City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I don't know if this is working, is it? Okay, good. So I'd like to welcome everyone to tonight's August 18th, 2026 City Council meeting and ask that you please silence all electronic devices. It has been a long day for me as I'm sure it has been for you since we have the same amount of hours. So I'm just gonna invite you this evening as our invocation for you to just center yourself in the place where you are. Take a deep breath in and let it out. And I'm gonna let you do that intentionally on your own a couple of times. I also invite you to look around at your community to be mindful and to give thanks for the people who live in the city together with us. And as we begin our meeting this evening, let us give thanks for the day that we've had. Amen. This time I recognize City Clerk Beverly Smith.

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.

None. Thank you. At this time, we need a motion and second to approve the minutes from July 6, 2026 work session, July 7, City Council meeting, and July 21, City Council meeting to have a motion and a second.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. We have additions to our consent agenda this evening. We have item G, appointments to advisory boards and commissions, and item H, voluntary contiguous annexation requests, 1458 NC Highway 61 South. We need a motion and a second to approve the additions to the agenda.

So moved. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

And to adopt our agenda with those additions, we need a motion and second to adopt or deny.

Motion approved.

Second. All in favor? Aye. You're getting ahead of me tonight. And we have our consent agenda. These items are typically non-controversial and if you have questions just let us know. hear the consent agenda. Item A, to approve the reclassification of the assistant city engineering director position to assistant city engineer in the engineering department effective at the beginning of the next phase cycle following council approval. Item B, to approve the reclassification of the administrative services coordinator position pay grade 207 to a permit specialist pay grade 203 in the inspections department effective at the beginning of the next pay cycle following council approval. Item C, to approve the reclassification of one crime analyst position pay grade 210 to a crime data developer and analyst position pay grade 214 in the police department effective at the beginning of the next pay cycle following council approval. Item D, to adopt a resolution authorizing the donation of three surplus police department vehicles to the Public Safety Training Department of Alamance Community College pursuant to NCGS 160A-280. Item E, to amend the 2026 fees and charges schedule establishing the following solid waste fees for the collection of excessive amounts of bulk waste placed at the curb with the total amount assessed in accordance with the adopted solid waste fee schedule based on quantity of material collected. Initial excessive bulk waste fee, this is bulk waste exceeding the equivalent of a standard pickup truck bed load will be $75. Additional landfill trip fee, each additional trip to the landfill required to dispose of excessive bulk waste is also $75. Item F, to approve budget amendment 2027-04, moving expenditures budgeted as annual operating expenditures to multi-year project funds. Item G. To approve the following slate of appointments to the City Advisory Boards and Commissions, the ABC Board appointment is Christina Benson, whose term will expire June 30, 2029, and Board of Adjustment appointment Terry McGee-Paylor expires June 30, 2029. Item H, to adopt a resolution to set a public hearing date for the City Council to consider the 1458 NC Highway 61 South annexation request. I need a motion and a second to approve or deny the consent. Motion approved.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. At this time, we will continue our public hearing. We will move into a public hearing continued from our last meeting on July 21. And I'd like to recognize Executive Director of Planning and Development Services, Jamie Wilson.

I would go ahead and start my presentation. As you recall, this item was continued from the July City Council, July 21st City Council public hearing date. But just as a reminder, I'll go through the presentation in this way. If you have any questions for me, I'll be happy to answer them. And then I will turn it over to the applicant if you have questions.

Okay.

Thank you. Okay. So just as a reminder, the property that is seeking the request for the rezoning is addressed as 2936 Alamance Road. It is on the east side of Alamance Road, roughly 4.79 acres. It is split zoned currently, so you'll see in the yellow shade that portion of the property is currently zoned medium density residential, and the rear of the property was in the purple zone, which is shade, which is medium industrial. the applicant is requesting a rezoning a limited use rezoning which means that they are seeking not all of the uses that are that fall under the use table for general business but they are seeking a selection of them so i've highlighted on this page the request for by the applicant these uses are the uses that the applicant has in yellow has requested as part of their application okay some of the uses in red have been removed so i've illustrated that but the uses that are in yellow are what remain And just as a reminder, the existing future land use designation of this area is split as well. The front portion of the property, which coincides mainly with the residential zoning, is suburban residential. You'll see that in the in the tannish yellow shade. and then the rear of the property corresponding with the industrial zoning is in general industrial. You'll also note that this red shade to the north is the regional commercial feature land use designation and the interstate is to the north as well as other commercial and mixed use land uses. Staff has recommended this rezoning with option number two found in your consistency statement sheet. We do feel that this rezoning request does, while it's not consistent with the future land use designation that's in place right now, it is in line with the regional commercial future land use designations that's just to the north and you'll also note i think we discussed at the last meeting that any future development that that may occur on this property would be subject to the unified development ordinance and any of the standards that are associated with that that may address buffering landscaping um streetscape design standards which are not in front of you today since this is just a rezoning request but i just wanted to make you remind you that that is that would be a requirement i'm happy to answer any questions that you might have i don't have any questions

I appreciate all staff's notes on some of the public comments that we received in written form relating to the UDO guidelines. So thank you for those details.

