Town Board - Regular Meeting

good evening everyone we are going to call our may 19th meeting to order we always begin our evening with a moment of silence this is also the time that i remind everyone to silence your cell phones so please do that now before we have our moment of silence and now if you'll join me in a moment of silence thank you 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

MS. ESCOBAR, ANNOUNCEMENTS?

GOOD EVENING, BOARD. WE WANTED TO SHARE THE MANDATORY WATER RESTRICTIONS. CHARLOTTE WATER HAS IMPLEMENTED MANDATORY WATER RESTRICTIONS DUE TO ONGOING DRY CONDITIONS. THE MANDATORY RESTRICTIONS AFFECT AT HOME, VEHICLE WASHING, FILLING RESIDENTIAL POOLS, POWER WASHING, IRRIGATION AND MORE. THESE RESTRICTIONS STARTED ON FRIDAY, MAY 15. FOR MORE INFORMATION, A FULL LIST OF RESTRICTIONS, THEY ARE LISTED ON OUR WEBSITE AT HUNTERSVILLE.ORG AND AT CHARLOTTE WATER.ORG. Because of that, due to the current water restrictions, the splash pad at North Mecklenburg Park will remain closed until the restrictions are lifted. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. And we have three terms on the planning board that are expiring in June. Residents who wish to serve are encouraged to apply. The deadline to apply is Sunday, May 31st, and you can find that on huntersville.org. And our Huntersville Police Department have a couple of events coming up that we'd like you to participate in. There's a Touch a Truck event during the Grower's Market at Veterans Park from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on May 23rd. And on June 5th, the Red Cross Blood Drive will be at HPD from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. And Budget Buzz, join us this Thursday at Town Hall for a drop-in budget event. The event will be in the lobby from 6 to 7 p.m. Staff will be on hand to answer any questions you may have about the budget. Register and view the proposed budget on huntersville.org. And also you can join us, the town of Huntersville, the American Legion Post 321 and the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 321 is honoring the people who have given their lives to defend this nation at the 25th Annual Memorial Day Ceremony. The ceremony includes speeches and special music and is free and open to the public. It'll be on Monday, May 25th at 11 a.m. in Veterans Park, which is 201 Huntersville Concord Road.

We have a couple of proclamations this evening. I'm going to start with our Affordable Housing Awareness Month proclamation that Commissioner Rivers had previously read at a breakfast about affordable housing. So whereas housing is a fundamental human right essential to the well-being and stability of individuals and families, and according to the Development Finance Initiative's Huntersville Housing Needs Assessment, nearly one in four households in Huntersville are low to moderate income And whereas the rising cost of living and limited affordable housing options place immense financial pressure on households, particularly those with low to moderate incomes, leading to challenges in securing safe, stable, and affordable homes. And whereas over 80% of the low to moderate income households in Huntersville are cost burdened, overcrowded, lack complete kitchen facilities, or lack complete plumbing, according to the Huntersville Housing Needs Assessment, and whereas it is of the utmost importance to not only prioritize the development of new affordable housing, but to preserve the current affordable housing stock in our community, and whereas we must all come together to address this issue by engaging in activities that promote affordable housing solutions and improve residents' quality of life. Now, therefore, I, Christy Clark, Mayor of Huntersville, do hereby reclaim May as Affordable Housing Awareness Month in Huntersville, North Carolina. And my second one is very special. It's a proclamation for National Public Works Week. So Steve and Kevin, come on over. Whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure facilities and services that are of vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities, to the public health, high quality of life, and well-being of the people of Huntersville, And whereas these infrastructure facilities and services cannot be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are engineers, managers, employees at all levels of government and the private sector who are responsible for rebuilding, improving, and protecting our nation's transportation, water supply, water treatment, and solid waste systems, public buildings, and other structures and facilities essential for our citizens. and whereas it is in the public interest for the citizens, civic leaders, and children in Huntersville to gain knowledge and to maintain a progressive interest in understanding of the importance of public works and public works programs in their respective communities. Now, therefore, I, Christy Clark, Mayor of Huntersville, do hereby proclaim the week of May 17th to May 23rd as National Public Works Week in Huntersville, North Carolina. Thanks. You guys want to come over and get this?

Thank you very much.

Thank you. The next item on our agenda is a presentation from Discovery Place Kids Huntersville. And we have Miss Nikki Hill, who's here to present.

Thank you so much. And thank you for having us today. We are always very excited to come and have the opportunity to provide an update to you. I am Dr. Nikki Hill. I'm the Chief Learning Officer at Discovery Place. And we have come to you before to talk about our current renovation that we are under. So I am going to start this. And I don't think I've ever been in charge of the little technology here. Is that it? Did I cut it all off? Oh wait, here. So why am I here today? I'm here to talk about the renovation progress at Discovery Place Kids, Huntersville. and to preview what's ahead and how the community can get involved and be engaged. But the real reason that I'm here and probably the most important is to remind you that we are certainly committed to the work that we do here in Huntersville. You know that this was our first children's museum 15 years ago. opening in twenty ten two point four million visitors since that time one million member visits two hundred and eight thousand welcome visits reminding you that welcome is our program for uh... families on snap week in medicaid so we try to make it very accessible for families to come and visit us and also 150,000 student visits. The biggest part about this renovation is that we are there serving thousands of families every single year. We continue to do that. And with the longstanding town partnership of Huntersville, there's no other place that we'd want to be. but to continue this partnership with you. So we are so excited to have been able to invest in this renovation. You've been in that space. You know how loved it is and how much our kids love it. And so after 15 years, of course, you have the opportunity to refresh and bring some new excitement into that space. Our current timeline is, and this is very high level, so right now we have completed our exhibit design and we are more into the detail design. and fabrication. We will have a temporary closure in January through April. That's about the time frame that we will bring all of the new exhibits in and make sure that everything's looking really good and nice for you by the end of April. We don't have a specific date for that yet, but right after our annual Noon Years at Noon program on Noon Years, we will begin to close at that time. Now, we are not just going to shut down and not do anything because the community part is really important to us. So during that time, we'll do a lot of outreach. We will go into different communities, provide pop-up opportunities. I know that if you remember, and some of you may remember the characters, it's a secret. that we're going to be bringing into Huntersville, and it's really the star of the show. And so during that time, the children and the families will be able to experience that, especially here in Huntersville, and then they will welcome them whenever we reopen in April. So this is Discovery Place today. Again, it looks beautiful. If you walk in there, we can cover all of the things. I think our staff back there in all the purple, they have all of the opportunity and the tape and all of the things to make sure that we keep it moving and looking good. But where we're going is the opportunity to create more experiences and more excitement and really get kids excited about their own children's museum. So some of the things, the most beloved pieces that we'll change are the water table. It will have an expanded opportunity to really bring in the community and the community interest and what the community and who we serve in that space we're also expanding the footprint at the climber you know that is the most number one love piece in that building and we will expand that three times said three times its current footprint which will allow us the opportunity to provide more character-based learning grit, resilience, teamwork, all of the pieces that really make good humans. That is what we're trying to invest and embed into this renovation. We've also added some exciting opportunities that are specific to Huntersville, and this is made possible through the Lilly Endowment. As you remember, which is why it took us a little bit longer on this process, we were awarded that opportunity through the Lilly endowment to embed character education throughout our museum and so we took that opportunity to really revamp who are we as a kids network who are we trying to focus on and what do we want to make sure that our kids walk away from so you will see a lot of that embedded into this new renovation This is our current floor plan. 15 years ago, none of us were here during that time. And so we've had the opportunity to really look at the accessibility throughout the space. How can we make the sight lines better? How can we make our parents and our families and kids feel safer in that space? And so we have been able to do that through this renovation. We call it reimagined. So we have changed a little bit of the landscape inside the museum so that you have a little more access throughout the space. We made it make sense. So we made the connections between the grocery store farm to table. We made the connections between the community art process and the community and what we serve here in the community. We will bring in murals that really talk about and replicate what we stand for here in the Huntersville community with those voices and the focus groups that we've been able to have. So we really feel like this is a really exciting time and there's a lot of opportunity for multi-generational engagement, figuring out how do we bring in those older audiences, older siblings to really engage because this is what they have. This is the opportunity for that advanced learning. This is the climber, so this is just a sneak peek. If you know the space, looking right here to the right, that is the footprint of the existing climber, and now you can see that it's three times that space. So it's very exciting, it's a beautiful climber, it's one of a kind, and it will be specific to this Huntersville location. the next one is a story lab this is uh... will go into the second floor this is also specific to the huntersville location also one of a kind this is bringing in the science the math the literacy the language and also that how do we be a good human how do we build that into all of our kids and our families so a lot of opportunity for for engagement uh... to really focus on not only learning but how do you play to learn that's one of the biggest pieces really focusing on how do we engage to the play again and i'm going to throw that back to you guys whenever we open because you got to come in and remember that it's still all about play as we get older i have to remember that now uh... we are very excited to announce our new fundraising campaign for this project is called our place to discover uh... which is really exciting to me because remember the last time we talked about the community investment and how we want to make sure that everyone throughout the community knows that this is their museum it's not about us it's about making sure that we're serving every family in every community in huntersville and all of the surrounding locations and that's where those millions of people came from not only just in your backyard here, but throughout the whole Charlotte, Mecklenburg, and beyond areas. uh... if you want to get involved in this opportunity you can go to discovery place kids huntersville website there's opportunity for you to you know have conversations with us participating committee uh... discussions talk about reopening celebrations and also with that hand print and i won't promise you a hand print hand prints are really difficult robert back there he's in our our uh... Advancement Office, he would hurt me if I said that there were some specific things, so I will not say that. But there will be an opportunity to have a memory left in that museum during this renovation process. This is just a reminder that what we're there for is to spark, spark curiosity, spark learning, spark excitement, spark the awe and the wow. And we use this not only as a learning philosophy, but as a template of who we are, what we're trying to achieve. And through the renovation process, this is how we've come to answer the call of making sure that we're sparking imagination and curiosity every single day. Looking ahead, we hope that this renovation will be not only the first one, but we hope that we'll have another one coming afterwards with a phase two. We had referenced that before, making sure that we have the opportunity to bring in some more of the STEM opportunities, learning multigenerational, and expanding that age bracket. This time we're focused on accessibility, making sure that we're pulling in all of those content areas and really embedding the character education and advancement of our work. And I'll take any questions at this time.

uh... good evening uh... well i don't have any question well now i do have to get back but first i want to commend you for uh... keeping us abreast as to the updates with the discovery place kids uh... discovery place kids is a staple for the town of huntersville so thank you uh... when you came to us a couple years ago and you see it you know you had some fresh new ideas that were coming we were excited to hear and see and now we're hearing and we're seeing and we are anticipating this new Discovery Place kids. So thank you for that. Thank you. You had on your slide your advisory council. Who or what is your advisory council? Who's a part of that or how do you become a part of your advisory council? And is it open for residents to be a part of the advisory council?

