning point.
The most visible scar from the past several years remains the loss of roughly 1,000 acres tied to developer David Couch. After prolonged zoning disputes between Couch and the town, the state intervened, removing the land from Summerfield’s jurisdiction.
For many residents, the episode symbolized not just a defeat but a loss of local control.
“It shaped everything that came after,” one longtime observer said.
The conflict deepened divisions over development, hardened skepticism toward elected officials, and reinforced fears that Summerfield could be overridden by forces outside its control – whether in Raleigh or Greensboro.
Those tensions haven’t disappeared. But they are now playing out against a different backdrop as the town works to update its comprehensive plan.
As part of that process, Summerfield recently launched a public survey asking residents about growth, priorities, and the direction they want the town to take. The survey begins by establishing whether respondents live in Summerfield, then moves into broader questions about development, quality of life, and community character.
Wendelken said the significance of the survey is not that it will produce consensus, but that it signals an attempt to reset the conversation.
“The last comprehensive plan was done a long time ago,” he said. “They’re supposed to update it periodically, and this shows that with the new council, the new mayor, and the new planner, they’re trying to move forward.”
More importantly, he said, the survey represents an effort – however imperfect – to re-engage the public.
“I think they’re trying to pull the community in and say, ‘How do you see it? What do you like? What don’t you like?’” Wendelken said. “It doesn’t mean they’re going to listen to everything, but it’s a way to say, ‘We need your input.’”
That outreach comes amid deep divisions over development in the town.
Some residents moved to Summerfield specifically to avoid urban density and they remain fiercely opposed to almost any new construction. Others argue that growth is inevitable and that the real issue is guiding it responsibly.
The town’s location along major corridors such as US 220 makes it especially vulnerable to pressure.
Wendelken expects those tensions to resurface as the comprehensive plan develops.
“There are people who will be highly irritated any time you mention development,” he said.
Still, he believes town leaders may attempt to focus commercial development along corridors where infrastructure already exists. Recent approvals for commercial projects near US 220 reflect that approach, even as residents who live nearby continue to raise concerns.
For now, large-scale residential development such as apartment complexes appears unlikely, largely due to ongoing water and sewer limitations – an issue that has repeatedly constrained growth in Summerfield and surrounding towns.
Overlaying all of this is an effort by town leaders to move forward without pretending the past never happened.
“We lost the 1,000 acres,” Wendelken said. “That happened.”
What comes next, he said, is governance – revisiting the comprehensive plan as required by law, planning for the future, and attempting to function as a town despite lingering divisions.
“I don’t think they’re trying to run from the past,” he said. “I think they’re trying to learn from it and move forward.”