My pleasure. Okay, I will ask for the applicant, Ryan Moffitt, to come up and make his presentation at this time.

Good evening, Mayor and members of council. My name is Ryan Moffitt. I'm a lawyer at the Vernon Law Firm. We're located at 522 South Lexington Avenue across the street. It's good to be with you this evening and to have another opportunity to advance this request in front of you this evening. It's an important request. To my clients, J.M.N. Holdings LLC, that is Dr. Morgan Thomas and Mr. Aaron Clark, the husband and wife who own the applicant entity but also own and operate the Plaza Vet Clinic here in Burlington. Just to remind you that that clinic has served this community for 35 years. It's been very successful. It's done a fantastic job and it's an important asset to this community and it's growing. Dr. Thomas is taking it to new heights. She has run the practice since 2019. They together made the decision to invest in their practice, invest in themselves, invest in this community, and purchased this land in 2022. Its property was listed on the open market with a North Carolina licensed real estate broker in 2021. It was on the market for more than a year before my clients purchased it at a 22% discount from its listed price. So it was there for anyone and everyone who may wish to own it. Uh, to have an opportunity to do so, and and they took that opportunity to invest in their business. This is not a passive investment for them. This is what they do every day. Um, and it's the kind of thing that that personally. We want to see in this community people investing in themselves and in their business. Um, I'm just going to be brief on my, uh. summary of the request but what we have here is a general business limited use request currently it's split zoned between medium industrial and mdr as you can see on the map on the screen there are 77 uses that are presently entitled to go on this property without any further discussion or question today My clients have eliminated over 60% of those. We're trying to limit the uses to 28 specific uses. Among the uses that my clients are electing to forego in making this request are family care homes, adult daycare centers, community youth and senior centers, Convention or conference centers, fire, EMS, or police stations, fraternal clubs or lodges, government maintenance, storage, and distribution, passenger terminal, such as for a bus. It wouldn't be a rail, but that would otherwise be permitted if it were possible there. Elementary schools, middle schools, vocational schools, automobile repair and servicing, Automobile sales and rentals, automotive towing and storage lot. They could do that tomorrow, but they are eliminating that as a permitted use. Automotive towing and storage lot is a permitted use on the land today. They are... voluntarily foregoing that in this request. Event venues, heavy equipment sales, rental and repair could be conducted on the property right now without council scrutiny or public comment. They are foregoing that use. Indoor and outdoor kennels is a permitted use on the land today. They are foregoing that use under this request. laundry and cleaning services, microbreweries or microdistilleries, outdoor storage, park and ride facilities, parking lot, parking structure, self-service storage, external access, self-service storage, internal access, theaters, truck stops, contractor services and yards, electrical, plumbing fabrication, fuel, oil, bottled gas distributors, general industrial services, heavy manufacturing, medium manufacturing, metal fabrication, solar farms, truck and freight terminals, minor utilities, agriculture and horticulture, agricultural support services. All of the uses I just listed are permitted on the property right now. without any further discussion from City Council or public input and therefore going every single one of those uses all of those uses have varying degrees of intensity all those uses have varying degrees of traffic impact all of those uses have their own set of requirements under Burlington's unified development ordinance that are there to protect the public at large and the surrounding properties from those uses in this place right now. So even if they wanted to make one of those uses, there are protections built in the ordinance intended to make those uses compatible where they are right now. Just like the uses that we are here this evening to preserve have protections within the Unified Development Ordinance for those uses. And my client's desire to construct a veterinary clinic will be subject to those very limitations and the scrutiny that city staff is going to give it in the event that you all support this request and approve it. I appreciate this process. My clients appreciate this process. Anytime there's dialogue around a request and concern about specific issues related to a request, we have to have conversation about it. We've spent the last several weeks, I have, talking to my clients, of course, speaking with representatives from the neighboring group, specifically Mr. Sulecki, Mr. Harris, spoken with staff. I've taken a lot of staff time. You have a very talented, but you have a very busy staff, and they have generously offered their time to myself, to members of the public who have concerns, and we have thoroughly vetted, particularly the traffic question, and we have spent time looking at the landscaping requirements that are attendant to a veterinary clinic. This preferred use within the permitted uses, the veterinary clinic use is By my estimation of all the permitted uses, either currently allowable or within the limitation, the limited set, one of the most low impact uses that we could choose to make on this property. And I would add, by the way, that clinic is a permitted use on the land right now in the medium industrial section. It's divided by a creek. The cost attendant to crossing a creek to make use of one's land is just prohibitive. And the reasonable thing to do is to zone the entire property under one zoning district that is compatible with the existing uses and follows the natural progression of the regional commercial growth of that area. Who has the screen control? Jamie, do you have that? Do you mind pulling up the map that shows the future land use designations? Okay. So that is the future land use plan. That map represents what the city projected future land uses to be. you will see there's dark purple that represents areas that the city anticipates and plans will become industrial in the future. Much of that has been industrial and remains industrial and continues to transform to industrial if it's not already. The red area is the area that the city has anticipated and planned would grow into regional commercial uses. That is the area that this parcel borders to the south. The light yellow area is area designated as suburban residential. That, as I understand it, is largely because at least to the west of North Carolina Highway 62, It exists as suburban residential land. That's what's there. And when you look at the actual zoning map for the light yellow area, For the portion east of 62, it is no longer suburban residential. It is office institutional. It is conditional industrial. It is medium industrial. It is being acquired by the Burlington Airport as we speak. The proposed use, the proposed uses and the preferred use The project that my clients are pursuing is squarely within the appropriate guidelines that the city's UDO permits. It just is. There's nothing unreasonable about it. And that's not in any way to say that individuals cannot have their personal preferences. We can all be entitled to our preferences about just about anything, but when it comes to people using their land within what the framework that the city provides, this request is squarely within that framework. We have been open to discussion and remain open to discussion about how this property gets planned, and submitted to the city for site plan review. As long as it's reasonable, my clients are reasonable people. But we cannot have this request held up and imposed with requirements that are not necessary to satisfy what the development ordinance exists to provide. We're going to remain open to communication and consideration when the design phase begins. Having looked at traffic, having had lots of time with Mike Nunn, thank you, Mike, very much. Having extensive conversations with my client and their contractor, Frank Chapman, is here to answer any questions. This is not a design-specific request. That notwithstanding, if that comes up, those questions can be addressed. this evening. But I'm here to tell you we've taken the time to have the communications to investigate what we can do, what's reasonable relative to a potential design relative to traffic. The traffic situation is one that As applicants, we can't do anything to fix traffic. We can't even say where the driveway is going to be. That's not up to us at all. That's a question that comes about when a site plan is submitted and when your city staff and the professionals here in the building apply there. apply their scrutiny to that i will end my comments there i certainly look forward to feedback and would appreciate an opportunity to address anything specifically that that we think needs to be clarified. But thank you for the opportunity to investigate this further and look for ways. And happy to answer any questions you have. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Council, do you have questions for the applicant? Mr. Moffitt, you named that the driveway, nobody knows where the driveway will be yet because that has to come at a later time.

