It’s no surprise that the residents in the Town of Summerfield were disappointed that the NC General Assembly tore nearly 1,000 acres away from their town and put it into unincorporated Guilford County; but what is surprising is that, in the wake of that act – which will lead to a large residential development that many in the town have been fighting for years – is that the town is even more divided now than ever.
In recent years, it seemed as though the Town of Summerfield couldn’t possibly get any more divided than it already was.
The current fallout is, of course, over the battle as to whether farmer and developer David Couch should be approved to build a 1,000-acre residential and mixed-use development in the way, and with the density, he would like. Now, the Town of Summerfield will have zero say in the matter and the fallout and the finger-pointing is as bad as ever.
For instance, Summerfield Facebook pages – “Stand Up for Summerfield,” “Summerfield Strong” and “Keep Summerfield Rural” are quarreling.
It’s all a part of the blame game that’s being played by many factions in the town of about 11,000.
Many blame state legislators; others mostly blame NC Sen. Phil Berger; of course, “greed” by Developer David Couch is in the mix as well. The mayor of Summerfield blames four town councilmembers who many in Summerfield have dubbed the “Fatal Four” of the five-member Town Council. The pro-development forces in the town blame the anti-development forces and vice versa.
A post on the Summerfield Strong Facebook page stated, “A long post on the Stand Up for Summerfield’ Facebook page called us ‘a particularly bitter, malicious FB page which did nothing to help stop de-annexation” and said we are ‘downright gleeful and now want our charter revoked.’”
The post went on to say that the administrator of “Keep Summerfield Rural,” “swung by our page to attack [A Town Council member’s] family yet again and accused them of being ‘hell bent on refusing to do anything to actually stop this from happening.’
“Well, the gloves have come off, haven’t they!!? We knew they would,” the Summerfield Strong Facebook post continued.
“We submit to you that we did far more than any one of them to stop de-annexation! We did our best to warn everyone all along what was coming. It was inevitable. PREVENTION is the best cure. But they wouldn’t listen.”
And so it goes in the small town just north of Greensboro which just became a little smaller at midnight on June 30, when the legislation went into effect.
BJ Barnes, the former mayor of Summerfield and former long-time sheriff of Guilford County, told the Rhino Times, “Sadly, this was avoidable if the council of four would have stuck with the deal made with the prior Town Council. Instead, they were trying to find a way to cancel the deal which led to the mistrust by Couch, who was maligned by these folks for years.”
Current Mayor Tim Sessoms – who told the Rhino Times that he’s going to resign from that position, but isn’t sure exactly when – shares a similar view. Before the de-annexation was finalized, he said he had “great respect” for all of the citizens who made an attempt to compromise with Couch.
Sessoms said that, for years, he led the effort when it came to opposing Couch’s development as proposed; however, he added, when it became evident that the state legislature might honor Couch’s request to remove nearly 1,000 acres from the town and let Couch have the development with the density he wanted, it became crystal clear that compromise was necessary.
The Summerfield mayor said that, if the council had worked with Couch and allowed development – all while protecting the water and septic systems in the town – Summerfield could have maintained some control over how things transpired.
“That would have been a better path,” Sessoms said.
Don Wendelken, who owns the Summerfield News website and newspaper, followed the discussions in the legislature closely and went down to Raleigh to cover a protest rally. He said that the discussions on the NC House floor surprised him to the extent that many legislators weren’t up to speed on the facts of the case. He said there was a lot of misinformation spouted off about Summerfield.
That’s one reason that many are pointing fingers at the NC House members for not doing their homework and properly vetting the situation before voting.
Long-time and outspoken Summerfield resident Dwayne Crawford had a whole lot to say about the matter. Before the final NC House of Representative vote that sealed the deal, Crawford sent a long email to media outlets and legislators in which he stated that the action under consideration by the NC General Assembly rested on lies and baseless claims.
He said the first baseless claim was that “The Town of Summerfield does not provide statutorily required services.”
“The Town of Summerfield became incorporated in 1996 per House Bill 576.” he wrote. “At that time and for many, many years after, the only statutorily required service any new town must provide was ‘Enforcement of State Building Code’… The Town of Summerfield provides, as allowed by Statute, building code enforcement via Guilford County planning and inspections department.”
Crawford also wrote before the votes by the NC House that, “Any vote today made conditional on statutory ‘deficient service delivery’ by Town of Summerfield is baseless. If the Legislature does not like what services a municipality is statutorily required to offer – you have the power to correct that legal problem. You do not have the power to make decisions to de-annex Developer Couch’s 5 percent of the Town of Summerfield based on nonexistent or false understandings of statutes.”
