Board of Mayor & Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Jason go ahead. Good evening. Welcome to the Board of Mayor and Alderman meeting for the city of Hendersonville, Tennessee. This is September 8th, 2026. We are right at 7 p.m. And we are going to begin our meeting as we typically do. That's with a prayer followed by the pledge. Tonight providing our prayer is Reverend Teresa Johnson. Johnson, she is a pastor at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church. Teresa, we appreciate very much what you and your congregation have been doing for us for, y'all going on 30 years?

Yes, that is correct. Yes, 30 years in this building and then a few years in another site. And it's my honor to be here representing Good Shepherd tonight and to be able to offer the blessing for this meeting. So thank you very much for the invitation.

Thank you.

Would you pray with me? Gracious and loving God, we gather for this meeting with deep gratitude for the community of Hendersonville and the many blessings we share here. We thank you for the humble and honorable privilege of serving and living in this wonderful community. We are grateful for those who faithfully give their time to serve on the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, leading and caring for our city. We pray now that you would grant these leaders wisdom, discernment, and clarity as they meet. Give them listening hearts and patient minds as they make decisions. And when challenges arise, strengthen their perseverance. When opinions differ, guide them toward common ground, mutual respect, and thoughtful words. And finally, instill in all of us who are here for this meeting a shared commitment to justice and compassion. Remind us that the decisions made and the plans crafted here will affect every resident in every neighborhood. And may all the work done tonight honor you and serve the greater good. Amen. Amen.

Thank you. That was Reverend Teresa Johnson from Good Shepherd United Methodist Church. Appreciate it very much.

Thank you.

Please join me for the pledge. I'm going to entertain a motion that we accept the agenda that was provided to you in your packet.

So moved.

We have a motion from Alderman Garza and a second from Alderman Goodwin. Alderman Collins.

I would like to make an amendment to the agenda. I would like to add under presentations a proclamation for Mr. Don Ames.

We have a motion.

Second.

And a second from Alderman Robertson. Any discussion on that item? All those in favor of that motion, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, please say no. That passes unanimously. Now we're back on the main motion to set the agenda. Any other discussion? Anything else for us to consider? So what we're voting on right now is the motion to approve the agenda with that one amendment. That's to add a proclamation for Don Ames on our presentations. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, please say no. That passes unanimously. Thank you. I have asked six people to help me out. If they could meet me down here, I'd appreciate it. So we put together a proclamation for Don Ames. There was a lot in it. And y'all don't want to listen to me read nine pages. Typically these proclamations are one or two and I thought it would be appropriate if we had some folks that knew Don well to help me out. So let me read. Whereas Donovan Don Eugene Ames II was born on August 30th, 1946 in Canton, Ohio to Donovan and Mary Ames and passed away on June 29th, 2026 at the age of 79 following an acute illness. Whereas Don moved with his family to Albuquerque, New Mexico at the age of nine and graduated from Sandia High School in 1964. where he served as student body president and president of the Thespian Club. Whereas Don attended the University of New Mexico, where he studied radio and television production, was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity and served as a disc jockey for the university radio station. Whereas in 1967, Don joined the United States Coast Guard and served for several years as a member of the Coast Guard Reserve, demonstrating at an early age his commitment to service and his country.

Whereas Don built a successful career in marketing and sales, working with companies including ER Moore, Cintas, and Red Cap, before becoming a founder and president of Unilink and Uniform Supply Alliance, from which he retired in 2010. Whereas Don and Shelly Ames were married in 1968 and celebrated 58 years of marriage shortly before his passing. building a life centered upon family, friendships, service, and community. Whereas Don was the proud father of Chrissy Ames Lassiter and Aaron Ames, grandfather of six and great-grandfather of four, and his family was among the greatest sources of joy and pride throughout his life.

Whereas Don began his service to the city of Hendersonville in 2002 as a member of the Hendersonville Planning Commission, where he contributed his experience, judgment, and dedication to the responsible growth and development of the community. Whereas Don continued his public service as the Ward 4 Alderman for the city of Hendersonville from 2012 through 2016. faithfully representing the citizens of his ward and working to advance the interests of the entire Hendersonville community. Whereas Don subsequently served on the Hendersonville Board of Zoning Appeals and had served as its chairman since 2018, providing years of thoughtful leadership and invaluable institutional knowledge in matters affecting the city's land use and development.

Whereas Don's commitment to Hendersonville extended well beyond his official public offices, including his service as a member of the city's Deer Monitoring Committee and his active involvement in numerous civic and community organizations. Whereas, Don was a devoted member of the Hendersonville Rotary Club for 32 years, serving in numerous leadership positions, including president from 2001 through 2, and Secretary and receiving numerous honors for his service, including Rotarian of the Year, the Lifetime Distinguished Service Award in 2014-2015, and the S.T. Wommeldorf Paul Harris Fellow Award in 2022 and 2023.

Whereas among Don's most enduring contributions was his instrumental role in the creation and continuing support of the Recovery Court of Sumner County, a program that helps individuals struggling with substance abuse address the underlying causes of their conduct and pursue recovery and rehabilitation as an alternative to incarceration. Whereas Don served as a founding member of the recovery court, as a past president, and as a member of his board from 2014 until his passing. And he took tremendous pride in the lives transformed through the program. Whereas Don's commitment to helping others was reflected not merely in his leadership, but in the countless practical acts of kindness he performed on behalf of individuals and families in need, whether by raising funds, finding needed household items, personally delivering mattress or refrigerator, or simply asking others to join him in helping someone who needed assistance.

Whereas Don similarly devoted his time and energy to CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children, helping support efforts to provide a voice for abused and neglected children involved in the court system. Whereas Don also served the community through his involvement with the Greater Nashville Regional Council on Aging and Disability, Leadership Sumner, the Harrisville Area Chamber of Commerce, the United Way of Sumner County, and other civic organizations. consistently demonstrating that public service is measured not only by the office one holds, but by the lives one touches. Whereas Don was known throughout Hendersonville and Sumner County for his wit, warmth, generosity, storytelling, and genuine interest in people, and he possessed a remarkable ability to bring people together in pursuit of a common goal.

Whereas Dawn's service to Hendersonville spanned more than two decades and touched virtually every aspect of community life, from planning and zoning and municipal government to civic organizations, charitable causes, youth and family services, and programs designed to help individuals rebuild their lives. Whereas the city of Hendersonville recognizes that Don's legacy cannot be measured solely by the positions he held or the awards he received, but by the enduring difference he made in the lives of his family, friends, colleagues, fellow citizens, and countless people whom he helped

often quietly and without expectation of recognition and... And whereas the Board of Mayor and Aldermen desires to recognize and honor Donovan Don Eugene Ames II for his extraordinary contributions to this city of Hendersonville and to express its sincere and devout appreciation for his lifetime of service to the community.

Now, therefore, I, Jamie Clary, Mayor of the City of Hendersonville, by the authority vested in me as Mayor, and on behalf of the entire Board of Mayor and Aldermen, do formally proclaim our gratitude and appreciation and urge all our citizens of Hendersonville to join with us in honoring Don Ames for more than two decades of dedicated service to the residents of this community. The City of Hendersonville extends its sincere condolences to Don's wife, Shelley, his daughter, Chrissy, and her husband, Gregory. his son Aaron, and his wife Cindy, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and all of Don's family and friends who mourn his passing, many of them who are here tonight. Don leaves behind a lasting legacy of public service, generosity, leadership, friendship, and compassion. His example of giving back to his community will continue to inspire those who knew him and those who benefit from the organizations and causes to which he devoted his life. Shelly, would you come take this from me, please? I appreciate you accepting this on behalf of all these people here and the Board of Mayor Alderman.

I want to thank the city for this wonderful tribute to my husband Don. I think just about everybody in this room has been touched by Don's kindness, wit, benevolence, and love. So I thank you for coming tonight to celebrate with us and to keep Don's memory going. Thank you.

Mayor, if it would not be out of order since Rotary was such an important part of Don's life, would it be possible for all the Rotarians to have a picture with the family?

I think that would be perfect.

If the family doesn't object. Okay. Great.

Okay. So Casey, where should we do that? Casey.

I'm going to stand here. Hold on. Hey, Russ. Cheryl, Fred, Russ, why don't you all come up here?

Do you guys want to come around here?

Yeah.

Why don't you do that? Bob, do you all want to come around here? Okay. Do you all want to come around here?

Thank you.

Okay, okay.

I think we're good.

So next thing on our agenda is we've got a public hearing. So we have public hearing to hear comments on a request by 615 Design Group to annex 32.8 acres into the city limits with a plan of services entry zone the property to suburban residential plan development SR1-PD and to approve a comprehensive development plan for that property. The property is located on the west side of Avant Lane, south of Old Drake's Creek Road, as identified on Sumner County Tax Map 138, parcel 036.00. We have several people signed up for this. Looks like we've got about 12 people signed up. I need to read the rules. And these are the same rules for citizen comments. So if you're planning to speak in citizen comments, please pay attention to these rules as well. Speakers must identify themselves by name and address. Public comment shall be limited to five minutes per person, which time is not transferable to other speakers. All comments are to be directed to the presiding officer, not to Alderman, city staff, or other members of the public. Comments must address issues, not individuals or personalities. Personal attacks will not be tolerated. Comments may support or oppose particular issues or measures, but the motives of those with differing views shall not be questioned or attacked. Malicious comments will not be allowed. Speeches for or against particular candidates running for public office shall not be allowed. This is, as I mentioned, this is specific. The comments need to be specific to this item. That's the annexation that has been requested by the 615 Design Group. And the first person we have is Paul Towne of Catalina Way, Hendersonville.

Thank you. My name is Paul Towne. I live at 208 Catalina Way in Hendersonville. My wife, Lori, and I have been residents of Hendersonville for going on 10 years now, and we're very early residents in Durham Farms. While the Advent family property to the west of Durham Farms has been enjoyed by many of our residents as a relatively open space, complete with Pets? No, not really. But complete with goats to admire and many beautiful sunsets. I firmly believe in the importance of owner property rights. I sincerely hope that the Avant family can complete a market price sale that aligns with their desires for their property. As a resident of Durham Farms, I recognize this sale will happen. I would like to see the property developed in a way that complements our neighborhood maintains property values and enhances the area's aesthetic value. The proposed development meets these objectives by offering larger lot sizes, an attractive roadside presentation, higher value homes, and fewer of them overall. The development team has invested a considerable amount of time to understand how to make this development acceptable in the city as well as for the residents around it. I think it's become a net positive for the surrounding neighborhood, and that's demonstrating to me a commitment on behalf of both the builder and the developer for our community of Hendersonville and for the neighborhood in which this development would be built. In my opinion, this development, the annexation, and the zoning changes being requested are a positive addition to the neighboring Durham farms, a win for the city of Hendersonville, and most importantly, a win for the Avant family. Thank you for your time and thank you for the service to the city.

Paul, thank you. Patrick Mazey, Jones Lane.

Good evening. My name is Patrick Mazey. My address is 143 Jones Lane, Oak Creek Estates. Mayor, members of the board, thank you for your time tonight. And of course, thank you for everything you do for the city. I'm here tonight because like many of you on this board, I deeply love the character of our city. I understand the instinct to favor no development at all. We want to protect what we have. But history tells us that Hendersonville has always been defined by how it navigates change. As you know, 1784 is when Daniel Smith established Rock Castle, bringing the first settlement of Euro-Americans to this area. And six years later, William Henderson settled nearby, giving our city its name. When we incorporated in 1969, we were already a fast-changing community, catalyzed by the 1954 dam that reshaped us into a beautiful lakefront town. We went from a population of just over 400 people in 1700 to an estimated 64,000 in 2025. Growth in Hendersonville is not a new challenge. It's inevitable. The question before the board is not if we will grow, but how. Previously, this property faced proposal for a high density residential development. That is the kind of rapid, crowded development that threatens the country small town vibe that we all enjoy and cherish. But tonight we have a drastically different opportunity. We have a partnership between developer Bill Charles, who is widely known in our region for distinctive community layouts, and Shell Brothers, a builder celebrated for its quality residential architecture. And I can attest to that. They are offering an alternative, controlled, low density growth. They aren't trying to crowd our streets. They are planning thoughtful, high quality community that respects our landscape. If we reject this, we leave the door open for the next high-density proposal. I support controlled, low-density growth, but I trust Bill Charles and Shell Brothers to deliver a well-planned community that honors our past and safeguards our future. As a resident of Hendersonville, I support this project. I respectfully ask the Board to do the same. Thank you very much for your time.

