Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

[Music] 12th planning commission meeting to order. Good evening, commissioners. I'll call the role. Aria Bishop here. Ralph Carson here. Philip Jefferson here. Jihan Hodes here. Ben Mills here. Sherry Phillips here. Michael Voiland here. That's seven members present. Okay. Thank you so much. Uh our invocation, Miss Hodes. Yeah. Good evening everyone. As we gather here tonight, let us take a moment to pause and reflect on the importance of our work. Not just as planners, but as stewards of our community. Our decisions have the power to shape the spaces where our neighbors live, work, and connect, impacting the quality of life for all residents. This month is mental health awareness month, a reminder that true community wellness goes beyond physical structures and infrastructure. It also is about fostering environments that support emotional, mental, and social well-being. In our planning, let us be mindful of the impact our decisions have on the mental health and quality of our residents. May we create spaces that are not only functional but also welcoming, parks that invite relaxation, neighborhoods that promote connection, and services that provide support to those who need it. May we recognize that our decisions can help build a community where all residents feel safe, supported, and valued. Let our discussions tonight be guided by empathy, understanding, and a commitment to inclusivity. Let us listen with open minds, speak with respect, and work together to build a future that reflects the values and needs of everyone we serve. Finally, we would like to extend

our heartfelt condolences to Jeff Trezenberg on the recent passing of his mother. Our thoughts are with him and his family during this difficult time. Thank you. Thank you so much, Miss Hodgeges. Uh, it's time for our adoption of our agenda. Are there any items that need to be adjusted, Mr. H? No, sir. Okay. Do we have a motion to approve our agenda as written? I'll make a motion. Thank you. To accept. I'll second. Second. Thank you, Mr. Bl. We have a motion and a second for There's a motion on the floor to adopt the agenda. I'll call the vote. Mariah Bishop, I. Ralph Carson, I. Philip Jefferson, I. Jihen Hodes I Ben Mills I Sher Phillips I Michael Voyand I the agenda is adopted. Thank you so much. Uh next on our agenda are our meeting minutes from our April 14th planning commission meeting. Are there any items that need to be revised or updated as you see them commission? And if none do we have a motion to approve our meeting minutes from April 14th? I'll make that motion. Mr. Thank you. Okay. Mr. Carson is a second. There's a motion on the floor to approve the minutes. I'll call the vote. Mariah Bishop I. Ralph Carson. Hi. Philip Jefferson. I. Jihen Hodes. I. Ben Mills. Stain. Cherry Phillips. I. Michael Voyand. Hi. Uh, the minutes are approved. Thank you so much. All the new business. We have one item on our agenda this evening. Uh CZ MP24004 5828 Renmore Pines. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening members of the public. I am Aaron Joseph. I will uh provide an overview of this resoning case. Uh the applicant is here this evening as well and um has

prepared a presentation for this evening. Okay. So, this is a tier 2 reszoning request. It includes a master plan as well as a list of written conditions. The applicant worth Mills of Long Leaf uh Law Partners has submitted the request on behalf of the property owners uh requesting to reszone 2.56 acres from residential 2 R2 to residential 8 R8 conditional uh for the development of 75 single family detached units and 12 single family attached units or town homes. Uh the site is located within our ETJ. It's in the uh southeastern region of the town of Garner. Um and it's generally located on the northeast corner of New Bethl Church Road and Clifford Road. to provide some um context to the zoning. Uh the current zoning residential too um is intended for lowdensity single family residential homes. Um it encourages high quality development with open space protection. Um currently this site is vacant. The site consists of two parcels. Um so it's vacant and also has a single family home on the site. Um the the site is also located within the lower Swift Creek Conservation Overlay District which limits uh single family residential to no more than 30% of impervious and uh

50% of imperous surface area uh for multif family and which includes town homes. Um within the area there is a mix of R2, R4 conditional and RA zoning districts. Uh this area has undergone an increase in development with several projects either under construction or in review with the town. The site is not located within an activity center, but you do have uh two activity centers. One to the northeast with the neighborhood activity center at oops at White Oak Road. And then you have another activity center, the neighborhood activity center at Benson Road. Um, of course, this uh site uh this area and community um consists of a mixture of vacant tracks, single family neighborhoods, and a few remaining agricultural tracks. Uh since 2015, this area has been transitioning from low density rural agriculture to suburban developments and densities. So the proposal for this uh resoning um is for R8 conditional. The applicant has narrowed the possible uses to two out of 18 which includes the single family detach and the town homes which would be three to four units per structure. Collectively it will include a maximum of 87 dwelling units. Um, and to further break that number down, you have 16 uh 60 wide front-loaded lots. Uh 3645 uh with uh front- loaded lots, 2345 with front-loaded lots,

2345 with rear loaded lots, and 12 26 wide um front-loaded town homes. I won't go through the entire list of conditions um but just to highlight uh what the applicant is proposing. So they have established uh specific guidelines within their conditions um that address site design, architectural standards and open space recreation within the development. So uh regarding site design um they have kept a maximum density um with no more than 87 dwelling units. Uh there pedestrian connectivity. There are two pedestrian uh connection points from Clifford Road. Um on street parking homes that front on the open space here on the screen. Um and also a burm that is located along Clifford Road and New Bethl Church Road. Regarding architectural standards, the applicant is committing to a variety of front elevations for the detached homes and the town homes. uh specific building materials, uh roofing, size of porches, windows, and garage features. Um and also, um a varied color palette for detached homes and the town homes. There are three active open space uh areas identified within the proposal. The uh active space open one is designated as a common green um and includes seating, a pollinator garden, a conversation pit, and a play lawn. Uh within active open space 2 and three, um

it includes a playground and a fitness park. And passive open space includes preservation of natural areas um such as the wetlands and buffer noose river buffer areas. on the screen you have the master plan. Um you'll see that the site where the 60 foot wide lots, the large larger lots within the development located here in the purple. And then you have the 45 width lots that are front loaded here to the northern boundary. And then you have the 45 rear loaded um 45 in width rear loaded um single family homes. And then just here in the blue you have the uh town homes which are 26 foot wide lots and they are front-loaded. There's a storm water control measure. There's one storm water control measure within the development. Uh this area comprises the active open space one that I mentioned earlier with the um the play lawn, the conversation pit and with the six homes that front onto the open space as well as one of the connection uh pedestrian connection points from Clifford Road. Here you have active space 2 which will include the playground area and playground seating. And then the third um is where the fitness park is proposed. Again, just to break down the details of the site, it's 25.68 acres. Uh there are four different housing types. um 60 foot wide

lots, 45 with wide lots and 45 with uh lots that are rear loaded and 12 um 26 wide front-loaded town homes. 2.5 acres of open space is required. 25% of the active uh of the open space must be active. They've provided about three a little over 3 acres of active open space. Um and the uh there's a combination of conservation and recreation uh space. Um the conservation again includes the repairarian buffer areas areas and conservation buffers and then the recreation um with amenities, pedestrian trails, qualifying open areas. The site is not within the watershed protection area but it is uh subject to water quality, nitrogen and quantity requirements. Again, one storm water control measure. Uh the water utilities, uh the water will connect from an existing 16 inch uh line from Clifford Road and New Bethl Road. And the sewer will connect from Har the adjacent subdivision of Harper's Landing. See that on the screen here in green, the 8 in uh sewer line and the 16inch water line. A TIA was conducted for this proposal. It was conducted in June of 2024. Um based on early assumptions of a maximum of 130 dwelling units, the expected trips on average uh were expected to be 1,14 trips. Um with uh peak hours, AM

