Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Uh, welcome to the March 24th planning board meeting, Huntersville. Officially call it to order. Um, no agenda changes. Number two, approval of minutes. Do I have a motion to approve the meet me meeting minutes from February 24th, 2026? I make a motion to approve minutes from February 24th, 2026 regular meeting minutes. Is there a second? Second.

Any discussion? All those in favor? Lee. Thank you. Don't make life difficult on me, Lee. Come on. Great. Thank you. Um, it does not appear there any public comments, Tracy. No public comments. We will move straight into action agenda item 4A. Consider recommendation on petition R2602, a general resoning of 121 Gilead Road from neighborhood residential to town center.

Um, Mr. Chairman, before we get started, I've got a disclosure to make. Um, while I don't meet the criteria for recusal, I would like to disclose that I spend a a good amount of time and a lot of energy up at adjacent property and I will not let that affect my decision in this matter. Does anyone have any objections? Thank you, Lee. Brad,

good evening. one uh Gilead Road. So, uh here is a general zoning map that shows the parcel in question. It's currently zoned neighborhood residential. The application uh to reszone is to go to town center uh which you see um uh here in the red is the town center and the yellow is the NR. So, here's just an aerial photo of the the site in question. Um here downtown, um the parcel is in red and and immediately to the east, you can see the Hullbrook development right near uh um town center there. So, um again, in regard to a general resoning, it is not a conditional resoning, which you're used to seeing come before the board. So, the conditional resonings have very specific site plans attached to them. um that is not this application. This application is essentially to change the zoning district. Um and so if the resoning is successful, anything under the uh town c center's zoning designation as far as the use would be permitted. Um in regard to making decisions on whether or not a resoning is appropriate, we go to our adopted plans. And so here is a uh snapshot of our Huntersville 2040 community plan uh future land use categories. And so you see on the right hand side uh the property in question. This is inside our mixed use center uh which encapsulates a lot of our downtown. Um so if you look at the caption there, it does uh recommend in this area a mixeduse center, vertical mixed use along key frontages. Um, so this is a a

recommendation that uh really kind of intensifies. When you see the downtown area, it kind of recommends this area be intensified. Uh, also in the Huntersville 2040 plan, it breaks down a section about downtown uh, specifically for this area. And so this specific parcel would be located where the arrow shows in the downtown tier 2 area. that talks about predominantly residential but again smallcale commercial and office uh and key corridors and shifting over to our 2022 downtown master plan which is separate of the Huntersville 2040 plan but uh is a separate plan for the downtown area. It labels this area as a tier 2 uh which again incorporates commercial development into its recommendation as seen there. So, it's very consistent with the 2040 plan in keeping uh your intensity near the intersection of Gilead Road and Highway 115, but at the same time also allowing commercial and intense intenser uses down the Gilead Road corridor. So, here are some uh land use policies that are also consistent with the 2040 plan uh that were outlined in the staff report. resoning criteria. U we highlight these as the the um uh the zoning ordinance also gives us three criterias to look at when dealing with changing the zoning of a parcel. Uh the first of which is what we discuss most of the time whether the proposed reclassification is consistent with the overall character of existing development in the immediate vicinity of the subject property. So does it fit in? Does the land use change fit in with what's surrounding it? U so we have this exercise here of just identifying where the uses are what the uses are adjacent

to the application. So as you see uh the current use of the property even though it's NR is office uh which is allowed in NR. Uh but even to the west mostly to the west there's very many of the same type of things. even though they're zoned NR, uh they have changed their use to office and came up to commercial standards uh with the reuse of the existing buildings. Um so um staff feels that um this proposed use of going from NR to TC to the town center um is consistent with the adjacent development and the mixeduse nature of the corridor on Gilead Road. So therefore considering the uh uh the consistency with the 2040 plan with the downtown plan uh and the consistency with existing development around the subject parcel staff recommends approval and I'd be happy to answer any question. The applicant is here if the board has any questions for them as well.

We'll start with staff. Any any questions for the staff? Uh what about I know we were um concerned with possible people in the front yard of the of the space like if it changes to like a restaurant which was used at the board meeting. So people could use the front yard or could not use the front yard as seating. Let's say

they could um Okay. They there I do I am not aware of anything that would stop them from putting outdoor seating in the front. The only thing that they could not do is block the sidewalk or get too close to the ride ofway. U but if they had outdoor seating and similar the u um if you think of Crafty Beer guys and the outdoor seating that they have um similar similarly zoned so that use would be appropriate as well. Lee, um can you back up a few slides? I'll tell you when to stop. Sure.

Okay. right there one forward. So the reasoning criteria the very first one proposed reclassification is consistent with the overall character of the existing development in the immediate vicinity and then I think you bridged over to adjacent v uh vicinity. So in immediate vicinity what is this property surrounded by zoning wise? So, you got the subject site um immediately to the right and surrounding it is neighborhood residential. Um and then one house over to the right is town center. So, it's immediately surrounded by neighborhood residential zones,

right? Okay. Okay. That that's one of my points. Um, so we went through this before in in in um I think it was November of 2024 of the use of general resoning for the properties that are to the east here on this diagram there, the the two in red, uh, 117 and 115 Gilead. And this board denied it. I think we had one in favor, but subsequently we went on to the town board and they um they approved it with the mayor breaking the tie, I think, as I recall. Um and so those those two properties got general resoning. Can you bring us up to speed on I mean that's been over a year now how those properties are developing.

I do not have any history on the the adjacent properties developing. Um, I can get that to the board if if you'd like to have that. I I'm not familiar with any activity on the adjacent properties for proposed development at this time.

Yeah, I think Brian said he had um met with both the owners separately in the last couple weeks and we don't know where they are. We know that the one was being tested for possibly uh demolition or whatever. It was it was it's been ruled unsafe. The back's off of it. So, that's I'm a little concerned that maybe that the the general resoning didn't quite wash out like we like the at least the town board expected it to. Um Yes, sir. I I don't have any information about any active applications on those properties.

Yeah, because they they've sat now. I mean, 117 set u vacant and with a coming soon sign for probably four years now. and and then uh 115 is like I said it's in such disrepair that I believe it's been condemned or is in the process of being condemned. So, you know, and and the reason we went forward with the general zoning, my understanding was we didn't want to send that owner back through the process to get conditional reszoning. So, now we've got, you know, basically an eyesore in downtown. Um what other questions did I have for you? Oh, just to trying to clarify, you were wondering about the the this the the change the differences between Town Center uh general and NR where where it sits today. Those differences are and I've got them highlighted from our discussion last time is the things that are permitted by Wright in Town Center that aren't permitted in neighborhood residential. uh civic, fraternal, cultural, community, and club facilities, commercial uses, government buildings, hotels, indoor amusement, nightclubs, and music bars. And then there's another set for permitted. So, that's a pretty big difference for granting general reasonzoning when there's no restrictions on it on any of these things. I mean, you can apply for resoning and take some of these things off the table if we've seen some of our developers do in the past. So just to clarify the differences, would you agree that's pretty good assessment of the the the basic differences in property rights between NR and TC?

Yes, sir. Yeah, that's a it's a more intense zone. NR is residential. It's a residential zoning district. Uh town center is our downtown district. Uh so more commercial, more activity would be a permitted use. Um again how staff looks at it from a zoning perspective is this area and all the plans we have it kind of identifies this area for that type of intensification not just residential. So therefore having that type of um recommendation from from our documents makes us more comfortable that this is an area where it would be appropriate.