Mr. Mazey, thank you. Kaylee Austin, Abington Drive.

Good evening. My name is Kaylee Austin, and I live at 451 Abington Drive. I have the unique perspective of standing here tonight as both a resident of Durham Farms and the sales director for Shell Brothers. I want to acknowledge that Mr. Avant has the right to sell his property, and I believe he should be able to do so at market value. The question isn't whether this property will be developed. It's who will develop it. My family chose to move to Hendersonville because there's a reason so many people want to live here. It's an incredible area with wonderful neighbors, beautiful communities, and a genuine sense of pride. Like everyone here, I care deeply about protecting what makes this place so special. One of the things that sets Shell Brothers apart is that we are intentional about the communities that we build. We invest where we work, support local organizations, and create neighborhoods that complement what is around them. That investment is already happening here in Hendersonville. Our Nashville division is headquartered right here in Hendersonville. and approximately half of our team, 10 families, call Hendersonville home. Every day, we work here, shop here, eat here, and support local businesses. The same is true for trades and contractors building our homes. We're not a company looking to come into Hendersonville. We're already a part of it. Every day, my team meets with families looking for a home, and we hear the same thing over and over, that many people are comparing Hendersonville with communities like Brentwood and Franklin, yet they are choosing Hendersonville. That tells me everything I need to know about how special it is here. When homes are built on this property, I do want them to be built by Shell Brothers, not simply because I work there, but because as a resident, I trust the quality, care, and thoughtfulness we bring. I don't want to see a higher density development that changes the character of this area or negatively impacts neighboring properties. I also want to thank many Durham Farms residents who have voiced their support for Shell Brothers throughout this process. That support reflects a trust we have worked hard to earn. Even if I didn't work here, I'd still be standing here tonight as a neighbor who cares deeply about this community. I do believe the very best outcome for this is for Shell Brothers to have the opportunity to build Avalon. Thank you.

Kaylee, thank you. Paul Vandekamp, Catalina Way.

Good evening. My name is Paul Vanekamp. I live at 211 Catalina Way. Been a member and a resident of Durham Farm for about six years. I run Avant Lane probably four or five mornings a week. So I'm intimately familiar with the traffic and the people and everything that happens out there. The thing that impressed me most about this proposal is when Bill Charles came out and started visiting with individual community members, group meetings, to find out what the potential problems could be so that they could avoid them before they even put their plans in place. So I very much am in support of this opportunity to control and improve the land in our area. So thank you very much for your help.

Paul, thank you. John Colwell, Championship Place. I should have given you a warning.

John Colwell, 101 Championship Place. I'm one of those that lives on Avant Road and I've got to my great degree two years of seeing the sunset and watching the goats and also carousing the cattle once in a while, but when he had cattle. But I will say, last time I voiced a lot of concerns, and I wouldn't call them concerns, issues. I think so far all of them have been addressed to my satisfaction. I would say that the only thing still kind of standing is the speed limit on what they're going to do, if possible. I get it. It's a park road that can be a park road for now and not tomorrow. It's just a question. I had concerns about the floodplain. I had members of the development committee come and talk to me about it, and I was satisfied with all those issues. At this point, I have nothing but benefit for this to go through because I don't want to see some development that is to our detriment. And I'm the one that looks at it every day on my side. I don't know if there's anybody else that's going to be here tonight to talk about it. But all my neighbors, they're all for it. They look at it as a pro. It's best to be able to know what they say. It's better to know the devil in your hand than the one you don't know. And that's not negative. It's just we see what we're going to do, and development's here. And I'm all for it. It's a good tax base increase, high-priced homes. Hopefully we cross our fingers that everything stays the same through it. And I know times change, but I'm going to change too, apparently. So thank you.

John, thank you. Terry Doty, Westchester Circle.

Hello. I hope you all had a good Labor Day weekend. My name is Terry Doty. I live at 760 Westchester Circle in Durham Farms. I just want to voice my support for this project. First of all, I think Avant families should be able to sell their property. And development is inevitable, in my opinion. And to me, I think this is a fabulous option to have low-density 36 homes that are geared to be million-dollar-plus homes. I think this is a great option for that area. I also want to support, I live in a Shell Brothers home, and I can tell you that these people have been wonderful. They stand behind everything they do. They build a really good quality project. And trust me, I'm an old curmudgeon at heart. If they didn't, I wouldn't be up here. I normally don't speak, but I felt compelled to do so because I just think this is a wonderful option for the area, and I think it benefits the city too. So thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Terry, thank you. John Beaver, Emerson Court.

John Beaver, 109 Emerson Court. As a resident of Durham Farm, I'm in support of this project, share a lot of the same reasons as others, and the quality of homes it would bring. It's less than 3% addition to the number of homes that are already in that area in Durham Farms. And I believe in the product. But part of that's because on the other side, I am a little biased. I'm an employee of Shell Brothers. I do not work for Shell Brothers Nashville anymore, but I do still work for the corporate office. And it's not the first time, Mr. Caldwell, I've been referred to as the devil somebody knows. My wife tells me that quite frequently, actually. But I did think I could share something of interest that I'm in a unique position to know with this board. And that is how Shell Brothers came to be in Hendersonville to start with. And this is the first opportunity I've had to do this because it's the first opportunity we've had to get a project approved in front of the board. I'm the one that selected Nashville several years ago, six, seven years ago to start Shell Brothers here. And that was a pretty easy decision over a few weeks of study and had never really been to Nashville other than once 20 years before. But then where did we want to be in Nashville was a little bit harder. And so it took a few months and came out and I looked all over the place, went down to Spring Hill and Thompson Station, you know, Mount Juliet, Lebanon, that area. Of course, looked at Franklin and Brentwood and that area where every other builder that comes here seems to go and put their, you know, put their location. And even the first place I looked at was actually by the Grand Ole Opry until I went and visited. I'm like, oh, this probably is the right fit right now for our brand. But I settled on Hendersonville, and we started up here in 2021 because – I love the area had a great feel to it. And, um, you know, it was just a place where I wanted to be. I wanted to have my family, raise my family. And I wanted us to, to start the business because I felt like we could be successful here. Our mission really is happiness. Are we perfect in doing that all the time? No, but we're, we're perfect in trying to make it right when we don't in those times. And, uh, that's, um, what we're about. We're about building relationships, whether it's with our trade partners, employees, with our customers, obviously, but also with the cities and communities we're in. And Hendersonville gave us a chance to try to do that, and we've definitely been trying to do that since we've been here. So we appreciate this opportunity to actually have a development of our own in the city limits, and so thank you for your consideration of that, and I'm supporting it on both hands. So thank you. Appreciate it, John.

Shannon Hickman, 250 Sanders Ferry Road.

Hello, I'm Shannon Hickman, 250 Saunders Ferry Road and I represent Mr. Avant as his real estate agent. I sell land and this is the second time this piece of property has been under contract. I can assure you that other developers are very interested in Mr. Avant's property. However, you have the opportunity to choose a really great design and a really great builder in Shell Brothers. So if you like a lower density than you had in the past plan, if you like large homes that are beautiful and that fit our city very well, I respectfully ask that you vote in favor of this project. Thank you.

Shannon, thank you. John Kenmer, Inbrook Drive.

Good evening. I'd like to thank the mayor and the board for all their time, service, and commitment to the community. Over the past year, there's been a significant shift in this property that the Avants have, and it's really because of both vision and the momentum surrounding the development here. The change isn't simple. It's not a result of passing time. It reflects a complete new approach, new developer concept and the new developer. So I support the annexation of the farm from the county to the city of Hendersonville. The annexation will allow the city to benefit from the additional tax base, as some of my friends and neighbors have said here. The impact fees they'll enjoy while ensuring that the developer is guided and managed in a way that aligns with Hendersonville's long term vision. Bringing this property into the city helps support the infrastructure, the emergency services, and the traffic management that are necessary for the responsible growth. So why support development now? The answer is simple. The current proposal is significantly different than it was the previous one last year. The developer proposes 36 homes rather than 65 homes. It emphasizes larger, higher quality homes instead of high density, track homes style in the community. It will be a gated neighborhood. So what does gave it mean? So the roads and the infrastructure are under the HOA's ownership and the maintenance that is being dedicated and the maintenance rather being dedicated to the city will be by the HOA or the Homeowners Association. So that takes the burden off the town, reduces the long-term maintenance and the burden from the town. From a homeowner's perspective myself, I'll be candid and selfish here, only a couple houses up from that, and I believe that the quality, the size, the design of these new homes will help enhance my property value for my kids, ultimately, and the surrounding area. It's a stark contrast to what was proposed last year, so appreciate that. Confidence in the builders. Shell builders, or Shell brothers, I should say, and the developing team have established a reputation for quality and community involvement, and we've seen that around here. The track record is evidenced by numerous communities that have successfully built and continue to develop throughout Hendersonville. Their investment in the area demonstrates the commitment of creating neighborhoods and strengthening the community. But I do have one request, because I couldn't get out of here without a request. So when I support this, I would ask the city to continue to address the traffic and the safety concerns at several intersections that will impact here. One, the entrance of Durham Farms at Drake's Creek Road, the intersection of Old Drake's Creek Road and Old Shackle, and I know there's a light going up there, hopefully in my lifetime. Enforcement of the neighborhood speed limits throughout the area, and also Park Road. Drake's Creek has increasingly become a cut through route and unfortunately excessive speeding has become the norm and a problem. My fear is that a meaning that meaningful enforcement by the town and the police department will only come after a serious accident occurs. I do not want to wait for a tragedy before taking this action. So let's continue to prioritize safety for our residents and our community and our families. Thank you, and I support it.

Thank you, John. Stephanie Casillas, Nighthawk Road.

Good evening. My name is Stephanie Casillas. I live at 101 Nighthawk Road on the corner of Avant and Nighthawk. My house sits probably no more than 100 feet from the Avant property line. I have had the benefit of seeing the beautiful sunsets, the cows, the goats. My husband's even had to put some goats back into the yard a couple times. But anyway, thank you all for your service to our community. I love Hendersonville. It's a great city to live in. To start, I do want to say that I do support the annexation of the proposed 36 home developments. However, I'm going to shift gears a little bit. I do have one concern. So being that my house is so close to the property, my concern is that is there going to be potential blasting, particularly given how close to some existing homes are to this property? So there are a few things that I would like to know. Has a geotechnical or subsurface study been completed already, and do we know whether blasting will be necessary? for foundations, roads, sewer, storm water, utilities, et cetera. If that hasn't been determined yet, when will we know? If blasting is required, will nearby homes receive professional pre-blast inspections and advance notification? Will seismographs monitor vibration near the closest homes and will those records be available for residents? If damage does occur, who is responsible and what is the process for homeowners to make a claim? Another thing I think is important is advance notice. Many residents in Durham Farms work from home, myself included, and need the opportunity to plan around blasting days and times. My dogs lose their mind once a week when the trash truck comes by, so years of construction will be a struggle in my house trying to plan meetings around that. Anyway, while my home is one of the closest to this project, this isn't just about my property. Depending on where excavation occurs, other Durham Farms homes could also be affected. I'm not suggesting blasting can't be done safely. I'm simply asking that we know whether it will be necessary, where it would occur, and what protections will be in place before it happens. If these answers aren't available tonight, which I don't expect them to be, I would ask that the city and the developer provide provide these details to impacted residents in writing before any blasting begins, if it happens. Thank you.

Stephanie, thank you. Natalie Curtis, Westchester Circle.

