The Growth Rate

Based on the May, 2023 Monthly Development Report, WF Planning
Updated July 5, 2023
The updated Wake Forest population as of July 2022 is 54,274. In 2021 the population was 50,244.
How rezoning and development requests are now heard
Planning Director Courtney Tanner gave this response to a query: All legislative cases (rezonings) have a public hearing at the Commissioner meeting and a public comment session at the Planning Board. A special use permit has a public hearing at the Commissioner meeting. Administrative (correct zoning and comply with the UDO) cases are approved at the staff level.
What town board approval means now
Senior Planner Patrick Reidy explained what the town board’s approval of new subdivisions means under the new state and town requirements.
“They approved the conditional rezoning/master plan. Both projects will need to go through Construction Plan approval before they can start site work. I would expect a minimum of 3 months, but it would probably be at least 6 months before anything could get started.”
Construction Plan approval, Reidy said, “. . . is a staff review of the plans and includes Planning, Engineering, Urban Forestry, NCDOT, City of Raleigh, and WF Power. Once they meet all of the technical requirements of the UDO, the plans are approved and they can commence with the site work.”
Five new projects
Food Lion plans to cut down all the pine trees on that triangle of land where the NC 98 Bypass meets Jones Dairy Road and build a 6,000-square-foot restaurant, a 12,640 square-foot daycare with outdoor play space and a 36,926-square-foot grocery store.
This is what The Growth Rate said about the property in 2013.
“Quail Crossing shopping center at the Jones Dairy Road and Dr. Calvin Jones Highway intersection was approved in 2008 for five buildings and one outparcel on 13.34 acres, and the anchor store was to have been a Bloom grocery store. It was abandoned in late 2009 after clearing and grading, infrastructure installation and a wall beside the Smith Creek Greenway were nearly or totally complete. Reportedly the grading company went into bankruptcy but the then owner, JDH Capital of Charlotte, was suing Food Lion and its owner, Delhaize America. The property was purchased by Food Lion in July 2012 for $1.7 million.” It has remained untouched except for the pine trees since 2009.
4925 Unicon Drive is apparently a new building.
Star Road Tech Center will be a 126,960-square-foot flex building.
706 North White Street will be a 1,436-square-foot office building.
Juniper Avenue Resurfacing is the first project in the three-year, $18-million road rehabilitation by the Town of Wake Forest.
Projects under review
1. White Street Townhomes SP-21-06 was a plan for 82 apartments and 30 townhouse lots, and the Wake Forest Planning Board recommended against the town board approving it. Instead, the town board sent it back to the planning department and the engineer, The Nau Company, to make changes. It has not returned to the town board. Currently the plan is for 79 townhouse lots on 7.98 acres along South White Street opposite the post office. The site is wooded and its western neighbor is the railroad line.
2. Hawthorne Wake Forest Phase 2 is a request for 48 (or 56 depending on the medium (electronic or written) units on Star Road next to the approved Hawthorn Wake Forest Star Road which will have 248 apartments on 29 acres. The current request will be on 6 acres, a triangle with a tail that wraps around the City of Raleigh Water office.
3. Wake Union Church Road SP-22-02 (the second plan filed in 2022) is the name for this proposed project but it is the former Parker-Hannifin (Schrader) site with a federal brownfield designation because of the trichloroethene (TCE) and other chemical and petroleum contamination in the groundwater, a contamination which has spread. Parker-Hannifin has committed to remedy the problem.
The plan submitted by Kimley-Horn is for 193,000 square feet of commercial space, 300 apartments and 89 townhouses along with streets and parking areas which cover almost all of the 64 acres. There is no indication where the contamination remediation is underway. Patrick Reidy is the Wake Forest planner reviewing the plan. Wake Forest old-timers will recall there have been several development plans through the years and none were ever built.
4. Morris Subdivision is a 76-lot subdivision of single-family homes on both sides of North Main Street just south of the several parcels planned for the Kinsley subdivision. The engineering firm is FLM Engineering and the developer is Blue Heel Development, a firm with offices in Raleigh and Charlotte with projects throughout the middle of the state. They are requesting a zoning change from RD Rural District and GR3 to conditional GR10. They propose a density of 3.5 homes per acre with a minimum size of 4,800 square feet. The Uniform Development Ordinance requires 10 percent or 2.19 acres of open space; the request would provide 20.3 percent or 4.45 acres. The UDO requires 2.5 percent of park space or 0.55 acres; the developer would provide 4.44 percent of park space or 0.96 acres.
