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GREENSBORO — People living in Forest Oaks wanted a grocery store nearby, so they organized and lured one.

The Guilford County Planning Board approved plans for a Food Lion there in February, which may have been the crack in the dam.

On Wednesday, the southeast Guilford neighborhood got more signs of the coming flood when the planning board approved rezoning for a 276-home development and another shopping center with a Lowes Foods.

Those developments are coming to a rural part of Guilford County. Sidewalks are rare. Farms are abundant.

All that open land around U.S. 421 and Liberty Road appears ripe for growth.

"In the next three years, you could easily see 1,200 to 1,500 new rooftops," said David Gearhart, president of the Southeast Guilford Community Association.

That group formed a year ago to attract a grocery store. Residents were frustrated with the half-hour trip for a loaf of bread.

Now, they've built upon that to help guide the coming stream of new projects.

Gearhart said three more residential developments could be on the way.

"That I'm aware of, there are very few areas that have community associations like this," he said.

The residential development across from Southeast Guilford High School includes town houses and patio homes priced from $160,000 to $250,000. They will be built by Megabuilders, a company run by Guilford County Commissioner Mike Winstead.

On Wednesday, the association helped add last-minute plans for a school crosswalk, turning lanes and a crossing guard in the new neighborhood. The group also worked to lower the number of units there from 359 homes to 276.

And those were just the decisions that were made at the last minute Wednesday.

Derek Allen, an attorney and investor in the residential development, said the neighbors were willing to negotiate on what they wanted. In turn, the developer was agreeable to requests to build buffers and preserve open space.

It's a different take on the traditional role of neighbors resisting new development.

"They were able to achieve things on this project that they would not have been able to if they had said they didn't want it," Allen said.

In theory, a developer can do anything with property as long as it meets requirements set by the planning board.

Southeastern Guilford County appears to be a hotbed for development, developers and planners said.

"I can see the southeast part of the county and the eastern part continuing to be strong," said Greg Niles, Guilford County's planning director.

As the development comes around Forest Oaks, the association that Gearhart leads will work more on how those plans look.

Not bad for a group that's only a year old.

"We're still learning," Gearhart said. "Our purpose is to disseminate information to the community and to bring quality growth."

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com