Good evening. My name is Natalie Curtis. I'm at 768 Westchester Circle. I've got three pieces to this. I am a Durham Farms resident. I am a Shell Brothers homeowner, and I am also the vice president of a dental service organization that specifically entered Hendersonville due to growth. and the potential of growth of our commercial brand. I fully support this. I think that the growth is necessary. I think that the income that will come from these families to spend when it comes to dental, healthcare, all of our retail, is going to be necessary in order to support all of the growth that our city has when it comes to commercial. And as a resident of Durham Farms, I fully support the price tag on these homes and our growth for our own homes and what we could make off of them in the long run. And we all joke, I have a bunch of neighbors here, that we may be the ones buying all 30 lots, and we'll all live in there because we're all friends, okay? So I fully support this, and I hope that you all do as well. So thank you.

Natalie, thank you. Gary McCarney, Championship Place.

Good evening.

Gary McCarney, 109 Championship Place, which is a residence in Durham Farms as well. I'm here to support the annexation I support Mr. Avant's right to do as he pleases with his property. And in this case, I particularly support it since we've had the opportunity for input into this project. The community has been acknowledged. The community has been consulted. And that is an important piece of this. I believe the developer has gone to great lengths to try and assuage the many issues and the problems that we've surfaced. And I believe they've done that well. We're presented with a win with the developer and the builder. The shell construction sites in Durham Farms, I first noticed them, I moved into Durham Farms three years ago. I came from Hilton Head where I was on a golf course and my golf cart was of no use to me when I got here except to drive around the neighborhood. And one of the places I drove the most was the shell properties as they were being built. As I said I came from Hilton Head, which is Beaufort County is now the most developed County in the country You've probably seen it in USA Today everywhere else. I've seen lots of home-built I have never ever seen sites like shell while they're under construction You could eat dinner on the ground in front of their construction sites. They're conscientious not only about the product they produce but but about the neighborhood as they're producing it. And I think that's terribly important, and it says a lot to the community, and it says a lot for the builder. So I do support it. Obviously, as everyone else has said, the alternative that we faced earlier, this is nothing like that, and this is an opportunity for us to see our property values greatly impacted in a very positive way. So thank you for your consideration.

Gary, thank you. Debbie Sutherland, New Shackle Island Road.

First, I want to thank the mayor and all of you for your service to our community. It's very much appreciated for hard decisions and sometimes not so easy decisions. My name is Debbie Avant Sutherland. I'm Bob's sister. So I live at 796 New Shackle Island Road, and I live on 15 of the 200 acres that my grandparents bought during the Depression. And I don't know if Bob will disagree with me or not, but I was told that they bought the 200 acres for $2,000. Can you imagine? That is a great price. So I, for one, am thrilled about this new project. And it's a unique project, a gated community in Hendersonville. There's not very many, in fact, maybe one gated community in Hendersonville. And that's a huge draw for people. I mean, if we start getting more gated communities, that will elevate Hendersonville even more. And, you know, I'm sure taxes will go up too, but. You know, that's part of it, I guess. I always knew that there'd come a time with all of us owning acreage, my sister, my brother, and I, there'd come a time where we'd have to sell. And right now that time is for my brother because of his health. And I know, Will, you guys all miss the goats and the cows getting in your yard. I used to have some of the goats until my late husband passed. and Bob offered to take those so now maybe you guys can all take some of the goats because they are fun and they don't eat or drink much. But so I hope that all of you give this a lot of thought and you decide to approve this annexation from my brother. thing that I think is such a plus is all these people, it is a small, very small subdivision. 36 homes is not huge at all. And I don't think it'll make a big impact on Hendersonville at all, except for the fact that it'll raise all of our property values a little bit more. And when we go to sell, which all of us will sell at some point or give it to our kids, And so I, for one, am always for growth. I'm always for growth because I've been here since the 70s when my dad got out of the Air Force, retired from the Air Force. So I've been here a long, long time. And 40 years ago, there wasn't even a hospital here. I mean, that came in, I think... 79 is when the hospital was built. And look at all the progress we've had since then. Doctors, I don't hardly have to go to Nashville. And, you know, when you get in your 70s, you go to the doctor more. So that is one thing that the hospital, there's pharmacies, there's all kinds of stuff that we don't have to drive very far for. So I'm definitely in favor of this annexation. And I love living in a city. I've been here, like I said, since the 70s, and I would not want to move anywhere else. Thank you very much.

Debbie, thank you. Bob, even? Even.

My name is Bob Avant. I live at 1765 Avant Lane. I'd like to thank y'all for giving me the opportunity to stand in front of you again. I wish I had a recorder and then next time I'd get up here I could just pit record and go over the same thing again. One new thing, my sister kinda hit on it. Y'all can put in my mailbox an application to adopt a goat They're companion animals, so two would be the best instead of just one. I would like to thank the positive comments that everybody has made. It's been a 180 degrees difference from when this process started. And I forget who the original construction people were, but everybody's in favor of Shell Brothers. And what's been said has been covered by somebody other than me here tonight. So instead of taking y'all's time, we can go home and watch a football game maybe. Thank you.

Mr. Avent, thank you. I'm going to entertain a motion that we approve the minutes that were provided to you in your packet from our August 11, 2026 meeting. We have a motion from Alderman Dixon and a second from Alderman Garza. Any discussion on that? All those in favor of approving the minutes that were provided to you in your packet from August 11, 2026, please say aye. Those opposed, please say no. That passes unanimously. Thank you. Next, we have citizen comments. We have two people signed up for that. The rules are the same as we just had for our public hearing. The first person we have is Robert Little of Raindrop Lane.

I'm Robert Little, 314 Raindrop Lane again. I'm here tonight about a problem in front of my property on Raindrop Lane that has existed since the curbing was rebuilt. When Rogers Group rebuilt the curb in front of my house, the area behind the new curb was backfilled with dirt containing disproportionately large amount of rock. This is not a complaint against finding a few rocks in my yard. I'm talking about material used as backfield. The affected area is approximately six feet long in front of my house. I tried to carry the problem myself. I reseeded the area, worked the soil, tried to get new grass established, but the amount of rock made it extremely difficult. I also tried to improve drainage by drilling inch and a quarter holes that I have repeated in the rock. As you can see, I tried drilling holes to try and get drainage. It still did not work. So I decided on what Ashley was dealing with. I built a quarter-inch screening frame and physically screened the dirt myself. As you can see, I had fun building a screen and doing all the rock. That's out of 12-foot long in front of my house. I didn't simply walk around picking up rocks off the surface. I actually worked the backfield screening the dirt, and this is some of what I removed. This is a five-gallon bucket containing rock I removed while working approximately 12 feet in front of the six-foot section and weighs approximately 60 pounds. But I want to make one thing very clear. This bucket is only a fraction of the rock represented in the 12 foot of soil I worked. I did not put every rock I removed in this bucket. This is only a portion of what came out of the soil. So when you look at this bucket, you're only looking at rock from those 12 feet. You're looking at a fraction of the rock I encountered while working just that portion of six feet. Approximately 48 feet of the effect area has not been worked this way as you can see That's near the surface of my rock This is all the rock that's been hit Am I disturbing you mayor you're not looking at my pictures I'm just writing down notes More rock Still rock These photographs show the material I was dealing with and screening the process. They show that it isn't just a few isolated rocks. This is rock throughout the backfield, including a substantial amount of smaller material and larger pieces. And while doing this work, I myself injured myself on the material. Yes, I bleed. I'm not showing you this because I expect the city to compensate me for an injury. I'm showing it because I'm willing to get out of here and do the work myself to try and solve the problem I did not create. I'm willing to maintain my property. I will seed it, fertilize it, water it, and take care of the grass. What I should not have to do is screen 60 feet of the backfield. On August 11th, I contacted Alderman Robinson about the amount of rock Rodgers put in my backfield to curb it and rebuild. He told me he would contact Plover Works. As of September 8th, I have not heard from Public Works or anyone else in the city regarding this problem. Lack of response is part of the reason I have referred Creekwood as a stepchild to Hendersonville. I have lived with the problem, tried to correct it myself, contacted Alderman, and I was told by Public Works would be contacted, and then I received no follow-up. I have also tried to help from Alderman 6th. Mr. Evans previously responded by explaining how much the city has done for Creekwood, but has not addressed it. this problem. Mr. Robinson is no longer seeking another term as alderman. He raised $14,375 with more than 96% from outside of our ward. When Ward 6 residents bring a specific problem to his representative and the problem's follow-up never occurs, it raises a legitimate question about representative priorities. This is why I'm bringing this direct problem to the board. I'm not asking for special treatment. I'm asking the city to inspect the backfield and determine whether the material used is appropriate for this location. Sixthly, I'm asking BOMA to direct Public Works to first inspect the entire property, examine the existing backfield, determine whether the material used was appropriate. Fourth, correct the replaced existing backfield that is not appropriate. And fifth, leave the area in condition where grass can then grow. Mr. Little, 20 seconds. All I'm asking to do is fix the problem. That's that simple. This is what they put in my yard. Any other area of the city, they'd be complaining a lot earlier. But I tried to do it myself. It's just too much rock. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Little. Wendy Slattery, Shorecrest Circle.

Good evening. I'm Wendy Slattery, 125 Shorecrest Circle, also a member of the Planning Commission here in Hendersonville. I would like to speak with you tonight about a decision that I made recently with the Planning Commission that has now come to you for discussion and first reading, and I would like to expand on that, and that is the new zoning guidance around data centers. I think we looked at it during the last Planning Commission meeting and I was a little hasty in my own vote, and I'm trying now to recoup some of that. I do think the ordinance as written has accomplished a lot. It does restrict data centers to heavy industrial, heavy commercial area. It does limit the size of land to two acres, a site that could be used. But even at two acres, that does allow for edge or enterprise data centers, which are smaller data centers, not the large hyperscale systems that we're seeing on the nightly news. But it does still represent potential issues that must be managed, I think, and can be managed more directly with our zoning ordinances. Currently, as written, it provides for assurance that there is no undue noise generated by a data center. And as we've all seen as counties and communities across the country grapple with data centers, one of the largest concerns is the noise levels being generated by these enterprises. I would suggest that there are two main issues that need to be reconsidered in the zoning ordinance as written, and I encourage you to either work on that yourselves or send it back to Planning Commission. And Keith Free will be very pleased that I've offered for you to send it back to us. I think he's on vacation right now. But the two things I am specifically concerned about is the setback of 100 feet, as currently written in the proposed ordinance. 100 feet, as I've done more research on data centers, I think is just woefully inadequate. I think that the national, while there are no national guidelines, I think the trend is more toward a minimum of a 500 foot setback for these smaller, data centers. Hyperscale, you're getting more to a thousand foot setback. I don't think there's any land in Hendersonville right now that could ever accommodate a hyperscale. So I will stay focused on these smaller. I think two acres is adequate, but I do think the setback needs to be reconsidered at something far greater than 100 feet. And secondly, something with a little more teeth in it around the noise levels that are generated. I think it's appropriate for us to have specified maximum noise levels that would be permitted measured at the property line so that any residential property that might be near one of these has more confidence in what we're approving in our city. Currently there are two, now we'll get a little technical. There's DBA and DBC, decibel measurement units. DBA, I think the prevalent idea right now is a maximum of 50 decibels DBA is adequate at the property line of a data center. to keep it manageable for anything that is close to that data center. As we talked about this being acceptable adjacent to residential property, I think that 200 foot setback and a maximum 50 decibel DBA measured noise level would be acceptable. There is also the DBC, which is actually measuring that low frequency hum and pulsing sound, again, that we see mentioned in a lot of news reports. Those are things that are constant annoyances to anybody within hearing range of those. So my request would be that you thoughtfully consider what we did send to you and look at the setbacks and look at the sound level and putting some teeth behind that, not just undo noise levels, but actually put specified quantified values around that. And then thirdly, around those sound levels, putting some teeth into how we manage that. The studies that would have to be done before a data center project was presented to the city, And also a requirement that there be annual checks of those sound levels as data center utilization grows. And that's all I have. Thank you very much.

