Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Uh good evening ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the town of Lexon planning commission work session. This board is comprised of town residents who are appointed by the town council and we serve without pay. This work session is being held here at town council and is an opportunity for commission members to discuss topics related to town planning and development in a less formal setting. While no public hearings are held during work sessions, citizens are encouraged to observe. Please note the regular planning commission meeting is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. If you wish to provide public comment there, you must sign in in advance to speak at the meeting. If you're unable to attend, you are welcome to submit written comments to the municipal clerk to be included in the record. Additionally, as part of the overall process, a formal town council public hearing will be held before any final approvals. That hearing will be properly advertised to the open to and open to the public to participate at a later date. Tonight's work session is also being broadcast live on the town of Lexon's YouTube channel. I'm Jared Harelson, the vice chairman of the town of Lexon Planning Commission. Other planning commissioners present are

Hos Brian Aik, Jamie Fight, JT Stevenson, Betsy McCall. We don't have to. Yeah. Okay. Uh the work session will now commence. Uh as vice chair, I want to note uh that I may be unable to remain for the entirety of the meeting due to a prior commitment I have at 7 o'clock. Uh so I will turn this over to commissioner fight to assume the duties of the vice chair remainder of the meeting if we run out of time. Thank you.

All right. Uh I will like to change the agenda for essence of time. I'm going to move items three and four to one and two position and one and two to uh three and four. Um so we'll first start with annexation of Lexon County tax map 005300-01- 014-006- 064-026 and 013 located in the 300 block of Bar Road.

Good evening. Um, Benjamin Satcher and Satcher Properties LLC own 191.08 acres of five separate parcels and a petition to annex the property. A 308 unit subdivision is being planned on the site. Properties in town near this one are zoned limited commercial. Bar Road is classified as a collector road and West Main Street is classified as an arterial road. The property is shown on the future land use map as suburban residential area. The comprehensive land use plan describes the general character of suburban residential areas as lowdensity single family detached housing on large lots. For the proposed project to be compliant with the zoning ordinance, the property should be zone protected residential. The recommended classification of bar road should be a collector road and West Main Street should be an arterial road. Do you want me to go ahead into item number

four? Yeah, if you can read them because it's combined.

Yeah. Meritage Homes is requesting sketch plan approval for a new subdivision on 191.08 acres located at the 300 block of Bar Road. The proposal consists of 308 larger lot single family detached homes with an average lot size of 7,946 square ft. The allowable density of residential development is determined by the zoning classification of the property. Properties with protected residential zoning are permitted up to five units per acre. This development will have an overall density of 1.61 units per acre. Protected residential zoning requires a minimum lot size of 7,260 square ft. This proposal meets that requirement. The proposed lot sizes range from a minimum of 7,260 ft to a maximum of 9,000 square feet. The submitted plan does not provide the proposed setbacks for the project. However, protected residential zoning requires a 30-foot setback from the front property line and a 10-ft set back from the rear and side property lines. The town's land development ordinance requires that at least 17% of the area be dedicated as open space. Based on this standard, a minimum of 32.5 acres of open space is required. The proposed plan includes 72.99 acres of open space excluding any pond areas. The plan includes a 50-foot landscape buffer along Bar Road as required by the landscape and tree ordinance. An amenity area is proposed featuring a pool, clubhouse, pickle ball courts, and several fire pit seating areas. The plan also includes a trail system that traverses the length of the property and aligns with a master trail plan being developed for the area. The code requires multi-use trails to be at least 8 feet wide with an additional 8ft clearance on both sides and constructed with asphalt or concrete. Access to the development will be provided by entrances from Bar Road and West Main Street. There will also be an emergency

access drive from the amenity area to Wing Hill Drive. A traffic impact analysis was not submitted with the proposal, but an analysis will be provided prior to issuance of a grading permit. The town will obtain an independent engineering review of the traffic impact analysis upon receipt. Preliminary discussions with the developer indicate that improvements will be required at the entrance on Bar Road, at the intersection of Bar Road and Wildlife Road, and at the intersection of West Main Street and Bar Road. The project is located on the site that is identified on the town's future land use map of suburban residential. The general characteristics of suburban residential areas are described in the comprehensive plan as low density single family detached housing on large lots. Suburban residential development should include sidewalks and streets that connect to parks, nearby commercial, schools, and other civic uses. The area strives to integrate with larger streets and corridor networks, particularly the expanding local and regional sidewalk and trail system. This subdivision will be will include public maintained local roads. The proposed plan includes sidewalks interior to the subdivision. Additionally, this project will include roads constructed over pond dams which will not be accepted by the county for maintenance.

