Wendell News Outlet

Last night at the Wendell Planning Board meeting, they voted on 5 POD’s located in Wendell Falls; all the votes were affirmative. During the meeting there were several interesting comments and I learned one surprising fact about the Wendell Falls: in general, the lot sizes in many of the POD’s will be much larger than they had to be as per the zoning. For example:

POD 4 – 126 homes were allowed to be built on 7800 sq. ft. lots.
Instead there will be 40 homes built on lots averaging 16,143 sq. ft.

POD 5 – 162 homes were allowed to be built on 7,800 Sq. Ft. lots.
Instead there will be 40 homes built on lots averaging 16,143 sq. ft.

POD 13 –149 homes were allowed to be built on 5000 sq. ft. lots.
Instead there will be 73 homes built on lots averaging 8848 sq. ft.

POD 15 – 205 homes were allowed to be built on 5000 sq. ft. lots.
Instead there will be 136 homes built on lots averaging 15,700 sq. ft.

While the voting was going on one of the Planning Board members made a comment about the lot sizes being so large. The head honcho from the Wendell Falls contingent, present at the meeting, said in essence, “Oh, we know the people of Wendell don’t want a lot of small houses jammed in on small lots”. Now, whether that was said just for effect or not, it made me feel like perhaps, just perhaps, someone was listening to the WCC.

At the beginning of the board meeting I handed out the draft copies of the proposed Subdivision Annexation Information Forms. These forms would greatly expand the input the Planning Board receives from the builders and developers prior to annexation approval of their subdivisions. As the members of the Board (six were present) started to read through them there were some smiles and a few nods. More importantly, during a later discussion one of the board members brought up the tax impact all these new houses were going to have on the town. It was only a fleeting reference but the eventual tax impact on the towns finances came into the discussion.

Another Board member questioned the Wendell Falls representatives’, in depth, about the closeness of some houses in one of the PODS and his concern about a fire spreading from house to house as happened in Rolesville. The answers supplied didn’t appear to satisfy the Board member, nor did I find them responsive or convincing. Unfortunately the matter just faded away with no real conclusion as to what the Wendell Falls developers were going to do about this potentially serious condition.

Overall the Wendell Falls project sounded a lot better than when I first heard about it. There are still some issues with the closeness of some of the houses in certain POD’s, but overall things seemed to be coming together.

So, even though the meeting was as exciting as sitting in the dentist’s chair, I left feeling upbeat for the first time in a long while.