Wendy, thank you. Next item on our agenda is a consent agenda, which we have nothing. And then we move into ordinance and resolutions. And the first one is we have resolution 2026-29. This is a resolution amending the City Employee Innovation Program and Employee Recognition Program. We have a motion from Alderman Sasse, a second from Alderman Ward, excuse me. All those in favor of Resolution 2026-29, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, please say no. No. We have one person, okay. So that passes with a majority vote. Alderman Robertson voting in the minority. Next, we have Resolution 2026-31. This is a resolution declaring certain real property to be surplus property and improving the lease with Pope John Paul II High School. We have a motion from Alderman Sasse and a second from Alderman Martin. I'd like to speak on that to explain a little bit about what's happening here. We do have somebody here. We do have Eric Schittle with the school here if we have some questions. Twenty years ago or so, the city worked through a program with FEMA to start the process of taking possession of properties on Linden Drive. Linden Drive, in the time that I've lived here, has probably flooded to the rooftops three times. And finally some folks started moving out, and so FEMA decided instead of covering those with insurance that they would buy the properties. They would pay 95% of the cost, the city would pay 5% of the cost, and the city would become the owner of those properties with some stipulations and restrictions on the ownership of those properties. I want to say that there are seven, maybe eight, a smaller piece of property there. But when the city took those over, five houses were demolished. And Linden Drive is, for the most part, it's vacant property. There are two houses, two property owners that wanted to stay. They are not covered by FEMA's insurance. That was part of the deal they had, is that if they did not take the buyout that FEMA offered, that they would not be able to be covered with insurance. We've had that property for now, we're probably going on 10 or 12 years, and all the city has done with that property is maintain it. I've said many times that city governments don't really own assets, everything is a liability. And it's very much, if it is an asset, it's a non-performing asset, we mow it. That's what we really get out of it, is we get the obligation to maintain it. Dr. Chittle came to me, gosh, it's probably been a year and a half or two years ago, as embarrassing as that is to say. He came to me about the possibility of Pope John Paul using that space for practice fields or for something in the athletic realm, possibly parking. And so we started having conversations with that. It brought Lance into that conversation as well as the Pope John Paul board that they have there. He offered to pay us rent on the property. I talked with Andy Gilley because I was pretty sure this was the situation. We hold greater value in athletic facilities such as gymnasiums. So even though we didn't have an agreement with him for the past two winters, he has allowed our parks programs to use his gymnasiums, which we have an agreement with the Summer County Schools to use their gymnasiums, and they use our park space. But at that point with Pope John Paul, we were using their gymnasiums, and they weren't getting anything from us. We've now... We've now moved far enough along that I can bring you something as far as an agreement with Pope John Paul, and that's what we have before us. Like I said, Dr. Chittle is here. I think this is an excellent opportunity for us to certainly get out of the maintenance of the property, but also to continue with an agreement where we can use their gymnasiums for our parks programs. Our park structure, Andy Gilley, is here as well, and he can tell you if you have any questions about how beneficial that it's been to us for the past two years. Do you all have any questions or any items that you want to discuss on this? Alderman Robertson, and I do have one amendment, but we'll get to that in a second. Go ahead.

So someone from the school is here.

Please. This is Dr. Chittle, and Dr. Chittle, I cannot remember what your title is. There we go.

Eric Chittle, president. resident here, 230 Lake Terrace Drive, live next to Vanessa Stilwell, or Silkwood, excuse me, Silkwood.

Thank you, Dr. Chill, and thank you for allowing the city for the last two years to use your facilities. You're welcome. My question is, what type of sports facilities does the school envision on this property?

All-purpose field for soccer, football, perhaps an all-purpose field for softball, baseball.

Okay. But no actual buildings, correct?

It's not allowed by FEMA. Right.

And these sports fields, and I assume, Mayor, that you're going to amend your motion to this. So I just want to make sure that when these facilities are not being used by the school, the city has unlimited access and use at no cost. of these sports fields, correct?

That's the way it's written, yes, sir. Okay. I get to tell a little story because you gave me the mic. When my wife and I came down here, we were attracted to two things, the beauty of the city and the beauty of the people. And I've been a Catholic school guy forever in cities in northern Michigan, and one of the things that a great city has is a great public school, check. And then they have a great Christ-centered option, checked. So we were drawn here by this, and one of the things I wanted to do was, help make JP2 part of the fabric of the community. So how can we cooperate with the city? Your police department uses our facility for training all the time in the summer. Our gyms are open to you. Next year we start an agreement with your soccer organization that our soccer fields, when we're not using them, are going to be used by the city. We see ourselves as part of this community, and we love being part of it. We're thankful for the mayor, for Lance, for Andy Gilley. It's a beautiful community to be part of. The South is a special place. Christ lives very vibrantly here, so it's a great place to have a school that wants to promote that. So there's my soapbox. So, yeah, we'll continue to cooperate with the city because we love the city. And people move here for JP2, and people move here for the city and then find JP2. So it kind of goes both ways.

Yeah, you know, our flag football leagues are greatly expanding.

Mm-hmm.

And so I'm glad that we will be able to use these fields when your school is not using them. This will greatly help the load that we have.

I imagine the soccer teams will get them first, but whatever the city wants.

I can tell your preference on that. I was an old football player, so I'll stick with football.

Very good.

So, Mayor, I understand that right now we're paying about, at least a $4,500 a year mowing. And if this agreement is approved, we will not be, we will save that money. Correct.

Um, we will not be spending it on mowing.

They will, they will. Okay. So it's a cost savings plus facility. So I have no other questions. Thank you. Appreciate that. Alderman Robertson, uh, Alderman Sassy.

Thank you, mayor. Um, Thank you for coming out here tonight, and thank you for agreeing to this. I had the pleasure of talking to you a couple years ago, and I appreciated that conversation we had, and for your commitment to this community as well. You've been a great partner. You're actually in my ward, and so very, very familiar with your facilities, and there's a number of people in my neighborhood that actually attend the school, and they have nothing but great things to say. Very excited about this. I couldn't imagine a better use for that property than for you to lease it and make use of it. The one question I did have, I noticed in the agreement it did mention we said no buildings were on it, but I understand that bathroom facilities can be applied to this property, correct? Correct. Okay. So I just wanted to make that apparent. that is a facility that is a, a, uh, valid use of the property. And, uh, as I understand, we'll be built there, uh, which I don't think is a problem with FEMA. Is that correct? Lance. Okay.

Great. Thank you. Thank you. Alderman Sassy. Thank you. Alderman Skidmore. Yeah. Just a brief comment on that now. Um, if this is granted to you guys, are you saying that we're going to be able to, to use the basketball courts for basketball as well? We're already doing it. I know that, but I guess my point would be you're going to continue that relationship with the city, right?

Yep.

Okay. I feel very comfortable with this. I'm surprised that really it hadn't done before, but, you know. Those things happen, but I will tell you this. The mayor is exactly right. I used to represent that ward when I represented Ward 3, and now I'm in Ward 1. My mother and I used to represent that area many years ago. I'm not going to tell you how long ago, but many years. I was still a young man back then. I'll just put it that way. But just to let you guys know, because I don't know if there's – I know Jamie was alive back then, but I had to say it, man.

I wonder where this is going, but go ahead.

And I apologize if I offend you, but I was being facetious of that. But I know Mayor Clary was here, but I don't know if any of the other aldermen were here. Y'all were probably in elementary school when I was on the board at that time, but I just want to tell you a little story about Linden Drive, why this has come a long way. Because I can remember, honest to God, that my mother and I used to go and knock on those people's door, and I sort of felt like Mom was Noah because she kept saying, the rain is going to come. And it's going to flood your houses. And everybody just kind of looked at us. And they did me too. And they'd look at me and they'd go, right, Mark, you know, we don't believe you. And I'd say, okay, well. And it didn't bother me. I said, well, just let it come, you know, because it was coming from Massacre Creek. And, you know, my mom, I'll never forget, she was so upset about it. And I said, Mom, you just got to, you know, let it happen. And it did, and Mayor Clare is exactly right, because I want to tell you all, every time that it rained for several years that it did this, and I think Mayor Clare will tell you this, the water would come to the very top of the roofs. And one time, my mom and I literally were in a canoe. going to check on the people. This is years ago. This is back before JB2 was even built. And so that area has always been a long time a concern of mine, even though I'm no longer in Ward 3 anymore and I'm in Ward 1, but it's still, you know, Ward 3 is still in my heart, not as much as Ward 1. Yeah. tell you that right now but it still is a part of my you know and and i guess the point i'm trying to make is i think this is something that and i'm really glad the mayor's doing uh is uh letting the uh allowing this to uh for for you guys to work together on this and do something with that is it 16 acres mayor how much probably more like 10 10 okay i couldn't remember I knew it was around 10 to 16. Does it rain? Is it going to be a problem with flooding? I know it doesn't flood Linden anymore.

The engineers who have looked at the fields and the fields, how to put them, think that we can put them in a way that will allow them to drain in reasonably quickly.

Yeah, because I was going just to suggest to you I would have an engineer look at that land because my feeling was that it still got swampy down there. So I didn't want you to think that we're trying to. give you a pig in the poke, so to speak. But I would suggest you guys look at that very hard. Thank you, sir. We will. But we'd love to. At least my vote, because you're wonderful to the people of Hendersonville and to the children in this area, not only in this area, but the outlying parts of the counties in Middle Tennessee where the children sometimes are, I don't know how many there is, but they come to the schools. And it's one of the best things that Hendersonville did was to have JP2 or you guys decided to come to Hendersonville. Thank you, sir. And I appreciate it. And, Mayor, one other thing on your amendments, wherever it says Linden Driven, I'd like to make a motion that it just go to Linden Drive. Okay. I appreciate that. When we get to that in a second, we'll take care of that. But thank you. Oh, and one other thing. It really doesn't have anything to do with this, but I don't know what happened to my mic. but is this a signal that you all really truly don't want me to speak? I'm sure I've been knowing that for many years, but I'd like to request that we buy a new one from Amazon or somewhere where I can put on this thing because it's pretty much destroyed. It's all over my booklet, but Anyway, Mayor, that's it. I appreciate that, Alderman. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Alderman Evans. Thank you.

First of all, I want to say thank you for working with the city and having the mutual agreement where we can benefit for both entities, both organizations. But I'd like to just ask a question about under the FEMA agreement, Mayor and Lance, What limitations do we have as far as the FEMA agreement, whether to sell it? Have we gone through all of this in making sure that this is legal and that we don't have any issues with that? Selling it, renting it, leasing it, whatever.

We can't necessarily convey it, but we can lease it. But even with the lease, it still has to be approved by FEMA. Oh, okay. Yeah.

So they have to approve whatever the agreement we come up with.

Right. It's in the deed restrictions. Okay. I know we haven't heard enough about deed restrictions, but any lease that we do, it has to be ultimately approved by FEMA. Okay. How long will that... Well, we've only been working on it for, what, three years now? Yeah, two and a half. Seems like quite a bit.

Under the section where it talks about improvements, and I heard us talk about the restrooms and removal of dirt to make the fields or whatever we're going to do, and I did see where it says that it can't cost in excess of $10,000. Is that total or is that $10,000 for each field or whatever we're doing? What's our limitations there as far as it being, it costing more than it would be sensed as an improvement at which we're not supposed to do that?

Um, the, uh, well, um,

I've got that one. If we're going to make an improvement over $10,000, we have to come to you and you have to accept it. So to do fields will take much more than $10,000, but we have to come here and say, we'd like to put in a football field for a flag football team to garner support from a particular alderman. And then you guys would have to say, okay, that's going to cost JP2 $100,000. we're going to allow them to do it. So every improvement we want to make over $10,000, you guys have to say, yes, you can do that or no, you cannot.

But that's that improvement. The, the, the costing in excess of $10,000 without prior written approval from the city. That's just us putting that on there. That's not coming from FEMA that says we can't do that. Right.

That's correct. Yes. That's you guys saying, well, I'm, I'm asking the attorney.

Oh, that's sorry.

Yeah, that's our limitation.

Okay. Thank you. Just wanted to clarify that. I was trying to differentiate between what we were saying is what we're putting on there versus what FEMA says we can and can't do. That's correct. Okay. And then one last thing, Linden Drive, that's still going to remain as a city road, right? So we still have to maintain that road, correct?

