Pate’s dickering wins townhouse project approval

Forestville Towns, the 95 units proposed for the dead-end section of Forestville Road behind Real McCoys, proved Tuesday night that the fourth time is the charm.

Commissioner Brian Pate, working with the understanding both the planning board and the town board consider the project to be a good one just in the wrong place because of the traffic on Rogers Road, began calling the developer, Scott Murray, and others to work out a deal.

As Pate explained Tuesday night to fellow town board members, there were other projects that will affect Rogers Road. Once the state Department of Transportation completes the bridge over the CSX rail line, Rogers Road can become five lanes from South Main Street to the Forestville Road/Heritage Lake Road intersection and can handle more traffic. At the same time or soon, the Holding Village developer will have built enough houses that a requirement in the permit will kick in, requiring the construction of South Franklin Street to connect to the N.C. 98 Bypass, also reducing traffic on a part of Rogers.

His motion was to approve the project with the town staff conditions and two new ones: The town shall not issue any building permits for residential construction before March 1, 2019 and no more than 39 residential building permits shall be issued between March 1, 2019 and April 1, 2020. Roland Gammon, the manager of Forestville Partners LLC, said he agreed with the conditions and the vote was unanimous to approve. Commissioner Anne Reeve was absent.

Wednesday Pate said by email, “I believe that the Rogers Bridge over the railroad tracks is scheduled for start in 2019 and completion in 2020.

“Holding village is around 190 permits so far and projection is for them to be around 300 in the next 18 months which would trigger the build.  I believe that is correct.”

Pate also said to check the figures with Inspections Department Director JJ Carr, who replied he could only verify the 190 number.

The town board also voted four to zero to approve the other two planning items. There was Jeffrey S. Triezenberg’s request to rezone his business, Distinctive Designs florist shop on South Main, and the small lot behind it to residential mixed use so he and his partner can build a small house behind the shop. His partner has had a stroke.

The Woda Group also wants land rezoned to residential mixed use, in this case 4.2 acres on the south side of Durham Road (N.C. 98 Business) now zoned for highway business. The national group plans to build affordable housing – perhaps apartments – on land that has belonged to Wake Forest Baptist Church since 2005. Before that it was owned by W.C. Stephenson and his wife, both school teachers who probably be thrilled to give haven to people with limited means. The headline could also have read: W.C. and Irene’s wishes to be fulfilled.

The story of the 4 acres is complicated. This is how the Gazette described it in the January 19, 2005 issue.

“W.C. Stephenson and his wife, Irene, were schoolteachers who lived in a rambling house on 19 acres on Wake Union Church Road. (The 4 acres were cut off from the rest of their land in the 1930s when Durham Road or its earlier version was built.) They delighted in their home, and for years W.C. maintained a boxwood facing Durham Road that he shaped like a couch. They were also faithful congregants at Wake Forest Baptist Church and told friends and neighbors they wanted to leave their home and land to the church. That is what they did in the wills they made in 1991.

“W.C., also called by his middle name Cecyl, died later that year. Irene’s health began to fail in 1994 and she moved to the Wake Forest Rest Home (now Wake Forest Care Center). W.C.’s brother, L.K., also called Linwood, Stephenson took over paying her bills and also had her power of attorney.

“The maneuvering for the land began in 1995. According to a court document later filed in Irene’s name, she contracted to sell the land to Ten Oaks Partnership on Aug. 11 of that year.

“There were four partners in Ten Oaks, and two of them were L.K.’s stepdaughter, Donna Pace, and her husband, Robert P. Pace, both of Wake Forest.

“In September of 1995, Irene changed her will, leaving the house and 19 acres to L.K. Donna Pace is his only heir.

“Church members heard about the contract and the new will, and in late April of 1996 the Rev. Dr. Thomas Jackson, then the pastor but now retired, wrote to Robert Pace and asked him not to sell the land for development. Jackson said he had promised W.C. to protect the land from commercial use.

“At about the same time, Hilda Warren and Douglas Leary, the two people who had witnessed the Stephensons’s 1991 wills, went to visit Irene. While they were at the rest home, Irene signed a deed giving the land to the church.

“Shortly afterward, Ten Oaks filed a request to rezone the land (the 19 acres, but the 4 acres were still regarded as part of the whole) for commercial use, but the planning board took no action because there was not a clear title to the land. The request was withdrawn in September.

“On Sept. 6, 1996, the winds of Hurricane Fran toppled an enormous oak onto the house, which had been vacant for two years.

“Ten days later, L.K. filed a civil suit against Wake Forest Baptist Church, Hilda Warren, Hilda’s son, attorney James Warren, and his partner, Michael Perry, Douglas Leary and Dr. Tom Jackson. The suit was brought to overturn the deed.

“The defendants asked the judge for a summary judgment in their favor, and they won, but L.K. appealed that ruling to the state Court of Appeals. There one of the three judges raised the question of whether the church or its members exerted undue influence on Irene when she signed the deed.

“Irene died in 1997 and L.K. died in 1999, but the legal mechanism ground on until June of 2002 when a trial was finally held before Wake County Superior Court Judge Evelyn Hill to determine whether there was undue influence.

“One of those testifying was Irene’s physician, Dr. A.N. Corpening, who said she was capable of handling her own affairs.

“The jury found for the church, whose members testified to Irene’s desire that the land remain residential.

“Susan Brinkley told the court Irene had asked her for a promise. “And she said, I want you to promise me that this land will never be developed commercially. I said, Irene, I will do my best to remind the church that you do not want this land developed commercially.”

“At the close of the trial, Judge Hill did not include reference to the continued non-commercial nature of the land in her judgment, but she did say, “I am confident, however, based on everything I heard in this courtroom that the Wake Forest Baptist Church will never allow this property to be developed or to be sold for any commercial use, notwithstanding its vast monetary value, since their desire was to see her wishes that it remain undeveloped remain so, knowing that it’s in the good hands of people who would never look at it as an investment. The Court expects that years from now we’ll be able to visit this property in the same condition it is today.”

“Since then, the church has had the now-dilapidated house torn down, cleared some underbrush, held a dedicatory picnic and named the 19 acres a park.

“There was another chapter in this long story. In April of 2003, Donna Pace, who was the executrix of Irene’s estate, quitclaimed all the estate’s interest in the property and gave a non-warranty deed to the Town of Wake Forest. The town board refused to accept the deed, and the property remains listed with the Wake County Register of Deeds as owned by the Wake Forest Baptist Church.”

(In 2005 Sherrill Brinkley, chairman of the Wake Forest Baptist Church committee and Susan’s husband, requested the 4 acres be rezoned to highway business with the conditions the town review and approve any master plan and the town not allow convenience stores with gasoline sales or service stations on the property. Brinkley said at the time the church had no immediate plans to develop or sell the property. The town board approved the rezoning without discussion.)