Town Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Welcome to our December 16th meeting. I'm calling this meeting to order. Um before we begin, please silence your cell phones. Make sure they're turned off. All the little signals, beeps, notifications, etc. are uh not making them speak to us while we're working. Um and then we always begin our meeting with a moment of silence and um tonight I would like to do that in remembrance of the various tragedies that have happened around the world. So, if you'll join me in a moment of silence.

Thank you so much. And now, if you're able, please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty for all. Miss Escobar, any announcements.

Good evening. With the holidays approaching, we would like to remind residents that carts, bins, and trash cans that are overloaded cannot be serviced. Waste Connections asked us to remind residents that the lid on your container must be able to close in order to be collected. Now, the town of Huntersville offers bulk pickup for a fee, which is helpful for residents wanting to remove excessive household garbage. And you can find that form by going to our website to schedule a bulk pickup. You can either use the search menu that's there, or you can go under the how do I section of the website. All Town of Huntersville offices will be closed December 24th through December 26th in observance of the Christmas holiday. Offices will also be closed on January 1st in observance of New Year's Day. Garbage collection will be affected as Waste Connections observes Christmas Day and New Year's Day as holidays. If your collection day falls on the observed holiday or any weekday after the holiday, collection will be delayed by one day. And we also want to remind people that organic Christmas decorations such as garlands, wreaths, and trees are collected from December 26th through January 15th on your regular collection day at no additional cost to the town. Please remove hangers, wires, lights, and any other non-organic material from those items. And then uh the town's treasure tree nomination program is now live. This program seeks to locate exceptional Huntersville trees and tell their stories. The goal is to recognize our special trees and share their importance to our town and the environment. Treasure trees can include a champion tree, a physically unique tree, a rare tree, a tree or collections of trees with verifiable cultural or historical significance, or several trees in a notable grove, avenue, or other planting. For more information, you can also or to nominate a tree, u make sure

to visit our website at huntersville.org at that address there. Any questions for Pam? All right. Thank you. And now we have public comments. We will start with Chad Cordderero. You have three minutes. Good evening, mayor and commissioners and everybody else. My name is Chad Cordderero. Uh my wife and I have been uh very proud and and uh blessed to call Huntersville our home since 2006. Um over the last two decades, we've lived in three different locations around this town and I've watched it grow and change in so many meaningful ways. With the growth uh that I've seen and with the growth that's coming, we have to uh we have a lot of responsibility to build thoughtfully to protect what makes Huntersville special and to ensure that new developments uh benefit an entire our entire community, not just a few people. And that's why I'm here to support the Station South project. Um, what stands out to me about the Station South project is its balanced community focused approach. This isn't just housing. It thoughtfully in uh integrates commercial and retail spaces along with parks and greenways and trail connections of which I'm a big fan of all the growth that that's happening here. Uh, these are all amenities that don't just serve future residents of that development, but are also designed for all of Huntersville to enjoy. Projects like this uh encourage walkability, local business growth, outdoor recreation, things that strengthen community connections and improve quality of life. Station South reflects the kind of smart mixeduse development that can help Huntersville continue to grow without losing its sense of place. I truly believe this project aligns with

the town's long-term vision and values. I respectfully encourage uh for you guys to approve the station south project and help move Huntersville forward uh in a way that we can all be proud of. Thank you for your time and for your service.

Thank you. June Overcash, you have three minutes, Miss Overcash. [snorts and clears throat] I'm here also to speak on station South. My name is June Overcash and I'm a lifetime resident here in Huntersville. I'm retired from Charlotte Meckllinmberg schools. I worked at North Meckllinburgg uh Bradley and I retired from Bailey Middle. Uh this property that Station South is going to be built on has been in my family for many generations. It was my grandparents Robert Neil Knox and Shirley Knox, excuse me, Maddie Neil Knox's land. They lived there and raised four daughters and their youngest daughter was my mother, Shirley Knox Brown. We talked to a variety of builders about this land and none of them wanted to build commercial here and the projects they thought would work was not as high quality as what built um Pete Development is proposing. Michael and his team has a great reputation in Charlotte creating unique and wellthoughtout products projects. Pete Development was the only company that provided plans including mixuse both commercial and residential for this property. His team planned and worked on this project very carefully with the Hunter Huntersville's planning experts and with CATS to incorporate all their requirements. It has everything that we could hope for with community spaces, greenways, connections, commercial and residential. We love the outdoor spaces and how the project incorporates the transit station and with the future of Huntersville and the fact that first responders like my son who is a police officer and my older son who works for Charlotte Meckllinburgg schools can afford to live there and access all of these great amenities is a plus. My

family truly believes that this is the absolute possible outcome for this property and we hope you will see the value in it and approve it. Thank you for your time.

Next, we have Amber Kovac. And I see my pal Emerson and Mr. Hullman are both here. So, you have nine minutes to sit. Okay. Uh, my name is Amber Kovac from Huntersville. I'm a former commissioner serving from 2021 to 2023. Um, I emailed the board last week with questions regarding tonight's agenda, specifically items 8D and 8F, but I did not receive responses from any commissioners active and wanting this on the agenda. I did however kindly um I was however kindly contacted by commissioners Cornet and um Smallwood which allowed me the opportunity to share my opinion and it was very refreshing and I really appreciate it. Um because of the lack of response from others, I'm here this evening to speak publicly. I'm here to address agenda item 8F which proposes designating the current or old town hall for resale. Rather than debate uh the item outright, I want to provide some important historical context for those who were actually for those who were not actually a part of the process that led to the town hall decisions. When the former board had um when the former board had huh oh when the former board had the singular vote to fund the finished plan, I was asked to come speak in favor of it. So it should be no surprise that I'm here today passionately speaking about town hall. I had the priv the privilege of serving on the board that selected the location and design of current town hall project. That decision followed many months of discussion, public input sessions, surveys, and collaboration with our design partners. Knowing that

we were asking the public to accept a 28-ish million dollar investment, the board was deeply involved at every stage, constantly seeking ways to reduce costs while maximizing long-term benefits. That process culminated in a plan designed to meet four primary needs. Bringing all town hall administrative staff under one roof, creating a long-term solution so we would not face this same space issue again in a few years. Providing additional downtown parking with the ability to construct a future parking deck. and four, using funds within the project budget to upfit existing town hall to use as parks and recck programming space and community space available for both town use and public use. There were also significant added benefits. The plan allowed the town to generate rental revenue from the third floor of the town center building if they so choose and created a central courtyard between the two buildings, a dedicated gathering space for residents, staff, and visitors. All of this aligned directly with the downtown plan, which residents and business owners painstakingly spent an entire year developing. For anyone interested in revisiting just one of the conversations of intent, I encourage you to listen to the January 26, 2023 planning retreat day one recording on YouTube. There was over an hour discussion on town hall, including a detailed conversation beginning around hour three, five minute mark about the courtyard and the future use of existing town hall. During that discussion, our fearless parks and recck leader spoke about how the long-standing need for this type of community space was there and he expressed enthusiasm for this plan to finally meet those needs. I will be very candid. My vote and the votes of others to approve the final town hall plans were contingent upon some clearly defined outcomes. The four pillars I previously outlined along with the additional benefits were not incidental. They were central to the decision that we made. That is why agenda item 8F is

so concerning. It suggests that this board may not fully be aware of the history or may be disregarding it and deliberate and disregarding the deliberate year-long process that informed these decisions. No decision was made lightly. I asked for clarification on the reasoning behind this proposal and did not receive it, leaving me to assume this is a matter of lack of knowledge or even an intended slight to the original intent of the project. The courtyard, for example, was an intentionally designed as a connector envisioned as a space for gathering perhaps even small coffee or pastry cart and an extension of downtown life. Selling the building it was designed to connect to results in a space that quite literally leads to nowhere. Visually and functionally, it will read as a poor afterthought. It will be very obvious the decisions were made afterwards. Some may argue that new town hall space can absorb meetings or community functions. That assumptions flawed. As staff numbers consistently grow annually, available space will continue to shrink, making that solution temporary at best. There is also a concern of accessibility and safety for the rest of the building. The former town hall upfitted design was made to accommodate events such as Girl Scout ceremonies, recital, anniversary celebrations, small weddings and/or receptions, community meetings, and small conferences with movable walls and an accessible kitchen to support flexible uses. Heck, I suggested Anony's office to be turned into the committed space for the daycare park hoppers program the town does to be able to bring them out of their previous Delwood location that because when they were put there, it stopped residents from renting it. And we I wanted to give access to back to those residents who deserved it. [clears throat] This space was needed. This was about providing affordable, accessible community space while saving residents money at the same time. I'm also aware that expanding the recreation center has been floated as an alternative. It's not. The cost of such an expansion far exceeds the cost of

upfitting the existing town hall and a rec center is not an appropriate or desirable venue for many of the community events I previously stated. The downtown plan explicitly states that community is the heart of downtown. The action proposed in 8F sends a very different message that community space is expendable. So the question becomes, who should be more offended? The prior board that worked meticulously on the project only to see a later board claim ownership while dismantling its purpose and intent? The residents and business owners who devoted a year to creating a downtown plan that is now being ignored and laughed at? Or the residents being told they no longer deserve accessible, affordable community space in the heart of their downtown after they were promised it. I will end with this. Do not allow resentment towards those who came before you to drive decisions that are not in the best interest of Huntersville residents like previously done. This is not about politics or personalities. It's about honoring the intent and the planning and the promises made to the community. Thank you.

Thank you. And lastly, we have Josh Dumis. And I see TJ. So, you have six minutes.

