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Woodman, spare that tree, was the cry
Tuesday night. Or,if you cannot save it,
then replace it.
Members of the Wake Forest
Planning Board were concerned about the
number of trees 24 inches and more in
diameter that were to be cut down,
according to the Southeastern Baptist
Theological Seminary’s master plan for
the new west campus.
Twenty-four of those mature
trees were slated for the ax and only
two were to be saved.
“There should be some sort
of formula when people take down a
thirty-inch oak,” Mike Martin said.
Later, he and others came up
with the formula which was included in
their recommendation to the town board:
if you remove a 30-inch oak, plant 10
3-inch oaks, if you remove a 24-inch
cedar, plant eight 3-inch cedars.
Ward Marotti said he
understood why some trees have to be
removed during the grading and utility
placement, but questioned why a 26-inch
oak in the middle of the proposed open
quadrangle needs to be removed.
The east campus, the
historic Wake Forest College campus
inside the rock wall, is shaded by
majestic oaks and other trees. “Trees
are an integral part of our campus,”
Ryan Hutchinson, the senior vice
president for business administration,
said, “though we lost about two-thirds
of our trees when Fran came through.”
The seminary has planted replacement
trees and has a plan to manage and
replace trees as needed.
The 20-year plan to build
Patterson Hall, where clearing has
begun, two other classroom buildings, a
campus center and a parking deck still
includes the future road linking Rock
Spring Road to South Wingate Street near
the Wake Forest Boys & Girls Club.
Commissioner David Camacho
tried to pin Hutchinson down about the
timeframe for building the road and
closing the block of Wingate between
Stadium Drive to the north and Front
Street/Durham Road/N.C. 98 to the south.
Hutchinson said it might
happen between the second and third
phases of the plan, each five years
apart as funding allows.
Closing the state-maintained
street would require permission from
several levels of government. There
could still be some vehicular traffic to
campus buildings, but the street would
become a pedestrian link between the two
campus parts.
“Once the next building
comes in, we’ll do an analysis at that
time” about Wingate and the new road,
Planning Director Chip Russell said.
Sarah Bridges asked about
the Paschal house (built in 1908), which
is just to the west of Magnolia Hill,
the seminary president’s house (built in
1928). The plan seems to show the new
road going between the two. There were
differences in the road’s path between
the master plan and a slide of an aerial
view with the road drawn in.
“This is not set in stone
for where a road is going to be
located,” Hutchinson said.
Russell added that the new
road is included in the town’s
transportation plan.
The only town resident to
speak during the public hearing, Drew
Bridges of North Main Street, said his
concern was about parking, which is
always an issue in that part of town
where high school and seminary students
vie for parking spaces.
“My comment is not so much
in opposition [to the plan] but simply
to ask the board’s diligence for parking
issues,” Bridges said. He asked if there
would be a time during the construction
when parking issues are taken away. “I
would encourage you to look very closely
at the parking issues regarding the
neighborhood in this issue.”
There are now 1,078 parking
spaces controlled by the seminary. When
Patterson Hall is built, there will be
1,102 spaces. The town’s requirements
for the campus plan when it is complete
are for 1,293 spaces, and the completed
plan will have 1,358 spaces.
The sirens from several fire
trucks leaving Station #1 on East Elm
intruded on part of the meeting. At the
close, Hutchinson said he had just
received a text message saying the
trucks were going to a fire in an
apartment the seminary leases for
student housing in Flaherty Farms. |
