Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

all right good evening ladies and gentlemen welcome to town election Planning Commission work session this board is comp compares the town residents who are appointed by the Town Council and serve without pay this work session is being held at Town Hall on February 18th 2025 work sessions or less formal meetings that allow commission members to discuss information related to town issues citizens are encourag to encouraged to observe these work sessions although they do not include public hearings the meeting will be broadcast on the town election and YouTube channel I am Brank Barry the chairman of the Town election and Planning Commission other Planning Commission members present are good evening Jared harson good evening O'Brien an good evening Rosco cman good evening I'm Jamie fight good evening I'm Joe Robertson good evening I'm Betsy McCall all right let us pray heavenly father thank you for this day thank you for this time to come to together and discuss the U plans and future of the town be with this group as we discuss that be with all those who are sick and all those who protect us uh and keep us safe in your name we pray amen please join me in the pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible withy andice for the work session will now commence um we had a uh dinner together and that was great uh

Sully Steamers was good first time I've had it I have to visit it more often um our agenda item tonight we're going to discuss is the amendment to chapter 156 to landscap and tree ordinance Miss Jessica good evening um at the January 29th work session yall reviewed the proposed amendments to the landscaping and tree ordinance during that meeting the discussion focused on ensuring the ordinance address maintenance concerns site visibility concerns regarding like Street trees and [Music] then I think that I think we had some other discussion in there about adding some different definitions since that time we held stakeholder meetings on February the 5th with home builders um and land planners Landscape Architects and a variety of targeted community members such as um Dominion was present we had members from lexon County there as well um and Public Safety members were there as well so and I think maybe one chamber member was there so we've taken all that feedback from those meetings and we further redlined the proposed amendments for Planning Commission review I did want to point out that there were a couple of different things that you brought up last um last meeting and I wanted to let you know that we went back and identified where those were already existing in the ordinance so we specifically discussed Street trees and concerns about um how far away from the sidewalk it was and whether it was supposed to have a barrier I know that y'all said that at some point you thought that that was already in there I did go back and look 156 11.02 C which is

on page 24 of the attached Red Line documents it had that already in there um it was written in as 5 ft to a public sidewalk based off of communication with the stakeholders we staff has changed that um for a recommended 8 ft it also States in there that it had to be planted with an approved and inspected rot control system in place so that was already in our ordinance um but we did modify it briefly um based off of stakeholder meetings also we discussed I think the site triangle is in there in section 15610 A and then there were um maintenance concerns were handled under two different sections 15692 e and 15610 02e so that allows us to handle making sure that they are sticking to the approved landscape plan it also notes that we will hold on to these approved landscape plans for the for eternity you know so we're going to keep them forever um on file so that we can reference them whenever we're out there making sure that they are keeping the plants alive and and maintaining the property as approved um from there we talked with home builders and I don't know how do you want to do you care how we go through this Frank or you just want me to take off rning okay so we talked with sorry we talked with home builders um and they said that their main concern and after having spent time trying to implement this in language in lexingon county that they wanted to be able to

have um like a decorative landscape area at the front entrance of of subdivisions they didn't want it to be completely wooded areas and then you just bam you're at an entrance to a subdivision so staff discussed with a couple of different Landscape Architects and things of that nature adding in some language to allow them some creative ability with the understanding that it would be approved by the approving Authority staff member that reviews these plans so if you go to page 25 which is the scate corridors under the um subdivision development section we have put in some language in here that is B and it states not withstanding the standard 50ft wide buffer requirement along Scenic corridors an entrance entrance way landscape area may be allowed up to blank linear feet on both sides of the entrance to a subdivision subject to the following conditions we left that linear feet blank because we wanted you all to provide some sort of guidance on that a recommendation if you agree that this need you know would be suitable to be in the ordinance the suggestion we received from stakeholders was 100 ft from the center line center point of the access road subdivision um on both sides the purpose of the entrance way landscape area is to accommodate beautification landscape plans at the entrance way enhancing the visual appeal and aesthetic value of the subdivisions entrance and that it is subject to be reviewed and approved by the approving authority to ensure compatibility with the overall Senate Corridor preservation a goals including the use of appropriate plant species and visual screening techniques and then beyond that landscape area the 50ft scenic Corridor

