Only 20 years ago – Recent Wake Forest history
The December residential building permit numbers show Wake Forest grew at 15.2 percent in 2004, three to four times faster than Town Manager Mark Williams has said its infrastructure can sustain.
The final numbers for the year just ended show 1,088 residential building permits were issued – 727 for single-family houses and 361 for townhouses or apartments. The town began 2004 with 7,140 dwelling units of all types.
The town’s rapid growth stood at 14.5 percent at the end of November, and in December the planning department issued permits for 41 single-family homes and 12 townhouses to bring the year’s total to 15.2 percent.
Williams has said consistently that the town must reduce its growth rate to 6 or even 4 percent because it cannot afford the roads, streets, fire and police protection, parks and administration that would be needed for more rapid growth.
On the other hand, the town commissioners plan to include $3 million for one million gallons of water capacity in the $18.7 million Raleigh water/sewer merger package, saying growth in the range of 800 to 1,000 new dwelling units each year will pay down the debt faster.
But Planning Director Chip Russell estimated last July that the town could issue about twice that number of building permits in 2005 – 1,910.
Tuesday night he said he does not expect the number to be that high because, although the market for new homes remains steady, there may not be that high a demand.
Those new single-family, townhouse and apartment units could be built in the large subdivisions recently approved such as 125 in Stonegate, 144 for Caveness Farm Villas, 75 each in Bowling Green and Heritage North, 50 each in Bishops Grant, Austin Creek, Dansforth, Mews at Legacy Greene, Northampton and Thornrose. Russell said the Caveness Farm townhouses, to be sold not rented, will be built in phases, not all in one year.
If the town lifts its restriction of 50 units that can be built in any one year in each subdivision – a restriction imposed because the town did not know whether it would tap the Neuse River or merge with Raleigh – then more homes could be built in each of those last subdivisions named.
The subdivisions where larger numbers have already been approved, such as the 125 in Stonegate, reflect the town board’s decisions to increase the number of units based on substantial public benefit, such as constructing a greenway trail.
Russell’s prediction for 2004 – that the town would issue 1,179 residential permits – was only 90 more than the actual figure of 1,089.
If, and that is a big if, the number of residential permits issued this year is 1,910, then the town’s residential growth would explode to 23 percent. (1,088 + 7,140 = 8,228; 1,910 divided by 8,229 = 23)
At the end of 2003 Russell estimated the town’s population at 17,607 based on the 2000 Census, building permits issued and 2.66 persons in each dwelling unit.
Based on that, we have added or will be adding 2,894 more residents in town during 2004 for a total of 20,501.
If 1,910 homes, apartments and townhouses are built in 2005, our population will jump by 5,080 to 25,581. If almost every household has two vehicles, say 1.8 of them do, then we can see over 46,000 cars, trucks, vans and SUVs on our highways and streets.
Along with the houses and townhouses, in December the planning department also issued 11 permits for home irrigation systems and a permit to Cade Inc. to construct a new school building at Franklin Academy on Chalks Road.
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