A sometimes raucous crowd filled the chairs in the Wake Forest Town Hall Tuesday night to hear the town commissioners decide on an apartment complex proposed for Rogers Branch Road.
They paid little attention to Senior Planner Patrick Reidy who announced the developer, Northview Partners, had agreed to four additional conditions after hearing the comments at the public hearing on Aug. 6: reducing the number of apartments from 290 to 264 with half of them being one-bedroom, moving the trash and recycling receptacles away from an adjoining subdivision and providing a pedestrian crossing on Rogers Branch Road subject to DOT approval.
When Commissioner Liz Simpers said, based on comparisons with a single-family subdivision of equal size and the rental rate for families with children in this style apartment complex, the Meridian at Rogers Branch Road would have about four children of school age, the crowd booed and groaned. Mayor Vivian Jones had to gavel them quiet and warn them about interrupting the commissioners then and throughout the discussion. Simpers said commissioners “always struggle with planned growth” because they do not want to make the wrong decision. Traffic is a big concern because the area is very difficult, the town “always having to catch up” with infrastructure needs.
Commissioner Anne Reeve had received over 200 emails and many calls. “I appreciate your input,” she said, “but I’m also sorry that you were provided with inaccurate information.” She went on to say that the Wake Forest town government “does not have jurisdiction over schools. The Wake County Public School System determines where your children go to school, not us.”
Also, she said, the state Department of Transportation owns and maintains all the major roads in the area. Improvements to Forestville Road? “They [DOT] have been considering that for many years. I think it will happen but not any time soon.” As for the intersections and other hot spots the town’s transportation plan has identified as needing work, Reeve said the town has to work with DOT to get anything done. “The money comes from DOT, not us.”
She called one estimate by opponents that the project would add 3,500 additional cars “fuzzy math. Wake Forest has free public transportation. Park your cars. Ride the bus.”
Finally she asked those opposing this project to consider what some of their claims had done. You don’t want to be terrorizing your neighbors, Reeve said.
Commissioner Brian Pate also tamped down traffic complaints. “I hear horror stories about traffic. I’ve never experienced those same problems. Even Heritage’s worst traffic is not as bad as down in Raleigh.
“If we stop growth we’re going to end up in fifteen years living in Franklinton” which decided not to grow years ago and regrets it now, Pate said.
Also, there are two projects which will alleviate a lot of the Rogers Road traffic woes, Pate said. First in 2020 DOT plans to build a traffic bridge over the CSX railroad line, making Rogers a five-lane road all the way to the Forestville Road/Heritage Lake Road intersection. The date is fuzzy for the second project, extending Franklin Street from its current end behind Sheetz up to the N.C. 98 Bypass (Dr. Calvin Jones Highway) and the completed section of Franklin Street. (Note: The date will depend on how fast housing units are built in the Holding Village subdivision, where about 215 single-family homes have been built. South Franklin Street has to be completed to the bypass before the 401st housing unit gets occupancy approval. Apartments, which are part of the Holding Village master plan, would get close to the 400 level.)
Pate also referred to the next apartment complex in the area, Greenway Village at Heritage with 340 apartments. It was submitted in May this year so any hearing is about a year away.
Commissioner Greg Harrington said he had received a small number of threatening emails about the project. He urged people, if they are concerned about growth in the town, to run for a seat on the town board the next time there is an opportunity in two years. (The filing period for three town board seats in the 2019 election has ended with seven candidates.) He added, “I think it is a good project. We do take these things seriously.”
“I try my best to respond,” Commissioner Bridget Wall-Lennon said. “I read every email. I like the project because I like the talk about connectivity.” She said she wanted to be sure she heard the opinions of area residents, then talked about the staff people and other sources she had asked about this project, including asking whether local schools have their attendance capped and they had not been capped. She talked about added a lane into the driveway for Heritage Middle and Elementary schools.
However, Wall-Lennon said, “I do not feel the developer went above and beyond to really communicate with residents.” No one showed up at the neighborhood meeting at The Forks Cafeteria. “There were some additional things that could have been done to notify the community. This will impact how I vote.”
Harrington and Wall-Lennon voted against the project while Simpers, Reeve and Pate voted for it.
Earlier in the agenda when the subject was the annexation of the 12 acres owned by Richard Fecteau and Edward Schwerin Jr., where the 290 apartments were proposed, one woman asked about the land use and Jones said, “Technically we don’t know.” Another woman wanted to speak about the apartments and Jones said this was not the time to do so, and a third woman asked if it costs anything for land to be annexed, and the answer is no cost.
A little later, during the public comment section when people cannot speak about agenda items, Charlie Mirabella said he and his wife moved to Wake Forest four years ago – “We love it here.” – but “I’m worried about how big it’s getting and the traffic. Do we, do you have any input in how it grows, how big it grows so it doesn’t get too crowded and too much traffic. Is there anything the citizens can do about the growth of the town?” This last drew loud applause. “I see a distinct problem in the last four years. Can we control that somehow? What should we do about this?”
14 Responses
Heritage had to pay a lot of money to get that light!!!
If it wasn’t such a serious issue, some of the comments made by our elected Commissioners would indeed be good comedic relief.
Brian Pate must be delusional if he thinks that there currently isn’t traffic congestion on Rogers Road in the mornings and from 3 pm on in the afternoon. Adding more apartments that will feed traffic onto both Rogers Road and Forestville Road only increases an already strained system.
