Planning & Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

Finally show the results as you see. If you're in the building beforehand, now it is now, it looks totally different. These improvements have been extensive as you can tell. We completely had a full interior renovation of this community building, which is one of the most rented spaces.

The meeting will now come to order. Welcome to the May 19, 2026 meeting of the City of Greenville Planning and Zoning Commission. My name is John Collins, and I'm the chair of this commission. Brad, will you do the invocation?

Dear God, thank you for allowing us to live in this great city of Greenville. And thank you for all the wonderful employees that we're able to work and volunteer with. And please give us the knowledge to make decisions that will support your word and the best for all of our citizens. Thank you.

Thanks, Brad. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Alan Thomas, Zachary Livingston, John Collins. Present. Carlos Flags. Here. Kimber Stone. Here. Thomas Remington. Clayton Self. William McCurdy. Here. Brian Carter. Here. Toya Jacobs. Here. Annika Royal. Here. Kenneth Bale.

Here.

Leanne Foran.

All right. Our next item is approval of the agenda. Shante.

My partner in crime, the attorney here. I'm here to ask a bit of a favor of the commission. I became aware at the end of last week that the rezoning, that's item number three, was not properly advertised like we always do with all of the cases. Since that was last Friday and we're meeting tonight, normally what we would do is we would move a rezoning like this just to the following month and we would move it in June. matter of practice City Council never meets in July so what that means is if we were to move the item to June it wouldn't go to Council till August so what I'm asking is is I spoke to the chair early this morning and I am asking if it would be possible to hold a special call meeting I have two dates in mind you don't have to tell me now but on the staff side we're all available the two dates are would be June 4th or June 9th and it would be at 6 o'clock. We can send a doodle poll in the morning if that's easy. We need at least five people to have a meeting and you know I don't want to have you bring out your phones now and look but that that is the request and then what that means is item number three would be pushed to either one of those two dates, or if force comes to worse, then we'll move it to June. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

So procedurally, though, we would remove that item from the agenda tonight. Essentially, that's all you guys need to do before you approve the agenda. And ultimately, you guys will do the poll to figure out the special call meeting. I had advised Shantae. We spoke about it this morning. Because that notice wasn't done correctly and it was kind of put at the wrong address rather than risk and validation or any questions like that, just best to kind of remove it. So that's the reason for it. We'll kind of jump on that. But other than that, we'll answer your questions.

So we don't need a vote on the special call meeting. That will be settled by our responses to the Doodle poll. But right now, we need a motion to remove item three from the agenda. That is correct. To be determined which next agenda it's going to be.

Special language. No special language. No. All right. Can we do it now? Yeah. Motion to remove item three. Second.

Is there any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay. All right, passed.

Now you can do the agenda vote. Okay. And before, so I don't have to make another trip, you will have that language on the rezoning matter that I covered.

Okay, so now that it's revised, we need a motion to approve the agenda minus item three. So moved.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, say nay. All right. Next is approval of the minutes. You have all been presented in advance with the minutes from the April 21, 2026 meeting and have had an opportunity to read and review the minutes. Are there any questions or corrections? I will entertain a motion.

Motion to approve the minutes.

Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

And opposed, say nay. The minutes have been approved. All right, now to new business. Number two, request by Sweet Living Capital, Inc. to rezone 14.2 acres located on the southern right-of-way of Charles Boulevard and between Signature Drive and Blue Bill Drive from RA-20, residential agricultural, to R-6, residential high-density multifamily. Staff presentation by Chante Agubi.

Okay, this property is located in the southwest quadrant of the city. It is more specifically located along Charles Boulevard. Property is shown in yellow. I'm going to say on the left-hand side, this is Signature Drive, and on the right-hand side, this is Blue Bill Drive. This is a survey of the property. It's just a little bit over 14 acres. This is a photograph of the property from Charles Boulevard. So to your right would be back toward town. To your left would be toward Connelly High School. So this property is located south of Charles or south on Charles Boulevard at the intersection of Firetower Road and Charles Boulevard. That's an activity center. That is where we would expect for commercial development to be. So under the current zoning at full build out, the site could generate about 409 trips. Currently it's just a farm field. Under the proposed zoning, the property could accommodate multifamily and that would generate about 1200 trips. So it leaves you with a net increase of 833 trips. So when you look at that on Charles Boulevard, then right now the Charles Boulevard is currently at 98.4 capacity, basically how it was designed. So if we add in those additional trips, that brings the capacity up to about 104%. The property is located in the Hardy Creek watershed. If stormwater rules apply, 10 year detention would be required. It's not located in a special flood hazard area. There may be jurisdictional wetlands, streams and buffers. So currently the property is zoned RE20 and under that zoning it could accommodate roughly 40 to 45 single family lots. Under the requested zoning, which is R6, the site could accommodate roughly 185 to 200 multifamily units. So if we start back at Fire Tower in Charles, you can see the future land use plan recommends commercial along the south on Charles Boulevard. And then it transitions into traditional neighborhood medium to higher, essentially what that brown color is. The property is shown again as traditional neighborhood medium to high density. The requested zoning is R6. That's a high density multi-family district and that fits in the traditional neighborhood medium to high density character rather. So in staff's opinion, the request is in compliance with Verizon's plan with the future land use and character map. Staff recommends approval and I'll be happy to answer any questions.

go ahead oh yeah so can you go back to the map shanti sure any particular one yeah the one that's that's all in red yeah just right there okay well i'll take that so i literally just came down that road and um you say the capacity of the highway is already at 98 under the design capacity it is now because that is in that little section it's a three-lane road right

So, yes, by the numbers, yes.

And with this right here, it'll go up to 104%?

