Two Roads, One Development and A Lot of Concerns
A plan for a development off Piney Grove Wilbon Road in Holly Springs triggers a major discussion about two side roads.
A plan for a development off Piney Grove Wilbon Road has triggered a major discussion about two side roads. The discussion about the request to build the neighborhood called "Symphonia" took place during the July 25th Planning Board meeting. The planning board is a citizen advisory group that reviews plans and helps determine if the development, whether residential or commercial, will fit within Holly Spring’s larger plans. The town council will take the advisory committee’s discussion and decision on a project into advisement.
Design plans for the Symphonia neighborhood were submitted to the town of Holly Springs. The developer of Symphonia went before the planning board to discuss rezoning the property from rural residential to neighborhood residential with conditional zoning. The neighborhood would be nestled between Wade Nash Road and Piney Grove Wilbon, across from Honeycutt Road. While the development team was working on its plans, they say they found a study about this area was discovered. In 2019, CAMPO or NC Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization conducted a roads study of Southwest Wake County and found some hot spots that will need to be reviewed. One of them is the Honeycutt, PGW, and Wade Nash area. According to the report, the road needs to be realigned to create one intersection instead of two small ones.
Attorney Jason Barron explained that the developers for Symphonia redesigned their neighborhood plan to accommodate this road.
However, this accommodation alarmed homeowners who already live in that area. Keith Henshaw spoke on behalf of just over a half dozen homeowners about the concerns of the road and the loss of land.
Henshaw told the planning board that he feels the town isn't being supportive to landowners. Another homeowner pointed out that this study isn't easy to find. But Barron made it clear that the developer isn't trying to build this road but is merely making an accommodation for it, without building houses where the road may go.
The discussion led to a lot of questions for the members of the planning board. They pondered whether this development should go forward, knowing this information, and if the idea by the developer to build synchronized lights at the current two intersections would work. Planning board member Courtney Patterson suggested that the town council should review the requirement to fix the road and offer a short-term solution of allowing synchronized lights. The planning board approved a request for an overall change in the zoning map from rural residential to neighborhood residential conditional zoning but denied Symphonia's rezoning request. Many felt that the road situation needs to be dealt with first before the neighborhood is approved. The decision now goes to the town council for further review.