Photo via Meredith Saybe/Union Grove Farm.
To reflect on the year, Chapelboro.com is re-publishing some of the top stories that impacted and defined our community’s experience in 2025. These stories and topics affected Chapel Hill, Carrboro and the rest of our region.
When the Maple View Farm and Milk Company announced its closure in 2021, many wondered what would become of the hundreds of acres of famous Orange County farmland. In 2022, the community got the first part of an answer when the land was purchased by local venture capitalist Greg Bohlen. In April 2024, Bohlen announced his intentions to create a new business which would focus on growing grapes, brewing brandy, lodging guests, and hosting live music. The farm’s plans outside of its agricultural efforts were an “agritourism” venture, which is a business or businesses that aims to attract visitors to attend farm settings for education and entertainment. However, many community members disagreed that Union Grove’s plans met the definition of agritourism, instead alleging the farm was attempting to skirt around needing to rezone the land. Here’s how the dispute played out:
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Prior to 2025 – Maple View Farm purchased by Union Grove
Along the fence posts separate Dairyland Road from Union Grove Farm’s vineyards, signs about regenerative farming methods are posted to inform those traveling by.
Maple View Farm was run by the husband-and-wife pair Bob and Chris Nutter for more than 50 years before their deaths in 2019 and 2015, respectively. The Orange County business was known for its dairy products, with their ice cream becoming a local staple. The Nutters granted the Triangle Land Conservancy a conservation easement over the farm in 1995, which prohibits the construction of new buildings and structures in the designated area that aren’t for the sole purpose of agriculture.
In 2022, the land was purchased by Greg Bohlen. He is known for running Union Grove Venture Partners and for having early investment in businesses like Beyond Meat and Poshmark and is also a fifth-generation farmer. He repurposed the farm into a vineyard with a flock of sheep.
However, growing grapes and raising sheep were just part of Union Grove’s plans. Union Grove has added a rentable cabin, and it sells lamb and mutton to local restaurants. Bohlen partnered with Steven Raets of Sonark Media to build a brandy distillery. Plans also included a Center for Regenerative Agriculture to teach visitors about the farm’s environmentally-friendly methods, as well as a hotel. And of course, there was a plan to construct an outdoor amphitheater designed for live music as a final cherry on top of Union Grove’s “agritourism” sundae.
“It is a natural marriage, almost, to have the scenery that Greg has created together with the music – potentially – and together with the distillery,” Raets said at the time of the announcement. “The fact you can eat something, take your kids out on a Saturday, and just hang out. Both the kids can be entertained and the parents – and that’s a no-brainer. There’s not a lot of stuff like that out here.”
It was the plan to build an amphitheater on the land which would draw Union Grove into a controversy that would not be resolved until October of 2025.
May 2025 – Community criticizes Union Grove plans at public meeting
Image via Ben Crosbie/Chapel Hill Media Group
On May 28, more than two hundred people crowded into the meeting room of the Whitted Building in Hillsborough for a community meeting on the future of the property. Throughout the event, the crowd cheered and applauded emphatically as speakers voiced opposition toward Union Grove Farm and Bohlen for his plans to further commercialize the land.
Controversy centered around the aforementioned conservation easement. The area is also within the Orange County Rural Buffer zoning district, which prohibits most commercial and industrial activities in order to preserve locations for rural residential development and agricultural uses. While state law exempts farm-related activities from county zoning rules, this does not apply to non-farm-related land uses even if they’re taking place on farmland. Agritourism activities only qualify for the exemption if the farm setting is essential to the activity, rather than just being incidental.
The community group Defend Maple View Farm aimed to stop Bohlen’s further development plans, which they felt could ruin the local character. A GoFundMe fundraiser started by the group in order to pay for legal representation at the eventual planning board hearing raised nearly $13,000.
Derb Carter — an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center who owns a nearby farm and who grew up as a neighbor of the Nutters — said he felt it was laughable the extent to which Union Grove tried to categorize every idea as agritourism, and explained that one of the hallmarks of this category is generally having the same types of liabilities as regular farming practices.
