Town Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the Town Council regular meeting of July 21st, 2026. It's another beautiful day in Garner, and you know why it is? Because it rained three inches yesterday. All my grass is happy, the leaves are shiny, everything is great. Welcome here this evening. I want to start by asking our Town Clerk to please call the roll.

Mayor Gupton?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Dellinger?

Here.

Council Member Matthews? Here. Council Member Singleton?

Here.

Council Member Stallings? Here. And Council Member Vance?

Here. Thank you, and I'm going to ask Council Member Singleton to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and then the invocation.

If you'd like, join me in prayer. Father, we thank you for, as the mayor mentioned, another beautiful day in Garner. Thank you for the opportunity to come here and gather in public space and talk about issues and items important to our town and our community. Father, we ask that you lift up those in our community who are sick, those who are battling illness, those who have lost loved ones recently. Father, we want to lift up the men and women on military bases and installations around the world. We're fighting to protect the rights of our country and the installations and bases in which they serve in, be with these men and women, be with their families that we've had soldiers who have lost their lives here recently. Wrap your arms around them and comfort them and give them the strength to carry on in the days and weeks ahead. Father, we ask all these things in your son's name.

Amen. Amen. Thank you, sir. Brings us to item B on our agenda, which is adoption of the agenda this evening here. I believe our council members have had a chance to look this over. Some have studied it for the last couple of days. I will ask for a motion to adopt the agenda. So moved. Second. Motion by Mr. Matthews, second by Mr. Vance. If there's no discussion, all in favor of adopting the agenda, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed by nay. Hearing none, that passes unanimously. The agenda is adopted. Thank you. uh item c on our agenda presentations there are no presentations per se this evening it brings us to item d on the agenda which is petitions and comments and i believe we do have a couple of folks signed up to speak this evening so i will read the little introduction that we always go through this portion of the meeting is to receive comments from the public on items not included in this agenda regarding matters germane to town policies or business or subjects within the town council's real or apparent jurisdiction. Individuals or group spokespersons must sign up with the town clerk prior to the start of the meeting. The Council is interested in hearing your concerns, but will not take action or deliberate on subject matter brought up during the petitions and comments segment. Topics requiring further investigation will be referred to the appropriate town officials or staff and may be scheduled for a future agenda. Each speaker is limited to four minutes. We've got a little timer going there at the podium. Thank you for your courtesy there, and thanks in advance for your civility and keeping this a pleasant environment for all. And that being said, town clerk, who is our first speaker?

Our first speaker is Adarsh Yadlapalli.

Adarsh, if you would please come to the podium, introduce yourself with name and address, and we're glad to hear what you have to tell us.

Hey, I'm Adarsh Yadlapalli. I live at 123 Wood Arcade Lane. I'm still waiting for my director of culture from Shiny Stars. I thought she would be here with me. I think she's trucking traffic. I'm here to invite all of the town council members, our town manager, town clerks, assistant town managers, and other folks at the town to India's Independence Day celebrations we're planning for August 15th. It's going to be a like a cultural event, including a lot of heritage background, showcasing how India was before 1947, they got independence, how it grew, and just to teach the kids what their origins were, how the homes were built there, what people used to wear, like all the way right from there to all the way through 2026, where we are right now, and how different the culture we live here is versus what it used to be over there. So I think I would also focus on there will be fashion shows for parents and kids. There will be a fun event. There will be a bunch of raffles that we are going to do. And it's going to be a fun cultural event. If you guys have not attended any Indian cultural events, especially the ones focused on the historical aspects, I think this would be different. I know a few of you guys visited us for Ganesh Chaturthi or Diwali, but this is going to be an entirely different concept. And it's indoors, so we don't have to be scared of the sun. So I think this is, again, even folks that are, there we go, they're here. This is Rajita, she's our Director of Culture. She's gonna be leading the event on that day, as well as all the planning. And those are some of our friends, Lakshmi. And it's gonna be full of cultural events, full of Indian food, again. So anybody from the town council and the town, Shiny Stars is going to, it's Indian food for purchase, but we want to, we will be honored to have you guys there. And we would love to offer that. We will purchase the food for everybody and everybody that shows from the town. There's going to be a lot of vendor stalls, a lot of Indian jewelry. If anybody's interested, Indian clothing. Again, it's like a fair. Think of it like a fair. Fair without all the giant wheels and roller coasters and stuff. All right. Anything else, right?

Was this August 15th?

It is August 15th. It's going to Methodist Church like last year. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Phil Matthews. It is August 15th, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Garner United Methodist Church is where it will be in the gym area inside. Yes, we talked about it. There is going to be a heritage wall where it just shows like whatever I talked about, like what are these transformation that happened along the way, historical transformation. Again, it shows like a time lapse and stuff. We're planning around it. And majority of these things that I just talked about will be led by youth. Thank you.

Thanks for the opportunity.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your message. And thanks for the invitation. And that brings us to our next speaker. And who is that?

Mr. Ricky Pierce.

Mr. Pierce, if you would address the podium and tell us your name and address, sir.

Good evening. I'm Ricky Pierce. I live at 1810 Bandora Springs Road here in Garner. In September 1970, I bought my first house in Garner. It was over in the Hopedale subdivision within the city limits. I was 19 years old. I was making top dollar. We were working for my dad and uncle, $7.50 an hour. Since that time, I've lived all my 56 years since then here in Garner paying property taxes. I got my property tax bill, as most people probably did yesterday. Last year, I paid $4,964.46. This year, I'm due to pay $5,131.33. I'm proud to be able to do that. I've got a nice home. I've worked hard for it. My wife and I enjoy living here in Garner. I'm beginning to wonder what it's going to take, though, for older people to continue to live here because we can't continue to see that. I'm a businessman. I understand cost of living going up. I understand cost of living in this town. I see we passed a huge budget. I understand that. I don't have any problems for that. I think we have almost 400 employees. When I first lived here, Mr. Knight was the only police officer in town, and my dad's cousin, Homer Creech, was in charge of the water department. A lot of things have changed. I don't have a problem with that. I don't have a problem with a little bit of a tax increase. What I do have a problem with is 40% of this board not owning any property in Garner and not contributing to the pot and making decisions that affect everybody here. That's not right. It needs to be changed. I don't know what it's gonna take, but if Garner's not good enough for you to buy a place to live here, then you don't need to be sitting on that board. Now with that said, you know, I say I've been up here a long time. In 1963, the Garner News got started. Joe Samples bought it a few years later and did a great job. If you saw Joe, you better look out. You better be doing something right because Joe would report it. When Joe got out, it was the Garner Times and Amy Griggs. They run that for a while, and then for a while, the Garner Citizen came with Barry Moore. And to me, that was a great little paper. In the 20 years since that paper closed, just about every city in Wake County has lost their hometown newspapers. They've lost the people that kept town boards accountable. Look at what's happened in Cary, because somebody won't pay any attention. I'm gonna try to help the people here in Garner because I'm not gonna start a newspaper. But I've got an extra Facebook page, it's called the Town Friar. And there's a lot going on in Garner that people aren't aware of and I'm gonna try to make sure that they become aware of it. And if they don't wanna come up here and speak, that's fine, I'll speak for them. But again, when 40% of this board is not paying property taxes, they don't need to be sitting there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pierce, for your comments. That brings us to Section E. That is all of our speakers.

Mr. Mayor, excuse me. We do have an additional speaker.

We do have another speaker.

Anthony Navarro.

Okay. Are you here, willing to speak?

I believe the individual wanted to speak about Jones Sausage Road.

Okay, well, if that person's not here, are willing to speak.

You don't want to, okay. They're declining to speak.

Okay. Thank you. Moving right along, if there are no other speakers, brings us to Section E of our agenda, which is the consent agenda. And this evening there are, as usual, several items on there, actually six items. These tend to be of a more administrative or straightforward issue. The town council members have looked at these, thought about them. If one of these needs to be pulled off for more discussion instead of being approved en masse, we can make that motion. And if there's none that seems to need to be pulled off for separate consideration, I will ask our council members for a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Second. There's a motion by Mr. Stallings and a second by Mr. Vance to adopt the consent agenda. If there's no discussion, we'll take a voice vote on this. Those in favor of adopting the consent agenda, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposing the consent agenda, please signify by saying nay. Hearing none, it passes unanimously. Thank you. We move along to section F.

Before we start the public hearings, we had a number of individuals come in late, so I just want to make sure that everyone's had an opportunity to sign in for the public hearings. If you did not sign in for one of the public hearings and wish to speak tonight, could you go to the back corner? An assistant town attorney, Morgan Pierce, will assist you in getting signed in. So if you're here for the annexation, for the conditional rezoning request, or for the zoning text amendment, and you haven't signed in, now's the time to do it.

Okay, thank you very much. We want to make sure everybody who came to speak gets a chance and we do it in an orderly way. So that brings us to section F, which are the public hearings contained here. And we read this little opening remark, too, about legislative hearings, which all of these are this evening as opposed to the quasi-judicial hearings. The legislative hearings, public hearings, are legislative hearings which do not require sworn testimony. However, all persons interested in speaking must sign up with the town clerk. Town staff will present a brief presentation followed by the applicant. and other persons who wish to comment on the item will be recognized to speak. Council requests groups of individuals with the same position to designate a representative to speak for the group. Each member of the public wishing to speak will be limited to three minutes. Item 1.1, our first public hearing this evening, has to do with a voluntary contiguous annexation petition number ANX-26-003 having to do with property at 7854 White Oak Road. And our planning director, Jeff Treisenberg, and our GIS analyst, Alex Bone, will be explaining some of this to us this evening. Mr. Treisenberg.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members, and public. Yes, tonight we do have one annexation petition public hearing for you. This is for a parcel that is of a decent size, about 8 and 1 half acres. But it does just have one single family residence on it currently. The applicant has had issues with their well. And contacted the city of Raleigh regarding potentially connecting to the public line out in White Oak Road So here is the parcel here just north of the roundabout And so the city of Raleigh staff of course per the merger agreement directed the owner to us They filed the petition, and I understand from Mr. Bone earlier today that the owner is here in case you have questions, but we did advertise the public hearing, and the owner does desire to connect to the public system rather than re-dig for a very, what I imagine would be costly redo of the well to keep the existing residence operational. So we have prepared an ordinance for you tonight should you decide to proceed with the annexation, number 5391 for you and your packets. If you do have any questions, this is a contiguous annexation, so there's no satellite criteria to be concerned about. But if you do have any questions, I'll be glad to try to answer them. And like I say, the applicant is supposed to be here as well to answer questions if you have them of the applicant.

Thank you, Mr. Treisenberg. Does the applicant wish to make a statement? Yes, sir. If you would like to, you can certainly come up to the podium, introduce yourself with name and address, and we'll be glad to hear what you have to say.

My name is Fahad Ahmed, and my wife Laila Farzana is the owner of this property. We bought this property last year and wanted to have a tenant, but there is no water there. They have a push well, and we cannot keep a tenant there by that. And what the gentleman said is all we wanted. And I do business in Garner. I own 14 gas stations all over the Wake County, Johnston County, and Franklin County. Two of the stores are in Garner. One is on White Oak Road on the roundabout, and another one is on Highway 70, diagonal from Exit Supply, the BP gas station. It's a long-time store. So I live in Raleigh, but I feel like I'm a Garner man. Because I started my first store on White Oak Road in 2006. And all happens from that store. So I'm grateful to Garner. And that's all I wanted to say. And if you approve this application, I'll be more than happy. Thank you all.