That's correct. That's largely going to be deferred to DOT and Mike to the extent, I mean, when the site's designed, it's a narrow frontage. So there's only so many places it can go and

i expect they're going to be told where that's going to be i i know that was one of the concerns raised at our last meeting was the driveway location so just wanted to clarify that no other questions from council if there are no other questions then we will move into a time of public comments um to hear from from the public about this specific issue We ask that when you approach the podium, you state your name and address for the record, and you will have five minutes to speak. Do we have anyone who wants to speak tonight? Please come to the podium.

My name is Patricia Bird. I live at 1092 Stowe Street. And my concern is, again, it's a very narrow lot. and our driveway our road coming out for 51 houses plus a new house that just sold and then we have another house up on the way so say 53 houses it is really hard to maneuver in and out of there so if you look at the restrictions for where a driveway is going to be based on that lot size it's It's going to basically probably narrow straight into ours. And that road is so narrow. There's no, what do you call it, on the side of the road. You can't even ride a bicycle. You can't even walk. If I take my, I'm sorry, what? Shoulders? Shoulders. There's no shoulders. If I walk my dog, I've got to go across the street, and then I'm walking in the woods, basically. Again, there's two cars coming, one turning right, one turning left. You're looking at major, major issues. And that's our concern. Speed is another one. You have a blind corner to the left. You cannot see. Once that road turns, it is blind. And people fly down the road 45 miles an hour. And you've got about two seconds to either stop and not pull out. Or if you pull out half the time, they're right in front of you.

it is a major major concern and there will be major traffic issues thank you thank you other comments um and there's an there's someone coming and then and then you and

mean you can you can make your way to the podium that's not a problem state your name address and you'll have five minutes carol hellman 2087 harris farm court i just wanted a clarification i noticed a lot of things on the board that were um Yes, and the things that were in red, I couldn't read. My question is, is it only a veterinary clinic that is being applied for?

