City Council - Regular Meeting

And I would ask that you please silence all electronic devices. At this time, I'd like to call on council member Ian Baltudis for tonight's invocation. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, it's Rotary Tuesday in Burlington. For those Rotary members in the crowd, I'd like to use our Rotary four-way test as my invocation today. If you know the four-way test or a Rotary member, I invite you to join me. First, is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will be beneficial to all concerned? Thank you. [clears throat]

And now I recognize city clerk Beverly Smith for our um disclosure of conflicts of interest. Members of council, it is my responsibility to remind you of your duty to avoid conflicts of interest. I ask if there are any potential conflicts concerning tonight's agenda items. Done.

Thank you. And tonight we have four additions to the consent agenda to adopt storm water storm water project prioritization criteria. Item B, downtown utilities change order number two to contract with Jimmy R. Lynch and Sons Incorporated. Item C, appointments to city advisory boards and commissions. And item D, city council committee appointments. I need a motion and a second to approve or deny the additions to the agenda. Motion to approve. Second. Thank you. All in favor? I. Thank you.

And we need to adopt our agenda for tonight. Um, I need a motion and a second to adopt or deny the agenda with the additions just named. So move. Second. Thank you. All in favor? I.

Okay. So, our consent agenda. These are items that are typically non-controversial. If anyone has any questions about the following items, then please let us know. So item A is to adopt the storm water project prioritization criteria as the official method for selecting projects under the 8020 cost share program which funds private property storm water improvements. Item B is to approve the downtown utilities change order number two to the water and sewer contracts between the city of Burlington and Jimmy R. Lynch and Suns Incorporated upon satisfaction of all legal and insurance requirements. Item C, to approve the following slate of appointments to the city advisory boards and commissions as spelled out in your agenda. And that's to the traffic commission and the tree and appearance commission. And item D, to approve the following city council member committee appointments, and that also is spelled out in your agenda. Do I have a motion and second to um receive the consent agenda?

So move. Second. All in favor? I. Thank you.

And now we will move into our time of public hearings. Um item one for public hearings. Um actually I'd like to recognize um Jamie Lawson to director of planning and development services. Um, and item one, I will read that to you so you'll know what Jamie's talking about. Um it is a public hearing um scheduled to consider a city initiated annexation petition for the Greon Lane dedicated public right ofway which is located at the terminus of Greon Lane abuing Alamance County tax ID number 105984 to the north P1 195982 to the south and the Lock Ridge Parkway rightway to the west.

Good evening uh mayor and members of council. Um so the following three items are all essentially um the same type of application. I just wanted to summarize that before we go forward. So they are all uh Greon Lane right ofway the um Guilford Macintosh Park and Marina University common city lot and then the valley golf course. These are all cityowned parcels that are all contiguous to existing city limits. These are a city initiated um annexation requests uh purely because they're city-owned parcels. That's pretty simple stated. So I'll be happy to go through each item. Um and I'll start with the Greon Lane right ofway annexation. So, as shown on the map and included in your packet, the area that we're talking about on circling, uh this is the Greon Lane um rightway area. It's located at the terminus of Greon Lane. Um there is a water line connection that has occurred uh that connects Huffman Mill Road and Lock Lockidge Parkway. Um this line was installed within the dedicated right of way. Uh the area is planned at some point for a future ride ofway connection. You can see for the color um adjacent to the parcels which is in a yellowish shade that that means that the area is within existing city limits. So, the area as I mentioned is uh contiguous and um in front of you tonight is the public hearing which has been properly advertised. I'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Do you have questions? Okay. Then at this time, I'll open the floor for public comments on this item only. And I'll ask you to please state your name and address for the record. Each speaker is asked to limit comments to five minutes and we do have a timer. So you you'll be able to see that time. Um so do we have anyone who would like to speak um public comments on this item?

Okay, please come forward, state your name and address and just keep your comments to five minutes. Oh, before she speaks, I'll just like to also add that the annexation requests do not affect any other properties that are adjacent or within the area. Okay. Okay. And so this is on the Greon Lane annexation. Yes. Okay. Thank you.

My name is Wanda Small. My address is 7471 Danford Road in Burlington. Um however on property which is Alamance County tax ID number 105980 which attaches to that uh track that she is referring to and we are just opposing it. Um this is connects to what used to be an entire family farm that has been split up to different family members. And I know we already know that it's trying to be proposed for a road to come through from Lake Macintosh as long as well as water and sewer. And because that traffic would come directly through the middle of the farm and we are opposed to it. There are elderly that live in there. We also have children and grandchildren and we just would like for that to be considered.

