May 3, 2006

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            If approved, the pool and parking lot will just have squeaked by. Both the planning and town boards turned down the proposed plan in March because of concerns about the pool location in a flood-prone area. Last month the town board agreed to waive the six-month waiting period for re-application because the developer, Lennar Communities of Carolina, had changed the plan, placing only the parking lot in the floodplain area.

            Tuesday night the planning board also considered amending the zoning ordinance to include the state- and FEMA-required Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance. Commissioner David Camacho asked if the Thornrose plan would be approved under those new provisions and was told no. “They would not have been able to put the parking lot in,” Planning Director Chip Russell said.

            As it was, the pool engineer, Harold Yelle, was questioned closely by board members Peter Thibodeau and Wade Marrotti about the fill involved, the amount of impervious surface, the disposition of rainwater from the parking lot and the impact on nearby wetlands and Smith Creek.

            Those two plus Tom Cornett voted not to recommend the project. Two members were missing from Tuesday’s meeting, Michael Martin and Stephen Stoller.

            Thibodeau said he was particularly bothered because the stormwater management for the parking lot is “one of the worst possible,” a sheet flow from the lot “into a filter strip that is not on the plan. It’s going to have the same impact as the original proposal, which we denied.”

            Cornett appeared to be bothered by the thick binder of information to back up Lennar’s contention the plan meets all eight of the requirements for a special use permit. Attorney Harold Russell passed out the binder as he began his presentation for the project. “What part does this book play in this?” Cornett asked.

            Chairman Bob Hill had already asked what they were to do with the binder. Just before the vote, he warned other developers: “Don’t bring us another book five minutes before a public hearing and expect us to take action that night. This is really unfair.”

            There were a number of Thornrose residents at the hearing, which followed strict evidentiary rules as a quasi-judicial proceeding. The board bent the rules a little and allowed five minutes for the residents to speak, but only Stan Rock took them up, saying the decision does affect their lives because they had chosen the subdivision as a good community with a pool. “It’s a big deal for us.” He held his toddler son as he spoke.

            There were also a number of questions about the pool and parking in Bishop’s Grant subdivision.

            Dale Wiggins, who has recently moved to Old Murray Road adjacent to the pool and planned townhouse area, said his driveway was completely washed out when crews were flushing a fire hydrant. He has been told he can expect similar events in the future. Wiggins was also concerned about the amount of noise from the pool. The bedrooms in his house face the pool and are 200-300 feet from it, he said, with no buffer.

            Becky Parsons, Wiggins’ next-door neighbor, had a slightly different story. “We worked really hard with the developers” before construction began, and the neighbors and Contentnea Creak Development reached a formal, signed agreement. “They’ve done everything they said they would do.”

            She did want to bring up one clause, which said future plans would be submitted to Ron Adams for his and the neighbors’ approval before going to the town. Adams has moved and sold his house to Wiggins.

            LaMarr Bunn, speaking for the developer, said all the stormwater runoff will be captured and piped off the site. He also said he would speak with Wiggins before the town board meeting. Russell said the planning staff would go back to look at the construction drawings to make sure runoff does not leave the site.

            There was no opposition to Bunn’s plan for 48 townhouses adjacent to the pool in Bishop’s Grant. The townhouses will be clustered around a large wooded area which will not be touched.

            The Home Builders Association of Raleigh and Wake County is not pleased with the proposed Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance. Suzanne Harris, representing the group, asked that the town delay approving it because it goes “above and beyond what is required for national flood insurance.”

            The town planning staff has added provisions that make it more stringent than the model ordinance required by the state and FEMA, which wanted the town to adopt it before May 1 but only published the model 70 days ago.

            Russell said they had restudied Richland Creek using a future conditions format and found that flood levels in the future could be at what were called the 500-year flood level. In order to be uniform throughout town, the staff decided to use the same format for Smith Creek. Russell said a great deal of development is expected in both watershed, and that they are already finding flooding from thunderstorms goes well beyond what they thought it would.