September 6, 2006

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            The matter will be decided by the town board on Sept. 19. The commissioners listened to the entire discussion Tuesday evening. Planning board member Chris Kaeberlein was absent as was Commissioner Stephen Barrington.

            Planning Director Chip Russell said the tree at the back of Lot G was designated to be saved in the original site plan as a credit against planting additional trees in the future. The question about the tree was brought to the planning board because, at 30 inches, the tree “is a potential landmark tree.”

            The park is on the north side of Rogers Road just east of the CSX rail line, and a current tenant is Thomas Walters’ State Farm Insurance office.

            No one could agree about the health of the tree though no one questioned its size except planning board chairman Bob Hill, who said, “If it goes from eighteen inches to thirty inches in two or three years, it’s pretty healthy.” Later, Hill said he had looked at it and the tree “does not appear to be a flourishing, vibrant tree.”

            Planner Lisa Potts, who is taking courses to become an arborist, said the tree was in a healthy condition with no sign of decay or parasites. “It’s probably fifty years old, and it could live another fifty or sixty years.” She also said it could fall over tomorrow. The tree does have kudzu on the trunk.

            The tree had first been identified as 18 inches in diameter, then 24, and James Edwards with Edwards Associates Architects in Raleigh, said he had measured it at 30.

            Lot G is 12,000 square feet, and the building Edwards has planned for Village Family Care headed by Dr. Carson Rounds is 8,000-square-feet, a core with ells on all four sides that will cover most of the lot.

            Edwards said the tree is causing “a tremendous hardship” and, “It is an isolated tree. Some of the leaders are dying. It is a tree being stressed. We can’t build this building or a decent-sized building on this site without your assistance.”

            Planning board member Peter Thibodeau, who has worked in site preparation, said the situation was “laughable” to him. “Part of the developer’s responsibility is conducting their own due diligence. Your responsibility is to find out what the site constraints are.”

            Edwards also argued about the requirements for a landmark tree, which include a request for such designation by the owner of the property. Franklin Village LLC, incorporated by Andy and Jan Ammons, is listed as owning the property in the documents at the meeting and the Wake County tax records, but Edwards said it had already been sold to the medical group. They, he said, “paid a very good price for the right to use the entire lot.”           

            One of the conditions of a landmark tree, Edwards read, is “a reasonable prospect for continuing a useful life.”

            “For how long?” planning board member Speed Massenburg asked. He had earlier said he was neutral, having seen two landmark trees on his property fall.

            “How long is your useful life?” Commissioner Margaret Stinnett asked, directing her eyes to Edwards.

            “The town can’t designate it as a landmark tree,” planning board member Michael Martin said.

            “We’re simply offering to exchange, to put other trees in,” Rounds said.

            Dick Monteith, the broker for the purchase and a former mayor, said the town did not specify which trees should be saved when Wall Ridge subdivision on Wall Road was built. The land was heavily wooded with many large trees. “We told them to please try to stagger your lots to save as many trees as possible.”

            Martin’s motion for the tree to be removed and at least 10 trees to be planted before the building could be occupied was amended by Ward Marotti to say the 3-inch or larger trees should be planted in the bare area in Zone 2 of the Neuse River Buffer immediately behind the park.

            “Do you think thirty trees are going to replace the beauty of a thirty-inch tree?” planning board member Stephen Stoller asked.

            “”In about fifty years,” Massenburg said.

            “I think you’re making a big mistake. Y’all are willing to mow it down,” Stinnett said.

            Stoller, Massenburg, Hill, Al Merritt and Martin voted for the motion, and Stoller, Kim Parker, Tom Cornett and Thibodeau voted against.

            During the public hearing at the beginning of the meeting, Matt Hayes with Greenways Inc. described the process by which the town’s pedestrian plan was developed. That included a review of all the town ordinances and policies, GIS mapping along the 63 miles of existing sidewalks, mapping of the densities in various neighborhoods as well as locating points of interest, and several meetings.

            Planner Ann Ayers said she had just received the comments on the plan from the state Department of Transportation, which gave the town a grant to do the plan. After she has reviewed and answered comments – which will be sent to the planning board members – she will bring the plan back to the planning and town boards for action.

            Again there was sticker shock. The ballpark figure to make all the improvements is $7.75 million. “Over time we’ll have to talk about some alternative funding,” Ayers said.

            Karen Stanley, a new resident who is employed by the state Division of Public Health and who was an active participant in the plan, said, “It’s really great you’re being proactive in the fight against obesity. It’s just really exciting.”

            The planning board also reviewed the plans for a second building at North Park on Capital Boulevard, where two more buildings will be constructed in the future.

            “The only reasons this site plan is coming to you is because the building is taller than thirty-five feet,” Ayers said.

            Martin argued against the 54 additional parking spaces over requirements, but Ayers said there is a higher demand for parking for medical offices than for general office uses.

            The vote to recommend the site plan was 7 to 2 with Martin and Thibodeau voting no.