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At least a dozen people arrived at Wake
Forest Town Hall Tuesday night to learn
the rezoning they planned to oppose had
been withdrawn. However, they remained
and several of them went to the podium
to express strong opposition to a
convenience store and gas station at the
corner of Burlington Mills and Ligon
Mills roads.
Rose Oil of Henderson, which
had filed the request for rezoning to
conditional use neighborhood business at
that 3-acre site, sent a letter to town
hall Tuesday afternoon asking that the
item be withdrawn from the agenda.
Jackie Perkinson of Wake
Forest, who said he was supposed to be
the owner of the business, said the only
reason for the withdrawal was “unethical
business practices.” He gave planning
board chairman Bob Hill a letter, which
was not made public, and asked there be
an investigation of “the business
transactions between Rose Oil and Jim
Adams.”
Adams owns the land. He said
he gave the development contract to
Perkinson about two years ago and
Perkinson, who could not afford to
develop, brought in Rose Oil. Any
financial transactions were between
Perkinson and Rose Oil, and Adams said
he planned to cancel the contract.
All of the opponents had a
similar theme: they do not want a
convenience store need their homes.
“I don’t want it on my back
door,” Randy Meares said. He said this
was the second time they had
“vehemently” opposed the plan. (A
similar plan was presented two years
ago.) Meares also said the store would
“certainly be serving alcoholic
beverages across from a church,”
Richland Creek Community Church on
Burlington Mills.
Debbie Anderson said Ligon
Mill Road has become a thoroughfare.
“It’s hard to make a left turn at that
intersection. There is too much
congestion. I don’t thing the road
system there can handle it.” She also
said there are four other gas stations
within five miles of the intersection.
Kevin Marr had a map showing
that no one is more than a mile and a
half away from a gas station. “We have a
bedroom community with no retail. We
kind of like it that way.”
“We don’t need that type of
environment,” Rodney Murphy said.
There was no opposition to
the request by Sherrill Brinkley to
rezone his historic property and
buildings, Wakefields, to conditional
use neighborhood business.
He and his wife, Susan, and
their children moved to the house 29
years ago when Capital Boulevard was
still called U.S. 1 and was two lanes.
“The next twenty-nine years
will see just as many changes,” Brinkley
said. He said they deliberated about how
best to protect the property and finally
decided it would be best to put “the
future of that house in the hands of
these two boards. That’s the reason for
the conditional use, for everything to
come back to you folks.”
When it came time for
action, Planning Director Chip Russell
said a couple questions from the
planning board members to planner Ann
Ayers showed the language of a condition
to save the buildings was not clear. He
suggested they add another condition:
any new buildings have to come back to
the planning and town boards.
The board also approved the
plan for a modular building as the new
American Legion hall. The town will
build it on East Holding Avenue between
the water tower and the senior center.
The group agreed to sell their land and
building to make way for the new town
hall for the price of the new hall. |
