Town Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I'm going to call our February 17th meeting to order. We always begin our meetings with a moment of silence. So, now would be the time for you to silence your cell phones as well. Um, please make sure they're not making any inadvertent beeps and other such noises. Um, now, if you would like, please join me in a moment of silence. Thank you. And now, if you're able, please stand for the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Smith, announcements hall on our second floor multi-purpose room from 4 to uh 700 p.m. about the uh North Carolina 115 widening. Clicker is not working. Sorry y'all. Um, also wanted to let everybody know that street resurfacing is underway around town. Uh, crews are just getting started, so they're just starting to work on street corner ramps. Um, which means they're redoing the the ramp access to sidewalks. Um, that's kind of the first clue that resurfacing is coming to the area. Uh, there is more information on our website, um, as well as a list of streets slated to be resurfaced, um, at that address right there, huntersville.org3392resurfacing. You can also go to our website and search street resurfacing for more information. Um, also wanted to share with everybody all the recruiting efforts our police department has been doing doing. Um, they're actively recruiting talented individuals who are interested in serving their community and held a hiring event on February 7th and had 19 applicants attend and complete a written exam and physical fitness test. Um, they've attended recruiting events also at Western Carolina University, Winston Salem State University, Winthre University, and UNC Charlotte. and they are scheduled to attend other events this month at UNCC Wilmington, Clemson University, the Citadel, ECU, and UNCC Greensboro. Also, please join the police department for the Polar Plunge. Um, sorry, the Queen City Chill Polar Plunge at Ramsey Creek Park. Um, that'll be on Sunday,

February 22nd, starting at 1 PM. You can register in advance at queenc citychill.com or you can register starting at 1 pm. Uh, and then the actual plunge the day begins at 2:30 p.m. Um, that is all I had. So, barring any other questions, I'd like to call uh Chief Ryan Bon up at this time for a Burkale Village update.

Good evening, mayor and commissioners and staff. Uh thanks for giving me a few minutes here at the beginning of this meeting uh to kind of go over some of the um undisiplined juvenile things that we've been having going on uh this past weekend in Burkedale. Uh I think first off I think what I want to start off with saying is uh our meetings with Burkedale started back in November um as far as addressing the undisiplined juvenile uh campaigns that have been happening on the weekends there. Um the staff at Burdale have been super informative and and and cooperative with what we're doing um as a police department and how we can support the Burkedale on their success and continuing to be a safe place to gather. Um, specifically I want to talk about between um November and the end of the year. Um, we we partnered with Burkedale to do a directed uh enforcement effort during that period of time where we had extra officers going during um their offduty hours on overtime and and spending their time doing some of the directed enforcement that we need to do in order to to be effective. Um as a result of that dur in in during the six weeks or so that we were doing that was mainly on Friday and Saturday nights. Uh we charged 50 around 50 people during that time with a variety of things between parking tickets, moving violations, traffic violations. Um and so we had a very active presence up there on the weekends uh during the holiday season. Um, I think that it's also important to note that during the during the holiday season while we were doing those directed patrols that we actually didn't have any calls for service during the times that we were up there. Um, so we didn't have receive any calls about gatherings, disturbances, or any, uh, any kind of crimes like assaults, robberies, uh, etc. And so I think

what's important to note about that is that it was effective. Um, it did its job. uh it did what it had an it had the expected outcome. Um at the end of the year we discontinued those extra patrols because we saw the positive impact it was hap having as we moved into January um early January wasn't you know that bad of an issue and then we had those couple weeks of snowstorms and ice storms and again we just you obviously didn't have any calls for service during those times. Um and then come to come Saturday um uh this undisiplined group of juveniles that were there um Saturday night. Um uh immediately let me let me I apologize. Let me backtrack. So, back in mid January, mid to late January, we reconvened with the management staff of Burkedale Village to include some of their corporate Hind uh managing partners from DC and um you know, just talked through them resuming offduty officers up there because we haven't actually had offduty officers up there um since October. And uh so we were revisiting that with their staff at Burkedale Village about them employing offduty police officers that can enforce criminal law and be present on campus uh during potentially the these gatherings that are happening. Um, so when we originally did this meeting mid late January, we anticipated uh some of the things that Burkedale is doing as a corporation, I should or Hines Group is doing as a corporation with their private uh code of conduct that they have on property and some of that stuff we anticipated working with them and getting that out around St. Patrick's Day. And uh obviously with the events of the weekend, we've pushed that schedule up. um Hind the managing partners from Hines and the management team here locally at Burkedale have been um we've

been going back and forth uh about what this looks like moving forward. Um first I'd like to indicate that they have they have resumed wanting to hire offduty officers again. um typically during the winter season um is the slower season as far as um any kind of reported crimes are concerned with Burkedale except for you know the shoplifterss and things that happened and so our offduty officers actually didn't patrol the area from October to um January. Uh and I'm saying that in a offduty capacity on Hines's dime and so we were going to roll this program out around St. Patty's Day to get it ready for uh the upcoming spring break and the potential of those gatherings. And so this has pushed up a little bit of those those timelines with that. Um I think what's important to note about Saturday night is I I believe I I would I would uh swear to this on the stand, but I believe that it was an organized event. Um I do I believe that undisiplined juveniles are hanging out up there on other nights of the year? Absolutely. Um this this particular night, I think it's important also to note that we had no uh reported assaults. When our officers arrived on scene, they were there within minutes of the initial call for service. Um in in reality, we have an officer that um Red Rocks had hired as a offduty officer and he was present at Red Rocks when this happened. So he was able to immediately respond and the kids that were there that particular night, you know, honored everything that that officer had to say when he went to them and said, "Hey, you have to disperse. You need to leave." And, you know, within 20 to 30 minutes, um, they they dispersed from the area. Um, the other thing that we have witnessed and noticed is the influx of, uh, juveniles using

