Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

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e e [Music] we will call our January 13th Planning Commission meeting to order good evening Commissioners I will

call the role Mariah Bishop here Ralph Carson here Philip Jefferson here Jan Hodes here Sher Phillips here Michael vand here that's six members present thank you um we have a new commission uh member that we need to swear in this evening so I will ask Mr Mills if you will join mayor gupton at the podium he'll step right up here okay well first of all Ben we're very glad to have you on the commission here we greatly appreciate your service your willingness to serve and willingness to listen fairly to all of these people who all have different opinions and help them make good decisions thank you with that we'll administer this oath of office I'll just read a phrase at a time and you repeat after me if you would I if you would raise your right and I've been Mills to solemnly swear and affirm I've been Mills to solemnly and sincerely swear that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina not inconsistent therewith not inconsistent therewith and that I will Faithfully discharge the duties I will Faithfully discharge the duties of my office as a member of the town of gonner Planning Commission of my office and and as a member of the town of gner Planning Commission thank you sir and congratulations on joining our Planning Commission thank you all [Applause]

right thank you mayor gupton welcome Ben Mills joining our Planning Commission for uh this current year glad to have you welcome uh and please do not hesitate at any time if you have any questions about anything to let us know um during our process um it is now time for our invocation Miss PHS would you like to gracious God our Father first and foremost we'd like to say thank you for allowing us to see another the year thank you God for for the town of Garner and its citizens please God guide Our Hearts and Thoughts As We Gather to make decisions regarding this great Town lead and guide us as we make the decisions this is our prayer you son jesus' name we pray amen amen thank you so much it is time to adopt our agenda are there any items on our agenda that need to be revised or adjusted if not do we have a motion to approve our adoption of our agenda as written I'll make that motion that we adopt the agenda as written thank you Mr ven do we have a second second okay Miss Phillips thank you so much all right there's a motion on the floor to adopt the agenda I'll call the vote Mariah Bishop hi Ralph Carson hi Philip Jefferson hi Jan Hodes hi Ben Mills hi Sher Phillips hi Michael vand hi uh the agenda is adopted thank you we have adopted our agenda um so we will now go into our old and new business um our first case to review is CZ the minutes y oh whoa who minutes apparently I'm ready to get this meeting started uh it is time to review

our meeting minutes are there any items from our meeting minutes from our December 9th meeting that need to be revised adjusted or amended seeing none do we have a motion to approve our meeting minutes I'll make the motion to adopt the minutes from December 9th thank you Mr Carson do we have a second second thank you Miss Phillips we have a motion in a second there's a motion on the floor to adopt the minutes I'll call the vote uh Mariah Bishop hi Ralph Corson hi Philip Jefferson hi Jan Hodes hi Mr Mills would you like to vote on the minutes okay Miss Phillips I and uh Michael vand hi that's six eyes the minutes are adopted thank you so much Mr WF uh we have now um approved our meeting minutes now we can go into our all new business um uh I will turn this over CZ 244 um urgen Park this is a tier one conditional District resoning request [Music] all right good evening Planning Commission uh today I will be presenting case CZ 244 it is the tier one resoning for Jurgen Park uh this is a tier one conditional rezoning request submitted by madams on behalf of the town of Garner um to rezone approximately 72 Acres from R4 and Rural agricultural to commercial

mixed use conditional um the site is located along East Garner Road um I do want to remind you that this is a tier one uh rezoning request so although you have probably seen plans for the park the master plan the site plan is not included in this rezoning that was previously approved and and um adopted for context uh the current zoning is RA and R4 Royal agricultural residential 4 ra is Agricultural and low density residential in nature R4 is Suburban with a moderate density residential element uh currently this site is vacant it is uh home to the historic Jurgen Homestead in the Dupri house there's also an existing pan or pan if you're if your choice in uh in pronunciation Grove on the site uh it is on the north side of East Garner Road between The Village at Garner station previously approved through resoning and the existing Avenues at White Oak um the site also falls within the CH commercial Highway overlay District the site does fall within two activity centers uh majority of the site lies within the community activi center that's centered on East Gunner Road as you're heading towards downtown that brown circle as you can see on the screen um the northern portion of the site is within the edge of the regional employment center um on Jan Sausage Road kind of centered uh among the Amazon and other industrial sites uh this park does gravitate primarily towards the community Activity Center um closer to town and aims to serve as a amenity adjacent to Residential Properties additionally that yellow circle is a

Neighborhood Activity Center um centered right on the heart of Main Street Mr vland Excuse me Thomas are we supposed to be seeing this on our screen you should you don't no are any of you seeing it on your screen I see it here okay we do have it here if it's something about your screen I'll pause for a moment okay we are good you set all right I don't want you to have to turn and look at that screen anyway um so there are three conditions in the uh resoning request here the first is our um permitted use table the applicant is proposing 17 uh permitted uses out of 62 allowable in cmx zoning um you'll see kind of a majority of them are low intensity uses um I'll let you uh see those 17 for yourself um they're also in your staff report there there are two specific written conditions um for the resoning I'll read them verbatim number two lighting for outdoor athletic and recreational uses shall not exceed 90 ft in mounting height this includes base or mounting structure and shall be extinguished no later than 11:00 p.m. on regular operating days and no later than 12 midnight on special tournament days and that does address uh specific Udo

