Tuesday night the Wake Forest commissioners faced a request to waive $249,496 in development fees requested by the development firm of Stanley Martin because it faces higher than usual costs in building The Retreat at Renaissance, a plan for 85 townhouses in the downtown area, because of contaminants below ground level. The plan is to build impermeable barriers between the ground and the buildings in accord with a brown-field agreement with the State of North Carolina.
There was a lively discussion with Mayor Vivian Jones, Planning Director Chip Russell, and Commissioners Greg Harrington and Brian Pate urging approval while Commissioners Anne Reeve, Margaret Stinnett and Jim Thompson saying the town could not afford it.
There was little explanation at the meeting about the plume of contaminants or any background for the project and its history. The townhouse project was approved by the town in 2013 and is planned to stretch from an entrance on South Franklin Street up to and including a new section of Brooks Street connecting East Holding Avenue to the rest of the street.
Craig Briner with East Elm Partners planned the project but it stalled and then apparently at least one firm looked at it and backed away before Stanley Martin, a regional firm with headquarters in Washington, D.C., and Charlottesville, Virginia agreed to purchase the 11 acres and build the townhouses.
At some point between 2013 and today, the contaminants were discovered riding along the water table 16 to 22 feet below ground. Town Manager Kip Padgett said he had spoken with JJ Carr, head of the inspections department, Eric Keravuori, the town engineer, and Russell. The three told him they had talked about recommending a waiver of fees at some earlier point but then “it went away,” meaning the developer at that time dropped the project.
Stanley Martin is the firm which requested the brown-field agreement and spent money to hurry it through, Briner said. He told the board the plume came “from the other side of Brooks Street,” and after the meeting Russell said it could have come from the former Miller Oil Company, which originally occupied the building and land on Elm Avenue now owned by DAB.
“I think this project is very important to the town,” Jones said, encouraging the board to approve the waiver.
Russell said the waiver would encourage development in the downtown as the town has done before in selected cases, “but not like this.”
“That’s $250,000 that anybody else has to pay,” Stinnett said. The waiver included straight fees such as the fire impact and recreation fees plus fees and costs related to inspections. Later she said, “All of those things affect the workings of the town of Wake Forest.”
“Do you want something to happen in downtown now or not?” Russell asked. If it happens sooner and the town can collect property and other taxes, “you’re paying yourself back.” Later he said the property might sit unused and vacant for six to ten years if the developer does not receive this incentive.
Pate did some calculations and said that in the second year after completion of the project, the town had “more than broke even.” Also, he said that until the town has enough people downtown who will walk to the restaurants and shops, downtown will remain only a drivable location. “You need people to walk to those stores and restaurants.” Russell added, “We need this one and more.”
After the meeting and on Wednesday Briner was not sure how Stanley Martin would proceed. “We’ll work with them, scratch our heads and figure out what to do.” He said the firm does urban walkable projects very well, pointing to townhouses at the intersection of Peace and Person streets in Raleigh with unusually fine architectural features, and said they had been looking forward to the Retreat at Renaissance project for “what it can do for their brand and what it can do for Wake Forest.” The plan had been to begin construction in January.
Wednesday Russell said, “We must get more people living downtown if we want any chance of further revitalization. New people drive additional demand for retail services.”
The town is currently updating the Renaissance Plan for the greater downtown area, and the plan envisions a substantial number of residential projects in and near downtown.
In other actions, the board voted four to one with Stinnett saying no to expand the shopfront overlay district as recommended by the planning board earlier in the month.
They also officially approved the plan to hire Kimley-Horn to demolish the existing Holding Park Pool and rebuild it with extra features for about $2.5 million as they discussed during this month’s work session. Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources Director Ruben Wall told them that nothing about the plan is finalized yet.
After some discussion and information from a county planner and others who assured them of the safety and safeguards for solar farms, the commissioners voted three to two to approve the Little River Watershed Interlocal Agreement with Stinnett and Harrington voting no.
4 Responses
I was very disappointed in Anne reeve,Jim Thompson, and of course Margaret Stinnett voting against the savings for the builder. Even after Brian Pate did a math 2 year pay back and all the city employees were in favor, they voted against it.
It is astounding that the Town approved spending $2.5 million on building a new pool at Holding Park without asking residents their opinion as they did when the Town thought they would need to spend $500,000 to fix the Holding Park Pool. I don’t believe the approval level would have been quite so positive had residents known the true cost.
Talk about “bait and switch”.
Slow down. Too much traffic in and around Wake Forest. Attention should be on more lanes and improvements to existing roads.
Agree with Chip Russel that if the goal is to get downtown up and going quickly then do so now. I hope the Commissioners will find a way to make this happen. Wonder if way to defer the fees till later date so the project can get moving. It starts and stops and now is time to get it done.