Tuesday evening, Feb. 13, 2024, the seven members of the Wake Forest Planning Board unanimously agreed to recommend to the Wake Forest Town Board that it deny the Star Road Tech Center request to rezone 30 acres from Highway Business to Conditional Use Highway Business.
St. John Properties in Raleigh, owned by Dustin Atkieski — who also owns the 30-acre property with his company Star Landing LLC with Puryear Investments LLC — proposed to build six buildings and rent the various spaces to small start-up businesses, according to Atkieski. The hearing had been postponed a month because all town functions were cancelled after there were dire weather forecasts.
Senior Planner Patrick Reidy politely savaged the plan, presenting 13 points for the board members that ranged from not conforming to the town’s vision of growth in the Capital Boulevard corridor to allowing for unpermitted uses like a night club.
The owner has refused to build a portion of the future backage road for the NCDOT Capital Boulevard plan or to provide a fee for the cost. He has also refused to move the two buildings fronting on Star Road back the required 100 feet. The plan submitted left the buildings at 50 feet.
Reidy said the proposed plan does not meet the minimum road infrastructure required, including a traffic signal at a connection to Capital Boulevard, left turn lanes and improvements at intersections. It also does not connect to a street in the adjacent property as required by the Unified Development Ordinance. It does not meet the requirements for parking spaces or for bicycle parking spaces.
The owner, Reidy said, does not commit to paying for and installing the required public art. When Atkieski spoke for the project, he started to address the art question and then only talked about not knowing what type of tenants he would have. He also said he is a Wake Forest resident, but the Wake County list of property owners did not find his name.
The planning board members started to discuss the problems with the plan, but after a few comments Planning Board Chairman Karin Kuropas said, “There are too many inconsistencies for what the town has planned for the area, too many red flags, it’s too loose with not enough detail for what is going to happen,” and she called for a motion.
Member Adam Redler complied, moving not to recommend and member Michael Almquist seconded. The vote was unanimous.
The hearing began 45 minutes into the meeting. In that first segment Senior Planner Kari Grace continued her explanations about the proposed changes in the Unified development Ordinance, starting with the introduction of two different kinds of PUDs, Planned Unit Developments, one larger than five acres and one smaller. She also described the proposed new standards for residential housing and the general provisions and standards in the new edition.
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One Response
The town requires the display of “public art” on private property? The “public art” I’ve seen in Wake Forest is mostly ugly and all a waste of taxpayer money. Requiring people to display that stuff is, well, not great.