To the editor:
Concerned Citizens for the Preservation of Wake Forest Open Space (CCPWFOS) shares many of the same concerns and questions mentioned in in the recent Wake Forest Gazette article on the developer’s neighborhood meeting for this property.
The old Wake Forest Country Club and Golf Course is the center of a municipal legislative mess. Joel Young created three housing developments on the golf course with no open space as required by the Wake Forest Unified Development Ordinance. The residents of these three developments have been disenfranchised of their open space due to lax oversight by the Town at that time. All three developments and the golf course are tied to Young and Wake Forest Town approval.
Country Club Downs was developed by Young without any open space that is required by the UDO at the time the development was approved by the Town.
Later on, Young built Fairway Villas and sold the land for Club Villas on separate five-acre lots (10 total acres). Per the UDO at the time, 40 acres was required for a Planned Unit Development application to be approved. The remaining 30 acres were just lumped into the total golf course open space.
Young came back and tried to get all of his open space back except for the 30 acres required for the original PUD. The town denied that application and defended their decision successfully in court because Young made the mistake of voluntarily lumping that 30 acres into the whole golf course and declaring the whole golf course open space.
Young went bankrupt and through a series of events E. Carroll Joyner bought the property at the reduced rate of $325,000 because the PUD prevented development. Without the PUD the land, 155 acres, would have been worth $1.5 million at that time and much more now.
That figure came from a professional estimator hired by Young to demonstrate the harm he was being caused because the PUD was not being revised. With the change in ownership from Joe Young to the Bank to Joyner, the word “voluntarily” disappeared from the argument and the 30 acres that should have been part of the original PUD have now, according to the town, passed to the possession of Joyner with no open space for the two developments. Per the UDO at the time, they were entitled to 16 acres open space with the remaining 14 acres to be held by the developer, Young, for possible future development.
Young wrongly judged that he might come back later and actually get to build more houses without having to provide any open space, .just like the case for Country Club Downs. By lumping those 30 acres into the golf course, Joe Young painted himself into a corner that he could not get out of.
I have been trying for eight months to research how the R40W zoning on the old golf course got changed to GR3/PUD. Unfortunately, the Town’s archiving was immature during 2008-2013 when this zoning change/UDO update occurred. They can find no briefings presented to the Board of Commissioners but only minutes where the UDO was approved. There are no documents from the Planning Department or the Planning Board (except minutes). There is no discussion of the “how” and “why” available. It would have been nice to know who proposed this, the rationale and the discussion that eventually led the Town to approve it.
My guess is that this occurred the exact same way things are done now. First, the community plan (with land use map) was drafted and approved and then the UDO was modified to conform to that community plan. There really was no reason to do away with R40W except to allow denser development.
The UDO also introduced definitional issues in zoning as well. GR3 used to mean three houses per acre. Now it has been redefined to mean six houses per acre. If that was the intent, why didn’t they just create a GR6 zoning? GR10 has been redefined to be 16 houses per acre instead of 10 houses per acre. Why the sophistry? I have spent many hours studying the UDO and doing research on the old Wake Forest Country Club. I have come to the conclusion that there was a much looser enforcement of the UDO in the 2008-2013 time frames.
Since it closed, this old golf course has been a wildlife refuge and walking park. Its highest purpose for the Town of Wake Forest is to remain a wild life refuge and park for the Town, not growing more roofs, asphalt paving and driveways.
The Town lawyer confirmed that the Town can refuse to hear Joyner’s proposal just as they refused to hear Young’s proposal. They have the ability to just say “NO!” and we are hoping that they have the wisdom and foresight to do so for the good of the Wake Forest residents. Open land never comes back.
This is a precious watershed and needs to be protected. The current Draft Community Plan recognizes that and includes language for that protection. Unfortunately, Joyner’s proposal falls under the old community plan and that is why he and the developer have felt free to put as many houses as humanly possible in the Falls Lake watershed.
The number has been decreased slightly due to the discovery of restrictive covenants on the west side of Horse Creek. But even with this, the developer is attempting dual use of a permanent buffer in the restrictive covenants as a park. He believes this buffer counts as one of his four parks. We strongly disagree and he will hear from us shortly.