[clears throat]

Uh, hi. Uh, my name's Josh Numis. I live at 8621 Somerfield Lane. I'm here to speak on item 8D on the consent agenda. Um, I've spoken at several town meetings before. Um, and nearly every time I've come, I've come with yielded time from someone else. So, um, it kind of affects me directly. Um, not only do I think I have pretty good public speaking skills, but I also enjoy doing it. I don't have any anxiety to do it. Um, many people I know would never come up here and do this, so I'm more than happy to speak on their behalf uh whenever I get the chance. Um, some issues before the town board are complex and require more than three minutes to really lay out a nuanced and and compelling public comment. And I think tonight is such a night in this issue as as well. Uh, tonight you will apparently be changing the way our public comments work, no longer allowing residents to yield time to a spokesperson. Um, and it appears you will be doing so via the consent agenda. For those that don't know, this allows the town board to just easily pass an item without really a public discussion or a heads up vote on the item. I've been thinking about this for about a week and I've been struggling to figure out why you're doing this. I've been to many of these town board meetings. I've watched many more on YouTube. Maybe not as many as y'all, but quite a few. Um, and I can only remember just a few times where public comments ended up being excessive in a very long period. I think like the Burkedale development comes to mind where there was excessive amount of comments. But on that type of issue, I think you want lots of public engagement. So, I don't think that you're attacking and taking away this right for us to stack comments to shorten meetings. I really don't think that's why. Comments aren't why meetings run long. meetings run long because of long agendas. They run long because of long presentations by developers. They run long with lots of uh questions and and and comments from the commissioners. That that's what lengthens the meeting, not the public comments. So, I don't think that's it.

Um I think an argument will be made that this is to align our policies with other larger towns and municipalities who don't allow yielded time. But honestly, I can't figure out why in the world we would want our town to push more towards these policies of larger cities where it's harder to connect with your elected representatives. Huntersville is a big town, but we're still a town, right? And it feels like we're constantly always in so many ways trying to fight to keep some of that townness that we have here, whether it's through development or other things. Um, so to me, having access to my elected leaders, being able to deliver a longer comment like this, that is way more important to me than feeling like we're like Charlotte or something like that. To me, that that doesn't really hold a lot of water. So, what do I think is really going on? I think that this change was thought up as a way to silence a small handful of residents who routinely come to these meetings with yielded time and deliver long comments. That's the only thing I can come up with. Uh maybe that's not true, but that's what it looks like. These engaged and outspoken individuals are some of the most active residents we have in town politics. Some of the the very few. And frequently they're here to push back on what the board's doing. They are asking tough questions. They're pushing for more transparency and they're demanding better from their elected leaders. Guys, I'm sorry if those occasions make you squirm in your seats or or hurt your egos or give you anxiety or whatever it is, but that's the job. That's the job. They're they're going to hear be they're going to come here. They're going to say things you don't like. You got to sit there and listen to it. The the fact of the matter is you're answerable to us. Okay? This isn't your meeting. It's our meeting. This isn't your building. This is the town's building. And just because someone's saying something you don't like, that doesn't doesn't change that ever. To top this off, you're attempting to make this change via consent agenda, effectively just sliding it through

without any public debate and no comments from yourselves. If I thought I was disappointed that you came up with this change at all, I was doubly triply disappointed to see it on consent agenda. I just did not expect that at all from you guys. It's it's a bad look. It's a really bad look. I know most of you very well. I've campaigned for most of you. celebrated with you when you won. And I'd like to think I had a small part in helping you get elected. To know that a board I've supported in that way would seek to take away part of my voice and doing so without any public discussion or debate, it actually kind of turns my stomach. And I'm not being dramatic here, guys. It it's it's upsetting. I'm deeply disappointed. And quite frankly, I wouldn't have voted in the last election the way I did if I had known this would have been on the first agenda of your first for full meeting as a board. It's disappointing. I implore you all to reverse course on this. You should all be champions of greater public involvement in politics, not less. Most of you ran as Democrats and as a fellow Democrat, uh uh access to and participation in the political process, no matter who you are, is a core value of the party. Plain and simple. Limiting access, cutting off time, that's something I would have expected to maybe happen had none of you won and there was a different set of faces up here. But with you guys, I I don't get it. I hope that enough of you realize what a worrisome and regrettable step this is for you to take. Um I'm not sure where it goes from here, but I've seen enough of governments infringing on rights the last 10 or 15 years at the state and federal level. I just did not think it would happen here. And it's a small thing, right? It's a small thing. You still have three minutes, but it's not a small thing. It's a big deal. Don't do this. It's not good for the town. throw this on the trash heap where it belongs and move on to something that will help us all, that will help the town, that will help the residents. This it ain't it, not it. Thank you.

You Josh. Uh Johnny Campbell, you're up. You have six minutes.

Johnny Campbell, Huntersville resident. Um, I also emailed the board earlier uh in the week and got no response except for the two new board members. Uh, Commissioner Cornet, Commissioner Smallwood. I really appreciate your responses. I appreciate the apologies and the sincerity in it. It meant a lot to me. I did also receive a clarification email from from uh the mayor as well, but no other board member chose to respond, so I'm here tonight to read that email to you. My name is Johnny Campbell and I'm speaking to you concerning the way my wife, Gatewood Campbell, has been treated by the mayor and certain members of the town board. First, let me thank you for your willingness to serve our town. These are very important roles and they must be filled and they are done at great sacrifice. So, I do appreciate your willingness to serve. I've lived in Huntersville my whole life. Love this town. I've never been involved in politics as I thought it was better left to others. My wife has taught me the error of that way of thinking. Unless all are involved, all are not represented. I want to tell you a little bit about my wife. She served her Lord faithfully for over a dozen years as a director of membership at one of Huntersville's largest churches and was was responsible for much of its growth. She's an amazing wife who truly sets the example of a Proverbs 31 woman. She's raised two rambunctious boys into manhood. This was until the day that God had another plan for her life. One day in Target, she suffered a mild traumatic brain injury. And the result was a diagnosis of epilepsy and an exit from her gratifying and successful career. She stepped from that role into one of a

full-time mom and wife, one which she did with grace and love, and it's been the greatest gift that God has ever given the Campbell family. On November the 18th, she addressed the town board regarding some not so up and up communications that were revealed by a local news broadcast that happened to include her name. Mayor Clark was directing the board to not communicate with her in writing unless they wanted those communications shared. Suspicious? Yeah, I'd say so. Yes. Yes, my wife is active politically. Yes, she advocates for her town. Yes, she is vocal about right and wrong. Yes, she shares information that she thinks will help other citizens who are too afraid to ask [clears throat] for themselves. I would think that's exactly what you would want from every citizen. She's the ideal town resident and I wish more people had her passion and her bravery. While she was addressing you, a commissioner typed a message on his iPad and called my wife, Huntersville resident, involved citizen an effing loser. Except he typed out the whole word. One commissioner saw what he typed and was so badly offended that an ethics complaint on that commissioner was filed. The consensus of this board was not to pursue the complaint. That's shameful. Right is right, wrong is wrong. That was wrong. I'm embarrassed that this board chose not to pursue that ethics complaint. You're basically saying that what was

done was right, appropriate, validated, and normal. Was that right? Was that appropriate? Was that valid or normal? I ask you, if this were your spouse, your loved one, would you say this is how a concerned citizen should be treated by her elected officials? Was this the representation that she deserved? I expect an apology to my wife and to the two board members that did reach out to me. I greatly appreciate your apologies even though you were not part of the board when that event happened. Um, I ask for a public apology. And if you are the man of God that you claim to be, you will issue a public apology for the harm that you've caused a fellow believer and sister in the Lord. Thank you.

Thank you. [clears throat] Okay. Let's see. Do we have um a motion to amend the agenda?

Uh I make a motion to remove 8D from public comments from the agenda. And is there a second? I second. Any discussion? Um the reason for the removal is because I think that there needs to be more discussion on 8D. Um as we have seen, have gotten emails, we've heard from residents, we definitely need to sit down and revisit and take into consideration what our constituents are saying to us in regards to our public comments.

Any other discussion? I um don't think that public comment should be a platform for someone to be abused. We're we do not have to allow um a lot of times. This also we have an open door policy and we're a pretty uh transparent board. I feel that this gives the the u opportunity for our residents and constituents to sit down and meet with us to get to know us when we have public comments. We can't respond back if there were concerns within our town. This gives the opportunity to sit down and understand the yes, the nos and the wise. So again, I think um excuse me [clears throat] doing it similar to other municipalities would be just in line and this more of just a a cherry in the top when you all lot additional minutes. But I do think this right here would allow us to become a little closer to where we can sit down and laugh and joke and talk and understand the wise.

Any other discussion? Just one. Um, I was prepared to move forward on this tonight, but our attorney advised us that there was actually a court ruling on public comments today that we're going to have to review before we move on. Comment. All right. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? Motion carries. And now, may I have a motion to adopt the amended agenda? I make a motion to adopt the amended agenda. And is there a second? A second.

Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? And the motion carries. And now, may I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda? I make a motion to adopt the amended consent agenda. And is there a second? I'll second.

Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? And the motion carries unanimously. We do not have any public hearings this evening. So, we'll move on to item number 10A. Consider appointing three members to the Greenway, Trail, and Bikeway Commission due to three expiring terms. And just a reminder um to the board that these um appointments will last from December until March. And so, the motion should include that information. Um, for the new members, what we do is we nominate um, folks and then we make a motion at the end. So, Scott, I'm going to start with you for your nominations for the Greenway Trail and Bikeway Commission. Commissioner Cornet, excuse me.

All right. And if I pronounce your name incorrectly, I am very sorry. Uh, Christina Breen, Clayton Buchanan, and Jeffrey Lockach. Commissioner Hunt. Same. Oops. Commissioner Corals, I'm not ready. Oh, Commissioner Corl is not ready. Commissioner Rivers. [laughter] Um, Cristiana Breen, Jeffrey Lock, Clayton Buchanan, Commissioner Smallwood, Cristiana Beern, Jeffrey Lockach, and Clayton Buchanan. Commissioner Walsh.

Ditto. [laughter] And Commissioner Cors, are you ready? Yes. Same. All right. May I have a motion to appoint Cristiani Baron, Clayton Buchanan, and Jeffrey Lockach for to the Greenway Trail and Bikeway Commission from December until March 2026. I make a motion to appoint Christina Bin, Jeffrey Lockach, and Clayton Buchanan to the Greenway Trail and Bikeway Commission for their term to expire in March of 2029. And is there a second?

I'll second. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? All right. Thank you for your service, volunteers. And now we will go to the parks and recreation commission due to three expiring terms. You want us up here if you have questions. Okay. [laughter] I was like, do we have something to say? No, just carry on in case you have a question. All right. We I'm glad you're here. Thanks for being here. Commissioner Corinette, can I get your nominations, please? Uh Richard Aquino, Sharon Coral, and Magic Cypress McNary. Commissioner Hunt. Same. Commissioner Corals, are you ready? Same.

