Commissioners vote 4-3 to allow sale of controversial land slated for a Wake park
After hours of public comment on Monday night, Wake County commissioners voted 4-3 to declare the former Crooked Creek Golf Course “surplus property.”
The move authorizes the county to start the selling process of the land.
The Crooked Creek Golf Course, off Hilltop Needmore Road west of U.S. Highway 401 in southern Wake County, closed in 2015, and county officials began looking at it in 2017 as a potential site for a future park.
The land has been an issue ever since.
Since the property closed in 2015, Wake County installed gates, fences, lighting and signage to secure the property and contracted someone to mow the grass.
The site is west of U.S. Highway 401 in an area with fewer recreational facilities. In June, commissioners eventually voted 4-3 to buy the land, but in the 2018 elections, two of the commissioners who approved the park lost their seats.
About 300 supporters of the park attending the meeting on Monday night in an effort to keep the property. The board heard from about 55 residents before making their decision.
"It’s just appalling they could take away a park it’s like a benefit so many children. Just really sad, and I don’t know if this will change if there will be a suit I don’t know where goes from here but we live in Apex and there’s no place to go," said Stacey Larson, of Apex.
"It's not just some flat old piece of ground," said another person. "There's vistas, there's rolling hills, there's 4.5 miles of paved pathway for exercise. We don't have that down here."
According to a news release, the vote also establishes the future Southeast County Park as the "number one" priority using the 2018 parks bond.
The area for that park is along Highway 42, adjacent to Fuquay-Varina and Garner.
