The residents of the Town of Wake Forest have the opportunity to save a treasure — 584 acres of land that has been untouched for 64 years containing several varieties of mature trees, native plants, natural features such as waterfalls and several streams and where deer, racoons, possums, squirrels and birds of all sorts live and move and thrive.
It is the watershed for what was the Wake Forest Reservoir when it was the source for the town’s drinking water. With Raleigh owning the town’s water and sewer systems, the Town of Wake Forest has plans to protect the reservoir for limited recreational use.
It also had plans for the watershed — building townhouses.
Last year, in October and November the town planning department headed by Director Courtney Tanner suddenly felt an urgency to address those 584 acres which are still in Wake County and zoned as a watershed at R-80W, a zoning Wake Forest stopped using without explaining why. She said two property owners in the watershed wanted or needed water from Wake Forest. Since a requirement is that those properties would have to be annexed and zoned, she said she feared those actions could lead to disorganized development.
Tanner sent out letters to the property owners in the watershed, first before the public hearing and the hearing before the planning board and again before the town board’s consideration. The letters are identical in stating the hearing is for a Community Plan Amendment filed by the Town of Wake Forest. “This proposed amendment does not rezone any parcel of land, nor does it extend the Town’s ETJ. This proposed amendment is needed should a property owner desire to obtain municipal water and sewer service since a parcel must be 1) incorporated into Wake Forest and 2) zoned a Wake Forest zoning district in order to receive municipal water and/or sewer service.”
Watershed property owners would think it was a simple matter about water. The title for the hearings before the planning and town boards was equally misleading: “Public Hearing on Community Plan Amendment related to the Wake Forest/Raleigh Utility Merger Agreement (CPA-23-03).”
Instead Tanner proposed rezoning the entire watershed inside Wake County — and still a part of Wake County — to Conventional Residential. Under the proposed Uniform Development Ordinance there will be only GR zoning for everything from GR3 to GR10, which will allow townhouses.
Tanner was urgent, insistent, speaking only about the two owners wanting water and “We don’t know what Wake County will do.” The planning board rejected the plan 4 to 1 and recommended the Board of Commissioners should consider adding a land use option that is more rural than Conventional Residential to the Community Plan if the Community Plan is amended.
Twenty speakers implored the town commissioners to save the watershed from development last November, and the message got through. It was clear the commissioners wanted a study about the reservoir — the town studies everything — and wanted more zoning classifications, including watershed.
The motion by Commissioner Keith Shackleford was for GR3 zoning with one home per acre, which is equivalent to watershed zoning R-40W. The vote was four to one with Commissioners Shackleford, Chad Sary Nick Sliwinski and Jim Dyer voting yes, Commissioner Adam Wright voting no.
But with the current obvious intention of the town to increase density in all zoning, to grow and grow, it is dangerous to have residential zoning of any kind on the watershed when it is annexed by the town.
If you want the 584 acres to remain untouched, then we need to start telling the town commissioners and mayor our opinions. Ask them to help preserve a treasure.
And please tell the Wake Forest Gazette how you feel.
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7 Responses
As property owners in this watershed area, I received the (CPA-23-03) in the mail and was interested in this Public Town Hall meeting. In this Amendment that Courtney Tanner put together, it stated that ” This proposed amendment does not rezone or annex any parcel of land. This proposed amendment is needed should a property owner desire to obtain municipal water and/or sewer service since a parcel must be 1) incorporated into Wake Forest and 2) zoned a Wake Forest zoning district.” So we were under the premise that a property owner was desiring to get water and sewer. That was completely misleading and intentionally vague so that citizens were not aware of what was actually occurring. After the first meeting on Oct. 10, it became apparent that there was more to this. There is a 250 acre tract off of Gilcrest Farm Road of this 585 acre watershed area, directly across from the reservoir that the owner wants to sell, and needs the water and sewer access that would make it more valuable. That would mean the zoning could change from the R80W to GR3- GR10, and GR10 districts permit the highest residential developmental density in the city. A protected watershed area should not be developed in this manner.
The Oct. 10 meeting was before the Wake Forest Planning Board. The Board felt this amendment was misleading and should not be approved as written and voted against it, 4-1. The Nov. 21 meeting was before the Board of Commissioners for the same amendment (nothing was changed) and they voted for it,4-1.