But that intensification would come could come also through conditional resoning as well. Right. It could it could and you know conditional reszonings a lot of times um you know folks are allowed and and we have our town attorney here to discuss to that as well that people are allowed to ask for general reasonzonings. And you know when you have a situation where um the documentation is complete and there are not uses that would be required to have special use permits where you can look at a specific use and and that is going to have a a significant effect on adjacent property. That's what you look at in that regard. But in this situation, um, conditional reszoning wouldn't be necessary considering how close it is to downtown, the existing uses that are along the Gilead Road corridor, um, and how similar those would be.

So then the town would be okay with a a nightclub in that area by that by your description there. Well, I mean, it would be allowed as by right application. Okay, thank you. So, picking back on that, is there any um time restriction for noise in music? In there, like some kind of 10:00 projected music that we've talked about up here before. So, yes, for noise and restrictions like that, that would be from the the the town's municipal code. Yep.

Um which would apply. And so any use that goes in there, if it's if it's a bar or it's an office, it's a restaurant, it's just an a restaurant that had live music, it would still have a that type of noise restriction that would be enforced by the police department, which is 10 p.m. for I cannot speak for sure what that time is, but there is a a a restriction on that. Okay. And then this might be a better question for the applicant, but this property is historic. So correct, it means it cannot be actually torn down. It can be, I guess, restored and renovated, but that structure as it sits now

can't be taken down and a three-story apartment complex put up there. Correct.

It it cannot be without going through a strenuous process. um the the applicants have had this this property is designated as u Charlotte Meckllinmberg um uh historic place. So they would have to go through and get a certificate of appropriateness from both the county and the town to be able to tear it down. It's possible to be torn down, but there would be a process. And if the state determines that the home is of state, North Carolina state significance, it could be turned down. The application to tear it down, but it is possible to tear it down even though it's unlikely.

Michael, just kind of continue. That's in perpetuity. So this is forever the land which is literally yards from the center of H Hunt Huntersville would be under that particular policy. So it's not like a one-time shot. This is forever and forever forever forever. Sir, I'm sorry. Concerning the reszoning itself to a different zoning once we once it's done, it never goes back to anything else. Correct. It would be in perpetuity unless the town board decided at another time to reszone it to something else.

So someone today who's a good character could say, "Yep, this is great." But a storm comes along, blows it up, they then have the right to do anything they want with it under as a right. Correct.

That that's correct. And another element of the reasonzoning, however, it's looking at our ordinance and and talking about potential tearing it down and rebuilding. It wouldn't just be the historical um hurdles that they would have to go through the applicant. We also have requirements about parking. We have requirements about tree safe, which they have a few specimen trees on the site to where it would be very difficult to put a very large structure um on and tear down the existing one in this location without probably needing some kind of ordinance modification and then have to reszone the property and come back for a conditional reszoning. Um so yes looking at it staff was comfortable to say this situation um this lot likely the ordinance can do its work. We have buffers. We have requirements uh that keeps um you know noise restrictions within the town. We have parking requirements. We have tree safe requirements that keeps development within the realm of feasibility and contextualized within adjacent development. Um, so that's why staff was comfortable in this application. But if someone wanted to come and tear it down and kind of, you know, go high, so to speak, there would be some restrictions that would be very difficult to to overcome in a buy application

in our opinion. Let me ask it a different way. Explain to us what rights are being given up by the town and its citizens by making that change because we're giving up some rights. Is that not correct? We we no longer have the ability to review a plan anymore, a site plan. Correct. Well, I I don't think staff views it as giving up rights.

Well, no, no, that that's not that's not what I asked. I said, "What?" Right. So, your perception of it is differently, but what is it that the town boards no longer have the capacity to do once it's moved from neighborhood residential to town center? So if that was the case, if again if if the town board chose to approve the general reasonzoning, then at that time the town board it the the development of the site would just be based on whatever ordinances are in the books today and they could develop it and use the site how the the ordinance reads today. So that's the general reasonzoning. conditional resoning. The applicant comes in and the it's a legislative pro process where the town board can discuss with the applicant what they're proposing to do and add conditions to the use of the property through the conditional reasoning process. And so if they wanted to add a condition that it would always be a one-story home and it would never be able to be redeveloped again, if they wanted to do that condition and they the applicant agreed to that, then that would be a condition in the zoning. So the two different processes um two different applications. So it it it's just the choice of the applicant has come through and asked for a general application and staff has reviewed it based on that. The conditional reasonzoning would be different. The town board would have different abilities through that different process. So, as I've looked at the prior uh meeting uh where the applicant presented, it was my understanding, you correct me if I'm wrong, that the the historic elements to it really pretty much evolves around just the envelope of the structure and a stairwell. Is that correct?

So, the ordinance that we have in our files mentions the interior and the exterior of the building. Well, it's different than what I heard on the on the recording of the actual earlier. I my I understand was this a stairwell and the envelope of the structure. Envelope of the structure may be the same thing of what I'm referring to as well. Meaning the exterior, right, of the structure. Okay. Okay. I'll rest for a while.

Any other questions for staff? Uh, the applicant is here. Would the applicant like to say a few words or have a presentation? If you'll just state your name, please.

Uh, Brian Hines, HFH Investments. On the on the agenda, it says HFH Partners. That's another that's the entity that developed a walk 23. Great questions. Uh, let me try to start from the beginning. We bought this house from in uh 2020 end of 2020 as the sole purpose of putting a office in there. I have a real estate office in there. We also have civil engineer office in there. Uh the way we're able to do that is through the Huntersville ordinance. We are NR uh but we are a quarter mile away from town center which town center is considered not the zoning but town center is old statesville and Gilead Road. That's what the ordinance talks about. That's how it's referenced uh throughout time. Um, so we were able to put an office in there. We just did a change of use because it was a residential house before that. It used to be a a boy's home, boys and girls home back before the 80s, 60s to 80s or something like that. As we got to learn um, as we were renovating it, we learned just the historical significance of the home and just with the the it's 3,700 feet, basically eight rooms and a bathroom off the back. Uh, feel free to stop by. I'll give you a tour. It's just a neat spot. Uh we found that uh the historic landmarks commission had already identified that along with a lot of other properties in Huntersville having historical significance. That historical significance really came from Leget Bleet Ble the school Ble Elementary was named after him, famous author. Um, and we actually where he lived is where if you're going down Gilly Road, you're leaving and you're going towards the interstate, you see like a bunch of CMU block going up for elevator and staircase. That used to be uh Legette Bliss home after he moved away. And unfortunately, we could not we talked to Landmarks Commission about that house as well, but it was in such shambles, it was not safe to even walk into. So, we had to tear that down. But they only had interest significance in this house. Um