I'm never going to let you live that down. Commissioner Rivers Ditto. Commissioner Smallwood. I don't remember what the names were, so I'm going to read mine. [laughter] Richard Aino S. Magic Cypress McNary and Sharon Carell. Perfect. And Commissioner Walsh. What she said. Okay. And may I have a motion to appoint Richard Aina S. Magic Cypress McNary and Sharon Corell to the Parks and Recreation Commission?

I would like to make a motion that we appoint Sharon Carell, SM Magic Cypress McNary, and Mr. Richard Aino to the Parks and Recreation Commission due to the three expiring terms. And is there a second? A second. Do we need to say anything about the We need the expiring terms March. Yes. March. With the expiring terms being March of 2029. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. Okay. I'll second that. [laughter]

All right. Um any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? And the motion carries unanimously. Thank you everyone for volunteering. Excited to have some of you rejoin us. And the others new. Okay, last um one. Parks and Arts Commission nominations. Um we are consumm 10 C commissioner Coronet. You're appointing one Diane Eka uh Boson I'm sorry I butchered that. Commissioner Hunt Margaret Tu Commissioner Corals

Margaret Tu Commissioner Rivers Diane Aka Bashorn Commissioner Smallwood I nominate Diana Aka Bashworn Commissioner Walsh Diana Aka Bashorn Okay. All right. So um Ms. Aka Bashron has the majority for the nomination. So is there a motion to appoint Diana Aka Bashron to the parks and arts commission? Public arts commission. Good grief. Motion to appoint.

And is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? And the motion carries unanimously. All right. Thank you. Item number 10D, consider approving contract for commercial indoor air quality control system at Huntersville Family Fitness and Aquatics. Good to see you.

Good evening, everyone. Uh, this RFP was created so we can uh replace the current Dtron de dehumidification [clears throat] unit uh that serves a small 25 yard uh therapy pool uh that's at the location. It continues to decline in in performance and we're currently operating at 50% capacity. Uh it's beyond repair and can no longer uh maintain stable air temperatures. To provide some context, this was one of three Dtron units that we uh that were installed about eight years ago. um in in late 2023 2024 early 2024 we had uh replaced um going through the similar RFP process we had replaced those two units um with the board's approval uh to re and to also uh take care of the aluminum duck work that was in that space as well uh we replace those units plus the the duck work with sock fabric duck work uh due to the continued issues that we're seeing with this current unit uh which is beyond repair. It's time to now go ahead [clears throat] and and uh go ahead and do the replacement if you so choose. During the RFP process, we worked with town staff as well as town attorney uh to publicize and receive bids for this project. We did receive two bids, MSS Solutions and Thermal Conditioning Incorporated. Uh Thermal Conditioning did provide a bid of $591,630 for this project. MSS their bid was $654,311. So it was a difference of $62,681 overall. Um replacing the existing aluminum duck work is going to u help with air distribution with the new sock duck work and also provide a little bit of uh assistance with uh the the weight that's currently being suspended in the ceiling.

This was completed in the 50 meter pool when we did the the 2023 2024 installation of those new units as well. So we're recommending the same basic project. Both vendors provided a timeline of about 20 to 22 weeks of manufacturing for the units as they're customuilt. And so the earliest that we would be looking for installation would be May of 2026. uh with both of those vendors um excuse me with the installation itself it would be basically broken up into two phases. One being with the unit installation uh that would be all exterior uh work and so it would be limited disruption to the users inside the space. Uh although during that installation we'll have the disconnection of the old and installation and the reconnection of the new. Uh so there will be a little bit of a disruption there as far as the the maintaining of air temperature but overall disruption will not be an issue overall. The second phase of the installation would be done with the sock duck work that would be done in our August annual shutdown that we typically do for uh both pools. The 25 goes down basically shut down for a week of maintenance and the 50 meter goes down for a week of maintenance as well. Uh that seems to be the best time for all of the user groups uh for those shutdowns. So we would line up that uh installation uh when again it's minimal impact to the users in in August. Uh it is our recommendation after reviewing with town staff and town attorney based on the responses provided that thermal conditioning uh be awarded the contract if you so choose. Uh they were the lowest responsible responsible bidder.

You'all have any questions? Commissioner Corals Rivers. Um did we have a um with the contract was there a dollar amount um with that? I'm sorry. Um with so thermal uh again it was 591,630. Okay. I'm sorry I missed that number. Okay. Thank you. Did you say that the existing system lasted eight years? Did I hear that wrong? Yeah, just just about eight years.

Is that normal for these kind? Okay. No, unfortunately uh from basically from the the beginning of the installation and uh we saw performance issues and design flaws within that system. So no, it did not maintain the way it should have. The life expectancy of any of these large custom units are going to be 12 to 15 years. Okay. So we're looking at this again in a couple couple years from now. Couple years. Couple years. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Do we have a motion for item 10D? I make a motion to approve the contract for the commercial indoor air quality control system at Huntersville Family Fitness on Is there a second?

A second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously. And now item 10E, which is consider approving a budget amendment for the commercial indoor air quality system at HFA. Mr. Williams. Yeah, this is essentially you approve the contract. This is a budget amendment to actually pay for that. Um, and then we um I don't know if George mentioned or not, but we walk through this with the HFA committee and they were supportive as well. So that's all I got.

Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Williams? Okay. Do we have a motion for item 10E? I make a motion to approve the budget amendment for the commercial indoor air quality control system at Huntersville Family Fitness and Aquatics for the contracted price of $591,630. Is there a second? A second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? And the motion carries unanimously. Item number 10 F, consider decision on petition R24-155, a request by Station South LLC to reszone 21.29 acres. Mr. James,

thank you. Good evening. [clears throat] Um, I'd like to please enter my staff report into the record. So, R2415 Station South conditional district resoning. So, a little background on the basics of this reszoning is the current site you see hashed on the screen uh is currently used as a single family residential or vacant. Um the zoning is corporate business conditional district. The proposal is for a mixeduse uh district with apartments, town homes, commercial and some vertical mixed use. Um and they are proposing to go transitoriented development residential conditional district. um little timeline of of how we got here. Um this public hearing was all the way back in March of 2025 and following the uh that was the planning board meeting in um in March. Um and the original town board meeting was to be held in April. However, that was continued to this date due to the 1 cent sales tax vote for the commuter light rail uh funding which ultimately did pass. So the light rail funding has happened. Uh so that's why we're here today to hear this again for the final u version. Um on the screen and a lot of this is is redundant but we haven't heard it since since March. So we'll look at uh some of these items again. [clears throat] On the screen you see the context map of the surrounding land uses. Um you see um quite a bit of uh multifamily with CO crossing to the north. Uh you've got some um senior housing to the west as well as Caldwell station and charter [clears throat] Caldwell station which is under construction. Um there is some light industrial to the east of this project

and some various other um items that are coming uh online here soon to the south. Um as far as the site plan goes, uh again this is a mixeduse subdivision. There's 20 total buildings, uh two uh solely commercial buildings, there's eight apartment buildings. Um, two of those apartment buildings also have vertical mixed use um, composed within the pedestrian village. They're in the center. Um, we have eight town home buildings and one parking deck that will be utilized for the um, for the rail uh, depot as well as um, for the commercial buildings within. There's 348 up to 348 total residential units. uh and 64 town homes, six mixeduse town homes. Um the applicant has proposed five attainable units within the uh project. Two at 80% AMI and three between 80 and 120 AMI. [clears throat] On the site plan, you see the town homes there to the uh to the top of the screen. uh followed by the extension of Seagull Street that will be a minor thoroughare that will cut through this project giving street frontage to the apartments below that. And then you see the nucleus around an urban open space there in the middle with their clubhouse and the parking deck to the bottom left. And along the rail, you'll have more apartment buildings and one vertical mixeduse building. along uh that light rail is also the future greenway. So there are six modification requests. Those are modifications to the

ordinance. One is block length on block uh block two and block five at 596 ft and 639 ft uh along Seagull Street. Um because of the curvature of the road and on street parking and crosswalks, staff believes that that will help slow traffic and so those are appropriate block lengths. The applicants have proposed to do one row of street trees along Seagull Street instead of two and due to the urban conditions and the tree grates staff believes that is appropriate. Um there are there is a s a small amount of sideyard parking with apartment building uh type uh sideyard parking is not permitted but with a large subdivision of this size sometimes those do get mixed in with driveways so that is appropriate. Uh the floor area ratio with a tod um we're we're looking to do less surface area and more vertical and density. Um so TOD does require an F which is a calculation to lower the amount of uh just unused space like parking or um in this case we've got a big urban open space. So that F has been asked to be lower in this development. staff um deems this appropriate due to the amount of urban open space at the nucleus that uh makes that um uh F um naturally smaller. So that is appropriate recom or appropriate modification to the ordinance. Um and then the TOD district um tries to balance the amount of commercial and residential within the halfmile walking distance. Um there is more commercial in this u in this proposal

um due to the light rail sorry the commuter rail red line uh station. So staff believes that with that and the amount of already um dense residential in the area that lowering the amount of um or increasing the amount of commercial with that ratio uh is appropriate. And then the town home section on the north side of Seagull Street, um they are asking to go six feet higher to allow one more floor for marketing purposes. And uh you'll see those elevations soon. and uh staff believes due to the urban conditions here that that is appropriate. Um on the screen you see the vertical mixeduse building. So, it's a it's a good blend of modern um and urban with uh some more suburban type roofing mixed in. Uh which the applicants um have proved that with some renditions throughout that this does meet a todr style of of of design. You see the commercial there at the bottom. This uh elevation is for the apartments that are mixed throughout. Three-story apartments. Similar design without the first floor commercial. You've got the town homes uh there on the top and the clubhouse below it. All very similar style design as the other elevations. And then this is the onestory um commercial building. Throughout our reviews, we were looking to get um more height and potential second occupiable floor. Um that note on the bottom uh shouldn't be there. We've come to the

conclusion that with the added height of the buildings and that perceived second floor that we are okay with um with one one story and not a second occupiable story, which is why the modification for F has been asked for. Moving on to the 2040 plan. Um there are many reasons why this does meet the 2040 community plan. There in the red is the outline of this development which is in a mixeduse center. Mixed use center uh asks for a lot of different items. The main thing here is the encouragement of the transit and the density around that. So with that said, there's a lot of emphasis on form and flexibility to allow less parking in to there's uh this follows design principles, mix of land uses, uh connectivity, um and again encouraging that transit supported development, which is exactly what this development is with a uh tor designation. Uh back in April, the planning board recommended approval four to three with um all of the um modifications being approved and staff does recommend approval and approval of all of the modification requests um that I spoke about previously. Um it is reasonable to reszone the 21.29 acres. Um staff believes this meets the intent of the TODR and moreover the um being right adjacent to the future commuter rail uh station. This does add that density and commercial mix that we're u that we're looking for. The applicants are here. They have a presentation as well, but if you have questions for me before they start, I'm

here to answer those. Any questions for staff before we hear from the applicant? Okay. All right. We're ready. The applicant wants to come up.