language regarding lighting which is why the applicant is requesting um cmx zoning uh and number three an emergency use only exit will connect with the stub at Eagle Rare Lane but would be gated for emergency vehicle access only so that's where the conditions end um we want to mention of course for tier one rezoning typically only the comprehensive plan um is used for um analysis as there's no site specific Master plans included with these requests uh the majority of the site will remain open space that's developed in a park-like typology um the commercial element is designed to be secondary you could see there in the land character Type green open space um without the master plan it is difficult to evaluate some metrics in our analysis but um there are site layouts you have seen that can show possible design of the site for the neighborhood meeting there were 270 properties within the notification radius um it was held this past June 26th at the Garner recreation center and we had six people in attendance um you do have the full neighborhood meeting packet in your staff report uh we were able to evaluate 15 growth framework criteria um of those 12 were strongly consistent with our comprehensive plan we did have one that was modestly inconsistent and twoo strongly inconsistent uh the two strongly inconsistence the cmx zoning Choice was one and it is um due to that zoning not being consistent with the open space typology um however consideration is given um because it's only a small port that's going to be used for those flexible commercial spaces but the whole site rather than having a zoning line

down the middle is going to be zoned cmx and then the neighborhood commercial building type also received a strong uh nons support um overall we found consistency with the open space features of the development intensity metrics uh we do recognize that zoning a park as cmx seems counterintuitive how however the narrow uses proper allow flexibility for economic development for the site um there are deed restrictions on that and I think um parks and wreck will explain some of that in their presentation um we we do believe the park will be a destination to serve those nearby and throughout the area we held our public hearing for this rezoning on December 3rd uh one council member did ask about the size scale and design of the storm water um control measures uh regarding the phasing of the park buildout um those are of course unrelated to a tier one res zoning um and there were no questions or comments from the public we have a draft consistency statement in your staff report you have four options today you can um find this consistent or inconsistent and either recommend approval or recommend denial uh through our staff analysis we do believe the request is both consistent and you should recommend approval uh we also have a draft motion to recommend approval in the staff report so our next steps for us would be to determine your findings of plan consistency make a recommendation to approve or deny to Town Council and then the resoning will appear before Council for findings of reasonableness and their

decision to approve or deny the rezoning so that's the end of my presentation do you have any questions for staff at the moment no questions from commission so oh we have one Mr W um regarding the neighborhood meeting and the questions asked I've never seen it quite given to us this way where you have some property owners who are at the meeting I presume raising the questions under their name and then that's split could you just explain that to me a little bit have an answer on that I'm trying to make sense of it and I can't I'm gonna have uh Lisa Rodriguez perhaps answer that question um she was part of the team that conducted that meeting hi guys I'm Lisa Rodriguez senior engineering project manager and I was one of the people conducting the meeting for the neighborhood meeting um can you repeat the question well summary of discussion from the neighborhood meeting um June 26 you have the property owner's name and then you have several questions which are answered and then you again have another sheet with different property owner's name and questions that were asked and answered and it's split up by property owner and I just don't understand that oh that must be just a Miss of my view of it we had a basically it was like a group meeting um and just to keep it consistent I thought I had to take down a name and a property address but it was more like open conversation and a group meeting okay so they they were all

sharing the questions and they were all sharing the ANS yes okay yeah it's all I needed to know thank you you're welcome um and the applicant our parks and record uh department does have um presentation that they would like to present okay wonderful well we are looking forward to hearing from Parks and wreck at this time thank you so much Mr Walter good evening members of the Planning Commission my name is Matt beard I am a relatively new staff member in the Parks Recreation and cultural resources department um I am the parks and Greenways planning manager um so I will be uh assisting in the completion of this project as well as a number of other ongoing projects and ones that we haven't even imagined yet uh very excited to join the town um happy to be here tonight um so we'll start out again with some of the basics of the case and I'll try not to repeat everything that Thomas just went through in in depth um but back in 2019 the town did purchased the uh 732 acre property um as was mentioned there are two different zonings uh on the property as of today um that presents an issue with Udo compliance um from one standpoint that there would be required buffers running through the middle of uh locations where we want to have athletic fields um those are not good to have in the middle of a soccer field um so joining them in a single zoning District removes that uh that requirement to have the the buffer running between uh those two existing zoning districts um the resoning request would be for commercial mixed use designation uh with a number of

conditions um so the question is why commercial mixed juice um really the the property uh carries with it a deed restriction that that Thomas had mentioned um so essentially it is required to be developed as a park uh with the exception of the 5 Acres um surrounding the homestead uh which would be designated or open to um Redevelopment or um or preservation development um that would be compatible with the adjacent land use of a park as well as within the context of the downtown um Economic Development and if you want to get into the actual legal deed language it's on the screen but I'm not going to read that one verbatim the second uh aspect that's uh important to consider was the future use of the homestead and that was kind of mentioned on the last slide we want to choose something that is compatible uh with the park and support the growth of downtown Garner uh the third being uh the buffering the cmx District does require a healthy buffer uh so this is our opportunity to kind of lock ourselves into uh being a good neighbor to the the residential development that's out there as well as any future development uh that comes through so you'll see this chart again um and this is all of the uses that would be allowed within that cmx conditional District um again these are land uses that would be uh considered compatible with the park use um that open us up to a number of um commercial Ventures it could be um it could be Capital development it could be uh partnership development um you know I think that the the historic home Homestead uh presents a a um a very