peak hours at 20 trips in, 58 trips out. Um within the PM peak hours, it was expected to generate 61 trips in and 38 trips out. Uh the figure on the screen shows the 2029 future buildout lane configuration as well as NC DO's recommended uh right turn lane at site access 2. It's a little bit hard, but that's a um right turn lane. And then there is a a dedicated left turn lane into the site of 100 ft of storage. Um and although the density and the unit count has decreased, uh the recommendations remain the same. Um regardless of uh the decreased um density, the staff has uh prepared a um analysis of uh the transportation concerns that have been uh within this area. And so um tonight we'll provide an update um from the earlier analysis of the adequacy of area future road network uh predominantly um the uh Hebrin church road and the white oak road and Benson road. So there is capacity 4,447 more trips beyond uh this project within the study area. The study area is highlighted in this red shaded area with buildout south of Clifford Road and Guy Roads. Um, and there should have travelway capacity as long as densities do not exceed current averages. Um, so White Oak Rogue and Benson Road are over capacity and have

been for at least 20 years or more um due to traffic originating from outside of the town of Garner. So the analysis that was conducted by stab it is not an intersection or a level of service analysis. It is another data point to check where uh the town is internally to the area. And so 10% was taken off the top capacity of three of 36,600 uh trips that are uh traversing um between this area. Um the existing is as of September 2023. So this 35% here um nearly 2,000 built dwelling units within the study area. Uh there is a historical vacancy rate that was applied at 7.5%. Um there are 8.04 trips per dwelling units. Um which suggests Garner's uh trip generation is a little lower than the national IT rates. Um and that number does include the external high school traffic. So, an estimated 585 dwelling units um until the the theoretical capacity is reached. um remaining largely unbuilt. You have areas at the end of Ren Road. Um Gentle Rain Ren Road here. Um Gentle Rain Drive, the end of New Bethl Church Road east of 40, um which will likely be well in septic developments. Uh Brian Lands, which is south of New Bethl Road. Starks

Land, which is east of Heburn Church Road. um and in pre-planning um and also considerations uh for potential redevelopment such as the Oregon Trail or the JS Buffalo Estate which is near the Oregon Trail and the Wind Road area. Regards to environmental and cultural resources, there were no significant environmental or cultural features on the site. Um again the site is within the lower Swift Creek management area. Again that limits residential development to 30% of builtupon area and limits multif family to 50%. There were 271 properties and occupants notified for the neighborhood meeting. There were two meetings conducted with the applicant and adjacent uh properties and occupants. One was held uh May 9th of last year. Um and then there was a meeting on March 3rd of this year. 15 attendees were at the first meeting, 10 at the second meeting. Again, the site is not within a an activity center. the neighborhood um area. Uh character typology is the what this site is located within and it is a level two area to strengthen um from our comprehensive land use plan. As staff evaluated this proposal with our comprehensive plan, um considering the framework consistency, there were 17

growth framework criteria evaluated. Um they received a fairly strong strong um consistency rating of the 17 uh 16 were strongly consistent and one modestly consistent. In reviewing the land use and community character consistency, uh 29 criteria were determined to be applicable or possible to meaningfully address. Um it received overall favorable support with a notable portion demonstrating strong upward consistency. There was one strong non-sup support due to the lack of a commitment to green street solutions. And overall, um, again, there's always opportunities for, uh, continued fine-tuning. And so, um, in response to this evaluation tool and continued, um, input from this evening and from the public, uh, staff will, uh, be able to support um, even stronger or at least, you know, maintain a stronger um, a strong overall finding of consistency. and do have that full detail consistency in your staff report. The public hearing was held on April 15th. Um there were several comments uh that stem from the public hearing um from council. There was a comment regarding the staff presented traffic analysis. Um, and there was a request to recalculate the numbers based upon NC DOT's numbers and traffic flows onto the main access road uh to South Garner. Um, comment on the information again regarding the traffic analysis and the numbers being the most current numbers.

Um, there was a comment noting the lack of commercial within the area and also tying that back to the hightrip generation. Um there was just clarifying question about about the active open space. Number three, uh the colors of the home. So you know more about the uh proposed development itself. Um why the R8 zoning district was chosen. Um there was concern with the tax valuation of the home product. Um and a clarifying question regarding the number of uses and reduction in the density particularly for the town homes. um and a question regarding the TIA and road imp improvements. But overall, these were um clarifying questions um and and comment from council to evaluate the traffic um analysis presented by staff. And so this evening, I've prepared a draft consistency statement for your review. Um, as I stated, the applicant is here this evening and would like to present um to you as well their proposal. The highlighted option indicates the results of staff's analysis. It is consistent and recommend approval. Staff has prepared a recommended um consistency statement and motion to So the next steps in this process be to um planning commission to uh determine findings of plan consistency and a recommendation to council uh recommending approval or denial of this case. And then back to town council um for findings of reasonleness and a decision to approve or deny the request.

We have the proposal. I'll leave uh that on the screen if there are any question. This concludes my presentation, but I am here to answer any questions um regarding the staff report or any questions you may have. And as stated, the applicant is here as well and would like to provide some information to you this evening. Um does planning commission have any questions for staff? Yes, Mr. Walling. Yes. Our our notes indicate that there are four storm water control measures. Did something happen recently to knock it down to one? No, it's it's always been one. Let me see. That could have been an oversight. Um under storm water notes. Mhm. Yeah, that should be that was an oversight. For some reason, it it listed it as four, but it's there's just one. So, they haven't reduced any storm water control measures. I'll make sure to update that in the staff report. Second question, the u the anchor formation or that upside down T in green on the map. Mhm. Was that selected for any particular reason in the in the design? This open space area here. Yeah. Um I'll let the applicant speak to that because that was their determination to put, you know, to have Oops. to have uh the design of that um that open space so they they they can speak more to why it's there. Okay. Any other questions for staff?

Yeah, I have one real fast. Um, does Garner's transportation plan call out the crosssections for New Bethl Church Road or Clevery Glenn? Um, road or whatever. Um, let me check. Uh, Jeff, you want to answer? So, we don't call out to my knowledge in our plan, we don't call out specific cross-sections. Um but we do coordinate with DOT um their plans for the MTP and then we have cross sections um that fulfill what's in the MTP. Um so New Bethl Church and most roads in that area at most are going to be uh some kind of two-lane divided facility, but mostly with probably a center turn lane or at least dedicated lefts and rights wherever there needs to be. Okay. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mills. Any other questions for staff? If none, we will hear from our applicant. Um, please each when you come forward, please state your name and your address associated with you and so that we have that for the record. and your affiliation. [Music] [Music]

