And they said it would never be done or not for another year or so. But they were wrong. Beginning today and for several ensuing weeks, drivers on the N.C. 98 Bypass (Dr. Calvin Jones Highway) will see contractors hired by the N.C. Department of Transportation working to install a traffic signal at the intersection with South Franklin Street.
There could be lane closures from time to time between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. There will be signs to direct drivers through the work area.
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A copy of the revised fire impact fee study was included in the planning board agenda packet and will be discussed by the town commissioners during their work session on Tuesday, June 7, and the planning board members on the same date. It probably will be included as part of the town fee schedule for the 2016-2017 budget.
The consultant, Alexis Warmath with Raftelis Financial Consultants Inc., has lowered all four fees that were first set in 2007 when the town instituted the fees to provide funds for the Wake Forest Fire Department’s capital projects, mainly new fire stations and their equipment.
The existing fees and the proposed amounts are: Single-family house, $592 and $337; Multi-family residential unit, $481 and $253; 1,000 sq. ft. commercial and institutional, $649 and $569; 1,000 sq. ft. industrial and manufacturing, $389 and $197.
It is very likely that the town board will lower the fees to at least only 80 percent of the above values. Mayor Vivian Jones said last month she favored lowering recommended impact fees by at least that much, and Planning Director Chip Russell echoed that, saying it was a wise move to do so.
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It is a fine day today so town crews could be busy on South Main Street at the intersection of Selsey Drive installing temporary flexible yellow or orange plastic tubes with reflective collars called traffic delineators.
Those tubes will stop left-hand turns onto and out of Selsey Drive – drivers may only turn right into or out of Selsey – to ease the expected traffic congestion on South Main while the Rogers Road bridge over Smith Creek is closed and rebuilt. The bridge project is scheduled to begin Monday, June 13, and be complete at the end of October.
As soon as the bridge is complete the traffic delineators will be removed.
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Del Webb, who has built active adult communities all over the U.S., and Phoenix-based developer Suncrest Real Estate & Land formed a new company, DS Traditions Subdivision LLC, last month and purchased 104 acres on the east side of Gilcrest Farm Road in the Traditions subdivision for $10.5 million. That parcel is immediately north of the 128 acres owned by Wake Forest Reservoir Properties LLC where the John R. McAdams Company of Durham won approval by the Town of Wake Forest in January to rework a master plan and build 389 lots for an age-restricted community.
The announcement was that DS Traditions will build a new neighborhood for active adults with 452 home sites on 164 acres that will open in the spring of 2017. A representative said that 60 acres of the tract for the new subdivision is in Franklin County. “There is another portion of land that will be purchased later this year which is owned by Goldston,” she said, and added that part of the Goldston land touches North White Street and is almost certainly in Franklin County. The land in Wake Forest is zoned GR5, general residential 5.
It appears the east side of Gilcrest Farm Road will be lined with subdivisions reserved for people 50 or 55 and older.
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The annual meeting for the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce will be Tuesday, June 21, from 11:15 to 1 p.m. at the Renaissance Centre on Brooks Street. Robbie Earnhardt, the president of Superior Tooling in the South Forest Industrial Park off Burlington Mills Road, will speak about NC TAP, a four-year apprenticeship program based in the Triangle that uses a hands-on approach to develop skills and the experts needed in the modern workforce.
During the lunch Chamber President Ann Welton and her staff will outline the milestones of the past year and the direction for the coming year. State of the Chamber awards will be presented. The lunch is presented by CenturyLink.
Tickets are $25 for members, $30 for nonmembers. To reserve a seat, call or email Mary Yount, 919-556-1519, mary@wakeforestchamber.org.
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If you are driving west on N.C. 98 Bypass (the Dr. Calvin Jones Highway) beginning Monday, June 6, please be alert for construction vehicles and equipment because Park Construction, a contractor with Raleigh’s Public Utilities Department, will begin boring under the highway that day.
The work is part of the Richland Creek Sanitary Sewer Interceptor Project, and that project along with a matching one along Smith Creek on the east, are the last parts of the merger/takeover by Raleigh of Wake Forest’s water and sewer systems. Merger was approved by the town and Raleigh in late 2004 after two years of controversy and took effect July 1, 2005.