We can certainly do that. Right now, the Advisory Council consists of community partners that we've engaged and worked with over the years. Ada Jenkins is here. She's here to support us. We work with them quite often. Charlotte Literacy Program is with us, Smart Start, CMS. There's quite a few other, the elementary school across the street from us. There's a lot of community partners. We want to engage as many as we can. So that's one thing that's really big for us is the more voices we hear, the more impact we can have. And so if there's an opportunity or something that we can put on the website, we would absolutely engage that to have those conversations. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other questions?

Dr. Hill, I want to thank you so much for your presentation and thank you all for being here today. And it really shows that you are really committed to what you do for the Discovery Place kids, but not only for the Discovery Place kids, but for our community. You mentioned community partnerships several times, and that is very important. Everything is built on relationships, whether it's good or bad. And I think the Discovery Place kids offer a good relationship. when you first met with us and laid your plan out. I'm very impressed with the way you are today with this. As we revitalize our downtown, I see that the audience will change as far as coming downtown, so our different parents bringing their children to downtown. I see economic impact there. We can't see how much money you've got to bring to us, but again, common sense will say that if you're bringing more people, more business, it's going to really feed into our small businesses. I also met with you and our chief of fire, who has also been very engaging as well as with some of your renovations and projects, so that was very impressive. So again, and I've also talked to my board members. I'm impressed, and I'm happy to say that I think we have the majority of our board here want to do whatever it takes to support discover police kids keep you guys in huntersville i pray that that that doesn't change but again uh... as i talk to each of them uh... i've gotten very positive feedback from at least the majority of our board so continue to do what you're doing for us thank you thank you so much i appreciate all of your support always thank you thank you nikki next item on our agenda is 5e update on the huntersville safety action plan

Good evening, Board. I'm Heather Maloney with the Planning Department. I wanted to introduce our speaker tonight, John Koch with Bolton and Menk, who's our principal in charge. He'll be presenting on our Safety Action Plan, which is a roadway safety study of the streets in Huntersville. It's funded through a Safe Streets for All grant from the federal government we got $240,000 to do this study and our local match is provided in kind by staff time and contributions so with that I'll leave it to John thank you Heather

uh... board uh... thanks for this time uh... brian said keep it under five minutes from the speed through this as heather said uh... this is a federal program uh... that does look like it's going to get reauthorized releases in the reauthorization bill uh... but designed to reduce fatalities and serious injuries on hunters bills street network and that does not include i seventy seven uh... but everything else uh... and it's looking at at how to everything from safer roads to safer vehicles speeds but also post crash care and how we respond when their crashes to risk reduce serious indoor injuries uh... and fatalities the the action plan process is established by the federal grant Includes these elements and we'll come back to that Commitment and goal setting which has sort of a bit of future homework for you all But it includes these steps which we'll talk a bit about When the town has completed this process it does make you eligible for additional federal funding for for implementation And we'll talk a little bit about that These are the major steps. We're already into the data collection and analysis phase and beginning public engagement and beginning to identify potential projects to be recommended through the plan. There's a steering committee that includes your town departments. And we are working with staff on developing a demonstration grant application that will be submitted concurrent with the project. Public engagement has already begun. We'll tell you a little bit about that, but you can see points on the map where people have indicated safety problems, and you can see a lot of dots around downtown here, but also along the major corridors, places that you'd expect to see them. Some major trends from public engagement, emphasis on bicycle and pedestrian needs, speeding, reckless driving, cut through traffic, and enforcement. This is looking at historic crash analysis over the past five years for which we have data. You can see hotspots along the major corridors and at some of the major intersections. Beatty's Ford Road stands out and will be the focus of part of the demonstration grant that the town is working on. So next steps. In addition to looking back, we're also going to be looking forward into places that haven't maybe had a crash but could have a crash based on roadway characteristics. We've initiated a policy audit looking at your ordinances, your TIA recommendations or your TIA requirements. your traffic calming policy. So those will be part of our recommendations in addition to actual projects. We will be doing a safety audit on a couple of the key corridors and some additional public engagement. So what we will be coming back to you all for later in the process is one of the requirements the feds put in place is that the town board make a policy commitment to reducing fatal and serious injury crashes on the roadway by a certain date and that so you know whatever that date is that you all are comfortable with um that's that will be the commitment that you all will put in writing at the end of the process so um that's all that i have and i think we're able to take questions does anyone have questions great thank you so much thank you

All right, we have a few public comments this evening. Ed McCormick. We have three minutes. If you could just come up to the podium, please.

I'm happy to be following the traffic safety guy.

Because that's what I always come here to talk about. I like your new digs, by the way. My name is Ed McCormick. I'm a resident of Huntersville, live in the Northbrook development on Bankfire Road. Tonight you have an important vote coming up on R25-16, I think it is. It's the development at Sam Fur and Old Statesville, the grocery store, the whole multi-use complex. I missed the opportunity on public comments, but I did wanna come in tonight and urge you all to vote the big N-O on that development, but not forever. N-O, not for now. The rationale for this is the corridor of Sanford between Oak Farm Road and the railroad track is already approved for eight additional buildings on the south side. One of them's already started, about half done. That's the daycare. Those eight buildings will house up to 15 new businesses as they come into play, and all of that traffic in and out on Sam Fur. This new development, the only way you can get on that property is via Sam Fur Road. So all construction, all materials in, all workers in, all logs out, everything that's gonna happen on that property has to have Sam Fur egress between the railroad tracks and Oak Farm Road. We've also now got, I believe, approval for the new warehouse on McCord Road, the old Huntersville hardwood location. So if you look at the Oak Farm Road on Samfer up to Old Statesville, Old Statesville to McCord, McCord to Retreat and Maple Branch, we're creating a concurrent construction corridor nightmare And to top it off, they're planning on doing heavy work to Sam Fur Road. So imagine Sam Fur under construction with all of these projects happening concurrently. I think it's going to create an incredible jam point safety issue and basically quality of life living in Huntersville for a period of time that could be up to three years, because that's about how long it's gonna take to do that road project. My request is, If we want to build that development, let's just do it. Let's just not do it now. Let's wait till SAMFR is about 70% done, and then start doing that major project before we add to the eight that have already been approved, and maybe nine if you count the one on McCord, because there's only four roads that gets you there, and two of them are residential, and we're already swamped with cut-through traffic and construction trucks, and all I see is nothing but many, many more for years to come. So I'm not against development, but I really think this one's coming at a bad time for the Sam Fur Corridor, and I think it needs to be delayed until we're ready to handle that kind of an intervention. So that was my point for tonight, appreciate it.

Thank you. And Charles Knox, you have three minutes.

Madam Mayor, members of the board, I appreciate the prior gentleman's points, but I guess I'll do the counterpoint. The property has a zoning in place now that is a conditional use zoning for industrial buildings. to the tune of around 670,000 square feet based on what we can calculate. That's not what we want to see develop there. My family, along with three other families, the Kellys, the Brothertons, and the Altons, all of whom have very, very deep roots in this community, have owned that property for quite a while. It was approved for the conditional use back in 1995. About the same time, I joined the... chamber, at the time North Mecklenburg Chamber and became the transportation chair and got on the business committee for regional transportation solutions. I'm sorry to give you a long history lesson, but part of the group, there were I think 13 chambers throughout the region, part of their work helped develop the hub and spoke plan, which is The red line is part of that thing that we started 30-some years ago. I realized that this project shouldn't be for Huntersville that intensive an industrial project necessarily, but I do think that could be an option and could be developed sooner at the time. The plan before you tonight is the culmination of hundreds of hours of work and hundreds of thousands of dollars of investment by WRS and residential developers who are partnering with them. They worked hard to revise over and over and arrive at a plan that the planning board approved and we believe hopefully tonight the staff will support. I'm asking for you to vote in support as well. It addresses the stated goal of being a mixed-use project that provides critical road connections paralleling 115. One of the issues we do have is 115 is the only north-south road. Part of this plan provides a parallel road to connect going north. It also includes roughly 30 affordable housing units, which as you mentioned earlier, Mayor, is a key factor for the town. It also adds to the trail system, part of the thread trail. Our four families do not want to be faced with the only choice being industrial development. However, if the project fails tonight, I'm going to have a hard time convincing another developer to come in here and bring a mixed-use project to the town. worked with the town and over and over and over and over and invested thousands and thousands of dollars and It gets turned down. I don't think that's the message the town wants to send that it's anti-growth anti-development.

Thank you Thank You mr. Knox Rob coat You have three minutes

thank you board thank you mayor mayor pro tem you have been very kind to listen to our concerns over the past two three four months i'm here to ask you to decide no on the rezoning for uh dash in at the corner of statesville road and hambright road There are many reasons why I feel this is not a good decision. However, I think tonight, with the limited time, I'll focus on safety. Safety is that we are located 100 feet from this area. Also, it is right adjacent to the Colonial Pipeline. Colonial Pipeline does not have any sophisticated system to really check and monitor what happens with their pipelines. Today, I wanted to read a few things while I have your attention. obviously we all know about what happened six miles from our homes that cleanup is still in progress the amount of cleanup and dollars associated with that is beyond reasonable we also have other instances that we have determined i would like to read for just a moment uh... the colonial gas line pipe fire uh... this was in october uh... they had a thirty six inch below ground transmission gas line pipeline there is not a gas station anywhere near close had there been it would have been a disaster uh... furthermore If we look at the statistics that are available to us, okay, right now for the number of pipeline issues that have been happening in states include LA, they had 23, but North Carolina had 15. Barrels released were 383 barrels. to the tune of 3.4 million in cleanup, and that did not include the 2001, or I'm sorry, the recent impact six miles from us. I'm sorry, I don't know the date. That number of 15 is only second to Los Angeles They do not have a sophisticated way to check their pipeline I do not want to live on Or near this pipeline when we're putting in a gas station. We're right next to all these schools There's got to be a better way or a better place to put this gas station Thank you for your time Thank you, sir

That concludes our public comments. Now do we have a motion to make changes to our agenda?

