Town Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone and welcome to our May 4th board meeting. Um before we begin I always remind everyone to silence your phones. Please make sure they are not going to beep or talk to us during our meeting. Um appreciate that very much. We always begin our meeting with a moment of silence. So tonight, um, I'm holding our moment of silence in remembrance of fallen law enforcement officers in North Carolina in, um, honor of police week that's coming up. So please join me for 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 all. Mr. Smith, announcements.

Yes, good evening everybody. Uh, just a few announcements for you tonight. Uh want to remind everybody that Charlotte Water announced last Friday that we're moving into mandatory water restrictions due to ongoing dry conditions. Uh those begin on May 15th and they mean a lot of things for our residents. They mean, you know, no vehicle washing at home, commercial car washes only, no pressure washing, only irrigation on certain days depending on your address. And it's a whole long list of what residents will need to do uh to help us navigate this drought. So to see all of those and what's required, you can visit our website at huntersville.org or go to charlottewater.org. Also, we get to brag on parks andrec again. Um, so Bradford Park disc golf course out of more than 17,000 courses worldwide was recently ranked by users to be in the top 100 disc golf courses in the world. uh it was ranked 86 in the top 100 and those are based on those rankings are based on millions of player reviews of courses all around the world uh on the website udisk. Also want to let everybody know we have three terms on the planning board that are expiring uh in June. So if you wish to serve you're encouraged to apply and the deadline to apply is on May 31st and you can find how to apply and submit an application through our website at honorsville.org. And also just a reminder that next Monday night, May 11th, at 6 PM, we hope you'll join us again here at town hall for the annual state of the town address with Mayor Clark. That is all I had.

Thank you. We have a couple proclamations this week. We're going to start off with small business week. Whereas the town of Huntersville, North Carolina, recognizes and values the dedication and entrepreneurable spirit of small businesses that keep up the state and American economy growing stronger and stronger. Whereas there are approximately 1.1 million small businesses with employees in North Carolina accounting for 99.6% of all businesses in the state. And whereas the income of North Carolina's small business owners totals over 22 billion and these businesses employ 1.8 8 million North Carolinians or 45% of the state's non-farm private workforce. And whereas as of 2026, Meckllinburgg County, North Carolina had approximately 10500,000 businesses employing over 6900,000 residents. Whereas it is the collaborative mission of the town working with the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce, Meckllinmberg County Economic Development, and the Small Business Administration to help our businesses grow and create new jobs in the community and Lake Norman region by providing exemplary workforce training, financial assistance programs, and research and technical assistance. And whereas the town of Huntersville appreciates the small the support of our small business community by the Chamber of Commerce, Central Pedmont Community College, Small Business Technology Development Center and our score volunteers. And whereas during the week of May 4th through May 9th, Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce is celebrating Small Business Week. Now therefore, I Christy Clark, mayor of Huntersville, do hereby proclaim the week of May 4th through May 9th as small business week in Huntersville and urge all citizens to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements made by small business both locally and nationally and to further support your local business by shopping and buying local. So, and I want to call up um two members of the Lake Norman

Chamber, Stacy Overcash Bride and John Alexander to receive the proclamations, maybe say a few words about small businesses. They're two of our fantastic business owners and we'll take a picture with them as well. Commissioner Corals, come on over here.

You want to do it? Sure. All right. Rock, paper, scissors. Thank you very much for acknowledging Small Business Week. We appreciate it. It's rare that I'm quiet. All right. [clears throat] [snorts]

Next, we have a proclamation for police week. Whereas every day across the town of Huntersville, police officers bravely and courageously risk their well-being to protect and serve our community and preserve the peace and order to which every citizen is entitled. And whereas the week, including May 10th, has been designated as National Police Week to honor the police officers who put their lives on the line to keep our communities safe. And whereas the Huntersville Police Department consists of 120 full-time sworn police officers and 25 law enforcement support staff. The police department is responsible for 24-hour communitywide law enforcement and responds to all requests for emergency services. The police department responds to an estimated 65,000 calls for service per year. And whereas the members of the Huntersville Police Department are dedicated to ensuring public safety and enhancing the quality of life in the town of Huntersville by serving as leaders and mentors, educating the community about the importance of public safety. And whereas we appreciate the extraordinary efforts and sacrifices made by officers and their family members daily to protect our schools, workplaces, roadways, and homes. Now therefore, I Christy Clark, mayor of Huntersville, do hereby proclaim the week of May 10th through May 16th as National Police Week in Huntersville, North Carolina. And y'all can come on up. [applause]

[snorts]

Thank you. And we have one more proclamation for the Meckllinburgg Declaration of Independence known as Mech Deck. Whereas on May 19th, 1775, elected representatives from the nine county militia companies met at the courthouse in the middle of Charlotte and began their discussions on the need for independence from the crown. And whereas these men unanimously adopted resolutions to declare themselves a free and independent people in a document which came to be known as the Meckllinburgg Declaration of Independence. And whereas six of the men were associated with the Hopewell Church and two others lived in this area. And whereas at noon on May 20th, 1775, Colonel Thomas Pulk read the Meckllinburgg Decoration Declaration of Independence from the steps of the county courthouse to the assembled citizens. And whereas on May 31st, 1775, the delegates adopted 20 additional resolutions to directly govern themselves and became known as the Meckllinmberg resolves. And whereas Captain Militia Captain James Jack took both documents to Philadelphia where the second Continental Congress was meeting. When he returned, he said the representatives from North Carolina had read and approved the documents. And whereas upon delivering the mech deck, Captain Jack said to the delegates, "Gentlemen, you may debate here about reconciliation and memorize your king, but bear it in mind, Meckllinburgg owes no allegiance to you and is separated from the crown of Great Britain forever." And whereas in 1819, President John Adams wrote to President Thomas Jefferson that the Mech Deck was the genuine sense of America at that moment and was never expressed so well before nor since. And whereas the state of North Carolina has chosen to recognize

the significance of the Meckllinmberg Declaration of Independence by placing the date of its signing May 20th, 1775 upon our state flag and great seal. Now therefore, I Christy Clark, Mayor of Huntersville, do hereby proclaim the 20th of May as MechDeck Day in Huntersville, North Carolina. Anthony Roberts.

