May 24, 2006

Published in Wake Forest, NC

• Big strip centers and stoplights made a mess of N.C. 98 west (Durham Road). In one opinion, it is unfixable.

• South Main Street (U.S. 1-A) between Rogers Road and Capital Boulevard (U.S. 1) was called “ugly, nonfunctional.” The commissioners noted widespread discontent among town residents over issues like this.

• Access to major roads – the new bypass, Capital Boulevard. They said the new Golden Corral restaurant is too close to the South Main-Capital Boulevard-New Falls of the Neuse intersection and could have had access from another road. They want policy guidelines about service roads and interconnected parking lots.

• Floodplains. Some of these questions or concerns may have been settled by the Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance and associated map the commissioners adopted last week. It prohibits building in what was formerly called the 500-year floodplain for all but essential structures such as roads and other uses that must prove a compelling need through a variance process.

• The commissioners had questions about the fairly recent rezoning which placed the seminary campus and the land it owns around it in a separate district.

• Ten and 11 years ago, the then developers of Wakefield would have been happy to be annexed into Wake Forest, but there were problems. There were sharp differences of opinions among commissioners and town residents, and the town was not prepared to provide water and sewer. Raleigh offered services and gained the nearly 2,000 acres.

• The State Employees Credit Union was approved and built at the intersection of Jenkins Road and Capital where the plan called for residential use and there were nearby residences. If the plan had been strictly applied, it could not have become commercial. (In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the planning board envisioned Capital Boulevard as a tree-lined boulevard. It was particularly urged by L.K. Stephenson, whose house, the third one from the Jenkins Road corner, has recently been razed. At the time, there was no development pressure on the highway, still called U.S. 1 and still two lanes.)

• The future of the large tract west of the Smith Creek Reservoir owned by Andy Ammons is still uncertain. The market today favors mixed use developments.

• Magnolia Woods is 30 townhouses on Durham Road in what has been an established residential neighborhood. The commissioners talked about the need to protect neighborhoods.

            If you have opinions about any or all of the above, you can be heard and help influence how Wake Forest grows in the next few years.

            Between now and the spring or summer of 2008, the town will prepare a new land use plan or community plan to shape growth.

            The first step, Planning Director Chip Russell told the Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Taskforce on Tuesday, was to make sure the plan will include everything the present town board wants.

            Back in 1995, he said, he and his staff worked two years on an update. They washed its face, put on its new clothes, trotted it out before the then-commissioners and … “whack, whack, whack.” Much of their work was either gutted or watered down.

            Now that the commissioners and mayor, who are also referred to as the clients, are agreed in general, the next step is getting the details right.

            That is where the steering committee takes over. Between now and August, the board will take applications or suggestions for the 12 to 18 member committee and, using a matrix of desirable qualities (location and occupation for two), select the members.

            “We want to make sure we get people who live in all the different areas of town, who are involved in all different things in town,” Mayor Vivian Jones said.

            Mark Fleming, the chamber’s executive director, wanted to know how chamber members could be appointed to the steering committee and “How do we make sure we’re going to follow the plan once it’s adopted?”

            Jones told him to submit names. Even if they are not chosen, the steering committee will hold open meetings they can attend and there will be meetings just for people to comment. “Everyone will have a chance to participate.”

            Even though the current board supports the plan, it may be a very different group that is asked to adopt it and begin its implementation, Town Manager Mark Williams said, because there will be an election in the fall of 2007. (Three commissioners will be elected or re-elected to fill the seats now held by Stephen Barrington, David Camacho and Velma Boyd-Lawson.)

            “It’s incumbent on the residents to tell the commissioners what they want their community to be,” Williams said, adding a hope the resulting plan will be supported “no matter what the makeup of the board is.”

            “What about cultural arts?” David Williams Sr. asked.

            “Everything we do in town will have a role, some more than others,” Jones said.

            The land use plan is not just a map or even a map, Jones said. “We want to say we’re going to have all these things in our town, parks and cultural arts.

            “It’s how we’re going to live our lives in this town.”