Yes. Okay. Well, until there is until the last two pieces of property. Is it the last two pieces of property?

Yes, there's two pieces of property there that we'll eventually buy, and as soon as we have those last two, it comes to us, the care of Linden Drive.

Which my feeling is that can't happen soon enough because in addition to mowing, at some point we would have to repave that.

Okay. Well, I'm confused then. is the answer that Linden drive is a city road or is it not going to be a city road? So it's a city road. So we still maintain. So it's a city road right now.

Once they buy the last two, once they buy the property with the two houses, the properties, the two houses on it, then it becomes theirs.

Okay. But, Show me where you look, but they're not buying these properties where they're leasing it. Sorry.

So, so they're leasing the properties that we own. Okay. But there's still two other properties on Linden drive that are owned by, by individual homeowners.

Okay. So once they they're negotiating with the city, um, JP two is negotiate, but for these properties that are, that we own, that we bought from FEMA or FEMA gate, whatever, that's still on Linden drive. We're still responsible for the roads in front of those homes in front of those lots.

We're only responsible until, so we're responsible right now. Okay. Um, once they buy those two lots and they become in, in those two lots, those last two lots with houses on it, once they buy those last two, then we hand them over the road as well.

Even though, even though these properties are on Linden drive. So what, we're going to keep the road as long as there are people living on the road. Okay. So is that the determination when people live on the road, then once nobody lives on the road, then it's not our, we don't want to maintain it anymore.

Okay.

Does that need to be stipulated or is, I mean, it's in there. Okay. Okay.

It's in there.

All right.

Thank you. That's it. Alderman Evans. Thank you. Alderman Collins.

I had the same confusion around when we were, and we're not having responsibility for the road. And, So I just want to, not that I'm going to hold you to it, but when would you anticipate? Because we said earlier Alderman Skidmore down there, who's been here since I was in middle school, I take every opportunity to point that out to him. He told us that the two homeowners... didn't want to move and would not sell to FEMA, or maybe that was Mayor Clary, but is it the same two people?

Yeah, Steve and Martha Centel and Becky Heflin, and they both, we have conversations with them all the time, as last week even, and when they're ready to sell, they're going to give us the first right for refusal, but like Steve and Martha, they're healthy. I bet you they live there another 20 years, so. So we'll see.

So we're going to have the road for a while.

Yeah.

Yeah. And I'm happy that they're not going to have to pay.

As long as there's taxpayers in those houses.

That sounded terrible. I did not mean to.

We'd like to get the property sooner, but we're trying not to put our elbow into anybody.

Sure.

You know, trying to be good neighbors.

Okay. So, and then this question is for Lance. When... JP2 does have first right of refusal on those two homes. So when they do purchase those two homes, do they come, does it come back to BOMA at that time or is it automatic as stated in this lease? And can you answer without using the word shall or anointed, please?

I don't think so. Okay.

It just, I couldn't, I couldn't get that from this, so. in plain English if you can.

I don't know plain English.

I don't know if you can either. So what I'm asking is, when JP2 takes ownership of those two lots, is it an automatic thing that the road is now private and maintained by JP2, or does it come back to BOMA for...

I don't think it would come back.

Convey the property, the road to them.

I think the way that we drafted it is that whatever BOMA does is by passing this into ordinances and FEMA approving it that it wouldn't come back to BOMA. It's like a lease purchase.

Okay.

But it would come back to BOMA each time that But JP2 is asking for capital improvements to be approved by the city.

So when it's private eventually and they want to pave it, they have to come to us for permission because that's more than $10,000? Or fix potholes? No.

Which part of that are you asking as far as the city maintaining it until it goes to JP2?

Well, the threshold for improvements is $10,000. So if they go to pave it, that's way more than $10,000. Do they have to have permission once it's a private street?

Once it's a private street, no. Okay.

Likely you all would. include that with a set, I assume with a group of improvements. Would that make sense?

Yeah, likely we would try to do everything at once. Soccer field, flag football field, softball field, and whatever needed to be done for the road.

Thank you. Alderman Collins, thank you. So I sent you by email and also sent in front of your chairs this sheet right here, and There's some clarifications on there. So what I need to do is this would be a substitute for paragraph 3A, a substitute for paragraph 7.2, a substitute for 7.3, further down on 7.3, and a substitute for paragraph 18. And you see these are some clarifying items that JP2 and Lance, when they talked, that they felt like would be helpful for us. So those five items would be substitutes for the paragraphs that were in your packet, And, yes, I do think that we should cross out the N in driven so that it's recognized as Linden Drive. So I'm going to make that motion that we amend with this. I have a second from Alderman Robertson. Any other discussion on the amendment? All those in favor, please say aye. Those opposed, please say no. That passes unanimously. Now we're back on the main motion, which is Resolution 2026-31. Alderman Skidmore.

Yes, I just want to ask Rachel, I mean, Alderwoman Collins, did they say that when you were asked? Because it's a good question, and I've deliberately stayed away from the debate on that issue or the question, but I want to make sure that they answered that properly for you enough, or if you understood it, what to be, because I think I might know the answer to that, but I'm staying away from it. because it wasn't directed towards me. I've been around public works for a long time, and I've seen these issues come up before. But it was the way that it was kind of answered, and no disrespect to the mayor's administration or the city attorney's on that, but I just want to make sure that you were comfortable with that, because that is a very excellent question.

If you would like to offer further clarification, I would appreciate that.

Well, Mayor Kenna, I mean, and Lance, too, I mean, if you all say no, I'm not going to say a word. I mean, I'm not. I mean, I'm not going to get mad or anything.

I'll say okay. And Lance says it's okay. Just keep in mind that if we add something in this.

No, there's going to be nothing in addition to it. I was trying to explain to her about. the private road situation. We've got a vote that's coming up tonight about the redevelopment out there on Avant. And it's my understanding they're going to have private roads too. And so that's why that I'm saying you might want to, you know, if you're not comfortable or you don't, if it wasn't explained properly, I would try to help. But sometimes when I stick my nose into things that I shouldn't, I just mess it up even more.

Well, I certainly understand the difference between a private and a public road. But what I wasn't really clear on is if the When the stipulations in the lease are met for the road to become private, does that happen automatically, or does it come back to us for a vote? Or is that included in this lease document?

It's my understanding, even though if it's even in the lease document, because I've gone through private roads before, that they have to give notice, and please understand, Lance, tell me if I'm wrong. They have to give notification to the city, and then the mayor's office will tell either public works committee or the department or the full board that they're taking over the road. So, I mean, they can go in there now and they can fix the road. Once this is passed tonight, they can go in there and just letting us know and, and fix the potholes. If they're there, I haven't driven that Linda in a long time, but, uh, but my understanding, but as far as the, the two homes, as long as they're taxpayers of the city, we own that road. And then when, uh, when they, uh, like the scent tails, they're very good friends of mine. Uh, I've known them for a long time and, uh, Once they do sell the house, because they've been adamant not selling, and I can understand that, your house is your castle, and so you keep it for as long as you can. But once those two property owners sell to JP2, then that opens up a whole new world where it closes in and they do become private. But that's, I mean... And if I'm wrong, Lance or the mayor, please tell me. But I think that's about the way that it is. But they still have to give us notice via a letter or an email or something where we can take it off our list. Am I incorrect?

I don't think so, but maybe we could flesh some of these out a little bit better in your committee.

Sure, I mean, we're going to have some time on it, but I'm almost sure that's the case because that's the reason why we still own it is because they are taxpayers. Thank you, Mayor. Appreciate that, Alderman Skidmore. Anything else, Alderman Collins? Appreciate that. Thank you.

Any other discussion? Any other proposed changes? So we're back on the main motion of Resolution 2026-31. We amend it at one time. All those in favor? Oh, I'm sorry. Alderman Bergdorf.

Sorry, just one point of clarification I wanted to ask here. It has unit on your amendment, Mayor, 7.3 city use of property road. Is that to be, should that be 7.3B or 7. Am I just looking at it wrong? I think so.

I see what you're saying.

Yeah.

So they're both going to be, we're going to have two paragraphs in section 7.3.

Okay. All right. Thank you, sir.

All those in favor of Resolution 2026-31, please say aye. Aye.

Those opposed, please say no.

That passes unanimously. Thank you all. So, y'all, we've been here for an hour and a half. I anticipate we would take a break somewhere within our agenda. We have several people here for the next item. Lance and Gabby can't leave. They have to stay as long as we're in session here. The rest of us can take a break if we need to. So right now I'm going to go forward. Okay. But if at some point somebody wants to make a motion to take a break, that's certainly within order. So next we have resolution 2026-26. This is a resolution to approve the proposed plan of services for property proposed for annexation located at 1765 Avant Lane, Hendersonville, Tennessee, south of Old Drake's Creek Road for the Avalon subdivision development. I need a motion. We have a motion from Alderman Martin, a second from Alderman Goodwin, For the purposes of conversation and the discussion here, annexation, number of houses, the development plan, to me everything is germane when we're talking about this. It would just be too hard to separate out what is annexation, what is the development plan, and what is required under the public hearing. So anything dealing with this subdivision I'm going to consider is fair game. I have some items to share, but first we'll go to Alderman Martin.

Well, if you have items to share, go ahead, because I want to throw my comments out there and then invite Keith Free to come and give a general overlay.

And we do have some folks here also representing the development. Alderman Evans, did you want to go ahead or do you want me to go ahead?

No, I'd like to wait. I'd like to hear your comment.