The list was everything in yellow. Those are the things that are already allowable.

Can they show that again? I couldn't read, so the ones in red were the ones that were not going to be.

They were removed by the applicant.

Okay. So one of the things that jumped out at me was aircraft park. The ones in yellow could possibly be allowed, is that what? Already.

Already? Only for part of the property.

This is the slide that shows what the applicant is requesting. What Mr. Moffitt was referring to are a different set of, well, the uses that are currently allowed within the medium industrial zoning district and the current zoning that's in place right now. So there may be... There may have been some confusion with respect to this slide, but this is what the applicant is seeking.

I may have heard him wrong, but I thought he said there were 60 uses that had been eliminated by the applicant. Is that what he said? It was 60%. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Bruce Harris, Jr. I live at 1088 Stowe Street, Burlington. Thank you council members for giving us an opportunity to speak to you and address our concerns. I'm very thankful to have had great parents and many of the things that they taught me over the years that when a problem arises and the people that are involved with that problem are reasonable and honest with one another, in many cases that problem can be resolved. And I think what we have here tonight is that I have many of our neighbors behind me here and I have a signed petition opposing this.

And Mr. Nunn, where's that lawyer? There he is right there.

We had a great phone conversation earlier this afternoon. The big elephant that's not in this room is the North Carolina Department of Transportation that has sole authority over Highway 62 with respect to everything, speed limits, stoplights, and so on and so forth. And to their credit, at our request, they have sent out on two separate occasions people to come out and look at the curve and the speeding, and they've determined that there's not a problem. They don't live there. we do we see the problem we recognize the near misses and what i am politely and respectfully to question you folks we're not opposed to this veterinarian office they're good honest people they're trying to earn a living all we're asking for from the city and or the state is to lower the speed limit from its current 45 to 35. and if possible, to synchronize to traffic lights. He's heard this for the second time today, and he's flat told me don't even try. I would like to use your . I'm standing here before you as a lifelong resident, taxpaying resident of this city, to use your collective efforts to get someone in a position of authority out of Greensboro, their engineering department. We're talking about four tenths of a mile. In comparison, and this may not be a fair comparison, but earlier today, my wife and I rode out, throw on your seatbelt, the village of Alamance. When you're traveling down south on Alamance Road and you pass through the village, the posted speed limit in the village proper is 30 miles an hour. As soon as you leave it, continuing south, it goes to 35 miles an hour for 1.1 mile. And Mr. Nunn, to his credit, explained to me why that is. It's a village, not a city or a town. So there are approximately 50 old homes on either side of Alamance Road from the village all the way around to the entrance to Heritage Glen. 50 homes. Where we live today, there's 51 town homes at Stables and Harris Farms. There are four single family homes existing, and there's proposed between 50 and 60 new town homes that have already been approved for construction at a later date. So, in summary, Please use your resources, whatever they may be, to convince someone or somebody to come over here from the NCDOT and sit at this young man's front desk and smoke the peace pipe and say all we're asking is for 4 tenths of a mile. That's it. To reduce the speed limit. Now, they're going to whip out their reports and say, Harris, you know, there haven't been any accidents here in the last three or four or five years. And that may be true.

And we'd like to keep it that way.

Right. And I'm very respectful. Those folks have a big, big job to keep our citizens safe all across our state. And if you're unable to do that, we still love you, but keep this in mind, and this is not directed to you folks personally, but when politicians and people in positions of power make bad decisions, they don't have to live with that. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Are there other comments?

