D.R. HORTON: The big yellow dust cloud in the middle of town

Developer D.R. Horton is clear-cutting 467 acres of forestland in Jamestown to build 1,500 homes. Despite concerns about environmental impact, the development agreement was amended in favor of D.R. Horton. The town faces expired stormwater permits and issues with wastewater treatment. Residents' objections are disregarded. The water supply is threatened by contamination.

Developer D.R. Horton is currently clear-cutting 467 acres of undeveloped forestland in the Randleman Water Supply Critical and Protected Watershed where it plans to pack in 1,500 homes and apartments. This is a collection of photos and videos shot in July by residents driving down MacKay Road (and two drone images).

After several years of heated debates between town residents and town council members, Jamestown’s hired land attorney – High Point resident Tom Terrell – renegotiated and rewrote the D.R. Horton/Jamestown Development Agreement in the final hours, giving D.R. Horton everything asked for. Despite pleas by Jamestown residents, no flooding or stormwater impact studies, environmental studies or infrastructure planning was done by the Town of Jamestown, Guilford County, the state of North Carolina or the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Eastside Wastewater Treatment Plant, which will process the sewage and wastewater from the 1,500-home development, is near capacity and in a constant state of noncompliance, with numerous air emissions, phosphorus and water violations. Eastside’s NPDES permit has been expired since 2018.

Randleman Lake (PTRWA) which supplies drinking water to Jamestown, Greensboro and High Point is plagued with 1,4-Dioxane, PFAS, volatile organic compounds and metals. PTRWA is currently trying to fund a $120 million reverse osmosis system for its treatment plant, in order to remove and reverse the contamination from ongoing and past decades of manufacturing, chemical and landfill discharge into Deep River from High Point, Greensboro and Jamestown factories, contaminated superfund sites, and properties.

Three contaminated Brownfield sites sit uphill from the D.R. Horton property along West Gate City Blvd., with groundwater flowing downhill to Bull Run. These excerpts are from engineers’ site assessments attached to a Brownfield application that was approved last year for Fortress Wood Products (finishers) and parent company Lester Properties

Read more about this dense development and the problems it poses for Jamestown’s aging infrastructure and unmonitored water supply streams in the “RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENTS” section of our website.