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.”
The most visible scar is when one individual can “Buy” a NC Senator to removing the land from Summerfield’s jurisdiction without concerns for the majority of residents in Summerfield. Will the residents remember this in the upcoming election? Could this event turn this town from Red to Blue?
the ‘seller’ of the 1000 acres is who? what? the issue begins with them ?
This same problem is popping up all over the country. As Scott likes to say, “Greensboro has fallen ass‑backwards into an almost unstoppable way of expanding its boundaries,” and it’s all thanks to changes in the annexation process.
It used to be that the city would slowly spread outward through forced annexations, then later extend water and sewer lines to those new areas. But they’ve completely flipped that playbook. Now, the city starts by finding a reason to run utilities to a big site way out in the county — maybe a golf course community, an industrial park, or a battery plant. And wouldn’t you know it, the “best” route for those lines just happens to cut right through — or brush up against — huge stretches of undeveloped county land.
That combination of cheap land and access to city services is like honey to developers. And the best part for the city? They don’t have to push annexation anymore or deal with a brand‑new group of angry voters at election time. The developer buys county land, then comes knocking on City Hall’s door, asking/begging to be annexed, because that’s the only way to hook up to city water and sewer. Suddenly, the city has just one landowner to negotiate with. The nearby folks can holler and complain, but since they’re county residents, they don’t have a vote in city matters. Result? Annexation becomes a slam dunk.
Places like Summerfield and a few other nearby towns created their own local governments years ago to avoid being swallowed up by Greensboro. But now they’re caught between needing city services and Greensboro’s rule that says: no annexation, no access. What comes next? I suspect that as those much‑coveted city services and resources get stretched thin from continued annexation, the people enjoying them without being in the city are likely going to face much higher costs — and there’s little they can do about it. Best‑laid plans…
Raleigh Legislature passed a statute changing zoning laws. This change was with enticement from cities, developers, lawyers, and anyone else who could make a buck off Spot Zoning, including large real estate firms that put land packages together. It began in the 1990s and has grown exponentially since. The battery plant is in the city surrounded by county agricultural land. This could never have happened before Spot Zoning. Expanding cites from city borders was an orderly way of city growth. The growth that is happening now is out of control. Whenever developers and politicians love and support the same thing, the public loses. Spot Zoning is like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle seen from above. Puzzle pieces are surrounded by missing pieces. The missing pieces are county land being squeezed out by politicians and developers. The real estate firms sweettalk landowners into selling their land contingent on approved Spot Zoning. Everyone involved in Spot Zoning hates that phrase. I use the phrase because it is zoning one spot at a time, and because politicians, developers, and others hate it.
Why anyone would vote for Phil Berger in the March 2026 primary is beyond comprehension. Phil Berger has contributed to the woes of Summerfield. Unforgivable. And so has David Couch, all for the love of money. House Bill 801 is sponsored by five (5) Republicans. Can you say Phil Berger? Vote for Sam Page in the Republican primary in March 2026.