Tree Board - meeting_joint_regular

Okay, I'd like to call the meeting of the Planning and Zoning Board to order. First, we will have the calling of people who are here.

Cynthia Wiley. Meg Fielding.

Ken Curtis. Richard Sayre.

Okay, there being a quorum, I declare the meeting open. First order of business is the approval of the minutes from the July 21st meeting. Anybody have any concerns, questions, additions, comments? Okay, I'll entertain. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes.

I move that we approve the previous meeting minutes as presented.

I second the motion.

Okay. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That carries. Let us move on to new business.

All right.

Good evening, everyone. Good evening. um our first case for tonight is case number zm 2026. speak up oh speak up let's see maybe even just hold the microphone how's that that's much better thank you okay so the zoning first zoning request that we have for tonight is to rezone property at 3010 unionville indian trail road parcel id is 07024011e it is approximately 1.6 acres in size it's currently zoned rsf which stands for rural single family And the target zoning is GBD, General Business District. The property also lies within a mixed-use activity center, and that's not going to change whether or not the decision, based on the decision that you all make or recommendation that you make today. The intent for this rezoning is to allow a commercial development at the property, and the applicant has disclosed that they propose a childcare center. But I like to remind the board that with these type of zoning map amendments, there's no guarantee. It is just a proposal, plans change, and we have to think about the other possibilities. The applicant is 814 Services, LLC, and the landowner is Joseph Eason. First, let's talk about the property itself. It's located at the intersection of Poplin Road and Unionville Indian Trail Road. Interesting fact, there are two locations where Unionville Indian Trail Road is intersected by Poplin. This is the first intersection closest to the Monroe Expressway. It's also near Secret Shortcut Road. I say that because those are two major collectors in the town of Indian Trail. The property currently hosts a single family structure and it was built in 1975. Now if we expand our view and look at the surrounding area and its conditions, the majority of the properties in the area are open land or wooded areas. There's a lot of several single family residences with rural character. Their lots are one acre or more. There is no commercial uses in the area at the moment. A LITTLE BIT MORE ON THE ROADS. WE TOUCHED THAT A LITTLE BIT. UNIONVILLE AND THE INTRO ROAD IS A MAJOR COLLECTOR. IT HAS ITS PROXIMITY TO THE MONROE EXPRESSWAY AND SEACREST WHICH IS A SIGNIFICANT PLUS FOR COMMERCIAL INVESTORS. THAT'S AN INCENTIVE. AND SO THOSE TWO FACTORS INCREASE REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION ACCESS TO THIS AREA. A unique condition about this area is the strong residential subdivision presence. So if you travel north on Poplin Road, you're going to see there's the Poplin Trio. I call them the Poplin Glen, Poplin Meadows, Poplin Trace. Those are townhome developments. Then you have the Bonterra Village. But adjacent to the property to the north, we have an under construction residential subdivision called Fallbrook. And that was approved by town council in 2020. The site plan was approved just two years ago, three years ago, 2023 to the south across the street. There's another mixed use subdivision poplin mixed use village that was approved by town council in 2019. And the site plans are under review. They're still being reviewed by by planning staff. But outside this photo that you have here, the map, further north there's even more of residential subdivisions. You have Annandale, Fieldstone Farm, and Southgate, and that's just mentioning the ones that are within town limits of Indian Trail. There's others that are nearby in Monroe town limits. Here's a photo from street view of the subject property. You can see it's very wooded. You can't really see where the house is, but if you follow the driveway, you can see what looks to be like a two-car garage, and the home is tucked away nicely behind those trees. Here's another angle showing Unionville Indian Trail Road and that intersection with Poplin. Here's another angle. And this is if we were standing at Poplin Road looking at the property and we can just see the power lines and it's a wooded property. I wanted to add this photo. This shows the nearest residential neighbor at 3018 Unionville Indian Trail Road. Now, looking at zoning conditions, as we mentioned, the current zoning is RSF. That's represented in this zoning map as the light green color. You can see that all across left and right along Unionville, Indian Trail Road. The blue dashed line that you see on the map that makes a circle that represents the mixed use activity center. So all the properties within that circle are within that activity center. The target zoning of the applicant is general business district. So if we take that and kind of look at the area, we see the only commercial zoning in the area belongs to the poplin mixed use village, which is right across the street. Everything else, you have single family rural, and then you have the CZMFR to the south in that hashed brown color. To the north, you have the CCSF5, which belongs to the Fallbrook subdivision. So that's a little bit about the zoning conditions in the area. If we look at the future land use recommendations, the future land use map recommends mixed use, which includes office, retail, personal services, and that's represented here in the map as this pink color. And you can see all those properties, including the subject property, are shaded that way. The properties within the secret shortcut small area plan, which was adopted in 2018. And the plan makes the following recommendations. It recommends taking advantage of the regional transportation access that this area allows. Taking advantage of the strong resident base. We talked about that strong residential subdivision presence. And so that's another factor that I'm sure is attractive to commercial developers. And all of that is to encourage retail personal services to support creating new jobs. So these are goals that this small area plan identified for this area. Now we also mentioned the mixed use activity center is an overlay and it adds other goals. The goal of these overlays is for identifying these intersections that are commercially viable and the objective is to place population within a five minute drive or 10 minute walk to these areas where there's commercial services or retail uses. And when we look at the consistency, is this request consistent with the overall goals of the comprehensive plan? We see that it is consistent. Economic development goal number one aims to create a balanced tax base with these variety of developments. And so this is going to foster or encourage employment opportunities. And then land use and housing goal number one and four speak of promoting this mixture of land uses, avoiding conflicts with adjacent properties, and coordinating those land uses for sustainable community development. Now, like I mentioned in the beginning, this is a straight rezoning or conventional zoning. The applicant has mentioned that they want to develop or their purpose is to develop a childcare center. But let's consider the other uses that are compatible with general business district. To the left, on the left column, you see a sample of those uses that would be compatible. We could see animal grooming, educational uses, event and entertainment, food services. I'm not going to read the whole list, but they are there. But some of the uses that would not be allowed, and that is thanks to also the mixed use activity center. that functions as a limiting control to make sure that land uses within the overlay stay and are aligned with the goals of these activity centers. So you wouldn't be allowed to have a vet office, although grooming would be. Artisan production, outside events. That was something that the overlay really targeted. For example, if you have an event venue, but they want to propose outside operations. That's not allowed. Laundromat, mini golf. tobacco, vape, tattoo shops, and even car repair and dealerships. So it does allow some uses and the property would have this flexibility, but there are some controls to keep it at the activity center level. And then if we think about development particulars, like what are some things that a development would have to deal with at this location? So one thing that the UDO would call for is landscaped buffers because this property will be adjacent to residential properties. And a goal of the planning department and the UDO is to protect and buffer these different land use intensities. So we'd be looking at a minimum 15 foot buffer adjacent multifamily residential that would be adjacent to Fallbrook towards the rear of the property, but then 25 foot buffer adjacent to the single family residential. Um, we remember that picture that we saw of the neighbor. So adjacent to their property, this development would be required to install a 25 foot buffer. The other development factor is road access. So Unionville Indian Trail Road and Poplin Road are NCDOT roads. So ultimately they would be making a determination on what kind of access would be allowed for this, for future development. By looking at the existing conditions, Unionville and D'Ontario Road has a median already. So that would force right in, right out. And Poplin Road lacks a center turn lane, which would most likely also force right in, right out. We mention this because for commercial viability, full access is so important. It's so desirable. So to see that only right in, right out might be the likely outcome, that raises questions about can a commercial development be viable here? So those are two development particulars or factors that we thought about and we wanted to share with you. And that's all for my presentation. If you have any questions, I'm here. We also have with us several representatives from 814 and also someone representing the owner.