“There’s a real attempt to try to qualify everything as somehow farm-related,” he said. “The hotel is a ‘farm stay.’ A 40-room hotel, some of the neighbors are calling it a Hyatt occasionally, but in the submission it’s a ‘farm stay.’ The amphitheater, in the latest submission, has become a ‘farm stage’ instead of a 2,500-seat amphitheater. I’ll just pose the question of whether a 2,500-seat amphitheater next to a distillery with a bar at night on country roads has the same liability as growing grapes.”
Susan Walser, a representative of Defend Maple View Farm, made a more visceral appeal to highlight the frustration of the community around Union Grove’s vision for the farm land.
“Imagine purchasing or building your home knowing that the Nutters placed a forever farming easement on the land that your property abuts and thinking that your forever home will be a quiet space listening to cows mooing in the background with birds singing over the ponds,” she said. “Now imagine waking up to years of endless moving equipment preparing illegal roads, illegal amphitheaters. Then imagine if an approval goes through and you are listening to concerts, crowds, and traffic all the time. A frustrating and disturbing proposition that none of us would want to be in.”
June 2025 – Orange County rejects amphitheater Plan, approves distillery and other projects
The distillery equipment installed at Union Grove Farm as of 2024, some of which came from Top of the Hill’s distillery after it shut down in February 2023 (Image via Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group)
On Wed., June 4, the Orange County Planning and Inspections Director Cy Stober sent a “Final and Binding Determination” letter to Union Grove Farm’s representatives on the project proposals. While the distillery and a culinary garden were deemed to have “bona fide farm purpose,” the local government said its zoning regulations would not permit the amphitheater nor any hotel and cottages because they lacked the same “farm purpose” needed to qualify for agritourism. The letter can be read in full here.
In a statement shared with Chapelboro, Bohlen indicated the farm was exploring its options for continuing with those elements of the farm — while appreciating the clarity from the county on the other agritourism amenities.
“The approval to add a culinary garden and regenerative distillery and continue our plans for the Center for Regenerative Agriculture will create opportunities to educate the public on the importance of regenerative agriculture to restore ecological balance, combat climate change, improve food security and build more resilient agricultural systems,” said Bohlen. “The proposed farm stage and on-site farm stays remain essential to fully realizing our mission. We are evaluating next steps and options as we seek approval for those components of our plan.
“We are dedicated,” the Union Grove Farm owner added, “to growing sustainable agriculture in Orange County while building a world-class educational experience at the third-largest vineyard in North Carolina — the first certified Regenified table grape vineyard in the United States. We are proud to be part of the community working to protect and preserve precious farmland.”
July 2025 – Union Grove Farm appeals ruling against “Farm Stage”
The July 2025 rendering of Union Grove’s musical stage plans, presented as a “farm stage” amid the business’ efforts to fit under the agritourism laws that dictate what can currently be built on the site. (Image via Union Grove Farm)
Following the county’s decision, Union Grove announced they would appeal the rejection of the amphitheater while accepting the rejection of their plans for overnight accommodations, conceding they did not meet the conservation easement’s requirements. In its appeal, Union Grove described the live-music concept as “a critical component of the long-term vision to supplement and sustain agricultural operations through educational, entertainment and recreational activities.”
“We filed the legal appeal because the Farm Stage is vital to achieving our long-term vision and our plans are consistent with North Carolina’s definition of agritourism, which has allowed more than 1,000 farms across the state to flourish,” Bohlen said in a statement to Chapelboro.
With the statement, the farm shared its first official rendering of Union Grove’s vision for the ill-fated Farm Stage. The artwork showed a covered performance area that would play to dozens of tables and chairs on the lawn near the distillery, as well as a two-story pavilion for visitors.
Aug. 2025 – Triangle Land Conservancy Files Lawsuit Against Union Grove Farm
Triangle Land Conservancy then filed a lawsuit against Union Grove Farm, alleging repeated violations to the nonprofit’s conservation easement. The complaint targeted the Farm Stage plan, as well as the continued construction of three roads on the property.
“We have been in protracted good-faith conversations with the owners of Union Grove Farm, but to no avail,” TLC Executive Director Sandy Sweitzer said in an Aug. 18 release. “Their continued construction of three prohibited roads through hard-wood forests and their plans for a prohibited 2500-seat amphitheater clearly violate the terms of the easement.”
