Town Council - Special Meeting

Knocking the computer offline.

We're good. All right. Council members, you Eric, your staff ready.

Let me call to order the special town council meeting for Monday, February the 2nd. Um, appreciate uh all that our town staff did. um during the weather event. Uh Eric, my compliments to everybody. Um I know all the departments and everybody had to make some kind of adjustments and heard a lot of folks out there working hard. So, thank y'all very well. Um item two for this meeting is public comments. We don't do signins for special meetings. If you would like to speak, please come forward, give name and address, and two and a half minutes, please. Is our do we have our clock set up? Okay, the clock is set up. Hi there. U Michelle Stress 545 Grande View. The Town and Recreation Department's mission commits to delivering superior performance and establishing a standard of quality that endures for generations. Its mission emphasizes exceptional, sustainable, and affordable recreation opportunities for residents. As the decision to place plastic grass comes forward and the arguments from the recck department are offered, it begs the question, what is the role of our recreation department? Is it primarily here to serve residents and provide public recreation or is it designed to be a vehicle to generate revenue through tournaments and outside users? Much of the justification for artificial turf seems to focus on increased usability, tournament play, and attracting regional events. Hurry, hurry, hurry. While those activities may generate income, they are not the core purpose outlined in your mission statements, nowhere in those missions does it say that revenue generation should drive major infrastructure decisions. It says sustainability. It says affordability. It says quality. It says service to residents. Artificial turf may increase field availability, but it also brings long-term financial, environmental, and

possibly health costs. These fields must be replaced every 8 to 12 years. Has that been budgeted or will we just allow these fields to fall into disrepair or heaven forbid another referendum? They continually shed microplastics into our soil and waterways. They become dangerously hot in summer. All of these affect local families and children, not visiting teams. So again, who is this park being designed for? It doesn't sound like the residents. Public parks should first and foremost serve the public. They should be shaped. They should not be shaped by short-term scheduling demands or revenue projections. The town's vision speaks of leadership and engaged citizens. Citizens leadership means asking hard questions and resisting the temptation to prioritize convenience over health. Engagement means listening when residents raise legitimate concerns and offering a true public comment and design process, which the last of which was over 10 years ago when nobody even knew what was truly being proposed. There are safer alternatives that balance durability, usability, and environmental responsibility. I'm asking you to offer a real opportunity for the public to ask questions and share concerns. And please don't make this this decision in a vacuum or over an email chat. And please, please do not take anecdotal comments like you get more microplastics from brushing your teeth as gospel. Take the time to read the scientific research and let the people be heard and clearly affirm that the recreation department exa what it exists to do. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please for public comment. Anyone for public comment. All right. There being none, public comment is closed. Thank you very much. Item three, presentation of the 2026 to 2030 town of Mount Pleasant strategic plan. Mr. Demora.

Mr. Mayor, members of council, good morning. It's good to be with you. I'd like to begin by asking you to imagine an organization that has no plan for capital projects, no plan for road or storm water repair and maintenance, no transportation plan. Imagine an organization that has no plan for vehicle maintenance or replacement. No requirement for financial reserves. No emergency funds for a really bad day. No mission statement. No designated core values or personnel guidelines on how the staff will conduct its business. No plan for health care benefits and other benefits that are fair to the employee and the taxpayer. And no plan that requires constant improvement. Well, that was the town of Mount Pleasant before we started with our strategic plans. I'm proud of where we are today. Certainly not satisfied. And I'm pleased to introduce to you our next our fourth strategic plan. It's the next step in our organizational story. It's built on successes of prior strategic plans, implements your direction, the direction that you as town council have provided, and incorporates input from the public and staff. It features three main themes and 48 action items. And when the plan is done, we will be more efficient and consistent in the delivery of our services. It will be supported by streamlined

processes and clearer communication. We will be more engaged with the community. will be improved through targeted automation and modern technology. Strengthened by more reliable infrastructure and assets, enhanced through strategic upgrades and consistent maintenance. reinforced with systems that ensure continuity of operations will be better positioned for long-term sustainability and future readiness defined by a more resilient and high-erforming workforce. We'll be strengthened through improved recruitment and on boarding supported by clear development and advancement pathways for employees. will be enriched by a culture centered on engagement, well-being, and long-term retention. That is who we will be as an organization. I'd like to dive a little deeper into the process that led to the proposed strategic plan. First, we reviewed our mission. Why are we here? What is our purpose? And is it still relevant? We've defined our core values. How will we conduct ourselves and our business? We conducted an environmental scan or SWAT analysis, the strengths, the weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. And we then we developed the plan as well as the goals and objectives that support it. Our mission statement, it's of no surprise to you.

Delivering superior service in a manner that's distinctive and impactful to each person served and that establishes quality of service that endures for generations. Our core values. This is the core values that guide our business practices and our personal relationships. And they're unwa unwavering, not subject to negotiation. Those are words. What do they mean? What does it mean to how we will act? We'll show respect and dignity, treating everyone with courtesy all the way down to personally escorting visitors to their destination around town facilities. We'll act with integrity, making ethical decisions that prioritize the public good. We will provide excellent service, not what we can't do, what we can do. We'll take ownership of complaints and we'll pursue resolution of those complaints. We'll engage better with the community. We'll serve as ambassadors for the town. We'll ensure transparency and timely communication, sharing clear, accurate, and timely information across multiple channels. We'll stay informed and educated professional development. We will look for best practices and community issues by understanding town ordinances, our current projects, and communicate our future plans. We'll support a safe and resilient community. We'll lead by example, and we'll maintain our professionalism through appropriate attire and clear communication and respectful service. The environmental scan, our SWAT an SWAT analysis. This is what it produced. Our strengths as an organization, citizen

service. We have a strong reputation as a local government leader. Three-time all-America city award winner, multiple department accreditations and awards. One of our strengths is leadership. There's a clear organizational mission. We adhere to our core values and there is a Mount Pleasant way of doing business. Our budget and oper operations were lean at staffing. We look to embrace new software and technology and financially we are very strong within strong with strong internal reserves. Always balanced budgets AAA bond ratings and commitment to preserving to maintaining our community assets. Our culture is a belief in citizen service, a belief in employee wellness and an emphasis on performance. And our mission is clear. We want to leave this community better than we found it. Those are our strengths, but we also have weaknesses. It's becoming more difficult to keep up with increased pressures and demands. There are rising demands to provide services. I know you know that. You feel that in the communication that you have and with constituents. There are non-traditional requests for service. Requests for service that didn't exist before or that our grandparents or our parents never would have thought of asking the local government for. Social media movement away from citizens as partners to citizens as customers. I'll give you an example. Not long ago, we had garbage pickup and and uh it was not known to the driver, but there was a plate of glass next put on the other side of the trash container. And so the truck goes by, it picks up the container, it dumps out the

contents, and puts it back down. Unbeknownst to the driver, the glass had fallen on the ground,

broken into several pieces. We received several phone calls, people upset about the delay for us to go back and clean up the glass. I did not say this, but I remembered and like to think that I would do the same, as I know you would. You just take a broom and a broomstick and go out there and clean it up ourselves. That's the difference between citizens as partners rather than citizens as customers. challenges to responding to every complaint, every breaking wave that comes in every day. We also have weaknesses in competing for talent for some job categories. Credential positions, mostly engineers, paramedics, private sector competition is tough, and we're not always as fast as we could be at seeing market changes when it comes to compensation. We could be better at maintaining our community assets at necessary levels. Our infrastructure is aging. You saw during the audit presentation that we have almost a billion dollars in assets managed and operated by this community. Another weakness is we can't control all of our services. As we do rely on outside agencies for important services like EMS, the landfill, our community engagement has not yielded effective and ongoing dialogue. We have done our best to get the word out, not just through electronic communication or meetings here at town hall, but getting out into the community on others turf and hearing their concerns. But it hasn't yielded the effective dialogue that I have hoped for. Full coordination of the management of town projects could be better. We look

to increase our inter interdep departmental collaboration on projects, speed, faster, more timely reviews. We have ahead of us a loss of institutional knowledge as we have some experience gaps coming and retirements of several members of your leadership team. Always challenging to keep up with electronic records management and new sophisticated technology. But there are opportunities. There are blue skies ahead. You passed an economic development strategic plan that is helpful to us. There's a new visual and performing arts opportunity. The venue for your citizens. We have opportunities with newer automation and artificial intelligence. We are actively and through this strategic plan going to be looking at. Imagine a day when a building plan can be submitted and first reviewed within seconds by AI and returned to the citizen with necessary changes if any. Diverse compensation opportunities is something we aim to pursue. Opportunity to improve speed with daily processes. Staff recruitment. We do have a supportive community that can help the organization meet its mission. and the opportunity to solidify our position as the leader of municipal services is in front of us. Threats to the organization include the failure to adapt and recognize respond to what seems to be the fragility of the public institutions around us. There is what seems to be global and domestic uncertainty that is unwavering these days. Constantly changing labor

market. Natural and man-made disasters are a threat. They seem to be multiple disasters every year and the threat of not embracing new technology. We cannot allow for a quality of life decline through failure to keep up with aging infrastructure and equipment and the threat of excessive automation that reduces the town's need for essential manpower needed for effective emergency response. We saw that at work this weekend. Changing development patterns is a threat to the organization, to the community. Gone. We've we've entered a phase of of new growth into redevelopment growth and if not managed properly that can endanger the community. Growth challenges always retirement of senior leadership. Incrementalism, housing affordability, inability to process constant criticism and quickly counter misinformation, and a failure to manage and meet public demands for increased service. And so synthesizing, pulling together everything I just mentioned to you, the strategic plan in front of you focuses on three themes. Optimizing our services, strengthening our critical assets, and the resiliency of our workforce. Overall, it means investing in our assets. and mayor and and council members. Um there's 48 action items. Those action items touch on every department forcing improvement. Uh if you'll bear with me and just for a few short minutes, I'd like to invite up our department managers. They want I've asked them to share with you what they're most excited about that this

document uh forces them to do as action items. So,

good afternoon.

Um, I am excited to highlight a couple of strategic plan initiatives that are actually being led by executive offices. But first, I'd like to mention, um, as Eric just shared on one of the the last slides, um, a third of this plan is dedicated to employee development. So, the human uh resources office is going to be very busy with recruitment, retention, and employee well-being initiatives, but also our communications office has a lot of work throughout this plan where they're going to continue to try to improve our um citizen engagement. Y'all have seen already Sawyer, which was one of those efforts, our new chatbot that we have. But this afternoon, I want to talk about two executive office projects. I'm going to cover one, Matt will come up and cover the other. The project that I'm sharing today is focused on building community resilience, specifically a neighborhood level program that helps our residents to prepare for, adapt to, and recover from disasters and hazards. Our goals are safety, self-reliance, and resilience. Why is it important? First of all, we all know that FEMA is changing, and a lot more is going to be pushed down to the state and local levels, and we're going to have to take more responsibility there. And second, the number, the frequency and the severity of disasters across the country are increasing. We saw Hurricane Helen a little over a year ago and what that did to the upstate of South Carolina, wildfires in California or even the snowstorm and how it's affected some of the southeastern states over this past week. These events events just underscore the need to prepare. So this initiative is going to build the capacity um to help our residents train provide training, education and resource resources to increase overall community safety and strengthen emergency management capacity and build social capital. We started on this at the end of last year. We have a multi-ep department staff team. Five different departments

are involved in this project. fire, police, public services, planning, and EDS. We're going to create neighborhood level districts. We're going to work directly with Dunes West. If any of y'all have ever had the opportunity to see the initi that the model that they have already started with this, it's impressive. So, we're going to try to adapt that townwide, scale it, and adapt it. But our focus is going to be on educating our citizens, um, building awareness, forming these resilience teams, extra training for captains, and then we plan to implement it by the beginning of next year, and then hopefully grow it to include more businesses and nonprofits and so on. Um, I will certainly be glad to answer any additional questions later, but in the interest of time, I'm going to turn it over to Matt and let him talk about the economic development project. Afternoon everybody. Um we have what I think is a once in a generation opportunity to um unlock something that's uh created by the 526 Longpoint reconfiguration. The idea would be to use the infrastructure change to unlock a new arts, entertainment, and mixeduse district. At the same time, we could protect port access neighborhoods and existing businesses. We are aiming to build a district around adaptive reuse. So think studios, galleries, small venues, breweries, and that would be a gradual transition from the logistics and industrial sector into a true mixeduse corridor. And this will be a place with real local creative identity and not just another generic development. So how do we get there? Um we will reuse the idea is reuse existing industrial and warehouse buildings instead of scrapping everything and starting with new built environment. Add public spaces and green connections to stitch the area back to the surrounding neighborhoods. You guys are familiar with the area. There are great neighborhoods already

there. uh use targeted public sector tools and strategic property acquisition where appropriate and partnerships to kickstart early projects and focus on early visible wins to lend some legitimacy to the project and uh to attract some private investment. So the next steps right now um we'll align our planning with the 526 timeline. DOT I believe is hiring their design build team in June. Um we'll finalize the district boundaries. Um that's mostly done thanks to planning and uh their help with sort of the GIS element of this. Um and then start developing real concepts that fit the area and the market and launch a public visioning process so it shaped uh with the community and not just for the community, not just something we're doing to them. So, I think the bottom line is an opportunity to create a real place in this corridor and it's doing it in a way that's realistic and incremental and unique to our community. And like Christian said, happy to answer questions at some point, but I think we're on a tight timeline.

That's exciting. I do. Yes. Super quick. Do you envision this being like a zoning district or like an overlay district? I really confused.

There probably could be zoning uh changes. there probably will need to be adaptive reuse usually means rethinking what a parking requirement does, what you can do with a building that's already existing there. Uh so zoning changes probably maybe straight zoning, maybe a complete district that just touches the existing industrial warehouse districts. Um what you see right on you right right there is uh urban supply project in Birmingham. Um there are a lot throughout the country that have occurred this way. Um, a lot of what's occurring right now on Spruel Avenue locally and the Navyyard is a project that kind of reflects what we would be doing. So, we wouldn't just be Mount Pleasant doing the lift and the investment. It would be um maybe doing some property acquisition, but enticing the private sector to come and invest and we get out of their way as much as we can.

Thank you. Good afternoon. Um, public services department in 2022, we we started trying to tackle uh our jobs by establishing an asset management program and how we're looking at things. And the task associated with that was to identify all the town's infrastructure and things we're responsible for, determining the condition of it, and then figuring out how long it should last and then developing a plan to replace it. So the stat you see in front of you is kind of a snapshot of some of the things that uh that we're responsible for as a town. There's 37.21 miles of of ditches we've accounted for so far. 318 miles of pipe, 18,000 structures, 591 outfalls, over 1,64 ponds that generally are owned by homeowners associations, but it's part of the greater system. 605 miles of roads with different associated owners and responsibilities. There are 76 buildings that the town maintains as well as 73 acres of property that the town has to maintain. To do that, the public service department is broken into five divisions and in one section, the admin section. There's 144 positions available to do this. The first one first division is the asset management division which is responsible for trying to establish this program and run the database as well as the larger CIP and CMP projects. There are six positions associated with this. The infrastructure division does the daily maintenance and repair of all the town's infrastructure i.e. storm water uh street signs things like that. There's 29 positions associated with that. The facilities division, it does repair and maintenance of town facil facilities as well as custodial support and there's

uh small CMP projects. There's 22 positions associated with that. Excuse me. The grounds division is maintenance and repair of town uh parks and athletic fields, small CMP projects, and uh there's 32 positions associated with that. And then the waste management division, which falls outside of the asset management realm, but is still a responsibility for the town for weekly curbside collection. There's 47 positions associated with that. And in calendar year 2025, we collected over almost 28,000 tons of garbage, 5,497,000 tons of bulk items, uh 11,000 tons of vegetative debris. We dump 37 almost 38,000 cans a week for a total of about 45 or 455,925 cans during the year. Now with that we have 144 positions to do that. But one of my challenges is in calendar year 25 I average 21 vacancies um each month and then I also average about 13 absences either for vacation sickness or for another reason daily. So I'm short I start each day 34 people short which gives me about 76% of the workforce to get all of this done. I'm very proud of what we accomplish but this is only going to get harder as time goes by. Because of that, we put a lot of effort into the strategic plan based off of, uh, you know, some of the challenges that Mr. Dora mentioned. We've already discussed the manpower challenge, but the aging infrastructure, u adding additional infrastructure, ownership responsibilities. We deal with town, county, state, and private, uh environmental and weather, public demand and expectations, technology, resource

competition, and then uh you know, trying to get everything done. We picked two themes that generally reflect u all of this. And with that, the first one is what we're trying to do. And I talked to some at the strap plan. And that's going from a reactive response to trying to be more proactive and eventually predictive. And that's looking at all the old things, taking the new things, and then getting it into a maintenance schedule cycle, having the resources we need to make everything happen. The next theme is seeking the efficiencies whether it be through automation, contracted services, reallocating manpower if we identify savings and then looking at the uh all the pieces that go along with that. Essentially, we have to remain a nimble organization in order to make everything happen. And we need to be able to adjust our manpower. We need to recruit it. We need to balance between in-house. I need a thinking workforce. I need a doing workforce. I need on call. I need contracted u you know labor. I need to be able to recruit. looking at how we train our people and then looking at the equipment and technologies, continuing to up build our facilities, you know, by finishing six mile and then moving to Lebanon Road and then continuing to fund the CIP and the CMP projects and ultimately being able to u do everything with the workforce we have and the challenges that we will continue to face. It's only going to get harder. How can we continue to get the job done? Good afternoon everyone. I don't get this opportunity too often so as I see it in front of you all. So before I get started I did want to highlight how much

port has grown over the past five years. We have gone from processing 11,754 citations and warrants to over 19,000 in this last fiscal year. That's a lot of growth. But thanks to our dedicated staff as well as use of automation, we have been very successful in that process. So for this reason, the first initiative I wanted to go over and discuss was our outreach, increasing our outreach to the public. Currently, when someone receives a citation, they're directed to the state's website. And we receive a lot of calls into our office weekly from frustrated defendants who are trying to access their citation on that website. It's there, but it's very difficult to access. So, what we would like to do is place a QR code onto the citation they receive roadside in order to link them directly to the town court web page. This way, they have quick access to pay their fines, ask for continuance, FOYA information. In addition to that, we would also like to place a short survey to give us some feedback. We get it from attorneys all the time, but we'd like to get that from the individuals and the public as well. Flipping now to the second initiative we're looking at is delinquent fine collection. This has proven difficult over the years. Currently, we use the setup program and that's offered through the municipal association as well as the South Carolina Department of Revenue. It's a good program. However, it only applies to individuals who a file the state tax return and b get a refund. So, you can see the challenges there. So to give you some statistics, in 2019 we actually entered over $140,000 into that set off program. And in that tax year, we were able to recover only $7,850. Fast forward to 2024, we now have over

$270,000 that we've placed in this program. And last year we received a whopping $9,500. definitely a problem that needs a solution. So, I'm currently researching a program also offered through the South Carolina Department of Revenue, which is called the government enterprise accounts receivable program. They use a more comprehensive collection program approach, which it would extend to wage garnishment, tax leans, bank levies in addition to these tax refunds. So, based on those numbers, you can see why we need to find another solution. So those are the two initiatives I wanted to share this afternoon and I really look forward to this process and maybe get in front of you another time.

All right. Thank you everyone. You got a question? Yes. I apologize. Yes, ma'am. The um use of the QR code Yes, sir. works for some people. Correct. We found out during the last elections that it doesn't work for a lot of people. This is true. And I point that out only because the voter registration office stuck a QR code on the armory telling people that the armory wasn't in use anymore and these were the places they could go.

