Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Welcome to the May 18th meeting of the Georgetown Planning Commission. First order of business is approval of minutes from February 18th. Is there a motion to approve? I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. Is there a second? A second. Motion second. All in favor say I. I.

Motion carried. Our next order of business is uh case number 202601, the Oaks at Georgetown phase 3, an application by JL Amgt Oaks LLC for an amendment to the approved residential plan community site plan for 179 lot subdivision, single family detached and attached dwellings. The property is located on Aeros Safety Road west of Shadow Oak Drive and east of the Miki Tech Tax Stitch identified as Sussex County Tax Parcel 135-20-6 and 498-648.00 earned MR1 RPC applicant like to take the Hello everyone. Uh my name is Jim Ericson and I'm a uh professional licensed civil engineer and principal engineer with Solutions IPM here in Georgetown. Uh my Delaware license number is 18287. Uh I'm here on behalf of my client Jam GT Oaks LLC uh to present uh the project. Uh here with me is Ryan Mitchell from the development team. So, we're here tonight to present a site concept plan for a request to re uh for a revision to phase three of the Oaks residential plan community. My goal tonight is pretty straightforward. I'd like to describe the history of the Oaks uh residential plan community. I'd like to describe the proposed changes we intend to make with this application and demonstrate how the revised phase 3 plan maintains compliance with the town of Georgetown's regulations. certain way towards the computer back that way.

Oh, is there is there a button?

I see now. Thank you. Okay. So, the Oaks is an approximate 95.77 uh acre track located to the northwest of the intersection of Arrow Safety Road in South Bedford Street. Phase 3 specifically encompasses approximately 41.98 acres of that track and is located on the western portion of the overall Oaks project. South Bedford Street is classified by Delta as a major collector and Aeros Safety Road is classified as a local road. The intersection of South Bedford, Aeros um and Aeros Safety Road and Park Avenue was recently improved to include a roundabout and Aeros Safety Road and Park Avenue also recently have seen significant delta improvements. Per the 2025 state strategies uh state spending strategies map, the entire site's located in investment level one, which indicates the area is the highest priority for state infrastructure funding and development. The town of Georgetown's comprehensive plan also identifies this area as mixed residential in the future land use map. The sites located in flood plane X unshaded which are areas determined to be outside of the 2% annual chance flood plane. The site zoned MR2 and UR1 with an approved residential plan community. The original RPC uh I'm sorry, the pre-development conditions for the overall site was a mixture of agricultural lands and wooded areas. And the site featured a man-made ditch that ran north to south along the approximate center line of the site. The McGee ditch is also located along the site's western boundary. The original RPC for the Oaks was approved in 2007. In the 2007 RPC, uh there was a master plan for 138 condominium units, 337 single family town home lots, and 58 single family

detached lots. The plan could be split into three general phases. Phase one, which is the condominium units, is in the northeastern portion of the site. Phase two is on the southeastern portion of the site, which consisted of 244 22 foot wide townhouse lots. And then phase three is on the western portion of the site and that consisted of 93 24- foot wide townhouse lots and 58 single family detached lots. Between 2018 and 2019, phase one was slightly modified. The condominium units were clarified to be apartments and there were some minor changes in the layout as building footprints were finalized and there were some other minor revisions to the plan. On the screen you can see the original layout in gray along with the revision overlaid in red. The resultant plan now features 138 apartment units, 337 single family townhouse lots, and 58 single family detach lots. Those revisions were approved, and this phase has been constructed. Phase 2 originally consisted of 244 22- foot wide townhouse lots, which uh is shown on the plan on the screen. There was a small pond along the existing ditch, and the townhouse lots had rear-loaded alleyways. In 2024, phase 2 also underwent a revision. The revised uh the revision changed the land plan with the phase 2 within the phase 2 area and adjusted the proposed townhouse size in phase 2 to be increased from 22 feet wide to 24 ft wide. This change also proposed 216 townhouse lots which was a reduction of 28 units from the original RPC. The road layout was adjusted and there were other revisions included such as the removal of the alleyways behind the town home units and the addition of an separate amenities area. The wet pond was expanded and there's an addition of a pump station in the vicinity of uh phase phase three. Those plans were finalized in 2025 and phase 2 is currently under construction.