Thank you very much for your comments. And at this point, I'll recognize council members who might want to ask questions or make comments. And let's start with Mr. Vance and work this way. Mr. Vance, questions, comments?

No questions, no comments.

Mr. Dellinger?

Just a brief question just for confirmation, and I'm glad you're here, and I'm glad you're here to do your annexation. Just want a clarification that typically these annexations could precede a rezoning. There's not been any conversations around rezoning, and I just want to flag that because we don't want someone to get in a situation where they may want to be rezoning going down a path of a type of product that we don't want or may not approve of or ultimately not approve. So I'm glad it's very simple, straightforward annexation for water. So thank you.

Mr. Stallings. No questions. No questions. No questions. Any other comments or questions here? No, thank you. It seems pretty straightforward. An individual who needs city water and sewer knows you'll be paying the Garner taxes as well as the Wake County, but wants to be a citizen, a regular resident of Garner. So thank you for your interest. I hope we can figure out how to help you out on this. So if we've heard all the individuals who have signed up to speak, we will close the public hearing now, and I'll ask the council members to think about our proposed action here, which is to adopt this annexation ordinance, and the number on it is 2026-5391. And we'll start out by getting a motion that we can discuss if we need to. Is there a motion to adopt this ordinance?

So moved, Mr. Mayor.

Second.

Adopt ordinance 2026. Second. 5391.

A motion by Mr. Matthews, and there was a second by Mr. Singleton. Thank you very much. Any other questions or discussion on this particular item? Hearing none, I suggest we take a voice vote on approving this annexation petition and adopt Ordinance 2026-5391. All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed by nay? Hearing none, this motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Treisenberg, and thank you, and welcome to Garner. We'll get some paperwork done. That brings us along to item 1.2, which is a Tier 1 conditional rezoning request, CZ26002, related to property at 7615 1010 Road. Our representative from our town staff is our assistant planning director, Ms. Erin Joseph. If you can tell us a little bit about this one, please.

I'd be happy to. Thank you, Mayor. All right, good evening mayor and council members, members of the public. My name is Erin Joseph and I will be presenting the conditional rezoning request for 7615 Tintin Road this evening. The applicant, Worth Mills of Longleaf Law Partners, has submitted this petition on behalf of the property owners for a Tier 1 conditional rezoning to CMX conditional. The property is currently 31.24 acres and currently zoned residential area. Rural Agricultural. As stated, this site is located at 7615 Tintin Road, and there's a little slither right here that's included parcel there, just right there. That's 01010 Road, so you'll see that reference as well. Just as a reminder, this is a tier one request, so it does not include a site-specific master plan. So the current zoning is stated as rural agricultural. It primarily accommodates agricultural, civil cultural, and rural residential large lot single family detached homes. It's typically found in the ETJ, in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the town, and where public water and sewer services are not readily available. This site, as stated, a small portion of the site is zoned cmx conditional which was approved in 2017 as a conditional use district along with the cudz 1704 conditional district request to allow a shopping center and that was known as the rand village So the site sits along the southwestern portion of Garner's 1010 Road corridor. It is a transitional area where suburban residential development meets remaining rural land. And the site is positioned west of US 401 and Fayetteville Road, which is a commercial node. It includes major retail anchors and big box stores, restaurants, and service uses. This corridor continues to experience development pressure as growth extends outward from that 401 node. The site falls mostly within the community activity center. It is designated as a mixed-use character typology within our comprehensive land use plan, the Garner Forward Plan, which is intended to support a blend of residential, commercial, and service uses that complement the nearby regional commercial node that is anchored by Costco and other retail. According to NCDOT, the 2024 average annual average daily traffic count data set approximately 36,000 vehicles per day travel along that U.S. 401 and Fayetteville Road segment that's just north of the 1010 Road intersection. Getting into the proposal a little bit. The applicant has stated is requesting a commercial mixed use district conditional. They have narrowed the permitted uses to 16 uses out of 62 and divided it into four pods. They have also proffered 25 conditions in addition to the permitted uses. And on the screen you have the exhibit that shows This is the exhibit that shows the four pods that have been identified and each pod has a breakdown of uses within them. So just to highlight some of the discussion that staff has had with the applicant. Primarily, and we've always concerned with meaningful conditions and to ensure that the zoning conditions are meaningful and above UDO standards. We've commented for a consideration for inclusion of affordable housing, a lack of commitment to a vertical mix use, and also a consideration for a welcome to Garner sign easement. Also, we've discussed with the applicant the need to explain why this request is a Tier 1 rather than a Tier 2 given Council's aversion to Tier 1 requests. So just on the transportation notes, the development is expected to generate roughly 3,107 trips on the average weekday. The a.m. peak hour trips includes 308, and the p.m. peak hour trips are 310. And this TIA was, this data was obtained through their TIA that was completed back in July of 2025. The figure that you have on the screen to the left shows the future build-out lane configuration. There's a build-out date for 2027 and the configuration and NCDOT recommendation right and left turn lane from 1010 Road. And so you'll see here a this driveway access point is a right in right out you have another access point right across from the royal creech drive which is a full movement and then you have a proposed uh site access that connects to the cost costco driveway that is also a full movement there was a recommendation um for a an access point access point number four uh to lake wheeler road but ncdot did not recommend that that connection that access point The developer has met with council to gain feedback. They were able to take advantage of the developer preview at the first work session, developer preview work session back in March. And then there was a second meeting held on April 16th with the development team as well as the mayor and two other council members. The applicant has also met with adjacent property owners and tenants. Staff identified 186 properties and occupants within our notification radius. The neighborhood meeting was held in November of last year at the Garner Recreation Center and the meeting had 13 people in attendance and you do have the full report of the neighborhood meeting in your agenda packet. So just observations of this request, um, that the applicable plan for tier one rezoning is typically our 2023 Garner Ford comprehensive plan, given that there is no site specific master plan, um, included with this request. So, uh, staff evaluates the proposals based on the permitted use table, as well as the profit written conditions. In reviewing the proposal with our Garner-Ford plan, within the framework consistency, the analysis yielded a strong result. There were five criteria that were evaluated. The project does align with the community activity center. mixed-use character area and the level for a area to transform and we did rate the the transportation choices as a modest rated support given that there this is not a tier two so the existing transportation is what is accounted for In reviewing the land use and community character consistency, 21 criteria were determined to be applicable or possible to be meaningfully addressed. There's a mixed pattern, as you can see on the pie chart there. There's a mixed pattern of support, with several criteria aligning well with the Garner-Ford goal for mixed-use activity centers, expanding housing choices, and improved pedestrian connectivity. However, eight criteria received a modest non-support, and three received a strong non-support, primarily due to the absence of commitments related to architectural detailing, public realm activation, and then the lack of a commitment for Green Street stormwater features. Overall, with no non-supporting criteria within the growth framework evaluation, staff supports an overall finding of consistency. Staff does note that the additional refinement of zoning conditions particularly related to architectural cohesion and public realm activation, could support an even stronger finding of consistency as the project advances. And you also have the analysis tool in your agenda packet. This concludes my presentation. The request before council this evening is to finish conducting the public hearing and close the public hearing and forward the case to Planning Commission for review on plan consistency and a recommendation to approve or deny. Then finally back to council for a decision. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. The applicant and the development team are here this evening. They have prepared a presentation, and I will yield the microphone to the development team, but I'm certainly here to answer questions as well.

Thank you very much for the excellent introduction and the background material. Very helpful. And you say the applicant will be making a presentation? Yes. Yes. Please introduce yourself and let's see the show.

Good evening, Mayor, members of Council. My name is Worth Mills. I'm a land use attorney at Longleaf Law Partners. My address is 4509 Creedmoor Road in Raleigh, 27612. Michael Birch with our law firm is here as well. I'm here on behalf of Liberty Healthcare, who is the contract purchaser and proposed developer of this site, Thad Moore, is here to represent Liberty as well. We are also joined by Heather Massasso and Joshua Carrick from Klein Design and Morgan Cook from Kimley Horn. So Liberty has requested this zoning map change to commercial mixed use conditional so that it can build an active adult retirement community. The rezoning would also facilitate commercial and office development around that active adult community. The request would permit up to 410 multifamily style units, which would all be age restricted. up to 40 town homes, at least half of which must be age-restricted, and 69,000 square feet of non-residential development. This rezoning would add new housing for Garner senior citizens, it would add new commercial and office zoning and uses near the 1010 Road and US 401 intersection, and development of this site would also lead to improvements along 1010 Road and the Lake Wheeler Road intersection. I also wanted to address the decision to pursue a Tier 1 rezoning as opposed to a Tier 2. I'll get into this in a little bit more detail later in the presentation, but for one of our pods, Pod B, at the intersection of 1010 and Lake Wheeler, there is still a conversation as to what that ultimate use could be or should be whether that's a skilled nursing facility or whether that's more appropriate for a medical office building those two uses those two you know potential uses yield very different needs from a building design and layout and circulation perspective And so we have tried to retain some of that flexibility by pursuing the Tier 1 rezoning route. That said, we have tried throughout the process to put meaningful parameters around this development through the written zoning conditions, but really happy to present this case and also hear feedback from you all as to how we can further improve this request. Now I'm going to turn it over to Thad Moore to give a little bit of background on Liberty Healthcare and specifically Liberty Senior Living.

Thank you and good evening. My name is Thad Moore. I'm the Development Director for Liberty Senior Living. Liberty is based in Wilmington, North Carolina. However, I live here in the Triangle and work full time in Raleigh, focusing on our communities in and around the Triangle. Locally, we have developed the Templeton in Cary and Hayes Barton Place in Raleigh, both life plan communities. And our newest 55 plus active adult community is in Briar Chapel in Chapel Hill. We currently own and operate 24 senior living communities throughout the southeastern US. We have one under construction in Charleston, South Carolina, and 16 more properties in our development pipeline. Every community is different, just as every site is different. We want our buildings to fit in with the existing architecture of the area and our product offerings to best serve the area. Liberty Healthcare is a fourth-generation North Carolina family-owned company that is currently in its 151st year of operation. Liberty Senior Living is the division responsible for the development and operation of our life plan communities and our active adult independent living communities. Liberty is proposing an active adult community with other commercial uses for the site in Garner. Specific to this site, we've had a great working relationship with its current landowners. They have supported us at every juncture in the development process. One of these challenges was sewer access, which was never extended to this parcel by neighboring developments. Liberty met on many occasions with our neighbors and I'm happy to report we have secured exclusive sewer access through easement agreements with these neighbors, getting us one step closer to bringing a high quality active adult community to Garner. Thank you.

Thank you.