Do you have any additional questions for staff or do you want to let the applicant speak? Uh just for clarification, we looked at this project a few times before um the different developer and applicant before, but also um the uh road agreement was not in place then. We had some special tax districts in place with HOA and stuff. So that's no longer an issue now because we have the agreement maintenance agreement back in play. So that's just something just to note. Yes. And that that was looked at roughly a year ago just for historical. Okay. Any other statements before we let applicants speak on it?

And Randy is Randy Edwards, our transportation director, is here if you have any questions for him as well. Okay. Go start with the applicant. Okay. We don't need to jump over the slides or everybody with the salesmanship of it. That's fine.

Good evening everybody. I appreciate everybody's time here this evening and allowing us to come up and speak. Uh my name is Chip Morrison, vice president of land acquisition for Mayor Jones Greenville, also covering Colombia. Tonight I'm here with uh pretty much all of my team on the land side. So, uh, Gibson Boyd, our intern, trying to get him some exposure to to meetings like this. TJ, uh, TJ Thickpin, our analyst, Michael Holsey, our land acquisition manager, the wonderful Miss Kayla Joiner, our engineer from SE Whiteside, as well as Matt Vanvvic. Go Bulldogs, and Mr. Satcher himself, uh, from the family. Um, not too much to say here aside from we're here to field any and all questions, uh, that you all have. Uh the one thing I'd like to highlight kind of first and foremost and and I think you'll probably back me up on this is when we came with this project originally uh before the town the overall attitude that we wanted to have uh especially being brand new to the Colombia market and not operating here before uh is to not do the typical big national developer thing which is the bull in the china shop saying hey this is what we want to do. We're going to slam these units in here and if the council likes it then they like it. If not, then we'll just we'll fight it out. Um I've seen that fail too many times. Uh so our thought process was let's set ourselves up for success here uh in a brand new market. Let's come to everybody that we need to talk to. Uh basically with hands held out saying what do you guys want to see? How do we work together? Uh rather than just saying hey we just want a bunch of density and throw homes up as fast as we can and just get in and get out and onto the next project. So, uh, really the the the tone, uh, of our entrance into this market is one of collaboration. So, we really do appreciate all of the feedback that we've gotten and your help. Thank you so much. Um, with how to bring this correctly. We know we've had some folks take a run at this before. Uh, so when

we put this plan originally together, it wasn't trying to reinvent the wheel. The directive from the very beginning with with Miss Kayla was tell me everything about this project, what everybody liked and what everybody didn't like, and let's make sure that we check all the boxes for everybody instead of trying to come back up here with another just rebranded plan uh that looks the same, that gives the same heartburn for everybody. How do we how do we put our best foot forward here? Um and that's what we think we have today. Uh, and if that's maybe not the case for y'all, then we would love to have a discussion about it and what y'all would like to see. Uh, again, we don't want to have the attitude of coming into this market and saying, "Hey, we're going to run our business the way we're going to do it. We're going to have our projects look the way we want them to look." As a former Horton guy, I've been there before. It's not too fun. Um, we really want to be a part of the Columbia market as a whole. Be a good quality partner for all the municipalities that we work in. And again, at the end of the day, we want to make sure that we're giving everybody, including the residents, council planning, uh, and the surrounding neighbors, uh, something that, uh, really is is is a quality community at the end of the day. Outside of that, that is, uh, so I said I was going to skip the salesmanship spiel, but, uh, maybe that's a maybe that was a little too salesman, but um, any questions? Anything like that? Any questions from the other the project Jessica

on the setback it says plan does not provide the proposed setbacks for the project. It it's just not miss it's not listed on the overall layout that was provided. But if it is annexed with protected residential zoning, then it would have to meet the requirements for protected residential zoning. Okay? Which is a 30foot front 10 side and rear. Okay.