Good evening, commissioners, mayor. Thank you for your time this evening. So, uh, happy to present this, uh, happy to answer questions. Wasn't necessarily planning on presenting this presentation, but if you'd like for me to, I'm happy to do that. you just want to tab through real quick like

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Be my pleasure. Yeah. So, you know, obviously as Jesse said in and first I'd like to start with saying, you know, thank you to everyone. Thank you for your time here tonight. Brian, Jesse, um this really was a collaborative process. We've been working at this for tens of hundreds of hours. And so, I think through that, we've gotten to what is pretty exciting. So, um you know, Jesse walked through the timeline. I think everyone at this point is familiar with the red line and that transit tax is passing. So we are of course at the Sam first stop are working with cats on what that's going to look like. Um we are peak development a local developer just down the road lots of experience in both multif family town homes um retail. So you know mixeduse project like this is kind of core to what we do really excited about it. Um for us the development philosophy is shaping communities thoughtfully through development that serves people places and long-term progress. So you know we're a small team in a sense of a development team. We want to build stuff that we're proud of. We all have kids that we want to leave a legacy to. Um we're excited about trying to build in Huntersville and add to this. And so it's just core to us to make sure that we're excited and prideful of what we're doing. Um I don't think you want to see the 2040 of the plan. Uh that basically says, you know, our our development meets the 2040 plan and the to um this is a lot of repeat of what Jesse said. Sorry about that. Um, and then yeah, the the site itself. So, so I I think Jesse did a great job going over everything. Certainly happy to answer any and all questions.

Any questions for the applicant? Uh, with this being on the the red line, would you were you planning on adding any um security in in the area? Security like on the platform or in the development? Just Yeah, in general.

In general. Um, yeah. So, I safety is a great question, especially with a project this size and, you know, a p public transit stop. You I don't think there's anyone in this room that would say that they visit places that they feel unsafe. Certainly, right, we're going to make sure that this is a safe development. It's how it's successful. It's how we get people here. It's how we get the community involved. So, I I guess kind of two ways to think about safety here. One from the kind of cat side. So, as I'm sure everyone knows, there is a transit board that's been formed that is going to make the decisions kind of for everything red line associated. There actually was an article in the Charlotte Business Journal earlier this week that came out that said that as soon as everyone gets sworn in, which I think is Thursday, um, you know, their intention is to pivot, according to the article, directly to safety, right? How do we make sure the red line is safe? How do we make sure people want to ride it? How do we make sure that it's exciting? So, I'm not a member of that transit board. um they will obviously work on that from the operations standpoint of the train but from the development I clearly am involved and so for us you know safety means a number of things right you know it's got to be well lit it's got to be plenty of lights on the site um there can't be kind of hidden pockets anywhere we will work with architects and consultants you know both during construction and designing for the long term to how to make sure this is welcoming people want to be here people safe feel safe when they are here um to ensure that. So we will make sure that we are putting in any and all measures that they see and and we feel that are needed um which those would name a few. So yeah, safety will be paramount as we think about the red line stop and this development you know being a mixeduse deal that it is.

Um how much of the project will be completed during phase one?

Uh great question actually have a slide on that. So, and this is a rendering by the way if you haven't seen this. So, this is the center park. Um, which obviously you can see lots of people here and uh we'll got to make sure that they feel safe uh to your question. So, on phase one, this is what it looks like for us. So, we will build basically the mixeduse buildings, the apartments, the center nucleus if you will, the kind of village area and the infrastructure for the town homes. um over half of all the commercial that's going to go on this site, which is substantial, will be built in phase one. You know what is I think frustrating when towns think about apartment buildings, right, as standalones is they're just apartment buildings. It's there for the residents and if you're visiting the resident, then obviously you're using it. But that's not what this is. I mean, this is a true mixeduse development. And so unless we put commercial and substantial amounts of it on the ground early, you know, it's just going to feel like an apartment development. So in phase one, we will make sure that over half the commercial gets put in. Um and then we'll make sure the park gets put in, the access, the greenways, everything else. So for all intents and purposes, you know, even in phase one, this should feel like a true mixeduse development.

Um if you could um what was the total number of units altogether? Uh so it's 200. It's up to 278 apartments. So 278 apartments. 64 town homes. Okay. And then um there's like these liner units I can kind of show you on the screen. So if you see against the parking deck right there um there's six units right there. Okay. So right so we're looking at around three. Thank Thank you Jesse. 348 total. My brain's not mathing with that.

Understand it's an overload mine too. Um and so you came up with the number of five attainable units. Could you kind of give me some elaboration on that? And are you open or willing to consider maybe later on once the project has been approved? I mean, if the project is approved, but if the project comes to fruition, are you willing to consider increasing the number um later on if possible?

Absolutely. So, I I think maybe a little bit of background might be helpful for this question. So, you know, I have some business partners. We've been in development for a long time. We've done a lot of senior housing. with that senior housing. You know, we've done a sub substantial amount of attainable housing with that. Um, with a project like this, you know, as we've collaborated to have the mixeduse nature, a really high-end kind of uh tooriented design, things just get really expensive really quickly. And so what we've done is from the beginning, you know, we said, okay, we don't think we can have any unfortunately, but here's where we're at. We added one, we added two. As costs came down, we continued to add more. five is is kind of where we think we are today to make sure we can capitalize the project so it doesn't stall. Uh but the answer to your question is absolutely. If we can continue to bring construction costs down, we will continue to re-evaluate and even without direction, right? We'll continue to think about what's best for the community, how we drive that and what that does that look like. The last thing I'd like to say is we're not trying to set a high water mark for rents at this project. You know, we are trying to set a high water mark in terms of quality for a mixeduse development. We want to be proud of this, but we're not trying to say, "Hey, we got to be the most expensive apartment complex in town." If we can do that and accomplish that, right, even if they're not true attainable houses, right, we can still bring the cost of living down for residents that might want to be here.

Thank you. I appreciate it. My pleasure. Um would you be willing to um put in um some art infrastructure or public art?

Absolutely. Yeah. So um you know Susan has been wonderful in helping us think through art and what does this look like? I'm a huge proponent in working local. You know I own a restaurant in Charlotte. I bought it. It was one that shut down. The reason I bought it is because I didn't want the city of Charlotte to lose it. So for us, you know, as we think about the history of this line, art, bringing the community into this, I think that the only way to really activate it is to have, you know, local artists, whether we're buying their pieces, whether we're running processes, right, that we, Susan, and I have definitely committed to at this point um in order for to allow them to design art pieces that we can put in the project to not only fund the buildout of that, but also maybe award prize money. So absolutely willing to commit to art installation on this project, work with the local community and make sure that they feel uh engaged and and you know like they care too.

Any other questions for the applicant? Commissioner Small, I have one more question. Thank you. Um can you tell us uh what the roads how the roads would navigate around the property? Absolutely. And I don't know is this a laser by chance? So I don't Well, I guess y'all can't see the laser. Sorry. So, there's a few things that we're doing here, right? So, obviously Oh, thank you. Draw on if you want. Nice. I can't teach you. I don't know.

Okay. Well, you just did. Thank you. So, you know, this is obviously 115. There's there's going to be a four-way lighted intersection right up here that we'll connect. So, at this four-way lighted intersection, part of what we'll do with station south is we'll improve that intersection. We're going to widen it. We've worked with NC to DOT and have committed to a system that allows that intersection to be a little bit more efficient with how the medians work. So, we'll build all that. There will be a, you know, turn lane into the development and then you'll come in. In addition, you know, we are obviously privately funding this road here, which is called Seagull Street. So, Seagull Street, I think as everyone knows, is a major thoroughare that'll run parallel to 115 ultimately connecting south to Sam Fur and then ultimately north to Maze Road. So, you know, the goal of Seagull Street is to alleviate congestion from 115, help that kind of intersection. In addition to that, if you, if you'll bear with me, and I'm sorry, if you're heading south down 115 towards Sam Fur, we are going to build out an additional left turn lane under Sam Fur. So, as people are coming south, you know, they can go right on Sam Fur straight across or and we'll build another left. So, help that intersection as well. There are tons of infrastructure improvements going on in this area, not only the ones I just listed with station south, but overall to try to help with some of that infrastructure. Um, you know, the the local office here, Steven Trot, NC DOT have been instrumental in working through all that and we feel like we have a really good kind of plan. So, that's the list of what we're doing.

Thank you for that. Um, you did mention Maze Road. Yes. So, does that mean Maze Road would be redesigned there with the hill and where the trucks get stuck?

Yeah, that's a great question, too. So, the other project that we're associated with, which is Cwell Crossing, um is tasked with and will be working on that exact crossing. So as I think you know um this intersection when it gets built out as a part of coal crossing will shut down the maid roads maze road crossing which is really steep and tractor trailers get stuck as well as the coal station and that project will also build out basically widen coal station road from maze make it two lanes bring it up to state standards um and that will all now kind of route through that with that intersection. So the other good thing is now if you're coming off maze, right, you won't have to just try to jump out in traffic and play Frogger. You can just come down, you know, hit the stop light and now obviously have a lighted uh left right there.

Thank you for that. Yeah, absolutely. Any other questions?