Thanks. You're welcome. Thank you. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Worth Mills with Longleaf Law Partners. I am the attorney representing Dr. Horton on this matter. My address is 45509 Creedmore Road, Sweet 302 in Raleigh, 27612. As I said, I'm here on behalf of Dr. Horton, uh, who is the contract purchaser and proposed developer of these two properties. I'm joined by Anne Oakley and Madison Lee with Dr. Horton. Also joining us are Ben Williams, our lead engineer with Priest Craraven and Associates, and Nate Bland, our traffic engineer with McAdams Engineering. Aaron did a great job on the staff presentation, so we will try not to be um repetitive. Um, but just to give a a highle overview of our request, the two parcels, 1600 and 1612 Clifford Road are just over 25 acres. 1600 has a single family home. 1612 is vacant. Currently zoned R2 within the lower Swift Creek Overlay district and within the ETJ. We are proposing to reszone to R8 conditional zoning. Uh this would be annexed into uh town of Garner limits uh during plat review and our proposal is for 87 uh total homes, 75 single family homes and and 12 town homes. And one theme that I think you'll hear throughout our presentation is that even though there are only two home types or two uses that we are proposing, we're trying to create enough variety within those home types in order to meet the needs of a large swath of Garner's

population and trying to provide a type of home um that that again meets uh the unique unique needs uh for for Again, a variety of individuals, whether it's a a young family looking for a starter home, uh all the way to an older couple who may be looking to downsize into a singlestory uh dwelling unit. So, again, uh our two parcels uh plus one dwelling unit today uh our two current zoning with the Lower Smith Creek Overlay district attached. Um Harper's Landing is immediately to our southeast, you have South Corner High School. Uh further east, Magnolia Park subdivision is to our northwest and the Clifford Grove subdivision is to our north. Here's a look at the street view of Clifford and of New Bethl Church Road. Uh both road frontages currently do not have curb and gutter, nor that do they have sidewalk. Current zoning for our property again is R2, which is a lowdensity single family district. Uh but within this exhibit here, there are a variety of of zoning districts within our area within close proximity to us, ranging from RA to even CMX. And there is a large R8 conditional use zoning district uh east of us along Clifford Road uh at the Hebrin Church Road intersection. Aaron touched on this a little bit with regard to the character typology map. Um, but did want to go over some of those uh policies. So again, this is designated as neighborhoods, which calls for a mix of housing types, anything from single family homes uh to apartments. And it I think importantly, it recommends uh different home types within a single development, which is uh really key for for what Dr. Horton is trying to accomplish here. Uh so we think we've we've done a good job of

being consistent with the character typology map. As far as the development and intensity change map go, this area is an area to strengthen, which essentially means the town likes the type of development that is occurring in this area and wants to see a similar type of development continued for uh for new projects. And within this area, it is predominantly a single family detached product type, but there are uh some town homes, some recently built town homes in this area as well. And so when extrapolating that and comparing it to our application and our development, a majority of these homes would be single family detached, but we are providing uh 12 town homes as well to provide some of that product variety. So, um, we've I think we've really done a good job here as well of taking what is around us and incorporating that into a single project. I did want to also speak to the history of this master plan and how we've arrived at the current layout. This is the initial layout that we shared with neighbors at our presubmittal meeting and the first iteration that we submitted to the town. This plan called for 120 home 121 homes, 53 single family detached and and 68 town homes. And in this plan, we had single family detached with uh town homes uh in the interior. Now, when we met with the neighbors and we met with uh stakeholders at the town, um there were some primary takeaways that we received. Uh, one was to ensure that this project would be adequately parked. Um, through the changes that we've made since then, our parking spaces per home have increased by

23%. A big uh item of concern for neighbors uh at the outset was to research the impacts uh of traffic along Clifford and New Bethl Church Road. Uh Nate Bowwin performed a TIA uh during that initial uh review with staff as we have lowered the unit count. Uh it's been determined that we did not even meet the threshold for uh performing a TIA at the the reasonzoning stage, but it's been very helpful to um kind of plan out with the town and be able to tell neighbors, you know, exactly kind of what those impacts should be. Additionally, we've been working with NC DOT to reduce the speed limit on Clifford Road from 45 miles an hour to 35 miles an hour. Uh, and we are installing uh upwards of 3,000 ft of curb gutter sidewalk and that center turn lane along both roadways. Uh, number three, we were to reevaluate the number of proposed town homes. neighbors and um town council members uh wanted to see less town homes have the predominant building type be single family and again from that initial 68 town home development today's plan proposes 12. So we've reduced the number of town homes by 83% from that initial proposal and now single family detached is the predominant building type. And fourth, it was to include homes with firstf flooror master bedrooms to accommodate uh Garner senior population. Um one of the big changes that we've made there is in the single uh story uh cottage uh rear loaded type, which you'll see in pale yellow on the screen shortly. Um but even with other building types uh proposed uh approximately 75% of the homes that Dr. Horton is planning to build here would have a master bedroom on the first

floor. And so again, this is our updated master plan. 87 homes um which includes 75 single family homes and uh 12 town homes. I'm going to have Ben Williams, our lead engineer, just come up and and give a highle overview uh of some of the key features uh within this master plan. Hey, good evening. My name is Ben Williams. I'm with Priest Craven Associates. We're at 383B Computer Drive, Sweet 104. That's in Raleigh. Um Aaron has already gone over the the layout and and Worth has given you many details, so I won't waste much of your time on going through this. I I'll I will be available to answer any of your questions, but I did want to touch on a couple of things. The site has a significant amount of roadway frontage. New Bethl and Clifford. Um, it amounts to, as Worth had noted, 3,000 linear feet of widening. Um, we understand that cross-section to be a two-lane divided with bike lanes and sidewalks. Um, so with our development, we will complete that uh cross-section um across the frontage. Uh we have significantly more frontage than many of the many of the developments that have gone in here with a much smaller amount of units. Um the the internal also wanted to note that internally we've got about one and a half miles of sidewalk sidewalk on both sides of the street. We've got uh increased uh sidewalk sizes internally to to connect all of the open spaces um internally. And um and I I just want to touch briefly on the on the key um that was brought up earlier. Uh if you if you go back to our original layout, um one of the ideas with this initially was to try to set up uh some some cottage type um

homes that these were town homes at the time, but that that front on open space with and they're served by rear alleys. We we like the concept a lot, but we also met a lot of comments as we uh as we tried to uh engage the town with this layout and um and it was uh it was clear that we wanted to have more single family detached and and and not as many town homes. So, we tried to keep that idea um with some of that cottage product facing the open space and and that's how the or that's the origin of it. And now Ann or Worth, here's a couple of the open space details as well. Um, active open space 3 which was the um exercise park. Uh on the left hand side on the right hand side uh you see the uh sort of common open space that open space one in the heart of the site with the cottage product. um homes fronting there with a sort of a a pedestrian path that runs the length of it with connections for each of those homes. Active open space 2, which is our playground area in the southern uh edge of the site. Uh and then again on the right hand side here is the one of the pedestrian connections that we're offering from the active open space to Clifford Road. Uh so trying to give folks u multiple ways um whether it be by car, by bike or by foot uh and multiple ways to get out as well. Following our public hearing, we met with Aaron um to try to further increase our consistency with the applicable town policies. the three conditions that we have discussed and

are continuing to finalize with planning. One is a payment uh to be made a a financial contribution to the wide oak road Brian Road corridor impact area. PY Home Company and the town of Garner entered into a development agreement in 2022 uh in connection with PI's 400 plus home project within the the White Oak Road corridor. um we are within that impact area and are um drafting a condition uh to enshrine our commitment to paying for our share of the traffic that we send into the the corridor area. Uh the second new condition is to commit to double silt fil double silt fencing along the limits of disturbance adjacent to the noose river reparium buffer that's located along our southern boundary line. That fencing would be installed prior to grading and would remain through construction. And lastly, a commitment to replant new trees within zone two of that noose river repairarium buffer. There is uh an existing sewer easement that ension of zone 2 on our property, but for all other areas of zone 2 within our property, we would be planting new trees in that area to further help with uh runoff and uh water quality within that within that stream. And now an Oakley with Dr. Horton will come up and walk you through some of the product renderings. Good evening, planning commissioners. My name is Anne Oakley and I'm a Ford planner with Dear Horton and I've had the project uh privilege of being on this project since we started on our first submitt. And so I'm really glad to be here before you tonight. What you see I'm sorry. Your address just Oh, sorry.

