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The Wake Forest commissioners revisited
– twice – the question of the 23
landmark trees that will be cut down
during the development of Southeastern
Baptist Theological Seminary’s western
campus.
They also agreed they will
have to follow the same rules or
standards in developing the town hall
site on Brooks Street where there are at
least three oaks 24 inches or more in
diameter, classifying them as landmark
trees.
The planning board had
recommended the 23 trees be replaced on
a ratio of one new tree for every 3
inches of old trees, which would have
meant the seminary planting 234 3-inch
trees in addition to the trees required
by the zoning ordinance.
Commissioner Stephen
Barrington’s motion to approve the
master plan with the tree condition
removed was approved three to two.
Commissioner Frank Drake
said he was “hung up” on the words in
the zoning ordinance: “every effort
shall be made to protect” any tree or
trees. Commissioner Margaret Stinnett,
who pointed out the wording in the
ordinance, had unanswered concerns: the
location of a driveway, access in or out
of a driveway on Stadium Drive, whether
parking spaces were included for
dormitories and the alignment of the
proposed extension of Rock Spring Road
after a block of Wingate Street is
closed.
“I had a telephone call
Monday, and Mrs. Paschal is adamantly
opposed to a road in that particular
area,” Stinnett said.
The schematic for the campus
master plan and on the town’s
transportation plan show Rock Spring
running between the seminary president’s
house and the G.W. Paschal house and
continuing across Durham Road near what
was Miss Jo Williams’ boarding house
that is now the seminary guest house.
Immediately after the vote
on Barrington’s motion, Drake asked if
he could “supplement” the motion to
include a three to one tree replacement.
Attorney Eric Vernon said he would have
to look at the procedures, there was a
five-minute break and several whispered
huddles. The result was a motion to
reconsider.
Drake’s motion was that,
within a year of the loss of any of the
23 trees the seminary would replant of
any species on a 3-to-1 ratio anywhere
on the campus.
“I kind of like the idea of
a tree mitigation policy,” Commissioner
David Camacho said. “The thing that
gives me heartburn is we’re sort of
winging it, making it up at the
meeting.”
After planner Lisa Potts
said the Urban Forestry Board is close
to completing a tree ordinance with a
tree-mitigation policy that includes a
requirement identical to what Drake
suggested for landmark trees.
“I thought you had pulled
that out of thin air,” Camacho told
Drake, who said he was not that smart.
Stinnett wanted more in
light of the damage to campus trees by
Hurricane Fran, ice storms and old age.
“I think we have the obligation to
protect them [the 23 trees] because it
is part of what makes Wake Forest Wake
Forest. Three-inch caliper trees are not
as tall as you and I. We need to do
everything we possibly can to keep the
forest in Wake Forest.”
When Mayor Vivian Jones
called for a vote, Barrington did not
say anything and his vote counted as a
yes with Drake and Commissioner
Velma-Boyd Lawson. He protested, saying
he did not hear Jones call for a vote
and was thinking of a question. “I
thought I restated the motion. I think I
gave you ample opportunity to question,”
Jones said, denying his request to vote. |
