On Jan. 15, the Greensboro City Council, with Guilford’s support, rezoned the wooded area abutting the Armfield Athletic Field, allowing for the construction of controversial new high-density apartments. The council’s decision, and the college’s approval of the new development, highlight tensions generated by the expansion of both the city and the college. Dubbed Hodgin’s Retreat, the new apartments could potentially ease Guilford ‘s housing shortage, guaranteeing the college’s support while drastically altering the topography of the surrounding environment, prompting the enmity of many students, faculty and residents of surrounding neighborhoods.

“Everyone in these neighborhoods has basically been told ‘making money is more important to us than your quality of life,'” said Jack Zerbe, professor of theater studies, and one of the small community of active and retired professors who live on George White Road, one of the neighborhoods directly affected by the new development. “Some people who live around here only found out about it in the paper. No one ever tried to contact me. I’ve lived here for 18 years. That isn’t how it is supposed to work. The only people I see who like it are the developers, and the city, because they’ll get more tax revenue.”

The college benefits from the new development as well. Guilford’s size has increased every year since 2004 and the college has struggled to find enough housing for the ever-increasing influx of new students. Hodgin’s Retreat, which is closer to the library than the North Apartments, will provide housing for up to 150 students.

“The train has left the station on this issue,” said Kent Chabotar, president of Guilford, who wrote a letter to the city council endorsing the development. “Now the challenge is to make it the best possible project with the least possible damage to the neighborhood and environment.”

Construction of Hodgin’s Retreat will begin in mid-March. The city council vote was the last possible impediment to the development. The apartments will be operational by the beginning of next fall semester.

“I think it’s going to be a problem,” said Paul Zopf, retired Dana professor of sociology and resident of George White Road. “We love this place and until recently we have enjoyed living here, but things are changing in ways that produce a lot of anxiety for me.”

The nature of the George White community began to shift with the beginning of the fall semester, when the housing-starved college moved five students into the neighborhood. Zopf now regularly finds beer cans littering his yard, keeping company with the trash left by Kaiser House party-goers. He expects such behavior to increase with the construction of Hodgin’s Retreat.

“I don’t think there is any malice in it, it is just what happens when people drink too much and are irresponsible,” Zopf said. “(When) they moved students in next door they didn’t ask us our opinion or tell us. The college didn’t even tell us the re-zoning was taking place.”

George White Road currently sees little more than foot traffic. The construction of a cut-through to the Hodgin’s Retreat parking lot will increase the number of cars using the road. The college also plans to widen George White Road, which is narrow and pockmarked with pot holes, to accommodate emergency vehicles.

The cut-through road to George White is partially the developer’s attempt to ease the pressure on Foxwood Drive, a secluded neighborhood overshadowed by the Guilford woods whose residents strongly oppose the development.

“These apartments will dramatically change the nature of the Foxwood Drive neighborhood,” Zerbe said. “We aren’t talking about putting three or four houses in there. This is an apartment complex with up to 150 people living there. 150 people with cars going up and down that street. This will seriously change, and I think, diminish the quality of life for those people.”

Few Guilford students even know that Foxwood Drive exists, and because of that the community is able to remain relatively insular. There is very little traffic, which allows this quiet and tight-knit community to exist apart from the suburban sprawl that dominates the city.

“Foxwood Drive is this country lane in the middle of Greensboro covered by a canopy of oak trees,” said junior Gabriela Spang, resident of Foxwood Drive. “I know my neighbors, I’m friends with them. (Pamela Robertson, a resident of Foxwood Drive) walks her dog down the street in her nightgown, and she doesn’t even have to think twice about it. That isn’t something you can quantify, but it really angers me to see that taken away from them.”

Pamela Robertson is particularly concerned with the threat development poses to previously established neighborhoods like Foxwood Drive. If property on the periphery of neighborhoods is allowed to be developed, particularly with high-density housing, then property values plummet, damaging the livelihood of middle-class homeowners.

“Randall Dixon (the developer behind Hodgin’s Retreat) acted with complete disregard for the community,” said Robertson, who spoke against the development at both the re-zoning commission and the city council meeting. “Which is what you expect from developers – it’s a rapacious business. But we were exceedingly disappointed with the college. The college is looking at short-term gain over the long-term loss of the community. This development may serve the college’s interest. But the next one may not.”

Dixon is currently negotiating for the area that contains Kaiser house. If negotiations conclude in his favor, he hopes to knock down the notorious party-house and build town-homes for faculty and staff.

“This re-zoning decision isn’t going to be the end of development around here,” Chabotar said. “The Northwest quadrant of Greensboro is booming, the pressure to develop is (strong). We are approached regularly because we own 350 acres but we actually only use 110 acres.”

The college has no plans to allow development on its property.