Sorry. Sorry. Thank you. Address is 2000 Aerial Center Parkway in Raleigh, North Carolina, sweet 110A. Thank you so much. Yes, sir. Thank you for the reminder. That's okay. Um, cottages are what you see above. Uh, we did have a great feedback from our neighborhood meeting on this product. It was what was sitting on that center courtyard. Uh, we have six units facing open space. These cottages range anywhere from 1,600-,800 square f feet. Um, they have three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms. They're all one story. They do have a twocar garage and they do have quite a large 9x10 patio on the back. Um, these are all rear loaded onto an alley. So, um, one of my favorite features of this home is that you can pull into your garage and walk into your kitchen with your groceries, and that is a standard of living that a lot of people strive for. So, um, next we're going to talk about, and Oh, yeah. Just hit the right this one. Thank you. Uh, these are the largest homes that we're putting on the site. Um, they're are 50 foot wide product. They are over 3,000 square feet. Some have five bedrooms, others have four. Many of them will have a primary bedroom downstairs. Uh two-car garages that will be recessed from the front. So, this is not a garage forward plan. This is a garage recess plan. This is what we know for most of us as a traditional uh architecture. So, that going back to that traditional um home style. Um and then moving on, these town homes can be found today in Verina Gateway in Fugquway Verina. And um they are doing very very well. They live like a single family home. So, they are over just over 2400 square feet. Uh they have four bedrooms. Um and they're um really probably one of the bestselling town homes that we have because for folks that don't want to take care of their lawn, don't want that big yard to take care of, this is giving them that same space for their family. And then the last home rendering

I want to touch on, this is the 45 foot product that is front loaded. It is has a two-car garage. Home sizes are going to range between 7,700 and 2,300 ft². These homes have a option between three and four bedrooms. And you can see that some will be closer to that one story. Most of them will be twostory, but we do have options at the uh elevation that you see on the left. So, there'll be a variety of home elevations, a variety of colors. Um and that will um round out the entire exterior along New Bethl Road and Clipple Road. So before I move on, any questions on the home renderings or information I provided? I have a question about the town homes. Are any of the town homes going to have those first floor um master bedrooms or are those going to just be for the single family homes? No. So, um, in each building, our exterior are actually primary down and the interior are not. Good question. [Music] And then that last picture that you showed, um, yeah, this one, is the second floor an open space like over the garage or is that a dedicated like bedroom, bathroom or how does that lay out look? Sure. So those windows that you see are actually uh two different bedrooms, but when you come up the stairs in one of these, and this is we have four different um elevation types here, so four different floor plans, so to speak. But the one that you see up above and the right, it has um it's more like an open loft area. It's like a second living room that's open above your downstairs living room, downstairs kitchen to where in my mind I'm thinking I could put all my kids toys up there and I wouldn't have to have them in my living room when I have guests over. But I'm thinking like a mom. We're referring to the one I guess on your Yeah. So is that that's the one that has

a loft upstairs. Okay. So just a loft. Yes. It's not a dedicated uh bonus room like what I think you're thinking of. And you would find more of that in the larger home product that I showed. Are the town homes uh like we have four connected in a group. Uh are those exactly in this layout? It seems that the facade is pretty much flush. There's no step back. Our conditions have that variation of roof line and the variation of of that. This is a image that we have that was done a couple years ago for Arena Gateway which is almost sold out but our conditions do speak to that. Yes, sir. Okay. I just want to make sure that this image is just an an image example. It is an image example. We've also committed to a greater color color variation than this. So to really be able to notice the difference between the units. Any other questions at the moment? Yeah. For this portion or overall? I have a couple more slides, but I want to make sure talk about this. This is important. What the houses look like is very important. Yes, sir. No, go ahead. Okay. So, moving on. Um, we did touch on open spaces earlier. Um, and I had a couple of renderings done so we could really feel like what it's there like to stand there instead of just look at a flat image. One thing I really wanted to focus on, we had a lot of conversations with staff and um, with the council members that we were lucky enough to meet with that wanted to make sure that these alleys that we were proposing that were rear loaded when you're driving down the road that you're not looking at um, a blank canvas or just a lot of cars or things that are not really pedestrian friendly. So, really wanted to point out that the alleys will be very adequately

landscaped. Um, we'll have um the ends of these alleys will have even more landscaping. So, when you looking down that corridor of the alley, you're going to see a really pretty treeline street. And then this is what we were referring to as that fitness park. One of the neat things about this park is it is connected off of New Belt Road with pedestrian connectivity to that sidewalk. So when folks are right there, I mean theoretically, yes, this is a property of the HOA in the community, but the public could have access to this from that pedestrian access. You can see a bench swing there in the back that we've committed to as well. And this is outdoor fitness equipment. It's meant to stay outdoors 365. Um the HOA will maintain it and maintain its integrity and um its safety. And then we'll also have the benches there as well. Um, and that's including what we've added another walking path kind of around um, that fitness area just to give folks just another place to stretch, leaving the center open. We would refer to that as maybe a yoga lawn as you see some examples up there. Excuse me. But most of the time, people just want to stretch when they've done working out. Um, and this is that central park. You have behind the folks in the foreground what we would call that sunken conversation pit or sunken living room, but it's basically recessed into the ground. Um, it has pvious areas in the bottom to allow soil to drain. And it's a nice gathering place for folks to sit and gather. And then in that um that that longer lawn that you saw in the picture earlier, they'll have more room to run around. This is our playground. And that uh blue bicycle that you see there is actually a bicycle rack. We'll have several of those on the exterior and interior. They're a decorative bicycle rack that some people also like to refer to as public art. And um we'll use a can of

style to cover the playground area to limit our um impervious and limit our concrete there in the playground. Um so that's what you see hanging over the picnic area. And then we'll have a area for playground equipment and swings here. And that concludes my presentation. Before I walk away, any questions on open spaces? I I have one question while you're on it. The central um green space with the curve linear sidewalk component um those are the cottages, right? Yes. And they're they're rear loaded colleges. So um so technically you are calling the front in that section. That's the front of the cottage right in the back. Yes. So the front doors will face that green space and they'll have sidewalks from their front door. Sidewalks coming from the central sidewalk or sidewalks along Let's go back to that site plan. That'll be more useful. So here, those six homes that are facing that trail going through the middle will have sidewalk from their front door to that access. Okay. But the gathering pit that you saw is a little further south of that. So not in front of their house, but in that more green open lawn area. And how wide is that that that sidewalk? Any idea what that might be? That's the six foot sidewalk we committed to. Okay. Okay. Um any questions for applicants for the car? Um first a couple comments. Uh I want to commend you on increasing the number of single family homes and