Uber to get to Burkeale Village. And so that that's a whole that's a whole different problem that's beyond the police department's control. I can't control what Uber does. I can't control where they pick up people and deliver them. Um and so they've got their own rules. And so if Uber is allowing 15year-olds to get in an Uber and be dropped off at Burkedale, I can't, you know, I can't control that piece of that piece of this. And so I think as we move forward um Burkedale is remploying the offduty officers to the tune of I think an extra four or five on Friday nights and six or seven eight somewhere in that vicinity um uh on Saturday nights to supplement their security team that they have on property. And then lastly, um I think I, you know, I just want to make sure that we delineate, uh curfew versus town curfew and and Burkeale's code of conduct. And I think it's important to say that um Burkedale's code of conduct is their personal private code of conduct for their business and how they operate. I can't and the police department cannot enforce their code of conduct. where we can step in is they implement a new curfew. Um I believe the one that was listed today um says 6 pm for the age. I I don't recall the age right now, but after 6 p.m. under 18 has to have an adult or something along those lines. And so we we can't as a police department step in and say you're under 18, you got to go. um this is a private business and if we got into the business of enforcing private businesses rules it would open us up to so many so much litigation it it's not you know it violates constitutional rights and we can go into another rabbit hole with that. So where we step in is when Burkedale says enough is enough we don't want this person here anymore. They can

call us and we'll go and help them ban or trespass the person from the property. And so, um, as we move forward with this, that continues to take training and education. Um, I believe that they're doing some training Friday this week with their security staff to kind of reiterate where they're where the line is, where where it's a private business and what they can enforce and what we can enforce. And and that also then just kind of lends to the lends to how difficult the education piece of this can be. And because, you know, we have a tendency to want to fill in blanks and assume things and and and think that, you know, the police can go up there and just, you know, arbitrarily enforce a rule that Burkedale has. Um, that's not to say we won't support them. It's just to say that we just constitute constitutionally um don't have the ability to do that. Um, and so, you know, with that, I don't uh I really don't have a lot of other in input right now. Uh we are doing follow-ups with uh some of the folks that were in the video. You know, we're trying to identify people in that video. Um uh and you know, we'll we'll see what what where that leads. Um the second piece of the education is we we're using our SRO's to communicate with um teenagers, not you know, sending out bla blast emails to the whole school, but our SRO's are interacting with the schools. uh teenagers that are there to try to get insight about how these are getting organized and show up at um Burkedale for this particular week. And then um we've also reached out to surrounding counties because as the officers were out there Saturday night, they identified that there are kids coming from surrounding counties. Um shocker, you build a nice multi-use property, you're going to attract people. Um and so uh people are coming from Cabaris County and Ayardell County and Rowan County and Lincoln County.

They're coming from everywhere. It's not just a particular city or person or people. And uh and so we're trying to utilize everything that we can uh to try to try to mitigate some of this. Um, we also don't have a full-time IT social media person that can just monitor traffic on social media all day, but there may be the potential there for some sort of software or something out there that can help us with that and help monitor uh monitor things are on social media and so we can we can address that at a a future meeting. I don't really have anything else unless somebody has a question up here. I don't have a question, but I was just going to support what you shared a moment ago from Hines. They said visitors under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult after 6 p.m. and that's effective Friday, February 20th. [snorts]

Yeah. I think the other thing I was going to say is with the training, the training on their security side is going to be important. You know, jobs like that tend to have high turnover and so, you know, every few months we kind of have to revisit. no big deal. Um, you know, it's just an education piece that we can help and they've got some great staff there that are full-time people that are there that have been there for a long time. I mean, there's no secret that they've been here for 25 years and we've had a great relationship um with each owner that has come through and Hines has been no different.

Chief, I want to thank you. I want to confirm some of the things you said because I've been in just about all of the meetings with Hines, yourself, and staff. Um you mentioned the organized event and we've heard that it could possibly Tik Tok challenge. We also um we hear a lot of these incidents come from teenagers from North Lake because I I received the phone call just yesterday and the lady say that we're bringing North Lake to Huntersville. Uh in our meetings we've heard Statesville, we've heard Lincoln and we have other areas. So again, this is not a North Lake um flux of of teenagers [snorts] coming to Huntersville. We've had teenagers in Hun in in Burkdale in large crowds for quite some time. And unfortunately, I can't support the actions that took place on this past weekend. There's no excuse for that. But we did hear that part of it was triggered by adults throwing beer cans and bottles from Suffer Punch at the children. Can you confirm that?

Yeah, we haven't been able to like land completely on it. we our officers are investigating that claim as well. Um they that was reported to the officers as well and so that's part of the investigative process of going through, you know, the different pieces of uh of what transpired Saturday night. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you, Chief. Um can you speak briefly to Oh, sorry. Um to uh like the difference in the public and private property at Burgdale. So, like if the kids are on a sidewalk or they're in the middle of the road or they're standing on the green, like the differences and what that means.

