On January 17, 2023 the Jamestown Council approved a Development Agreement with DR Horton for 1,500 homes and apartments on 467 acres of undeveloped CLASS IV Critical Randleman Water Supply Watershed.
The watershed determines the density. The more sensitive the watershed (i.e., if the streams, rivers and lakes are drinking water source for public water systems), the lower the number of homes a developer can build in that watershed.
Jamestown’s land attorney miscalculated the acceptable density number for the Development by not including all of the proposed units in his calculation.
In North Carolina, density is defined as a “units per acre” or “built-upon area” percentage, as explained in 15A NCAC 02B .0624:
On DR HORTON’s Site Plan dated Feb 1, 2022, circled in red below), Jamestown’s attorney, Tom Terrell, said the housing density planned for the development is 3.2 units per acre.
When applying the unit per acre number, the developer must divide TOTAL UNITS by TOTAL PROJECT AREA (developable and impervious areas) and NOT total 467 acres. DR Horton’s attorney and Terrell used this formula, but they didn’t include the 500 apartments in the TOTAL UNITS number.
In the info box on the site plan, the number of apartment units is shown as ZERO, yet the apartment units’ acreage is 22.3.
By not including the apartment units, the calculation is: TOTAL UNITS (998) divided by TOTAL PROJECT AREA (313.51 acres) equals 3.2 units per acre.
The PROPER calculation is TOTAL UNITS (1,478) divided by TOTAL PROJECT AREA (313.51) which equals 4.71 units per acre:
The definition of density and how it is to be calculated in the RANDLEMAN WATERSHED is defined in 15A NCAC 02B .0624, WATER SUPPLY WATERSHED PROTECTION PROGRAM.
If the Terrell had applied the “Built-Upon” percentage instead, it still comes out to a density number that’s too high for this area: TOTAL BUILT-UPON ACRES (241.2) divided by TOTAL PROJECT AREA ACRES (313.5) equals 77% built-upon area.
This 77% built-upon percentage is PROHIBITED in the Randleman WS-IV Critical Watershed.
NOTE: The Amended and Restated Development Agreement signed by D.R. Horton and the Town of Jamestown in June 2025 shows the number of planned apartment units has dropped to 320, and the built-upon area (for the multi-family area) has dropped from 22 acres to 12.
Plugging in the new numbers, the new density number is 4.2 units per acre [TOTAL UNITS (1,318) divided by TOTAL PROJECT AREA (313.51)] which equals 4.2 units per acre. The TOTAL BUILT UPON percentage is 74%.
Still too high.