I have a question. Sure. Uh, you spoke last on the, the road access and that was something that I noticed because I drive past this location at least once a week. I didn't even know there was a house there. So you're right. It it's the house sits way back and it's like, oh yes. How about that? There is a house. to get to that. And, and even today for the owner to get to it, if they were coming from, uh, the bypass heading away from Indian trail, whatever direction that is on, let's say east.

Yeah.

They would have to make a U-turn at that stoplight to get there. Cause if you turn left onto Poplin, There's no access there. And if you went, if you turn left on Poplin, you'd have to go all the way down. Well, the first existing street is a little ways down, make a U-turn there and then come all the way back. Well, if you're going, if a business of any sort is there, you wouldn't want to do that. You'd want to make a U-turn and looking at, I'm looking at the current street view of that. a vehicle small a regular sedan or a normal pickup truck not a long one it would be a bit of a work to make a u-turn there and certainly no large vehicles could make a u-turn if let's say that this does proceed who would be responsible for widening that to allow a u-turn for it is allowed already Right there.

To address the question, the overall question that you made about improvements, that comes down to the applicant. When they apply with NCDOT and they do their studies and analyze the options, NCDOT would make a determination and impose or require those improvements.

Cause I, I'm just looking at how, how would you get into and out of this property? Yeah. Um, any of that at all? Don't face that. Yes. Anything from there all the way down to the, the, uh, I'm just careful.

There are, um, could you come to the microphone please? Okay.

License.

Well, also this has been recorded. Good evening council members.

My name is Jess Perry. I'm with Walt Perry Realty. We represent the owner of the property, Mr. Joseph, Tim Mason. He's here with us tonight. We're here to answer any questions you have to answer your question. There are already plans for an improvement on Poplin road. In fact, Mr. Easton signed a temporary construction easement for that matter on both sides of Poplin road.

So there are things in, in, in, in planning to give access to that property from Poplin road and not just

This is for widening of Poplin Road. Part of it is, and I believe the gentleman with 84, he can answer that too, but we're also, well, he can talk about that. It's in their plans, and he's the one talking with DOT.

Okay.

So if you have any other questions, we're here for you.

I have a question. In the printed material under the section approval and denial considerations, it says due to the pre-existing nearby rural residential properties, commercial use intensity impacts may affect the nearby neighbors. And it further states that landscaped buffers ranging from 15 to 50 feet in the presentation here, it says 25 foot buffer required. Would you increase that to 50 where there is a residential adjacent? Can we approve it with condition?

So that would depend on the final land use that ends up being developed. A childcare center is categorized as a land use group number two. And that's why in the slide you see 25 feet because that would be the requirement. I don't think there's any land use group three categories or three tier. uh that that are compatible with that zoning so that's why you can you can ignore the the 50-foot measurement i guess my question is can we request the 50-foot buffer as a condition to protect the so because this is not a conditional zoning we can't okay thank you and um the one you're talking about is ms martin next door

She probably eventually, I've been talking with her, she probably will wish it to be commercial development too. We have, not to Brad, but we have the land listed from Mr. Eason's all the way down to where it curves at Bonterra Village Way for the purpose of commercial. So all of those residential owners are in line. So we basically, it goes from Mr. Eason's on Unionville, Indian trail road over to Bonterra village way down to where it starts to curve on Monterra village way. We have that listed for commercial.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

And you also have the property across Poplin at that intersection too. Don't you?

Yes.

Yeah.

And we are talking, we do have a letter of intent on that one. Yeah.

So you'll be back? Yes.

I'm glad to be here. Thank you.

Thank you.

So I'll put back that requested action slide for you.

Do we have any public comments?

Any other questions before I take the community? OK. The first person on my list is Carolyn Chapman. Great, thank you. And just as a reminder to everybody who's coming up to speak, you have three minutes.