There are no “secrets” in government. We demand an investigation of what instigated Courtney Tanner’s vague rezoning proposal and the results made public. The Wake Forest town government touts transparency. There are too many offline discussions and anyone that follows these stories has clearly lost trust in the leadership. Maybe it’s time to be honest and open about this issue?
All properties uniquely identified by 70 PIN Numbers in the subject area of Community Plan Amendment CPA-23-03, Smith Creek Watershed area, comprising 585 acres, are currently Wake County jurisdiction only, and are all currently zoned R-80W. They’ll continue to remain R-80W unless individual property owners either request a rezoning change through Wake County, or the property owner requests annexation by the Town of Wake Forest, in which case, if annexation is approved, they are allowed to connect to Raleigh Water and Sewer, and, in which case, the community plan amendment as specified in the community plan would apply and would specify GR3 zoning code rather than the more restrictive R-80W zoning code. In other words, the property owner would be allowed to build more residential dwelling units than current zoning allows.
Allowing more dwelling units to be built is environmentally detrimental to the Smith Creek watershed, Wake Forest Reservoir, Smith Creek which flows through the town to the Neuse River, through Raleigh, other towns in Wake County, then Craven County and into Pamlico Sound. Reference the Smith Creek Watershed Study of 2015 published at the Town of Wake Forest website.
Approval of CPA-23-03 by the previous Board of Commissioners on 11/21/2023 to a conventional residential district, if annexed, included a stipulation which specifies one residential dwelling unit per acre. It is important to realize there is a possible change from GR3 to GR which would allow townhouses if the scheduled 2024 UDO update is approved by the BOC later this year, in which case the stipulation might “accidentally on purpose disappear” if we do not take a custodial observance of the UDO proceedings to ensure no shady business. If the CPA-23-03 had kept R-80W zoning code, the door would not have been opened, and shady business would have been more difficult.
Just as planning director Tanner kept secrets about what properties were asking about connection to Raleigh Water and Sewer, and the lack of disclosure to explain why there was a sudden rush to get CPA-23-03 approved as one of the last acts of the previous Board of Commissioners, there was no explanation whatsoever of why a change of zoning code from R-80W to GR was necessary.
R-80W limits building in the Smith Creek Watershed to no more than one residential dwelling units per 80,000 sq. ft. (almost 2 acres). Additional watershed regulations limit or disallow buildings of any type within close proximity of reservoirs and watershed sources; creeks, rivers, brooks.
None of the 70 properties as identified by PINs are in the jurisdiction of Wake Forest, and none are even within the Wake Forest Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ). They are all in Wake County only, unless annexed. There are existing homes on a few of the lots. Of the few lots which have existing homes, most are on land with lot sizes of more than 80,000 sq ft.
Those families who live within the subject area love having acreage and visits by wildlife. They dread the very real probability of losing their comfortable rural living in order to be surrounded by “conventional residential” neighborhoods and all the problems overcrowding brings, just to be consistent with salaried planning director Tanner’s very distorted vision of many homes on small lots crowded together, total destruction of open space, forests, watersheds, and wildlife habitats.
Hands off the Wake Forest Watershed. Time to restore what Wake Forest stood for. The 585 acres surrounding the Wake Forest Reservoir and Smith Creek must be preserved for generations to come. Wake Forest residents, get ready to join hands and protect this jewel from the hands of developers.
While I am a newcomer to Wake Forest, I am appalled by the destruction that seems to be highly acceptable to folks who live within the city limits. Huge areas of forests are totally destroyed while less scenic townhouses, and apartment buildings are being put in their place. The impact of nature goes beyond just the destruction of age old trees, deer, and smaller animals roam not only our neighborhoods, but our roads as well, much to their peril. And speaking of roads, roads throughout the town are clogged with automobiles moving at a snail’s pace because road size has not kept up with population size. This is not what I anticipated when I moved to Wake Forest, not by a long shot.
As I begin to explain the timeline events of the CPA 23 03 Smith Creek Watershed zoning, please carefully read the following excerpt from The TOWN OF WAKE FOREST COMMUNITY PLAN, page 51: “The properties located at the northeast corner of Oak Grove Church Road and Gilcrest Farm Road are primarily undeveloped and should be developed as Conventional Residential. To complement the newly developed single family homes, this “area” should continue to offer housing opportunities at a density of no more than three units per acre. Smith Creek and other existing natural features should be preserved and integrated into any site design and development of the area. Conservation design principles should be prioritized to help maintain water quality, protect valued habitat and ecosystems, and design within the context of environmental features and assets. Any development of the area should incorporate pedestrian and bicycle trails and connections that enhance the access to the reservoir.”