interesting opportunity and challenge uh for us going forward and I'm excited to kind of get a little bit deeper into that the second proposed condition was again to limit the uh height of the lighting around the sports Fields um this is again an effort to remain um in good standing with our neighbors and secure uh as part of the legal zoning documents that we will have our lighting turned off by 11 or 12 on special occasions um and then the third condition was to uh render the uh the proposed stub at equal rare Lane as an emergency emergency useon exit um that would have a gate on it so uh you would not have uh the ability to uh use the neighborhood as a cut through to get in or out of the park and I have the site plans up here for reference but they have nothing to do with this tier one resoning again Thomas already mentioned that but um just in case there were further questions s um about the development but any question for parks and rec uh other than you took well you answered my question um nothing we had received indicated phase one phase two but now I can see it compared to that which we have received so yeah yeah I have that one up here as well but yes this shows the proposed phase lines and they will be timed differently yes yes so this uh right now as as we're going through I mean the resoning deals with all three phases because it's the whole property um right now the only construction underway would

be phase one okay and then we'll we'll come in after that's that's complete and evaluate uh feasibility for phases two and three we got a couple of questions uh first Mr beard welcome to parks and wreck thank you hope hope you are getting settled in well um first question this is just a resoning tier one will this come back to the Planning Commission in any form in the future when they have further plans or will that go directly to council once the resoning is in place unless the project for some reason would require a special use permit no okay and I don't believe that it would okay so I have a couple questions based on some responses to concerns so a lot of the trees in there are more mature trees they seem to be planting a lot of very small trees when they're going to replant the buffer is there a reason that they're going with with such small caliper trees um so I can I can try and answer that one um so I mean one of the things is uh the the planting of larger trees uh has a much lower survival rate um so if you're getting something that's kind of already been established either in a a root ball um with ball and burlap um or or really any any technique whether you're you're using a TR to kind of come in and mechanically remove it from another site um that typically does a large amount of damage the root ball and then um it yes you're putting in smaller smaller plants but you're only having to put them in once uh versus putting something in seeing if it survives and then coming back the next year and and trying it again um just a higher rate of success

uh when using something like a two or uh 3inch calber um tree versus a larger one okay U next question uh one of the questions was regarding um connections for possible food trucks at tournaments uh what connections are you looking at 30 amp electric are you are you adding water connections for each food truck location or what what are they looking at there I'm not familiar with it so I'm going to have Lisa Rodriguez come back up have um believe two electrical pedestals to designate for f food truck locations and then one water spigot um and then after research with food truck companies they do say they're fully ready to go even without some connection so we really just didn't choose in a exact location on site that will concentrate food trucks but we do have those connections if needed so two electrical pedestals and one water spigot one thing I might suggest is you look at some additional spigots and some additional service connections most of them are self-sufficient but they run run off generators which are noisy and if it's it's easy to uh put the pedestals in so they can come in and plug in and that's a that's a selling feature for the food Tru they can come in and plug in I do have um couple questions again not not related to the resoning per se um I'm concerned with the road width and the line of sight going across the front of this property with that little brick wall uh going from White Oak Ridge Drive where it's basically three lanes you

narrow down to two and then you have kind of that that turn uh you don't have a good line of sight they got the park at Garner station that's going to have an entrance just past there with this redesign is there any uh consideration at this time for widening that road taking that curve out a little bit lowering that Hill getting getting rid of those brick walls yeah we will get rid of the brick walls along the homestead um so we do have a decent amount of Road Frontage improvements we go back about 26 ft and that includes to widen the road for half of what's required along this Frontage cuz East garner road is a future thre lane road so that's two travel lanes and a median um the middle will be either a median or a turning lane so yeah we have that along with our 5-ft utility strip and then a 10ft multi-use path so yeah we will see those Frontage improvements soften that curve and get rid of those uh retaining walls and we're looking to salvage those bricks we're we're waiting on cost for that but yeah we understand the history on those bricks and I know there's utilities along that roadway but if they can look six utility when they're redesigning that to maybe take some of that Hill out of there as well again just to straighten and smooth and level that out uh with the park at Garner station just around that curve I think that would be helpful but that's all the questions I had and thank you for taking that into consideration in your design yeah of course thank you thank you Mr Cary Mr Bo yep um storm waterer control mechanism with educational signage is that signage is about storm water control or is it about signage about the park as a whole do you have any

idea yeah we are referring to like providing signage for storm waterer control because we tend to see people see what they call ponds or pools and why do we have that could could we have put a different amenity but really we need that you know it's required due to the Watershed we're in and the storage and treatment requirements we have have in a wed so we plan to put like there our um Wetlands why do we have a wetland there and exactly try to educate that's my point a little broader view not just this is the pond yeah but but we have lots of Woodlands we have have no we hope to put some educational signs we have a drainage basin we we have protected Wetlands we have all of this and how it kind of fits together would be more useful I think so great yeah and we'll definitely work with um our engineering staff and develop what that would look like and yeah uh uh kind of just adding on to what Mr V said it could be a really great way for us to incorporate some type of sculptural or art element as part of the park that begins to describe that city valy has done that at um uh crafty Creek around Crabtree uh some of the public art design that's been inst installed there to really show what that storm water management control is could be a really interesting way to use that signage in a kind of a public art way for town of Garder and start to incorporate that into the Town Park yeah and in the wetlands we hope you know night Dale Station Park has two wetlands and I noticed they put like a a dragonfly in their Wetlands so yeah we definitely hope that it's more beautification and not oh man we have to have this here but really make storm water beautiful and show the necessity of it right that would be really