I make a motion to remove item 11D from the agenda.

Is there a second?

I second.

Any discussion?

Is that the item that some of the board got an email on?

Yes, that is consider approving nonprofit funding agreement for rebuilding together of greater Charlotte Inc. The attorneys requested we remove it to do further review on the agreement.

Okay. Yeah, I wasn't on the original email, so okay.

Yeah.

All right.

Thank you. All right. All those in favor, raise your hand. Any opposed? The motion carries with one opposition. Now may I have a motion to adopt the amended agenda?

I would like to make a motion that we approve the amended, adopted agenda tonight. And is there a second?

A second.

Any discussion? I will say that I was a little disappointed that I was left off of the initial email in regards to rebuilding together. That was my reasoning for not voting to amend the approval of that. But I understand that we have to ensure that we are covering all of our bases. So I just wanted to make mention of that. So that was my reasoning. Thank you.

All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? And the motion carries unanimously. And now I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda.

I make a motion to adopt the consent agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Item number 10A, conduct a public hearing on the proposed budget for fiscal year 2027. Anthony Roberts.

All right, thank you, Mayor. Before we have the public hearing, I assume you'd want me to do a presentation, and I'm sure all these people in the audience are here to talk about the budget. So I look forward to them all getting up here and speaking. So I will make my presentation pretty quick. You've seen these numbers quite a few times. Go ahead and keep moving. and I'll hit the numbers very high level again public hearing tonight a total budget is roughly 140 million what I would say a change it is we talked about the last session we had on May 4th you'll see in here is the second bullet point where we have added a business economic development manager for a half year starting January 1 this includes everything from computer to phone to what we anticipate the salary would be for half a year. And then also I sent you some information on that, what that could look like from other towns, et cetera. So that's what you see that is new in here. Keep going. Slide two, just no changes to the tax rate. I'm sure that's what everybody wants to hear is tax rate stay at 22.75. Vehicle fee stays the same. Stormwater fee stays the same. Keep going. Other fee changes that are part of the budget, one change that we've talked about is the solid waste fee. You can see that the solid waste fee is changing. We are proposing to move that to 270 so that citizens pick up the total solid waste fee. There are also increases in which is renewable energy. You see that typically every year. the renewable energy portfolio program. You can get more details on page 221 of the budget. And also land development fees. There are certain categories that we're proposing to go up in the land development fees. We're still under what the county charges for these fees. We compare to those, look at those, but our fees are much less than what the county charges for the other towns in Mecklenburg County. Keep going. Then from a personal operating side, I won't read all the positions, 19 new positions in here in various departments. If you recall, we talked about electric cities, which we own for the public out there, we put that out there. We own the poles, we own the lines, we own the trucks, we own the buildings for the service area that is Huntersville or Electricity, Huntersville Electric. We will actually be bringing those employees in-house so we can provide hopefully a much better service. And then from our Merritt and Kohler, you see what we're proposing for the Merritt and Kohler, 6% combined. And then from operation side of things, sidewalk repairs from operating expenditures to solid waste expenditures and uh continue the attainable housing and also we will continue to supplement hffa of roughly 439 000. from a capital and debt funding we have roughly 34 million in cip that are paid for by various revenue sources fund balance payback transportation reserve from operating capital which typically deals with vehicles and equipment roughly 2 million A lot more details on page 90 of the budget. No new debt issuance. Debt service is declining slightly. However, we are starting Fire Station 5 off of Rhomba Church, but those debt service payments wouldn't hit until FY28. uh... other funds uh... we talked about transportation reserves some of those funds will be going towards gillette roads west uh... commerce stations business park we have a business park that's jointly owned by uh... huntersville corneas and davidson where we share in the revenue expenses minimal change there from the electric side of things i told you we're bringing those personnel in house even the power the town's cost of power is increasing this year We are holding the rates, the electric rates the same except for the reps riders, which is renewable energy. But next year, we will probably come back to you with a proposed rate increase. As we continue to grow, build redundancy in the system, we'll continue to look at that. And then HFFA is a decrease of roughly 82,000. payback folks are familiar hopefully with the payback which is the new per new 1% sales tax that starts July 2026 we did a conservative budgeting of six months of revenue those are spelled out in the payback of what you can use those funds for typically roads sidewalks those type things there are other definitions that they can be used for ie like a parking deck we will be initiating using those funds on an additional parking deck behind town hall. We will continue to use those funds on road type projects and throughout our CIP we've got hundreds of millions of dollars worth of CIP projects and road projects and sidewalk projects in our CIP. Next steps, if you would like to read the 224-page budget document, I would tell you not. I would focus on the manager's message, roughly seven pages. I think you'll get a highlight overview there. And then upcoming this Thursday, 6 p.m., Budget to Buzz, right here at Budget Buzz, right here at Town Hall. I'll kind of give you a flavor of what's in the budget and what's going on, and then propose to come back to the board June 2nd, hopefully for adoption. Very high-level, quick overview. I know we've got other things. You're probably tired of hearing me talk about it. Tax rate stays the same. I'm open for any questions.

Thank you for the update. At our previous meeting, one of my colleagues brought up the economic development manager position. He wasn't part of any of the previous boards, so we don't have anyone preselected for these positions, do we? Okay, so this will be a great opportunity to have some diversity with our management team, making it look more like Huntersville.

Any other questions, comments? We don't have any public comments for this item, so we can proceed to item 10B. Conduct a public hearing on petition annex 26-01, a request by Cambridge Prosperity LLC.

Good evening, Mayor, Commissioners. Thank you very much. Oh, would help if I move the slide forward, wouldn't it? This is for annexation 2601 on Eastfield Road. The applicant is Cambridge Prosperity LLC. It is for a 7.4 acre site. It is related to a previous rezoning, rezoning 1918 for Huntersville Market, the revision to it. This is creating Huntersville Market West. It should be noted that this is a non-contiguous annexation. And at this time, I will take any questions you may have for me. Any questions?

All right, we also do not have any public comment for this one, so we will proceed to item 10C. Conduct a public hearing on petition annex 26-03, request by Ewart Bowman, LLC.

Hello again. This is for Annex 2603 on Rama Church Road. This is a contiguous annexation request. The applicant is Ewart Bowman LLC for a roughly four acre site. This is related to a minor subdivision that will create three new lots. And with that, I will take any questions you may have for me.

Board, any questions? We also did not have public comment for this one either, so thank you very much.

Thank you.

We're on to item 11A, consider adopting an ordinance on petition annex 26-03, a request by Ewart Bowman. Don't go very far.

Hello, this is for annexation 2603 on Rama Church Road. Applicant is Ewer Bowman, four acres, minor subdivision, three new lots, contiguous. Staff has determined that all statutory requirements have been met and so they do recommend approval of this annexation request. And at this time I'll take any questions you have for me.

Any questions or is there a motion?

I make a motion to adopt an ordinance or a petition to annex 26-03, a request by Eric Bowman, LLC, to annex a contiguous parcel on Rama Church Road with the Mecklenburg County parcel ID number 01116101, comprising plus or minus 4.763 acres into the town of Huntersville.

And is there a second?

I second.

Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously. And number 11B, consider adopting ordinance on petition Annex 26.01, a request by Cambridge Prosperity LLC.

Thank you again. This is for Annex 2601 on Eastfield Road. This is the non-contiguous annexation request. The applicant is Cambridge Prosperity LLC, 7.4 acres. And this is the revision to the Huntersville Market rezoning, which will create Huntersville Market West. Again, staff recommends approval of this non-contiguous annexation request if they have found all statutory requirements have been met. Thank you.

Any questions or is there a motion?

I move to approve annexation petition number 2601, a request for the non-contiguous annexation of approximately 6.98 acres located on Eastfield Road, identified as parcel ID 0211.

911 into the town of huntersville and is there a second second any discussion all those in favor please raise your hand any opposed the motion carries unanimously thank you thank you Item number 11C, consider approving non-profit funding agreement for Lake Norman Community Development Corporation. You're in the hot seat today.

