During the Wake Forest Town Board’s planning retreat in early February, one of the topics was Smith Creek’s status as an impaired stream, listed on the state’s 303D list.
“It’s not good to be listed on 303D. It could restrict development in the whole basin,” Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell said during the retreat. He said the Division of Water Quality might increase requirements to protect the stream’s waters or limit development in the watershed where the majority of the town’s growth has taken place and probably will continue to take place.
There is a study underway to determine “what the problems are with the stream and what is its [level of] impairment,” O’Donnell said. “The study helps get it off the list.”
Another method to mitigate pollution and keep the water clean is to have undeveloped properties in its headwaters and along its banks.
Thankfully, O’Donnell said, two properties that could serve those purposes had “just popped up.” Those are a tract along the creek owned by Dr. William Hedrick and 128 acres north of Oak Grove Church Road above the Smith Creek Reservoir, part of the Traditions tract owned by the Ammons family. The owners are willing to sell to the town.
The Hedrick property will cost the town about $596,000, and just recently the town was notified it would receive a Clean Water Management Trust Fund Grant of $289,622 for the purchase of that property.
The Traditions tract is much more expensive, about $3.6 million, and that same CWMTF grant will provide $529,920 toward its purchase.
“The remaining funds would come from requests from both the Wake County Open Space program and the state’s Parks and Recreation Trust Fund,” O’Donnell said this week. At the retreat he told the board the town had an excellent chance in getting the county grant money since both narrowly missed funding in the last application period. The amounts for the two grants would each provide 40 percent of the purchase price.
At the retreat, O’Donnell said the Traditions land is “gorgeous, very suitable for soft trails and passive recreation.” He noted that Assistant Town Engineer Holly Miller “has been diligent in looking for ways to get this property.”
