At 11:27 p.m. the Wake Forest Planning Board ended a meeting that began at 7:30 p.m. by tabling the request to rezone 203 acres on both sides of North Main Street from residential and rural to a planned unit development for 566 townhouses and 225 single-family homes, a large portion of them to be workforce housing, affordable by police officers, teachers and many other area residents who cannot afford almost all current subdivision homes. It will be again considered at the planning board meeting Jan. 5, 2021.
Planning Director Courtney Tanner had a 27-page staff report on the request, and she went through some of the details of the PUD plan the staff had found inconsistent with the Unified Development Ordinance, the Community Plan and the Transportation Plan. Those included questions about the architecture of the buildings, whether a business/commercial center should be near the center of the neighborhoods and have on-street parking, which large trees and natural areas should be kept, and the impacts of high-speed rail.
When she finished, Mayor Vivian Jones had several questions which boiled down to why Tanner had brought up these points before the PUD had been approved (or disapproved) and well before the construction drawings which would provide details about many of those points.
Planning board members had several questions at that point. Would Lake Forest Drive to North Main be a full access intersection? That came up again and again because without a left turn from Lake Forest Drive a driver would have to go through the adjoining subdivision, The Meadows, to turn left. Near the close of the hearing, Transportation Planner Jonathan Jacobs said it was possible or likely it would be a full access intersection.
Viewers and planning board and town board members learned there are turkey shoots and concerts at Bud’s Tavern just north of the PUD. The northern-most part of the plan calls for workforce housing there, townhouses without garages, starting at $175,000 to $200,000. There was concern about the impact of the noise. Tommy Craven of Priest Craven & Associates said, “I don’t think Bud’s will be there forever,” adding that it will become commercial property.
Craven spent close to an hour responding to the staff’s list of inconsistencies it had found. He said that all the issues raised will be clear when the developer proceeds to a site plan and construction drawings.
Craven said there will be seven styles of homes with differing styles of architecture. “We are not proposing large-lot single-family homes. There are a lot of them around the town of Wake Forest. He said the plans for Kinsley call for 77 acres of open space, 8 acres of park space and a 20-foot densely planted buffer around all sides of the subdivision.
Jim Allen was the next speaker for Kinsley, a developer who has been involved in almost every Wake Forest subdivision since Tyler Run. Pointing out that he and his partner are close to or past 60, he said they don’t need a lot of money.
“We want to give back to the community,” Allen said. “Workforce housing is the greatest need in Wake Forest and [the area] and developers are not providing it. The Triangle is in an absolute crisis for workforce housing.”
Allen said even the entry-level townhouses proposed would have some master bedrooms on the first level, making them attractive to seniors. “There is zero supply in Wake Forest.” The median income in Wake Forest is $85,000, and he said many of the Kinsley homes would be affordable for people making that much each year.
Also, “We cannot do the fine details until the town approves the overall plan,” Allen said in talking about how they want to bring in several local builders to make sure there are different styles of architecture in the different neighborhoods.
One point of contention was the long triangular sliver of land adjoining the CSX rail line, land which is part of the corridor for the future but unfunded Southeast High Speed Rail, which will have passenger traffic. Right now the land is shown on the PUD plan as open space which the developers do not want to dedicate to railroad right-of-way in perpetuity. If, as they seem to suspect, the corridor for the high-speed rail will be close to the current location, they can develop that land if they wish. Meanwhile, Allen is proposing railroad-style buildings and playground features.
About 10:30, Chairman Ed Gary asked if anyone in the audience wished to speak and Edward Smith questioned whether there had been consideration about existing water runoff near Lake Forest Drive. Gary said that was a good question, there was a prolonged huddle over maps and finally it was determined where the water would go.
Gary asked if the walking trails would be connected to any greenway, and Craven said there are no greenways in the area to connect with.
Gary also introduced two written comments, one for and one against, and the hearing was closed at 10:50.
The planning board members and staff soldiered on through hearings about the rest of the agenda and then went into a regular meeting to vote.
Aside from the vote to table the Kinsley matter, the voting was as follows:
For the two items about the Mill Village, both the text amendment to create a character preservation overlay and the rezoning were approved unanimously.
The request to amend the Kitchin Farms zoning and master plan to rezone 23 acres was passed by a 6 to 2 vote.
The text amendments relating to historic preservation were passed unanimously.
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