buffer shall be maintained as per the standard Scenic Corridor ordinance language um staff felt that this would be a good option to allow for some people you know to to make that pretty and fit the aesthetic complexing um and and to go along with their entrance way do we have any do youall have any thoughts on that that's 100 ft from the center line of the enter the new road that was the recommendation right and left right and left and it's not a requirement but it is an option available if the development chooses to do that that distance could be a couple hundred feet to a couple thousand feet so they still would have to put in the sca quarter buffer but as you got close to the entryway it would allow them to do a a landscape area to beautify their entrance way so it's not just wooded Scenic Corridor and then boom you hit a road with a sign it would kind of taper down into the entry way of the sub and they came up with 100 ft that was the suggestion that we received at the stakeholder meeting we left it blank for you all to have discussion or provide some sort of recommendation I think 100 ft would be sufficient I did I'm a visual person yeah what's what's the average I just so the most recent subdivision that we that you all approved and and then um it went to council was the um preserves the Cherokee Trail I have their site plan with me because they included on there without before we even this discussion the scenic Corridor bucker so if you look at where they have their turn lanes

and it's very tiny so I apologize but right there is the 50t mark and then here would be an additional 50t so right there's probably the 100 foot Mark outside of that entrance so for visual reasons it was helpful for me to see that and kind of look at that and I'll take it down there so they can see as well y'all good every again so you're talking 50 ft here 50 100t here 100 ft here versus this whole entire thing the same as a diesel L we could go 150 so there's I'm saying if not you have your um that's 50 start so that right there would be 100 so they want to do landscape areas for 100 foot passes from the center line pass from the center L of the yeah of the entrance so that they can beautify that okay that help I'm a visual person so that helps me understand what they're asking so if the average diesel Lane's 100 ft should we do 125 so it start right before the diesel Lane will start if we have subis comes in with a diesel line for DOT it's almost going to be on the project by project basis really because you may not have 100 ft or 150 or 125 ft in One Direction but you may have it in the other and that's why staff felt that it was important to allow it as a m or like like as an option that you can do not a requirement um because like you said every development's different and not every developer is going to want to do this right so um so the May would be may maybe be 125 up two5 so could we do um a combined cuz I remember Cherokee Trail across the

street there's no there's hardly there's like 50 ft on looking into the subdivision on the left but there's like 125 ft on the right okay so if we do a combined of 200 ft you could have 75 over here and 125 over here if you don't have a property to do it equal distance okay does that make sense and and just a question for clarification because I feel like this question probably would be asked do you want to Max it out of a combined of X but no more than x on one side does that make sense yes think that's good what I'm trying to yeah because otherwise they could do all 200 feet on one side right right and do we want to leave it at the discretion of the approving authority to Yes it don't it don't need to come back to us for that hold them up right right okay so a combined of what what's your combined linear feed 250 you do 200 or 250 125 what was that I think 200 200 okay okay let's go with 200 okay and a minimum do you want to like a minimum of 50 fet I do a recommendation of at least 50 on one side if it can't be achieved minimum yeah 100 on each side okay I just know you can have some subdivision with an offset interests okay um while we're in this section the stakeholders also discussed allowing for or providing for some language to allow for alternate compliance that the deel development meets certain criteria as an infill development in an area that is already built out so their concern is is that

