Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

[Music] Good evening. We will call our August 11th planning commission meeting to order. Good evening, commissioners. I'll call the role. Shane Banks here. Mariah Bishop here. Ralph Carson here. Philip Jefferson here. Jihan Hodgees here. Ben Mills here. Michael Voiland here. That's seven members present. Seven members present. Thank you. Um uh um Miss Hodes is not able to be with us in person uh this evening. Um but pursuant to our planning commission um rules of procedure rule number three, a member can be uh allowed to uh participate fully virtually if we um provide a motion and vote in approval of that. Do we have a motion to allow Miss Hodes to participate virtually? I'll make the motion. Thank you. I'll second. Okay, we have a second. A motion and second to approve. All right, we have a motion on the floor to allow massages to participate electronically, virtually. Um, I'll call the vote. Shane Banks, I. Mariah Bishop, I. Ralph Carson, I. Philip Jefferson, I. Ben Mills, I. Michael Voy, I. That's six eyes. The motion passes. Thank you so much, Commission. Miss Hodes, we hope we have you online. Um, yes. Thank you for your flexibility and understanding. Thanks. You are very welcome. And that is why we voted on these rules adoptions at that time. Um, our time for our invocation. Mr. Boland. Yep. Not a prayer, just a comment. I'd like to simply take a moment to remind my fellow colleagues on the board about

the kinds of residential housing options that come before us in the development proposals we review. We've had many single family home developments in Garner, and there will likely be more. I live in one, a newer one, a subdivision built in 2016 through 2018. And of course, there are multi-unit apartment buildings in town, and there will likely be more. But we always should recognize the need for the sort of housing first labeled about 15 years ago as the missing middle in a book by that very name. It spoke to the need for duplexes, forplexes, and town homes that could provide an option between the single family home and the apartment and most importantly along a spectrum of affordability. We are fortunate that our planning staff studies these options. We are also fortunate that our co-chair, Ralph Carson, has served on a group that explores ways to increase housing of this type that is truly affordable. Our town's recent master plan did well in addressing these three kinds of housing. Let's always keep them in mind as we make our reviews and decisions. Thank you so much, Mr. Bolan. Adoption of our agenda. Are there any items that need to be adjusted or changed as it's written? Not from staff. Okay. Thank you so much. Is there a motion to approve our adoption and adopt our agenda as written? I'll make the motion to adopt the agenda of August 11th. Thank you so much, Mr. Carson. We have We have a motion. We have a second. I'll second. Thank you so much, Mr. Banks. We have a motion and a second. There's a motion on the floor to adopt the agenda. I'll call the vote. Shane Banks, I. Mariah Bishop, I. Ralph Carson, I. Philip Jefferson, I. Jan Hodes, I. Ben Mills, I. Michael Voiland, I.

The agenda is adopted. Thank you so much. We've adopted our agenda. Uh lastly, uh on our first items, our meeting minutes from July 14th. Are there any items that need to be adjusted or revised? Seeing none, do we have a motion to approve our July 14th meeting minutes? I'll make that motion. Thank you, Mr. Bowen. Do we have a second? Second. I have a motion and a second on the floor. There's a motion on the floor to approve the minutes. I'll call the vote. Shane Banks, I. Mariah Bishop, I. Ralph Carson. I Philip Jefferson I Jan Hajes I Ben Mills I Michael Voand I seven I's the minutes are approved. Thank you so much. We've approved our meeting minutes. Uh now to our old and new business um CZ2501. Um everyone should have a copy of this um PowerPoint um with you in front of you. Um apologize for our technology this evening but we will go the way that always works. Good evening, planning commission. I'll be presenting tonight's case. It is CZ250001, also known as Project Cougar. Um, in your I'll try to refer to page numbers as we go along. Um, before I get into it, I do want to just remind you that this this project is a little different than other cases you're going to see. Typically, there's not a lot of details in the case and that is done for confidentiality reasons um with an economic development component. Our economic development director will speak to that in my presentation, but I just want you to think of this first as a tier one resoning. Um and uh we we'll go from there, but I just wanted to preface that. So, um so tonight our applicant is Jeremy Anderson of Thomas and Hutton. The owner is NCTTH Holdings LLC. Uh this

