Town Council - Regular Meeting

that Saul paid debt for. We'll go ahead and start uh call to order. Uh it's uh Monday, September 8th, 2025. And thank everyone for being here. We appreciate you coming out tonight. Um as far as determination of quorum, it's like we're all here. So, thank you guys being here tonight. Let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay, council, do we have any additions? I have one, but we have any additions or uh deletions, adoptions to the agenda? Just just the one uh Mr. Mayor, I'd like to ask that we add a uh a spot here for um Nancy Anderson, retired Colonel Anderson, to make some remarks on the passing of Michael Verardo, one of our Okay. And that'll be just after the conflict of interest statement. If we can do that. Okay. Um anyone anyone else any additions uh deletions? Pardon me, mayor. All in favor? Pardon me, mayor. Mayor, mayor, I'm sorry.

Sorry. Um I would like to add if request that we add um item B under the presentation of proclamations presentation um for proclamation 20254 for disability inclusion month. Okay. The west include Landon. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Okay. It be 8 8B, correct? Or 8A. Well, we'll make it we'll make it 8 and we'll make the constitution week 8.

Okay. All right. All right. Any others? Okay. All right. All in favor? Okay. Unanimous. Okay. We'll move forward. Um conflict of interest statement. Um, in accordance with state law, it is the duty of every council member to avoid conflicts of interest. Does any council member have any non-conlict of interest with respect to any matter on the agenda? If so, please identify the conflict and refrain from any participation in the matter involved. I do. Okay. Item 11.

Item 11. Okay. Okay. All right. So, the next item would be Nancy uh Nancy Anderson will come up for a presentation as a tribute to uh Sergeant Michael Bardo. Excuse me. Fall allergies already. Yeah. First, council, thank you for amending your agenda. so that I can speak tonight. This is not the sort of thing you can plan on.

I'm sure everyone has noticed the flags flying out there. Can't hear me. Sorry. Is this better? Yes. Okay. Is that better?

Okay. There you go. Uh I'm sure everyone has noticed the flags flying out in the roundabout. Those were placed uh in tribute to Sergeant Michael Verardo. Michael unexpectedly but quietly passed away on August the 27th. Sorry. He died from complications resulting from severe combat wounds that he sustained while serving alongside his brothers from the 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan. Sorry, we're personal friends, so this is kind of hard. We just stood and pledged allegiance star flag. But for some people that has a much deeper meaning and he was one of them. If you didn't know Michael personally, I just want to introduce you a little bit to him so that you have an understanding of this extraordinary man. Sergeant Michael Verardo was a proud warrior, husband, father, and man of faith. Post 911, Michael tried to um join the army right away, but he had to get a waiver because he couldn't pass a physical. He was actually wounded twice while he was in Afghanistan. the first time he was eligible to be sent back home to recuperate, but he insisted on staying in country with his brothers. About eight weeks later, he was catastrophically wounded after

stepping on a landmine. His mangled body was loaded onto a helicopter and airlifted off the battlefield. His wounds were so severe that he was placed on the death is imminent list. His heart stopped twice in route to the medical treatment at Launch Air Base. But Michael survived. Over the next 15 years, he overcame over a hund he underwent over 120 surgeries to try to piece his broken body back together. But his battle was not over. Michael fought as hard on the home front as he did on the battlefield. Michael fought alongside his wife Sarah, a true warrior herself and quite honestly probably deserves her own Purple Heart. Together, they raised three beautiful children while simultaneously fighting here at home for veteran benefits. We call it surviving survival. The Verardo family did much more than survive. They helped thousands through their organization, the Independence Fund. The Independence Fund has been instrumental in shaping legislation and untangling the bureaucracy of the VA. They have uh over 2700 wounded veterans have received an allterrain tracked wheelchairs from TIFF to overcome their mobility limitations. They developed programs to si to support the caregivers and launched operation resiliency which focused on mental health and other and suicide prevention and combat veterans. During the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Independence Fund joined with another nonprofit called Save Our Allies.

Together they extracted 17,000 Afghan interpreters who had been embedded with the US military um fulfilling the creed leave no man behind. One of those translators happened to be um assigned to Sergeant Verardo's unit and watched as they put Michael's bleeding body on the helicopter. Purely by chance or maybe divine intervention, they were reunited here in Weddington 10 years later. Michael Bardo was a true patriot, a true American hero in every sense of the word who served his country and paid the ultimate price. So the next time you say thank you for your service to a veteran or service member, this is what I want you to ask yourself. How can I serve? What can I do? Maybe you can volunteer at school or at the library, serve on an elected board or a committee. Maybe coach a youth sports team or increase your charitable giving even. So something even some something so simple as mowing someone's yard. In closing, I just want to share part of the BTO creed with you. Excuse me. Let me try this again. I just want to share part of the Verardo family creed with you. Be the somebody. Be the somebody who lives their faith, their values, and their morals out loud and with conviction. It's not always easy to do the right thing, but it is always worth it. So,

in tribute not just to Michael, but to all who have served, I challenge you. Be the somebody. Make his sacrifice worth it. [Applause]

Thank you, Nancy. I really appreciate that. And you know, I went to the funeral, a lot of us did, and it was incredible. What a tribute to to Sergeant Verardo. And this family has done a tremendous amount of of good across the country helping veterans and and and that's there's no amount of price you can put on that for ones who have who have made the sacrifice and gone and gone through what they've gone through. I was talking to uh Vice President Pence after the funeral and he said, you know, you got a beautiful town here and he said, you know, really thank you for the warm welcome. you know of you know that I felt here and also he said especially he said I want I wanted I want you to share this with your council and with the town that uh the family has really um felt a warmness a welcome um they have felt the love uh of the town and the community and he said I want to just you know if you could let your council and and the town know that and he said again thank you for what you've done here in Weddington and that's from Vice President Pence. So, u I I can't uh I can't say thank you enough for for and Nancy what you guys have done in this as well. So, thank you. Council, anyone have anything to say or move forward?

I I think Nancy summed it up well. Okay. And I know you're in Air Force. Y Okay. All right. Thank you again, Nancy. Really appreciate that. Thank you. We're going to move forward to uh mayor and council reports. Does anyone uh have anything to to add in this?