reducing the town homes. Um and as well as 75% of the masters on the first floor for the single families. Uh the garage size at 20 by 20. Commend you on that as well. Um and the facades are architecturally broken up and set back and I think they look nice. Um couple questions regarding the green space. I'll have other questions later. Um I don't see any dog park. That's a good question. Surely you didn't miss a dog park. I did not. So that fitness park that is against the uh edge of Clifford Road. So AS1 or the north of AS1, I guess it is. Yep. So the the furthest triangle towards Clifford Road, bottom right hand corner. Okay. So that was originally planned to be a dog park. And the more conversations that we had with staff and with council members, it was noted that we didn't really have anything there that would be um useful to folks walking. So imagine there's a sidewalk all the way around the perimeter of this project. So you're walking up here and you come into that area. They could use that fitness park. They did not see that the dog park was as useful as a fitness park. So, because we have a limited amount of open space, that change was actually made last minute um because we felt that it would be a greater benefit to the residents living there and to the residents at large in the community. And we also noted that we have a lot of pedestrian sidewalks, we'll have a lot of pet way stations, and we'll have a lot of yards. So, a lot of folks will have the opportunity to fence in their yards. Um, so all of those components together, we did feel like we were going to have enough petway stations in the area, both at the mail kiosk, all common areas to

accommodate dog owners. I guess that's great when you're walking the dog, but dogs like to run around a little bit, too. So, um, anyway, uh, that's fine. Uh, access to the wet pond, is that on the private drive on New Bethl Church? Is that I'm going to let our engineer speak to that. Okay. the the access to I'm thinking trying don't think we can really zoom in on there very well, but the access to the pond uh comes down between the playground which is the little wedge that goes in there by AS2. Uh I believe that's that's AS2. Um let me look at my but yeah it's between the town home and yeah it's between the town home and AS2. So, what purpose does that drive, the private drive on New Bethl Church serve that's showing um Oh, almost directly across from the gaps in the town homes there between the first four and the next four. Uh that's that is a there's an easement there that goes um I need to pull out a sheet I can read. I can see it a lot now because in the southwest you have your sewer ement but just north of that there it calls for 20 foot drive private drive and it seems to be going in between the first and second set of uh town homes. So between units 83 and 84 there's a uh it's PRDE. It stands for private drainage ement. It's 20 ft wide. It's just it's just the the pipes in there. Okay. Okay. Um, that's the only questions on green space, but I'll follow up with some other questions, okay, later.

Hi, good evening. Uh, my name is Nate Bokin, traffic engineer with McAdams. Address 621 Hills Street in Raleigh. Uh so just wanted to touch real briefly on uh on the traffic study that that we completed. Um so as staff mentioned uh we did prepare a TIA. Uh we looked at eight total of eight intersections uh surrounding the the area. Um with the initial submitt that that we made we were triggering the need for a TIA. Uh but with uh the the updates to the plans that have been covered here previously um we are actually below that threshold now. Uh so it just makes us this this study that we've completed uh just a little that much more conservative. Um but still still valid from NCDOT's perspective. Um at the top of the screen there is just a breakdown of uh the original trip generation shown in green uh to our our new unit count uh trip generation in yellow. As you can see we're uh roughly 300 trips less uh for the total daily uh trip generation. uh that 815 uh daily um is what we we're looking at to determine whether or not it was triggering the need for TI uh the town's thresholds either a thousand daily or 100 peak hour. We were already under the 100 peak hour. Um and so the the updated density there is below that thousand uh daily as well. Um that on the bottom of the screen is just a a brief overview of the transportation improvements that we were looking at for the project uh through coordination with NC dot and and and town. Um so as you can see and this was previously covered the the new Bethl Road um Bethl Church Road, excuse me, um access is uh right and right out. Um and then our Clifford Road access uh is lined up with Whitetail Deer Deer Lane um with turn lanes at at both of those. Um, and then also, uh, through coordination with, uh, the the town, uh, it was presented to us of of, hey, now that we're kind of

finishing up the the widening along, uh, a decent chunk of Clifford Road, uh, it was requested that we we start the conversation with NC DOT about reducing the speed limit on Clifford Road. Uh, so we did start that conversation. Um, DOT has reviewed it and they've given the preliminary nod of approval. Um I think there's just some additional uh coordination that the town um engineering department is having with within CDOT to get that uh taken care of, but um that is that is looking at being completed as well. Um so happy to answer any any questions that might have regarding transportation. Otherwise, I'll pass it back over to Worth. Okay. Yeah. I would just say in summary, I think this project is consistent with the the town's policies with regards to development intensity and the the building types and the housing types that we're proposing. We're proposing variety within those housing types, both in single family versus town homes, but even within the single family product, having you know, smaller rear loaded, larger front loaded um just to be able to again uh attract a a wide variety of uh of resident. Um and so I think for those reasons, this project, this resoning is is reasonable and in the public interest. We appreciate your time this evening and the entire team is available to answer any questions that you have. Thank you. Thank you so much. Could Could I ask um Yes. Okay. Could I ask you to put your very very first cover slide on the picture the the aerial shot? See, was it this one? Yeah.

Um that long wooded arm through the property that's not the or is this a very old picture? The reason I ask is it that doesn't seem to be the same uh buffered wooded buffer area that comes up to Harper's Landing. Correct. It I think it is an old photo because that's prior to the platting and the construction of of Harper's Landing. Okay, that that had me a bit confused. Okay, thank you. It um try and throw um Is is that wet, by the way? Is it It's wooded. That arm. Is it wet? There's a portion of it that's in the Noose River buffer. [Music] And it begins at the Shannondoa River Way, which is the road going into Harper's Landing. Yeah. So, it's wet from approximately that road uh as it flows, I guess you would call that south, but to the left of the page. And I will also note that while that buffer that shows up on the aerial is not as substantial today in the field, um when we're finished, we'll we will have installed a 45 foot wide buffer to supplement that um that the plantings that are out there. Mhm. Yeah, I think you did a good job in terms of u the tree work that you will be saving some and adding some, but I I just got confused by that first shot. Okay, we have uh questions for staff or for our applicant. This is a time for us. Uh I'll start with um I guess some traffic questions.

Um, your meeting number one with the public stated that they were going to do the traffic impact analysis and it may require improvements to address road safety. Now, the first meeting was May 9th. The report, the TIA comes out on June 24th. So, were there additional requirements from the date of the meeting of May 9th to the June report? That's the first question. Second question, uh, and I may I may have missed it in in the TIA, but did that TIA recommend a traffic light at Clifford and New Bethl? Yeah. So, when at that first meeting, uh, the TIA had not been completed yet. Um so through the outcome of of that TIA um there there were improvements at the the the driveways. Um and then we have our our our frontage widening uh improvements to to widen out. So the ultimate section uh but no other uh transportation improvements were were were triggered. Um there is a commitment uh by another development for the the traffic signal um at that intersection though. Um and we are we are working with that that development team um to make sure that the the signal poles are are in the location as much as possible uh to not be impacted um otherwise we would have to move them and um okay so the the TIA was finalized in June of 2024 and we all know that the traffic patterns have changed quite dramatically since I540 opened. Has anybody with the town or or with the engineer looked at what these traffic pattern changes are doing and how this is going to impact these areas because your own statement says that uh some of these roads have been over capacity for two