okay um come to the microphone state your name and address and you'll have five minutes hi good evening my name is kim selecki i live at 2933 alamance road and i am the old stone house that sits directly across from the property um uh proposed to be rezoned um i live like to clarify first with what Mr. Moffitt said that while I understand the property currently can meet all of those other all of these classifications but that is the very back end of the property we would never see that if they build a vet office or had a repair shop it would be very back in and it would not face us there's woods that divide the property landscape or not landscape greenage uh the rezoning i feel will set a precedent there's two opposing lots that are current residential and approving this rezoning will set a precedent and then we will have a business district in front of our house and we do not want that we've lived in our house for nearly 20 years and we risk a sizable deduction in value in our home. And we bought that as our forever home. I echo all the concerns about traffic. It is awful. We have a young driver and I worry every day about her safety. I hear screeching of wheels all day long. It has been very apparent to us that it is a DOT problem, not a council problem. With that said, We want to preserve our neighborhood. We just want our home saved. We have residential all along our side of the street, and it has been residential in front of us. What we look out our window and see is a house right now, and there's two empty lots and a vet office. And we love Dr. Thomas. We're actually a very happy and loyal customer. And we will... continue to go to her but we do not want a busy business in our front yard and the traffic if you there's no problem traveling up and down nc62 it's getting on and getting off that's the constant problem and i just foresee collisions of people turning in the vet office and if i didn't live where i lived and she moved there i would certainly make comments of this is not a good place for business My husband has reached out to Mr. Moffitt twice since the postponement with no resolution. We've asked for very simple things like enhanced buffering. My husband has asked for a type D. buffering we just want to know that if this does approve that we're given some type of um further protection than having a business he asked for um like decreased signage like we don't want a big led flashing sign in our front yard but um we think that at minimum increase type d buffering would give us a little bit of relief. And I'd like to ask formally tonight, would that be something that you would be willing to entertain?

It's not a conditional arrangement here. The issue with this board is either up and down on the zoning. It can't be conditioned by anyone, even if Mr. Boffitt was in favor of it. This is not the right form for that.

Then I apologize for that. I wasn't aware. But we have tried over the last 30 days this postponement to reach a resolution. And we've basically been told that, no, that they don't have to offer that. The UFO would meet the minimum restrictions. But the UFO will not protect our property. I'm sorry. I'm trying to... And in the assumption that the area will all become business or the regional commercial, was there any consideration given to that you've got three residential lots and why would it be assumed that it will later be something else? Did I not explain that well? It's residential in front of our home. It's residential on either side and the projection that it all becomes commercial or business one day. I don't understand that part. So we're just asking you to please, as residents, please protect our property. Please help us out. The property was bought at the zoning that it is now. And if they were to build in the backside, I would not be here tonight. I wouldn't see it. But I understand it's cost prohibitive to them, but yet it is impacting our property value. So if you would please help in any way, I would appreciate that.

Thank you for your comments. Are there other comments for the public hearing?

Mayor, if I could ask Attorney Huffman and Director Lawson to just elaborate. So as you mentioned, this is an up or down vote just on the zoning. But should an actual design come back through, it would go through the UDO process and it would have an additional public hearing? Okay, but it would go through TRC, which is where all those stipulations and all the buffering and signage, which is already spelled out as to what's permitted in these type of uses. But that would all be... Approved by staff and be furnished to that time. Yeah.

And and at that time. I assume that the applicant can ask for input. They don't have to honor everything, but they could ask for input.

That would be up to them, right?

I see your hand and you'll have to approach the microphone. State your name, address, and you have five minutes.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Robert Burton. I'm one of the people in Harris Farms. I'm at 1193 Mary Olive. So I noticed too, last time we was here, one of the gentlemen talked about, on Mary Olive, bringing the street on through, which is Milo in the other subdivision. That might be a help, just like Mr. Harris said, if somebody would collect it. Even a rabbit has another hole to come out of. And we're just trying to be safe. I haven't been here for two years, but I love the place. I hope not to move anymore until the Lord come and get me. So I would like for you to look at that. That's another, we're just looking for options. That's the only thing we're looking for. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there other comments for public hearing? I'm happy for you to bring that up to me.

That's fine, but as far as consideration, it's not been okay. We don't have protest petitions in the state statute.

But you did the work. Well, we haven't. Thank you. Thank you.

I might also note that the clerk has received this today and I think it's been We have it separately. I received it today, the petition. Right.

Well, and just there were there was an email in in

against the rezoning, the petition, and then an email in support of rezoning.

Correct.

That we received today.

Mayor, do you mind addressing the fact that we did receive with Mr. Selecki's proposal, we did receive the questions that he asked and we did have time for staff to review them. So we do have the information. We did have staff, you know, take the time to actually look over that and to see if any of those adjustments could be made. I do want that to go on the record and council actually last night when our work session spoke on it and staff gave us information today.

yes thank you very much my husband didn't tell me today he's out of town that um the city that the council was not able to enforce those that is correct that is correct but i wanted you to know that it was important for us to see if we could thank you let me follow up for wood i'll i'll make a motion we admit that into evidence at this point

I just want to check in again. Are there any other comments for public hearing? If there are no further comments for public hearing, I'd like a motion and a second to close the public hearing.

