Tuesday night the Wake Forest Planning Board quickly and unanimously recommended the town board give final approval to two new subdivisions, Bridgeport on Forestville Road with 140 single-family houses and the Reserve at Richland Creek with 160 detached houses in Franklin County, connected with Wake Forest through an existing street, Haltwhistle, in the Olde Mill Stream subdivision.
During the public hearing for Bridgeport, one person, Pam James who lives in the adjacent Dansforth subdivision, said she already has problems with the traffic to get around Wake Forest and her husband has had to add five minutes to his commute each of the seven years they have lived here. “I have nothing against development in Wake Forest, but isn’t the planning board supposed to plan growth?”
Also, Richard Fecteau, who owns property on Rogers Branch Road, one of the planned outlets for the subdivision, said, “I’m concerned about the traffic flow. The traffic from 3 to 6:30 is almost at a standstill. I’m concerned I will not be able to get out of my driveway.” He said he appreciated that the project would bring water and sewer close to his property, “but I don’t want to pay for it.”
Lee Darch, who owns a large tract to the east of this project, said he is familiar with other projects developed by Andrew Sandman with Dos Bros in Creedmoor. “I think he’s a great addition.”
There were questions about the timing of the project and construction traffic. Sandman said they have to start on the south side – “That’s where the sewer is.” Bridgeport will occupy land across Forestville Road from Heritage High School and its planned entrance/exit on Forestville will be just north of the new bridge over Sanford Creek.
There were no objections to the plans for the Reserve at Richland Creek, but an adjacent landowner, Edward Smith, had several concerns which were answered by Wake Forest Planning Director Chip Russell and an engineer with FLM Engineering during a huddle at the podium and Smith said he was satisfied.
The developer, Woodwright Builders in Creedmoor, was praised by some planning board members for not clear-cutting the entire tract. The 160 homes with three-car garages will be built on lots from 6,500 square feet to half an acre and will be priced in the $300,000 to $400,000 range. Construction traffic will get to the site via Stephen Taylor Road off U.S. 1-A (Wake Forest’s North Main Street) which leads to Youngsville.
During the planning board’s discussion about the Reserve, Russell explained the cross-county line annexation goes back several years when the town of Youngsville had problems with its water and sewer systems and lacked capacity to serve development south of the town. “We’re not really going farther north” than this subdivision, Russell said. He added that the whole swath of land north of the Wake County line drains back into Wake by Richland Creek. Youngsville now has adequate water and sewer using the Franklin County system, but the two towns have agreed to keep the cross-county line agreement for the area drained by Richland Creek. Otherwise developers would have to pump sewage north into the Tar River basin.
The Richland Hills subdivision has a substantial part of its development in Franklin County, and Wake Forest’s planning department is reviewing an application for the Holden Mason subdivision along U.S. 1 south of Holden Road which might tie into the utilities in Richland Hills. Holden Mason would add 223 single-family homes and 124 townhouses.
The applications for both subdivisions will be on the Wake Forest Town Board’s agenda for its March 21 business meeting. Town board members sat in on the joint public hearing and listened to the planning board’s discussions.
