After a required neighborhood meeting at The Sutherland on Feb. 22 which apparently satisfied no one, the attorney for the proposed rezoning of the former Wake Forest Country Club and the principals involved – E. Carroll Joyner, owner, and McAdams Engineering and Jim Adams – are now planning a second neighborhood meeting via Zoom at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 30.
This new plan, according to a March 11 letter to the neighbors, “. . . will require (1) an amendment to the existing Special Use Permit (SU-99-02) which designates a portion of the Property as Open Space; and (2) a rezoning. The base zoning for the parcels currently is General Residential 3 (GR3). The developer is considering rezoning the Property to General Residential 10 Conditional District (GR10 CD) and Highway Business Conditional District (HB CD).”
The addition of highway business, commercial, zoning is new. The former country club does front on Capital Boulevard (U.S. 1). The attorney who wrote the letter, Nil Ghosh with Morningstar Law Group in Durham, had indicated at the first meeting that GR10 (10 houses per acre) rezoning would be essential for the development although the 157.45 acres are in the Falls Lake Watershed.
Wake Forest Planning Director Courtney Tanner had recommended to the developers that they should hold a second meeting, that it could be a Zoom meeting and that the revised plan or a full description should be available at that meeting. She also advised that the developers give more notice of the meeting and that they have a more complete notification list.
The group opposed to the current rezoning request is exploring the question whether the Zoom meeting would be allowed under the current Unified Development Ordinance. In case it is allowed, they also plan to rent a large enough venue to accommodate what could be close to 150 people who could watch on a large screen. Too many users at once could cause Zoom to fail. The first neighborhood meeting drew 136 people.
3 Responses
I very strongly disagree with the town & the BOC on this one. Zoom calls & in person meetings are not the same! The BOC is missing the overall big picture here. If they allow this zoom meeting to meet the expectations outlined in the UDO they are setting up presidency over all neighborhood meetings here on out can be done through Zoom.
Not every citizen has high speed internet access, expensive equipment, unlimited data plans, or the technical skills to join a zoom call. Maybe the BOC should check with those that live on the Northeast side of town.
I’ve set up a poll to see how the residents & tax paying citizens feel about the effectiveness of communication through the use of a zoom call. I welcome all Wake Forest Gazette readers to weigh in on the issue. https://www.facebook.com/groups/337911350786238/permalink/678920090018694/
But when will we see the revised plan?? At first meeting we got few answers to questions, now we are supposed to guess what changes, if any, have been made! Progress this is not.
Thank you Carol.
Rather than argue whether a zoom is legal or not we took action so no one gets left out.
The affected residents have rented The Corner, a new meeting venue, located in the former Corner Ice Cream Shop on N. Main.
The facility has state of the art technology and can accomodate large groups.
Please arrive at 5:30 on Wednesday, March 30 There is parking across N. Main & we will have members directing traffic.
We welcome the developer to join us in person or provide poster-sized copies of their newest iteration.