All right, Ethan, if you'll excuse me. [clears throat] We have a slide presentation. I was going to go over all 228 pages. Um, but hopefully it won't take that long. I think we narrowed it down to 12. What I would tell you is uh if you uh are so excited to read all 28 pages, I would 228 pages I'd say do that. But uh if you want to get a narrative of it, do the first seven pages. Managers recommended budget. I'm going to go through very high level. I'm going round numbers because you don't want me to read this word for word for you. The board has probably seen this multiple times, but I'm going to do it at a very high level. First of all, I want to say thank you to department head staff who helped put this together. Obviously, I did not. They're the ones to be um thanked for this. And also, I will say Jackie and Patty McGinness. Jackie Jackie Huffman, Patty McGinness, Bobby Williams, all had a significant part in putting this together. So, uh thanks to them. I'm [clears throat] just up here giving you a high level, but all the work and gratitude goes to um staff and department heads and those folks I mentioned. So, just real quick, this is a balanced budget that I'm presenting to you. The total budget for the town is roughly 139 million. Um, the general fund, which is the majority of that, is roughly 96 million. Um, for the general fund, you will see in this budget, um, power bill funds, we're continuing to spend a lot of power bill funds. If you recall, over the last couple years, we used to pave, I'd say, somewhere between five and, uh, seven miles of streets, then we went to 8 to 10 miles of street. Now we're at 12 to 15 miles of street. So we'll continue to really focus on getting around and paving our streets a lot sooner. I'm talking about town maintained streets, continue to add sidewalks all over u multi-use paths, etc. So um power bill expenditures are continuing to go up uh which is a good thing uh to get those get that out into

the neighborhood so folks can walk around. uh enterprise funds consist of uh multiple entities electric department and also HFA which is a Hunsville family um Hunsville family fitness aquatic center that's um electric part of that is roughly 30 million and the HFA is roughly 3.7 million special revenue funds uh cons which are part of that is transportation reserve uh commerce station and land development is roughly 2.8 8 million. Um, one thing that is new everyone should be familiar with is obviously that the 1 cent sales tax, additional 1 cent sales tax that was passed this year. We're keeping that into a a separate uh capital project fund which is called PAVE Act sales tax. We're accounting for roughly half of that which is 6 million. Ethan, if you'll keep moving. Um what's probably most important to everyone I could go through around these numbers but the last sentence or the last dot is um the tax rate is proposed to stay the same. The assessed value for the town is roughly 17.5 billion dollars. Estimated growth 7717 million um from last uh fiscal year. The one penny tax generates roughly $1.7 million in town. Keep going. Far as other revenue changes, there are no no expected changes to vehicle fees, storm water fees. This year, increase from solid waste. The solid waste fee has stayed at 154 uh since $154 since 2024. We're actually increasing that this year in 2027 to $270 to cover the full cost on residential solid waste. uh the land development fees in our fee schedule. There'll be some increasement increases in land development fees for v various fees that will stay in line with county and other towns as those costs have gone up. And

then as far as electric rates for residential and commercial with hunters electric will stay the same. Uh there will be some reps riders which um deal with renew renewable energy. Keep going. As far as personnel expenditures, um there's several positions in this budget, 18 new positions. Uh six of those are part-time firefighters that we are converting to full-time. Uh also an admin position in fire as we're approaching 100 full and fire 100 full and part-time positions. Uh we're adding a police captain and lieutenant, proposing four new public works crew and a fleet position as we're continuing to build more sidewalks, pave more streets, etc. That's um why we're pushing for the public works crew. Um engineering manager, other support positions are HR, IT, and facility manager. And as far as the electric positions, uh we are actually bringing that in house. We've always had a electric department, but it was managed by electric cities. We're actually we've always owned the poles, the the lines, the trucks, etc. the building. Now, we're taking that and actually bringing those um staff people in house and we'll manage that ourselves instead of splitting that over multiple towns and maybe um not receiving the customer service that we expect. So, we will be bringing that in house. From a car a cola merit standpoint, we're looking at a 6% increase. Keep going. Uh I mentioned the solid waste. We will be increasing that solid waste fee. Additional costs 368,000 as we continue to take on new units and the uh consumer price index going up. Uh that affects our contract. Talked about sidewalk repair, maintenance, and pedestrian costs as uh 860,000 in for that. We'll continue the attainable housing efforts uh funding towards that. Uh this new building taking on the

