Based on the October, 2023 Monthly Development Report, WF Planning
Updated November 29, 202
The updated Wake Forest population as of July 1, 2023 was 56,681. That figure included the new homes which were approved for occupancy. When all the current approved apartments, townhouses and single-family homes are built the population will rise to 69,956. The town keeps a running tally of approved projects with counts of those completed. The best current estimates are that between seven and eight people move to town each day.
New plans on the list
Item #1 on the list for at least two years has been White Street townhomes SP-21-06 requested by the landowner David Smoot with The Nau Company drawing the plans. The planning board members recommended 7 to 0 it not be approved, and instead the town board sent it back to the planning department and the owner for revisions. Since then it has been on the Wake Forest Town Board agenda three times, and each time Smoot asked for a delay with the last being in December of 2022.
Now #1 is a request by David Williams Sr. to build a restaurant and office on a parcel he owns at 418 Jones Dairy Road.
Item #16, Ligon Park, has been a plan for 10 single-family lots just south of the railroad crossing on Ligon Mill Road. It has been replaced on the list by a request by Franklin Academy to build a vocational building on its Chalk Road campus., to build a 5,154 square-foot restaurant.
Item #36 has been a request by the Rosedale subdivision, part of Tyon, for 81 single-family lots on Averette Road. It has been replaced by a request by Grove 98, part of the overall Grove-Wegmans development along the NC 98 Bypass, to build a 5,154 square-foot restaurant.
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.”
Projects under review
1. 418 Jones Dairy Road SP-23-11 is a request by David Williams Sr. to rezone 5.61 acres on the south side of Jones Dairy Road from RH rural holding and LI light industrial to NB-CD conditional neighborhood business to allow construction of two 24,502 square foot buildings side by side, one restaurant and one an office. The plans call for space for a public art statue and seven handicapped parking spaces.
2. Hawthorne Wake Forest Phase 2 RZ-21-09 SP-21-41 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 was approved by the Wake Forest Town Board in July of 2022. 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.
This plan is on the site of 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.
4. Morris Subdivision, RZ-22-02 was approved by the Wake Forest Town Board in November of 2022. It will be 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.
5. Joyner Property SU-99-02-01 is the former Wake Forest Country Club and
was apparently approved by the Wake Forest Town Board on Oct. 17, 2023 by a 3-2 vote, though actually the motion by Commissioner Sliwinski was to deny the request and the vote was 2 to 3 with Commissioners Sary, Shackleford and Dyer voting no. Thereafter there was a lot of discussion about the amendments to the plan.
At the Nov. 9 work session, the town board voted three to two to deny the Joyner request with Commissioners Keith Shackleton, Nick Sliwiniski and Adam Wright voting to deny and Jim Dyer and Chad Sary voting no.
This large project has been the cause of argument for two years with a group protesting the McAdams plan at every opportunity.
It is not clear what action the owner, E. Carroll Joyner, and the developer, McAdams Engineering, will take.
6. 306 S. Allen Road RZ-23-10 is a new request to build an apartment building with 32 units on the property where the former Wake Forest Rest Home still stands empty. It was owned by Larry Lindsey, the Wake Forest-Rolesville High School basketball coach, and his wife, Cherie, and Donald Stroud and his wife, Guylene. The two wives operated the rest home until it was sold in 1996. It was purchased by Robinhouse LLC and Hurt LLC in Macon, NC last year for $950,000. Before that a proposition for a taller and larger apartment building was forestalled by negative comments and opposition from neighbors in the Cardinal Hills area.
This number in the list has been held by Marshall Station RZ-21-10 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. Has this been approved?
7. 4925 Unicon Drive is N/A.
8. Foundation Drive Apartments SP-21-02 is at least the second proposal to build on the drive that also leads to Heritage High School.
9. Forestville Road Townhomes RZ-22-11, SD-22-15 is new to this list but almost a duplicate of the plan Robert Schaar submitted in 2022 for 63 townhouse lots on what is now a pond. This plan calls for 62 lots. It is in Wake County, and the Wake Forest Town Board refused to approve his request for annexation earlier this year, 2023.
During the week of October 16-22 Schaar had the pond drained in preparation for filling it with dirt.
