It has been called the truck stop for decades even though the big trucks no longer parked there in front of the restaurant that endured for 48 years, according to a local man.
On Tuesday night September 10, 2024 at the Wake Forest Planning Board meeting we learned the 11.6 acres on Capital Boulevard and Burlington Mills Road is likely to become a Hyundai dealership owned by Johnson Automotive, which came up from New Bern and became a big player in the Wake County car dealership world.
The property will also be a lot smaller sometime in the future when the North Carolina Department of Transportation gets funding and can build the proposed Capital Boulevard Freeway. It will take the entire frontage of 5 acres, which will be only parking with permeable paving and lots of trees and shrubs until then so DOT does not have to pay a lot for the property.
Toby Coleman with Johnson Automotive explained how they will tuck the dealership building into an odd-shaped lot and meet the US 1 Council of Planning’s recommendation. That body, Coleman said, had been advocating for better looking buildings at car dealerships. The picture he showed was of a building with black metal over glass walls and limited signage. Behind that front, it becomes a two-story building because of the drop-off on the site. The back is utilitarian but also includes vines espaliered on the back wall – and Coleman said they will be included in the finished product.
The odd-shaped lot resulted after Johnson Automotive was unable to purchase a square lot with two buildings on the Burlington Mills Road side.
But that explanation was interrupted when Planning Board member Michael Almquist said the lot owner “has come back and wants to sell at the original price.”
A lawyer then went to the podium and said, “My client has put great emphasis on the current plan. The offer has expired.” There then ensued a rather confusing discussion by several people during which Senior Planner Tim Richardson said the town “would be creative” if the extra land was purchased and Karin Kuropas, the board chairman, turned and asked Town Attorney Hassan Kingsberry how to proceed. He said they should consider what they have before them, the plan without any additional land.
During the public comment section of the hearing, Veronica Brown, the chairman of the HOA in the Shearon Farms subdivision on the south side of Burlington Mills Road, said the large subdivision of single-family and townhouses has only one entrance and exit onto Burlington Mills Road, Urial Drive, a two-lane road without a traffic signal. “We often feel trapped, she said, because it is so difficult to get out. “Adding more traffic to this intersection is our biggest problem.” She asked the planning board members to consider Shearon Farms when making their decision.
Robert Williams spoke at length but in such a jumble of names and actions that it was impossible to determine his point, although he was clear that his “mother-in-law ran that restaurant there for 48 years.”
Matt Davis made the motion to approve and the vote was unanimous. The planning board’s recommendation now goes to the town board for consideration.
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Davis also made the motion to approve and the vote was also unanimous for a two-building plan on Jones Dairy Road between Chapel Road and Chalk Road requested by the Williams family. David Williams Sr. is the property owner, and Jonathan Williams with Focus Design Builders Inc. is the developer, all in Wake Forest.
Jonathan Williams said David Williams wanted to do something something to improve health care in the area and chose to build on Jones Dairy Road to direct some of the health-care traffic away from Rogers Road, where it is concentrated.
The two two-story buildings have cladding in zinc or in black long thin bricks. Rainwater will be stored and slowly released from an underground tank.
Rain and water became the topic when three neighbors spoke because of the unnamed creek and its floodplain down behind the planned buildings.
Neil Dolan said he had recently bought flood insurance and his main concern is the flooding when it rains now, questioning what will happen when this project is built as well as another on an adjacent property.
Scott Laurent questioned the lighting from the site and wondered how the construction could affect his property’s value. He also talked about water in the floodplain, up to 5 or 6 inches of water after a rain now. “We’re going to have problems.”
David Dunton, who has built buildings for medical care, said, “You don’t build it until you have a tenant,”
Planning Board member Adam Redlar followed up, asking about the stormwater storage, Senior Planner Patrick Reidy said, “We have been oversizing.”
Davis’s motion to approve included increasing to the 25-year standard for the storm retention and some noise mitigation.
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