Tuesday night the Wake Forest Planning Board, acting on a request by Kristin Riddick, voted unanimously to rezone a half acre at 1633 South Main Street from general residential 3 to conditional district neighborhood business.
Riddick, who operates Ellebee Salon in rented space at 1701 South Main Street, proposes to purchase the property, land and the 1961 house, from Pamela Oliver and Dianne Browning of Zebulon and operate her salon there.
Jon Frazier with FLM Engineering said the plan is to move the driveway from the front, South Main Street, to the side, Farm Road, add parking and perhaps now, perhaps later add 900 square feet to the existing house. There will also be buffering added in front and on the north side and east side. Frazier also said she will improve Farm Road by adding curb and guttering.
Planner Courtney Jenkins said the property is in the town center zone where large-scale commercial projects should not be developed. The only response from neighbors, she said, was from people who might want to change existing houses into low-impact commercial property
The only concern the commissioners and planning board members had was the traffic on South Main Street at peak hours.
It is only one property now, Commissioner Brian Pate said, but twenty or twenty-five years down the road, if people keep flipping it could largely be commercial with additional traffic.
Assistant Planning Director Brendie Vega said the planning department is looking at South Main Street. “Some recommendations will come out of that. We want to see what is in the best long-range plan for the community as a whole.”
But we don’t have that yet, Pate said. It seems to me to be creeping more and more commercial. It’s the only place you can buy a house for under $200,000. We keep adding traffic. He added that Riddick already had a salon on South Main.
The vote to recommend approval to the town board was unanimous.
Jonathan Jacobs, a new planner, described proposed amendments to the Unified Development Ordinance which were also unanimously recommended.
At the close of the meeting the members present were asked to read and sign the Code of Ethics, and they also elected new officers. Edward Gary was re-elected chairman and Grif Bond, who was absent, was re-elected vice chairman.
