There’s an old movie titled “Mars Needs Women,” and that may or may not be true, but one thing that is definitely true is that Greensboro and Guilford County need housing. That need has grown so great that home prices have skyrocketed, the housing shortage has become critical, the City of Greensboro has implemented a massive new housing plan, state officials are attempting to make it easier to get new housing, and the Town of Summerfield lost about 1,000 acres of land due to a desire of many political leaders to allow more housing.
There’s a whole lot to say on the matter and one place that people will get a chance to say it is before the Guilford County Board of Commissioners next month. The board will hold a legislative hearing on Thursday, Sept. 4, at 5:30 p.m. to take in public comments on the “Guiding Guilford Moving Forward Together Comprehensive Plan.”
That meeting will be held in the commissioners’ meeting room on the second floor of the Old Guilford County Courthouse at 301 W. Market St. in downtown Greensboro.
The hearing is required under state law as part of a process for adopting a comprehensive plan.
North Carolina General Statute 160D-501 requires local governments to adopt and maintain such a plan in order to implement zoning regulations.
In the proposed plan, Guiding Guilford lays out a long-term vision for growth, conservation, economic development, land use and other areas of planning. According to county officials, it’s intended to shape development across Guilford County for the next 15 to 20 years.
This effort kicked off in the spring of 2023 and included what county officials describe as extensive opportunities for public input. That feedback has been used to develop the plan and its seven guiding themes: community character, attainable housing, resilient economy, diversified transportation and mobility, service accessibility, protected natural environment and greenspace, and quality and context-sensitive infrastructure.
A copy of the entire plan and a summary of the planning themes can be found at the Guilford County Clerk to the Board’s office in the Old County Courthouse during normal business hours. That’s the old school way to view it, but the plan can also be found online at Guilford County’s official website.
County leaders are encouraging residents to take a look at the proposal and then attend the Sept. 4 hearing to share their views.
While other issues will be discussed, housing and affordable housing are obviously a major component of the plan.
The Guilford County Planning and Development Department, working together with consultant Design Workshop, is leading the process with the goal of aligning growth and housing needs with infrastructure, services and community priorities.
There have been a lot of cases in recent years when those who moved to the rural part of the county to live in peace and quiet have learned that housing developments or businesses will now be built nearby.
Community engagement has been central in the debate from the beginning.
A “Community Pulse” survey and a series of open-house workshops in 2023 collected residents’ views on housing affordability, diversity of options, and overall quality of life. Focus groups and a steering committee of experts and residents added more perspective.
In July 2024, the county presented draft recommendations in a series of meetings – both in person and virtual – so residents could react to proposed strategies and share how well they thought the draft matched countywide needs.
The state requires Guilford County to maintain a comprehensive plan; however, it’s important to note that the plan isn’t law. Instead, it’s a policy guide that provides a framework for decisions – any zoning or ordinance changes still require separate action by the Board of County Commissioners or action through the Unified Development Ordinance.
Housing is one of the five major elements of the plan, along with land use, transportation, governmental coordination, and natural, historic and cultural resources.
The housing section is designed to address how the county will accommodate growth – due to JetZero, Boom Supersonic, the Toyota battery plant and many other recent economic development successes – while providing equitable options and responding to demographic and economic shifts.
The plan is meant to strengthen standards by adopting and enforcing current building and rehabilitation codes so that new and existing homes remain safe and accessible. It also emphasizes that housing development should be tied closely to community growth as well as to the availability of reliable infrastructure such as water, sewer and transportation networks.
The approach is an attempt by Guilford County to encourage more diverse housing choices across the area. That means greater variety in the types of homes available, from multifamily dwellings and accessory units to senior-friendly housing for residents who want to age in place.
Affordability is also, of course, a key ingredient, with the plan seeking to expand housing access across income levels and family structures while making sure growth happens in areas where Guilford County government can support it with services.
The document also stresses that housing can’t be addressed in isolation – it must be integrated with transportation systems, land use planning, environmental protection and economic opportunity.
Public participation in the effort has been extensive so far.
A survey that closed in August 2024 let residents weigh in. The next step will be a review by the Planning Board and then the Board of Commissioners – and, in the end, a majority of commissioners will decide whether or not to adopt the plan.
The housing piece of the plan is especially timely right now: In Greensboro, High Point and rural parts of Guilford County, housing demand has shifted in ways that highlight affordability concerns, infrastructure constraints and changes in what different generations currently seek from a home.
More people in the county and the country are now looking for multifamily living options, while others are seeking housing that’s designed for older adults who prefer to remain in their communities. The comprehensive plan is the county’s tool to respond in a controlled, rational, organized and long-term manner.
Scott, I liked your last sentence in this article.