Um I'll just mention we did have the Western Union Municipal Alliance meeting about two weeks ago in Wesley Chapel. Uh as as we've been experiencing, everybody's talking about their their tax bills and their tax rates. that was sort of the the dominating topic of discussion. Uh the next meeting will be on Thursday the 25th is up on my calendar up here in Stallings at 4:00. If you're available and you'd like to sit in, uh that's where it will be at Stallings Town Hall. What will the topic be?

Uh right now, uh we don't have any set topic. I will um one alibi though I did the re our rep from um Waxaw Susanna Wedra uh as we discussed last time about where where do all these things sit about the state trying to take over the zoning. I did not realize this, but Waxaw has a paid lobbyist in Raleigh, and she told us that their lobbyist in Raleigh said that it it ain't dead yet. That all of that stuff has been farmed out, and they're trying to put it in different bills to see how much they can get through. So, please pay attention to that. Please let Todd Johnson, David Willis know, you know, your feelings on.

We need to be vigilant about this. Yes. Needless to say, Tomorrow at 6:30 at Wesley Chapel Village Hall is the Trees Union uh board meeting and they want to talk about ways to enhance our county's tree canopy. Um as well as go over the stewardship training program that they're going to be launching this fall. So if anyone's interested in um being a part of that, be there tomorrow 6:30. Okay. All right. Great. Thank you. I got one.

Okay. um got a response back from DOT on some of the road paving in town and u I asked the question of what type of surface treatment they were doing on most of our roads and the answer was because I said it looks like to me they're doing some type of tar and gravel over the existing uh roads and she said back you're correct these roads receive a double seal asphalt surface treatment with a fog seal this type of treatment is a pavement preservation treatment applied to extend the life of an asphalt road after patching has been done. It is generally recommended for roads that only need what we would consider light patching and provides a more coste effective option so that what funding we do get for resurfacing goes further. So that is the response from DOT on what they are using on most of our roads and you can see it is not as nice as full asphalt but it is what we are getting after they patch the worst of the places and that's the way they're doing it with the limited funds. I mean honestly they usually schedule five or six streets a year in Weddington. That's the number we've been seeing and as we know huge amount of development happened in the 70s 80s and 90s and those roads are you know 30 40 years old and have not been touched and it's woefully inadequate amount of work that's being done. So all we can do is push for more and try to get more roads onto the list as they become deemed the the worst. And it's it's a challenge. It is a challenge. So, I do stay on them about it. That's my report.

Okay. Uh, anyone else? Brandon, anything? I have none.

Okay. All right. All right. We'll move forward then. Public comments. Thank you. Okay. And uh just, you know, as as a reminder, keep them to uh uh three minutes, please. Four minutes. four minutes. Okay. And uh and Debbie will be timing us. Um Gail Butler, come on up. I just want to reflect a little bit about what Nancy said because I have uh my dad was in the Air Force and I have two sons that have are serving currently in the military. So I do and I do honor him. Um thanking you council members. I am Gail Butler. I'm here to talk about the uh downtown overlay proposed update. I was involved in the surveys and the majority spoke and we did not want the overlay. If we're going to add any more commercial, we can do it on this side of Providence Road. Where can we get? Excuse me. I thought we were very clear, but I am going to speak tonight and I don't want to. I really didn't want to. This matter should be settled already.

It has dragged on for months and I think we are all tired. It's been this way for over 10 years and nothing has changed. The town has spoken and we should not change a map which goes against everything that we own or everything that we've had. Please stop this now. I am tired of hearing about this as a majority the the minority of the town um has uh said o the majority of the town has said over and over again we do not want this when will you listen please we will have the process for a uh we have this process for a reason and it's what makes so special and I just want to say that I I was horrified that the disrespect that was shown to our Weddington Town Council by Jared Polisca, it hurt. It hurt. I thought that he was not nice and very disrespectful. Thank you.

Thank you, K. Okay. Wendy Shaw.

I'm Wendy Shaw. And um tonight, surprisingly, I'm not addressing the town council. I'm addressing uh my fellow neighbors that are here um that are watching live stream or we'll read the minutes. CJ Lewis stated that integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching. As we are in the midst of the upcoming election and what is going on within our town, it truly disgusted me. We all know how corrupt politics are, but I never thought we'd experience it here. At what point does anyone have the right to use their position, whether it be a town leader, social media guru, or even a simple resident, to bully, degrade, mock, or attack a fellow neighbors integrity and character. It doesn't matter who you are, how much money you have or don't have, what size house you live in, how long you've lived here, or how many social media platforms you've created or commented on. No matter our party affiliation or who we are voting for, it does not give us the right to attack anyone. Everyone needs to have their own beliefs and convictions, but as a community, we need to agree to disagree and stop trying to sabotage campaigns of those running for office. and violating a person's freedom of speech is totally unacceptable. People in Weddington know our elected officials are not the ones that are running this town. My question to those who are hiding behind a computer or a checkbook with their own personal agendas is would it hinder your ability to control the town if you simply ran for a single seat yourself? And what does preserve Weddington really mean? Well, that depends on who you ask. The old Weddington in which I had the privilege of knowing living here for 53 years was made up of simple, warm-hearted, hard-working people who helped others without personal agendas. They welcomed people into this community and were

proud of what they had here. It wasn't about wealth. It was about human decency. They were fair to one another even if they didn't agree. Today is all about what some people want to be while dictating and manipulating others through deceit. We have to stand up for what we believe as individuals and at the end of the day know that we have lived by our own convictions, not someone else's. We all need to be reminded that whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.

