Orange County wants to sell about 45 acres on Millhouse Road in north Chapel Hill for a non-profit owned and operated field sports complex that would provide private and public use. Bids for the property, near Duke Forest, are due Sep. 18. There would be deed restrictions to guarantee continued field use.
The leading candidate reportedly is the N.C. Football Club of Raleigh, a nonprofit and well-regarded youth soccer provider, according to Panoramic Orange column last month by Terri Buckner.
The property was purchased by the county for $1,260,500 in 2004 as a future park site and considered likely to be paired with Chapel Hill fields to host weekend soccer tournaments and attract tourist spending. Its proximity to I-40 was considered a key asset.
But Chapel Hill’s rec leadership changed, no longer interested (after they got turf fields at Cedar Falls) and didn’t have any funds for park development. The county had other priorities and no money. Then the game changed.
The N.C. Football Club approached the county about buying the property and building fields with private money.
The county commissioners apparently first discussed the matter at a November 2025 work session and again March 17 when they moved ahead on putting it on the market. The project again was reviewed July 9 when they agreed to proceed with solicitation of offers to purchase. A new appraisal ($648,000) for the land was received.
The purchaser will be responsible for building, maintaining fields for soccer, lacrosse, or other field sports and parking, restrooms, stormwater retention, storage facilities. There will be memoranda requiring public access and continued use of the fields. If the fields aren’t used as intended, the county said, the land will revert back to them.
The size of the parcel was reduced from 69 acres to 45 acres because some of it was environmentally sensitive with a stream and unsuitable for fields. The county could get a conservation easement for those 24 acres.
But it’s not all roses. The property is in the Joint Planning Area and Rural Buffer and has no water or sewer service, but the site is across the road from the Chapel Hill public works yard which has OWASA service.
The sale also could have a major impact on Chapel Hill’s budget. The town brought in nearly $600,000 in field rentals, mostly soccer, last year.
CSN columnist and soccer advocate John Nieman commented, “I hope the fields can be used by an organization that promotes recreational, low entry cost, soccer rather than more ‘pay to play.’ But that is a dire hope.”