Burlington’s city council has given the all-clear to a plan that will foster the expansion of a facility in eastern Guilford County that serves as a refuge for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Known as Peacehaven Farm, this rural redoubt has quietly operated on the west side of NC 61 for nearly two decades while the surrounding area has been reshaped by incoming residential and industrial projects. The latest of these ventures include a cyclopean warehousing complex that the parent company of Food Lion has under construction just up the road from Peacehaven’s 89.26-acre grounds.
Now, after nearly two decades of holding its own, Peacehaven is about to embark on a monumental growth spurt thanks to the regulatory approval that it obtained from Burlington’s elected leaders on Tuesday.
The centerpiece of Peacehaven’s proposed expansion is an innovative residential community that will allow people with intellectual and developmental challenges to live alongside others in more of a caretaker role. Phelps Sprinkle, the CEO of this Guilford County-based nonprofit group, told the council that this residential endeavor could be a real game changer for disabled adults once it gets off the ground.
“There’s nothing like this in North Carolina. We’re going to be able to develop it in a way that, we think, will be a model, replicable community of people with and without disabilities living together.”
– Phelps Sprinkle, Peacehaven FARM CEO
“There’s nothing like this in North Carolina,” he informed the city council during a public hearing on Tuesday. “We’re going to be able to develop it in a way that, we think, will be a model, replicable community of people with and without disabilities living together.”
In order to bring this plan to fruition, Peacehaven must first obtain public water for its campus. The organization has elected to receive this utility from the city of Burlington, and as a condition of the city’s extension of the requested service, Peacehaven has asked to have its property annexed into Burlington’s municipal limits.
Burlington’s city council voted 5-to-0 in favor of the organization’s annexation request during Tuesday’s proceedings.
As a follow up, the city council also gave its unanimous nod to a new zoning designation to replace the one that Peacehaven had previously received from Guilford County.
Amanda Hodierne, an attorney for Peacehaven Farm, had assured Burlington’s leaders that this proposed zoning label aims mainly to recognize the existing uses on the organization’s agrarian campus.
“The intention is to establish original zoning in Burlington. It’s not to change the zoning. . . or get out of a condition that was put on us in Guilford County. It’s because when we’re annexed, we’ll need to have Burlington zoning; we can’t be in Burlington’s city limits with Guilford County zoning.”
– Amanda Hodierne, attorney for Peacehaven Farm
“The intention is to establish original zoning in Burlington,” she added. “It’s not to change the zoning…or get out of a condition that was put on us in Guilford County. It’s because when we’re annexed, we’ll need to have Burlington zoning; we can’t be in Burlington’s city limits with Guilford County zoning.”
Hodierne went on to present a request for a “planned development” district – a relatively new addition to Burlington’s land use repertoire that includes a site plan and other specifics about the intended use. In this case, Peacehaven’s submission featured a community center, residences, and medical offices as well as a whole host of recreational and agricultural amenities to provide stimulation for the people Peacehaven serves.
Hodierne insisted that this eclectic mix will ultimately mirror the “quilt work” of industrial, residential, and agrarian activities that have come to characterize Guilford County’s easternmost reaches.
“It will be a nexus to swirl all those land uses together,” she explained, “and provide the bowtie, if you will, to complete this transitional area.”
In the meantime, the organization’s attorney promised that none of the proposed transformations will detract from the serene atmosphere which presently pervades Peacehaven Farm.
“The new stuff that will be added is very internalized to the site,” she added. “So, as you drive down Highway 61, you’re still going to see that same lovely viewshed.”
The council went on to vote 5-to-0 in favor of the proposed planned development district as it had for the site’s annexation.
