Northern Wake County is finally getting its own Division of Motor Vehicles driver’s license office, ending years of long drives to North Raleigh or Franklin County for residents in Wake Forest and Rolesville. The new office, funded in the current state budget, is expected to open by early 2027 with 10 driver’s license examiners on staff.
The location has not yet been chosen, but state officials say it will land in either Wake Forest or Rolesville, according to the Raleigh News & Observer. It will be smaller than the three existing Raleigh offices and the new Fuquay-Varina office, but larger than the DMV branches in Cary, Garner and Wendell. Once it opens, it will become the seventh DMV office in Wake County, a county now home to nearly 1.3 million residents. Right now, the closest existing offices for northern Wake residents are on Spring Forest Road in North Raleigh and in Louisburg in Franklin County.
The office is part of a pair of new DMV facilities included in the current-year budget, which also funded a new office in Tabor City, a town in Columbus County. Lawmakers separately authorized 24 new license examiners for new offices opening in Fuquay-Varina, Brunswick County, Cabarrus County and Sampson County, plus 40 more examiners for existing offices statewide.
A Freshman Lawmaker Claims Credit
State Rep. Mike Schietzelt, a Republican first elected to represent North Carolina House District 35 in November 2024, announced the new office earlier this summer. A Marine Corps veteran and attorney, per Ballotpedia, Schietzelt said residents had contacted him directly about the lack of a driver’s license office in his district. He said he heard residents, fought for them and delivered the new office…