Just to provide an overview of this area, this slide is an aerial from 2021. This is an aerial prior to the completion of 540 in this area. Still Fairly rural. You do have the node at 401 and 1010 Road. But then, you know, comparing that to the completion of 540, you have the development of the Costco. You have Significantly more homes being built in the area, specifically north along 401 and the driver of a lot of this growth in the area was the extension of 540 running through 401. Just a more zoomed-in aerial of the site, operated as Porter Farms. You may have had their strawberries. It's currently a single-family structure, some older structures on the site as well. The Costco is immediately to our east. The Royal Creek Apartments are on the south side of 1010 Road within Fuquay's municipal limits. This slide shows the current zoning for the area. We're at the western edge of Garner's planning jurisdiction. The undeveloped area is bordered by Lake Wheeler and 1010 Road. The majority of the developed properties in this area are zoned CMX conditional. This rezoning would extend that CMX pattern along 1010 Road. Other zoning districts nearby include multifamily A and multifamily B. So relatively intense residential development coupled with significant commercial development at this retail note. Then looking at the zoning on the south side of 1010 Road, this is all within Fuquay's jurisdiction. The 7615 1010 Road parcel is outlined in red. From Lake Wheeler Road moving east to US 401, the predominant zoning along this corridor is either mixed use or their own general commercial So Fuqua's land use patterns mirror what Garner has sort of moved into along 1010 Road from that intersection. As staff noted, the general framework map designates this area within a community activity center, which is recommended to include a mix of uses that serve multiple nearby neighborhoods. That could include apartments, condos, town homes, and then office retail goods and services. Costco serves as the anchor tenant for this node. But this project includes a mix of medical, office, and retail uses that we think will complement the existing retail and commercial development in this area, along with Liberty's active adult community. The character typology map designates this property as a mixed-use area. Again, we're proposing a wide variety of uses within these 28 acres, active adult, community living, age-restricted townhomes, office, retail, general commercial. And then lastly, the development and intensity change map, which designates this property as a level 4A area to transform. This provides opportunities to reimagine the town's future, introduce new energized activity areas that provide key locations for new employment areas, It recommends, again, a mix of uses, and it recommends heights between three and five stories. This rezoning proposes a mix of residential and non-residential uses and caps building height at five stories. So we think we are meeting the development and intensity change maps intent. So now looking at the rezoning exhibit that breaks this property into four distinct pods, I did just want to give an overview of where we expect certain uses and certain development. Starting with pod A, this is a residential only pod. The two uses that are permitted on pod A, multifamily and group care, which sort of encompasses that skilled nursing use. This is where we expect to build the active adult community. Pod B allows for a wider variety of uses. It does allow for multifamily. It allows for group care, office, retail uses. We think that this is likely that suitable place for either a skilled nursing facility or a medical office. And while Pod B does allow for residential development, we included a condition that states if Pod A is developed for multifamily uses, that active adult community, then the only residential uses that can be developed on Pod B are group care. creating a situation or preventing a situation where you have both pod A and pod B as multifamily housing. That condition works vice versa as well. So if the active adult community were built on pod B, the only residential that can be built on pod A is group care. So making sure that we provide a mix of uses within these written conditions. Now looking at pod C, this is our smallest pod. This is a residential only pod as well. This is where we envision those townhomes. It is a limited developable area given the stream buffer and the required perimeter buffers. Pod D, this is our non-residential only pod. This is where only office and commercial uses are permitted, no residential is permitted on Pod D. We think this is a great place for new non-residential uses to complement the anchor tenant that is Costco in this area. And all the pods are connected via an internal street network as well as a pedestrian path network, which we'll touch on in just a second. This is a high-level overview of the zoning conditions. It does not include verbatim all of the conditions that we've offered, but I did want to touch on those that I feel are most meaningful to this request. Again, the maximum residential development, 450 dwelling units. That's split between 410 apartment units. Those are all age-restricted, so all 55+. building heights between three and five stories those are served by elevators and air conditioned corridors and then up to 40 townhomes at least half of those must be age restricted we've included a prohibition on vital siding which is consistent with the town's regulations for multi-family and non-residential development and those have a maximum building height of 45 feet We have limited non-residential development to 69,000 square feet. We have committed to a 10,000 square foot clubhouse within the active adult community building. That's an incredible size given that it is all indoors and exclusive use of those residents. We've committed to an eight foot wide pedestrian trail system that links the amenity areas throughout the development. And where that trail system does not connect the pods themselves, Liberty has committed to six foot wide pedestrian paths to make sure that all of those pods are connected not only via internal streets, but internal sidewalks. And as I mentioned on that last slide, the pod breakdown, we do have limitations on residential development in pods A and B to prevent a scenario in which both are developed for multifamily uses. We are treating open space as a collective, not a pod by pod breakdown, and we are dedicating 10.5% of the site as open space. The UDO would require less if the open space was broken up into specific pods, and especially if pod B was developed for non-residential uses. At least 50% of that open space will be designed for active recreation purposes and will include the indoor fitness center and outdoor pool and outdoor exercise area and courts. And then we also have limitations on vehicular surface parking between 1010 Road and the proposed buildings so that when people are driving by, you don't see a sea of pavement, you see buildings, you see new development, you see a community. I'm now going to hand it over to Morgan Cook, our traffic engineer with Kimley Horn, to run through the TIA and the TIA's recommendations.

Thank you. Good evening. Like I said, my name is Morgan Cook. I am with Kimley Horne and help prepare the traffic study for this site. So as shown on the screen, we studied six city intersections from Lake Wheeler Road over to US 401 along 1010. Our study showed that all study intersections are expected to operate at acceptable levels of service with the project. With the exception of US 401 at 1010 Road, that intersection is expected to operate at level service E in the a.m. peak hour with or without the proposed development in place. But we wanted to note that there are minimal increases in delay. It's about three seconds of an increase from background to build out conditions with this site. We also expect there to be minimal impact on Lake Wheeler Road. As shown, our TIA recommended mainly some frontage widening along 1010 Road, kind of from east of the Costco driveway there to just kind of restripe that to a shared through right turn lane all the way to Lake Wheeler Road ending as a right turn lane on the westbound approach. We did analyze site driveway 4, which is a right in, right out on Lake Wheeler Road, We found that the intersection operated acceptably with short delays, so about 10 to 15 seconds of delay in each peak hour. And our recommendation was also to provide some frontage widening from 1010 to that driveway by adding that northbound right turn lane ending at Site Driveway 4. With that, I'll go ahead and pass it back over.

Thank you, Morgan. Just to conclude, the proposed rezoning, as I mentioned, would facilitate new senior housing and commercial development. It is consistent with nearby zoning along 1010 Road and the US 401 intersection. the proposed uses are compatible with surrounding developments the proposed rezoning is consistent with the garner forward comprehensive plan policy maps for all those reasons we think that the request is reasonable and in the public interest but again we are happy to receive your feedback tonight continue to refine these conditions and make this as best a project as it can be for the town of garner thank you for your time this evening

Excellent. Thank you very much for the information. Thank you, Mr. Joseph. Just as a point of order, I'm going to remind everybody what our mission is this evening, what council's mission is, is to make a recommendation about possibly forwarding this along to the planning commission for further review and other public hearing, at which point it would come back to this council for some final approval. In the meantime, we want to conduct this public hearing as we're doing, getting information. Council members will have a chance to ask more questions, get more information from the people here already. And then we'll come back and make a motion. We can have more discussion before taking a vote on whether to forward this to the Planning Commission. or to continue the hearing for some additional information that we might specify. So saying all that, I will now go back to council members for any questions, comments you'd like to make so far. We'll start with Mr. Matthews, and if we can ask one question and a follow-up each, we'll come back around as long as you have questions. Mr. Matthews, questions, comments?

Just a comment. We had seen this Before us before, and appreciate you listen to what we had to say, and as we try to work together on these type projects, and it's still great that it's senior oriented because there's quite a demand for that in the greater garden area as we're seeing and. The project, as it's presented, got a lot of components to it, which you've heard us on. And I think if we can tweak it however we need to do it, it would most definitely be a great location as to what's around that area there. And so I have no personal questions, just I'm lucky what I see now, how we go about it. We'll see where that goes.

Thank you. Mr. Singleton.

Yes, I have multiple questions. I'll start with a couple. Mr. Mills and the young lady just did the traffic study. It showed driveway 4 connecting to Lake Wheeler Road, but I thought you said earlier in the presentation that DOT recommended not connecting to Lake Wheeler Road.

So is it a connection or not? So our initial conversations with NCDOT were not incredibly positive, but we are not giving up on seeking a driveway permit from Lake Wheeler Road into the site. We think that we've got adequate spacing to make that right in, right out. I can have Ms. Cook provide more information on those conversations, but...

I just wondered, because I thought you said you couldn't do it, and she showed the information with the information, so I just wanted to see. So you're still under discussion with DOT?

That's correct, sir. And I think maybe Ms. Joseph had mentioned that sort of negative reception initially with NCDOT, but we're still pursuing that connection.

Okay. Condition 18, you touched on it. So basically what Condition 18 is saying, something happens in Pod A, it's not going to happen in Pod B. If you flip it and it happens in Pod B, it's going to happen in Pod A. Basically the multifamily 400 plus units, the 410 units is what you're speaking of there because the townhomes right now, they are assigned to Pod C and only Pod C. That's correct. Okay, so the multifamily will be a unit owned by Liberty Development, so forth and so on. The townhomes, I thought I read it here, could be plotted individually or plotted as a group.

Are they going to be for rent or for sale? I don't think we've made that determination yet as to whether it would be a for sale or for rent product. I think that's still to be determined. Okay, I've got more questions, but I'll go down the line.

Thank you, sir.

I had the same question about the DOT access and the fact, too, that the TIA was evaluated with the access, correct? So we don't really have a good understanding of what would happen if that was not allowed to have an access point on Lake Wheeler. We don't have an assessment of that. Is that correct?

I would have to defer to Ms. Cook to sort of know what the downstream effects of that might be.

I just wanted to interject on that point, because I did mention that in my report, that the congestion, NCDOT congestion management, their final report states that they do not recommend a scenario to with that access point driveway for that connection at Lake Wheeler. So that was their recommendation in their report.

And so, yeah, that kind of answers my question. question that kind of changes the TIA a little bit, also would change whatever the development potential of the site is and its configuration, because you'd have to be taking more traffic off of 1010 directly, correct?

It would then be taking more traffic off of 1010. More traffic would be using those accesses if there's no access on Lake Wheeler. But there's still enough access points to where it would be expected to be spread kind of across all of those driveways. We did take an internal look during these conversations if that right in, right out were removed on Lake Wheeler. We're only showing about five to 10% of our traffic accessing that right in, right out anyway. So that would just be diverted to one of the other access points on 1010 Road. So that spread out across three side access points is not terribly significant addition to this.

Three access points now all on 1010 Road that there's already going to be through the existing build out an increased delay in decrease in service at the intersection. So 5% to 10% is a lot of traffic.

Sure, but if you think about it, part of that percentage is already coming on 1010. So it's really just continuing through 1010. So it's maybe instead of 10 cars taking a left onto Lake Wheeler Road to then turn right into the site at Lake Wheeler Road, those 10 cars are just going through 1010 Road to turn left onto one of the site driveways whether it's that first site driveway or through the connection to costco but it would it would also change the impact on lake wheeler and 1010 as well because now you don't have an exit point off of lake wheeler it would just be a shift of the traffic there not necessarily changing the impact directly significantly people have

Got 1010 and Lake Wheeler. Sure. Now people can't go off Lake Wheeler and go north. They got to go on 1010, get on, take a right. Correct. So that is an impact.

That's an impact on Lake Wheeler, which we also, with all of our... site driveways along 1010 Road, we are adding that additional lane, providing that frontage widening. So we're adding more space for cars to be able to travel in that westbound direction on 1010. And adding that additional right turn that ends as that right turn lane so that cars can turn right freely on Lake Wheeler.

I have more questions. Mr. Mills, question for you. Do you intend to seek the property tax exemption under the Blue Ridge Housing Court decision?

No, sir. Liberty has never partnered with a nonprofit organization to own and manage their active adult communities or their life care communities, and they have no intention of starting that now.

Okay, thank you.

Let's go back to Mr. Matthews. Questions, comments? No more. Mr. Singleton.

