The Swepsonville Town Council held a public commentary meeting Sept. 22 where residents could address concerns about the upcoming Virginia Mills property project.
In late August, the town published a drafted site plan showing how they envisioned the property being used. The plan was met with much controversy, particularly on the Swepsonville Happenings Facebook page, where some residents voiced their concerns.
“The site plan was done in response to the next step in this process,” said Swepsonville Mayor Carrouth on Sept. 22. “We need to get approval from the state and DEQ (North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources).”
Carrouth said the plan is only tentative and it could change. One part that faced no criticism from locals was the idea of establishing a town hall on the property.
“All the people I’ve talked to have no problem with a new town hall,” said Swepsonville resident Jackie Lohr.
Lohr said she has lived in Swepsonville all her life and remembers playing in the local ballpark as a child. She said there is nothing in this town for children to do and that the council has lost sight of its community.
“We’re sitting here tonight, and we’re talking about people coming into this town and having great views of that river,” Lohr said. “We’re not even thinking about the people of this community.”
She and many others on Tuesday night said that the Virginia Mills property should stay within the town’s ownership. Many, including Swepsonville resident Kelly DuRee, were especially wary about residential development.
“I'm curious as to why we would think we would need so much more residential in that area,” DuRee said. “I'm fine with the town hall and even potential retail spots, but packing people into townhouses in that area is a disaster waiting to happen.”
In response, town council member Travis Sapp added that previous studies they looked into showed that potential developers don’t want to invest in a piece of land unless they know there are people nearby who are willing to shop.
“Developers want to come in, want to put a shop in there and allow people to come to it,” Sapp said.
DuRee said she understood where the council was coming from, but she was worried Swepsonville's future might turn into one of their neighboring municipalities, with residents mentioning Mebane as an example. .
Town council member and newcomer Lee Walls said that they can’t guarantee what sort of commercial work will be done to the Virginia Mills property.
“We can't make any promises about what kind of commercial will go there, but it does give us the potential to do some of the stuff that we would want to do,” Walls said.
Walls said he often takes his kids down to the trails and parks in Saxapahaw, but he wants to be able to do that here in his home. Carrouth said they want the property to have trails that connect to the old ballpark land that is also another current town project.
The ballpark was also a concern for those who attended the public comment period. Keith Lohr, a retired fire captain of the Burlington Fire Department and Jackie’s husband and Swepsonville resident, brought up concerns about the ballpark property.
“I coached ball there,” Keith said. “My wife's kids played ball there. My neighbor's kids played ball there. They coached. We paid for that property, not the town.”
Carrouth said the town council is in the process of building a tentative site plan for the ballpark and that project will likely be completed before the Virginia Mills property will open. However, he did encourage residents to stick to talking about the future downtown property rather than the ballpark.
Keith also said he doesn’t want this town to turn into another Saxapahaw, another small town within Alamance County that converted the Rivermill to residential properties and businesses.
“We all know that Saxapahaw is private land,” he said. “This is town land.”
Some residents were concerned about keeping the river safe and avoiding runoff once construction starts. Others were concerned about the economic impact this big project would have.
Swepsonville is one of only seven municipalities in the state that do not charge a property tax on its residents. Carrouth said they don’t have intentions of funding this project using property taxes.
The town council did reiterate throughout the meeting that this is just a tentative plan.
“We are not real estate developers and we are not residential developers,” Carrouth said.
He said they are going to present the plan to the DEQ so it can be approved by the state but that nothing is permanent. He said their priority is building a new town hall.