you um have a subdivision or an area that is not wooded currently and the surrounding areas are already built out to our previous standards and it's not wooded they felt that it would make it stand out more to then plant a 50ft Scenic Corridor buffer whenever everything around it is not doesn't meet that so they asked if there were if if you you know consideration for adding language that would allow if they met a certain criteria in a built out area to meet an alternate compliance I didn't draft that language because I didn't know if there was an appetite for how many scenarios or exceptions or I mean they always have a CH their reason to go to the board of zoning appeals because the the board of zoning appeals here's All Landscape variances so my my personal opinion um I think we leave it the same and don't create additional language and they just get a variance from that's what the board's for okay so that would give them what they're asking for without creating language for one or two one off situations if they and if they can show the hardship of it I think going to the board of zoning appeals is a best R okay so then that points me to um section C in the subdivision development portion of the scenic Corridor and also in the commercial Scenic Corridor there is language that would allow for a reduction if the buffer zone represents greater than 20% of the area of a parcel do you want to allow for them to have this reduction available in the

ordinance or are you wanting them to go to the board of zoning appeals to hear that out on a caseby casee basis and prove the hardship I think the same logic applies that'sa one thing reading it I think it should be the same I think that's what resting that's variant were for okay so we'll strike that from both the commercial section of the Senate Corridor language um for for subdivisions and the commercial um I think we did add a definition for buffer as you requested that's on page five if you don't mind just glancing over that and let me know your thoughts if that is what you were looking for um I had a question on I wrote a that buffer do we specify in the ordinance anywhere where this that buffer needs to be deed to and maintained by the HOA in the SE in the scenic Corridor section for residential yes it does okay commercial Comm they own they're they own it so it's not subdividing it any further so the property owner will still maintain it it's not um it's part of their landscape plan and buff regardless of changing hands of ownership on us right right so it's never going to be deeded to us it's it's part of the property in the site plan speaking of HOA real quick off

subject we got our road maintenance agreement back from the county correct yes it was voted to be reinstated I'm not sure if we've received anything written yet but I know that they made they they voted and it was unanimous I think don't quote me on that it was voted and approved to be reinstated what would that do to the subdivisions I think there was two we approved with private roads um I know that the there I know that Cherokee um preserves at Cherokee Trail stated that if the road maintenance was reinstated that they wanted to have private roads and they stated that in the Planning Commission meeting um what was the other one that we approved I thought this I thought it was two it we did not we had discussion y'all made a recommendation and it didn't get any further than because it required annexation and it failed on annexation right so that was the other one that was yeah so that one didn't move any further are we good with the buffer definition yep that satisfy what you were looking at um I did talk to we did look into I know you mentioned paleta trees so they technically do not classify as a canopy tree per the National Standard correct um so that is why it's not considered that way there is language in the ordinance to allow our approving authority to have the discretion to approve those in situations where it seem appropriate right that's all does that okay all right I just want to make sure situations where we have a may call for CRP Myrtle right and and that would be a block of aana site or right may not be the best situation right um we did trying to think of all the other large okay so um on page eight when we were

discussing um surface parking lot interior so we are talking about the islands um parking islands that have a tree inside of it so originally um staff wanted to increase this sum to allow for proper root growth for the tree um we discuss this with stakeholders there are neighboring jurisdictions around us that that generally use 400 square fet as as their parking Island requirement and overall the stakeholders were fine with increas in to that number but they did ask for relief in the number of trees per parking space to accommodate so that you didn't create a hardship with the parking requirements so um previously we required one tree for every eight parking spaces our recommendation is to change that to one tree for every 10 parking spaces but to increase the parking Island to 400 square ft to allow for that tree to have a little bit of um a larger area for its root system is that going to put a hindrance on them meeting their parking space requirements no because we changed we changed the number of trees per parking space we incre we increased it to 10 where previously it was eight so they're they're not required to have as many trees but we're an adequate environment for the trees that are being correct correct correct that way they'll they'll their likelihood of them surviving be a bigger bigger tree correct do we have something in the ordinance and again this is may be nitpicking but that they a species of trees they can't grow limbs over a