Thank you for plus all the traffic that would come through from Lake Macintosh. Right. Thank you for your comments. Are there other comments concerning this annexation? If there are no other comments at this time, I'll entertain a motion to close the public hearing. Motion approved. Second. All in favor? Um, so is there discussion on this? Just a point of clarification. This is city- owned property. Okay. City owned by

Okay. Mayor motion to approve this annexation. Okay. And second second. All in favor? I. Thank you. That annexation passes. So, let's go to public hearing item two again. Uh, do you need to speak to this, Jamie, to this one? Um, I'll be happy to just share the maps and the information so the public understands and I just wanted to clarify. I was corrected by um director of uh transportation like none.

It is not public um not city-owned rightway. It's public rightway. Public rightway. Okay. Thank you.

So, the the next um request is the Guilford uh Park and Marina. This is located in Guilford County. Um it's several different parcels um as shown on the map. Um the uh westernmost boundary is NC Highway 61 uh and the eastern most boundary is Wheeler Bridge Road. These again are contiguous to existing city limits and um as a result staff does recommend annexation of these parcels as well.

Okay. Thank you. Um so at this time we'll open the floor for public comments on this item, the Guilford Park and Marina annexation. Um is there anyone who would like to speak to this item? If there is no one then Okay. Rusty Hines property adjacent to the property that's being annexed. I just was wondering about the purpose of the annexation. Why are you annexing all of that? And I'm going to I didn't hear that. Oh, I'm sorry. I was late getting here.

No problem. So So all of the annexations that are being requested tonight are all cityowned property. Um and so they are also contiguous to existing city corporate limits. So these are city initiated annexations um to encompass the land within our jurisdiction. Is that going to be considered in the city limits? Correct. Okay. But not annexing the county land. Guilford County land. This is land within Guilford County, but it's owned by the city of Burlington. So, we're not So, does that answer your question?

So, we're not we're not annexing any of the land that Guilford County owns adjacent to the lake. This is just land that Burlington and it's it's not privately held property as well. All right. Thank you. Okay. Other comments on the Guilford Park and Marina annexation? If there are no other comments at this time, I'll entertain a motion to close the public hearing. Motion approved. A second. Second. All in favor? I I. And um now we need a motion to approve or deny the annexation of the Guilford Macintosh Park and Marina.

Mayor, I make a motion to approve the Guilford Macintosh Park and Marina annexation request. Thank you. Thank you. All in favor? I I

Okay, the annexation passes. And next we have a public hearing on uh city initiated annexation petition for University Commons city lot, city-owned. Um it is the site of City of Burlington Southwest Booster Pump Station located adjacent to University Commons shopping center north and west of the intersection of University Drive and the entrance road to Interstate 40. So um you can see from this map it's what the area is what's called a donut hole. It is surrounded by cityowned property. So again this is uh just as the same other request. This is city-owned property. It's contiguous and we are asking um for it to be included within corporate city limits.

Okay. Thank you. Um so at this time we'll open the floor for public comments on this item. Are there any comments? If there are no comments, then I'll receive a motion to close the public hearing. Motion approved. And a second. Second. All in favor? I I. And we need a motion and second to approve or deny the annexation of University Common City Lot. I'll make a mo I'll make a motion to approve the annexation of University Common City Lot. Second. All in favor? I. Thank you.

Okay. And for the fourth item [snorts] for our public hearing, uh scheduled to consider city initiated annexation petition for the Valley Golf Course. And again, I'll direct your attention to um Jamie Lawson. [clears throat]

Thank you. So again, um the area that's shown in blue uh are all city-owned parcels um associated with the golf course. It is adjacent to existing city limits to the south. Um these are city-owned parcels as stated from the other applications and the reasoning for the request.

Okay. And at this time, we'll move into a public hearing on this item only, the Valley Golf Course. Are there um people in the in attendance who wish to speak to public hearing? Just one person. Two. Okay. Are there others? Well, I will invite you to come forward and um state your name and address and you will have five minutes um to speak to this. Thank you. Hey, I'm Tracy Pittz and I live at 843 Indian Valley Drive. Okay.

I just I don't really understand what is the purpose of doing this. We've lived out there for 30 years and now all of a sudden I I just don't understand it. And then when I'm looking at the and I know this is probably rough, but when I'm looking at that and I'm looking at our property, it's hard to tell like if are y'all going to have somebody survey so we know exactly where because we're on the course where the line is. It's always been I can tell you I talked to my next door neighbors and they were all like we've never really understood where the line is. So what I don't understand why this is actually being done now. I'm going to um yield to our

Sure. So um well first off the area is uh surveyed and on the map it's it's described as meets and bounds. So it it's done by a licensed surveyor and this would be the map that would ultimately get sent to the secretary of state um uh when annexations occur. So as in some cases we will hear annexation petitions that are associated with with new development where where projects want to be included within city limits where there's utilities extended. Um that is not the case here. So this there's no development proposed. There's no extension of water or sewer involved with this request.

