Developer Michael D. Whitehead had asked the town's Parks and
Recreation and Cultural Resources Advisory Commission to allow him to pay
a one-time $150,000 fee instead of building a public town park. But
members of the commission noted that the town had long wanted the entire
tract for recreation.
"I'm not very interested in a fee," said Dave Duncan, a member of the
commission. "It was known to [Whitehead] that the town wanted a park
there."
The 65-acre farm at 1617 Ten-Ten Road was the property of Lelia
Seagroves Womble. After Womble's September 2002 death, Whitehead was able
to get a contract on the land and is proposing a 172-unit subdivision.
The same land was targeted in the town's long-range parks plan in 1996
but it was never made available to the town, town officials said. A local
ordinance requires subdivision developers to provide open space or pay the
town a fee. For the Seagroves property, that would be $150,000 or a
five-acre park.
Whitehead offered several alternatives Wednesday to putting a park on
the Seagroves property. One was to put a park on an adjoining piece of
property that he received a contractual agreement to buy Wednesday for
$211,000.
"We will have to go back and re-evaluate our proposal," Whitehead said
after the meeting.
"A park on the property would be better for everyone in Apex," said
Fred Stancil, president of the Waterford Green community which abuts the
Ten-Ten Road property.
The advisory board voted 6-0 that a park be put directly on the
Seagroves Farm near a pond already on the property. The matter is now
before the town's planning board and the Board of Commission for final
approval.
The Seagroves property is the first proposal to come before the
advisory commission that goes against the suggestion of the town's parks
master plan. Board chairman Jimmy Perry noted that the Seagroves proposal
was a "test" of that plan.
"We are not a token board," Perry said of the decision. "The board [of
commissioners], they listen."