Yeah. I think where we I think where we tread into it is um you know, when on the private property piece and they don't want a patron there, they can ask them to leave. And when they start getting in the road and blocking the road or blocking, you know, people being able to drive through the area, that that crosses into the illegal portion where we can step in and enforce the part where they're blocking traffic and stuff. Um, and so that that's where the, you know, that's where the the mix is here of the public private uh situation that is that is up there. And it's, you know, kind of unique for us because it is a destination for people. And um and so I think that goes back to the education piece of us working with their security and making sure that they know this is what they they can and can't do and this is what the police can and can't do and they don't the the things that their security can do and we can do do not co-mingle at all. [snorts]

Thank you. Commissioner Smallwood, you have a question. That made me think of a question. Thank you. So, as far as the stores go, those are private as well. Yeah, I I I would be speaking on their behalf. I think that they all lease um and it's all Hines property and then they have leases with the individual stores that they have present. Okay. And just one more thing. So, uh four officers, four or five on Friday, and you said five, six or seven on Saturday. Yes, ma'am. How how many um Burkedale security would there be in addition to that?

They actually had already I I believe that there was uh I think when we did the social districting up there that we were requiring Burkedale to I say we the town, not the police department, um was requiring uh Hines to have two previous owners to have two security associates there. They have they increased that on their own prior to Saturday night. They've already had an increased presence there. I think they've had upwards of six at times, but I can't I don't want to I would hate to tell you that they had six on this day and that not be the case cuz I personally haven't had eyes on it. Um uh back in December, November, December, you know, we had an opportunity to interact with the security guards there, too. And it just also helps with that relationship of the security guards feeling comfortable and in seeking help from us when they can't handle what they're doing.

Thank you.

Yeah. I think one other thing I'll I know I I mean I could talk for two hours, but um I think the other piece of this has come up is some of the cruising. I'll call it cruising because that's what I did when I was a teenager. I cruised. Um it's probably not cool to say that anymore. Um but uh so you know I don't I want to be cautious and this car this carries over to multiple facets not just the cruising pieces. I want to be cautious about uh um making more laws and ordinances uh to enforce when we have effective ones already. Because what ends up happening then is you have an entire community that's impacted because we've made this decision. the town has made this decision to implement some new no cruise policy but or no new new no cruise ordinance and now we're trying to enforce it in Target or in a neighborhood or you know whatever the whatever the rules surround that with and we've got plenty of tools in our tool belt already with our ordinances we have a noise ordinance where our officers wrote noise ordinance tickets during the enforcement period in November December um we have um loud muffler, you know, you know, we've got plenty I mean, we've got plenty of laws on the books. Um and I don't think doing anything in reaction specifically to this event would sell the you know, I don't think it is beneficial to the entire town.

Mhm. And one I think you didn't say it, but I know that you mean it in your heart is that if someone's there and there's an issue that they should call 911, right? They should

Yeah. You know, you know, I have been beating this till the wheels fall off, but uh yeah, I mean, you you have got to call 911. And I just said it a minute ago. We don't have we don't have the staffing. We don't have the ability to monitor posts. We don't have the ability to generate calls for service from our private messages. Um we have that as a response in our private messages that, hey, you you've got to call 911 to get somebody there. We can't we can't and don't respond and generate our workload um from that specifically. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Thank you very much. Yes, ma'am. Absolutely.

Ethan, you didn't have any more announcements after this? Okay. We have a proclamation for National Engineers Week and they are not in this room but I know they are watching um the engineers who help plan our roadways. Whereas engineers use their scientific skills and specialized knowledge and skills in creative and innovative ways to fulfill society's needs. And whereas engineers help solve major technological challenges of our time, from designing efficient building systems to rebuilding towns devastated by natural disasters. And whereas engineering has been called the invisible or stealth profession because everything around us and things we use every day have been engineered in some way, yet we may not see the engineers behind the scenes or know much about engineering. And whereas founded in 1951, National Engineers Week is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers. And whereas e-week is a formal coalition of engineering, education, and cultural societies with corporations and government agencies dedicated to raising public awareness of engineers positive contributions to quality of life. And whereas e-week promotes recognition among parents, teachers, and students of the importance of a technical education and high level of math, science, and technology literacy and motivates youth to pursue engineering careers in order to provide a diverse and vigorous engineering workforce. Now, therefore, at Christy Clark, Mayor of Huntersville do hereby proclaim the week of February 22nd through February 28th as National Engineers Week. And our in director of engineering is right here.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. [applause]

And I have one um other thing that we want to share. Um Katherine Cook um has fulfilled the requirements with the International Institute of Municipal Clerks to become a certified municipal clerk. So let's give her a round of applause. [applause] Okay, we have some public comments and so um this is our public comment policy. If you've not spoken here before, just take a second um before your name is called to review our policy um and make sure that um you are adhering to the rules of order in this chamber. We will start with Maryanne Terretky. You have three minutes. Okay, my name is Maryanne Teresky. I live in Burkedale and you all know what happened Saturday. Over 200 teenagers terrorized cars trying to pass around in Burkedale, people eating in restaurants and businesses. You're all responsible for that except Heather and Scott because the rest of you voted to allow developers to do whatever they wanted whether it fit in the footprint of Burkeell or not. We are now for sure North Lake Mall on steroids. Our beautiful Burkedale is now called Tordale. Kids have videotaped what they did on cars on Saturday night and it's gone viral. We're a viral sensation. Want us to wonder what was promised at the end of the rainbow that you all fell into line with the developers? Edwin, I just read your campaign slogans that we got from you years ago. You said you would follow the 2040 plan as it was written. You have not. You also said you were always going to be transparent. You have not. You told me I shouldn't be upset that the board voted

in favor of the developers because they were going to flip the project real soon. How did you know that it was sold off about a month later? Did you have private meetings with the developer? Are you in talks with Hines US property now? Let's have some transparency. Gretzky, can you please refrain from doing direct attacks on the commissioner? Thank you.