Thank you very much again. So for fiscal years 25 and 26, the board has graciously provided or allocated funds to support affordable housing initiatives, and we've started calling it the Affordable Housing Fund. The Lake Norman Community Development Corporation is a local nonprofit partner of the towns to provide affordable housing within Huntersville. They are coming before you for a $30,000 request that supports their rental bridge program, and this would come out of that affordable housing fund. Chris Fountain, the CEO of Lake Norman CDC, is here, and we'll go more into the request and what the program is and all of that. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. I'd like to first of all thank Becca for that introduction and just like to acknowledge Mayor Clark and the commissioners as well as the town staff. Thank you so much for recognizing affordable housing awareness month. I stand here not just for myself, but for all nonprofits. As Commissioner Quarles has already eloquently stated, it's all about relationships and it's all about collaboration. And so there's not one nonprofit organization that can meet the need that we have in this region. And so we're just one small part of that. That being said, I guess I better introduce myself. According to my birth certificate, I'm Chris Fountain. And I serve as the CEO and affordable housing advocate for Lake Norman CDC. Lake Norman CDC is a nonprofit organization, community development corporation, and we serve Huntersville, Cornelius, and Davidson. Our mission is to provide diverse affordable and attainable housing opportunities for moderate income households and to instill hope and strengthen and strengthen the community through impactful programs services and initiatives. Lake Norman CDC has submitted a $30,000 grant request to the town to expand the reach and impact of our rental bridge program. The rental bridge program provides short-term rental assistance to cost burden households in Huntersville, particularly renters. This support is paired with required financial education designed to build long-term financial capacity rather than dependency. Why this investment? The Lake Norman CDC has already, through all three of our programs, we've already served nearly 100 families in just three years, with Huntersville residents representing a significant share of those that we support across this region. More specifically, we have helped 17 Huntersville families through our rental bridge and critical home repair programs. that's six rental bridge families that we've helped through at huntersville and 11 critical home repair families and the investment has been more than 66 000 in direct assistance to these huntersville residents TO BE CLEAR, WHEN I SAY CRITICAL HOME REPAIR FUNDING PROGRAM, WE DO NOT DO THE ACTUAL CRITICAL HOME REPAIR, BUT WE ACTUALLY SUPPORT THOSE MISSION-DRIVEN NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS THAT DO, LIKE HABITAT CHARLOTTE REGION, LIKE THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING OF THE CAROLINAS, POTTSTOWN HERITAGE GROUP, AND OTHERS. So I just want to make that clear. The rental bridge program, however, is what we were specifically talking about in the grant, and it is intentionally designed to build long-term stability, not dependency. Participants are carefully screened and enrolled. Their approved households receive up to $500 per month in rental assistance. Participants are required to complete financial coaching education to strengthen long-term self-sufficiency. Support is provided for up to 12 months with the opportunity to extend for an additional 12 months for those who continue to meet program requirements and demonstrate progress. THE RENTAL BRIDGE PROGRAM IS A HAND UP AND NOT A HAND OUT. IT IS A TEMPORARY SUPPORT, RENTAL SUPPORT THAT'S PAIRED WITH FINANCIAL COACHING, ACCOUNTABILITY AND MEASURABLE OUTCOMES. WHAT ARE THOSE MEASURABLE OUTCOMES? I'M SO GLAD YOU GUYS ASKED. Well, this is, we unapologetically track our outcomes and our impact when it comes to our programs, all of our programs, and this is something that we do not only as a staff but as a board. The results for the rental bridge program are quite clear. Rental bridge program graduates achieve meaningful progress, and as you see on the screen, for example, those that graduated, they increased their credit score by 56 points. They increased their savings by $2,000, and they reduced their personal debt by $4,200. THESE OUTCOMES DEMONSTRATE THE STRENGTH OF A MODEL THAT COMBINES SHORT-TERM ASSISTANCE WITH LONG-TERM FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT, HELPING FAMILIES MOVE BEYOND CRISIS TOWARDS LASTING STABILITY. THE RENTAL BRIDGE PROGRAM IS DESIGNED TO SUPPORT HARD WORKING, COST-BURDEN RENTERS EARNING ANYWHERE FROM 50% TO 100% AMI. I affectionately refer to this group as the missing middle because oftentimes this is the group that typically does not qualify for traditional assistance yet are still living paycheck to paycheck. And the vast majority of them are paying more than 30% of their household income towards rent, if not 50%. so if fully awarded the lake norman cdc could directly stabilize and support approximately five to eight huntersville households uh with the funding depending on the length of eligibility helping families move toward a sustainable housing cost target of paying no more than 30 percent of their household income toward rent while simultaneously learning through the financial education classes how to save, manage, and ultimately grow their income. I LIKE TO PUBLICLY THANK BECCA WHO HAS, AS WELL AS BRIAN AND EVEN BOBBY WHO HAVE MET WITH ME ON A MONTHLY BASIS AND THEY HEAR ME WITH ALL THESE ALL CRAZY IDEAS THAT I HAVE IN TERMS OF HOW WE CAN HELP AND SO I JUST WANT TO THANK THEM AND THEIR COORDINATION AND THEIR EFFORT BECAUSE IT'S REALLY GIVEN ME INSIGHT AS WELL AS OUR BOARD INSIGHT ON HOW WE CAN ACTIVELY SUPPORT AND COMPLIMENT THE TOWN'S AFFORDABLE HOUSING GOALS AND STRATEGIES. What would happen without funding, it would impact and possibly even diminish what we can do. One of the things when I talk and I serve so many people and they come and we get so many phone calls, I get calls on Saturdays and Sundays where people are calling because they're saying like, hey, we need help. Everyday expenses are outpacing wages, especially with the high cost of fuel and gas. The consequences are real. More working families will face displacement or be forced to leave the very community where they live, work, and contribute. I'll close with this. Approving our grant request will keep more Huntersville families stably housed, protect the workforce and deliver measurable outcomes because preventing displacement is one of the most cost effective strategies the town can fund. Thank you for your time. Any questions?

Thank you so much. I appreciate that. I was wondering if off the top of your head, I'm putting you on the spot, so I apologize, if you have an idea of the average or range of income that these individual, I mean not income, I'm sorry, rental cost that they're spending each month.

Yeah, great question, Mayor. Just off the top of my head, particularly for Huntersville, you're looking at a one-bedroom apartment. It's anywhere from $1,500 to $1,800. At a two-bedroom apartment, it goes up a little bit north, like around $2,000 to $23,000. And then three-bedroom is like anywhere from $23,000 on up.

Thank you so much.

And just to kind of add to that, that basically means that someone, based off what HUD says in terms of what is affordable, meaning if it's 30% or less of their income, that means that a person would have to actually make about $78,000 a year in order for them to make that more like a reasonable amount of rent.

Thank you, I appreciate that. Any other questions?

want to say we just shouldn't focus on rental properties uh... i'm aware that you all have have another organization that general like eighty plus years old near the roof uh... it rains and water was coming out of the home causing other problems inside the home as well as some other low-income families that needed electrical work and things of that nature. So when we look at the programs and how you guys assist other people, there are some people within Huntersville that are really struggling, and this is our senior class, and they just can't afford it. They only have fixed income, and you can't afford a roof. You can't get your electrical work or have bad piping and things of that nature. So I want to commend you guys for what you do. Thank you.

Any other comments or questions?

I just want to say thank you for your presentation and for all that you do. Thank you.

Well, first, thank you so much. I've gotten your emails in regards to monthly updates. Thank you for that as well. I will say that when we're talking about affordable housing, again, this is a part of affordable housing. making sure that people are able to stay where they work and they serve. And that is what we, the Town of Huntersville, want. So thank you again for your effort and for coming to us. Definitely appreciate you and all your hard work and your efforts within the Town of Huntersville. So thank you.

Thank you.

Are we ready for a motion?

I make a motion to approve a nonprofit funding agreement that would appropriate $30,000 to the Lake Norman Community Development Corporation rental bridge program to provide rental assistance to residents at risk of housing instability here in Huntersville.

And is there a second? I second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? And the motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

It feels like a big deal, it does. Not me, not me. The people are gonna help. Thank you.

It feels like a big deal, it does. Okay, we are on to item 11E, new item 11E, which is consider a decision on petition R25-14, a request by Dash Inn Food Stores. Oops, nope, I lied, 11D. Nevermind, disregard all that and talk about, consider a decision on traffic calming on Platten Avenue.

YES.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND COMMISSIONERS. SO OUR LAST MEETING, WE HAD THE PUBLIC HEARING FOR THE TRAFFIC CALMING ON PLATTON DRIVE, PLATTON AVENUE, AND I'M JUST GOING TO GIVE YOU A QUICK RECAP HERE. SO PLATTON AVENUE IS ON THE SOUTHWEST CORNER QUADRANT OF TOWN OF HUNTERSVILLE. IT IS ROUGHLY 2500 FEET LONG. IT IS OFF OF HAMBRIGHT ON ONE SIDE AND THEN IT INTERSECTS INTO O'HARE STREET ON THE OTHER SIDE. It is pretty narrow. It's a 20-foot wide road, ditch section both sides. Most of the homes are on the south side right now. All right, so here are the results, a summary of the results. These numbers are pretty high. They're above our threshold per the policy, and so that warranted to go to physical measures, and we've decided to go to speed humps as an option. When we were talking about this we started talking about the ADT of 400 to 500 and I had mentioned that that was pretty low and I think that was a bit of a shock and then I had said that the threshold the Guidelines had changed now low volume is 2,000 vehicles And Mayor Pro Tem had asked me if I could figure out the reasoning for it And I was unable to figure out the why to it, but that's what it is now So under 2000 is considered low for the guidelines, but I do want to make sure that I didn't mislead you The policy does not have a volume threshold So the policy just says it has to be a town road has to be residential street under 25 miles per hour, it doesn't matter how many vehicles are on that street. So now we'll just go ahead and look at option one. We had it spaced, equally spaced speed humps, four speed humps. Here's option two. In the agenda packet that was sent out, there was an error. The title block says three humps, but the image of four humps, the correct number is four. This was the community's pick. The spacing is slightly different than the equal spacing before that. Then we had another option of six speed humps if we placed them in between every single, in between the streets. And then finally we had five mini circles if we wanted to place them at every single intersection. So again the community's pick was option two for speed humps at this spacing which was slightly different than what we had and we don't see any issues with this, this spacing here. And that's all I have, if you have any further questions.

Board, any questions?

Okay, do we have a motion? I make a motion to approve option two for speed humps for traffic calming along Platten Avenue. And is there a second?

I second.

Any discussion? Thank you for all your work on this, appreciate it. Thank you. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? And the motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Now we're on to item 11E. Consider a decision on petition R25-14, a request by Dashen Food Stores to resume 2.67 acres. Mr. Farke.

Okay. Before I begin, I'll submit my staff report into the record. We do have a few updates since we were last here. During the planning board meeting, several concerns were raised regarding the proximity of the Colonial Pipeline to the gas tanks on the site. As you can see on the figure on the screen, they are separated by about 250 feet. The applicant has provided two letters, one from DEQ and one from Colonial Pipeline, stating that they have no concerns and that there are no regulations that this project would be butting up against. The applicants are here, so if you do have any further questions, I would ask that you refer them to them. Additionally, the applicants have updated their schematic notes to meet staff's recommended language. And the applicant has also provided a note regarding their display case at the front of the store, stating that they will be displaying art, murals, and images related to Dashen. Additionally, the space can never be left blank moving forward. And lastly, the TIA, which was required and deferred to NCDOT, the applicants have committed to all of the required improvements. And with that, staff is in support of the project as it is consistent with the character area recommendations of the Huntersville 2040 plan. If the following conditions are met for approval, Number one, that the specimen tree mitigation comments are addressed and two, that all other minor staff comments are addressed. If you guys have any questions, I can answer those and the applicants are here as well.

