Garner council approves North Garner Middle School rebuild after debate over stormwater controls

The Garner Town Council on Nov. 3 approved a special-use permit allowing Wake County Public Schools to replace North Garner Middle School with a single 197,730-square-foot building on a 17.79-acre tract at 720 Powell Drive.

The vote followed a quasi‑judicial hearing and nearly four hours of presentation and questions. Planning staff summarized the application and environmental and design findings; the applicant described a phased build in which students would move into the new building around April 2028 and the overall project would finish around April 2029.

Town planning staff (Joseph Linsky) told the council the project meets the town's Unified Development Ordinance requirements, that impervious surface on the site will be reduced and that the site meets landscape and parking standards. Applicant representatives said the plan provides 169 parking spaces where the ordinance requires 109, separates bus and carpool circulation, and adds a track and competition field, green space and ADA improvements.

"We are reducing the runoff from the site," planning staff said, describing a level spreader and a filter strip that will discharge to the stream buffer and preserve a 50-foot riparian buffer. Applicant attorney Kenneth Haywood and project team members said the design keeps the existing school in operation during construction and includes security and accessibility upgrades.

Council debate centered on stormwater and downstream impacts. Council member Damian Dellinger pressed the applicant and staff for more substantial stormwater devices, saying the site sits adjacent to a stream and that future, more intense rainfall events make stronger mitigation important. Dellinger added that a 1960s standard still applies in some respects and urged the council to seek measures that would "build it for the next hundred years," rather than simply meeting the minimum required today.

Staff and the applicant noted the project reduces impervious cover and that the town's Technical Review Committee found that, because of that reduction, structural stormwater retention was not required under current standards. "They are reducing the impervious," the planning director said during the discussion. Wake County Public Schools' representative (Dave Bernadette) also told council that lighting the new fields is not part of the plan: "It's our standard not to light our ball fields... It'll be dark," he said.

Mayor Pro Tem Vance moved that the application meets the UDO findings and that site‑specific TRC recommendations be included on the permit; Council member Matthews seconded. After further discussion about whether to add additional stormwater conditions (and staff counsel that substantive changes could trigger a new site-plan review and delay construction), the council approved the motion by roll call, 4 in favor and 1 opposed. The mayor asked the applicant to continue working with town staff to refine site details where feasible.

Next steps: staff will prepare the permit with the TRC-listed conditions and the applicant will proceed with final site-plan submittals and coordination with town engineering as required.