It looks like a fast-growing section of North Raleigh will get a new shopping center the city already approved once -- as soon as the regrettable matter of a forged real-estate document gets worked out.

Raleigh's Planning Commission put off voting this week on Wake Crossing Plaza, which would add about 53,000 square feet of retail and office space on four acres off Mitchell Mill Road just east of Forestville Road. It's in a booming area of northeast Raleigh between the Neuse River and Rolesville.

City planners recommend approving the proposal with conditions to help it blend with surrounding neighborhoods.

The "mixed-use village center" has key things going for it, city planners involved say.

It's in an area designated for commercial development. Its two-story buildings would sit close to the widened Mitchell Mill Road, with sidewalk access to each building. Parking for 180 cars would be in the rear.

The building exteriors would be brick, wood, or something like wood, with pitched roofs, so they look a bit residential.

The street frontage and parking lot would be landscaped.

So would the rear of the property, which abuts houses in the Springfield subdivision.

But there's the rub.

The city wants the developer, Genford Development Co., to get adjacent homeowners' permission to plant a landscape buffer extending 20 feet into the neighbors' backyards. Those yards were designed for that when Springfield was developed.

But at least one family has balked -- and the developer then recorded a landscape easement forging their signature.

"Oh, it's forged," Genford owner Steve Fitzpatrick said after the commission meeting. He said one of his employees forged the legal document.

"It's just ... silly," he said ruefully. "We didn't have to do it."

The couple affected said they might sue. City planner Stacy Barbour said he's checking the other easements at issue, too.

The Planning Commission could consider the proposal next at its May 8 meeting. Raleigh's City Council, which approved the development four years ago with a two-year window to build it, will have the final say again this time.