Understood. It'll have both. We won't be taking away the website that's currently on there. This would be in addition to. So, it would speak to both. And then, of course, we would still amend the phones for all those people who get frustrated with the website. Right. Right. Well, as long as you've got something else, we would be a QR code. Correct. You're okay. It would be that state's website that's currently on there. We're just adding two. Is the state website easy to find? It's easy to find, difficult to navigate. We're finding out from the calls we receive in the office. That's why we want to go that extra step. Put the QR code on there, possibly helping those that can use the QR code to get to where they need to more quickly. Otherwise, we walk everyone through the process in our office. Okay. Okay.

You're very welcome. Thank you. Good afternoon. Um before I start talking about the future, I want to thank everybody for the past year. I've been here for a year now. It's been a wonderful year. I appreciate all your support, enthusiasm over that uh course of that time and unfortunately I'm probably the one that brought two years of snow. So, sorry about that as well.

Um, but looking into the future, uh we've got three kind of non-traditional initiatives uh that some might not really kind of associate with the rec department, but really trying to uh enhance what we do from a from an overall standpoint. Uh so, the first being is to engage in our staff and more professional development opportunities. Uh we have a wonderful team. A lot of the folks on my team have been here for quite some time and they do a great job, but we can always learn and do better. Uh so we're going to make sure that we're giving them opportunities outside of the town, whether that be state, national, regional seminars and conferences to bring back best practices that other folks are doing around the country. Uh because we certainly can do anything we put our minds to and I think our staff just needs to be exposed to some of those best practices a little bit. Uh the other thing or two things that are a little bit more non-traditional. Uh we have a very uh big community here that's into therapeutic recreation. Uh we've just recently been able to hire a full-time person who can dedicate more time to our therapeutics division. Um being able to provide more services in that realm will be huge for our town. Uh and being able to show them that we do great things for most, but we want to do great things for everyone. Uh and then we've talked about this a little bit before. uh the therapeutics can kind of roll right into our community garden food forest uh idea. Uh it's something that's kind of new and unique uh but it's something that everyone can do no matter what their ability might be. Uh and we're really excited that we've already have some community members, some in attendance today uh that are very happy with our idea and looking to help us uh further that for the future. Uh the second thing we're looking to do uh as you all know we have a lot of recreation facilities in the town. A lot of them are used for rentals, uh, programs, all types of things. And we're going to try to find a more, uh, accessible and easier way for folks to rent those facilities. Uh, we have some large organizations that utilize our facilities that have been doing so for a long time, but trying to find those what we call mom and pop situations where

they might not rent it three days a week for the entire year, but maybe once, twice, three times a year. Trying to find ways for them to be able to gain access. uh but also to make sure they're not being kind of put out by some of the larger groups. Um we also want to look at our facilities. Uh we have a lot of facilities that uh have been around for a long time that may have been here for a reason when they started, but maybe trying to uh make that facility a little more unique. For instance, a baseball field is not just a baseball field. Uh it can be utilized for a whole bunch of different things. Uh so trying to make sure we're we're making everything accessible to folks uh for whatever need they might have recreationwise. Um and we never know we may be able to transform one of those spaces into something that's going to be used a lot more by the town uh users. Uh and lastly uh we want to kind of find a way to improve on the MPD app that we have. Uh obviously real time communication with folks is very important. Um, you know, we mentioned social media. Uh, but trying to make sure that our folks get the information when they need it. Uh, because we know quicker the information, the happier folks are. Uh, so just trying to make sure it's a cost-effective way with an app that we already have established. Uh, that's gaining a lot of traction. Uh, so we're hoping to just improve upon that to make sure the residents know what's going on from a recreation standpoint. Um, like Mo said, if you have any questions later on, I guess I got a minute left. if you have one now or I'll turn it over to the next person.

Yes, sir.

Yes. Um I received a request I'll give you the phone number from somebody who wanted to know why the I guess the best way I can explain it is professional um teams as opposed to just regular recreational teens. Is there a attempt to exclude those I'm just going to call them professional teams for kids that are travel travel teams maybe as opposed to just recreational teams. Are we doing anything to help make everybody available?

So our programs come first. Uh we've actually had to limit some of the rental space that we allow what we call travel teams. I think it's a little bit different than professional. Uh but our programs come first and then whatever we have left over will be able to be utilized by some of those bigger organizations. Uh but yeah, we always we have folks contact us all the time and we make them wait until we know what our internal numbers are before we start renting space to external folks.

Right. I know we have a difficult time with all of our fields that we have, which is why we did a $50 million referendum and now that's probably not enough. So, I'm just asking that question. I'll give you the phone number. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Good afternoon. So for facts, the first primary action plan for us falls under theme one goal one initiative or action item number 11 which is expanding communication platforms to promote transparency and there was discussion during last budget cycle u we heard it during the retreat uh regarding transparency the publishing of data on our website. Uh we did start publishing the general fund operating expenses as a monthly transparency report that was started back with July 2026 data. Uh this is a manual report and we're open to exploring more automated ways that that might be more readable, searchable by people moving forward. Um we also have the annual audit report, the ACTER, the budget book. Those are all posted on the website. So, we feel we're adequate in the transparency we are offering the public, but I think there we could take it to the next step and just make it more readable, more digestible for them to really understand, search, and find the information that they need. Um, the main thing that we're really looking at when we're exploring different options is does does any system we use integrate with what we're currently using? It's got to integrate with our current systems um that to move forward with that. Our second primary action item um is regarding AI automation and technologies and incorporating that more into our operations. Now we've already rolled out a training

initiative for AI. Um this has been geared towards 50 subject matter experts um across all the departments within the town. It's a chat GPT teams platform which is private which means any of the searches the data that people are looking for it's kept within the town. We don't share that externally outside the town. So we are still learning um and the system still learns from external information but our information doesn't leave our private site and that's a good thing especially while we are still understanding and getting our arms around the whole AI platform. Um some of of our current technology systems have the ability to use AI. So we're going to start exploring that. They're kind of like on the initial stages right now. We want to get that more developed until we really start using those. So the starting points for finance are more around streamlining workflow workflows and automating repetitive tasks. Um we want to see what AI technology possibly for procurement with contract reviews would look like. There's a lot of standardization there. So that would be a good first step. Um that would improve efficiency, res reduce staff time. Enhancing reporting and analysis. AI does offer the ability to forecast out scenarios. Can it do whatif scenarios for budgeting purposes? That would be beneficial. With accounting and data entry, we're exploring uses within AI and Oracle. um interfaces that could read invoices and

pull that information directly in. That would reduce a lot of manual data entry. And then lastly, analyzing data for fraud detection is a primary action for us. So that could be that could be very beneficial. Um so just many exciting possibilities for AI within fax itself moving forward. Any questions? Any questions? Thank you, Tam. Okay. Okay.

All right. Thank you. Good afternoon, mayor and council. Uh, so I'm going to talk about a couple of initiatives in the planning department that meet four goals from the Strat plan. Enhanced communication, education, and outreach. establishing partnerships with neighborhood leaders and businesses, collaborative solutions to local issues and then ensuring long-term resilience, sustainable practices, and promoting environmental stewardship. Um, so the first initiative deals with our tree program. Uh, it's not new. Since the launch of Take Root in 2021, we have given away nearly 6,000 trees. We're very proud of that. Uh, of those 6,000, we don't know how many ended up in the ground, how many survived, but what we do know is that through our canopy restoration project, we've planted almost 85 trees with the help of many of you up here and with uh public private partnerships. We also know through our tree gr tree bank grant program, we were able to award two grants over the last two years and got 30 trees in the ground for two neighborhoods. So, we've done a lot of good things. We're excited about take root and tree canopy, but we know that we can be doing more. Um, as Arbor Pro, who is our consultant for our uh public tree inventory, they're going to be wrapping up showing us all the public trees uh on our properties. And then we're also very excited about the task force and what's going to come out of that. And those two things are going to kind of come together. Uh the timing will be great for us. So we we feel like we're going to be able to continue with these initiatives, but we're going to be able to be more strategic in where we plant, what we plant, and those sorts of things. So we're excited about that. We know that that program is going to grow. And then we also um want to look at our tree bank grant program. Um, that's a great program for civic groups, schools, churches, but we know that we can do a better job of getting the word out and

and partnering hopefully with our schools and our neighborhoods um to expand on that program. So, uh, take root and our tree programs are going to be our first initiative to really address that envir environmental stewardship and solutions to local issues. And then second, uh, I want to talk a little bit about public engagement. Um, you know, we the planning department, we're a small department, but we do a lot in the town. I think a lot of folks don't know. And, um, we have constant interaction with the public, but a lot of that interaction is transactional. It's through our core functions as the planning department and and operating the zoning side of things. Um, last year we took in 300 applications for the six boards and commissions that we staff and that was 75 regular public meetings we held. Uh, planning reviewed over 400 residential site plans, 670 tree permits, uh, issued 400 short-term rental permits, 135 zoning letters, 150 sign permits, 150 code enforcement cases. We did we got a lot of stuff that we do where we interact in the public. Um and and also those other initiatives that we do that I know Eric talked about the public input matters. That was a great initiative that we did. Um I don't know if y'all remember last year we tried to do the town talks classroom series. Uh we were excited about it. We had a lot of enthusiasm from other staff but we didn't get a lot of engagement from the public. And so what we're looking at now is something called planning popups. Uh it really if you think about those traditional public meetings and I don't mean the public meetings with our boards and commissions. I mean public input, public engagement. Um those traditional meetings bring out the same people who you know it's it's a very narrow demographic. You've got homeowners um with flexible schedules. A lot of them have prior civic engagement and that's great. We want those folks but we want to reach the folks that we know we're

not reaching. And so what we're going to do with these popups is sort of reverse that dynamic. We're going to go to where people already are. We're going to go to the libraries. Uh we're going to go to the senior center. That's going to be our first one in March. Um we're going to go to the markets, the holiday festivals, farmers markets, all those sorts of things. And so what this really does is get a different uh demographic. It's real time where we can have this conversational um sort of informal interaction with the public. uh we can get different demographics like I said we can get renters we can get the youth we can get the seniors and the popups are going to be in different areas of town we'll make sure and work with communication so you all are made aware of those u but it's really going to be on an issue related basis or sort of what's going on in that area of town it'll there'll be different things that we're talking about but the primary goal is to really kind of engage the public in a different way and evolve how we interact with the public and sort of build trust and relationships. And then also we're going to be um building a relationship with our H through the town HOA programs and that'll be our other initiative for public outreach. And that's all I have. Right on time and I'll answer questions later. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. Um, very pleased to announce today that the EDS department's focus for 2026 in the strategic plan is our building inspection division. And I guess I should get on my slide, shouldn't I? Uh, it's called build better together. Uh, you can read it's pretty straightforward here. It's um going to unpack a few initiatives here in a second that describes it. I want to assure you that this is not because we have any kind of poor performance in our division. Uh our division is highly competent and committed to the mission that they have which is to provide safe places to people to live, work, shop, learn and worship. Uh what the focus does do is recognize the opportunity to be more proactive with information and processes that will save time for our staff, residents, and builders. Uh I'll start with a few previous efforts in bid. Uh we have a career development program which is an financial incentive for folks to get additional certifications. I think most people have heard of or of opal which is a permanent licensing software system we implemented a year and a half ago. We also have a hybrid position that crosses two divisions uh depending on demand and we also have individually completed a SWAT analysis for our division. I want to speak a little bit about uh the leadership we have in the division. Uh Mike Tolby sitting right over here to my right has been in the position for a couple two or three months now. And I can assure you that the one thing I can talk about Mike's 30 plus years of experience is he understands the demands of building trade and exercises a balance and tactful approach to problems. So his approach is for responsible, reasonable and fair solutions. I'm not going to mention all of these uh initiatives, but suffice it to say, our focus really is on process and communication. Our 2026 focus uh for the first two bullets you see here, we'll perform a

six sigma process review and use our Opal system to develop datadriven process improvement. We expect that will be a consultant driven process. This will increase efficiency and improve uh quality of our products. The next Opal update, uh, Eric already mentioned this, is has an AI capability for plans review, and we've been discussing how we can customize that with Oracle to enhance efficiency and reduce weight times. The last bullet you see here recognizes that we also often have difficulty stemming from owners not uh um, excuse me, understanding our process or not receiving accurate information about the process or their application. So we want to engage and create an informed owner through mandatory owner emails and acknowledgements. Uh the next um is we will emphasize information dissemination via our website. You've heard about saw already and we can actually use that to develop better information on our website by querying it. Uh we will use opal reporting on plans reviews to inform setting performance measures for that particular task. And we are currently working in the this fiscal year to produce a new uh building compliance specialist. It's using a vacant position that we have. And this person will focus on facilitating permittes through the process that we have as well as helping with foyer education and enforcement aspects. And we will continue to collaborate with Charleston Homebuilders Association uh based upon a very positive form that we had last September. And then the last couple of bullet bullets uh we will annually publish a summary of our online survey feedback as a performance indicator and prompt for appropriate changes. And lastly, we will work with plan as um Michelle just said to to help with shared initiatives that

being mainly on our tree compliance as well as um public engagement. Thank you. All right. Good afternoon, y'all. So, I'm definitely excited for this plan. As y'all may remember, in April of 2025, fire committee approved the fire department's 2025 through 2029 strategic plan. And there are several bridges that that tie our plan directly into this overall town plan. So, I'm very excited for that. Uh, one of those being the theme of workforce development and wellness is one of our themes and it ties in well to some of the workforce stuff that's that's in this plan and we want to dive in in three specific areas in this in this aspect. Reinvigorate our peer fitness program. We have trained peer fitness uh personnel within the fire department and and postcoid we lost some of that that interaction um at the stations with these peer fitness trainers uh and our crews. They're still mandated to do an hour of physical fitness a day when they're on shift. We have gyms that y'all provided in the newer stations. They have gym memberships. So, there's a lot of avenues to that, but we really want to re-engage with that in our peer fitness side. Uh, number two, expand mental health and well-being services. Working with our police department. They have a a a good program in place now that ties into the annual physical. We want to do the same thing. Uh, allowing our our personnel to to meet with a mental health counselor once a year tied into their annual physical. um that that supports many of the things that you've already provided through um through counseling and things that come through our insurance. So, engaging in that way. And then number two, promote early detection and can of cancer through screening. As you can imagine, firefighters at a higher risk for cancer and specifically two that we want to look at this year, melanoma and thyroid cancer. Both have a 30 to 40% higher rate of firefighters. catching that early um allowed them one to reduce health care costs but two allowing them

to be the best firefighter that they could be for this community but also for their family and themselves um in their careers. And then secondly, Mr. Deore mentioned it in the SWAT analysis as a weakness reliance on regional partnerships. And as you know through Charleston County MS, there have been times where their response times don't meet our goals for for our response and our citizens. So, they have a new director in place working with him already. Um, there's a new approach to return to some of the original deployment models that EMS did in the early mid 2000s to where they would they would house in the district that they served. We had two units in Mount Pleasant previously and they switched models to where they were they're all roaming. So, they want to go back to that model where several of the ambulances are housed in the communities that they served. working with them. We want to bring those ambulances into our fire stations, especially the newer ones that we're designing and building so that we have them anchored here in Mount Pleasant to increase those response times to develop those relationships between them and our crew so that that patient care is seamless as it already is in many ways, but how can we capitalize on that and do that? So, that's one of the initiatives we're working on now with EMS. We've had some preliminary meetings and I can going to continue to work on that. Happy to answer any questions.

Any questions? Yes, sir. I've got one question. It is that is that statewide where the county handles the EMS? I know a lot of places the town handles the EMS themselves. I I realize that's a great expense. I'm just curious that's deemed by county or the state. How how is that different here? Yes, sir. It varies. Hilton Head, for example, Hilton Head Fire Department handles a lot of their masks. Goose Creek Fire Department has an ambulance uh that they staff in conjunction with Berkeley County. So, I think it kind of depends on the region. It's not man by by the state that it's a county function, but in Charleston County, that's how it is set up. Okay. Thank you. I know I know the response times have have definitely gotten a little worse. So hopefully that new direction will help.

Yes. And they have improved over the last year, but in meeting with him, he's got a lot of good goals that I think will get them to where we need them to be. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Anything else? Thanks, Chief. Good afternoon, mayor, council members. I am very excited about uh this strategic plan in particular. Some of these ideas have been in the department in the police department for a while. Some of them have been partially implement implemented. So, it's just really exciting to see this uh be part of the strategic plan. So, first as a civilian uh public information officer, um I think that the the police department and our citizens would benefit from a professionally trained public information officer. It includes improved online content development and sharing. Um and really uh very importantly also it allow the sergeant who currently does that job to return to an enforcement role. So um that would be a a tremendous asset. So the community wellness unit development. So, we're this unit is in existence. Uh we want to continue to expand it and develop it. Um the core function in here is to help individuals struggling with mental health, substance use disorder, and housing challenges um and repeat offenders. So, um, you know, we've got really good at responding to incidences and working with our community partners, uh, like mental health, but what we want to do is try to prevent the next one from happening, identify individuals that are vulnerable and provide them with the assistance that they need so they don't have another incident. I believe that uh, adding a um, mental health clinician and a community paramedic to the unit would be profound and would bring great progress to that unit. uh in the development of a criminal intelligence unit. So we're the fourth largest municipality in the state and um we have a crime analyst who does an amazing job at inter that analyzing crime that's already occurred in Mount Pleasant where we need to push to I believe is um

constantly monitoring the landscape on social media in the region the state nationally for emerging threats to our citizen safety. So, um, that could be emerging crime types, cyber crime types, where we can work with our our PIO, our new civilian PIO to put information out to our citizens about how to not be a victim of this emerging crime. Um, in this day and age, uh, monitoring real time for protest and pop-up protests that might impact the town is is is critical. So, um, really excited about the development of a criminal intelligence unit. And then lastly, this is a an item that I've talked about for a while. We've actually kind of started this already. Senior Sergeant Greg Horton retired after 32 or more years in a sworn capacity. He retired and he came back as a civilian and he's now running the crime scene unit. Um when I started here in 1995, we had a civilian crime scene unit. It grew a little bit as a civilian unit and then it kind of morphed into sworn. So, what we'd like to do is return to a civilian crime scene unit and take the officers who are currently assigned in this and put them back into an enforcement role out in the road um to enhance the overall service delivery. So, does anybody have any questions?

Yes, sir. Chief, I noticed in the book there was a suggestion that I guess that you're making that you really need some kind of a PIO that does nothing but that to save people from having to take time out of their normal police work, right, to put out information, which the recent issue that's been was in the press they complained the press complained that they didn't get it timely right whereas if you had somebody doing nothing but that right

um that would be great and I and it's difficult to have the town's regular public information people right there at your offices all the time so right I I really was glad to see that in your suggestion thank I agree. Thank you. Thank you.

So, Mr. Mayor, members of council, those are just some of the initiatives uh wrapped up in the strategic plan. Happy to answer any questions now or at another time. Um would really appreciate, we're excited about it, as you can tell. U we've already started on some of the initiatives and really want to just start running with it. So, we'd appreciate um vote to accept it, allow us to do that and move forward. Yes, sir.

Um Mr. Deora, it was talked about by planning about our tree bank and my question is how do we use the funds in the tree bank to get the trees put out on the street or wherever we think they should go? and we use a private contractor. Um I don't think there's anybody in the planning department that's sent out to plant the trees with the money from the tree bank. How do how do we enforce that?