decades or more. You're adding 815 more trips. You're using old data. So I I think that was uh the the over capacity for 20 years was a statement that the town had um indicated. We um we provided that information. Um since the public hearing, we were asked to um provide additional data about Benson Road and White Oak Road. Um honestly, it just, you know, it what what we're just reporting back to everyone is that it is what it is and it's been that way for a long time. um 540 into and out of this area probably will not have any impact because the only two ways into the area are off of White Oak and Benson. Um so that's kind of where where we're at, but we did want to update you with the internal capacity of this area around South Garner High School. Um, so we had done that for a previous project and so we're just continuing to track that and let you know that we still feel as staff that things are on schedule, so to speak. So with the 4,500 more trips allowed in that running total, you've already taken off the 815 to get to that new number. Yes. Yes. that 400 and um however many is what would be left for anything that we don't have in the pipeline. And is the 2% annual growth looking ahead through 2029 and beyond? Is that realistic for this area? Looking at kind of the explosion we've had and traffic and things. Um because if you look at the population, I think we're higher than 2%. And yet that's the number we're using in these, right? So that that that number is used for

background traffic, which usually implies that there's traffic coming through the area um from other places. Uh, in this case, it's honestly probably more appropriate to use a almost a zero. Um, because there's no traffic coming from anywhere else. Um, if you're coming into this area, you're coming in. If you're going out, you're going out. Um, there's very limited opportunities at this time for through movement. Now, if Acriman um when such time as that gets connected through, then we may see some growth on Acriman um from other places because then people could use that uh instead of going up to Timber Drive. Um they could come up white oak or Benson and cut over from one to the other. Um um my other question and I'm looking at the I guess it's the zoning conditions. Um, specifically item number seven, on street parking for open space talks about the development shall provide at least four on street parking spaces directly adjacent to AS1, but AS1 does not show adjacent um parking spaces. in your items discussed at meeting number one on May 9th. Uh the response was in regards to not providing adequate or the question was uh about not providing adequate parking for residents and guests. They said they're planning on providing a mix of parallel and pull-in on your street B's. You're going to have a 12 1/2t lane. Your alleys are going to be much narrower. A where do you see parallel parking anywhere in this conceptual drawing

because you don't have the lane width and my next question is you don't show anything at AS1 you do show four spaces at AS2 and I think four spaces for all of your green space parking is a little bit inadequate and you got one handicap spot. So, can you show me where you would plan on putting the parallel parking for AS1? And I guess that's the first question. You can show me that and then why there's so few parking spaces. Certainly, I think I think we're in agreement that that is a typo. Um that should say AS2. Those four parking spaces are at the mail kiosk. Uh it was that area of the playground was originally labeled as AS1. So that we just need to have that corrected. Right. Um as far as the the overall parking within the neighborhood, I' I'd like to go back to the um the original layout again in in this situation where we had 120 units. Um, we plan for the road the the public roads within the project to not only be 29 ft wide, which is a requirement of the UDO, but we also planned for um additional parking spaces. In this situation, um, we had a lot of parallel parking. We had a lot of onecar garage units. I'd say at least half of the product here was one car. So in that situation, we felt like it was very important to make sure that Amazon trucks folks coming to visit had those opportunities to park. When we when we when we changed the the product type to um you know what is 90% single family detached and got away from the

town homes. We made a commitment that all of these units have twocar garages and will have driveways that can accommodate two cars. So per home, we actually increase the amount of parking spaces within the development by about 25%. That's per home. I mean, it's not this doesn't have more parking spaces than the other one. It's just that within this type of development with the the product that we're providing, there'll be four parking spaces um I don't know if you guys count two-car garage as two spaces or not. Um or just as one as some municipalities do, but under under the old ordinance, it was two, the new ordinance, so it would just be one one. Technically, there's there's there's space in the garage um that will count towards the UDO requirements, but anyway, you possibly could get four cars with the with the garage in the in the driveway. And um that just seemed to be a better fit for this neighborhood in under this style. and it and with the 29 ft wide street um that allows for you know fire and safety to be able to get by with the 25 ft clear section if if you're parking on one side of the road. I'm not familiar with the town's requirements as far as what you allow for parking pillow on public streets. But if you're parked on one side, you still have plenty of room for folks to get by. It's it's allowed by default until somebody asks for a no parking zone to be um because so your your your street width your street B is 29 ft back to back which is going to give you 25 foot pave which is 12 and a half travel lanes. I like this layout that you have now but there's not going to be room to park on the street really anywhere for parallel parking. And if this is going to be under an HOA, you might want to consider just putting no parking on the streets. And and I consider that to be 29 minus one. You know, the curbs, you

know, a half a foot. So I like to think of that as more like two 14 foot. Um yeah, I'm figuring 20 24 inch curb. So yeah, 29. Yeah. Yeah. [Music] Um the and this is just a question, but do you feel that four parking spaces for the green space is going to be sufficient? We didn't think of that park as a destination to drive to. Those were more for uh the mail kiosk. Um we didn't we didn't we didn't we're not trying to to trick anyone to think that we're using those four spaces to park for visitors. That was really just intended for the mail kiosk. Okay. And that's all the questions I have right now. Okay, Mr. Bowen. Miss Phillips. Um, no questions, just comments. I really like the fitness area, um, and the pedestrian trail um, and the little pocket parks. And I also appreciate the the images. Um, it helps you kind of visualize what the neighborhood's going to look like. So seeing the different elevations was definitely great. So thank you. Yeah, I'm sure this is answered somewhere, but uh what's the price point for this um development? And I guess do you know the price point or what's Harper's Landing selling for? I do not have data on Harper's Landing, but I can help provide some information on on these products. So I I like most of you could not have predicted what the prices would be two years ago as to what they are today. So I can share with you what we're doing today and what they're selling for today knowing that these products won't be built for another 18 months to two years. That could change. Okay, that caveat being known. So the town homes are selling today in Fway Verina and your high threes to low fours. The single family homes are also

selling in your mid4s to high fours. So those other 45 foot homes ahead you have your 60-foot homes. So the largest homes on the 60 foot wide lots, those over 3,000 square foot homes are selling out in Stanford in the mid 500s. So here in Wake County that would equal around 600. Did I miss any of your products? Oh, and your cottages today are selling in Nightdale and in Pway Verina. And those are selling in your high three to low fours as well. Okay, thank you. Just checking a few quickly for you. Um for Harper's Landing um and it seems to be anywhere from the low fours to the high fours. Okay. Thank you. Um I had a question about the traffic light. Do we know with I know it's through another development, but do we know when they're supposed to be adding that? It's currently under design. Um, when it comes to the traffic signals, it's always subject to DOT's approval on signal warrants, but do we think it'd be there before construction starts in late 2026? We're anticipating that it's it's probably going to be in place before uh we can start our widening. Uh, but again, it's it's tough to say definitive until DOT does give that that nod of approval to go ahead and can install it. That light was triggered by Homestead, um, which was just I just I do want to add one thing to that. We are in direct communication with the party that is doing that traffic signal. We've already worked with them on the eence that they'll need on our corner and we're working conjunction with them to make sure that our widening and the work that we're doing is in concert with the improvements that they're doing. So, we are definitely considering that. Yes, ma'am. And um and then I just have a comment and I've said it before and I'll continue to say it because I feel like