Thank you, Wendy. Reagan Shaw. Reagan. Okay. Hello. My name is Reagan Shaw. I'm 24. And unlike most in this room, I can say I was born and raised here in our beloved town of Weddingington. Growing up in Weddington was the town everyone wanted to be a part of. We had the small town feeling where everyone knew everyone and a trip to the corner store was not taken unless your hair was fixed and makeup was on because you were liable to see everyone you knew while there. To me, Weddington was like family. It was where you could run across the street to borrow some sugar, call a neighbor in a bind, or simply have an army of loving neighbors swarming and stepping in when a loved one passes. Weddington is all I know. It's home. I was gabbing over coffee with my grandmother who has been a resident of Weddington for over 60 years. Speaking of how Weddington used to be, she recently found an article titled Weddington, our hometown, written by Jeff Perryman, submitted on May the 3rd, 2008, in which I will now quote my favorite lines. It has been said that home is where the heart is. And that simple statement explains Weddington and how it's been home for so many through over the years. it in. In 2008, we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of Weddington's official incorporation. We paused to reflect on our history, our pride, and our future. Weddington was no stranger to its new growth, but something was different here. The residents were proud of their rural atmosphere and down home feel. The leaders of the community wanted to ensure things that Weddington that holds Weddington's unique um capabilities and preserved for the future. We are officially 25 years old now with a rich history behind us and rich possibilities ahead. Much has changed about Weddington since 1983. But one thing remains certain. Our town remains committed to keeping the spirit and character of Weddington alive for those who are here now and for those who

will come after us. In Weddington today, you can't trust your neighbor Sugar. The downhome feeling is fading, and the lifetime members of Weddington now only have the memories of what Weddington used to be to cling to. I never wanted to leave, but I'm homesick for a wedding that doesn't seem to exist anymore. Thank you. Thank you, Reagan. Amarie Cruz.

Hi. Good evening. Good evening, council members, neighbors, and friends. I'm here tonight not as a just as a w resident of Weddington, but as a member of a family that has lived, worked, and cared for this land for generations. Our town is changing, yes. But what makes Weddington special isn't just its location. Low taxes and great schools. It's the open spaces, quiet fields, the places where the land still speaks. And we believe that voice is still worth protecting. Over the years, parts of the Hunter and Delaney farms were sold to developers. Communities like Brammley, Athetherton, Highgate, and Enclave all trace their roots back to these lands. Those decisions were made with care, supporting responsible growth and helping change uh shape a thriving Weddington. Our family has always believed in balancing progress and preservation. This is why our family made the decision in 2002 to place the remaining portion of the Hunter farm into a permanent conservation through the Kataba Land Conservancy. This wasn't a decision made lightly. It was a choice rooted in love for the land, for our agricultural history, and for the rural character that defines Weddington. We did this not only to preserve open space, but to honor the legacy of farming and a community that has shaped our lives in this town's identity. We also believe deeply in personal property rights. And this this decision reflects that belief. As land owners, we chose conservation. We chose to protect not just for ourselves, but for future generations. While there is much discussion and a lot of confusion about what falls within the downtown core, the commercial overlay, or even which areas are even zoned

commercial for future use. We want to be absolutely clear on one issue. This land cannot ever be developed. It cannot be turned into a neighborhood or a commercial site. Commercial sprawl onto the wedding onto the Hunter farm cannot and will not ever happen. That protection is permanent. It is a matter of public record filed with the Union County Register of Deeds held by the Kataba Land Conservancy. There is no ambiguity here. There is no loophole, no future resoning. This land will remain open space forever. The Hunter Farm has long been a place where families gather, children learn, and the seasons are marked by strawberry fields and pumpkin patches. Not traffic lights and strip malls. By protecting this land, we are preserving a way of life. We're saying that farmland isn't just soil. It is memory. It is culture. It's a living archive to those of who we are and who we hope to remain. We understand that growth is part of any town story. But growth without memory is just expansion. What we need is stewardship partnered with thoughtful and intentional development. We need leadership that recognizes that not every acre should be built on and that some spaces deserve to be left open, wild, and rooted. Let the Hunter Farm stand as a symbol of that choice. Let it remind us that rural charm is not a relic. It's a living, breathing part of our community. And let us be proud, not just of the spaces we fill, but the ones that we leave open. Thank you.

Thank you, Amarie. Craig Horn, come on up.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, this is a little strange being up here. I had uh pretty well promised myself when I left office I was not going to be coming back to talk to you or present or encourage you to vote for or against anything. Sometimes things happen and we all get a little carried away with or maybe not carried away, we get energized by things that are going on. I I can't I I can't help but often reflect on the role of town government and the role of any government. As most of you know, I've spent 18 years in elective office. Um, I understand very well how easy it is to finger wag and fingerpoint call names and make unfounded accusations of corruption and all kinds of other stuff of nefarious activities. I am very confident that we don't have that in Weddington, nor should we, nor have we. I want to reach out to you to tonight to ask you to think deeply about the decisions you're making. Not just shot from the hip, but think deeply about the implications as as a government. I think our first responsibility is public safety. That's the first responsibility of any public any public body. Secondly, it's to protect the rights of the people of their jurisdiction. And those rights are property rights as well as the right to to live in an environment up to a point. We want to protect our property rights. Whether it's you telling me what I can and can't build on my property or us telling someone else, I don't want you to have

that on your property because it infringes on my right. Well, the reality of life is that there is no guarantee to an environment. If I want to see an a beautiful landscaped uh meadow, then I better buy the property and I can have my beautiful landscaped meadow rather than telling somebody that owns that meadow, you can't develop it as long as you follow the law. So, I'm encouraging you to keep that balance in place. As long as they follow the law. That comes brings me to talking about the overlay issue. Now, I believe that there's been a mistake made in how we applied the overlay. We've got a parcel outside the overlay that's zoned commercial, cannot expand in any on either side. It is zon commercial. It's been zoned commercial. It pays taxes as a commercial uh land use. So therefore, as long as they follow the law, they should be able to develop that land as they see fit. As long as they follow the law. I also note that we have in this commercial overlay some land that is zoned residential. I want you to understand I would do work very hard to oppose reszoning that residential land to commercial land. I agree with what I've heard people say here at the podium and around town that we don't want or need additional commercial zoning. I agree with that. We don't want or need additional commercial zoning. So, as long as people follow the law, then I'm fine with it. And I think the people in town are fine with it. I'm always amused at those that talk about how everybody in town either likes something or doesn't like something. Well, we don't know what everybody in town likes or doesn't like. We've got 14,000 people

here. We may have talked to 20. We may have talked to 200, but we haven't talked to 14,000. So, that's just a little disingenuous. The hyperbole that has floated around over this issue of uh the is over the top. Thank you very much. Thank you, Craig. Appreciate it. Thank you so much,

