Homes planned for one-time Wake school site
Neighbors who fought the Wake County Public School System's plans to build a high school near their Wake Forest homes are now gearing up to battle a proposed residential development on the site.
Posted — UpdatedThe school district still owns the 80 acres along Forestville Road, just north of Louisburg Road, and wants to sell it to a developer that would build up to 320 homes on the land.
The Raleigh Planning Commission will meet Wednesday morning to discuss rezoning the site to accommodate the homes. Nearby residents said they will present the commission with a petition against the zoning change.
"We know that we can't stop progress, but we would like to slow it down, preserve a little more of the green areas that we have," said Angela McCarty, who has lived across the street from the property for 20 years.
McCarty said she worries about traffic, property values dropping and her country life.
"It's going to be another nightmare on this road," she predicted, if the development goes through.
Similar concerns were aired five years ago, when the Board of Education bought the land for a high school. The school board decided in February 2010 to abandon the site and wound up building what is now Rolesville High School about 5 miles to the east.
John Felmet said he moved to the Forestville Road area 10 years ago for a country feel that's not too far from Raleigh.
"We liked being out here to where we were not bunched up on people and we had a little more privacy," Felmet said, adding he doesn't want to lose that atmosphere.
"It would be nice if they could built a community with two houses per acre so we would have a lot less traffic," he said.
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