In a Tuesday meeting that lasted from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m., the Wake Forest Planning Board members voted eight to one with Thorsten Hamp dissenting to recommend the town board approve the master plan for Legacy Heritage at the southwest corner of the N.C. 98 Bypass and Heritage Lake Road.
The room was almost full with about 30 or so Heritage residents with an interest in the project who all stayed until the end.
This was a lengthy meeting because the format was quasi-judicial with sworn testimony from experts because the land is already properly zoned for multi-family residential use. The only question is whether the master plan meets all the town’s requirements.
The meeting began with Planner Courtney Jenkins going through the staff report, which recommended approval, and then fielding a lot of questions from the planning board members and commissioners about the details of the plan.
Members wanted to know about the types of buildings, the amenities – a dog park, a tot lot and playground, and access to the Dunn Creek Greenway to the west – as well as the apartments with front-loaded garages similar to townhouses. One of Jenkins’s points was that the owner/developer is exceeding the required open space – 7 percent – by providing 24.5 percent.
The applicant, Goldberg Companies Inc. of Beachweed, Ohio, which will also be the owner and operator, had hired Jamie Shwelder, a land use attorney, who said the company had to prove that the plan meets the mark in four categories: That it is consistent with adopted plans and policies, that it complies with all requirements, that there is adequate infrastructure and the use will not be detrimental to the use of adjacent properties.
Schwelder called on three experts: James Clark with WithersRavenel, a civil engineer; Travis Fluitt with Kimley-Horn & Associates, a traffic engineer; and Tom Hester, an appraiser with Hester & Company. Each of them read his report at length and then was questioned by Schwelder, as to each point of his report and how it met the town’s requirements.
It was 9:30 p.m. when that was concluded and the town attorney allowed two men to speak. One was Bob Hill, a multi-term planning board member and chairman, and Todd Shoffeitt, who is familiar with storm drainage. Both live in Heritage near the project. Because they are not experts, both framed their concerns as questions to one of the experts.
Hill said, “I personally have no objection to apartments on that property” and praised Goldberg for its management of other projects.
But Hill did have many questions about the traffic in that area, citing a Wake Forest Police report about 54 crashes on Heritage Lake Road since the first of the year and zeroing in on the Heritage Lake entrance to the project which will be across the street from Gateway Commons Way, an unsignalized intersection below the crest of a hill. There will be a traffic signal at the intersection of Heritage Lake Road and Friendship Chapel Road.
Fluitt agreed that safety was not a part of the traffic impact analysis, which does call for significant improvements to the bypass intersection with Heritage Lake Road as well as other turning lanes and improvements.
Chairman Ed Gary called for a five-minute break at 10:10, and then Hill continued to question the road safety and the comparison to somewhat similar apartments on Durham Road made by Hester.
Shoffeitt then began to question the engineer, Clark, about the three large stormwater retention ponds located below the buildings and parking lots and adjacent to the Dunn Creek floodplain. “We have had two sediment incursions [in Dunn Creek] this year,” Shoffeitt told Clark.
He asked about the rainfall capacity for the ponds, mentioning the three hurricanes in the past three years. Clark replied, “Nowhere in the world do they design for anything like a hurricane.” Clark said that if the ponds are full “the water will go down the hill and into the flood plain.”
Shoffeitt asked if it would not be prudent to delay this plan to provide time for the developer to find a way to contain storm water from hurricanes. “The Upper Neuse Riverkeeper would be happy to meet with you.”
Hill also asked that the vote on the project be delayed until January to allow for more time to bring out several facts.
Shwelder replied by saying North Carolina law requires there be expert testimony and the comments by Hill and Shoffeitt should be disregarded because it was not expert testimony. She also said the state law requires the board to approve the project if it meets all requirements.
After that, it became the turn for the planning board members to decide. Joe Kimray made the motion to approve, seconded by Colleen Sharpe, but it was clear members were, as Chuck Moseley said, “conflicted.”
Karlene Turrentine said the applicants had “met their burden,” but she still wanted to know more about the traffic. Hamp said he would like to see a delay for the opponents to bring in experts.
Karin Karupas had concerns about the front-loaded garage apartments, but also said a lot of the questions would be cleared up during the construction process.
Finally Sharpe said, “I don’t know that waiting any longer will do any good.”
The vote was taken, and it was close to 11:30 p.m.
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