Dear sir or madam:
Concerned Citizens for the Preservation of Wake Forest Open Space (CCPWFOS) has been assiduously pressing the Town of Wake Forest to explain how the zoning of the former Wake Forest Golf Course went from R40W [Watershed with one house per acre] to GR3/PUD [General Residential three houses to an acre with an overlaying planned unit development].
The town has no answers and no records except to say that the R40W zoning was done away with and GR3/PUD was the closest they could come to replicating the R40W zoning in the UDO.
Thanks to some hard work by one of our members reviewing the archives of The Wake Weekly for 2012-2013, we now have the evidence of what really happened. In fact the previous town clerk, the mayor, and the previous planning director Chip Russell and senior planner Chad Sary (now a council member) were all present during the planning and ratification of the 2013 UDO that rezoned property without a rezoning hearing.
Chad Sary refused to discuss this old history when questioned by Rick Ostergard, which we do not reasonably believe was ex parte communication about a current development proposal for the Joyner property. This was simply a history question and the town seemed intent on burying the question.
In short, the town consolidated their ordinances into the UDO and along with that consolidation they quietly rezoned 28 properties without notifying the residents of that rezoning and merely put it on a zoning map as if it were a fait accompli.
This is very similar to the approach recently taken with the current community plan.
However, the rezoning map, once approved, becomes the actual zoning, not just a recommendation like the community plan future land use map. Some alert individuals (132) showed up at the public hearing and protested this radical change to the rezoning process to which Mayor Jones replied, “This is the rezoning process.”
Though The Wake Weekly archives do not report all the details of what was changed during the hearing, they do report this:
-Protests to remove the auto-zoning process from the UDO (resident Ron Rosenburg spoke out at the hearing against this)
-Chip Russell (Planning Department Director) stated that “. . . those properties [the 28] could be assigned the closest zoning to what they are zoned in the current ordinance.”
-Planning board member Ed Gary made the motion to approve the new UDO in its entirety and this was passed by unanimous vote by the planning board.
So now we know. The BOC [board of commissioners] wanted to make it easier for developers to develop over the protest of the residents. They planned to quietly slip 28 rezonings into a map and vote it in to existence without a rezoning hearing.
The Wake Forest Golf Course, purchased by E. Carroll Joyner in 2012, was one of these properties. CCCPWFOS requested to rezone the old golf course to R40W in 2021 and were told that only the owner could request a rezoning. So Joyner was obviously the one who requested the rezoning in 2012/2013 — but the town has no records.
We have the town and the property owners documented in 2012/2013 working together to rezone property under the radar to avoid protestations from the residents. The mayor was clearly in favor of this process. This was a complete flip-flop from her previous position when dealing with Joel Young where she stated that neither she nor anyone on the BOC was interested in seeing this property developed. They say one thing under public scrutiny and something else in the back room.
We do not know if the statute of limitations has passed where this can be legally addressed, but we are looking. Certainly, there is no statute of limitations of shame that the town staff and commissioners should feel at this shady/deceptive exercise against the town residents.
Concerned Citizens for the Preservation of Wake Forest Open Space (CCPWFOS) has been assiduously pressing the Town of Wake Forest to explain how the zoning of the former Wake Forest Golf Course went from R40W to GR3/PUD. The Town has no answers and no records except to say that the R40W zoning was done away with and GR3/PUD was the closest they could come to replicating the R40W zoning in the UDO.
Thanks to some hard work by one of our members reviewing the archives of The Wake Weekly for 2012-2013, we now have the evidence of what really happened. In fact the previous town clerk, the mayor, and the previous planning director Chip Russell and senior planner Chad Sary (now a council member) were all present during the planning and ratification of the 2013 UDO that rezoned property without a rezoning hearing.
Chad Sary refused to discuss this old history when questioned by Rick Ostergard, which we do not reasonably believe was ex parte communication about a current development proposal for the Joyner property. This was simply a history question and the town seemed intent on burying the question.
In short, the town consolidated their ordinances into the UDO and along with that consolidation they quietly rezoned 28 properties without notifying the residents of that rezoning and merely put it on a zoning map as if it were a fait accompli.
This is very similar to the approach recently taken with the community plan.
However, the rezoning map, once approved, becomes the actual zoning, not just a recommendation like the community plan future land use map. Some alert individuals (132) showed up at the public hearing and protested this radical change to the rezoning process to which Mayor Jones replied, “This is the rezoning process.”
