In a short meeting Tuesday night, the Wake Forest Planning Board voted unanimously to approve the updated Renaissance Plan for the larger downtown area and a rezoning for an outdoor storage facility on North White Street.
Charles and Eloise Shepherd of Durham asked to have 2.05 acres between the CSX rail line and North White Street rezoned from general residential to light industrial conditional district. The triangle of land is bounded on the north by Franklin County. Eloise Shepherd told the board they own land immediately adjacent to this parcel in Franklin County and want to expand.
Planning Director Chip Russell and a representative from Stantec, the consulting design firm for the update, explained the major points in the new Renaissance Plan, which include connecting the core parts of downtown which are now South White Street and Renaissance Plaza on Brooks Street, managing parking, creating destinations that will bring people to the area and putting people first.
Some of the fun ideas include making Owen between South White and Brooks a festival street, installing colored lighting at the Underpass, making the loading zone on South White a parklet that could even be temporary, adding outdoor seating at The Forks Cafeteria, and playgrounds and spraygrounds.
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The Wake Forest Fire Department will conduct a controlled burn exercise in a small one-story house at 1117 Chalk Road on Thursday, June 8, beginning at 7:30 a.m. and ending about 3 p.m. The burn will be a training exercise for the paid and volunteer fire fighters. The house is owned by WFINV LLC in Raleigh.
Expect some smoke and ash but the department tries to conduct these burns in a way to minimize smoke impact to roads and neighboring homes and businesses. For more information, call the department at 919-556-1966.