And if I can highlight just just kind of to piggyback off that um we understand that the required open space within the community for for a project like this would be about 32.5 acres. Again, we understand that density gives a lot of people heartburn and we're not trying to shove a super dense plan down anybody's throat. So, in in the spirit of things, rather than just going for the bare minimum of 32.5 required acres of open space, we've actually opted for 72

acres of open space uh included in this plan. So again, not trying to drop a massively dense plan uh down on anybody and trying to be respectful of of ultimately what folks are trying to accomplish at the end of the day. We should see a little bit less denser neighborhoods. At least that's what we've been hearing quite frequently. Yeah. No, that's great. I think we discussed this on and this is I guess unrelated to the actual building, but with the ponds open sites. Is it going to be um like fishing community like ponds for the neighbors? I know. Are you considering like little bit of um docks on there? Is it considered part of the recreation or no?

We're going to include that into our amenities. Now, unbeknownst to me, until tonight, apparently, there's some pretty big bass setting out there. So, I think that would absolutely be a benefit for the residents. Uh I don't know about it. We haven't discussed a stocking plan, but yeah. Well, I was just saying in general, it's not going to be just for detention or retention of water. It's just going to be actual. I'll let you talk to that Kayla. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. I'll go ahead and introduce myself. Kayla Joiner with Seaman Whitide. Um and as Chip said, I've been working on this project off and on for what, two and a half years now. been working with Jessica and her team. So, we've seen a lot of folks come through, take a run at this property. These guys have done a phenomenal job of taking that feedback, working with the town to kind of pull that into a cohesive plan. So, to the ponds, that is a big value is protecting those. So, no storm water quality or quantity will be utilized. So, we're going to detain outside of those existing ponds. That's great.

Yeah. And then while I'm up here, just to to touch on as well the traffic study in progress. That's been another big piece of this coordinating with Randy and and their staff internally just to make sure that we're checking all the boxes there that this is going to check um the boxes that LTIP has already laid out for this area. So we got our draft study back today. Um so we're actually, you know, excited to present that moving forward and we have a plan with staff to enlist them for a third party review with the internal engineer that's worked on the LTIP study. So, just to further vet that, make sure we're doing everything we can to mitigate for traffic in this area and address those three primary intersections that were mentioned earlier. Great, Randy. She just saved you some time.

Perfect. Or um any other questions? Question for R. I have a question for Randy. Um, where does where is this uh intersection on Highway One at approximately landmark wise? No, this this

is a good We've got a here's this the That's also right. This is the piece that this do they have this or not. I don't think this arrow we just have this arrow to get put together today. Isn't this where the boats roughly? So it's coming in right around 1743. Highway one is the address. So, you know, where all the boats are always for sale, the boat repair,

but then there's a kind of a vacant little road that goes back to this property, and then there's the um salvage yard. Mayor Ry's that isn't the entrance right beside the proposed entrance right beside Enlo's Auto? It is. It's Yes. It's just Okay. Just to the east, right, of Enloss. Yes. Yeah. So coming from Wingh Hill, there's a couple businesses to Enlo's. I think there's one other track and then this track. Is there already a road there? There's a driveway back to this car. There's a there's just a Yeah, two rut drive. Really?

Yeah, that's really it. And right now the plan is that Wing Hill would be utilized for emergency access. But the entrance is a double in and out. Does that help you identify where it's basically? How about the uh the emergency access drive? Where does that go out to? So that comes out onto Winghill. It's the at the very end of Winghill. It's currently the access to the Hidden Tavern. Anyone that's ever depending on the traffic study at number one uh reference to maybe a traffic light would would is it a possibility that's going to be a traffic light there? uh that would most likely not

ever warrant a traffic signal. So the focus of the improvements are down at Bar Road. Yeah. I don't know what the distance is. Half a mile, right? So half a mile down because of the eastbound volume to try to mitigate any stacking across this access. Speaking of stacking, didn't we on the last applicant that brought this in front of us? Didn't we widen the entrance off a bar road? Was that taken in account of this one? Was that am I right or wrong on that one? What you say widened the entrance? I thought we um

added additional lane turn lane. Yes. And that would be required in this as well. There will be auxil auxiliary lanes at that access. Okay. Okay. So, pretty much all the feedback from all the previous stuff is included in this one. So, a few of the points that are different are that the when I say the original one, the one that made it this far, um the Satcher road was going to be slightly realigned and the access was going to be there. Mhm.

