Mayor Nancy Vaughan said at the Feb. 15 meeting that she wanted to have a work session on water.
Water was a huge issue in Greensboro up until the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority started providing water to Greensboro from the Randleman Reservoir.
Vaughan this week explained that what she wants to talk about is Greensboro’s water and sewer extension policy.
She said, “Since the announcements of Boom and Toyota, we’ve seen that residential developers are looking at areas to build outside our service area with our water and sewer.”
The current policy on water extension requires the property to be annexed into Greensboro before water and sewer service is provided.
The extension of water and sewer service to the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite is an exception to this policy, but an exception that is creating thousands of jobs for the area.
Vaughan noted that water and sewer capacity was reserved for the future Toyota Battery manufacturing facility, but also that capacity had to be reserved for a possible Phase 2 of development on the site and for the supply chain.
As far as residential developments outside the service area goes, the one that is making big news is the proposed 973-acre mixed-use development on Pleasant Ridge Road in Summerfield proposed by David Couch. According to the plans recently announced by Couch, Villages at Summerfield would include 3,796 housing units in 11 villages with much of the land set aside for trails, parks and scenic views.
Such a development would need water and sewer, and the town of Summerfield currently doesn’t provide water and sewer service.
Vaughan said that Guilford County would have to pay for the extension of Greensboro water and sewer service to the site. She said, “For us to get our money back on water and sewer usage would take forever.”
When asked how building housing in Summerfield benefitted Greensboro Vaughan said, “I don’t think it does.”
Vaughan said, “There are no active discussions at this point.”
But she added, “I know we are going to start getting lobbied soon.”
And she said that the purpose of the City Council work session was to make sure that everyone on the City Council understood the current policy on extending water and sewer service.
No date for the work session on the city’s water and sewer extension policy has been set.
3,796 housing units in 11 villages? Sounds like a town to me. Water and sewer lines will have to come from somewhat but I don’t think Greensboro should feel any responsibility.
I ask the same question; WHAT BENEFITS DOES THIS PROJECT BRING TO GREENSBORO?
I can tell you how building in Summerfield helps Greensboro. People don’t want to live in Greensboro. But they will work in Greensboro and spend money other ways. Maybe if this council would work on things that matter like crime and public safety, not giving money to city council members non profits and other useless endeavors people would want to live in the city limits.
Right! But RT commuting from Summerfield daily is gonna be VERY expensive in the future. Just today, the wholesale price of gasoline is up 15c/gal. That does not include the Federal & State tax, and the cost of delivery to the gas station. Nor does it include their station’s cost of doing business. No wonder they want you inside to buy something. I just purchased some $4.00 gas, before today’s 15c increase. Have you see the new govt coupon for a gallon of gas? It is green, and has Lincoln on the front.
Oh, let’s not forget the other costs involved in owning an auto; such as maintenance & repairs, insurance and TAXES. And, the 30-40% increase in the cost of used cars (if you can find a decent one), just this year.
You think buying an EV is gonna help? Nuh-uh. Lithium is the prime metal in EVs. It’s what makes them work well. Much of it comes from China. It is up over 500% in the last year alone.
Next to housing, transportation is our biggest expense. How is a $15/hr gross gonna pay for all that? You’ll have to eat cheap – beans, rice, & cabbage. Lunch will be a tin of vienna sausage & a pack of saltines. (Tin is up 67% in a year).
Being negative is not productive. These are facts. So I try to prepare for this.
If Summerfield wants the water and sewer from Greensboro, they should be willing to pay for it. Or, an agreement between the developer and Summerfield might be an option to cover the costs.
DON’T LAY THE COSTS FOR THIS KIND OF EXTENSION ON THE CITY TAXPAYERS!!
Of course it benefits the City. Anyone outside the city limits that gets water from Greensboro pays 2x the rate. Certainly the Mayor would have Summerfield pay more because of the demographics. In the meantime, Summerfield can get water from Reidsville. They don’t need Greensboro, but Greensboro is more convenient. Do you think Reidsville is going to say no? I don’t think so.
How quickly the politicians forget. Just a few short years ago Gso. Had a severe water shortage problem. Randleman dam was a short term solution. For those who don’t know the geography of Gso. there is not a great source of fresh water. There are small rivers and creeks that feed the lake’s but the flow volume is very slow and none of the cities lake are very deep so the amount of buffer from plenty to shortage is always slim. Gso. is already close to being overextended both on water supply and the amount of sewage that it’s facilities can handle Sometimes bigger is not always better.