is a tier one conditional district reszoning request um to reszone approximately 127.98 acres from commercial mixeduse, light industrial and heavy industrial conditional to light industrial uh C321 conditional. The site is located at 5100 Rainer Road. Um and again this is a tier one. there is not a sight specific master plan. So on slide three uh for the current zoning there are three zoning um districts attached to the parcel already. Uh there's base CMX which is a mix of general commercial retail and service activities. Some of those can be offices and light industrial uses. Um CMX should have good automobile access and serve those beyond just our town. Light industrial provides for a limited range of low inensity industrial uses. Uh and those operations are restricted to indoor only. And then the small portion of the site is zoned heavy industrial conditional. Um industrial uses are more noxious or offensive in nature in heavy industrial. Um and those can be inside or outside a building. The particular conditional zoning of that site was adopted in 2000 to allow for a uh RV dealership. Um and the limited written conditions on that relate to site layout and design only. Page four. Um for context and setting, uh there's also the commercial highway overlay district which runs along US70. So that does cover the northern portion of the site. Uh the CHO provides additional development design and landscaping standards and those are detailed in UDO section 5.14.2. For context, the site is currently vacant. Um it's generally bounded by

South Greenville Parkway, Waterfield Drive, US70, and Rainer Road. Um existing development in the area that's residential includes Camelot and the reserve at White Oak Apartments on North Greenfield Parkway. Um there's also Quest Fellowship Church which is at the corner of Rainer Road and Waterfield Drive. Um existing industrial uses and businesses nearby include the Capitol dealership, Papa John's and Dominoes distribution centers, Canteen, Pergo, and Mohawk Industries. On page uh slide five, um our framework, the site does fall within two designated activity centers. Um it's within a regional employment center which is centered on the western side of South Greenville Parkway. Um so majority of the site is located within that activity center and then uh small portion of it is in the transit oriented development which is an activity center located at the northeast corner of Auburn Nightale Road and US70. As you can see in the uh map on your slide there, it's heavily in influenced this part of Garner by the presence of several regional employment centers because of the great highway access and interstate access. Um recent DOT traffic counts from 2024 for that portion of 70 is 45,242 average annual daily trips. Um I wanted to point out this slide you don't normally see. Uh this is from our comprehensive plan as you're all used to now. Um just describing employment areas that character typology. So while this resoning request may be light on site and development details, the proposal is motivated by economic development opportunities. This is from page 54 of that Garner forward comprehensive plan

that describes the employment areas typology in depth. Um the character typology and activity center maps also speak to the importance of this area for employmentdriven development projects. On slide seven, I'm going to move along to the proposal. Uh the applicant has proposed um a list of 25 permitted uses in the light industrial conditional um zoning they're requesting. You can see them on the paper slide in front of you. Uh majority of them are in the commercial, office, retail, and service use category. Um you'll see a couple are in the industrial, manufacturing, waste, service, and transportation use category as well. Um all in all, they have limited to 25 out of 44 permitted uses in the LI conditional district. Um there one other written condition uh number two on slide eight the office uses of this development will be located at the northwest corner of the project parcel. So that's going to be more towards 70 and Greenfield Parkway that corner. Uh on slide nine you're going to get um kind of a highle analysis from the TIA. Uh it was conducted January 2025. Uh the calculations were based on 351,000 square feet of general office use. Um the proposal is going to have two new accesses each on South Greenfield Parkway and on Waterfield Drive. So four new accesses to the site. Um the TIA uh determined there would be 3460 new one-way average trips generated. You could see the weekday AM peak hours of

4:34 trips in, 59 trips out, and weekday PM peak hours of 80 trips in, and 391 trips out. On slide nine, um high level review here. Staff notes that the applicable plan for tier one resoning request is typically only the 2023 Garner Forward comprehensive plan as there is no sight specific master plan included with these requests. Without the master plan, it's difficult to evaluate some metrics, but staff can evaluate the proposal based upon their permitted use table and their condition offered. You'll see um majority of the site is in the tier three areas to enhance. For the neighborhood meeting, staff identified 123 properties and occupants within the notification radius. Um the neighborhood meeting was held November 18th of 2024 at the Garner Senior Center. There were four people in attendance. you have your full neighborhood meeting uh information attached in your staff report. On slide 12, um I've evaluated the growth framework consistency. We were able to evaluate four growth framework criteria. Uh and all four of them were strongly consistent. The growth framework criteria were evaluated using the scale below with a considerable finding of strong support. light industrial zoning choice rated favorably as well as the non-residential building types. Uh overall we had strong consistency with the development intensity metrics of the site. Slide 13 uh is land use and community character consistency. Um we were able to evaluate three criteria which had an overall mixed support. Um, support was given for new employment opportunities and not reclassifying

