Please remember to go to the Renaissance Centre Sunday, April 19, to honor retiring Town Manager Mark Williams, who has served the town with diligence, dedication and high standards. He guided the town through some rough periods. His budgeting skills have kept Wake Forest in excellent financial shape, and his ability to attract and retain talented professionals in staff positions has been a large part in making Wake Forest the attractive community it is today.
The reception will run from 3 to 5 p.m. There will be a brief program honoring his career with the town at about 3:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.
Williams has been in public service for 36 years, beginning as the recreation director in Henderson before moving to Wake Forest in the same position. He served twice as interim town manager before he was appointed town manager in 1993. He announced his retirement in December, and his last day will be April 30.
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An update on Sam’s Club: The project was approved by four of the five town commissioners last July and the construction plans were approved by the town’s planning department in March, but the scrub pines that have been growing on the site for a decade are as yet undisturbed.
Remember there are major changes needed to Capital Boulevard – additional traffic and storage lanes, two intersections for incoming and outgoing traffic with synchronized traffic signals – in addition to substantial site preparation and the building itself. It is likely you will not see the store open until 2016.
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There was a small step Friday, April 10, in one of the three appeals Frank and Olga McCoy have filed with Wake County Superior Court against the Town of Wake Forest in regard to the rezoning and master plan for the Tryon subdivision in July of last year.
Superior Court Judge James E. Hardin Jr. ruled that the McCoy’s lawyer, Nathaniel C. Parker with Ellis & Parker in Wake Forest, could add the developer, Tryon WF of Knightdale, to the appeal as a party to the certiorari (standing to sue) action. Judge Hardin also ruled that Mr. and Mrs. McCoy do have standing to pursue the certiorari action.
Tobias S. Hampson, the lawyer with Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton who handles planning and zoning matters for the town, argued the certiorari action should be dismissed because Mr. and Mrs. McCoy were required to include the developer in the action and had failed to do so.
“All of which means the certiorari action will not be dismissed at this preliminary stage and now we have to wait for Tryon WF, LLC to be given a chance to participate in the certiorari action before moving forward on the other issues, including the substantive merits,” Hampson wrote in an email in reply to a Gazette question. “The other Tryon related actions were not addressed at this hearing and also remain pending.”
The McCoys, who live on Winding Way adjacent to the Tryon property, appealed the rezoning on Aug. 15, 2014, followed by an appeal on Sept. 15 asking for declaratory and injunctive relief on Sept. 15, and on Dec. 5 filed an appeal saying the Wake Forest Town Board violated the state’s Open Meetings Law.
The rezoned and planned Tryon property remains accessible from Kings Glen subdivision and from Oak Grove Church Road only by an unimproved sandy road. No site preparations are underway.
When it was approved, the developer had only secured sewer service for a small portion of the project, which will have 268 lots for single-family homes and 136 townhouses. The rest of the property will have to be served by gravity sewer, and the line for that service will have to be built from south of Wait Avenue to the property.
Currently, the sewer service is blocked by Robert Cooper and Tony Gordon, who refuse to sell easements on their properties on the south side of Wait Avenue for the sewer line. Gordon said this week they are still in talks with the City of Raleigh about the easements. “If we can’t come to an agreement, Raleigh will pursue condemnation.”
Property owners on the north side of Wait Avenue have signed easement agreements for the sewer line.
