July 11, 2007

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            Alphonza Merritt, a neighborhood resident and a longtime planning board member, made the motion, saying he helped select Clarion Associates to formulate the plan and attended all the meetings. “I’m thoroughly satisfied with what they’ve done.”

            In fact, speakers at the public hearing about the plan and Roger Waldon, the head of Clarion Associates, praised each other for the work done, the cooperation, the information shared and the steps set out to make the plan real.

            They did not praise Ailey Young Park on East Juniper Avenue, named for the first black person and second woman elected to the town board.

            LaVerne Garcia, who lives on Jubilee Court across from the park, was the most complimentary. It has 15 acres but only two or three are developed. “I’m wondering if anything can be done with Ailey Young Park. I’d like to see a greenway put through there, a walkway, a pavilion, tennis courts. I don’t know if anyone has really looked over the entire fifteen acres.”

            Planning board member Ward Marotti said he and his son had walked a lot of the acreage and “it’s not real flat.”

            “Then it would be perfect for a greenway,” Garcia said.

            Mayor Vivian Jones said there is mention of the park in the plan. “I appreciate your voicing your desire.”

            Keith Shackleford, a neighborhood resident who served on the advisory committee for the plan, commended the town for the process and said some things the town has control of should be put at the top of the list and addressed right away.

            “When you look at Ailey Young Park, it’s down the hill set off from the neighborhood,” Shackleford said. “It’s a great resource, it has picnic tables, basketball courts, a playground, two grills and nice shade, but would anyone allow their kids to walk down to that park without supervision?” Shackleford pointed out there are no sidewalks to the park, no crosswalks at street corners, and there is a blind curve just to the east of the park entrance.

            “Our neighborhood can’t really use that park.”

            “Ailey Young Park is just a crying shame,” Joe Seigler, a northeast property owner and chairman of the town’s greenway committee, said. “It’s a resource that’s being ignored.”

            Along with the park, Shackleford listed two other town assets which need attention: the Alston-Massenburg Center on North Taylor Street and Flaherty Park.

            The town removed the basketball goals next to Alston-Massenburg, “leaving a big court of asphalt and behind it is a cement pool.” Years and years ago the town closed the small pool there and filled it in, leaving only one town-owned swimming pool, the one in Holding Park on South White Street.

            In addition, Shackleford said, the center itself is not a good place to hold a meeting. “You can barely hear. It’s absolutely horrible.”

            Then there is the question of access from the northeast neighborhood to the big town park on the north side of town, Flaherty. Children, teens and adults who want to use the park have to walk in the middle of Franklin Street, some of which is just dirt and mud, to reach the park. And when the projected Northside Loop is built south of the Flaherty Farms subdivision which divides the neighborhood from the park, how will people reach the park?

            Despite the problems noted, the comments were upbeat and positive. Marshall Harvey with the W.E.B. DuBois Community Development Center, said the center has begun working on some of the plan’s goals, holding seminars for potential homebuyers, graduating their fourth GED class, pursuing the idea of local businesses through their business incubator. “We’re working and we’re here and we’re willing to work with the city on getting these things done.”

            Seigler noted how new subdivisions are being planned as walkable communities. “If you look at the northeast quadrant, it might as well be on an island. If we’re emphasizing sidewalks in the rest of the town, sidewalks are very important here.”

            Seigler suggested the town think about pocket parks on the vacant lots it owns in the area, parks where children could play and their parents could easily supervise them.

            And he brought a proposal from the greenway committee, a plan to add a greenway from East Pine Street to Pierce Avenue where a dirt footpath already is heavily used.

            Wand Mukherjee, who has helped influence the College of Design at North Carolina State University to take on the DuBois Center as a project, said people are talking about the plan. “They’re just so excited and happy that we’re doing something. These guys are really counting on you,” she told the commissioners.

            In other business, the planning board approved two development plans, one for a flex building behind Porter Paints at 1219 S. Main St. and one for a commercial subdivision with five buildings at the intersection of West Ligon Mill Road and Brimfield Spring Lane.

            The board also recommended approval of the conditional use neighborhood business zoning for four acres owned by Joel Keith at 1412 Forestville Road. The Wake Forest Fire Department has an option to purchase the land for a third fire station. The planning board delayed action last month until the department could meet with complaining neighbors, which was done.