operations with this new building uh HFA operations roughly 440,000 continuing to do planning studies around Gilead Road and downtown intersection is downtown continues to grow and as we've done in previous years um we have nonprofits that are seeking funds from the town. We will do that outside of the budget. Um and then ultimately they'll they've that's online now. They will uh ask for funds and then we will come back I want to say July August time frame will come back to the board and you will consider those um agency's requests [snorts] capital fund uh we roughly 34 million in the CIP which is the capital improvement plan. uh that will be funded from various sources whether it's fund balance payback transportation reserve etc. uh from operating capital standpoint roughly two million that deals with things like police cars dump trucks whether it's park and wreck moors etc. Uh if you go into our budget page 90, you'll get a rundown of that uh list of uh CIP or the five-year CIP going debt expenditures in our five-year forecast. Uh no new debt is issued at this point in time. Actually, our debt service will decline slightly. Uh however, we will be moving forward with fire station number five build, but those debt service payments will not hit until FY28. Same thing if we move forward with a parking deck. Most likely the parking deck here behind town hall would hit in FY28. Um the five-year financial forecast obviously shows lots of different projects in there. I think 75 different projects we're working on. Uh we will continue to work on those project. It's a large CIP. Keep moving. Uh from a transportation reserve, we'll spend some funds on Gilead Road West the Commerce Station business park. Minimal change there. from electric side of

things. We're bringing that in house as I talked about earlier. Um even though power costs are increasing, we're not proposing a rate increase this year. But I will almost bet next year we will be coming back looking at increases um because we can't continue as um wholesale power costs go up etc. We'll have to continue to look at that. So next year there's a likelihood that we will be looking at an electric rate increase. Um, keep moving. PAVE Act, I talked about just a little bit earlier. That's the new 1% sales tax um that we expect distribution to start in July 2026. We're being a little bit conservative on our estimates on the revenue. We've only allocated for six months. I told you earlier it's $6 million. So, if it's 12 months, 12 million. But the way that's defined, the payback is defined, you for the most part, you have to use that on transportation related projects. you could use it on a parking deck. Um, so we will continue to look at that. Build sidewalks, build roads, etc. That's what those funds are earmarked for. As I saw earlier, we will keep track of that. We have in a in a separate uh capital project fund. Keep moving. Uh, then get to the end. I This has 215. I think I looked at it earlier today in your packet. I think it's like 228 pages. That's because it includes the fee schedules and the CIP and a five-year financial forecast, etc. I would tell you to hone in on the sevenpage manager message that will sort of give you the highlevel details of the budget, but if you're so inclined, please read all 228 pages be posted on the website. May 6, uh, proposed public hearing. May 19th, uh, budget buzz here, town hall where the mayor will be given a presentation, have some questions on the budget May 21st at 6 p.m. and

projected to adopt a budget uh, June 2nd on the board meeting June 2nd. I know I went through that very fast. Um, but I'm here to answer any questions. Obviously, public hearing is coming up. All this will be posted hopefully. Um, you know, we'll have a couple of million people show up on May 19th. Um, and, uh, we'll see where it goes from there. I'm here to answer any questions, uh, if you would like. Um, we have time between now and June 2nd to answer any questions, make additions, deletions, etc.

Could we look at adding a business development position that would start around January to focus on revitalizing our downtown? Yeah, and that's something obviously um the last board and this board has been very um I guess one of the goals obviously is continue to develop uh build out downtown. Obviously, you can we see things coming on um you know like Kat and um also the wine bar. Those will likely open July August time frame from what I'm hearing. The salon is open and then I'm sure they will announce the corner restaurant here soon once they get through their permitting. Uh obviously I won't announce the name but um I'll let them do that when the time is right. Uh but things are starting to happen. you know, the guest house, um, uh, Choplain's, um, the Scoops ice cream, uh, that will go in in the jewel box building and, uh, Brian has them development that's going up now. So 760, lots of different things happening downtown. So, um, we toyed with that idea last year, wasn't quite right, toyed with it this year. I was hesitant whether to put it in, but some of these announcements are coming up. A lot of things happening. Um, if we were to do it, I I think it'd be a great idea to do it in January. A lot of these things, you know, y'all made decisions on old town hall of selling that that would probably close, I think, based on the timeline, January. Um, so just a lot of different things happening downtown. So, if that's what the board sees, foreheads nodding on that, we would just add that in. um halfy on that position probably, you know, just with benefits, everything allincclusive. Uh maybe I'm just going to go on a high number 75,000. That's a high number um that we [clears throat] would just add into the

budget and uh so I'm all for it. Yeah, I'd be very much in support of that. I think we've got a lot of pieces of downtown that uh can be redeveloped and I think somebody there f you know this board and actually our previous board made a commitment to downtown revitalization and I think this is the time to to start working on those properties and have somebody in place that's champing that as well as coordinating with all our businesses downtown. You know, we just had an event this weekend and um there's going to be many more coming down. And I know we got a new New Year's Eve event that's going to we want to get our businesses involved with that.

What I failed Ma is what I failed to say mayor was that um also if the board you know were so inclined to move forward with this we would probably have this person you know get involved. A lot of the old downtowns have what they call a main street program. They go after grants grants available for main street programs from um to help the businesses etc. Uh create um business uh development groups etc. um to facade grants, you name it. So, we would um push that forward, push that person towards that to get involved in that to help with downtown business. Also, I failed to mention that. Sorry.

I'm not in favor of that position. Um I would like to get more details on what that person would be doing because we talked about grants, we're talking about downtown revitalization and some of the things we're already doing in house. And my my good friend mentioned we had a program on yesterday. Uh I gave you a compliment as I was leaving the parking lot, Michael. Um you guys do a phenomenal job and I don't see where that person would be able to come in and fill in what you all do. I'm very impressed with what you all have been doing with parks and recreation. Uh the New Year's Eve celebration um it's come along very well. Um so again I at this point in time I can't um support the position and I will hope that if we move forward with this that we are 100% transparent with um this the creation of the position as well as the selection of the position.

