city planning

Lane Street Project: future land use?

Back in September, Black Wide-Awake remarked upon the curious coloring of the Bishop L.N. Forbes’ cemeteries on the City of Wilson’s 2043 Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map. Shortly after, Rest Haven, Hamilton, and Masonic Cemeteries were changed to blue, the “institutional use” designation that matches Maplewood. Vick Cemetery, strangely, remained the maize of medium-density residential. (Presumably, the color change was acknowledgement of an error, as I have not seen any notice of rezoning for the cemeteries.)

I recently noticed the map below in a bundle of documents attached to the 18 January 2024 city council agenda. The documents were assembled in support of the proposed conversion of the old Happy Valley golf course into 600+ houses and townhouses. (I have a lot to say about this folly, but it’s off-topic for BWA, so I’ll spare y’all.) This Future Land Use Map was pulled from the City of Wilson 2030 Comprehensive Plan and also shows Rest Haven, Vick, and Odd Fellows Cemeteries in maize. (Rountree Cemetery is appropriately blue.)

Then, on 2 March 2024, the Wilson Times published an article, “Planning board sets public hearing on 2043 Comprehensive Plan,” that includes this map:

It’s a little hard to see, so:

(1) is Maplewood Cemetery, designated red for “commercial.” So is (2), Rest Haven Cemetery. “Commercial” is odd, but (3) is absolutely chilling. “VACANT”? Vick Cemetery is a lot of things, but vacant is not one, as the 4,224+ bodies lying beneath its bland surface attest.

What in the magic kaleidoscope is going on here?

I did a little digging on the Wilson County GIS website. Rest Haven Cemetery’s Main Improvement Description is “Business-Mortuaries/Funeral Home.” Maplewood Cemetery’s Main Improvement Description is, oddly, “Business-Office Building.” (On a hunch, I checked Evergreen Memorial Gardens’, too. It’s the same as Maplewood.) Masonic, Hamilton, Rountree, Odd Fellows, and Vick Cemeteries’ Main Improvement Description is “Vacant.”

Maybe there’s no meaningful distinction among these differing descriptions for parcels of land dedicated to the burial of the dead, but I don’t see how any good can come of describing cemeteries as vacant, and, in my 2020 voice, stay woke.

Public hearing on the final draft of the 2043 plan is 6:00 PM, Tuesday, March 5. Y’all go down there and ask some hard questions.

Wilson’s 2043 comprehensive plan.

The homepage of the website for Wilson’s 2043 Comprehensive Plan declares: “The City of Wilson is a place for innovation, ideas, and creativity. Wilson’s strengths lie in its welcoming community, arts and culture, and nationally recognized programs and infrastructure. In the coming decades, Wilson will be poised to harness growth from the Triangle and take advantage of its place in the region to continue to build a welcoming place for all.”

More: “The Comprehensive Plan is a roadmap that provides guidance on where and how a community will grow and change over a period of time. The City of Wilson uses this as a policy document to set priorities and make important land use and investment decisions. The 2043 Update will revise sections of the Wilson Growing Together: The 2030 Comprehensive Plan to reflect the changes that have occurred in the community in the past decade and to support a renewed vision for the future of the community. In some cases, issue areas will be added that are not part of the original 2030 Plan. …

“The updated Comprehensive Plan will address land use, development, transportation, public investment, and identify other community priorities. The Project Team, led by City of Wilson staff, was supported by local consultants at Clarion Associates and VHB. As part of this process, the City of Wilson gathered input from the community to guide the development of a renewed vision for Wilson.”

The image below is a detail from the Comprehensive Plan’s Future Land Use Map. The parcels shaded blue have been designated “institutional” for future land use zoning. “Institutional” land has “uses related to community services, such as fire stations, libraries, schools, civic buildings, water treatment plants, and the like.”

I placed the upper circle over Maplewood Cemetery, which is appropriately shaded blue. What is going on in the oval though?

Here’s a close-up of Bishop LN. Forbes Street. The blue blocks on the left represent various churches colored “institutional.” The blue block at the top is B.O. Barnes Elementary School. The smaller blue blocks below it are Rountree Missionary Baptist Church and the two halves of its cemetery on B.L.N.F. Street. Strangely, though, the other five cemeteries on the street are shaded maize, “2-4 units/acre (med-density residential),” and part of Odd Fellows is green, “agricultural residential (rural residential).” Huh?

Why would these cemeteries be marked for the same future use as the neighborhoods around them? An oversight? Nefarious design?

The City is holding two more Open Houses for the public to review and provide feedback on the draft Comprehensive Plan. Ask why Vick Cemetery and Odd Fellows Cemeteries and the other L.B.N.F. cemeteries are not “institutional.”

Thanks to Jon Wesley Mullins for bringing this to my attention!

[Update: 9/18/2023 — the map has been updated, and the Masonic, Hamilton, and Rest Haven Cemeteries are now blue! Vick remains in limbo, but we appreciate this start.]