I'm going to pick it right up on the . You've attended several of our meetings. You know our concern. We approved a project just a few weeks ago that we had language stating that. Can we get language stating that?

Yeah, we can work with the city attorney on how to craft that language.

Because that's a concern. If anybody owns a unit that they're leasing or renting and it's multifamily, whatever it is, this or townhomes, that's a concern we have because, as you know, the House has supposedly adopted language and the Senate has not taken it up. So we don't know if and when something may change. We need to see something in writing. I'm not doubting Liberty's never done it. I'm not doubting them at all, but I think it's best for our town's interest that we get something in writing stating that.

It's certainly a valid concern, and I'm happy to work with the town attorney to make sure that that language sort of passes muster as it relates to any other state provisions. We'll continue that work, and I don't see any issue with including that.

uh in our in our rezoning application okay and if you could when you if this moves forward to the planning commission which i'm assuming it is if you could have all that language by then it would be helpful yes sir okay thank you thank you i think it's safe to say we've been highly sensitized to this issue yes and we're not sure what the legislatures are going to do to close this loophole so this is important uh mr stanley

I'll just say we talked a lot about it at the development preview about tier ones versus tier twos. I think in principle, the idea and this development means well, but we would definitely love to see what's being proposed to be built there. It's one thing to add conditions, but it's also great to see a site plan where we can actually see what's being planned for our town as well too. And that's why we always ask, Why do you go to tier one route rather than a tier two where we can actually see a site plan? So my biggest hesitation is this being a tier one rather than a tier two where we can actually see what's being proposed on the site. That's my comments.

Okay. Is there a question? Would you like to address that?

That's my comments.

Okay. Mr. Dellinger.

No more questions or comments at this time.

Okay. Mr. Vance. Questions. Run through one more time. Make sure.

Mister singleton and just to confirm the liberty all of their projects that you showed us are all senior living 55 and over. Residential units correct, yes, residential come up development.

Yes, Sir, yes, Sir, there's you know there's there's active adult communities. There's the continuing life care communities. So there's there's sort of different components with each, but all of those are a restricted and the conditions require that all of the multifamily units be 55 and older.

All right, thank you.

Any other questions at this point down here? We'll come back with another round as we make a motion. We're ready to close the public hearing.

I believe we have other individuals who signed up to speak.

Yes, sir.

Are there some individuals who signed up to speak on this matter?

Yes. I'm going to go down the list. I'm not sure who is part of the development team and who is not, so I'll just call the names.

And I'll have to call on our attorney to give me advice about who's good and who needs to sign.

Mike Perry.

We need to know who was part of the development team. So what was the, can you repeat the first name?

Mike Perry.

If you want to come to the podium, you can speak.

Yes, sir, if you'd introduce yourself, name and address.

Yes, I'm Michael Perry. I'm a realtor representing John and Barry Foster, and they own property directly east of, I'm sorry, my address, 108-2 of the Allen Lane, Cary, North Carolina. My company is Arbor Lane Realty, and I'm representing John, as I said, John and Barry Foster.

Aaron, could you pull up that?

Sir, if you could speak into the microphone, we cannot hear you.

Sorry about that.

In fact, if you would tell me your name one more time.

Michael Perry with Arborland Realty. I'm from Cary, North Carolina, 108 Thule-Allen Lane. And I'm representing John and Barry Foster. They own property directly east of the Costco tract. If you would extend the property line on the subject property that you're discussing here tonight, and then the northern property line of the Costco tract, their properties run directly east all the way to 401. And the northern property line of those tracts runs that same direction, just a continuing line going east from the northern property line of the Costco property. So we are, the reason I'm speaking here tonight, I wanted to, council members and mayor, thank you for listening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you. We're concerned about trying to get sewer access to these properties. And so there's two ways to go. One is to go underneath 401, which would involve going to the east. That would be very expensive. All the upgrades needed to be done there. And the other way, we would have to get somehow an easement across the very northeast corner of the Costco tract and hopefully be able to tie into the same easement here that this That Liberty is is using so I would just that's reason I'm here to to encourage Anything that you all can do to try to help this out because if we can't get a sewer easement these properties won't be developed there's there's roughly 20 acres and My clients 12.3 plus another 8 acres south of us so that 20 acre project Those those properties right there There's four, five, six parcels total. So that would bring a lot of tax base to the town if they found me. Thank you.

Thank you. And Mr. Treisenberg, have you got some comments or explanation on that point?

No, sir, I was just bringing up the IMAPS application online so you can see the parcel boundaries of the parcels he's referring to.

Yeah, where the cursor is there, if you go that parcel right there and the parcel east of that and everything north to that line, the property line running basically east. Yes, correct. It goes all the way to 401. Includes those two little parcels right there. Yep, and that one, yep. So going north from Costco, those two are not, the first two parcels north from the Costco property are not part of this, what we're under contract with right now. But all the rest of them are up to that line.

Okay, thank you very much. Stick around, we may have another question or two as we go. Thank you. Is there another person signed up to speak?

Yes, sir.

Michael Birch, attorney for the applicant.

All right. Mr. Tony Tate.

Yes, sir. If you'll introduce yourself, name and address.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of council. My name is Tony Tate. I'm a landscape architect here on behalf of the Matthews family that is the properties highlighted that mr. Triesenberg just showing on the screen there and my comments are similar to the gentleman that just spoke before me we've been I've been working on that particular set of almost 40 acres for almost three years now with Hartwell Realty trying to get that property to to be developed and in that process the the bennett assemblage sewer stub to us doesn't cover all of that property it won't serve that entire property so we've been working with um i'm going to staff cd raleigh and we've had conversations with this developer about how the sewer is going to extend to help extend to this whole quadrant that doesn't have sewer. So we're just here tonight to make sure that as they extend sewer to serve their property that for this gentleman to get sewer to his properties, the fosters, at some point he would have to cross us. And so we would extend that sewer that's brought to us. It's just... policy that you extend sewers to the uphill neighbors. So we don't have any issues with the project that's before you tonight with it. We're just here to make sure that, you know, all the properties get served as the sewer comes to the south from that pump station behind the Bennett assemblage.

Okay, thank you, sir. Very important. You have a question here?

Sure. You mentioned this is a similar to the Matthew family. Who did you say this property is with?

The property I'm representing tonight is the Matthews family that is east of that stream that's flowing north south. Yes.

What's loose? What's shining on here?

Yeah, those properties in blue there.

So there was a previous project a couple years ago from the Matthews family on 401. That's a different project. That got approved. That was from Matthews family. Do you remember that? We did. So this is undeveloped. This is not a project that's been approved or anything.

No, it's recently been put under contract, but we're just trying to make sure that logically as sewer comes into that area that everybody is has the ability to tie on to it because um going east through the um to the other side of the road is not a possibility so it's got to go it's got to go north to that bennett pump station and then it'll go across so okay that's where tommy lived back up in that area correct that's right yeah yeah he's in that lower piece he lived right there yeah

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Mr. Treisenberg, again, could you add any clarity to this issue? Okay. Thanks for pointing out the properties over there. Do we have other people signed up to speak?

Yes, sir. Our next person is Mr. Ahmed. He spoke earlier. Oh, he spoke earlier. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm having a little difficulty reading this name. We'll go with Brenda Compton. Give me just one moment, please.

Kirkland.

Thank you, sir. If you would introduce yourself, please. Come on up.

Yes, ma'am. I mean, yes, Mayor. My name is Kirkman Cardin. My address is 3109 Abbots Oak Way, Duluth, Georgia, 30097. First off, thank you for giving the opportunity to speak with you all tonight at this public hearing. Mr. Perry, the gentleman that spoke earlier, the first person who spoke during the public hearing, he spoke about a assemblage taking place, a property that's currently under contract. My firm, the residential group, is that firm that has those two parcels under contract. We currently have six parcels under contract. 7612 Fayetteville Road. I don't have all the other addresses, but they're the ones right in front of you.

Can you pull your mic a little closer, please?

I'm sorry. Can you hear me now better? Would you like me to repeat anything?

Yeah, repeat it one time real quick.

Yeah, real quick. My name is Kirkland Carton, 3746 Thornbrook Court. No, I'm sorry. Wrong address. 3109 Abbots Oak Way, Duluth, Georgia, 30097. Okay. I represent a firm called the Residential Group. And we have six parcels under contract on Fayetteville Road. So when Mr. Perry spoke earlier about representing a landowner with two parcels that are under contract, that's us. And we have an additional four just north of the site. That address, I believe, is 7612 Fayetteville Road. All right. So I wanted to speak with y'all today or this evening to introduce myself, but also express the same sentiment that Mr. Perry echoed about the need for sewer along this part of the road in this corridor. Looking forward to working with you all in the future on our proposed development, but mixed-use development with commercial out parcels and Class A multifamily. We definitely want to make sure anything that's proposed is in line with the spirit of intent of your planning documents, but to make that a reality, we're going to need to have access to sewer. you know water is essential to all things we do in life day to day but again i just wanted to introduce myself i definitely want to speak in support of the proposed development about the public hearing that we're here to speak for tonight again my name is kirkland carton i'll be around this evening thanks again for your time thank you thank you very much sir uh other speakers signed up that will be the end of this

okay yeah interesting issues about the sewer access that's very important could be an issue if this goes on to planning commission for them to dig into a little deeper add a little clarity address the issues that you've all raised up so if that is all the people signed up to speak uh at this point we will uh close well mr senator can i ask mr trisenberger mr mills one of y'all question

So where's the sewer access again right now from the Costco? I know y'all have some complications. So where's the issue about trying to get the sewer north? So where are we talking here so we can clearly see all this? Apparently it's not going north, but I know we heard from Mr. Mills they've been working with the owners of that property, Costco, to try to extend it.

Great. Good evening, Councilmember Singleton and the board. Michael Birch with Longleaf Law Partners. So the primary issue that I think has created the situation in this quadrant is that the Costco development not only did they not extend sewer to the property line with a manhole there they also did not provide even an easement a sewer easement to get over to the sewer infrastructure on their property that would be easiest you know certainly for the property that we're here about tonight So that is the biggest issue. That is what has caused everyone who's been looking at this site over the past five years plus to try and figure out how are we going to get sewer. So that has forced the conversation of looking north. And so Liberty, working with the property owners, trying to figure out what route can be used to go north. So that's kind of what the discussions have been with property owners on both sides of kind of the creek that runs that way. So for folks that are front on 401 that have spoken here tonight, in order to access property, really any sewer line going north that's on the property that we're talking about, they've got to get over the Costco property, right? I don't know if it's possible to pull the map down a little bit, but none of the properties that you've heard from tonight are actually adjoining this property. So it's working with... either the Costco to get across to the infrastructure that'll be on our site, or there's another owner to our direct north that could potentially have a sewer route.

North of this parcel, just north of you, yes. That's another property owner.

That's right.

Okay.

Yeah, so again, we've been working with everyone in this area to try and figure out a path, so.

Okay, well, thanks for explaining it because it's... I'm going to ask staff later on, not now, and take up time. I want to find out if Costco didn't extend utilities, and that's the policy. Who's holding their feet to the fire? But anyway, we'll talk about that later. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you for the explanation. Yes, sir.

Thank you. Excellent point. We learned years ago, if you can't flush, you can't grow.

That's right.