Anyone else want to weigh in? We need you know at least four head nods to move forward with adding that into the budget in the future. So, [clears throat] when we talked about hiring the arborist last year or whenever that was, we had to go in and create a job description and look up all of these details about like salary and benefits, etc. But so, that's all we're really proposing on doing tonight, right, is just kind of directing to get more information.

Yeah, we we can do that. I mean, this position has been talked about um you know, last year actually talked about just wasn't ready. Um, I was hesitant to put in this year because I wasn't quite sure it was ready. A lot of things were moving parts, you know, even the cash lot, etc. Um, you know, we used to be part of original EDC, um, which was Davidson, Cornelius, Huntersville, uh, more industrial flex space type stuff, not really economic development downtown. Um, so yes, we would move forward with putting together, but that's, you know, that's a piece of cake to put that together. no different than the arbit you know many towns have that we you know we can borrow and steal from other places that have those job descriptions and that's you know that's uh that takes no time and and what that was just estimate on the actual what the salary would be and when a little high I don't think it would be that high [clears throat] ultimately we would go through a process um to hire that person um for uh getting the right job description to see what other towns have in place I think Davidson has had what I'll call a downtown development person for probably 10 years. They had it the whole time we had um um the joint regional EDC. They've had one, you know, the whole time. So, um whatever the board feels they want to do, I'm supportive. I'm I'm good with it. If you don't do it this year, I can 100% guarantee you we would ask for it next year. Um no no ifs, ands, buts about it. I personally would like to get ahead of it now um before we get these new businesses in. I'd like to be able to get ahead of the eightball and you know build the relationships before you know we're off to the races. So I think everything's starting now and I think now's the time to hit.

I mean I believe in being proactive. So, I I can agree from that standpoint, but I do think that we need more information before we determine if we are going to um create this position because again echoing the sentiments of Commissioner Corals, we do have in-house that um definitely seek grants and funding and things of that nature. So, we don't want to um take away from those that are able to do that as well. So, just kind of want to make sure that we are being transparent and that we are all in, you know, on the same page with um this creation of this position. If we decide to go that route, um I mean, whatever works best for the town, I'm in support of that. Um, I just want to make sure that we know specifically what this job description will entail and in making sure that um, you know, it it's it's fully supported. So,

Mayor, how about we do this um, uh, prior to the um, May 19th meeting. We can do it uh, obviously before then. We'll send out maybe what a draft job description could look like, kind of what the roles are defined, and I can get that out to everybody. Um that'll be easy to do and then you all will have you know that to chew on and uh it's easy I don't have to add it in right now. Uh the board could literally if they wanted to June 2nd you know add it in and adopt it you know with that u we know what the cost will be. We'll send you a job description what a draft job description looks like and you'll have more to chew on and then you can make that decision at that time.

Yeah, that sounds good. You read my mind. Yep. Any other questions or thoughts about the budget? I'm in support of this. I think as we grow um and especially with revitalizing downtown, I can see that this would be a great need for us. Would would the roles change based on [snorts] this position compared to like Davidson for instance? or

it may be slightly different what we may do not only downtown but um you know we could have this person also um collect you know gather information on you know all the businesses in town not only so there are other things this individual could do um where you know there's a lot of industries that want to be involved in town from you know giving funds to being involved in you know whether it's tree plantings or work events throughout town. So, we would try to use this position not only to focus on downtown. That would be the primary focus, but other things they can do. This person is not going to um run the parks and wreck events. You know, they would, you know, help, you know, maybe communicate with the businesses and things like that are in downtown, maybe get them involved, help with grants that are outside of part of grants and different things like that. Um, Main Street is an entirely different program that none of our departments are involved in. Now, it sort of crosses planning slightly, but um there are many different things that I think, just to be honest, everybody up here can get behind that would be a benefit, not only just downtown. I will push to for this position to do more than just downtown and really maximize um what we can use it for. So, I think I feel pretty confident that everybody up here will get behind it once you have a better description and feel on what we can and can't do.

Thank you. Any other thoughts about the budget? We're all good. All right. Thank you very much. Um, we do not have any public comments this evening, so we will proceed to item number seven. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda? I make a motion to adopt the agenda. Is there a second? I second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda? I make a motion to adopt the consent agenda. Is there a second? A second.

Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? And the motion carries unanimously. We're on to public hearing 9A. Conduct a public hearing on petition R26-01, a request by 2311 Real Estate Holdings LLC to reszone. Good evening, Brian Richards for the planning staff. And at this time, I'd like to enter my staff report to the record. As the mayor has uh kindly pointed out, this is resoning 261, the for the 2311 race shop located here in Huntersville, just uh here at south end of town on Statesville Road. They are requesting to go from corporate business conditional district to corporate business conditional district for some site plan revisions. Um when this was originally done back in 2020 during COVID um they had some visions of potentially for a race shop or some business park down here. Um which allowed the plan gave the plan some flexibility to be built as it's shown today. Um uh part of that had a a building where you can see up in the upper right corner where a parking lot is proposed. Um staff is in favor of that. So we need to revise some um keys site plan um notes. Uh one was the original size of the building was 95,000 square feet, but they're looking to go up to 117800. The 60 foot buffer along Statesville Road is being requested to be reduced to 50 on the actual drawings uh of the resoning. It was shown at 50. So this is a note clarification. Uh there will be no effect on the tree or TIA changes. uh they will be planning the uh the 50-ft buffer at the same rate as a 60-oot buffer to give some additional uh screening capabilities along Statesville Road. Uh currently uh the parking required is 121 spaces and they're proposing just shy 250 at 249. Uh it is in line with the 2040 community plan is in the employment center. You