certain under a certain height because it interferes with sight distance um that's where the approving Authority has has final sale materials chosen and site distance is addressed in 15610 that's kind of1 Tre last time with situations like that and it stay they going put an oak tree out there they don't need they need to cut the low limbs well sometimes they put a can tree of a CR Myrtle and for the first 10 15 years you can't see line SES that's located on page 21 and it just states that um that you C you can't no Improvement requirements or regulation of this chapter shall encroach upon rways nor block site visibility triangles so it's it's part of our staff's job when they're reviewing these things to take those into consideration and make sure that they're not causing an issue okay um I will also we after talking with stakeholders and talking with Lex County we did remove um Senate Corridor 3 from our ordinance we were trying to um align with the counties and they had a senate Corridor 3 in their ordinance after speaking with them they actually designed that Senate Corridor 3 to mirror our landscape ordinance at the time because most of those senic Corridor 3s were following along our Corridor um for commercial and so that is why they created that we felt that Senate Corridor 3 wasn't necessary because it was already very similar to what we already had place it wasn't much of a difference so in the commercial section there's only Senate Corridor one and two for duplication for

sure uh page 14 um I don't know if we touched on this last time but Council stated in their September work session that they wanted us to explore options for landscaping of utility access roads and subdivisions uh we researched some neighboring cities with similar size and Aesthetics to the town and resulted in no ordinances found regarding landscaping or Paving of the utility access roads within the neighborhoods I know that a Saluda River Club lift station at the back of the neighborhood um has an access road that's constructed of stamped concrete with a grass median we did confirm with the developer of that neighborhood that the adjacent homeowner put that in on with you know on their own accord um because they it allowed for better access to his rear yard um we did talk with our utility supervisors they stated that when the utility access roads are paved as described um above with this with stamp pavement and and things of that nature it's other materials other than gravel that it is difficult to Traverse um especially during certain weather conditions because of the heavy equipment that they're trying to pull through there they would like that gravel because it provides necessary traction um and also it's it's not as big of a maintenance issue because that heavy equipment can bust concrete and and things of that nature um so and they also had concerns about heavily Landscaping those roads due to who maintains it just it they they said it just opens up some concerns so we did ask the stakeholders um particularly land developers um if they've seen this in other jurisdictions or had success with it and they all suggested not doing um any Paving of the roads continuing with the G gravel for the same reason and they did state that if you do

landscape it it needs to be something that's not going to grow fast um and and have overgrowth into the access roads because again that causes some issues um so I don't I don't know if youall want to weigh in on that so we've got some I guess examples of that um I think millings would be a fine I guess long as it's not a permanent um concrete or brass fall I guess I think I think the Landscaping I think I think they really should be able to landscape it because depend on somewhere these access roads sometimes they're not in the back of the neighborhood sometimes be eyesore between two um two pieces of property I understand as far as the maintenance of it probably need to be either the adjacent or the homeowners that occupy the property around it or either the HOA one of the things but I think it it can be out sth if not I think I think they should have an ability to be able to landscape it not not the actual road but the so the the live stations themselves are already landscaped this is specifically in regards to the road leading back to that so there's an Access Road off of the subdivision Road and so the the utility stations themselves have to be screened there are requirements for that existing I think this was in and more so in the road that runs between two homes um that leads back there I don't know of a jurisdiction jurisdiction that requires that you do not know of one we were unsuccessful um and and the stakeholders didn't have a lot of feedback other than they they recommended staying away from it for maintenance reasons but the utility stations themselves are screened this is just the access road to get back to them because sometimes they're kind of tucked behind homes but you have a road leading off of the um subdivision road to

it do y'all have any the only thing that if anything is to at least have a concrete apron off of the road okay because that way you don't if you take gravel all the way up to the back of the curb you don't damage the curb or the road surface you have at least 12 and 1/2 ft of 12 and 1/2 13 ft okay so a concrete apron to prevent damage to the curb and the roadway M wouldn't be that far back would it some of them t just takes it to the RightWay in most cases okay um because that they're going to access that road several times I know at least once a week if not several times a week cuz I know they check those they do they at least I know with the lift stations they're back there quite so if you if you grasp that area where it's just a a maintenance easement if you grasp that area it's going to get turned up tore up the sidewalks going to crack the sidewalks going to break if it's on that side and different things that that's why I said if if you take it back about to the radius y that prevents all that okay um moving to page 16 but it's it starts on 15 justification for removal of specimen or protected trees we did add some language in there that

