Traffic study recommends several improvements to the intersection and roads
A 263-lot subdivision on 146 acres in the northwest quadrant at the intersection of Burlington Mills Road and Ligon Mill Road will be on the agenda for the Wake Forest Planning Board Tuesday, June 7. It is the opposite corner from where the Wake Forest commissioners approved a zoning change last month that could clear the way for a gas station and convenience store.
The property, referred to as the Kitchin property, lies along both roads but is buffered from the intersection by a separate property. The traffic impact analysis done by Ramey Kemp & Associates – hired by the town but paid by the applicant, Forsyth Investment of Raleigh represented by Gordon Paulson – recommends new turn lanes and other improvements at six points: the intersection of Burlington Mills Road and U.S. 1 (Capital Boulevard), Burlington Mills Road and Ligon Mill Road, Burlington Mills Road and Drive #1, Burlington Mills Road and Drive #2, Ligon Mill Road and Drive #3, and Burlington Mills Road and Drive #4. The analysis assumes that Burlington Mills Road will be a four-lane road in the future.
The proposed master plan to match the requested rezoning of GR10 calls for series of cul-de-sacs on the eastern side of the property while 46.2 acres on the west side, largely in streams and required buffers, will be dedicated to the town as open space and a town greenway will bisect the property from west to east.
Only three nearby residents were at the required neighborhood meeting and one question was whether water service (presumably with sewer service) could be extended to neighbors.
The acreage was the site of the Kitchin farm. A family cemetery dating from before the Civil War and a smokehouse will be preserved, according to a decision by the Wake Forest Historic Preservation Commission, which also approved the demolition of a single-story family structure, dairy, dairy barn, horse barn, ruined log tobacco barn and ruined house on March 9 of this year.
The planning board meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in the second-floor meeting room in Wake Forest Town Hall on Brooks Avenue. Because this is a rezoning with the master plan approval added, the public hearing before both the planning board and town commissioners is a legislative hearing and anyone can offer an opinion or information without being an expert or being sworn in.