Yes, ma'am. Good evening, Madam Chairman and our distinguished board members. My name is Carolyn Chapman. I'm a resident of Bonterra Village. I've lived in Indian Trail about 17 years, and I'm here to talk about the ZM-20-26-0101. Um, the first thing I want to make perfectly clear is I do not object to childcare centers. I'm a Gigi and I love children. I'm just very concerned about the location of this. Um, in particular, um, it is very crowded on that corner. And I live there, so I know and I've watched all the developments be built. So I know kind of what that's like. It's very narrow because of the median that you were speaking about earlier. So getting through there is just one lane right where this property is to be rezone. Now, it does widen out a little bit as you go down, but it is it's kind of narrow getting in there. I am a retired real estate developer and broker, so I understand that growth is inevitable and property owners have rights. I totally understand that. I also understand that responsible development requires us to look at everything that has to do with our community. Land use is one of them. Traffic is another. Safety, another. Infrastructure, and the cumulative impact of surrounding development. This proposal site is 1.6 acres, and I think I have read, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, I did as deep a dive as I could. There's a 12,500 square foot childcare center. I don't know if I'm correct about that dimension, but that's what I'm understanding. Immediately behind the property is the Fallbrook new subdivision. That subdivision has just been built and I don't know if there are any residents in there at all. Their intention is to have 118 single family units and 119 townhome units. That's a total of 237 units. Every unit is going to have at least two people driving. So we're already over the 400 mark within the football field's length of this corner of people that will be coming out about the same time the daycare would open or close. So there's a lot of activity going to happen, and there's a lot there already. Bonterra is huge, 900 houses. So there's already a lot of traffic. And what I read in the town's material that is that this area is experiencing significant growth and increased vehicle and pedestrian traffic. They're right. We have lots of traffic. We have e-bikes. We have people walking and we have cars. Is that my time up?

Okay.

Thank you for your comment. Okay.

Well, let me tell you, I do love Indian Trail.

Thank you.

Okay, I have Veronica Hildebrand.

Hildebrand, yeah. It's one of the two things that I want to speak of. Hello. I walk to work every morning, and Indian Trail is supposed to be the city of trees, no? And on my walk on Unionville Indian Trail Road, Really ironic. I was walking and these huge, I don't know what kind of trees, beautiful trees were blowing in the wind, moving, and I'm thinking, ah, breathing in that air. They're cleaning it for me. It felt great. I'm away home from work, very same day. They're cutting the trees down. I could not believe that this was happening the same exact morning that I was so thankful for these trees. So now we have a whole bunch of apartments going up because traffic isn't bad enough. It's a two-lane road. Where's the water being consumed? Well, I know that right now we're in a massive drought and water is also being pulled in from Anson County. We don't have the water for this. the construction you want to do. I live right near there. And it's getting hotter. There is the global warming and now everybody just wants to cut down trees and build, build, build. Okay, why not a skate park? I've been after a skate park when my kids were little. They're graduating college already. If you're going to do something, we don't need another store. If you want to go shopping, go to Matthews, go to Charlotte. Why do we have to cut trees, encroach upon so much traffic, just so much traffic, so little water to build, build, build, build, build? I know money, money, money, money. I really value my health and the health of my children and the health of my friends, neighbors, family. And I just want you to think about this. I feel for the gentleman who lives nearby. And again, growth is good. Growth makes the populace grow. It makes people want to come and move in. But when we moved out here, it was the country It's not the country and it's not the city of trees anymore. So I really want you to think about this. I know everybody wants to build and have growth. We're already thinking of moving out because it's getting too congested, and I'm not alone, and I do believe that's why a lot of, you'll see a lot of houses going up because it's just getting too congested. Everything, it's too hot. It's too congested, it's too hot, and we could do better. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. And I have Brittany Cabona.

Hi, I am a resident at Annandale, and I actually had come to this meeting not to talk about zoning, about this particular plot of land. I actually was interested in finding out what was officially being proposed, so that was great to learn. I actually came here because I was told that there was going to be some conversations regarding data centers. So that hasn't been presented yet, so I can't say what they're hoping to do or not hoping to do. But I had a quick chat and I also work in the field where I work with people who put data centers together. I also am in the field of safety and health of our community and our children. And I think that data centers, especially The comments that we've heard already, we are aware that we do have a lot of issues with things that are very important to data center work, which is water as one of the most important things. So when you guys are looking at doing different verbiage for zoning, when requests are made, I hope that you take into consideration things like that. And also, I think it should be something that is brought before the community before any decisions are made. And additionally, I would suggest that everyone looks into what a closed loop data center is. That would be the least damage to the area if you were to accept one. But I do want to urge everyone to never accept one if you can. And one of the things I can say that, yes, everyone stops thinking when you hear all of these jobs will be coming. It's going to be multiple years that it's going to take to build the data center and it's so attractive. Well, everyone leaves and three people run a data center. So it's not bringing us jobs. It's not bringing us anything. If anything, it's going to scare people away from living here who already do and no one else will be coming. So that is the only thing that I truly came to have a conversation and learn more about today. So thank you for your time.

That's actually part two for tonight. Yes, thank you.

I know we didn't get there yet. That's why I was like, ah, the comments are not in my head. That's okay. That's okay. I'm early. Okay.

Questions?

Whoever was going to explain about the road improvements, if you could do that, please.

Good evening. Mark Kallenberger, 1695 12 Mile Road, Suite 100, Berkeley, Michigan, 48072, with 814 development. As it relates to the road improvements, we've had some initial conversations with NC DOT. We've also had initial conversations with the developer of the Is it Poplin Village to the south? And with their traffic consultant that is doing some road expansion plans. So there's a lot of improvement. We've not gotten to the design phase yet from that standpoint. Poplin as it heads from north to south at that intersection is gonna undergo a pretty large improvement from that standpoint is associated with that development from what it looks like. But we have not gotten into the exact design or access conversation with NC DOT. So I don't have a clear-cut answer. I understand your concerns for sure. And that is one of the reasons we want to continue the conversation with NC DOT because of that median that is on Indian Trail Road. or Unionville Indian trail road to see what we can do to better access on Poplin there.

Yeah. Cause as the, uh, Ms. Chapman mentioned, it does narrow down quite a bit right there. Cause I, like I said, I drive through that at least once a week and yeah. Yep. Understood. And there are a lot of people. And so, uh, Even, even if you don't add any more traffic, still just getting in and out of that property would be problematic at the moment. But if they are going to be working on improvements and widening and

Yeah, I don't have timing on that, and like I say, the plans aren't official or final approved or anything like that, but that's why we want to get in with NCDOT now as part of this and run that process concurrently with the rezoning, just to understand what would be fully available.

And who would be... Would NCDOT be paying for that, or would it be the developers?

My experience... would be that that's going to fall on me. Yeah, on us from that standpoint, from a development. We have done public-private partnerships when a road authority is doing, is anticipating an improvement and we come along, we can pool resources and money. That's, I'll say, seldom the case. Any of those type of improvements typically fall on the back of the development.

Yeah.