Okay. You all ruined Burkedale Village and you're going to see its demise real soon. Businesses are not going to renew their leases. People are already avoiding the village. Last Saturday, the kids were pointing their fingers as people ate in the restaurants, telling them they were going to shoot them. Well, there will be guns there soon, and it'll be on all your heads except Heather and Scott. Don Snow, you have three minutes.

Hi. Hi, I'm Don Snow. Huh? Okay. Um, with the efforts to reszone Brookdale Village last year, the residents begged the town to deny the reszoning, and we warned the current board about what would happen to the village, but you approved it anyway. We told you that the the out of town developer, Jamestown, was reszoning Burkedale to flip it for a quick buck, and they did. We told you that Burkedale Village would lose its original appeal and quaintness of being a village and morph into an overcrowded outdoor mall, and it has. We told you that crime and littering was going to escalate from the increased density, and it has. We told both you and the former owners, Jamestown, that increased security and police resources would be required, and not just on weekends. However, both the current and former owners didn't believe that such an increase in security was necessary. For a short while, there was some police presence on site during the weekends, but for some strange reason, that seemed to stop shortly after HPD put out a video stating that they would be increasing enforcement efforts due to increased juvenile related activity. Burkedale Village has a code of conduct. However, since December, there has been little enforcement of this code, the curfew, or the local law violations. And now it has escalated [snorts] into large organized mobs of unruly teenagers swarming the village on weekends, loitering, shoplifting, playing loud music, smoking weed, being disorderly, and obscene, putting on public performances, dancing on cars, and blocking traffic. All of which are in violation of the code of conduct and local laws. The videos that happened this weekend speak for themselves. Can you imagine what it will be like when the weather gets warmer in a few months? The lack [snorts] of enforcement is driving away the base of customers who actually spend money there, which is going to affect the viability of the businesses. It is also sending a message to the organized gangs of teens that

this behavior is condoned and it is negatively impacting the rights and safety of the businesses, visitors, and residents of the neighborhood. I would hope that Hines, the new owners of Burkedale Village, would want to protect their $275 million investment. One tragic incident or shooting at in the village is all it will take and it will not recover. The current security provided behinds is simply not working. Greater police presence and enforcement is required and not for just a few weekends but on an ongoing basis. Instead of absolving yourself of your responsibilities by pointing fingers at each other, both the town and Huntersville of Huntersville and Hines need to work together to nip what is happening in the bud once and for all by enforcing the code of conduct and the local laws. If no effective solution is found to control this now and keep it under control, it seems that Burkedale Village may enter a death barrel and share the fate of North Lake and Eastland Mall.

Thank you.

Just a reminder that um after the speakers are completed, there's no clapping or cheering. Next, we have Rachel's whiff. You have three minutes. I might have changed my uh topic that I was going to discuss. Um but my name is Rachel Swift. I live in uh Pottstown. Um I came here to talk about the street calming methods um being used in on Delwood that need to be taken uh a look at due to the fact that the speeding continues to um happen and that another measure needs to be put into place either a small traffic circle or a speed hump as well as to ad to provide advisory for the board to move forward with the advisory shoulders on uh Central Avenue. Um, my second topic now that I would like to speak about is is Burkedale. Um, my son is a 14-year-old African-American um, young man that likes to go up to Burkedale and hang out with his friends. I can I I stand here strongly suggesting that people don't use the word gangs and saying that these this is what these teenagers are. They are teenagers. We have all been teenagers. I will get up here publicly and say I was a juvenile delinquent with no problems. And those are not the things that lead to those type of behaviors. They're just teenagers looking for an outlet. So I asked this board to work with parks and wreck to look at other solutions that give these teenagers something to do in the summertime to lead them not to go up to Burkedale and cause these issues that um the Burke the people that live in Burkedale are saying happened. I've dropped my son up there. I I understand what happens, but I also go and get him back at a reasonable time. Um that that's my biggest ask is that I know coming from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,

once you started to take out a lot of the um extracurricular activities, kids looks for other things to do. Unfortunately, North North Lake has become kind of what it is and that's where kids used to go out and hang, but there needs to be other outlets, positive outlets for them to do. So, I urge that you work with parks and reccks to look to see what those um activities could be because as Charlotte grows, Huntersville grows as well. And I don't think these are things that the boards and previous boards thought would happen within this time span. So, I ask that um the public give them some grace as they worked to finding a positive solution that um helps everybody, the town, the youth, and the businesses. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Wiff. Augustine, you have three minutes. It's been hard to find the words. As a longtime Pottstown resident that lived on Delwood prior to the connecting development of Vermillion, it's difficult to explain what these speed bumps are supposed to serve. At times, it's tiring and other times it could be painful. That was for my speech before the speed bumps were placed. I'm also here to address the uh speed bumps on Delwood, which honestly kind of extends into what you guys are talking about. Um, but I want to share something that could possibly assist in our understanding. If anyone here has seen how aggressive drivers can be when students at North Met cross the designated sidewalk or even rushing here at this intersection, you might understand. But let me bring it home since we are focused on the speed bumps on Delwood. Jerry, a senior who isn't mobile enough to speak here today, has allowed me to share his

