On Aug. 20, back in 2003
This is the third in what is hoped is a regular feature about Wake Forest in 2003 when the Wake Forest Gazette began publication.
*Town board says yes to Bridges’ rezoning request
Opponents brandishing hand-lettered cardboard signs and a banner rose from their chairs and stood Tuesday night while four Wake Forest commissioners stated their reasons for approving Bob and Sarah Bridges’ request to have their home and 2.4 acres rezoned to neighborhood business.
Before the meeting, 20-some men, women and children from the Riverstone subdivision and other subdivisions along Jenkins Road unfurled the banner and signs for television cameras and chanted, “No retail in the watershed” and “Protect our kids.”
After the 4 to 0 vote, some of the rezoning opponents angrily denounced the decision. One threatened to unseat planning board member Sue Holding, apparently unaware planning board members are appointed not elected. Holding had strongly supported the rezoning. Another vowed to work to remove Commissioner Rob Bridges in two years. Rob Bridges, the son of Bob and Sarah Bridges, was excused by the board from voting. He left the room during the discussion and vote.
During the two weeks between the planning board’s 5 to 4 vote to recommend the rezoning, the opponents were very vocal. Dubbing themselves Friends of Jenkins Road Neighborhoods, they paid for an ad and wrote many letters to a newspaper, wrote letters to and called the commissioners and distributed flyers in several subdivisions.
The only dissenter from the neighborhood business zoning was Mayor Vivian Jones, who does not vote unless there is a tied vote by the commissioners. “I think O and I (office and institutional) is appropriate zoning for this.” She said the board could approve or deny the request or rezone the tract to office and institutional.
After last year’s equally raucous opposition to highway business zoning for the Bridges’ property and the two tracts beside it owned by the Osborne heirs and Geneva Stephenson, the Jenkins Road residents did not protest when those two tracts were subsequently rezoned to office and institutional. Office and institutional zoning allows limited retail.
“The applicant has asked us for something different (than office and institutional),” Commissioner Thomas Walters said. The small lot, he said, “is extremely limited in what you can do there” because the watershed protection limits impervious surface (roofs and parking lots) to 24 percent of the land. The town had just used the last of its special intensity allocation that allows up to 70 percent impervious surface on the Osborne tract, the future home of a branch of the State Employees Credit Union.
“You can’t do convenience stores with gas pumps or drive-up restaurants,” Walters said. “You can’t do a lot of things the neighbors are afraid of.” The Bridges had agreed to conditions prohibiting service stations, convenience stores, car washes, restaurants with drive-up or drive-through service, telecommunication towers, laundry/drycleaners, pawn shops, bonding agencies and dental laboratories.
Addressing fears that neighborhood business zoning for the Bridges would set a precedent for the Otto Schumacher property to the north of the Stephenson land, Walters asked town attorney Eric Vernon that question. Schumacher applied in June to have his 6 acres rezoned from residential to neighborhood business, but a date for that hearing has not been set.
“You can only review the zoning proposition in front of you,” Vernon said.
“Your action tonight does not tie you to any action later on,” Planning Director Chip Russell said.
Walters asked if the Bridges know the potential buyer, and Sarah Bridges said they do not have a firm offer.
“It’s great to see so many concerned citizens,” Commissioner David Camacho said. He said he had heard from many people on both sides, including property owners who are concerned the board will agree to something just because a group complains a lot.
“I cannot see a huge difference between the two classifications (neighborhood business and office and institutional),” Camacho said. “I think the Bridges will find a buyer, but I doubt very seriously it will be a high intensity use.”
Commissioner Velma Boyd recalled her service on a previous town board that identified Capital Boulevard, including the Bridges’ property, as the town’s main commercial corridor. “I can appreciate your concern, but we also have the burden to decide what is best for the whole town. The owner chose to look at neighborhood business and has worked with the planning staff to alleviate some of the concerns you would have with neighborhood business,” Boyd said.
“Last year you defeated highway business,” Commissioner Chris Malone said to the opponents. “I think it should have been highway business. I think the property owner is being very magnanimous in going to neighborhood business. I’m going to support it.”
*Wake County plans Purnell Road with 18-foot lanes, sidewalks
Can you imagine Forestville Road with four lanes, a landscaped median and sidewalks on both sides?
You might also try to conjure up U.S. 401 from Ligon Mill Road up to Louisburg at four lanes with a median and sidewalks, and N.C. 98 from Wake Forest to the county lines rebuilt to the same specifications.