5. Joyner Property is the former Wake Forest Country Club and has been the site of a fight between the owner of the property, E. Carroll Joyner or his son, and a citizen group. Joyner, who has hired the McAdams engineering firm to draw up plans which call for 350 or so homes and some commercial along Capital Boulevard, scored a win this spring when the Wake Forest commissioners approved a Special Use Plan for the two existing housing clusters, townhouses and houses, with their required open space being three ponds some distance away. Commissioners Chad Sary and Jim Dyer voted for the plan, Adam Wright and Keith Shackleford voted against, Nick Sliwinski had recused himself and Mayor Vivian Wright broke the tie.
The remaining 125.79 acres are zoned R3 with a Falls Lake watershed overlay and special highway overlay. The plans for that land that McAdams had submitted to the Wake Forest Planning Department before the March 23 hearing had been turned down five times. Citizens are waiting to see what McAdams and Joyner will request next.
6. Marshall Station is on Forestville Road and Burlington Mills Road at Walkers Crossroads, and the request is to build 186 townhouse lots on 44 acres. The engineer is Priest, Craven & Associates, their client is DR Horton-Terramor and the requested rezoning is conditional use general residential 10. The owner is the Marshall Family Trust.
7. 4925 Unicon Drive is a question mark.
8. Foundation Drive Apartments is at least the second proposal to build on the drive that also leads to Heritage High School.
9. Grove Commercial Lot 4 is another part of the Wegmans complex calling for a commercial area of 24,550 square feet and 36,046 square feet of indoor recreation. Skating rink? Bowling alleys?
10. Capcom Lot 5 is an office or commercial building with 22,510 square feet on Capcom Avenue.
11. Carolina Chimney is a request for a 1,925 square-foot building on North White Street.
12. Wait Avenue Medical Office is a request for a building containing offices, commercial uses and a restaurant near where Wait joins NC 98. It is not on the interactive map produced by the planning department.
13. Traditions Grande Care Facility has been approved and is under construction for a 119-bed care facility on Gilcrest Farm Road.
14. Averette Road Assemblage was approved by the Wake Forest Town Board on January 17, 2023. The plan for 66 single-family lots on 30 acres was formerly known as Rosedale Subdivision. It is associated with Tryon subdivision. Former Pearce family land, Priest Craven & Associates is the engineer for this.
15. Forestville Road Townhomes which had been planned for 61 townhouses on 8 acres on the eastern side of Forestville Road abutting the Bridgeport subdivision, may be a nonstarter since owner Robert Scheer’s request for annexation was denied by the Wake Forest Town Board Thursday night, March 23, 2023.
16. Ligon Park on Ligon Mill Road is a request for 10 single-family lots.
17. Highland Reserve of Wake Forest is a request for a 161-bed care facility wrapping around Lidl on South Main Street with acreage on both South Main and the NC 98 Bypass (Dr. Calvin Jones Highway).
18. Star Road Tech Center will be a 126,960-square-foot flex building.
19. 706 N. White Street is a plan for an office building with 1,436 square feet.
20. Reserve at Dunn Creek was approved by the Wake Forest Town Board on January 17, 2023. Construction will complete the extension of Friendship Chapel Road from South Main Street to Jones Dairy Road by building a subdivision of 230 townhouse lots and 70 single-family lots on the 68 acres between Holding Village and the Legacy Heritage Apartments. The land is separated from its neighbors by two deep ravines and also fronts on the NC 98 Bypass. The owner is Nancy Dameron of Raleigh and the engineer is the Timmons Group in Raleigh.
21. Food Lion wants to build a 6,000-square-foot building for a restaurant, a 12,640-square-foot building for a daycare and a 35,926-square-foot building for a grocery store on 1.93 acres where the NC 98 Bypass meets Jones Dairy Road. The company has owned the land since 2012 when it planned to put a new concept grocery store, Bloom, there. Construction was underway when it was halted.
22. Char-Grill is a request to build a 3,054-square-foot restaurant at Crenshaw Corners Drive.
23. 535 S. White Street is one of the former Holding Cotton Company warehouses that was later owned by a paper company and now seems about to be a restaurant with 11,193 square feet, office space of 4,797 square feet and commercial use of 4,797 square feet.