experience. Jerry has had a mailbox taken out twice now. I'd also like to mention that Jerry lives on the section of Delwood that does have sidewalks. So, before we jump onto the topic of sidewalks for pedestrian safety, I want to remind everyone here today, if a car hits something or someone, it is not the car's fault. Not the car's fault. To argue an error from the manufacturer would only highlight just how pointless speed bumps can be when communities are not represented with with serious concern for human life. What I gained from Jerry has humbled me. I'd like to add something. Hopefully I have enough time um to help us understand neglect. First a quick fact. Huntersville's population prior to 1990 never exceeded 2,000 people according to the Meckllinburgg files and it spiked over 20,000 in a span of 10 years. My commitment to advocating for Pottstown was strengthened when I began picking up litter in Pottstown, but it broadened when I began picking up trash all along Main Street and Church Street daily and I and occasional walks around Huntersville, Charlotte, and anywhere I can find trash. But I want to focus on what I've learned from picking up trash daily on Church Street, Main Street, and weekly Delwood in correlation to speed bumps on Delwood. I pick up at least one bucket's worth of trash every day. That's a 5gallon bucket of trash every single day. I've been doing this for the past three years at least. I'm not sure that enough people understand the seriousness of picking up litter from morning into night only to find the same amount of trash within days, not weeks or months. So when I pick up a bucket's worth of trash today, that same amount of trash will reappear in hours and minutes on trash days. So the issue with the speed bumps as well as what's

going on in Burdale, I feel can really be summed up to one of the things we keep on bringing up is the burst in population. The infrastructure across this nation has been discussed plenty of times to not being Augustine, your time is up. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Noel Burton, you have three minutes.

Hi, I'm Noel Burton. I run a Facebook group called Huntersville Unmasked and I am privy to a lot of information that goes on behind the scenes that many of you guys don't know about. That's why I started my Facebook group. I'm the one that was getting sued by Jake Palo and I didn't have an outlet to talk to anyone so people would message me. So, I started a Facebook group where we all can gather together and um share our experiences and I just wanted to I was sitting here looking at the public policy highlights and okay so one it's my name's Noel Burton. Two speakers have three minutes. I don't think I need three minutes. Um, three, speakers should not I Yeah, I don't need you guys to respond to me. Four, speakers should be civil. Yeah, I will be. But five, insults, personal attacks, accusations, profanity, vulgar language, inappro inappropriate behavior won't be tolerated. That's kind of funny that um you guys have said vulgar except Heather and Scott. You guys have called one of your constituents, Gatewood Campbell, she she shared this to my group, an effing loser, while you were sitting up there sharing that and talking about everyone in the audience. That is not okay. That is disgusting. You all should be ashamed of yourselves.

Excuse me, Madame Mayor. Um, I must comment. Um there comes a a point in time where enough is enough and push we must push back with the truth. Uh we've heard some misleading statements tonight. But as she mentioned the person's name Gatewood Campbell. We all know that Gatewood did a foyer request on me about calling her an effing loser. Mr. Roberts, I'm pretty sure you read the foyer request. Is there any facts in that comment from the so so-called Hunterville unmask or anyone else or Miss Gatewood Campbell who posted that I admitted that I said something vulgar to or about her?

So I I have looked at the um for your request and and the documents that was shared with um the public and it was a claim by a previous commissioner, Commissioner Bergsman that claimed that happened. That's it. Just a claim. Um, so no different than me and Ethan playing on the playground and he said I pushed him. He claimed I pushed him. That's it. It was just a claim. Nothing else.

Thank you, Mr. Roberts. And just to note that anyone can go read the foyer requests on the huntersville.org page. So if you want to verify any information, you can do it there as well. Um, our next person who signed up, I cannot read your handwriting. I think we think it may be Caleb Mail, but you're Okay. All right. Thank you, sir. Um, next is Jordan Miller. You have three minutes. [snorts] [clears throat]

Hello. I'm Jordan Miller. So, I was actually there in Burkeell Saturday night with my girlfriend. Uh, we went to North Italia to eat and step back a little bit. I've been going there for about five years. My girlfriend's from Miami. She moved here to be with me and her parents would always say like, "You're moving to North Carolina. Like, it's just woods and forests and stuff like that." Like, they didn't think there's any actual city. So whenever they would come visit, I would always take them to the village because like that's like to me that's what I like to show people is like that's kind of what North Carolina is. Like Burkedale Village is awesome. That's where everyone kind of walks around. That's where all the families are and that's just kind of where we hang out and we we feel safe and and like that's just where we like to go. Um so we went Saturday night. We got to to North Italia. There were probably two to 300 kids there. It was pretty crazy. So, we were eating and we hear like a a bang and I think it was probably like a balloon popping, something like that. But what was happening is the kids were like making loud noises, popping balloons, and then they would they would run into the street and and pretend that it was a gunshot to try to scare everyone. the waitress and many other people told me they'd already called the police and um police were there. I think maybe they couldn't do anything because there were just so many kids that it was unmanageable. Um I don't disagree with anything that anyone said. They, you know, kids do need an outlet. When I was younger, I used to work out a lot. I used to go to church a lot and that helped me. So I don't disagree with that. But at the same time, if you look at like places in Charlotte where they used to be safe and slowly we let things kind of get worse and worse and worse and maybe they're not that bad right now. Uh they're just kind of running in front of traffic, jumping on cars, stopping cars, and you

