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Questions, disorganization
mark public meeting
The
60 or so people who went to the Alston-Massenburg Community Center the night of
Dec. 19 to hear about the plans for the Wake Union Place shopping center had a
lot of questions and concerns, few of which seemed to be answered to their
satisfaction.
The
meeting was not well organized. Everyone had to stand – there were only four
chairs – and crowd around the two small drawings showing the plan. It was
difficult to hear the questions people had or the answers. Some people who
wanted to attend did not because of the meeting’s location. Planner Ann Ayers,
who answered some of the questions, said the developers had tried to hold the
meeting closer to the site for the proposed shopping center but everything in
the vicinity was booked because of the holiday.
Ayers
told the group that because the future request for the center would be for a
special use permit, a proceeding which allows only sworn testimony to be
considered, members of the planning board and town board had been advised not
to attend. Edwin Gary, who had been appointed to the planning board on the
previous Tuesday, was at the meeting and did not leave immediately.
Ayers
said this week she has not yet received any formal proposal from Interface
Properties of Boca Raton, Fla., the shopping center’s developers. They had said
they wanted to present the plans to the town’s planning department by Feb. 2.
The neighbors and interested town
residents were concerned about the proposed road re-alignment, the impact on property
values in St. Ives subdivision, the contamination on the former Parker-Hannifin
site, traffic, and the center’s design.
Jason
Barron, an attorney with Kennedy Covington law firm in Raleigh, and Sal
Musarra, an engineer with Kimley-Horn Associates which is doing the land
planning for the center, conducted the meeting.
The
plan calls for Wake Union Church Road to end at the shopping center property.
It would be replaced by an unnamed street that would turn abruptly to the west
and head for the back of the property, giving access to the property designated
for a future fire station. The street would then turn to the north, running
along the back of the future anchor store and other stores. It would dead-end
at the center’s property line and would not be extended to Jenkins Road. The
land between the center and Jenkins Road is owned by Bill and Emily Andrews and
the Holding family.
The
connection to Capital Boulevard would be by a second new street running east
and west from the first new street to the highway and would meet Capital
Boulevard at the same point as the present traffic signals on the Wake Union
Church Road and Capital Boulevard intersection.
Joe
Paulonis said several times that North Carolina is the only state which does
not require frontage roads.
Cindy
McGuire pointed out more than once that it made more sense to continue Wake
Union Church Road in front of the center.
Ayers
said no, that leaving the road in front would mean traffic would back up. The
road does not have to go in back of the center, she said, but it is unlikely
the developers would want it to go through the middle of the center.
People
appeared satisfied that the developers would add a connection to the parking
lot of Wake Forest Presbyterian Church to the north.
Stephen
Ogenstad and others were concerned that a connection would be made between the
new street and St. Ive’s, where he lives, saying it would lead to shopping
center traffic going through the subdivision. Ayers said there is already a
stubbed connection to a collector street in St. Ive’s and town policy is to
make connections.
Ogenstad
also said the value of his home would be negatively impacted. Ayers said that
he and others bought their homes when the site was zoned industrial and was
contaminated.
Rob
Hicks of Weingarten Realty Investors said the cleanup of the contamination has
been accelerated by the planned development.
(During
the 1960s and 1970s, Schrader, which then owned the plant, used the solvent trichloroethylene
[TCE] to clean its machines and dumped an unknown amount into a pit or onto the
ground. This was an acceptable practice at the time. Since 1991,
Parker-Hannifin, the last plant owner, has been trying to clean the TCE from
the groundwater using a method called air stripping. The chemical evaporates in
the air. It has later been found that TCE contaminated the plant’s walls,
floors and ceilings. Those have been removed while the building was demolished
and disposed of using methods approved by the state.)
Part
of the plan is for green areas in the middle of the site where some of the
remediation will be continued.
When
Hicks spoke last March at the economic summit, he said the shopping center then
called Wake Forest Towne Center would be a large regional power center similar
to Triangle Town Center. The retailers would be nationally-known stores that
have not found a home in the Triangle. Hicks also said they hoped to begin
construction in the summer.
The
current design is for one large anchor store at the rear of the property
flanked by three or four smaller stores. There would be a line of stores on the
south side of the property, two or more to the north of the east-west street
and five or six out-parcels along Capital Boulevard.
Hicks
said it would be a “life-style type of project” with a large department store
such as Penney’s or Kohl’s.
The
Industrial Development Corporation, set up in 1964 to buy the land and build
the plant for Schrader Brothers, the town’s first large industry, is still
holding the $2 million from the sale of the property to Jim Adams last year.
The only two remaining IDC directors, John Wooten Jr. and John Rich, have
announced they want the help of the town and its residents in setting up an
independent nonprofit group and determining how that group would use the money
to benefit the town.
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