Neighbors spoke against both projects on the Wake Forest Planning Board’s agenda Tuesday night but at the end of the evening the board members voted to recommend the Regency at Heritage subdivision on Forestville Road and the Wake Forest Charter Academy planned for Friendship Chapel Road behind the Gateway Commons shopping center.
People both for and against the charter school and people opposed to the subdivision pretty well filled the second-floor meeting chamber. Planning board member Ed Gary was allowed to recuse himself from deliberating and voting on the school because his wife, Salina, is on its board of directors.
Lois Nielsen, who lives on Fanning Drive across the street from the charter school site, represented neighbors on her street and from other Heritage neighborhoods. She began her PowerPoint presentation and prepared statement by saying, “We all welcome that school. We feel they would make good neighbors.”
After referencing applicable parts of the Community Plan Vision Statements and Policies and the Uniform Development Ordinance, Nielsen questioned whether the 15-foot type A buffer was sufficient to really screen the Heritage homes from lights at the school and other parts of the plan. She suggested there should be a wall of some type in addition to or rather than the plantings. She also called the plan a “tightly designed parcel” and said that, while they welcome the school, “does it not need to be reworked in a somewhat less congested fashion on slightly more land?” The school has a 7-acre lot for the school building to eventually house 748 students in grades K through 8, an athletic field, parking for 160 cars, and an interior driveway through the site.
“Do you realize they are not even required to put a type A buffer there?” Commissioner Margaret Stinnett asked Nielsen. Senior Planner Charlie Yokley said the developer was asked to install the buffer and agreed to. Across the street neighbors are not considered adjacent lots except to advertise for zoning and special use permits.
The planning board and town board members were more concerned about the traffic and stacking along that short section of Friendship Chapel between Heritage Lake Road and Jones Dairy Road. New planning board member Steve DeRosa asked several times about the number of cars that could be waiting – or backing up on either of those other streets. Planning board chairman Bob Hill asked if the same Department of Transportation planner who approved this traffic plan also approved those for other charter schools in town. The stacking – parents waiting to pick up children – “creates dangerous situations at intersections.”
The major problem for opponents of the new subdivision was not the homes themselves but the bridge over Sanford Creek that will extend Marshall Farm Road from the Heritage South subdivision into the new one. They fear the extension will work as a cut-through for some to avoid the congestion at the Heritage Lake Road/Rogers Road intersection and that, if the subdivision bridge is completed before the Forestville Road bridge is complete in the summer of 2016 it will be used as a detour.
Tom Bacca, president of the board for the South Heritage HOA, said the board had voted not to oppose the extension of Marshall Farm Road, to request that the Regency homes be similar in design and price and provide architectural continuity, and that the town install two stop signs in Heritage South.
Nate Brubaker with D.R. Horton, the developer and builder, said they are designing a totally new product for Regency. “We cannot build homes that do not sell. What is selling in this area is Heritage-style homes. The market will dictate the pricing but they will be the same style and pricing as their neighbors to the north.”
Mayor Vivian Jones asked when they would start building homes, and Brubaker aid in the summer of 2015. The bridge for Marshall Farm Road will be part of the phase four subdivision construction, much later than 2016.
Brubaker did ask that D.R. Horton be allowed to post a bond to build the bridge but that was not included in the unanimous vote to approve the subdivision. DeRosa said before the vote that there could be problem with the bond. “I understand the town is in litigation with developers who have backed out of those [obligations].”
The vote for the charter school was five to one with Hill voting no.
The planning board members re-elected Hill and Al Merritt as the chairman and vice chairman; both men have had the two-term limit waived repeatedly. The board currently has only seven members, and two new members may be appointed when the town board meets on Jan. 21.
