An organization that serves people with special needs has received the blessing of Burlington’s planning and zoning commission to establish a one-of-a-kind residential community on Burlington’s westernmost margins.
The city’s planning commission endorsed the creation of this residential development on Monday as part of the proposed expansion of Peacehaven Farm – a nonprofit venture in eastern Guilford County that currently offers various services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The proposal that has won favor with the city’s planning commission would enable Peacehaven’s organizers to establish several dozen residences, a community center, and other facilities on the grounds of their rustic refuge, which isn’t far from a mammoth warehousing complex that Food Lion’s parent company has in the works.
Currently located within Guilford County’s planning domain, Peacehaven has nevertheless sought zoning approval from Burlington so that its campus can hook up to the city’s public water and sewer services as a prelude to the proposed expansion. This move would also enable the city to annex the property – presuming that Burlington’s city council accepts the planning commission’s advice to approve Peacehaven’s plans.
This cross-jurisdictional tap dance between Guilford County and Burlington is just one of the quirks that has made Peacehaven’s proposed expansion stand out from the rest of projects that have recently passed through Burlington’s planning department.
Yet, perhaps this project’s single most distinguishing trait is the unusual nature of the facility at the center of this proposed expansion.
Nestled on 89.26 acres on the west side of NC 61, Peacehaven Farm was originally founded in 2007 to provide services for the intellectually and developmentally disabled within a serene, agrarian setting.
Phelps Sprinke, the CEO of this nonprofit endeavor, informed Burlington’s planning commission that he and his colleagues hope to expand these offerings over the next several years to create a vibrant, residential community for an oft-overlooked segment of society.
“There’s never been a development where people with intellectual and developmental disabilities could live together,” Sprinkle insisted on Monday. “With this 90-acre site, our founders plan to do something that will be a model not just for the state but across the country.”
In order to bring these plans to fruition, Peacehaven’s top brass have filed a request for a “planned development” with the city of Burlington.
Under Burlington’s unified development ordinance, this administrative zoning option enables developers to customize the city’s land use rules to accommodate irregular, but high-quality, projects. This oft promoted, if infrequently used, form of zoning has recently started to gain traction with some developers in Burlington. In fact, the planning commission’s members endorsed another planned development on Monday to accommodate a high-density subdivision along Lakeside Avenue that had tanked in an earlier iteration three years ago. [See separate story in this edition.]
In Peacehaven’s case, the planned development designation is also intended to approximate an existing zoning label that the organization’s campus has already obtained from officials in Guilford County.
This previous action was one of several aspects of Peacehaven’s project that have made it a hard one to categorize for Burlington’s planning director Jamie Lawson.
“This request is unique,” she assured the planning commission’s members on Monday. “I don’t think I can emphasize how different this planned development is than the previous one [along Lakeside Avenue. The applicant in this case has already gone through the planning process…and the reason they’re in front of you now is that the applicant will need to seek a utility connection to service their site.”
This connection to Burlington’s public utilities will enable Peacehaven to expand its existing facilities to include a 22,000-square-foot community center, an arts venue, outdoor recreation, and a “multidisciplinary” health clinic. But the cornerstone of these proposed upgrades is the construction of about 70 residential units – four-fifths of which would be reserved for the intellectually and developmentally disabled, according to Amanda Hodierne, an attorney for Peacehaven Farm.
Hodierne went on to assure the city’s planning commission that the “planned development” option is particularly well suited for the idiosyncratic vision that her clients have for this site’s long-term development.
“A planned development, on its own accord, is a great fit for us,” she insisted. “It’s a perfect transition for all the uses that are swirling here for us…in what is meant to be an environment where the clientele that Peacehaven represents can operate independently and cooperatively.”
Hodierne’s assessment went on to prevail with the planning commission, which voted 6-to-0 to recommend Peacehaven’s request to Burlington’s city council.