activity centers, but a negative rating was given for the lack of mixed uses, not providing a place where people can live, work, shop, and play. Uh, you'll see some of their uses allow for work and shop, no live. So, slide 14. Overall, in the absence of any strong non-supporting criteria and a strong level of consistency with the plan's growth framework, staff does find an overall finding of consistency. At this time, you have the full um detail attached in your staff reports. We conducted our public hearing on July 15th at town council. There was one question from the council about the TIA regarding the use categories and site layout. Um, no one from the public spoke at that meeting. There was a motion made by Mayor Prom Vance to close the public hearing and refer the case to the planning commission for consistency review and recommendation. The motion was seconded by Mr. Singleton, Council Member Singleton, and the motion passed 5 to zero. We're going to move on to slide 16. And there's going to be two slides here where um Nate Groover, our economic development director, is going to speak to those about the economic development considerations of this project. So um I'm going to hand it off to him. Thank you, commission members. Appreciate the opportunity to come tonight. Um like Thomas mentioned, uh Project Cougar uh is an active confidential business recruitment project. We know that it's not typical for y'all to kind of have these opportunities where not a lot lot of information is provided, but I can tell you that it's very common place in the world of economic development working under project code names to the confidential um reason for the project. So, um council and staff are operating under non-disclosure agreement. one of the other reasons why we need to keep

things confidential. Uh but council has met with representatives from the company and is generally supportive. Uh this project is a competitive project. So like most projects in economic development, there are multiple locations under consideration. uh and the economic development department used this as a positive opportunity for the town and this project allows for the economic development department to meet our goals for job creation and investment. And some of those uh numbers you can see on slide 17. Um so a total of 692 jobs created over 5 years, more than 347 million in investment again um created over five years. And then one thing I do want to point out specifically for this project is uh in the world of economic development, we're trying to create opportunities that uh pay above the average wage here in Garner. So this project pays um 75,000 uh dollars a year, which exceeds the North Carolina average wage of about $67,000 a year. And again, as Thomas mentioned, uh this project will be located in the Highway 70 business quarter. Happy to turn things back over to Thomas. So on page 18 of your slides, you're going to find the draft consistency statement that uh we have drafted for you. On page 19, you're going to see your four options tonight for planning commission. You can find it consistent, recommend approval, inconsistent, recommend approval, consistent, recommend denial, or inconsistent and recommend denial. Uh staff analysis has determined um that we would indicate a finding of consistent and recommend approval.

There is a draft motion to recommend approval on slide 20. And tonight, our next steps, um, slide 21, you're going to find your findings of planned consistency and your recommendation to approve or deny. Um, and then it will be referred to town council for their findings of reasonleness and the decision to approve or deny the resoning request. Uh, staff is here to answer questions. um myself and Nate, Jeff um and then we have members of the applicant team that are here that can answer questions as well. They don't have a formal presentation. Um they have one slide that we can share with you which is the large paper under your uh PowerPoint. It is a general bubble land use map. It is not part of our official submission, our record. um but it's something that they want to share with you. So um I will end my presentation. Do you have any questions for me Nate? Applicant. Thank you, Miss Rail. Do we have any staff questions at the at this time? Would you like the applicant to Yeah, brother. Okay. Well, we'd like to hear from our applicant. This is just for Oh, yeah. One question. This is just for background. Okay. Um, what was there previously? Well, the site is vacant except for I guess that one corner that was originally going to be a RV dealership. I understand it's interesting when you look at it from the air, particularly on Google Maps. It has a very strange pattern to it. What is wooded? What isn't? It almost looks like a golf course. Does it go back in history? Was it a golf course?

Nothing like that. Okay. Um, I understand the confidentiality aspect of this. I'm not going to ask who or what. Uh, I I'm I'm guess I'm just asking why. And uh I'll I'll half ask my own answer my own question. Um, apparently the town would be in competition with other locations and other towns. Correct. Correct. Okay. So, the developer wants us in the mix for their decision. Am I right? Correct. Okay. So, this is a decision before us that we're we're basically going to say we want to remain in the mix, but we don't. Correct. Do I have it? Okay. So, um, given that, I guess I'm answering my question as to why there has to be some confidentiality because there's other towns who would compete against Garner and it's important that a certain level of confidential confidentiality remain. Correct. Is everything I said correct? Correct. Yes. And and to that point, um, again, like I mentioned, this is very common in the world of economic development. um economic development practitioners understand um obviously when you're recruiting business these are very sensitive matters and the businesses of course um do everything they can to minimize disruptions and obviously min you know disruptions to workforce could be one of them. So that's why it's imperative that these projects while they're just thinking about it again they're thinking about it they're doing their due diligence uh and they're not treating the town of Garner any different than they are any other municipality that they will be working with so this is common place across the board.

