July 19, 2006

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            Before Tuesday night’s board meeting, the town hall architects had been asked to prepare alternative plans in the event the board chooses not to purchase either the DAB site or the site along Brooks Street.

            Vicki Grant with Little Diversified Architectural Consulting in Durham came to the meeting with three alternatives using the land the town owns along with the purchase of the American Legion in all scenarios and the purchase of the Green & Wooten Insurance site in the third and recommended plan.

            That recommended plan would include purchasing the two properties on Brooks Street, the Green & Wooten insurance company and the American Legion building, that would also have to be bought for the Brooks Street site.

            After examining the needs of the entire town government, including the planning and police departments, Grant said, the town will need at least 78,000 square feet of space within the next 20 years. They envision three- and four-story buildings: one for the town hall and one for the police department.

            Grant’s recommended alternative, number three, would have the new police department building fronting on Brooks Street and covering all the Green & Wooten property.

            East Owen would be closed, and a pedestrian plaza would cover part of it and the present parking lot. Town hall would stretch behind the plaza from the police department building across what is now the American Legion hut and the parking lot for the police department. Both the existing town hall and police department would be razed.

            The planning department would remain in its existing building (the first town hall) for a time and later moved to town hall. The gray building could be converted to other uses.

            “Under this option, the precious Miller Park remains intact,” Grant said. The town green or Centennial Park would be next to the park where town hall and its parking area are now.

            Town hall would be at a much higher point than the present one, more visible, and all the parts of town government would be close together, making a compact municipal complex at the center of town.

            “We feel really strong that this would be our advice to you,” Grant said about the third option. “You are getting a town green and buildings located where they want to be in the long run. It will really allow you an exciting new addition to the town” as well as fitting the recommendations of the town’s urban code and Renaissance Plan.

            A street most people never heard of, South Taylor, would connect East Elm Avenue and Wait Avenue, running behind the two new buildings and giving access to the parking lot behind and to the north of the buildings. When you turn into the town hall parking lot from East Elm today you are theoretically on South Taylor. If built, it would connect with the current dead-end of East Jones next to La Foresta and meet Wait just west of the Wake Electric building.

            Another reason for locating the buildings facing Brooks is logistical. The town departments can remain in their present buildings while the new are under construction. Town Manager Mark Williams said that model would reduce problems for the public – who flood into the police department courtroom twice a month for District Court as well as regularly visiting town hall for business – and reduce the cost of having to provide parking while construction is ongoing.

            Town hall would be built first, and it would require only the purchase of the American Legion land and building. The Wooten parcel would be required for phase 2, the police department building.

            The town board made no decisions Tuesday night and sandwiched Grant’s presentation between two closed sessions that added more than an hour to the meeting.