The number 9 was Grove Commercial Lot 4, another part of the Wegmans complex calling for a commercial area of 24,550 square feet and 36,046 square feet of indoor recreation. Does this mean it was approved?
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 the NC 98 Bypass.
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. L&W Building Addition & Parking Lot Expansion for a building on North White Street.
16. Franklin Academy Vocation Building replaces Ligon Park on Ligon Mill Road which was a request for 10 single-family lots. The academy is on Chalk Road, and the new building would have 3,535 square feet.
17. Highland Reserve of Wake Forest SP-21-35 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). The plan shows several small buildings.
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 RZ-22-05 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. The CSX railroad crossing will be closed in the future.
21. Food Lion RZ-93-9-2 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. ReFuel SP-22-26 is under construction at the intersection of Franklin Street and the NC 98 Bypass, but access is from the southern portion of Franklin Street. There will be a convenience store, a car wash and gasoline sales on the 1.8-acre lot.
This number has also been the western extension of Friendship Chapel Road, an infrastructure project, and 535 South White Street, SP-22-05, 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. Has it been approved?
24. Powerhouse Row Phase 2 SP-17-28 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 little 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 RZ-23-02 was approved by the Wake Forest Town Board three to two on NOV. 22, 2023. It is 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. Kinsley Subdivision Phase 10-20B has replaced the Darch Property/Rogers Road Townhouses which has been withdrawn from any consideration. The new request for Kinsley is for 135 single-family lots and 88 townhouse lots on the north side of Wake Forest along North Main Street.
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. This is now a plan for one single family house on Averette Road. It was a plan for the ReFuel Market a 4,769-square-foot-convenience store with eight gas pumps on South Franklin Street and the bypass. It is now number 23 on the current list.
29. Grove 98 Northwest is a plan for 112 apartments on the NC 98 Bypass and is under construction.
30. This is another single family house, this time on Stephen Taylor Road. It was the Holding Park Playground 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 was approved by the Wake Forest Town Board on June 20, 2023. It 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. Elm Avenue Townhouses, three townhouses on Elm Avenue is the new listing. It was Alpaca, a 3,400-square-foot restaurant on Mangum Avenue, which is a short street east of South Main Street.
36. Grove 98 Parcel 6 is a plan to build a restaurant in the Grove 98 complex on the NC 98 Bypass. This number previously was for the Black Rifle Coffee Shop, a 3,684-square-foot restaurant on the north side of the NC 98 Bypass.
37. 4Rivers (formerly 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. Despite recommendations not to approve from the planning staff and the planning board, the Wake Forest Town Board approved the plan 3-2 on September 19, 2023 with Commissioners Nick Sliwinski and Adam Wright voting no.
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. Wheatfield Phase II is a request to build 27,415 square feet of an addition to the existing Wheatfield shopping/restaurant center on Forestville Road. 40 was previously the Juniper Avenue Resurfacing, the first project in the three-year, $18-million road rehabilitation by the Town of Wake Forest.
41. Lightbridge Academy SP-22-26 on South Franklin Street is a plan for an 11,500 square foot building that will house a daycare.
42. Heritage Lake Road Improvements is part of the infrastructure improvements/road resurfacing projects funded by the recent bond referendum.
43. Crenshaw Stormwater Improvements will be done in the Crenshaw Hall subdivision.
44. Dunn Creek Culvert Replacement will be done on East Juniper Avenue.
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One Response
Eight people a day move to Wake Forest? At some point WF needs to recognize that, even with the Smart Growth slogan, we will one day meet critical mass and there will not be an unlimited amount of ground space for homes for everyone to move here. Folks are proud to live here in Wake Forest and rightfully so. However, consider that people are moving here primarily because they are fleeing other places! Town planners should be under no obligation to approve densely populated subdivisions for people who do not live here. Look around, there are thousands of new homes built on farmland under construction and in the works. Not enough, still! Ten years from now there won’t be these brand spanking new homes to pick from and our legacy will be a connected suburbia with Raleigh, Youngsville and Rolesville consisting of thousands of big lookalike houses on tiny little lots with skinny roads connecting them. For the people who live here, what is the benefit of all this residential growth? Certainly not the tax revenue it accrues when you factor the additional schools and services. The airlines made seats smaller to accommodate more passengers, how did that work out for you?