Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

[music] Good evening, planning commission. We will uh call our meeting for March uh 9th to order. All right. Good evening, commissioners. I will call the role. Shane Banks, present. Mariah Bishop, present. Ralph Carson present. Philip Jefferson here. Gian Hodes present. Ben Mills. Michael Goland here. That is six members present.

Okay. Thank you so much. Can we have our invocation? Miss Hodes.

Yep. Good evening. I'd like to begin with a quote from urbanist Jane Jacobs. Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody only because and only when they are created by everybody. As we gather this evening to consider the plans and proposals before us, may we approach our work with open minds, thoughtful discussion, and respect for for the many perspectives that shape our community. May we listen carefully, weigh decisions responsibly, and remain mindful that the choices made here contribute to the future of our city. Let our conversations be constructive, our intentions guided by fairness and integrity, and our focus centered on the well-being of all who call this community home. Thank you to those who serve and to the residents who participate in this important process. Let us proceed with our work.

Thank you so much, Miss Hodes, uh Jane Jacobs. That's Doug Deep. That's Doug Deep. That's [laughter] that's that's our planning guru. one of um so thank you so much um Mr. Niels has joined us to our

sorry my late arrival and I have took Mr. meals down uh for the attendance and the meeting start time has been set to 7:02. Okay, thank you so much. Um uh adoption of our agenda. Are there any items on our agenda that need to be the updated or revised? If not, do we have a motion to approve our agenda as written? I'll make the motion. Thank you so much, Mr. Bourne. Do we have a second? I'll second. Thank you so much. M Who made the motion? Mr. Carson. Sorry voices. It sounds much the same. I I know it's not you, but we all know here.

Thank you. We have a motion. [laughter] Carson has a second member of There is a motion for on the floor to adopt the agenda and I will call the vote. Shane Banks I. Mariah Bishop I. Ralph Carson I. Philip Jefferson I. Gian Hodes I. Ben Mills I. Michael Boland I. All right. The total is or the agenda is adopted.

Thank you so much. Uh now it comes time for us to uh review and approve our uh meeting minutes. Now we have meeting minutes from January and our meeting minutes uh from February. So we can do this one of two ways. We can um uh we can review our meeting minutes and adopt them both under one motion or we can do them separately if there's if there's something needs to be changed. Is there anything that we need to adjust? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve our meeting minutes from January 12th and our meeting minutes from February 9th? I'll move. I'll second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Thank you so much. All right, there's a motion on the floor to approve the minutes and I'll call the vote. Shane Banks,

I. Mariah Bishop, I. Rob Carson, I. Philip Jefferson, I. John Hodes, I. Ben Mills, I. Michael Boland, I.

Minutes are approved. Thank you so much. We've approved our [clears throat] meeting minutes. Uh old and new business. Um uh we have CZ2503 uh Londale on our agenda. I'll turn this over to our plan. All right. Good evening, commissioners. I will be presenting KCZ25003 Londale tonight. Um, this request was submitted by Brett Mangum of Woods Holding. It is a tier one conditional reszoning to reszone approximately 2.4 acres of residential 2 and residential 4 to residential 4. Um the site is made up of three parcels located along Londell Street. Those parcels are 925 Lnell Street, 981 Londell Street, and 107 Londale Street. As a reminder, this is a tier one, so there is no sight specific master plan for the request. Currently, the area the site is zoned as residential 2 and residential 4. Uh within these districts, you typically see single family homes um in suburban areas. no no non-residential uses, uh, high quality development, and open space protection. Specifically within the R4 district, you'll find single family and duplexes, and within the R4 district, it is required to have water and sewer, as well as amenities for walking and recreation. As mentioned before, the site is along Londell Street, specifically between Lakeside Drive and Pool Drive. The site is currently vacant. To the west of the site, we have non-residential uses with Huckleberry Friends Childcare Preschool,