No questions. Okay. Are we ready for a motion for item 10F? I make a motion to approve petition R2415 considering the proposed resoning petition R2415 station south. The town board approves with the following conditions. Number one, approval of the block length modifications request for block two and five as seen on page RZ3. Number two, approval of the modification request to only require one row of street trees along Seagull Street. [snorts] Number three, approval of the sideyard parking modifications as requested as shown in the resoning plan with appropriate screening. Number four, approval of the modification request request to allow F of buildings with office and restaurant uses to be lower than the required ratio as set forth in 3.2.13A. Number five, approval of the modification request for relief from article 3.2.13e. Number six, approval of the modification request to increase the allowable height of attached homes to 36 ft. Number seven, a modification of note 19 to include an art piece not less than $5,000. Number eight, all other minor staff comments are addressed. It is reasonable and in the public interest to reszone the approximate 21.29 29 acres described herein as it is consistent with the envisioned uses of development patterns set forth in the Huntersville 2040 community plan. The proposal is consistent with Huntersville 2040

community p plan policies LU1.1 5.1 6.1 7.1 8.1 8.3 T1.2 2 and T.1 T1.3 and furthermore meets the intent of the TOD-R zoning district by providing a rich mix of services and housing in a pedestrian village format with close proximity to a transit station. Is there a second? A second. Any discussion?

Yep. I will be supporting this project. I really like it. I like that it's forward thinking and is incorporating the future transit plan in the design. I appreciate the affordable units that you're allocating and I love the fact that it's mixed use. So, thank you. Any other discussion, Commissioner Rivers?

Um, I too am in support of this plan. Um, I again appreciate the attainable housing, but also I appreciate the land owners who came in support of this project and they've actually sat down and they've talked to you because generational land is a big deal for me and to know that the family is in support of this says it speaks volumes. So I I think that this definitely um speaks volumes to your work and what you are bringing and I look forward to seeing what this project can do. Thank you.

I too will be supporting this project and I think it is a true vibrant mixeduse development. We talk about the affordable housing units but sometime we fail to talk about um the small businesses. I truly believe that this is a project that will help the other nearby businesses in our area. Any other discussion? Commissioner Cordet.

Uh I also talked with uh June and I was really excited after meeting with her about how excited she was about this um this project and uh the developer and chatting with the developer um he I I was very excited to see uh what they wanted to put forward and um and doing the public art won it for me. Great. All right. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? And the motion carries unanimously. Item 10G, consider a petition, consider a decision on petition TA25-01, a request by R. Todd Hersshfield. Miss Pritchard.

Good evening. Thank you so much. Tonight, we will be considering TA210, which will amend articles 3.2.3 2.3 and 9.18 of the zoning ordinance to allow heisa stops with conditions on properties in the general residential zoning designation. The applicant is R. Todd Hersshfeld who is here tonight and has a presentation. And as I stated, the text amendment would allow hell stops as a use permitted with conditions in the GR zoning district and add related conditions to the use. At the November 19th, 2025 planning board meeting, the board unanimously recommended denial of the text amendment as it is currently written. However, they recommended that the town board direct staff to create a staff-driven special use permit category for helellis stops in residential districts. Staff does recommend denial of the request as it is written as well. Um, should it be the will of the board to have Helellis stops in the general residential zoning designation, they would recommend um a special use permit. And with that, I'll take any questions you may have for me.

Any questions? Um, okay. So, maybe for clarity for me, I'm everybody here is super smart. I'm just No, I'm just trying. But no. Um, in regards to the special use permit, can you just kind of give us some context about why the use of the special use permit versus um I guess the way that it's being presented today? Was was there a reasoning in regards to that or why that was recommended?

Yes. So, the text amendment as it stands right now says that he stops would be allowed in connection to residential uses in the general residential zoning district. cart blanch flat out with some conditions of course, but it would be allowed in any residential property zoned GR and that that was the concern of the planning board that it was just it could be any property in GR. If helis stops were be to be considered by a special use permit, it would be a quasi judicial proceeding. um staff would have the opportunity to sit down and take each site on a case-byase basis, look at the context of where it is, how much land there are, surrounding uses, things of that nature, and then come to bring it before the board for their final decision. So, it really just allows for kind of more control over where they can go and all that good stuff. So, in order to have heel stops with a special use permit, there would have to be an alternate text amendment allowing adjusting our ordinances to say that they're allowed through special use permit or not allowed, but would be Yeah. Okay. So, okay, that's what I need to know.

Also, I do want to point out that just by directing staff to research and propose a text amendment, that does not mean that it's going to get approved. It still has to go through the normal process um with a public hearing. um and also board consideration. So, it would be the majority of the board that would be required to approve it if the um if staff is directed to research that topic and propose a text amendment. Any other questions for staff? All right. Thank you. Would you all like the applicants presentation? Yep. Yes. Okay. You can come up like

[snorts]

All right. Thank you. Uh appreciate everybody's time tonight. Um it's good to see everyone again and uh try and keep this as quick as I can. Uh I want to start by uh acknowledging staff's recommendation that was just mentioned. While staff recommended denial of the original text, they also stated that the town wishes to allow residential helistops. The appropriate mechanism would be special use permit. I view that recommendation as constructive guidance and that's exactly why I'm here tonight. My goal has always been to follow the town's preferred and most appropriate process. I respect the board must protect the integrity of the ordinance and I also appreciate that the special use permit process exists. So unique responsible opportunities can be considered rather than automatically blocked. [sighs and clears throat] That is why I believe the SU SUP framework works for everyone. It keeps full control with the town, provides transparency, protects the residents, and gives me a clear accountable path forward that aligns with your guidance. These are not just suggestions. These are commitments I'm willing to accept as enforceable conditions. I want the town to remain fully in control and I'm comfortable with operating under operating within clear boundaries as stated already by the FAA and now with the town. As you see on this slide, all of the concerns that were raised by the staff initially, noise, precedent, and compatibility are exactly what the SUP process is designed to address. This isn't about bypassing concerns. It's about resolving them through conditions. Um, I want to uh share this slide and that um a few of the commissioners that I were able to meet with suggested I reach out to some of my neighbors and get their support. I made a point to engage with neighbors directly and respectfully. Support was invited, never

pressured, and neutrality was also always respected. Um, I've sent a lot of these letters that uh I will not read them obviously. Um, but I will point out that all three neighboring properties to my residents, as seen here by the Siglers, the Greens, as well as the Cowins on all three sides of my property, have uh sent letters of support. um additional letters of support that you may think don't make aren't as relevant, but um off of Hagers's Ferry. Both of these are where I was originally landing my helicopter before we ran we we realized that this was an ordinance issue. Um so they know the sound, they know the wind turbulence that the helicopter rotor makes. Um and they supported it. This neighbor is uh also directly across the street from my property. Um, as well as this neighbor who actually owns these two lots as seen here. Um, this neighbor is in the back of the cove. I would never go there, but I appreciated his support and he wanted to send a letter. So, that's where that one is. What slide are you going? Okay. So, um, I also want to be transparent that not everyone has supported this and that's okay. What matters is the ne the neighbors most directly impacted had the opportunity and understand the proposal uh and engaged openly with me. Uh my direct neighbor uh Mr. Feldman who originally supported this proposal later withdrew his support um about 6 weeks later or last Saturday. Uh supposedly he was of the impression that the helicopter was going to be landing on my dock. Um, it's never been part of my plan, but that was just a miscommunication. And he says he changed his opinion when he found out that it was not on the dock and it was on the land.

Um, now I would like to share uh a few videos. Uh, hopefully AV has got this taken care of so it's not too loud. Um, I took the suggestions of some of the commissioners I met with and I visit that visited my property. I was hoping that uh these Oscar worthy home videos might lighten up the presentation a little bit, but I will forewarn you that uh my skills behind the camera are considerably worse than my flying skills. So, my apologies in advance. Um before you play that. All right, we've just cranked the helicopter. Miss Loop, do we

Okay. Okay.

Well, that's gonna make this really difficult, but uh I'll showcase here what I did then. Put me on the fly. So, the helicopter uh was taking a video from a distance of 100 ft, 75 ft, 50 feet, and 25 ft. And then I took a normal lawn tractor as you see on the right hand side there and did the same exact practice. The decibel readings uh in I don't know why this slide's not coming out like it should, but the decibel readings from the helicopter at 100 ft was 70. The tractor was 67. The helicopter at 75 ft was 74. The tractor was 74. The the the helicopter at 25 ft was 82 dB. The tractor was 80 dB. And within five feet, I was literally standing underneath the rotor. I'd love to show you. Maybe uh next time I can just do photos. Um was exactly the same as the tractor. So, I think that's important um to note um just because of the fact that I know a lot of people haven't been around helicopters. They don't know how loud they are. they assume that they see him on TV and and uh they're, you know, loud and and Blackhawk Down videos and stuff like that. So, I was hoping to be able to showcase that tonight. So, I'm sorry I can't share that video. Unfortunately, the next video uh you'll have to stop, too. Uh can we go back to the still? Yes, ma'am. Next one. Oh, okay. I didn't know I could do Okay. Okay. You can't stop it. Okay. So, what that video was showing uh was um how much wind is actually created

by the rotor at different distances. And so everything from 100 feet out all the way to the actual helipad. Um, we took small cones and we put uh ribbon on them so you could see flight direction and how much disturbance was made. And the actual helicopter did not disturb the ground until it was about 5 to 10 feet above the actual cone. That was a great example that uh maybe we'll see some other time, but I think it was just a way for me to show that, you know, I think some of my neighbors may have concerned um that if I'm landing over the lake at my pad that they may, you know, their leaves may blow away or, you know, some debris may flow away. My my neighbor that is concerned about this is 450 ft away. I'm sitting here today telling you that the turbulence at best was felt with between 50 feet and about 70 feet at best and that was very little. Um so back to this um you know I completely understand the concerns that uh about the noise but it's worth putting in perspective uh the personal helicopter like mine is only producing between 80 and 95 dB and that is for less than a minute. One of my videos shows my exact landing time and it's about 90 seconds. The entire process is 90 seconds to land the helicopter. A lawn mower. You're blowing you're mowing your lawn 30 45 minutes. It's much longer. So, it's it it sound is very similar to a leaf blower or shown as I did with the lawn mower, but it's uh much longer. And in other words, it's a brief predictable sound that quickly um that drops quickly with distance uh not a constant one. Um, [laughter] this is a this is kind of a demonstration that I'll try and do

