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A review of the site plan for the
proposed annex at the Wake Forest
College Birthplace Museum (the Calvin
Jones House) is one of only two items on
the agenda when the Wake Forest Planning
Board meets Tuesday, June 6.
The only public hearing at
the meeting beginning at 7:30 p.m. will
be to add schools as a permitted use in
the Renaissance areas – the historic
core, the urban center and the campus
area – and to the highway business
district. The town was nudged to do this
by Wake County Public School System’s
plan to use the former Winn-Dixie
building on Durham Road (N.C. 98) as a
ninth grade center for Wakefield High
School.
The master plan for the
birthplace annex distributed with the
agenda shows a 10,000-square-foot
building, but those drawings will be
replaced by Tuesday with the current
plan.
“The building plans have
been reduced,” Ed Morris, the birthplace
director, said. The new plans have just
been completed by Winston-Salem
architect Ed Bouldin.
The building now being
proposed will have just over 7,000
square feet, and the cost, Morris said,
ranges from $2 million (Bouldin’s
estimate) to $1.5 million or even less
(birthplace board member Jim Adams’
estimate). Morris said Adams, a Wake
Forest developer, has been advising the
board about costs.
The birthplace has asked the
town for a $500,000 donation for the
construction, and the town board is
expected to consider that and other
funding requests tonight (Wednesday)
during a budget work session. The
$500,000 could be spread over three or
four budget years, Morris has said. The
birthplace also wants the town to spend
roughly $50,000 in paving Walnut and
Juniper streets to the south and north
of the property from North Main Street
to the CSX railroad right-of-way.
Morris said the funding
feasibility study just completed shows
the birthplace society can raise about
$2 million “if the town and the
university kick in as partners.”
The plan calls for 33
parking spaces located on Walnut and on
a planned drive that would circle in
back of the annex.
The birthplace also has
detailed plans for the separate
restrooms between the existing house and
the annex. Morris said those plans are
in the hands of potential bidders. Once
they have a firm bid, Morris said they
plan to proceed with construction.
The town donated $15,000 for
the restrooms in 2003 because of the
public uses of the 4.5 acres, such as
Six Sundays in Spring.
The cost should be between
$30,000 and $35,000, but it all depends
on the bids. “We’ve got the rest of the
money for the restrooms,” Morris said,
if the bids are in that range. If they
are too high, they can do it in two
phases: first the exterior, then the
fixtures. It is in two phases so they
can pay as they go. “Hopefully we’ll do
it all at one time.” |