I know the planning board had made a comment, and you had made a comment about it as well, about what would be in the display on the front windows. When you said art, are they selling art, or are they putting art in the windows?

From what I understand, they would be displaying art or murals, yeah, not selling.

Any other questions? Any questions for the applicant? Okay.

Yeah. I was curious if the applicants would be willing to expand the buffer and plant with additional trees and native vegetation.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Madam Mayor, Pro Tem members of the Board of Commissioners. I'm John Carmichael. A couple things. One, yes, we would commit to planting native species. And then what was the first question?

Expanding the buffer.

In terms of the width along the eastern boundary? Yes. Let me see how much, yeah. I'm sure we would, but I don't wanna, let's see. I'm sorry, we're pulling up the site plan.

Is there a, so that's your 30 feet right there.

Yeah, is there ability to expand that width?

We could look at expanding a portion of it, but the stormwater facility's gonna have a maintenance easement around that. that is going to be pretty close to it on the southern portion and then at the northern portion there that's where our access has to be to line up with the access to the animal hospital across the street and that was a dot requirement so that was one of the conditions we put on there is that we are going to have to encroach into that 30 foot width just for the easement and then we brought the drive out into the site to provide that buffer as soon as we could Um, we can look at expanding it a little bit between where that drive aisle is and the stormwater facility, but that like physically would be about the only spot where we could possibly expand it at all. Could we do supplemental plannings? We could look at supplemental plannings. Um, that area is already going to have plantings all around that Southern side of, we have Yeah, if you can see the southern side of the drive aisle here is going to have plantings already there to screen the parking. Exactly. Thank you, whoever did that. Yeah, so that area is already going to have trees in it along the perimeter of the parking, as well as the landscaping that's along the buffer, which is the buffer in question along the southern side. So the only place we could possibly add in is basically between those blue lines. We might be able to put in a few supplemental plantings. Which I mean, I would assume that we could look at that but it wouldn't be that many more trees.

Okay Thank you.

And then there's 20 foot buffers along the street frontages as well.

Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you That was the buffer in question that you were looking at expanding, correct?

Okay Mr. Smollett

What I love most about this is the option for the fresh food. And we have three schools down the road, and I can really see this serving a community that can really benefit from fresh meal choices. Would you consider partnering with maybe a local nonprofit or another community organization as part of your presence here? Is that something you've thought about?

I have not thought about, I mean, I'm not with Dashen, but we haven't thought about that. Can you describe that a little more detail?

I think it would be a great opportunity to support local students and families. Caterpillar Ministries is close by.

I'm sure we got Matthew Parker with Dashen here. I'm sure they're happy to consider that. I mean, come on, I'm sorry.

Can you come up to the podium? Thank you.

This is Matthew Parker. This is Mark Strickland. I don't know if I introduced myself. I'm John Carmichael.

Yeah, I'm sure they, Dash Inn does do a lot of community partnership events, stuff like that. And with us expanding into North Carolina now, they are looking for stuff like that to, you know, kind of expand into for our community development. So I'm sure that is something that we would be interested in. You know, I can't commit to that right now, but I'm sure that kind of stuff is what they try to get into. So I'm sure it's something they would consider. Okay. So, yeah, we can talk about it.

Who should we work with on that? Should we follow up with you? Sure. Okay, thank you.

I'll be happy to help with that.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay, do we have a motion?

I make a motion to approve rezoning petition R25-14. In considering the proposed rezoning application R25-14-N, the town board approves the rezoning plan with the following conditions. Number one, permit side yard parking to occupy up to 68% of the principal frontage line as generally depicted in the plan. Number two, allow the Hambright Road driveway to encroach into the 30 foot buffer. Number three, allow the dumpster to be located within the side yard. Number four, specimen tree mitigation comments are addressed. Number five, all other minor staff notes are addressed. The town board finds a rezoning request to be consistent with the Huntersville 2040 community plan, including policies LU 5.1, LU 7.1, LU 8.1 of the 2040 community plan, which allows for more intense development where infrastructure and utilities already exist. It is reasonable and in the public interest to approve this rezoning because this plan follows design principles that reinforce the vision of the town and is consistent with the overall character of adjacent properties.

And is there a second?

I second.

Any discussion?

Yeah, I just want to say that, you know, obviously I'm in support of this rezoning. I can't think of a better place to put a C-store than here. It's at the intersection of two major thoroughfares in a commercial corridor and very close to I-77.

I second that as well. I know there were concerns about it being next to the pipeline, and I appreciate everybody's hard work in getting information back to us so we could make an informed decision. So, yeah, I agree. I'm excited for this.

First of all, I want to say thank you for your hard work in bringing this to us and this proposal. However, for me, the concerns that I have is there are definitely the air quality impacts that are surrounding this area due to the residential neighborhood that surrounds that. as well as the location of the gas station. I understand that it is at a major thoroughfare. However, there are three schools there as well. So during the day, it is highly congested with traffic. So that is one of my major concerns, and that is the reason why I could not be in support of this due to the location of this project.

Go ahead. I'm gonna second what Commissioner Rivers shared and also the email that we got from NCDEQ doesn't necessarily say that this is okay. They're simply saying that there are not any setback requirements for underground storage tanks near pipelines. So that's a distinction that I think is worth making. So I am not comfortable supporting it either. Any other discussion?

All right, all those in favor, please raise your hand. One, two, three, four. Any opposed? One, two. So we have four in favor and two opposed, so the motion carries. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank y'all.

Item number 11F, consider a decision on petition R25-16, a request by WLA Enterprises, Inc. Mr. Priest.