without the video as well that shows um, for context sake, helicopters don't need airports, but airplanes typically are landing on airports that are 75 to 100 ft wide. This shows in this slide that my combined lot is 273 feet, which is way greater of a buffer of standard uh safety uh than a than a normal runway you would see out at the airport. My arrival and my departure path is entirely overwater. Um and the flight path would always remain more than that 100 foot that we just talked about. This [clears throat] was another video that we can skip through, but is essentially showing the exact distances here of the uh the the area that I currently land a helicopter versus where I would have proposed to land the the helicopter. So simply replacing the ground with the water uh illustrated this point pretty well that proposing the the landing location over the lake is much wider and much more open area allowing for my arrivals and departures to not fly over any homes or obstacles. And I promise that's the last video. Um I would like to respond directly to the staff's concerns. I I recognize like I said that um not a lot of people have firsthand experience of helicopters. So my goal was to show through this video, these videos the context uh the noise is comparable to yard equipment and that the uh downwash is very minimal. Um with respect to the tree preservation uh and my sighting, my current plan requires minimal removal of any trees for where we want to put this landing area, sport court area, and no trees would be removed from in the designated tree area. Um, and then as far as regard to lack of

precedent, while Huntersville, uh, while private helic heli stops are less common in Huntersville, there are at least eight private helipads within 2 miles of my property in a similar Lake Norman neighborhood, operating safely and compatibility and compatible with residential areas. And back to my key point here, a special use permit does not establish precedent. It allows the town to eval evaluate the specific property under specific conditions. Lastly, uh the uh one of the examples that was that came up that um was that Charlotte was had a 400 foot setback. That's not apples to apples comparison is what I was going to share. The setbacks are rules are designated for dense urban neighborhoods whereas this site is a halfacre footprint with 270 feet of shoreline. That said, Charlotte's approach does reinforce an important point that residential heli stops are permitted only with strong safeguards in place, which is exactly what this special use permit processes to provide. So for example, the town could require operational conditions such as minimal altitudes uh required to fly over structures to further uh ensure safety and compatibility. I don't know why the slides are not showing likely coming through there. Um well so what what has changed since my original uh submission? I've listened. I've adjusted. I've clarified the proposal today is more refined. It's more transparent and more aligned with both this staff and the neighbors feedback uh than when I started this process. Uh I just want to in closing I want to thank the mayor, mayor prom, all the commissioners, the staff uh for this evening for the thoughtful consideration you've given to this request over the past two months. I want to be very clear

about my ask tonight. After the planning committee's guidance on November 19th, I fully agree that special use permit is the appropriate and responsible path forward. I'm no longer seeking a zoning text amendment. I'm simply asking for the opportunity to have this request reviewed for special use permit. Throughout this process, I've made it a priority to engage directly with neighbors who would be most impacted. I've listened to their concerns, clarified details where there was any misunderstandings, and adjusted my approach where appropriate. As a result of those conversations, and the majority of my closest neighbors have chosen to support my effort, the special use permit allows the town to retain full control, apply clear, enforcable conditions, and evaluate the request based on the specific characteristics of this property. That level of oversight is appropriate and is something I welcome. Tonight, I respectfully ask the board to allow this request for special use permit framework consistent with the staff's recommendation, the planning committee's guidance. Thank you for your time, your consideration, for your service to town of Hersville.

Thank you. Do we have any questions for Mr. Hersshfield? Commissioner Corals, you say it's about 90 seconds to for the landing process. What is the um amount of time for a departure? And my reason for asking is when I visit with you, there was a lawnmower down the road from you or down the street from you and I inquired with you, u was the helicopter louder than the lawnmower and I know I stood out there with you for about 45 minutes and the guy was still out there. So, as far as your departure, how long does it take for you to get everything set up and warmed up and ready for um take off?

I actually had a really good video for that, Commissioner. Um the startup process to to get the helicopter up to speed is actually much quieter obviously than the actual departure when you're pulling power. When you're pulling power and departing from the area, it depends on how much power you pull. But when you're departing from the area, as it would have been seen in my video, it's still less than 100 dB, which is like a rock contest. And it's much faster than the arrival. When you're arriving, you're slowing your inertia. You're slowing your speed. You're slowing down and getting the helicopter slowed down for control and into the into the space. When you're departing, you want to get speed and altitude because that's safety. Speed and altitude is safety um in in any in any environment in a helicopter. [clears throat]

You showed the um your landing and takeoff path according to FAA. Um, what what are some of the dos and don'ts you can't do in your helicopter? Could you hover over your neighbor's house?

No, you can't. Um, as a matter of fact, uh, the last helicopter, I'm sorry, the last presentation I shared, uh, 14 CFR 91 and that is helicopters may be landing safely on private property. um no careless or reckless act uh is is able and pilot is always fully in operational control. So you and I could fly drive over to where my helicopter is in Concord. We could take off and go right around the lake. We could go we could fly a couple hundred feet right here above town hall. There's no restrictions on altitude in the helicopter. But if we're unsafe, if we're doing something, we're trying to like skirt the side of a building or even if we wanted to go downtown in Charlotte and we got approval into the Bravo space, we can literally fly between the buildings legally. But if we go close to the buildings within 500 ft or something stupid that uh and we're acting stupid, then they're going to shut us down. I don't want to lose my FAA license, my pilot license. So, it's up to it's up to pilot uh safety regulations based on that uh CFR.

And the last one is not a leading question, but standing where the landing pad would be, where your pickle ball courts would be, um if this was denied and you sold the halfacre lot, I'm sorry. If this was denied and you sold the halfacre lot, sir,

for someone to build a home, can you explain to us what will happen to those trees? I mean, they they would take all those trees down, I would assume, to be able to build anything over there of any size. Um, the the way the pad is set up or the sport court that I'm planning to be able to use is about 40 by 20. The helipad that you did see in the still there is about 10 by 10. Um, so it's not much larger than what you saw in that photo photo, but it is substantially smaller than what you would have to do if you wanted to clear a lot for building a house. Thank you. Sir,

um [clears throat] you mentioned in the presentation um that you're you're willing to um consider daylight hours and you would consider um I guess adjusting those based upon like daylight savings versus um fall back, you know, um like now it gets darker earlier. So when you're saying like daylight hours, can you give a definitive time frame? Is it 8 to 5? Is it, you know what I mean? 7 to four.

Yeah, I can actually Well, you guys can't see this, but um so what is considered um civil daylight, twilight, is an hour before sunlight. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. An hour after sunlight and an hour before sundown. I would be willing to put restrictions in that say that I would not fly outside of those hours. So, you know, just for example, I wish I could show this. Uh, morning civil twilight is 6:57 this morning. Sunrise was 7:25. Sunset is 512 and evening civil twilight was is 540. So you could make restrictions based on the FAA regulations that are already in place saying this applicant would only be able to fly an hour after morning civil twilight or an hour before civil twi something like that something along those lines or just from sunset to sundown whatever is established. We get this information as pilots for for flight planning and we have to make sure we stay within it. One other thing that's important to know with with helicopters, you know, I'm a they're VF my helicopter is a VFR helicopter, so vision flight rules. So I can't fly if the weather's bad. I can't put the helicopter in the clouds. Can't like an airplane. So there's a lot more restrictions around helicopters in that capacity as a well as well as time.

Yes, ma'am. So, I want to make sure that I was following what you were saying earlier was that you are requesting that the board deny the text amendment that's on our agenda this evening and then subsequently request staff to then research and possibly establish a special use permit for helistops in the town of Huntersville. Is that what I'm understanding? Yeah, mayor. I've been learning as I go along here. I'm shadow water. I've listened to what the attorney has suggested in that last comment before I came up here and I think that's the appropriate way to go. I mean, I will do whatever you feel is safe and that you would approve

um in this condition. But yeah, I it sounds like I went down the wrong path originally um with the text amendment that I was suggested and that this was the most appropriate way to make sure that it is case by case approved. So, if the board were to ask staff, Teresa, just to reiterate what the town attorney said, there's no guarantee that the board would then approve that, but it's just an alternate pathway at this time. Yes, ma'am. That's what I understand.

And also, even if the board does direct staff to come up with a text amendment and that text amendment is approved to create a special use permit category, you would still have to apply for the special use permit once that category has been established. And there is no guarantee it would be approved. It's a quasi judicial process. All right. Any other questions for the applicant or staff? Um, and you may not know this. So, the current ones that are out there like in Cornelius, are those in coes kind of where you're at or are those more on the peninsulas?

There's a I do know of about I know a good amount of them. Um, and some of them are landing on inner lots, some of them are landing on docks. So, there's a mix. Some of them are landing in back coes, and some of them are landing on major open water channels. Um, but again, it really just comes down to the ordinance. And unfortunately for me, Huntersville is the only one that has an ordinance over helicopters uh in this area that touch the lake. Any other questions? Commissioner Swood,

I just have a comment and I want to commend you on your research and the due diligence that you um have done on this and you've been out several times uh to to present this. You have a beautiful cove and thank you for inviting me out to to look at your property. Um and the cove is is beautiful as well. So, thank you for that. I appreciate you coming out and it is my full intention to keep the cove beautiful uh and and to just be able to utilize the helicopter in that cove. But thank you for saying that. Other questions or comments? Okay. Do we have a motion for item 10G?

I make a motion to deny petition number TA25-10, a request by R. Todd Hirzfield to amend articles 3.2.3 2.3 and 9.18 of the zoning ordinance to permit conditions private helops in the general residential zoning designation. The town board is aware and considered the planning board's recommendations that any relevant portions of the 2040 Huntersville community plan. As part of this motion for the denial, the t the town board further directs staff to research and draft a text amendment for the board's consideration that creates a special use permit category to permit helipads with a special use permit in the general residential zoning designation.

And is there a second? I second. Any discussion? Yep.