uh, Lawndale Manor Assisted Living, and Garner Executive Center. And then to the east of the site, we have a horiculture use with Weston Farms. A good majority of this site falls within a neighborhood activity center. And for this area, we primarily see single family residential and multif family uh, with neighborhood non with neighborhoods serving non-residential uses. The applicant has requested to reszone to a R4 and has narrowed his list of permitted uses to one of the 14 permitted uses allowable in the residential for district. He has also profered architectural conditions that speak to the square footage as well as facade materials and uh details and you can find a full list of conditions at the end of your report. The applicant held the neighborhood meeting on March 9th in 2024 at Garner Shriner Holding Corp. Uh there were three people in attendance and you can find the full neighborhood meeting details at the end of your report. So again, with this being a tier one, um the plan that is typically used to review these requests is the comprehensive plan. And based on reviewing the [clears throat] comprehensive plan and reviewing this request, staff found that while the proposed development does not introduce significant variety or scale to the surrounding area, the proper conditions are considerate and consistent with the existing context and aligns with the character types that are defined in the comprehensive plan. So for the growth framework consistency, uh the request was evaluated against 10 criteria and found strongly consistent uh primarily with the R4 zoning choice as well as the single family housing type. And for the land use and community character consistency, again without a

master plan um and further written conditions, it was a bit difficult to evaluate. However, we evaluated against eight criteria in which we found overall strong support. Uh most support was primarily given to the uh consistency with surrounding area and visual interest, but there was a negative rating given for the lack of variety in housing type and scale. Overall, staff have found a strong uh consistency with the um growth framework and land use. And you can find the full consistency review detail at the end of your report. So this request went to public hearing February 17th. Uh during public hearing, there were the concerns that were voiced by council um mainly pertain to landscape neighborhood character and consistency and water control measures. Um those concerns specifically being does the applicant plan to maintain the existing trees that are on the site. Um there were inquiries about if the proposed housing is compatible with the surrounding residential as well as is it consistent with the comprehensive plan and the plan designation for the site in that area. And there are also questions pertaining to water control and effects on the adjacent properties. There was also public comment um a neighboring residential or neighboring resident sorry voiced concerns over potential flood risk in traffic and parking impacts. There were also concerns about the density and scale of the proposed housing and it not being consistent uh with the neighborhood character in the surrounding area. Um, in response to this, staff conducted an analysis comparing the density of nine single family lots that are located to the south of the site to the five lots that's being proposed by the applicant. The existing adjacent lots have a density of.35 dwelling units per acre,

while the proposed is48. Um, while this is a minor increase, it's not greatly over what is allowable in the R4 district. So staff found that it doesn't pose a significant impact on neighborhood character, traffic or parking. Um and so we have drafted a consistency statement that planning commission hopes [clears throat] to find this to be um consistent with the comprehensive plan as well as provided uh two results based on staff analysis for approval or denial and ask that planning commission recommend approval to town council. And that is all I have for you to tonight.

Okay. Thank you so much, M. Ryan. Uh, does the commission have any questions for staff at this time? Is our applicant here? Yes, our applicant is here and he can speak to any questions you may have. Would you like to hear from our applicant? Yeah. Um, yes, we'd like to hear from you. Um, please uh state your name and your address and affiliation.

My name is uh Brett Mangum. I live on uh 8805 White Oak Road in Garner. Uh [clears throat and cough] lifelong resident of of Garner. And uh to give you a little bit bit of a history on this uh project, these three vacant lots have been owned for a little over 30 years now by the Garner Shrine Club. Uh they bought the lots from uh Mr. Weston. Uh and they had intentions way back 30 years ago of possibly building a uh meeting hall for the Shrine Club and that never came to fruition and uh as it turned out now the membership of the Shrine Club has been declining and they are they wanted to liquidate any assets assets they had go ahead and donate the funds to charity and they're going to disband the local group. Uh so I am also a Shriner and found out about what they wanted to do and and offered to help them to uh secure a buyer and and uh liquidate it. So So that's that's why we're here now. And uh so the the goal here is to take the three [clears throat] parcels uh part of it already R4 but part of it the majority of the three parcels is R2. So reszone all of it to R4 and then we will subdivide the three parcels into five

lots. Uh we're allowed to have a 60 foot wide lot in R4 and we will have five lots that are a minimum of 63 feet. One of them is 68 and one of them 72 feet. So they're considerably larger than the minimum, but we feel that that's what'll fit in the best with the existing community surrounding homes. Uh directly to the north of us, there's one home that is built probably in the 1970s. It was a brick ranch. And so not a lot we can do to try to duplicate that. But directly to the south of us, there are uh more homes that have built more recently. And we will be our homes will be designed to blend in with those. We'll have uh well, you you saw the architectural uh conditions that that I agreed to. We put Hardy Plank on it. Just some nice stuff. Uh so we the goal here is to to to build them to look like the community or nicer than the existing community. Uh and uh we have had no opposition to that at all from the neighbors. had a little opposition when we first when we first started talking about this and I kind of thought the the right thing to do would be to put some town

homes there and the neighbors shot that down in a hurry. So we we went back to the drawing board and [clears throat] came up with something that that they liked and uh still worked for us. So trying to be a trying to be a good neighbor there. any specific questions that you have, I'd be glad to to answer. So, this is a time if we have any questions for our applicant or additional questions for staff.