Well, um I'll ask you a follow-up question, sir, about the enforcement comment. Um treebank funds now are utilized for primarily three different things. And one of them is to support the undergrounding initiatives in key public areas. That's our partnership with Dominion. They're used for uh we have a grant program that's applied for by neighborhoods and HOAs um where we use this kind of money to help support them in plantings that they're doing um in their community. And then we use the money for public spaces um public what

spaces where there are opportunities around town. Um, thanks to work going on now and initiatives going on now like the tree task force, we believe there's going to be opportunities where there are more public locations identified and more opportunities um to use tree bank funds to do that and and that's caught up here in the plan. You mentioned the word enforcement, so I want to follow up on that. Um you're saying that once uh maybe not tree bank funds but maybe when uh we have initiatives where we're giving out trees and following up on whether they're plant whether they were planted or thriving. Is that what you meant sir? Well, that and also for developers who were before the planning department that have to contribute money for trees going to the tree bank. How do we go against that developer

to make sure that the trees get planted that they pay for? Well, sir, they will not receive a CO unless they've met the requirements of development. Well, I guess what I'm saying is they might have to put money in the tree and they will not get a and then what happens once they put the money in? Yeah. Do we go after or do we hire a private contractor, if you will, to take that money, buy the tree, take buy the trees and plant them? So, do we have a contractor that does that for us?

Yes, sir. So, uh in the example that you're saying, if a developer is required to make a contribution to the tree bank, they must make that contribution before they're provided with a certificate of occupancy. Now we have the money. Yeah. When um locations around town are identified for plantings, we do not do any of that and we do very little of that ourselves because we have a limited capability to do that. We'll shop at competitive bids, make sure it's the right species of the right size. Whoever wins that plants the uh plants the trees and then our people will be managing that project to make sure that they're all planted. Thank you. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Yes, sir. I was hoping we did that, but yeah, I didn't know.

Any other questions? If not, is there a a motion? Um, I'd like to move to accept the 2026 to 2030 strategic plan. Second. All right. We have a motion in a second to approve the 2026 to 2030 strategic plan. Any discussion? Yes, sir.

Yes. um just wanted to kind of zoom out for a moment and commend you on um what I view as as one of our um weaknesses and that's our ability to communicate and engage with the public. Um it's something that that I hear all the time and it's not not anybody's fault. It's just that how we communicate with one another has changed so greatly over the last decade plus. Um and and so I'd really like to um thank you for stepping back and thinking about some some new strategies that kind of cross all departments and really place more of an emphasis on meeting people where they are and allowing them into the process so that they can provide their input um uh in a timely manner. One of my frustrations is that here on council a lot of times we hear from people when it's too late. The decisions been made um the building's going up. And so I think anything that we can do to channel the public to provide their their input um before decisions are made when they can have an impact uh would be an effort or money well spent. And so, um, I've I've noticed that as a sort of a common thread through this plan, and I just wanted to let you know that I noticed that and I really appreciate the thought that all of the various departments have put into um reinventing how we're interacting with the public. So, thank you very much for that.

Yes, sir. You did an excellent job. One of the reasons I decided to run and felt comfortable running again was it was such a outstanding compensate that we really have an inventory of those know where they are and work with private enterprise who does it to make sure that thank you sir.

Yes sir. Just real quick, thank you for the great presentation. I know just real I want to commend uh Brad and his team. I'm g commend all directors as well, but I know Brad had mentioned about the permitting and and the whole process. Um I know he's been working on that and I've been working with them and and really understanding the homeowner stakeholder involvement. So just really want to commend I know they have we've got a little ways to go, but they've been working on it, moving it forward. So glad to see that that's on there to keep it keep it pushing. So, thank you guys for that. If there are no other comments, all in favor of the motion to approve the strategic plan as presented, please say I. I. Any oppose? Motion carries. Congratulations.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, Mr. Mayor, council members, um, Christina Springsteen deserves to be recognized for her efforts uh, with this plan. She was a very key player in this in the creation of this document. Thank you, Christine. Appreciate it. She also orders great lunches for committee day. I will say that is a talent. Item five, executive session for personnel matters. A, update on personnel matters related to the Mount Pleasant Police Department. B, personnel discussion related to staff succession planning. Do we have a motion, please? Second.

Motion and a second. Before we vote, um, council may take action on any item, including any subsection of any section listed on an executive session agenda or discuss in an executive session during a properly noticed meeting. All in favor of the motion, please say I. Any oppose? All right, executive session. Are we going back here or upstairs? Courtroom B.

Smells like a school classroom in here now. Yeah, it does. Well, nobody took my

Everybody, if uh everyone's in place, we have reconvened from executive session and a fire evacuation. So, please let the record show that was not all uh spent in executive session. Um, no votes were cast, no action was taken. If there are no uh motions following our deliberations and information received in executive session, this special town council meeting stands ajourned. Thank you.

Yes. All right. So if it for everyone's edification, we now begin our afternoon of committee meetings and we will get to police, judicial and legal shortly. We're Yeah, we're what almost an hour behind. Mike and Alex, right? Alex, come on in. Mike said he'll be right back. What's happen?

Oh, good. Been planning trans. Okay. Thank you.

How you doing? I'm good. I was freezing, but yeah, my feet were cold. We'll wait for Mike to get here. Is that the timeout chair? Better stay out of it.

We have a new timeout chair if anybody misbehave. Oh, she's All right. Are we ready?

Okay. Let me call to order the police judicial and legal committee for Monday, February the 2nd. Um, as I said in the special town council meeting that just adjourned, I just want to thank all of our dedicated staff and all the departments that were doing a great job over this weather incident. um which turned out to be a little less than expected but uh we were um prepared for everything and thank you'all very much uh Mr. Demora you and your team. Item two uh approval of the minutes from the January 5th meeting. Please move for approval, Mr. Chairman. Second. Any discussion? All in favor of the motion to approve, please say I. I.

All right. Item three, uh motion carries. Item three is public comments. If you would like to make a public comment, please come to the lectern. Uh 2 and a half minutes by ordinance. Please give your name and address. Is anyone here to make a public comment? Going once, going twice. All right, public comment is closed. Item four, police matters, employee years of service. Chief Arnold,

mayor, committee members, it's my pleasure to come before you today uh to talk about George Tatanic, Corporal Tatanic. He started his career with us in February of 2016 uh as a civilian working in our records unit. Became very knowledgeable in all aspects of records and was quickly the go-to person for help on criminal investigations. In 2017, um, he switched over, decided to become a sworn police officer and completed the criminal justice academy. Um, where then he was assigned patrol. In 2020, he became a field training officer. He quickly distinguished himself through as a thorough trainer that puts an emphasis on officer safety and making sure the trainings are wellrounded and knowledgeable. Fantastic job as an FTO. In January of 2025, he completed the process and was selected for corporal. has been assigned to team one and has handled that role very successfully. George has stepped in to assist Lieutenant McKano with the school resource officers as needed when the school resource officer supervisors away at military leave. So, um, multi-purpose here. He's done a fantastic job both in patrol side and filling in for the school resource officers when needed. He additionally serves as a squad leader on our mobile field force and keeps his squad prepared and ready for activations in case there's any protest uh that our mobile field force has to respond to. He's received dozens of commendations for his dedicated service and recently received a life-saving award for assisting an overdose victim and saved their life through his quick actions. We look forward to many more years of benefiting from his dedicated service to the Mount town town of Mount Pleasant. So, George, thank you very much. Awesome.

Is there another one? Nope. That's it for employee recognition. Okay. Item B is overview of the 2025 police department statistics. Chief.

Okay. So 2025 was a great year for us in terms of our uh statistics, uniform crime data. Um just to remind everybody, there's part one offenses. They're broken into two categories, violent, nonviolent. I'd like to point out that this is the third year in a row that both have declined. And I'd like to further point out that if you look at our totals, it said a low point for over a decade. I mean, it hasn't this low in more than 10 years. So the men and women of this department have done a fantastic job at uh keeping crime at bay. So uh touching on productivity a little bit. This uh our uh on an individual basis Mount Pleasant police I don't know you'll you'll see there at the top there's 122,000 calls for service.

84,000 are off initiated. That's that's very important. I'll explain why in a minute. Um, on an individual basis, our officers handle more calls for service than other surrounding areas. Officer initiative calls for service is up. That's a good thing. That's a result of officers getting out of their car and walking businesses, doing foot patrols, proactive policing. Um, we often get com uh requests from citizens to do traffic enforcement, speed enforcement. Um, our citations year over the last three years have increased of a number. So, that's reflected in that as well. Um, one other thing on the topic of uh statistics for arrest uh this past year held true. About 40% of the arrests we make are Mount Pleasant residents. About 60% are non-residents that have come into town and committed crimes. So, and then agency staffing. Uh, I know this has been a concern, but I want to just touch base on this very quickly. The chart that had before you shows uh separations in hires by year. Um a little bit of context some of the data. In 2012, the retirement system changed. Um and so there's a a high number of separations followed by an increase in hiring. 2017 I cannot explain the spike. I don't recall any societal issues uh like protests or the pandemic or anything like that. I'm not really sure why that year was a spike. It was 2020 was a pandemic year. no one was coming or going. It was very low in terms of separations and hirings. And then 2021 was a spike. Um that was our highest year of retirements. We had six retirements that year. Um and so um that wasn't unique to Mount Pleasant. Um if you do a quick Google search of law enforcement turnover, you'll see that uh resignations hit a peak in 2022, a 40% a 47% increase over the number of resignations in 2019. So 2019 2020 were

rough years for law enforcement. 2021 and 2022 were very high in terms of turnover. Um and so uh where are we now? So currently uh we have six people in field training. They're going to be released over the next couple months. We just released a couple from training. We have six people in our pre- academy. They'll go to the academy, they return back, they'll do field training, and then they'll be released. And we have several in the background. Um this morning, I I just received information and a request that an officer that used to work for us two years ago, left, went to another local agency here in the state of South Carolina, and wants to come back to the Mount Pleasant Police Department. So, um in terms of our staffing, we will we are doing well. Uh we can do better. We're going to strive to do better. We've just put out a new recruitment video. Um, and we're going to be just fine in terms of our recruiting and staffing numbers. I don't want anyone to be concerned in light of recent events.

So, thank you. Any questions? I think these look good and um I think we're pleased. Will will this be going to full counsel on next Tuesday as well or does it just stop here? Okay.

Right. Okay. Thank you very much and on behalf of a grateful committee, council and community. Thank you, Chief. And thank all of you officers. There are others in the room. Thank you for all you do and uh we appreciate you and and we greatly believe in you. Thank you very much. All right. That concludes item 4B. Item five is judicial matters. No agenda items. All right. Item six, legal matters. Um, this is put on here. It might have been a little bit I put it on there. Um, discussion and possible action with regard to the Alhamra Garden Club and Pageant's post office. So, I understand that the garden club would like to present the town with the key to the building. Um, I just wanted to make sure that um that that's something that that the town needs and wants to do and if so that we would invite them to a council meeting to come do that. So, I know that there's legalities involved um because it's on town property and everything, but uh

yes, sir. My understanding is that this is a a a formal or a formality type affair, not necessarily a legal question. Okay. Um, of course over the years we have been in discussions with the garden club about the property, right? Uh, and and not to exclude anyone but mayor, Mr. Chapman, you've been on PGL for quite a while. So you you understand the nature of these. I'll be happy to fill in the entire committee on that, but again, as I understand it, this is more of a formality type issue rather than a legal one. Sounds good. And yes, sir.

And as a follow on to that, I think it would be worthy of a proclamation. uh to the to that extent, but also recognizing the Garden Club for their years of service to the community of the history, the culture, and what they've meant for generations really of of members. And so, a proclamation as well as a formal formal handing off is what we're looking for.

Sounds good. And I I think we can do that at our next meeting at uh coming up next Tuesday. We'll put that on on the agenda. Look forward to that. And if you're a member of the Alhambor Garden Club, thank you. and thank you for coming here on uh when we proclaim national uh gardening day and uh we do that every every year. So, thank you all. 6B discussion possible action on an ordinance to amend the the section entitled public right ofway planting and replacement of the Mount Pleasant Code of Ordinances. So, that sounds wonky, but it's it's a very good uh manifestation of something moving in the right direction. So, Mr. Paglerini.

Yes, sir. Mr. Ward will handle this. All right. Good afternoon, uh, committee members. And, um, so this, um, previously came before y'all. There was some confusion with, uh, MPW and and the wording that they wanted, but this is an amendment of our, um, chapter 51, which deals with waters and sewers. As you're aware, MPW is is in charge of the water systems within the town. and and this section, the amendment that we're proposing, mirrors the resolution that's before you um here that they passed in August of 2024. Uh basically to encourage different sort of plantings within their their rideways, their sewage and water rideways. So, we are proposing this amendment again. It would mirror exactly what MPW passed back in 2024. Um and and if you would like, we can move this along to to councel.

All right. Um we need a motion or none or I'd like to make a motion that we do the same as as discussed substituting the language you have here as as you've already done and move it to council and recommend approval. Second.

All right. Motion and a second in in discussion as a member. Um, thank you to the town for the privilege of serving on MPW exeicio as mayor. Uh, having done so now for eight years and learned more about water and sewer than I ever thought possible. Um, it's fascinating. Um, this is a great thing. Um, I appreciate the um, commissioners of waterworks and and their management um, being a partner with the town on on doing things this way and it's it's a great improvement. Yes, sir.

Yeah. And as a follow-up to that, Mount Pleasant Waterwork W works, you've been on the board as well as Jake and others, has taken the lead in green infrastructure as well as Gray. So, we can do that. And this when we passed it before to add this language into the easement for M uh for public works building, it allows us to do the same thing to be a lead by example with the town, which we're already doing. And so, this just codifies and allows us to do that.

And I also want to praise our staff. Um we we had in the previous meeting about the strategic plan and the strategic plan addressed all sorts of things about sustainability, resilience, um and just our quality of life and and we're doing we will be doing the same thing here already are in many cases. So uh Mr. Demora will thank you for that and um it's good to see Mount Pleasant leading the way on these things. All right, so we have the motion uh to approve. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I.

Any oppose? All right. Motion carries. Give me just a second. Next is executive session. Um, one would be an update on personnel matters related to the Mount Pleasant Police Department. Now, we just had an executive session. This was on here just because those were two separate meetings and things happen like you never know, fire drill, snow days. Um, just so that we did not go into next Tuesday's meeting without I don't believe we need any more on this. Um, that is up to the uh

up to the committee. Okay. So I will the chair will entertain a motion to go into executive session for if you would. Um certainly the committee can consider given the time restrictions today. U then next item is information related to an appeal from one of our boards and commissions. We are happy to do this by memo and it will need to go to council anyway but that is the committee's prerogative. What's the will of the committee? I I move we uh bypass this and wait for council to uh get information. Second.

Okay, that sounds good. All right, so there is no motion for executive session. This moves us to item eight or actually item nine uh which is to adjourn. So there being nothing more for this committee, we stand adjourned. Thank you. Time for planning. Yeah, I think that's yours. This is mine.

Not everybody. Thank you. What? I said you wanted

Sorry, we came down as soon as y'all changed everything up. Y'all just slid over like okay or whatever.

Oh no. Give it a minute. Come down the stairs. Yeah. If we were ready. Maybe I'll be hot. I can't take in here.

Yeah, it's cold. I was me the end of the meeting. I was like, oh there still a little chilly in here. It's ready. Is she ready? Are we ready? Ready. We ready? Okay.

All right. We'll call to order our planning committee for Monday, February 2nd. Um, next item is approval of minutes from the January 5th meeting. If we have a motion. So moved. Second. All in favor? I I.

Any opposed? No. Motion passes. Item three is public comment. If we have anybody here to address the committee, we just need a name and address and two and a half minutes. Well, I guess it's good afternoon and y'all heard me before. Barbara Smith, Mount Pleasant, 410 Royal Avenue. I want to thank you for your service to the town and for sending out the letter about giving the area a chance to give input into the changes that are getting ready to um be worked on. I really did not feel that the input meeting worked for me. I would prefer that there be a sitdown presentation like we've always had and has always been done when something major is going on. Give us a sheet, let us fill out uh questions and answers and um that was not done for me. I'm worried. I'm a little bit worried. Uh the purpose, you know, of an ADU was to place give it a place for a child or a parent to come and live. And that was a smart idea until the investors figured out how to maximize our lots. If a brick or a block ranch can only have an ADU no higher than the original structure, then this will in all likelihood to me cause the original homes to be demolished. In fact, one-story homes already take up more bar. I think that's what the wording is. And the lots have many established trees on them. So, the new proposed ordinances will be a hardship for those homeowner homeowners in those small houses. So, let's do what we can to save those homes, especially the homes that stay in families over the

years. Longtime homeowners will lose property value according to my figures and property rights. We came here in 1972. We had no bar. I guess I would call it an HOA. And now many restrictions are going to be put on property rights. And this will have a negative impact on those who live in their one-story homes for those who have large pieces of land and for families who will inherit these properties. For many years, people have asked that the setbacks be changed so that they will be farther away from other properties, but nothing happened and investors figured out how to build to the limits. There were things that could have been done a long time ago, but nothing was done and we've been found. Setbacks do need to be changed and I will totally agree with that. And then

yes, I know I will be sending a letter. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Susie Smith, 20-y year resident of Old Mount Pleasant on Earthman Drive, 1317, and I'm also a realtor in the area. Um, I think in order to keep Old Mount Pleasant and Old Village, the quaint little village that we all love and that everyone is attracted to, we need to start making some changes more strategically and thinking about tree and greenery conservation as much as style and size conformity. Beauty and greenery has as much value as square footage. To me, 50% lot coverage is too much. Uh, the 45% proposed is possibility. I personally say keep it at the 40%. We're being overbuilt and the water is rising in our streets literally more so than ever before. We're not Atlanta or Charlotte and a 55 foot square foot home in Old Mount Pleasant is too big in my opinion. Maximum I think should be 4500 square feet and you need a half an acre for a home that size. These huge speck homes that are being built, they're not anybody's dream home. They're speck homes and they're sitting vacant on these lots. Builders plans also need to show a streetscape design as to how they're going to fit into a neighborhood. A 4500 square foot home pllopped between two little 18,800 square foot homes is doing nothing but inviting more flipping and turnover because it's so it's a sore thumb stuck in the metal. Um, I I just think smaller homes helps promote preserving the trees and we need to be preserving our existing street trees, not just planting more. Mount Pleasant needs to allow trees to be incorporated into architecture. And I hope the new tree committee will start a health improvement program for the trees around here. I also think the tree protections uh should be taken out of engineering and back into um maybe the tree committee. I'm not exactly sure. Parking

is a huge problem. These huge houses that accommodate 6, 10, 12 people are only providing one or two parking spots. They need to be providing three to four as well as a golf cart parking. We go down these little streets and they are just parking lots. Cars are jammed in everywhere because parking is not being provided for and approved in the plans to begin with. Um, I just think there's a way to build smartly and in more befitting of the neighborhood to keep our value. And lastly, uh, no astroturf to the rifle range park. And, um, I think construction noise should be removed from the overall noise ordinance and treated separately as far as time and um, how late they can actually build. Am I up?

All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Any other people? No one else. Okay, thank you. Next item is employee years of service. Um, so we were going to recognize Brian Henson for five years, but he's unable to be here, so we will do that internally, but we do thank him for five years of service. Right. Thank you. Next item is review of planning commission recommendations from the January 21st meeting. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mhm.

This first parcel we have is a 1.24 acre parcel fronting on Highway 41. It is currently in the county as S3 and we often talk about that being synonymous with our version of CC, Community Conservation. It has an added layer of protection in the county under the Phillips Community Historic District. and they are requesting CC zoning along with that annexation which would um come to you with a planning comm commission recommendation of denial and that sets up a two-part action item for the committee. One on annexation and second on zoning.