Um, first I want to say I think the planning board did a phenomenal job with this proposal. Uh, this is a very unique application. Uh, this will not be the last time that a request like this come before us. Uh, we are a futuristic board. Uh there's already FAA approval for testing uh for drones um as a mode of travel, but not just for um little small packages, but it's for passengers as well as cargo. Um [clears throat] so we're not asking uh staff to um research this. Um, well, let me change some words. And with the special with the drones, um, I did some research and I learned that, um, the decibb for your H44 are between 85 and 95 dB. As to commercial drones hitting 70 to 90 and the larger drones that they're doing testing right now that will carry passengers and um, cargo is anywhere between 80 to 90 dB. So, we're looking at in the future we could have drones with the same amount of decibb bringing people around as well as cargo as a helicopter. This again is especially is is unique. It's the first time it's come to us and I think put doing what um the planning board suggested at least researching and putting this together would be the the direction to go as we're forward thinkings forward thinkers. I think um what confuses a lot of people is the pitch of the sound of a drone versus the pitch of a sound of a helicopter. To me that is saying you have a tenor versus a bass in singing. We I think we should block out uh the vehicle uh because in the very near future it could be a year from now. that could be before we um up

for re-election that could be someone proposing to um drop human be or people as as transportation or that's or cargo. So I'm hoping this board at least allow the opportunity for the staff to do the research as as the town attorney said there's no guarantees but it's putting us um as forward thinkers and not kicking the can down the road. So, I'm hoping my colleagues um look at this and say, "Okay, we're not approving anything. We're denying the um proposal as it's currently written. We're asking staff to go back, do some research, um work with the experts as we put something together because again, I'm going to throw it out there. I said it five times. I'm saying it so it can stick." Say it three times. We're FAA have already approved testing for drones with passengers and cargo. It's just a different vehicle.

Any other discussion? Commissioner Walsh.

First, uh, first of all, I'd like to echo Commissioner um, Smallwood's um, comments. I mean, you have you've gone the extra mile to um to to to do your research and to present and and many other things. However, I um am not all at all in favor of helicopters. You, by the way, you have a beautiful house. um the cove there is it's hard to see on a map um it you know we see the the the number of feet uh between the shorelines but it's hard to imagine until you stand there and look at this qu cove and think hey if I owned a home there would I want to see a helicopter coming in and out there's a lot of talk about noise um when people buy houses they're expected to you know cut their lawns and blow their leaves but by allowing a helicopter or or something like this. We're introducing extra noise into a quiet neighborhood. And so I'd like to make a substitute motion. I make a motion to deny petition TA2510, a request by R. Todd Hersshfield to amend article 3.2.3 and 9.18 of the zoning ordinance to permit with conditions private helistops in the general residential zoning designation. The town is aware and considered the planning board's recommendation and any relevant portions of the Huntersville 2040 community plan. The town board is not going to recommend that the planning staff create a special use permit category to permit Helellis stops with a special use permit in the general residential zoning designation.

Is there a second for the substitute motion? Um, yeah, I second. Okay. So, now you need to debate the substitute motion and have a vote on the substitute motion. If it passes, it takes the place of the original main motion. Y All right. So, let's have discussion on the substitute motion.

Yes, madame mayor. Um, we shouldn't be interested in the hypothetical. Um my friend and colleague mentioned if he had a home there that's he doesn't have a home there. Um the applicant have presented to us neighbors who currently would be affected. The neighbors beside each neighbor around him that would be directly affected. They don't care. They support this application or this proposal. It's up to them if they decide to sell their house later after they've approved or or gave support If they can't sell that house, that is up to them. If someone want to purchase the home and see that there's a helipad there or or helicopter there, it's up to them to decide if we want to purchase that home or not. So again, we should not um make any votes based on prejudice. We should go based on on the merit of all everything we vote on. And again, if you have the neighbors that's supporting, this is factual. This is the now. If we know that FAA is a proven um future modes of transportation, I don't see why we should not at least allow staff the opportunity to research and put together a special use category. We direct staff to go back and um do other type amendments. What makes this different?

Um I agree with my colleague Commissioner Corals. I think that um with the special use permit that actually gives us that opportunity to look at it case by case. Um I also agree that with having the support of the neighbors that are directly affected definitely helps to support and the FAA's um approval in in this in this um with the helicopters and the helistops. Um we have to be forward thinkers. Again, we can't go off of hearsay. We can't govern off of that. And and we do, you're right, Commissioner Corals, we direct staff to review other things. So why is this one any different? Why is this project any different? So I would have to agree with my colleague, Commissioner Corals in regards to the special permit use.

Commissioner [clears throat and snorts] Walsh, wrong way. I think it's important to note that no, not all the neighbors were in favor. Obviously, we all received many of the same letters. Some were for, some were against. for inconvenient. Sorry. Seriously. Sorry.

Good. Um and and so um so so yeah, there there are going to be some for some against um and there [snorts] were probably several others that may not even know this is happening tonight. In fact, when I um met with Mr. Hersshfield. I said, um, I just looked on Polaris and said there are seven properties that are around the cove. You know, what somebody's doing across the street or down the street, um, whatever. But it would have been nice to know what those seven property owners thought. Regardless, it was still a very quiet cove. Um, and the thought of a helicopter coming in there. Not sure about drones and and future of drones. That's that's uh something for for another day. But um there were some for and some against.

Yeah, I I your beautiful house and you're I really enjoyed meeting you. Um I I got a few other emails um is what what got me is some of the neighbors were said they were impacted and so I I didn't want to you know that it's a beautiful quiet cove and I just didn't want to impact their um you know their their wishes. I I do see there's a lot of people who are in favor and I I respect that as well. Um if there's a possibility to put out on the water, I I may be okay with that. Any other discussion? Commission,

just to speak to what I heard my colleagues say about when we direct staff to research something, this is just speculation, but um we direct them to do research on something that impacts a number of people versus a select few group of people or a select few people in general. So, just throwing that out there. Um I appreciated the presentation, the noise comparisons. I personally am not willing to make the change that's so inconsistent with how other municipalities handle helis stops even with a special use permit.

Commissioner, hi. Uh yes, for me it's not so much about the noise per se. Um all of your your facts were valid regarding lawnmowers and leaf blowers. Um for me it's more about a safety issue. Um it is a beautiful cove. I just wish I could pick your house up and put it at the top um in the open water. For me, that would make me feel more comfortable. Um I do have a question though. Um I know that your dock is not very old. You said just two to three years. Yes, ma'am.

Um would you be able with its current state to be able to put an upper portion upper level on that dock? Yeah, the mayor asked that question in our first meeting and Duke Power does not allow two docks on one property. That being said, I could put I could take the roof off my current dock and make it a helipad like you're referencing

and I I believe I don't want to speak for Mr. Walsh, but I believe he said he would support it if it was over the water. Um, my opinion on that is I I think it's actually safer if it's over land because of not only the size of of what I would have to land on, but you would if you if if you had any kind of issue landing on a dock, you're falling into the water as opposed to on the land. Um, the the the other the other concern with where my house is located, etc. The reason I suggest the special use permit is exactly what I said in my in my in my try I tried to say in my video, but I wasn't able to show was that if my neighbor doesn't want me flying over their house, they don't have to worry about that because the special use permit is going to say this is your flight path and my helicopter is not going to be going over their house. Or you could say, hey, you have to maintain, and this is common in Los Angeles and New York, you have to maintain 300 feet from a from a resident over top of a residence. You can't fly more than 300 feet over residence. I made that number up, but it's a number. Um, you could make that number up and say you can't fly more than 300 feet over a structure. That all puts you back into that fine envelope of where my house is located and allows me to stay within that buffer of safety that that you that uh that you make a valid concern for.

Thank you for that. All right. Any other discussion on the substitute motion? Yeah, I just want to make a clarification. I'm not sure that I said I support anything on a dock. I said I had a boat out there for 10 years and the ones that I saw landing um and they weren't very often were typically on a point or out not flying into a cove but landing on docks out in the water

question for so if this is not um move forward with my motion and you have a farmer um David kid road or whatever um that want to land um on his farm. Is that a no-go? Well, are we locked in on this one piece of property? Currently, as it stands, helis stops are only allowed in commercial districts and it's three of them. It's campus, corporate business. Yeah.

Yep. And so, no, in any residential district, no one could just land a helicopter. No. But Cornelius allows has a different rule. They what? Yeah. Okay. They don't address it in their ordinance. So for my new colleagues, this is saying if we do not allow a staff to put together a special use permit, then no one can land a helicopter in Huntersville.

No one only in those three zones that are allowed by orders. Well, I mean, you know what I mean. I'm not talking about um commercial or things of that nature. We're talking about residential. Yeah. However, Mr. could apply for a different text amendment. He would just have to go through the process all over again. Pay for the text amendment [laughter] again. There is the opportunity. He could also do that as well. He could do that tomorrow.

Okay. So, now we're going to vote on the substitute motion from Commissioner Walsh that um denies the text amendment and then also does not direct staff to um investigator research possibly presenting an as an special use permit process for heistops. And so, um I'm just going to go down the line. Um if you're in favor, Scott Cornet of the substitute motion. I'm opposed. Opposed opposed the substitute motion. Yes. Okay, you flip me. Nick Walsh four. Latoya Rivers opposed. Jennifer Hunt.

Commissioner Corals opposed. Commissioner Smallwood. I am in favor.

In favor. Okay, we have a tie. Um, which means that I break the tie. Um, okay. I got to think for a minute. Okay, I am going to vote opposed to the substitute motion and allow the vote to continue on the original motion from Commissioner Corals. And so I would just restate the original motion so that it is clear what they are voting on now.

Yep. Okay. So now we're going to vote on the original motion um proposed by Commissioner Corals which was to deny the text amendment by Mr. Hersshfeld and then also to direct staff to research and possibly propose to us a special use permit process for HLA stops in um the town of Huntersville. So that you can just do uh all in favor. Yep. So anyone um all in favor of the original motion by Commissioner Corles, please raise your hand. Anyone opposed? Y'all tied again. [laughter] [gasps]

Um okay. So, I'm going to vote in favor of Commissioner Coral's motion to um deny the original text amendment and then direct staff to research the special use permit process. And that is where we are. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Appreciate everyone.