Well, that's a lot of pressure, but I'll go ahead. Forever when folks have come up here with ideas about new houses, especially new apartments, I've had a hard time with that. In the 10 years I've been mayor, I have not voted for an application for a new apartment or a new subdivision in Hendersonville. It's not that I don't like the developers, don't like the project. It's not a preference thing. It's about math. There's a lot of people that talk about growth is good for cities, and you hear that many, many times. And a lot of times that comes from people that are in cities with higher tax rates. So maybe it is good. Maybe it is overall worthwhile for them. But for us, that's not the case because our tax rate is pretty low. And also what's forgotten is that when you add houses or you add apartments, you add living units, you add people who need services. And honestly, it gets very aggravating for the number of studies, the number of people that I've heard that have said that growth is a positive for a city. You should grow as much as possible because of all the property tax that you get with that. In fact, I've seen it so many times I really think it's become intentional that people anticipate that there are no services necessary with growth. But I want to do some quick math here. So our operating budget is approximately $70 million. We have about 64,000 people in Hendersonville. So if you divide that as far as services that we're providing, they're valued at about $1,100 per person. $70 million divided by $64,000, about $1,100 per person, what we provide in services. Now, when one person moves here, we don't go out and buy a tire for a police car. We don't go out and buy half an acre for a new park. But we have this level of services that we want to maintain, so after so many people move here, We develop a park. We're required and expected to pave more roads. We build a new fire hall. We add police officers. We buy more police cars because we have more people and we want to maintain that level of services. We don't do it one at a time, but we do it certainly as we grow. One of the things that it's important to me to look at is that we maintain that level of services. And I'm going to go through this next part sort of quickly. If two people live in a new house in Hendersonville, that 1,100 times two, that house needs to generate $2,200 in property tax to pay for us to continue the level of services. Obviously, like I said, it's not just for two people, but as a whole subdivision comes on, it comes out to two people equate to about $2,200 that that house needs to generate in property tax. That doesn't happen in many houses in Hendersonville. Most of the houses in Hendersonville don't generate $2,200 in property tax. In fact, it has to be a $1.5 million house to generate $2,200. The fast math is you take $1.5 million, you divide it by 100, you multiply it by .25, and then you multiply that by .5883, which is our tax rate. A $1.5 million house generates about $22,206 in property tax. Again, that was fast. I can go over it if you all have some questions later on. So a new house and a new living unit that isn't worth $1.5 million isn't going to generate the property tax that we're going to spend providing services. So where is that money going to come from? Well, in some cases it comes from grants, but there aren't many grants out there that provide for operational expenses. Most of the grants are for additions and infrastructure. We can raise taxes. So whenever I've looked at an application for a new living unit, subdivisions, apartments, condos, whatever, I do the math. And if it's not worth $1.5 million each, I've got to figure out where that money is coming from. And the answer is it's coming from the people who live here currently. That's why I voted against those items. But new houses, we have to acknowledge this, new houses bring with them new customers. We can assume that somebody who lives in Hendersonville is going to spend most of their money in Hendersonville retail-wise. So we know they're going to generate some sales tax. It's difficult to project how much that really is. It's very difficult to project that. But I'm going to show you in a second, we have somewhat of an idea. So you need to look at what they're going to bring property tax-wise and sales tax-wise. But this is a situation that we can't just compare yes or no. A new subdivision versus no subdivision. This is a situation where we saw a proposal a year ago that we voted down. I don't even know if we voted. I think it was just that they may have withdrawn it. We saw a possibility a year ago. We also know that there's a possibility that if we vote it down, it's going to go to the county and they're going to build something greater. And that's going to have an impact on our services, especially parks, especially fire. So it's not really a build or no build it scenario. It's really a build this or build that scenario. And like I said, there could be a lot more out in the county. Jason, can you bring up my Excel sheet for me? What I did here was I looked at the expenses as well as the revenue of four different scenarios. One of the scenarios is what would happen if we voted no and this stays in the county? What are going to be the expenses for it? What's going to be the revenue? We obviously don't get any property tax if that happens, but there are going to be expenses because we have committed to providing fire service. We've also committed that they would use our parks. And so you see that in the first column, the pink column. That would be if we say no and it stays in the county. The next one, sort of that orange one, is the plan that we saw a couple months ago. The next one, the yellow columns, that's what we're looking at today. And the next one, for fun, I looked at Oak Creek. Oak Creek is a subdivision that's about halfway built off Saundersville and Jones Road. When good old builders came to us and asked us to annex that, we said no, knowing that they could go to the county. And they did go to the county. So to me, probably the most important lines, or some of my most important lines, is if you look across row 22... And it shows you the total, I'm sorry, row 25. And if you look at the annual impact of each of those, if we say no and we allow the current zoning and they go to the county, the annual impact is plus $21,000 for us. And most of that is because they're going to be spending money on sales tax, but we don't get any of their property tax. The next one, the Crestwater development, which was the previous plan for this project, we lose about $19,000 every year had we said yes to that. The next one is the Avalon Project. It means $37,000 to the positive of us, for us. And the next one is Oak Creek. Had we annexed that, it would have cost us about $4,500 a year. Now look two lines below that with impact fees. It's $6,000 per house. We only get impact fees if we annex it. For the Crestwater development, $366,000 in impact fees. For this development, $216,000 in impact fees. For the Oak Creek, $288,000 in impact fees. Now, even if we cut the sales tax in half, Evelyn still comes out on the plus $14,000. The reason for that is because the houses are so valuable. The sales tax is helpful. It's because the houses are so valuable. Go ahead and take a look at this, but I want to talk about that it's not just about the money either. I've got accused of that from a couple folks that all I look for is the money. Well, the reason I do that is because it's not my money. Because it's the taxpayers' money. I don't think it's a bad thing that as a mayor that I look at what things are going to cost us. And that's a huge variable when we consider projects like this. But I also asked for the opinions from a lot of people who live nearby. I posted on Facebook on... Drake's Point and also on the two Facebook pages for Durham Farms. Sixty-six people responded via Facebook and email. And this is not by any means is this scientific, is this perfect. There's no way I would make that conjecture. Of the 66 people who responded via Facebook and email, 47 in support, one was opposed, and 18 had no preference. That's where I am. I would rather nothing develop right there. That's exactly what I would like to happen. But that's not one of our choices. You see what our choices really are. It's the pink column and it's the yellow column. Overall, overwhelmingly, there's a preference for the project that is in front of us here. Now, second to that was the people who said they didn't want anything. And really, that's a preference for the county zoning is what that is. If we vote no, if they say they don't want anything, It's going to go back to the county, and that's what's going to happen. So it comes down to about 71% of the people that I heard from were in favor of this. One opposed, and 18 that had no preference. So to me, there's two things to pay attention to here. It's the math, and it's the opinion of the people who are going to bear the biggest burden on this. There is not much that I can think of where 71% of people in Hendersonville have ever come out in support of something, much less a proposed subdivision. And for people to show up here, and some of the people who showed up hadn't previously commented, so really all the responses I've received, it's probably more like 75 or 80%. Again, I've never voted for a new subdivision or a new apartment in 10 years, but I think it would be irresponsible as mayor if I don't vote for this one. Does anybody else have any comments? I do want to ask Stephen some questions. So we had a couple questions come up earlier in citizen comments. Alderman Martin, Alderman Evans, do you want to go or do you want me to address those questions? I'm going to ask Stephen to come up. Okay, Stephen. So this is Stephen Windsor-Red. He's our public works director. What can we do about the speed limit?

Stephen Windsor- Specifically on Avant? Um, well, it's classified as a park road right now. Um, the developer has come forward with some proposals to install, uh, pedestrian beacons. Um, I think there's a proposal out there to put some speed tables in to compliment the one that's already there right by the rugby field. Um, beyond that, I mean, it's already a narrow park road, uh, enhanced enforcement, um, Those are all options and opportunities, I think.

Michael Heaney- C.J., will you tell us, you're here, right? C.J. Yes, sir. Michael Heaney- Okay. Will you tell us what's included in your plan as far as, I'm saying, this is the wrong term to use, speed control devices. Is that wrong, Steven? C.J. Traffic control devices. Michael Heaney- There we go. Thank you. C.J. Yes, sir.

Michael Heaney- Okay. C.J. C.J. Murrow with 615 Design Group. Michael Heaney- I'm sorry. Without objection, we're going to hear from somebody representing the developer. Go ahead. CGML 615 Design Group. So what we currently have in our plan is whenever Durham Farms was developed, there are sections of Avant that were not improved with curb and gutter. So we're closing the gaps on that side of the road with curb and gutter, which would come with the plus or minus two foot widening as well, just to close some of those gaps. As Mr. Wisner-Reed said, we are proposing another speed table to complement the one that's at the rugby fields at just one, right? Uh, yeah. Well, we haven't finalized those discussions yet. Um, But at this point in our current plan, there's one speed table, and it's near the proposed main entrance to the development. So there's two entrances to the development. The main one at the north side is gated, and that's where the speed table would be. The southernmost entrance to the development will have a crash gate on it. It will only be for emergency personnel only. And then one thing to note is with the previous plan before we came here, all of the roads connected across a van. Hold on, CJ. That wasn't my question. I'm going to cut you off. Okay.

Steven, what he just said, is that helpful in terms of slowing people down? I would expect that it would be. Okay. And we still have other options?

Enhanced enforcement. I guess radar feedback signs. Those are, you know, we already have one out there, but perhaps an additional for the opposing direction. I don't think we have in both directions. I can't remember off the top of my head.

Let me switch gears a little bit. We've had some people tonight ask about the entrance to Durham Farms.

Can you tell us where we are on that? The last, I believe it was the last public works meeting, or sorry, capital projects meeting, or perhaps the previous one, the report was presented that our consultant had prepared regarding study of that intersection. The outcome of that was in favor of a roundabout, which is similar to what had been proposed there before, very similar in design. There was agreement from the the members to take that forward when funding became available. And we're kind of at that point now where we're looking for a funding source, I think, to take that project further.

Okay.

Intersection of New Shackle Island and Old Drake's Creek. New Shackle and Old Drake's Creek. In the county. Yes. That project is currently in the right-of-way phase. The county, we spoke with them this morning, Marshall Boyd with the county. He He indicated that the project is anticipated to go to construction next summer with completion probably in 28.

Okay.

Sorry, yeah, in 28.

Neither of those projects are likely to be finished before construction starts. Is that accurate?

That might be a question for the developer. Well, I think that would depend on how fast our construction documents go through. Keep in mind, if this goes through, which we'd like it to, in October, we still have a final site plan that we have to submit to Planning Commission for approval, and then we probably have another... If it goes through quickly, six months of construction document review, which would put us to middle of next year. And so by the time your first home is in the ground, it's sometime in 2028. Okay.

Okay. Appreciate that. Steven, also the intersection of Drake's Creek and Stop 30. And I'm probably going to go to Alderman Robertson here in just a second because I know – go ahead. Certainly. Okay.

That project, we're anticipating to advertise that for bids coming up this late this fall hopefully, maybe winter, and then go into construction this next summer. about a two-year duration on that, so we're looking at summer, fall of 29, that being complete.

Alderman Evans, go ahead. Thank you. Because a lot of what you're bringing up is what I was going to speak to. As residents in Durham Farms and in this area, Autumn Creek and and Drake's point, we're well aware of everything that's going on, and while we would like to have some of these things move faster than they are, we're realistic and understand what has to happen. In my mind, I'm thinking that the development of Avalon will probably be going on about the same time that the construction of the New Shackle Island and Old Drake's Creek will be happening. Probably will happen and finish about the same time, I'm guessing. The other projects are probably going to be a little bit longer. We haven't even started on the roundabout issue yet. The Stop 30 Drake's Creek is going to take a long time, but we're all aware of those things going to happen. I do want to say also that with first of all I need to acknowledge and thank again my neighbors and all of those who got up and spoke on behalf of this project and those who have also acknowledged it on social media thank you for your comments for it being a helpful conversation about this I do want to say about the speeding and Director Wisner-Reed and I have talked about this, that the speeding on Avant is, while it is an issue, it is an issue throughout our whole ward, especially on Drake's Creek. And so while I do appreciate the comments and the attention about the speeding on Avant, worse of a problem on Drake's Creek. And so I would like for us to, when we're talking about this, I know that's going to be a different, coming from different, it's a different topic, it's going to be a different funding source, whatever, but I think that probably we don't need to overdo the speed tables or that on AVANT. I think that what the developer has proposed adding, we have the speed table right down by the rugby park, putting another one at the other end is probably gonna be sufficient. And I know for some of my neighbors, they'd like to have more there, but realistically, we're looking at the fact that we need some help on Drake's Creek. And so I do want to kind of push that forward, that with all this other going on that we've got to make sure that we have, we're addressing the speeding on other roads as well. And maybe it's not just Drake's Creek, but that is a main one. And then I also wanted to make sure we addressed the issue of the blasting, and I don't know if the developer can speak to that because that was raised by Stephanie. I want to make sure that we do address that and that we are working towards that. I'm sorry.

Let's go ahead and address that.

I'm sorry?

Let's go ahead and address that.

Well, let me finish my comments. I want to finish it so you don't have to come back to me. But I do want to make sure that everybody knows that this was overwhelmingly approved in planning 9-0. This is a project, as the mayor has mentioned, that this is an advantageous project for our city, and I want to make sure that we see this through. Thank you.

Appreciate that, Alderman Evans. CJ, one of you guys? So the question is, will blasting be necessary?

And Alderman Evans, if you want to follow up, go ahead. Yeah, so great question. One of the questions that the lady had during the public hearing was whether or not a geotech study had been done. One has been done. We're at plus or minus, like there was 20, almost 30 observation trenches dug, and out of all of them were plus or minus 9 to 10 foot deep. to rock in every single one. The vast majority of this development up towards Avant is in a fill condition, so we're only helping get further away from rock. Really, the only spot on the property that could potentially have any rock at all would be in the area where we're showing a pond, and it's the furthest away from Avant that you can get. So the likelihood is? Slim. And if there is likelihood that we do have to blast in that situation, we would obviously follow OSHA city-state protocol. We do pre-blast surveys? Yes. How wide of a radius? So we haven't fully discussed that, and I can't remember off the top of my head what the requirement is. it's state, um, 500 feet. I mean, I, I think that the, the pre-survey protocol would be, uh, fairly simple in this, uh, in this instance, but is it 500 feet from the property or from where it's occurring? Cause we're several hundred feet off of the road where it would be occurring if it does occur.

Okay.

Um, we will have second, we will have, um, Second reading of your ordinance, not this resolution, second reading of that ordinance. Can you all get us? I can get us that information, yes, sir. I appreciate it. Hold on one second. Alderman Robertson.