it's important. Um, I do appreciate the mass the first floor master um, bedrooms, not just when we're thinking about our senior population, but when we're thinking about anybody, any one of us can have an incident that prevents us from going upstairs and I've worked in healthcare and have seen that to be very devastating for families and to the point where they have to consider moving on top of having to deal with this new medical event. So, I think that's just something to consider in all developments and to keep, you know, again to provide spaces um and for our community where they can continue to live and not have to have this added stress. So, I do appreciate that. I um have a question about that central open space um with the sidewalk and the uh cottage front facing. That's an active open space, right? Is that we're considering that to be active open space? Yes. So, the only thing activated in front of those folks homes is a trail network that people can walk through and due diligence wise, anyone who buys those parcels would know that ahead of time. most certainly they would be shown this. Um, but that is the only activated area below that is more of an open green space and that whole area is the central green I believe Aaron and Jeff I'm referring to the right central green is your UDO and comp plan term common green thank you ma'am and so that that whole area together makes one pedestrian connection that's the activity in that area there's not it's not more active than that other than that conversation gathering area. I think my I think my mo my quandry is the sidewalk in its

placement. Um the centralizing sidewalk begins to separate the softskate which then doesn't provide an open green space for use in that centralizing component. And that's why I asked the question about how do you get into the unit from the green space from that green space because now the active surface or the green space that you can use is really on the left and right of the walkway the pedestrian and then in between the sidewalks getting to the units. So in some ways you know it it it makes the most sense that the circulation route occurs on the boundary so that the green space and softscape happens in the centralizing core of the green space so that it actually is used or useful can be planted can be used for sitting. Um so that's you know I'm not going to say it's necessarily a a a horrible concern. It's just a question of how we use that space. And so I don't know if that's something that can I don't know how much I don't know I don't know what what what that distance really is um from house to house or from foot from you know face of stoop to face of stoop. Um but you might consider how to make that really more active useful. Um and if it is able to be used like it is then so shall it be. Um but um but when we say open uh kind of active green space, the centralizing core is what's really used and we circulate around it. But I like the idea of it. It makes sense. If it was wider, then the circulating walkway would still have large open space on the left and right to be able to be used as open active space. So you really to speak to your point, I hate to interrupt you, but that was exactly what we envisioned here,

sir. Mhm. And and in transitioning to single family, um that did change a little bit and and narrow that view. But yes, your your your perspective is exactly what our first initial thoughts were. So, you know, as you finalize that, you know, maybe there are some slight adjustments to make that more useful, functional. Um, and if not, then it's really designating kind of a front yard component to each of the cottages that's not really theirs, but uh something to think about. Um, I do have some concern about parking. Um, you know, guests um where do they really place their car and is the driveway really sufficient for um a car to be placed when there's also a sidewalk? Right. does that car extend into the sidewalk? Um, and and Mr. Carson's comment was, I think, very prevalent that, you know, if that's not really able to provide a uh parallel parking option on one side, then there may be the need to say there is no street parking. Um, just just one thing to make sure that your residents have the I mean they're paying for a house and they're paying for access and to be and I always have problems with this that I paid $400 $500,000 for a house and I can't have a guest visit and park on the street. Um, and that's just a, you know, something to think about. But I do have a concern about that. I'm not saying it's a nogo go no-go, but I don't know if there's any other way to solve it. I was just going to note that uh the the front setbacks are 25 ft. So there will be plenty of room on the driveway outside of the public sidewalk for cars to park. Okay. Okay. That makes that very helpful.

I've got a question for staff. Um somewhere in these documents I had read that the developers agreed to annex us to the town of Garner. But I do not see that in the zoning conditions section of dated March 31st. Is that they still agreeing to be annexed? Did I read that correctly? Yeah, that's just a that's just more of a procedural um thing that we incorporate into into the rest of the review process. Okay. Okay. Well, um, is there any other discussion from us or any more questions from commission to staff or applicants? Well, to make our discussion more formal, I think uh it is that time that we either need to make a motion either way um to discuss it further. I'll make a motion that we the planning commission find that in the absence of any significant strong non-supporting comprehensive plan criteria and a strong level of consistency with the plan's growth framework this request to reszone from residential to that is R2 to residential 8 that is R8 C 319 conditional for the development of 87 lot residential subdivision is consistent with the town's adopted land use plans. I'll second that. We have a motion and a second. So before we um put on a vote, are there any other is there any other discussion or needs on our behalf? Okay, we have a motion and a second. Some offic Mr. Voiland, you you read the draft consistency statement. Are you um stating also that you are um the draft motion to recommend approval?

Yes. Okay. So, um that's in your staff report, everyone. The draft motion to recommend approval is the motion on the floor um brought by Mr. Voiland, seconded by Mr. Carson. Um and I will call the vote. Mariah Bishop I. Ralph Carson. Hi. Philip Jefferson. I. Jihan Hodes. I. Ben Mills. I. Cherry Phillips. I. Michael Boland. I. That's seven eyes. The motion passes. Thank you so much. May we have passed that motion. Um, thank you all for providing a typology I like to call housing typology and that's a product um that are um uh diverse um twotory one story and hope to give the opportunity for multiple um residential options for us. So we will keep you to your plan to do things well for town garner. Thank you so much. Reports from our esteemed planning director who we have not seen. Yes, I know. It's okay. Good to see you. I appreciate uh Aaron and Thomas being able to hold down the fort for a couple of months. Um but it was a little bit of a crazy time uh for me with um my mother. She was n she was 92. Um went to go see her uh in late April just before she passed or late March actually. Um and then have been going back to Washington State for memorial service and other things. So uh yeah, just been a little little bit of family wrapping up kind of stuff. So you

have our condolences. Thank you. Thank you. Um yes. So since your last meeting, not a lot of council activity in terms of cases. Um but Garner 6 Industrial uh that project uh was approved on Guy Road. That may have been a special use permit only. So I'm not sure if y'all had seen that or not. Um but that was approved. Um ju and just a general reminder um for you and others as you're talking to folks and people have you know development questions don't be afraid to make sure that they know about the development activity map. Um we also Alex recently opened a a GIS data portal. Um so just kind of centralized a bunch of our our mapping a little bit better online. So please do check that out and let us know if you have any questions. Um there are currently uh some early discussions about two possible individual uh zoning text amendments which could make their way to you. Uh one is regarding some modifications to the uh what I call the residential threshold um for projects that require a special use permit. Um there could be some tweaks coming through for for your review to look at and input. And then also another possibility could be a text amendment to resend the R8 zoning district. Um so just want you to know that those two are being discussed at the council level and that you could be seeing those in the months ahead. Um transportation plan. Uh we do anticipate uh releasing the RFQ um around the beginning of June um or the end of this month. Um we but we are hoping to get that out before the end of

the fiscal year and uh hopefully solicit some help to update um our transportation plan. We've had an internal staff kind of kickoff meeting uh just brainstorming about what the plan uh really needs to cover uh this time around. Uh certainly if you all have any thoughts on that, feel free to uh give me a ring and I'll be glad to to talk about that with you and there will continue to be this is just to get the RFQ out. Um once we get to actually formalizing a scope, then we'll certainly um continue to bring you all into the discussion on that as well. So just want you to be aware that we are trying to get that kicked off here uh shortly. Um, and then I I did want to give because I'm not sure how much you all have have been in the loop. Um, as always, this time of year, the legislature is active. This is the beginning of a two-year cycle this year. Um, and there are a number of bills that um are being batted around as they always are. Um, several have made the crossover deadline from one house to the other was this past week. And there are several bills that met that. And there's another one though that is still alive by another measure. If you haven't heard about it, I would encourage you to check it out. Um, it's it is referred to as House Bill 765. Um, there are some rather interesting uh proposals within there. I think um from a planner's perspective, there's some good things and there's also some things that we kind of, you know, raise our eyebrows at. Um but just to give you an idea of some of the things that are currently in that draft, um it it does appear to be um backed quite heavily by folks like the