good evening everyone brad priest for the planning department i'll begin by uh... placing my staff report in the record and uh... so uh... are twenty five sixteen is the potential consideration for max crossing mixed-use development uh... just as a reminder here's a rezoning request before us uh... application going from a corporate business, uh, conditional district to transit oriented development, residential CD, and then also highway commercial, uh, conditional district. This was deferred back, uh, by the town board on March 17th, 2026. And, uh, a couple of times it was, it was re, um, continued. And so here we're back before the board for final action. Site plan highlights, again, just with a refresher, this is the location that's immediately south of the proposed commuter rail station along Highway 115, Old Statesville Road. And there, you can see on the star on the bottom left hand of the screen, you can see where the star is. That would be where the station is. On the top right, you see the most latest and greatest site plan. that we've got from the applicant, drew a red line just to show clearly where the rezoning line is here. To the north of that red line in the picture is where the transit-oriented development is proposed to be zoned, and to the south is where highway commercial zoning is proposed. And so you see kind of a stark transition there, and that discussion plays out in the staff report, and we'll discuss that a little bit as well. but the high-level items to note up to 87,000 square feet of commercial is proposed and up to 413 residential units both apartments and townhomes are proposed in the latest plan and again 7.5% are proposed to be affordable housing for 15 years at 100% AMI So since the last plan was submitted, there were some significant updates in the plan, the last revision. So I just wanted to go over those quickly. You probably noticed in the top of the development there used to be more apartment buildings. Those apartment buildings were replaced with additional townhomes. The grocery store on the bottom left of the screen was further to the south, closer to Highway 73. It's been shifted north. Then maybe perhaps a little bit further east closer to the Greenway Trail there The Greenway alignment has been improved to the south and we'll talk about that a little bit live work units have been added to all the apartment buildings on the the graphic you see on the right the the orange buildings are essentially the apartment buildings, but I Some type of commercial live work units have been placed along the first floor on the street side. So that is new, and the mixed use element of those buildings surround where the roundabout is. Also notable, near the Greenway to the south, just southeast of the grocery store building, you can see a green or a central green stage area open space was added to the plan. So those are the significant site plan updates. Elevation updates you can see here on the top left is the grocery store elevation that would face the street and face the Greenway. Bottom left are the typical commercial building multi-tenant buildings that you would see in the commercial area in the highway commercial zone. Top right is a typical elevation of the mixed-use buildings. I think specifically so on the top right, the top picture, the first floor kind of represents what the live-work units would look like where there are small businesses along the first floor and then behind those units on the first floor are apartments and the persons who live in those apartments would operate those commercial entities along the street front. So that's what that would look like. And then on the third to the bottom there, on the bottom right, just not the townhomes, but the smaller picture there, you see kind of the end cap of the apartment building. That's what the mixed use where the retail would be, perhaps a restaurant, and those type of uses would be located. And then, of course, the townhomes are proposed there on the bottom right-hand picture. uh... plan uh... notable plan uh... note updates did want to add that uh... a phasing note was added the applicant has agreed to uh... uh... commit that seven thousand square feet of commercial would be built prior to the sooner of the two number one the last apartment building uh... getting a certificate of occupancy or uh... two years after the first apartment building gets a certificate of occupancy So within those two, 7,000 square feet of freestanding commercial would be built. Another substantial note would be automotive uses are restricted. So if you look at the site plan, you do have a gas station currently on the proposed plan that was sent out, also a drive-through for the grocery pharmacy. Those are automotive-type uses, automotive-centric uses, but the applicant has put a note on the plan prohibiting any other ones to go on the site and any other commercial locations, car washes, drive-thru restaurants, and those types of things. Traffic improvements, a note was added to the plan stating that all NCDOT required traffic impact analysis and mitigation would be installed. That TIA has not come in yet as far as a final approved TIA, but they did put a note on the plan stating that they would commit to installing whatever mitigation, whatever intersection improvements would be required. So this is a list of modifications to the ordinance that are being requested. Things that need to be, again, modified in order to build. Won't go through the list. There are some newer ones on the bottom. The TOD residential maximum in the transit-oriented development residential district, there's a maximum of 10,000 square feet. that is allowed within a half mile of the station, the transit station. Um, they're probably going to go over that a little bit with the mixed use, but staff is okay with that. The floor area ratio requirement, um, they're requesting more parking and less building that you would generally see in a TOD in regard to that principle. And they're asking for a modification of the signage requirement to have a larger sign on the parking lot of the grocery store than is usually permitted by right. so site design constraints wanted to mention these again uh... staff took these into consideration in making our recommendation uh... in regard to the transit oriented development what you'd normally like to see is uh... small blocks very walkable development uh... but uh... because of the site constraints there there were some limitations that uh... this property could do uh... and so static those into consideration seagull street extension there's a thoroughfare going through the middle where the roundabout is coming north from seventy three that's an approved comprehensive transportation plan thoroughfare so that just had to be there so that's kind of one of those immovable objects uh... there were stream buffers going through the property that uh... If you'll remember, there was a modification for being requested. The Highway 73 Super Street design makes access on 73 difficult. The CAT, so rail bridge, that is going to be grade separated. Going over 73 is going to make connection to 115 vehicularly very difficult, if not impossible, until you get really far north of the site. so and then also again mentioning the seam trail the greenway going through the property so there's a lot of immovable objects and and restrictions on the property that staff took into account so what staff really did want to focus on was the greenway trail that was going through the property or his plan to go in through the property in the top right you remember in the staff report uh... our consultant doing that the same trail study put together a recommendation The Seam Trail Committee made a recommendation and forwarded some information about providing a linear park through the development and making it a focal point of the development. So staff really tried to zero in on that to make sure that that was something that was accommodated for, and the applicants have done a good job in doing that. The top right is kind of the concept, and on the bottom left is the execution. And that has improved in the last rendition of the plan. You see heavily highlighted there in green is the greenway going through the development. So from Highway 73, the applicants have accommodated for a potential tunnel. underneath 73 to quote unquote catch the greenway and then have it go up through and then it would go immediately next to the green, the stage, the open space, which is a very nice location for a greenway to be, activity, recreational opportunity. um so that was a a nice caveat and then the applicants also put eyes on the greenway the grocery store having a door having the ability to front and then walk from the grocery store to the greenway makes a very walkable centric neighborhood in that regard so that was a that was a good thing that staff really appreciated having that grocery store being able to front that street and front that greenway The other item that we tried to accomplish working through the site plan comments was the highway commercial portion of the development was very highway commercial. As mentioned, essentially the still, that portion of the development retains some of those automotive-centric character. You think about the surface parking, there is no underground parking. shared parking uh... or structured parking it's all surface uh... their single building commercial buildings uh... in that area and uh... you know their automotive uses there's a gas station there's drive-thrus on the grocery store so trying to uh... modify that and try to get more of a mixed use type of development and a blend of the t o d in the highway commercial is something that uh... staff is trying to work on with the applicant And we'll talk about how we succeeded a little bit in doing that in just a moment. Huntersville 2040 plan, the consistencies. Policy OU1 on the right hand side, the character area, the 2040 plan asked for certain parts of town to be a certain character. This property is dead center into the activity center area. where it calls for a mix of non-residential and residential uses. So that certainly fits. Having higher intensity uses within two miles of 77, that's a consistent policy. And then focusing more intense development in locations that can support growth. Well, this is probably the location where you're gonna want the most intense development in Huntersville. You've got the rail station, you've got two thoroughfares, and you've got a major greenway trail system that's going through the property. So the density, certainly staff feels, is important. And in policy LU10, encouraging a diversity of housing options, the applicants are proposing townhomes, apartments, and then also 7.5% affordable units as well. So inconsistencies, and this is just kind of a graphic to help us appreciate what we were trying to do through the discussions with the applicant. And then on the top right, highlighted in yellow, policy LU 7.1. It talks about kind of discouraging large-scale commercial strips and looking at the bottom left-hand site plan. Again, you get that theme of the single building commercial buildings with parking and gas stations. It's kind of like that highway commercial strip. And so we wanted to try to compare that with the mixed use orientation on the top of the slide with Birkdale. With Birkdale, you have vertical mixed use. Your intensity, your core is off Highway 73. You have urban open space and everything is surrounding that space and it becomes an active hub. In the south, you didn't have that in earlier renditions of the plan. You had the core and the activity on Highway 73 and it was less walkable. uh... so what we've worked on with the applicant and you can tell around the roundabout there's an addition of live work units along the thoroughfare and along the the commercial buildings on the street side so it's no longer just commercial on the highway commercial side is also in the t o d so that assists in that walkability it assists in the streetscape not becoming burt dale i'm not saying that not going that far but at the same time it's kind of broken the mold a little bit from the commercial strip center and started to make more of an urban core around the roundabout, around the plazas that are next to the roundabout and along that thoroughfare system. The planning board recommendation recommend approval with meeting all of staff's comments and addressing them on February 26th. Staff recommendation, now, again, this is, remember, please, we sent the staff report out and then we're continuing, we have been with the applicant, continuing to look at updated site plans, look at updated notes, and making recommendations based on that. So staff recommends approval of the application with the listed conditions, and the applicant has agreed to all these conditions that are listed in concept just made a differentiation. Green, we've seen the notes, we've seen the changes, staff is good with them. Orange notes, concept is good, but we just need to see the execution of it. So staff recommends approval with all these conditions. Be happy to answer any questions that you have. The applicants are here for a presentation as well.

Excuse me, I'm sorry, Brad, I have a question.

Yes, ma'am.

Can we go back to the live work units? Um, because I see that that was an update on May the 11th. I'm sorry, the live work units that are behind the commercial. Um, I'll try to draw them frontage. I think I just need some more clarity on.

Okay. I mean, let me, I can't draw on this one. Okay. So point with the pointer. My thumbs are too big, I apologize. Okay, so here in the orange are the mixed use buildings. They used to be all apartments, right? So this lighter red right on the edge of the street is your commercial live works. So that there would have some commercial activity along the street front and immediately behind those units would be where the owner or the person who runs the shop would live behind it.

Okay.

In that area. So that would be live work, live work, live work, live work. Right now, the application is live work right here. The restaurants and the true mixed-use retail would be on the ends of these buildings here along the roundabout in that small area here. So that would be the live work area.

Thank you for the clarity.

Yes, ma'am.

Any other questions for Brad? Commissioner Walsh?

Yeah, just on these live work units. So I see the orange, yellow, whatever it is. So is that... When you say they live behind there, is that apartments or how high are these? Apartments. Yes, sir. I mean, usually I see live work units are kind of one building. They live above, work below. Right. Are they living up top or you said behind?

Our understanding would be behind. Think of a horizontal live work where everything is on the first floor. The live work would be on the first floor of the building.

But then there's apartments above it.

But then there's apartments above it. That's correct.

Any other questions for Brad? Then we'll have the applicant.

Good evening. I'm Susan Irvin, representing the applicant. Brad, thank you very much for that presentation. That was very thorough and I think captures a lot of what we've been doing and I really appreciate that. Ryan and also the commissioners for all of your involvement on this project I would like to just give a summary of the changes to just a few additional comments And I think Brad did a good job this was our one of our initial renderings and Is that it? So this was the one we originally looked at. There was a couple of changes to that that you'll see now. One of the most notable changes is that this was a parking lot for the grocer earlier, and it is now a lawn and a stage. So the lawn and the stage would be right next to the scene trail, and that scene trail is overlooking an amphitheater, which is here. So all of this area with the lawn, stage, scene trail, and amphitheater has now become central to the project. So that's just something I wanted to point out as a change. I do want to talk a little bit about something that Charles Knox mentioned earlier. This is the approved conditional plan for this project. It is a very large building envelope, as you can see, with 1.1 million square feet of approved I-1 permitted uses. There was a rezoning of this portion of this plan. That rezoning was stationed south. That rezoning modifies this portion of the plan, but it does not modify this portion of the plan. So any of the uses that are permitted in I-1 can be built on this plan. There's no actual other site plan here. So it would just be a site plan with no modifications would be required to the approved plan for the NOXs. i one of the things i haven't done and i did this morning was a look at some of the approved permitted uses for uh... i one and as charles said we've kind of all been an assumption under the assumption that i want is industrial these development standards uh... which state that the permitted uses and i want are these long list of uses these are just some of those uses I wanted to point out to you because there is a gas station there is a car or boat dealership rental service and repair there is also a shopping center of up to 70,000 square feet car washes assembly light manufacturing wholesale establishments warehousing that's just some of them the total permitted for the entire plan is a million one the station south property if I just look at the pro rata portion this is probably conservative it's probably not quite this many is four hundred approximately thousand that leaves about seven hundred thousand square feet for the remaining portion of the property that is owned by the Knox's one of the things that you want to look at when in a situation like this is will there be any modifications required to the original plan and And the answer is no. And the reason is because this plan doesn't have really anything to modify. As you can see, it's just a very large building envelope. The statute applies to the Station South rezoning, and it states that any modifications that have been approved on an original plan like this one apply only to the properties whose owners petitioned for the modification. So in other words, the Station South owners were rezoned. But since the Knox family did not sign that petition, they're still governed by the underlying zoning. One thing I do want to do, and I think Brad did a great job of this, but I want to add to it, is the comparison of the original plan and the current plan. First of all, as Brad said, there is a lot more integration of the seam trail here, including this integration with the grocery store that he mentioned earlier.

And you can see here, because the seam trail... Hey, Susan, I don't mean to interrupt. We can't see your pointer from here. Okay. So you're going to probably be better if you describe it.