Yes.

And the only reason I'm saying this is because the light was red at Fire Tower, and the traffic was all the way, just almost to here. So it was kind of, yeah, so and to add to that, and I know we're going to go through peak hours and stuff like that, I understand all that, but That was brutal. I couldn't get out. I couldn't get out. So that's a lot. That's all. I just had to just bring that up because I literally couldn't get out. I thought I was going to be late from here. I couldn't get out. So man, that's going to be interesting right there.

Can I follow up and ask how much beyond the capacity of a road would it take before city staff recommended not approving it?

Hold on one second. I have a traffic engineer here. Let's see if Rick can come and help us.

He's already on his way.

Very good. I'm going to sit down. I'm going to let him take over.

Good evening. Actually, it's not the capacity. which is at level of service D. And I think most of you in here know how capacity is rated. It's A through F, A, B, C, D, E, which is capacity, and then F is failing. The problem at fire tower is not the roadway section leading up to it, it's the intersection that's causing the backup. So there's a big difference in lack of capacity at an intersection than lack of capacity on a roadway section. What happens on a roadway section is, especially during peaks, as somebody mentioned, you have less gaps in traffic, so less ability for a side road to get out or a driveway to get out. So I guess what I'm telling you is lack of capacity is more of a concern at an intersection and less at a section. That's my first point. The difference between that design ADT and actual capacity might be another 10 or 11%. It's difficult to predict that because when you approach capacity, the volumes get unstable and all the modeling can't really predict it. But there is about a 10% to 12% buffer between that design ADT and the capacity. Furthermore, this section does have a project planned by DOT, which goes from Firetower to Worthington. And it's to make it a boulevard, which by NCDOT definition is two lanes in each direction with a median in the center. That future design ADT would be 39,700. Meaning that the development plus the existing ADTs would now would be at 38% with the future improved. However, only the preliminary engineering on that project is funded and approved right now. So right now there is no official milestone or dates for right away acquisition utilities and construction. And we may get more information from the DOT in June on that, but that's the way it stands right now.

OK. Thank you. The only thing that, and I get everything that you're saying, but in real life terms, there was an ambulance coming that was trying to actually turn where I was turning. So everybody was, like you said, there was no gaps. It's just real life situation as far as like everything that you were just explaining to us. And that's all I was just thinking about. Like, man, that's going to be interesting, man, if something happens. But that's just my, I appreciate you explaining everything to us.

Once you start approaching capacity, like I said, on a link, until you get way over the limit of that link, you're going to really notice things. that now your gaps are significantly reduced by that increase in traffic. I'm not saying that the increase is not an impact. I mean, let's face it, one additional car is an impact. But I can't quantify and tell you what the impact is. comfort level there is when you start approaching that capacity level other than what i said anything we anything we show in that report is really the design adt of the roadway which is level of service d and their level of service e is above that which is capacity so there's probably an additional 10 to 12 unused there on top of that design adt that's stated in that report okay

All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate the breakdown. All right.

Are there any other questions for staff before I open the public hearing? All right. The public hearing is open. The first speaker will have five minutes with each additional speaker having three minutes until 30 minutes has expired. Is there anyone present to speak in favor of the proposal? If you could state your name for the record, please.

Mr. Chairman, Commission, my name is Jim Walker. I'm here to speak on behalf of the developer and the owners. As Ashanti said, it consists of two seven-acre tracts of 14 acres that is owned separately by two sisters, the Branch sisters, I call them. One of them is here tonight. The other one is home, I understand, watching it on TV. But the property contains 14 acres. It is surrounded by multifamily. This is the hole in the doughnut to match the surrounding uses. They have three single family older, which Ms. Branches lives adjacent to the piece of property. As to the future plans for the DOT has for Highway 43, This is a right in, right out type intersection. You turn a right in coming from Greenville area, you'll take a right out, go towards County, you'll go down and hit a bubble and then come back. Or you go down to the light and then come back. There's only a 60 foot access onto this, so it's a one way in, one way out. There'll be a short cul-de-sac there and the rest of it will be development. water and sewer available to this property. I'll try to answer any questions you may have.

Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Walker? Thank you. Is there anyone else present to speak in favor of the proposal? Is there anyone present to speak in opposition to the proposal? Seeing none, the public hearing is closed, and I'll turn it over to board discussion.

I just have a comment. It's nothing. Greenville is growing. We can't stop Greenville from growing. It's just going to happen. It's just more so about responsible growth and make sure that we're safe when we're growing. I said that was an ambulance that was trying to get in, and it was just what it is. Other than that, in the traffic, I don't have anything else to say about it.

Yeah. It is reassuring that it's right in, right out. Right.

And I would say I agree with Mr. White that it's very concerning to put more high density into this area. However, it is reassuring to know that it's right in, right out, as well as knowing that although it may be a good ways away, knowing that the engineering and design is funded, that's that kind of step one. So knowing we at least have step one of a multi-step, multi-year process there. And plans are moving forward in that regard, knowing that some action has been taken to move towards widening that and then making it hopefully a nice safe intersection. Um, and then connecting, it looks like it can possibly connect to Kittrell farms and provide different paths in and out through, through there.

If there's no more board discussion, I will entertain a motion.

I'll make a motion to recommend approval of the proposed amendment to advise it is consistent with the comprehensive plan and to adopt the staff report which addresses plan consistency and other matters. No? Did I get it? All right. Got it. Thanks. Nailed, not failed.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. And opposed, say nay. The motion passes. And... I guess that brings us to adjournment. Is there a motion to adjourn?

I'll make a motion for that. Motion for adjournment.

We have a motion? Second. We have a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. We are adjourned.