Three sizes of subdivisions

On Tuesday night, April 5, the Wake Forest Planning Board will consider three different sizes of subdivisions – the large one, Westford Place, would cover 100 acres on the east side of town and eventually have 248 lots for single-family houses, the medium-sized one, Oak Hills, is planned for 55 single-family lots on 26 acres, and the small one, East Perry, is planned for 12 lots on 2.37 acres.

East Perry subdivision is the first item on the agenda, and this public hearing before both the planning and town boards will be quasi-judicial with sworn testimony because it is only a review and decision about the master plan. No rezoning is required because it was zoned urban residential when the Unified Development Ordinance was adopted in 2013.

Solid Rock Custom Builders of Wake Forest, a fairly new company, owns the property on Perry Avenue. The engineer for the subdivision is J. Eakins with the Nau Company, an engineering firm in Rolesville. The plan calls for a single street with six lots on each side, and the street will be stubbed to the adjacent lot which front on North Franklin Street. The only conditions Assistant Planning Director Charlie Yokley listed are that there be no driveway connections from the lots next to East Perry Street to that street or to the adjacent property.

Westford Place is next on the agenda, and it was on the March planning board agenda until engineer Bob Zumwalt with the McAdams Company asked it be postponed because the owner, former Wake Forest mayor George Mackie, needed time to resolve some problems involved in the sale of the property.

The 100 acres stretch from Wait Avenue to Jones Dairy Road with entrances/exits on both streets. The subdivision will not include the Deerfield Crossing Mobile Home Park, formerly called Wellington Trailer Park, which will continue to exist.

Eighteen percent of the land will be in open space – 2.5 percent of that improved and the rest unimproved – because of an existing pond and two streams. The new subdivision will cuddle up to Bowling Green subdivision on two sides, and Bob Zumwalt with the John R. McAdams Company has planned that a little cul-de-sac of seven lots on the Mackie property east of one of those streams will only be accessible by vehicle from Main Divide Drive in Bowling Green or by a pedestrian bridge over the stream. The transportation impact analysis recommended only adding left-turn lanes and stacking lanes for right turns on both roads.

This is a legislative hearing for the rezoning from RD, rural holding district, to GR 10 (CD), general residential 10 conditional 10 district, and RMX(CD) residential mixed use conditional district. The planning board will also consider the master plan for the project.

The medium-sized subdivision request for Oak Hills with its 55 lots may be the most interesting because the 26 acres (25.91) include land for a 33-unit townhouse development, Olde Chestnut Townes approved in 2008 that was never built. That land provides access to West Chestnut Avenue though the main entrance will be from West Oak Avenue. There is a large power transmission line running across the 26 acres, and a portion of a street and most of a private walking trail is in that line. Of the total land, 8.16 acres will be designated as park space. Although the development lies south of Harris Road, there will be no connection to Harris Road.

Randy Spivey of Wendell owns the land, and the applicant is Matthew Winslow of Winslow Custom Homes in Youngsville. The hearing will be a legislative one with any interested person being able to speak.

The final item on the agenda is six amendments to the Unified Development Ordinance.

The planning board meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in the second-floor meeting chamber and is televised live on Channel 10. The acoustics in the room are not what they should be so people with any hearing difficulties may want to ask Town Clerk Deeda Harris to provide special equipment which allows you to hear what is on Channel 10: 919-435-9413 or dharris@wakeforestnc.gov.