Any other observations before we close the public hearing and then have a little more detailed discussion among council about next steps? Hearing none, we'll close the public hearing at this time. And we'll move along to accept a motion. And again, just for process orientation here, our proposed action is forwarding this case to the Planning Commission for their review, their recommendations regarding plan consistency, or to continue this case for more hearing if we need some specific additional information. I will just throw in a comment or two here before we turn it over to council members for more discussion or motions. In certain ways, this certainly is an ideal project. You talk about housing for seniors, I'm interested. I am one. My friends are some. And if my friends are not, their parents are. This is a key issue. Liberty, 145-year history, family-owned business in North Carolina, got all the right markets. They have a wonderful track record. All great. Great site, great developer. But always the devil is in the details, and that's what we're talking about here tonight. We'll be talking about it further at the planning commission. We'll be talking again when it comes back. The issues are, will it meet our dream? Will it be what it sounds like? Our biggest fear, quite frankly, And we've seen it happen other places. The developer comes in with the Emerald City plan, but then suddenly things change. He sells that zoned property to another entity who has a different vision, and they try to come in low instead of high. That's why we're hypersensitive to this stuff. So you understand where we're coming from. So that being said, we'll open for conversation again, starting with Mr. Matthews for further questions. Well, I guess technically, first, we should see if there's a motion related to this, and then we can have discussion as we decide whether to vote for the motion. Is there a motion? related to this project here this evening.

I move to refer conditional zoning CZ26002 to the Planning Commission for their review and recommendation regarding plan consistency.

Second. Okay. Mr. Vance has made a motion to refer this to the Planning Commission. There's a second by Mr. Matthews down here. And before we vote on it, let's have plenty of discussion, plenty of other roundabout related to this motion. The motion has been made to refer it on to Planning Commission. And since Mr. Vance made the motion, let's start with you for comments or questions.

Edible comment.

Mr. Tellinger.

Yeah, I just want to get this on sort of record for planning commission and for council consideration and discussion tonight. I think this DOT access point is an issue as a direct derivation of it being a tier one, not having a site plan to not really be able to fully assess and mitigate any traffic impacts or flow impacts or site impacts. That's an issue. The tier one nature of the project leaves us in a position where there's an unknown revenue generation profile for this project. We're not quite sure exactly what we're gonna get, so we can't measure whether or not it's gonna be revenue positive for the town to its maximum benefit and contribute to our tax base as maximally as possible. So really sort of this revenue generation per acre. It's also a parcel in the heart of an exploding residential part of town, well our town and Fuqua, And I do have a question sort of for staff and for consideration for Planning Commission on how many rooftops existing in or approved are within a one-mile radius of the site. I know we've got 401 Exchange that's not even nearly built out, and that's 1,200 units. And also we're unable to assess the addition of retail amenities and destinations. The sort of public realm activation phraseology was really interesting from staff. I see that as public space, but it's also amenitizing our community so we don't need to leave Garner to go shopping and go to restaurants and make Garner a destination for people in Fuquay and other places. They can hop off 540. As far as the conditions specifically, Again, sort of an offshoot of it being in tier one is there's such ambiguity and then such lock-in and some of the conditions that limit the flexibility It gives me a lot of concern. Condition four, maximum number of non-residential, non-residential development should not exceed 69,000 square feet of gross floor area. That limits the flexibility and possibilities of the space. Condition 18 is if multi-family, pod A. 23 is if pod A. Condition 24 is if pod B. Condition seven is a minimum square footage for units. Condition 12, conditions, maximum height, again, want us to go vertical we need vertical mixed use in garner where we can support it here we're going to condition that you absolutely can't do that even if something a better opportunity or the conditions change i did see the holistic approach with regards to the tree canopy the tree preservation which makes sense so that we're not We're maximizing that versus having this sort of a loophole we have with mixed use and residential. I think Jeff will probably talk about that. We've got mixed use. How are we addressing that specifically with regards to our residential development, canopy preservation? We have very minimal for the... commercial there no nods or mention of anything related to any type of contributions or addressing of affordable housing 55 is great but who's gonna be able who's gonna be able to afford it we've been we've invested a lot of time energy into addressing housing affordability in Garner with regards to the scope of our community and our values we Got a grant award for our work recently on our task force work, which is coming out soon. Those are sort of my big concerns, and also some of these limits on height. I'm not quite sure why we go in the direction of limiting the height of buildings when you can drive around downtown Raleigh and see just on Hillsborough Street there are building four, five, six integrated parking structures. and you're less than a mile from 540 here, and we have a situation again where we're trying to maximize our commercial tax base for the future and take the tax burden off of our residents. So I say all that to make sure that information gets passed to Planning Commission and severe concerns I have with the project.

Good points. Mr. Talens? No comment. Mr. Singleton?

I would emphasize again getting language stating It's just a town with the Blue Ridge loophole that would not be a nonprofit will be involved. You do not seek will not be seeking any tax credit. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr Matthews. I would echo Mr Singleton's concerns also. And the unique thing about this project right across 1010 is Fuqua land. And they've got all that developed out there also right now. And what I'm seeing here, it looks a whole lot better in my personal opinion than what's across the road over there. So let's keep those high standards up there. grow tall y'all and let's make it something we're really proud of and that way if it turns out that way that we're all proud of and it comes out good down the road you might be back up here in a few years to look at another project and we can reflect back on this and say you did it right this on that one let's do it right on the next one so the ball's in the court on that and i know you guys could make that happen because i think we all want the biggest we want the best want something that nobody else has and something it'll pay for itself revenue wise for the town and uh and so uh having said that mr mayor that's that's all i'm saying this time i'm ready to move forward

Thank you. We have a motion and a second to send it to the Planning Commission. Let's run down the road one more time if there's other questions or comments. Mr. Vance, Mr. Delany.

Just one comment, too. We had several people speak at the public hearing tonight in talking about development in that area. I would advise you be with our staff as soon as possible. to get their input on vision for this area and what we're looking for. There is a general sentiment to we need to rebalance our tax base towards a more commercial where we have that opportunity. So I'd encourage you to reach out to our staff as soon as possible to align your vision and opportunities with what we're looking for.

Thank you. Further comments?

Just a quick comment. We cannot talk about revenue generation when we're approving tier one projects.

Okay. Mr. Singleton, any further thoughts?

No, sir.

Okay. Well, we have a motion and a second to refer this to Planning Commission for further evaluation in another public hearing. Let's take a roll call vote on this. Aye in favor, nay opposed. And let's start with Mr. Vance who made the motion. Aye or nay? Aye. Mr. Dellinger? Aye. Mr. Stallman?

No.

Mr. Singleton. Aye. Ms. Matthews. Aye. Sounds like four to one in favor of referring this on to the Planning Commission. That passes. That's the outcome of this one. It's 7.30. Let's take a 10-minute recess. We'll start back over with the next legislative hearing. Thank you for your attention. Thanks for all the input. This was very important. Time well spent. Be back in 10 minutes, please. And we return from recess. Speaking of recess, one of my high school teachers is in the audience tonight. We used to have recess then when we went outside. This recess, we didn't go outside. We all came back on time. Thank you very much. Next on our agenda tonight is item 1.3, a zoning text amendment request, ZTA 26-002. Everybody's favorite topic, funeral homes in the neighborhood. We all know we're going to come see you, just a matter of when. And our sponsor on this, our informer, is our Assistant Planning Director, Ms. Erin Joseph. What can you tell us about this zoning text amendment?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, this is a ZTA 26002 to add funeral homes to the neighborhood mixed-use district and also related crematorium considerations. Just to start with a little background information this evening. So staff made a presentation before this body in May of this year to discuss this potential to add funeral homes as a use to the NMS district. So there was discussion about this. There was also extended discussion that occurred during that meeting regarding crematoriums And staff's understanding at the time is that the owners of the existing funeral home in Garner that has a crematorium did not intend to expand that crematorium at any time. So the immediate need was to correct the funeral home nonconformity. So staff proceeded with council's direction to proceed with the funeral home amendment, revisit the crematorium consideration later, and then reach out to the property owners. And so staff proceeded with the public hearing advertising, the public hearing and publishing the staff report for your review. The staff report and the public hearing is to add funeral homes to the NMX district. It corrects the 2022 non-conforming oversight for both funeral homes within Garner's jurisdiction, and it reflects May's direction. It does add standards to the use of funeral home use, but it does not include the crematorium changes at this time. Just for zoning context, the NMX district is intended to support low intensity commercial uses that primarily serve nearby residents, providing convenient access to goods and services within the surrounding neighborhood. So uses typically office, professional services, and small scale retail. There was subsequent information after the advertisement of the public hearing. So staff was able to meet with the owner operators of the funeral home within Benson that has a crematorium existing. So we met with that property owner on July 16th, and during that conversation, the property owner notified us and stated that although they are not intending to expand the crematorium at this time, that they would like to remove that nonconformity from their property and hold so that they may hold with the crematorium as well as the funeral home. So staff noted that this can be addressed in a subsequent amendment, just needs further studying so that we can bring a robust consideration and text amendment forward. This in summary stated there are 2 existing funeral homes within garnish jurisdiction, Brian Lee funeral home on Benson Rd it has a crematorium and it's located in the NMX dish district and then you also have Chappelle's funeral home is located on Creech Rd located in the NMX that does not have a crematorium. And so the next steps we are asking the staff is to close the public hearing and forward the case to the planning commission for findings of planned consistency and then back to council for decision of approval or denial. And so that sums up my presentation this evening. I'm happy to answer questions. We do have a guest from the Brian Lee Funeral Home that is here and may or may not speak. If you have questions, they're happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

And I'll ask our town clerk, do we have anyone signed up to speak?

We do, Mr. Mayor. The first one being Allison Lee.

Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. If you would come to the podium, introduce yourself.

My name's Allison Lee. Sorry. My name's Allison Lee. I live at 200 Lee Farm Lane in Garner, 27529. Just a note, my husband will probably not speak. I just put him down just in case they have a question that he needs to answer. We have met with the staff and we've had some really good discussions prior to this, and I know you guys know this, but prior to the UDO change, if you had a funeral home, the crematory was an accessory and then the UDO changed that and We understand from a public perception reason why they were separated in different zones. The reason that we're going to come to you guys again after this with a request to offer zoning where a crematory and a funeral home can be in the same zone. And the reason for that is because on our property, we have a crematory. 9 times out of 10 you would not be able to tell where it is on our property and that is on purpose That's for public perception Most of the time people do not want to be able to pull into a property and know exactly what that is And so that is that's on purpose and that's pretty standard across the industry. So just know that we're going to be coming to you guys with that. And staff also made us aware that there were some crematory questions the last time that y'all brought that up. So that's another reason why we just wanted to be here to ask or answer any questions that you guys might have.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Any other people signed up to speak?

No, sir.

Okay. And let's see now, any questions, comments from council members? Let's start with Mr. Vance's end down here. Questions, comments on this topic? No, no questions or comments.

No comment, no questions, just a comment that I appreciate staff working with our local business owners. It really was sort of a non-congruence with our UDO change in making sure that we're still meeting the needs of our local businesses.

Thank you, Mr. Stallings? No question. Okay, Mr. Singleton? No questions. Mr. Matthews?

No questions to comment. You know, crematoriums is a big thing nowadays, and... As I mentioned in our last meeting, they're all around us, and people don't realize. Go to the small town of Coates, there's one down there. And there's a lady that runs that, I just found out, because her dad retired. And you've got them up in Wake Forest, Mr. Bright and the folks that know all these people. And people don't know there's a crematorium there. A lot of them don't know there's one in Garner. unless you just have a reason to say, what is that back there? But I appreciate the staff working with everybody, and we'll get all this worked out to everybody's satisfaction, I feel sure, because it is what it is, a part of life.