Yeah. Okay. I appreciate that. Other question is simply um based upon the bigger map that the developer shared um there seemed to be a a waterway going through that and I tried to pick up on that uh when I was looking again at the topography from Google Maps and I I couldn't find anything at least on Google Maps. Is there or is there not some kind of stream be it intermittent or not running right through their property? Yeah, I I'm not sure if it's a blue line stream, but it is um to be buffered under the news rules. Correct. Um Jeff or David? Yeah. So, so you'll see that that dark line through it. There's a tiny little blue line. That's um the stream itself and the buffer of the project. So, um you know, we don't have a master plan we can evaluate. I I think on this it shows they're going to have potentially one stream crossing, but um the stream would be protected and buffered through the site. There's also a utility easement that runs diagonally through the site. There's that small bit of uh flood plane to the far west southwest corner um that they would have to stay out anyway. Um you know, we're not evaluating on a site basis, but it would be uh protected as well. Okay. And and maybe the only the question I should have asked first is that this is simply a request to consolidate everything under light industrial zoning. Correct. Under one zoning district that um because this is a tier one allows them flexibility on where to place things on the site. Just one zoning use was preferred. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Are we going to hear from the applicant? We will. Before I ask more. Okay. I mean, unless you'd like to ask, I'll just hold my questions until after the applicant speaks.

Okay. Same questions. I have a couple questions just to um I don't know if I'm allowed to ask this, but are we um will there be are we offering any economic incentives? We discussed those. We've not come to a final agreement yet or anything. Okay. Obviously, that has to go before council. Yeah, one of the items of discussion state and local or just local. Uh I'll have to get back to you on that. Okay. Well, that's that's fine. I'll leave just at this time just local. Yeah. I'm just curious who um who offered up condition number two is I'm just trying to find the reasoning behind that. So the applicant did um and I believe that was just so they were going to present along 70 more office use than any other of the industrial uses listed. Um okay that was what the town preferred. All right that's all the questions I have for now. [Applause] Um I did have so I'm just trying to understand. So the difference between industrial versus industrial conditional is what exactly? Yeah. Yeah. So the site has like base light industrial now base CMX and then that heavy industrial conditional. So they want light industrial but they're conditioning it so they're not getting everything. So they've narrowed the uses and then given that one condition. So Okay. Right. Thanks. Okay. Well, I think that we right now have any questions? Oh, yeah. Majes. Okay. Um I I don't have any questions right now. Okay. All right. Thank you, massages. U so we can hear from our applicant now. He can stand up and ask answer any questions. He he's not going to have anything to present. Um but if you have a question or two for him, he might be able to answer. Keep in mind some things may not be able to be disclosed.

Okay. If you'd like to say anything, um, please state your name and your address and your affiliation. This is probably the first time we've had this type of No, I I listen, I appreciate the commission's, uh, um, ability to to understand the confidential nature of this project. Um, and I think on behalf of um, the company, u, first of all, my name is Tim Brent. I'm uh, I run a industrial focused real estate development company. Um, but I am just representing the company that is uh is looking at this site uh to relocate a headquarters. Um, and I think that's really important to um decipher here and and and make a point of. Um, they'd be relocating from their current headquarters as well as consolidating several business lines here to here to Garner. Um and um just some high level I guess information that the company's been around for over 70 years um and and very much looking forward to um potentially integrating into the town of Garner and being here for the next 70 years. And this this site is hugely important to uh the company's growth and um and again the f the flexibility and and again understand um you all don't see a lot of tier one zonings but um the flexibility in this site is is an integral part of of their long-term growth plan. So that's part of the reason why you're seeing a tier one reszoning ask So, um, hearing that, does commission have more questions? Yes, Mr. Carson. Uh, Mr. Brandt, I would like to thank you and NCTH for considering Garner for

this location. Um, it's a great piece of property, great highway access. Um do have a couple questions. Um just in relation to some of these slides, uh the TIA was based on a calculation of 351,000 square feet of general office. Is that accurate? Because if the TIA was based on that, but you're possibly going to go far above that. Is is that reasonably accurate? We actually have our traffic consultant who can can chime in probably a little better uh a little more professional than I can on that. Um this very similar question would rais state your name, address and uh Ronald Stevenson with DRMP uh 5808 Fairington Place uh in Raleigh and our uh firm did prepare the traffic impact analysis for the development and uh as you mentioned we did consider uh the site's general office and the reason and this is a very similar question that was raised um at the uh public hearing, but it's um the general office encompasses a lot of different kinds of you know developments and bit you know office related development. Um it has a uh pattern that's um higher number of trips coming in in the morning and higher number of trips leaving in the afternoon during the peak hour rush hours. And we think that this is a um is a good estimate that would cover and and accommodate the trip patterns that we think are you know we're going to be from this particular development. So uh while there could be some aspects that are a little different it's a general office category that encompasses different types of us different types of

