Loud noise, traffic from initial open house only make neighbors more suspicious and fearful of Burton’s plans
Robert Frost once wrote, in his second-most famous poem, “The Mending Wall,” that good fences make good neighbors as a metaphor for what it means to be a good – considerate – neighbor.
But in the case of the newest property owner at 4672 Forest Lake Drive in Mebane – developer John Burton, who’s planning to open a commercial venue in the middle of the established residential Forest Lake subdivision – that concept hasn’t borne out.
Instead, according to some of his neighbors who began this spring mounting an offensive against what was originally described as an “events center,” Burton held a meeting with his neighbors in March, announced his plans, and then began moving forward with converting the stately single-family home he bought in October 2023 to a commercial venue – without having sought or received the approvals needed to rezone the property.
First came the chainsaws, then the heavy equipment, and then two weeks ago – more than 200 people bused in for a party that three of Burton’s neighbors say had been described to them as “a test” for the events center. Though Burton has recently erected a fence, several feet high, across the front of the property, his neighbors say it’s done nothing to mitigate the noise, construction traffic, and steady disruption to their once quiet subdivision.
Dotting the top of the fence, like LED punctuation marks, are lights that one neighbor describes as blinding.
All three neighbors – who are among dozens of property owners in Forest Lake subdivision who say they oppose Burton’s plans for the property – sat down with The Alamance News on Wednesday afternoon to discuss their concerns.
Chief among them: the residential subdivision has never had any commercial uses; and apparently, none of the existing property owners would support any type of commercial project, aside from Burton.
There are 55 homes in Forest Lake, says David Dixon, who has lived for 41 years at 457 West Carr Street, which sits directly across from the Burton property. He estimates that 98 percent of the residents have since signed onto a petition opposing any commercial use for this property, and an events center in particular, due to concerns they say they shared with Burton when he held a neighborhood meeting to discuss his plans in March.
Burton had been joined for the neighborhood meeting by Greensboro attorney Amanda Hodierne, who has also represented a number of developers for other projects in Alamance County.
Short on specifics, developer promised to get back but hasn’t
During that discussion, the attorney outlined a number of potential uses the developer was contemplating for his Forest Lake property, such as a wedding venue, short-term vacation rental, bed and breakfast, or an events center.
They were assured that someone would be back in touch in May with specifics about the plans for 4872 Forest Lake Drive, Dixon recalled Wednesday.
Seven months have passed since, but they’ve heard nothing – aside from the steady buzz of chainsaws, the rumble of construction trucks hauling in gravel for a new driveway and gravel parking lot, and four hours of live music from the band that played cover songs by the Eagles during an “open house” of sorts for the event center from 5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 19.
“He [Burton] spent weeks and weeks cutting trees,” Dixon recalled in the interview. The consensus among the dozens of neighborhood opponents – absent any follow-up from Burton by the May 1 deadline he’d offered – is “he doesn’t appear to be operating in good faith,” Dixon told the newspaper.
Burton partied with some 200 people, but few neighbors, on October 19
On the night of October 19, more than 200 partygoers – described as a who’s who of Alamance County and beyond – were in attendance, with many bused in from a privately-owned gravel lot at the corner of North N.C. Highway 119 and South Third Street.
Others’ vehicles lined the streets throughout the subdivision, based on Dixon’s description and that of two of his neighbors, Britt Bradford and Rick Smith, whom the newspaper also interviewed Wednesday.
Smith, who has lived at 4521 Forest Lake Drive for 28 years, says he and numerous neighbors contacted Mebane mayor Ed Hooks and city council members soon after they learned about Burton’s initial plans for the property.
“We were notifying people [about the plans for an events center] all through the summer,” Smith explained.
While the council has acknowledged the neighbors’ emails, the response so far has been tepid, Smith said, while he and his neighbors remain in limbo, fearing the possibility of being proverbially bulldozed from the homes they’ve worked their whole lives to pay for.
Britt Bradford, who has lived at 4714 Forest Lake Drive for 20 years with his wife, Karen, says he built an in-law suite for his parents, 92 and 94, where he had hoped they could live out their last days in relative comfort, rather than in a nursing home.
But on the night of October 19, Bradford’s father, who’s now under hospice care, had just gotten home from the hospital.
‘Our walls were vibrating’
“Our walls were vibrating from the noise,” Bradford recalled. “We were just trying to watch a movie. Either he [Burton] doesn’t understand what it does, or doesn’t care, what it does to 94-year-old people, who are freaked out.
“It’s altered our lifestyle,” Bradford elaborated. “I’ve got my mother and father that are very literally living their last moments. Dad is bed-ridden, completely immobile. It’s made a time that’s difficult, but sweet, much more difficult. I would love to sit down with him [Burton] and say, ‘here’s what you’re doing – they’re dying.’”
The party on October 19 had been described by some as an open house – to which Dixon, Bradford, and Smith say they had not been invited; nor had many of their neighbors.
Dixon said the only way he found out about the party was from a contact who forwarded him a copy of the invitation. Again, it might’ve been common courtesy to give neighbors a heads up beforehand, Dixon noted.
While the party was still underway the night of October 19, Dixon approached one of three Alamance County sher-iff’s deputies who were working the event – though still in uniform and driving their patrol vehicles – to ask about the noise, he recalled Wednesday.
They were told that Burton had been given a permit by the county for the party, Dixon recalled. When neighbors began flooding the 9-1-1 center with complaints about the noise, they were told, “‘It’s being taken care of,’” Dixon and Bradford said Wednesday.
Clearly it had not, according to Dixon, who said his friend, who lives about a mile from Forest Lake, told him she could hear the music from her house on October 19.
Uncertainty over allowable uses
When Burton floated the idea in March of a possible country club with swimming pools, and indoor pickleball courts, Dixon, Bradford, and Smith didn’t bite, they told the newspaper Wednesday.
Burton hasn’t broached the topic of whether existing homeowners whose properties include docks on Forest Lake would continue to be able to use the lake should his plans for the event center, or a similar venue, get approved by Mebane’s city council.
[Story continues below photos of signs in the neighborhood protesting what was originally believed to be Burton’s plans for an event center.]
Signs of opposition
At this point, it’s unclear whether restrictive covenants put in place for the original “phase 1” of the subdivision, which were re-filed with the Register of Deeds’ office in the 1990s and early 2000s but waived several years later for one project, would prohibit the type of commercial use that Burton has in mind.
Smith and his neighbors pooled their money this summer to hire an attorney to formalize their objections in a letter they sent to an attorney for Burton late this summer.
At the same time, they don’t feel they should have to fight to enjoy the homes and lives they established in Forest Lake decades earlier.
“Why should an established neighborhood be forced to conform to an outside individual who wants to change the landscape for his personal gain?” Dixon asked rhetorically.
Other concerns that the project raises for Smith, Dixon, and Bradford include the potential effects that a commercial venue could have on residential property values, increased traffic and noise, damage to the watershed – they say Forest Lake empties into the Mebane-Graham Lake – as well as the deterioration in the quality of life in a family-friendly slice of Americana, where children can still ride their bikes and play outside until dusk.
“It used to be positively charming,” said Smith, alluding to the city’s motto. “He knows nobody wants this, and he’s going ahead, come hell or high water.”