Commissioner Anne Reeves is equally out of touch with reality when she suggests “Wake Forest has free public transportation. Park your cars. Ride the bus.” Really.
The one area that I didn’t hear addressed was the additional burden that all of the new growth will put on Wake Forest’s municipal services; police, fire, sanitation pickup, etc. Have the Commissioners and Mayor Vivian Jones given that due consideration ?
Almost spit my coffee out about Brian Pate’s comment.At times Rogers road is even like Atlanta and I lived there after 7 years in Wake Forest .We lived in metro Atlanta for 3.5 years and Johnson City Tennessee for 10 months before we moved back in June 2017. Yes every so often you can drive without a problem and even pull out from Duke Medical Plaza to make a left without a problem.but you would have to be in denial to think that Rogers Road is not a traffic congested area.
First of all, I do NOT want to live in a town where we can’t drive but have to ride the bus!! Second, Brain Pate says he doesn’t see the traffic problems we speak of on Rogers?? Well, try to go down that road from S. Main between 5 and 6. Traffic bscks up all the way to Capital at tines.
IMHO Pate’s comment about not experiencing the traffic seem a bit worthless as he does not live in Heritage, nor are the Heritage schools the school districts of his current home (per Wake County Real Estate Data). I suppose if it’s not your daily grind you wouldn’t understand the issues we are concerned about.
I actually just moved away from Heritage after living there for 14 years. One of my kids graduated from Heritage High and my other is still in school there. I also volunteer there over 100 hours per year. So I am familiar with the “daily grind.”
Brian, how could you not have experienced the congestion then? Next week when HHS starts the school year back up Try to take a right turn out of HT onto Forestville and then an immediate left onto Rogers. Forget getting out of that parking lot if you want to take a left on Forestville. While you’re over this way you should check out the cluster at the intersection of Rogers and Franklin when HMS and HES dismiss. Take a drive up Franklin towards my neighborhood and introduce yourself to the seniors sitting on the side of the road or walking down the side of the road bc they have no sidewalks. I can provide more suggestions from my daily grind if you’d like to experience the traffic we are talking about.
You’re wasting your breath taking to him. And to think he wants to be the next Mayor! Remember things like this when that day comes.
I drove home yesterday during rush hour traffic and came up 401 intentionally to time my trip from the 401/Forestville Road intersection to the Highway 98/Heritage Lake Road intersection.
I arrived at the 401/Forestville intersection and turned at 5:19 in the afternoon.
At 5: 36, I was at the traffic light at 98/Heritage Lake.
17 minutes at what everyone says is the worst time of day and on the first day of school so there were kids driving to practice or home from practice.
I can agree that at times it is busy, but many people are embellishing their experience and unless there has been a wreck, I have not seen the issues that people say happen every day.
As I said previously, I lived in Heritage for 14 years and drove my daughters to school at Wake Forest Elementary and Wake Forest Middle during their times there. I would drive through the Heritage Middle/Elem traffic. Since the bridge was completed at Rogers Road, I have not experienced outrageous congestion.
If you expect to do 45 MPH on Rogers Road in the busiest time of day, that is an unreasonable expectation.
Remember, DOT controls the roads and traffic lights. If you would like to comment to the, here is the link:
https://www.ncdot.gov/contact/Pages/form.aspx?UnitName=Division_5&sourceUrl=/divisions/highways/Pages/divisions.aspx
The Heritage HOA did a great job of bombarding them with emails to get the traffic lights at Rogers/Marshall Farm and Heritage Lake/Heritage Club installed. It will not happen immediately, but complaining to the DOT folks will get you much farther than complaining to the town or on a public forum.
I guess I imagined that it took me 20 minutes to get out of the Harris Teeter parking lot during rush hour. I was trying to make a right onto Forestville and get in the left turning lane, so I could make a left on Rogers. Cars come speeding around the curve by the McDonalds on Forestville and the left turning lane was backed up passed the exit of the shopping center!! I didn’t image the time nor am I exaggerating it. I was in shock so why keep adding more thickly settle developments with no control of what the DOT does? You can’t say ” we don’t control the DOT” then Rogers will be a 5 lane road. Which one is it?
Can’t growth slow down a bit?
How will these renters exit the apartment complex safely?
I think you need to go back to the Heritage area and try to make a left onto Rogers Rd from Harris Teeter and Mod Pizza during peak times and off times and let us know how safe you feel.
Going straight from Forestville to Heritage Lake is not the issue. Making turns onto our local streets are. I have waited several lights to make a left onto Rogers from Main Street.
Residents are upset because there seems to be little forethought into quality of life and how it’s correlates with the lack of infrastructure.
Wow! Nothing to see here.
It’s time to learn about your candidates, Wake Forest 🙂
Elections matter !
With regard to the comment by Anne Reeves, the Wake Forest loop bus service doesn’t even come to this part of Wake Forest! Residents living in this area would have to drive through the mess to get to any bus stop. Very disappointing that this commissioner doesn’t even realize this fact.
Her comments almost warrant consideration of a recall election. She is obviously completely out of touch with what most Wake Forest residents go through on a daily basis. The comment “Park your cars. Ride the bus”, shows either an arrogance or ignorance….or both. We don’t need that kind of attitude serving as an elected Commissioner.
Anne Hines/Reeves is so clueless and out of touch with reality. Her logic is just asinine. Remove her from office with your vote this November!