Toni Kenion spent years working as an emergency-room nurse for WakeMed. Now she’s leading her neighbors in a fight against the health system’s plans to build a hospital next to their Rolesville subdivision. Kenion, who moved to Rolesville seven years ago and directs the Barrington Homeowners Association, says residents chose their homes for the area’s small country-town feel, and she doesn’t want that traded away for a 24-hour medical campus on their doorstep.
WakeMed is proposing a healthplex and 45-bed acute-care hospital on 31 acres along Burlington Mills Road in Rolesville, according to the News & Observer. The project sits near Rolesville Middle School and directly adjacent to the Barrington subdivision, and WakeMed originally proposed a 24-hour standalone emergency department with 12 treatment rooms before seeking state approval to expand it into a full hospital. The company purchased the 31.38-acre tract at 4801 Burlington Mills Road on May 28, 2026, buying the land from heirs of the Wiggins family after an official lot division was recorded earlier that month, according to the Town of Rolesville.
The Rolesville Board of Commissioners is set to consider the rezoning and annexation needed for the project, and WakeMed has asked the board to postpone that decision until October 8. The health system is seeking to rezone the site from residential low to commercial high, and WakeMed says the project would bring emergency and inpatient care closer to northeastern Wake County, projecting about $53.8 million in capital investment and roughly 77 full-time positions by 2030, per the same News & Observer report.
Why Barrington Homeowners Are Pushing Back
Barrington residents cite traffic, ambulance activity, lighting, sirens, noise, and the sheer proximity to homes as their core objections. Kenion and other Barrington residents oppose the project’s location, even as she has said residents want WakeMed in Rolesville, just not in that specific area near their homes. Erin Sullivan, another resident, raised concerns about lights, sirens, traffic, and children living nearby, telling the board that children spend substantial time in the neighborhood and should be factored into any decision…