The application before you today is for the remaining areas of the oaks which is phase three. Generally the goal of this application is to largely maintain the original approved land plan but provide updates to the plan to adjust the current condition to the current conditions in the vicinity of the site as well as accommodate recent development trends. The original plan was approved approximately 20 years ago. So there have been changes not only to the other phases of the oaks but also the surrounding areas. The exhibit on the screen is the previous land plan within the phase 3 area. What's overlaid now is the revised concept plan. The key revisions to the plans are the reintroduction of the 28 town home lots that were removed with the phase 2 revisions. There are adjustments in the town home and single family detached lot widths. The road network was refined based on the available connection u connections and regional traffic improvements. The alleyways were removed and there's addition of a storm water pond as well as a centralized amenity area that includes a pool and a clubhouse. On the surface, the addition of 28 town home lots typically would seem like a significant change to a land plan. However, in this case, the 28 28 town home lots are being added to phase three, but they're really being a reintroduction of the 28 town home lots that were removed from phase 2. The revision is not adding additional units to the original RPC, but simply relocating the units from phase 2 into phase three. That changes the proposed number of town home lots within phase 3 from 91 to 121. and the number of single family detached lots remains at 58. This project was originally approved in 2007 and the long-term planning for this investment level one area has long anticipated 138 apartment units, 337 town home slots, and 58 single family detach lots with the development of the oaks. The proposed application maintains those overall unit counts. Delta has invested significantly in infrastructure right in front of the site and provided improvements to Aeros

Safety Road, Park A as and has installed a roundabout at the intersection of our Safety Road, Park Avenue and South Bedford Street amongst other improvements. They have even taken a contribution from the developer included the installation of the entrance to phase 3 with their improvements on Aeros Safety Road. That entrance was designed to accommodate the number of lots shown in the original approval. Similarly, similarly, the school district, utility providers, and state funding agencies have long anticipated the number of units for this project to be per the original RPC. Overall, the proposed density of the RPC remains identical to the original improvement with a net density of 7.8 dwelling units per acre. Within phase 3 specifically, the net density proposed is 5.43 dwelling units per acre. Overall, the road layout remains very similar to the previously approved RPC and the lot footprints closely follow the original locations with some adjustments based on road changes and some lot size changes. The original RPC had 24 foot wide townhouse lots in phase three and 60 foot wide single family detach lots. The proposed plan is showing 20 foot wide townhouse lots and 55 foot wide single family detach lots. All the proposed lot sizes, whips, widths, depths, and setbacks meet the minimum requirements permitted in an RPC. By providing 20 foot wide townhouse lots, phase 3 is providing a significantly different product than the 24 foot wide townhouse product as being provided in phase 2. Overall, having a mix of apartments, 20 foot uh 20 foot town home products, 24 foot wide town home products, and single family detached lots provides a significant variety of housing that will fulfill reasonably priced workforce housing needs for a wider base of residents. While the site plan remains very similar to the RPC master plan, there are some changes on the road layouts on the northwestern portion of the site. an interconnection. There was an interconnection to the village of Cinderberry that has been removed from

the plans. In 2022, the residents of the village of Cinderbury appeared before the Georgetown Council and requested to remove the rightway step to the property line and the location of the internet connection that was provided in the previously approved RPC. That request was approved by the town of Georgetown and the rightway no longer extends to the property line in the in on the village of Cinderberry's side of the property line. Instead, only a small utility easement is provided. Since this rightaway was removed from the adjoining parcel, interconnection is no longer feasible here, and the connection was required to be removed. The road layout was adjusted to have Shadow Oak instead loop around that northern area, generally maintaining the layout of the previous RPC's roadway there, but we did slightly adjust the alignment along the northern property to provide a setback from the adjacent property for some drainage considerations along the northern boundary. The removal of the interconnection also changed the characteristics of Shadow Oak Drive. The original layout had Shadow Oak Drive designed to be more of a collector type of road with wider travel lanes and wider rightway. With the road now being an internal looped road, it's now able to be narrowed to 24 ft uh 24 foot wide rideway roadway as it would be utilized as local road and is no longer connecting separate subdivisions. Similarly, Beach Cherry Drive has been narrowed to be a 24 foot wide re uh roadway in the areas of the townhouse lots. Another revision was to remove the alleyways behind the town home units and where feasible, additional parking has been provided across the street from the town home units. The road sections were adjusted to have a more of a local feel and the roadside parking and and was placed in designated striped parking spaces that and also provided our sidewalks uh crosswalks and other pedestrian amenities throughout the community. With an alley, you're essentially providing an additional small road behind units. This increases the cost of development and in turn the cost of housing to accommodate the