can see the policies that support this resoning. Staff is in support of this. Uh myself and the applicants are here if you guys have any questions. Any questions about this one? No questions. And there are no public comments either. No. So we will close that. Good project. Glad to have them in town. Move them. Yeah, we're excited. Um we'll move to item 9B. Conduct a public hearing on petition R26-06 request by Charter Properties, Inc. to revise a resoning requirement.

Thank you, mayor. Um, it's been a minute since I've been in front of the board, but David Pete, um, entered the staff report into the record. And this is a very simple request, but just needs a little bit of genup for explanation. You can see the project here located north of Samur Road or 73 on Old Statesville Road. And it would be the last remaining portion of the Caldwell Station Apartments. The first phase, you're very familiar with the ones that were uh got themselves in some trouble, but hopefully they're on the rebound. Um this involves the second phase of those apartments shown in black specific for this request. But also pay attention to the uh yellow parcels that are to the right or the east of the hatched area. So, oh, and I'm sorry, I failed to mention that the property in question is zone neighborhood residential traditional neighborhood development overlay. Um that's uh it was a a use that we had a lot of back in the day, but we haven't done it so much uh in recent years. So when this original project was approved in 1998, you can see in the yellow highlighted area that there was a requirement and it's shown in the highlight. I know it's a little difficult to read, but it calls out for a 1000 foot long 6- foot high brick wall. And that is simply because if you look on the image to the left, all of the properties between the second phase of the apartments and uh NC115 were single family homes and were not a part of this project. So it was a a screening wall to protect um multif family apartments from single family homes of of quite some age. And so you can see on the right pictures that the wall was built as part of phase one of the apartments. everything moving according to plan. So on the left you see the yellow line going through about um about a quarter of the way in that represented the approved plan by the town board for the um second phase of the apartments for

Caldwell Station. And then in the invening years when that was approved and that was back in uh 24 I believe the applicants actually purchased all of the single family homes along 115 with one exception on the very north. So what you had was a situation and you can see there in the grade area where they are doing town homes along 115 and then they there will be apartments in the rear. So they are asking very simply because they own they now own mostly both sides of the wall. The the function of the screen wall has been removed. So they have already gotten their plan approved accommodating the wall as it currently stands, but they would like to request the highlighted portion in yellow, 222 feet of the 1,00 ft to be removed. Um and so that is the request in a nutshell. Um there's really not a whole lot else to add. Uh just a couple of recent images. You can see construction is well underway. And in the red box I have highlighted the portion of the wall that they would like to remove in the large image in the bottom left. And then um if you look to in the middle of the screen, you can actually see the curved or the right angle portion of the wall that will stay and still screen the one home that is staying. Um, I know that the applicant has reached out to that property owner and if you have any questions about that, the applicant's representative is here as well. I'm happy to answer any other questions you have, but that concludes the proposal.

Any questions?

Y'all are quiet tonight. You're freaking me out a little bit. [laughter] All right. Um, there are no public comments either, so we will conclude this public hearing. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Item number 9C, conduct a public hearing for petition R25-18 Eastfield Park, a request by Meckllinmberg County.

All right. Good evening. Um before I begin, I will submit my staff report into the record uh and get to my item. Okay. So, the applicant Meckllinmberg County is proposing to reszone 114 acres of land off of Eastfield Road from rural to rural with conditions. Uh this request is purely to allow a proposed private driveway as you u see on the screen to cut across and disturb into a post construction buffer. Um that is what is brought forward this modification request. Um as part of that modification request they have to provide mitigation to that post construction buffer. The applicant has proposed to select the controlled imperous cover um mitigation which will cap impervious at 12% moving forward. And just as a quick note, if they were constructing a public road here, this would be a byite uh re administrative review which would not uh force us to go through the uh resoning process. A quick resoning highlight of the site. Uh a 30foot undisturbed buffer will be along the perimeter of the park. Uh the county is proposing to save 85% of the site um sites trees, though we'd still need a few specimen tree um details before we can provide a full recommendation. Along the front of the site, there will be a 10- foot side path along the frontage. And they are also showing the future potential Verhoff extension on the site. Um though that will not be set aside as rightway as that would require further studies.

And here's just a context map that kind of shows um where the development of the site will be located. It's primarily up a front up on front of uh Eastfield Road. The 2040 Huntersville Community Plan supports this reszoning as the proposed park is located within the parks and open space future character area and the fall following uh 24D Huntersville community's policies support the plan as this plan is improving access to parks and improving bicycle and pedestrian facilities within the town. And with that, uh, staff could support the project at is as it is consistent with the character area recommendations of the Huntersville 2040 plan if the following conditions are met, which are that all specimen tree items are addressed and all minor staff comments are addressed. And if you have any questions, I can answer those. The applicant is also here and has a quick presentation um, if you have any questions for them. Any questions for staff before we have the applicant? Commissioner Walsh,

can you just clarify the Verhoff Road extension? What's going on with that? You said there was So, that was outlined as part of the Eastfield Road small area plan um I believe a decade or more ago. Um but it was never added to um the mobility plan because it needs to be studied further to to find an actual alignment. Um, so there's no actual concrete plans for that road. It's just kind of on the map just in case essentially at this point. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions?