Okay. Anyone have any questions? I think you accurately accurately said that um this is uh currently in the Phillips community. Is that correct? It also is uh has an historic designation currently that is not only rec recognized by the Charleston uh County Historic District Commission, but it's also recognized by the National Historic Registry, which is under the National Park Service. Is that correct? Yes, sir. That's correct.

That's also the only one in the town at this point that has that historic overlay. We're talking about having these historic overlays and we're getting close on uh 10 mile and then following that Hamlin. So, uh we've been pending uh some documentation to be able to do that. So, because of the fact that it isn't a H uh the um in the Philips community and it has these historic designations and it would be naked from those, it would not have those protections. I move to deny. Second. Okay. Um, I do have a question. Does Does this property already have sewer and water?

Correct. It is currently connected to water and sewer. I showed here that it's available, but they have actively connected into it as of current day. Okay. So then they're they're not impacted by our annexation rule for to get sewer. Correct. Okay. Any other Okay. Um, all in favor of the motion, I

I Any opposed? No. Okay, motion passes. I I assume um if we're denying annexation, then we're not going to need to discuss. Okay. All right. Item B is request to annex and zone CRO, conservation recreation, open space in approximately 2.1 acre parcel on Highway 17.

Uh, yes ma'am, thank you. So, this is a twoacre parcel um located uh you can see here with the red straw. It's long narrow street um long narrow parcel, I'm sorry. And it's adjacent to actually our town uh public services facility off Leven Road and you can see that here. So, the town facility is in blue and this parcel is um patched in the county. Um you can see here that it is recommended for settlement community land uses. Um, but I did want to point out that it is in the uh 10mi historic overlay and now 10 mile zoning and it's actually that long red parcel there that you can see. So within the overlay zoning overlay, it is designated for commercial properties. Um, so Chris Lubbert presented this to the commission and put this great little comparison together. it the proposal is to re to come into the town and to zone this property conservation recreation open space and the intent it's very limited that zoning is very limited it but it would allow a campground and so the owner it's currently um Cox Tree Service that owns this property it's been used as a layown yard and they would wish to come to the town and use this as a um sort of a boutique camping area or RV camping ground um you can see here that within then the 10mi historic overlay what the allowed uses are versus um in our town recreation open space district. So it does allow additional uses. It would allow a convenience store, repair services, short-term rentals. It also would allow um residential uses which we would not allow in the town if it came in as conservation recreation open space. So um that's the request before you. Again, it is to annex this property. It's two acres. It would pull it out of the out of the county out of the uh Phillips community or sorry the 10 mile community overlay zoning bring it into the town

and zone it conservation recreation open space and I'm happy to answer questions. It does come to you with a recommendation for approval. Um what is currently across the street on the other side of the culdeac across? Oh those t Yeah. Yeah. Um, are those homes or commercial? I think those are residential, but it is zoned under the overlay zoning for the red there. You can see it's commercial as well. So, okay. Can you show that zoning again? That's the um that's a settlement zoning. The previous slide. Yes. Right there. Oh, that's future land use. The next one. Yeah.

So, that's all town zoning would be colored. Patched zoning would be Um it's in the county and again within the county it's zoned for commercial. So and it's being asked to be um conservation recreation open space. Correct. Yes sir. And and uh did you show the uses of that? I think it's green space. Um it's let's see there we go. Good.

Community garden, campground or campsite, neighborhood recreation, open space, uh equestrian facility and sweet grass basket stands or conditional uses. And then I think you all received an email. The community residents came up in planning commission. That was sort of a random thing that came up, but that's that's allowed in any zoning district and not just community recreation. That is a that comes from the state mandated and there's criteria that come along with that. So, um that's something that would be allowed uh with certain reviews and certain approvals in any district that we have in the town.

Yeah. Uh, I'll just point out that we we did receive an email about the the future plans for this and um the the gentleman who sent the email had just spent a year traveling and doing all this and wants to bring some of the interesting things he saw in other areas of the country to you know this this area in the town. Um so I'm I'm personally kind of interested in what that would look like and I think there would be you know an appetite for that here and it is in a I think good location for something like that. So I'm I'm in support of this. Could you show me the um No, I think that I think the fact that is the most conservative option they could adopt is is a good thing and I didn't see that there was feedback from the settlement community in the meeting planning commission meeting. Is that correct?

I I don't think we received any correspondence or any attendance in regards to this. Okay. Thank you. So with it being the most conservative option is my understanding under this option would have to have a 50ft buffer on the front. Is that correct? Yeah. Which if you look, show it again where the town's site is. Yeah.

The town the town site in the uh that's our basically our commercial area. Uh as much as we'd like it to be very attractive. There's reasons why it's not as attractive as we might like it. That's just the way it is. And then next door is is a big electrical yard for the Dominion Energy. And then there's an open lot next to it. Um, so with a 50- foot setback, it it lends itself to having it be something which would be high-end um um u RV. These these units are over $100,000, etc. So, and then there'd be 10ft setbacks on each of the sides. Uh other than that, is that correct? That's correct.

So, and currently it's used for tree service. So, you can imagine that the tree service is quite quite noisy and the rest. So, I would tend to confirm I mean agree. Um, Mrs. Miss Whitaker, you would you like? Yeah. You I'll make the motion to approve. Second. Go ahead. Okay. All in favor of recommending approval to council. Say I. I. I. Okay. Motion passes. I didn't hear any nays. Okay. Um, next item is request reszone from AB1 area wide business to R2 L residential on a 0.11 acre parcel on May Lane.

Thank you, ma'am. Um, so you can see it here on May Lane. There's a star showing this parcel. It is a very small parcel. Um, it's uh currently zoned AB1. You can see all the current zoning here. Um you may recall 106 Mane came through recently and reszoned um to residential and that was approved. This is the future land use and it is recommended for community scale commercial. However, it is important to note out what our existing land uses are in this area. Um all of the beige is currently being used as residential and it's also important to note that this would be a very difficult parcel to actually have a commercial use on it. Uh May Lane, as you know, dead end. So access is difficult. Um it's also a very small parcel. It's actually smaller than 106 May Lane. So by the time you put in all of your required buffers, any parking for any type of commercial, you basically render it um very difficult to use for a commercial use. And so they have asked to uh come into the um reszone it from AB to R2. Um that would allow a single family detached home. and R2. Actually, the minimum lot sizes are 8,000 square feet. This doesn't even meet that, but it would still they would still be allowed to build at one single family residence and they would get some reductions because it is a non-conforming lot. So, that is the request before you and the planning commission did recommend approval of that request. And we did have uh quite a few folks come out. and they were actually against it, but they thought that it was either going to become a business or they thought it was going to become multi multiple units. And so once the um once Chris explained and went through the staff report um the folks that did show up seemed to be in support of this, they actually thought it was going to be something else than than what it was.

Motion to approve resoning. Second. Okay. any com any I just like to make the the the community I think had come forward earlier on the previous um zoning change that you showed the star and because this is it's it's a traditional neighborhood been there a long time it's not a cut through it's not a it's not a place to get to a commercial entity it doesn't front on um on Coleman uh so it's it's and this would fit within their wishes so I I I think I agree wholeheartedly to approve. Okay. So, all in favor of recommending approval to council say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. Okay. Next item is request to annex and zone seven partials community conservation district comprising approximately of 5.12 acres in aggregate parcels located on children road and old Georgetown Road. Thank you, Madam Chair. These are your seven parcels and the five acres that are aggregated together.

You can see that water and sewer is available and in speaking with the applicant, that is the driving force behind this request to obtain water and sewer. So the other aspect of this is that the reason these are bulked together as one request is because they're contingent on one another. You have contiguity at one. It g gives you the ability to take action on two, three, and four. Here you have five. It connects to six and seven. So those are two points of contiguity. And in the county, it's zoned S3, but it does not have a historic designation on it. It straddles six mile, seven mile, but there is no current historic designation. So it is qualitatively a like for like S3 for CC that they are currently requesting. And they're also also requesting to remain in the sweetgrass basket overlay district. So again there a two-part where you will make recommendation on annexation and on zoning and planning commission did recommend approval of zoning request.

Motion to approve zoning request. I'll do a second for discussion. Okay m Mr. Tanky, you wanted to discuss it. My understanding on this is that only one of those lots can be subdivided. Is that true? And that's the And where is the Masonic Lodge? You're correct. Number seven would be able to subdivide without a waiver. The other lots could probably be subdivided, but it would require a waiver. Number one is the Masonic Lodge that you're referring to.

Okay. Number one's Masonic Lodge, correct? And what would the waiver entail? And how would that go about go about it? Number six would probably be subdivision off of a public access easement. Number five would be a width to depth issue. Four would also be that. Three, number one. Two does not have the frontage to create a subdivision. So those are all waiver requests that the commission has not been issuing without a a good good bit of scrutiny lately. Um they've been taking a hard look at those. So it would have to come back to planning commission.

Correct. And I think that's appropriate because across the way is a similar size and I'd hate to see it chopped up into being a 1124 or 1128. I think that what I'm hearing you say is they would not be able to do that level of density. Is that correct? Correct. Not without a waiver.

Without a waiver. Are we giving them um an open door to becoming a lot more dense if we do uh do this even with a waiver? It's still three units an acre. Okay. Um and that and they're capped at that. And I'll say this, we're currently um planning commission is going to be looking at a text amendment coming up this month on lots that are under one acre and having those the density being calculated off that directly, not just giving them the open door to subdivide just however much they can actually fit on the lot. So that would address a lot of this. Any other questions? Um, so this is already seven separate lots. They owned by one person.

Yes, ma'am. Oh, wow. Okay. Um, okay. I think that answers a lot of questions. Um, anyone else want to So, this is the vote to approve annexation only. Yes. is now in this area. Does it automatically come in community conservation? It's not R1 in this area. So if we annex it, then that's CC and it's the same as the county. Yeah. Okay. All right. All All in favor for recommending annexation to council say. I. Any opposed?

No. Okay. That motion passes. Um do we need to vote for the zoning se separately? Right. Okay. Do we have a motion to approve uh community conservation? Um so moved. Zoning. Second. Okay. Any other discussion? Okay. All in favor of approving that recommendation to council say I I as well. Any opposed?

No opposed. Okay. That passes. All right. Next item is request to reszone from office professional district to R3 medium density residential two parcels comprising of approximately 47 acres in aggregate located on the corner of Bowman and White Flat Road. ground chair. This is our two subject parcels just under each just under a quarter of an acre. And currently they are zoned OP2. And there is a little bit of background information that I need to provide on this that in 2019 up until 2019, uh this was a single family home lot that was zoned R1. Around 2020, some unpermitted improvements happened on the site and the property owner wanted to make things right and because they were trying to operate a commercial office out of the property, they decided to reszone to OP2 and they've had some challenges with that as well. So, the shift is going back to residential now and the current request before you is is R3. the future land use and the comprehensive plan would call this area mixed neighborhood. So here you have the central square watermark compartments, uh the Bowman uh town homes and a lot of single family back here. So there's already a a good mixture of different types of residential. It would really be up to committee and and council to decide if R3 would be appropriate here fronting on on Bowman. So, planning commission recommended approval of this resoning request, but happy to answer any questions you might have.

I would like to know how many units they could put on that under R3 or what could they do with it with that zoning. R3 is six units an acre and but I again this is we're talking about half an acre in total aggregate. So they're going to be limited by that. If if the text amendment moving forward that under an acre density still applies, it would really come down to the R3 lot size. And I mean you might be able to split three lots between the two two parcels. Okay. And everything behind that is R1 residential on White Flat Road, right?

Correct. Yeah. Yeah. It's not high density there. Okay. Anybody have a motion?

My my thought is um you've got office professional uh district that's um it it is more uh it's more in keeping with a mixed uh use area. It probably would I would think it could potentially be used for a variety of purposes uh including an office and residential above. I think it could have that as well. Um that To me, it looks like that would be an appropriate use with all the residential there to have some form of some form of um office professional. So, um I would I'm leading to deny.

Would you like to make a motion to deny? I make a motion to deny. Second. Okay. Any further discussion? Okay. All approve of the motion to deny. Say I. I. I any opposed? No. Okay. Next item is request to reszone from R1 lowdensity residential to R2 low density residential on approximately 4.88 acre parcel.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is the Mallister Smith Funeral Home site. If you've spent much time going up and down Rifle Range, um you would you would know that it's the the one commercial site between Bowman and Seaside Farms. It uh currently is nearly five acres and it is currently R1 which funeral home is allowed with a buzza special exception in R1 and the request is for R2 which the same rule would apply that the use would be allowed under a special exception from the board of zoning appeals. So that is kind of a common theme that that's occurring here that there's really not much difference between R1 and R2. You will see that the one difference is in lot size which the applicant was very transparent at commission that this is a dimensionally driven request and you can see that there's a 20% reduction in lot area. So that that would lead to uh the ability to subdivide potentially. Uh the future land use and the comp plan call for neighborhood scale commercial on this property. So the one aspect here is that you have a dimensionally driven request, but you also have the conversation of the comp plan calling for neighborhood scale commercial. So that comes to you with a recommendation of approval from the planning commission. And uh glad to answer any questions you might have on that.

Uh question on so across the way is Cassita Heights. Is that correct? That's R1. I see. That's that's a more traditional neighborhood that's been here quite a while. Um the on the central Mount Pleasant which is a new neighborhood in Shellpoint is R2. Is that correct? Shellpoint is R2. R2. The the central Mount Pleasant would probably follow more of an R3 R4 model.

R3 R4. So you've got um quite a bit of density there. You've got um the the comprehensive plan um and the future land use calls for neighborhood scale commercial. So therefore you could have um you know quite a a few uses there and the back portion of that is my understanding has been used and and leased out for quite a while for playing fields for um um for the youngsters. Is that correct? That is correct.

So my thought is um it it's not limiting the use. Uh you certainly with a neighborhood scale commercial for the developer if you put the shoe on the other foot foot it's not limiting the use. It's quite a bit of uses that you can have, but you would uh neighbor scale commercial would fit well with this area where you have so much residential now and you could have other uses. Also, there's the potential I'll ask uh Mr. Dor this, but I don't know if it's true. Um would that back portion be potentially a possibility for um green space, green belt?

Okay. So, anyhow, you've got other uses with that back area. It's quite quite a large area in the back. So, um my thought is I I hate to go against our comprehensive plan and go against our um uh what our our neighborhood scale commercial recommendation is and so I would move to deny. I agree. Second. Okay. Um anyone have any further discussion? No. Okay. All in favor of the motion say I.

I. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. Thank you. Next item is uh request to amend the Dunes West PD plan development district ordinance by incorporating an approximately 7 acre parcel located on George Browder Boulevard adjacent to Life Park Church. Subject parcel is currently zoned uh PI1 uh P1 district. Proposed amendment would allow 43 town home style multif family units. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair.

This is the 7acre site. It is currently vacant. You can see here that it abuts Laurel Hill County Park, Laurel Primary, the Publix at Park West, and Life Park Church. The current zoning is PI1 and that was largely because Life Park Church had a master plan that really incorporated all of this to build out their their church site that their priorities have kind of changed. The visions changed and it it's stayed PI1 uh for that reason and the future land use would also call out PI1 as far as community facilities. So the the zoning map that we have this amendment would be incorporating this 7acre parcel into the Park West zoning map and they would be proposing a multif family designation on this site and it would be six units an acre and this is the conceptual plan that they have and you can see that this is not your standard multif family. This would be town home style multif family units. 43 um is currently the proposed amount. There would be sidewalks here along George Browder being required to connect to light park and a sidewalk uh connecting down to public shopping center just because there is the idea that if you live here you will have pedestrian access to both of those uses. So again 43 multif family units at six units an acre. They are preserving a lot of this the wetlands and using them at uh toward the amenity area. So 1.34 acres of open space and 2.77 acres of wetlands. They will be filling in uh 0.10 acres of that wetland to achieve this with a max height of 40 feet. And one thing that does need to be brought up is that they are proposing 43

multif family units within the Park West development. There are 50 remaining. So if this were approved, there would be seven remaining multif family units within the Park West development. So I you could imagine that this would probably be approved the last multif family development within uh Park West. The planning commission had no recommendation on this. So, um, it does come to you with a there were several attempts at making a motion. They were they were tied at 44. So, uh, no recommendation. Motion to approve. I'll second the discussion. Okay. Mr. Tinky.

Okay. A public institutional uh would allow what uses? hospital, church, uh, municipal facilities, substations, utility stations. It really would be based on municipal uses largely. And is this currently in the footprint of Park West? Is it a part of the Park West PUD? It it is not within the Park West PUB, but if in the colloquial sense it it is in the neighborhood of Park West, but it is not in that PD.

So therefore, the Park West could still go ahead and develop those additional units. Could they not? Because it's not in the PUD. I'm sorry, say that again. Couldn't they uh if it's not in the PUD, couldn't they go in Park West? If they found the land in Park West, they could still develop more units, right? Sure. Sure. If they found if they found the land, they Park West would be able to undertake, right? So, it's not there's And to your knowledge, is there any agreement between Park West and this development to uh have this be part of Park West PUD? So, you you do not have to ask for permission to amend the PD, but as far as covenants and restrictions, which we rarely get involved in,

right? Yes, you would you would have to enter into an agreement with Park West, but as far as amending the PD, they are able to do that unilaterally. So really, the statement that it would uh be the last that is being allowed there isn't necessarily the case unless that's what Park West takes action on because if they do the 43, that's and with or without they the Park West could still go and find units to make up their balance.

Mr. Tinky, they are proposing to come into the plan development and use 43 of those 50 units. So if if this were approved, they would be part of the Park West PD and they would be allocated 53 43 of the 50. But there's no agreement now nor letter is my understanding between uh Park West and the and the developer to do it. That is my understanding. No, but there's not one required. We keep track of the unit allocation, right?

Um, we did encourage them to that development has sat there for so long. I know it used to be Kevin Steelman that was the developer and we always dealt with him and I I think they tried to reach out to to somebody, but as Peter said, they're not required to have anybody's approval, right? um to come into the PD. And I do know that they tried to reach out to the Park West Association and and in ensure that hey, we would like to take 43 of your 50. But as far as how that works, we just track the units on our end and so the units would be the 43 out of the 50. So, Miss Reed, exactly. So, what you said then is if they did the 43 units that there would only be seven left.

Yes. Uh for that. Okay. Um second the uh bike uh bike walking and pedestrian is that uh required and is that required both to the public's area as well as to um All-American Way?

Correct. Our transportation department has made that a requirement. Uh, one concern I have is that there's only one entrance and exit with a culde-sac. And it seems to me that at uh, anytime we can avoid that in the future and having one in entrances on either side, that would make a lot of sense. And so get rid of the culde-sac and be able to go in and out in that area. Um, the other one is the buffer. If you look at Life Park Church, the parking lot, there's a massive, well, this is heavily treed, the whole area. And there's a beautiful line of um uh trees. If you'll notice that um they're as the the buffer is 10 feet now. Is that correct on the side? That is correct.

