Wendell advances full-build plans for Wendell Falls Parkway–Eagle Rock Road intersection, accepts developer fee-in-lieu payments

The Wendell Town Board of Commissioners approved two developer fee-in-lieu payments to help fund a full-build design for the Wendell Falls Parkway and Eagle Rock Road intersection and heard an update on the project's design schedule.

Planning Director Bridal Coates said the town contracted VHB for full-build design work and that both Wendell Falls Parkway and Eagle Rock Road are maintained by the North Carolina Department of Transportation. "DOT has been an active partner in this, and they are very supportive of us collecting a fee in lieu, to for some improvements as long as we spend it at that intersection," Coates said. She reported the design evaluates 2035 and 2050 traffic projections and calls for four-lane, median-divided roadways with multiuse paths, street trees and turn lanes at full build-out.

Staff asked the board to accept two fee-in-lieu proposals covering turn lanes that developers could otherwise construct as part of their traffic-impact analyses (TIAs). The first fee covered two turn lanes for the Wendell Estates development — a 200-foot right-turn lane from Eagle Rock Road onto Wendell Falls Parkway (westbound) and a 150-foot left-turn lane from Wendell Falls Parkway onto Eagle Rock Road (northbound) — for an estimated fee of $716,415.20. The board voted to accept that fee in lieu.

The second fee-in-lieu came from developers of Edwards (True Homes) and Eagle Trace (Taylor Morrison), who are sharing responsibility for a northbound left-turn lane and an eastbound right-turn lane. Coates said DOT lengthened the required left-turn lane in a revised TIA, adding roughly 150 feet compared with an earlier submittal; the combined fee-in-lieu estimate for those lane segments was $1,736,908.60. The board voted to accept that fee in lieu as well.

Coates said VHB will deliver 60 percent construction drawings for the intersection in April 2025, with 100 percent construction drawings expected in fall 2025; right-of-way plans are also scheduled to be completed in April. Estimates used DOT bid averages and NCDOT contingency factors and included mobilization, earthwork, traffic control, drainage, signage, utility relocation, traffic-signal modification, right-of-way acquisition and engineering.

Board members praised the coordination among staff, DOT and developers and characterized the actions as proactive planning to avoid piecemeal improvements. Coates said the town is coordinating with six nearby developments whose TIAs include improvements at the intersection and noted a grocery-anchored shopping center at the northeast corner that will also require frontage and TIA work.

The board approved both fee-in-lieu payments by voice vote. Staff will apply the collected funds to the town project to build out the intersection as designed and coordinate signal and utility work with NCDOT and impacted developers.