paving and additional storm water infrastructure. Long-term alleys increase the cost of maintenance and there's additional pavement and storm water infrastructure that needs to be maintained and also has to have items like snow removal and other considerations taken into account for maintenance. The narrowing of the roadways and additional roadside parking along the anticipated stop along with the anticipated stop sign locations provide forms of traffic calming throughout the community ensuring that the driveways can be accessed safely. After some feedback from the planning and zoning staff, we intend to make a slight adjustment to provide a midlock midblock island along the parking area on Beach Cherry Drive. This will help provide some additional traffic calming measures along the roadway because the turbine curb line tapers back towards the street which makes the room seem narrow as it as you're driving down it, which is an additional form of traffic calming. Should be noted that this will likely remove one to two parking spaces in that area. So the number of designated on street parking spaces will be reduced from 62 to approximately 60 spaces in phase three. However, the driveways within the lots themselves meet the minimum parking criteria for the town. So there's no code requirement to provide on street parking spaces. With the reduction, the site will still be providing 430 parking spaces, which far exceeds the minimum of 370 spaces. This trafficcomming island uh revision would be showing on shown on the preliminary site plan. Another adjustment to the road layout was the removal of Fig Berry Drive. The original layout had a fairly significant length of uh had fairly significant lengths of roadway with either lots only fronting on one side or no lots at all in some areas. The removal of Fig Berry Drive permitted lots to be placed along Sugar Magnolia Lane and Almond Willow Court in an orientation that reduced um rear that reduced shared rear property lines. This adjusted arrangement permits for drainage to be provided in the open space rather than on the lots. Uh that opens up additional usable space on the lot and ensures that the HOA

maintains the drainage improvements with less responsibility on the individual parcel owner. The removal of roads has uh made the plan more efficient than the original RPC as approximately 1,03 linear feet of roadway has been removed with these revisions while maintaining identical number of units as the original overall RPC. The removal of the alleys is not included with that number. And additionally, narrowing some of the roads further reduces pavement associated with the project. This will be a significant reduction in the long-term maintenance cost for the town from the original RPC design. And this reduction has been done without compromising access or safety. There's one last adjustment to the roadways that came up during the review and subsequent subsequent conversation with the town engineer and planning staff and that's uh in the northern intersection of Sugar Maple Lane and Ottomillo Court. There it goes. The previously approved RPC had this uh intersection at a significant ang at a significantly skewed angle and a second intersection was just south of the angled intersection that likely was intended to be for left turns off of Sugar Magnolia onto Almond Willow Court. The concept plan that was submitted held the original RPC's layout. The staff brought up some concerns with that geometry for maintenance and visibility. To improve that area, we would propose uh this adjustment. This would provide more of a traditional intersection in that area while maintaining the general intention of the original plan. Generally, we made Sugar uh Magnolia Lane the primary road and had Autumn Willow Court come to a tea intersection. The single family lots were rearranged as necessary with a single lot being relocated to the inside of Almond Willow Court. This slide may help you better visualize those changes. U this revision will would be presented on the preliminary site plans, but I did want to make sure that this was provided to the commission so you could see how we would intend to pro uh proceed with to address the town's concerns.

With the road network change, the layout of the lots was also changed to accommodate the new road network. But most of the overall footprint for the lots is in the proposed design. in the proposed design is still very similar if not identical to the original RPC and the lots also maintain a 50- foot minimum buffer from the wetlands with this updated layout. the large pond that's being um sorry when the interconnection with the village of Cinderbury was was removed Shadow Oak Drive was adjusted to be a loop road it create it created a o central open space area in the northern section in the proposed design a wet pond has been added in that area to provide storm water management the wet pond still would outfall to the central ditch within the oaks the large pond that's currently being installed in the oaks Phase 2 was designed to accommodate storm water management for portions of the oaks phase 3 and phase 2's design included pipe stubs to phase three anticipating those connections. The oaks phase 2 pond will discharge into the regional drainage uh infrastructure along aerosafety road. The drainage in that area was also recently improved by Delot. Overall, the Oaks phase 3 will meet or exceed all DNREC requirements for storm water management and erosion and sediment control and a regional analysis will be performed for the storm water design to ensure there's no adverse impact downstream. Lastly, the proposed site plan is adding a pool, clubhouse, and associated parking area for the residents of phase three. Phase one and phase two each have their own amenity areas with pools and clubouses, and phase three will too. Overall, the road design will meet or exceed the town of Georgetown standards and it provides interconnection to phase two. The internal street system will connect two existing entrances, one at Aeros Safety Road and one at Shadow Oak Drive, which will ultimately enter into onto Bed South Bedford Street. The South