And so you would be taking out all those trees and they're beautiful pine trees throughout that. I would I would like to see that to be a 20 to 20 to 30 foot buffer. The other is to look at the tree survey. It seems that if you were to um move this whole uh development up a bit, you could keep keep that buffer and also have the potential for a median or sort of a green space in between as the people uh as people go in. And and finally, I think it's a great idea to have density here. I have no problem with the density um because I think this is a perfect area to do it and because of the um the different the churches and not the churches the church but also the uh Publix and the other retail spaces and it it's probably the ideal place based on the comp plan to have something like this and I think it's great that the the churches are working together on this and that's a good thing but we all are very interested in affordable and attainable housing and so it seemed to me that I would feel more comfortable if we had a percentage like 25% affordable attainable housing because this is a zoning that allows more use than it would under public institutional um and so for me uh I would like to see it um and we're under discussion but I'd be voting to def defer with some of these and come back to to us next um next meeting but that's just my vote

did you Yes. I'll just add on a bit uh to what um Mr. Tinky said in terms of this being a good area for density. I do think this, you know, this is my area of town. I'm in Park West all the time. Um there's a lot of already um pedestrian and and and um bike traffic kind of all around this area. And I think that's a good thing. And the planned improvements we have to some of what we're doing with Park West with the large roundabout connecting to the school area there. All of that is going to be a part of this too. Um, so when you think about the idea of how we've planned all of this out and we really do want more areas in town where you can live, walk, play, work, all of that together without, you know, having to put cars on the roads to be in one end of town, other end of town. This is an area of town where we could do that. Um, to speak just to the um, affordable for a minute, you know, these are going to be um, not classified as affordable, but achievable. I think this, you know, there's a lot of a words um that we're we're starting to try to incorporate here. But I do think that there's um opportunities for certain folks in our town um who would be excited about, you know, the opportunity to to have a town home like this. Um and so I'm I'm in favor of of letting them proceed. I think there's a lot of work that's already gone into it um that I think we we want to support and get behind. So that's my thought there.

Okay. I I agree. I think this is a great spot for I see as more of an infill development. um to live, work, play, and then I like the idea, you know, it connects. Um my only thing would be I I kind of agree with Mr. Tinky about maybe a buffer, more of a buffer right there, but I do think this is a great place for the density. Okay. Um I think the only question I have is what what is the advantage to joining the PD versus just requesting a zoning change in general?

That's a good question. So actually within our new code there is a use called multiplex that this would have been a base reszoning to RN and that is nine units an acre and requires a minimum 50% lot coverage. Life Park uh in conjunction with First Baptist wanted to memorialize a maybe a less intense plan because Life Life Park's going to have a neighbor that they want to work with long term

and the PD option was the best way to memorialize those standards. So, six units an acre, this amount of open space. They wanted to make sure that they were not leaving Life Park with a neighbor that was maybe too intense and the PD was the best way and route to codify that. Okay, that's a good question. Y on to what Peter's saying, if if there are things you want to consider, another thing with the PD is that you can condition it. So if you if if you think it's appropriate to have a wider buffer, that's something that can be conditioned through the PD process and could not be conditioned if it was um straight zoning. So are you Thank you. Are you open to amendments? Um yes,

just Oh, she made the motion. Sure. Yeah. I'm sorry. Yes, you'd be open to amendments. Um any thoughts you have before it? Um, well, when we I would just say when we talk about increasing this buffer, what impact is it going to have on what they're trying to spare in the back of the property?

If you sh How many trees would we lose by shifting this back? Um, that would be my only question when it comes to that. I mean, we've already got a parking lot here and the trees are gone. So, I think preserving whatever's behind it is probably the most important thing. And um I mean I would be interested in seeing some attainable units and I don't know if we need to really amend it here or maybe we could wait until council weighs in because council would a be able to u recommend like it just at a second reading though correct about any

any so to a certain extent um you are permitted to add conditions at it gets to a certain extent where it rises above the level of it was advertised and may have to go back to planning commission. But either way, this these conditions would be able to move through uh to to council eventually if we didn't. I see. If you if you had

So, I'd make the I'd make the um amendment that there would be um an an entrance um an exit at the back. So, you'd have one and that would take the place of that roundabout. Um so there'd be an exit and entrance there that um that we would review the tree review the tree survey so that we could maximize the buffer u without uh more loss of trees u in that area uh and that there would be um a 25% uh attainable attainable housing.

Is there a second? No. No second to the amendment. Okay. All right. Anything else? Okay. We want to vote on the initial um motion. All in favor? I I I uh No. Nay.

Nay. And one nay. Okay. Motion passes. Okay. All right. Um so Liz is going to present this. And if you'll recall, um, we talked about the fact that the county has three historic districts east of the Cooper, 10mi, Phillips community, and, um, Hamlin Beach. They recently adopted a zoning overlay for 10mi. And the, uh, desire was that the town look at doing something comparable. So, staff's been working on that. Liz is leading the charge, and she's going to walk you through that. So, I'll hand it over to her. Thank you much. Um, good afternoon everybody.

Good afternoon. Thank you for this opportunity. Like Michelle said, you know, you know the background, um, the county has recently adopted an overlay district for the 10 mile community. That's kind of basically what we got here. And it covers a number of different, um, development standards that you would see in in a typical overlay district. I do want to give you a little bit of context for why we're talking so much about settlement communities right now. Um Liz, yes, me. I just need your microphone a little closer to Thank you. Sorry. Thank you. Okay. Is that better?

Okay. Sorry. Um so, um just just kind of context um because these are all tied together and they're at different stages, if you will, um of of well different stages. So 2016 just this kind of in recent history 2016 the county updated their cultural historic resources survey and that survey was important for this context because it p pointed out the settlement communities countywide as historic cultural resources worthy of notice and protection. Okay. So from there we get into the town's comp plan. um recommending that we focus on seeing how we can be a part of this. Uh we established a settlement community task force in 2020, met with about 15 members of settlement communities in the East Cooper area for a year to come up with um kind of an make sure that better understanding of the concerns and the issues and where we want to go. Um finished the report. 10 mile historic district was approved by the county and then they began work on their overlay which was just adopted. So there's 10 years in a nutshell. Um so countywide this has been kind of a conversation un underway for about a decade. um kind of I just said all that same thing. Um within the 10 mile overlay, looking at the 10-mi overlay district here and the settlement community task force here report, things that came out of the settlement community task force report that this overlay kind of speaks directly to include requiring sidewalks. One of the concerns was there was no investment in infrastructure in the settlement communities. Um the task force report um suggested allowing a

greater flexibility of housing types in the special in appropriate areas by special exception. You'll see that in the overlay district. Um appropriate appropriately scaled neighborhood businesses. You'll see that in the overlay district. And then the the task force suggested and made the recommendation that the town consider adopting historic preservation ordinance to match that adopted by Charleston County for the protection of these settlement communities. So that's you know kind of again steps in in the direction of where we are today. So we finally have you know the county has adopted their ordinance. So we're using that as the basis of what we've been talking about what we're presenting. So the question is how do we take this and make it work for the town right? So you should have access I think through the link on the to the redline draft code that we've been working on. Um and in most places in that code you know the um changes are you know the county code references a county code section. So, we've changed it to make, you know, to match the town's code section. There's some minimal um differences here and there, but there are several points that we wanted to just be sure that you're paying attention to when you read through this draft ordinance. Um things that are a little more different than just a change in setback standards, for instance. Um the first one of which is looking at accessory dwelling units um within the count within this overlay district. There is no maximum square footage for an ADU. So something to consider as we're thinking about what we might want to do with our version of this ordinance. And oh I'll get to that. Um signage and street names.

um if you have a business that kind of signage or um for if you had a new neighborhood for instance that wanted to sign um street names all require coordination with 10 milei neighborhood association we don't typically do that in the town it's not something we can't I mean it's not like we can't do it but it's just different than the way we typically do things. Um, looking at the proposed uses in their use table, they have a category that's recreation and entertainment outdoor, which is an allowed use in commercial in the few commercial properties that they've got. They don't have many. Um, so there's that, but basically it includes but is not limited to amusement parks, fairgrounds, race or go-kart tracks, and sport arenas. just saying that that would be an allowed use on those properties. That's not again something that would necessarily find its way in to one of our zoning districts. Um looking at affordable and workforce housing within the county code, everybody I mean I think rightly everybody is concerned about availability of workforce housing. um within the county code, they allow bonus densities if you are doing workforce housing that qualifies under their conditions. So within the rural area of 10 mile, so basically the left hand side of 17 as you head north of the west side, um you have your standard densities, but you have you can have up to four principal dwelling units per acre if it's workforce housing as opposed to the one unit per acre that would be otherwise. size just data

points. Um and in the suburban urban suburban area which is the right hand side of as you're heading out 17 um where we were looking at um annexations earlier the um you could have up to commercial and R4 lots would follow this R4 criteria here which would allow up to 18 units per acre. That's the worst case scenario if it's all 100%, you know, um, workforce housing or seven dwelling units per acre if it's in the S3 area. So, again, just pointing out differences that we want to make sure we're aware of. Um, and those are the conditions. I did copy these conditions straight out of the county code just to make sure that we got it right. Um, and the other point that's kind of diff a little bit different in the way they um apply this code is they have special storm water requirements. Um they have the ability to define an area as a special protection area that basically then allows public services to go over and above their typical standards to make sure water concerns are being addressed. We don't have that same kind of flexibility. I don't know if that would be an issue within this area or not. I'm just again pointing out points of difference. Um, want me to keep going?

Okay. Or you did a great job because you had you handled the commission before. Yes, sir. Worked very diligently and well with community and they appreciate it very much. Um, you also made mention that it's 10 years of working on this and people mentioned three years, but it's actually been 10 years. You also mentioned that this has been led by the community itself.

Um, for me, 68% of the people said they want this, 68% which is large. It really doesn't matter to me too much what the differences are because this is what they wanted. It's just like Brickyard, old village, etc. Y'all determine what you want in a nation. So for me, this is what we asked them to do to come and look at the differences that would make them unique and they are unique. Uh may not be our type of that's the way it is. My my thoughts are I would like to make a recommendation to town council not to modify or making not to modify but to work closely to have harmonious zoning uh and import that over into a document that would be ready for a public hearing at the town next. does um public hearing has to have certain p public notice requirements and it goes through the planning commission.

Um but there there sure and I appreciate that Mr. Tinky and and again I I think I understood the the assignment that you know we're taking what they approved and we're bringing it over. I'm just making sure that everybody is fully understands what has been what is being proposed. Um, one point, one question that I did have was that, um, regarding the boundary.

Um, so, and it doesn't, well, it seems better up there. Good. Um, you've got the the areas that are not gray, not white are within the 10 mile overlay district as adopted by the county. You'll notice that there if you look at it and I'm going to flip over to the next slide. This is the historic the red one is the historic district boundary that was approved back in what did I tell you? Um several years ago um 22. Um, so the historic district boundary was set and then they went to work on making the zoning district, the overlay zoning district to to help guide the historic district commission in their decision-making within this area. Over those three years, some things changed. So there are properties that are included in the historic district map that are not in the overlay map. So mostly because they have come into the town. So, if we adopt an overlay district, what's what's our boundary going to be? Are we going to now include those parcels that were exempted by the county because they're already in the town because we're going to be dealing with town properties, not county properties. Um, so that's a point. um just that I think not that we necessarily need to figure it out today, but it will is something we will need to understand and how um the differences between um you know how how that I guess how that impacts what we design.

Excellent. Excellent. Miss are there others? Yes, sir. Other items that including the boundary that uh need to be looked at when we're making

for sure. And one thing that um and that's I've circled them on the on the one map with the circles opals. Um, one thing that one distinction that you know we've talked about the historic district, the county adopted the historic district and then they adopted the overlay district. Two different districts, two different maps, but mostly the same but a little bit different. the historic district map and designation in the county sends them to the historic district or his historic preservation commission. I don't remember what they call it to review any development within that area. Kind of like our HDPC or DRB. Somebody takes a look at what's happening proposed to happen on that property. It's compared against a set of rules and this is now the new set of rules to make sure that whatever is being built is in compliance with the rules. Somebody outside of a staff reviewing for building code and town code compliance. So within that pink area, um, anybody in the county who's putting on a deck or adding a pool or putting in um, you know, building a new house has to go through this historic district commission.

But if they annex into the town at this point, we don't have such a commission, right? So the the rules we're applying might be the same, but there's still that process, the public process where the neighbors have the opportunity to make their voice heard that the county has going that um at this point in time we don't know how to make that work. So if we're annexing a piece, no, that makes sense.

A lot into the town, do we have a commission for that one lot? I've got a a second motion on that, but the the fir the first is is as they're contemplating what you're saying, the historic district overlay at the county, are they doing that with the pink area? Is that the boundaries that they're making? Yes, sir. So, you made a great catch. Thank you very much. Um, so I my I would amend it to say that it would be um contingent on using the 10mi community proposed historic district that we would seek to um make harmonious our our zoning and prepare it to go for a public hearing. Mr. Tanky, I need you to restate the motion in its entirety.

Okay. Thank you very much. Um, I'd like to recommend the town council that we not modify the zoning and land development regulations developed uh ordinance developed by the county after roughly 10 years of work and passed by 68% of the residents themselves and seek to make harmonious town uh zoning ordinance um through work with the county and when ready prepare it for a public hearing. Good.

I'll just say for discussion um I don't I don't know that we're ready and I know for the sake of time um I I think there's a lot of unanswered questions. So I'm not sure that I'm ready to fully I think this is great work. Totally agree with you on the support and and the way it's all go down. Um but I think there's still some more work to do and some unanswered questions. So that's my thoughts. That's basically what I was going to say. I don't I mean this is the first time we're seeing it so I'm not sure I'm ready to send it as is. Uh I do have issues like you there's no limit to the size of the ADU you can build. So potentially that's in the backyard bigger than the original structure. I mean there just seems to be some things that we could uh that Mount Pleasant might not go for. But in general I think it's it's all sounds like a good plan. So the next if we don't pass this motion

um would committee see this again or this should has commission seen it yet? No. No. So we could do a couple of things. We and I I understand the sense of urgency but we do it's a lot to digest and so we're happy to bring it we can bring it back to you next month and spend a little more time on it. It was it's linked to the agenda so that'll give you extra time to review it. Um, you can look through the presentation. If you guys want to talk outside of committee, we're available and we can bring it back, drill down a little more and from there. Um, but that's that's an option for sure. We can bring just to bring it back to committee. What do you think, Mike? You want to

I I think that'd be fine. I think what's um it's taken a long time. They have my my sense is the 68% have approved it. So, I might not like a big unit in the back, but that's what the people have voted for. What I'm more concerned about is the limbo of the annexed uh units and trying to get a historic um overlay that would be consistent. So, I would en encourage our staff to continue to work on the historic overlay and at the point we approve this um zoning ordinance. I'd be looking to uh make it make that uh apply to a pending uh ordinance doctrine with the historic overlay. So that would give us a little bit of breathing space to uh get ours in in in the same time frame. So it give us a little more certainty of that. So I would ask that uh u when it comes back that our uh uh attorney would look at how to put together that pending ordinance doctrine with historic overlay that would be attached to the zoning um ordinance it when when we move it to town council.

Okay. Do you want to resend your motion? Yeah, I'll resend my motion. and your send your second. Yes. Okay. Okay. All right. We'll bring it back to you next. Thank you. That sounds good. Thank you so much. Okay. Item seven, discussion, review, public input meeting comments related to old doesn't text me.

Yes. Very quickly, we had our special meeting. We sent out the letters. Uh great turnout. Many of you came. I appreciate that. Um we I sent you all the raw data. I did not want to um try and do percentages of for and against. It was very difficult. Lots of commentary, but and I think from talking with staff, looking at the comments, it felt like the majority thought B was a good idea. Uh it seemed that the majority thought the increased setback was appropriate for taller accessory structures. Um I think most of the reservations we heard had to do with the 40%. So I my detached accessory structure shouldn't be limited to the 40% of my my primary structure. That did make sense to some. and then reservations about the height being tied to the height of the principal structure. I think that was those were a lot of the concerns we heard. I I'm thinking you probably saw that in the comments and heard that as well. But I'm here to you know this is up for final reading next week.

Um so I'm happy to answer any questions. But I I I think that that was a good turnout and we got good feedback. So really today we're just here for to discuss because uh and hear this because we'll have our final reading at our next council meeting, right? which is where amendments can occur. So, ma'am, great. Okay.

I um I feel comfortable with the public's opinions uh on what they liked and they didn't. Um for me, I feel like an ADU should really be treated as something special when it comes to heights because we limit uh how many we approve annually. And um I don't have a problem with one being taller than the principal structure just because we don't we don't even allow that many. But

um I'm more inclined to try to go back to when it came to heights on accessory structures to go back to our old rules before we pass the zoning so that um only ADUs get that that full height and with a special permit. Um so those those are my thoughts. Um, what was that height? 20 25 feet for an ADU, right? And 18 feet for any for any other detached accessory structure. I'll have those in my slides at at the council meeting and um for y'all to look at.

Yeah. Formally, you could put an office over your garage or something, but it would only be 18 ft. And um we sort of stretched that to let anybody do 25 feet and I never was comfortable with that but if we went back to 18 for an accessory structure and 25 if it's permitted as an ADU um that's probably a better plan but that would be good to hear at council find a way. Anyone else have No, I just Oh, I just heard a lot about the, you know, removing the 40% rule for ADUs and um the height tied to the front.

Yeah, people did not like the height restriction on the ADU, which I agree with to be honest.

I think I agree with the comments being there, but I I think some extra graphics would be helpful for the council meeting. For example, on the 40%. If you think about the 40% that's based on um um let's just say it's a 1,200 uh square foot home and the typical ADU is 750 to 800 square ft. So therefore uh you'd have to have a larger home to be able to have that size unit. The homes that are being built today in the area are 3500 square feet to 5,500 square ft. So you basically could add on to your existing structure 600 square f feet which could or or larger and that could actually be your uh the square footage of an ADU or you could add on the 600 square f feet to your principal structure and that you could get your 750 to 800 square ft and that's 2500 square f feet. So that's well under what's being built today. Um the other is that um on these new homes that shouldn't be a problem because the lots we have are the primary lots are 8,9600 square ft. So I think it's just how it's structured um how how we look at that 40% and how it's and how the and how the design is done. The design could be in a dog trot or a breezeway that's air conditioned heated and be on the same floor. So if it was um um for someone that was mobility impaired or aging in place, they could be on one floor and that make it a lot easier. So you could accomplish the concern and it's a valid concern if you could accomplish that with how you design. So if we can show some different options for that, I think that would uh be helpful and I think overall it's um um moving in the right direction.

All right. Anything else? No. Okay. Well, I with that we'll adjourn.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah.

But you see I'm like, "Oh, no. I'm going to Oh, what's he got?

What is it?

Oh, his um neighborhood pond. It's on the fly. Now that I heard that I let you down.

Is it just us three? No, Alex is coming. I am too. I didn't I don't know. I didn't make it. I don't know. I don't reached out to him and got all this feedback because I knew I was smart.

I didn't see him upstairs cookies and brownies or something. I had to leave it. I couldn't get to eat it. Yeah, it was in a little box. All set.

All set. I'd like to call the public services committee meeting on Monday, February the 2nd, 2026 um in mo and in session. Um I'd like to um ask for um appro approval of the minutes move to approve. All those in favor?

I I like to start by thanking um public services and all the people for an extraordinary job over the weekend. Uh there was people camping out here if you didn't know it in the hallways and whatnot and t and taking their time to be away from their families to hear and service the public. We're very blessed to have a wonderful public service department. You know I I told some of the people here I said you know people people don't talk about you because you're doing a good job. They when you're not doing a good job they talk about you know so y'all are doing an outstanding job. I'd also like to thank Howard Chapman uh who is our past chair. He is 50 years of service or more. Uh sort of big shoes to fill here. So I want to thank him for many years of service. I called on him uh for this meeting today. I'm sure I'll call on his his expertise and in the future. I think it's um uh really important. Uh with that I'll open it up to public comment. No, excuse me. Let me start. Laura Hyatt on my left, Alex Crosby, John Aafano on my right. and we're here to serve you. And so, uh, any public comments, please?