Though The Wake Weekly archives do not report all the details of what was changed during the hearing, they do report this:
-Protests to remove the auto-zoning process from the UDO (resident Ron Rosenburg spoke out at the hearing against this)
-Chip Russell (Planning Department Director) stated that “. . . those properties [the 28] could be assigned the closest zoning to what they are zoned in the current ordinance.”
-Planning Board member Ed Gary made the motion to approve the new UDO in its entirety and this was passed by unanimous vote by the planning board.
So now we know. The BOC wanted to make it easier for developers to develop over the protest of the residents. They planned to quietly slip 28 rezonings into a map and vote it in to existence without a rezoning hearing.
The Wake Forest Golf Course, purchased by E. Carroll Joyner in 2012, was one of these properties. CCCPWFOS requested to rezone the old golf course to R40W in 2021 and were told that only the owner could request a rezoning. So Joyner was obviously the one who requested the rezoning in 2012/2013 — but the town has no records.
We have the town and the property owners documented in 2012/2013 working together to rezone property under the radar to avoid protestations from the residents. The mayor was clearly in favor of this process. This was a complete flip-flop from her previous position when dealing with Joel Young where she stated that neither she nor anyone on the BOC was interested in seeing this property developed. They say one thing under public scrutiny and something else in the back room.
We do not know if the statute of limitations has passed where this can be legally addressed, but we are looking. Certainly, there is no statue of limitations of shame that the town staff and commissioners should feel at this shady/deceptive exercise against the town residents.
Richard Ostergard
Wake Forest
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November 2, 2024
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16 Responses
Speechless! There is not a hint of representing the citizens or the community’s best interest.
I am on board to help pull out the corruption. They are killing our home. There us no limit what people will do for money.
They are hardly worth the $$$ raise $$$ they voted for themselves
Same thing happened here outside of town limits Hasentree and this watershed area was supposed to be 1acre minimum. They are building large family homes on far less than that minimum lot sizes now and putting drain on the community water surrounding them who have 3-4 bedrooms on over an acre. Pulte outside national builder paid someone for a change in the regulation. The regulations are to protect the water supply and water shed to Falls Lake.
Not surprising. Reminds me of when the “Town” said there would be no commercial development along the 98 by-pass in response to those who’s land was being acquired asking for future value compensation. I believe that was printed in the Wake Weekly as well…
There is a hierarchy to the recompense of a politian’s successful election.
First, they owe those who largely funded their campaign. In situations such as this, that is usually a commercial or residential development firm. Quite often, this firm does not even have a valid presence in the State, much less the locality except to list an innocuous address somewhere in the area.
Secondly, they owe those who they represent, and this is far down the line from the first.
You can bet your youngest child that $$$ exchanged hands to get this under-the-table act passed.
Regarding removal of commissioners, it is usually done under a process of “recall”. The Town Charter and Code of Ordinances does not contain such a provision so the only way to get them out is to vote them out every two years. Mr. Sary and the Mayor definitely need to be held accountable. As for the other commissioners, I do not know their involvement. Calling for their resignation is futile. The ballot box in November is the only way to remove them. Mr Sary’s term is up this year. The Mayor in 2025.
Oh dis b good! Mayor & santa be good friends wit jim adams. Law boy’s law firm b makin’ shady dealz yo. Go look up james warren & da mob boy on da Forestville townhouses. Da Captain he b workin at sum construction place. It b by da brunch place. Day all b shady but Bert & Ernie. Bert gotz sum desk job. Ernie b counting money for a livin’ day not workin 4 no house builder i do know dat.
Who is the mob boy?
Dat b shady! How we change dat charter stuff?
So the board can circumvent the rezoning process at their discretion? That’s helpful to know…
Does Wake Forest have a recall process or another method to remove commissioners? This looks like it could be an abuse of power if the letter is true. I hope that the commissioners who were not a part of this calls for some kind of nvestigation now. I hope that any commissioners that were there for the zonicng change resign immediately.
I am not acusing anyone of corruption, but the explanation of the re-zoning process seems that to indicate the process described could allow for corruption if officials are so inclined. By all means, the zoning process need to be fixed.
What He said!
Thank you to those who have taken the time to dig to find out what happened during those processes. I have always known something stank with the whole “zoning” but never made the time to find out who ate the cabbage. Because of the efforts of those mentioned in the letter now we do. Thank you for doing the work and exposing it. It’s no up to some of us to question those folks.
I would like to also thank of you that have been doing to work to control the growth.