And You Thought You Had To Go To New Orleans for Mardi Gras......

Mardi Gras - Meet Wake Forest, NC!!!!

The third annual Mardi Gras Masquerade will be held Saturday, February 23rd. This black and white formal has been wildly successful in the past and the momentum has just propelled it to the next level!

This year's entertainment will be the Emily Rich Band and our own local, Freddy Greene. Tickets are available for purchase at $55 per person with proceeds benefiting Wake Forest Boys & Girls Club. Hors d'oeuvres, beer, wine and Hurricane cocktails, rich desserts and King Cakes will be available.

Tickets can be purchased in advance at The Old Magnolia Trading Company, The Cotton Company and the Wake Forest Chamber of Commerce.

Wakefield Plantation - Will there be new zoning?

If you live in Wakefield Plantation then you have seen the proposed re-zoning signs as well as the signs protesting it.

The City of Raleigh has proposed to rezone approximately 5,000 acres in North Raleigh which includes Wakefield Plantation, Bedford and Falls River. Why? To protect the water supply of the Neuse River at the old Burlington Mills textile plant off of Capital Blvd. The targeted area runs north-south between N.C. Highway 98 and Durant Road and east-west between Falls of Neuse Road and Capital Boulevard. It is in that area that you find some of the largest subdivision in the area. One could go so far as to say mega-subdivisions.

The impact of the propsed rezoning would include homeowners having to comply with the stormwater requirement if they wanted to add a deck or pave a driveway. Also, homeowners can capture stormwater by building rain gardens, sand filters and other devices to manage stormwater. They cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands, but on the lower end for individual homeowners. There are a few more restrictions and implications tied to this proposed rezoning. If you would like to lean more The City Council and Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the proposal 6:30 p.m. Jan. 22 at 222 W. Hargett St. in downtown Raleigh. For more information, go to www.raleighnc.gov/planning and click on Z-003-08 Richland Watershed.

Wake Forest Arbor Day Poster Contest! Deadline - Jan. 18!

• Attn all kids in Grades K-5!!!!

Once again this year Wake Forest will have their Arbor Day Poster Contest. The theme for this years contest is "Trees are Terrific...inside and out!". The contest is sponsored by the Wake Forest Urban Forestry Advisory Board and members of the Board will judge the posters. Posters will be judged on creativity, artwork and depiction of this years theme. There will be four categories which are:

• Best picture
• Most Creative
• Honorable Mention
• State Entry

The winner for each category above will receive a $50 U.S. Savings Bond. For more information please visit the contest rules and be sure to check out the Wake Forest Arbor Day Celebration scheduled for March 13th where the poster contest winners will be recognized!

Get those creative minds working, grab your poster board and start designing!! My son participated last year (didn't win) but had a blast creating his poster!

Wake Forest or Raleigh? Or is it both? Projected annexation....

I lived in Charlotte, NC years ago and I sold real estate there as well. I remember vividly taking buyers out to show them property and one of their main concerns were, "We want to be in the county and not the city." I told them each and every time that the home they were purchasing was "county" at the time but there was no guarantee that would last. Charlotte slowly became synonymous with Mecklenburg County. And, to that end, the line between Rock Hill, SC and Charlotte, NC became VERY vague!

Well, I noticed here in Wake County a similar pattern that started years ago. An article just out points to even more annexation by Raleigh. City lines between Wake Forest and Raleigh are already becoming obscure. There is one light on Capital Blvd where if you stand on one side you are in Raleigh and if you stand on the other side you are in Wake Forest. Parts of Wakefield Plantation are Raleigh and others are Wake Forest. Heck, you can have a physical address of Wake Forest but a mailing address of Raleigh. It all can be very confusing!

They latest projection targets these areas:

"The areas being eyed for ETJ inclusion are as follows:

• 2,079 acres between the Neuse River and Rock Quarry Road along Auburn-Knightdale Road
• 2,058 acres between Mitchell Mill, Watkins and Buffaloe roads
• 975 acres between Louisburg Road and the ETJs of Wake Forest and Rolesville
• 665 acres off Capital Boulevard near the Wakefield Plantation development
• 150 acres off Louisbury Road and Blackley Lake Road
• 73 acres off Old Milburnie Road"
  The above was taken directly from an article that can be read in it's entirety on WRAL.com

So, with this new growth what will happen to the infrastructure? What impact will it have on natural resources such as water? How will this expansion affect the school system? The road infrastructure? Public services?

I will say that Raleigh has done a much better job of handling growth than Charlotte did years ago. While there are the typical growing pains and the "you can't please everyone" syndrome Raleigh seems to be planning much better and taking smaller steps at a time........