All right. We'll have the applicant. Thank you, Nathan. Um, we just wanted to provide a little bit of background. Um, so thank you for giving us the opportunity to present a few slides. Um, I will skip over a little bit of what Nathan already covered kind of the reason for the reasonzoning um, uh, the buffer uh, disturbance uh, uh, that's requiring us to go through the resoning process. Um, and the approach that Nathan mentioned already. Um, just a little bit more. Um, one of the reasons why we do need to uh make this crossing is in order to accommodate parking and access to the park amenities. Um, and this slide here is just showing um that when we did our inventory of the site um there's a lot of higher quality uh canopy and biodiversity further into the site um and to the northern part of the site. And so that's why we've focused the entrance and the parking um to the southern portion of the site. Um these are just some photos kind of expressing some of the existing character of the site um the natural features um that are in areas of protection. Another reason for uh locating uh the parking and the crossing at this portion of the site is because it has the least amount of uh steep topography and the most opportunity to access the site. Um and so that's why we've we've uh proposed this location. Um, we've tightened up the the footprint as much as possible to minimize that uh stream crossing as much as possible. This is just a zoom in some illustratives to support so you can kind of better understand the the site. There's parking on um the eastern portion of the site and the western portion of the site to access both the playground and trails as well as the um

dog park and pavilion and trails on the left uh western portion of the site. Um this is a similar uh chart to or drawing to what Nathan presented. Um just showing the specific area of the uh stream buffer crossing. Um wanted to point out here that there is already an existing covert. Um so this is not proposing to add a new covert but just to extend that to allow for this drive uh to occur. And that's it. Any questions? Any questions? Mayor part, can you address the specimen tree save that Nathan mentioned? That was one of the outstanding remarks.

Yes. Um I might have Nathan speak to it as well. My understanding is it's just a a note adjustment. Yeah. Um so they are showing specimen trees. Um they just need to to provide a table showing the number of specimen trees and how many are being removed versus how many are being saved. Gotcha. Yep. Okay. Thanks for that clarification. And provided this is approved, when would the park construction begin? I'm going to bring Karen up for that one. Sure.

Hello. My name is Karen Weston Chen. I'm with Meckllinmberg County. I'm here with George Burgerer, also from Meckllinmberg County. Um we're hoping that in the fall we'll be able to start construction. We're um moving ahead with construction documents. They're at about an 80% level. So, when we get done with this process, we'll be getting bids, contracts, and then be able to start in probably approximately a year um construction uh time frame. So, with a little little bit more than a year, we'll we'll have another beautiful park. It's a beautiful piece of land and we're very excited about adding to the amenities for Huntersville as well as well as all of North Mechanburgg County. I'm also excited. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? We had one public comment. Um, Linda Patel, did you Is she still here?

Okay. neighborhood. Can you um come up to the microphone up here and Thank you. So, we can get you on the record. Just state your name. You don't have to state your address.

Okay. Uh my name is uh Lindy Patel and I don't have any particularly important, you know, uh comment to make. I just was very excited because I live nearby and I saw that uh Eastfield Park was being talked about and I had joined some of the previous meetings online where they were, you know, planning, you know, what was going to go in the park and um I just kept wondering when it was finally going to get constructed. So, I just came here to kind of voice my support and say I'm really excited to see it coming and I hope that um it continues to move forward. That's it. Thank you. Thanks.

All right. All right. Do we have any other questions for staff or the applicant? All right. Thank you. We'll conclude that p that public hearing. Let's see. We are on to item 9D. Conduct a public hearing for petition S26-01 Hall Honda Sign Overlay District. Mr. Farre.

Okay. Before I [clears throat] before I begin, I'll submit my staff report into the record. So, the applicant, Riad Brothers, on behalf of the Huntersville Honda dealership, um, is proposing a special sign district at the corner of Mount Holly Huntersville Road and Statesville Road. The purpose of this special sign district is to allow signs on the parking lot side of their building to be in excess of 32 square feet. They're proposing three signs totaling 171 square feet. And you can see within the red box that is their south elevation of the building um which faces their parking lot uh with the proposed signs. And here's a closeup of their proposed signs. And here's a site plan showing the direction that the signs would be facing. And again, an aerial view of the the uh direction that the signs are facing. Uh the signs will be facing a uh forested lot as well as partially screened by the required street trees along Statesville Road.

[clears throat] So staff recommends approval based on the master sign plan being consistent with the Huntersville 2040 community plan policies LU7 and LU8 and is consistent with the greater flexibility and form style and design desired by the 2040 community plan. And if you have any questions um I can answer those for you. The applicant is also here and has a few slides if you have any questions for him as well. Any questions for Mr. Farber? Or would you like to see the applicant slides or do you want do you have any questions for them? I would like to see the slides. Okay. All right. Come on up.

Good evening. Um, I just wanted to put a few slides together with kind of the perspective. I know you guys are all probably familiar with the property. Um, before I was with the owner currently, um, I've been involved in this project with two separate owners, so it's finally come to fruition. Um, it's been a long time coming and um, kind of just wanted to show Nathan did a great job of showing the the facade that was getting the sides, but I did have one specific just view I wanted to show with the street plantings and how you really won't be able to see the signage. So, it's really for interior customers. Um, more of almost wayfinding where the showroom is, where service is. Um, and this was actually taken more during the fall, so now you can't see anything on the front. [laughter] Just wanted to kind of point that out.