Because I know if you go wait for NCUDOT to pay for it, it's... Well, and that's the other part, right?

Exactly. So that's why we want to just have those conversations to know what Poplin Village is doing, what DOT is accepting and or willing to look at, and if they have any improvements planned for that area. Because from everything I've seen, the median on... unionville indian trail road isn't going away but i don't know if there are cuts or anything like that that are planned but from what i've seen there are not yeah i would expect that to to remain where it is unless they moved over towards poplin village to give more access more width on your side yeah right but anyway sorry not a definitive answer but that's the best information i have at this time yeah

Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Okay. Any other questions for this gentleman?

No.

Thank you. Thank you.

I mean, no, I mean, all the all the I mean, all the traffic and all that stuff access that that comes in when there's site review for specific development. So again, this is just for the zoning of future use.

By the way, I live in Esplanade right around the corner. We love it 55 and older community my wife and I enjoy walking on the trails around there too. It's beautiful. You kind of have a natural trail place because it's in a flood zone, by the way, over there. But anyway, yes, there are improvements that are being planned. I saw the ones for Mr. Eason also across the road, that corner there, too, and I asked the developer to share with me all the improvements that he was going to have to make, and he did, and I can't go into them, but I can tell you it's not just this intersection. And what I saw and what is planned are also improvements along Poplin and Unionville Indian Trail Road and widening. I go through that intersection just about every day. Right now, I know it's going to get busy, but right now it's pretty manageable. And we want to see this area grow, the one that's outlined, for commercial to serve people to where they could take their children or they could go shopping

here there instead of having to go to matthews or to charlotte that's our intent thank you thank you okay any other comments questions concerns okay i would entertain a motion on this rezoning

A motion to approve CM2026-01013010 Unionville Indian Trail Road as presented.

Second. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, that motion carries. And I'll just remind everybody here, this is a, um, not an approving body. This is a recommending body. So this, uh, rezoning is going to come up before, um, the town council. Do we know the date? So there and there's an opportunity for public comments at that meeting as well. And it's the town council that makes the final decision. Okay, let's move on to the next piece of business.

Maybe that didn't have anything to do with it. Thank you, Board. This is for various UDO amendments for case ZT-2026-0095. There's several other sections that We'll look at two of those or specifically we'll tag team on it with Tyler. And so you'll see a switch here shortly. So this is a zoning request to amend sections of the UDO to revise the ordinance to reflect some changes that may have occurred in the general statutes, amend the ordinance also for revisions and additions determined and researched by staff. The intent is to improve the clarity of the UDO for residences and businesses, providing responsible and quality development Your applicant is the planning department. So the descriptions that were in your packets for the changes were the usual format we've been following with additions in green and the striked material to be deleted or moved in red with strikethrough and any comments in yellow highlight from staff. So here's the large outline. It looks big, but there's a few of them that are fairly quick and short. But here's the listing of the set of changes and the categories they were organized into. went through those for this presentation and identified five that were more involved. Data centers with some new was a completely new section signage requirements. section location and various wall sign revisions, the town design standards, requirements specifically for downtown landscaping and the clarification of existing requirement allowing stormwater retention structure encroachment into landscape buffers. So, to start with, data centers. Our purpose is to plan ahead for data centers, the nationwide growing demand. It's been blowing up everywhere, and our local school of government with UNC has been very helpful in taking a look at that, as well as other groups that have had presentations on it and information out there. Communities have been faced with what to do. Either you do nothing and you let someone come in and by what the school of government said, that legally, if you don't have a line item in your use table, they can push for one of the uses that could be similar and could sue on that if you stop them. There needs to be something in there for a use to go into somehow, some way. Some communities are doing a moratorium and putting things on hold, but those expire. I think Charlotte's is getting ready to expire and they're now faced with having to get to work on it. So we've wanted to take, and especially since the county is approaching it also with Union County, we wanted to get something in as well and do a minimum. to start with and put in some minimum parameters. If somebody comes in, we have an idea of at least the land use to start with. Right now, the proposal is to only allow them in light industrial and heavy industrial with a conditional zoning. Would not be buy right. The conditional zoning will allow us to work with them, see what they're proposing, and make any required requests for information that's in the section for this. This is a new chapter, 7280, under Supplementary Use Regulations Division. You see some samples that are popping up around us in the state on the screen. Charlotte has a few. There's one, the South Data Center for Flexential, TierPoint in Raleigh, and the Google Data Center in Lenore. These are various sizes. They can take the form of large complexes if there's enough land for them. And you see the definition there that's also in the packets. So the form of the new section takes the shape of what you see there. There's plan submittal requirements where we require a letter of intent with initial information going into the review process. We require a system impact study that will have information on the power, the water, sewer. Then the section goes into the site, lot setbacks, distance requirements as well, landscape buffers, parking, exterior lighting, then a utility section. The thing with water and sewer is a lot of that is determined by the provider. So as much as, you know, we have suggestions in this material for preferring a closed loop system or an efficient system, but needs to meet the requirements of Union County. They control those systems. So it's more of a direction, directing the developer to them in our material. A power supply, capacity, suggestions for renewable energy, Then environmental section about air quality, what shouldn't be passing in general just across the property line between dust and smoke and odor. Groundwater protection, no wells accessing groundwater is the provision there. And a noise, sound study is one component with a professional company that does that kind of work. We need that input from a professional. because it can be specialized from just straight generator noise to machinery hums. And depending on how it's insulated either in the building or to the exterior of the building, it can be constant. And so a lot depends on those buffers, the placement of that building within the site, and landscaping can help as well as the distance. And also generator use as part of the noise, restricting times for generator use, stressing in the section that it is temporary. And if they have system failure, they just can't run generators days and they'll have to come up with a fast solution for themselves. And so that's the general layout of those. One of the challenges that we experienced was in doing research with other communities and other ordinances is the extremes of the distances that they have. And I think that's what helps with some of these required the required information we're asking of them to help inform us during that conditional review. is, you know, are those setback requirements going to be enough? Are they too much? But I think that we're taking a logical approach instead of just placing like, you know, a mile radius around the entire facility. So another section. Oh, and going back, we do not yet have any submittals for data centers. We do have people reaching out on different properties that asks us about them. And of course, the fact that they're popping up in the vicinity is the urgency right now. Signage, there's the section on signage that had a portion on sign illumination. It was allowed in all districts, but there were some restrictions with downtown and overlays, and it really wasn't serving the overall purpose. We have components in the regulations for illumination that helps to control it enough, so we just took out and made that a yes there as well with parameters. The changes moves the sign requirements tables. For some reason, these good summary tables were at the end of the signage division. And it's to move them up front, so you have kind of an executive summary up front that gives people a snapshot of what's required. Then clarification of wall sign numbers on multiple walls. Just a sampling of a building that could have multiple sides. And this will add some language to help regulate that a little bit. Not saying that this example is wrong, but shows you that how signage can start to wrap around a single building. And then a major format revision to a table. It was the business commercial table. You see the one on the left we want to delete because it just had stretched out columns and broad statements. And the intent was to put succinct answers in a matrix. The other significant section were the design standards, or is the design standards. For a long time, the design section has been lacking, at least since I've been here, in matching design language. There's stipulations on materials, on certain items about the building's specific standards, but there's no language to the building composition. The design language is missing from the town standards aspect. And so this was to incorporate that language and do research and put sections of design language in, primarily in the commercial section, because single family residences, there's more restrictions with what we can control there. And it also allowed us to take and make changes to some sections that were taking townhouses discussing townhouses a little bit with multifamily and then discuss townhouses a little bit with single-family detached and it was to sort that out and put townhouses with single-family only and pull out multifamily it's just a different design nature with apartments and condos and than it is with the townhouse, the single-family unit. So that helps from that aspect. This is just a snapshot of all the changes and how they're organized. On top, the full division, chapters 1310, 1320, through 1340, and then the breakout between those. with each of the chapters and the changes that were happening in there. You see in black what's existing and still used from our code. So we didn't throw out everything. We just wanted to enhance it. And then here is the remaining two chapters and a new section for downtown design standards. It's most of the design standards that are in the other chapters take care of what's needed for most of the design standards in downtown. But there's some specifics that we wanted to bring about here in the downtown, this downtown section that was pulled into it. and especially some downtown furnishings we're already recommending some of the choices that we're making for complete streets and so we wanted to include those fixtures in with that did receive your comment about one of those items and we'll look into that and so let's see what now the two sections That I'm going to tag Tyler in.