so we decided to go that route just because of the ownership uh group said you know this is what we want. So what we got designated historic sir is the exterior the staircase and the interior hallways. If you walk in there we have two wide hallways one downstairs and one upstairs. If we were unfortunately to have a fire and the house would burn down and the staircase was still standing. It would be a very tough way to unwind it. We have zero intention of unwinding historical designation. Our understanding is uh first of all town of Huntersville would be have to be willing to accept that as well as the landmarks the hunters uh the mechburgg county landmarks commission. We don't think we would not even want to attempt to try that just because of how I think difficult it could be to do that. We have no intention we have no intentions of another tenant in the house. The reason we're coming before you today is last year when we were part of the application when it became a little divisive and some things going on, we decided to pull out. We didn't want to be involved in that. I've served where you sit um and I've served on the town board before and I agree 100%. If you have a vacant parcel that is zoned neighborhood residential and they come in for a plan or they'd want to do a just a general reasonzoning, I would have issue with that because you have a blank slate. Believe our situation is a little bit different. The town center in the ordinance says that it anticipates going from the town center a half a mile in every direction. that go all the way to the post office and all the way to Vermillion Village is what the town in all the plans stayed as their desire to be town center. The main reason I think this is different is because we have a house that's designated historic. We can do majority of those uses under NRC seat

not we're not even CD under NR being within a quarter mile of town center. The reason we believe this is necessary, well, why we would like to do this is we try to be proactive. Let's say a restaurant comes and says we want to um No, let me back up. Let's say that we decide to vacate our office. We want to rent it to a an attorney. Uh some use like that that doesn't need a reasonzoning. Well, let's say we have like a outdoor I'm I'm thinking like a antique shop or something where they want to put furniture out there in the yard. We got 35 ft from our porch to the back of the curb or sidewalk. Well, if we came in for a special you if we came in for uh TC conditional, let's say that business goes out and they they walk away. Well, then we'd have to come back for another reasoning if we want to put a restaurant in there. So only because we could put a restaurant in there today, but if we they want to put tables like Crafty Beer Guys does out front, technically we'd have to be zone town center. So that's that's the main reason we're looking to do this now. We're being proactive because as this town continues to grow, um we just want to be ready for it. We have zero intentions. We have no no tenants. This falls right in line with the with the downtown master plan, 2040 plan. Uh we just decided to do it do it now. I'm here for any questions.

Thank you. Any questions of the applicant?

So, no intention of putting, you know, any kind of nightife that would upset the surrounding NR that's like right there near you guys or any of that stuff. If it were to change, it would be something that would fall within the characteristics of your adjacent neighborsish. Yeah. I mean, it's just, you know, we we renovated a house built in 1938 right down the road. Yeah. It turned out great. They open up very soon, so stand by for that. Um, our ultimate goal would be a restaurant because there's a lot down on East Boulevard in areas of Charlotte, and we think that's what it is. Mhm.

If you know the ownership group, myself, Jay Henson, and Tim Foley, none of us would be would entertain a a nightclub. I can't imagine Huntersville wanting a nightclub down here, right? But but we we would not. Now, the next question is because you may not always own it. Well, anything you do with the Historic Landarks Commission, you have to go and get that, you know, you get that that little bit of that letter. So, they have a lot of say in this, too. We can't just go and do willy-nilly what we want to. Mhm.

You know, so if we want to go and we want to change out the windows on the exterior, we have to get their permission. If we want to do something with the staircase, put a circular staircase in instead. We have to go to them for approval. The only thing that I think that will typically hap I mean really happen is we put a restaurant create some activity outside in the front. If we add on the back because we need to add like a something for the commercial kitchen then we still have to go to the historic landmarks commission. So we have enough hurdles already to jump through that you know this you know it just slows down the process. Mhm. So I'm not saying on things that we can already do.

Yeah. I'm not saying this would necessarily be a bad use but would you entertain a like a boutique hotel like a six eight room hotel or something like that? I don't even know if you call that a hotel. I mean we could do a bread and bread bed and breakfast right now. The house isn't really set up for it because there's four rooms down, four rooms up top. Um, and all the bathrooms are on the back. So, you're not every room doesn't have their own bathroom. Mhm. My wife would like that idea. But uh, no, I'm just kind of brainstorming ideas so when we go into discussion, we can we can talk. Sure. Yeah.

Any other questions, Michael? So again, I I I respect what you are willing to commit that the land will be used for and the parcel will be used for and the house will be used for, but h how do we as a board account for what the next generation of owner will have the capacity to do? Literally just feet from the town center. You've been on this board. How do you how do you as a board control what the next land owner comes in and make the request for? And I've seen and I'm kind of like you. I've seen a lot of zoning applications and I've seen property owners who by design allowed their property to go in disrepair so it would no longer be on a particular uh list for historic pu uh preservation.

I've seen it such that you know oops a crane hit the side of the building and it no longer is available for historic purposes. So I I've seen lots of reasons why people can exit out of historic. I respect it. But at the end, I've also known that people are quite creative when they want something that they want. You're a good guy. And I'm I'm not quenching your intent. I'm questioning generation number two, generation number three, generation number four, because it's smack dab in a downtown that's just beginning to grow. And the last thing I think the downtown would need is something that's inconsistent with the character that it's trying to build. And what we're being asked to do is to perhaps relegate our ability to control what is character in line with where we want to see the city decades from now. Not years, not months, but literally decades. So, it's not a question of you and your character. It's a question of the next generations and what's possible once we redesate it and what we as a board no longer have the ability to have any input on at all. And it's the character of which it will fit into the rest of downtown.

Sure. Well, and I think one of the biggest safeguards the town has is that historic designation. I mean, I think that that's a big piece that gives a lot, you know, should give credence to, you know, the protection and and the longevity of the structure the way it is. Yeah. But did I mention about the crane and the disrepair? Yeah. But we don't have next door. You you may not do that,

but a future land owner may not have the same intent that you have, may not have the same commitment to Huntersville as you have. Their motivation may be totally driven by a financial transaction only. You love the town and I can tell you that because you serve, you gave your time, but I don't know about the next generation. And when we make this decision, this is not about you. It's also about generation 2, three, four, and beyond. Yeah, that's a tough question. I mean, really ask it. I it it's um I can't assure anything. I can tell you I probably won't care at that point because I won't be here. Um, I'm blown gone before you if we all good. Um, I I don't really know honestly how to answer that question. I mean,

I would love to be able to put conditions on it and who knows if we decide to sell this at some point or something happens to one of the partners and kids get involved, we will do everything that we can, whether it's a deed restriction or something on top of what's already there. Um, we may choose to do that because of we don't want this to change in our lifetime. I can tell you that, but you know, maybe we do something like that to protect it in for the future. We haven't had conversations about it though. Any Lee, just the why you're doing this now. Is that so you could entertain various leasing options? No. Then you tell me why you're doing it right now.

Well, I think it's um I think this is what the town is looking for. The town is downtown is getting a lot of activity. Um, and we want to just be ready for it when it comes. I mean, the number of pe I mean, North, you know, the uh the Hullbrooks, I think they're fully leased up now. There's a lot of people looking for opportunities in the town, whether I mean, I don't know if they're restaurants. I mean, I believe the old town hall is under contract or LOI right now for a restaurant group. So, you know, my partners may not they may retire at some point. I may decide to slow down at some point. We may decide to to go a different direction with it, but I it's not right now. So that the immediiacy is not right now or is it

No, I I think that I Why not now? Oh, okay. I was asking why, but Okay. Why not? Gotcha. Any other questions for the applicant? I I got to throw this one last piece in. One of the things that we always end with as we really make the motions is that we find this to be in the best interest not of anybody other than for the citizens and for the town of Huntersville. It's in our best interest. So what is in the best interest for the town? We understand the benefits that will be gained by the developer, but what does the town get out of this?

