Troubled by apartment vote: A reader’s opinion

To the editor:

The Board of Commissioners on February 18, 2014, approved the Franklin Street Apartment project, an apartment project located at the intersection of South Franklin Street and Dr. Calvin Jones Highway. The “deliberations” for approving this project were exceedingly brief as the Commissioners took less than five minutes to approve the master plan that as submitted. It is troubling that our elected officials are willing to pass project plans with little or no consideration of the issues voiced by their constituents.

Commissioner Stinnett should be commended for attempting to openly discuss and debate several areas where the project meets the letter of the law (Unified Development Ordinance – UDO), if not its spirit (The Renaissance Plan). Ms. Stinnett was the sole member of this body to initiate any discussion of the issues and concerns that surround the project.

Commissioner Stinnett also attempted to raise a few of the numerous issues raised by residents of neighborhoods in the area.  This was met with little to no success. Ms. Stinnett’s colleagues, in my opinion, appeared to be unwilling, or perhaps uninterested, in speaking for the citizens that live in this section of Wake Forest. Shame on them.

The board should have been reminded that more than two hundred households, a charter school, two emergency services departments, and the United States Postal Service will be impacted by the apartment project. Initially, we will all deal with construction traffic on roadways and intersections. Construction work, land clearing, and material deliveries in the area will provide even further dangers for people that travel through this area. Franklin Academy parents will deal with this on a daily basis twice a day. Wake County EMS and Wake Forest Fire Department vehicles will deal with this in emergency situations. When the project is completed, we will all deal with increased traffic coming from the apartments in the area. The one access road for the apartments (at Yellow Poplar Avenue) will provide a new dangerous intersection for Wake Forest, too.

It is readily apparent that the Unified Development Ordinance, as well as the semi-judicial Planning Board proceedings, make it next to impossible for citizens to express their opinions on projects that will impact their daily lives. It is clear that if a developer meets the letter of the law, they can railroad any project passed by our town government.

The apartment project in several respects “barely” meets the requirements for the zoning area, yet it passed with minimal discussion with only one dissenting vote. It is a travesty that the machinations of a single developer can drown out the voices of hundreds in Wake Forest, but that is exactly what occurred in with this project.

Additionally, the Renaissance Plan was not considered throughout the process of approving this project. The Renaissance Plan calls for welcoming gateways to downtown with coordinated landscaping and attractive, permanent dwellings at major intersections.

The Plan specifically discusses the plot of land approved for the apartment project on page 35. It calls for “Approximately thirty-six (36) townhomes surrounding a well-manicured green” as an entrance to downtown. I think it is clear that an apartment complex with 108 units and little usable green space is not a good substitute for that vision.

My hope is that our elected officials will, in the future, engage in more careful and thoughtful consideration of projects that impact the common good of the Town of Wake Forest.  Further, they should make it their business to actively seek the opinions of their constituents.  It is wonderful that each of the commissioners made it a priority to visit our doors to ask for our votes, but it would have been more thoughtful if they visited in the same manner to ask for our opinions.

John McGarrigle

Deacon’s Ridge

Wake Forest