great uh Miss Phillips you have any questions for parks and rack Bishop um yeah so I know here in the the comments from the last meeting back in June someone asked about the security cameras will there be security cameras in this park in this area yes um and yeah there is concerns from the avenue on White Oak residents um they have some security issues there we plan to install security cameras in um in high-profile areas and I also believe the police department they put a tracker in front of each Park and I think that gets the license plate so we hope to have we'll have those security measures there they won't see as far as the Avenue at White Oaks parking lot but hopefully help DET te some of crime or anything okay thank you um and then my last question so I know the the road East Gardner Road gets pretty busy um is there any possibility of adding like a traffic light to help deter like to help smooth traffic so we will have our turn lane so we'll have a left turn lane and then we'll also have our right turn lane so that that'll help not stop traffic for people to turn in and out of the park um I don't think it warrants a traffic s signal based off the volume of traffic we also the rush hour for the park will be different than the rush hour for people going to work or from work because the tournaments would be after those rush hours and then mainly on the weekends so this project did do a traffic impact analysis and we utilize what we considered the rush hour to be the weekend rush hour so we're hoping that will help we also have um another Capital project that follows this and we are working with DOT to talk about

safety measures so we're hoping to see if there are concerns or anything that need to be addressed and then we could follow with those additional safety improvements with the Jan Sausage Road Capital project thank you Mr Mills do you have any questions yeah I have a couple questions um looks like our hand down here is a little bit different than what's on the screen I just is just what's on the screen a little bit more accurate master plan um yes is this is this a accurate yeah so the the difference here is that this is the overall kind of master plan this is a little bit more conceptual okay whereas this is the site plan that's currently being constructed okay so this is this is a more refined vision of a smaller area versus this that's more of the kind of broad-reaching conceptual development master plan type okay so it looks like um you're treating the soccer field Fields is that correct we were originally going to treat the artificial tur Fields um with an sem there is a new Senate bill that now considers that perable surface and we got to reduce our sem treatments okay um can we go back to the other slide all right um the other question is where are the I know you mentioned them before Thomas did where are the peacon trees on the property are we trying to save them or they're all around here okay awesome yeah so they're in phase three they're Untouched by phase one all right I I would encourage to use them as a you

know asset of uh you know clear clear coating that area that's all the questions I have thank you Misses any questions questions um so if there no other questions for parks and rec or for staff then this is a time for uh questions uh or comments from public uh anyone that is in favor or against has an opportunity to share their feedback um do we have anyone in the audience this even now like to speak uh towards it okay like to for uh we want to kind of keep our time limit reasonable um please uh uh your name and address for our record please sure and this will be brief and I may this may be the wrong venue for the questions but uh rexway 102 Pineway Street here in Garner and several questions I have about the project this isn't to speak against the project I'm in favor of it and I commend the town for for buying this property and having the vision to put par here um have some questions about artificial versus real and the concerns about injuries and I understand that they get a lot hotter but the main question I had tonight and like I said this may not be for for this meeting but when I see the draws I keep hearing discussions about tournaments but so how will we accommodate the people that are there to watch the tournament um know when I see the straw and I don't see you where was they in in this design we do have uh believe four sets of bleachers um and we truly we have a large gap between fields that we believe people would just bring out lawn chairs and just line to Fields with them okay yeah because when I looked at that I'm sure there's minimums that you have to

meet between fields which you got games going on because you got the teams out there and officials running up and down the side so I couldn't see and I thought maybe there's more space than I see in these diagrams about if you got four fields and tournaments going on there's going to be a lot of people people trying to watch their kids or their teams or whatever and I couldn't see how they would fit in yeah and then like we'll have like the eight smaller Fields so those are good ones where you could fit in your lawn chairs and then the two longer Fields um the middle could serve as viewing space we have this viewing terce here as well so this will have a few picnic tap taes and chairs to view okay thank you okay thanks so much for that question is there anyone else that would like to speak okay um okay well um seeing none in order for us to have a discussion um do we have a motion from Planning Commission I'll make the motion uh move that the Planning Commission accept the consistency statement drafted here in as our own written recommendation regarding the consistency of the request request with the town's adopted land use plans and recommend approval of case c-24 d004 to the Town Council thank you Mr Carson do we have a second I'll second that okay than we have a motion in a second so are there any other discussion or questions that the commission needs to have with each other or with staff or questions that we need to be addressed I we'll just say um it would be really nice to have enough like picnic tables and benches just CU some of several of the parks that I have been to kind of lack that um so that would be nice in phase one to have I we definitely take a look at that okay

