One large developer in Summerfield – farmer David Couch – is reportedly trying to get much of his property de-annexed from the town in order to build a large residential development.

However, there are also property owners, more than 15 of them, who would like to have their property annexed by the town.

At the Tuesday, Aug. 8 meeting of the Summerfield Town Council, councilmembers heard details of the requests and voted to set a public hearing on the matter for Thursday, Sept. 14.

Former Summerfield Mayor BJ Barnes, who’s also the former sheriff of Guilford County, told the Rhino Times that some homeowners want to be annexed by Summerfield because of the services that would be provided and also said that some owners do not want to eventually be annexed by the City of Greensboro.

Others said that the services offered by the town are extremely limited and the overwhelming factor in residents wanting annexation by Summerfield is simply the fear that their property will one day be annexed by Greensboro.

Under current state law, property annexations must be voluntary, but some living near Summerfield appear to be seeking “insurance” that their land and homes don’t end up eventually as part of the City of Greensboro.

While Summerfield has low property taxes, becoming part of Greensboro – if, say, state annexation law changes in the future – would mean nearly doubling the amount of property tax those owners are now paying. They currently only pay property taxes to Guilford County.

Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan said just before Summerfield’s August 8 meeting that she had been keeping an eye on the annexation requests in Summerfield. She said she had asked city planning staff if the current annexations proposed for Summerfield were of any concern to Greensboro based on existing annexation agreements the city has with the Town of Summerfield.

This week, a member of Greensboro’s planning staff wrote in an email to Vaughan, “All of the addresses are OK for Summerfield to annex. The addresses on Lunsford Road and Hedgerow Court are located in the part of the Summerfield Annexation Agreement where both cities have the right to annex property.”

One concern Summerfield leaders have with the slate of current annexation requests is that some are for property that isn’t contiguous with the town’s borders.  At the August 8 Town Council meeting, some town staff and town council members said they would like to see annexations done for entire streets or larger subsections in the future rather than for individual property owners in a piecemeal fashion.

Summerfield Town Manager Scott Whitaker said annexation of contiguous property in larger masses would mean “much cleaner additions to our corporate limits.”

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