Board agrees to condemn for greenway

Near the end of a routine town board meeting Tuesday night, the Wake Forest commissioners were asked to approve condemnation for some property owned by the Thorn Rose Homeowners Association to complete the planned expansion of the Smith and Sanford Creek Greenway.

Philip Hadley, an attorney with Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton, explained that the subdivisions covenants require 80 percent of the home owners have to approve any exchange – sale or easement – of property owned by the homeowners association. It is very difficult to get 80 percent of any group to agree, he said, and in this case only 39 of the 182 home owners returned a consent form for the easements. He said town representatives attended the annual homeowners meeting, the homeowners association board approved the easements and sent out a letter asking owners to sign the form.

“The town has gone out of its way” to accommodate owners whose property is near the easements, including building a fence for one. People had what he called unfounded fears about the greenway expansion, including that it would funnel in a large amount of crime or that people from other subdivisions would use it to come and swim in the Thorn Rose pool.

The expansion will mean an additional 2.4 miles of greenway in the town’s system and a 1.2 sidewalk along Heritage Lake Road, Transportation Planner Candace Davis said. A Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grant will pay 80 percent of the cost of the projects. “This will give them (subdivision residents) vehicle-free access to one of the most congested areas in town. Along with Hadley, planner Jason Pace from Kimley-Horn and Wake Forest Police Sgt. Richard May were on hand to answer questions about the plan itself and the safety of the greenway system and patrols “since we are adding to our network,”

Commissioner Greg Harrington asked why condemnation was necessary, why it was not deeded over. “It’s very difficult to get 80 percent of people to agree with anything,” Hadley said, and Harrington replied, “Maybe they just don’t want it.”

Commissioner Jim Thompson pointed out that the greenway plan “was there before the subdivision. Commissioner Margaret Stinnett said she usually opposes condemnation, but the easements in question will not affect home owners’ property but are common-area property, dedicated as open space. She made the motion to approve seconded by Thompson. Harrington voted no.

Davis said they are looking to let the bids for construction in the spring, and Hadley had said the condemnation process usually takes 90 days.

All four of the commissioners voted to change the mission of the Cultural Resources Advisory Board to include all cultural matters, to approve the change in the Lakestone subdivision to add nine lots, to approve the mixed use residential zoning for property owned by Jim Adams and Charles Grant and to approve closing Taylor Street for a bike rodeo in September. Commissioner Zachary Donahue was absent, and Mayor Vivian Jones said he had gone to Indiana for his mother’s surgery and had car trouble so could not get back for the meeting.

During the board’s remarks about their activities during the past month, Thompson urged people upset about the road closings and detours for the bridge replacements – one underway on Forestville Road and one planned for next year for Rogers Road – to “just be patient. It’s part of the challenge of being a growing community. I think it’s going to be a good thing for the town.”

Jones said she recently visited Superior Tooling in the South Forest Business Park which has an apprenticeship program. Currently three young local men are in the program and are completing a six-week program working for the company during the summer. Superior Tooling employs them the last two years of high school and then sends them to Wake Tech to get their associate degree. She said the three “talked about how excited they were about this program and how proud they were about the work they had done this summer. It’s a great state program.”

Town Manager Kip Padgett said the first meeting of the UNC School of Government Municipal and County Government Administration Program will be the first Tuesday in September, also the date for the town board’s work session. (See Brief Bits for more about that program.) Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell has an engagement, Padgett said, and he called on Mr. Russell, Planning Director Chip Russell, to fill in and he agreed to do so.