I would say we can handle that in discussion phase. I'm just saying question to be answered. Yeah, this opposed question to be answered. What do we get out of this? Um, if there are no more questions, I'll entertain a motion, then we can move into discussion. So move.

I'll make a motion lee in considering the proposed reasonzoning application R2602 Gillard Road general resoning. The planning board recommends denial based on inconsistencies with the 2040 community plan and the 2023 downtown master plan as follows. The 2040 plan, LU6.3, LU7, LU8.2, LU11, EV 1.3, EV 2.2, DT1, DT2, DT3.1, DT8.1, and 8.2. Also, the downtown master plan executives executive summary paragraph 4 calling for town engagement with private redevelopment to drive sight specific mutually beneficial outcomes. Also, executive summary section C.1 economic development recogni recognizing existing ownership patterns and C.2 existing development activity. It is not reasonable nor in the public interest to approve the resoning plan due to these inconsistencies. Is there a second?

A second. Okay. Um, valid motion, a second. I'll open it up for discussion. You guys can start.

Lee, if you'd like to start um where to start. Um, I can run through the the details behind the policies, but um it's it's again I'll make the same I'll quote from our uh 2040 plan on the implementation page. It says property should not be preemptively upzzoned based on future land use map until other areas had filled in proper. So it's it's suggesting that we don't go in unknowingly and preempt the just upzone parcels on a whim on a you know you know as a way to try to stimulate some kind of development. I don't think we need to do that. I think I think we need to be proud more proud of what we have and and and hold to a higher standard which is one of the things we're giving up. You ask what what are we giving up? We're giving up uh any any kind of input into the problem. We're getting we're giving up leverage is what we're giving up because otherwise you'd have to come back to the board with a plan and this is what we want to go here and this this isn't we move use the leverage to uh drive higher design standards uh to to work with the developer on you know developing what's right for them and what's right for the rest of the town. Um it's those kinds of things and this is this is a big unknown. We're just saying you, you know, have your way with us is basically what the S town's saying. I'll let you upzone. Your property's now worth more and um have at it. So I I think we're losing a lot of leverage by just giving up general reasoning. I know, but this is um the second time we've done this and we asked Brian before when we did this to look back and find other cases of this where a developer there was a a developer driven driven general upzoning and couldn't find one. I mean the town did it when we put the the uh commercial

center out there with um Southwire, but uh you just don't see it, especially in downtown with such a critical area for development that we're we're giving up control of what goes where. Um, and I I read you the things that are possible. This isn't about Jay and Brian. We love Jay and Brian and and and and they're they will do what's right, but it's about what comes next. Um, historic designation, a new owner can undo it in a year. That's that's all it takes. And it it then it's free range. I've looked into it. Um, it's it it could be and noise ordinance. I mean, this thing's surrounded by residential. this thing could go back to residential. Um, so I mean, far as the noise, but it's it's more than just noise. We always hear the noise, but it's it's the spillover of having a commercial property next to a residential property. It's it's the the dumpsters getting dumped at at 4:00 a.m. It's it's Yeah. them in the the crowd. You know, it could be a the worst case example I could put you there is is would would have been Easy Yetis if anybody was here long enough to remember Easy Yeti. Wasn't too far down the street. And yes, it was it was a biker bar and you know 2:00 a.m. they they pour out and throw their empties in the hedges and jump on the Harleys and and ride off. So, how you going to enforce a noise ordinance for somebody that you know rides 20 feet into a public street and then they're off on their own? So that's it's just it's just a clash of housing types there are our or business types that that causes the problem and this is like I said it's surrounded by residential and until such time as more that residential rolls over to commercial or soft commercial then then I don't think it makes sense.

Michael, you seconded. I'll give you an opportunity. I it's it's great if we're able to predict what the future holds, but we have no idea what the future holds. Uh and the 2040 plan and other policies specifically talked about a application being uh consistent with the environment of which is being built in. In other words, it's not going to stand out in some strange way. We have no real assurance nor idea as to what will be there by the time a real application come forth. So we're asked to say yes to something that a futurist plan will define what it is. So I I'm thinking this is a moment where you're very reluctant. Again, it may not be as significant if it were not so close to the center of the downtown district. But this is absolutely at the center core. uh if it were further out, you got less risk. But this close in you literally are in an area where you will need to have walkability where you need to have all the factors which are clearly defined in the 2040 plan that whatever the application is would need to be in compliance with and we don't necessarily get an assurance nor do we have the control to do that in the future based on making a change today.

Any other discussion comments? Yeah, Chris, please. You can go ahead, Jennifer.

Yes, thank you. Um, I tend to agree with staff's take on this. In the past, I've always been concerned about spotzoning, and it can get dangerous when we start to reszone properties in the middle of a of a of a cluster. And so, I can I can understand that we're we're doing that. But this is on Gilead Road. It's a main corridor that runs through Huntersville. It's so close to town center and it's already in our established plans that we have that this is a town center property. So whether it's reszoned today or in the future, it's going to happen and we're we're we're the applicant is asking us to take a look at this. Staff agrees it fits into our zoning ordinances. I think it's a simple easy transition to go to town center on this property. So if if anybody agrees with me, I'd love to hear your comments.

Yeah, I mean uh I'll go next. I agree with you. I think it you said it was steps from town center. I think that you're contradictory in what you're saying. I mean the fact that it's steps from town center means it should probably be considered to be town center. So to me, I mean, the historic designation, you know, carries some weight. I know you guys say you can get rid of a year, hit it with a crane. I I don't see that happen a lot. We we deal around historic structures all the time. Um, you know, I feel like in the two or three generations that you're talking about, everything to the west there will be red. So, I just feel like, you know, sure we can say no today, but in 10 years when we come back, it'll probably all be red anyway. I feel like this is just a no. My question would be, um, you know, if they came with a restaurant, would you guys still be a No. If they came, Is that what you want?

You want them to come with an actual use? Yeah. I mean, if I saw a plan, then we're now taking action on what is to be real. Right now, we're saying sure, okay, and have no idea. I mean, I respect the the uh the the group that came in last year who had the Asian restaurant that was put up. They had a they albeit they weren't required. They had all the details behind exactly what they were going to build. So, our risk was relatively low. Except this one we've got this is right down the street, right? Except for that's one of the ones that's in question now, right? I I I understand that. But what I'm saying is the risk was lower because it was a known entity of what was about to be created. Mhm.

So it wasn't like they were fighting just for general purposes to be ready for something. They came in with lots of work on their part to confirm exactly why and what they wanted to have that property to be be used for. Mhm. This one we Yeah, the town basically what we're saying is that yeah, we know it's within the town center, but exactly what is it that we want to see in the town center at the time it's being developed. It's not that it's in the town center. Is is it consistent with what is expected to be built at the time it's being built? This could be, you know, 20 years from now. So, we're saying it's consistent. We have no control at that point.

It's 20 years too late. Let me add on to that. So, yeah, it's it's not that the T I was let finish. He asked. It's not that that I disagree with Town Center zoning for this. I disagree with Town Center general resoning, right?

