Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening, and welcome to the July 2nd, 2026 meeting of the town hall of the, sorry, the town of Chapel Hill Board of Adjustment. It is now 6.30, so the meeting will come to order. Mr. Taz Lagou is serving as staff liaison to the board this evening. Mr. Baker is not here present to lead tonight. Mr. Lagou, would you please call the roll?

Absolutely. Mr. Fishkin. Here. Mr. Warshaw. Here. Here. Dr. Wartman?

Here.

Mr. Bartow? Here. Mr. Weiner? Here. Mr. Herman? Here. Mr. Grasty? Here.

Here. With seven members present, the chair declares the quorum exists for the conduct of the board's business. The first item on the agenda is the approval of tonight's agenda. The agenda was mailed out to the board membership on Monday, June 29th. Are there any objections or amendments to the agenda?

Move to approve.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Taz, would you please call the roll?

Mr. Fishkin?

Yes.

Mr. Warshaw? Aye. Dr. Wartman? Aye. Mr. Bartow? Yes. Mr. Weiner? Aye. Mr. Herman? Abstain. Mr. Grasty?

Yes.

Great. Six ayes, one abstention.

Thank you. We have six ayes, one abstention. And so we have approved the agenda for this evening. Are there any announcements tonight? I would just like to, before we get started, officially congratulate Dr. Wartman on his reappointment. Welcome, Mr. Weiner, to the board full time. Extend appreciation to Mr. Nunn, who's not here this evening, and Mr. Herman, who's here this evening and is serving as an alternate in the future, but tonight is sitting in with us. Welcome to everybody, and congratulations. So let's go ahead and proceed to the review of the minutes for June 4th, 2026. These were the meetings of the town of Chapel Hill's Board of Adjustment. Are there any objections to the minutes as drafted?

Move to approve.

Second. I did, well, let me back up. I should have said that I actually didn't have an objection, but I had a request. Mr. Nahm's name, N-A-H-M, is N-A-H-M. misspelled incorrectly in one place. And I know sometimes on the computer program, if it picks it up once, it blows it out in the future.

Move to approve with the corrected name spelling. Second. OK, great.

So we have a motion, and we have a second. Taz, can you call the roll? Yep.

Mr. Fishkin? Yes. Mr. Warshaw? Yep. Dr. Wartman? Aye. Mr. Bartow? Aye. Mr. Weiner? Aye. Mr. Herman? Abstain. Mr. Grasty?

Approve.

OK. We have six approve, one abstain. So the minutes are approved for June 4th. Now I'd like to turn to one piece of old business. This is the last and only thing we'll need to address this evening. At our last meeting on June 4th, we instructed staff to draft an order granting the requested dimensional variance for the property at 700 Bolingwood Drive. After evidentiary hearings and board deliberation, the motion was approved. made by Dr. Wardman and seconded by Mr. Garza to approve Resolution A, which directed the staff to order an order to approve, I'm sorry, let me back up, which directed the staff to draft an order approving the requested variance. The motion carried unanimous. So tonight, we are being asked to vote on this draft, which was prepared by staff, was circulated to the members of the board prior to tonight's meeting. Have all the board members had an opportunity to review the variance we'll be voting on tonight? OK, great. I think we can move straight to you going ahead and calling a roll for a request that the variance for the property at 700 Bullingwood Drive be approved. Is that correct?

It is correct. And I would just remind the board that the required threshold for approval is 4 fifths of the membership of the board. And so with seven members on the board, we'll need six affirmative votes to approve the order.

And I'm assuming that Mr. Herman is going to abstain. Can he abstain, or would that be the proper thing for him to do?

That would be at his discretion.

Okay.

Yeah, I intend to abstain.

Okay. And, sorry. Go ahead, please. Just point of order. So how would an abstention be counted for the record? Would it be counted as a yes vote or a no vote?

For calculations of the four fifths, it should be a no vote.

Yeah. I'll defer to Mr. Herman on that.

I'm hoping that we don't have to get into math tonight. So do we need to have a motion to call this roll? Tonight?

Yeah, I think it would be appropriate to have a motion on that.

Let's have a discussion first. Okay. I'm not certain that abstention is a nay vote. If I remember my orientation correctly several years ago, abstention would count as an aye vote. But it may be a moot point. Given that, I believe that it will be a moot point. I'd like to move to approve this variance as written by staff. I'll second that.

All right.

Having a motion to approve and a second, could you please call the roll?

Mr. Fishkin? Yes. Mr. Warshaw? Yes. Dr. Wartman? Aye. Mr. Bartow? Yes. Mr. Weiner? Yes. Mr. Herman? I'm staying. Mr. Grasty?

Yes. So we have six in the affirmative, one abstention, which would mean that this is passed. So... One quick thing before we adjourn. I don't want to necessarily do this this evening, but I wanted to see if you had had an opportunity to talk to Julia Chamberlain about her interest in potentially moving forward.

I haven't heard from her yet, so I'll continue to try over the summer. And we can try again in September.

Yeah, we'll put it on the agenda in September. And if we've heard from her, great. If not, that'll inform our decisions. All right. Thank you all very much for coming out tonight, two days before the 4th. And I know that the applicant, former applicant, appreciates it, but is not here to tell us so. So thank you.

Chair, real quick.

Oh, yes. So on the NAVOT, I would like to get this confirmed for next time we meet, just so that we know. But looking this up again, my recollection was it's not a NAVOT. It is also not an affirmative vote. We need four-fifths majority affirmative votes. So while it's not a nay, it does not help in terms of approving the measures. Yeah, you still need four-fifths affirmative votes. It's almost a moot point, but it's not a definitive nay. But it doesn't also count to forfeits.

Well, we could give Mr. Baker a homework assignment if he wants to definitively answer that question in our next meeting. Fortunately, it didn't become a material fact this evening, so we can kick it down the road.

No, that sounds correct. I think the one situation in which an abstention or a lack of a vote by a member that is present would factor into the math would be a recusal based on a conflict of interest. If a sitting member recuses themselves or is recused by the board, they are basically just taken out of the arithmetic. But yeah, an abstention is just kind of

in the void it's not an affirmative vote and what you need is five okay um let's go have a wonderful weekend and everybody be safe with the heat thank you and good and good night