Okay, because the seam trail divides the lawn and the stage from the amphitheater, that seam trail now has much more context between those two open spaces. So that would be like right here. Also, as Brad mentioned, all mixed-use buildings now, you can look at the original plan and see that there were four apartment buildings. And so those have been removed. The parking field for the apartments and original mixed-use buildings is significantly reduced, almost half. The grocery store parking lot, which was more central to the plan, is now over on the right next to the seam trail. One of the things that we talked about earlier was affordable housing. And I just did some quick math. The last four projects that have been approved by the town, Town One, Station South, Mission Southeast, and Alex Yards, have a total of 35 affordable units. that that is over four times the amount of units in this plan this plan has almost the same amount of affordable units as those four projects combined this plan has thirty affordable units when chris got up to speak i don't know if he's still here we uh... robert and i have worked with the cdc over the years and Kevin Rogers, the developer, unfortunately had personal matter that he had to be away, but he was going to watch this. And so I texted Kevin and said, go on YouTube and watch his presentation. And after Chris, I didn't tell you this, I talked to Chris out in the hall, but I was really talking to him about how can we partner with the CDC to get, for instance, down payment assistance or just candidates, because that's one of the biggest problems with affordable projects is getting qualified candidates. And the CDC would be a great partner. uh... uh... partner in doing that kevin texted me and said because i talked to chris and he told me that cornelius has offered forty thousand dollars in down payment assistance to the cdc and so they are really doing work in cornelius Kevin texted me and said he would like to offer $40,000 a year for the next five years in down payment assistance to the CDC in exchange for that partnering assistance. And that's just something, I mean, we've really enjoyed working with you all over the years. so that was just a great um situation that he just happened to be up here speaking and you know robert and i started talking about it so um that that's a commitment um how that is distributed um that would be up to the town i mean we wouldn't want to say it's all going to this project so that would just be to the residents in the town so My next slide is, well I really think we've covered everything on these slides. One of the things that we talked about was some concerns about having a gas station. And so we were proposing to remove the convenience store and just put shops across from the existing shops at the driveway entrance here. And then put the grocery store pumps in the parking lot. was what we had proposed this afternoon. I got on the phone with the Knox's and with Kevin and they agreed to remove the gas station completely. So that is something that he's willing to do. That's another commitment that they're willing to make. So it would not have these pumps in the parking lot. There would be no gas station. I did a more hatchet job of the conditions here. I think we do have some things to talk about. Brad and I have gone back and forth about some details, but I've eliminated I mean in theory a lot of these we thought we had addressed and so really it was just a matter of Brad talking to us about here's how we'd like you to address those things and so we've worked through most of these that tree mitigation plan I know it's being done it's thing there was just one thing that needed to be changed and we've been asking for it i did want to zoom in on these a little bit and talk about the live work because that was a question the live work is going to be i think maybe the first one in this area so i know for a fact that there is one that just opened in austin the builders of this for this project these residential builders they have one in virginia and dc And there are some in Washington State. I did a little research and maybe there are other places that I've just never heard of. But the business owner would live behind the business and it's all one unit. It's connected and their storefront is in the front. And the cool thing about it is you can see at the top of this the elevation for that storefront this is just a close-up but the entry detail to that live work building you know it has a real shop front feel as you walk down the street but what it does is it really supports small business owners and it supports people who can't afford to pay fifty dollars a square foot at Birkdale half a million dollars in tenant up fit but they are just starting their tea business or their bakery business or you know their graphic design business or they're an architect so it could be any number of things and and it promotes that it's sustainable practice in the sense that it promotes these businesses so that people can live at home they can work at home then you know they can go out in the community and they can't enjoy the community spaces uh... and go shopping at the grocery store without driving uh... and then you know also building a business for huntersville increasing that economic development uh... we revised this side elevation so that you do have that direct entry brad mentioned also there is a central plaza right here in front of the grocer uh... these are townhomes i didn't think the elevations did as good a job i wanted to see what their real townhomes look like in another project and so they sent us these they're similar but it gives you a feel for kind of you know the quality of the construction and uh... some shop elevations this is just a numbered legend for all of the different community gathering spaces in this project I think there are more much more in this project than I've ever seen in a project and we did reprogram these by we I mean the planners and engineers reprogrammed all these to in the architect to do this for instance a pollinator garden and kind of what that would look like and I this pocket park with a playground and that the seam trail goes through in the middle of the neighborhood and you know in a smaller pocket park and a dog park and the plazas around the commercial one of the things brad asked for was more art more kind of programming of those spaces so we are proposing some raised beds and some art and um and then this i think is the most different uh it has the central lawn and stage And it has amphitheater seating. And this just gives you an idea over here of like a stage and some amphitheater seating and kind of how that would work in the middle of this entire project. The pedestrian passage, that's something that really Brian provided us with images and input on that. And so you can see the programming in that is very elevated. And so, you know, this is just kind of another kind of version of the seam trail information for you. I think I've covered everything. I'm happy to answer any questions that you all may have. And Kevin is on the phone and I'm surprised he hasn't texted me yet, actually.

No. Any questions, Board? Commissioner Walsh?

Yeah, I have a couple of them. This rezoning has been going on for months and months, and there's been a number of us who have wanted some changes, et cetera. Many of us early on said we didn't want a gas station there. I'm just curious, why did it take till this afternoon just before this board meeting to pull the gas station?

well actually it really wasn't because what we did was we did have a gas station on their first that was uh... complete gas station what we did and and it was probably just a misunderstanding because i don't think i talk to you at all about it i talked to a few of the other commissioners taking adding a a condition that they would only have a gas station if the grocer required it because one of the concerns about not having gas pumps was that it would reduce the number of grocers that would be available for the site so we did make that change and added the condition and fortunately i was able to talk with a couple of commissioners who said that the gas station was an issue and i went back to uh... my client last night i asked him if that's something that he could remove at first he was concerned about doing it because what would happen is the gas station were removed and the plan was approved the knox family was concerned they would then have a zoning plan that wouldn't work because there would not be a grocer. So that was something we were talking about today and Charles and Kevin both met, got on the phone, talked about it and they worked it out between themselves and agreed to remove the gas station. So the answer to your question is That, what I heard was that the concern was the number of apartment buildings. That was what I heard that was the loudest and also kind of where the grocery store originally was. So if the gas station was a bigger issue for you earlier on, I did not hear that and that's my fault.

Not a problem. With regard to these live work units, So I'll call it the commercial space on the front. And I'm just asking this because this is obviously new. Is that, I'll use the word deed restraint, in other words, can the person just live in the back and not have a business out front? Or can they encroach into the space? Like how big is the space on the front and the back? I'm just trying to, do we end up with, I know originally in Vermillion in that square they had live work units, but they were above, and those have all just transitioned over to living units.

One of the problems with those, and I don't know anything about what's going on in Vermilion, but one of the problems with the townhome live works a lot of times is that you have to own the townhome and you live above the store. And it has to be someone who has a business who also can afford a town home and it just never seemed to click that live work concept this one makes a lot more sense because people rent their shop front space typically you know they'll rent it at burkdale they'll rent it anywhere they very rarely like own the building so how big is like this space in the front and their living space in the back I looked at a couple of floor plans. It's a shallower depth. Kelly, do you know we

I'm just trying to figure out what kind of businesses these would be and could they encroach into it and how does that get prevented?

I did talk about the businesses. I mean, it's obviously going to be a much more expensive unit. If somebody wanted more room, you know, they could just get like a two-bedroom, you know. So I think just as a practical matter, people aren't going to do that because if you look at the frontage, it's not really set up as a residential frontage. I mean, these are commercial fronts with a commercial glass. Like, usually in a commercial building, there's a certain amount of required glass in the first floor to make it a storefront.

But they couldn't end up living in that space?

No. I mean, there wouldn't be, you know.

I don't know. Okay.

Yeah, it would be set up and designed as, it could be, to answer your question, like I said, a professional's office. It could be someone who is an attorney. It could be someone who has a little coffee shop or a tea shop or, you know, I think Kevin mentioned to me that there was someone in his building who used to work for them and moved downstairs and has this same kind of situation and she has like a design business. Okay.

And the total commercial space in the whole project is?

The total commercial space is capped at 87,000.

Okay, so 87. And I'll ask you about phasing here in a minute, but in one of the slides it said that something in effect that Potentially two years after the first apartment is built you to commit to only seven thousand of the eighty seven thousand square feet I'm trying to figure out the phasing because typically these projects all the housing goes in and then the commercial goes in and sounds like well the answer it's gonna be we said seven thousand and that was That was probably an earlier plan

The commercial and the live work and these commercial spaces, those buildings are all gonna be built at the same time. Like the mixed use buildings, they're going to build the commercial space when they build the building. The reason we originally said 7,000 was because that was when we were looking at just having commercial in these two buildings. And these types of tenants, the ones that are the small shops, they generally wait until the grocery store is announced. And then it's going to be, if it's a Whole Foods, it's going to be the tenants who like to be around a Whole Foods. And it kind of just depends on what the grocer is. So you generally, and it's usually kind of a higher level tenant. So to get someone in there before the grocer's announced, you probably could, but it wouldn't be as high-level tenant as you get after the grocer's announced. And so that's why we were really looking at these commercial spaces. At the time, it was this. I'm sorry. At the time, it was.

I can see that.

Okay, yeah. At the time, it was just the two buildings at the roundabout. But as a practical matter, it's going to be all of the commercial and the mixed-use buildings.

So you're saying that all those mixed-use buildings will get built at once?

So they do get built at the same time, yes.

So one, two, three, four, five, about seven of them will all go up at the same time?

Well, I mean, I can't tell you exactly. But it's in the same phase, you know.

So those are going up first, then the residential in the back?

So the townhome, I mean, that's a good question. The townhome developer builds their townhomes when they're ready to build. And they could be at the same time. It could be before. It could be after the mixed use.

Okay.

The grocery store starts as soon as the grocery store signed a lease and they're ready, you know, they get started. So the grocery store could come before everything else. It could be a little bit after. You know, I've done a million grocery store leases and they always take a long time because they're like that thick. But once that's done, you know, they're ready to go. So then they just go get the permitting. You know, they still have to get the permitting. Probably while that's done, being done, some of this other, but you know, it's hard to say. So we just wanted to go ahead and make a commitment to put commercial in in the first phase.

then on one of brad's slides there was um i think green yellow or green orange and he said these have been agreed to but these are outstanding are they all done now brad or like are they all in as a part of the approval process or what in concept we agreed that

It wasn't something that couldn't be done, but it was how the details lined up. For instance, the buffer along 73. What is that going to look like? We still want to see that to make sure that we're not putting up a complete hedgerow immediately behind the sidewalk. We have enough room to have an aesthetic and pedestrian walkway and not just a buffer. So those type of things still need to get worked out on on how they're ultimately going to look and function.