Ellen Mclofflin. Hello. Good evening, council members. Thank you for your service. Um, so I love the movie Groundhog Day. Bill Murray's character wakes up to the same day over and over until he finally learns, "You can't change the day, but you can change yourself." Today, Weddington feels stuck in its own Groundhog Day, reliving the same zoning fight again and again. Two years ago, Weddington fought Weddington Green. In January of 2025, we fought this and here we are again, nine months later, reliving this to change the downtown overlay map. Residents speak up and they share that commercial expansion is mostly not what they want. But is the council listening? Yes, families have a right to sell their land, but changing the zoning has consequences. Reszoning doesn't stop there at one property. It can create a domino effect. More commercial projects, more traffic, and most importantly, the loss of the small town character that we all truly treasure. What benefits one family can hurt thousands of others. The property can still be sold or it can still be used as it was intended. But instead, this is the maximization at the expense of residents. The lesson is clear. Real progress comes when we think about more than ourselves. Let's not repeat this lesson again in January of 2026. It's time for everyone to listen to the

many residents of Weddington and help protect us from this endless Groundhog Day. Thank you.

Thank you, Ellen. Clayton Clayton Jones. Colonel Anderson, I want to thank you for your tribute to your friend, and I think you'll agree with me. And I'm a veteran, and there's probably a half a dozen more veterans in this room. And and I'd be the first to say that it's one thing to be a veteran, and another thing to be the person who is on the pointy end of the spear. Those are the true heroes. Now, I was proud to serve my country. I was never on that pointy end of the spear. My life was never in danger. And those folks deserve our thanks immensely. So, thank you, Colonel. I I appreciate it. U Clayton Jones, Panhandle Circle. Uh let me address Councilman Perryman's concern about fairness. Now, fairness can't be judge. I didn't start my thing. We we did.

I know you did, but I think you you cut me off quick, I think, the last time. Okay. But it can't be judged in a vacuum. Uh the Palifa land was originally zone residential uh when it was uh when Mr. Palifa purchased the land, and I suggest it's fair to assume that the land was uh a speculation purchase uh with the intent to have it zone commercial. Now, when you buy land on speculation, you're taking a risk. Uh, no different than buying shares in the stock market. You're taking a risk. You're betting that the investment is going to grow in value. Nothing wrong with that. That's the American way. Now, when Mr. Polifa purchased the residence, the land that was residential, and petitioned Weddington to have it uh reszone commercial, he originally requested to build five buildings on the property. And I believe that after going through the planning board, the planning board recommended reducing it to three and eventually uh it came before the town council and then some additional negotiations must have gone on because in the interest of fairness uh a compromise was reached between the town council and Palifa to uh reszone that land commercial but to limit it to one building. Now, the town was more than fair when it allowed Polifka to build the existing buil building. Um, but uh if Mr. Palefa didn't think that it was fair back when the town council, former town council said he could build one building, uh or that he wouldn't be able to make it profitable with just one building. Um he could have walked away, sold the land, um took the loss right up front, and then moved on to another project, but he didn't. Uh so cons considering the totality of the

situation, no one's being unfair to Mr. Polifka. Uh they they are not owed an apology by this town council or the previous one. Uh as it's been said many times, no good deed goes unpunished. Uh Weddington should not have to regret that they once extended a gracious favor to the Polifas. Now U former mayor Horn, Greg Horn, um I'd like to address a couple things. I hope this council remembers that it wasn't that long ago that I believe this council uh when the Matthews um farm up here that that beautiful old historic house um you know they have Christmas and pumpkins and all that stuff and they came to you and said look I can't keep this house in this condition without you know having some money and I just can't do it with a pumpkin and Christmas patch and he wanted to build a wedding venue a beautiful rendition of that. There was no objections in the room to that. I remember uh uh Colonel Anderson talking about that. No objection. I didn't object to it. I thought it was a wonderful idea to do it, but I don't think he reszoneed it. So, I'm guessing it's still commercial, but if a mistake was made, then the mistake was made when that was not put in the overlay.

Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Joyce playing.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak. The question of expanding commercial has been debated time and time again. The town's people spoke overwhelmingly against commercial expansion during Weddington Green. The town's people spoke again in their election of representatives now sitting on this council whose platforms stood in part for limiting commercial expansion. The town's people also spoke during a survey in 2018. They spoke most recently in 2023 during the research conducted by Inspire, a consulting company hired by the preceding town council. The town spent our tax dollars to hire a consulting company to tell them what they had already heard, but were not un but were unwilling to accept. The vast majority of town residents do not want additional land zoned for commercial use. I want to remind council of a few specific findings from surveys and consultants. In 2018, residents were asked, "Would you like to see more small business office or retail development in Weddington?" The answer was no. 62% of respondents, almost twothirds said that they did not want more more commercial. In 2023, just two years ago, Inspire consultants used multiple methods to determine the desires of the town people. Public meetings were held and online map solicited comments. Interactive displays were set up in town hall. The contract with Inspire asked it to create a town center master plan and to consider up to 144 acres as a possible downtown. However, after all of the various community engagement efforts had been concluded, the consultants determined that the town's people did

not want an expanded commercial hub. rather they overwhelmingly wanted to keep commercial to the downtown overlay. I quote their report. The comments that were the most common related to wanting to maintain commercial uses within the existing downtown overlay area. Also from that report, the online public engagement for this project included a number of questions to gauge the community's priorities and interests. When asked why people chose to live in Weddington, the overwhelming answer was community rural character. Now comes again the question, should the downtown overlay be expanded? Were I in a court of law, I would proclaim firmly, objection asked and answered. There is no need to study this question again. You merely need to listen to what has already been said. And may I make a point about the allegation that this is some kind of mob rule. I just read to you, twothirds said, "We don't want to expand commercial." The overwhelming majority in the most recent survey said we want to keep commercial in the downtown overlay. That is not a mob. That is this group. This is the town speaking. So, and when Miss Shaw wants to allege that people are being disrespectful, I would like to say that can go both ways. I find this mob rule versus rights of citizen very insulting to me personally. I am not mobb rule. I do not run around with a martini glass in my hand. I live in this

town. I love this town. I want to protect it. So, please do not insult me. And don't claim that my friends are insulting you. Okay. Thank you, Chad. Chad.

