'Savior' pulls out of Pittsboro deal

Toll Brothers had agreed to pay impact fees and help with wastewater

PITTSBORO -- In 2005, Pittsboro's mayor, Nancy May, declared Toll Brothers builders the town's "savior" because the luxury home developer agreed to help build a new, bigger wastewater treatment plant in return for the town's approving its 1,500-home subdivision.

Two years later, Toll Brothers has pulled out of the deal.

Pittsboro Town Planner David Monroe says Toll Brothers will not buy the 773 acres it had optioned at U.S. 64 Business and Bypass, near the Haw River State Natural Area.

Part of the land is now under contract with Preston Development, a company backed by SAS Institute founder Jim Goodnight, according to Vanessa Jenkins, Preston's marketing director. Preston, which built the 2,000-acre Preston subdivision in Cary, has amassed more than 5,000 acres in and around Pittsboro.

Tom Anhut, a Toll Brothers vice president based in Raleigh, confirmed that his company is dropping its plans. But he would not say why the company decided against building River Oaks, a 1,546-home subdivision.

During the permitting process in 2005, Toll Brothers, which also developed Brier Creek Country Club in Raleigh, had agreed to pay the town $6.8 million in impact fees up front to help Pittsboro build a wastewater treatment plant, which the growing town needs to lift a years-long development moratorium. The town of 2,500, which is expected to triple in size in the next few years, has approved so many homes that it is out of wastewater capacity.

The company agreed also to let the town return effluent to spray on the private 18-hole golf course it had planned to build. Pittsboro needed an alternative to its current discharge site, Roberson Creek, which the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Water Act classifies as an impaired stream. High chlorophyll content means Roberson Creek cannot take more treated wastewater than it already does.

In addition, there were plans for walking trails, and the developer had agreed to donate 30 acres for a school or civic center.

After the town board approved Toll Brothers' plans, May said, "The way I feel, Toll Brothers is going to be our savior. Pittsboro can't afford to do this on our own."

To date, Toll Brothers has paid the town $250,000, Monroe said.

Monroe said he expects to strike a deal with Preston to build the wastewater treatment plant. But Jenkins said her company does not yet know what it plans to do with the land -- either develop it or sell it to another developer.