Bedford Street entrance is being improved with phase 2 and that entrance is designed to adequately handle phase three. So, there are not any anticipated Dell DOT improvements required with phase three. As I have mentioned, Delta has invested significantly in this area, providing the roundabout at South Bedford Street and Aeros Safety Road, widening and thickening uh Aeros Safety Road and Park Avenue, and also provided drainage improvements along Arrow Safety Road and Park Avenue. Given the history of the Oaks project, the TIS has been completed with the original RPC. That TIS included the total unit count that's being proposed with this application. The related off-site improvements identified with that TIS were included in Delot's regional improvements and the developer has contributed their fair share to those improvements. Thus, no additional off-site improvements will be warranted with this revision. It's worth noting that there are sidewalk interconnections throughout the Oaks and that they will also connect to the shared use path along the front of phase one and phase two and that there's a DART bus stop that's located at South Bedford Street in the vicinity of the entrance. The oaks will be served by the town of Georgetown for water and sewer. Sewer will utilize a pump station that's being installed with phase two, which we have confirmed is sized adequately to handle the proposed additional townhouse lots. Water will connect to the existing infrastructure stubs in phase two along Aerosafety Road and will utilize easement along village of Cinderberry for another connection, creating stable and looped water distribution system. Utility providers have anticipated this development for some time and power, natural gas, and fiber optic will be available for the site. The Oaks phase 3 supports the community design section within the comprehensive plan with complete streets, sidewalks on both sides of the road, and they will and we will provide crossings and adequate lighting as the project proceeds with engineering. The plan creates a walkable community with midblock uh sidewalks provided through the town home areas where feasible.

The plan also creates significant open space with approximately 17 acres of open space shown in the plans which is about 40% of the total area. The open space area consists of preserved wetlands in the western portion of the site along with a 50-ft buffer and they also provide uh have approximately 10 acres of preserved woodlands in there within the phase 3 boundary. That's approximately 38.64% of the existing woodlands. There's also a clubhouse and a pool, pocket parks, green spaces, and storm water management within the open space. In closing, the Oakspace 3 is a thoughtful, co-compliant, and planned consistent refinement of an RPC that the town approved nearly 20 years ago. The plan meets or has the ability to meet all applicable town standards while improving livability, preserving meaningful open space, and making efforts to reduce long-term maintenance costs for the town. On behalf of the development team, we're we are requesting your support for the phase 3 RPC revision. I thank you for your time and our team is available to answer any questions you may have about the application.

Questions? I'm trying to follow the math. Um, from the original uh approved plan 20 years or so ago, I might understand you're adding 28 town houses and decreasing the number of single family houses. No, the um the overall unit count remains identical to the original RPC.

Uh in this case, when phase 2 was revised, they reduced they removed 28 units from phase 2 that were town home units. We're simply taking those 28 units, moving them into phase three with this proposed application. So overall, we're maintaining, you know, same unit splits, same number of units as the original RPC. We're not trying to add additional units overall. It's just moving them from phase two into phase two. Thank you.

Um, if you make this not a public hearing, but if you make it quick, go to the podium and state your name. Go to the podium, state your name, and make your questions quick, please. My name is Gary Hutcherson. I live at the dead end of Cinder Way. I saw the uh people in there surveying it last summer and decided I need to take a look at it and see whether I need to move or not. Like the reason I came here tonight is to see whether it will really adversely affect me or not. Um the the blue one that you had up here where you showed the drainage this year here, can you bring that back up?

Possibly like maybe two or three right there. This one right there. Okay. My question is what is the clearance where is that going to stay and how far is it? We know that. Do you have any other questions before I know how no that's my determined factor whether I need to move or not and I just moved here two years ago. And you can see the problem.

So our intention is to preserve those trees as much as feasible. Um so I I don't have a measurement. I don't have a scale plan in front of me. Um if if you'd like I I I can give you I didn't bring business card, but I can give you my phone number and you can call me. I'll give you an exact exact measurement. Um but you know it basically if you look at this plan our tree planting is right at the back of that lot and each of those lots is a minimum of 100 feet deep and so my estimate for you would be approximately 50 ft. Again that's an estimate based off of an unscale plan at the moment but I can get you an exact number

and and that's from the property line 50t from the property line. So if you have trees on your side, it'll be a little bit wider than that. And just as a point of clarification, this is only to um approve the general concept so that they may proceed with a preliminary plan which they are also required to present in front of the planning commission. So there will be a similar meeting to um ask questions as the plan is more developed. Well, we we still have a ways to go. Uh we have to go through as he as we just mention there's two more steps in the in the approval process before they can

there's yeah we we'd still have to come back for a preliminary site plan assuming our concept gets approved and then we'd have to come back for a final site plan and do all our engineering. So we would have some time before it uh got out there. Y any other questions from the commission? Is there a motion?