Motion approved. There, if I could, maybe we could take a motion about, as part of the hearing, those notices, to just admit that as part of the record. Then you can close the public hearing.

I'll second Councilmember Ward's request.

Okay, all in favor? Aye. Okay, now let's go back to that public hearing, closing the public hearing. Do we have, we had a motion and a second? All in favor to close the public hearing? Aye. Thank you. Thank you all for sharing your concerns and thank you to council for your questions and concerns as well. So council, do you have any further conversation, any further comments that you would like to make?

I'll just say that I am proud as a council to hear from the residents and to take this time to actually review, investigate, hear the concerns, and just to stop for a moment. And I'm glad that council done that and that we heard from both sides. And we appreciate that, you know, to have that dialogue and to be able to go back and review and ultimately at the end it's all about legality you know and our udo governs us and it tells us what's possible but to be able to look and see if there are any alternatives even so so i feel confident that we've done that as a group and for our staff jamie thank you

I'll say, too, I appreciate the this is a very evolving area. I mean, I visited miss lucky's home back when Harris farms was being proposed. It's a beautiful 1937 home. Constructed before the interstate was here and so this area has gradually evolved as the interstate was built as the interchange developed as the airport was built. Now we've heard from our airport director there's plans for more economic development around the airport. So a lot of this conversation is about the evolution of Burlington as it's gone from a very rural community to a larger metropolitan area. This area is caught right in the middle of that with an interstate and an airport pushing in both directions. We appreciate your concerns and I think our staff has done a great job of talking about if and when this property does get constructed on how our UDL protects with buffering and we've made a lot of changes to signage because we agree with you a big flashing sign doesn't belong anywhere in Burlington. We don't want to see some of them even where they are. So there's a lot of protections built into that. And I appreciate you reaffirming our residents commitment to those rules that we put in place. Just wanted to highlight those and I think the questions the 35 mile an hour speed limit. I drive that every Thursday when I go over to the airport for our civil air patrol meetings and. see folks driving pretty fast over there. So it's something we need to stay aware of and we'll make sure the DOT continues to be aware of that. But they're always reactive. They're more reactive than we ever wish they would be. But the biggest thing that moves the needle is data. And so we hope that that's never a crash or a fatality. But the more vehicles that move, the more data points we have about speed, and the more businesses and commerce that happen on that street, the more DOT will actually shine their light on it and actually move their dollars to make improvements.

Thank you. Other comments? just a couple of things that occurred to me this evening that even if the if the business is on the back of the property there's still a driveway somewhere there that that would be a part of that as well so even if there was no rezoning and I agree with Councilmember Baltudis about DOT that this is a part of Burlington and while DOT has that decision, we can make requests. I think that it is important for us to continue to pay attention to that and tonight that is not what this is about as we were reminded by our attorney tonight we are looking at the rezoning for limited use so if there are no further comments or conversation then I ask council, I'll entertain a motion to approve or deny the rezoning, rezoning only, the rezoning request. And you have information in your packets.

I'll make a motion to approve the request to rezone the property from medium density residential zoning district to the general business limited use zoning district The property is 4.749 acres in size and is located on the east side of Alamance Road, south of the intersection of Alamance Road and Hatchery Lane. It is addressed as 2936 Alamance Road and consists of Alamance County Tax Identification Number 120471. While the request is inconsistent with the future So we have a motion. Do we have a second? Second.

All in favor for rezoning this property, respond with aye. Aye. Any opposition? It sounded unanimous. Okay, thank you. And just to continue to say that conversation can continue about the traffic. And I heard the applicants for tonight being very open to continued conversation as well. At this time, it's not appropriate for any other comments. I can say that I will do my best and and so we will work on a plan for that okay thank you thank you Okay, thank you all. At this time, we move into our public comments time. And this is for topics that have not been on the agenda. We have two people who have signed up for public comments. And so we're going to pause for a moment for the exodus. Thank you. And then we will come back. Thank you all for being here.

Thank you.

