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Town approves townhomes, residents protest shopping center
By Mary Beth Phillips
Staff writer
Morrisville residents who had
opposed multifamily housing also
opposed a 35-acre shopping center
to be built at Parkside development
at the town board meeting August
24, saying the land should be saved
for single-family homes.
Also at the meeting, the board
approved site plans for the first
neighborhood in Parkside, a 140-
townhome development with open
space for recreation, despite con
cerns that the streets will be private
with a different kind of “rolled”
curbing and guttering. And the
board considered several other plan
ning and zoning matters, first speak
ing against and then tabling both a
request for a tower for BellSouth
Mobility and a rezoning petition by
Manhattan Bakery.
The 35-acre shopping center
would be located at the northwest
corner of Davis Drive and Koppers
Road.
Linda Lyons of Church Street in
the Shiloh community said “I am not
interested in any kind of mall until
the problem is solved as far as the
roads.”
‘The land between Davis Drive
and Church Street is about all the
land we have left,” said Liz Johnson
of Dallavia Court. “It would be per
fect for residential neighborhoods. It
would be nice to pick up a loaf of
bread on the way home, but I would
rather not have that convenience. I
would rather have more beautiful
neighborhoods like those on
Morrisville Parkway.”
“I’m in favor of service malls,”
said Richard Elliott of Dallavia
Court. “But 35 acres is too much.
Why are we adding new competition
when we haven’t finished the new
malls that are under way?”
“I wonder how we’ll ever gel
across the road to gel that loaf of
bread,” said Patty Cartrette
of the corner of Davis,
McCrimmon and Koppers Roads.
“It will be moldy by the time we get
it,” she said. “If Davis Drive is not
widened. I’ll have to build my own
bakery and cook my own bread,
because I’ll never get out.”
Alan Klimeck said business devel
opment should also be under a
moratorium until the master plan is
revised fully.
‘The land between Davis Drive and Church
Street is about all the land we have left. It
would be perfect for residential neighbor
hoods. ’
—Liz Johnson,
Dallavia Court resident
Developers for Seppala
Corporation did not speak at the
public hearing, but Mark Silver-
Smith said commercial develop
ments don’t generate that much traf
fic, but utilize the traffic already
going by, and Jan Faulkner said a
shopping center will be needed for
all the residents of the new 1,146-
unit development.
The item will be considered at the
September 10 planning board meet
ing.
The Manor at Parkside had been
proposed with no sidewalks, but
board members insisted that side
walks be put in on one side of the
street. Charles Walker, representing
the developer, said the lack of side
walks was meant to give the town-
home development “a single-family
feel, with more gra.ss and greenway
in front of the homes.”
The private streets will be 25-fect
back-to-back, less than the 31-foot
norm for public streets. The curb
and guttering is a “rolled” design
with a slope that vehicles can drive
over.
The BellSouth tower would be
located on J.F. Wilkerson’s property,
about 100 feet from the proposed
McCrimmon Parkway extension.
Commissioner C.T. Moore original
ly voted to deny the .special use per
mit needed, but was cautioned by
town attorney Frank Gray that there
were some legal issues involved. So
Moore retracted his motion and
voted to table the request until after
the executive session already sched
uled for other legal matters.
The board also tabled the
Manhattan Bakery rezoning request,
which would change from agricul
tural to industrial management, after
encouraging the spokesman for the
developer to limit the rezoning to
conditional use for a bakery. When
he said the developer would not
agree to that because he might sell
the property, Moore first voted to
deny the rezoning, and then changed
to tabling the request so that the
developer could return if he would
agree to the conditional use.
“I don’t plan on leaving things
wide open,” he said.
In other action the board:
□Approved the updated personnel
policy, prepared by Eleanor Poole of
the League of Municipalities.
□ Approved the site plan for
Airtech Center, lot 7, a 79,200-
square-foot building to be built on
5.59 acres located on International
Drive north of Triangle Parkway.
Plans include 58 parking spaces.
The exterior of the building would
be built of concrete panels.
□Approved plans for one office
building in Weston Office Park, part
of a three-building subdivision that
is located mostly in Cary.
Morrisville will provide water,
sewer and fire flow to the one,
16,375 square-foot building located
on approximately two acres at the
north side of Weston Parkway east
of Chapel Hill Road.
□Approved a rezoning for Marvin
Watkins of six acres on the east side
of Airport Boulevard across from
Airport Boulevard community
cemetery and north of Perimeter
Park Drive from agricultural district
to general business.
□Held a public hearing for a
rezoning request by Cynthia Duarte
from low density residential to
Village Core. She wants to put a jan
itorial service in the building, locat
ed on about a fifth of an acre on the
east side of Church Street, about 150
feet north of Ashe Street, Ms.
Duane made the only comments at
the public hearing.
