UDO Update Open House Sept. 4-5

2 Responses

1. I attended both those public town hall meetings last October/November. The town wants to annex in this 580 acres of beautiful forests and perennial streams that feed our reservoir, not to preserve it as a local treasure, but to clear cut and develop apartments and townhomes. This meeting about the UDO (land usage) is all about getting the watershed overlay protection removed in order to do this developing. Please attend one of these meetings. Our last true forest in Wake Forest will be gone. And once this building is complete, what is going to happen to our beautiful reservoir?

2. I’m wondering if the people who moved here recently, like 2014, wonder what happened in ten years? I’m not a WF native, but moved here in 2001 right after 9/11. It was way before we had our own Home Depot or Lowes and so many of the other chain restaurants arrived. How things change and so much for the good! The downtown renaissance development turned out absolutely beautiful, and it’s about filled in. The problem now is the same density housing metrics used in urban downtown are spreading out in rural areas toward the county line and we are on a trajectory that cannot be stopped. It is too late the projects are already approved. From downtown, drive on North White Street to Royal Mill road, turn right, see Flaherty and the ballpark on left, then look to the right and see the new three story townhouses and all townhouses east of them and enter the traffic circle. Now look at the second Hawthorn Apartment “Homes” that are four stories and nearing completion. Did you ever think you’d be rich enough to have an elevator in your home? Of course there is Envision Science Academy and it look like it belongs there in many ways. Now finally focus on that suspicious forest bordered by Gilchrest Farm road and Oak Grove Church road. It’s actually in Wake County where I currently reside. The TOWF is very diligently writing a new Community Plan to rezone that massive forest, the last forest, R3 (three houses per acre). Their vision for that property is to develop it into residential housing like the Del Webb project across the street. Read the Community Plan! How may acres you should ask? 585! This property is part of the Smith Creek Watershed, you used to drink water from this acreage and it is currently zoned RW80 which is one house per two acres: well, septic, no sidewalks, curb and gutters. R3 zoning will require clear cutting of that land for their plan. This watershed, combined with the Wake Forest Reservoir, entends all the way to Youngsville totaling more than three miles in length. It’s too late for Wake Forest, your forest is clearly gone. It’s not hyperbole. TOWF, DO NOT EXPAND your overpopulation growth to Wake County. As a Gazette reader, and if you moved here a mere ten years ago, do you really want to do something about it? Read the 451 page Smith Creek Watershed Restoration Plan, Wake and Franklin Counties posted on their website. It won four awards, but they don’t talk about it anymore! Click on this link: https://www.wakeforestnc.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/engineering/stormwater/smith_creek_watershed_restoration_plan_dec_2015.pdf. Or just Google Wake Forest Watershed Plan. It’s the best kept secret in Wake Forest, I doubt if any of the current Town Commissioners know about it, let alone read it as they are continue voting on the new Community Plan. Tell them to look it up!

   Don’t let it be too late for Wake County too: Prevent the deforestation of Wake County, save the Wake Forest Youngsville Wildlife Corridor and get involved. Plan on attending the UDO session. And quit complaining about traffic! Traffic? Really. When all the tree canopy is deleted, wildlife killed and evicted and the soil is leveled into shelves for cut and paste housing units, and you complain about an extra stoplight cycle. Wake Forest:…and a forest once stood…