Along that fairly new section of Ligon Mill Road from South Main Street to the Dr. Calvin Jones Highway (NC 98 Bypass) there is a street that encapsulates the new style of building with one that not so long ago was the standard for a middle-income subdivision.
There is a short street, Longbourn Drive in the Pemberley subdivision, which starts at Ligon Mill with six four-story brick apartment buildings referred to as “garden apartments” built in 2022.
No gardens here, folks. No green either. Just brick, concrete and asphalt with parked cars. Sterile is too bland a word. This is building gulag-style, despite a few balconies. Basic compartments for humans.
This shock dissipates, however, when the street begins to climb a gentle hill and enters the subdivision, the street curving as you climb. The street trees were planted close together back in 2002 so their branches form a wall of green over the street and sidewalks.
The houses are one- and two-story with carports, varied styles, well-kept and largely still owned by the original owners. In back of the houses you can see mature trees the developer left undisturbed when he graded. You can imagine tree houses and swings and nooks where a child’s imagination can roam.
It fits into the other two or three subdivisions that have transformed this old farm. There is a special kind of melancholy to recognize there was a time when a large portion of the people in town went to a town picnic on this farm each summer.
In 2003, the Wake Forest Town Board and Planning Board members were meeting together to discuss Wake County’s recently adopted Growth Management Plan, Planning Directo Chip Russell was working on a model conservation subdivision, and planning board member Frank Drake commented that the town already had several of the requirements the Growth Management Plan recommended. Those were tree protection, historic preservation, appearance standards and transportation planning.
All the 2003 board members agreed on the need for preserving open space for water quality and natural habitat. Why have our standards changed?
Today the “garden apartments” on Longbourn are not alone. Have you looked at the Traditions townhouses on Traditions Grande Boulevard? Do you see any trees, plants, greenery? Just the gray backs of the townhouses.
The subdivision streets nowadays stretch out for the horizon with the puny street trees so far apart their branches will never meet. It might have cost a bit more to double the number of trees.
We show off North Main Street with its trees, bushes, spring daffodils as representing our town. What a whopping lie!
Wake Forest’s boast of being a Tree City is belied by what has been built in the past five-six years, and only a few remember when we were an official bird sanctuary. At least one subdivision, Holding Village, stripped off the grass and topsoil from its acreage and buried it because, according to a retired architect who planned subdivisions, it was cheaper to bury it than try to deal with it. But why did they have to strip it away?
Is this what Wake Forest’s current residents want to see continued?
We can demand a change. We do not have to more than double the people living here by 2040, 16 years away, as town officials are planning. Then Wake Forest truly would be unrecognizable.
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8 Responses
So as citizens of Wake Forest that oppose the needless “ butt ugly” growth of sprawling apartment and condominium units that tear up the grass and the trees and harm the natural balance of the environment, what are the options to oppose the continuous construction? I am against the growth without gain or foresight so what can we do to create a controlled growth with community input- need a suggestion or two…?
I thoroughly agree and am of the opinion that all real estate sales in excess of $2,000,000 should incur a conservation land preservation fee of 1/2% to be used for acquisition and preservation of open spaces.
Carol, your writing is superb. I loved, “You can imagine tree houses and swings and nooks where a child’s imagination can roam” and was sadly reminded of what has happened recently, with “puny street trees so far apart their branches will never meet”.
You are absolutely correct when you say the town does not have to double it’s population. Emphasis on *does not hate to*. It is a totally absurd notion to think Wake Forest must increase population density. If deforestation to build ‘butt ugly’ apartment buildings and townhouses crammed together on postage stamp lots continues to be the vision of town officials, those officials should resign.
People who just recently moved here in the last 10 years know what others before them recognize all along: Wake Forest Smart Growth is simply a process that has allowed large outside construction companies to take expansive tracts of land, completely excavate them and insert as many apartments, condos, town houses and houses on micro lots as possible. The zeal for increased population and the intentional acts of putting so many people on top of, beside and below all results in everyone living in a carefully controlled HOA government. These measures do not lead to quality of life, just traffic and parking issues and loss of tree canopy. People are fleeing areas like New York, California, Florida and the Midwest. There is no mandate to build housing for everyone who wants to move here. Worse yet, the BOC is now moving in on the Smith Creek Watershed to prescribe residential zoning to it which will erase the last forest we have. It’s absolutely true and accurate to say this is Wake Deforest. And it will get a whole lot worse as the HOA developments ram and cram people together to reach the expected population of 118,000.
We as citizens need to demand better development practices if we are unhappy with how our town is taking shape in recent years. Development can be thoughtful. Development can include preservation of trees, wildlife, and other natural resources. Development can and should consider community feedback. Great opinion piece, Carol! Thank you for providing WF with your exceptional local news resource.
It is about time folks started to open their eyes to the destruction being dealt this fair city. Time is of the essence, we need to speak as one loud voice that says, “enough is enough.”
Well said.
“We show off North Main Street with its trees, bushes, spring daffodils as representing our town. What a whopping lie!”
Thank you.