The Town of Wake Forest hosted a reception Tuesday at 6 p.m. for the three incoming town commissioners, a nicely loud party in the first floor lobby. After the formal town board meeting in the second-floor meeting room, there was a similar party as family and friends clustered around the newly-sworn commissioners to congratulate them.
In between, in the first few minutes, everyone got some aerobic exercise, jumping to their feet to applaud Chip Russell on his retirement after serving as the planning director for 32 years; John Pelosi on serving for nine years as the chairman of the town’s public art commission; and Miranda Strider-Allen, who has been with Resources for Seniors since 1984 but has been directing the programs at the Northern Wake Senior Center since 1996. Two rows of enthusiastic seniors were there to cheer her when she said she has never worked with a community as dedicated to its seniors and the senior center as Wake Forest. When she knew the senior center was going to be renovated and was sitting in Mickey Rochelle’s office (the facilities director), she feared the center would be closed entirely. Instead, when she began making phone calls “by the time we left, eighty percent of the programs had a home. We ended up with programs in sixteen different locations.”
The current commissioners hurried through a fairly short agenda that included voting on the candidates for 10 advisory boards electronically.
A hiccup occurred when it came to voting on the South Franklin Street apartment complex called Legacy Heritage. Commissioner Anne Reeve immediately moved to approve with Commissioner Greg Harrington seconding.
Commissioner Bridget Wall-Lennon said she was prepared to make a motion to approve with additional conditions. “I do not believe the developer met all the requirements.” She said after the public hearing where she was impressed by the questions the non-expert Heritage residents, former planning board chairman Bob Hill and Todd Shoffeitt, who is familiar with storm drainage. “I thought they did a good job in questioning the experts” and left her unsatisfied with the planning board vote to recommend. She met with the town attorney and with planners, and Tuesday night Wall-Lennon laid out several additional conditions that would correct the problems she saw.
Commissioner Brian Pate asked if the applicant had approved those new conditions – he had not – and stressed the two residents were not experts. Pate also praised the attorney for the applicant, Goldberg Companies Inc.
Looking across Wall-Lennon, Mayor Vivian Jones asked Reeve if she was ready to amend her motion to include Wall-Lennon’s conditions. “No,” Reeve said. The vote was three to two with Wall-Lennon and Commissioner Liz Simpers voting no.
The mayor then read resolutions of appreciation for the three outgoing commissioners, who received a copy of their resolution and their official portrait from the second-floor lobby wall.
It was a two-judge night. Commissioner Jim Dyer was given the oath of office by North Carolina Supreme Court Judge Paul Newby, and North Carolina Court of Appeals Judge Toby Hampson, who has been one of the town’s attorneys, gave the oath of office to Commissioner Chad Sary. Commissioner Adam Wright chose state Rep. Terence Everitt to administer his oath of office.
Once the three were seated on the dais, the mayor asked them to approve the calendar of 2020 meeting dates for the town and planning boards. Once they all said aye to that and to declaring the meeting at an end, she smacked her gavel and the second party began.
#
One Response
The Legacy Heritage complex is actually on Heritage Lake Road and the dead end of Friendship Chapel Rd. rather than South Franklin. Thanks for the coverage of this project. Brian is correct as I am not a traffic “expert” and and pointed that out in my remarks. I did not “testify” as an “expert” rather simply asked questions of the traffic engineer about the “Level of Service ” report (page 20 of the traffic study) that was submitted as evidence, as he conveniently did not address it in his remarks to the Boards because it was stunning with regard to traffic movement and safety at the proposed Heritage Lake intersection with wait times of up to 15 minutes to enter the intersection. This proposed intersection is rated at “level F’ which is the worst possible classification for an intersection. I was amazed that there were no questions from the Planning Board so I asked the lawyer to go over it in case some board members had overlooked it in the voluminous traffic study. Given the importance and severity of the Level of Service report I was even more amazed that there was little or no discussion or concern re. this issue during the Planning Board meeting????
Other than concern for traffic issues, I spoke in favor of the project and the particular developer.
I believe Brian knows that any citizen with “standing” has the right and is allowed to question or seek clarification from a witness and is not required to be an “expert to ask questions. Lawyers have confirmed this.
Finally, the applicant (I believe) took over an hour and a half in their presentation, which left very little time for anyone else to speak. Most seemed a bit weary.after the applicant’s presentation
Thanks again for your coverage