And and that's all all the policies that I listed out here and I'll read what I took from them just because I did the research is about the use of general reasonzoning. It's not about speculating what could be there or anything any of that stuff. It's it's it's and it's again it's the town giving up leverage to have an influence over what goes there. We're just we're just giving that up and that that is something of value and that value transferred to the new owner because now he's got more valuable property because he's got it town centered generally reszoning versus neighborhood residential.

No, I get that and I guess that's why I was asking and and you brought it up first the differences between you know the neighborhood residential and the town center. I mean, I think there's only five and there's one that I'm worried about, right? And that's that's the one I'm worried about. So, if you know,

it needs that's why this needs to be conditional because this sitting somewhere remote to all of us that we could care less what it go what goes there. This is a redevelopment of an existing site and historic structure. We should have a little uh more concern with what what it transforms into. So the policies that I I said that that that were inconsistent was 6.3 is about key locations designed in context with in a sensitive manner. Seven is a vision committed to traditional town planning tools. Uh 8.2 of course is higher design standards. We're always preaching those intended outcomes. 11 is protecting existing housing stock. Uh EV 1.3 is inventory and protect strategic sites which is certainly one. EB2.2 is leverage downtown as unique. DT1 adherence to a plan. DT2 is a step down in intensity. DT3.1 is encourage redevelopment with public private partnerships and 8.1 and 8.2 are preserve and protect historical structures. So TC is probably right for this with conditions. I'm sure it is.

Yeah. Right. I mean, I guess the biggest thing that goes through my mind, and this might be a question for the town, like was all that stuff at Greenway and Old Statesville there zoned TC before Crafty came in there 10, 12 years ago? Yes. And how did that happen? That's been zoned TC for a long time, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, it's all So, there's no residential right there in that in that red. I do. I think there is some residential in there. And how's the housing stock? How is the housing stock?

It just it doesn't seem like Crafty Beer Guys has affected any of the housing, you know, going that way. And I know that Crafty Beer Guys is not what we're talking about. If another Crafty came in right there, everything would be fine. Well, maybe not for Yeah. adjal with business hours, right? Yeah. Um but yeah, I'm worried about one use and then my mind goes back to what can be put in the deed and how does that work to eliminate a nightclub use?

But any other comments from anyone else? Not to shut you off, Chris, but yeah, good. I'm on the fence, but I really think

Oh, sorry. Um, I think it's all going to turn red. And um I think that the idea of having another restaurant and we have I mean the goals are to have 10 10 of the uh restaurants, food service, and retail. And we're not really close. I mean, we're really looking at maybe four restaurants downtown, um, coffee shop, and then we've got like maybe three different places to, you know, just for beverages, and then we've just have even a few, um, retail shops. And um I this kind of even if it's not a restaurant, which I think it would be a good use of the space. I mean it would be a great place for like an antique shop or I mean it's got historic prevalence there which we definitely need to embrace in the town. And um I just don't think TC is a bad use for this spot at all.

I'll speak. I just don't look for a club to come to Huntersville. Maybe it's naive. I don't know.

I've got a couple comments. Um, I think this is much a philosophical discussion and decision as anything. I hear Lee saying the town can have more control through the CD process. Absolutely accurate. I also always lean on private property rights and by sheer heaven and ordinance we've always we have imposed on those private property rights. So, I do lean towards that. You know, the less we can impose on that, the better off we are. And then I sit here and look at this is you know development isn't always systematic and and goes down the street. We are literally talking about one property between what is now unconditional town center and this piece. It's not spot zoning. I think 2040 plan envisions Gilead Road. There's already a fair amount of offices commercial. Um I go back to a com or conversation I had with Jack Simino when uh he was still here. And when I joined the board, I was always thinking the best thing that could happen is somebody come in here and assemble, you know, a large swath the land, tear everything down and go up big. He goes, "No, Scott, that's not the way I vision it." He goes, "I'd rather see these small parcels being preserved and developed individually." And I think by having this happen, yes, do we give up some of the control by having general um zoning? Maybe. But I think it also, and Michael, you're right, we need to support, we need to make decisions based upon what is in the best interest of Huntersville. But we also need to look at it as we need to encourage and support private citizens, developers that are coming in, spending their money, taking their risk to invest in the town. So, I'm looking at this as something I support. Any other discussions or I will call for the vote.

Just one one more comment. Um just a little historic perspective on the other two that got this same reszoning. So again, no conditions. This this property, especially the 115 property, is now Town Center General and set for tear down. And we have no idea or control of what's going to go back in there. And it's literally 200 feet from the main stoplight down there. So, it's I just hate to see the the town themselves out for for general reasonzoning.

Lee Lee, is that any different than basically taking the intersection of Old Statesville and Gilead and going on both sides of that? You know, very few of those are conditional. That same risk is associated with all the other properties in Town Center. Yes. Yes. And and those have been there for a long time, you know, as as old as Gineyard Gardens probably. And once we started to grow, we realized that we wanted to control and we started using conditional zoning exclusively. And that's where the philos philosophical differences come.

There we go. And this one's I mean the the the the previous general reasonzoning, those were those were a little, you know, we pushed those along because they gave us a reason. I mean, the the the the food truck owner wanted to get in there and had specific plans and and the other one had sat there long enough that we were ready to see something happen. And you see what's happened so far and and now it's it's well, you know, you is let's let's be proactive and do it. Well, I don't know. I don't know how that's proactive. I think that's just I think that's just taking advantage advantage of our good graces. Um, but go ahead. That's all.

So, you don't think it would be easier to sell to a restaurant tour that you can come in here right now, today, next week, uh, or as opposed to going to them and say, "Well, it's not zoned for you yet, but that process is two to three months out if you can wait and then we need a vote from the board." Yeah, that's that's ex that's that is that transaction. We give up our influence. We give up our leverage and the owner takes that value as his property increases. So yeah, that's that's what we're doing here. We're saying go sell it for more. It's it's worth 500 a day. You put it in Town Center General, it's worth, you know, 800.

We just find a tenant that, you know, helps the town grow and become more like they're going to keep it. And Yeah. Yeah. You Yeah. I mean, so we get a little benefit out of it. It's not all going to Oh, we would. Yeah, we we get some economic benefit out of, sure, as an ongoing business and there's a there's a business in there now. So, that's that's just, you know, my question about why why now? There's a term that I periodically hear of positivity positivity bias. That is that when we make decisions, we always anticipate the absolute best that can happen. We never anticipate what the downside is or rarely.

And I I think what we're doing is we're we're going through an exercise of do we really believe that this is good stuff that's about to happen or do we leave the window and the door open for something less than we desire to come in. And you know we all make our own decision regarding that. But I'm one who tend to be a little bit more conservative. Reason being because there's nothing greater showstopper than having a wrong kind of placement in your downtown. Something that absolutely inhibits the on ongoing growth or or distracts away from the beauty that you've already developed. And I think if there's anything that I'm likely more uh concerned with being a little bit conservative to ensure we get it right than necessarily saying yes, let's keep just going and feeding the fire. But the reality is that there's going to be some points and times where we need to take some time to see what's happening and where is the higher value in really doing that in the most important part of your city and this is it. We do have a valid motion on the table and I will call for the vote. Those in favor of the this is in favor of the motion to deny. Sorry. Those in favor of the motion to deny two. Those opposed to the motion on the table. Four. That motion does not pass.