thank you we'll add that to our notes okay seeing no more questions or comments or discussion then Mr w we have there's a motion on the floor I'll call the vote uh Mariah Bishop hi Carson hi Philip Jefferson hi Jan Hodes hi Ben Mills hi Cherry Phillips hi Michael vand I that's seven eyes the motion passes thank you so much we have passed our motion for our conditional one Z thank you so much parks and R so thankful to have you here with us it's been a while since you all have presented to us it it's nice to have you all give us feedback on town going to our work [Music] next on our agenda uh this is CZ 24003 exchange at 401 commercial this is also a tier one conditional District resoning request I we turn it over to staff all right good good evening Commissioners it's good to see you all happy New Year happy New Year happy New [Music] Year all right I will present uh case CZ 24003 also known as 401 exchange commercial this is a tier one rezoning uh request um the applicant Beth Blackman of timman group has submitted the request on behalf of the owner future Development LLC um again this is a tier one uh conditional District resoning to reone approximately 8.32 Acres from

residential 4 R4 uh C11 PRD conditional to commercial mixed use um the site is located at 7509 fville Road the applicant has proferred uh use conditions um and additional zoning uh conditions are proposed um also please note as stated before that this is a tier one resoning request so it does not include a sight specific master plan the current zoning is R4 R4 C11 PRD conditional in September of 2020 uh the R4 conditional District was approved for the exchange at 401 plan residential development vment and currently the site which is these two Parcels here um is vacant there is r a zoning to the north of the site and to the South boundaries are the um the the 401 exchange residential um plan development and fville Road also us 401 it is a major north south Corridor through Garner and serves as a vital link uh for local and longdistance travel connecting communities and key access areas the site is located within our uh neighborhood uh Community activity center and then you also have just adjacent the community Activity Center as well uh ncdot reports the last traffic count for this portion of fville road as 34,600 annual average daily trips and those numbers were taken in

2023 the applicant um has narrowed the possible uses to 33 out of a potential 62 they have reduced that number um since the public hearing stemming from feedback from uh council members there are nine profer conditions outside of the permitted uses table I'll briefly go through them uh the applicant is offering an outdoor Community Gathering space of at least 1,000 square ft um and within that space there shall be amenities such as um three benches a minimum of 500 squ ft flower bed containing 50% pollinator friendly plants um 55% of the primary building material shall be brick stone or decorative s for concrete masonry units all building suite entrances shall be covered by either awnings colonades or canopies with a minimum of a 5x5 area or entrances shall be covered under walkways adjacent to the primary facade there will be two pet waste stations evenly distributed throughout the interior sidewalks and or or the Gathering space um will be provided uh 75% of landscaping shall be native and adaptive species all lawn areas shall utilize warm seasoned grass only uh the developer shall dedicate a Transit easement measuring 15 ft by 20 ft along the properties of fville Road Frontage um the exact location of the transit easement shall be uh determined upon um by the de the town and developer during um site plan review interior sidewalks will connect

the Gathering space and buildings Ling linking the public pedestrian sidewalks um in the exchange at 401 subdivision and additionally the sidewalks will provide access to handicap accessible entrances the property shall ensure uh the ongoing maintenance of all exterior areas including but not limited to the Gathering space the pet was station sidewalks parking lots and Landscaping applicant conducted a neighborhood meeting of in March of 2024 there were 295 letters mailed and five attendees were present at the meeting and you have the full meeting um information attached to the stat report and the maps highlighted on the screen show the mailing area as well as the uh land character type retail centers as well as the development intensity is a tier three area 2 enhance review of the consistency um there were five growth framework criteria that were evaluated there were four strongly consistent and one modestly consistent uh the modestly consistent rating was due to the transportation choices Criterion um and it it uh without a site specific plan um in the absence of that um it did not receive a full um positive rating but the applicant has committed to a Transit easement to accommodate for future expansion of the transit

routes there were 14 criteria um that were determined to be applicable for the land use and Community character consistency there were three that were strongly consistent seven modestly consistent and two that were split too strongly inconsistent overall with these ratings um there's a strong level of consistency with the plan's growth framework the staff does support an overall finding of consistency at this time and you do have that full report of consistency attached for uh your review and the staff report during the public hearing that was held on December 17th there were a few questions um raised by council members um there was a question regarding the Envision building footprint and elevation of the buildings um there is a question inquiring why this request is a tier one and not a tier 2 rezoning request um and also a comment to further reduce the number of potential uses um to be permitted to give a better idea of what could potentially be developed at the site which the applicant has reduced that number since the public hearing staff has drafted a consistency statement for your review and consideration won't go through all of it um on the screen you have the options uh that um indicate staff reviews um and Analysis so consistent and recommend approval also prepared a draft uh motion to recommend approval for your

consideration you do have several other options if you choose to um vote another way or make another recommendation based off of your review of this case so the next steps would be to finish the proceedings this evening um and to make a recommendation for councel and also for the case to return to councel to consider reasonableness and render a decision of approval of or denial and I will this concludes my presentation but I'll be on standby to answer any questions that you may have um the applicant is here to also answer any questions they don't have a formal presentation but I I can pull up the map or um just leave the image on the screen for them but they are here and will address any comments and questions you may have okay thank you so much Mr Jose uh are there any questions for staff this time from commission if not does the commission like to hear from the applicant this that seems the case okay we applicant from for please state your name address and your affiliation for our record thank you so much thank you chair Jefferson um my name is Neil gush I'm an attorney with the Morning Star ww group at 7 West Main Street in Durham and and I'm here on behalf of the owner and app him for this project we also have Beth Blackman with the Timmons Group which has been providing design planning and Engineering for the project um and Mr Danny Copeland he's a representative of the owner and applicant he's here as well um as was mentioned the exchange at 401 was approved as a planned residential development in September of 2020 and at that time these particular Parcels were identified as future