□Presented a plaque to Finance
Officer Julia Whitt Ketchum for the
seventh year in a row for Excellence
in Financial Reporting by the
Government Finance Officers
Association, based in Chicago,
Illinois.
Pool bubble keeps swimmers all wet
By Mary Beth Phillips
Staff writer
Matthew Belcher and his friend, Austin Winstead, take a leap into the swimming pool at the Morrisville
Community Center, while Mom, Karen, looks on. The Belchers are among those looking forward to a bub
ble on the swimming pool during the colder months.
Swimming in the winter, and even
a year-round swim team are in the
works at the Morrisville Community
Center.
Thanks to donations by developers
in lieu of recreation for individual
developments, the town plans to
purchase a bubble to go over the
pool, and hopes to have it up in mid-
October.
The bubble will cover both the
large pool and the baby pool, said
Alan Carroll, director of Parks and
Recreation and Cultural Resources
for the town.
Carroll expects to choose a con
tractor by the first board meeting in
September. The construction should
take place from mid-September to
mid-October.
The purchase will include a
water heater and blower, which
will also help hold the bubble up.
A gas connection must be made
which will make running the
indoor pool cheaper and more effi
cient, Carroll said. He said the cost
of the bubble should be approxi
mately $60,000.
“This is something I’ve been hear
ing for years people wanting,” he
said. “It’s good to know we’re about
to satisfy the desires of the people in
Morrisville.”
He said he has been approached by
the New Wave swim team company,
offering to provide instructors for a
year-round swim team.
“It’s ironic they came to me about
a month or so ago before they knew
we were planning this,” Carroll said.
He expects the team to compete
against the YMCA, and other teams
in Wake, Durham and Chatham
counties.
Carroll has been seeking to put a
bubble over the pool for years. Last
summer, he applied for a matching
grant from the North Carolina Parks
and Recreation Trust Fund, which
was turned down last fall.
The grant application cited use of
the pool by private groups includ
ing Kindercare of Cary, Leesville
and Chapel Hill; Triangle
Children’s Academy of Research
Triangle Park, Calvary Baptist
Kindercare of Durham, Apex
Elementary swim camp. Holly
Springs Elementary swim camp.
Town and Country (Apex) swim
camp, the Little Gym of Cary swim
lessons, Cary Presbyterian Church
swim camp, Cary YMCA swim
lessons (in a joint venture with
Morrisville), Glaxo-Wellcome
employee aqua-aerobics wellness
program and Upward Bound
groups.
The bubble will be 140 feet long,
67.5 feet wide and a total of 9,450
square feet. It will be connected to
the community center building by a
tunnel with a revolving door to keep
the cold out.
C3 silicone diamond debuts
Continued from page 1
Blue said. Moissanite averages
about 10 percent of the cost of a
comparable diamond, she said.
Smith of Mike Smith jewelers said
sales have been brisk.
“I’ve had it for a little over two
months, and it’s half of my sales
right now,” he said. That’s in dol
lars. “A lot of people came in at
first to look at it, now they’re start
ing to buy it,” he said.
He added that about half of the
purchases are from individuals who
have bought stock in it.
Few people are buying it in rings,
he added. “The majority has been
pendants and earrings,” he said.
“I think if you put it in the right
perspective—hey, this is its own
gemstone, I think it’s great because
its another alternative type of thing,
and its very durable,,” Smith said
“They’re pretty, bright and brilliant,
and you can make beautiful pen
dants and earrings without putting a
lot of money into it.
“For a solitaire, you want to put
more money into it because it’s a
one-time thing,” he said.
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New police chief from Apex
Continued from page 1
“I have a full plate,” he said. He
said he had been unsure whether he
would go back into law enforcement
once the degree was completed, but
had considered a teaching job at the
N.C. Justice Academy.
He had spent three years as an in-
service training specialist at the
Highway Patrol training center in
Gamer, teaching supervision and
management, among other subjects.
He had also serviced as a district
supervisor, supervising 10 to 16
people, approximately the same
number of people that he will be
supervising in Morrisville.
He said the opportunity to apply
for the $46,765 job in Morrisville
was too good to pass up. “I decided
I liked law enforcement so much I
wanted to get back into it,” he said.
“I think I can do some good,” be
added.
Before his 15 years at the NC
Highway Patrol, Whitesell was an
emergency medical technician for
the Guilford County Emergency
Management System. This followed
a four-year enlistment in the U.S.
Coast Guard from 1972 to 1976.
“I am pleased to fill the position
with such a high quality individual,”
said Morrisville Town Manager
David Hodgkins.
“His integrity was a strong point.
He seems to be a highly principled
individual with his commitment to
his family and his job.
“In the interview process, he
seemed to have a vision of where he
thought the Morrisville Police
Department should go. He seems
like the one to meet that challenge
of growth, who can put together that
map for the future,” Hodgkins said.
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