I was asking, am I allowed to vote? I will vote in the negative. Um, we can open it back up for another motion.

I got one. In considering the proposed reszoning of petition R26-02121 Gilead Road general reszoning, the planning board recommends approval because the town center district zoning will be consistent with the 2040 and downtown master plans. It is reasonable and the public interest to approve this reszoning because it is consistent with future land use implementation policies and is consistent with policy LU 6.1 6.2 EV 1.2 2.2 2 2.3 and a gathering principle of the 2022 downtown master plan. Second. Valid motion with the second. I'll open that up for discussion. Chris,

no. I mean, I I I might be naive. I I may be sending us down a wrong path, but I don't believe so. I think we're giving somebody who's trying to pour dollars into making this downtown better, and they've proved they've done it across the street. And I think that they'll bring something respectful in there that all of us will like. And in 30 years, if there's a nightclub there, somebody come find me. Jennifer, you second it. What Chris said?

Any other discussion before I call the vote? Okay. All those in favor of the motion to approve. I have one, two, three, four, five. Those opposed to two. Motion passes 5 to two. Thank you, Brad. Thank you. And thank you all for your comments. Yeah,

seriously, it's it's it's important for us to have those discussions up here. Um, moving on. 4B. to consider a recommendation on petition R2517, a reszoning at the corner of Glendale Drive and Huntersville Concord Road from General Residential to Neighborhood Residential Conditional District for a three lot single family residential subdivision. All right, good evening. Uh, I'd like to put my staff report in record for R25-17. This is a conditional reszoning request from general residential to neighborhood residential conditional district uh at 14600 Glendale Drive, roughly 1acre parcel uh at the corner of Glendale and Huntersville Concord Road. It is uh east of Vermillion Village and roughly about quarter mile from the downtown Huntersville area. Um some of the highlights and updates. This application first came in as a fourlot single family home subdivision uh after the public hearing. Um and hearing some board members and property owners express some concerns regarding density um future roadway roadway projects in compatibility with existing development. The applicant has reduced its proposal from four lots to three. still single family homes. Um roughly 15,000 square ft to 17,000 or a third to a fourth of an acre. Um this is a conditional reszoning unlike the general that we just heard, but there are no modifications requested. So the plan is what you get, what you see is what you get, but there are no modifications from the standards of our zoning ordinance. This is a minor subdivision, so there's no infrastructure being installed. It's using existing public right ofway. Um,

no roadway improvements there, but there still is canopy, specimen, and heritage tree save. There's no heritage trees on site. There are specimen trees, which they are saving the minimum. Uh, they do have five additional specimen trees that they will put tree protection fencing around, but they do not have them marked as saved. Um, and they are saving uh 18% of the canopy tree on canopy tree save, excuse me, which is 8% above the minimum of 10%. Some of the issues uh that were brought up that have since been addressed, uh, one of the larger ones was the driveway location for these single family homes, particularly at the southern portion of the development, which is currently lot three. With this being a four lot subdivision, there was a lot of discussion about where those driveways would be located in relation to that intersection. Um, with the number of lots being reduced to three that's essentially resolved that problem. The current driveway is proposed to be about 100 ft from that intersection which is more than double the minimum required of 50. Um, another one is the ride ofway dedication for road improvements. There are some um future potential projects along this intersection that the town would like to do. Uh we don't have any plans right now for the projects, but uh the applicant and staff have worked together to dedicate right ofway off of Glendale Drive and Huntersville Concord. Uh 50 feet from center line or 50 ft from the center of the asphalt for Huntersville Concord and then 40t from the center of Glendale Drive as well. Um, another request that staff had made was to uh add a larger side setback off of lot one. The minimum requirements are five. We've asked that they've uh enlarged it to 10 ft to create a bit more of a

gradual transition from some of those larger lots to the north. Uh, one of the reasonzoning issues that staff and the applicant are still working through are elevations for the proposed homes. Uh we've been shown some conceptual designs from the applicant uh but nothing concrete and uh no real commitment at this point other than a verbal one. So um staff is still waiting for that. Staff recommends the applicants commit to some element of their proposed elevation. Um in the state of North Carolina, uh municipalities are not allowed to regulate single family detached homes with their architecture. Um, but we're in a conditional reszoning, so we are allowed to ask for above and beyond and ask for recommendations found within our zoning ordinance and our desired guide book. Um, some of those being frontage improvements. So, um, architecturally interesting um, frontage requirements. So, stoops, front porches, um, a lot of windows that allow uh, light to come in. This is what it would look like on a single story. If you had a twotory, it would look something like this. articulation on the second floor as well. Um, our ordinance also brings up uh recommendations regarding compatibility. So, we're looking at what is surrounding it, what uh the homes look like, how large they are, the massing, the scale of it. Um, so roughly around this area, you're going to see anywhere from one story, one and a half to twotory. that's something that we would ask the applicant to adhere to um instead of going to maybe a three-story where it would look maybe a bit out of place. Um so it would really match that uh existing compat the existing housing stock in that area. Um as well as compatibility, we're also going to recommend the varying of

architecture. So in this image you can see along the street different frontage uh conditions there. So one might have a stoop, one might have a front porch, one might be one story, one might be one and a half story, one might be twotory. So you're, you know, blending that where it's compatible in scale, but also varying the architecture so they look like independent homes as you're walking through them or you're driving by. Um, again, all of these have been haven't had any type of apprehension from the applicant with this, but we just don't have anything concrete right now. So, um, we're just looking to get either some elevation submitted or potentially changing some conditions that would be a bit more specific to what we're asking for at this time. 2040 plan uh, supports this through several land use policies. Um it's in the town core of the future land use map which encourages a variety of housing types, variety of densities. This would fit within that um intensity by 115 by 77 within that two-mild uh barrier developing where there's infrastructure and then one of our environmental policies about keeping more tree canopy within urban environments. One of the opportunities that we're still looking for again is that architectural commitment to those elevated design principles. Staff is recommending approval of this u with the following conditions. Again, the one on the bottom about uh incorporating elevated design elements, excuse me, uh could change slightly based off of what we receive. It could be more specific later on. That's the end of staff's presentation. Uh, the applicant does have a presentation, but we can stop if there's any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Patterson. Any questions for staff? Go ahead, Jody. Who's got Jody? Jody. Um, on the on the site plan that was revised with just the three housing lots. Um, so we have no footprint of what like how that driveway goes into I don't know let's say the garage or the actual footprint of the home at all and how that will be actually sat on the sites. Not at this not at this time. No. Okay. Okay. So, that'll be a part of the architectural stuff, you know, is it a front-loaded, is it sideloaded, things of that, but we

But don't we typically have that at this stage or is that um I would say given the scale of the site, there's not much variation that I think you would see with home placement. Okay. But that is something that, you know, we can request from the applicant to do to put a building footprint there. Okay. You do have a building front range at the front there. So you 30 to 40. So that's where the front facade has to be. So that gives a little bit more specificity to where the home would be placed. Uh but the actual design, no, we're still working on that.