I I have a question. Um Chairman, um just a quick question just generally about the um the size of the lots. I know that the the 20 foot town home is the um is what you're going with with this particular um phase and I I forget what the original sizes of the lots on phase three were um initially, but um could you just talk a little bit about that um that transition process?

Sure. Sure. So, uh, originally phase 3 had 24 foot wide units. Uh, phase 2 changed to have 24 foot wide units with their revision. And so, um, with that change to provide a more diverse, uh, type of product throughout here, open up more, uh, purchasing opportunities. You know, you have a a 20- foot product would be less expensive than a 24 foot wide product. Uh, and kind of keep that range from, uh, an overall RPC standpoint. you have apartments, you have 20 foot wide towns, you have 24 foot wide towns, and then you have single family lots. It opens up a lot more people to potential home ownership as well as housing in general. Um, so that uh that transition like like I said, it went from um 24 and phase three originally went down to 20, but phase 2 went from I believe they were at 22 went up to 24. Is there a motion?

You looking for a motion? I'm looking for a motion. Uh I'll make a motion to approve the amendment of the residential plan community site plan to permit the submission of an application for preliminary plan approval and conformance with the same as presented. Okay, I've got a motion. Is there a second? A second. Okay, we will take a roll call vote. Commissioner Allen, yes. Commissioner Roach. Yes. And I'm a yes as well. I think the plary site plan looks pretty good. Thank you.

All right. Comprehensive plan review. All righty. So, um as I mentioned last week, we were sort of start the introduction process of um the map uh the future land use map discussion as it pertains to our five-year um comp plan review and possible update as well. So, I wanted to have us take a few minutes. I know that the not um the entire planning commission is not here. Um so, if you want to hold off on a substantive discussion, we can, but I wanted to introduce this and also sort of maybe pose some homework uh to you over the next uh month or so. Um so just as a reminder um for especially our new planning commission members and of course those in the public who are present um the comprehensive plan the purpose of it is to direct uh basically the entire policy and ordinance framework um of the town and the future development um plan for the town as well. So uh the comprehensive plan is actually both a plan and uh an ordinance. it it has regulatory power in the town. Uh but as a planner I look at it as a uh a direction in which to u take us and to basically turn the abstract into reality. So we sort of start generally with a comprehensive plan with our goals and strategies. Um we have various um topics and subject areas that we focus on in the town whether it comes to housing, economic development,

um natural resource protections, um utilities, infrastructure, u and basically runs the gamut of the roles that the town plays in governing and managing um growth and development in town. So basically we set our goals and strategies in this document. And one of the major ways that we begin to sort of realize those is through a future land use map um which as it sounds like actu actually discusses and also um dictates what the ideal future land use should be of basically every property um in town. It's general in nature. It's, you know, residential, commercial, industrial, uh, open space, institutional, and some, uh, some other, you know, more specific categories. But the idea is to really sort of set our intention for, uh, properties and the overall community of Georgetown. And then from that leads uh actually more concrete uh implementation strategies such as zoning and subdivision ordinances which is you know part of what you saw today uh with um you know how we regulate development generally that's that is of course through our zoning and subdivision ordinances. Uh we also have other regulatory tools at our disposal such as design standards uh which control the actual look of housing and commercial structures in town. uh policies that are internal to town management uh as well as many other types of ordinances whether it comes to um you know regulating um the the rentals of residential dwellings or the um licensing of businesses um things of that nature. Of course we have many different types of ordinances in town but that's one of the primary ways that we uh enact change in town. And lastly, um, it gives us, uh, further direction on grants and other infrastructure

project opportunities. Um, and again, it sort of makes, uh, abstract ideas and then we turn them into actual, you know, boots on the ground, shovels in the ground projects. So, let me see if I can keep going here. Um and so generally we should always be looking at the comprehensive plan when it comes to you know is this project is this idea is this um direction sort of in line with the comprehensive plan. So, you know, so generally whenever we look at a land development or a potential zoning amendment, um, which you may of course certainly remember, um, from previous meetings, you we generally look at changes in zoning and changes in the future land use map to see how they actually compare to the whole document of the comprehensive plan. And so basically we look to see you know if the proposal you know whatever it may be whether it's an ordinance a project a whole development you know is generally consistent with the visions themes and policies contained within the comprehensive plan. Is a use being considered specifically um on the future land use map that is going to be proposed or that might be in development. Is that location the most appropriate one for that uh project? you if it's not actually listed in the future land use map um you know do we need to somehow account for it in other ways and u may it potentially adversely affect um other parts um of town and how are we accounting for other types of infrastructure and community services uh when we are looking at town policies and proposals as well. So, all of that is sort of happening on the day-to-day uh by me and by town staff, but it's also happening here um at um planning commission meetings and of course town council as well. Um so, our future land use categories are broken up into about 10 to 12

