They did have some quibbles, but Tuesday night the Wake Forest commissioners voted four to one to approve the 108-unit Franklin Street Apartments.
Commissioner Margaret Stinnett voted no because of her concerns that there is only one entrance/exit, the amenities center and pool are “right at the sidewalk,” and questions about setbacks and the general plan.
Commissioner Anne Hines also had a problem with the center’s location but concluded it might be better there than at the back of the property near an adjoining subdivision.
Commissioner Zachary Donahue said it would be his preference to have two entrances, but Hines said the second entrance might “create more of a nightmare for Franklin Street than the current entrance.” If the town planners, and especially the fire marshal, say it is all right then she has to assume this is “safe ingress and egress.”
The board spent a lot of time early in the meeting considering the plan to expand the Wake Forest Cemetery on North White Street: laying out burial plots in the grassed area to the right of the entrance drive, building a columbarium and providing a parking lot along the street for the columbarium and the Ailey Young House next to it.
The commissioners objected to adding two more entrances along North White and finally agreed, as Mayor Vivian Jones said, “We like the plan as long as it doesn’t have the parking lot.”
Matthew Reck spoke at the public hearing for the 2014-2015 budget asking the town to “live up to its obligation” and build a sidewalk on the north side of West Holding Avenue near the new St. Catherine of Siena cathedral. He also said that, because of planning board actions in the past, neighbors who want to speak about new projects are “limited in how they can speak out. You pretty much need to have a lawyer. The average citizen is not a lawyer, not an engineer.” He asked that the town set up a legal defense fund that would help residents express their views.”
Aaron Daubenspeck addressed the board on the subject of tethering animals. “I do respect property owners’ rights,” he said, but “A dog can live his entire life on a four-foot leash.” He presented a list of minimum standards for tethered animals.
Jones told him to give that list to Town Clerk Deeda Harris “so we can put it on our agenda for the next work session.”
In other actions, the board:
* approved a contract for $26,000 with Jim Hirschfield and Sonya Ishii to develop a plan for public art along the town’s greenways and provide two public art designs.
* approved an addition to the town’s fee schedule for required inspections on the private side of the master meters the City of Raleigh is installing in apartments and townhouses. The town inspectors are doing this work.
* approved easements to Raleigh to build sewer lines along Smith and Richland creeks.
* agreed on a resolution and appropriation to extend Grandmark Street to Capcom Avenue to give Capcom a second entrance/exit onto Rogers Road. Its only entrance/exit is now on South Main Street. The N.C. Department of Commerce is providing a $110,000 grant because the current expansion of 3Phoenix on Capcom will add 100 or more jobs. The town is providing the remaining amount needed, about $50,000.
“Are we going to use Futures Fund money for this?” Stinnett asked. When she was told the money would come from funds left over from the most recent street paving project, she said, “Money left over from that! I could have found another street [to pave].” Stinnett was the spark behind the town’s successful effort to dirt streets.
* appointed the following people to the high-speed internet effort, Fiber to the Home and Business: Joe Freddoso with MCNC, Dan Holt with 3 Phoenix, Mike Olson with Dynasty Communications, Brent Miller with echoBase, Curtis Brothers with WCPE The Classical Station, Marla Akridge with the Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce and Roe O’Donnell with the Town of Wake Forest.