offices and different types of businesses and u uh we we feel it's a going to be a a good estimate of the traffic. Okay. Um the other question I have for Mr. Brent um it notes that 692 jobs are projected to be created over five years. Are those construction related jobs or are those employment jobs permanently there on the site? Those those would be permanent employment jobs. Um, and I do have I'm I'm supportive of this, but I do have two concerns, and it's not relating to the zoning, but perhaps future site plans. Um it's noted on here they're talking about providing 100 ft of storage plus appropriate deceleration and taper um in some of these uh egress and ingress. I would like you to perhaps look at more storage capacity because we're everything seems to be built to the minimum storage capacity and that'll hold four to five vehicles and considering the roads out there uh if they lengthen that a little bit more I think that would help with perhaps some of the traffic congestion. My other comment was with the four new um access points to this property, it doesn't show any traffic signals, but perhaps look at that as you flush out your design that perhaps one on each of those roads might be signalized. Um, that's a lot of traffic coming in and out in peak hours and uh I think that would just may be something to look at when you get to that design point. Yeah, absolutely. And there's there's

again Ronald Stevenson with DRMP. Um the reasonzoning is one step that we have to go through. we're going to going to have to go through uh CDs and driveway permits and those kinds of things that uh and when we get to that stage um of the process, if there's any concerns about those things, there'll be another opportunity to to bring those up. um if if it does come up uh based on what we have now and the traffic we have now um a traffic signal was not identified as needed and and one of the reasons uh for that we think is that uh the traffic have first of all having multiple access points is good. It helps with circulation and spreading out traffic. And then having access on both roads is important as well because that allows uh it allows the uh folks coming in and out of this site to um minimize the number of left turns, you know, that are made and that's usually what drives the need for a signal. So I, you know, we think at this point given the number of driveways that we have and the traffic patterns that we're anticipating that a signal would not be warranted. However, um there's still a ways to go with permitting, you know, on this once we get get to that get to that stage. And the last comment, Mr. Brent mentioned that they'd look to be here for another 70 years. We'd like at least a minimum of 100. Welcome to Garner. Come build and thank you for considering this property. Any other questions or staff or the applicant? Um, yeah, I have a few. Um, I guess what was the neighborhood consensus? Um, because looking through here, it doesn't seem like there's too much um at the neighborhood meeting. Yeah.

Yeah, there was only uh there were only four people that showed up. Uh, one neighborhood um resident and the the question was traffic related. Um, which again, you know, we we went and did the traffic to impact analysis ahead of time in order to to be able to speak to that. Um, but that was the only question that we had about the the development. Yeah. Okay. Um, and then I know I guess as far as the environmental impact, um, I know right now data centers are really big right now. I know we can't say exactly what it is and I know you know is great that there is good economic um you know incent or not incentives but um economic just prosperity as far as Garner um what is the potential I guess like environmental impact well I mean there there's obviously environmental impact with every development but we we have taken steps and and Mr. interval and asked as asked a question about the blue blue line stream. We went and had that delineated. Um so we've we've done our due diligence on the um on the site and the the um natural features of of the site. Um and we always try and work work around those to the best of our ability. I think the the other point to mention is we will have to come back into the town of Garner for site plan approval. um which will have to um adhere to all the UDO requirements that that go along with a light industrial zoning. And um so that you know this isn't the the be all end all of of you know approving a project. We'll we'll have to adhere just like everybody else does to the ODO buffer requirements and such.

