Opinion: Town let residential developer off the hook for road

To the editor:

I have read with interest an article about the proposed Wegmans Supermarket coming to town. I have been hoping for one in Wake Forest since we moved here thirteen years ago. I had lived 12 miles from one where I came from and made frequent shopping trips there.

I was a little disappointed to find out that the developer of the property who is developing additional retail and residential space with Wegmans will be required to complete the Ligon Mill Road Extension to the 98 Bypass. Ligon Mill Road was originally to be completed by Orleans Builders back in 2005. It was a requirement by the Town of Wake Forest for their residential development.

In 2015 Orleans Home Builders sought and received a waiver from the requirement that they complete Ligon Mill Road to the Bypass. When the town granted this waiver in 2015 I predicted that the town will force someone else to pay for it, while Orleans Home Builders got off with more money in their pockets. Certainly when Orleans Homes was planning their development have accounted for the cost of the road in the price they charge the public for those homes. I also wonder what Orleans Homes have told their buyers about the empty land. I wonder if they mentioned that there may be a large commercial development next door.

I have heard for years that Wake Forest is planning for smart growth. It appears that those in our town government have a different idea of what smart growth is than I do. I found it reprehensible that the Town in 2015 allowed a residential developer off the hook for road improvements that the same developer agreed to a decade earlier and now are socking it to another developer who is planning a mixed use development. Quite frankly the whole situation stinks.

I can look at it as the town is playing favorites to a certain residential builder, or sticking it to a certain commercial builder. Either way the damage is done. The commissioners are quite upset about public reactions to some of their votes over the past few years. I have pointed out in the past why that is the case, but they have not heeded my advice. This is just another example that I have to point out.

So when the commissioners and the planning department are confronted by outraged citizens I hope they start paying attention to what I have been trying to tell them.

Matthew S. Reck

Wake Forest

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