We got a couple questions. Um the current there's three lots there now uh R2 and R4 but they're asking to change R4 under C 325 but the acreage the 2.4 acres is that [clears throat] the combined total acreage of all three lots or is that 2.4 acres is all three lots combined all three. Okay. Um there's a question on the public water and sewer services there. How are you expecting to get water and sewer to the property? Is there adequate? And this might be a question for town, but is there an adequate

uh utility infrastructure running in front of Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Water and sewer both are uh the the sewer is in the middle of the street and the water is is on our side of the street and there are three services there now. So we'll have to add two services.

Okay. Um another question two more questions actually. What now? I know this is reszoning, but with your your home width, I guess you're proposed at 40 feet minimum. Um, and you're doing a 20 foot wide garage. So, are you is the garage going to be on the the street the frontage along the streets? There's no rear entry garage or anything like that? No, there won't be any rear rear entry on on these. Uh the lots slope off to the pond to a pond in the back back there. So they'll all be front entry garages.

Okay. So that [clears throat] would leave roughly 20 20 feet of linear feet of house in the front excluding the garage door. But you have a a minimum size uh front porch 5 foot by 4 foot. I don't know that that that to me that is not a front porch. Uh that is that is a step going into your door. I I just don't see if you have 20 20 feet of house that's exposed why the porch is going to be so small that house. I don't I know we don't have plans. I'm just bringing this point up. I guess

there may there may be some porches that extend, but the five foot was only the minimum that we were told to put on there. So So they could be across across the front of the home, I guess. Yes, very well could be porches that extend from one side to the other. Okay. And I just want to commend you on changing your initial plan from town homes based on the feedback from the neighbors. That was very thoughtful and and to build a 20 by 20 garage. Again, that's something that uh it's nice to see the larger twocar garages. So those Thank you for doing that. That's all the questions I have.

Any other questions? I I I would um I will I will tie into Mr. Carson's comment or question about the porch size. Um I I'm I'm a pretty big stickler on on some of those things, but uh only because the character of that street, most of the houses have a wider entry port. There's some that have a small probably five out of four. So I would recommend where you can to match that character as much as you can by having that character of the porch because it engages the street differently and that would blend in when you say you want to blend in to the existing character of the houses that are surrounding whether it was the you know 80s or 70s style that porch is what helps to do that. So I would I can't tell you how to design it, but all I can ask is to think about the consistency of that language that happens on that street frontage, especially as you begin to increase the gar on that front.

I think that's I think it helps to reduce the look of the only the garage um up front, but then match that character of our comprehensive plan. Okay. Well, if there are no other questions, questions for staff, is there anyone um that would like to speak uh for or against this in the audience? Seeing none, so seeing none, then that means that in order for us to make a decision, uh uh planning commission needs to make a recommendation um and we can discuss it or we can go right into a vote. So, is there a motion on the floor from the planning commission?

I'll make a motion. Uh, I move the planning commission accept the consistency statement drafted herein as our own written recommendation regarding the consistency of the request of the town's adoptive land use plans and recommended approval of KCZ-25-00003 to town council. Thank you so much, Mr. Carson. So, we have a motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you so much. So, we have a motion and a second. Um, are there is there any other discussion? If not, then we can, Miss Ryan, we can. All right. That is the motion on the floor and I will call the vote. Shane Banks, I. Mariah Bishop, I. Ralph Carson, I. Philip Jefferson,

