Tuesday night, after public hearings about the requests, the Wake Forest Planning Board recommended both a townhouse project on South Franklin Street and a small subdivision on Wait Avenue.
The board also welcomed two new members: Colleen Sharpe, who lives off Ligon Mill Road, will fill the extraterritorial jurisdiction seat left empty since Bill Fisher resigned a year ago, and Chuck Moseley, a retired engineer who lives in Heritage. He fills the seat formerly held by Al Merritt, who retired.
The board also elected, without any other candidates, current chairman Bob Hill to serve another term and Ed Gary to serve as the vice chairman, replacing Merritt. All nine members were present Tuesday night.
During the hearing for the Franklin Street Townhome project, the members had questions and concerns about the traffic and the South Franklin Street/N.C. 98 Bypass intersection. Gary said the project was downsized from 108 apartments to 61 townhouses but there would be still over 100 cars leaving the project. He wondered if the town could ask developer Mark Iafrate to contribute to the future traffic signal.
Senior Planner Charlie Yokley said the traffic report done for the project – required and hired by the town and paid by the developer – shows there will not be enough traffic from the 61 townhouses to affect the intersection. “It isn’t causing an issue with the traffic at the stop light. We can’t make them pay for something they didn’t break.” He also mentioned that an agreement with the state Department of Transportation for that traffic signal is due to be approved by the town board Feb. 17.
Member Shirley Sulick compared the Franklin Street intersection with the Caveness Farm Avenue intersection and its recent fatal accident, but Yokley said the two are “tremendously different.” (See article in this issue about the traffic plan for Caveness Farm and Capital when Sam’s Club is built.)
Member Steve DeRosa questioned several aspects of the plan, including the location of the clubhouse and pool at the front of the project, and why the new plan has two entrances/exits while the planned approved last year had only one. Yokley said there are different buildings (and fewer) and a different grading plan.
Iafrate said the townhouses will have one, two or three bedrooms and garages for one or two cars. Member Grif Bond asked, “Does the majority of the existing vegetation get cut down to build these townhomes?” Iafrate said the plan is to keep existing trees “wherever possible. We want to keep it a beautiful area.” The pricing will be competitive, he said, with one-bedroom units starting at around $150,000.
There were no other speakers for or against. During the discussion before the later vote in the business part of the meeting, Sulick repeated her concern about the intersection and DeRosa said “nothing has really changed” in the plan. “There’s still the same rating, the same runoff. They seemed to find an ingress/egress they couldn’t do before.” He said the planning board has the responsibility to ensure the safety of town residents. Both voted against approval.
During the hearing and later before the vote about the 49-lot subdivision Michael and Thomas Bolus are requesting on Wait Avenue the board members questioned the stubout of one street at the eastern edge of the property where the neighboring property is the Mackie Industrial Park. Commissioner Margaret Stinnett asked if the entrance off Wait lines up with the private driveway across the street, and Steve Stoller asked if the plan would mean any changes in the N.C. 98 bypass. The only speaker for the project was attorney Beth Trahos, who talked about the amenities, including sidewalks on both sides of the streets and a greenway dedication.
When member Dehaven Fields questioned the stubout, Gary said, “If you cul-de-sac it, that opportunity (for connectivity between developments) is gone.” Planning Director Chip Russell noted that the stubout connects to the and there is a corresponding stubout to the west in the Bishops Grant subdivision.
The vote to recommend to the town board that they approve the subdivision was unanimous as was a vote for a number of amendments to the Unified Development Ordinance.