Um and then I know there was a question regarding traffic. Um, is there any potential to have more like walkability and connectivity to um, like whether it's the neighborhood or sidewalks, greenways? Is there any way to kind of incorporate that? I think again that um, as far as the UDO is concerned, we'll have to uh, adhere to all those requirements when when we come in for for site plan approval. None. None. Yeah, I think I just have one. Um, it kind of covers in the TIA, but do you expect any um hours operation outside of normal business hours like third shift or anything like that? Um, remains to be seen. I think um, you know, over time we'll we'll have a better understanding of of how many business lines will will end up on on site. Um, again, the flexibility of of this tier one resoning is to try and bring as much economic development and as many jobs to to Garner as possible. Okay. And do you think there'll be um I don't know a lot of uh 18 wheelers coming in and out of the site during the day during operation or uh I think that it's fair to say there'll be some some truck traffic. Um to go too far beyond exactly what that looks like, it'll be uh difficult for me to answer right now. Okay, that's all I have. Um I think my question uh is probably two-part related to environmental impact of the stream and also the traffic which we've already already been you know kind of discussed a little bit. I you know you me um well one the blue line stream this might also be a I don't really care

who answers this question at this stage whether the staff or the applicant. Um, this is mostly a question about how we impact that blue line stream, which looking at IMAPs, there are also some um eastwardly streams that move from that blue line stream in the center of the property towards the east. And then it looks like there's a I don't know if there's a if it's a natural ponding component in that northeast corner of the CMX zone lot on Rainer Road that I'm assuming that whatever is draining from the central portion of that stream is is is draining in that I don't know natural or manmade component. I'm not sure what that if that's a um not sure. Um so once one enters the site from one two three four five the five entry points are they then able to maneuver the entire site without having to come back onto Rainer Road or to Greenfield Parkway or meaning that we you know we mentioned you mentioned kind of a a crossover of the stream is that a vehicular crossover of the stream so that we can yeah eventually um I think the you know the the first phase contemplated in in this project would remain on the west side of the stream. Um I think ultimately there there will be a crossing of the stream in order to access the eastern portion of of the site. So will that potentially happen when the eastern portion phase two happens? Not that it would be dormant until an unknown time and both phases are complete. That's correct. We would um probably, you know, like I said, we've done our due diligence. We've had um a jurisdictional determination on the stream from from DEQ and um and so whether we go ahead and permit that

crossing with phase one or phase two, we will likely not be um occupying the eastern side of the stream in the in the initial phase of the of the project. And so right now you're there's only a proposal for one crossing on that more southerntherly side of the site. That's correct. Is there potential for a second on the more northern side? I don't I don't think so. Um we chose that location because it was the um the least impactful to the site to to the stream to the stream. Okay. Okay. So, so perhaps once you know majority of traffic enters the site, it could begin to circulate within itself before exiting back onto the main roadways. And and the reason I mentioned that is because of that that southeast uh corner um closest to the residential development, which was what the question was really about in the um community meeting. Understood. Yeah. Um, so if that happens, then we could begin to, you know, reduce the continuous movement on the main roadway. Yeah, I think I think again part of um part of this flexibility in zoning is is to help accommodate what you're talking about, you know, the ability to maneuver on site um and and they'll be multiple buildings and business lines. And so, um being able to to be cohesive in the way that those all all go together is is important to the business. So though it's hard for us. This is this is kind of a I don't know since I've been on pretend you're not looking at the map that I've not had one like this where I don't know what is happening. Um I I'm

assuming that this is going to whatever this is will function like a campus and the cohesiveness of the building form would allow for walkability within the site from one I'll just say component to another. I mean, you have a restaurant listed as a as a use and um you know, there's sales in retail as a use. So, I'm assuming that there's not kind of an in and out in and out in and out, but perhaps once there once whoever is there, there's movement pedestrian like throughout the campus. Yeah. Again, I think um the ask and this flexibility for zoning um with a company that's making an investment of of this size, they're trying to um project what this site is going to look like 30, 40, 50 years from now. And so having the flexibility to, you know, potentially have the restaurant on site, I don't know if that that'll ever happen, but but maybe it maybe it will. Um that that's important for them to to have that flexibility. Okay. Okay. Perhaps I'm asking a lot of questions that well and and if those uses are on site, they could serve the site and people from outside the site if that's what you're thinking about that that reduces the car movement even from the residential community and it becomes not only a you know whatever this is. It's it's you know who who knows who lives in the residential community might be working here and could walk to work or could walk to the restaurant or to the retail space without having to walk. So, you know, that connectability in the neighborhood um is important. The CMX zoning does kind of ask for some transportation connection. Um, so I, you