Well, I have a lot to say, but I'm reminded of a story of a chicken and a hen talking. And the hen said, I'm tired of laying my eggs here in this stubble and a rough nest. Said, I think I'm going to go out on the highway and lay my eggs. And the rooster said, well, if you do, lay it on the line and do it in a hurry. So I'm going to try to lay it on the line and do it in a hurry. When I was first elected, I talked a lot about smart development. And smart development has two components. The first component is more of a long-term focus on the development. And the second is always represent and promote the public interest, not private interest, but public interest. So when I consider the facts of this proceeding, I look at seven factors. First is density. Several months ago, this board passed, congratulations to my colleagues that introduced this, a moratorium on high density development. This development is consistent with the spirit of that resolution because it is very low density. Keith, could you come to the podium? just a second, and could you explain the density around this development and how it compares with Durham Farms, Autumn Creek, Drake's Point, the retreat at Norman Farms, and so forth?

Yes, I'd be happy to do that, Alderman. This particular project that is about 1.09 units an acre, Autumn Creek, where I live, is 2.9 units an acre. Durham Farms is 2.4 units an acre. Drake's Point is 1.47 units an acre. The Retreat at Norman Farm is 1. And that's in a county. That's 1.53 units an acre. And actually, down on Stop 30 on Lawson Point, that's about 2.23 units an acre. So those are some of the different subdivisions that are somewhat near this.

So, so I have opposed in the past high density because of the strain on infrastructure. This is a very low density development. The lowest density in, in the, this part of the city and county, you know, almost approximately a half an acre a lot. Thank you. The second, the second thing that I look at is comparability of homes. and by far it's been pointed out that the comparability of homes is much higher than the homes around it. Now, what does that mean as a homeowner in Autumn Creek? That means it's very likely when a realtor, she's left, When a realtor does comparative analysis, the value of our homes is going to be higher. So then it passes that test. The next is public sentiment. And we've heard today, and the mayor has so eloquently mentioned his own survey that he did, public sentiment is for this project. Number three is traffic impact. I checked with... Keith, and Keith, could you come again? On peak hours, a.m. and p.m., what is the expected additional, or Steve is going to answer that question. Okay. At peak hours only, what is expected the additional traffic?

I don't have the exact number because it's been a bit since I looked at that document, but I'm going to say it's somewhere around 30 vehicles per hour in the peak that this development would add.

Yeah, that's what you provided to me, around 30 additional at peak hours. So I think that the traffic impact, and we've talked a little bit about, and what I hear especially, and I'll be honest with you guys, my biggest disappointment as an alderman, by far, has been my inability as an alderman to fight and get the intersection of Old Drake's Creek and New Shackle Island projects started and completed. That's been my biggest failure. But I'm glad to hear that we are moving forward. And Steve, didn't you say in 28 that that project should be completed?

According to the timeline we were given from the county, yes.

Okay. And CJ, you said, can you come now? Now, how long will it be before you can pull a first building permit, would you expect?

Tell us who you are.

So Donovan degree with shell brothers. I live at two zero three nine Liberty lane in Gallatin, Tennessee. So to answer your question, Alderman, uh, we plan on completing the engineering review in the summer of 2027. We plan on getting our permitting with the state and the city. The winter of 2027, we plan on breaking ground spring of 2028 to start development. We plan on starting our model home close to that time to try to get a building permit. So we plan on delivering the first set of lots, which we're planning on doing in one phase in fall of 2028. What that means is we probably won't have anybody moving into these homes until the end of 2028. Additionally, we think we'll sell about two a month, and that will put us at full closeout in 2030.

2030, okay. So it appears to me by what we've been told that the numbers, that we should be able to have it well out toward completion of, Old Drake's Creek and Stop 30 lot. The next item I look at is stormwater mitigation, and I think the company has been forthright in talking to citizens about that. Steven, from a staff perspective, are you confident that they have provided a good stormwater mitigation study and measures to take that will not increase flooding in the area?

Our staff is still working with the developer on addressing those issues, so they haven't been fully resolved yet, but they have been, according to my staff, heading in the right direction with what they're proposing to do, and I think feel confident that they're going to address all comments.

Okay. And then, thank you. The next issue is financial impact, and the mayor has talked about that, but I would like to make this point, that if we don't approve this, I have no doubt that the county will. I live in Autumn Creek, and all around Autumn Creek the county is approving building that touches the city. And on the financial impact, if they are annexed and developed in the city, not only will we have a lot of authority over the quality and the building there, But they're also going to help subsidize the services that we provide. So if we disapprove this and it goes in the county, guess who's going to subsidize all the services that they're going to use? These people, whether they're in the city or the county, are going to use park services. If they're not in the city, they won't be subsidizing those fees. They're going to use the streets of the city, but if they're not in the county and not in the city, they will not be helping to pay for the maintenance of those streets. The same with the fire department. If a fire happens in this neighborhood, in the county, and it's not in the city, It's very likely, and I've talked to the fire chief about this, that with our mutual aid agreement, the fire department's going to respond if it's a full-blown house fire. So we're going to have expenses there, and guess what? If they're not in the city, they won't be helping incur those. And I'm getting ready to close. Chief Edwards, could you come to the mic, please? Several years ago, and I am proud of this, this board voted to build a new fire station, number seven, out by Burris Elementary. So my question to you, Chief, is if this development is approved by the city, will the fire department have to increase personnel or build a new fire station or anything, or are we adequate at the present time to service this 36 homes if it's approved?

Yeah, we're plenty adequate. The same services that we give for the houses right across the street in Durham Farms will be the same ones that we give for the 30-something houses that will be in this subdivision. Yeah, we're fine with it. The site plans went through our fire marshal's office. Fire Marshal Williard and his team looked over it. Concerns for us with new neighborhoods is access, whether the roads are going to be wide enough for us to get our apparatus in there. We'll Will we have the ability to have turnarounds in there, the water that's coming into it? And most importantly is how will we have access to that water? So with the city, in a residential subdivision, it's every 500 feet. In the county, I'm not so certain. But to answer your question, yes, if there was an issue in that subdivision based on the interlocal agreements that we have with Shackle Island, pretty much 100%. we would be included on any emergency in there. Yes sir.

Great. Thank you. So, so those are the seven facts that I consider and it's overwhelming in favor of this development. So mayor, this is a unique development. Uh, this is a development that removes the cost to the city for maintaining the streets. And so, Based on that, based upon the impact fees that they will pay that can help us with the infrastructure around this area on the cost, I think it's a no-brainer, and I intend to vote for this, and I urge my colleagues to also vote in favor of this. Thank you.

Alderman Robertson, thank you. Alderman Collins.

If everybody could look at page 71 in our binder, which is the first attachment for the plan of services, Letter C is refuse collection. And I had the impression that the HOA was gonna pick up the garbage and perhaps even do the limb pickup for this neighborhood. And I would like to know with the developer if that is where you are and if I amended this to eliminate that from our plan of services. Is that acceptable?

Yeah. Great question. Alderman. Uh, it actually goes back to the mayor's math, which he did a very good job of, and I appreciate him enlightening us that that's his thought process. So I want to go through that math one more time, because I think it shows why Avalon is such a separator versus these other communities. So as the mayor said, uh, essentially on a $1.3 million house, which is what our average is going to be on this project. We're going to be about $2,100 per house per property tax per year. Additionally, just a low assumption, $300 a year in sales tax puts you on the revenue side about $2,400 a year. On the expense side, the mayor is correct. You've got a $68 million budget, 64,000 residents. That puts you about $1,100 per year. that gets about $2,200 for an average of two people per household. I will tell you, at Oak Creek Estates, we're 2.6-ish. So it actually puts you at 2,860. So right there, it's a little bit of a swing in the negative. However, you brought up a great point, Alderman, which is we plan on doing private streets here and additionally private trash as well. And we think that cost is going to be about $910 a year, which swings it back the other direction. So now you're talking about $2,400 a year in revenue versus about 1950 in an expenses. And so what you see there is the reason why it's such a separation because we're including private streets and also our own garbage pickup. So it should be a net benefit to the city, not a detriment.

And do you often tend to do the limb pickup?

Yes, ma'am. We plan on doing that as well.

Okay. Um, thank you so much for clarifying that in that case, I would like to amend, um, The plan of service attachment one, to eliminate C, refuse collection from our plan of service. Director Free, is that appropriate? You look a little stricken.

Right now it conflicts.

Actually, it's not necessary. The mayor kind of explained it a little bit earlier, but these are two kind of separate things going on. The plan of services and the annexation, is really, it's all together, but it's really separate from the actual development. Just as you see in the plan of service, it's talking about maintaining streets and so that's just a boilerplate of the type of services we provide. And so the way the plan of services is currently stated, it's okay to keep that the same. What they're gonna be held to is whatever is approved with this combined development plan. If the combined development plan is making that clear, and I don't think that's actually, I don't know that that particular thing about trash and rubbish, I don't think that's actually ever been, that I've seen in the development plan. That would be something that would be appropriate to add as an amendment to the development plan if that was approved on first reading tonight. But not on the plan of services.

If I may, if you could come up with the appropriate language for that for the second reading.

Yeah, sure.

And I will do an amendment for that on the second reading.

Okay, we can do that. I appreciate it. You're welcome.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Alderman Collins, I'll be honest with you. Excuse me. I'll be honest with you. If you want to make a motion to remove paragraph C, I'll second it just so there's no confusion. Okay.

I just wouldn't because if we do that and we don't go back through and kind of catch everything that's going to be different, then that could be kind of a problem later. Because then we might have to go through and then say, well, but we're not going to take care of the streets or the streetlights or those types of things. So I think we're better to keep it just completely separate. But we can achieve it through – because remember – When you're approving a development plan, everything on that development plan, the wording and the pictures and everything, that's all locked in there. So that supersedes everything.

I'm comfortable waiting for the second reading. The only reason I brought it up is because the plan of services is a resolution, so it's just for tonight. And I would like to suggest that we vote and take a bathroom break. That's just my opinion.

Thank you, Alderman Collins. Alderman Martin. This has been chewed on more than Skidmore's microphone. I think we're ready to vote.

We have nobody else in the queue to speak. So we've had no amendments. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor of Resolution 2026-26, please say aye. Those opposed, please say no. That passes unanimously. Alderman Collins, would you like to make a motion to take a break?

Let's finish voting on this group.

Y'all surprised me. Let's go to first reading ordinance 2026-09. This is an ordinance resorting to approximately 32.80 acres of property located at 1765 Avant Lane, Hendersville, Tennessee, south of Old Drake's Creek Road for the Avalon subdivision development. Alderman Martin, do you want to make a motion? We have a motion from Alderman Martin, a second from Alderman Goodwin. Alderman Sasse, go ahead.

Motion we vote.

Skip all conversation, vote. Well, that would be a motion to call the question. Yeah, call the question. So do you want to vote on calling the question or, okay. All those in favor of first reading of ordinance 2026-09, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, please say no. That passes unanimously. We have a motion from Alderman Collins to take a five-minute break. We have a second from Alderman Garza. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, please say no. That passes unanimously. Jason, you ready? Okay. Okay. Next on our agenda is first reading ordinance 2026-10. This is an ordinance adopting revisions to the zoning ordinance for the city of Henderson with Alderman Martin. Motion. We have a motion from Alderman Martin and a second from Alderman Sasse.

Alderman Martin, go ahead. I love all the changes and stuff, but I think Wendy Slattery had some good points. And so changing it from 100 feet from any residential district boundary to 500, I think that's a good change. And then she also has some good points about the DBC, you know, listing that at 65 per day and 60 at night. So I was going to suggest we go ahead and approve it, and then if we could just ask Keith Free to massage the language a little bit, and then we can vote on it as second reading.

Okay. Thank you, Alderman Martin. Any other discussion on this? All those in favor of first reading of ordinance 2026-10, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, please say no. That passes unanimously. Now we're on first reading ordinance 2026-11. This is an ordinance amending the Henderson Municipal Code Title I, General Administration, Chapter 7, special committees regarding video recording of nonprofit contributions committee meetings. Alderman Bergdorf. Motion? Alderman Collins is second. Who wants to speak? Alderman Collins.

