Board rejects 55-plus arts village in rural Orange County. Here’s what they said.
His group’s plan to build a 55-plus, arts village in rural Orange County was rejected Thursday night, but the dream is not dead, said Edwin Cox, president of Hands Four Development Cooperative.
The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted 6-0 against expanding a rural neighborhood commercial node at N.C. 54 and Morrow Mill Road to include the 90-acre Fiddlehead Corner project. They also rejected rezoning the land for a master plan development.
A third, 6-0 vote will allow family care homes to be part of future master plan developments, which guide what can be built and where.
Fiddlehead Corner would have added 100 homes, apartments, duplexes and triplexes on 30 acres, preserving the rest of the land. The community would also have included recreation and health facilities, a six-bed family care home, and spaces for music, dance and the arts.
The county needs more housing options, especially for older adults, the commissioners said, and they appreciated the amenities that Fiddlehead Corner offered. But they questioned the potential risks of a community well and wastewater system, and whether the plan matched the county’s land-use plan.
Commissioner Jean Hamilton called the project “a very novel approach” to 55-plus housing, but said the commercial node is meant for mom-and-pop stores and small businesses serving rural neighbors and farms.
“I don’t see this development as that,” she said. “It is a residential community for a group of people, with a community center and a family care home, but that’s not to me consistent with a rural (node), and extending that ... would change the character of that area.”
Fiddlehead Corner residents could support the rural businesses, Commissioner Sally Greene said, and she’s not “particularly troubled” by the zoning issue. But “I can’t get past the amount of water” needed to support the community, she added.
“What I don’t think we can predict is what that looks like in 30, 50 years for the people who live in that part of Orange County,” Greene said. “I don’t know what the climate is going to do. It might be fine, but if it’s not, we’ve got some folks who are really out of luck.”
Trying to fit into a rural landscape
Fiddlehead Corner is the longtime vision of the nonprofit Triangle Traditional Music and Dance Retirement Society, which formed Hands Four Development in 2023. The group paid $1.1 million that same year for the land at Morrow Mill Road and Gold Mine Loop.
Neighbors organized to fight the project, packing the seats at a Feb. 4 hearing in Hillsborough to share their worries with the commissioners. The project could strain wells and groundwater, pose environmental risks, and add traffic, lights and noise, they said.
It could also sacrifice more farms and rural land to suburban sprawl, neighbor Aditi Watson said.
“Currently, our community consists of like-minded people striving for the same goals, living close to the land, feeding animals, growing gardens,” Watson said. “We want to protect this farming neighborhood from being destroyed, which will most definitely happen if this project is pushed through.”
Hands Four Development members acknowledged they don’t have experience building a neighborhood, but they hired experts who do. The project would follow local and state rules, and incorporate the latest wastewater technology, they said.
“We have all poured our heart’s blood into this project and thought how best to do this to have the least impact on surrounding folks, to preserve as much nature as possible,” said member Ellen Lohr-Hinkle, who lives in Pittsboro. “I hear a lot of fear from the opposing side. No one wants change. They’re afraid of what’s happening.”
The Morrow Mill Road site is what they found after searching for land in four Triangle counties, Cox said after Thursday’s vote.
They will study what the commissioners said and draft a different plan, he said, whether that’s a compact subdivision, individual homes on smaller lots, or something else.
“This is not by any means the only way of going about it in that location,” Cox said.
Is this in the county’s rural buffer?
No. Orange County’s rural buffer, which bans public utilities and dense development on roughly 37,000 acres surrounding Chapel Hill and Carrboro, ends near Dodson’s Crossroads about three miles east.
The project site is zoned for rural residential and agricultural uses. There is no access to public water and sewer.
Greene said she doubted “the notion that it’s wrong to disrupt farmland by putting a cluster of housing in rural Orange County,” so she talked with former County Commissioner Barry Jacobs and Roger Waldon, Chapel Hill’s former town planner.
Both men were there when the rural buffer was created, she said.
“I wanted to confirm what I thought was true ... which is that the notion of conservation or cluster subdivisions was in their mind from the beginning,” Greene said. “This is not a new thing.”
How would Fiddlehead Corner work?
The Triangle Traditional Music and Dance Retirement Society is asking interested buyers to join with a $1,000 tax-deductible donation. The cost for a refundable “core share” in Hands Four Development, which comes with a vote and seat at the planning table, is $8,000.
Similar to a senior housing cooperative, the project targets older adults who still live independently and has 34 members so far. They would collectively own the community and make decisions.
Over 60% of the nation’s senior housing cooperatives are located in Minnesota, according to Senior Living, an online media outlet.
Most owners pay a monthly lease, instead of a mortgage, but still get homeowner tax benefits. When they sell, the cooperative can buy their home and also approves new owners. Members receive their share cost, plus accrued equity, from the sale.
Does Orange County need senior housing?
Orange County could see a 68% increase in the number of residents age 65 and older by 2040, according to the recent Master Aging Plan. The county’s Advisory Board on Aging wrote a letter supporting Fiddlehead Corner’s plan.
More Fiddlehead Corner details
What’s there: A 125-acre farm, with a forest and a farmhouse built in 1957.
The plan: Up to 36 single-family homes, 24 duplexes and triplexes, and 40 apartments. A family care home.
Amenities for residents include: 10,000-square-foot community center, with event hall, commercial kitchen and library; pool, fitness and health centers; pickleball courts, walking trails and community gardens; and “maker” spaces for woodworking, crafts and dance.
How would it provide water and sewer?
By drilling community wells and installing an Orenco AdvanTex wastewater treatment system regulated by the state.
The AdvanTex system separates liquid waste from solids, circulating 15,000 to 18,000 gallons a day through textile filters. The discharge produced can be used to flush toilets and irrigate landscaping, reducing the fresh water needed to process waste. It also requires a smaller drain field than a traditional septic system, according to an engineer with Agri-Waste Technology Inc.
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Board rejects 55-plus arts village in rural Orange County. Here’s what they said.."