How are you doing this evening? So when it came to the downtown landscaping, Some of y'all may have been on the board back in 2022 2023 when there was the downtown master plan update and rezoning 530 acres in and around downtown. One thing that we have noticed since then with potential redevelopment of property even taken just an existing single-family home that is zoned for commercial use but there might be like a resident next door is conflicting provisions between what we want the downtown to actually look like as far as like walkability placemaking versus pretty much protections against certain properties for larger developments in the urban sprawl or rural landscape, where if you have a group three land use, which is industrial adjacent to a single family, we require a 50 foot landscape buffer. You know, a daycare is a group two, which is a 25 foot buffer adjacent to single family. Group one might be a church or a park adjacent to single family, which is 15 feet. And then where no landscape buffer is required, then we still require 10 foot side and rear landscaping. But when you get into a downtown like ours that is trying to be built and you're converting these single family lots that still have single family next to them. you might have a hundred foot wide lot that we want parking located in the rear. And there is a house on one side and a house on the other side. And there might be room right now for a 25 foot landscape buffer on one side potentially, but engineering's gonna wanna require a drive aisle, bi-directional, so you can go either way. That's 24 foot wide. And then you got a 25 foot buffer on the other side. So what does that leave you with the house? 25 feet. And we've ran into consistent conflicts in and around our downtown nothing has redeveloped right now due to some of these site constraints that our code doesn't have alleviation for and so essentially the downtown landscaping we've talked about it for years one of the recommendations in the downtown master plan along with like doing the place making for the furnishing design elements that tim's incorporated is to talk about the provisions of the landscaping and where there's conflicts. So it's a completely new chapter, 8130. There is one section, 8130-040. You see where it's in black for street tree planting in downtown districts. We already had specific language for street tree plantings in downtown districts, but that was the only reference to anything regarding landscaping in downtown. Everything else was still having to fall underneath. Buffer yards, tree save, a bunch of other things. And one thing that we tried to keep in mind, and I can show you some examples at the end of the slide, I included some uh photos currently that we have uh along indian trail road and matthews indian trail where some of these homes have converted over to businesses that currently aren't really adhering to what would have been the 25 foot buffers back in the day and kind of how that looks out in the field as well if you have any questions about that also some of these other items side yard landscaping Those are provisions that we have similar in our regular landscaping chapters, but it's just reducing down the size. We're saying, hey, don't follow buffers based on like our normal landscaping division in 8800. You're going to follow everything in these specific sections. Same thing for perimeter landscaping of parking lots in downtown. Originally, I didn't think we needed to have that because I wanted us to put parking in the rear, which is what we ultimately want, especially even in our mixed-use activity centers like Josue had for one of his cases. But if you're redeveloping a property where the house is located really far back on the site, then you're not gonna make them demo the house in order to build a parking lot. You're gonna let them do the parking in the front. Same thing with screening and mechanical equipment, utility equipment in downtown, landscaping adjacent to buildings, and then obviously the little carte blanche. We can't think of everything. There are going to be very unique situations dependent upon the site, so we have flexibility for downtown conditions. but we have some safeguards in there that they have to prove to us why they are needing alleviation. And we have similar language in our Division 800 for alternative landscaping, buffers being reduced based on site constraints, things of that nature. And I'm happy to answer any questions you have after I get through this. The next section, stormwater retention and landscape buffers, clarification of regulations to prevent encroachment of stormwater structures into landscape buffers. So we already have language in Division 800 specifically related to stormwater retention facilities may be located in a required buffer, provided that it is 10 feet from the property line. Sounds great in theory, but you might get developers that question you on, okay, drought attention versus, you know, wet pond. Because the language also specifies that, hey, it has to be amenitized with fountains and X, Y, or Z and be like curb appeal, essentially. Especially if you have a 50-foot buffer that you're going into, encroaching into. But what we ran into engineering has their own requirements. They don't care about landscaping. They care about access easements and maintenance access easements around the pond with their post stormwater or post construction stormwater ordinance where, hey, if somebody is not maintaining their stormwater pond, they need to have access to get in there. So what ended up happening, though, is they would put their maintenance access area 10 feet from the property line or I guess the top of the berm 10 feet from the property line and so we couldn't put any plantings in that easement. Our engineers, Todd, he would say no go. It affects the integrity of the berm depending on whether or not it's an above ground retention design versus the below ground retention design It affects their ability to access the ponds. And so, uh, planning essentially worked with our engineering department to say, Hey, what will work for y'all in order for us to still get our plantings and make this section make sense for developers and what we're going to require. And so the two details that you see in front of you, along with the associated language in your packets, are essentially clarifying that for staff to have something to point to when a developer tries to put it right up to the property line. I'll give it back to Tim for consistency findings. But after that, if there's any questions you have related to any of our sections, obviously feel free to ask. Thank you.