Based on long term actions, I don’t think any of this will be successful considering the current bunch of commissioners. They may benefit along with their friends but the citizens will get the short end of the stick with higher taxes and broken promises. It will be interesting to see how the commissioners respond.
Unfortunately, most of the citizens in Guilford County are not involved in the local govt. Uninformed, or misinformed. They don’t care, don’t want to bother with it, fed up with it, etc. Don’t bother to vote; so Dems shuffle the faithful to the polls to vote the party line. This is why Guilford County & City have the current govt.
Or maybe just because 45% of Guilford County is registered Democrat versus 26% registered Republican.
Not complicated or a conspiracy theory.
The total turnout on the last election was about 18,000. There are over 1/2 million people in Guilford County. So 18,000 people decided out govt.
We’re did you get your 18k number?
According to official results from the North Carolina State Board of Elections, the total number of ballots cast in Guilford County during the November 2024 general election was 286,373.
The city and county races were not included the general election of 2024. They were at another off-year election, thus this miniscule turnout of some 18,000 voters. Thus is was easy for the local govt to get out the vote of the faithful: free busing or time off to the polls for govt employees and family. This was all be design.
This is why we have a socialist local govt in the County. The real fault lies with the hundreds of thousands of registered voters who didn’t both to vote. We went to the polls about 4 hours after they were open. There were no voters there when I arrived. I learned that less than 20 people had voted in previous 4 hours.
Use it, or lose it.
If the government is involved, don’t expect anything good to come out of it. Can’t wait until they come to my area and develop all the farm land and wooded area. That peace and tranquility that I worked for all my life, I can envision it gone.
relocate.
I live out in the country and I am so sick of seeing the county encroach out here! Ever since I’ve been out here I have watched it grow up little by little because they keep building junk out here that we don’t want. We live in the country for the peace and quiet that comes with it. I don’t want to be surrounded by people. I don’t want to be surrounded by businesses. If I did I would have lived in the city. People need to stop selling their land. They might get the money out of it but what does that give them? A small point of happiness for a few months until they blow it all to hell. The country life can’t be beaten and they keep pushing City people out here. And the city people complain about the animals. They complain about the gunshots. They complain about the country smells. Stop coming to our area. We don’t want you out here. We want to live our life in solitude and peace and quiet. Enough is enough. If everybody wants to move the Greensboro let them live in the city, not out here in the country. I am a country girl from birth and we’ll be till death. We don’t need the city people out here trying to encroach on our way of life and telling us how to live. Trying to make us give up our farm animals because they don’t like the smell or the noise. Trying to push Dollar generals and sheets and everything else out here on top of us that we don’t want. Go away. The county commissioner is all need to be fired because they’re certainly not protecting the county. It’s all about money for them. They don’t care what the people want. They don’t listen to us. They are taken away everything good in our lives. It’s time to stop.
Growth is what it is….without you die and with it you suffer. I moved far enough out that I am a good 20 years from encroachment, I hope. But people in places like Summerville who claim they moved out to be rural are just fooling themselves. They were just the tip of the spear and now complain that the full movement/migration that they started has matured as it always was going to mature.
If you live within 20 min drive of a grocery store, you don’t live rural, you live on the fringe of a suburb that is going to come your way in less than 10 years or lack of growth kills your local economy. Not complicated.
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“Summerville” ….?
Are you in the early stages of dementia, Chris?
No really; confusions like this are the first sign, along with increased irritability and anger.
Seek medical advice. You need it.
How long does this “growth” last? Forever? Until every piece of farmland in the state is occupied by condos, apartments and distribution sights? There has to be a limit.
No growth doesn’t last forever. Look at Detroit.
Dang Chris Detroit is a great example of what not to copy. Majority black, all black leadership, majority democrat, extreme poverty, extremely high crime,low tax base what’s not to love about a city like that. Black leaders do an excellent job running cities
consider india, japan, LA . scarey ?
Well chris, let me put it this way, let them encroach where you live and not where I live. Let’s see how you like it. I mean, since growth is what it is then you shouldn’t have no problem, being the liberal that you are, in accepting that it’s part of life. We don’t want the growth where I’m at. At all. We are not okay with it. As I’m sure you wouldn’t be at the happen to you if you actually live that far out. But since you’re okay with things like that, then I’m sure you would be willing to contact the County and tell them to move out to the area you’re in instead of the area that I’m in. But, you want to do that because as a liberal, it’s do what I say, not what I do. Right? Right!
Happens all the time. Gonna eventually happen where I live now which will make a great opportunity for my kids to sell my land for a very nice profit to beef up their retirement savings. Unless we tank our economy by allientating all of our trading partners and then you won’t have to worry growth anymore.
