Tuesday night neighboring property owners raised enough questions about the impact the proposed Tryon subdivision will have on the wetlands, the headwaters of Austin Creek and ultimately Smith Creek and the Neuse River that the Wake Forest Planning Board split 4 to 3 on whether to recommend approval to the town board. The four supported Ed Gary’s motion to approve.
Other neighbors living on the south side of N.C. 98 (Wait Avenue) have blocked the developer’s plans to extend a major sewer line from Bowling Green to the proposed subdivision just south of Oak Grove Church Road.
“I don’t see any sewer lines going out,” Robert Cooper, one of the Wait Avenue neighbors, said. “I was approached to give an easement for a sewer line that was going to cross 98. I have no intention of doing that. If they can’t get sewer in there, there’s no way you can rezone it.”
The planning board was being asked to rezone the 131 acres to GR (General Residential) 10, which allows townhouses, and to approve the Tryon subdivision master plan, which calls for 279 lots for single-family houses plus 136 townhouses that will have rear alleys and interior garages.
Cooper’s neighbor Tony Gordon said there is an alternative which involves adding a pump station. “They can have their development and leave us alone.
“The City of Raleigh (which owns the town’s water and sewer system) will not use eminent domain or anything else” to help the developer, Tryon Wake Forest from Knightdale, get the sewer service it needs for phases four through seven, Senior Planner Charlie Yokley said. The affected homeowners on the north side of N.C. 98 (Wait Avenue) have given permission for the sewer easement.
The developer does have sewer available through the subdivision being developed just to the west, Kings Glen, for phases one through three.
Phase one includes one of the stickier points of the plan because, in order to get the number of lots they would like, the Town of Wake Forest has to give the developer permission to re-grade almost 8 acres that are in the watershed for the Smith Creek Reservoir. It was the town’s water supply from the 1960s until Raleigh took over the water and sewer system on July 1, 2005. Tommy Craven, a civil engineer, said the grading would allow all the runoff from the streets and lots into the Austin Creek basin rather than the reservoir.
Chuck Walker, who said he represented the partnership, told the planning and town board members that there is almost 30 percent of the acreage in open space as opposed to the 12 to 13 percent called for under town regulations. There will be sidewalks on both sides of the streets, trails that meet those sidewalks, a recreation center and two pocket parks.
Most of that open space is in the required riparian buffers for a pond, Austin Creek, three smaller streams and a wetland area.
Greg McCoy, whose property is just to the south of the project, said he was speaking because of his concern for Austin Creek and the possible degradation of water quality as a result of the project. He cited figures about the “alarming loss of wetland, primarily through development” in the state. He talked about the impact the clearing and building would have: the loss of large trees, the loss of habitat for woodpeckers, hawks, turtles and black snakes who live there. “It will make the deer problem worse. They will go to other areas.”
“The things we do here can have an effect all the way to the ocean,” McCoy said, speaking about the increased velocity of the runoff from cleared areas, the increased turbidity, the bigger chance for erosion and the very good possibility of damage to the water quality that will go from Austin Creek to Smith Creek, to the Neuse River, the Pamlico Sound and the Atlantic Ocean.
McCoy did say the planners had “done a much better job of the letter of the requirements than I have seen in many others.”
But, he said, the Environmental Protection Agency says Smith Creek has been impacted and degraded by development and there is no study to determine the maximum daily load of nutrients that Austin or Smith Creek can carry as well as no study of the current nutrient load, “. . . we should call a halt until we have those figures and understand its impact on the Neuse River basin.”
Kyle Hood talked about the impact of two current subdivisions and what he had seen with the rain deluge from Hurricane Fran in 1996. “The bridge over the end of the reservoir is dilapidated. I don’t know how long it will last with concrete trucks going over it.” He also asked how the increased runoff will affect Heritage downstream.
Bob Horky said his biggest concern is the runoff. In Hurricane Fran, he said, water came down the hill, across the road and washed out the culverts “with the trees there.” He also complained about a current water retention pond where the developer has not done a proper job.
Jim Burson said he concern was the traffic and the safety perspective. He questioned the density of the development – Walker said there will be 3.2 lots per acre – and asked that the boards “consider this request and other requests and protect the water and the watershed before you approve this request.”
Craven contested the statements about the impact on water quality and the wetlands. Wetlands are “heavily regulated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” he said, and the only place there will be impacts is at street crossings. He said the town’s new Uniform Development Ordinance tightly regulates storm water runoff. “I has never been as highly regulated as it is now. It will remove 85 percent of the total suspended solids and is one of the highest standards in the state.” He also said the stormwater retention ponds are shallow, planted heavily with water plants absorb the nutrients in the water. The ponds are separated from the water table so that any nutrients do not get into the water table and any wells.
Planning Director Chip Russell said there is a test site on Smith Creek and “we have not seen any degrading of the water quality. It’s better than we thought we would find.”
After the hearing was closed, planning board member Dehaven Fields said he wished he had more insight into the water issues involved.
“I echo what you said,” member Steve Stoller said. “This is the first time we’ve had a project with such extensive involvement. Maybe we are not comfortable.”
Planning board Chairman Bob Hill pointed out that getting the water and sewer to the property is the developer’s responsibility. “If he can’t get it for that last section, he can’t do it.”
Stoller said his concern is that no one is going to stop the developer from clear-cutting the entire tract, but Yokley said they can have permission for cutting and grading for the areas they have sewer approval for, not for clear-cutting the area without sewer approval.
The vote for approval was 4 to 3 with Ed Gary, Stoller, Hill and Al Merritt voting yes, Steve DeRosa, Shirley Sulick and Fields voting no. Grif Bond was absent and the seat for the outside town limits member is vacant.
The rezoning request will be heard by the town board at its regular meeting Tuesday, June 17, at 7 p.m. in town hall.
