Orange County farm still wants amphitheater, but drops planned inn, cottages
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- Union Grove Farm will proceed with grape distillery, drop lodging plans
- Orange County denies hospitality additions, citing traffic, noise and land use
- Farm will expand agritourism via tours, regenerative farming events and classes
The state’s third-largest vineyard is moving ahead with plans to expand its agricultural education offerings and fire up a distillery for sustainably grown Muscadine grapes just northeast of Chapel Hill.
Union Grove Farm has appealed Orange County’s denial in June of its plans for a 2,500-person amphitheater — the most controversial piece of the project — while advancing plans for a distillery crafting brandy and premium regenerative spirits, a 3-acre culinary garden, and its Center for Regenerative Agriculture.
Union Grove provided a rendering of the amphitheater Thursday that showed an open-air courtyard with a stage on one side and a two-story, covered space on the other. Tables surrounding the stage could hold a few hundred people, in addition to visitors there for farm tours, distillery visits and other activities, spokesman Monty Hagler said.
They have not decided whether food will be served, but food trucks are another possibility, he said.
“Union Grove Farm is excited to move forward with three key projects that will help us educate the public on the important role regenerative agriculture plays in restoring ecological balance, improving food security and building more resilient agricultural systems,” Union Grove founder and owner Greg Bohlen said.
In his June decision, Orange County Planning Director Cy Stober also rejected a 40-room farm stay center, 10 cottages, a 1,000-square-foot event space, and a 70-seat restaurant with an outdoor pool and bar.
Stober cited “substantial new dangers” from traffic and parking, plus the potential for drunk drivers, stormwater runoff, and excessive noise and lighting from the proposed uses. The cottages and inn are hospitality buildings with “no farm purpose,” he added.
“These hospitality uses disrupt and degrade the rural setting with intensive and transformative principal hospitality uses that are disruptive to the farm itself, consuming land for the structures and parking that could otherwise be used for a farm purpose, including agritourism that is integrative and compatible with the farm,” Stober said.
Bohlen said in June the farm stage and lodging “remain essential to fully realizing our mission.”
But on Thursday, Bohlen said in a release that he is no longer contesting the decision to deny the farm lodging or restaurant plans. He will fight to keep the amphitheater, however, calling it “a critical component of the long-term vision to supplement and sustain agricultural operations through educational, entertainment and recreational activities.”
A Board of Adjustment hearing has not yet been scheduled, but the board could meet again Aug. 13.
Farm goals clash with rural concerns
Union Grove was established in 2021 and now covers roughly over 1,200 acres in Orange County’s rural buffer, which prohibits water and sewer utilities in the area around Chapel Hill and Carrboro, limiting what can be built to prevent commercial sprawl.
A large portion of the farmland is undeveloped, and over 187 acres are part of a Triangle Land Conservancy conservation easement that restricts how the land can be used.
Union Grove planned the amphitheater for land in the conservation easement, prompting the nonprofit conservancy to appeal the planning director’s advisory opinion earlier this year. The advisory opinion initially found the amphitheater was an agritourism use, but the final determination in June reversed that decision. The Triangle Land Conservancy has since dropped its appeal.
Union Grove will now move forward with updating the farm’s architectural plans, ordering equipment and sourcing vendors for the regeneratively grown crops that will be used in the distillery, officials said in a release Thursday. There is no date yet for production to start at the distillery, Hagler said.
Transforming the former dairy feeding barn into a working distillery is going to take a lot of work, he said.
Union Grove neighbors have opposed Bohlen’s plans, with one group appealing the county’s decision earlier this year.
A website, Defend Maple View Community, was established to fight the project. In May, hundreds came out for a community meeting to learn more about the plans and share their concerns, from increased traffic to noise, lights and public safety.
The rural countryside around Union Grove has long been a popular destination for cyclists and fans of the former Maple View Farm, which produced milk, ice cream and other dairy products for decades.
Roger Nutter, whose father Bob Nutter started the farm in 1963, sold it to Bohlen and remains part of Union Grove’s management.
Since 2021, the dairy cows have been replaced with over 400 Katahdin sheep that graze on grass and weeds, adding organic matter to the vineyard and tilling the soil. Bohlen worked with Hillsborough resident Jeff Bloodworth, a former N.C. State grape breeder, to establish rows of his new grape, which has thin skins and no seeds.
The farm’s regenerative practices, from adaptive grazing to cover crops and reduced tilling, are aimed at improving the soil and water quality, making the farm more sustainable and productive, Union Grove officials have said.
The Center for Regenerative Agriculture is a key component of the farm’s agritourism plan, offering tours, events and regenerative farming workshops and classes, including vermicomposting with worms. The farm feeds the worms with waste from the Orange County Schools and Weaver Street Market, producing a nutrient-rich fertilizer.
Union Grove plans to expand the center, which has hosted over 200 farm tours in the last two years, Hagler said.
“We’ve led and hosted many workshops, field days and hands-on events, all focused on regenerative agriculture. People can schedule a regenerative farm tour or sheep herding experience on Eventbrite, hosted most Saturdays,” he said.
This story was originally published July 3, 2025 at 1:02 PM with the headline "Orange County farm still wants amphitheater, but drops planned inn, cottages."
