Larissa Greene is passionate about protecting the kind of neighborhood where children can safely play outdoors, families know their neighbors, and mature trees and open spaces contribute to a strong sense of community. She spends her free time walking, biking, and enjoying Raleigh’s parks. Her professional strength in building a following began in retail sales management at our Crabtree Valley Mall. Today, she uses those skills to gather community voices. For Larissa, this effort has never been about opposing change for the sake of it. It is about protecting a place people proudly call home and preserving the childhood experiences that cannot be rebuilt once they are lost. Most likely, she is outside enjoying Raleigh’s neighborhoods until the street lights come on.
Larissa wrote to City Council and the WCPSS on Sept 28, 2026:
Dear Mayor, Members of Raleigh City Council and WCPSS Risk Management:
I am writing to ask that you take Friday night’s events at Millbrook High School into consideration as you evaluate rezoning case Z-43-25. Please also enter this email into the WCPSS public record as formal receipt of an emergency access concern. Johnsdale Place, the road itself is school property.
The Millbrook–Rolesville football game brought more than 6,000 people to the school. The stadium was evacuated after fights broke out, the game was temporarily resumed without spectators, and additional fights occurred in the parking lot. Law enforcement remained on the campus late into the night while the site was cleared. As people dispersed, the entire surrounding community faced dangerous situations. Fights at the Sheetz, a car accident at Waffle House, vehicle break-ins, and the chaos of evacuating people and vehicles.
For the residents of Litchford Forest, this is not simply a story about what happened at a football game. It is a real-world demonstration of the transportation and emergency-access conditions that already exist around Millbrook High School.
During major school events, parking demand does not stop at the school property. When the available parking fills, vehicles spill into the surrounding neighborhood, businesses and onto Johnsdale Road. That means the same narrow residential roadway that already serves residents, school traffic, buses and pedestrians can also become part of the overflow parking and circulation system for major events.
Now consider what happens when an ordinary traffic situation suddenly becomes an emergency.
Last night, thousands of people had to leave the stadium while police and other emergency personnel were responding to incidents. At that point, every available access route matters. A roadway that is congested with parked vehicles, school traffic and neighborhood traffic is not simply inconvenient—it can become an emergency-access concern.
This is precisely why the community believes Z-43-25 should be evaluated in the context of the existing cumulative demand on this area, rather than looking only at the average number of vehicle trips generated by a proposed residential development.
Z-43-25 would place additional homes and additional vehicles immediately adjacent to an area that already experiences significant school-related traffic and event-related strain. The question is not simply whether the proposed development can accommodate its own residents under normal conditions.
I attached photographs showing cars blocking access to the school. Johnsdale Place, already only 17-18′ wide was half taken by parked cars, leaving only feet for one way access. There are drainage ditches on both sides of Johnsdale Place and Johnsdale Road meaning a firetruck can not just simply drive off-road to get through. Just a couple of days ago, local news reported a Clayton Fire Truck overturning into a drainage ditch. A single parked vehicle along these streets immediately causes friction and one way passage. This is extremely dangerous for pedestrians because limited sight lines further force them into less than 9′ of space when traffic passes. When multiple vehicles are parked and left unattended that presents an entirely new level of problem. For Z-43-25, where will new residential overflow parking legally park? Where will it illegally park? Will the school find itself having to monitor its own lot against residential parking as well?
I walked up to the high school a week or so ago during a THURSDAY night football game and the parking was overflowing into the access channels. Cars were parking on the access road surface that connects the bus lot behind the school to main rear parking lot. If that access and Johnsdale Place access become clogged with parked cars, fire truck, EMS size vehicles cannot fit through. That leaves the school with 2 other entrances that also lead directly into parking facilities. Were these access points clogged up with cars as well? Who monitors the legality of parking while the event is ongoing or do we rely on the infrastructure design to suffice?
The City should also ask:
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- Where will emergency vehicles go when Johnsdale Road is congested?
- What happens when neighborhood parking spills onto Johnsdale during a major school event?
- Can emergency vehicles enter and exit the proposed development if surrounding streets are congested?
- How would an evacuation of Millbrook High affect traffic circulation through this neighborhood?
- What happens when school traffic, event traffic, residential traffic and an emergency response occur simultaneously?
- Has the cumulative impact of these conditions actually been analyzed?
I am asking Council to recognize what those incidents demonstrated.
Infrastructure is not truly adequate simply because it functions on an ordinary day. It has to function when the community is under stress.
Friday night provided a real-world example of how quickly the area surrounding Millbrook High can become a high-volume, emergency-response environment. That should matter when Council is deciding whether this is the appropriate location and intensity for additional residential development.
Before approving Z-43-25, I respectfully ask Council to require a meaningful examination of emergency access, overflow parking, Johnsdale Road capacity, school-event traffic, pedestrian movement and evacuation conditions.
The residents of Litchford Forest should not have to wait for an emergency to discover that the surrounding infrastructure was never designed to accommodate the cumulative demands being placed upon it.
Please take what happened at Millbrook High Friday night into consideration as part of your evaluation of Z-43-25.
Sincerely,
Larissa Greene on behalf of all Litchford Forest Residents
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