Thank you very much, Mr. Matthews. I think at this point we can close the public hearing. There's no other speakers, no other business. And I'll ask council members for a motion related to this zoning text amendment request, ZTA 26-002. Is there a motion? So moved.

Second.

Motion from Mr. Vance. Second from Mr. Stallings. Is there any other discussion? Any other comments or questions from council here? Hearing none, I'll request a voice vote on this. All in favor of approving this text amendment, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed by nay?

I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor, you're not actually approving the text amendment, you're referring it.

Yes, excuse me. Good thing we have a good parliamentarian here. We have to use the correct language. We are forwarding this case to the Planning Commission for review and recommendation, and we'll see it again.

Thank you.

That being said, I think we've accomplished our mission. It was unanimous to refer this to the Planning Commission. Okay, thank you very much. Thank all of you for your input and staff for working on this as well. That brings us to item G on the agenda, new and old business. And item number one has to do with delegation of authority. And we will call on our town attorney and part-time parliamentarian to explain to us what this is all about.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I come back to you. This has been a long process. was first hired as town attorney I asked if we had this kind of authority resolution and was told we didn't and so it's been on the back burner of my workload for a long time and began working on it last fall with department heads and the manager's office to as well as the clerk and the mayor as to to what does the town customarily which positions in the town customarily either sign documents on behalf of the town or take certain actions so it was presented to you after the organizational meeting last december we've talked about it at the the retreat and other council meetings and i believe what i have now is compiled three separate resolutions one authorizing the mayor which again these formalize the practice to some extent that's been done for a long time one to the town manager and other certain designated officials and that or i'm sorry employees and then one um delegating authority to the town attorney This also, these resolutions include some repeals of previous resolutions where we had this kind of authority for taking action and signing documents in a lot of different documents. This, our efforts to put them into one document for each of those various positions within the town, the mayor, town manager, and town attorney. so i'm happy to answer any questions you have if you have any questions about any of the specific documents if you're comfortable with all three of them you could vote on to adopt all three of them in one or you can do that separately thank you very much i think there is some room for questions and comments from council here let's start with mr matthews this time and work out comments questions

I'll just comment, I think when we get ready to do a proposed action, just put them all together would be the simple thing. Is that a fair statement, Ms. Attorney? I'm sorry? To consolidate all three on one vote.

If everyone's comfortable with all three of them, you could do it as one vote. If you want to vote on it separately, you can do that as well.

Okay, thank you. Okay, Mr. Singleton, questions, comments?

I'm honestly still not ready to vote on this. We've had two audits come out from two towns in the last week. Every time I read what I read on them, I'm like, all right, how do we do this? How do we do this? How did this happen? The differences in what happened in Cary and Zebulon are completely different. And then Rocky Mountain is more similar to Zebulon from a lot of change of no consistent management, no consistent people in finance, where Cary was a whole different item. So I'm still not comfortable with doing any of this stuff right now. I'll be honest, because every time I read that, I think, all right, how do we do this? How did this happen? That's just me. About delaying it again. That's just Gray. That's all.

Okay. Mr. Stallings, comments, questions?

I echo Councilman Singleton's sentiments. I think it's a little bit more work that we need to take before I'm comfortable voting on this as well, too. I think having some conversations with everything that's going on, making sure that We have, we're all comfortable on the board with what authority we are delegating.

I think is important.

So I think it's going to take a little bit more work, but I'm. Also not comfortable voting on this tonight, so I would suggest that we table it to another meeting.

Hey, Mr. Appreciate the attorney taking the time to separate them out. I think that's a big step. Also the consolidation from a bunch of other documents to ease in future editing of these documents. That's the only comment I have at this time. I have no questions.

Okay, good issues brought up. I think there was some discussion earlier about three versus one resolutions there. I think Mr. Dellinger, some other folks had the idea that it might simplify future editorial changes if it's in three sections instead of one. There's some reason, a logical reason to separate it in those areas. I think this has been before council a couple of times. Would you like to refresh our memory, Ms. Jones, on the history of I was looking at this and what we do.

Yes, it was originally presented, I believe, with the organizational meeting, then got deferred to the December 20th and then further deferred to January 20th. 26th meeting. We did discuss it in part at the council retreat and then had a larger discussion at the March 17th meeting. Again, this is designed to formalize practices that are done but as I often advise staff if they don't have explicit authority when in doubt send it to council you know to prevent any unauthorized signing of things so there are a number of items that may start coming to you you know because it's not not clear but there have been practices where where certain documents have been signed

Yeah, my understanding is this kind of a clarification and clearer statement of what we've been doing for quite some time. Council looked at it several times, made some suggestions. Is it up to Council? Do you want to? Continue this for some more specific questions. What would it take for you to be comfortable with this? What could our town attorney do? Are there some specific things? We can continue this as opposed to voting no or voting yes. We can continue it, but if we continue it, I would just ask... Within a reasonable time period to give very specific questions or very specific request to our town attorney that would get your comfort level up. I'm just kind of rambling here. Just try to figure out how to work through this. Mr Matthews.

Mr. Mayor, thank you. I appreciate what we've got going on here, and I respect my colleagues' concerns. You know, there's a lot going on in the world today, and somebody asked me, said, we've got nearby towns that were spending money left and right and not being accountable for it, and I said, well... David, the number one money man, every time I see him, I say, are the checks clear? And he says, yes, sir, the checks are all cleared. But I know we get quarterly updates. I can't speak for the other communities, but we get quarterly updates and where all the dollars are going. I know Davenport looks at every time we're looking at doing something, running numbers. I know our town manager, if there's a dollar missing, she's gonna find it, I truly believe that, where it's posted at. So I think we've got a very capable staff. I think Garner's, and I'm just speaking for me, and again, I respect all my colleagues' thoughts, but we've got a wonderful town over here, and we were talking earlier about how things are growing, the good things we've got going on, and as we're growing, as we toured the building with all the new staff coming on, We can always have those worries. They'll never go away. A year from now, we could always have those worries or concerns, but we can't hold our town back. The way we need to move forward, we're about something that might or might not never happen. I don't judge our town against the other communities. uh just speaking for me i have no i have no problem with this i i think we've got a good staff and we're all accountable and like she said if there's something big or concerning it comes back to the board to to discuss and talk and approve so we've got a plan b right behind that so i would just encourage my colleagues that let's look at the same from the broader picture and we are garner we're not other towns but i do respect the concerns that any of our board members have i do respect

Mr. Singleton, further thoughts, questions?

I'm still not ready to vote on it. We'll try to cross every, we'll not cross every T and not every I, but I still, I mean, I've read this stuff over and over. I will get some concerns to the attorney that I have.

I still have. Mr. Stallings, other thoughts or comments? No. Mr. Dellinger, other thoughts or comments? No.

Just the environment we're in, this is a very important issue and goal is unanimity, but consensus and really respecting the concerns of our colleagues and hearing those out, we'll end up with a better product. I think we all, we respect each other by respecting, we each bring different perspectives. We all represent the town, so if my colleagues have reservations, I think we should provide the space and time to hear those out and then accommodate those.

Mr. Vance has questions, comments.

Yes, again, I echo Mr. Dillinger in reference to that and realizing that this has been before us several different occasions delayed from December, January, the retreat, and now we're here at this point. I think it would be fair to allow the time for further consideration. Also, to provide a a time for the staff to know that we are going to make a decision on such date so the council can do our due diligence and review and have those questions answered and be ready to make a determination at such time. I would recommend not waiting too long since we have, it's been before us for a while that we make a determination when we want to make the decision as to either we gonna vote up or vote down on what's going on here. Is that clear, what I said? Okay. Is that clear what I said? Well, what I said is that we have seen this a long time. The council has time to consider it, still needs time to consider it. However, let's put a date as to when it's gonna come before us and we'll make a decision then based upon our review and getting with the staff, talking about our concerns to try to get those ironed out before we are ready to make a vote on this at the at the next schedule whenever, the next scheduled time. But I recommend that we not wait too long because we've had it for a period of time to go ahead and have those questions answered and then be able to make a determination as to how we're going to vote on it, be ready to vote for it in the very near future. We've had ample time to look at this. But I do respect the council's concerns.

Okay, would you like to make a motion to that effect?

I will try my best to. And this may have to be revised. I move that we table this discussion for the council to allow discussions with legal staff in reference to their concerns relative to what's being proposed to us in these resolutions. At a date that's be determined for the very near future. Do I need to provide a date, time or period, a month, say August, August at the second regular session, be ready for that.

August 18th.

Is there a second? What about a work session?

Excuse me. I'm a little confused. I heard a motion. I think I understood that. Yes, sir. To continue for 30 days for clarification of further questions. Is that kind of the gist of your motion?

Yes, it is.

Okay. Is there a second to that motion?

I'll second it.

Okay, Mr. Singleton second. Motion made by Mr. Vance and seconded by Mr. Singleton.

A quick question before we vote. Is it 30 days or is it at the work session?

We're going to talk about it before. We got a motion and a second. Now we can talk about it. Go ahead, please.

I think we will have to clarify the motion, but I'm asking, are we making a motion to consider this at the work session on the 25th? Instead of 30 days, 30 days is the 21st of August. Are we considering that work session on the 25th?

Good question, clarification, Mr. Vance.

That'll be fine for me. I'm just trying to make it, allow the council no time to get those questions answered, and if that's what it needs to be done, 30 days, then I am okay with that.

I think perhaps the first meeting in September would be better. I think we already have a lot scheduled for August.

Okay, the first meeting in September?

which I think is the first or the first? First. Perhaps. It's first of September.

So the amended motion is to bring this back up September 1st. Is that what you agree to, the second term?

Sounds good to me, yes, sir.

Okay.

Ms. Jones? The delegation of authority sometimes makes it easier to get the work and the services provided to town residents done faster, but If you have concerns of the delegation or if you have concerns about reporting and accountability and being able to look at what's being done, I'd ask you to consider that, whether you're opposed to the delegation or you want more information to be able to do your oversight of these kinds of actions. because we could work that kind of reporting in, similar to the quarterly reports that you receive on other issues.

Okay, good comments. We've got a motion and a second. We've had some discussion. Any comment?

I would just say that that distinction, as the questions come at you, whatever they may be, that distinction would be, it'd be good to reinforce those distinctions during those conversations.

Okay, say that again, please.

I was just telling the attorney it'd be good when the questions come to reinforce the distinction between the authority and the oversight components, so to know which ones are appropriate for amending this or not amending it, depending on what the concern is.

Is that clear? Do you understand the request?

Right, and I'll have that discussion with you individually as you provide comments on specific things. Again, these are your delegation of authority, so you need to be comfortable with what you're willing to delegate, and then that informs staff on what authority, well, the mayor, myself as the attorney, and the manager and other staff as to what they have authority to sign or to take action on.

Okay, further discussion on the motion and a second that's before us. If there's no more discussion, let's go with the voice vote on this all in favor of the resolution, the proposed action of putting this off until September 1st with intervention, clarification and questions answered. All in favor of that motion, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed by nay? Hearing none, it passes unanimously. Thank you very much for your input. It's important stuff. It's worth taking extra time to make sure we get it right. And that's the hard work for the evening. Let's move right along to updates to council. And we'll start with committee reports. Let's start with Mr. Matthews in here about committees that you are the liaison with.

Nothing to report tonight, sir.

Okay, Mr. Singleton. Yes, sir. Mr. Stallings. No report. Mr. Dellinger, committee reports.

