Construction has started on the first house at the former Quarry Hills subdivision and golf course south of Graham and within Swepsonville’s municipal limits – three years after the town council gave its approval for the project.
Construction crews began framing the first house last week, and they’re currently pouring the foundations for one or two more houses, Swepsonville town administrator Brad Bullis said Wednesday in an interview with The Alamance News.
The subdivision – which retained the original Quarry Hills name – is being developed by Chapel Hill developer Eric Dischinger, whose other projects in Alamance County include the Cambridge Park subdivision in Mebane.
Once fully built, Quarry Hills will have 285 one-story, single-family homes that are targeted to active homebuyers who are 55 and older and seeking a low-maintenance lifestyle, based on the preliminary plans that Swepsonville’s town council approved several years ago.
Dischinger envisioned the subdivision as a “showcase community” that would offer amenities such as gazebos, pickle ball courts, a community pavilion, dog park, and 73 acres of green space, he told the council in December 2018.
Floor plans will range between 1,673 and 1,883 square feet and offer a choice of two or three bedrooms and two bathrooms, plus high-end finishes such as custom cabinetry, a kitchen island, and master bedrooms with double walk-in closets, according to the builder, D. R. Horton, which is also building Cambridge Park in Mebane. All of the houses will have two-story garages, according to the builder’s website. Prices start at $326,990.
Models shown in 2018 as examples of what will be built at Quarry Hills
The subdivision will be built in two phases. The first, called the “East-West phase,” has 97 lots, Bullis said this week. To date, “54 building permits have been submitted, and 50 have been signed,” he said.
The second phase is still in the engineering stage, Bullis told the newspaper this week.
Roads have been completed for the “East-West phase”, the town administrator said, adding that there’s still some work that needs to be on the roads along the eastern side of the site.
Given the supply chain disruptions and labor shortages that have been attributed to the pandemic, causing slowdowns in construction and other sectors of the economy, Bullis told the newspaper that it’s impossible at this point to speculate when construction of the Quarry Hills subdivision might be complete.
Lots will be 55 feet wide, in keeping with a waiver that Swepsonville’s town council approved in 2018 to allow the developer to build on smaller lots than the minimum width, 80 feet, required under the town’s development ordinance.
Dischinger told the council at the time the yards in his 55-foot plan – one of two options he presented before a standing-room-only crowd that December – would be maintained by a homeowners’ association. Yards would’ve been maintained by individual homeowners under his second option, which called for 80-foot wide lots, in keeping with the minimum widths required by Swepsonville’s development ordinance.
Swepsonville’s council ultimately agreed, on a 3-2 vote, to grant the developer’s request for the waiver, provided that he meets a number of conditions, including: construction of common amenities; minimum lot sizes of 1,500 square feet; maintain a 20-foot buffer at the back of lots on the eastern side of the site; build internal streets that are a minimum of 28 feet wide; and market the homes to buyers 55 and older.
The houses in Quarry Hills are being built under D.R. Horton’s “Freedom Homes”
brand, one of four specialty brands that are targeted to fit buyers’ stages in life. The Freedom brand is marketed to older buyers seeking low-maintenance single-family homes.
By comparison, another one of the builder’s brands, “Express Homes,” is marketed to younger buyers looking for single-family homes at an affordable price, according to information from D.R. Horton.
Another project, by the same developer, is also getting starting nearby, just outside Mebane:
