Wallace OKs rezoning for Royal Farms development

WALLACE — The Wallace Town Council meeting Thursday night was packed with residents of Plantation Acres, a community that borders the new proposed Royal Farms gas station development at the corner of Highways 41 and 11 in the Tin City area of Wallace. The residents were unanimously against the council granting a rezoning request to Two Farms, the owners of Royal Farms, which would change the zoning from residential to highway business-conditional.

Despite protests from the Plantation Acres residents, the council unanimously approved the rezoning request.

The request has been on the council’s agenda for several months, after being postponed once due to a tropical storm and secondly, after Two Farms requested more time.

“Conditions include — and this is what they will not put in on the list of things that are permitted in HB — adult uses, alcoholic beverages or packaged retail resales, no bars, no distilleries or breweries, no electronic gaming operations, no event centers, no hospitals, no hotels or motels, no mail order houses, no manufacturing complexes, no motor fuel vehicle stations, no nightclubs, no outlet sales, no parking as principled use, no personal vehicle sales, no petroleum product storage or distribution, no recycling materials collection center, no research facility, no transit passenger terminal and no transit lots,” explained the town’s planning director, Rod Fritz. “The other items that are approved on the list of HB are the ones that could potentially be there: professional offices, retail space.”

Brent Whitfield, a resident of Plantation Acres, stated that residents have no concerns with the gas station going on that corner, but they are concerned that Two Farms has asked for the additional six acres to be rezoned. “It’s been my concern that this is a bit backwards,” he said. “You’re telling us what it’s not going to be. You’re saying this is what it not’s going to be, hoping that this will comfort us and assure you that this will protect us.”

Plantation Acres resident Thomas Stracuzza stated, “As a resident, it benefits me zero. If you were living on Washington Circle, would you want to rezone that property that’s already zoned residential? I don’t think you would.”

Residents Sherry Aramini and Carl Fussell expressed concerns about traffic and a buffer between them and the property, while Sally Whitfield talked about drainage concerns.

In an attempt to allay those concerns, Randy Royal, engineer for the project with Kimley-Horn and Associates, showed a map of the proposed zoning, sharing where traffic patterns would change and where a retention pond would go. “If you have problems with drainage now, you should have less problems in the future,” he said. “There will be nothing from this site going on to your site.”

Sam Frank, representing Two Farms, also explained that the retention pond would be nothing like a hog lagoon, which one resident had said might be the case. “HB makes sense for this site, with or without conditions,” he said. “It is a logical zoning for that parcel.”

Once the public hearing closed, Councilman Frank Brinkley stated that he has patronized many Royal Farms facilities in other communities, and he felt confident that it would be a clean site. “I think it’s going to be better than what’s there now,” he said.

Councilman Jason Davis also spoke up, saying that he understood the residents’ pain, but he felt Two Farms had worked with them and compromised. “I can’t sit here and say no, because there has been give and compromise. In fact, I think we have come to a very, very good compromise.”

The council then voted unanimously to approve the rezoning request.

In other business at the Oct. 10 meeting:

• The council unanimously approved a request from Wilmer Cruz to rezone a portion of his property on Maple Street so that he could add on to his home.

• The council set a public hearing for the Nov. 14 meeting for an annexation request from Avery-Davis Investments of Knightdale for 2.66 acres in Pender County.

• Town Manager Rob Taylor was sworn in as the temporary finance director and deputy tax collector.

• The council adopted a resolution to finance three town vehicles for $105,800.

• A capital project amendment was approved for the fiscal year 2023-24.

• The town manager presented a capital improvement plan to the council for their consideration. Action will be taken on the plan at a future meeting.

• Town Clerk Jackie Nicholson requested that the council re-codify its town ordinances, which have all been recently updated. As new ordinances are approved, they will be posted on the town website and eventually added to a book that Nicholson created.

• The council approved the purchase of a trailer for the fire department, which will be donated to the fire association.

• Police Captain Weston Padgett shared information about his time in the FBI National Academy recently.