Town staff are calling it “the Moss Creek thing,” and it is a classic combination of misinformation by well-meaning people leading to – well, the possibility that people would attend the next Wake Forest Town Board meeting wearing hazmat suits.
Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell tried to explain it Tuesday during the board’s work session. It begins with the City of Raleigh constructing a large sewer line from Burlington Mills Road to the wastewater treatment plant, a sewer line that parallels the Smith Creek Greenway that leads to the new bridge over the Neuse River, linking the town’s greenway system to Raleigh’s and a state system.
At that same time, the state Department of Transportation closed the unofficial parking lot that had grown up through the years at the head of the greenway trail and permanently blocked access to the greenway from there.
Because of this, the town is incorporating changes in the greenway system that will eventually link that cutoff part of Smith Creek Greenway to the rest of the system by rerouting it to go under the Burlington Mills bridge and up Smith Creek to One World Way where a new trailhead and parking lot will be built.
But that is a $3.5-million project that will certainly not be completed until 2017, O’Donnell said. Meanwhile, the town owns 3.5 acres next to the treatment plant, and Raleigh has agreed there could be public access along the dirt road from Ligon Mill Road if access is limited to the hours between sunrise and sunset. Opening a parking lot here will allow access quickly to the affected part of the Smith Creek Greenway once it is open for the public; it is currently off limits because of the construction.
The town has hired the engineering firm of Kimley-Horn to draw up the plans for all the above, and engineers began talking with the homeowners’ associations in Caddell Woods and Moss Creek subdivisions which abut the affected area. And that was the beginning of the misinformation flow and explosion.
People thought the town was going to tear down all the trees, Commissioner Jim Thompson, who lives nearby, said.
The neighbors will get a chance to hear all the town’s plans in a public meeting Monday, April 20, beginning at 7 p.m. in Richland Creek Community Church. They will also have a chance to ask questions and offer input. There will be a second community meeting, also at the church, on Monday, May 18, at p.m. when people can review the plans.
The town’s message now is, O’Donnell said, “if we don’t do this, people will be parking in your neighborhoods.”
O’Donnell also calmed some future fears by saying Raleigh no longer treats sludge at the plant on Smith Creek; it is sent down the Neuse to the central treatment plant. “That’s the smelly part.”
The board also briefly discussed some downtown issues brought to its attention by Drew Bridges, who owns the Bookteller’s Book Store. Mayor Vivian Jones said after meeting with Bridges, the government relations committee and the police chief, “I went around and talked with a bunch of downtown merchants and asked them about the concerns they had. None of the businesses downtown indicated to me they had an issue with people hanging out on the street. One big thing was the smoking on the street – some people were concerned about that – but I didn’t have anybody to tell me they were very concerned about that.”
She said the police department has been doing foot patrols – 408 foot patrols recently – make sure they have contact information for all the businesses and asks them to keep the lights on at night to make surveillance easier.
The agreement among the board was to take no action.