Um there would actually be a little more corridor style road that went through the neighborhood. Um but due to the decrease from PR2 to PR1, they're not able to make that work any longer. So, so those are kind of the things that are not in this plan that were in the previous Well, they decreased. Yeah.

Yeah. So, the other thing that is is Kaitlin and I have talked in length as to the bar road and wildlife just for clarity. That is one of the original LTIP projects identified in 2017 um long before you all were thought about. But, um so that is pretty much 100% on the table. Um there may or may not be a traffic signal warrant there and they're aware that obviously if it's warranted it's part of the mitigation but if it's not warranted none of us can just put it in.

Um so in that intersection they're aware of this is being re-evaluated in our second edition of the LTIP um which is anticipated to be completed by the end of the year. Um, so we we the town, just for clarity, has has independently hired that same engineer to review this. So completely not in their bucket at all. So Gotcha. Speaking of you're talking about time frame, what what's this time frame different with the different phases of the um project? Yeah, absolutely. And I think I might be able to to probably kill two birds with one stone here because there was another

topic that I wanted to address that I know that there's been some discussion about which is uh school capacity and what the impacts on the schools would be. So hopefully I can do exactly what I'm saying is is kill two birds with one stone here. So as it sits right now, what we project our first opening for our first sale would be sometime around March of 2028. So within the year of 2028, we would expect to see probably 51 homes in that year be constructed and sold. Which area? Which area you talking about is A, B or C?

Uh we we haven't decided on the phasing plan. Just since we're looking at one, the left station upsizing and the most efficient way to go about doing so.

Um so I couldn't tell you right now uh exactly where which and we're really going to start from. Uh, I would it safe to say I'd probably say we would start at the north on area D just to make sure that our amenity is in place in phase one. That's typically a best practice for us to make sure that hey, when folks are are looking to move to our community, purchase a new home, they're not waiting, you know, a year plus just for an amenity to go up. We're not selling a dream. Hey, it's there for you to actually utilize when you move in, of course, given the season. Um, so typically that's what we'd like to see. So, I I could I could safely assume. Now, I'm not my development counterpart. Uh, unfortunately, he's out uh with his wife right now for uh elbow surgery, but I would I would I would say we would likely start from area D and work our way north or work our way south.

Okay.

Um, so with that, the project lifespan looks to be from 2028 all the way to 2033. Uh, and over that course of time, we anticipate an addition per Per the conversation that we had with uh the Lexaden uh superintendent uh Dr. Keith um we're looking at adding approximately 462 students uh in total. So what that looks like broken down per calculation would be in 2028 six students added per grade that is K through 12 2029 7 20 uh 2037 20317 20327 and 2033 we would be only adding two. So ultimately uh throughout the lifespan of this deal we would add a total of 36 students per grade over the lifespan of this deal. So, just do what you will with that information. Just to address, I know there's been some discussion um about schools. We typically see that a lot.

Yeah. And I appreciate you addressing for clarification. We have zero jurisdiction over schools there in the deal. Yeah. I appreciate you clarify that for the record. Yeah. Absolutely. and and out of the spirit of collaborative nature, we actually though it's not required uh in the town as we understand it to get a concurrence letter from the school district, we still thought it'd probably be a a good thing to do. Sure. So, we have reached out, had the meeting with the school district. They're they're completely open to uh giving us it's not really a concurrence letter. I would I would say maybe you guys classify it that, but really the concurrence questionnaire. So, we're in the process of actually getting that. Again, not required, but appreciate you. Probably think it's probably best. Absolutely. Great. Yep.

What's the uh width of the streets? I'll default to you on that one. Um, so now that these are out of the special tax district plan, and we're back to these being adopted by the county. They would all comply with public county street regulations. Typically, we'd see 22 to 24 feet of pavement in a residential development like this, 50 foot ride ofways to allow room for sidewalks and tree planting areas on the sides of the street. Sidewalks on one side or both sides? Sidewalks on one side.