would allow for um the approving authority to Grant um approval of the removal of certain trees if they meet a certain criteria and he also has the discretion of either requiring replacement for planting of those trees but we added some language to allow him the discretion to require payment into the tree fund as outlined in section 15612 um so and that's an inch for inch basis we're going to we're we're in the process of creating an application for that to to prove that you meet a certain criteria and then get that that payment into the tree fund and just to note the tree fund those funds can only be used to plant trees in public public places so um so if they can prove a hardship is it's space constraints or it doesn't make sense to add that many trees there um you know then they can pay into that fund Jessica in that regard is that is the approving Authority the zoning board of appeals no that would be staff staff so it would right it it would be um either myself or one of my delegates so we do have a landscaping code enforcement officer that'll be handling the plan review and so um it'll it'll go back to him for okay thank you so did y'all get the definition of the diameter four Ines from is that consistent with like the county or national standards national standards that's just tiny yeah I've heard eight inches I don't know if I've ever heard four inches before w okay I'm not saying it's bad I was just wondering if we were just matching something here so it's a national

[Music] [Applause] okay um try look for any other if y'all see anything else while I'm going through I'm just trying to look to make sure I'm not missing anything I kind of try to flag everything we won't we won't have this back and forth until March right correct and in March we are going to have a public hearing at the planing commission um we had kind of projected to have a recommendation um to go back in to Council in March if y'all felt ready but I figured we could discuss that at the end of this meeting and see how we feel I've got a question going to page 23 yep that's I'm on that one go ahead okay um talking about the trimming of the trees um I guess section well item three a okay so um the 16 ft are we school buses garbage trucks over the street are we for certain neighborhoods we got 12 ft except for truck Tor arrows which shall have a clearance of 16 ft so what's the school bus height clearance I I'm going to be honest I have no idea um because I know the school district will we putting the tree back was it 10 ft 88t now but it's from the back of the curent or back of the property line right M so you're not going to have there's not going there should not be a existing trees for clearance for there's nothing you can do about there's nothing we can do about no I'm just stating this is what it's stating in our ordinance the minimum clearance of any

overhead portion thereof shall be 10 ft over sidewalks 12T over all streets I I don't I can look into it and make sure it's consistent I'm just saying we might want to make sure yeah no I have I have no problem looking into I me if it's 13 ft mean just trying to I know that we adjusted um and I don't remember which section it's in but it's in regards to [Applause] the placement of the tree right we we had a lot we talked a lot with the um utility companies I mean they sent us a good bit of information um so they they requested that we change where we require a door hanger to be placed to also allow them the ability to either do a door hanger and or send out an email or some sort of electronic messaging we've changed that language in there to accommodate that they said they utilize their um their Billing System which is something that we also utilize to notify um people as well of anything that you know to push out a notice so they asked that we change that um let's see we they talked about trophy tree clearance and I think that they [Applause] had hang on let me go back it's in the utility section and we might not school bus is 9 and 1 12 to 11 ft so 12 ft so we be bad 12T will be good yeah the light where you're talking about in our neighborhood we can't do anything about those the town can cut them down well the heights over the I think they didn't want anything over under power lines to be um I think they wanted it to be less than 15 ft um and so we changed it to m what their standards are