Homebuilders Association and the Realtors Association. um that some of the provisions would basically strip local governments from being able to make a lot of decisions um zoning decisions for their local community. Uh the current draft would actually require every residentially zoned property in Garner um to be allowed to build five dwelling units per acre. So if you had an acre lot, you could build five single family homes or five town homes. Um, it also would require us to, um, allow for a accessory dwelling unit on every residential lot. Um, I think it's 800 up to 800 square ft is the current language. Uh, it would require staff in the town to review all reszoning requests within 90 days. Uh it would require staff for us to review all things within 14 days. Uh it would potentially eliminate parking requirements, number, dimension, uh configuration. Uh it would eliminate pretty much any voluntary conditions. So this back and forth that we have about zoning conditions uh would they're trying to the bill is trying to clamp down on that and eliminate that all together. Uh and subdivision approval would purely um on the current draft be a staff approval only. It could not go to the town council or anyone else. Um so there's there's a lot of things in that bill. Um, and I always think that it's good for the public to be aware, and I'm not necessarily so sure that the public is always uh super aware of some of these things that are in these bills.

It is still being debated. Uh, it has not made it out of the house yet where it originated. Um, it is going back to the finance committee that kept it alive um by inserting a budgetary um kind of change as well. So, we'll see. We're keeping an eye on it. Um, but there are some others that would potentially freeze ETJ. Um, we are thankful that it appears that the ones that would eliminate ETJ, in which case our two ETJ members would no longer be able to be on the commission. Um, but it appears that the one that has the most traction right now for Garner would just freeze the ETJ. So, we would keep our existing, but we would not be able to expand um, if that got passed. Um, there's another bill, House Bill 372, that would loosen some of the home occupation rules. For the most part, I don't think it would change a lot of what we do here in Garner, but it could potentially loosen up a few things that maybe we might be a little more tight on in terms of how much space you're allowed to use for a home occupation, what can be done outside the home versus inside the home. Um, but then S uh Senate Bill 587 is the one that could uh potentially restore the down zoning. I think we reported to you on that that there was a late um a late change in the last legislative session that changed uh the definition of downzoning. And currently one of our ordinances is is null and void um because it runs a foul of that downzoning definition. Um but if Senate Bill 587 would get passed um then that would restore the town's ability to do what it always had done before um and would potentially allow us to keep that ordinance on the books as is. Happy to always talk about any of

these things with you. I know Terry is keeping uh track in their legal department on a lot of this stuff as well. Um we are doing our best to kind of stay a breast of those that affect our department and development services in general. Um so yeah, just wanted to make you aware of some of those things as members of the planning commission and uh again reach out if you have any questions and that's all I have. I very much appreciate you sharing those things. um I overlap with a lot of those things in our design community, especially as our building code issues have begun to have adjustments as well. So that will be very important to review. I've heard some of those, but um Mr. Voer, um Jeff, thank you for the development map. If you go on the social media site next door, the number one question is, "Does anyone know what they're building at X?" And being able to simply refer to that has saved a lot of typing on my part. So, I do it all the time and it answers questions. Uh, because discussions go in all sorts of strange ways when people don't know what they're building where. So, Right. Good. I'm glad that that's out there and available. It's a quick copy paste. If if any of you have driven by the Bo Dangles Bojangle site, you now know it's bow time because someone has spray painted it's bow time on the girder, the overhead girder. So, right, you know that. And they're making good progress apparently. Uh for for John John Hodgeges, um you last gave us an update on the VA from Congresswoman Ross and I just wondering if anything's changed because things have gotten weirder at the VA. Good evening, commissioners. We have not

heard any update from Congresswoman's office. We did have a meeting with some of the VA leadership about 3 weeks ago just to talk about some logistical issues. At that time, they had not been made aware of anything that was going to cause them to have to delay their opening, but they have also not followed up with us on any particular um dates for their opening. So, the only thing we know to share with you right now, sorry, I was trying to close it out so it's not constantly there for you, um is the summer, the generic summer opening that they had told us previously and I think I had shared that with you, but we don't have any updates for that. Okay. Thank you, Jeff. if I had a comment, but thank you very much for sharing those house bill uh updates. Will the town have any response official response or response from the planning department or maybe through legal on some of these issues because some some of them just that as you read them off were kind of concerning especially on House Bill 765. M so is there anything oh that'll come from so I can share with you that the town produces a legislative agenda each at least at the beginning of each b uh banial session so we did that this year um generically talking about things that we're in support of and we often reference the North Carolina League of Municipalities because they develop a legislative agenda that's voted on by the membership and that's sort of our overall overarching body that we work with on legislative affairs S. So our initial draft of our legislative agenda simply said that we're supporting the goals of the League of Municipalities and we are opposing anything that limits town's abilities to make good good planning decisions. And also to Mr. Jefferson's point, we oppose anything that tampers with and delays the implementation of the most current building codes because North Carolina is woefully behind in doing that. I could be here all night talking about that. Mr. Jefferson would probably help me

with it. Um, but that was what we led off with. And then as things come about, we then amend it to have uh specific things that we're opposed to. And there were so many bills this time. We added some general opposition statements, but we specifically called out House Bill 765 and noted some of the reasons that we were out we were um we were coming out in in opposition to it. There were some changes made, I think, in committee last week to the bill. So, we're we're sort of waiting to see what pieces will get pulled out. But as Jeff mentioned, the maneuver of adding a financial element to it so it could get included in the budget could cause any one element sort of of that bill. It does not have to necessarily go in and whole as currently written. So it's a it's a a strategy to be able to pull parts of that, but we our our main uh opposition is that we've shared that with our legislative representation representatives. I know some of our neighboring communities will actually adopt a resolution in support of or in opposition of. And I think for our council, we felt like there were so many particular things that we would have to mention or parts of things that were good and parts bad. We we didn't recommend to council of taking that type of action for this session. That's really good to hear, sir. That's good to hear that that our other municipalities along with us are making these statements and making it clear how this is impacting their their communities. And since we're having this discussion, I'll be glad to forward you our most current legislative agenda just because it does provide some additional bullet points of some of the things that Jeff mentioned. So, I'll share that with you. That'd be wonderful. It' be wonderful. Um, thank you for bringing that up. Um, and I will also share what Mr. Bolan said about our our our map, our interactive map. I shared that with one of our neighbors who's very very um um aware of GIS application from his work and he was also trying to figure out what's going on where and he said it was the best interactive GIS portal that

he has ever worked with. So kudos to pass to Alex. Well, if there are no other comments or questions from commission, we will call our meeting ajourned. No, I we're unlikely to meet next month. Oh, we don't have anything on the agenda that would be coming to you for June. So, at this time, we will tell you we would not have a June meeting or Yeah, we'll we'll officially let you know by the end of next week, but at this time, we don't have anything. Um, so unless that would change for some reason. It's also my birthday that day. So, and I'll be out of town. Well, we should still all I'll remind myself when mine comes. Okay, now we're really a journal. [Music]