JDH Capital : News
QUAIL CROSSING APPROVED AT BUSY INTERSECTION
4 Jun 2008
The second shopping center at the Jones Dairy Road-N.C. 98 bypass-Wait Avenue-future North Loop intersection was recommended by the Wake Forest Planning Board Tuesday night with the town commissioners set to make the final decision on June 17.
Quail Crossing will be in the southeast quadrant of that intersection, and Gateway Crossing shopping center is under construction in the southwest quadrant.
The anchor grocery store for Quail Crossing will be Bloom, a boutique specialty grocery store introduced recently by Food Lion, attorney Lacy Reaves said. There are Blooms in the Charlotte area, in Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina.
The northeast section of town “has been crying for a food store,” Commissioner Frank Drake said. “This is about three-quarters of a mile from there, and I’m struggling to understand the distinction. Why is it unfeasible to put one there when it is feasible to put one here?”
The answer was accessibility by traffic. The property in downtown Wake Forest would only be accessible from a small area.
Drake also questioned the possible restaurants in the other five buildings. Reaves said the restaurants in the shopping center, “a suburban market, would be somewhat different from the eating establishments you have in downtown Wake Forest.”
Commissioner Peter Thibodeau had a number of questions about the stormwater retention ponds and the retaining wall needed on the east side of the property because of the steep drop to Smith Creek. Ed Tang, the engineer with Charles Sells Company, said they would try to terrace that wall, at least in part.
Keith Robbins, a planning board member, had concerns about the 10-foot greenway the developer, JDH Capital of Charlotte, will build along Smith Creek to connect with the pedestrian underpass the Wake Forest Town Board insisted be part of the plan for the N.C. 98 bypass. Robbins added a condition for amenities, including lighting, to the greenway extension and culvert. “I just want to make sure that area is safe,” he said.
The vote to recommend to the town board was unanimous. No one spoke in opposition during the public hearing.
Long-time town hall observers will remember Reaves and Tang as the attorney for Angela Weisskopf and the project engineer, respectively, for the tangled rezoning for The Shoppes at Caveness Farm shopping center on Capital Boulevard, a shopping center that has never been built. The land is owned by Weingarten Investments.
During the site plan review for the proposed ABC store on Galaxy Drive, everyone burst into laughter when planner Charles Yokley pointed out the bike rack. “That’s like Braille on an ATM,” Drake said.
Jim Chandler, the engineer, said the existing ABC store between Capital Boulevard and Wake Union Church Road, will be closed. The new one will look like the one built recently near Triangle Town Center.
Currently, Galaxy Drive is only accessible from the bypass. In the future, Planning Director Chip Russell said, the road will be extended north to N.C. 98 (Durham Road). The only other business on the road is the Sherwin-Williams store.
The planning board decided to wait on any decisions about changes in the site plan review and in the landscape standards until a committee appointed by the town board but headed by engineer Harry Mitchell – because he suggested a committee – can review the amendments.
Russell said he was going to ask for delay on the landscape standards amendment because he has received so many comments and information that others want to offer comments.
