The Growth Rate: Future homes/commercial
Update: A Sam’s Club will probably be built soon in Wake Forest. When the Wake Forest Planning Department’s Technical Review Committee met on Jan. 16, the members reviewed a request for a special use permit from Sam’s East Inc. to build a 134,550 sq. ft. building on 12.95 acres on Caveness Farms Avenue.
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There are two development projects that will need quasi-judicial review by the Wake Forest Planning and Town boards in future months, the Paschal subdivision on Durham Road and the third phase of the St. Ives subdivision on Kearney Road.
The Paschal subdivision is planned for 27 lots on 14.37 acres on Durham Road. The applicant is Geer Street Properties and the current zoning is GR3, which is suitable.
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This week the Wake Forest commissioners approved the Franklin Street Apartments, which will have 108 units on 6.63 acres on the east side of South Franklin Street near the intersection of that street and the N.C. 98 bypass.
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In January 2014 the town board approved the Regency at Heritage subdivision of 67 homes on 37 acres on the east side of Forestville Road just south of the Sanford Creek bridge. The subdivision is to be similar in style and price to Heritage South and will be linked to it by a second bridge over Sanford Creek to extend Marshal Farm Road.
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In August 2013 the town and planning boards approved The Retreat at Renaissance, a plan for 80 townhouses built in two phases on 11 acres adjacent to Renaissance Plaza shopping center and fronting on Franklin Street. The developer, Craig Briner with East Elm Partners, plans that five townhouses fronting on the plaza will be work/home units with store fronts on the lowest level.
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Expect to see infrastructure construction and lot sales in Holding Village later this year. Wheelock Street Capital, which is developing the first phase of Traditions, has a multi-year contract to build the residential portion of Holding Village. It is the town’s only traditional neighborhood development, approved in 2007 but without any activity since then.
The plan calls for 305 townhouses, duplexes and live/work units along with 583 multi-family units and 462 single-family homes. In addition, there was 25,000 square feet planned for civic, church and club activities, 48,000 square feet of retail activity, and 40,000 square feet for business and office use. The 256 acres lie south of the Dr. Calvin Jones Highway (N.C. 98 Bypass), east of the CSX rail line, north of Rogers Road and west of parts of Heritage.
The 254 acres were part of the 900-acre Holding Dairy Farm owned by W.W. Holding Jr. and passed on to his sons, Walter and William. Some of the land is now part of Heritage; some is difficult to develop because of rugged topography and streams; and the Holding Village portion has been fallow except for haying for over 20 years.
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Last summer Orleans Homes – part of that company called Parker & Orleans is building the Reynolds Mill subdivision on South Main Street and the future Ligon Mill Road extension – paid $3.5 million to two couples for 68.62 acres on Rogers Road just to the east of the Majestic Oaks subdivision and the Clearsprings subdivision and across the road from Heritage South.
The land has been annexed and the subdivision master plan was approved in June. It has been rezoned from Wake County’s R-30 to conditional use R-8 with a permit for 133 single-family homes.
Originally called Stonewater, the project has been renamed Stonemill Falls and construction will begin next year although construction plans have not been submitted yet to the Wake Forest Planning Department.
Along with the connection to Rogers Road, residents will also be able to use an entrance/exit link to Majestic Oaks and Clearsprings via Field Oak Drive and Clearsprings Drive, which takes them to Chalk Road.
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In the fall of 2013 Standard Pacific Homes, which is building out the Northampton subdivision, purchased a 73-acre tract south of Rogers Road from Andy Ammons for $6 million. He paid $2.9 million for it in 2006.
Clearcutting has begun, and the site is filled with logging trucks picking up and carrying off large logs while chippers reduce the branches to mulch.
This will be The Homestead at Heritage with 206 single-family homes, fairly straight streets on flat land not cut by streams, and R-5 zoning. The rezoning and the master plan were approved in June but with spirited opposition from neighbors who calculated heavy traffic volumes on the only direct connection to Rogers Road, Heritage Branch Road. There was a divided vote at the planning board and the commissioners were also reluctant to approve although they did after Standard Pacific agreed to cut the number of homes from 226 to 206.
The developer has agreed to pay for a traffic signal at the Heritage Branch Road/Rogers Road intersection in a curve just east of the CSX rail line, but it will be installed only after the state Department of Transportation has information that it is needed.
The approved plan does show a stubbed street that will match up with a street and access to Rogers Road in the Capital Creek Apartments project. There will be 316 units in that project when it is built in 2014 or 2015, although no building plans had been submitted as of mid-December 2013. The lot in the southeast corner where Heritage Branch meets Rogers Road is still owned by Ammons and his wife, Jan.
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A multi-use development currently called Hilltop Development is being planned for 160 acres that lie south of N.C. 98 (Durham Road) and east of Capital Boulevard (U.S. 1) with a connection possible on an extended Galaxy Drive. The land belongs to Druly LP, which is Jodi Totten and her sons, descendants of the Crenshaw family which once raised acres of cotton on the fields.
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There are two residential developments, both approved in 2012, with no public actions such as building permits. Capital Creek Apartments on Rogers Road was approved for 315 units; Villagio on Star Road was approved for 248 units on 21 acres along Star Road.
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There are still approved plans for three projects. Olde Chestnut Townes on West Chestnut Street was approved in 2008 for 33 townhouse units on 4.01 acres. Bark Development LLC has not begun any construction.
Sedgefield Park North was approved in 2005 for 63 single-family homes on 30.51 acres along North White Street. Millridge Investments has not begun construction.
Traditions West – Traditions Retirement Community is planned by the Ammons family for 376 acres west of the reservoir along Gillcrest Farm Road. The plans approved in 2008 and 2009 called for 439 single-family homes, 193 senior single-family homes, 63 senior townhouses and 90 apartments. There has been no construction, but the Wake Forest commissioners approved a one-year extension for the townhouses and apartment units in August of 2012.