non-residential even though they were zoned residentially at at that time uh and that's why we're here now with to finish the overall zoning by changing the zoning along 401 for these Parcels to allow for commercial development uh this will help make a more complete neighborhood consistent with the vision of uh Garner forward plan residential development is well underway at 401 at the 401 exchange py has delivered several residential units um and there are many more to come there also are Apartments going up uh we want to get our zoning in place now so that we can deliver on the vision we outlined for this project when we zoned it solely for residential our request is consistent not only with the uh comp plan but also with the Vision Express when the site previously was reson to be clear we don't have any end user lined up for this commercial space given the stage of development that we're in uh I think that's pretty typical we don't have commercial entitlement so we're not able to go market the space for a commercial user um and there are there's obviously residential that is still getting built um we do want to maintain some flexibility here but we recognize the importance of high quality development and um as was mentioned we got some feedback from Council about uh the at the time we had 41 uses that were allowed so we paired that down a bit um we've eliminated incompatible uses but have maintained a list of a variety of non-residential uses for the site and additionally we have other commitments we've committed to having an outdoor Community Gathering space with pedestrian and pet infrastructure attractive plantings and flowers and native plant species um and even though there's already an enhanced requirement for Aesthetics along the 401 overlay we've increased the percentage of brick or masonry acquired to 55% and also have required that our entrances to the buildings basically be like covered entrance uh in my opinion I think the

best part of the plan is the connectivity and attention to Transit uh We've committed to providing a handicap accessible sidewalk Network which will connect this site to the residential development at exchange at 401 subdivision and we have committed to providing an easement along 401 to accommodate future Transit this project brings new employment potentially retail and services to town residents as well as a mix of uses with non-residential components uh near residential and potentially near Transit U we did have our hearing for the council and really the only feedback we got relat to the mix of uses as was mentioned uh they asked that we try to pair this list down a bit to eliminate uses which are not realistic at this location and to give a better idea of what might actually end up there so we've tried to do that um though you know I think they seem to understand and and we uh do desire some flexibility given the situation um I think this is a welcome change and also welcome introduction for non-residential tax Bas and we look forward to your feedback tonight and our team is is available to answer any questions thank you for your time okay thank you so much uh do we have questions for the applicant Mr Carson um I'm almost on board but I got two concerns sure um your proposed uses one of the ones you did not strike was convenience store with fuel sales there are numerous gas stations in that immediate vicinity next door across the street few thousand feet down um and then you also have a possibly as a self storage or Min storage which there's a huge one being built a block away this is Frontage along fville Road and the applicant with the owner would they consider uh pairing that uh

possible use down and striking convenience store with fuel sales and the Self Storage Mini Storage it's something that that we can look into um I have not had that discussion we didn't get that feedback from from the council right um obviously this is as you said along 401 uh and I think understandably from the applicants perspective owner perspective uh you know the ability to have a gas station here seems to make sense given the the uh volume of traffic along this road however just like you said we actually kind of think that's probably not going to be the in use simply because this site the access is going to be limited you can't access these Parcels uh these commercial Parcels from 401 and as you said there's already some gas stations in the area so it doesn't seem terribly attractive for uh fuel sales but you know to the extent someone would want to come around and do that we did want to maintain that flexibility as far as Self Storage goes I mean I again can have discussion with my client we I have couldn't answer that right now but happy to go ask Mr Copeland his thoughts on that if if at an appropriate time if you would ask that question that's all I have thank you uh anyone else Mr vland um other than I like the emphasis you put on as much as possible making the crosswalks and the place a Gathering Place a smaller spatial Gathering Place um I recently sent my colleagues on the board here and to members of the planning staff a whole notion of how due to co and other reasons we seem to becoming a nation of people who are

very lone so anything that can be done to increase Gathering spaces on a small scale for people just to interact to talk I would try and emphasize that's my only comment understood thank you Miss Phillips any comments or feedback um yes you mentioned that the site would connect to the residential areas I see like a small gap on the map so is it connecting via sidewalk or is it connecting like with the path so the um 401 exchange subdivision actually I guess that little Gap is not part of it but it does kind of loop around the back so there is um I think the ability to have connectivity through there I'm sorry oh yeah and there's a public yeah there's a public got it okay yeah is there any way to connect the two with like a sidewalk or like oh where people are able to walk from one to another instead of just by car oh okay uh Beth Blackman Simmons group 5410 Trinity Road Sweet 102 Raleigh um so the backside of the red outline par so the right side of the map that actually is a public road uh running north south it subs to the property to the South and then it turns kind of into the subdivision then the Gap in between the two red partials is also a public road so there will be a a four-way intersection at the back of those two red Parcels so we wouldn't want a crosswalk and do would and town would not want to crosswalk kind of like in the middle of those two Parcels from a safety perspective but there would be sidewalk on both sides of those roads so somebody could walk then to the four-way intersection and cross the street or walk back towards 401 there's also a side path and a crosswalk there and then