All right. We are on to item 10H. Consider a decision on petition TA25-11 across by Northwood Raven. Good evening. Um I'd like to enter the staff report into the record for TA25-11. Um so this is a um a text amendment proposed by Northwood Raven. Um just as a refresher um the purpose of this text amendment was twofold. One was to requise requirements for attached garages and secondly to revise requirements for mechanical equipment for single family detached homes. Um there are many implications for um revising the requirements for attached garages, but most specifically the applicant um intended to essentially reduce the required setback um for attached garages to um single family detached homes that are located off of an alley. Um so the drawing to your left is where the setback would be reduced um from what it is currently um as well as on the right but more significantly on the left. And then um there was also a request by the applicant for um encroachment of mechanical equipment into the rear yard setback. So options one and two are what is currently allowed by the ordinance for the placement of mechanical equipment on residential properties. So you're allowed to be outside of the sideyard setback and outside of the rear yard setback as shown in options one and

two. The applicant proposed option three which would allow the encroachment into the rear yard setback with screening and um the mechanical equipment specifically for the applicant will be HVAC equipment but this could be also pool equipment or other permanent u mechanical equipment. Um the most significant change was um during planning board meeting, planning board recommended that there is a maximum limit of the encroachment into the rear yard setback. There was concern expressed about um the potential to locate mechanical equipment nearest to a neighbor that might be located at the rear of a property. So that was um an amendment there. Happy to take any questions. Any questions? All right. Is there a motion for item 10H? I make a motion to approve text amendment TA25-11. The text amendment is consistent with policies LU-8.1 and LU-8.2 of the Huntersville 2040 plan.

[snorts] It is reasonable and in the public interest to approve the application because it will allow greater flexibility for setbacks of garages for single family homes. Is there a second? I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Excuse me. I just want to get one clarification. Sorry for that. Um, so Miss Spate, could you go back to the previous slide, please?

I want to get clarification on whether or not staff is also recommending the change in the language of the text amendment as um drafted from a 25 ft to 10 ft max. Is staff also asking for that change? Yes, staff is in agreement with the recommendation of the planning board that there is a maximum encroachment of 10 feet into the rear yard setback. So, would we like to amend the motion to incorporate that portion of staff's recommendation as well?

You can just incorporate that into the motion. Um, I want to just get clarification. You do want the max 10 feet incorporated.

Okay. So, I will pick up from I'll just start over. I'm sorry I can't do it from the middle, but I make a motion to approve text amendment TA25-11. The text amendment is consistent with policies LU-8.1 and 8.2 of H of the Huntersville 2040 plan. It is reasonable and in the public interest to approve the application because it will allow greater flexibility for setbacks of garages for single family homes. staff is in favor of the of amended am I mean the adjusted amount of 10 feet. Am I correct in saying yes?

We want to incorporate staff and planning board's recommendation of a max of 10 feet into the draft of the tax amendment. Yes, that is exactly what I was saying, exactly what you said. Yes. [laughter] And um then we have a second on this motion which Commissioner Corals I second. All right. Any discussion? All those in favor please raise your hand. Any opposed? And the motion carries unanimously.

Item number 10 I consider a a decision on petition TA25-12. Thank you very much. This is text amendment 2512 to amend articles 4.9 and 8.16 to allow detached garages in any yard. The applicant is the town of Huntersville. Uh the text amendment would allow for detached garages to be allow to be located in any yard on lots 5 acres or larger as long as the structure can't be seen from the road. The planning board unanimously recommended approval of the text amendment at the November 19th meeting and staff also recommends approval of this text amendment. This time I'll take any questions you may have for me.

Any questions for Miss Pritchard on this item? All right. Do we have a motion on number uh 10 I?

Yep. Uh I make a motion to approve TA 2512. The town board is aware and considered the planning board's recommendation and any relevant portions of the Huntersville 2040 community plan. In considering the proposed amendment TA25-12, the town board's approves as it increases inconsistency within the zoning ordinance aligns with the town's zoning ordinances with state statute and allows design flexibility for larger lots without altering urban design standards. And is there a second? I'll second.

Any discussion on this item? [snorts] All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? And the motion carries unanimously. [snorts] Item number 10J, consider appointments to various boards and appoint and committees. That's me. Um, as the um, mayor, part of my role is to appoint board liaison to our various committees um, around not just ones for the town, but ones consistent throughout the county. And so, the board has seen these and weighed in. And so, um, we have any discussion about it or we can we have a motion to approve these items? Um, discussion.

Okay. So [clears throat] um when making the decisions, how do you go about making um the decisions based upon um the various boards? [snorts]

Well, each um board has a a variety of factors that go into it. So there's some that meet during the day and so those of us that have full-time jobs, I try to not prioritize those for those of us because it would make it difficult for us to attend. And then that leaves the remaining boards that meet in the evening. And then I try to divide them up by interest of what people have expressed interest in representing or already have um you know been committed to and their interests um policy-wise in the past and then designated that way. And then whatever's left over I try to balance it out so that we all are equally um represented. We each have equal amount of um representative appointments and alternate appointments. Yep. Thank you. Just for clarity I just

Sure. Madame Mayor, is there a reason we don't have anyone for the um planning coordinating committee BCC? [snorts]

That is one that um town manager Anthony Reps and I discussed designated someone to it and we um because it meets so infrequently um we figured that we would do like we did last time and just see um which commissioner was available to attend on that date and then send someone from that um just because um it doesn't meet very often. So it doesn't need to necessarily be represented and then in the future should it meet we would you know find the appropriate person who was available and to do it at the time. You're volunteering for the next one. Well you volunte me for the I did [laughter] hint hint.

How did you um make your decision in regards to the um what is it? Transportation committee. Yeah. So, um I am as the mayor, I'm on the MTC right now as long as that continues to exist. And so that's that requires me to be on the transportation committee. And then Commissioner Walsh is on the CRTPO, so that requires him. And then um thought it would be good to have one of our newer members on the transportation committee so they can learn about all of the various and extensive and in detail commission transportation projects that we have going on. And so that board um that committee meets and discusses upcoming things and makes recommendations um and sometimes those come before the board and sometimes they go to the CRTPO, but they're all um something giving updates on all those um transportation projects that are on our CIP.

Okay. Yep.

Thank you. Would [laughter] you be would you consider adding another person to the transportation and or removing a body? And my reason for asking is we've gotten you know concerns about displacement and I truly believe we got the right person for right two people for our MP um MPTA. Um I think they're um the people that's going to what's right for gentrification or displacement as well as the funds coming to the area. Nothing against um Commissioner Smallwood. She she's new to the board, but she doesn't have that relationship with the people in Parkstown andor um our representatives that will be representing the um town of Huntersville.

Can't add another member because that would require that would make us have a majority um present there at that committee. But Anthony Roberts, are you weighing in?

Yeah. On on the internal transportation committee, ultimately what happens there is we have projects. We may be seeking a grant, you know, um ultimately we have staff members in there and board members. We sort of flesh ideas by board members. Sometimes those ideas or if they're voting on things, it comes back to the full board. Um, no different if we have something that um, we're looking at maybe thinking about doing some policy change in uh, police department and we want to bring that back to the board. We sort of bounce it off those representative and bring it back to the board if there's a policy change needed. Um, I can't remember, I don't have in front of me how many you have on that committee, but obviously if you move to four that would be too many. Um the the stuff that comes to this committee has nothing to do with displacement. I just be honest. We don't we don't get into that. The MPTA is not going to address what we do locally here on the board either. Um how we when we receive the sales tax funds. I'm just getting all out there. Um they're not going to have anything to do with that. That's going to be right here, this board making those decisions, what we do with that sales tax dollars. So, I'm not concerned about displacement with this little local transportation group that we'll be dealing with.

Thanks for the clarity. Any other questions on this item? All right. Now, do we have a motion? I guess I can make the motion. [laughter] No, I would like to make a motion that uh we approve the appointments to the v for to various boards and committees. All right. And is there a second? A second. And any discussion? Thank you all for going along with my uh plan here. And um if we need to make adjustments as we go along, we can. Um all those in favor, please raise your hand.

Any opposed? And the motion carries unanimously. And then we are going into close session. And so I need a motion to take us into close session. Close session, please. I make a motion to go to close session pursuant to NCGS143- What's going on? That got removed from the um agenda. Yes. Yep. Yep. You were right. Yep. You were good. You're good. Keep going. She told me [laughter] to do this.

She's right. I make a motion to go to closed door session pursuant to NCGS4143 uh-318 uh 11A5 to instruct staff or negotiate agents concerning the price of other material terms for the uh acquisition of real property. And is there a second? I second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? And the motion carries unanimously. We are in close session.

wish to.

All right, y'all ready for closing comments? Item number 12. Commissioner Coronett, I'll start with you. Any closing comments? No. I just thank you all for all your help on our first meeting. This was a lot. So, I really appreciate all your support. Mr. Walsh. Nothing other than to say Oops. Nothing other than to say we've been here a long time. Not just today, but a lot of meetings here. And I believe this will be our last time saying motion to adjurnn in this uh in this uh building.

Commissioner Rivers, happy holidays everyone. Enjoy your families, be safe, and um again, if you're if you're sick, stay home, wear a mask, you know, all the things. Protect your people. But no, seriously, happy holidays and enjoy your holiday season. Commissioner Hunt. Happy holidays, Huntersville, and safe travels. Commissioner Quirrels.

Yes. Um to piggyback on Commissioner Walsh that this would be our last time to say meet and journ in this building. I will say that on January 5th of 2026, the Veteran Service Office will open. Uh we gave them a tour. Um well, Bobby gave them a tour this week and they were excited. So January 5th, the Veteran Service Office will be open. So, please, if you're a veteran or know a veteran, tell them just go by and visit to learn uh about benefits and things that they could use in their life. Lastly, merry Christmas to all. Commissioner Smallwood,

uh thank you. That was a great first meeting for our first meeting. Thank you for um uh just welcoming me and um I'm excited to have our next meeting in the new town hall and um just want to wish everybody a merry Christmas. Thank you. Thank you. All right. And I want to um wish everyone happy holiday season. Be safe out there if you're traveling. And as Commissioner River said, stay home if you're sick. Um we love you. Stay home. Um and uh may I have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. And is there a second? Second. Any discussion?

Um I want to say that it is my honor to be the mayor that gets to close out the operations of this town hall. It's a very exciting new era for us and I'm looking forward to having our meeting in the new year. So all those in favor, please raise your hand. Any opposed? Oh my god. [laughter] The motion carries unanimously. We are adjourned. Thank you.