they've also provided us with a lot of um handouts that we can use when we were talking with people um that have overhead power lines so that we can tell them um it's it's a consideration of of for different plants and and what they would approve underneath their power lines and and which would be good so we can hand this out and utilize this when we are working with designers on their landscape plan um um and they have an overhead power line issue so I have that information too um but we we changed that language and I can't of course when I'm looking for it I can't find it um but we changed the height that they wanted to what is consistent with what they suggest and I want to say it was 15 ft all right um in the subdivisions we talked a lot with stakeholders uh Landscape Architects had a lot to talk about on this and so did the home builders currently with the implementation of the scate corridors in the you know they've been doing this at the county for some time the problem that they have is that final inspection for their landscape plan for the scenic corridors needs to happen at before they can get bonded plat status the issue with that is a lot of times they don't have the necessory

necessary resources on site at that point such as water electricity and things of that nature um the home builders and and and the landscape architect suggested that we not require them to have the scenic Corridor um buffer planted until final inspection to ensure that all of those necess necessary resources are on site so that they're not planting a buffer that will then die than to have to just be replanted they want to make sure that they they when they plant it it they have everything there to help the plant survive um so they ask that we include language that that approval is is not needed until final inspection do y'all have any thoughts on that are yall okay with that the only concern I have is I don't want a situation like we have with Bar Lake and get involved with uh amenities and that type of stuff I guess I think the maybe The Hardscape of the thing is already laid out Maybe not maybe not actual planning but the they suggested as a as a way to ensure is to include the landscape numbers in their um in their bond estimate so that it is in that we use for infrastructure um to ensure that there is monies there and that it's a guarantee um and that they would what they suggested was having their landscape architect give them an estimate and then the engineer would include that in their estimate to us whenever they provide their bond for the infrastructure for the sub I just want to make sure that the the citizens of of the neighborhood that they're pursing homes are I guess know that what they're getting well one good thing is a lot of times these are phased in the very first phase they don't receive final plat after all the phases are entered they're they received final plat status on a phase basis so they're they're bonding the infrastructure within that phase of the subdivision so phase one is usually

going to be up there at the front right so once they start getting before they can have final plat on phase one they have to have that installed it'll be part of that um we're already going out before we release Bond um and before we give final plat recording we're already inspecting things like sidewalk and infrastructure and things of that nature so this would just be another thing that we would inspect at that time and then release the bond makes sense they are allowed a reduction one reduction of a bond um per our ordinance and so if they were able to get those resources on site and get it planted earlier they could ask to reduce that bond amount um to remove the landscape if they if they felt that wasn't necessary so you're talking about the buffer the Senate Corridor buffer sen Corridor buffer in addition to the entrance yeah so they may put the entrance in first and not the buffer so they would still Bond the buffer yeah they would Bond it yes everything that's all the approved landscape plan so they would have to bond that approved landscape plan um to include an entrance way if they chose to do that is that fine with you all if so I'll add that language good we're good yeah okay I think that is most of it unless y'all had something else that that was sticking out that y'all wanted to discuss or that you had questions about um I think I'm good good good anything there r

no the wise okay so the timeline that we had projected for this for you all was to have a public hearing in the March meeting I don't remember what date that's going to be I want to say it's probably around the 18th or something like that um 19th okay um so with that do we feel yes the 19th do you feel like you need another work session to discuss it more do you want me to go back and clean up the things we've talked about tonight and bring you another document to review or do you feel like you'll would be comfortable making a recommendation to Town Council can you take out the all the redlines of the update and just highlight the changes you're going to make based on what we discussed tonight and what you the proposed changes we made I will find a way I mean that way we get it we can review it we can see it and if we have a question we could raise I don't think we need another work session is what I'm getting at um so we want it on the agenda for the March meeting as a recommendation to council yes and in that document that's included in your backup I will change take away red lines and only highlight the things we've discussed tonight that need to be changed and we'll make a recommendation as final draft yes okay all right um so if everybody's comfortable with that I'll I'm I'm good with that as well okay all right well that's all I have for tonight um unless yall have have anything else that you would like to add

on the red lines no motion to adjourn second a motion in a second without objection we adjourn thank you for watching the town election and Planning Commission work session on behalf of the Town election and Planning Commission and staff I wish you a good evening