cross the street so there wouldn't be a mid block Crossing but there would be one at 401 and one at the four-way intersection okay um Mr Mills if you like to have feedback yeah um yeah I got a couple comments I actually live um near 41 intent intersection so I had the same thoughts about the self storage in the gas station as well um I don't think that would be uh appropriate use of space uh right there on 401 um the other thing is uh I guess you're offering up all on areas to be warm grass wor warm season grass only is that correct that is one of the commitments is about I mean essentially using native species native plants and one of those warm season grasses yes yeah I I wouldn't see that as a I mean feel like fescue grass is um better than warm season grass now but I know you're going to use warm season grass only because it makes more sense for maintenance so um that was my other comment thank you M um no questions just um definitely second Mr Carson's um thoughts on the gas station and storage I feel like if um that area is developing and both with housing and mixed Ed spaces and it'd be nice to see something that the community could actually use in whether it's a restaurant or a healthc care facility something that would give back to the community if I'm counting correctly there's four gu stations within maybe a quarter of a mile right there and while I spend a lot of time in my car and appreciate accessibility to gas that's probably enough options there and a storage unit I don't see a purpose for that with the units going down down the

street and probably could use that space for something better for the community but other than that no additional comments understood I guess I guess I will I guess I will I guess I will add my last comments um I I also have to probably um Echo those comments about storage and fuel sales um having a type of space that's kind of a convenience or small store neighborhood store since this is really a neighborhood center Activity Center um and their residential units to try to find a way to make it you know really a place where people can get uh can walk to perhaps to to access things in that site for their for that neighborhood I really really think about it as neighborhood centers because that stretch of of roadway doesn't you know we well we're we're kind of slowly beginning to build those um nodes up along um 41 um but uh I don't know that a you know kind of Mini Storage would necessarily you know provide a lot of activity activity um for or a space like that so adjacent to residential um so we I probably would Echo that and hope that you all would find some ways to perhaps really kind of incorporate those character principles of our comprehensive plan to kind of think about that Neighborhood Activity Center really as you know small scale shops cafe coffee small Beast strob to get food a little grosser and uh and and and as much as the access across a roadway in intersections are important I I don't know how we find the best way to find that connectivity between the North and South site uh than at the intersection

of 401 and at the intersection of the um existing kind of 4way so perhaps some ways of um softening that movement north south to really make it feel like it is walkable um do you mean maybe through like design change or uh you know I I mean I think that's a kind of a design component okay um I I can't give you design decisions necessarily I mean I would love to but I can't necessarily well the only reason I asked is because you know we've heard from from Beth you know the mid block Crossing is most likely not going to be allowed here just from a safety reason so you know the actual place where you are supposed to cross would be most likely at that four-way intersection but I'm I'm wondering if you're talking kind of about like traffic calming whether that's through you know different material on the road or raised speed table something like that all those things are components of that you making it not feel like it is a uh you know a main roadway but that it is a residential street in a way right that makes it feel differently about Crossing um I tried to cross one roadway once just to get to the grocery store and that was probably a bad decision um uh but I had to but just thinking about um how the residen is used that really use our character um our principles of our typology to really think about what an activity center really looks like um at that scale it really be a benefit to the neighbors um and you know uh a draw for those coming down 401 that this is that unique moment not that it's another um um Mini Storage uh building along the street and a another uh kind of fuel sales but that unique uh Activity Center um that I think 401 really needs um to kind of align with our character guidelines that we're trying to establish would be helpful thank you thank you for your

feedback any other just just one question I was just pulling up the scale here on Google Maps but that that roadway between the two Parcels looks like it's 400 or so feet long they might want to consider some kind of midpoint that's a long ways for somebody to walk all the way out or all the way back just in your design I'm not saying it has to be done it's just that's that's quite a it's quite a walk yeah I mean that is something we can work with the town of Garner because that street would be town of Garner Street uh it's being built with the subdivision um and so we are not do is not going to allow us to have any entrance driveways on to 401 so entrance driveways for these two parsels will be on the interior subdivision streets and so when the plan is actually submitted maybe that's something we can work out with uh town planning and Engineering the road already built be built right so it would be like come in and add something additional uh at that time later um so town of Garner would have control over the road so we can definitely work with them on what could go in the in a mid block situation I just know when you're coming off of 401 you've turned right into the subdivision you know suddenly oops somebody's walking across the road like too quickly so you want to make sure there's plenty of visibility for that um I'd like to give you the opportunity to perhaps talk with your client before it's going to depend on how I vote so any other any questions for staff at the moment for for the site from Miss Joseph specifically

[Music] Mr Carson uh having spoken with my client so he's not in a position tonight to make the change has heard the feedback loud and clear neighborhood um kind of a neighborhood scale neighborhood commercial neighborhood retail is certainly their focus but given where they're at in in the process right now he's not able to to just eliminate those uses uh from from the list um we're going to have to have some more conversations internally about that or he's going to actually um and you know additionally without having an end User it's just kind of hard to pin down what it's going to be um so we won't be able to make those changes tonight but we have heard that feedback and it's something that we'll continue to consider I would make a motion or suggest a motion to table this to another meeting and give the applicant time to investigate that as an option because there's there's again we're talking striking convenience D fuel sales and the Self Storage which there's significant of both in that immediate vicinity and if if that determination cannot be made this evening I would suggest tabling it if we want to move forward I'm not going to be supporting so um so this is very that time if there if there are no other questions for the applicant um then for us to have some additional discussion as commission um we need a motion uh in what direction so the commission can decide which way or the other so I'm assuming that Mr Carson is that a is that uh are you recommending a motion I'm making a motion to table it until the future meeting okay that something