Hello, my name is John Reese. I live at 773 Nachez Circle in Lake Hunter Commons, uh, which is an item coming up next on our agenda regarding a drainage pond. Our our community uh sits uh behind the Mount Pleasant Library which is on the corner of uh Anna App and Matthysse Ferry. Uh it's a small community of about 60 uh town homes. And we submitted a request to ask the town of Mount Pleasant to maintain this um multicommercial use drainage area along with the county who currently maintains part of that area. The pond provides drainage for the library, surrounding office buildings, and an app and Lake Hunter Circle. The pond does not service Lake Hunter Commons, and no water from that community flows into it. Um, Lake Hunter Commons um is requesting your help with uh clearing some uh tree debris and maintenance of the pond since the lake um does since our community does not use the um drainage area and actually benefits um some other government entities. It would be overly burdensome for our small community to maintain this area, which could entail maintaining water quality, depth of the pond, treelined, drainage pipes, sewage pipe, and more. We appreciate your consideration in this matter. Thank you. Thank you.

Next, any more com public comments? Seeing none, we'll move on to the discussion of discussion of maintenance of Lake Hunter uh drainage pond. And I personal privilege here, I'd rather not call it a pond. It's it's a ditch ement. It's a drainage easement. So, not to state it too much, but go ahead. Yes, sir.

I'm under the impression that uh well, we're missing slides here. One second, please. We can go on without the slides for now while uh while Eric fixes this. The um the pond in question uh is next to the library and it is on property owned by Lake Hunter Common uh property own or the community homeowners association and the it is one of you know 1,60 plus ponds in the town that uh that make up the system of systems that is the drainage system of Mount Pleasant and Town Code Chapter 155 basically requires that storm water facilities in single family subdivisions be privately owned and maintained. Property owners must grant the town a perpetual non-exclusive easement for public inspection and emergency repair only. And that's what that easement on the plat is. Um it is considered a town. It's or a pond. It's been considered a pond since the uh the development occurred. uh the area like I said you're looking at right here where the cursor is uh just below the the library there and this is the uh one of the plats that shows the area with the easement. Uh the m the code generally calls for a maintenance agreement on the pond nowadays. I said we talked this is the slide that I just addressed. Um, we did an extensive search on the records for uh trying to get the background on all of this and going back to when the area was developed in the the early 1990s. Both public service department I don't mean to interrupt. May I?

Yes, I'm I'm looking at a Google map as well. So, I know there's a very large pond back there. That's not what we're talking about. With a gazebo in the middle of like a little island. So, this is like right next to the library. Is that what you're stating? Yes, sir. I believe that's the one that where Lake Hunter Common is saying that their water goes there and that's on somebody else's property that somebody else maintains.

Um, looking back at the development back to the 1990s, uh, Queensboro area was developed as a master planned area and the detention pond was constructed to manage storm water runoff. It was assigned uh, ongoing maintenance. You know, the agreements that were signed said that ongoing maintenance would be assigned to the heirs and successors. The plat and the development plans continued to show this and it stated that the town will not own or maintains the drainage easement. The easement agreements recorded with the final plat said the same thing. It's dedicated easement access to the town states and that the town is not responsible and the covenants for Lake Hunter Common state that they can assess for detention pond maintenance. Um, also the the information that was available stated that the uh the responsibility transition to the Lake Hunter common association associates upon its incorporation. The library is does have some or the county has some responsibility for the pond on the side that that they abut their property abuts and there's like a nub of the pond that goes up into the uh the library's property and they maintain that and that's the information basically that's available right now. I mean, we can't find anything that says it's the town's uh responsibility and uh you know, we can't without council direction do anything about it since it's not the town's. It's on private property and every all the documentation we have states that they are responsible for the maintenance of that pond.

So, I has I'm sure our council has looked at who's who's the ownership and who's responsible for it. Is is that is that your understanding that it's it even though it's surrounded by the county and the library on one side, the commercial on the other side um and Lake Hunter on the back that it's uniquely the responsibility of Lake

Yes, sir. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the committee. Um I'll I'll um state I'll go much farther than Andy did. uh legal has performed an exhaustive um uh review of Platt's deeds, all of this information. Uh and it's taken us several weeks to do so and pull all this information. We have found no basis for any legal responsibility for this purpose. And you know, coming from a legal standpoint, as Andy mentioned, um this is townwide. Um if um and and legal does not recommend it, but if the council um were to take any um interest in this, it would should be limited to short-term and um with a release position that it'd be a one-time type thing. Um and but but even that has some issues and concerns.

So the question really wasn't whether it was town I I stated that incorrectly. Is it uh is it uniquely in your mind the sole responsibility of Lake Hunter or is it a mutual one between the county and uh which has been maintaining it uh to some extent right and um and somebody else. Yeah. The county has been maintaining their portion as we understand it. We we have just found nothing um that could support any other position as far as the town having any responsibility. Right. But you haven't found anything that wouldn't uh have the county maintaining half of it which they've been maintaining for quite a number of years. Right.

The there's a maintenance agreement from when the county redid their the library and the county has maintained the piece that they are responsible for. If you go out there and look, there is a clear delineation of the area that's been that's been maintained in the area that hasn't. And it's really the side that abuts the county property and we we agree on that that the agreement's there. Obviously, Cy has the expertise as to whether they're actually performing their responsibilities. We weren't charged with that. Thank you, John. Is thank you. Is is this supposed to be drained or is this a is this a a drainage easement that's supposed to be clear or is this

to me it looks like a natural ecosystem that looks like it's doing what it's supposed to be doing. But maybe I'm or is this like a it's it's considered a pond. It's part of the you know the drainage system. Well, it the intent is it will collect water and then it will go through pipes to another pond, probably the other pond that you mentioned previously, and then eventually it will go to another pond probably, and then it will go to an outfall. That's the way the drainage system around town works.

So, what is the m what what maintenance is missing? A lot of the um there's a maintenance there's best practices for pond maintenance and you know it's making sure it it maintains the proper depth so it can hold the requisite amount of water. It's making sure that the the pond bs are stabilized and that you know there's no obstructions to flow and things like that. And the way a lot of the the drainage system works around town, the ponds fall on the neighborhoods and the the homeowners associations. A lot of the pipes, most of the pipes fall on the town to maintain. We maintain the pipes and the structures and the outfalls and the homeowners associations maintain the ponds and u you know with this a lot of the pipes in this neighborhood were originally uh private pipes as well and some of them still are but some of them them belong to us that we maintain.

Thank you. Where's the primary where is the primary flow? Does it flow to Shem Creek or does it flow the opposite direction? I can't speak to that. I might have some people here. Hillary. Yes, sir. The the pond is part of a large development called Queensboro and that flows out to Highway 17 under 17 and then to Shem Creek uh near the Bund Cake uh property. Are there issues right now with with the drainage with the actual pipes? Is this draining or is there anything to

the to the best of my knowledge the pipes I mean it's it's draining. We are not seeing significant flooding there that's been reported to us. I think there has been some minor flooding. Uh but I don't think the last time we went out to look it wasn't associated with the pond. It was associated with some landscaping that that one of the residents had put up that was keeping water from naturally flowing to where it was supposed to flow. We don't the public services department doesn't go out and inspect ponds around town. Um, you know, again, each neighborhood is responsible for conducting their inspections and and making sure their things work. the town has the uh the ability to go out and inspect ponds to make sure and then if they're not uh up to standard or whatever then you know thing actions can be taken but uh that doesn't really fall within the public service department that falls more within the water quality folks within EDS and it ends up being a partner effort between public services and EDS

okay so the the commercial property next door has no responsibility not that I'm aware of for the this this uh the property or the pond itself is solely within Lake Hunter Common property. Now, I'm wondering what uh recourse the owner of the pond has to uh things being thrown in the pond, like if people are trimming brush on their property and throwing it in there. I mean, they're going to have to have cameras, I guess, to prove that, but uh if they can prove that a neighboring property is

so messing it up, then I I don't know how they how they can prove that or make they could make them have some responsibility. I assume if they find that that's the case, if anything's being thrown into the pond, you know, debris. Yeah. So, they might have that recourse. So is 100% of the pond on um lake lake um lake commons lake hunter comments is 100% of pond and it's just being maintained half of it's being maintained by the county now is that what's happening

it's not really even half the county is responsible for the bank that borders their property and then said there is a a little area that goes up onto the county's property that they maintain I I mean it it truly is a very small section that just you know it's an extension of the pond that goes into their property that they maintain. The me the majority of the pond is on Lake Hunter common property.

I I don't know about I may be the only one feeling this way. I really wasn't aware it was going to be on the agenda and I understand that um there was some correspondence from uh Lake Hunter Commons that came in. Um I wasn't aware of that before. Um I'm I'm more likely to want to gather more information. This is for discussion that says on maintenance of lake hunter drainage. I think the the what you were hoping to achieve by this is to determine whether there was any responsibility from public works for this or not.

No sir. I mean, they the Lake Hunter Common uh Homeowners Association submitted this letter asking for consideration for the town to uh to assist them or either take over this or or provide assistance. I believe the letter says that they would like us to take it over because they don't feel that they drain into it. But, uh based off of all the research that that we have done, that EDS has done, and as David said, is legal has done, the town has no responsibility here. Therefore, from a public services perspective, I have no maintenance requirement here. But if they're requesting it, it has to be we have to be told to do it by by council because, you know, it's private property and we generally won't send town the town employees to maintain private property or contract it out um because it's a private property and it's from all the documentation we've seen or been able to find, it is their responsibility.

On on the plat on the street by the street there's a Mount Pleasant Waterworks pipe. It seems to be potentially a sewage pipe that's exposed at at that point which is right on the road. Is that also part of um the pond? No, sir. I mean, if if there's a MPW pipe there, I mean, that would probably be in the rightway and and there's I would almost guarantee there's no sewage that goes into that pond. So, is that a state is that a state issue or is that a county issue? the pipe. That pipe would be maintained by MPW if it's an MPW pipe, but that is probably in the rightway for the road. Okay. Not in the pond itself.

Well, my concern for whoever's there, it's an exposed pipe and so you could easily drive off of that and have an accident and break that pipe no matter what was going through it, which would be an issue. So, that would be something because you're public services, would that be something that was addressed with Mount Pleasant Waterworks? Uh, yes, sir. If it was a concern that the pipe was exposed and it needed to be covered, that would probably be an MPW issue that that we would we would, you know, recommend to them that there's concern on it. I I don't know. They'd probably be telling us if it was built to standard or not and if it was acceptable. I I couldn't speak to that. How would we go about doing that would be

I could reach out to MPW and see if uh if that pipe is being exposed is within standard or not.

Okay. Hunter Commons, are they wanting to It says on the email they want tree clearing and maintenance of the ponds or are they trying to clear these trees in here that I see in the pictures? That would be my guess is that they would like the town to go in and trim everything back. But again, we haven't gone to inspect the pond to say this is what needs to be done. My understanding is they just don't believe they are should be responsible for the maintenance of that pond.

Are the trees stopping the water from draining and doing? They could be. Like I said, we have not inspected that pond or I don't believe the town has inspected it to say that, you know, this needs to be done. But there is a standard, you know, pond maintenance and a lot of t a lot of times town our pond maintenance is neglected around town. Um, a lot of homeowners associations, you know, it's like, oh, you know, we we've got years before it becomes an issue and they neglect it and then they forget about it. I mean, there's probably a lot of ponds that need dredged. And I think a best maintenance practice I want to say is 10 every 10 to 15 years, but I would venture to say that probably most ponds in town haven't been dredged,

but eventually that will catch up with us. So it would be would it be helpful to at least step back and figure out what this is a good opportunity to look at green and gray infrastructure what best practices are for that particular area assuming uh that you're not in the town is not responsible for it but helping with Mount Pleasant Waterworks and um the county to figure out what best practices are in this somewhat it's not gray area from their attorney standpoint but um what would be done there?

No. Um, I think that the, uh, engineering and development services, the environmental folks down there, the storm water people, they do, you know, push information out on best practices for p pond maintenance and everything to different neighborhoods. They're there to to offer advice, uh, set up classes. They they work with Clemson Extension to, uh, you know, to educate people on pond maintenance and and things. I mean, I can't speak for all of their efforts since it's not mine, but uh but they do work with neighborhoods on pond maintenance.

So, I'd like to learn more about it for I'd like to learn more about I I frankly I it didn't have the time honestly to prepare and I hate to say that, but I'd like to have a little more time to review this before we taking an action. But that's I'm just one person or I'm comfortable with that.

Okay. Because this was discussion only. U Mr. Deore, is that appropriate? So we'll let let us step back and and gather all the information that's there so we can understand it and bring it back to the committee at the next meeting. Moving right along.

Yes, sir. uh you had asked for an update on the public services department CIP and CMP projects. You also mentioned tree maintenance and things. So what we prepared is kind of an overview of the the C FY26 CIP and the FY27 uh CIP submittals from the from the department and then kind of where we stand on the CMP programs that fall within the public services department. There's a lot of slides here, but we can uh we can knock them out pretty quick. Um the CIP projects from FY26 that the public services department was responsible for was the Alhhamra Hall project which is complete. It was budgeted for almost $5.5 million. It came in at 5,325 56160. So we had a savings of $154,000 uh and some change on that project. The other one is public services operations center which we're getting ready to uh to finish phase three of this of this phase uh which is the admin building. Uh we're hoping to finish that in April when the public services department will finally be consolidated on one location which hasn't happened in the 10 years that I've I've worked here. So it'll be nice to have everybody under one roof. Uh and that was uh the other two phases of that project consisted of the fleet maintenance building and the transfer yard. And then uh the final CIP program for FY26 is the one and a half million that was allocated to finish the substructure repairs at the Pit Street Bridge, which as I talked about at the uh at the town council retreat. We're still hoping to finish this fiscal year uh completing the substructure repairs provided the bids are good and uh we can come up with an acceptable timeline.

And I think at the retreat we discussed um talking at council about trying to do it all at once if we could. Is that correct? Thank you.

Yes, sir. And that leads us to the next slide of what we submitted for FY27. You know, we and we talked about this at the retreat. We asked for another 1.5 million for FY27 to work on superstructure repairs and then for out years another 6 million. So, we can kind of stand down on the Pit Street Bridge, you know, FY26 repairs and wait until we get further guidance pending the FY27 if that's uh that's the direction we're given. And uh but we do know we need to finish substructure repairs. We need to look at replacing the superructure and then we'll need to work on the retaining wall and then any park improvements that would go along with that.

And uh I would like to see that we um have someone that's an expert in historical bridges and whatnot take a look at it as well just to get a sense of what what's there. Uh it's historic obviously it's very historical back to the 1700s but to look at all the materials to look at any archaeology and whatnot just to make a review of that at least to get a preliminary look at it. Yes. When we were looking at doing the uh the exploratory digging actually that we just completed we we reached out to historical folks and and they uh they gave their blessing on on what we were doing. So we'll keep that. That'd be great if we could get that.

Other projects that we submitted for, we uh we submitted for additional funding to continue building on the public services operation center. We'd like to finish six mile uh at some point which would include a fuel island, an updated fuel island uh covered storage space, warehouse space, and then uh then uh finalizing the parking area down there and then moving up to the Lebanon Road facility to to bring that up to speed. And once those areas are completed, that will complete the public services operation center. Sir, so excuse me. Um on that we we do all of our own fuel and what do you think that because you mentioned a covered fuel island.

Yes sir. We have a fuel island there. The original master plan that was done was to increase the size of the fuel island there at six mile and then take the uh the current fuel island and move that up to or the equipment if it's if it's salvageable and move that up to Leven Road. So we'd have a fueling capability there. the u the the master plan concept was to increase our capacity in the event of a storm. Okay. Thank you. What what is our cost savings by doing our own fuel? Um I couldn't speak to that, sir. I'd have to talk to facts. I just have the facility on my on my in my area. But uh fleet maintenance runs, you know, orders the fuel and deals with the contractor and and purchasing.

It's got to be quite a bit, I would imagine. Sir, thank you. And as we discussed in strategic plan, you're looking at uh resilience and sustainability. So you'd be looking at potential uh hybrid or EV at some point in time, the pros and cons of those types of things.

Uh potentially, sir, I mean, we've looked at it within public services. I mean, we've gone to uh we've actually are trying uh mostly electric equipment down at Waterfront Park. Now, when uh when that uh construction ended, we we went and bought electric equipment for down there to give it a shot to see how how it worked. In the past, it wasn't as robust enough. Um you know, so we're we're trying to experiment with that. We've looked at electric garbage trucks and we don't think they're they're there yet, but I mean as the technology, you know, per the strap plan, we'll keep looking at technology and see where it takes us. But uh you know we just need to make sure we maintain our capability.

Thank you. Just one question on that. Thank you for bringing that up. You guys use SAMSAR for the tracking of the GPS. Is that all vehicles? Um not all vehicles have it yet, but that's the system that fleet maintenance. There is a thing on Samsara that acts as it tracks the vehicles over time, it recommends which vehicles should should switch to electric or not. Yes, that's that's on that system. I' I'd have to consult with fleet maintenance about that. I use it for my company. It's a It tells you to switch or not to switch for an electric vehicle on that specific vehicle as it tracks the vehicle. Thank you. Be understand. Thank you.

The next project that we had submitted was Miriam Brown and I know that was discussed at the at the U retreat and and will receive consideration. the the estimate cost there was an in-house estimate and it was for a likes you know facility uh nothing bigger um so if we pending what where we land on the design or the the the desire for what would go in at Miriam Brown that that price could be uh need to be adjusted and then the other CIP we submitted was for replacing the Shem Creek boardwalk as that gets older and it's a harsh environment with the uh the marine envirment environment and trying to put something in there that will last a little longer.

Go ahead. What is the size of the Miriam and Brown building? Do you know square footage off the top of your head? Um my head know you guys have I can get it for you. I've got it upstairs. I didn't bring it down. I was just curious. Thank you.

There's been discussions with recreation as well as public works as to replacing that building. It's outlived its useful life really and replacing it with with a design this more in keeping with the lying middle school that was there before historic historically and culturally for use and also to have the bathrooms accessible and perhaps meeting space potentially even two stories with some porches to have a different different approach that would be befitting the neighborhood that we have today. So very preliminary and uh but something that would uh be important to really get engagement from all the committee which is already underway and y'all are doing a good job of that.

Yes sir. I mean we've we've gathered some input and you know we're at the point now that if we get the go-ahad we can uh we can pull the string on it more and start attempting to get some designs going and getting some real cost associated with it. But we believe that that's one of the next facilities that needs to get looked at and and redone. Yeah, I would like I think right now it's an aluminum building or something. I mean, I would like to see something more appropriate, twotory, what what he talked about. Um, porches, things that fit the neighborhood and and community use having two stories that we can do more with the space and the footprint. We'll build whatever you fund us for.

Well, also be good to get so a design professional really understands the the historic neighborhood too as we as we do it. Yes, sir. And that's part of the process you know once we get uh get the project approved.