The zoning plan actually refers to the Smith Creek watershed, and combined with the reservoir, is the last and most expansive wildlife corridor that exists in Wake Forest. The intentions of the town are abundantly clear: continued Wake Forest overpopulation with residential construction of the Royal Mill road, Gilchrest Farm road and Oak Grove Church road area. Do not fail to recognize that this “area” is actually the 585 Smith Creek watershed that the town ultimately plans on expanding for more residential construction. Notice that the CPA overlay actually added townhouses to the Community Plan, even though it originally called for just single family homes. Are you surprised?
The CPA 23 03 Wake Forest Smith Creek Watershed residential overlay (R3 homes and R10 townhouses) has a timeline that everyone should recognize. Let’s review what occurred in this summary of events: The starting point began in 2005, when Raleigh took over water and sewer services and drinking water no longer originated from the Wake Forest Reservoir. Sometime later, the watershed was no longer classified as a drinking water source, but nonetheless, it continued serving the community as it supplied water to the Wake Forest Reservoir which gained a recreational purpose designation. In 2008, Smith Creek was added to the “303(d) impaired water list because of its benthic macroinvertebrate “Fair” bioclassification sampling results”. Notably, Wake Forest responded to the sampling results and determined the recent large-scale residential housing projects constructed on former farmlands were negatively impacting the streams that fed the watershed. the town responded and in December of 2015, Dickson and Associates in Charlotte published the Smith Creek Watershed Restoration Plan, Wake and Franklin Counties (available as a PDF, WakeForestnc.gov). This exhaustive report became Wake Forest’s watershed management plan (WMP). The WMP resulted in staff and volunteer citizens jointly making repairs to the streams, initiate water, fish and aquatic life monitoring programs and conduct educational seminars that promoted preservation activities to protect the watershed and ultimately the Wake Forest Reservoir. The WMP was instituted ten years after the Smith Creek Watershed was no longer the source of Wake Forest’s drinking water. The WMP activities resulted in the Town ultimately receiving a watershed preservation award for the joint efforts of staff and citizens! Congratulations to the tree huggers and all true believers in wildlife preservation! But now, understand everything has changed. The tree huggers who supported the WMP and water protection efforts are in complete disagreement with the CPA 23 03 zoning designation and recognize the folly and specific intent of the Community Plan above. We are told that the CPA 23 03 was a “water issue” and not really a zoning designation. But, do not fail to recognize that Courtney Tanner is playing the long game, expecting in a few years from now, her Community Plan will be ultimately adopted by commissioners, just like it is described above. The Smith Creek watershed has been renamed and devalued by the Community Plan’s characterization as an “area”. But we all know a watershed is a watershed and there is a WMP that explains this in great detail. The Community Plan purposely omits the word watershed in my and many others’ estimation. We fully expect Tanner to explain that since the Smith Creek Watershed is not a drinking water source, it does not require protection by the town’s WMP and her desired overpopulation of the area should now expand to Wake County. Our forces are gathering as we will begin to voice our opposition and expose who is involved and responsible for the recommended process of bulldozing, clearing trees and pouring slabs of concrete to build homes for people who mostly don’t live here yet. At one time, Wake Forest citizens and staff performed hands on activities restoring the streams and protecting aquatic life and terrain. Now we must come together again, not to physically protect the streams, lowlands and wildlife in this expansive wildlife corridor. We must come together as vocalists and authorities to promote the Smith Creek watershed as 585 acres of the land that MUST be preserved. We must not allow this tract of land to fall victim to Tanner’s “smart growth” plan. Please read the Community Plan above one more time and believe what it says. Recognize this plan will succeed unless we prevent it. Visit the Smith Creek watershed and adjacent Wake Forest Reservoir by driving along Royal Mill road, Gilcrest Farm Road and Oak Grove Church road. It’s the last remaining forest that exists. It’s stunning, pristine and it must be preserved.
Thank you so much for this Carol. How can anyone within the town administration not understand the sentiments of Wake Forest’s citizens are to preserve our wooded and undeveloped spaces? We are led to conclude that corruption, greed and opportunism dominate this town’s administration. When year after year we are confronted with disingenuous promises from town officials about preserving what few wooded spaces we have left, it’s hard to think otherwise.
Thank you, rant over.