Bill reports. I'm sorry. The personnel committee will be.

Nominations.

Nominations committees. We keep changing. I had a flashback to that, so thank you for the clarification. Yes, the nomination committee will be meeting to have interviews for the housing advisory committee. starting this week throughout this month and possibly into August to go ahead and fill those seven positions and we have a number of applicants to go through so hopefully we'll be able to finish it up and have recommendations of the council hopefully in the August time frame.

Thank you. And now we go to our town manager for manager reports.

Yes, good evening, Mayor, members of council. We have three reports for you this evening. The first is your quarterly financial report for FY26Q4. And I'll ask Mr. Beck if he'll come to the podium and provide highlights for that and then answer any questions that council may have.

Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Council. You have in your packet the financial report for the last quarter of the fiscal year, 25-26, which ended on June the 30th. Just wanted to touch on a few highlights for you. Hopefully you've had a chance to review the report. um the biggest uh takeaway is that these are very preliminary numbers so even though we have passed the june 30th date for the end of the fiscal year we still have several weeks worth of work to do to account and reconcile for transactions that that affect last fiscal year and need to be posted back and we'll have a direct impact on the numbers that you see presented tonight. So just kind of wanted to touch on a couple of highlights. One is, as of where the numbers stand right now, you'll see that we have about a $2.2 million deficit in the general fund. That's not that unusual to show a deficit on the Q4 report when it's presented because it is so soon after the end of the fiscal year and as I mentioned earlier, there's quite a bit of accounting work still to do. When I look back over the last five years, I think we had two other years where we were in a deficit position on the Q4 report and both of those years we ended up in a surplus position after all of the accounting was factored in. This year I think we'll probably end up somewhere around a break-even position for the fiscal year. I highlighted a few of the larger, more significant accounting impacts that are still to be recorded that impact last fiscal year. So we have three months of sales tax revenue to accrue back to the prior year. That should average around a million dollars per month, which would be about three million dollars of additional revenue that goes back to last year. We also have some quarterly revenues that come from the state. We typically don't receive those until mid-September for the period the end of June 30th. That has a significant impact on revenues, excuse me, on revenues. On the expenditure side, we have some payroll expenses to accrue based on the work days and when those days occurred and when the payroll pay date occurred. And then we have just a number of invoices that will still come in that are for services provided prior to June 30th or goods that were received prior to June 30th that have not been invoiced yet, which will have an impact on the prior fiscal year as well. But again, the primary point I wanted to leave you with tonight was There's still a lot of work to do. These numbers are preliminary and will change, but I think once we get through all of the accounting work still to do, the audit, which can sometimes shift numbers a little bit one way or the other, I think we're gonna end up around a break-even position. It could be a little bit one way or the other on either side of break-even, but I think we'll be pretty close to that as a ballpark number for where we'll ultimately wind up for the fiscal year. And Mr. Mayor, that's all the comments have. I'm glad to answer any questions you or council have. Questions or comments?

Yeah, a question's afternoon probably gotten to you. Yeah, and it was really about the timing of the quarterly reports and wondering if there's benefit in delaying the reporting after each quarter because of the reconciliation that needs to occur to have more accurate information, even though sales tax wouldn't be in and is that a phenomenon that is fairly specific to the end of the fiscal year for like these invoices and payroll or is that also that delay appointed should we get this report maybe one month later to allow more true numbers to come into the report

It would certainly benefit the Q4 report to occur later because like this year, for an example, June 30th was, I think, a Tuesday. We had the July 4th holiday. We have people out on vacation. So, you know, things are sort of delayed in general. Um, for the, the other quarters, it really doesn't make too much of a difference because you don't have like a hard line in the sand you're looking at. But for the Q4, if we said, you know, we would bring that at the second August meeting, that would certainly, we would have more solid numbers at that point for sure.

and keep the rest of them on a regular quarterly cadence like we have now for those numbers. Yeah, just talk with staff and council. That might be, just in the future, helpful. It might be helpful to see it in August again at the end and see those numbers. Yeah, thank you. That was helpful.

Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. If there's no other questions or comments on that one, back to you.

Thank you, Mr. Beck. Next report this evening is your quarterly capital project update. And Ms. Harrison.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm here tonight again for your quarterly capital project update. I feel like every time I make this report, it's a little bit longer. I'm not sure how that keeps happening. But as usual, you know, there's a lot of information in the report. We will go through some highlights. And then, of course, if you have questions about anything I do or do not go over, you are welcome to to ask. So starting on transportation projects, we first have the Aversboro Road and Garner Road sidewalk project. This project is mostly complete at this point. We anticipate it being completely finished in August. The only things remaining to be done are striping, signage, installation of a fence, and painting of a guardrail. So really some finishing work and those new sidewalk sections will be complete. at the same time in august we will have construction starting on the bryan road improvements which includes the addition of sidewalk as well as widening of the road near bryan road elementary so that one will be getting started in the next month Our next transportation project is Jones Sausage Road and I want to spend a few minutes talking about this one because I know we have some friends from Jones Sausage here tonight who would probably appreciate the update as well. So what is happening on that project right now is that we are currently completing a document called the categorical exclusion. WHICH IS AN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT DOCUMENT THAT IS REQUIRED BY NCDOT BECAUSE OF THE LAP FUNDING THAT WE HAVE FOR THE PROJECT. SO THAT IS SOMETHING THAT WE WOULD NOT HAVE DONE IF THE TOWN WAS FUNDING THIS PROJECT COMPLETELY BUT WE HAVE TO DO IT BECAUSE OF THE FEDERAL FUNDING. And so we are completing that task now. That is required for us to receive right-of-way authorization from NCDOT, which gives us the green light to start talking to property owners about easements and right-of-way that we need to acquire. We did have a couple things going on in the location in the last couple weeks. I think it was week before last. Our consultant surveyors went and put some stakes out to show easements in right-of-way that were proposed unfortunately we didn't know that they were going to do that and it was quite frankly a little bit premature so you know we definitely apologize to the residents for any confusion that is caused by that we would like to and have expressed to the consultant that's it important for us to know before anything is placed on someone's property so that we can explain the purpose of those stakes before they are put there and just cause more confusion. So the staking represents any easements or right of way that we anticipate needing to talk to a property owner about. Nothing will occur with that of course until we have further conversations with each one of those property owners and we anticipate those conversations to start probably this fall once we get the approval of that CE document and get the authorization to start those conversations. which means we'll probably have to come back and stake them again because usually those things don't last that long in people's yards. Another thing that's been happening out there, we did identify a conflict with a gas line in that area. So we've had a contractor doing potholing where they YOU KNOW DIG HOLES TO IDENTIFY EXACTLY WHERE THE GAS LINE IS AND THE ELEVATION OF IT AND EVERYTHING SO THAT WE CAN DESIGN AROUND THAT CONFLICT AND MANAGE IT IN IN THE DESIGN SO FOR PEOPLE WHO LIVE OUT THERE THEY MAY HAVE SEEN YOU KNOW THE VAC TRUCK THAT THEY USE TO DIG THOSE POTHOLES UM TO BE ABLE TO TO LOCATE THAT BUT THAT IS THE CURRENT STATE OF THAT PROJECT WE DO STILL HAVE AN ANTICIPATED CONSTRUCTION START SCHEDULE OF 2028 FOR THAT PROJECT DEPENDENT ON THE TIME THAT DEPENDENT ON THE TIME THAT ACQUISITION TAKES.

ACQUISITION TAKES.

QUESTION ON THAT. QUESTION ON THAT. REFERENCE TO THE CATEGORICAL REFERENCE TO THE CATEGORICAL EXCLUSION. EXCLUSION. IS IT DELAYING THE PROJECT?

YES, I WOULD SAY IT HAS. IF WE DIDN'T HAVE TO DO THAT IF WE DIDN'T HAVE TO DO THAT DOCUMENT WE COULD HAVE MOVED DOCUMENT WE COULD HAVE MOVED FORWARD ALREADY. FORWARD ALREADY. AND ALSO WE HAD A DOCUMENT WAS AND ALSO WE HAD A DOCUMENT WAS COMPLETED ONCE AND SUBMITTED FOR COMPLETED ONCE AND SUBMITTED FOR REVIEW. REVIEW. THE COMMENT THAT WAS RECEIVED WAS THE COMMENT THAT WAS RECEIVED WAS THAT THE FEDERAL HIGHWAYS the last phase of the jones sausage project included in that document as well so they really look at impacts on a whole corridor basis which which makes sense but that was included in our initial ce documents because it's really a separate project that we don't know a determined timeline for and that is the portion that will elevate jones sausage over the railroad and realign it So all that meant is that we had to expand the scope of the CE document. So any area that we'll be touching in this phase or in the next phase needs to be included for evaluation. So we're having to do that process over again, which has taken a little bit longer. So this is kind of the catch that we get with these projects where we get funding like LAP or other grant funding that it's definitely helpful to receive it and we may not be able to do some of these projects without it, but it can make the project take longer because they come with some strings tied.

Do you have an estimated delay? Do you know roughly how much of a delay?

Um, I we've been working on the revision to the CE document for approximately three months now. So at least that portion of time with the entire CE process, I would say probably four to five months that that has delayed the project.

And the let date is now what?

Um, we're looking at fall of 2028. um all right and still in transportation we have the ranmel streetscape and parking improvements project that is a mouthful this is currently under construction if you've been in downtown you can't miss the fact that it's in construction making good progress there we did identify a conflict with a water line in main street which downtown areas, old infrastructure, you find all sorts of surprises. So we still anticipate this project being completed in September and we're working to go ahead and finish the parking lot area while the conflict with the water line is being resolved so that hopefully we can start utilizing the parking lot in the meantime while the rest is being completed. I did want to point out one thing on the U.S. 70 street lighting because we had an estimated date of December in here, but I just learned today that they are hoping to start construction on that within the next two to three weeks. So the first phase of that is installation of street lighting between the White Oak Shopping Center and New Rand Road on 70 on both sides. So that phase will complete the street lighting along that stretch of U.S. 70, and Duke's contractors should be out there within the month. Moving to stormwater projects, the first couple of things that we have, the stormwater inventory and assessment and the downtown stormwater study, we are reviewing final deliverables for both of those. So wrapping up those studies and looking at final reports for review. One thing that has come out of that as part of the stormwater inventory and assessment we looked at several priority locations that had known drainage concerns that we knew we needed to address and we had the consultant look at some conceptual plans for us or ideas for ways to remedy those. And so we have started the next phase of a couple of those locations. So with funding that we had remaining in the inventory and assessment from the stormwater bonds, we're starting to look at the Hall Boulevard Drainage Project and Dunhaven Drive Drainage Project and utilizing some of those study funds to further along the designs for those projects. so that when we do have construction funding for stormwater projects, those will be in line and ready to go. So those are new ones that you'll see on your list this time.

I have a question.

Sure.

Do we have an inventory of all the dams in town?

I'm sure that we do. I don't know that we I was trying to think if we have them on a like a GIS inventory like we do the stormwater data. We do not have that. I don't believe but we have record of of dams through like our hazard mitigation work. We definitely have them recorded there. There's a combination. We don't have very many publicly owned dams. There's a lot of private dams for sure.

It might be worth the effort to inventory those, the private ones as well. I mean, since I've been on council, we've had our own AM issues, which sounds funny to say. But I think when you're Just statewide, North Carolina has so many dams and has so many dams that are high risk or moderate risk or they're just not taken care of. And that seems like that would fit in with sort of the stormwater mitigation work. So again, don't need it tomorrow or anything, but I think incorporating that into our stormwater plan, kind of just getting that inventory just for awareness.