know, I don't know where that would be future forward about bus rapid transit at some point for this site on the site, but I'm sure I know we're not at that point, but I want to bring that up because that also reduces whatever the circulation of movement vehicular is on that site. And if it's uh an element for a long-term solution for the site, um we would like for the community partners to enjoy that being there because that only helps the business potential for it as well. Yeah. Um, I can't speak to to the BRT, but I can assure you assure you that the uh the company is um very invested in their employees and and want the best for them. And so um if that makes a a difference in their employees lives, I'm sure that's um something that they would be interested in hearing about that. you know, we're we're really it's it's really important to garner and I hope that it's important to them as well. Um, please relate I will to them on planning commission. Um, are there any other statements or questions? I'll just I have a question. Is there any way that we can put like a contingency on the type of um I guess like whatever comes in as far as like whether we say yes or no because I'm like really a little concerned if it's a data center. I don't like because um well even though I I would tell you um no I mean your your um

your consistency statement and your motion are based upon what is presented to you. Um so you can make a decision how to vote how you would want based upon what you see here. um you have that that option. Um we would prefer the consistency statement and motion be made um as presented and the vote can fall how it does. Um but we would ask you to consider the case as presented. Thanks. Okay. Well, for us to be able to have uh final discussion and final uh decision making. Is there a motion of any sort for I'll I'll make the motion. I move that the planning commission accept the consistency statement drafted herein as our own written recommendation regarding the consistency of the request with the town's adopted land use plans and recommend approval of case number CZ25001 to the town council. I'll second that. Okay, we have a motion in a second. Are there Is there any other last minute discussion or commentary or that we need to make? All right, there's a motion on the floor. I'll call the vote. Shane Banks, I. Mariah Bishop, nay. Ralph Carson. Hi. Philip Jefferson. Hi. Uh, Jihan Hodes. Hi. Ben Mills. Hi. Michael Voiland. I that's six eyes, one nay. The motion passes. Okay, we pass our motion. Thank you so much, gentlemen, for uh taking time this evening with us. Um I hope that there's positive

positive results. I hope. Okay. I just want to make one more comment. Uh kind of the unsung heroes, but uh thanks to the economic development folks for uh being part of this discussion, uh you don't get enough credit a lot of times and since you're here, thank you very much. Thank you. Since we're getting credit, I want to be sure to uh you know, let you know how much that means to us. So, we appreciate we don't do it for the credit. uh we do it for the results but we appreciate that. So thank you. Thank you. Um reports from the planning director and yes um sorry I was just looking at one. Take your time. All righty. Uh, in terms of council actions since you last met, um, mostly annexations. Um, on July 15th, uh, the town annexed the property for the Wilmington Industrial Park. um just up the road uh from the Calibar interchange um back up Wilmington. Uh also the Trion Station Apartments, that's the low-income housing tax credit project up on uh Creech Road and the intersection of Future Triion Road East. Then on the 29th uh was the council's work session and I was present there to

uh discuss uh ZTA package 24001 uh which will be going uh to public hearing uh in September and that is regarding uh several residential some mixed use uh where residential is involved um implementation type amendments for the comp plan for things that are spoken to about residential and residential mixed use. Um, we're doing some final kind of just uh QC on that package and seeing if there's anything that we've missed that we want to make sure is in there still for the public hearing, but that'll come before you probably in October. Um, so that's working its way through. Then on August 5th, um again a couple of annexations, one for the uh Habitat for Humanity subdivision on Creech Road. So several things up in North Garner. Uh and then also the uh Homestead at Brian Farms uh subdivision, which you all had seen for a reasonzoning recently. uh ZTA 25001, which was the residential uh number of units threshold for an SUP, special use permit. Um where we we're looking to exempt those that go through a tier 2 reszoning process from having to also get the special use permit. uh that was approved by the council on that day on a vote of 3 to2. Um coming up on Wednesday uh we have uh three presentations um to our selection panel for the transportation element of the

comprehensive plan. uh we completed the objective review and the top the the three at the top were close enough uh in their scores that we felt uh that it warranted in-person uh discussion with each of them. So that will be taking place on Wednesday and we hope to be able to make a selection recommendation shortly thereafter. Uh so stay tuned for the transportation plan. And also I wanted to introduce uh you to Julian Griffy uh who is our person in the audience. He he is our recently hired uh senior planner uh in Aeron's group. So he works with Aaron and Thomas here primarily. So, you'll be seeing him more um with some resonings, but also his focus, one of his primary focus areas will be transportation. Um so, I'll be working with him uh in the first few months to kind of get that process for the transportation plan rewrite off the ground and then hopefully after some time, he'll be kind of taking the reins and steering it the rest of the way. So, we're glad to have him. Um, and then as of today, uh, this gentleman here to my right, uh, is now a planner 2, uh, with the department. So, he was promoted from planner one to planner two, and we've now posted his position as a planner one to hopefully get that back filled, assuming uh, the best for for everybody in my department. Uh once we fill that position, we will actually be fully staffed for the first time in quite a while. So very excited about that and uh plenty of applicants coming in. So hopefully Aaron will find a a good candidate here in the very near future.

