Tuesday night the Wake Forest Town Board did not discuss two agenda items – a reimbursement agreement between the town and Endeavor Charter School and a contract with Freese and Nichols to analyze the existing stormwater infrastructure and develop a maintenance program and a utility fee – because there were no presentations for them, Town Clerk Deeda Harris said.
The board did discuss the rezoning options for three properties on South Allen Road: a beauty salon, the former hospital now owned by Church Initiative, and the former Wake Forest Rest Home, now vacant. Thirty-five neighbors had signed a petition asking they be rezoned from neighborhood mixed use.
“The consensus of the board was to move forward with the rezoning to GR5, move through the legislative process as quickly as possible and for staff to continue conversations with the property owners to determine if there is another rezoning that could be initiated that would be consistent with the community plan update once adopted,” Harris reported.
The salon is content with the current zoning; Church Initiatives has considered expanding the building for 20 years. Since under GR5 the company would be nonconforming and not able to expand and if the building is destroyed, even by natural causes, with more than 50 percent of its replacement cost it could not be reconstructed except with GR5 district standards.
The owner of the rest home property, Life Church PCCF Inc., has been trying to sell it. In March of this year, a request for a variance for a parking reduction was requested of the Board of Adjustment. That would have allowed the construction of a 92-unit apartment complex. Rezoning to GR5 would limit the property to about 13 dwelling units.
The alternative suggested by the town’s planning department is to allow Church Initiative and Life Church PCCF to be rezoned as individual conditional zoning with specific conditions which would address the concerns of each party.
The board also liked the idea of an historic marker project which would give the address, name and some history of buildings and institutions which have been destroyed through the years. That item will be on the board’s agenda on Aug. 17.
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