June 7, 2006

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            The plan the board approved calls for a 10,000-square-foot annex although the birthplace society has reduced the size to 7,000 square feet.

            “We have a letter from the Historic Preservation Commission saying the footprint does not comply with what we are approving. If we approve this footprint, would we need to approve the second footprint?” planning board member Speed Massenburg asked.

            Planner Ann Ayers said the town has not received an official submittal of the new, reduced building size. “When and if they ever do, they will have to go back through the certificate of approval process (granted by the Historic Preservation Commission).” Once the COA is granted, Planning Director Chip Russell would have to decide whether it was a major or minor change. “If it’s a major change it has to come back to you as an amendment.”

            The spark for an hour’s discussion was a letter written by Donald Bates, the chairman of the HPC, to planning board chairman Bob Hill. The letter said the commission, in a called meeting, had seen the staff report and the documents submitted to the planning board. The plans sent for the planning board were those used when the original COA was approved in 2004. (It has since been extended.)

            Meanwhile, the HPC has seen some drawings for the reduced-size annex.

            At the meeting, Bates said he challenged the staff report, saying the birthplace society had agreed to move the parking spaces behind the building because placing them there would require cutting down a number of trees. There was an intense discussion about the parking spaces “which not well documented,” in the COA, Bates said.

            Planner Agnes Wanman, who is the staff liaison with the HPC, taking the minutes and writing the COAs, said there was a discussion but, “It was left with the parking in the rear.” The reasoning was that the buildings would help screen the parking area and that they did not want to use the open area to the north because it is used for other activities on the grounds.

                        Steve Grissom, who lives just south of the birthplace across the unbuilt portion of Walnut Street, urged the planning board to preserve the trees, which serve as “a signature view in Wake Forest” and muffle the sound of the railroad trains. He also said it would “be a real challenge” to thread the projected extension of Walnut through the four specimen trees that are in the right-of-way.

            Commissioner Margaret Stinnett observed there is nothing to stop the birthplace society from taking a chainsaw any day and cutting those trees.

            “We don’t want to just cut away trees,” Susan Brinkley, chairman of the birthplace board, responded. “We want to do what’s right. We are trying to comply with your parking regulations.”

            Ayers, who walked through the trees on and behind the property, said, “The vegetation does extend into the railroad right-of-way and up the grade. All through that ditch it’s very thick. There’s a good eight to nine feet (of trees) on the other side of the property line.”

            Planning board member Mike Martin had been doing some calculating and came up with a solution. Even with the larger building footprint, he found, there was between 14 and 27 feet between the parking area and the property line.

            “There’s plenty of room for us to put in a 10-foot buffer.”

            The condition agreed on unanimously was for at least an 8-foot buffer that would also keep the existing vegetation.

            Concerns about the stormwater flow will be addressed in the construction plans, town engineer Scott Miles said, and probably would have to include an underground detention basin.

            There were no speakers in the public hearing to amend the Renaissance Plan areas and highway business to include schools, and it was approved unanimously, 9-0, since Kim Parker was absent.

            Both matters will go to the town board for a final decision on June 20.