August 22, 2007

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            Those actions are:

            -- asking the advisory Recreation Board to itemize improvements needed at the Alston-Massenburg Center on North Taylor Street and the Ailey Young Park on East Juniper Avenue. Another task would be to determine what additional recreation facilities the community wants at those locations.

            -- asking both the advisory Greenways Board and the commissioners’ public works committee to study the paths, sidewalks and greenways needed in the area.

            -- agreeing Mayor Vivian Jones should write a letter to the Northeast Neighborhood Association telling the members what the town is working on and saying the commissioners and she would be happy to meet with them.

            -- developing an overlay zoning map for the area that would help property owners sell lots for new homes or build them themselves.

            -- finding incentives to increase owner-occupied affordable new housing.

            -- designating the area as a redevelopment zone.

            -- building the North Loop.

            The commissioners were cool to Town Manager Mark Williams’ suggestion they hire a planner to work on the neighborhood plans and expedite them and other projects. They did, however, agree to discuss the suggestion again in January.

            Commissioner Stephen Barrington said he went by the Alston-Massenburg Center on his way to the retreat at the Flaherty Park Community Center. He saw an 8-foot fence. “Who are we trying to keep out? Who are we trying to keep in?” He also saw rust on the metal doors.

            “We’ve just spent some money refurbishing it,” Jones said about the center. The town had also planned to replace the basketball courts next to the center but it was decided not to after neighbors asked them, saying people just “cuss and fight and carry on” there. Instead the town built the courts two blocks away at the DuBois Center “and now we have some coming up to say you took away our courts.”

            “It comes back to who the town is listening to,” Commissioner David Camacho said and suggested it be the neighborhood association.

            “I think one of the biggest things we can do to improve the opinion of the neighborhood is to fix it (Alston-Massenburg) up. Look like people are payi8ng attention to it,” Williams said.

            A discussion about paths and greenways led to a question to Police Chief Greg Harrington about the officers on bikes who once patrolled the area. That was discontinued, he said, when the bicycle shop in the Market of Wake Forest that had repaired the bikes closed.

            But this summer, Harrington said, four officers have worked in the Northeast area, making a number of arrests and interacting with the residents. “They are walking and they are talking.”

            What about the complaints of not enough street lights and burned-out bulbs, Public Works Director Mike Barton was asked. He said his staff rode through the area, identified even more needed and burned-out lights than people had said, set more poles and fixed more lights. They make periodic rides to check the lights, but they have to go after dark to see which are not lit up.

            Jones brought up the dilemma of a woman who has three lots she is trying to sell that are zoned R-8 (minimum size of 8,000 square feet) although the lots are only big enough for R-5 zoning. Owners of such lots – there are apparently quite a few – have to ask the Board of Adjustment for a waiver in order to build. Planning Director Chip Russell said the town did not have R-5 zoning when that area was zoned.

            Jones said she wanted the overlay zoning district and its rezoning as soon as possible. “I’d like to think we could have the overlay and the rezoning within two years.”

            The rezoning would benefit the neighborhood, she said. “I think we need to try to preserve the flavor of that neighborhood with smaller homes, smaller lots, a more urban-type development. I think that’s going to keep the neighborhood true to its history, true to its affordability.”

            “Existing property owners want to keep it as it was. They don’t want to be run out of their neighborhood,” Camacho said. He said the development pressures are going to build up around the area in the next 10 years.

            Along with the overlay, there have to be incentives for people to build affordable houses, “houses that the working class can afford,” Williams said. The goal, all agreed, is owner-occupied affordable housing.

            Russell suggested the town could waive fees, “anything to get that cost down.”

            If the town waived the water and sewer availability fee, Camacho said, “that’s two grand. You would end up with a taxable piece of property that’s affordable too.”

            Another idea Russell had was for the town to buy lots and make them available to builders. “That’s our contribution. If you’ll build a house, we’ll work with agencies to find a qualified buyer.”

            Camacho suggested the town reach an agreement with a builder for two houses, one high-end and one affordable. If the town waived the recreation fee on the larger house, the builder would have enough profit margin to build the affordable house.

            The North Loop is going to be critical for the entire northeast area, Camacho said.

            Russell said, “If you approve Traditions (the proposed residential, commercial and retirement center the Ammons brothers plan near the Smith Creek reservoir), then the clock’s ticking on that north-side loop because there’s no place else for them to go. You can’t send them down White Street because it’s not going to work.”

            The Ammons plan includes construction of a large portion of the North Loop from Jones Dairy Road, but part of the route may also need contributions from other developers along the such as Jim Adams, the commissioners said.

            The town will have to build the connection across North White and North Main to Harris Road, and the plan now is for an at-grade crossing. Once the town has the right-of-way across the tracks, CSX or the high speed rail authority planned for the future would have to build a bridge for traffic or trains, Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell said.

            “What do we need to do to be able to start construction in 2010?” Camacho asked.

            “We need to start negations with the railroad and DOT,” Jones said.