we no my only advice is to continue it to a date certain so that we don't kick in um notification requirements so febru February meeting the next meeting that gives them enough time to discuss that oh one other thing have we asked for any um public comment was a question oh you know you right watch me today oh Mr Carson hold that thought take that back u u um we'll pull that we'll pull that motion back is there any public comment in uh favor or against the um uh application to review a okay seeing none now here there a motion uh on the floor for the commission to review Mr cars I make a motion to table it to the February meeting okay we have a motion to table to the just point is February 10th is that meeting date our next meeting is the second Monday of February okay think it's thank you that I think that would be suitable for us to to have that discussion or for my client to have that discussion for what it's worth then I second so all right we have a motion and a second to table our meeting table this uh uh application until our February meeting yes we have a motion on the uh on the floor to table the um decision to the next meeting on February 10th uh we have a motion and a second then I'll call the vote Mariah Bishop uh I Ralph Carson hi Philip Jefferson hi Jan Hodes hi Ben

Mills hi Sher Phillips hi Michael vand nay that's six eyes one nay uh the motion to table for our February meeting passes okay thank you so much we have uh passed our motion uh for the tier one conditional District resoning um thank you so much for your applications and we look forward to seeing you all in February it is that time that we come to our reports from our planning director Mr treberg yes good evening um don't have a uh tremendously long update for you uh in terms of council actions in particular uh they've only had one meeting since your last meeting in December we thankfully get a little bit of a reprieve over the holidays which I know staff is very appreciative of um but on their meeting of December 19th the hazard mitigation plan the multi-jurisdictional plan led by Wake County uh was adopted by resolution and that resolution was forwarded uh to Wake County so we do have to my knowledge I haven't heard that we don't uh have an approved Hazard mitigation plan in place for Garner um so that we did not did not lose uh or have any time where we were not covered um so thank everybody for their participation and assistance in getting that through the approval process there at the end of the year um additionally there was a public hearing uh that day um that was for exchange at 401 here which came to you

tonight um and that's really all of the planning related business that was conducted in December um however in the intervening time uh we as staff have hired uh two more employees um Cassidy Charles started last Monday uh so she's now been with us a week uh she is our planner one in uh with the plan review team uh so she joins uh Joe Linsky who has been with us for almost three years he's our planner to now uh and Randy Hogue who is our fairly new still planning technician he's been I think he's in his third month uh then today um nick telski uh started as our new development review manager um so Cassidy comes to us straight uh pretty much straight from school uh having obtained her bachelors's at uh calp St Louis abiso in um city and Regional planning and Nick uh comes to us most recently as a senior planner with the City of Winter Springs Florida uh having obtained um some some few years ago uh his bachelor's uh in planning from Michigan State and his M's in planning from Arizona State um so we're very excited to have them uh I think a couple of them may be even listening in tonight on YouTube uh to the channel but uh we're very much uh excited to be working with them we have a full plan review team now um and so the next 6 months will be a good time of trying to grow as a team and continue uh the good work and make some improvements particularly with our use of the new smartgov online permitting system so that's all I have for y'all

unless you have questions for me um M Mr vland do you have any it especially last meeting you had questions about um uh entrance ways to um um I don't know where that's at I just wanted to make the point that that turn is a little tough for the school buses that's all um i a a meeting or two ago I misspoke I mentioned that I thought that the amount of land for Bojangles was too small now that they've actually removed some vegetation it's plenty big so never [Laughter] mind and it seems like while they're not being Speedy about it it slowly moving along it is do we have any other updates from any of our committees or uh first of all i' like to welcome cassid and Nick on board if they're listening online uh welcome on board look forward to meeting you and uh uh being part of the team um I wanted to just express our thoughts and prayers for all the people of California the wildfires but I also don't want us to forget about the people of Western North Carolina they seem to have been forgotten a little bit lately and uh they are also in our thoughts and prayers the people over in Tennesse as well um so I just wanted to mention that the affordable housing task force met last Tuesday on January 7th and we

have finalized our recommendations now that's going for a final draft review and then that'll come back for one last look and then that is expected to be presented to council I think on January 28th that's just tentative um if all the deadlines are met uh so once we get the final draft um that'll be made public on tentatively that council meeting um so just wanted to give an update on that and uh there may be a future wrapup meeting um we don't know yet but so potentially that was our last meeting uh and then Council will have that to review and uh discuss and decide what they want to do on that matter okay thank you so much for being representative of us there very much so Mr um Jeff has has VA Clinic given any indication to the town on how and when they will open will there be a public dedication ceremony will there be anything of a formal nature to when it opens I believe there is uh John would normally have that information yeah um I'll be happy to get that for you and forward it to you via email but I believe Jeff oh hey John good good good evening everyone um there is no dates have been determined for any type of um opening or anything for the VA they are working to get their um all all of their uh up upfitting done um they are now in the process after after significant progress of the building on getting all the upfitting done and so we think it'll be sometime in the late spring early summer

before that's open but there's been no discussion yet on what the format of that opening will be we'll be sure to let everyone know once we know more details all right thank you for that thank you thank you so much I knew I had heard some Rumblings but we're we're we're still preliminary okay well there if there is no other uh uh comments or questions or updates then I will call our meeting and journey [Music]