North Avenue to be repaved – period

The fears that North Avenue – the short street on the north side of the seminary campus between Stadium Drive and North Main Street – would be narrowed to build a sidewalk on its south side leaving two travel lanes and no parking, were laid to rest Tuesday night by Town Manager Kip Padgett.

He announced at the start of the town board meeting that North Avenue is now in the state Department of Transportation’s resurfacing plan for the spring of 2019. DOT will remove some sections of the pavement, a mix of concrete and asphalt, and repave the street. The town will handle the parking – 10 of the current 17 spaces will be returned between Wingate and College streets – and the loading zone next to the old store building will be moved around the corner to North Main Street. The seven parking spaces between College and North Main will not be returned because of sight-distance concerns. Thus the plan some town officials had said could not be changed was dumped.

This, with the exception of the parking spaces and loading zone, was what the town commissioners asked for when they voted to add North Avenue to the Stadium Drive Complete Street Project which is slated to go out for bids this fall.

But the planners at Kimley-Horn & Associates obviously saw it as an extension of a complete street design and therefore added a sidewalk extension on the south (seminary) side. The sidewalk could not be sited on the grassy area between the rock wall because the small hill at the Wingate end would require a retaining wall next to the drystack rock wall. A state historic district feared it would destabilize the rock wall and turned down that plan. Instead, the planners moved the sidewalk about 4 feet to the north, into the eastbound traffic lane, a change which led to a cascade of other design changes for the street.

Jeff Moore with Kimley-Horn muddied the water Tuesday night immediately after Padgett’s statement by talking about the 25 percent plan for the street, which does include the south side sidewalk, a narrower street and a brick retaining wall on the north side along the side of the Corner building. He had a lively exchange with the mayor and commissioners, who, like most others in the room, did not immediately grasp the import of Padgett’s statement. They voted to use the 25 percent plan.

People left the meeting confused and, in some cases, angry because they believed their concerns had not been addressed. Those concerned included the Gazette editor. Her concerns were allayed by emails and a telephone call with Padgett.

“I think Jeff was confused,” Padgett said during the telephone call.

Marty Ludas, who owns the historic house and store building (once called The Corner Ice Cream Shop), has fought the plan to change the street and was still angry Wednesday morning until told that Padgett had arranged to retain the integrity and character of the street which is in the town’s historic North Main district.

Ludas sent a short statement to the Gazette and The Wake Forest Weekly. “I will say that I am happy for the seminary students as it appears my advocacy appeared to have restored their parking on North Avenue. They got caught up in this. As for the parking being eliminated in front of the Corner, at some point Wake Forest needs to recognize that parking is an asset and it should be defended and preserved like trees, iron fences and original shutters. Very troubling, Wake Forest, that you did nothing to prevent 80-year-old parking being removed from a commercial building that has served the neighborhood for 120 years. Not only did you do nothing, you actually eliminated it yourself without advising anyone. But now DOT is to blame?”