Finally, think about Purnell Road with two 18-foot lanes, left turn lanes at intersections and sidewalks on both sides.
This is the vision of Wake County’s roads by 2025 as plotted by the county planning department and its consultant, Kimley-Horn.
By that year or shortly thereafter, houses, businesses and roads will stand on all the available buildable land in the county. “It will be totally built out in 2030,” Wake planner Timothy W. Clark said.
By a much closer date, 2010, Wake County will have the largest population of all 100 counties in the state. In the next 20 years, the state projects Wake’s population will grow from 658,490 (July 2001 figure) to 1.12 million, a 70 percent increase.
We will need more roads.
Although North Carolina’s counties like Wake have no part in constructing or maintaining roads and streets, the state Department of Transportation handed over the local planning function to Wake 10 years ago, Clark said during an open house at Wake Forest Town Hall Thursday night.
Complete with large maps and a slide show, the open house was part of a county-wide introduction to the transportation plan adopted by the Wake commissioners in April. The transportation plan complements the county’s growth management plan, which will be the subject of a joint town and planning board session Wednesday, Aug. 20, at 6:30 p.m. in town hall.
The county’s plan was initially just to identify and help connect local streets, but it grew to include thoroughfares, public transportation, bicycle paths, greenways and sidewalks. The plan did not include any streets or highways within existing town boundaries or zoning areas.
It ranges from very detailed to broad concepts. For instance, the plan has specific recommendations to improve the U.S. 401-N.C. 96 intersection, and it will submit those recommendations to DOT for intersection-safety funding. Altogether, 59 of those spots were identified across the county.
Almost every street in the plan has sidewalks on both sides, and every street with more than two lanes includes a median lined with trees. People will drive slower on the median streets, Stephen M. Stansbery, one of the Kimley-Horn associates, said, making them safer.
The thrust of Stansbery’s slide show was the importance of interconnecting streets to save money, time and headaches.
In an interconnected network of streets, motorists have a variety of routes available to reach any destination. The interconnections reduce the pressure on major collectors and thoroughfares and disperse traffic through the web. One of Stansbery’s illustrations was the Fan District in Richmond, Va.
Where there are no interconnections, where cul-de-sac neighborhoods open only onto collector streets or thoroughfares, as in Los Angeles, trips to a neighbor may involve a round-about route along those collectors or thoroughfares.
But, Commissioner David Camacho said, people always object when we want to connect their streets to another neighborhood or street. They say their children ride their bikes or skate in the street.
First, Stansbery said, you can tell them the interconnection, along with a convenience for them to reach their destinations, is for safety. In the event of a storm, fallen trees could block a street. The second entrance allows emergency personnel to reach a scene.
“These are public streets,” Stansbery said, emphasizing the “public.” They are designed for everyone or anyone to drive on, not as playgrounds.
“Streets are the most important public spaces in a community,” Stansbery said.
The only visitors during the first hour of the open house were Mayor Vivian Jones and Commissioners Rob Bridges and Camacho.
The Wake County planning staff on hand were Melinda Clark, Kim Lartson and Melanie Wilson.
For more information about the transportation plan, you can call Clark at 856-6320. Also, I have a copy of the summary and a CD with the entire plan. If you want to borrow it, call me at 556-3409.
*’You can turn it around to the backside and paint it purple.’
The proposed National Register of Historic Places designation for a large swath through the heart of Wake Forest would not place restrictions on homeowners.
No, Ann Swallow told the 50 or so potential district residents. “You can turn it around to the backside and paint it purple.”
Swallow, who works in the State Historic Preservation Office and manages the National Register for the National Park Service, and Ruth Little, a consultant who did the district survey for the town and compiled the application, were the speakers at Monday night’s meeting.
Little used slides to give a short overview of the town’s history. The Raleigh & Gaston Railroad on the east side of the campus helped Wake Forest College, the first denominational college in the state, to thrive, Little said. Later, the fact the town remained a college town with Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary replacing Wake Forest College in the central campus helped preserve the many historical buildings.
Swallow explained the nature of a National Register district – “It’s pretty much what you want to make of it. Promotion and recognition of this historic district is pretty much in the hands of you people in the district.” – and explained the process and the tax benefits of the district.