The town and the CCPWFOS are currently reviewing the draft plan. We expect that the Town will reject all of the townhouses proposed along Capital Boulevard. The Highway Business zone is 1,000 feet on each side of Capital Boulevard.
It would be the height of ineptitude/ignorance to approve building in that zone before the actual plans for turning Capital Boulevard into a limited-access thoroughfare are finalized and the land purchased to support that plan.
That thought should be in front of the Town in neon lights. The Town has no need to develop this piece of land right now and any consideration before Capital Boulevard improvements are complete would be premature. Let’s all take a breather and wait for that to happen.
Meanwhile, if Mr. Joyner would like to work with a conservancy trust and the Town to transfer this land for a park, I am sure participants can be lined up and funds arranged.
Richard Ostergard
Wake Forest
8 Responses
Well, in the Board of Commissioners’ approval of the 2022 Community Plan, they modified language from the draft which they had for over six weeks to allow, even in this “guiding document” to allow Mr. Joyner’s people to develop the property west of Horse Creek. Happy Earth Day! It will be interesting how this works out with zoning limitations. It was a close vote, but the Mayor endorsed the change in language. And, yes, the commissioners do have the authority to slow or stop development. My endorsement early in the public comment section of language in the Plan which advocates “conservation design, “access to green space,” and “tree preservation” was not changed, but it could well be simply window dressing for more development.
Four years ago we moved to the Rogers Road area from DC. We were aware that additional residential and commercial construction was coming but we hadn’t imagined what we see today. The amount of high density housing that is under construction is shocking and we have a feeling that there is more on the planning table. We’ve seen this before in DC. We lived in a community that became so densely populated that a 15 mile commute could take two hours. The level of development destroyed the quality of life that we enjoyed for many years. The other thing that the high density housing eventually brought was more crime. So far we have enjoyed how infrequent the sound of sirens are here in Wake Forest. I hope it stays that way.
The buck stops at the desk of senior leadership. Always has always will. Wake Forest is paying the price for short sighted myopic stewardship that has allowed the development of high density housing, unhinged traffic congestion (only to get worse), unrestrained commercial growth and in a few years an impact on our schools, police and fire departments I can’t even imagine. Welcome to the new Wake Forest.
It has already impacted our schools. The average classroom at heritage high school has 41 students & 1 teacher. At Wake Forest high school it’s 38 students to 1 teacher. I don’t see how the Fire Marshal allows this.
I understand your frustration but the “buck” you are referring to makes it sound like the Commissioners could stop the growth. They can not. ( period ) Other than a few votes changing in zoning to which there have only been few by our commissions, our commissioners can only vote what is in front of them. We are in capitalists system you sell a 25 acres to highest bidder and some buys it, if they follow the rules they build by the rules up go 50 homes. Our city planners have limited powers on zoning thanks in part to the Dylan Rule. Why you may ask? North Carolina is a Dylan Rule state-well almost it is hybrid. All of the power for land use rests with the state statues VS Home Rule like some northern states. In home rules states land use rests with the local municipalities- A Home Rule Sate can stop growth and even put a referendum on the ballot to vote for money to purchase land for conservation. Richard’s examples are very unique and the city messed up and his topic the “buck” should stopped with the city. You are right the county and city taxes will rise in the end.
Well said Richard thank you for enlightening us.
David Soper
When the bank makes a mistake they have to correct it. Why doesn’t the town? Citizens need to start defining any & everything when giving their input on these plans. Did the town not record the meetings through video or audible devices in 2013? This is troubling that staff did not have the foresight to archive all records. The town knows the statutes favor land owners & developers. Their failure to keep good records are inexcusable & the BOC should address this immediately before the taxpayers lose more records.
First of all, thanks for Mr. Ostergard for his excellent research and article. It proves two things to me; 1) The town’s planning was slipshod in the past. I suspect that was the norm for small towns back then, and 2) The town’s planning is equally slipshod today. While the past can be excused, there is no justification for the town’s planning to be slipshod now.
Wake Forest is now a large town, and needs to move past this old fashioned, buddy – buddy way of doing business. I call on the town comissioners to reject the current proposal for the old golf course, and equally important, to reform the whole planning porocess to get the buddy – buddy business out of the planning process. Something appears to me to be broken and need fixing.