know, pretending to shoot each other, smoking weed. That's not that bad. But it could get to the point where if you look at like Concord at the end of last year where they had the what was the Christmas tree lighting or something like that. It was mostly families and it was a place that nothing ever bad happens and there were some kids there like a bit more than normal decided to, you know, to kind of meet there. Uh two of them got into an argument and they shot each other and some families were in the crossfire and and it hasn't happened in Burkeell yet, but it it could get there. And I just think if if things don't change by the end of the year, I don't think it's going to be what it was anymore because we started going there just because of the appeal of like people with their families with their babies and strollers and little fufu dogs and that sort of thing. Uh last weekend I thought, you know, I'll give it another shot. I'm going to go back this Saturday. But those those kids said they were going to be there this Saturday. If you look at like Tik Tok and Instagram, they said they were coming back. Uh, and there's nothing we can do to stop them. So, I hope things get better. I guess all we can do is see how things go.

Thank you, sir.

Concludes our public comments. Let's see. We'll proceed to item number seven for um agenda changes, adoption of the agenda. I make a motion to remove item 8A from the consent agenda. And is there a second? A second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? The motion carries. And is there a motion to adopt the amended agenda? I make a motion to adopt the amended agenda. Is there a second?

Second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? And the motion carries. And now may I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda? I make a motion to adopt the consent agenda. And is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? And the motion carries unanimously. Item number nine. We do not have any public hearings this evening. So we'll go to item number 10A. Consider a decision on traffic calming on Central Avenue between Delwood and Hullbrooks. Ms. Mastro Franchesco.

Good evening, mayor, commissioners, Mr. Roberts. So, last board meeting we talked about possible traffic coming measures on Central Avenue. So, I'll give you a quick recap and then we can discuss if you have any other uh additional questions. So, this is what a speed hump would look like on a cross-section that is ditch section only. We had proposed three speed humps on Central Avenue. They're roughly equally spaced. The other option we spoke about was called advisory shoulders which was very new to the discussion um and it had been discussed with a bunch of the um community. So what the advisory shoulders is is a single lane around 10 feet wide and then within the pavement two four to five foot wide paths. So acting like a sidewalk we'll say. Now you have to remember that this is one one lane two directions. So as a car approaches another car you would veer off to the right each of you and pass each other as you're going by. This would make sure that we would have to make sure there's absolutely no on street parking the whole length of the road for this type of um measure. This is what it would look like in a cross-section. We'd have the dash line. You would be driving down the center. On either side would be pedestrians or bicycles, um motorized wheelchairs, things like that. We'd have the signs that say no parking on pavement. we would show arrows that it's a two-way one lane road. Uh at the ends you would start with two lanes and then we'd neck down into that one lane. So does anyone have any additional questions since we discussed this?

Um [clears throat] okay. So this idea came about how how and I guess the reason why I'm asking this is because um there is no other community in the town of Huntersville that has this type of traffic calming. Was this a collaborative effort with the community? How did how did this this specific traffic calming mechanism come into play?

I'd definitely like to refer to someone else. Um, so it came from the plan to for my knowledge came from the planning department. So if it's all right and I think Bobby wanted to come,

hey. Yeah. Um, yeah, this idea came about as part of the Pottstown community plan. Um, while we were in the middle of that, we had residents requesting better sidewalk facilities. Um, and while we were doing that study that entailed a lot more than that, um, Laura received a traffic calming request as well as a request for a crosswalk for us to explore a crosswalk on Hullbrooks um, or across Hullbrooks at the end of Central. Um and NC DOT said that they can't put one in because there's no pedestrian facilities along Central Avenue. So, um, we had come up with this idea or were aware of this type of facility and thought it might be a lower cost, shorter term solution to the traffic calming um, needs and the an opportunity to create a pedestrian facility that may then allow us to create a crosswalk at the end of the street. So we presented that to the Pottstown community as part of those ongoing community meetings um and gathered feedback and that's kind of where it began. So and so in hearing that lower cost sidewalk mechanisms the community were they receptive of this? What what was the dialogue? Was it?

We held a meeting um and invited the community to come um discuss it and the people present were um interested in in exploring it and we presented it as an opportunity to try it as a pilot study um to see if it was effective in meeting their requests for traffic calming as well as pedestrian facilities. Um, so we that's how we had presented it as a a pilot study.

I guess my concern is is that the street is already narrow. Basically, if you can go back to the slide where the actual picture of Central Avenue. So the street is already narrow. Um, and so when you have ongoing traffic coming, it's already where you're having to get over in this situation. looking at it that basically the cars would still be going into the pedestrian walk to get to get through. Am I correct in saying that

the cars are still allowed to use the full width of the pavement? Um if there are pedestrians present, they're supposed to yield until the pedestrian passes and then they still have full use of the the paved surface. So, it's it's kind of demarcating the outside as an area where you can expect to see pedestrians. Um, it's more intuitive than than anything. It's how people tend to drive down narrow streets um in general down the center and then when they encounter other cars, they tend to spread out and slow down.

