Planning board honors Al Merritt for 33 years of service
A small addition to the St. Ives subdivision – 16 single-family lots on 19.69 acres – was recommended by the Wake Forest Planning Board Tuesday night after an evidentiary hearing where there was no opposition to the plan.
The land, currently owned by E. Hunt III LLC, a Holding family corporation, is roughly triangular in shape and lies along two streams, Horse Creek and an unnamed tributary, to the south of Jenkins Road. It is in the wooded area south of the large kudzu field and east of Horse Creek.
Because it is in the Falls Lake watershed and because of steep slopes near Horse Creek, Assistant Planning Director Chad Sary said there have had to be some accommodations to those conditions. Those include the large lots with 2.74 of the 19.69 acres as open space along with grassed swales along the deadend streets in place of curb and gutter.
Those streets ending in cul-de-sacs will be extensions of Bishop Falls Road and Capellan Street. There will be not stubs to the adjoining 32 acres to the north also owned by E. Hunt III LLC.
However, there will be a 70-foot dedicated right-of-way at the eastern tip of the property which is intended to be part of the extension of Wake Union Church Road that was proposed when the town rezoned the former Parker-Hannifin property (Schrader in earlier years) for the Wake Union Place shopping center. The road extension would provide access to the shopping center from and to Jenkins Road and was agreed to by the Holding family.
There was only one person asking questions. Jeff Simpson representing Wake Forest Presbyterian Church which lies to the south of the southern tip of the 19.69 acres, asked about that road easement and Sary told him he could see the easement on the town’s transportation plan available on the town’s website.
The vote during the board’s business meeting was unanimous.
But before that Chairman Bob Hill asked to add something to the agenda, “an unusual and significant situation.”
He then recognized Al Merritt, who has been a planning board member for 33 years and also served a term from 1983 to 1987 as a town commissioner. Hill praised Merritt for his work on both boards and in a number of other town projects as well as his work in his church.
After a standing round of applause, Merritt said, “I’ve served and enjoyed myself.” He said it is very important that individuals participate in their community and town. “Thank you for putting up with me all these many years.”
Planning Director Chip Russell, who joined the town staff in 1987, said at that time they were working with several new developments and stressing the need for connectivity and extra stubs to future developments. The meetings were “more combative.” Russell said he always remembers one this Merritt said at the time: A rate always has a second entrance.