Don't go too far, they might relate to you. But consistency findings. Staffer, the determination that the following consistency items can be made, request is reasonable and in the public interest as it promotes the goals of the comprehensive plan for community engagement goal number one, by communicating effectively with residents, business owners, and other stakeholders to ensure a well-informed and inclusive community. Economic development goal number two, by supporting existing businesses within the town through effective communication and community outreach. There's the requested action, but that concludes my brief overview. So do you have any questions or public comments?

Okay, I don't have any public comments. I have lots of questions.

I have lots of questions. Well, I just have one big question about the data center portion. Has there been any study done that, I mean, when I look at where there's data center, Charlotte, the size of the city, and Raleigh, the size of that city compared to Indian Trail, the fact that we're entertaining, putting that language, is there Is there a need to have that in our GDO as the size city or town that we are?

Let me give you one thing that's in the back of our mind. Let's say a data center submits an application today, and they choose to relate their data center to a major utility. That major utility is conditional in – it's listed in every district. So I would not want to allow that in those areas. And we've been informed that's where we're hearing from the legal side that if you don't have a use in your table, they could press for something in their favor.

You are correct. Major utilities is conditional in every single district.

Yeah, at least conditional. But still, it's in every district, including all residential.

So it sounds to me as though by putting this verbiage in the videos, we are trying to set up a structure so that if somebody comes in to want to put in a data center, we already have restrictions in place.

We'll have more than we have right now, which is nothing specific to data centers.

Can we limit the size?

But we're not necessarily inviting data centers to come in.

Oh, no, no. It still has to go through review and definitely with conditional go through you and town council.

So it's a proactive kind of thing.

It's proactive and it's... It's also not trying to be too far on one side or the other. It's just trying to put something in place. And we'll definitely see what the public feedback is. I mean, that's part of this process, is to see if the public wants more controls. But the thing that we're hearing from any Any use that's out there is we can't get rid of it or we might have gotten rid of vape shops. We can't get rid of vape shops. You have to offer them somewhere. They've already approached us in the past. And so we've edited that code a couple of times for tobacco and vape as one example. But this facility is a bigger impact.

take take for example if you have a major utility and light industrial well since there are no mechanisms in place for building setbacks other than what's in chapter 500 related to industrial districts it's a 50 foot front setback and maybe a 50 foot buffer what we're doing is creating specific guidelines for the data centers as they come in so we can regulate them at a different level than just some base zoning district So it's increasing those building setbacks. It's increasing those buffers. It's requiring additional information related to the utilities, related to the noise. We're trying to create a structure essentially, like Tim mentioned earlier, for the minimum requirements that we want to see. They can always exceed as they're going through a legislative process, through a conditional rezoning. You have community meetings. You have planning and zoning board. You have town council. There's concept plan. There's TIAs. There's going to be the noise studies if this stuff is approved, where there can be additional requirements imposed should they choose to go forward with that. But this is setting that base rate above and beyond what we currently have right now.

Now, the state, they're potentially proposing something for the state, whatever that turns out to be. So, not sure where that will leave us when all that comes out.

Would that take precedence over the local ordinances?

Yes. Yes, depending on how, you know, depending on what's written, it could modify. you know, what we put in place. Are you allowing?

Sure.

Thank you. And what was the question again? What can be in place instead of the data center? What else can be there? You said something for utilities?

he he's mentioning based on what we currently have in our code they're they're going they have corporate lawyers that are way smarter than anybody in this room and and so they are going to look at our table of permitted uses and they are going to say utilities major that's that's what we Oh, I'm good. It should it should here utilities major. That's that's what we most closely resemble. And if you say no to us fitting in that category, then we're going to sue the pants off of you until we get our way. And then you're going to process our request.

If someone proposes something and we don't have anything in place, they could sue us if we don't provide a place for that use they're proposing.

Can I quickly answer in plain language where I think it might help?

What they're saying is that we have the power to shape that if we're going to have to have a data center for approval, we can shape what that data center has to look like, has to do, has to provide, has to pay for, has to follow. We have the power as the people to set that. But if we don't put that in plain language, then they can do whatever they want, kind of thing.

Okay. Well, we don't want to get into back and forth. That's not the process.

And that's why we have a planning department to protect us. Right.

Yeah. We can just we need this. Okay. And I agree because I have worked at a number of data centers around this area. There's far more than what you realize. And and I can give you examples and they come in all shapes and sizes and they've been here for decades. This is nothing new. Anyway, on specifics of this, the looking at I'll go by your page numbers of the agenda. And for those in the audience, if you want to see what we're seeing, it's online under the Agenda Center. So starting on page 6, where you talk about Division 700 Supplementary Use Regulations, the lot setbacks and then the, on the next page, the, which would be page seven landscape buffers and, and the like, um, if, I don't know if it would be a good thing or a bad thing. If you could have some, uh, visual, um, diagrams or pictures just so that, For example, here's what we're expecting, you know, so that to further define, not just, okay, it says this and this, but because I know some people and especially some good attorneys can make the language say what they want. And if you have a picture there that. Here's an example of what we're looking for, and also not just for the landscape buffers, but also like the equipment screening and the appearance of the outside of the building like you have further in the UDO where you have examples. This is what we expect an industrial building or an office building to look like. Kind of thing so that they won't just use AI and come up with some wild design on the top of page eight. It talks about parking. And I know that the state recently passed something about, uh, what we can and can't do on parking. And I know, I assume that that's January 1st.