Congratulations, Thomas. Congratulations. And welcome welcome. Welcome to town of Garner. We're the night. We're the best. We're the We're the No, I guess I can't say that. We're We're the most congenial group. No, no, we enjoy what we do and we um are thankful to have you all filling out our staff. Um so, welcome and congratulations. Oh, and then there is one other thing that I I will just throw out there because I it has been made the announcement uh around to council and everyone. Um, I did challenge uh staff members a few months ago to um make see if we could make a nomination for something for Garner um to NCAPA, which is the NC chapter of the American Planning Association for their annual great places award um and they had a category for public art. Um so there's a lot of stuff happening with public art here recently. um department heads had just come off a a little retreat style exercise where we help paint the crosswalks downtown. So that was fresh on my mind. Um so Thomas and Cassidy uh kind of took the bull by the horns and put together a nomination for the town uh both from the private perspective and the public perspective of everything that's going on. and we were notified uh just last week that we are a award recipient this year. So it's awesome. Congrat Congratulations. Wonderful. Let's let's let's keep it up. That's right. Always more. Yep. It we spoke to how it's in our comprehensive plan. It's something we look for and especially with our tier 2 master plan redevelopments have some kind of art component. you know, uh, the

pool drive fuel and retail sales has a mural on the one wall. That's part of that speaks to that. So, um, yeah, uh, couldn't have done it without Cassidy and and Matt Beard helping out from Parks and Wreck. Um, and then lastly, um, John just sent me a little reminder here. Don't forget the And it popped away for me. Yes, the celebrate Garner um on the 28th which you should have received an invitation for. Hopefully you can make that and we will hope to see you there because that's all about our volunteers and uh we definitely glad to see that back. Um been gone for a few years. Um but we do appreciate your time and effort because we know you're paid so much, right? So yes. Yes, we are. Uh Jeff, just got one question. Um backing up to council's um passing the SU revision, you said it was 3 to2. Oh, the the zoning text amendment. Yeah. What was Did they modify that threshold or how did that threshold stay? No, it stayed it stayed where where it was recommended. So, it's only for tier 2 reasonzonings. Um and then the the threshold for whether it's a major or minor modification if they come back later that was reduced down to 5%. Um so that does narrow the scope of holding them you know anybody who does residential as part of their plan. They've got to they can't vary that number too much without having to go back through the process. Okay. Yeah. Anything from planning commission? Yes, Mr. Boiler. Um, I stopped in at the VA clinic. It's

open. Yes. Um, grand opening. Maybe Mr. Hodgees knows the exact date, but they said it was a few weeks off. The grand opening of the of the clinic. Good evening, commissioners. Uh the grand opening is going to be Wednesday, August the 20th. I believe that is a 10:30 ribbon cutting. Okay. Um so it's it's open right now. I went in uh looked around. It's gorgeous. Um they were servicing many uh veterans there. um also drove around and as you may recall if you were on the board at the time there was questions about uh access and egress and uh just two things. I remember how concerned the homeowners association and the folks on Arbor Green were uh with leaving it and being able to make a right turn on Arbor Green. Um, the signage that tells people not to do that is lame. There has to be some stronger wording there because it's so easy to make a right turn onto Arbor Green as you leave. Um, just a suggestion. I'm I'm not sure that's governed by the Department of Transportation, but it's very very easy to make that right turn. Um also um myself, my neighbor, my wife have noticed a pattern. You cannot enter the VA clinic if you are heading on if you're on Ran Road in the right lane going west. You cannot enter. It's a right enter only, right turn only. But what we've seen time and time again

is a car will turn into the Randro Elementary entrance, make a K turn, and then try and go in that way. Uh I almost hit someone. It was very close. I almost hit someone doing that little stunt. So I don't know what you can do with signage. uh the the guides are already in the road in in terms of how you can get what you can and can't do, but we've seen that happen time and time again. I'm sure the folks at the elementary school are not going to be happy about that either, but it's a thing. I can speak to that. Um when I was giving Julian a tour the other day, I was going to make a left from Randon too and and noticed I had to go to Ren Elementary. So yeah. Yeah, I could see how uh it would be dangerous. That's not to speak of some of the 18-wheelers who have tried to do that. It's not pretty. That's it. Anyone else? Okay. Well, with that being said, uh then I will call our meeting a term. [Music]