different categories um based upon relatively general types of um uses of land. Uh the first couple are business and commercial. I know they sound the same, but they're we treat them a little differently. Um the business category is basically anything that is um in sort of a neighborhood commercial area. Uh and commercial is actually uh what we term anything that's on the highway or that is of an automobile oriented type of um use and it's generally on a larger uh scale of of development. So, of course, our our larger shopping centers um are, you know, uh restaurants, larger restaurants, um and things of that nature. Uh whereas the the business is really more sort of your smaller uh footprint businesses uh in town. Industrial, it seems self-explanatory. I think that's where you know manufacturing, fabrication, warehousing um types of things happen. Institutional and utilities that's generally governmental owned uh properties or uses um as well as nonprofits such as schools, churches, and things of that nature. Recreation and open space again hopefully um relatively straightforward generally of a passive or um you know undeveloped nature. Uh and then we have our residential categories multif family, single family and mixed residential. Multif family again is uh usually our apartments or town home developments. Single family residential is single family residential. Mixed residential is is one that is particularly tied to a certain type of development and it is really the RPC's um just like the one you just saw um where it is not just

single family and it's not just multif family. It's generally a mix. Um so generally those places are identified on the future land use map um when particularly they are the subject of a residential plan community um district. Um downtown is is almost exclusively limited to the um the circle and a couple blocks radius of the circle generally the historic core of town. And lastly, and and this is actually a relatively new designation. It's called rural agriculture. So most of the rural agriculture, in fact, maybe all of it is actually not in town. There's a reason why we have the boundaries of town um outlined in black here. And then we have areas outside of town which are also designated uh certain colors. That is our annexation area. So, by law, we have to designate possible future land uses for um anywhere outside of town as well as in town. And that's that's of course to try to anticipate if we um if a property owner or series of property owners want to annex into town. We want a general idea of what uh what to expect. Um and that will of course help us with um planning for future services as well. Um, some of these are um, of course that is what they are currently being used as rural agriculture. Um, but likely when something is coming into town, it won't stay rural agriculture for long because there's generally um, you know, a a purpose to entering into town, whether it's getting access to water and sewer uh, public water and sewer or um, you know, some other type of development that actually can't be performed in the county's jurisdiction. So um so again we we we generally look to that to make sure that we are um anticipating what will um and how things may annex into

town. Um and so as as I suggested earlier every future land use category has a um a zoning district that is almost exclusively attached to it. And I won't go through all of these, but um you know we have several business districts um the UB1 through UB3 you know of varying levels of intensity. Highway commercial is almost just commercial and our multifamily and single family districts are of course attached to those respective land use designations. Um, oh I you know what I also neglected to say that so we have RPCs which again we just saw but we also have RRPCs which are retirement residential plan communities uh of which actually um Cinderberry is one of those. So um and the other one is uh the cheer property as well. So again allows for a a certain mix of uses or a mix of residential types um you know which you do see on cheer as well. Um and then our downtown area is analogous to our historic district zoning um as well. Institutional and recreation are a little fuzzy. They're not always connected to very specific zoning districts. You're actually allowed to do institutional uses in most districts um as well as recreational types of uses. parks and such. Um so but this generally helps again with predicting the types of development we'll see. Uh so largely in this update I would hope um for us to take a look at both reactive and proactive fixes. Uh the reactive ones are largely about making sure that um what is presently the future land use designation of a property is uh makes sense but also is um relevant

to what's actually happening on the property today. Um especially if it's actually under development right now. Does it make sense for it to be something else? Um if it's currently being developed as something. And then the second one is is proactive to proposal uh proposals um which might be at the request of certain individuals or might help us um sort of more comprehensively look at um either commercial or business corridors. um are there gaps in certain types of feature land uses? And um especially again when we look to future possible expansions of town limits, you know, we will want to see that um when we do grow in those areas that it is not just compatible with existing town um services and community services, but also that it's actually supplying all of the respective uses that we need in town as well. So we're sort of doing two different um tasks as a part of this update process when we were talking about the feature land use map. So for instance, I wanted to call up a couple examples of things that I just sort of quickly saw. Um hopefully you can see this. Um so the first one is on uh sort of in the South Railroad Avenue area. Um there's actually a number of um properties that are indicated as industrial. Um I think it's Carver Street, I believe that is. Um and they're actually residential by nature. Um and some of them are presently vacant but are being developed as residential. So um that may be something we'll want to look at actually um identifying them as residential. Um they're actually also zoned industrial. So sort of a step two phase two of this work may be to look at