Okay, as folks are leaving the room, as I said, we have two people who have signed up for public comments. That is Susan Carew and Sam Powell. I hope that I said your names correctly. And so I'll just invite you one at a time to come to the podium, state your name, address, and know that you have five minutes.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Susan Crew, 1956 Glen Kirk Drive, Burlington, North Carolina. I am the Chapter Regent with Battle of Alamance, Daughters of the American Revolution. I'm here tonight representing my chapter and other local community organizations. I'm requesting the council's formal approval and permission to host National Wreaths Across America Day at Pine Hill Cemetery on Saturday, December 19th, 2026, in the Little Arlington area of the cemetery. The core mission for DAR is historic preservation, education, patriotism to God, home, and country. The mission of the Wreaths Across America is simple. Remember the fallen, honor those who have served, and teach our children the value of freedom. On this National Day of Remembrance, volunteers in over 4,000 locations across the 50 states will place live balsam fern wreaths on the headstones of our nation's veterans. We want to bring this living tribute to our city veterans interned at Pine Hill. To ensure this event runs smoothly and respects city property, we have developed a plan. This program receives no government funding. Every single wreath is sponsored by private citizens, local businesses, and civic groups. There is absolutely no cost to the city or to the taxpayer. Our volunteers will handle the entire layout and coordinate the ceremony. Furthermore, we are fully committed to returning to the cemetery in January for wreath cleanup. to completely remove all items leaving the grounds immaculate. This event bridges generations, bringing together local youth groups, civic organization, veterans families to stand side by side in a display of unity and gratitude. We're not asking the city for funding, we are merely simply asking for your partnership blessing and permission to utilize the municipal cemetery grounds for a brief morning ceremony and replaying on december 19th and we hope you and the council will join us thank you for your time your service to our city and consideration of our request thank you very much thank you

Madam Mayor and City Council, Sam Powell. I live at 1067 East Lake Drive, Burlington. I'm also here to talk about Wreaths Across America. And the reason that we're here is that we sought approval, which we thought might be a fairly simple process, but we were denied. So we come tonight not knowing exactly the process that we can use, but we wanted to explain what we were wanting to do to you as a start. As Sue Carew said, the National Wreaths Across America program has picked this year, Saturday, December the 19th, as the date across the country, across the United States, where wreaths will be presented at cemeteries all across. This is a national effort. Millions of volunteers from all the states across the United States at sea and abroad with more than 5,500 locations are involved. And everyone else is also invited to participate by sponsoring a wreath or help to present programs on National Wreaths Across America Day as volunteers or partners. The cost of a wreath, to sponsor a wreath, is $17. And you get $5 back. So really it's a $12 purchase and the wreaths are quite substantial. They're about this big around. There's a metal ring and around the ring you have this greenery that is packed in there. In addition to the wreath laying program, The National Wreaths Across America does other programs as well throughout the whole year. It's not just one day. And they support living veterans and their families. They do radio programming. They have online lessons that they put out for the youth. They also have a national museum. And Gold Star Family... which is located in Columbia Falls, Maine. And they have a remembrance tree program. They have an annual budget for the National 501 organization of $44 million. They have about 50 employees. 37.4 million of that goes to programming It was started in 2007 as a 501c3 by donating wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery, and you may have seen pictures at Arlington where they take wreaths out and put on the graves of the veterans at Arlington, and it's very beautiful. The wreaths are provided by the Worcester Wreath Company, And the National Wreaths Across America program was formed in response to veterans and others who expressed an interest to support the wreath-laying program at Arlington and to bring the Arlington wreath experience to their own communities. And that's what this national organization is attempting to do. Last year, in 2025, over 3 million wreaths were provided across the United States. We would love to bring that program here to Alamance County as well. And tonight I have John Guss, who is president of the Sons of the American Revolution Alamance Battleground Chapter, and, of course, Sue Carruth, who's regent of the Battle of Alamance Chapter. So thank you for your consideration. And any guidance you could give us would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

MS. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. So we have no one else signed up for public comments this evening. So I'll make a few announcements and then invite council to make any comments that you wish to make. Some upcoming events. Fourth Friday's concert, Downtown Burlington, will take place on August the 28th.

I'm sorry. Would I be permitted to come and make some public comments? If I can't until next time, I'm completely fine with that.

Is anyone on council opposed to that?

I'm not opposed to it.