Okay. So city water sewer is not coming out there. No, it's it's it's not it's not located um close enough, right? It's to the to the east and to the west. Okay. Um so this does not have any impact on on that as well. Uh typically the city will look and analyze properties that they own and do an inventory and then we'll come in front of council to make the request to make them part of corporate limits. So, we have these four and then there's another set that will come be coming in front of you um once they're ready.

Okay. So, I guess just living on that property and you know, I have a feeling there's quite a few of us that are very proud to live out there. Sure. And um we just I guess we just want to make sure there's not you know something going to happen where you know if you didn't have a if the golf course wasn't doing well um the city would always they could make a decision to change what we're all about. So I'm we just want I just want to make sure there's not something on the agenda totally understand that we don't know about.

Yeah. Totally understand. And um and that is not the purpose of the annexation. It's just to because like it like like we've said, a lot of us have lived out there for a very long time. Um, and there's like covenants that we abide by to make sure that everything kind of stays a certain way. Um, and I guess we would just want to make sure that that's still all intact. Okay. Thank you for answering that for me. Appreciate that. Thank you for your comments,

Madam Mayor. one of the council, one of the if you're looking for this now belongs in the jurisdiction, for example, our police department and our fire department. So, having come into the city, we now our police department will take over for our property out there, they'll be responded to any sort of instances. Okay. Thank you.

On all these, right? Chief may want to speak to that. Yeah, I think I think um you know the we all take a special special amount of pride in making sure that we take care of the things that we're responsible for and the city's golf course has always been one of those. Speak directly to you so I can see you. Uh and so you know on the police department side uh it's very important that we can deliver the same quality of police service at the golf course on the golf course property as we can in the city of like in the city limits right outside this front door. Uh so this is an important component of making sure that we can do that. Uh rest assured that the uh golf course does not have a crime problem, right? That doesn't mean there's not some lost golf balls out there. I don't know what you're talking about. But uh so that that is another component that uh it empowers the city to be able to take responsibility for our own space, too. And the marina in Guilford County is kind of a similar component of that. if there, God forbid, there was something happened out there, you have the same level of response within the sheriff's office or anybody else.

So, I'm going to ask a question. So, let's say that we see some kids out there that are doing some stuff. We're supposed to call the city of Burlington, please. All you got to do is call 911. They'll send them to the right place. That's the best part. Absolutely. Every once in a while. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And uh you know, rest assured that Director Laws does not want calls about somebody riding a four-wheeler across it might have some consequences. That's good to know. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. I'm Ron Walker, 824 Indian Valley Drive. I live there and I own five other properties that are in that circle right there in the middle of the golf course. Um, that was one of my questions, Chief, and I appreciate that. We do have county sheriffs riding through, but it's a comfort to know that you're going to be had. I [clears throat] respectfully come before you because this land is the city's own property and I would say you could do about anything you want with the city's own property. My only concern is as many of the folks here uh is the encroachment of the city onto our property, annexing our property and of course the main thing is property taxes. And then the question follows, well, do we get water and sewer and things like that? So we have that concern. I'm hearing this more uh this tonight that that's not in the plans. We have no problem to worry about any annexation of our properties. The other thing I wanted to make sure that you're aware of is we do have restricted covenants in the Indian Valley community. These go all the way back to Indian Valley Country Club.

[snorts]

They have been carried forward and on June the 28th of 1990 the majority of the property owners signed an extension of the restrictive covenants. So, I have those where they're filed in grant if you'd like to have them. But in case, and I don't think this would ever happen, but in case we turned into a quarry hills where the city made a decision, we're going to have a golf course. We're going to send a road down the center of each fairway and on each side we're going to build houses. I hope and pray that you realize the value of that course to this community from a recreation standpoint. But if that were to ever happen, we have a fourperson panel that anything is built. [clears throat] It's called an architectural committee. They have to come before our committee and have their plans approved. Any questions about that, Mr. Huffman? It's legal, right?