24. Powerhouse Row Phase 2 is a continuation of the first building at the intersection of South White Street and Elm Avenue. Snugged up to the east of the CSX Railroad line with a parking lot between the three- and five-story building and the tracks, there will be 65 apartments and 22,356 square feet of commercial use. The Nau Company from Rolesville is the engineer and Powerhouse Row LLC is the developer and owner of the 1.89 acres. Former Raleigh city manager Russell Allen and William Barker are the LLC owners. It will be built in two phases with the first phase having three stories and 18 apartments, the second stage will be five stories with 47 apartments. Powerhouse Row, named for the building immediately behind it over the tracks, the small brick building that was built in 1909 to house a small GE generator, fueled sometimes by sawdust from the planing mill that then was about where Powerhouse House Row is and will be in 2023.
25. Stadium Drive Mixed Use will be located on the only undeveloped area on that street – the wooded triangle created when Stadium Drive was curved southward to connect to Jenkins Road. The developers plan 19,300 square feet of commercial use, 307 multifamily (apartments) units and 20,000 square feet of medical use.
26. Darch Property/Rogers Road Townhomes is a plan for 148 townhouse lots on 27 acres along Rogers Road. The land is owned by Lee Darch, the engineering firm is Kimley-Horn and the developer is Baker Residential. The requested rezoning is to UR-CD. Both the Wake Forest Planning Department and the Wake Forest Planning Board were opposed to recommending the project to the town commissioners on July 11, 2023.
27. Amavi was approved by the Wake Forest Town Board on June 20, 2023. It is the name for 211 multifamily units that are different sized small houses with one, two or three bedrooms in the southeast corner where Jenkins Road meets Capital Boulevard. The Holding family land now has three houses and a long field of kudzu leading down to Horse Creek, which is a protected watershed for Falls Lake. The plan calls for a water-retention pond adjacent to the floodplain for the creek. The land fronting on Capital Boulevard with its two houses would be sold for commercial use. McAdams of Durham is the engineer and NCRT SFR Investments is the developer.
28. ReFuel Market is a plan for a 4,769-square-foot-convenience store with eight gas pumps on South Franklin Street.
29. Grove 98 Northwest is a plan for 112 apartments on the NC 98 Bypass and is under construction.
30. Holding Park Playground is under construction on West Owen Avenue next to the Holding Park Aquatic Center. It is a Town of Wake Forest Project.
31. Star Mart’s new owner has submitted a plan to build a 2,000-square-foot restaurant beside the existing Star Mart on South Main Street.
32. Burlington Mills Road Mixed Use is a plan for 144 apartments and 5,300 square feet of commercial on 9.55 acres in the northwest corner at the Burlington Mills Road/Ligon Mill intersection. The land is owned by the heirs of Eunice Rogers. The Site Group is the engineering firm and the request is to rezone the land to mixed use residential and neighborhood business.
33. Burlington Mills Multifamily was approved by the Wake Forest Town Board on June 20, 2023. The plans are for 346 apartments in three- and four-floor apartment buildings on the south side of Burlington Mills near its intersection with Capital Boulevard. The apartment buildings will be behind (east of) the commercial buildings that flank the highway south of the intersection. The zoning requested is for conditional use mixed residential and conditional use highway business, which will be to the east of the apartments. Bateman Civil Survey Company is the engineer.
34. Christ Our Hope Church would be built at the intersection of North White Street and Royal Mill Avenue if this plan is approved.
35. Alpaca is planned for a 3,400-square-foot restaurant on Mangum Avenue, which is a short street east of South Main Street.
36. Black Rifle Coffee Shop is planned for a 3,684-square-foot restaurant on the north side of the NC 98 Bypass.
37. Jones Dairy Self-Storage is a request to build a 110,300-square-foot building at the corner of Jones Dairy Road and Friendship Chapel Road.
38. Farm Road Townhomes is a request for 25 townhouse lots on Farm Road off South Main Street.
39. White Street Mixed Use is a request to build 30,000 square feet for commercial use and 65 multifamily (apartment units) at the intersection of North White Street and Royal Mill Avenue.
40. Juniper Avenue Resurfacing is the first project in the three-year, $18-million road rehabilitation by the Town of Wake Forest.