Crawford stated that some of the other baseless claims he’d heard tossed around were that the “Town of Summerfield does not offer any meaningful services to its citizens,” “People have died in the Town of Summerfield due to a lack of adequate municipal water for fire protection,” and that “There is no affordable housing in Summerfield.”
On that last point, he wrote: “The problem is that all the affordable housing in Summerfield rarely comes up for sale – nobody wants to move.”
It’s certainly true that a lot of members of the House of Representatives were dismayed to see that the NC Senate had married the highly controversial Summerfield de-annexation bill onto an unrelated and relatively non-controversial bill that the House had already passed. When the bill the House had passed came back to them for a vote – after the Senate tacked on the Summerfield de-annexation – many House members were unfamiliar with the Summerfield situation. In the end, the bill did pass because there was a lot of support for the non-controversial bill that the de-annexation had been tacked onto.
Much of the vitriol from Summerfield residents was directed toward NC Senator Phil Berger, who played the largest role in jamming the legislation through.
Summerfield citizens are, on the other hand, defending those who did not want to see the measure pass.
One Facebook poster wrote, “Vote John Blust this November! John has always stood up to Phil Berger when he was in Raleigh. Truly disappointed in John Faircloth for voting for this bill!”
Blust spoke against the move at a Save Summerfield protest rally in Raleigh held before the first of the House’s two votes.
One Facebook poster wrote, “During debate House members on both sides agreed that putting de-annexation in House Bill 909 broke all the rules by neglecting it to go through proper committees yet it passed anyway. I guess there are no rules or protocols for wealthy elites.”
Another Facebook poster stated, “Well for whatever good it may do, boycott everything Couch related…vote against all incumbents and pray to save our town!,” while yet another wrote. “Berger NEEDS TO GET THE BOOT before he has the chance to destroy another NC small town!!!! Rockingham needs a good write-in candidate!”
One well-known long-time Summerfield resident who asked not to be identified said that, though he hated to see this de-annexation take place, it was almost a relief at this point because he couldn’t imagine how tense the negotiations between Couch and the town would be going forward if the state had voted down the de-annexation and the two parties had to head back to square one.
IMHO, If Greensboro offered less crime, lower taxes, and sensible representation there wouldn’t be such a chaotic demand for homes outside the city.
So true.
Good point!
The main culprit is Senator Berger who drove deannexation when 99% of Summerfield (his constituents) didn’t want it. Berger demanded Summerfield pass Zoning Couch wrote in 2023, then Berger wouldn’t remove the deannexation. Shifty and unethical.
Second culprit is the legislators who voted for disjointed parcels of 1000 acres to be gutted from Summerfield. They received thousands of emails from all over the State and 99% were opposed to Summerfield deannexation. The House Freedom Caucus even changed their votes from a NO to a YES vote AFTER a private meeting with the developer David Couch. Who knows what offers were made to them for their votes. Moral of story: voters don’t matter, only money does.
Good luck Oak Ridge, Stokesdale, Pleasant Garden, Browns Summit and all of Rockingham County! Berger has his sights of ruining your backyard next! Casinos first, more Deannexation for Dollars. Oh and Berger just said he wants to remove the charters of most small towns.
Sad day. We need to keep our rural land, rural, and our small towns small. They have plenty of business areas that need revamped. No one wants to go in those areas because the city of Greensboro is unsafe. They want to come to the safe areas of the rural and small towns and mess them up.
In other words keep out people of color? Right?
I love typical racist reasoning from a democrat. I guess you think people of color are all poor, and on welfare. Your reasoning is people of color can’t afford anything more than a one bedroom apartment for a family of 5. I live in Oak Ridge and we just had three black families move in. No one in the neighborhood is panicking.
Huh, guess conservatives prefer the support of big dollar business versus individuals. Huh.
Attention developers, Summerfield would be a great place for low income housing, your rent is guaranteed by the government, and you are guaranteed to return on your money. There are a lot of people Who need a place to live. Summerfield will be excellent, think about the developers. Please just think about it. Thank you.
I just don’t buy the “99%” stats. Sounds like a generalization that cheapens the argument.
Not my stat. It was stated by one House member on the floor. They should know, they got the emails and calls.
Urban sprawl is great if you can afford it. This happens everywhere there is vacant land near growing cities. Citizens can fight all they want, but unless they own all those wide-open spaces, someone else will shell out the money to fill them up with whatever the law allows. : Forest Gump
It’s a shame. It use to be harder to change the zoning of your land. Now if you have the money, it’s a given.