The lawsuit specifically asks Orange County’s Superior Court to order remediation of the prohibited roads and declare the amphitheater as an easement violation. It also included opposing the classification of the amphitheater as “agritourism”
“[Union Grove has] been notified of the violations on multiple occasions and have been given more than the required time to remediate these violations,” Sweitzer continued. “So, as an accredited land trust, the next step in the easement violation process is for TLC to sue. We have no choice. We have over 180 conservation easements across more than 8,000 acres in the Triangle and have never seen such egregious violations as these. As an accredited land trust, TLC has an obligation to take this next step.”
Through a spokesperson, Union Grove Farm shared this statement with Chapelboro on Thurs., Aug. 21:
“Union Grove Farm is disappointed by the actions of Triangle Land Conservancy (TLC) in filing its lawsuit alleging violations of the Conservation Easement on our property, as well as their opposition to agritourism plans that support the mission of our working regenerative farm. This is a dramatic change from TLC’s board of directors’ initial written approval in March 2024 allowing us to expand the Farm envelope to allow for agritourism plans. Despite their change in position, we have honored the terms of our easement agreement and are confident we will prevail as this case moves forward.”
At the time, Union Grove’s hearing to appeal the county’s ruling was scheduled for Oct. 8.
Oct. 2025 – Union Grove Farm Pulls Out of Appeal for Music Stage
Union Grove Farm issued a statement on Oct. 5 saying it had pulled its appeal from the county government, citing community feedback and saying it would re-evaluate its proposal to “better reflect the inputs we’ve received.” The hearing was subsequently cancelled.
“Our vision has always been to cultivate a space that supports the long-term sustainability of the farm while creating meaningful opportunities for education, community connection, and a deeper understanding of regenerative agriculture,” read the statement shared on the farm’s social media. “We believe we can find a path forward that reflects both the needs of the community and supports the future of farming in our region.”
The statement about rescinding its appeal also indicated the farm will create “a revised plan that is more closely aligned with community expectations.” Those plans, barring any zoning changes to the property, would also require review from the county government.
“While we are grateful for the opportunity to engage with the community,” Union Grove leadership said, “we were disheartened by the personal attacks and mischaracterizations that occurred during the process – particularly concerning our certified regenerative vineyard practices. We stand by our commitment to sustainable agriculture and to operating our farm with integrity and transparency. Moving forward, we are committed to open dialogue, mutual respect, and shared problem-solving. We sincerely hope to continue working together to shape a future that benefits the land, the farm, and the community we’re proud to be a part of.”
When reached for comment about whether the farm withdrawing its appeal of the Orange County Planning Department’s determination would impact its lawsuit against Union Grove, Director of Communications Olivia Bowler said, “Triangle Land Conservancy is committed to preserving the conservation values on the property. We hope to reach a mediated agreement that strengthens the terms of the easement and protects the conservation values in perpetuity — as the original owners intended.”
Defend Maple View Community shared its own unsigned statement about the farm’s decision to drop its appeal, calling it “frustrating news” because of the time, money and resources spent on litigating the project.
“Thank you to everyone who has supported the defense of our community,” the group added. “These donations have covered nearly all the legal fees, and we will continue to need your support if there is a new request for an inappropriate agritourism use. We will continue our fight against agritourism abuse and will update the community on new meetings and/or hearings.”
The Future of Union Grove Farm
Union Grove Farm is moving forward with plans for the culinary garden, its Center for Regenerative Agriculture and distillery — all of which were approved — as it ramps up its grape operations, with its trademarked RazzMaTazz species beginning to become available for purchase.
As it continues to develop, there is little doubt the farm’s actions will be carefully scrutinized by groups like TLC and Defend Maple View Community. As indicated by the farm’s social media posts, Union Grove will continue to grow.
“With almost 100 acres of certified regenerative vineyard in Orange County, and plans to expand to more than 300 acres over the next 5 years, we’re committed to farming sustainably and preserving farmland for future generations,” a post from June 23 read.
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Top Stories Of 2025: Union Grove Farm’s Agritourism Plans Spark Legal Challenge, Community Criticism Chapelboro.com.
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