Greensboro weighs annexation for 900-home Old Randleman Road project

Greensboro has cleared the way for one of its biggest recent housing expansions, annexing more than 100 acres in the Old Randleman Road corridor for a project that could bring as many as 900 homes to the city’s southern edge.

The 104-acre site at 5101, 5113 and 5327 Old Randleman Road, north of Benedict Road, is tied to VennTerra, a Graham-based developer. City planners said the land could be built in phases, with up to 250 homes in the first phase and up to 650 in the second. The Greensboro City Council unanimously approved the annexation on May 19, after a public hearing that drew attention to the tension between Greensboro’s housing goals and the strain new density can place on a rural-leaning corridor.

The project matters well beyond a single subdivision. Greensboro is trying to add housing supply in a market where costs have stayed high, and city planners said the proposal fits the GSO 2040 comprehensive plan and the Road to 10,000 initiative, which aims to support 10,000 new housing units by 2030. If fully built, the development would raise density to about 8.67 units per acre, far above the roughly one home per acre allowed under the current County Agricultural and County RS-40 Residential Single-family zoning.

The annexation also gives the city a practical answer to one of the first questions surrounding major growth: can Greensboro serve it? Staff said fire, police and solid waste service could be provided after annexation without an immediate hit to response capabilities, and the property would gain access to city utilities, including water and sewer. That utility access is central to making the project feasible inside city limits.

But the debate around Old Randleman Road has never been only about supply. Greensboro’s Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval by a 7-2 vote on March 13, and neighbors have raised concerns about traffic, wells, stormwater, environmental impacts and the loss of neighborhood character in a community some families have held for generations. The city’s own Randleman Road Corridor Plan, Phase 2, covers a 2.3-mile stretch from the I-40 interchange to the city limits, and a December 2024 update showed residents were already focused on safety, sidewalks, bus stops, pedestrian access and walkability.

With annexation approved, the project now moves toward design and permitting, which the developer hopes to finish in 2026 before construction begins in 2027. For Greensboro, the Old Randleman Road plan is another test of whether added homes can ease housing pressure without overwhelming the roads and neighborhoods that must absorb them.