you know should these be reszoned um in the future we of course need industrial uses as well as every other type of use in town but um we should make sure that it's compatible with u the immediate area that it is and that proper um especially for industrial that proper buffers and other protections are um built into um you know the area. Second one is the formerly Kingfisher Court, now called Savannah Grove, the apartment complex that is being built off of Savannah Road. Um, again, this is also indicated industrial, um, even though it's zoned multif family and is being developed as such. So, again, that seems like lowhanging fruit to me. Um, and lastly is the um, I think it's called the Northgate community or um, Jaclyn Drive area. This is indicated as business. Um, but they are it's a townhouse or a town home um development. Um, so I I don't think we should be expecting any commercial uses to be going into there. Um, so again um something to look at down the road and there are surely many others um as well. So, I think you know something that I would put to us next time um and in between now and next time is is for you all to do um some scouting or some research uh just looking at the map saying see like oh you know this property that doesn't seem right this doesn't seem right and then we'll of course have a discussion about that uh next meeting I would hope um there are any questions concerns ideas. Of course, um the future land use map,

as I mentioned, is only one aspect of um the way we implement change in town. Some of these don't match the zoning already. Uh, and some of them actually do, but maybe we should think about if that means that we need to do a zoning change um in the future. Those lots on out railroad are are there's actually houses on those lots

um on on a few of those and actually there's others that are being actively developed right now as residential. Some of the the tricky things that I find about our ordinance is that um when you go from residential to commercial, business to industrial um all the uses in the less dense or the less intense districts are actually allowed in those more intense districts. So commercial allows commercial and residential. industrial allows industrial, commercial, residential. Um, so it ends up sort of creating it could create uh some incompatibilities maybe by accident. Um, so that's something I think long term we we should look at um in town. Um because we want to keep industrial areas industrial, residential areas residential. I think that's a that's a good way to look at it. Um, now of course mixed use is is an important um important component to have in a town especially in the downtown. And I also failed to mention that our downtown districts especially the business districts um are mixeduse by nature and we want to actually um make sure that they continue to um create a mixeduse environment um and to create walkable pedestrian friendly um neighborhoods as well. So that's by design, but we may not want an industrial area to be so mixed use um in certain ways. So

So when we were discussing this plan five years ago, I know the conversation like the the north or whatever that's north drive that Oh, drive. Yes. Y like basically trying to steer away from spot zoning. and like you know if you know if this area is generally commercial then you know make it all commercial. Now obviously it be years down the road before someone tears down those town houses and puts something commercial there but

right even as of today yes it would be relatively infeasible to do commercial on many if not all of those those lots. Um, yep. I have dealt a little bit with spot zoning in my time. Um generally the rule is and I'm sure our solicitor could step in and also add to this but um that if a if if there is you know a demonstrable reason to zone something something different if it's the the um quality or the characteristics of that neighborhood even if it it's relatively smaller by nature uh I think that generally can be permissible. I think where you get into trouble is that if there's literally no differences between individual lots and you pick one at seemingly at random and reszoning that some and something else, you know, um I don't know, Tim, that it sounds right.

I mean, most of you know, I know you do, Larry, about conditional uses and that's a way to shoehorn something that's not a permitted use because every zoning category has permitted uses. If it's not a permitted use, but you think, you know, it's it's on the edge of the downtown and a commercial, you know, or some sort of use that adds a convenience to the neighborhood, you could shoehorn in there. The benefit of a conditional use is it's just zoning that property itself and you can put uh conditions on, hours of operation, fences, lights, and you know, all kinds of things where the permitted use is just you could do that use. Obviously you have sight plan issues but so that's one way to get and occasionally I think you've seen a conditional use or two. Yeah it is a zoning change so it's a recommendation that goes to a council as well requires a site plan and so sort of a different take on spot zoning.