But you be you
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You’re so right, Pat. The relentless pursuit of economic growth, regardless of the consequences, has destroyed my country of birth. England is exactly the same size as North Carolina, but has a population of about 58 million. When I was a boy it was about 48 million, and even that felt overcrowded. The British government has deliberately pursued mass immigration as a mechanism to spur economic growth, and has in the process destroyed the fabric of British society. My dear old country has become unrecognizable to me.
In the same land area North Carolina has just 11 million people, and that’s plenty.
This unthinking and desperate craving for growth is driven by the greed of the public sector, since its insatiable and rapacious need for ever more money demands an ever growing river of tax money.
That’s why they’re always seeking out new big businesses to come here, and even bribing them to do so with our taxes.
It’s wrong, just wrong.
But government has no conscience, no scruples, no soul.
It absolutely is wrong. On so many levels. Our pathetic government in Guilford County will never be happy until the county looks like the city and is putting more money in the commissars pockets. They are gonna trash the county just like the city is. It’s gonna be overwhelmed with businesses and housing and will no longer be peaceful. A man at the tax department told us that Sheetz bought this land on Alamance Church Road between old Julian Road and coble Church Road and are planning on putting a sheets out here once the housing developments are completed. We don’t want this. We fought and fought to keep those housing developments out and it did us no good. The commissars approved everything because it means more money in their pockets
promoters of ‘growth’, ‘housing’, ‘business’, ‘immigrants’ are the destroyers of rural culture ?
So you see growth as bad? Weird
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GROWTH = Overcrowding + Traffic Congestion + Unaffordable Housing + Inferior Healthcare + Higher Prices + Increased Anonymity and Loss of Community.
Nothing weird about resisting “growth” ( enforced urbanization ).
“Growth” sucks.
. . . & assumes that ‘resources’ are unlimited !
I will definitely be at that meeting. But I know it won’t do any good because skip away with your money Alston cares about nobody and nothing but lining his pockets!! We need to all show up and fight to protect what belongs to us. We need to put a stop to this travesty!! We need to protect the country life.
Funny, sounds like you want to control what doesn’t belong to YOU! YOU just want to control what someone else does with land THEY own.
they love capitalism & materialism until others have more than they.
I keep reading on the internet about an impending glut of housing and price collapse based on the number of Boomers dying off or moving to retirement communities, so which is it? If the population trend is downward why do we need to convert so much farmland to crappy “affordable” housing?
Define “housing shortage.” Does housing shortage mean that there is a shortage of places for people to live? Does the housing shortage include rentals, single-family detached houses, townhomes, and apartments? Or does “housing shortage” refer to single-family detached housing only? If the housing shortage is only about single-family detached housing, then the county, developers and the Chamber of Commerce is being disingenuous at best, and deliberately misleading at worst. Let’s see some numbers here. Building single-family detached housing devours raw land, never to be seen again. Why are we considering only Guilford County in the housing shortage? Guilford County is not the only county where people can live. Other than tax revenue, why would the commissioners care if newcomers live in a county other than Guilford? Other than viewing county growth as something to crow about, why would the commissioners care? Pushing the growth outside Guilford also reduces expenses for schools, roads, and utilities. What is housing like in Rockingham, Graham, Randolph? While Guilford County Commissioners have no control of other counties, shouldn’t other counties’ housing capacity be taken into consideration? Growth is not confined to county borders. And why would anyone desire to move to Guilford County with property taxes so high? Guilford County and the City of Greensboro need real leadership, not what is now there. As far as “we the people” weighing in on a county plan, this “opportunity” is afforded because it is required. The average citizen is regarded as an impediment to the ruling class, which includes politicians, developers, and people of means. We need term limits to rid ourselves of dishonest and power-hungry politicians.
look @ the bright side: high property taxes deter people from moving here & helps keep our population density down. genius ! relocate to podunk & suffer that lifestyle, school, medical, preacher, culture.
“I’m from the government and I’m here to help “ . Reagan never spoke truer words when he said these were the nine scariest words in the English language. Current City and County leaders will ensure they favor their friends and family while engorging themselves at the expense of their constituents. I have absolutely no faith in our current local government and won’t until they are all out of office.
A free market, with limited government involvement, based upon supply and demand, will address this housing issue. Do keep in mind that today’s demand for housing is for apartments. No one today is willing to put down roots and be involved in a community. All they want is a roof over their head, internet, Starbucks, and Door Dash.
Fyi, hundreds of “build to rent townhomes” (uh mum, apartments) are currently being crammed into the land beside Trader Joes off New Garden Road. The things are being built everywhere. Also, 120 apartments are being built at the corner of New Garden and Battleground.
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Oh well, so long as the Parasitic Sector “leaders” are going to devise “A Comprehensive Plan”, we shall have nothing to worry about.
Problem solved!
my house is much too critical & a poor debater !