Staff recommends denial of Star Road condos rezoning amid community plan, road-alignment concerns

Patrick Grady, the Town of Wake Forest Development Services manager, presented RZ-24-07, a conditional rezoning and site master plan application from SJP Raleigh Durham LLC for a roughly 14-acre vacant parcel along Moonbow Trail and Timberline View Drive owned by Star Landing 2 LLC.

The applicant seeks to rezone the site from highway business to General Residential 10 Conditional District (GR-10 CD) to allow 108 "two-over-two" stacked condominium units, 264 parking spaces (a combination of driveways, garages and surface stalls), 24 bicycle spaces and recreational amenities that include gaming tables, a pickleball court and a playground. The master plan shows 47% open space (10% required) and 2.8% park space (2.5% required).

Staff and the Planning Board oppose the proposal. Grady said staff finds the rezoning "generally inconsistent with the comprehensive plan and not in the public interest" because the town's land-use plan designates the parcel in the corridor commercial category, which envisions auto-oriented retail and larger commercial uses intended to strengthen the town’s tax base. The Planning Board recommended denial 4–1 at its prior meeting; staff recommended denial as presented and asked that the master plan be redesigned to accommodate required road alignments and the Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP).

A central technical issue is the town’s CTP requirement for a back-edge service road (identified in the CTP as Future Road 04) that would provide connectivity if direct access to Capitol Boulevard is limited as part of the NCDOT U-5307 project. The applicant’s proposed alignment would route the service road through existing internal apartment drives at the Hawthorne development. Grady said that alignment is not compliant because those apartment roads were not designed to function as service roads and lack the multiuse paths the CTP calls for. Staff recommended an alignment that ties into existing rights-of-way and provides the multiuse path and continuous connection the CTP requires.

The applicant requested several Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) exceptions, including reducing front setbacks from 20 feet to 10 feet, allowing a secondary front setback of 10 feet for corner lots, increasing maximum building height to four stories from three, lengthening alley allowance from 400 to 700 feet, and permitting recreation/open spaces on a private street. Grady told the board staff has asked for redesign to address the road alignment and the CTP requirements; he noted a traffic impact assessment previously done for the adjacent Wake Forest Exchange did not require additional off-site improvements for new trips from this project.

Commissioners asked detailed questions about the back-edge road route, the status of right-of-way dedications from adjacent properties, the topography and stream constraints near Moonbow Trail, and whether a roundabout could help reconcile skewed alignments. Grady said some right-of-way dedications have been obtained, that portions of the back-edge road are being constructed with other projects, and that the town has limited ability to require road construction when earlier projects were vested with dedication-only conditions.

Because of the staff and Planning Board recommendations for denial and unresolved issues around the CTP alignment, the case remains before the board. The item is scheduled for the board’s next meeting where a public hearing and a formal decision will be taken.

Ending: The board did not take a final vote on RZ-24-07 at this session; staff and the applicant were directed to provide additional mapping and potential realignments and the item will appear again on the upcoming agenda for a public hearing and decision.