Wake Forest homeowners: Knights, queens stay away

Wake Forest, N.C. — Some Wake Forest homeowners don't want knights, queens or their fans traipsing around on a golf course near their back yards later this month.

Residents around the old Wake Forest Golf Club said that zoning or a development agreement should stop the N.C. Renaissance Faire from setting up on the golf course off Capital Boulevard.

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"This is like taking the (State) Fairgrounds and plopping it in our back yards," homeowner Bill Matzkevich said. "(Homeowners) don't feel protected at all. We feel like we've been hung out to dry."

Residents previously fought plans to put a housing development in the same spot.

"The residents are sensitive to the property. They would prefer that it remain either open space or a golf course," Bill Summers, Wake Forest's town planner, said.

The Faire's general manager, Donna Varner-Sheaves, said she didn't think neighbors would get riled up when organizers picked the golf course as the location for the annual event. It runs March 28-29 and April 4-5.

"We really didn't anticipate it was going to be quite so vehement," Varner-Sheaves said.

Faire organizers said the owner of the golf course is letting them use the land, and town officials said the Faire has complied with permit requests.

Nearby residents, though, said they think that the 25,000 people expected to attend to the Faire will take a toll on the property. A chain-link fence separates their houses from the golf course.

"All the cars – we're expecting over 1,000 cars a day will be parked in this open field," Matzkevich said.

Faire organizers said they don't think there will be any issues. They plan to put up more fencing to accommodate the homeowners' concerns.

"We do not anticipate that it will make any appreciable dent in the property," Varner-Sheaves said.

Protection from one event is unlikely to please homeowners, however.

"Once this precedent is set, what's to prevent a tractor pull, a concert?" Matzkevich said.