And this is in designed to kind of formalize that intuitive use of narrow roads. um and to communicate where you might where you should expect to find pedestrians. And it also helps to kind of communicate to drivers that they should be expected to drive down the center and leave that space for pedestrians. um as opposed to a road that may not be that's not marked may suggest that this is just for cars and if two cars are are driving, pedestrians should um step off into the grass into the ditch. Um

but they would do that anyway if oncoming traffic was coming regardless. They would have to ste if if a pedestrian is walk if a pedestrian is walking and the cars are coming. There are two cars coming in opposite directions. Even if they yield, they're still going to have to get over. So I guess I'm just trying to understand how this can reduce the the um speed limit within but I mean I don't know I mean so generally the the concept of narrowing the travel lane

has a traffic calming effect. So on wider lanes, people tend to drive faster. On narrower lanes, people tend to drive slower because the their viewpoint is narrowed. So striping that center line and telling people to drive down the center line has been found to have traffic calming effects. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Yep. May

not a question more just like a statement. I mean what I think we're hearing is that the community one needs people to slow down and then also there is a desire for sidewalks or some sort of path right for for safety. So my suggestion would be that we do both that we do the advisory shoulder and the speed hump because it seems to solve both of the problems and it would also allow us to do the crossing. Right. Potentially. Potentially. Okay. I'd have to go back to DOT and ask at that point. Right. Okay. Now, the speed humps would have to be cut short. We don't want the hump within the walking path

because we want it to be accessible to all users like a motorized wheelchair. Um they that can't go over a speed hump. So, it would be cut short and I think we might have people trying to skirt around

like on half wheels. We we just have to monitor and see. Like Heather said, it' be a test pilot to try it out. If we don't like it or if the residents don't feel like it is achieving what it's supposed to achieve when we restudy it with um our radar devices, if it's not achieving what we think or hoped it would, we can always then change it up. But if the board wants to do both like on top of each other, then that's all I need you to direct us. Okay. Thank you.

I'm sorry. I have another question in response to that. Um okay, so if let's say we don't do both and we decide just to go with um this mechanism, the proposed mechanism. Um what is the timeline to say well we'll test this out. If it doesn't work, we'll put in a traffic caling devices. What is the timeline for that? Um, we would like to study it for 3 to six months unless something outrageous came up. We want a good amount of time for people to get comfortable with it. A lot of people, you know, you could be out of town and then you come back and you're like, "Oh, this this traffic pattern changed." Um, we want them to see it, get comfortable with it, and then just start using it as their daily life. And so that's three to six months to create this and then you study it, you come back. Will we have to start the process over for the traffic for the speed humps or will we just continue on from what was founded initially? So if the results come back and the speeds are within our policy threshold, then we would leave it unless the community thought this unless there was some underlying issue. Um but we would not have to restart the whole thing because we have layouts of speed humps. But we will do however the board will direct us. Commissioner Walsh.

Um I'm on uh Central several times a week. There are stop signs currently. There's a three-way stop at David Street and Central Avenue, which seems a little odd to me, but if we were to implement both the advisory shoulders and the speed humps, um, you'd still need a stop sign coming off of David Street onto Central, but it seems like, you know, you'd be hitting a speed bump, maybe a stop sign. like would that would that stop sign that or the stop sign on central not the one coming off of David still be necessary?

We could study whether it is necessary warranted or not. Um the layout that I had showed for the three speed humps took in fact took took into account that there was a stop sign. So I kind of split it up from the h bottom half and the top half. But if u the allway stop is not warranted, we would have to readjust the speed hump or possibly add another one. But I think we could readjust the spacings. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Commissioner Smallwood.

Hi. Um, whenever the meeting took place in Pottstown, were the citizens aware of the no parking if this was implemented on the pavement? Okay, it was discussed. So, we had two well, one meeting was just with just two people from the community. Um, and then we that's when we discussed that we would have a bigger meeting with more people from the community. So, it's we've had involvement with the community the whole time. Um, and yes, it was discussed. There was no parking at that time. Was that a Was that well received? I didn't hear any negativity towards it. I didn't get any negative comments afterwards.

Thank you. Any other questions? Everybody for a motion? Before we do the motion, I um want to circle back to um Mayor Pert Hunt's recommendation to do both the advisory lanes and the speedome. Is that included in your motion to do both? Um yes. Okay. Okay. Perfect. Just want to make sure.

I guess I just want to make sure that we're doing what's in the best interest of the community and what the residents want. Yep. Um, I know safety is a huge concern and I also know that infringement on people's property is also a concern. So, I just want to make sure that, you know, we're making the best decision possible. Yes, of course. Before we do that motion, I want to ask one question. Um, do you have or um is there any data on the effectiveness of advisory shoulders?

Um, I don't know if I have it in this presentation. And I had shown um here we go a chart that explained more like the sweet spot that you would use these and the number of vehicles. Ours is down central is 300 cars a day that average roughly. Now to use this facility they recommend the um FHWA even up to 3,000 cars. That's a big difference. Um, so low speeds, low volumes, this would work for according to the data. Thank you. All right. Are we ready for a motion now?

Okay. Okay. I would like to make a motion that we approve the advisory shoulder traffic calming device on Central Avenue along with three speed humps on Central Avenue between Delwood Drive and Hull Brooks Road in addition to considering the removal of the three-way stop signs. Am I saying that correct? I'm sorry. The two stop signs on Central Avenue based based upon further study. Is there a second? Second.

Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? The motion carries. Thank you. And item 10B, consider a decision on on need for an additional traffic calming measures on Delwood Drive. Miss Master Francesca.

Yes. So, we um had a uh a request for trafficcoming on Delwood and in on in May of last year, uh we had a public hearing and what was um approved was to put two speed humps on Delwood between Central and where Vermillion starts. Um, so those were installed in July of 2025 and we waited six, seven months before we went out to restudy this. Um, the community had said they didn't think that they were working well. Um, so we went back and studied it and these are the results. Uh, to the left was the highest speed at 33 miles per hour. that is not that is over the threshold that we have for our um trafficcoming. And then you see the next speed hump. The next two speeds were within our trafficcoming policies threshold. So to try to mitigate this or decrease the speed at 33 miles an hour, we're asking if we if the board thinks we could go back and add something else. Um, so for example, during the public hearing, we also talked about mini circles and one of the ideas was to put a mini circle at this location because it's an intersection. Um, to do that, I want to reiterate that we'd have to get some property from three at least three parcels. Um, there's a fire hydrant that we'd have to relocate. That's not huge deal, but I'm just pointing out everything. And there's a utility pole. Now, in this view, the utility pole doesn't look like anything, but in elevation, you see this utility pole, it has a lot on it. Um, so it would take some time to move this utility pole with all the lines going back onto a new one. Um, so another suggestion would be in

red, you see the current speed humps space at around 500, um, to add a third speed hump just to the east or west of Central Avenue. And that would be about 100 feet off the intersection because you don't want to make a turn left or right and then immediately go over a speed hump. So we need some distance away. So for the one the north the the top picture, this would capture all the drivers coming eastbound uh from Church or Main Street, let's say, and anyone who turned eastbound on Central. Um the bottom one if if the board thinks that most of the drivers are coming eastbound then on the west side of central would be another location that we could put. So those are the two ideas that we were thinking of to help change that uh higher number of 33 miles per hour. So if the board would select one then we could also go back in around six months and we test it out again between those two. Is there any questions additional questions about this one?

Commissioner Walsh. Um despite my love of traffic circles and roundabouts, I think um given the cost complexity and time to do that, we'd be potentially looking at, you know, a year or more. I'm [clears throat] sure if Mr. Roberts said to Kevin, "Run out there tomorrow and throw in a speed hump," we'd probably get it done pretty quickly. So I I think at this time again speed hump would be the uh the the preferred uh traffic calming device. Okay. Would you go the east side of central? West side of central. Uh probably east side.

I agree with east side. So, I need the board to make a motion, please. Yeah, we'll do that. I'm just taking a little poll before they um All right. Do we have a motion to um install a speed hump on the east side of this proposed situation with Del on Delwood? Yep. I'll make a motion to add one additional speed hump on Delwood Drive to the west of the two existing speed humps and east of Central Avenue. Got it. And is there a second? Sorry. Second.

Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? And the motion carries. Thank you, Miss Francesco. All right, we're on to item number 11, closing comments. Commissioner Walsh, Commissioner Rivers.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, I do. So, in lie of Black History Month, um, today we lost one of our very own civil rights leaders, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Senior, who was born October 8th, 1941, and he passed today, February 17th, 2026. He was a an American civil rights activist, Baptist me minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow US senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He founded the merged rainbow push from organizations he had established earlier. But I want to leave you all with something. And Commissioner Crows, I want to tell you that although it gets heavy sometimes with your integrity being questioned, don't ever doubt who you are and whose you are. I am somebody. I am somebody. I am a child of God. And I may not be educated, but I am somebody. I may not have any money, but I am somebody. I may not eat steak every day, but I am somebody. I may not look the way you look, but I am somebody. Let us all remember when we look at one another, we are all somebody. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Rivers. Mayor Prom Hunt. Just wanted to share a message on behalf of the environmental sustainability committee. Just want to remind residents that they can nominate a treasure tree by going to the town's website. If there's a tree that you think has um specific significance, you are welcome to go on the site and learn some more about that and you can nominate a treasure tree. And then also um the Northmech Recycling Center is also now accepting solid waste um food scraps and so you can compost food at the recycling center. Commissioner Corals.

Well, my closing comments was were were going to be um about the foyer request, but the lady came just to get some um I guess coverage for her social media post. But Mr. Ro, I want to thank you for verifying that there's nothing there as it relates to the foyer. For those who want to do a foyer request, please do a foyer request to see if there's anything there. Um sadly that we have to deal with disgruntled um former commissioners. Uh again, um I would never let my integrity be insulted. Thank you so much, uh, Commissioner Rivers. So, again, my for my my closing comments was again, um, there's no there there, and it's really sad that when someone want to make you a target, they do whatever they can do to cause harm to another individual. Thank you again, Commissioner Rivers. Thank you, Anthony.

Commissioner Smallwood. Um, yes. I just want to take a moment and thank our Huntersville Police Department and officers for all that they have done and continue to do for the citizens of Huntersville and to thank Chief Vaughn for coming to speak this evening. Thank you, Commissioner. And I'm going last and I just want to remind everybody that early voting is currently taking place. Um you can vote at any of the early voting locations in the county during early voting. And so there are a number of offices that are decided in the primary and so make sure that you've done your research and make a plan to vote early. May I have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Is there a second?

A second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? All right. Thank you. We are journed.