Planning board approves Community/Land Use Plan

Town has made large number of changes to the draft plan

Tuesday evening, March 8, the members of the Wake Forest Planning Board voted unanimously but “with corrections” to recommend the 2022 draft of the Community Plan to the town commissioners.

Michael Hickey made the motion to approve “with corrections, which include his concern about traffic and town congestion and Thomas Ballman’s statement that the current parks and recreation plan needs to be updated – his two daughters signed up inside the sign-up time but are not on a team, just on a waiting list – Church Initiative’s concerns about its zoning be considered; and questioning whether the town could work with privately owned land in subdivisions to use for access to greenways and trails.

The Community Plan was the only item on the agenda, and Assistant Planning Director Jennifer Currin spent much of the 70-minute meeting listing and briefly explaining the substantial changes that have been made in the plan since the original booklet was placed on line. There were changes in text on almost every page, and many if not most of the changes reflected the input from town residents. Without the two versions of the draft plan it is impossible to pinpoint the changes.

One major change – the selection of the Joyner property or the former Wake Forest Country Club as a major redevelopment goal for the town – is discussed in a related article in this issue.

For instance, there is a new topic included, food security and clearly there were major changes in the language about minority and women owned businesses.

The no-details summary of changes include:

*Conservation design added

*Key considerations revised in green space preservation

*Key consideration added to tree canopy

*Key considerations revised and added to sustainable development

*Key considerations revised and added to tourism

*Revised gateway language

*Key consideration revised and added to residential character

Currin said the revised plan includes recommendations about providing a home for wildlife, preserving the tree canopy at 45 percent, rainwater collection, composting, water conservation, need for bikeways, greenways and trails and revising the street-calming policy.

The revised draft Community Plan is online at https://issuu.com/bmartinson/docs/draft-wake_forest_community_plan_lq_2022-03-02?fr=sN2JiYTI0ODE0NTU

The Wake Forest Town Board will consider the draft Community Plan at their April 19 meeting so there is still time to tell the commissioners what you want changed in the plan.

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