October 11, 2006

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            Last month, the board’s comprehensive planning committee recommended the plans go to the town board, with Commissioner Frank Drake, one of the four committee members, voting no. Commissioner David Camacho, the committee chairman, voted yes.

            Planning Director Chip Russell has said the planned community will use about 300,000 gallons of water on peak days. Part of the reason is that Bill Andrews and Libby Holding Perry, the family members planning the development on the former family farm, will use water from wells and ponds to irrigate lawns and plantings. They will also employ a number of other water conservation measures ranging from water efficient appliances to drought-tolerant plantings in the small yards.

            The plan calls for 50 percent more homes than would be allowed under traditional subdivision plans, but the developers say the conservation measures will mean using only slightly more than the 800 homes the 256 acres could hold.

            The Holding family corporation, Entrust Holdings, is requesting 100 building permits in 2007 when they break ground and 200 permits a year in the five or six years of development with 264 apartments added to one of those years. (The Sept. 13 and 20 editions of The Gazette had full articles about the proposed development.)

            There will have to be further meetings and hearings because, as Russell has said, the town ordinances do not allow for the mix of uses and density planned for Holding Village. Andrews and Perry are asking the town to amend its zoning ordinances and to approve the master plan.

            There will be two public hearings, one for resident input about the update for the five-year Capital Improvement Plan and one for the annexation of 19 acres on Rogers Road requested by Willfair, a local development group planning a residential subdivision there. The annexation petition had to be resubmitted because of a problem with the present owners’ signatures on the first petition.

            The commissioners will vote on the rezoning request, subdivision master plan and a master plan revision which were all unanimously recommended by the planning board last week. (See article in this issue.)

            In addition, they will hear an update on the status of an unsafe house at 326 N. Allen Road and will consider a contract with the Louis Burger Group to prepare the town’s bicycle plan. They will also consider a request from Waste Industries, which collects commercial trash and garbage, to extend its contract for three years. As a letter from Brent Kirchhoff, the branch manager of Waste Industries, notes, the contract actually expired on Jan. 20 but neither party noticed it.

            Commissioner Margaret Stinnett has asked for a discussion about the appearance of downtown, and that will end the meeting except for the commissioners’ committee reports.

            The board meets at 7 p.m. in town hall, and the meeting is televised on Channel 10.