Uh that concludes the CIP portion of the uh the discussion. We'll go in and talk CMPs and as as you know uh CIPs are more of for a specific thing. CMP is for a specific category of things and um we use CMP money. uh we get budgeted new CMP money each each year, but then it also the the money that isn't used the year before rolls over into the uh the new year. And we use this for either large projects and smaller projects. Some uh one of our, you know, it's kind of things over $2,000 a lot of times get rolled into using CMP money as we're fixing uh facil especially in the townwide facility maintenance CMP. Um we were budgeted in FY26 for 2.2 2 million and we rolled over 300 uh a little over 300,000 for a total of 2.5. Um we currently have 1.4 remaining in the budget for this year which is about 56%. Here's a list of some of the projects that we're working on. You've got the town hall gym sewer pipe repair. There's issues with the the sewer there that's estimated the the engineering and design of it is a $34,000 plan we're developing. And then the construction cost is to be determined. We're hoping to have that in uh complete that this spring. And uh we're starting to look at the Derby building and seeing what needs to be done there. One of the things that we did in 2022 was a townwide facilities assessment where we brought in a contractor to look at all town facilities and uh you know they gave us recommended repairs and recom and what they thought cost might be and uh really with that the they said over 30 years we would need about $81 million to maintain or bring our facilities back up to speed. Now that's a moving target. Every time something new gets built that number will change and as things get

older the number changes. So, it's an ongoing project. Looking at some of the other ones, the town hall generator project, the gym uh generator project, fire stations, sweetg grass basket pavilion had extensive termite damage that we're dealing with, uh repaving Alhamra Hall and Edwards Park, and we're starting to look at Hamlin Trail repairs. The next one we'll talk about is rightway maintenance. This is a a uh a CMP that we use for for numerous things to include um looking at the um Highway 17 uh landscaping that we're getting ready to try to try to execute. And we generally get funded 500,000 a year for this. Some of the CMP projects will let the money build up in order to get enough money to tackle a larger project. And that's what we've done here with with this one because Highway 17 is going to be probably a million and a half when all is said and done. Um, so right now we're sitting at 1.4 million and we'll go uh we're finalizing the plant list for Highway 17. We're working on the DOT permits and we're hoping to start that in March, April time frame. Other areas we're looking at right now include the Children's Circle, uh, giving it a refresh, as well as the Veterans Circle, and then in the future, we'll be looking at town properties such as Waterfront Park, the old part of Waterfront Park, we think needs some work, and then Edwards Park, uh, once it's determined if and when it'll be used as a layown yard um, for the drainage projects down there. We've got a bridge and dock uh uh CMP. Sorry, I hit that. And initial budget is 750. We rolled over 371 for 1.1. Uh we're currently at about 95% there,

but we do have some things in the work. We've got uh we did some emergency repairs on Shem Creek boardwalk. We have that inspected every few years and they identified some emergency repairs that needed to be done. We also had some damage from the last big high tide event there that we needed to get repaired quickly. Um we do a yearly inspection of a certain percentage of our bridges and that within town and that identifies things that need to be repaired. So that was done. We've contracted out um the next or the calendar year 26 bridges and repairs. We're looking at doing significant work on the David Simmons dock and then we've started to do develop the plans for Shem Creek.

Just just to be clear on something, excuse me. Um everything we're talking about has been funded. Um I've got money for it or I'll look at having money for it next fiscal year. I mean the the CMPS you've out everything on these sl

the CMPS are kind of there it's it's a moving target like we we tackle what we can and then we plan out because there there's some big projects. So if I can fund design one year and then we look at either does it require a CIP or do we look at building up CMP funds to to go do it like the Shim Creek. That's why we put that as an outyear CIP, but we wanted to get it on the radar because we know it's going to be expensive kind of the guidelines that I work off of. If it will take a large portion of the budget, you know, this uh then I will put it in as a CIP because if I spend all my CMP money on it, I've got nothing left to maintain uh anything else that breaks.

Another one is sidewalk and curb. Tell me tell me where we are on this because we got some people patiently waiting on the uh the next agenda item. Yes, sir. And and these are items that you know you mean the next committee meeting?

Yeah. I think it let's move let's move some of these on to the next. I think from the public's perspective what we're really trying to show is the great work that is being done. have have awareness of where things are that you may be thinking about or wondering about when the what's happening. The transportation department does an outstanding job just as public services and showing what's what's coming up and uh seeing if you're on the list and so this gives an opportunity to see where you are and and be able to be conversant with it. So I think if we can get that and it can become a rolling one uh that that's easy to go and if you if you could um very briefly because I thought it was very it it it was very reassuring that you have developed flood hotspot areas that public services looks at with these when we have storms at high tides etc. So without going into too much detail, uh could you just share briefly um what you do with those hotspots so people know you're you're on it?

Yes, sir. And um one thing I'll just say with the CMP that makes mine a little harder to advertise compared to the EDS is u we are ours is a moving target based off of priorities uh or you know what's the closest gator to the boat. So our things will shift if a if a bigger issue pops up. So it's a little harder to project, but it is part of the strategic plan to show what can be done or what's being done to keep the community more informed. We did a title analysis per your um per your discussion, sir, and we looked at kind of

how we can project. I mean, we've got an idea of what floods and, you know, we've got a response plan for it. And what we're seeing is if you look at this chart, we analyze three high tide events. December 23rd, September of December of 2023, September 2025, and October of 2025. And you'll see these on the next slides. And what we've seen is going back to, you know, Hurricane Hugo basically uh and after from 1992 to 2015, there were about 14 events that were a 7.5 tide or higher. And that was uh 20 20 in 23 years 14 events since 2016. So 10 years less than 10 years there's been 12 already. So we're seeing a lot more of these higher tide events which leads to a lot more blue day blue sky flooding and everything. So that's really what this this shows. What we did was just a quick, you know, we break the town north, central, south based off of uh for um hurricane support and everything else. So, we didn't go drill down into the neighborhoods, but we're looking at this is a kind of an area. The key on the left shows the white yellow is it'll, you know, look to flood at a 7.57. The orange is a 8.43 and the red is a 9.64. 7.57 is where we really start. That's kind of the the trigger for four things. This is the south. This is the central and then this is the north end. And then as I said the uh what we're seeing is a lot more flooding events. A lot more of it isn't storm necessarily oriented. It's it's blue sky. It's tidal. Um, one thing I'll say is I can't stop mother nature. When it comes over the banks, there's not a whole lot I can do about it. But what we do know is, you

know, we know the areas generally that flood. We put the water on road signs up. We go we patrol the area. So, as the tide goes out, the system generally works and and the water will recede and go out. We will go and patrol and try to clear the grates so things drain, you know, quickly. and there and that but as drains get clogged then you know the water has a hard time getting out. If you add rain to the at the same time as the high tides it compounds the problem. So you know we we spend a lot of time out there in the rain uh trying to clear grates and make sure everything drains. But that is kind of well thank you the abbreviated version.

Thank you that that was that was that was excellent. We've gone way over. Uh sorry that for the folks that are waiting, but you did a lot of great work on this and as we go forward, we can streamline it and uh let people rest assured we're taking care of them. Anything else? We're journ

Yeah, the slides. Those slide maps. They need to post on the what town website so everybody can panic.

I got to move again, don't I? Hey, good to see you. Well, thank you for coming. Appreciate Appreciate you coming. down here. What is she presenting? Oh, the

you up. You too. Thank you. Watch the sunset. Is it the last one? No, we have three more. I guess that's my place.

Thank you. He has what I gave him. Huh? He had what I gave him today. Waiting on Catherine. I know she's watching upstairs.

Are you kidding? There we are again. This may be the latest ending of a committee day in same place two times. Um I got something here. I'll be okay for my sugar jolt. What was before next one? Try to stay awake. I did. I ate a cookie.

Good that time. Yes, let me uh call to order the transportation committee meeting for this Monday, February the second. I'm not used to sitting here watching the sun get low. We're usually in the morning, but uh everybody knows why we're so late today. And uh I appreciate everybody just hanging in there while we try to get all this stuff knocked out um today. So item number two would be approval of the minutes from January 5th. Move for approval, Mr. Chairman. Second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say I. I.

I. All right. The minutes are approved. Item three, public comment. If you were here to make a public comment, please come forward, give your name and address, and um listen for the queue when your two and a half minutes are up. Please. Before I begin, may I have permission to approach council with some hard copy summary to the clerk, please? Yep. Thank you. Here we go. They'll do it for you.

Guess I'll begin. My name is David Mariner and I represent the community of Oaks Marsh View. Uh and uh the Oaks Marsh View is a pocket neighborhood small, but Mossy Branch Way is a short street. It's purely residential. was no through traffic. Uh, and there's variable volumes of of traffic that depend upon the hour of the day and also the weekend. And there a lot of pedestrians. On page two of what I distributed, and you've got electronically, I think Miss Barrett circulated that over the weekend. You'll see the uh street Mossy Branch Way. Uh the community is deeply appreciative of Mayor Haney, council, and the traffic transportation committee for approving speed bumps. And on page three, you'll see different options with uh speed cushions implemented by Mount Pleasant Road since 2018. The speed humps are throughout Mount Pleasant and in DOT controlled uh regions specifically multiple streets in old village and ion etc. The committee feels that the uniform slowing is allowed by specifically speed humps and it really leads to predictable behavior and that we are concerned that the gaps in speed cushions can be exploited by either different vehicles that target easier path and also definitely exploited by micro road mobility ebikes and I think they're we all know they're better called mopeds nowadays

since 2018 we're we're in trouble and so the community is very very concerned as I said we are deeply appreciative you know I represent Sandy our president HOH he's here present and and the community appreciates everything the town of Mleas Pleasant has done for us on the left on the slide you'll see what was preliminarily approved moved and looking at the neighborhood and looking at this evaluation, we feel that the more ideal positioning is on the right, the spacing is decreased. It's less acceleration and really improves uh consistency. And finally, you know, we understand that emergency access is is an important uh topic, but the reality is that uh speed reduction, consistent speed reduction over 24 hours a day. Yes. And so and the cost is another uh concern. We we will explore options. So in brief in summary, we would like uh consideration for speed humps and also refined replacement. And if cost is a concern, we can discuss options and we're happy to explore that. I appreciate very much the time. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Anyone else for public comment? Yes, sir.

Uh yes, my my name is Terry Martin and I live in the Charleston National. Um recently, uh we had some uh paving, repaving, some work done in our area on Lynx land. Um and when it got done and it was leaving, my son-in-law approached them and asked if they were going to finish up a culde-sac uh on Mashy Court. And I sent some pictures to Ryan I talked to and to Mr. Anton or Eton and I talked to Mr. Haney about it uh to see if they were going to finish that up because I've got three grandchildren in that little cold sack and there's three next door to them and they play right in that little area and try to learn how to ride a bike where they don't have to get out on Lynx land or National Drive. Uh we have 822 residents in Charleston National and the the the traffic has really increased over the last three or four years since Stratton came in with over a hundred house. We got a thousand and then they come through National Drive off Rifle Range and Morgan South Morgans Point. Uh so I was just wanting to ask uh if there was a plan to finish up that. Uh there was some elevated uh asphalt there that was left. It is kind of crumbling. Uh it just looked like a piece job uh that was done and when I called them I asked them if they ran out of black top and they said no they didn't run out of black top. So I was just seeing if that was going to be finished and when what a timeline might be for that.

Thank you. Thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it. Thank you. Anyone else for public comment? Anyone? All right. If there's no more uh public comment is closed, that moves us to item four, traffic calming program recommendations. Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of committee. I'm going to have our associate engineer, Riley Brian, come up and present this to you.

Good afternoon, mayor and committee. Um, in this fiscal year's trafficcoming program, we received 21 different requests for roadways within the town to have traffic caling devices installed on them. Within these 21 different roads, we only received back 11 completed applications for these roadways. All roadways had speed studies conducted for them that consisted of 48 hour study. And the goal of this was to measure the speed that the drivers were driving on these roads and most specifically get the 85th percentile speed which is the threshold that we use to justify the installation of traffic calming devices or not. This 85th percentile speed has to be at 5 miles hour or more than the posted speed limit. So, of these studies completed on these four roads, Turnstone Street, South Shadow Drive, North Shadow Drive, and Leven Road met this 85th percentile speed. Turnstone, South Shadow, North Shadow all are applicable to have speed cushions installed on them since they have a posted speed limit of 25 miles per hour. And Leven Road is applicable to have a radar feedback sign installed since it's a SED dot road and it has a speed limit of 30 miles per hour which is too much for a speed hump. MSI branchway did not meet this 85th percentile speed but per the direction of transportation committee we did move them along to the petition process. So all these roads currently have petitions um being worked out if not already completed and we will receive the last one by Monday. This petition requires that 75% of the residents within the petition area that we determined for them be in favor of the placement of speed cushions. So should all of these petitions come back in favor of speed cushions with that 75% requirement, we anticipate the implementation of all

these devices, which consist of nine speed cushions and one radar feedback sign to cost about $104,000. And we anticipate construction beginning in April of 2026. Thank you. Um, just a second. I'm take some notes because I I know I've got a question or two. Would you um tell us briefly how just for everybody's edification when when we get that 75% requirement of residents approving? Um, how how do we docu How is that acquired and documented? Just for the record, you're talking about the petition documents just

Yes. So I we have laid out a petition area essentially that we can infer the residents of the neighborhood will be most likely to travel over those speed cushions and don't have an alternate route to take to avoid the speed cushion. So we created a spreadsheet of all the addresses within that petition um area. Once the petition is returned to us, we can see um who within those addresses did sign a signature for that. And that's looked at pretty thoroughly to see if there's any inconsistency, if there's blanks or if there's just weird circumstances of someone signing twice. Um so as long as we see that that 75% is met, then

Okay. And is it 75% of people or 75% of addresses? Yes, it's 75% of those residents within that petition area. Each location has one signature. Okay, that's what that's what I was ask. And when we reach 75%, do we stop collecting? The HOA is responsible for that portion. So, they could stop at 75% or they probably just okay try to fit finish out that petition. Sometimes we have residents come in here and they say, "Well, nobody asked me or whatever." But it could be that their HOA got to 75% and said, "Here it is." Right. Could be. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Yes, sir.

Um um it's my understanding that they did reach 75% or at least they turned in um materials showing the petition and that had been signed. Have you all been in receipt of that? And have you checked it to make sure it had the 75% and um let them know one way or another for Mossy Branch Way? Yes. Yes, I just reviewed that and I did acknowledge that 75% um were on the petition document. Since we're waiting for the final one to be turned in Monday, I was waiting to present that to everyone, but yes, we did review it.

Okay. Yeah, we just we just received that one and um it's typically not a holdup at this point in time. We we if we have some time between now and we want to bid uh which is soon, then we let them use that time. But otherwise, uh right now it looks like we'll receive all of them. The ones over here on the right under study findings and recommendations um one, two, three, four, five, six, those they did not qualify for one reason or another. They did not qualify because the 85th percentile from the speed study was not that um 5 miles per hour over the posted speed. Okay.

Okay. And have they been notified? Have those Yes. neighborhood. Okay. At the same time I sent out the petition documents in November. Um I informed all applicants who did not meet the criteria that that was the case. Okay. And can you explain sorry uh the reasoning for speed cushions rather than speed humps?

Yes. So speed cushions are preferred because they accommodate um emergency response vehicles a little bit better than those speed humps do by providing that space. I'll add on to that uh as well. So the the installation process which m is much simpler, is less impactful to the residents uh as opposed to an asphalt home which requires a full closure of the roadway and detour where these are are easily applied. They're easily removed should that be pursued in the future. As you recall with our traffic calming program, we do have an application process for removal. Um, and then they're easily repaired and replaced by by segments and and the cost is essentially the same as a speed hump, which again are are implemented on DOT roadways. I believe it was a 2018 that it was the direction of the transportation committee to move from speed humps, asphalt speed humps to these pre-formed speed cushions on town roadways specifically to address fire and EMS concerns.

Okay. Do they do they do the results show they have the same result, the same effect? Yes, sir, they do. Okay. And have have you had experience today of course with if you're on an ebike, you may like it be a solid one because you can get more height as you go across there versus in between them, but have you seen any pros and cons of those with the ebikes and uh the concerns that the neighbors have?

No, sir. I don't we we've not specifically studied that. You know, as a 16-year-old boy at one point, I would have preferred to have the the full one so I could, you know, again, like you're stating, ramp a little higher, but but there's they're they're not intended for for ebikes um to to impact their speeds at all one way or the other, whether they're spush cushions or or monolithic um asphalt speed humps. They are intended to slow vehicular traffic,

right? And and with those, would you be reviewing with them uh each of these uh the location of those speed uh cushions, where they are, and um and get any uh obviously all of the travel traffic engineers, but uh any um information that they may have from observation or otherwise as to where they're located.

Yes, sir. I mean, we can certainly look at this packet. We just received it. you know, there are pretty set guidelines that we go through on placement of cushions within curves, uh, avoiding, you know, trying to line up with property lines, avoiding having them in, of course, within driveways, uh, and things like that. So, you know, those are pretty pretty set per the guidelines, not only our internal guidelines, but DOT's guidelines. And so, that's really what we utilize to pursue the the potential placement of those. We we also look at the speed profile of where we collect data. So we we kind of know uh by that where we collect the data and this this road is pretty um short. Um so it's it's pretty easy to see where the best placement would be. But we also have to avoid like say curvature. We look at things that are restricting speed like most of the turns occur you know at another stop sign very right adjacent to it. So, I have I have faith that the uh our staff has looked at all of that and appropriately uh placed the speed hops. Mr. Morrison, I appreciate that. I unfortunately I was there and almost got run over uh because the person um at the speed bumps only thing that would have done them is alerted them that that they had to do something because the whole time they were coming straight for us and I basically dove off to the side when I was with the neighbors. They were looking down the whole way. this is how they were driving.

And so there was, you know, and a speed bump might have helped her or a cushion. At least that would have woken them up because they they were looking down the whole time. So it's a scary thing. All right. So we had 11 that completed applications. Um and so those 11 are accounted for right there. U five met well five are getting uh traffic calming and six did not qualify. So, do you need a motion from this committee? Yes, sir. All right. Is there a motion, please? So, moved. Second.

All right. So, the motion is to u proceed with the uh study findings and recommendations as presented for traffic calming uh program recommendations. Any discussion? All in favor, please say I. I. All right. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. Thank you. And for any who did not qualify, I guess it's not the end. I mean, you can always uh apply later, right? The data may come back different. They have to wait one year. One year, right?

Okay. Next, please. Moving on to agenda item number five. This is the TST annual allocations that the county presents to the town and and other municipalities each year in January. So staff has put together a list of projects that are broken out into three categories, which are the three funding categories that the TST and and future CTC um pro projects come out in. And those are intersection improvements, pedestrian and bicycle improvements, and paving. Keep in mind that paving is is typically reserved for dirt to pave. These are not resurfacing of existing asphalt roadways. Uh these are these are new new pavement. Um and so running down the Yes, sir.

This is from the current transportation sales tax. The future, correct? This this is the existing annual allocation. So these are not the big earmark projects. These are year in and year out. There's a certain pot of money that's that's um out for um municipal because there's a lot of reporting going on about that. So let's just make sure we're clear to the public about which pot of money this this coming from.

The existing TST annual allocation. Uh and so I'll I'll walk through these and and feel free to stop me uh if you have any questions on any of these specifics. So starting with the intersection improvements, we have uh the intersection of Matisferryy Road and Bowman Road, Masttorm Upgrade. This project is designed and permitted already. Uh and so we're seeking uh some funds from through this program to to help with that conversion from Spanwire to Mast. There's also the Hungry Neck Boulevard at Vining intersection, right turn lanes. So, this is more of an operational improvement and and safety improvement that we're looking to pursue.

And those turn lanes are on Hungry Neck when you're turning onto venting or on venting when you're turning onto Hungry Neck from venting onto Hungry Neck. Currently, Hungry Neck has both left and right turn lanes on those approaches finish out the intersection there. Uh and then lastly, Rifle Range Road at Hamlin Road mastarm upgrade design. So this is a this is an existing span wire system that we have not completed design on and so seeking funds to complete that design. And these are ranked in order of um precedents here that we will submit to the county with Matthysse Ferry being number one and Rifle Range being number three for intersection improvements.

