February 8, 2006

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            Viking Associates of Cary requested a rezoning from R-8 to conditional use neighborhood business for 2.75 acres on the west side of Siena Drive where it currently dead ends. The tract is north of larger tract also owned by Viking that fronts on the nearly complete N.C. 98 bypass and is zoned conditional use neighborhood business.

            After hearing from the neighbor’s spokesperson, Edward Phillips, and Viking’s attorney, the planning board voted seven to two to recommend the rezoning with the planners’ conditions and adding a new one.

            That new conditions is that both the Neuse River and the Richland Creek buffers – 100 feet wide on each side of a small stream – be applied as a permanent conservation easement deeded to the town. The conservation easement would prevent any developer from cutting down any trees in those buffers.

            The potential buyer for the property is Siena Crossing LLC, and the lawyer said the company representative, Jim Adams of Wake Forest, could not be present. He did not want to agree to the new condition without checking with Adams. He did, however, agree they could add more uses that would not be allowed. Planner Ann Ayers recommended fish markets, miniature golf courses and taxi stands not be allowed.

            The attorney touched some nerves when he said, “I think this [rezoning] is a good way to keep this land from being basically wasted.”

            The current zoning for the small tract would allow a developer to build townhouses on the tract with a much smaller stream buffer, planning board member Michael Martin pointed out. “To keep the [larger] buffers is to approve the rezoning.”

            The planning board attorney, Roger Knight, said the recommendation without the owner’s or future owner’s agreement does not change the way the town board, which sat in on the hearing, votes because the valid petition from property owners within 100 feet requires four of the five commissioners to approve it if it is to pass.

            With the 100-foot stream buffers, the usable land on the tract is decreased to about an acre. “If it’s only an acre, why don’t we ask them to donate the land to the town?” planning board member Steve Stoller asked.

            Phillips’ arguments against the rezoning – he spoke for all the neighbors – were that it would detract and take away energy from the downtown area, that it would detract from the scenery that makes the town desirable and concerns about traffic and safety once Siena Drive in Holding Ridge is connected to its counterpart in Cimarron across the bypass. “The quality of life and the charm of Wake Forest should not be sacrificed for commercial gain,” Phillips said.

            The town is insisting that the only access to the larger parcel and to the smaller if it is rezoned would be from Siena, not from the bypass. Ayers said the street will be connected into Cimarron. There will be a grade crossing there at first, but traffic signals would be installed with the traffic warranted.

            The vote to recommend with the additional condition was seven to two with Stoller and Speed Massenburg voting no. Chairman Bob Hill was not present.

            No one spoke against the request by Crossroads Holdings LLC – Glenn Boyd of Crossroads Ford and Wakefield Ford – for a special use permit to build a car dealership on the former Weavexx site between South Main Street and Capital Boulevard.

            The Gazette was wrong last week in saying there would be direct access from South Main via the present driveway. Access from South Main will be from the entrance to Wake Pointe Shopping Center (Wal-Mart). The dealership plans to share the existing entrance to Wake Pointe from Capital Boulevard (right in and right out).

            The dealership will also have a connection to the Golden Corral property to the south.

            Planning board members Pete Thibodeau and Ward Mariotti questioned engineer Harry Mitchell about the stormwater basin and its placement in the Richland Creek watershed buffer as well as the space allowed for semi-tractor trailers loaded with cars to make turns in the parking lot.

            Commissioner Frank Drake asked about any site contamination. Mitchell said there was some from oils used by Weavexx that had seeped into the ground under the building. It has been removed and there will be no remediation required, Mitchell said, but that discovery led to demolishing all the buildings in order to remove the contamination.

            The planning board recommended approval of the permit by an eight to one vote with Thibodeau voting no.