HOA community. Yes. Yeah, I'm sure it will be. Will this be an HOA community? Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. And they'll cover the cost of the dam. Take this one together. Um, so the the damn discussion has been a big part of this. You guys are actually already underway with a geotech to do some preliminary daming, make sure those are stabilized properly, um, constructed properly. We know that's a a major major piece of this or those dam crossings. And those will be held by the HOA, the crossings themselves. Um, so the county will not adopt those sections of road that'll belong to the development long term.

I know it's up to the HOA, but I think it would be. But Randy, are these streets uh wide enough as proposed for fire truck and ambulance? Yes, sir. Okay. So, HOA could probably limit the parking on street stuff. So many of these developments we have, you go in and you can't get by. So, okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Anybody good? Satisfied? Appreciate you being thorough. Absolutely. Thank you so much for Absolutely. All right. Now we'll move to uh

one and two. Item one, Jessica, reszoning of Lexon County tax map 004322-06-003 located at 411 North Lake Drive. 5J LLC is requesting to reszone the rear portion of 411 North Lake Drive from protected residential to general commercial. The intent of this request is to align the zoning of the rear portion of the property with the front which is currently used as an accounting office. Reszoning will allow the entire parcel to be uniformally zoned for commercial use. Properties in the immediate vicinity are zone protected residential, limited commercial, and general commercial.

And currently a CPA firm is located there. Correct. That was the last use in there. I think it's actually vacant at this time. I'm sorry. Sorry. Last year. Right. You know, and u some clarification with this. If it's a split zoning currently, correct? Correct. So they're looking basically um in essence we they want the zoning to be the same to match but in essence based on our requirements really they'll be able to get parking there because they'll have to come back if they try to change the use right. So if any um change of use happens on that parcel, they would have to meet current standards for um access points, setbacks, buffers, landscaping requirements, parking requirements, all land development, zoning and landscape and tree ordinances.

And the buffer requirement is from the protected residential on the side is a 50ft buffer and a 50ft setback. Correct. And they have it's a 90 foot. So it basically would the width of the property is roughly 90 ft give or take. Yeah. Any questions regarding that one? All right. Uh, number two, uh, annexation of Lexon County Tax Map 0042000- 01-00001-121 located at 631 Old Chapen Road.

Lexon County Recreation and Aging Commission owns approximately 16.21 acres on the corner of Old Chapen Road and Old Cherokee Road and has petitioned to annex the property. A public park is being constructed on the site. Properties in town near near this winter zone limited commercial and protected residential too. Old Chapen Road and Old Cherokee Road are classified as a collector road. The property is shown on the future land use map as suburban residential area. The comprehensive land use plan describes the general character of suburban residential areas as lowdensity single family detached housing that provides sidewalks and streets that connect to parks, nearby commercials, schools, and other civic uses. For the proposed project to be compliant with the zoning ordinance, the property should be zoned limited commercial.

Okay. Any questions regarding Jessica? I have a question. What is the timing of the completion of the park? I believe it's anticipated to be complete by September. Okay. Um so or before. We are hopeful that that will be done prior to the completion of the annexation process. The reason I asked is that it appears that the deed reference in our packet um has a deed restriction that the property would be used or completed uh within five years of this deed this warrant not a warranty deed but a deed of distribution I think it is. So um and that was in 20ou in 2020. So

correct I believe they will meet that deadline. Okay. And the restrictions will stay in place as well. Correct. Correct. It's the restriction is for it to be a passive park and that's what it what the intended use is and it's already been started by of course been September started county we're an accident in for the town. Correct. The permits were pulled with Lexington County and they're handling inspections. Right. I think we all agree a park's a good thing. Anybody but any other questions? Yeah, that's a good one. That's what the owners wanted, right? Yep. Great. Appreciate them leaving it. Thank you. Yeah. Uh, anyone else have any questions for staff, comments for us? If not, motion tojourn without any objection.

So move. Uh, thank you for watching the town of Lex and Planning Commission work session. On behalf of the town of Lex and Planning Commission and staff, I wish you a good evening.