Greensboro needs to grow in population, for obvious reasons. What’s •not• needed is more annexation and sprawl that requires extending city water and sewage.
That just gobbles up more forest land and farmland during a time when Climate Change compels us to expand native forest land to sink carbon in the deep roots of native deep-rooted trees.
It also creates the necessity to raise more food locally and regionally in environmentally sound ways that regenerate the soil.
This can be done if we don’t create additional residential sprawl.
So, within the existing City Limits of Greensboro, what’s needed is a new zoning policy like the one implemented in the City of Charlotte last year.
That is this: end all single-family zoning so that land where single-family family housing is now required is no longer required.
The market will then kick in, as it is across California and in Charlotte so that, for example, more garage apartments are built and some single-family houses are replaced with duplexes and triplexes, this growing the population, tax base and density of the City without expensive extensions of water lines and sewer lines.
This density will trigger a growth in the use of public transit, and support the opening of more public-facing business-to-consumer businesses.
The growing tax base on the same geographic footprint will enable the City to provide higher quality, better funded public services like sidewalks, greenspace and rec centers, and will cause more public employees to live inside the City Limits as it will likely trigger the opening of more walkable neighborhood schools.
Yeah….we can be just like Charlotte and or California! Sounds like a plan…Greensboro has always tried to be like Charlotte and or Raleigh….heck, the new city manager is from Charlotte….sounds like a plan! 🙂
The other point to your statement is that it keeps crime also centralized as well.
All those housing units provides a way for criminals with out transportation to get in and out quickly. I say go for it , bring on the ” white flight ” again , or am I missing something .
Sounds like Bill Collins needs to move to California to replace one of those smart folks who wised up and are heading east.
Very important to hold tight on water offerings. Not much chance of getting a pipeline to Lake Michigan water from here.
How many water expansions has Mandate Mayor pushed in the past. Mainly just to her developer donors pet projects outside our crumbling city. I guess the Summerfield project hasn’t greased the wheels of motion appropriately yet.
A better option is for the small Towns, Greensboro and Guilford County to work together to form a municipal water and sewer service district along with the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority. Oak Ridge and Summerfield cannot continue to add residential developments that depend on individual domestic wells and septic tanks. Oak Ridge has already seen a drastic drop in the groundwater levels and this will continue. There is no doubt that Guilford County will see a drastic need for residential development due to the new industrial sites. The industrial sites will also create the need for intense support services that will require even more employees and more residential developments. The answer is not multi-family or garage apartments. The employees that will fill these positions will not accept this. They will want single family homes in nice developments. Guilford County and Greensboro have a tremendous opportunity to grow as a regional star, but it will require new, comprehensive planning for infrastructure rather than an isolationist mindset such as indicated by Mayor Vaughn. We need people in the council with planning, development, engineering and business acumen rather than the group in place at this time. The voters can make this happen.
And I hope the PTRWA denies every one of your expansion requests. That water belongs to the people in Randolph County first and is necessary for the expansion of that area including the Toyota Megasite. It’s their dam, their dam water, & your dam problem. Are there any dam questions?
when the rest of the country was ? the habitat losses from dam building, we were building that damn dam. guilford co. is the headwaters of the cape fear & catalpa rivers & we have polluted it for the millions of downstream users who depend on it for their potable water. Is more better? But gov’t has a solution: purchase your water in a bottle from a store then throw that trash bottle in randleman lake with THE OTHERS! U can’t swim in the lake because U MIGHT POLLUTE IT! HA HA
Stop annexing. Those of us in the County are fine with our well-water and septic tanks. We don’t want to be part of Greensboro when all they want are our tax dollars and service fees. Stop annexation without our approval. Leave us alone.
Under current North Carolina law a property owner has to request annexation.
I live in a community that is in the county. The city sewer line runs right in front of my home and most of the homes on my street have been connected for years. My septic tank failed and I wanted to just hook on like everyone else and pay the fee. Neighbors on both sides of my home and across the street hooked on. Would not have cost the city one additional penny. The city refused made me get zoned into the city before they would allow me to hook on. But, now they want my city tax money to pay for these folks to get services without city zoning…really ??