Okay, guys. Mr. Mayor. Okay, guys.

Good evening. Uh Chad, am I in Eagle Road? Let's hold down the conversation. Okay. Okay, guys. Go ahead, Chad.

All right. Um my comments tonight are in response to um obser objective facts in response to several of the reasons stated the process of changing the overlay. The Perry South property is not in the overlay due to an oversight. This is blatantly incorrect. The overlay was established in 2015 and it stems from surveys and public involvement driving the land use plan in the UDO. The most recent survey showed no change in that sentiment. And just to clarify, that survey was significant. You can look at a sample size calculator and it shows 93% level of confidence with a margin of error plus or from minus 5%. In that survey, the consultant stated that a very large area started with a very large area, including the old Weddington Green site as commercial. The results were clear. No change to the overlay. The land use plan and the downtown plans were presented and adopted to that area. Here's how the process normally works to avoid any confusion. You have a survey, you get public involvement, the planning board reviews it, you have a public hearing, you have public comments, town council reviews, and they have a vote. There's no way an oversight happens when we've gone through all of this on multiple occasions with no change. In fact, in the land use plan and the UDO, we have goals and we even have two pages in here that are very specific. It's section 703C in the UDO about rules for the overlay. There's no way that the Perry South property can meet these requirements. It talks about things like connectivity, shared common open space, pedestrian friendly, and more. Perry South is across the busiest road in Weddington that's mostly full of non-residents driving through. The residents clearly stated we don't want any new commercial to be in that quadrant. So, it's easil they what they want is something that's easily accessible and pedestrian friendly. The other point is the town was wrong in

the vote in January and should have listened to the planning board and the prolificas have a right to add more. That's not correct. In North Carolina, councils have a very broad say in commercial development, even more so than residential. It is a risk taken in commercial. The property owner is entitled to a reasonable use of the land, not the best and most profitable use. That reasonable use was established in 2013. It went from the five buildings to three buildings and the town approved the one. State statutes and legal cases are quite clear here. It wasn't challenged in 2013 nor in January. If it was negligent, I'm sure the town's legal council would know. And the planning board is an advisory and nothing more. There are many times you can see across all municipalities where the council votes at opposite direction of the planning board both in approvals and denials. The council weighs the land use plan and the voices of the residents that they were elected to represent. Lastly, I would just want to close with reading an email from our previous town planner who was here when the land use plan was updated. This was from September 23 when the Perry South property was listed for sale, including two more pads in the listing. While many emails came to him about uses for those two buildings, he stated, "Our current land use plan does not allow for non-residential development outside of the overlay. This parcel is outside, and a current ongoing update of the plan has found the public sentiment to have not changed and continue to preclude such development." He also states, "I don't believe there is much likelihood of receiving any support for the project from the public or myself given the land use plan and the upcoming elections this November, the makeup of the council will be changing quite possibly to be more unsupportive of the project. If our experienced planner, who was involved in that whole process says it shouldn't change, then I'm not sure why we're still discussing it. I also have a

petition with over 216 signatures. 122 are confirmed Weddington residents and I'd like to put my comments and the petition into the record. Okay. Thank you, Chad. Jerry.

Hello everybody. Uh thanks for having me here tonight. I appreciate your time and uh appreciate you listening. You know, when I listen to everybody here tonight, and I have a script in front of me, but I just have to take a moment to address a couple things. And I've reached out to the opposition multiple times, never heard back. I think there's a thing in this country that's civil discourse. We should be able to meet in person, talk, or we should be able to be in a public setting like this and talk and be heard calmly and rationally. Now, when I'm listening to this group, I can't help but think of the movie Forest Gump. There's a part where he says, "I may not be a smart man, but I know what love is." Well, I may not be a smart man, but I know what math is. Math, arithmetic. People tonight are saying we're against expanding commercial. 4% of this town is designated commercial.4% of this town is designated business in the future land use map in the comprehensive plan of 2024. Do you know who's included in that point4% that's commercial? Palifa. How are we increasing commercial if we're already commercial? We're already point part of that point4% in the current map and in the future map. Now you guys want to talk about facts. Here's a fact right here. Look at the unified development ordinance. What does it say? clearly states, "The downtown overlay shall apply to those parcels designated

as future business in the town of Weddington land use plan and zoning map." What did I just say? Business. What is Polka? Business. It's pretty simple. I have a lot of reasons that I can say. Historically, it would take me a couple hours to go through it all. I've gone through over the last couple months thousands of hours of town council minutes, planning board minutes, videos from 2023 since we submitted our application in 2023. 16 months going through planning board approval process. And Mr. Emmerine says that we respect the process. Well, then if we respect the process, why did our planning board and our town planner approve Polifa to build and then a month and a half later you voted it down? And why did our planning board and our town planner say that being part of the overlay should have no bearing on whether we're allowed to build? How does that make sense? Now, there's a vote happening here tonight, and I ask you to do the right thing. Act with integrity. Be somebody. Right. The question is not whether the property deserves consideration. It clearly does, but whether this council will allow its advisory body and professional staff to do their due diligence. council has a sharp town planner and a planning board made up of people who care and who do their homework. I was at the last planning board meeting in July and I again I've said I've watched a lot of planning board videos like hundreds of hours worth. They're good. They're not a glorified HOA. They care.

The the advisory board's role is to evaluate the evidence and provide you with a recommendation grounded in the town's ordinances and plans. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Jerry. Can't really read this. I guess it's is it doctor starts with a T? Come on up and uh just state your name if you don't mind so we can have it for the record.

