A subdivision that has been on hold since 2007 is expected to come to life in 2014 with about 120 homes. On Jan. 3 Wheelock Street Capital, which has invested heavily in the first phase of the Traditions subdivision, announced it has a multi-year contract to develop the residential portion of Holding Village, the town’s first traditional neighborhood development. Holding Village was planned by heirs of W.W. Holding III and Chapel Hill developer Roger Perry, but no lots were platted and sold after the project was approved.
The plan for the subdivision includes 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.
For a complete report about Wheelock and the purchase, go to the bottom of this email after the obituaries for the article from the Jan. 8 Gazette.
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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.
An aerial photograph supplied by the planning department indicates the 14.37 acres are comprised of five separate parcels, all contiguous, owned by Richard Paschal and his mother, Marguerite. One parcel is the site for the Paschal family home on the hill next to the home for the seminary president, and the other is the site of the smaller brick house next to it where Richard Paschal and his family live.
The two largest parcels are on the west side and include what has been called the Paschal pasture and a sizeable chunk of Paschal Golf Course.
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A recent article in The News & Observer by David Bracken highlighted the success of Heritage Wake Forest and its attractiveness to national builders who want to share that glow.
This 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.
This fall Standard Pacific Homes, which is building out the Northampton subdivision, purchased a 73-acre tract south of Rogers 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 73 acres are landlocked. On the east the neighbors are the campus for the Heritage Elementary and Middle schools, on the north sits a senior housing complex (The Crossings at Heritage) and a daycare with an approved plan for 316 units of the Capital Creek Apartments to fill the rest of the tract along Rogers Road, on the west a 15-acre tract (a remnant of the large Jones-Seawell plantation created in the early 1800s) is owned by members of the Seawell family and backs up to the CSX rail line, and on the south is an 80-acre tract owned by the Town of Wake Forest and slated to remain a passive open space with a greenway along Smith Creek.
Several years ago the town turned down a project for an apartment complex on the same 73 acres because there is only one access, Heritage Branch Road.
The approved plan does show a stubbed street that will match up with a street and access to Rogers Road in the Capital Creek Apartment 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.
When it was begun in 2000, Heritage was planned for 900 homes with a golf course, swimming pool and other amenities. Today there are more than 2,600 homes in Heritage sections that have spread into Rolesville. About 300 lots remain. Ammons has built greenways, a small park, a fishing pond and several play areas among the other features that make Heritage quite special. It continues to be the top-selling subdivision in the region.
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There are no official plans, nothing official has been presented to the Town of Wake Forest or to the state Department of Transportation, but on Sept. 16 the U.S. 1 Corridor – Council of Planning, a part of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), met in a conference room in Wake Forest Town Hall to discuss possible access points for a planned 160-acre multi-use development now referred to as the Hill Top Development.
The 160 acres lie south of NC 98 (Durham Road) and east of Capital Boulevard (U.S. 1) and are part of the once-sprawling Crenshaw family plantation with hundreds of acres planted in cotton. It appears the 160 acres being considered belong to Jodi Totten and her sons, Crenshaw family descendants, acting as Druly LP.
Christa Greene, senior traffic engineer at Stantec and president of Greene Transportation Solutions, presented the request to the council and mentioned there are 320 developable acres in the same area.
Greene said there are two possibilities, both involving extending Galaxy Drive which runs parallel to Capital Boulevard but deadends before reaching Durham Road. Both solutions for access to U.S. 1 by the project would have Galaxy Drive connect to a current ramp, either as an extension or at a roundabout. The developer would build Hill Top Road from Galaxy Drive to connect with the development.
If the Hill Top project comes to fruition, the town will recommend it connect to West Holding Avenue, which would involve a bridge across Richland Creek. It would also provide new access for the subdivisions in the area and for communicants at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church.
Also, the future right-of-way of Ligon Mill Road (four lanes in this area south of Durham Road) would be reserved or partly built.
Although it was difficult to hear the participants in the conference room, it seemed most were satisfied with the roundabout solution at this time, awaiting further study by DOT and submittal of completed plans.
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