So we don't know, for example, I think it's a 20-foot buffer along 73? Correct. That slopes down. Correct. So that's problematic in terms of...

So just to add to that, though, that if the gas station is removed, then the... I believe that buffer side on the corner changes a little bit, you know, so that could change. One of the things I meant to do while we talked about doing... was in the condition where I talk about the buffer, I was referring to the ordinance. I was just going to say also subject to planning staff approval. I'm happy to do that because it's just a matter of working out the design.

Okay, but that's just one. There was, I don't know, eight of them or something. I didn't count them, so...

I think that one of the bigger ones that we need to talk about a little bit is is on the latest and greatest plan Engineering had some comments about the alleys and the distances of the alleys from other alleys and other streets and so that could push a little bit of the the townhome development into a different configuration and So that's an example, too, of where, you know, big picture, they can make the fixes and they probably would make the fixes, but what it looks like, we still need to understand that and make sure it meets all the design standards.

And we're happy to do that. These are the kinds of things that generally there are a slew of minor comments that you deal with after a zoning case. And we want to make sure that we've addressed every detail. I mean, for instance, in one of the plan submittals, I think Kelly had shown grading in one of the grading along here on the steam trail area and you know Brad came back and said he'd be more comfortable if I added a note that said that it was going to be graded and so we're happy to do that it's just a matter of having him comfortable that the plan addresses his comments and I think we went through them all and and address them but we're fine-tuning how we're addressing them like those engineering comments for sure

Susan can you bring up the slide that has the I1 options. I have a question for Brad actually in relation to this. So here she listed out a number of uses that are potential by rights if that were true here. But you also mentioned several site constraints that limit how things can be arranged and how things can be built. So that would hold true for all of these uses too as well, correct?

That's correct. That would be our understanding. I think the biggest site constraint, especially if it was a larger use, larger building footprints, would be the post-construction stream buffer on the site. And being able to cross that and grade into it would be a challenge for many different uses, no matter what. In this instance, they're asking for a modification just for that to be able to disturb into the stream buffer.

And so if they were, if this were to happen in one of these items, they would also have to ask for a modification to?

That's our understanding, correct.

Okay, just wanna clarify, thank you.

One of the things that we looked at is that the 1995 ordinance is the one that governs and the I-1 zoning requirements. And so if we were to develop it in the same way as this plan, where you do have some construction where the buffer would be, But there's also an option of building off of Jamesburg Drive and not disturbing the buffer and building off of 73 and not disturbing the buffer. So it wouldn't be as efficient, but my recommendation, and I'm not representing the Knox's, would be not to do anything that would require a modification.

Thank you. Any other questions for staff or the applicant? Do we have a motion?

and make a motion to approve rezoning petition R25-16 with approval of the outstanding zoning ordinance modification request and conditions set forth in the staff report. The town board finds a rezoning request with the conditions outlined by the staff to be consistent with the Huntersville 2040 community plan, including policy LU.1, LU2.1, LU5, LU10, T1.2, and the 2040 plan. and more compliant with the employee center, activity center and land use characterization of the local ordinance. It is reasonable and in the public interest to approve the zoning with these conditions because it encourages continued expansion of the transit-oriented development and urban characterization of the neighborhood Around the future rail station and the rezoning is consistent with the overall character of the adjacent properties all outstanding staff comments and red lines must be addressed by the Supervisor petitioner and this will also require the removal of the gas station Is there a second second any discussion

Yeah, I want to say this plan couldn't have come at a better time. We have the mayor just read a proclamation for affordable housing. We had Mr. CHRIS FOUNSON TO GIVE A PRESENTATION AS RELATED TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING. AND AT OUR BUDGET RETREAT, WE SET A GOAL FOR 100 AFFORDABLE HOUSING UNITS. AND WE HEARD THAT WE'VE ALREADY NEGOTIATED 35. THIS WILL GIVE US 30. SO THAT'S MORE THAN HALF OF WHAT WE HAVE SET A GOAL FOR AS FAR AS AFFORDABLE HOUSING. We are a board that preaches affordable housing. This is a great opportunity. I personally would not pass it down. I would be voting in favor of it. In addition, this is in a perfect location, which is along the commuter rail area. So again, there's a lot of pluses in this project that I like. I want to thank staff for your hard work. I want to thank the Knox. I want to thank the Irvin Law Firm as well as the developer. There's been a lot of moving parts to this right here. I also want to thank our planning board. I'm sorry, the planning board because, again, they pushed the envelope back to what we are today. So there's a lot of people I want to thank for this project, and because of that, I will be supporting it.

Any other discussion? Commissioner Walsh.

I'm not going to be in support of this project. I've had some concerns about this proposal since its inception. The overall design feels more reflective of a suburban commercial center than the type of urban center envisioned for this area. Placing a grocery store and a lot of one-story buildings with parking lots on the corner will generate additional vehicular traffic on roads that are already heavily congested while doing little to enhance or elevate the character of the area. Huntersville remains a highly desirable community for both residents and businesses, and I believe every project we approve should reflect what is in the best interest, long-term interest of Huntersville. We have worked diligently with the developer to make meaningful changes to the core design of this proposal. While some progress has been made, the reality is we have been largely trying to refine the developer's vision for this site rather than pursuing the vision that we as a board believe belongs there. Quite simply, we can do better.

Commissioner Cornett.

I actually like this project, so I would I'm I'm really excited with the Greenway Trail I'm excited about the different parks, and I think they thought outside the box on this I know Susan and I have been Going back and forth for weeks on different options I think the live work Option is is a great incubator for new small businesses. So I really hope that takes off and I'd love to see what this does. I was gonna ask and I forgot to ask was, and we had discussed this in the past that this will be, the grocery store will be at more of a higher end. We don't know what it will be, but I think that'll also lead to a very nice area. So thank you for working with me on this.

Commissioner Smolin.

I still have concerns about the overall intensity of the project and traffic impacts. I also believe the development should move toward a more walkable and intentional urban mixed-use feel rather than a suburban model. To me, this feels like the grocery store is serving as the anchor of this project, and as mentioned earlier this evening, we do need to take into consideration the work that is coming to Samford Road.

Commissioner Hunt.

So there are a few things that I appreciate about the project. I like the seam trail and the greenway, the attainable units, the live-work model, the lawn and stage. That's a nice change. I'm glad the gas station was removed because to me it makes no sense to have a gas station near a rail because it's encouraging alternative transportation. But I have to be honest and say I'm not a fan of the first part of the presentation that was talking about the industrial project that could happen by right because that's saying to me if we don't do what the applicant's asking, then we're going to get something that we don't want. in that site. I am not a fan of the surface parking rather than structured parking especially as we continue to add an alarming rate of impervious surface to Mecklenburg County and I understand the market constraints that has been explained to me many times but I would like to see projects that are more forward thinking about this and I can't help but be skeptical that structured parking will happen eventually uh... and see that that space to be converted to commercial or green space or something that feels like a better use of that space than simply this the surface parking As Commissioner Smallwood pointed out the focal point of this is still a grocery store and given the location of the development near the rail I'd like to see something that draws in the community and provides more activity rather than a nicely dressed grocery store development which is what this feels like to me. And then lastly the sheer number of modifications and revisions that have happened in this plan especially at the 11th hour this removal of the gas station was today, it doesn't make me feel confident in a yes vote. So I'm voting no.

Commissioner Rivers.

Well, first I want to say thank you to everyone who participated in bringing this forward, making sure that the changes have been made. You know, again, your hard work does not go unnoticed. I am I am in favor of this. I like the live work attribute that will be coming towards this. I like the fact that the 30 affordable housing units will also come. I think with the live work aspect of this, this draws economic development into the town of Huntersville, which we are trying to make our imprint with small businesses and lure them here and encourage them to stay here. So I do think that that is a good attribute. um in this project um i am happy that you all removed the gas station because i was concerned in regards to that but overall i like the project and i am in favor of it okay any other comments or discussion okay all those in favor please raise your hand one two three any those in favor opposed please raise your hand

We have three opposed. So it comes to a tie, and that comes to me. I have been thinking about this project a lot. I have had a lot of extensive conversations about this project. It is... incumbent upon us to like be thoughtful in what we approve and how that is going to have an impact on our community and I have real I'm I'm really struggling but I do believe due to the number of affordable housing units for sale in this project I think that is probably something that would convince me so my vote will be in favor so we will have four in favor and three opposed for this project We are now on to item number 12, closing comments. Start with you, Commissioner Cornett.

Just like to thank all you guys. I know you've all been on speed dial for me for this last few weeks talking about all these projects. So thank you for your hard work, and I'd like a beer.

Commissioner Walsh.

Nothing for me.

Commissioner Rivers.

I would just like to say to Commissioner Quarles, keep your head up. I know sometimes we get knocked down and things are done intentionally, but just know that we should not allow anyone to dim our light because we were elected and voted to do a job, and that is to serve our constituents, all constituents, no matter what is being done to us intentionally, we will rise above. So just keep your head up.

Commissioner Hunt? Commissioner Quarles?

I will go back to Commissioner Rivers and tell everyone, stay tuned.

Commissioner Smallwood?

Yes, with Memorial Day weekend approaching, I just want to take a moment and to remember and honor the brave men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. Their sacrifice is the reason we get to enjoy the freedoms and opportunities that we have today. And so I wish everyone a safe and meaningful Memorial Day weekend.

All right. I don't usually share a lot of personal things on here, but May 15th was my father-in-law's 85th birthday. And so I have asked all of our commissioners to wish my father-in-law a happy birthday. And I have to put on his little hat that says Matt Clark is 85. And so join me in wishing him a happy birthday. I also want to say there are 15 days left of school so y'all send all your love to the educators in Huntersville and Cornelius Davidson and Mecklenburg County at CMS. We are barely holding on and we need all the help we can get and the parents do. So that's Commissioner Rivers. And lastly, don't forget to join us for our Veterans Day event on this coming up Monday. It is a fabulous event. It's really touching and moving and every year and just has a really special message. And so please join us for that as well. Lastly, may I have a motion to adjourn? I make a motion to adjourn. Is there a second? I second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand.

Any opposed?

And the motion carries. Thank you all.