Just a dentist, not a doctor. just pull teeth for a living. Um, a little bit a little bit. Uh, how I'm Andrew Tran. Um, Jar asked me to come by and talk to you guys a little bit. I'm just going to speak from my personal experience about it. I think you guys heard a lot. I didn't know it was going to be this um, deep and heavy and discussion wise. I was thinking more light-hearted. Uh, but that's okay. I just got off of work. I'll make it fast and, you know, y'all go about it. Um, we've been in business uh, under Mr. Prolifica in his building for the last 10 years. Um, I raised a family here. I have a home here. I'm a resident here. Um, I can't say much about it. I've seen Weddington grow. It's a beautiful town. I would love for it to be as it is. Um, all things aside, beside that, I can tell you two things. One, Mr. Polifka loves the heck out of his land because, uh, when I see him out there, he is looking at his landscape all the time. Um from that's just a personal standpoint from my standpoint with it. Um without that building up there I never would have been able to establish my office from day one. And a lot of my patients are from Weddington. We take care of a lot of res resident here. And as far as I know I can't say openly for everyone but the patient goes there. They love it. They look out it and they're like hey this is not Waverly. It's not one of those other place. Uh and this is a nice view behind it. And so I've loved being in that practice and I hope to be in this town in that building for another 30 years if I am still practicing at that point. Um but that's it. There was a whole you know um rehearse stuff that I was supposed to read but I would love for them to be able to bring in more professionals such as myself to take care of the resident in this town because there's a lot of people that move here. And again this is just freakly for me. I don't know much about the town, but as a

dentist, we can only take care of about 2500 people. That's one dentist. If I work a little bit harder, maybe 3,000. And I think there's a little bit more than 3,000 resident living in Weddington. And if that say something, maybe I'll have more dentists working with me. And that's fine. But if not, that medical provider would be great. another physician would be great because whenever I need something helped done, I got to go all the way up to Waverly or somewhere else and hopefully they can squeeze me in. Um, that's it. Thank you. You have a good night. Great. Thank you so much. Um, I'm sorry I can't read this one. Is it Christie? Um, Christiey's stuck on

Oh, so she can't be here. Okay.

Yeah, she's she's just landed in Charlotte. Got you. Okay. All right. Cool. So, that's all that's all we have then since Christy was the last one. Okay. Thank everybody for your comments. Okay. We're going to move forward past the comment section. Um this is uh item eight uh presentation of proclamations for Constitution Week. And let's uh include uh Landon. So, uh Ashley, you guys want to come on up and tell us a little about a little bit about who you guys are? Thank you, Mayor Bell. My name is Ashley Corizus and I am the regent of the Halifax Convention chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. And we're here for a constitution um proclamation for Constitution Week, which is every year September 17th through the 23rd. And I won't spend time telling you about our organization um but I just want to commend you all. I realize I'm not a Whittington town resident. Um, but I see you all and I know you care deeply about your town and to see you all um in this civic discourse and watching the American way playing out, it is truly inspiring. So, thank you. Um, we're all daughters of men and women that supported the American Revolution. Um, and so it is it is really special to be here today and to see you all. And so I I will be praying for this town as you resolve the items. But thank you, Mayor Bell, for this constitution. I'd like to call Kitty McGordon and Carol Lee OD who are our Constitution Week co-chairs and our past regent Katherine Arno. Um

and I'm gonna get you stand there when you guys after you say what you want to. I'm gonna read proclamation as well. We're just delighted to be here. Okay. Well, I tell you what, can I go ahead and read your proclamation?

Yes. Thank you. Title Wington Proclamation P 20225-03. Whereas the Constitution of the United States of America, the guardian of our liberties, embodies the principles of limited government and a republic dedicated by rule to rule by law. And whereas September 17, 2025 marks the 238th anniversary of the framing of the Constitution of United States of America by the Constitutional Convention. And whereas it is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary, and to the patriotic celebrations which will commemorate it. And whereas public law 915 guarantees the issuing of a proclamation each year by the president of the United States of America designating September 17th through the 23rd as Constitution Week. Now therefore, I, Jim Bell, by virtue virtue of authority invested in me as mayor of the town of Weddington, do hereby proclaim the week of September 17th through the 23rd, 2025 as Constitution Week, and ask our citizens to reaffirm the ideas the framers of the Constitution had in 1787 by vigilantly protecting the freedoms guaranteed to us through this guardian of our liberties. In witness thereof, I guarantee set my hand and cause the seal of the town of Weddington to be affixed this 8th day of September, 2025.

Thank you, Mayor and Colonel our thank you for your words. Thank you, mayor. photo. Thank you.

We would just like a photo with you, Mayor. I can't see me. I can't see you.

There wasn't much of a place. [Applause] Great. Thank you. Okay. [Applause] Okay. Um, our next proclamation is uh Carly here. Carly Ober Overberly or Susan Har is Harland. anyone of those guys here. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and read the proclamation for um it's uh town of Wellington proclamation P2025-04. This is uh for let's include Landon. Whereas let's include Landon founded in 2023 is a nonprofit organization is to create opportunities to bring children with and without disabilities. Um those who are neurodeivergent and those with developmental developmental delays uh together to create real bonds and true friendships. Whereas inclusion means children with disabilities are not separate are not in separate activities nor lead separate lives. Separating people by perceived ability disadvantages every everyone.

Belonging is a human need whereas disability inclusion is mutually beneficial. Children with disabilities will benefit by being just as much a part of their community as their non-disabled peers. Be a peer of a team, have a best friend, create true friendships, and have a sense of belonging. and non-disabled peers will benefit from learning compassion, patience, respect, kindness, citizenship, and understanding the value of differences in how to successfully work and play with people who are different. Everyone wins when we include. Whereas families in the community pledge to accept, respect and include people of all abilities, including their neurode divergent peers and peers with developmental delays and disabilities. Whereas inclusion starts with each individual person and each person pledges to help their community be more inclusive. Whereas every child is valued because of their strength, gifts, and even challenges. As disability is as disability is simply diversity, we must trust that every child is an incredible whole person who does not need to be fixed. Now therefore, I, Jim Bell, mayor of the town of Weddington, on behalf of the Weddington Town Council and citizens of Weddington, do hereby proclaim September 2025 as disability inclusion month in the town of Weddington. [Applause] Thank you,

