On a seven to one vote, the Wake Forest Planning Board Tuesday night recommended approval of the 108-unit Franklin Street Apartments, and the Wake Forest Town Board will make the final decision at its Feb. 18 meeting.
Although there were questions about the one entrance and other issues, the neighbors in Deacons Ridge and Heath Ridge Village were united in describing the dangers at the nearby intersection of South Franklin Street and the Dr. Calvin Jones Highway (the NC98 bypass). Their fear is that the apartments will only add to the danger.
“That intersection is so dangerous,” Mary Doyle said. She only turns right there and will go out Wait Avenue to return to the bypass if she wants to go east.
Another resident said the additional traffic “is just going to turn it into a nightmare.”
Planning board members agreed with the dangers at the intersection but most agreed with Steve Stoller’s assessment that he was “not sure denying the developer will get the DOT off the dime.”
“That intersection is going to continue to get busier with or without that development,” Planning Director Chip Russell said. He agreed – and the state Department of Transportation agrees – that the intersection warrants a traffic signal.
“It was our (the town’s) understanding it was coming,” Russell said. Planning board members urged him, town staff and commissioners to prod local General Assembly members to make it a reality.
Russell also said the town will add money to the signal project by paying to have concrete poles rather than the wooden ones DOT would install.
One or two neighbors were concerned about the project’s exit onto Franklin Street opposite Yellow Poplar Avenue and a school bus stop at that intersection. Rynal Stephenson with Ramey Kemp & Associates said the real-time traffic count done there showed a level of service at A and B, the highest, least congested ratings. He agreed the bypass is a busy road, but the traffic study did not include its intersection with Franklin Street.
There were questions about the runoff from the project increasing the flow in the nearby Spring Branch Creek, but the project engineer said the use of the stormwater retention basin will reduce water runoff from the 6.63 acres into the stream.
One Deacon Ridge resident, John McGarrigle, won applause from his neighbors when he objected to the project because, as a member of the committee who designed the Renaissance Plan, “I don’t think this project particularly fits” and went on to say it should include an urban open space, “reasonable space, public open space, tot lot, area for seating” and a focal point for the entrance with art. Also the intersection should be signalized before the project could be approved, he said.
The Wake Forest commissioners and mayor heard all the public hearing and remained in the meeting room for the discussion and vote.
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