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The Wake Forest Town Board may revisit
last fall’s decision to take over
inspection and enforcement for erosion
and sediment control but only match Wake
County’s regulations.
Tuesday night, Commissioner
Frank Drake asked why the town is not
writing stronger regulations than the
county’s as several other towns such as
Apex and Cary are doing.
“The [engineering] staff
proposed a stricter ordinance,” Town
Manager Mark Williams said. “The board
said we would rather follow the Wake
County ordinance.”
“That could change,” Mayor
Vivian Jones said.
Drake asked engineer Holly
Spring to give him a copy of that
stricter, original draft ordinance as
well as comparisons with the ordinances
in other towns and a copy of the Power
Point presentation when she introduced
that original draft.
Tuesday night Spring gave
the board copies and explained the
changes in the draft ordinance that is
the same as the county’s. Several
changes had had to be made recently, she
and Williams said, because the state had
informed Wake County that its ordinance
was not strong enough.
Currently, Wake County has
one inspector for erosion and sediment
control for the entire northern part of
the county. The thinking last fall was
that the town could do much better since
it has four construction inspectors who
visit building sites on almost daily
basis and are already finding violations
and reporting them to the county
inspector.
The draft ordinance, with
whatever level of regulation, has to go
through several offices including the
state Attorney General’s office before
it is approved by the state Sediment
Control Commission. The first step is
for the town board to approve it as to
form.
Deputy Town Manager Roe
O’Donnell said the latest the town board
could approve it would be in March for
review by the commission, which meets
quarterly, in May.
Commissioner David Camacho
said one consideration last fall was to
take over the enforcement as quickly as
possible. Drake said he would rather
take more time and have the right
product rather than do it quickly and
have to go back and revise it.
Spring said the town has
received a $25,000 grant, with the town
paying 40 percent of the cost, to
implement the new program.
In other business, Jones
said the stoplight at Heritage
Elementary and Middle schools on Rogers
Road will be installed in April or May.
“We have [state Sen.] Neal Hunt to thank
for that,” Jones said. He made sure it
was placed on the Department of
Transportation’s installation list.
Jones said she had a letter
from a town resident saying the size of
political campaign signs has gotten out
of hand.
“You cannot regulate
political speech. You would be
infringing on people’s constitutional
rights,” Planning Director Chip Russell
said.
Drake said that means he
would be within his rights to place a
sign in his yard saying “President Bush
is a baboon.” “That’s right,” Russell
said.
The board then discussed the
several streets in town that have been
barricaded to prevent construction
traffic going through existing
neighborhoods. There was a recent
incident when a Rolesville EMS unit
tried to answer a call only to find the
quickest street barricaded and had to
detour several miles.
There are now 11 barricaded
streets in several subdivisions:
Richland Hills, Deacons Ridge, Cimarron,
Olwyn Parish, Porto Fino, Dansforth, St.
Andrews, and Stonegate.
Drake was concerned that the
subdivision residents would want to keep
the barriers up until every last lot was
sold and a house built.
Russell’s staff will look at
the barriers in St. Andrews and
Stonegate and report back to the board.
One consideration, left turns out of
Selsey Drive (Olwyn Parish) would
conflict with left turns into the nearby
Rogers Road. O’Donnell said that would
be addressed with the South Main Street
widening from Rogers to Forbes Road that
is in the engineering stage. “We will
address that stacking issue by placing a
concrete barrier so there will be no
conflicting left turns between Selsey
and Rogers Road.” |