Oh, So you will see me again shortly around January 1st for a set of edits for removing minimum parking requirements for off street parking.

So if we pass this and then somebody comes between now and January, we can restrict them. But then after January, the parking is going to be changed. So it's free for all. Yeah. Okay. Um, all right. I just wanted to ask about that. So just a little further down under water and sewer, um, I know a big thing with, uh, how they currently build data centers is using groundwater or other surface water for cooling. And it's, It's the cheap and easy way to get away with the cooling. And it is I would be ashamed if I was the one building a building like that. But anyway, some people have no shame. And I see that we have some things there that restrict on water usage and the like. But here on number two, it says any water cooling system must be a closed loop, recycled or water efficient water system. And you do further talk about closed loop and recycle. But there's I didn't see a definition for water efficient water system.

There is no teeth for that on purpose because that second sentence is going to rule it all. And it's it's when they take it to review with Union County, we won't have any say.

Yeah.

And so we will definitely review what they've found out through them, and it will be up to council whether you know what they think of that. If Union County is, you know, making a good decision with that, I guess.

Yeah, because I know that some people would say, oh, our system is water efficient. And it's like, yeah, according to who, you know,

Yeah, it's language that was existing out there. And we talked about that if we wanted to define it. But it all came down as we looped through discussions. It all came back to Union County. And so I don't know where that's going to end up. They went back for revisions. They did their first proposal to the commissioners several weeks ago, and the planner is taking that back to make some edits.

Right. A little further down in power, you talk about power capacity and renewable energy. It looks like you can clarify this, that they will not be able to have their own power generation on-site. Is that correct? Specifically a noise-producing power generation, such as a diesel or gas-powered Power plant?

Yeah. The sound study on the next page, page nine?

Yeah, I think the sound study is going to be part of that process. And if there are any improvements to be made, they'll have to specify what that's going to be. there's several that have to build their own substations nearby so it just depends on where they're at and if it's adequate or not and if it's not adequate we want to know like what are you going to have to do as for that because you also don't want that next to the property line humming yeah and buzzing like they can do um

But as far as the, not restriction, but the parameters, let's say, for data centers, it's a very good start. I know that. You covered a lot of good bases.

And it doesn't mean we can't make other changes now and forward.

If everybody in the room went through this fine-tooth comb and said, yeah, okay, maybe this and this, well, somebody else might see it and say, oh, well, you didn't think about this, which is why we're going to have public comment, and council will need to go through that. But it is good, and we've got to start somewhere. And so this is... This is good. Good start. Good start. Very good start. Thank you. Um, and we welcome public comments from whomever, because none of us know everything.

And there, again, this is going to go to the, uh, to the town council. So if you have, uh, you want to make your voice heard, you need to come to the council meetings.

One thing I do want to add based on something Mr. Sayre was bringing up was the substation and like associated equipment. Potentially one thing Tim did a great job of, especially with the research, is that setback table. If you actually read the description, it's not just the building setback for the primary building. It's also for any accessory equipment as well as any accessory building on site must meet those required separation requirements. So just something to keep in mind.

That's true.

Because if you have like another commercial development or like a residential house or something like that, obviously less intensive use, there might be different setbacks for the primary structure versus an accessory that might be able to be closer. But that's not the situation with how things are currently written. That's all.

That's all I had for that. I have more further on. I went through all of these. I didn't know if we would go line by line or what we were gonna do. So I'll give you a gold star, not looking for a gold star. Um, on page 15 at the top, uh, under number two.

Yes.

The last sentence of that paragraph, starting with these streets will not be accepted on the town roadway system. The town is not liable for the maintenance and repair of the street. I think I know what you mean.

I think it's running on a little bit.

It's a run on sentence at least.

And if we could comes from pasting in existing texts. Yeah. So that's blacks, the existing section. So I'll take a look at that.

So it just, some clarifying grammar on that. And I have no idea how I saw that. Cause I, I didn't read absolutely every word, but that just jumped out at me and what I think I know what you mean. Um, I have more. Okay. Uh, on the, uh, in your presentation that you had here, you had a picture or well, three pictures of that building with the signage.

Yes.

Um, I didn't see that you have a, just no, it's not in our packet. Yeah. And that was another place where pictures would certainly help. Uh, you had the, the sign surface calculation, but the, um, I know we can read you have that nice table there that you're right. The old table was kind of confusing and this makes it very clear, but still some examples of what does 10% of a building wall really look like? Or if you're on a corner lot or the building is the end of a row and you've got two sides of your building facing And the, what I'm thinking of where copper tapping table is now used to be East coast wings and grill. They have two walls, one that faces, um, Wesley chapel road, and then one that faces towards the cigar shop. you know, can they put two very large signs, you know, one on each side of the building, you know, cause then you could really see, or would that an example of this is allowed, but this isn't things like that, you know, I think would be, would be helpful. Um, again, not trying to restrict people, but just so that somebody might get an idea, Hey, this is gonna be great. And they submit the plan to you and you say, mm.

Yeah. Well, why didn't you say so?

Well, here's a picture.

Yeah.

You know, so that I think would be, um, would be good on further on page 35, the excessive garage projection. I think that was a very good picture. Um, very good example of woo. Yeah. That's too much garage in front of the house. Cause that, that was, um, that was good. And on the top of 37, where again, we're talking about, uh, garages you had started with, uh, you had on that paragraph four, on the previous bottom of the previous page there on 36, you changed it from front loading to front entry garages, front facing side and side entry garage. Then in the top of 37 shall not extend further than four feet past the porch, excluding side loading garages. Should that be side entry as well and to just be consistent? Yeah, I can side loading.

I can look at that.

