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After a change in the width of Warmoven
Street, the Wake Forest commissioners
unanimously approved the master plan for
the Lone Star Steak House at the corner
of N.C. 98 (Durham Road) and Retail
Drive.
The planning staff had
narrowed Warmoven from 35 feet from curb
to curb to 27 feet as a way to slow
traffic leaving the Crenshaw Hall
Plantation subdivision.
Commissioner Margaret Jones
Stinnett said semi trucks turning onto
Warmoven would have to go up and over
the curb to make that turn in the
narrower street.
Planner Ann Ayers said
several of the subdivision residents had
gone by the planning department to look
at the plans. “Most people said they
didn’t want it [Warmoven] connected to
Retail Drive. If you do it to the
35-foot width, they are going to come in
and ask for speed bumps, which they have
in the rest of that subdivision.”
Stinnett said they would probably ask
for speed bumps at any width.
Commissioner Frank Drake
said it made sense to have a turn lane
in Warmoven. “People in the subdivision
will want to go right and left.”
Extending Warmoven to Retail will give
subdivision residents access to N.C. 98
at a traffic signal.
“Is your main concern the
road be the same width or a turn lane?”
Commissioner David Camacho asked
Stinnett.
“I want both,” Stinnett
said.
“I want either,” Drake said.
Camacho then asked if there
would be room for a turn lane in a
35-foot street, and Planning Director
Chip Russell said they could always do
that. Only 10 feet are needed for a turn
lane, Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell
said.
“This is a very prominent
corner,” Camacho said, saying he wanted
to see the landscaping plan. “I’d like
to see it heavily planted.”
Ayers said the commissioners
did not get the landscape plans because
they were so large. There will be
smaller trees, evergreen shrubs and oak
trees. “It’s a very detailed plan,” she
said, with more than adequate
landscaping.
Drake thanked Ayers for
providing a comparison of the Lone Star
plan with the Outback Steakhouse plan
which was turned down by the town board
three or four years ago. The most
glaring difference is that Outback was
planned for 1.4 acres on Wake Union
Church Road in the Falls Lake water
supply watershed and would have had 92
percent of that land covered with
impervious surface: roof and parking
lot. Lone Star’s site is 3.3 acres. It
is in the Richland Creek protected
watershed, and 55 percent of its land
will be covered with roof and parking
area.
In other planning business,
the commissioners voted to appoint
planning board member Kim Parker to the
comprehensive plan committee. The other
members are Commissioners David Camacho
and Frank Drake and planning board
chairman Bob Hill. The only change from
the previous two years is Parker. Drake
served on the committee when he was a
member of the planning board. |