Okay, moving on to the pedestrian and bicycle improvements. Our first two are are undoubtedly Mount Pleasant Way related. So the first being Vending Road, US7 to Rifle Range Road. You may recall this. We we have successfully been awarded Charleston County Green Belt funds for any necessary recreational easements uh through that design. And so we're hoping to move forward on this. This one really rose to the top because the SS4A grant funds the remainder of Matthysse Ferry up to 17 and then rifle range. So, this will be a gap between those two spine route systems um to really complete that connection. Next is the National Drive trail phase two. Staff has completed and permitted the design from 17 along National Drive to Egret Point Drive. This would fund the remainder from Egret Drive, Egret Point Drive to Porsche's Bluff. Uh and then lastly, we have the LA Drive sidewalk improvements. These are improve improvements in and around the intersection of Matthysse Ferry and LAA to connect that the neighborhoods over there to existing sidewalk on Matthysse Ferry.

Okay. Barring any questions on those? Yes, sir. Mr. Chapman. Yeah. On the La Drive sidewalk improvements, I know there are some sidewalks in there, but does this what what does this project do? Yes, sir. So, this looks at designing sidewalk to connect the existing facilities on Matisferry Road to the neighborhoods behind the dentist and the CVS uh on CVS or Walgreens on that corner. Um the name of the neighborhood is escaping me. Um but but they currently have no way to utilize pedestrian facilities out of Matthysse Ferry. So, this would fill that gap from a design standpoint.

Okay. I can picture it sort of. So, does it go all the way down to get into Indigo? It it will continue all the way down the old Matthysse Ferry alignment. Um, right to the entrance of the neighborhood and wrap into the entrance of the neighborhood. Uh, and and so from that point, there are pedestrian connections that exist currently between this neighborhood and the Indigo Square commercial area. Um, and this would just allow them sort of access from the other entrance of or the primary entrance of the neighborhood. Thank you. Yes, sir.

And then moving on to lastly, paving. This is one that we've submitted for the past three years. So, this is the Shim Creek Park um pvious pavement installation. This is the existing parking area for the Shim Creek Park, which is currently gravel and that, you know, those fines migrate into Shrimp Boat Lane. So, this would call to replace remove that and replace it with pvious concrete, creating much less maintenance issues for public services and not impacting negatively uh shrimp boat lane and parts of Coleman Boulevard when it when it does migrate that far. So, we have submitted that the last two years, last three years, sir.

Do do we know what the problem is? Well, again, a lot of the these there's a whole ranking criteria with these applications that deal with, you know, accident history, uh, public support, things like that. And and we put together a really good application. The paving component of the CE of the TST is really in primarily intended for that dirt to pave, not necessarily for retrofits of of things like this that we're applying. Although, in our discussions with Charleston County staff, they do say that this is an eligible project. It just typically ranks a little bit lower than other areas.

So, so if we were to get this um this is where you pull in off Coleman, right? So, this would be paved with pvious concrete, but then it would stop where the privately owned parking lots are. Correct. So, you would have pavement and then and then all of that gravel and potholes and Yes, sir. This is just on the town owned park portion of parking, right? parking portion, right? Park parking. Parking. Yes, sir. Okay. So, um tell us what the committee needs to do today. Approve this.

This is these are staff recommendations. We have a priority. That doesn't mean you have to agree to that priority and uh certainly entertain any changes, but these were the projects for sure that raised rise to the top. When does this have to be submitted? Uh 12th. February 12th. I think it's okay within about a week and a week and a half. So unless we have anything up our sleeve now, um we wouldn't be able to get it in by I mean we could have a special meeting by the 12th. Remind me, I know we do this every year. Does this go to full counsel on Tuesday? It just comes from the committee. Yes. Typically that's what we've done. Okay. So committee members, how do you how do you feel about this list? All right.

Um I have a question. All right. says 2027 tsd project requests fiscal year 2027 fiscal year 20 sir after what happens I presume this is from 2016 half cent sales tax I I actually think this is the ' 04 because 204 I think the 16 is what we talked about last week does not start until 2031 right so it's money that is from a previous halfs cent sales tax as opposed to the one right this in 2026 that we're working on.

So this doesn't have to meet the 20 the 2026 January 30th date. No. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I knew which one this this money is there and waiting for us to get our hands on it. So um do do we have a motion? Please I move to approve the projects project recommendations as present. All right. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor, please say I. I.

All right. Motion carries. All right. Um item six is updates on ongoing projects, including our traffic management update. given the hour and and the time, unless there's something new, different, or something's been impeded, um perhaps we just put this off. Um for those that are watching, this is just where um it's not things we vote on. It's nothing up for a vote, but it is to tell us and the public what we're working on that's continuing. But um we're already way over time. Um unless there's been or Mr. more of something earthshattering on something we're expecting to be finished or whatever. Um,

the only thing I would mention is we have signed the LPA agreement with with SCOT for for just shy of $2.2 million for climate reduction policy funds that go towards signal uh technology enhancements.

Okay, fantastic. Um, any questions anybody about any of of these other u mobility action plans or traffic management uh operations? Um, I just want to mention today, and we don't need to get long- winded, but um, I was in a traffic situation, um, didn't involve me, but I came upon it where a car had had hit a piece of, uh, curb right on Johnny Dodge, knocked the wheel completely off the car, and our traffic response vehicle was right there. And, uh, what a uh, and chief and and everybody that had a part in getting those for us. What a uh welcome addition to our traffic management program overall. I know that's not new, but when it affects you personally, you know, like getting to these meetings today, it was a wonderful thing to see. All right. Oh, no. All right. There being nothing further, this committee meeting is ajourned.

Perfect. Good job.

anything. Yes. All right. Um, are we cleared, Mr. Paglerini, legally to go ahead and resume committees? Thank you. So, the alarm's off, the building's clear. All right. Let me call to order the uh flood resilience committee meeting for uh this February 2nd, which uh we didn't plan it this way, but uh today happens to be World Wetlands Day. Um so it's internationally recognized and uh here we are doing our best to uh protect the wetlands in the town of Mount Pleasant. So I'm proud I'm very proud of that. Item two, approval of the minutes from our January 6th meeting. Do we have a motion? Approve, Mr. Second. All right. Any discussion? All in favor?

I I.

The minutes are approved. Item three, public comments. If you're here to make a public comment, please come forward to the lecture and give name and address. Two and a half minutes, please. Okay, Mr. Mayor, members of the committee, uh, may it please the committee. My name is Andrew Wonderly and I'm your Charleston waterkeeper and we work to protect, restore, and defend Charleston's waterways for people and for nature. I'm here to speak in favor of the proposed ordinance. Um I think it does something very important and that it allows for reasonable development while assuring that wetlands are protected. Uh wetlands, green spaces, and uh trees are part of what makes the low country so special, but also protects us from flooding and makes our communities more resilient and I think most importantly protects local water quality. I think uh the ordinance also encourages thoughtful uh thought thoughtful site planning uh that helps protect wetlands and so I think the city is act excuse me the town is acting both responsibly and proactively and you all should be commended for that. Uh it's smart local governments and it's governance that uh better protects our natural resources and our way of life. So thank you.

Thank you very much and thank you for all you do.

Anyone else to speak in public comments? Yes, ma'am. My name is Susie Carlson and I'm an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center and a resident of Mount Pleasant. My address is 423 King Street. I want to begin by sincerely thanking the town for the hard work that y'all have put into the draft wetlands ordinance. I think we all know protecting wetlands is important, but as storm surge and flooding intensifies, wetlands are one of our most effective defenses. Coastal wetlands serve as natural shock absorbers by slowing down storms before they reach the mainland. By reducing storm impacts, wetlands save up to 23 billion dollars each year in avoided damages. This is especially important because flooding is the most costly natural disaster in the United States. Importantly, wetlands are smart and cost-effective investment for communities. Unlike built infrastructure such as seaw walls which require ongoing maintenance and repair, healthy wetlands can self-prepare and adapt over time even as sea levels rise. Getting a strong ordinance in place will protect us from the accelerating impacts and costs of flooding and is ultimately the most cost-effective alternative for addressing flood impacts rather than doing it after they occur. For these reasons, I want to reiterate my strong support for the town and thank you again for your thoughtful consideration of this proposed ordinance. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. Anyone else for public comment? If not, uh section three on agenda item number three, public comment is closed. Item four, continued discussion and possible action on local wetland ordinance. And um it already has discussion in there. So discussion and discussion. Yeah. There we go.

Okay. Just a quick refresher, Mr. Mayor, members of the committee. Uh you know, we traveled through the green commission a couple of times with this. They voted 40 on a on a early proposed draft to uh to look at subdivision requests only. We brought this before you with the exceptions of uh of eliminating or not including the single family homes. You uh directed us to go back and take a look at that. We went before the planning commission again in the hearing. They were uh in favor of actually uh you know bringing it down to the single family level as well. um we brought this back before you and then uh you wanted to take a look at it and study it a little bit and here we are as a very brief quick update and um we did have a chance to meet with our David Pagarini uh and u he felt like you know maybe adding this number three as the exception verbatim bluff an ordinance here it's the wetlands is a five acre threshold for that there's some criteria for exemption under under five acres here just the the owner certifies uh there's no wetlands on the property, no wetlands identified on the site uh per any previous or historical information that can be found. And then the land service activity is proposed uh is accessory to the existing uses and does not increase the density of the site. So that is uh that is under um proposal to be added um as an exception and that I is fairly b verbatim.

Right. And let let me jump in right there, Mr. Pagina. Did you say that does come from the Bluffton ordinance?

Yes sir. And um they have added at least in the in the recent goound few updates but the answer is yes. And the the reason the excellent lawyers there and Bluff has developed, not only do I think it's easier for us to manage than the the various exemptions, I know that this committee and I know staff has been having a very difficult time with um it creates I think safety in numbers is lazy um a lazy analysis. But what I do think is that using that same language and hoping that other municipalities come along and and will continue a consistent approach I think makes it easier for all of us to enforce and to defend if ever question. So that would be okay some of the rationale.

All right. And while we're on this, I just want to point out it says if the following conditions are met um and and if you look at B, no wetlands are identified on the site by any prior wetland delineations

or any existing watershed plans or advanced identification of disposal areas, uh studies, interim watershed plans, national re, you know, all of that and the land disturbance or activity proposed. osed is accessory to the existing use and does not increase the density of the site. So to me and uh committee members I'm I'm thinking out loud. One reason we did this was um in the um aftermath of the sacket decision. It left what were delineated wetlands sort of um orphaned I guess by by the law at least under the law. And so if if if it says that no wetlands or are identified on the site by any prior delineations at as I look at this and we have not discussed it um as a committee. Um this doing this and having that in there would cover that gap that was one of our original intentions in the first place. So, I'm I'm intend I intend to uh look at that very favorably. I just wanted to see how y'all feel about that.

Mayor, I have a question.

Um I know I had talked about what initially was done with subdivisions was the farthest down went. Then we added single family residential units. Does this change that now to say simply five acre not required if the site is less than five acres or not required if the site is less than five acres? Does that take the place of the single fin which I'm fine with? I know some of y'all thought we needed to be individual,

but what I'm concerned about is if we get too specific, we have a chance of having the whole thing thrown out.

Um, and I that's why I like this even though I still think it's too specific, but if this is what our attorneys are suggesting as an alternative, I'm fine with it. And shared I think you said a lot what I said. I mean some of the exceptions we were looking at it before were very specific and as as you know um one of staff's concerns was how are we going to enforce this? Who is going to enforce it? The expert level of expertise. So, I think those are factors and yes, it is five acres and I know that is a concern as to whether there it's it's going to apply really to anybody. Um, but but those items that the mayor pointed out, I mean, I think they cover what at least what I understood the intent of committee um was to make to make sure that there's sufficient coverage so that this actually has teeth. You know, it isn't that anyone can just

uh you know it's not going to apply to anyone but I I let staff of course the experts did you have it well I think when commission uh recommended that it be single family I mean that's I don't know none of that's going to be included if it if it's on five acres well um that it won't count if it's five acres So then that does eliminate single family homes. It but it it has it has a condition though that it was never previously by any prior wetland delineation had a had a wetland on it. Am I am I reading that wrong?

That's correct. Um you could have a scenario where you have a single family home that previously had an isolated wetland that was able to fill in portion of it or or some their portion of that. So that would actually relate to that um because they're not increasing the density and they previously had a isolated wetland on the property and the owner knows about it. So that would actually pertain to that particular situation, right? So you can actually get down to the single family level if those criterias are present on the property. So, so if it had a previously del a prior wetland delineation

Yes. then it does not get this exemption. Correct. So that's where that that protects it. Correct. Yes. So without saying single family whatever if it's less than five acres to get the exemption it has to not have a prior wetland delineation on the property. That's correct. Yes. That's the way I understand. That's the way how it'll be applied. Now, this this this of course is something that, you know, we will work with

other municipalities. We'll work with uh people that are trying to develop the property and then of course we will be able to report back to let you know what kind of effectiveness, what are we seeing, some of the things that we could maybe improve upon and change. Um so, you know, this is this is a good very good first start.

Mr. Pagler, quick question. um in honor in in order not to have a fight over what this means. Could we put in there and I know are we looking at the exact legal verbiage or is this supposed to be just a summary, but it could say um all of the following conditions are met, right? It didn't mean one of those three. It could it has to be all. Yes, sir. We can further clarify that. Yes, sir. Okay. Because that that's the intent. That's the intent is it has to meet all of those. So if it never had a a delineated wetland on it,

then we're not protect then it's not applying anyway because this applies to to wetlands or what was previously. Okay.

And that does cover uh individual lots. Yes sir. So in one of the previous uh the public works presentation they showed a pretty graphic map of the areas that flood on a regular basis which would indicate if they flood on a regular basis. The question would be do they then qualify for any of the things that we're talking about here. I mean we had a I don't know where that study came from because I had that's the first time I've seen it. I know you've done some studies before that delineates where the wetlands are and and as well as the um the the the different types of wetlands, but that study showed most of the borders of the town that flood on a regular basis. So would we assume that a great number of those would fall under uh this protection?

I would not assume that because that is based on elevation. We have isolated wetlands in higher elevation parts of the town as well as the lower elevations but that was uh you know tidy induced type flooding. Wetlands are completely different. There's actual eco ecosystem that that is established in these particular areas. So it's not like water comes in and then comes out and then all of a sudden you've got a wetland. You actually have to have sure historical standing water. Um, so I would treat those two separately, completely separately, because you're you're dealing with a whole different game with each one of them.

I guess really what I'm always looking at is what what what fits and what doesn't fit based on what uh studies we have today. But I understand your point of view, but it's always nice to know the starting point. What are the delineated wetlands and what are not the delineated wetlands we currently have under these items, right? Yes, ma'am. Hi. Oh, and also I mean this but it says um if the activity does not increase density of the site so garages don't count because that's not counted as square footage or I think that is the actual number of units and you can correct wrong. Oh if you're not adding a house but you're adding a garage. I mean I don't

I I would say yes and I I would also say again as as was said before all of the exam all of all of these requirements have to be met. So, of course, if there's any prior wetland delineations, it would be looked at from that perspective. Our density, uh, the definition of density, units per acre, additional square footage, square footage, if we wanted to apply it to additional square footage, we could certainly spell that out as well. So, there's no question if if that is what committee and council ultimately want to do.

And then, okay. And then we're just going to trust the property owner. I mean, what's the recourse if they're not honest with us about whether they have wetlands on the site or not? I mean, I don't know. They could just fill something and we just wouldn't Well, all all three criteria have have to apply. So, um, so yes, that that would be the participation of the owner would actually acknowledge that there are wetlands on the property if they do not have any historical wetlands on the property. So, um it would just be one of the criteria that need to be met and all three of them have to be met. All three.

Do we want to make a motion that we uh mention um at the top that um that the following all of the following conditions are met and insert the word all. Do you need a motion for this or just our our verbal? We can we can share. I I think those are important changes u but they're really word smithing from I don't think it changes the entire so happy to take those comments and put them in. Yes, sir. Okay. Are we ready? Um, was there more?

Uh, I just had a next step slide, sir. If you uh if you want us to bring back a little polished version for the next month or we can just go ahead and move forward with planning commission for the public hearing and then come back to you after that and then go to public hearing for town council. It's It's a matter of whether or not you want to see it before before it goes to public notice or not. Tell me how y'all feel. I'm ready to send it out. Ready to send it out. I I tend to be too. Good.

I saw a quote today by General Patton from World War II. A good plan executed now beats a perfect plan executed later. And um I was talking to some advocates today. remember with our plastic bag uh thing um with some of our tree uh ordinances, with our noise ordinance and our short-term rental ordinance, we got it passed um reasonably and then continue to strengthen it over the years. Um I just don't want to nibble this thing to death and not get it out until next year. I really don't. Um I feel good. These exceptions were my big bugaboo and I appreciate the language y'all brought back today that I think covers uh what what those concerns were. Um Mr. Pagalini, do you need a motion for this?

Just a motion to recommend to recommend moving forward as presented. We'll take next steps. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All right. All in favor, please say I. Any oppose? All right. Motion carries. Thank you very much. I believe u that was item four. Item five is to adjurnn. So this committee stands journal. Good work guys. We got one more meeting. Oh god. Are you on it? Yeah. I might as well just sleep up here.

I told Christina she she missed the only opportunity ever to have lunch and supper. supper. That would have taken a lot Here's your seat.

I kept your seat. I heard that. I'm ready, too.

Yeah. I think we can say good evening. Uh and uh welcome to bids and purchases. They have obviously saved the best for last. Um item number two is approval of minutes from the January 5th, 2026 meeting. Do I have a motion?

Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor? I. And that passes. We'll move on to agenda item number three, which is public comments. Is there anybody from the public who would like to make a comment? Seeing none, we will close public comment and move on to our uh item number four, award of a contract for Rifle Range Road at Long Grove Drive and Longpoint Road at Bell Point Drive intersection improvements. Good evening, Miss Harness.

Yes. So, staff requested bids from qualified and interested bidders to construct intersection improvements at Rifle Range Road at Long Grove Drive and Longpoint Road at Bellpoint Drive. The work for the project consists of three new 10-ft pedestrian signal poles, two new pedestrian signals, eight audible pedestrian systems, upgraded pedestrian signage, the installation of a new signal cabinet and controller with new electrical services, approximately 200 linear feet of conduit, a junction box, and a copper wire loop detector. The work will also consist of removal and installation of thermoplastic pavement marking and striping, including the the realignment of one existing crosswalk and the addition of one crosswalk. Staff received two bids and determined that True Luck Construction Inc. was the lowest, most responsive and responsible bidder. Staff therefore recommend contracting with True Luck Construction, Inc. in the amount of $428,177 to construct the project.

Thank you, Miss Harness. Any questions or comments from the committee? I'm excited for this because I actually have a lot of friends that live off in Sweet Grass B or Sweet Grass neighborhood and off of Bel Point Road that um been asking for improvement. So,

I'm excited to share the news with them. No, I I echo that. It's such a busy area and we've got a lot of new development going into that area as well. So, make it safer so you don't have a wreck going into the hospital. Do you have a quick question for Mr. Eton, I believe, um or his associate. Um I specific to the rifle range um uh section. I drive this pretty frequently. I think in the past there's been some issues with um sink holes in the area and I've noticed there seems to be some settling in the in the pavement in that area. Um I presume that's beyond the scope of this project.

From what I understand, yes, okay, James might have say on that just it's just something I've noticed. It seems to be getting a little bit worse as time progresses. Um there's a a rut kind of that runs. Yes, sir. You might even be able to see it on this aerial. I'm not sure. Yeah. So, we're ex So, it's part of the long grow long grove and rifle range intersection if is that the one you're referencing?

So, we are extending that that uh grass area out. There's a a large section of pavement over there and then really resurfacing the entire intersection. So, you will see some improvements to those those sink hole and potholes. There are areas that hold water that will be regrading um to eliminate that. Great. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Uh is there a motion from the committee? Move to approve. Second. All right. There is a motion and a second. All those in favor signifi signify by saying I. I. I. All right. Motion carries three to O. And uh that is the end of committee