Lee, um let's see. Under your staff plan or staff report under um site plan description, that's to explain something to me here. Uh the second bullet, the property is currently zoned general residential. The general residential zoning district is not intended for development projects in Huntersville which are initiated after the effective date of this ordinance. What does that mean? I copied and pasted it from the ordinance. Isn't that great? Uh no, it's typically the general residential zoning district are for uh older properties or subdivisions that were done under Meckllinburgg County zoning ordinance. So the largest is going to be Northstone, Burkedale, things of that nature. And then you have smaller family or minor subdivisions like this. So anything that was essentially approved prior to 1996. And you do have some lots that are just next to those subdivisions that are zoned GR. Um the GR residential zoning district has none of our formbbased code in it. It's just a very straightforward minimum lot size. is here are the setbacks, you can build a single family home. Um, that's put in there to encourage situations like this, the conditional reszoning to a different zoning district. Um, in this case, it's going to give the applicant more uh density than they would have with the general residential.

So, this effectively discourages redevelopment in general res. Correct. Okay. Okay. um or encourages resonings as a part of that. Always embrace the negative. Um and then why with no conditions, why not go for general reasonzoning? Seems to be easy. Is that a trick question? No, I'm serious. There's no conditions you're placing on this. So why? And maybe maybe Mr. Bowman can explain. The conditions are placed on the site. So what you what we would approve is what they would have to build them or someone else.

They couldn't build the same thing just go to our um um general. They could but then we wouldn't be able to get an elevated level of design. That works out well for us. It's too late to make that argument. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for staff? I'm assuming the applicant would like to come up and have a presentation and speak.

Nate Bowman, 205 South Church Street and Drew Bowman, 207 South Church Street by the clicker.

I'll answer the the first question. The reason we had a builder of Brookline Homes lined up. They've been building in Vermillion and you probably know them for building the houses on the hill in Mill Village that we did with Brian Hines and uh once staff supported the four lots, but once we went to three lots, we lost our builder and our 86 year old lady had to take a price reduction to make the numbers work. So, you know, there's always cause and effect. And so, reducing a lot on on a property that was pretty expensive to buy just to try to revitalize the area. We lost our builder. So, we're now meeting two other builders, both who built in Vermillion. So, what you've seen on the larger homes in Vermillion is where we're going to be at at the end of the day. And this will be the 81st parcel we'll be adding to Vermillion. So, let's just go ahead. Oh, and and as

to answer the question you just had, you know, going NRCD on this, we're limited, you know, we're proposing three lots. If we did just a general NR, we could put, you know, one apartment building on this that had as many units as we could park. So, doing the conditional on this is limits us to the three lots that we're proposing. And the condition we added for our neighbor who planted all his evergreens on the property line, we gave him an extra five feet. So it's a 10- foot side setback which matches what his his setback GR zoning setback is.

And and we have the the tree in green is uh where we're having what do we call it? The canopy safe.

Canopy safe. So that kind of buffers us from the back of the Covington neighborhood. uh even though we have a shed and a fence from the Covington neighborhood on our property that has to be moved. All right, let's go through our our uh one view of the house. Uh couple more views. We'll kind of hold it there for a minute so you kind of see what what this looks like. Uh we have saved houses. We're saving the house next hours on Church Street, which is the oldest house in Huntersville. We're in the process of going through the same thing that Brian did with the Charlotte Meckenberg Historic Commission, but you can obviously see this is one that doesn't deserve to be saved. This is probably our 17th home that we've demolished that wasn't worth saving. Okay, there's a swing there, but that was pretty good. And there's a deflated pool. Uh, this is I, you know, one of one of the neighbors right across the street is Bobby Presley. He owns a bar in town and uh he's definitely in favor of us developing this and cleaning it up. That's his house and he's been staring at that across the street. It's always nice to have one neighbor that's uh definitely in favor of what we're doing. Uh we did a little traffic count and you can go to the next one. And of course there's my mark out on traffic uh peak times from three houses. So, it's not a significant uh increase in traffic, but it's it's important to look at in the future. Uh there are a lot of new road projects that are going to be happening that should reduce the traffic on Glendale. Um let's start with the one furthest to the east. That's the Fairtown Parkway, which my understanding is going to be under construction, giving another north south route where people can cut over sooner.

um up in 2028 at the top that's the Stumptown Road extension which is planned to be under construction in 2028. And then more in town uh Walter Street uh the town has purchased the property to connect Walter Street onto is it what's it called now? Seagull. Seagull which will go through rerouting through Verain Village and it will continue on eventually to Stumptown

Stumptown Road. So those are three new uh north south connectors that will be happening. This was Brookline. This is just an example. Uh they hadn't picked their floor plans out. Uh so we're going to have to scramble. But I think if we can't have a builder in line, we'll definitely have some conditions that meet the same quality that you see in Veron and and that you've that we've been building in that area for the last 30 years. This is two examples with porches. And um my last thing, we're going to be using this for another one, is it it it's actually a 10-minute walk from the new transit stop, which is very similar to the 250 apartments that were approved in Deerness Gardens. Um we happen to live near there and all our lots are an acre and we didn't oppose this. uh and most of the lots on Mahali Huntersville Road are old giant lots and uh so our our reduction from four to three we don't think was necessary but in terms of goodwill towards the board we went ahead and went to three lots and I'll be here if you have any questions

thank you questions for the applicant Just that I understand they're going to be part of the Vermillion HOA. These three. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Any other future plans for that area?

We always, you know, it's 81 parcels over 30 years. We we're always trying to improve the area. We call it revitalization, not gentrification, you know. whatever you want to call it. There's good parts about revitalization and there's bad parts. But, you know, we think over time what what when I show the before and after, I mean, Hunters Concord Road was a ring of trailers. The where our swim club is was a sewer plant and they used to burn garbage off the hill on one of our main roads. That's where everybody would put their garbage in a can and they take it over there and burn it in the 60s. and we had a lot of cleanup when we found out what was also buried there from Anchor Mill. So, it's it wasn't a good sighted town for a long time, but we think we've made an impact. One of the reasons I ask about the any other plans is because this is part of the town core definition. Uh, and hence it'd be great to know if there's some way to have a somewhat of a a boundary of which we define where the town core is. this only in a descriptive manner, but it'd be great to have some kind of structural definition of what's in town core versus

Well, it's right on the edge of the of the master. I was on that committee. It's it's right on the edge. Yeah, I I know it is. I'm just trying to trying to see if perhaps maybe sometime in the future there's some way to actually get some structural definitions in there as well.

And we are working on the Church Street Extension. Uh, I was asked by Mayor Annarella and Anthony Roberts three and a half years ago to help them obtain the rightway. So, Church Street Extension, which historically was connected to Pottstown all the way down to Hullbrook, and we're aggressively trying to get that back before the board because what's going to happen is Delwood's gone. That crossing is going to be gone with Stumptown Road. And so the only way for traffic coming up Delwood out of Vermillion is going to be going down central. So we'll be having a neighborhood meeting at uh Delwood Community Center to show them that plan. Do you know what date that is? It's not it's a pre premeating

13th and 14th of April. And and so we we feel that's the next important connection because there should be a north south connection as far as you can go on this side of the tracks. We've got the two-way pair. I was told when I helped the town get the rightway that had to be done before the two-way pair and it didn't get done. So now it's going to need to be done when Delwood goes away. Any other questions? Just I mean it sounds like you guys are agreeable to staff's recommendations on the architecture. You showed a single family I mean a one-story ranch. Are most of them going to be ranches or you thinking doing two stories? I

again I'm meeting. Yeah, I've already met David weekly last week and they're getting back with me and I'm with DBR homes tomorrow at Wednesday. So we hope to have those plans. If not, we'll have detailed architecture which spells out rules that they have to follow. But I had to start all over again. Right. And there's no plan to go with like a threetory. And I don't even know if we'd be opposed to a threetory. There's not a threetory in any part of Vermillion. Just one or two except town homes, you know, and we're not doing town homes. Staff originally suggested we did town homes.