Yeah. Okay. I like garages. That's why I paid attention to that. I really don't have a whole lot more, but I have one or two. also on your the presentation that you had there on the above ground retention pond I was looking at those two it's like well what's the difference and then finally while you're talking I saw oh okay the above ground the water level is above the outside ground if you could maybe make that line higher so that it's more obvious? I mean, if you're doing that, you should know the difference, but

it it doesn't even have to necessarily do with the water level itself as opposed to whether or not they're using an earthen dam which means it's it's already flat and they're just digging a hole essentially and they're making it a retention pond versus you know some sites can't necessarily accommodate for that on one side due to like the sloper topography And so they end up having to build an artificial earthen down first and then have that. So in in the below ground retention, you know, once once you reach the top of the pond, you can have your ten foot maintenance access versus on an above ground one. The ten foot maintenance access is going to be on the top of that earthen berm and then you're going to have a downslope on the backside.

Okay.

So it's not necessarily the water level as much as it is whether or not it's natural earthen berm that you're just digging a hole into versus an artificial one that you're having to create a berm.

Yeah. Okay. All right. That makes sense. On page 57 under paragraph number seven, window materials. Yes. And see there, it says, assuming spandrel glass. Okay.

Um, Oh yeah.

That, uh, I had to look up spandrel glass. I had no idea what that was. Uh, but it's like, oh, okay. Now I see that.

That was meant to be a note to the team. So I'll need to look at that one.

And that will be another good place for an example, uh, picture.

An illustration.

Yes. Again, if you're in construction, you probably know what spandrel glass is, but still. Just to make sure people know. Then two pages later on 59, there's a picture of the preferred industrial design, which is very nice, but I didn't see any reference to that.

I do not know from whence that picture came. It's in our UDO.

It's currently in there and has been since at least 2021, if not sooner. You can see an example of that industrial building right next door.

If you go have it there, then just put a little line in paragraph eight or something, for example, see figure 1300 dash one, whatever, but, um, I just like it to be nice and neat and clean and all that.

So I have a question. Does it, is this document available for the public to read to see?

Yes.

It's online. So that kind of illustration is appropriate. Yeah. If we're trying to make it accessible to the general public. Yeah. And not to you specialists.

Yeah. Yeah. Page 63, I mentioned this a little earlier. in regards to the illustration, but also the wording on it when I read that where it says option, no LED gas lamp element. I think it would be more clear to the casual reader to say without the LED glass element instead of the word no.

Okay.

And just, and I'll send you the link to that picture that I mentioned, because just to let you know that picture that's there, that shows it with the led gas, LED gas lamp element and You have to pay extra for that. And so if, if you're the one putting it up, you would want to get the cheaper version, but you might say, well, no, it has to look like this. And, but if you go to their website, there's one picture without that. And every other picture looks like this. So it's, they want to get their money too. Um, on the again.

Richard, excuse me.

It's 7.30.

Did you guys want to take a break or anything? You need to use the restroom, stand up, stretch.

I'm, I'm, I'm good. I'd like to power through it.

We can, I just have two more things and that's it. I'm getting hungry under the, um, on page 72 and 73. Again, that would be a good place for some example pictures of the trees of which you're wanting to have in the downtown area. And, uh, also the screening parking lot screening. Um, just if he can have some nice, uh, pictures there, um, And the last one, does all of these also include the removal of the school data request or is that going to be a different thing?

School data request is in there.

That's part of all this that we're doing right now. Okay. The, uh, I understand why you want to remove that. Um, because it just makes sense. However, if we do remove that and somebody comes in and says, Hey, we're gonna, we're gonna put in a hundred unit subdivision will the school system be notified of that in some way or another if we remove these requirements not by our code even though it not as a requirement of the developer or just a courtesy notification

I could say yes, but it won't be, I mean, that's just what I would do to let them know, but there's no formal, after that, there would be no formal process to.

Right, yeah, just some way to say, oh, hey, by the way, we got, because I know, like the, the zoning requests we had, they were talking about the, the Poplin village, I think, you know, it was approved a number of years ago and they still yet haven't started turning dirt.

And eventually that'll affect the school system, but, but you know, staff goes out to lunch and all the staff gets hit by a bus. I've never used, I've never used everyone getting hit by a bus. That's a first. That's a, I had to use it now that I thought of it. I've waited a long time for that. but if all of us get hit by a bus, there's nothing there. But I, I would, uh, it would cross my mind whenever we have another residential that comes through, we, we would typically have that communication, but it was, it was because it was in there. Right. I mean, that made us think about it. So, I mean, as, as myself, I would, I would still do it, but I, I see your, I see your point, but it was coming back from the direction of council.

And one thing to keep in mind, though, it's not like Union County will be left in the dark. So as a developer is proposing a subdivision or anything else, obviously, depending on the base and there's, you know, certain sewer constraints, developers are reaching out to Union County water well in advance of a conditional rezoning or a major subdivision. They'll be reviewing it. Yeah, they'll be reviewing it ahead of time and they'll get notification to all of their other departments through typically their sketch plan review process, sometimes even prior to even if it's a by right development.

So in terms of powering through all of the suggestions that have been made, do we have to go back and put those in the motion?

Well, there's a few I would like to study first and there's one or two that I want to rewrite or write in this to the next meeting.

The final vote.

That's your call. We have two or three that are hinging, uh, are, are hinging upon some things occurring. And so I would re I would request that if, if you're going to put this off or these others, uh, to give yourself a little more time, I have two or three I would like to request that you might consider pushing through. I can read those off.

Can we approve with the recommended edits?

I don't know who's been writing down the edits. That's my concern.

I mean, nothing in there is major. It was some suggestions as to how to improve the communication of these. And some editing. Yeah, most of it was. So I trust staff to incorporate those.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's up to you if, uh, and I can, I can give you a report back on what I do at it in case there's any comments back before the town council meeting. Uh, but it's, it's however you would like to proceed.

It's just how, what, what makes sense?

I would agree with going ahead and approving with staff changes according to comments received. And then I'll provide a report on what's changed before town council meeting and to see if there's any email feedback or conversations we need to have before town council and go from there.

If that works. I mean, yeah, there's nothing major.

Yeah, I'd rather not wait, especially since we only meet once a month because things can happen quickly and we need to get this stuff in place.

Yeah.

I recommend that we approve with the edits discussed and review before next town council to be forward.

Okay. Yeah. Second.

All approved. I approve. Okay. It's carried.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Appreciate all the edit. That's a lot of work.

They've they've been on the list for a while.

Thank you for being so thorough as law. Homework, too.

Yeah. A lot of staff review.

I declare the meeting at close. There you go.