Yeah. Um and there's a couple other places and this is again historical by nature surely but um you can see that there do appear to be some um isolated parcels that are zoned something else or indicated as something else and that can be again a historic type of thing that has just emerged over time. Um so those are generally can be things that that we look at again through this process through another process over time. Um but I think I I think you're right Larry ultimately the goal is to sort of try to create a um a plan for you know larger areas. So for instance um you can see here. So yeah, you have your business we have our business corridor here and um you know we indicated that in the future land use map but you just saw the resoning request that was actually planning to match that it was residential and they wanted to be zoned

and that I mean that's perfect street you know that that was a residential street and through the years this one changed and that one changed. Exactly. So that evolution sort of has us thinking you know it it it beckons us to to think like oh well should this actually should we do it all you know as commercial as a for instance and so there might be examples of that elsewhere in town if not that exact example but then something similar you know so um and if we don't do anything too radical you know obviously that is totally fine you know this is just this is an exercise that we are you know required to to to do and but I think that there There is there's certainly value in it. Um so

is is there any way to to reddesate the brick hotel as zoned a tavern a very special zoning district that's just for that? Well yeah we miss it. We miss it or I do. Yeah. So um so yeah. Is there any any other thoughts or questions? Is that okay if I give you that homework for for next week? Um or next next month, I should say. Um good. Um All right. Think that's I think that's all I have. Yeah, that's all I have on that. Okay.

The next item on the agenda is public comment. Anybody? Please state your My name is uh Scott Smith. I live a couple doors down from Mr. Hutcherson. Um one of the things that my was one of my concerns was uh knowing sort of when the pumping station for phase three was going to be built so that we there's two there's two dwellings for well four dwellings two units of Cinderberry that are not on permanent sewer. Okay.

There's still they still have to pump out and it's in my front yard of basically a sump. Okay. And so I was just wondering you guys may not know exactly when that pumping station is going to go in or not, but that's that's one of my concerns too as well as just making sure that there's a little buffer zone between us and the new new subdivision. That's all. Okay. Yeah, I have no idea when I unfortunately I don't either. I assume it will be a part of the the land development when when it happens to serve the the property or the overall property. So,

and to this gentleman solution the engineers from solutions and they're just up the street here. I don't know if he's from that office. I think he is. Yeah. And he he seems very approachable. I'm sure you could call on them if you wanted to and as they develop it.

Okay. All right. Any community development updates?

Um, yes, I do have a few. So, actually regarding next month, um, I and Jean, both of us will be at a conference on the normal date of our planning commission meeting. Um and while there's no particular applications that I'm aware of that would need to be, you know, um heard at that meeting, uh I do think it is important to maintain um our schedule with the future land use map review um and possible changes. So, um I wanted to pose to you uh all and of course I'll follow up with Michael and Chris later um but that um the the week after the normal meeting um I would ask you if that were a potential good date to uh potentially reschedule the meeting. That would be April 22nd.

Earth Day. Earth Day. That's a good date. I think it's okay with me.

Okay. Uh and I I will I will follow up of course via email to um confirm with all of you um to make sure that's still okay. U Okay. So, couple other updates. Uh so, the town has been um selected to participate in the um in the state's um zoning and land use reform technical assistance program. You may have read about that. It was um the result of a executive order by the governor's office to sort of help push the ball forward um on generally creating more access for housing and to reduce impediments in local zoning ordinances to producing housing um that fits in the town but also um is accessible or attainable to most people. Um so the town is one of I think eight or nine municipalities. Actually it's eight municipalities in and the county. So that's the county um have been selected to participate. Um and each one of those has been assigned a uh technical assistance consultant. Um some of them are using McCormic Taylor is one of them. Another one is the Rossy group. And ours is actually one that I haven't worked with before. It's a group called Smart Growth America. Uh I believe that they are a nonprofit that advocates for um smart growth um sort of smarter ways of developing communities. Um so um I'm excited to meet with them. Um I think there will be sort of monthly work sessions with town staff um and the consultants. I I believe they also requested possible um volunteers from um from a couple town boards. Um so I will reach out to you all if that is the case. Um so we may be looking for

volunteers. Of course I would update you on monthly about our progress. Um in any case um but I'm I'm excited for that. We've also been participating in another technical assistance program uh that it's also been sponsored by the housing authorities called disaster housing planning. Basically helping with emergency preparedness and um the provision of housing in an emergency u but also medium and long-term solutions as well. So that's an ordinance that um some of our consultants are looking at as well, which you'll of course have to see because there will be some zoning changes most likely. Um but uh we've just started that process. So um otherwise, you know, we are just of course um plowing ahead with all of our all of our work and um and yeah, so those are the major major things going on. All right. Any other questions for Brian? All right, that's that is our agenda. I'll accept a motion to adjourn.

I'll make a motion to adjourn the meeting. Second. Second it. All in favor say I. I. We are adjourned. You're making motions. The second