Thank you for that. I actually was trying to envision. I was like, wait, am I going to be able to see this? So, thank you for that clarity. I appreciate it. Can you come back for a sec? Um, these signs. So, you mentioned they're way finding signs through the parking lot. So, would they be lighted like during the evening or Yes, ma'am. Okay. Okay. That's my only question. Okay. Any other questions? And was this you that signed up for the public comment? Yes, just in case. So, we're gonna You're good. [laughter] Thank you. Any other questions for the applicant or staff?

All right. Thank you. Item 9E, conduct a public hearing for traffic calming on Platin Avenue. Miss Mastro Franchesco.

Yes. Hello everyone. I'll wait for Larry. Or do you want me to I'll just try to keep going. There we go. All right. So, this is the public hearing for Platin Avenue, the um traffic coming measures. So, if you don't know where this is, this is on the southwest quadrant of Huntersville. Um here's another picture. It is a 2500 linear feet long. is between Hambrite, which you see on the right, and O'Hara on the left. Those are the two areas that intersects, [clears throat] excuse me, those athletic fields you see. That's Hopewell High School. Here's a view of um the street view. It's really narrow. [clears throat and cough] Excuse me. It's 20t wide, ditch section, both sides. Uh the it's not optical illusion. It's really hilly. It goes up and down. Uh, and I would like to point out there's only houses right now on the left hand side, which is the south side. So, here is just a view of I I did this slide a little bit differently. So, the applicant put in a request for traffic calming. We studied it once and twice. The second time the speeds did come down, but these speeds are well over our 85th percentile threshold of 31 miles per hour. Um, so it's definitely warranted that we kept going. So here is just a spacing of typical spacing of the speed humps. And I'm only showing you this because the next slide's a little different. So this slide is the same same thing you just saw, but option one, uh, we used equally spaced speed humps. Uh when I showed

that and several others to the um community, they kind of tweaked option two still with the four speed humps. So this was their pick of where to place the speed humps on their street. additional options. We could always put a speed hump in between all the intersections or, you know, we can always put mini circles in at every single intersection or we can do a hybrid combination of both. Speed humps here, mini circle there. It's it's really options are limitless. Uh this is what it would look like with a ditch section, speed hump if we went with a speed hump. So I spoke with police, fire, public works planning. Everyone is aware of the project. Police and fire would prefer the lesser amount of speed humps. So option one or two. And like I said, the um hope the community was preferred option two. Do you have any questions for me? Do you have um a speed or not a speed count, I'm sorry, a vehicle count for that

time period? So the bottom left here, the average daily traffic was between 400 and 500 vehicles. Wow. For the two times we did the study. Oh, that's a lot. Okay. That's that is considered a low volume, but it is. Yes. Oh, yes. Yes. Anything under 2,000 is considered low volume. Okay. On a on a residential street, that's considered low volume. Yes. The code just changed. It used to be under 400 and it moved up to 2,000 to be called low volume. Okay. We're going to be getting requests for speed bumps a lot, I think. [laughter]

Okay. Commissioner Walsh, you have a question. Yeah. Can you go back to option one too? And I'm trying to see why they tweaked it a little bit. Um, and you said the fire and police were not weren't for either one of these options. Yeah, they'd prefer this option over our endless amount of speed humps or mini circles or the mini circles. They're not happy with many circles. Yeah. Okay, I got you. It's not their preference. the mini circles. Is it are you guys whether it's option one or two I mean the the tweaks in option two you guys are good with those?

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So if you look at let's say if you start on the left hand side on the top approximately 445 in and then 500 you see where that speed hump is versus the communities pick they moved it after that future intersection. That was one of the major ones. And then the next one kind of slides a little bit further. They're very similar. Um, but the community wanted to tweak it a little bit and this is what they preferred. Okay. I just want to make sure they weren't just moving away from their house and in front of somebody else's.

No, you know, we'll try to put them at um property lines when the crews go out. Um, and and there's I think I counted 14 or 17 homes on the south side right now. It's developing a lot more. 14 homes on the south side. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions? Mayor Bertton, you piqu my interest when you talked about threshold changing. So, I was just wondering if you could explain that why it changed from 400 to whatever it is now 2000. Uh, no. I wouldn't be able to explain what the why. I'd have to go research it a little bit more. Okay, that's fine. I remember reading

um for something else that we were looking at and it was saying ultra low volumes were under 400 and then that that had changed just this year to 2,000. Okay. I was just curious. I could look into it for you. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Smallwood. Yeah, that seems like a lot. Um I just had a question. So you said there are no homes on the north side right now. There might be just one all the way on the left side of your screen where the 500 and the 450 is. I think there's one home on that side. I apologize. Do you know when those homes will be developed?

The other ones? Um I did hear planning was out there for another con uh meeting for another home on the north side. It's water and sewer based. Okay. That community was platted probably in the 50s. Um, and the reason it hasn't developed is uh no paved streets in some areas, no water, no sewer. Thank you. And we don't see foresee any issues with the community pick moving down the road when those homes are built, right? No, I don't think so. Okay. Any other comments, questions? Okay. We don't have any public comment for this either. So, thank you.