Debbie. I mean, Debbie or Karen will present that later. Okay. Okay. Um, as we move on, uh, public safety report, come on in, Deputy Ren. I hate this podium. It's so deascalating. I'm sorry. Every time I get is depressing. So, you'll have to just bear with me. Pun intended. So, Mayor, council, once again, citizens of Weddington, it is always a pleasure. Uh, I get a little backlash 98% of the time because the other deputies always say, "Why don't you just talk about us?" So, on behalf of them, thank you. Not only thank you so much for your support, your dedication to our cause, but the continuation of being our foot soldiers. It's not often that we get a chance to actually say, "Hey, what you did was worth it." But today and tonight, I just want to say thank you so much because it is worth it. So, in the month of August compared to uh July, we answered 65 compared to 61 in July. 911 hang-ups. So, that's going to be testing the lines from all the Google fibers and things of that nature. Maybe little Susie got a brand new iPhone. She's testing it out. Doesn't know what's going on. New Eyewatch, things of that nature. So, they went up a little bit. That's also going back to school and she forgot it was in her book pack. So, accidents. We actually went from 28 to 21. Once again, forgetting that school's starting, forgetting that the school patterns are changing, forgetting that, oh no, Amanda Drive opened up now. I got to hurry up and beat the traffic. So, we we did increase a little bit on our traffic wreck. So, we answered 28 compared to 21. Alarms definitely decreased. So, people are coming back from their homes and remembering their passcodes. So, we went from 44 to 35. So, we decreased there. Business checks, we had 93, but we actually increased it to 100. getting out and actually getting out of our cars and checking our businesses especially at night. Uh we really want to start focusing on getting out especially at night. So we receive some emails and

some complaints about especially from business owners or even residents at night. So we're walking your neighborhood especially nature trails at night. So you might see a deputy every day once again uh especially at night on your nature trails. So if you see it and it's just us please don't be alarmed. We're not chasing anything or anybody. Um we're stepping up our foot patrols in your neighborhood. So, also Careless and Reckless, uh, we answered 13. It decreased to eight. So, a little bit of that is us actually getting out there and answering the call before it comes out, being a little bit more vigilant. Domestic disturbances were at seven. We only answered four in August. So, we stepped out. Maybe people went on vacation. They're a little bit happier with their partner. Once again, preventive patrols. That's us being in your neighborhood. That's us saying hey to the kids. That's us actually getting out into the community. uh we were at 835, but in August we stepped it up to 882. Um so once again, radar patrols, we stepped up a little bit more, too. We normally average in the low 20s, but that's usually getting out on 16, Builder Church, Antioch Road, things of that nature. So we hover around the low 20s. We stepped it up to 29. So that includes us looking like we have the haird dryer out the window, things like that. That's going to be another use of our tools that we have. So traffic stops once again, we did receive the complaint and we stepped it up. So we're at 184 and 187. So we're we're averaging into the high 100s there because we're receiving the complaints and we're going out there and working it. Um continue to let us know. Little Timmy and Susie are out there on their bikes. So we want to protect them, too.

Total calls for August, 159 compared to 1538 for July. Um, you're going to hear me continue to reiterate little things every other meeting. Uh, one thing I want to hit home is, believe it or not, we do want to start preparing for the holidays. The way that we can do that is be vigilant. I'm really, really wanting to hit one thing home if you don't mind. Am I still on the timer? I guess so. When you're out and about and you're walking or that insomniac that's in the middle of the driveway and you're wondering what she's doing, she's probably looking for that Amazon package is coming at 4:00 a.m. in the morning. So, we received some complaints, especially with the holidays coming up. Please be a little bit vigilant. If you have access to Ring or whatever your home network is, uh, please tap into it and cut them on. Um, let us know. That'll give us a time stamp. Once again, I think a couple years ago, we talked about if your key has a key fob, sleep to your house. Sleep with it next to your actual bedside stand. Keep your spare key next to you. See something you don't like, hit your alarm. especially 4:00 a.m. in the morning, Amazon's delivering when they shouldn't be, things of that nature. I hear a lot of people talk about how proud they are of their castle, their home, their property. Uh, let us do what we can to help you protect it. All right. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. I want to say thank you for what you guys do, being proactive out there. You know, part of what you guys do is, you know, you're u we're practicing crime preventing here, not uh what's it, what am I trying to say? uh instead of going in and cleaning up the mess afterwards, you guys are, you know, being out there being proactive and hopefully preventing major crimes and being again uh practicing prevention. So, thank you for what you do.

Oh, no, sir. That's that's the credit to the citizens and especially the council backing us. Uh there's a lot of different towns in this state that don't get the same privilege as we do to do our job. So, on behalf of especially the Weddington deputies, I know they're going to be watching and commenting whatever I say, but thank you. You don't get to hear it enough from us as well. uh if you see us or anything of that nature, um we're going to throw it right back at you. You're going to tell us thank you. Well, you are that lets us do our job. You let us answer the general statutes and actually get to execute. So, that's how much we appreciate you guys. And just know each deputy, if you're watching, we appreciate you and what you do and uh and and and you are appreciated here. So, thank you for being a part of wedding. Make one comment.

Sure. Deputy Ren, I just want to say I was talking the other night to one of my neighbors and they had earlier this year a uh I guess a faulty alarm call and y'all came out in the middle of the night and she just wanted to say how polite and nice and responsive y'all were even though it was a false alarm in the middle of night and she said told her husband said please go down there and figure out what's going on down there because there was the knock on the door in the middle of the night and it was one of your deputies late at night responding to a what what they had received as a broken window alarm and their system had failed. They had no idea. And uh but she also said she really noted that the cars driving by through this the street slowly looking around, you know, being observed and she really appreciated how safe she felt in the neighborhood. So thank you.

I can speak on on behalf of a couple citizens here in this room right now. Castle doctrine. So that's why we're polite when we come to your door at 3:00 a.m. in the morning. Yes. At that point. So you're protecting your castle. We get just shooting the same direction we do if that if that happens. Uh I say that wholeheartedly. That's probably why they're being so nice. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Okay. U consent agenda. Uh it's uh item A is the approval of the the last month's August 11th uh council meeting minutes and the 25-06 is to addition of Weddingington Glenn to the state maintain code system. Okay. Um this on the consent agenda. Can I get a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as stated.

Okay. All in favor? Okay, unanimous. So, it's all approved. We'll move forward. Old business. This is uh 11A is old business discussion to uh and possible consideration of instructing staff to move uh to begin downtown overlay move to look into that and the amendment process. And this has been uh Jeff's uh baby and uh we you know we've heard a lot of comments tonight and um Jeff I'm just gonna let you take off with it.