This, I think it's pretty self-explanatory. We would like for the nonprofit committee to be videoed because it consists solely of members of this board and votes are taken. And I believe it's the only committee of that kind that is not currently videoed and made available to the public on our YouTube channel. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you, Alderman Collins. Alderman Evans.

Yes, thank you. I recognize that this would be more work on staff, but the history that I've had with this committee and being the chair is that we've only met once or maybe twice a year at the most, so the work added on this is very minimal, and I'd like to be added as a sponsor also to this ordinance.

Without objection, we're going to add Alderman Evans as a sponsor. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman Evans. Any other discussion? All those in favor of ordinance 2026-11 on first reading, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, please say no. That passes unanimously. Now we're on first reading of ordinance 2026-12. This is an ordinance amending the Hendersonville Municipal Code, Title 12, Chapter 2, Subsection 12-202 relative to amendments to the revised edition of the International Residential Code. We have a motion from Alderman Garza and a second from Alderman Goodwin. Any discussion on this?

Alderman Sasse. Thank you, Mayor. I had a question about would this be, Keith, are you involved in this? Who could I ask some questions on this? Jesse. I might have seen Greg. I understand the wind speed changes going from 90 to 115 miles per hour. We just We just went through a tornado. I think that in the end, no, it's aligning with TCA, right?

It's aligning with the code. So this is clerical corrections.

So, yeah, the 115 makes sense to me. Why are we decreasing the snow load from 15 to 10 feet?

I think it was just a clerical correction based on the zone that we're in. So it should have been 10 originally, and it was put in as 15 instead of 10. Yes, sir. It's just a clerical error, correcting a clerical error. Okay, thank you.

Alderman Sasse, thank you. Jesse, thank you. Any other discussion? All those in favor of first reading of Ordinance 2026-12, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, please say no. That passes unanimously. Next, we have consideration of adjustments to the regular BOMA meeting schedule. You see what I've proposed out there. That doesn't have to be covered in one motion. It could be covered in multiples. But looking at the schedules that are coming up with the election, with Thanksgiving, with Christmas, it's best if we can let the staff know what's happening and So they can plan for their vacations, their time off, as well as their obligations for what they need to get to us. It also helps with the committee chairman of when they decide to hold meetings. It is up to the chairman when they hold meetings. With the exception of we do have it written when their regular meetings are, those regular meetings will happen unless the chairman cancels those and the chairman has the opportunity to call special meetings. Alderman Robertson.

Yes, I would like to offer an amendment to this schedule. If you look and you see that honoring outgoing alderman is scheduled for November the 30th at 7 p.m., that's the same date that all of the new aldermen will actually be doing business. I would like to remove that honoring outgoing alderman from the November 30th schedule and move that up to be the first item mentioned, where it says cancel the regular schedule meeting. Just prior to that, honor outgoing aldermen on November the 10th.

So, Alderman Robertson, do you want to make a motion for all of that in moving the honor outgoing aldermen?

only I'm good with, with everything else that you've got here, but, but to remove honoring outgoing Alderman to the top of that, uh, right in front of cancel the regular meeting on the 24th to state that honor outgoing Alderman, November the 10th.

Okay. So that's, so that is a motion and a second. Um, to adopt everything we have, the 1, 2, 3, and 4, with the alteration that Alderman Robertson just mentioned. Correct.

Okay.

Alderman Garten.

But the swearing-in, is that still on the 30th?

So that would be on the 30th.

That would still be, okay.

Of course. We are assuming that the Election Commission will have certified the results by then.

On the 23rd, yes.

Which is the reason that I think that we should cancel the regular meeting on the 24th just in case. You should have the five-day. But there's also a good reason to cancel the 24th because two days later is Thanksgiving.

Yes, yes. Okay. The 30th is perfect.

Thank you, Alderman Garden. Any other discussion on this? Any other suggestions on this? So as it stands, we will honor outgoing alderman on November 10th. after the, at the end of that meeting. And then one, two, three will be all the same except three a, and then four, we will cancel the Bowman meeting on the schedule for December 22nd. Any other discussion on this? We were going to vote on it the whole thing. Yeah. Um, it really wasn't an amendment. His proposal was include his motion was this with that change.

Am I correct? Alderman Robertson?

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Um, we have a motion Walter Robertson and a second for Alderman Collins. Okay. Uh, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, please say no. That passes unanimously. Thank you. Um, now we have brief committee reports. Chairman Garza, general committee.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, pretty light meeting this time. We, um, Discuss the reading of ordinance 2026-14. It's an ordinance amending Henderson Municipal Code with a whole bunch of numbers to authorize the city to remedy certain property maintenance violations and recover the cost of mediation as authorized by Tennessee Code. And that passed completely on to BOMA. The second one was the reading of 2026-32. It's a resolution to establish the BRIGHT, and that's an acronym for Blight Removal Incentive Grant for Hendersonville Training, as a pilot program initiative to address blighted properties and support public training systems, in this case with police and fire. And that passed general with all positive toward the end of our meeting. Chairman Garza, thank you.

Alderman Martin, Planning Commission.

I guess I'm a simp because I need Keith Reed to read the report again.

It's going to be very brief. We had a brief meeting. We did have a very brief meeting on September the 1st at the Planning Commission. The first item that was approved was Alexander Commercial Phase 2, the Firebirds Restaurant. It's going to be in the empty lot right next to the Starbucks across the street. Also approved waivers for material waivers for Imperial Point Building A and Lincoln Rockland. And that was the conclusion of the business.

Thank you. Mr. Free, thank you. Alderman Martin, thank you for that report. Chairman Sasse, Finance Committee. My best work yet.

Thank you, Mayor. We had a pretty full meeting tonight. First one was an amendment to the city's handling of return checks, which we unanimously recommended to BOMA. An ordinance amending the 2027 fiscal year budget, which will come at the next meeting with some just required changes. Changes to carry forward. Most of it was just carrying forward some expenses and revenues that weren't realized in 2026 fiscal year and now moving in 2027. So all that was clear and easy. The one big change that I did recognize, though, was on the LPRF. Thank you. And as Andy Gilley had mentioned to us this week, unfortunately we did not get it this year. So that money that we had put aside for it is being put back into the PIP fund. And so that was a big change there. It actually puts the LRFP, right, LRFP? LPRF. LPRF, whatever it is. The grant was for $1.5 million. We had put aside $3.5 million. So it actually puts about $2 million, if I'm calculating that correctly, back into the PIP fund for other uses. But hopefully we'll get them next year. Then we had a change on the municipal code for general penalties and enforcement, establishing a tiered system monetary penalties for repeated violations in building codes. So when the state of Tennessee was created, they limited the amount of fees you could charge to $50. Well, 300 years ago, $50 was a lot of money. Now it's 2026, so $50 is not a lot of money anymore. And yet that is still the fee that we're able to charge for continuous violations with no incremental increase. So the state finally passed a change that allows cities to update that policy to allow for a tiered system. So it's going to be $50 for the first one. $250 for the second and $500 for the third one and any additional after there. But it's up to that amount. So there's flexibility in how much can actually be charged. So it made a lot of sense to us. And Judge Edwards was there to explain it to us. So I'm hoping he'll be here at the next BOMA meeting to explain it further as well. Lastly, we had an ordinance amending the municipal code training pay to the Board of Parks and Recreation, Golf Commission Board, Beer Board, Stormwater Management, Appeals Board, and the Zoning Ordinance, and authorizing those training pays at $100 apiece, and that was unanimously approved as well. That was the conclusion of our meeting. Thank you.

Chairman Sasse, thank you. Next, we've got Jesse, our COO, to give us our BOMA report.

Thank you, Mayor and BOMA. I'll try and keep this to five minutes. I know it's been a long evening. The September BOMA report provides the financial data through July and non-financial data through August. We always get sales tax one month behind, but it's a very good report this month. If you want to look at page 164, that's where the report begins. You can see sales tax is up 6.28% from the prior July. We don't have August number. It's just plugged in the graph so we can have a graph comparable. But up 6.28% is a really good metric for us. Interest earnings are down slightly, about $18,000 versus July of 25. They're not down as much as we expected. And that Fed funds rate may change again in September. The next Federal Reserve meeting is this month. So on September 16th, we might get new rates out. And so high interest rates are good for investment earnings, bad for borrowing. So they go up, and we do good on interest. If they go up, it's going to be expensive to borrow. If we go to page 165, you can see sales tax combined with revenue from permit fees is also up almost 3% from July in 25. So that's also another really good number. You'll see the general fund operating expenditures are down. That's just a timing issue for those bills that we're going to pay in September and October, or August and September. So we'll see August and September kind of tick up a little bit. Um, our general fund operating expenditures are not down 40% from an operating level. Um, if you go to page one 66, this is the pit fund and we've redone the pit fund. We've consolidated to make sure it goes onto one page. It's a little, I think it's just easier to read this way. So at the top, it's our revenue, uh, what we budgeted and what we've gotten. So the blue is what we've received. And then the next, uh, pie graph down is our expenditure category. what we budgeted, and then below that at the bottom is what we've spent to actual, or what we budgeted to actual. So you can see with public safety, we've already spent quite a bit of that money. In parks and paving, obviously, we have not spent that money yet. If you go to page 167, public safety calls for service, HFD is slightly up and HPD is slightly down. Really no big thing to talk about on these pages. If you do look at the bottom of page 168, though, we are including a new table. And that breaks down the fire calls. So we report right above there the fire calls. So you can see for the month of August we had nine fire calls. And so that table below there just summarizes what those calls are. So it gives you guys some context to what our fire department is going out and dealing with on those calls. If you turn the page to 169, residential activity and commercial permits are kind of within the range that we'd expect. We're continuing to see a decline in residential activity. You can see that both from the permits issued and from overall inspections. Page 170 highlights some of the commercial and residential projects that were approved. Page 171 has the events that are coming up. Two of the events that are not on there that I want to highlight are the 9-11 ceremony. That's going to happen at Memorial Park this Friday. So at 9 a.m., Memorial Park this Friday, we're going to have the 9-11 ceremony. And then immediately following that at Heritage Park, the old Beatty Farm at 1030, we're going to have a groundbreaking for the new building over there. You will see on page 171 there is an advertisement here for the Highland Games. That's this weekend. So people from around the world come. There will be thousands of people from around the world that come. That's a ticketed event. So if you guys want to go, that's at Saunders Ferry Saturday and Sunday. You look at page 172. You can see we've done almost all the stormwater projects. We budgeted for the year. So Trace and his guys are moving very quickly on that and then paving. we'll start to see paving happen next month. So Mansker Farms is going to get some paving that's going to happen this month, and we'll start to see that reported on next month's report. And then the last page, 173, again, with fire, we have zero vacancies. We have our guys in training right now, so the recruits are going to be done very shortly. They've been doing great. And then police, we're still at a very low vacancy rate with four vacancies. That concludes my report.

Hey, Jesse, I'm not sure if this is you or Tamara. If you look at page 164 in the investment earnings, That tells us just one month, but I've got a question here. The total investment earnings for the fiscal year that we just completed was around $1.4 million. Okay. Well, that wasn't even my question. So my question was, what would our earnings be on that money had we not gone through the process of the investment policy three, four years ago?

We really weren't earning any money, any money to speak of. So not until we moved that money did we start earning any. I mean, it was pennies that we were making.

So by my estimate, in the past three years, three and a half years, with this investment policy, I want to say it's in the neighborhood of $4.6, maybe $4.8 million that we've generated for the city.

Yeah, I don't know. Offhand, it's millions of dollars. And so as the interest rate goes up, it's good for us too. Obviously, it's more expensive to borrow, but it's good for us. And if the interest rate drops, then we might look at doing some short-term notes.

So the reason that I mentioned Tamara and Jesse, because there are no two people more responsible for that. No other people responsible for that than Tamara and Jesse. And that's the neighborhood of $4.6 to $4.8 million that we would not have had otherwise had they not been proactive and gone out and changed our policy. So I appreciate that very much. Citizens of Hendersonville are very grateful for what y'all did there. Alderman Garza.

A motion to adjourn.

So we have a motion from Alderman Garza.