Senate leader wants to grab land from a NC town. Is it for diversity or a GOP donor? | Opinion

North Carolina state Senate leader Phil Berger is now a champion of affordable housing and promoter of diverse communities.

Who knew?

The people of Summerfield didn’t. The Guilford County town of 11,000 outside Greensboro is a Republican stronghold in Berger’s Senate district. But now their senator is pushing through a bill that would deannex nearly 1,000 acres of the town. The change will make the property part of the county and allow developer David Couch to build apartment complexes and other housing that would double the town’s population.

Town leaders say the proposed development – a 973-acre mixed-used project known as the “Villages of Summerfield Farms” – would be too much too fast in a town with two-lane rural roads and without municipal water and sewer services.

But Berger says he’s tired of waiting for the town to provide the zoning change and infrastructure that would make more development possible. The deannexation bill, House Bill 5, has passed the Senate and may be taken up by the House this week.

In a letter to Summerfield Mayor Tim Sessoms, Berger wrote: “I have a responsibility to step in when a local unit of government fails to take obvious and reasonable steps in the public interest, including creation of an environment conducive to addressing needs for housing and essential services for its citizens.”

If you’re having trouble following Berger’s conversion from conservative Republican to usurper of local government, you might try following the money. Developer Couch, a major contributor to Republicans and to Berger.

Jolinda Babcock, a local attorney, is one of many Summerfield residents opposed to the deannexation. She said the town has adjusted its zoning to accommodate more multifamily housing, but the developer wants to build on a scale that exceeds the town’s capacity to absorb it. Most homes in the town rely on septic systems and well water.

Babcock is flummoxed by Berger’s support for the project despite so much local opposition.

“The only conclusion is that Sen. Berger is ignoring thousands of his constituents to help one developer,” she said. “You hate to think that about a politician you voted for, but what other conclusion can you come to?”

One alternative conclusion is that Berger is doing it for the reason he stated: To allow denser and more affordable housing in a relatively wealthy town where multifamily housing is scarce and most homes are set on large lots.

Melvin “Skip” Alston, a Guilford County commissioner and former president of the North Carolina NAACP, said Summerfield has resisted opening up to more multi-family housing because “that brings in a more diverse population.”

Census numbers show Summerfield is 88.5 percent white and 4.7 percent Black. Nearby Greensboro is evenly split between white and Black populations, each at 43 percent.

Alston supports the de-annexation. He said, “There are other ways to make people do the right thing when they are intent on not being inclusive.”

Others think Berger is going too far. State Sen. Gladys Robinson, a Guilford County Democrat, voted against the bill allowing the de-annexation. She said it would be better to let the developer and the town work out their differences.

“I think the worst thing is when the state interferes with local governments,” she said. “And this legislature has a history in the last 10 or 12 years of really pushing local governments around.”

Rep. Pricey Harrison, another Guilford County Democrat, said Berger’s intervention to assist a developer is a bad look. “It’s just so wrong to have a well-placed campaign donor getting his way because he could not get it through the proper channels,” she said.

Berger’s reasons for seeking an end run around Summerfield’s government would be more plausible if he showed similar concern for affordable housing elsewhere. Under his leadership, the legislature has instead emphasized state tax cuts that put pressure on local property taxes that in turn increase the cost of housing.

Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-404-7583, or nbarnett @newsobserver.com