Lynn Snow, the resident of the Canonbie subdivision off Jenkins Road who led the opposition to the Wake Forest Fire Department’s Station #4 in 2013 and wrote at least 58 emails to the department and others in that endeavor, sent out a certified letter on March 7 commanding the department “cease and desist” from the construction underway. The letter was mailed to Stanley Denton, the president of the independent fire department, and to Mayor Vivian Jones.
On March 12 she sent an email to the Gazette and others, including town attorney Eric Vernon and WFFD Chief Ron Early, with the letter as an attachment.
The letter says her personal cease and desist order, which has no legal standing, is because the “persistent action including but not limited to the construction of a new fire station at 1505 and 1509 Jenkins Road, Wake Forest, NC, have become unbearable. You are ORDERED TO STOP such activities immediately as they are being done in violation of the law.”
Unless the fire station construction is immediately stopped and the individuals send her written confirmation of the stoppage with in 10 days, Snow warned they may risk “some very severe legal consequences” and this letter is the final warning. “I am not contacting the authorities or filing civil suit against you as I hope we can resolve this matter without authoritative involvement.”
Snow’s basis for the demand to stop construction is that “the values of at least three properties in close proximity (including your own) have decreased significantly, between 12% and 34% as proven by the following factual sales:” The letter says that the impact study for the residential values was “seriously flawed” when the author concluded only one property would suffer a small loss in value.
Those property sales since the town approved the special use permit for the fire station include the fire department’s purchase of the two lots in December 2013 for $151,000 when they had a combined Wake County tax valuation of $145,560, which has since been lowered to $104,448.
Wake County had a county-wide tax revaluation in 2008 with field work done in 2007 before the recession substantially lowered real estate values but did not affect the county’s tax valuations. Those 2008 tax valuations remain the same for all properties except those that have been sold. The next county-wide revaluation will be done in 2016.
Snow cites the sales of two nearby homes, one at 1525 Jenkins Road next to the fire station and one at 2517 Canonbie Lane, in which the sellers each received 12 percent less than what Snow says they could have expected. The owner of the Jenkins Road property said she sold because her special needs grandchild lives with her and “she could not subject him to the noise of a fire station located right next door.” The Canonbie seller, a trustee for the property, is a realtor who was one of the people during the two public hearings in 2013 who spoke against the fire station, saying it would “significantly and adversely impact neighboring property values.”
In both cases, Snow compared the tax valuation to the sale price and also quoted the Triangle MLS Wake County Market Trends for the months of the sales, saying in both cases it was a seller’s market.
The house at 1525 Jenkins Road had a county tax value of $228,537 and sold for $173,000 on Feb. 11, 2014, with Snow noting the sale price is 24 percent below the county’s assessed value “while the WFFD paid 4% more than the tax assessed value for their property next door.” She goes on to say the MLS indicates a seller’s market at the time “and the owners should have expected to receive $198,860, 96% of the original list price of $204,000, instead of what they actually received, which was a decrease of 12% . . .”
Snow seems to indicate there was an actual loss of 30 percent for the home at 2517 Canonbie Lane, which was purchased in 2005 for $695,000 and sold for $485,000 this year. The county tax value was $737,453 at the time of the sale.
She does say the house was listed at $575,000 and sold for $485,000 and again says this was a 12 percent decrease during a seller’s market, according to the MLS for the time period.
The Gazette asked Denton, Jones, Vernon and Early if they had any comments. Jones replied to the email with a “no comment,” Early said the fire department had no new response, and Vernon and Denton did not respond.
