How to learn about future growth

The Town of Wake Forest makes it easy for town residents to learn about the projects such as apartments and subdivisions which the town board – the five commissioners – will have to vote on.

Go to www.wakeforestnc.gov, the town’s website, click on “Departments” and then “Planning.” There you will find an interactive map of all the proposed projects under review. Just click on one to learn a lot about it. You can also find many other maps, a list of current projects, the Unified Development Ordinance which governs planning procedures, and much more.

The Wake Forest Planning Board meets every first Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the second-floor meeting room in town hall. It holds joint public hearings with the town board and mayor, and that is when opponents and proponents of the various projects can voice their views or informed opinions. The planning board only makes recommendations about projects, sending them on to the town board for a final decision. There is no public hearing at the town board meeting.

The planning department says it is likely that at the next planning board meeting, Sept. 3, there will be a request about the Averette Road project. Last night, Aug. 20, the town board agreed to accept a petition for annexation for the properties in that request. There will be a public hearing about the annexation next month. Public hearing notices are published in The Wake Weekly.

The Averette Road project, apparently an extension of the Tryon subdivision, will include 211.8 acres along Averette Road where the developer is planning 687 single-family lots and 294 townhouses. The request was submitted a year ago, and the planning department staff has been reviewing the plans, asking for clarification, changes and more information since then.

Another large subdivision request, Kinsley, was only submitted in March of this year so may not be heard for 10 to 12 months. It lies along both sides of North Main Street, extending into Franklin County, and will have 764 dwelling units, single-family lots as well as two or three configurations of townhouses, on 203 acres.

You can find the agendas for the town board’s meetings and the planning board’s meetings by going to the town website, clicking on “Government” and then on “Streaming Media Archives.” The planning board’s agendas are generally posted the Thursday before the meetings on Tuesday. After clicking on the agenda you will see a list of all the backup information: the staff report, the maps, the results of the neighborhood meeting, all the information provided by the applicant. You can see all that information by clicking on the right line and you can print it out in advance of the meeting.

The planning board is an appointed advisory body which hears all the information about a project at the public hearing and then votes to either recommend or not recommend the project. Everyone is able to speak at those public hearings, though for contentious items where several people want to speak against a project you can be asked as a group to appoint one or two speakers.

Every Wake Forest resident is eligible for appointment to the planning board, which does most of the questioning and debating about projects. Planning board members are appointed for three-year terms and may serve two terms.

You can apply for a seat on the planning board – or any of the other town advisory boards – on the same page which describes the planning board composition or at different other sites within the town’s website. You can also call town hall and ask that an application for advisory boards be sent to you.

Another way of finding out about future growth is to read The Wake Forest Gazette which includes an article, The Growth Rate, which tries to keep up with all the planning department activity.