Thank you. We have she's staying for item number 9F. Conduct a public hearing to close and abandon a portion of West Church Street. All right. So, yes, I have two abandonments. Um, so we're going to start with West Church Street and there is a staff report that I'd like to enter into the record. Um, so just a reminder about the abandonment process. So, the petitioner sends us the town a sealed survey of the area to be abandoned. Um I circulate everything with um the other departments to make sure everyone has seen it. Uh we prepare today like a public hearing and a declaration of our intent to close and it's also posted physically at the location site. So West Church Street, if you know the North Roundabout on 115 church, West Church is between 115 and actually um North Main Street. And on the right side, you'll see the area that I've hatched. That's the area to be abandoned. So for the main street project, part of this parcel was acquired and turned into right ofway. Now the project is finished and we have no need for this as right ofway. So we are going to abandon it. And then um the town owns the parcel to the north. So it will be recombined into that parcel. The area, the total area is around 3,600 square feet. It's really small, not even an acre. Um, and fire, police, the planning department. Didn't have any real comments for this one. Do you have any questions for this one?

Any questions for this one? So, this will essentially just become green space. It'll be uh become a bigger parcel that piece. Yeah, that that will be green for now or treat or whatever we do with it in the future. Okay, [clears throat] any other questions? All right. Um why don't we go with the next one? 9G. Conduct a public hearing to close and abandon a portion of North Church.

All right. So, very close to to uh West Church Street, we have North Church. So, we're still up at the North roundabout, but we're on now the east side of the railroad tracks. And then on the right hand side of my screen, you'll see that we're abandoning um I forgot the total around 350 linear feet if you went straight down Church Street. So the reason why this is being abandoned is because Church Street has been realigned. So it's going to come north and then it's going to have like a hook. Well, it does now because we've closed the road. It will hook over and then it will tee into Walter Street. Walter Street will go straight up and hit Fourth Street now. So, the intersection that used to be Church and Forest Street is now pushed eastward and it will line up with uh Seagull Street. And the total area here, it's larger than the one we were just looking at. So, we're at 13,000 square feet. So, um less than half an acre to be abandoned. Do you have any questions about this one?

Any questions? All right. No questions. No public comments. We'll proceed to item 10A. Consider adopting an order to abandon and close a portion of North Church Street. So, we'll stay here on North Church Street um to abandon around 1300 square feet. Any questions? Do we have a motion for item 10 A? I would like to make a motion that we consider approving, adopting an order to abandon and close a portion of North Church Street.

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 10B, consider adopting an order to abandon and close a portion of West Church Street. Is there a motion? I would like to make a motion to adopt the order to abandon and close a portion of West Church Street's unused rideway and recombine it with the adjacent parcel. Is there a second? I second. Any discussion? Thanks for all your work on this. Thank you.

All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? And the motion carries unanimously. And we are Thank you. We are on to item number 11. Closing comments. Start with you, Mr. Cornet. I just want to thank everybody who put so much hard work into Hello Huntersville. It was a really great success and had fun seeing you all there. Commissioner Walsh, Commissioner Rivers.

Um, on Saturday I had the opportunity and the pleasure of reading the proclamation. um for affordable housing awareness month at the um affordable housing for the Carolina's um affordable housing breakfast. And let me just say that affordable housing crisis is not just a monthly issue. May is just not for that. 365 days a year, this crisis is taking place all over the United States. So, I encourage us as a town board to continue to do the work in imprint and in making sure that our residents are able to afford where they're staying, create affordable housing and opportunities and bring it here into our town, which I know that we can and we're working hard to do so. Commissioner Walsh, thank you for your efforts. And also happy mother's day, early mother's day to all the beautiful mothers out there. Whether you are a biological mother or you are just in the role and you are creating an impactful life for a young person, we appreciate you. Your hard work, your dedication to just making life easier does not go unnoticed. So enjoy your day on Sunday. So gentlemen, I hope y'all get out on the grills and cook or take your love your lovely ladies to dinner. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Prom Hunt. I was just going to say in addition to the awesome job Parks and Rec did with Hello Huntersville, I really enjoyed Earth Day. Um some kids were making seed pollinator bombs and that was a really good time and those kids were super excited about that. Uh, and then also I just wanted to congratulate HFA on their um first 5K in many moons. The mayor and I participated and I don't want to tell anybody their our time because I think that it would just make them feel insufficient. But honestly, um, it was a great time and HFA did a great job. So, keep it up.

Commissioner Corals, Commissioner Smallwood. Yes, I had so much fun at Hello Huntersville and thank you to Parks and Wreck and anyone else that played a part in that. Um, and to our wonderful vendors and it was so fun seeing all of the children singing and all of just the activities that were going on. It was a huge crowd. I was impressed. So, thank you.

Thank you. I want to um also echo Hello Huntersville. I think it showed the best of Huntersville um yesterday. It was really a wonderful event and our town staff worked really hard and I hope they're taking a couple days off to get some rest. I also want to thank Commissioner Rivers for reading the um affordable housing proclamation on Saturday while I was walking in the 5K and um I did not come in last. I just want everyone to know. Um but thank you for doing that. Um and thank you to HFA for hosting that. And also thank you to our staff for coordinating um the first pitch at the Charlotte Knights on Saturday. our communication staff was there um for a long many many hours um showing the best of Huntersville um that evening and it was really cool as well. So um we have a lot going on coming up in the month of May. Happy Mother's Day. Um and keep an eye out what we're doing here. And now may I have a motion to adjurnn?

Motion to ajourn. And is there a second? I'll second it. Any discussion? All those in favor please raise your hand. Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously. We're journ