Okay. We invite you to come forward, state your name, address, and we'll get you to write it out for us too afterwards. Absolutely. And you'll have five minutes. Okay.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. My name is Laura Word. I'm at 521 Clover Court. And I'm a scientist with a keen interest in sustainability and food security, so I'm really excited about the council's consideration of allowing backyard chickens. And what I'd really love to encourage the council to consider is expanding beyond just chickens as well. to other animals that are very similar or, in many cases, even quieter and less controversial than chickens are. Some of those animals could include quail, which are a very small type of bird. They're a great dual-purpose animal for meat and eggs. Same with Muscovy ducks. They don't quack, so very, very quiet. And rabbits as well, which make basically no noise. If we can expand beyond just this idea of chickens, I think it would really enable people to take more power and ownership over their food production and be less reliant on grocery stores and the hiking prices and supply chain issues and recalls that are happening all the time. And if we can enable our residents to have these homesteading animals, they can support not only their own families, but also their community members as well. A lot of times excess is shared with family and friends and neighbors or could be sold at the farmer's market here in our own community which is much fresher and more sustainable than buying products that have been shipped across the entire country with our eggs often weeks old before we get ahold of them. So lots of benefits beyond just the individual households who would be taking on this animal husbandry. to where people who don't want to do that work can go to it as well. And help foster our communities and getting people connecting with each other where they wouldn't otherwise. For this tricking question, I know a lot of times we think of these backyard comic readers and just like this fun little fulfilling hobby that people want to have, but I think it's important to keep in mind the bigger picture here as well that we're not talking just about that but also very real concerns about food security and people being able to feed their families at the same time of course we do need to be respectful of our neighbors and be mindful of the the very valid concerns have been raised around noise and odor and wandering animals, things like that. So I think there's a really streamlined way to be able to write into the rules where the council does not have to become an expert on every species that's great for homesteading and instead put provisions of homeowners or whoever's owning these animals having to keep the animals compliant they have to also provide animal husbandry species specific in line with publications from entities like the USDA or the AVMA, which is the American Inventionary Medical Association. So then a lot of that burden is taken off the council for not having to make a whole lot of really specific detailed recommendations on how all these animals are kept. But if things go awry, council members could still step in and remedy a situation. For the noise component, there's cities that deal with that where if a specific situation is creating undue noise and disturbing their neighbors, then that can be remedied. And I looked a little bit more into what our neighbors are doing too, and we're kind of being left out in this. So Graham, Mebane, Chapel Hill, Apex, Greensboro, All of them already allow chickens and a lot of these other fowl and small homesteading animals like rabbits. So I would love so much if we could join and become a part of that and help improve our city's resiliency in times of economic hardship.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, at this time I'll make a few announcements and then invite council for comments. So 4th Fridays, August the 28th, beginning at 5.30 p.m. Our Burlington City Council will hold a strategic planning retreat special meeting on Thursday, day after tomorrow, August the 20th, starting at 9 a.m. at the Lake McIntosh Park and Marina Clubhouse. And then the next Burlington City Council meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 1st at 7 p.m. And at this time I invite council members to make any comments that you wish to make.

I'll share that this morning I had the honor to attend Burlington Christian Academy's celebration of their new building and bring greetings on behalf of the city council. It was wonderful to hear about their 49-year journey to build that campus from some of the two women who founded that program 49 years ago. They were saying it started as three classrooms in the church basement there, and to see how far they've come was quite remarkable. And they shared that they were able to finish that building debt-free for the next generation of students. Appreciate the opportunity to celebrate with them.

Thank you.

Other comments.

I just had a question for Mr Powell. Were you stating that this will be the 1st, annual year? You have not had this program in the past, right?

Yes, we would like to bring it to. And it's been celebrated. people have been going over to Durham in prior years and marking graves there. We'd just like the opportunity to bring it to Burlington.

Thank you, sir. I would be curious to know more about whenever staff can provide information about why that request was denied and what can be done to enable that if possible.

I agree with that. Question. You did name that wreaths would be purchased, which may answer my question, but I'll go ahead and throw it out there. Would wreaths be on all of the veterans' tombstones, markers?

There's, I think, 500. There's more than 500. What we do is we do our best at selling wreaths. The program tends to grow year by year. Even after 10 years, we wouldn't probably be at the 500 level, but we might be up to 300. But we do the best we can. And if we were to exceed the 500, I think they did that in Durham, we would go outside of the little Arlington area and also decorate graves in the cemetery.

I'm very curious. I have a hard time keeping myself alive and nourished, but I'm very curious about the other fowl, homesteading animals, as you named, that could possibly be considered as well. So I'd love to see something on that in addition to the reefs across America, kind of two things for further information. Just always thank you to everybody who does the work to keep the city of Burlington doing what it's doing. And thank you to the community who shows up. It is our city and it's important that we be concerned and invested in what we do here. Thank you to council. And I have nothing else. So if there's nothing else, I would entertain a motion for us to adjourn.

Second.

And all in favor? Aye. Thank you.