If I may, the state does maintain an inventory and we've accessed that through the Department of Environmental Quality. Okay. I think it's the Dam Safety Division. So we can incorporate that information. And it includes publicly owned and privately owned.

Okay, that'd be great. Yeah, that'd be great to sort of get that information. I'm just now curious.

Yeah, and we've talked about from a hazard mitigation standpoint, it would probably be beneficial to look at what dams we have and then look at what's downstream of them, right? So what hazards do each of those dams present if they were to fail? Whether they are our responsibility or not, it becomes our responsibility when there's a downstream catastrophe, right?

I'd say that just in terms of the other mitigation work and incorporate that into sort of a disaster response plan with public safety. I deal with this at work thinking about it at home so thank you.

Looking at some parks projects so I just wanted to mention that the Lake Benson Park master plan and the Meadowbrook Park interim use you will be getting an update on both of those I believe at the August work session so there is an update here but more information to come before you soon. The White Deer Park improvements, that new playground is expected to be complete this fall, as well as Juergen Park Phase 1 is expected to have substantial completion in September and is still planning for a fall opening as well.

Can I ask you a question about the South corner runway? I've got a lot of questions on. I know we're looking at right away and what have you. Can you update me on any of that? I can pass on where we're at in that.

Sure. Yeah, so that's another one similar to Jones-Sausage where we received LAP funding after the design was already started. So that did add some additional requirements. We also identified a conflict with a force main that is out there that had actually, there was an emergency repair sometime while we were designing. So what was there became different than what was there before. And so we're working to try to resolve some of those utility conflicts. The last iteration of the design that we had was showing a lot of property impacts. A lot of it was because we were designing around utilities that were present. And so we're trying to really find a balance between where we avoid the utilities and where is it worth relocating the utilities to. In the name of not impacting property as much so it's a balance there for sure they we have completed a subsurface utility exploration to identify all of those so that now we can look at some ways to to design around them and There are no we do have preliminary idea of easements and right-of-way needed But those final determinations will be dependent on any design changes that are made based on the utilities so we will be looking at having conversations with any Property owners that we need easements or right away from once those are determined but we're still several months out from from starting that acquisition process and all right and then we will move to facilities starting with the garner police department steps which seems to be the project that just keeps on giving somehow um these steps are going to be the steps that have been given the most attention in the entire world i think so If you have noticed, the steps were completed and now they are not there. Once again, we identified once the treads were placed on the steps that it looks like probably what happened is the forms slipped sometime when the concrete was curing. And so the surface of the concrete was very uneven. It was wavy, if you will. which becomes very obvious when you have to put a tread on it that sits flush against it, and it does not sit flush at all. So we were not happy with the work. Our contractor was not happy with the work that the sub did, so there was no argument from the contractor. Fortunately, they had the sub take everything back out, and they are redoing the concrete work themselves. So the steps have been removed and are being reinstalled. We hope to have them complete around the 1st of August and have the project completely finished out by the end of August. We will get there. And then we have building 109. Of course, y'all got to come visit us over there today. So we are still working on some final items for that project. The generator startup should be complete tomorrow, which will allow us to plan the relocation of the server room to the building. and allow it staff to relocate there as well and We are still working on some exterior improvements some paving along the access road and the parking lot that is still needing to be done as well as punch list items this contract is long past its time this contractor is in liquidated damages seems to be unbothered by the fact that they are in liquidated damages so we're just plugging along things are getting completed bit by bit but it is it's it's definitely a little bit slow but pushing through those those last items and then the last few pages that you have are your ncdot projects in garner REALLY THE ONLY THING THAT HAS CHANGED HERE IS SEVERAL OF THE LET DATES, WHICH IS SOMETHING WE SEE REALLY OFTEN, THOSE SHIFT AS THEY GET CLOSER. Project that has kind of moved locations is the U5302, which is the project on 401 from old stage to mechanical. That is now in construction. Construction has recently started on that project. So it has moved sections. And then a few in your planning and design area have just changed the let dates on those. And the last sheet being Raleigh water projects, which none of those have changed substantially since the last time we discussed. And with that, I am happy to answer any questions that you might have.

All right. Thank you, Ms. Harrison. And final report this evening is your talk of the town. Mr. Hodges, would you briefly go over the talk of the town, please?

Thank you, Ms. Miller. Good evening, Council and Mayor. There are a number of events coming up that I'll refer you to your written report for dates and times that are coming up in the next four weeks. These include the next Coffee with a Cop, the back-to-school bash at Garner United Methodist Church that is being supported by our Garner Police Department. We have the summer camp production at the GPAC coming up, the next Friday Family Flicks, as well as a blood drive at the Garner Police Department. There are lots of dates and times, so I'd encourage you to take a look at the written report if you're interested in any of those. two things someone has specifically mentioned to you is the garner youth council the applications are currently being accepted for the 26-27 school year and then also a road closure to note for council and the public you may be aware but as a part of the complete 540 project east garner road will be closed between auburn nightdale road and rock quarry road through late august depending on weather our communications team has done a great job in promoting that out to the public I want to give them kudos for actually taking the information that DOT provided and enhancing it to make it more user-friendly. And so thank you to them for recognizing the importance of communicating that in a manner that can be understood by the traveling public. Your Garner Info monthly analytics are also included. These numbers are fairly even in terms of the types of cases that we're seeing. Some of the caseloads are going down on some of our... our topics. I'll also, as I always do, caveat that these do not include all the proactive work that our teams are out doing, especially our code compliance team who are proactively addressing tall grass, junk cars, and other code enforcement that are not noted in these numbers. And as we've discussed before, we're looking at ways to provide you some more statistics on those. If you have any questions about any of the information in the report, I'll be happy to answer them.

Thank you, Mr. Hodges. Those are all the manager reports for this evening. Happy to answer any additional questions from counsel.

Okay. If no further questions, we'll move along to the attorney report.

No attorney report tonight.

That doesn't mean you haven't been working hard lately. I know there's a lot going on back there. A lot happening. Thank you and your staff for what you're doing there. And let's go to council reports. Let's start with Mr. Vance's end. Anything other than the committee reports? Any other comments, questions? No comments. Mr. Dellinger?

Yes, I would just like to thank the staff and the police department for putting up the information section on the real-time information center. There's a lot of concern. We get these emails in public. People just come up to us and are asking questions. This is a great resource for council and staff and the community to look at our perspective and approach to these types of issues. It's crime technology, basically, and data usage. And it was a good first step. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the outreach this fall. But I think responsiveness has been fantastic to those concerns by the residents.

Well, thanks for the report. Yeah, communication is everything. Communication is everything. Mr. Stallings?

I enjoyed participating with the mayor, Mr. Matthews, Councilman Vance, with the Community of Hope Future Leaders Camp. When they came here and did their mock council, it was great seeing them pitch their ideas and sit on the dais and debate with each other about what they were going to fund and if they had to fund partially a part of the project or the full project. I think one of them proposed an amphitheater beside the rec center. So it was just amazing seeing them debate with each other and the ideas that they came up with and just how invested they are in empowering themselves and bettering the town.

It was exciting. The only thing that hurt my feelings is that the mock mayor did a better job than the real mayor did. I'm not kidding.

No comment.

Thanks a lot. You're welcome. Mr. Singleton.

Several things. One, it's in the email, but I want to thank staff again for the work on July 3rd. I've been able to pivot real quick with the cancellation of the symphony due to the heat and also getting the local band to perform. Thanks everyone again for all the hard work that went into it. I think it was well received despite the heat. And again, thank everyone for the time and effort put into that. I'm glad to see Ms. Harrison mentioned the Highway 70 lights. That got started some 30 years ago, and we got the first phase in in like 2001, and Lord have mercy, 25 years later, we're going to start finishing a section of it. But anyway, it's taken a long time. Long time. Anyways, being someone who brought that forward back over 30 years ago, I'm glad to see we're moving forward. The Back to School Bash is mentioned. I'll mention this to everyone again. It's at Corner Methodist on Friday the 7th from 12 to 7 and on Saturday from 8 to 2.15 or 2.30. They're looking at volunteers, people to help. They're projecting over 1,400 kids to receive backpacks. We've had a business here in Garner that has donated all 1,400 backpacks, and along with some supplies, more supplies are needed, so any volunteers can help. That would be greatly appreciated. It's a big event. They have split it into two days, so because expecting more people than in the past, that's why they wanted to do it on Friday and on Saturday, and try to keep it enclosed inside, because apparently if we have the extreme heat, and they started that last year. So I appreciate that. I appreciate also the information Ms. Everson presented on a couple of the stormwater projects that are moving forward with the study. That's very good information to see that the study that we've already done is already presenting opportunities in some places in town that need some attention. So thank you very much for that.

Thank you, Mr. Matthews.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a couple comments to jump on, piggyback there with Kelvin. You know, the Garner youth, the group that he's liaison with, and then what happened with the Community of Hope, that speaks well for our town. If I sound like I'm bragging, I am. I'm proud of this town and the things we've accomplished. There's other towns around that They've got all kinds of problems with the young people. There's fights destroying things. There's a litany of things out there. But to have our young people involved, you start at a certain level. And I think we jumped on that bandwagon. And... We just got to stay on top of it. You know, with the youth council, I'm glad to add more to it. That thing should be 100 or 200 kids one day real quick, I'm thinking. But things like with the community up here and seeing my replacement, seeing the mayor's replacement, making calls. And I brought up, I said, maybe sometime if we ever do have a light night here lately, we've been running hard and heavy, But to have some of those kids come up here and sit down and just see what we do and see how we deal with things, what's on the screen and things we do, because that's our future. And we've got to groom them and do it right. We sit around and think about what we should do. Let's don't do that. You know, there's people that get things done and people sitting around waiting to get things done. I want to be able to... Pro side of it, sir. I appreciate what you're doing with the youth, and let's keep working at it and take care of our vehicles. We've got a great town here, and I don't want to lose it to things that maybe we overlooked. And the grown-ups are watching what we do, too. And so I appreciate that, and I just want to comment on that. And secondly... John, it might have been you and I talking about some deer signs down around Lake Benson. I'm almost creaming them. There's a lot of baby deer and all crossing that road because of the lake there. Is there one we can work about with DOT getting a deer sign right about as you're coming out just before we get to the bridge? And one near Navin Lane would start there. That's the primary crossing point right there. And they are really going out there right now. I like to hit two the other night. It would not end it well.

So I'll work with engineering to follow up on, I know we were talking about getting the criteria from DOT or making them aware of that. So we'll follow up on that. I appreciate that.

And that's all I got, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Good luck with teaching those deer to cross at the crossing. I'm trying. It's an uphill climb. I'm sure you can make it happen.

Thank you. We'll put an underground crossing at the end of Nath and Lane and Mr. Matthews can assist them when they get on. I like that.

I pictured him being the crossing guard for the deer.

We can tie that in with a stormwater project.

We can make them a bridge. We'll make them a bridge.

Yeah, bridge. They like laying that better than the tunnel. Right, right. We'll get right on it. Engineering will figure it out. Okay. I think it's about time to adjourn if we start training these deers. So if there's no other business to be talked about, I will accept a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. There's a motion by Mr. Vance and a second by Mr. Matthews. Yeah. There you go. All in favor of adjournment, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed by nay. Meeting adjourned. Thank you, and thank you for your folks at home.