False accusations and hurt feelings mark a yearlong housing fight in Wake Forest

Wake Forest, which is long on small-town charm and history, has during the past year been embroiled in a debate over growth that has led to so much acrimony that a member of the town's Planning Board has resigned, unfounded accusations of corruption have been made, and uniformed police kept watch at a long and tense public hearing that drew a standing-room-only crowd.

The issue was the rezoning of 4 1/2 wooded acres on the edge of town from a few single-family houses to allow 40 townhouses that would each sell for $200,000 to $250,000.

The project has stirred up a clash of issues ranging from country living, suburban sprawl, affordable housing and historic preservation —themes that are playing out in Raleigh and Durham, and smaller communities throughout the Triangle.

In Wake Forest, officials have been bombarded with social media attacks on both sides of the issue. Opponents have accused them of poor planning at best and taking kickbacks at worst. One supporter said the other side was "cult-like."

An undercurrent in the debate was who would be moving into the townhouses. Would they be subsidized buyers? Students renting from investors? Were they the kind of people who would trespass in a neighboring subdivision's playground, or let their dogs mess their lawns?

“I think the way we are today we are getting more antagonistic by the day,” Wake Forest Mayor Vivian Jones said in a recent interview. “We’re getting less able to work together and to try to work out compromises. It’s just impossible to disagree agreeably anymore.”

Housing gap

Rapid population growth throughout the Triangle is setting up these conflicts. With a population of more than 40,000 people, Wake Forest is one of the fastest-growing communities in the state. Less than 20 years ago, 14,000 people called the town home.Like other parts of the region it is recovering from the housing crash. Last year it issued more than 800 building permits, the most since 2006.

The town’s land-use policies favor housing that is more densely packed than houses with large lots. As of 2016, it has promoted narrow streets and walkable connections to future neighborhoods, stores and workplaces. Townhomes on Main, which is at the center of the current controversy, meets the definition of desired infill: putting new housing on undeveloped or under-used land. Town planning staff recommended the rezoning.

Most new residents in Wake Forest these past 20 years, have been moving into single-family homes. Nearly all of the growth in new households is being driven by those 65 and older and younger buyers without children. Both segments are looking for higher density housing with its lower costs and less need for maintenance, said Craig S. Lewis, principal of Urban Places, the firm that updated the town's plan.

That leaves a gap between the fast-growing need for that kind of housing and the fact that most of the nation's housing supply is comprised of detached single family houses.

"This is clearly manifesting itself in Wake Forest along with many other suburbs around the U.S.," Lewis said.

WakeUP Wake County, which advocates for land-use planning that improves the quality of life, doesn’t take a position on specific development projects. But increasing housing density in the right places can achieve the goals of making communities more walkable with more accessible transit, says Executive Director Karen Rindge.

“Sometimes you have to take broader concerns into account,” Rindge says. “We have the good fortune of growth, but also the challenges of growth.”

Is this the right place?

The current fight began when developer David Williams Jr. came up with a plan to tear down a vacant, dilapidated, 70-year-old house on North Main Street, less than two miles from downtown. The out-of-state owner had allowed the property to become an overgrown eyesore. Williams decided to replace it with clusters of townhouses, parking and a retention pond.

Williams is local. His family has lived in the area since 1975. His father belonged to a group that built a large industrial park in town, and he is a former chairman of the chamber of commerce there.

Williams, who responded to questions by email, said studies showed the townhomes would not lower neighbors’ property values, and that traffic would not be affected “appreciably.” The plans were developed through meetings with the town planning staff and opponents, whose concerns prompted Williams to modify plans with additional fencing, buffers and eliminate a short, dead-end street to protect neighboring property, he said.

“It has been and continues to be our plan to provide a quality, affordable housing option for current and future residents of Wake Forest,” Williams said.

But in order to build that many townhouses, Williams had to convince the town government to rezone the property for more than the eight single-family houses it allowed. A growing number of opponents grilled him at a neighborhood meeting in July, and asked if he would consider building houses instead, even up to 20 of them.

Williams said that would drive up the cost to $300,000 to $350,000 each. Fewer homes than that would cost even more, up to $800,000 each just to break even.

Neighbors and others in the town said noise and traffic on North Main Street would be exacerbated in an area where there is already a subdivision nearby.