I'm not aware of it, but that's fine. And that's why I'm here to make you aware of the fact we do have covenants. We have a a what I call a paradise back in Indian Valley. We want to keep it that way. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um I hope that this means that we're good neighbors, right? That the city of Burlington and and those of you who live adjacent to the city of Burlington are can be good neighbors. We have enjoyed that relationship for many years since the the city actually bailed it out

in the early 1970s. We had two builders that were going to put in a water and sewer system and develop it as a country club. The economy went down. One of the builders pulled out. The second one said, "I can't do it by myself." And fortunately, the city came to the rescue and bought that property. I think it's one of the smartest decisions the city made. I actually work there part time and [clears throat] I will tell you it is busy. When the weather warms up, we're fully booked. So, thank you so much. Thank you. Other comments on the annexation of the Valley Golf Course. I got a question.

Can you go back one annex to the second? It went by so quick I didn't get a chance to ask the question. Um the marino the marino just one quick question. Oh you I do not have problem well actually let us wrap up this one first and then we'll come back to that. Um okay now I lost my train of thought. I think we need to close the um public hearing on the valley golf course. Any other comments on Valley Golf Course? Um then I need a motion and a second to close the public hearing. approved. Second. All in favor?

Thank you. And then I need to uh entertain a motion to approve the annexation of the Valley Golf Course.

Mayor, before a motion, I just want to comment and thank staff for putting these together. Um I know there's a little bit of confusion. I appreciate everyone who came and and spoke. Um these are pieces of property where the city's been making investments and maintaining them for many, many years. Um and I think that looks a little weird when they're not actually in the city. U and so this really cleans that up and makes it very clear that these are part of our city. They belong to the city of Burlington. They're valuable to the city of Burlington and the people who get to use them every single day, whether it's pumping waste water or golfing uh or enjoying the lake. Uh and it just justifies more firmly for our council that we can and should continue to maintain and invest in these properties um because they are officially part of our city limits. Uh, and so I appreciate them doing all the work to kind of go through this bureaucracy of getting this cleaned up, straightened out, and then we have to go through these public hearings. But again, thank you all for participating in this.

Thank you. And I will make a motion to approve if to approve the annexation. Second. All in favor? I. Thank you. That annexation passes. Now, I I'll just claim a do I call this a point of order? We'll just do what we're going to do. Um I invite you to if you would come to the microphone and um take us back to the Guilford Park and Marina and I realize so we have already voted on that annexation but you are welcome to ask a question. Yeah just can you go back to state your name and Raymond Stewart 518 Whit Avenue. Thank you.

And and and I'm bring this question up based on a lady that spoke about, you know, what what is the one primarily I'm talking about is the 103113, which is the triangle in the bottom corner. So I I'm thinking that the other side of the lake, which was like 120 acres, Gibsonville owned it. Y'all bought it. They've got walking trails on it now. So, I kind of see it tying to the marina

or where you go, paddle boats, whatever you want to call it. What the little triangle in the bottom right corner kind of stands alone. What What is the long-term goal, plan, vision for that? I mean, is it going to be down the road water, sewer? Does does anybody know? But I if if there is a plan long-term down the road, I do not know it. Um do do you want to speak to that? Um I also am not aware of a plan. It's in a natural state. I don't believe that there's any any

So when we uh purchased those properties from Gibsonville, um the the reason was to protect those properties and the lake from any potential future development. Um, so that's the primary reason. Um, there could be a city use in the future, maybe some trails or not, something like that, but there would be no no plans for any type of development. Good. Perfect. I might just add one more thing. I think the public purpose was for the protection of the lake is what it was. What was that? The public purpose was for the protection of the lake.

Yes. And you can stop me if I go wrong, but our uh annexation of the property doesn't change for one second what we could or might choose to do in the future. It just changes the jurisdiction where the properties at. We own it. Correct. And I don't say that to be flippant in any way. It's the city's property, right? We're just moving it into the city limits. Does not change our long-term plan, short-term plan, ability to change anything. None of that changes. It's all the same. It's really a paper chase that we've operated on in the last 35 minutes. I tried to buy from here for this very reason. Sure. They wouldn't sell it to an individual. Yeah.

We want to be a good neighbor to you, too. We'll keep it trees. That's right. I I do like green. Thank you Jamie for leading us through those presentations.

So at this time we come to our uh public comments and I will call on the public well actually we had no signups. We had no signups for public comments but if you've attended a city of Burlington council meeting recently you know that I'm okay if if there's something you want to share with council this is the time to do it. Um we will still hold you to the um name, address, and five minutes. Um so I'll just ask is you may not speak to any of the hearings, but you can speak if there's something you want to speak to other than the hearings that we just had. Any comments? Okay. And um we have your name and address on record. So

I have not been before this board before because I've lived in the county. Uh but back in 1990, I worked on the transportation improvement plan for this town. I have a copy of it right here. And what I want to address real briefly is the north side of town is getting awfully congested. There are many nights or mornings when [clears throat] Flora Avenue from Birch Bridge to uh the extension Durham Street Extension is totally packed bumper to bumper.