And is there any like, you know, they're paying HOA dues. I assume they're going to be going to the pool. Is there any kind of like walkability study that you do? How far? I mean, I see that they're a quarter mile away from the transit stop or whatever, right? The Clark Creek Greenway is is being designed as we speak, which will take it all the way from the Anchor Mill all the way almost to Asbury Chapel Road. So, the greenway will be in, we have two pools, and this connects to that greenway are close enough. It's other than just crossing Huntersville Concord, the the lots directly across Huntersville Concord, right? There's the smaller houses, they're on 30 foot lots. Those are part of Vermillion there,

right? Yeah. Yeah. You're just crossing Hunterville Concord where the red arrow is your pool. I guess where that red arrow is. Where that red arrow is is one of the trail connections right there. Right. And we built a sidewalk on the other side. Mhm. And there's a hawk crossing at at the cineabar entrance of Vermillion. There's a new crosswalk. There's a hawk. Yeah. Um and our sidewalk extends up to uh the edge of Vermillion Village there. How far is the town is currently working on sidewalk improvements along Hunters of Concord? Is that ex does that connect to Verona Village? Yeah. So, okay. Sidewalk is coming along Huns of Concord that'll connect to the Vermont Village

and they're looking at a possible roundabout there. That's why we gave them the additional 50ft rideway. On the topic of walkability and sidewalk, there there are no planned sidewalks for these three parcels though. Not at this time because we're not sure what the town's going to do with the roundabout and what street improvements they're going to make. So, not at this point. Okay. And staff is fine with the idea that there's though

Yes, there are immediate plans to put sidewalk and side path off of Huntersville Concord that would I think go from all the way connect to Vermillion to the downtown past that point further to the east. I guess I'm just vis, you know, thinking about the other residents in Glendale again, trying to connect them to downtown. I don't feel like this is necessarily doing that. Does it make more sense? And I get what you're saying that if you put it in, they may be torn up. Torn out. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions?

We'll entertain a motion. All right, I got one. Uh, in considering the proposed resoning application R25-17 Glendale Drive subdivision, the planning board recommends approval based on the plan being consistent with conditions. with conditions. The application is consistent with policies LU1, LU21, LU91, and ES 4 of the Huntersville 2040 plan. It is reasonable and in the public interest to approve the reszoning plan because the proposed reszoning is consistent with the envision uses and development patterns set forth in the 2040 community plan.

Is there a second? Yes, I'll second. Do we need to define the conditions? As I read that, I was like, "Dang it.

We're discussing, right?" No. Well, yes, we do. We have a valid motion to second, so we're in discussion. Yes.

Okay. So during the board meeting, there was a lot of residents that were that live in like the Huntington Glenn area and other areas through that area that um did not like the idea of the much smaller parcels that back up to their residents. And across and I I do see easily that across the street there are the density is there and we are like Michael said right on the edge of town center. But I do hear those residents. There was quite a few of them that spoke up and and did not like the idea of um having such much smaller lots there. And I don't know, I kind agree with Scott saying about the sidewalks. It could be a benefit to those that do live in the neighborhood if we're trying to find something beneficial if we did approve this to possibly add sidewalks to help move them like if they did go in front of the homes that would help move them down to the accessible sidewalk that would be on Mount Holly Huntersville Road. Um, I think there could be some conditions here to hopefully, I don't know, maybe get Huntington Green on board to like help the citizens kind of more embrace this than be so against this being added to their what they consider their backyard really.

I was think I was I was the broker that did uh the neighborhood back in 1987, I think. And at that point, nobody wanted to be on that side of town and I wasn't a developer at that point. And you know that was back before the new ordinance. So nobody's in the future nobody was thinking about large lot development near a downtown. But if you look at Covington and Crown Ridge, not only our 30-foot lots, 80 foot lots are the average lot in Covington and Crown Ridge is 75 ft. So we you're dealing with a very old subdivision that was GR before we started the committee and and with Jill Swain and everybody on it in the early 90s to draft a new ordinance. So we're just trying to get everything up to speed and going to 80 foot lots. The closest 80 foot lot in Vermillion is probably a half mile away and we don't have many n 80 foot lots in Verain. We just moved on to a higher density. We've gone through why density is not a bad word. And I think the proof is in the pudding by the number of people that like to live in Vermillion.

Any other discussion? Jody, you'll have to. So, the people in Covington are on like a halfacre lot, but they're opposed to like a third of an acre lot at that town, honestly. Oh, okay. So, that so that let's we will clarify that first. It's really the Hunter Ridge neighborhood. Oh, Hunter Ridge. Hunter Ridge. Sorry. Hunter Ridge. Um, yes. So, that is different. That is different. I got you. I don't know. I just feel like there's anything we could do. I I know they're put in the bumper. That's nice and match up to the other, but just if there was something that we could just

So, you're thinking the sidewalk up until you get to the proposed traffic circle. So, nothing has to be torn out. Hunter Hunter I mean Hunter's Ridge or whatever is that Hunter's Ridge. Hunter Ridge. Hunter's Ridge. Yes, that is the entrance. One of those driveways will be on sign. Isn't there a sign? Is there a sign? I drove over there, but it's kind of dusty, but so I couldn't see the There's a sign. It's it's it's before you had to have homeowners associations as well. I don't know. There was some concern about um you know the entrance into the neighborhood and what that might look like.

Um so I just think there's some things there we could just think about. There's there was quite a few people that were very disgruntled at the one benefit to those neighbors is there's an HOA. So that backyard situation that's up there now won't occur for the neighbor that's to the north there in the side yard. So that's a plus. And they won't be able to park a 40ft RV on their property line either because they're in HOS. Yeah. There are some limitations by this that we don't currently have.

And there there is a large value to the the rightway that we are dedicating to the town. You know, we're not just reserving it and looking to sell it to the town later. and the amount that the town has paid for other rightaways, for sidewalks and other stuff. There's just that dedication alone is valuable. Chris, just to put you on the spot, your conditions. Mhm. Yeah, I was looking at that before I started reading something else. Yeah. Um, does anybody want to uh make a substitute motion for an amendment or just an amendment? Um, Patrick, can you go back to J?

So, just to clarify, are you wanting to add to your motion that you're incorporating the recommended conditions set forth in the staff report? Yes. Okay. Can I say that? Yes. All right. Do I need to re reset it? I think you can just amend it, right? Yeah. Correct. Yep. Jennifer. Yes, that's my amendment. I accept it. And I approve your amendment.

And Tracy, are you clear enough about the conditions? We have a new amended motion and a second. Any discussion on the amended motion? If not, uh, all those in favor? Oh, there was no discussion. All right, Lee. Nothing. All those in favor of the amended motion that is unanimous. No opposed.

Uh number five. Is there any other bit other business? I see none. I will accept a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second. All those in favor? I thank you all.