Neighboring the proposed development is Wake Forest’s oldest building, the Battle-Purnell House, which has been called the largest and best-preserved late Georgian-style home in rural Wake County. The couple who bought the house and nine acres in 1991, Julie Ellis and Daniel Safriet, also built an equestrian business there where riding lessons are given and horses are trained and sold.

Why rezone?

Ellis fought hard against the project.

On a recent day, the only sounds outside were the wind chimes hanging on the side deck of the 216-year-old house. The neighboring property line comes within feet of the horse stables run by Ellis and her daughter.

“It will basically ruin my house forever,” Ellis said. “Not just my house — it’s a very important house for the state of North Carolina, architecturally and historically. It’s just a real treasure of a place.”

That many people living so close could pose such a nuisance it would put the horse-training facility out of operation, she said.

At the least, she wants the developer to separate her property with a 10-foot-tall brick wall rather than the 6-foot fence planned, but he has not agreed.

One of the project’s opponents, Thomas Smith, did more than criticize the plan. He was appointed to the town Planning Board, where he continued the battle.

“My concern is in Wake Forest and in Wake County you see all this rezoning,” Smith said in an interview. “If there’s already a plan why don’t these commissioners keep to the plan or at least close to the plan?

“I'm not a tree-hugger but, by golly. ... The reason I got involved was to be the voice of sanity, at least, in opposition.”

Smith, who has lived in Wake Forest for 12 years, noted he has voted to approve some projects since he joined the Planning Board, and said he might have gone along with the townhouses project if it was built somewhere else in town.

“It just looks like a greedy grab,” he said. “It’s packed in like a sausage.”

Plans change

The mayor and others defend the use of rezoning as a way to meet evolving circumstances.

"If plans are not living documents then I feel like we're not using them properly," Jones said in an interview.

Opponents gathered more than 250 signatures against the project. Both sides bombarded town officials with emails. Uniformed police officers were on hand to keep the peace at a crowded, lengthy public hearing in April, where the Planning Board approved the rezoning on a 7-2 vote. Smith and one other board member voted against it.

Two days later Smith resigned in protest over this rezoning and others, he said. He said those who had sided with him criticized him for leaving after only a few months in office.

“I couldn’t sit there and keep voting ‘no’ and this stuff keeps passing, and people say you’re a quitter,” Smith said. “I can do more off the Planning Board.”

“It was probably the most contentious we’ve had in quite a while,” board Chairman Ed Gary said of the meeting. “This was probably the most impassioned that I can recall.”

Gary said the opposition was based on a familiar reaction.

“People were not opposed to townhouses, just not in my back yard,” he said. “‘It doesn’t fit here.’ That’s code for not in my back yard.”

Another round of email criticism circulated.

Commissioners on both sides of the issue pushed back during their meeting later in April and criticized of the tone of emails they had received, some of which made unfounded accusations of corruption or accused the officials of ignoring the public.

“When emotions get involved people say things out of character," Commissioner Brian Pate, who is a real estate agent, said at the meeting. "They do things out of character. They may act out of character. I’ve received very nasty emails from people who have been friends of mine for 20 years."

Commissioner Liz Simpers said the project was needed because it would be affordable. She said only 4 percent of recent home sales were listed under $250,000.

"As a commissioner, I can't just take my facts from emails and Facebook," she said. "I have to trust the professionals and engineers that come before the board in each case. "... I don't believe the townhomes bring more crime, more trash, more renters or an undesirable demographic."

An exasperated Commissioner Bridget Wall-Lennon waived a stack of printed emails that she had received from opponents raising concerns about who would live in the townhouses, including whether students would move in. The Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary is in Wake Forest.

"Even if they did rent out to college students — they're in seminary school," she said.. "The most they could do is have Bible study and drink leftover communion wine."

Simpers and Wall-Lennon voted in favor of the rezoning, while Pate and former police chief Greg Harrington voted against it. Commissioner Anne Reeve was absent. The split allowed the mayor to cast a tie-breaking vote in favor of the rezoning.

“I think it is a good project,” Jones said in the interview. “The people doing the project are local people, they care about the community and they’re not going to do something that’s going to hurt the community. I believe them. I’ve known them for a long time.”

Williams, the developer, said he hopes to secure permits in late fall and begin construction immediately after. The builder will try to have homes available in the third quarter of 2019.

Craig Jarvis: 919-829-4576, @CraigJ_NandO

This story was originally published May 8, 2018 at 5:05 PM with the headline "False accusations and hurt feelings mark a yearlong housing fight in Wake Forest."