Greensboro taxpayers, you’re the stooges in this! Berger, Couch and Mayor Vaughn (probably Skippy too) hatched a plan under your noses! Nancy Vaughn isn’t running again and coincidentally was hobnobbing at the General Assembly the day of the deannexation vote! Couch needing water and sewer was discussed by the House before they vote! Shocking!
So Vaughn gets Couch land annexed into Greensboro and Greensboro taxpayers pay $50,000,000 or more to build those water and sewer lines to “Couch’s Greensboro” in the middle of Summerfield. He gets richer off your backs and Vaughn gets who knows what.
Wait there’s more! Greensboro defends claims of environmental and wildlife damage building lines through Lake Brandt. And how’s Greensboro going to cross land owned by Summerfield to get the lines to “Couch’s Greensboro”? You don’t have control there and Summerfield residents hate Couch. You know your water bills going up to pay all this. And there’s a drought with limited water, right?
Vaughn said it would take “forever” to get any return in investing in water and sewer to Couch land. So, Greensboro, good luck! He’s your problem now! Unless you wise up and talk Greensboro Council into avoiding this Couch annexation like the plague!
So if Greensboro annexes this 1000 acres, Greensboro taxpayers pay millions so this multimillionaire can make more money on his land? Located in Summerfield? Wouldn’t we be dumb to let the land be part of Greensboro and spend our money on him?
Just call it Summerboro. It is now as mucked up as their neighbor to the south. Maybe we can be called Greenfield.
A famous rap DJ said and I quote “we taking over” and the interlude was “one city at a time” lol
What, like you took over Detroit…?
Re. The Hebrew Academy facility, who owns the land? Was there any consideration of remodeling and using that facility for a needed school for our own taxpayers?
Does our Chinese friend/enemy have any interest in the venture? Are they or our outgoing 6th District Legislator going to profit in some way???
Summerfield don’t want to pay City Taxes, but they want to use Greensboro resources. They incorporated to stop Greensboro from annexing them, but they wants Greensboro’s resources to survive. They are behind Oak Ridge, Sedalia, Jamestown and Gibsonville. People are 50 years behind the rest of the county. Good for the property owner wanting to break away from that mess. NC, SC, GA and Tx are the fastest States of new population growth and jobs. So if that Owner wants to build homes for people, great. Like the Rockingham Co Commish said, “some of you would be just find sitting on your front porch all day and watch cows pass by and swat flies.” Either Join Greensboro or stop using our resources. You come in to shop, eat, entertain, educate and work, stop that too and stay away. Pay your share or leave!
Facts
In September 2023, Mayor Tim Sessoms dropped a POISON PILL into a conversation between Mr. Couch and Summerfield.
Quote – “Worse, Town officials freely admitted that the Town may not keep its word to faithfully implement any new zoning code. During the meeting, which was attended by Mayor Sessoms, Summerfield’s representatives said plainly that the Town cannot be trusted to deliver on promises to cooperate on plans for new homes (including homes accessible to families in lower income brackets) in part because current Town officials cannot speak on behalf of future Town officials.”
Maybe Summerfield should rejoice. If Greensboro residents are dumb enough to let the bully developers land get annexed they get this problem. They can get stuck with the Couch $100 million water and sewer project. And give him all the city services when his land isn’t even in the city. And if the bully doesn’t get his way, Greensboro gets to deal with his win at all costs mentality.
This was a case of the amateurs thinking they could bully the pro. Couch tried for years to negotiate some zoning with Summerfield to no avail. It wasn’t until the idea of de-annexation appeared that Summerfield finally decided to negotiate. By then, Couch lost all trust. But, then the voters put Hamilton and other hard liners in office who used harsh rhetoric. I am sure by then, Couch had all he could stomach. It could have worked out differently, but, Summerfield missed their chance. They only incorporated to keep out Greensboro. It is NOT a real town. Nothing there. I wouldn’t downsizing and moving out to live in one of Couch’s mixed use properties. But, not sure I want to be near some of the residents. Apparently they just want house an big lots and nothing else.
The residents of Summerfield that are using greensboro everyday have a privileged pov. I’m not surprised they’re acting like brats. It’s funny to watch unfold. We cursed all your trump2020 signs you didn’t take down and look what happened!
The good people of Summerfield didn’t mind when they passed the zoning ordinance for the new liquor store. They weren’t concerned about traffic then.
Does the mayors office of Slummerfield have wheels on it?