People have been watching the former home of Clara Webb, the old family home just south of Lidl with a broad expanse of front yard. The property has been for sale since shortly after Mrs. Webb’s death, and the question has been will the town allow more commercial businesses on South Main Street.
Tuesday night we found out. An attorney with the Longleaf Law Partners, Jennifer Ashton, said the property – along with other adjoining parcels – will become a residential care facility. So it will be somewhat residential but also a business.
Ms. Ashton spoke during an unusual rezoning request during which we learned the three affected properties will have to be annexed because they are not inside the town.
The rezoning request was necessary, Ms. Ashton said, because the developer, not identified, does not want to have different zoning for the whole property. It all came about because of a town mapping error when the Cimarron subdivision was being planned and built. All of two lots – neither of which have frontage on South Main – and part of a third, a long thin strip containing 0.65 acres which does front on the street, were mistakenly zoned as part of the Cimarron planned unit development. Herbert Burnette and Viking III Associates own the two larger lots; Viking III Associates owns the thin strip that also has Ruth Snyder’s name associated with it. Snyder was a longtime town resident who owned land and a pond in that area.
The rezoning request was unanimously approved by the planning board members present along with two staff requests to make changes to the Comprehensive Transportation Plan. The members were Chairman Joe Kimray, Vice Chairman Karin Kuropas, and members Chris Joyner, Thomas Ballman, Michael Hickey, Michael Siderio and Jim Stephanadis. Colleen Sharpe and Karlene Turrentine were absent.
Planner Dylan Bruchhaus explained the numerous changes being proposed by the planning staff, which include not listing soft trails as part of the greenway system though they will be maintained and listed; adding Horse Creek and Wake Forest Reservoir as proposed greenways; adding multi-use paths to the list as they are built along with bike lanes; making sure proposed roadways are on the official map; and reclassifying roadways.
A separate amendment request was to simplify the road cross-sections, reducing the number from 20 to six.
Stephanadis and Siderio had a number of questions about the current soft trails at the reservoir and whether they could become greenways. The trails are apparently attracting hikers from Raleigh and other parts of Wake County.
Courtney Tanner, the planning department director, said the town and her department are considering whether the town should develop to the north of the reservoir, which would be in Franklin County and where part of it is zoned as watershed. She said the idea of a greenway or another kind of trail around the reservoir or on one side would be investigated. “If we develop to the north of the reservoir we have it, and if not develop it will go away.”
Ken Christie, a resident, spoke about the town listing some streets as four-lane with a median when they were not currently that and other streets that were similarly misidentified.
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