Board says no to relaxed flood areas
In a somewhat confused vote series Tuesday night, the Wake Forest mayor and commissioners decided not to relax the town’s definitions of flood hazard areas as proposed by the town’s planning department. At issue was text amendments to the Unified Development Ordinance which would have allowed building in some that are now off-limits to development, areas with the potential for flooding in some cases. “I think we have to be very careful about flood hazard areas,” Mayor Vivian Jones said, adding that she knows the relaxed rules will be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency at some future time. The reason for changing the town’s rules about flood protection is that it “takes too long for the EPA.” With Commissioner Brian Pate absent because of illness, the first vote to approve the changes was 2 to 2 with Commissioners Greg Harrington and Bridget Wall-Lennon voting no, Liz Simpers and Anne