After this informational meeting, the mayor and the town commissioners will be asked to go on record with their opinion. Then on Oct. 9 a committee will review all the current proposed nominations, which include 12 historic districts and 10 shipwrecks. After that, Dr. Jeffrey Crowe of the state historic office will make an independent nomination. All that will go to a person designated as the Keeper of the National Register, where the nominations will be reviewed again.
“I’ll going to tell you a secret. They won’t review it,” Swallow said, then reversed herself and said it probably would be reviewed because the inclusion of the seminary, a religious institution, would trigger extra examination.
Swallow sounded certain the district would be approved with official word sometime in December, after which planner Agnes Wanman could schedule a celebration. The town already has two National Register districts, the Glen Royall Cotton Mill Village district and the downtown district. The town designated the North Main Street historic district several years ago, and a Historic Preservation Commission administers the appearance regulations.
At the northern end of North Main, the home of Frank and Kathryn Drake at 614 N. Main, called the Powell-White House in the district application, would have the distinction of being in three historic districts. It is already in the Wake Forest Historic District and is a contributing resource in the Glen Royall Cotton Mill Village district because it was built for Robert B. Powell, a son of W.C. Powell, one of the founders of the Royall Cotton Mill.
“If the district is approved, will that aid and abet in having an individual property designated as a historic property,” Frank Smith, who owns the Wait-Taylor house, asked.
“Every single building (that would be listed as contributing in the new district) is listed on the national register of historic places,” Swallow said. “We don’t need you to double up on the registrations.”
Smith also asked about the date cut-off for inclusion. Swallow said she found it hard to think of something built in 1952 as historic, but the National Register guideline is that every building older than 50 years can be listed as historic except those that have been so substantially altered as to lose their original character.
Homeowners in the new district would be eligible for state income tax credits if they renovate their home. The cost of the renovation, Swallow said, must be more than $25,000 in a two-year period, must be approved by her office before work begins and must be done according to the federal “Standards for Rehabilitation.”
“Make sure you work closely with our office,” Swallow said, “and get your work approved before you start. If you want a new kitchen, fine. We want those buildings to be used and usable today.”
Martin Bonis asked about a driveway at his house on South Main. No, that would not be eligible for the tax credits, Swallow said. “It’s got to be on the building.”
“We understand this is a choice,” a woman said. “Do we need to fill out a form?”
No, Swallow said. “All private owners have the opportunity to object to having their home placed on the register.” If more than 51 percent of the owners in a proposed district object, the nomination can still go forward and the district would be listed as eligible for placement on the register but not listed due to owner objection.
People who own income-producing property in the district would get even more benefit, Swallow said, because those property owners would be eligible for a 20 percent tax credit from both the federal and the state governments. Swallow directed people interested in that to either Tim Simmons or David Christenbury, who are the tax act coordinators. There were several information sheets for property owners.
Another woman asked about making her home look more historic. “You can show what was there, but we don’t want you making it into something it never was,” Swallow said.
After her presentation and the questions, most homeowners took the opportunity to look through the individual property information packets and some made corrections.
*Bypass still ahead of schedule
Construction of the first portion of the N.C. 98 bypass is still ahead of schedule even though the rain this summer has added delays.
“It just shows you how much ahead of schedule we were,” Brian Harrington, the supervising engineer with Barnhill Contracting Co. which has the $9.8 million contract to build the section between Jones Dairy Road and South Main Street.
In early June, Harrington had said construction of a detour at South Main would begin in mid-July, a date that has slipped. “The weather has had a lot to do with it,” Harrington said. Instead, the Barnhill crews are still at work on the roadway and on the bridge over the CSX railroad line.
“When we catch up a little more and finish with the bridge completely, we’ll drop back with our crews” to work on the detour, Harrington said.
After the detour is built to the west of South Main, trucks will begin hauling in fill dirt to raise the street by 6 feet and widen it to five lanes at the intersection with the bypass. When it is completed, the intersection of South Main and the bypass will be at grade level and signalized.
This first section is due to be completed in December of 2004 after construction of the second section, from South Main to Capital Boulevard, begins in the spring of next year.
The date to open bids for the second section is Oct. 21. The cost estimates are $26.1million for construction and $7 million for right-of-way, making it the most costly of the project, which has a total estimated cost of $60 million. Since the Barnhill contract at $9.8 million for the first segment was well under the $11.3 million estimate, the total project cost may be less than estimated.
The third and final section, from Capital back to N.C. 98 at Thompson Mill, has a proposed bid letting date in 2007.
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