I. Jan Hodes, I. Ben Mills, I. Michael Boland, I. That's seven eyes. The motion passes. Thank you so much for your pass motion, Mr. Mangum. Thank you so much for bringing it to us and we look forward to seeing how this treats that street. Can I ask a quick question? Sure. So, what's the next step for me? It goes back to the town council. Goes back to the town council. Okay. For final approval. Okay. And that meeting was 17th. 17th. Well, that's their next meeting. I don't know if it's on the agenda, but I'll I'll discuss with you after the uh date for your town council meeting. Okay. I'll follow up with you. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you all. Um All right. So, um Mr. Trezenberg, you're up. Good evening everyone. Um, in terms of activity on cases, uh, since you last met in February, um, we had a pretty healthy agenda at the meeting of February 17th with the council. Um during that meeting, the old stage road annexation um the small parcel on the east side uh down across from the Eagle Ridge area that was approved and annexed both. Um also at that meeting the quality oil site plan was approved. Uh we had a pretty good and extensive discussion on the Rock Corey case. Um council ultimately decided to continue that one um to have the applicant consider modification to one of their uh conditions uh particularly regarding a a mixeduse structure, mixeduse building and some kind of commitment to that. Um the applicant did come back and agreed to what was stated during that meeting. Um but with those conditions, the property owners need to sign off on those. Um so there were I think three or four property owners that had to have those revised conditions sent back to them for a signature. Um, so that came back again to council on March 3rd and was ultimately approved on a vote of 4

to one. Um, happy to report that um, Aaron only had to advertise once this time around for our planner 2 position. And uh we do have a candidate uh that will be starting uh assuming nothing happens between now and then um on the 23rd. So hopefully we'll be able to introduce you to our newest uh team member at your next meeting. And lastly, I just wanted to put out a plug um for the transportation plan uh for the big uh community forum. Um that will be held on Tuesday, April 24th. Um so that's two weeks from tomorrow. uh from 3 to 7 pm at the Garner Rec Center in the multi-purpose room there right inside the main doors on the parking lot side. Um we'll have about eight different tables and activities uh set up for folks to participate in. Um we hope that you can make some time to come out for that. anybody who's interested in the topic of transportation, whether it's congestion, um new roads, new transit, um bicycling opportunities and sidewalk networks and anything anything related. Um we'll be having some different opportunities to seek input. Uh that will go into that plan. Uh and then just worth noting I think um that in April um at the work session the

council's work session that will be that first uh policy committee briefing which is the combination of the full council and the full planning commission. Um so don't uh forget about that on your calendar. That'll be the last Tuesday in April. 30 21st. Oh, sorry. 21st 28th, right?

April, you said April 24th. You meant March 24th. Oh, sorry. March. [laughter] Thank you for the correction. Um, sorry, the last Tuesday of April is the 28th.

March 24th, not April. I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm mixing I'm mixing the workshop with the policy briefing. Um, so yes, March 24th from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Garner Rec Center. Um, so hopefully we should be seeing lots of um media push out for that courtesy of Rick and his team. Um and yeah, do spread the word, encourage your neighbors to come out. Um we had a really good turnout when we did this for the land use plan. Um so for everybody who's interested in transportation, this is this is the big the biggie. It's not the only time. Um we did conduct uh our stakeholder interviews. Um Julian headed that up. I think that was last week actually. Um, and I heard that those went very well. They were well attended, lots of good discussion. Um, I think there was like a group that was interested in schools and business leaders and um, just everyday citizens. Um, but I think the one that uh, the one I think that stood out to Julian, you'll have to ask him if he if he would agree with this, but uh, he was able to get quite a few of the school principals or someone from their office um, to attend. And I think that was very enlightening um to talk with those folks actually that are working on these sites every day um as opposed to you know administration and the and the bus the [clears throat] bus planners um certainly have their own perspective but they're looking at the whole county of course. Um so it was nice to have the um school participation uh here locally for that. Um, so yeah, that is all that I have for you unless you all have questions of me.

Sounds great. Well, forward to that. Jeeoff, does that council meeting on April 28th start at 6 or 7? Um, those meetings typically start at 6. However, I believe for the policy meetings, we'll be starting those at either 4 or 4:30. Um, usually we have those before the regular work session starts, but we'll confirm that and have that for sure at your next meeting. Okay. Thank you. If not before.

Anything else for for Mr. Trezenberg? Any questions for anything townwise thing for the commission that needs to be? Wow. None. That's must be something happening in the weather that calls and everybody questions. Um well then seeing none then I think that we can call our meeting attorney. You got your new record.

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