I'd like for y'all to revisit this plan. Glen Co is supposed to have an extension that will bypass the intersection. Um, this is very much needed right now. Um, Rockwood O'Neal got squashed. That was the first thing, the first sign of this thing not being carried through with. But if you would look at it, Glen Co has 300 houses going in on one end. That road's supposed to be open on the other end to go straight through Glen Ray. Okay.

Thank you. Thank you. And I am going to guess that that is on record in the traffic office or something because you have a copy of it. Surely we do too. I have the original in blue if you need it.

You see it very well. It should be reviewed on a regular basis on the improvement. We see a lot going on south of Grand and that opening up around bypasses. This was called the northern loop. Okay. And with so many housing developments coming at the end of Gleno Road and north of town, we need a loop. One part of it was to connect the shallow church road, which would give us a straight shot into Elon and West Burlington. Yep. Thank you. Thank you so much.

If there are no other public comments, then um I'll turn to our city council members. Do you have items that you'd like to bring up this evening? Any comments?

Um, I'll bring up We had a presentation last night at the work session from North Carolina Railroad um about passenger service in North Carolina. It was encouraging to hear that Burlington's had the the second fastest growing ridership uh of all their stations in North Carolina. Um, and that they're seeing higher ridership than they ever seen on a passenger rail here. Um, what's been discouraging is that as they've added additional Pedmont service, Burlington has been skipped over for some of those trains and like many of our citizens, I enjoy taking the train to Raleigh to avoid congestion there. But the timing because of those trains that skip us makes it very challenging and they brought that up in the report. Um, however, they made it very clear that they have other goals um and that there's an undetermined timeline of when those those stations may be restored. U I would love for our council to explore a resolution to NC rail and Amtrak requesting that we be added back to those stops sooner rather than later. Railroads have a tendency to work on their own timets.

Um and I would love if we could tell them that it's important to our public that we have that service restor as soon as possible. Thank you. Would love to ability to explore that with council in the coming weeks or month. And would would you like to maybe propose a formal resolution to be adopted by this body to maybe ask staff to put it together and bring it back to us and put in some details about the you know the that needed and and most of all it's missed now. Yeah. And uh I'm in favor of it if we let's ask staff to bring back a resolution and I'm certainly in favor of it and I'm we'll certainly vote for it.

Yeah. if that's amendable to council. I I think I see everybody shaking their head. I think as a town that wouldn't exist without the railroad, it breaks my heart to see the trains fly right through and just stick right over us. So that is true. Yeah. But um and then just one other comment. I see a lot of folks with your I voted sticker on. It is primary election day and the city polls just closed. Uh so thank you so much to everyone who did vote and especially to our poll workers and the candidates who are out there putting their time and energy into this local election. Although I did hear on the news before coming that um election results will not um begin to be reported until 8:30 p.m. I believe because of some challenges in the western part.

A couple of counties asked to have it, you know, extended. So they're delaying it. That's what the board of elections reported. Y

So it's going to take us a little longer to know what happened, but we'll know soon. Other comments this evening? ask a quick question. I'm Sher Harris. I live [clears throat] at 292 2923 Laurel Drive. Uh this has nothing to do with that, but um I'm a realtor and actually have a property listed on East Davis Street right across from your shop. And I had heard that there were plans to do re revitalization down that way of East Davis Street. Do y'all know anything about that? Have you heard of anything?

I think there's some property owners down that way that would like to see revitalization happen. Yes. Okay. But nothing's in the works as far as you know that I'm aware of. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you.

C other council members with comments. I have a few announcements. Um some upcoming events. The city of Burlington St. Patty's Day Bash will be held downtown on March the 13th from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Our next council meeting will be held on Tuesday, March the 17th. Everybody wear green at 700 p.m. And on Saturday, March the 14th, Alamance County will be hosting a hazardous waste collection event at the training facility located at 100 Stone Quarry Road in Hall River from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. And this is an Alamance County event, but we um of course that's a Burlington property. But I have another um item I'd like to share with you. Uh city staff and council received a letter of commendation from someone that interacted with the Burlington Fire Department during a medical emergency. And this individual shared their experience and exceptional care received in response to their call for service. And so I'd like to thank Chief Lawrence and the staff involved um for this notable delivery of service and representation of Burlington. So thank you. [applause] We do have wonderful staff and um wonderful services in the city of Burlington and I I'm grateful to live here um and to be your mayor. At this time, if there is nothing else, um, we need a motion and a second to adjurnn.

I got a motion. Okay. All in favor? I. Thank you. Thank you all.