All right. Well, I appreciate that. The moment we've all been waiting for. Well, um I've got some prepared comments I've made and I will be sticking with those, but based on some of the comments that I've heard from the podium, I will definitely be adding a few things here and there. So, please bear with me if I seem like I'm going along and then I kind of stop for a second. What I would like to do to begin is to get us all on the same page about what I'm talking about and what I think we all should be talking about. So, Greg, if you would throw up that first slide for me, please. This is the current zoning map for the town of Weddington. Now you can see a little arrow right there kind of just to the left of center. And you see those three little purple pieces there. That is our area right over here. Okay. On the and and so the the arrow is pointing at the polifa property. But I want you to notice all of the other residential uh area there that's depicted in town. And it's been previously said by a speaker that little parcel there, all of that little purple commercial area amounts to 0.4% of the total area of this town. Um if you and and so the other day I was driving home and you know I keep thinking that you know every time we've had this discussion here we're just looking at maps. We are looking at um uh you know documents. Well I think it would be beneficial to take a look at what we're talking about. So I went out uh one afternoon and Greg if you'll start the video I'll try to talk through

it. I stood in the parking lot there in front of the uh grocery store on here looking down Providence Road like Charlotte. Let me just start off here. Uh as the camera starts panning around, I'm standing in the parking lot. You can go ahead and start it. Uh you're going to look Oh yeah.

Oh, it's buffering. Okay. But there on the right, the wooded area you see is the Hunter Farm. That's the conservation land you heard mentioned earlier tonight. All right. There is Pola. What they're they're building right there. The tree line goes around and you will see there is that's where the church property starts with United Methodist. The tree line there and there's the church. Now you're looking south. Now we come. Now we're looking at the the property there where the uh shopping center is the Harris ter and the little restaurants and stuff like that. Bagel shop. Coming on around. There's a nice big parking lot. Now what you don't see is the two lots behind that that are zoned residential. By the way, they're zoned residential. And then you can't quite see it because the the trees are there, but on the other side of that is where the gymnastics center is. All right, if you'll please go to the next slide for me. So, what we've just taken a look at is this area right here. Okay. I was standing where it said kind of in the B2 CD portion. Uh the B1 CD is the gymnastics center. The other two little uh striped areas behind there are residentially zoned lots that are in the downtown overlay that are designated for future future commercial use. And then the MX part across the street is prolific. Now I want to start at this point by saying what I am not asking for tonight. I'm not asking for any changes to be made. We're not going to change any maps. We're not going to change any

rules. We're not going to change uh anything to the UDO or anything else. All I'm asking for is that we're going to start a process. Also, I am not asking to expand commercial property in Weddington. Many of the speakers that came up speaking very emotionally tonight were saying, "We don't want any more commercial property here in Weddington." I agree with you. I don't want any more commercially zoned. I don't want to change anymore zoning land to commercial. In fact, and I and based on things that were said a little earlier, I just want to remind everybody that when Weddington Green came up for a vote. Does anybody in this room know who made the motion to deny Weddington Green? Do you know who voted with me to deny Weddington Green? The lady sitting at the end of the table, Brandon Howie. And you know who broke the tie to deny Weddington Green? Former Mayor Craig Horn who's sitting right there. So if Yes. If you've been seeing things on social media saying that I want to expand commercial property and I want to expand commercial all over this town and and according to one guy's uh letter to me today that the town's unique residential and rural field would be lost forever and home values would deteriorate. Safety of Weddington residents will be at risk and crime will get even worse and traffic will get even worse. They don't know what they're talking about.

In fact, there's a lady sitting in here that after the Weddington Green vote came up, shook my hand, and told me she was glad that I did the right thing. And she spoke at that podium earlier this evening, and she did not u uh speak kindly, I guess, of my position is how I will put it. So, if you're wondering why this bothers me, that's why when I see what's being pumped out in this town regarding this subject, that's where I got off track. I'll try to get back on track here. So, what is this about tonight? This is about starting a process. And that process is to start a discussion, a discussion through our existing channels about including the Polifa property and what we designate is our downtown overlay. And if by chance it were to happen, and if you could go back two slides, G. Oh, no, no, no. What? Just No, leave it on that one. If it were to come to pass, the only change that would be made is you see that little black kind of hash line that's around B1 B2 and those two residential properties. It would move right across the street and go right around the MX that's right there to include the polifa property. That's it. That's all. No changes to any other text. No changes to any other processes or procedures. All we're doing is moving that line. Why am I bringing this up? Because it's the right thing to do. And I'm sorry. I don't think there's a

time limit when somebody has been treated unfairly to say, "Sorry, we already voted on this once. We're not going to discuss it again. Maybe that's just me, but I believe firmly that the Polifa family was treated unfairly regarding their property rights when the vote was taken in January. Now, let's talk a little background. And this past January, this council voted to deny the Polifa family their request to build two more smaller office buildings at the front of the property, the commercial property that they already owned. The foundation of that denial, the cornerstone of that denial was the fact that it was not inside the depicted downtown overlay. If you don't believe me, go back and look at some of the social media posts that were made after the vote was taken. Okay. The intent, and I was on the planning board when it first came up, the intent of this downtown overlay from the very beginning was to limit brick andmortar retail commercial to our downtown center. We all know what we don't want. We don't want to look like South Boulevard. We don't want to look like Waverly. We don't even want to look like Wesley Chapel and I shop over there fairly frequently. We know we don't want that. So, that was the intent of creating this overlay which includes two residential lots. Okay. Now, I don't know why when the Polifa property was reszoned to MX to allow them to build that one building

that the council at that time didn't make that part of the approval process and say, "Hey, we're just going to go ahead and move that line. Make sure you're you're included in the in the overlay because it makes sense. I mean, where it is, it's landlocked. It's commercial property just the same as everything across the street. Now, I have heard somebody say tonight that, well, you know, we don't need to be making changes. You know, the UDO says this and that's what we need to go by. Well, folks, since the current UDO was approved in 2021, it has been amended 17 times. Changes have been made 17 times to this document. This council, the people you see sitting up here right now, have made 11 of those amendments. So, and I'll give you an example of something that was overlooked. Councilman Smith, when he first got elected, I remember very well. You came in one night and you said, "Guys, I have found something in the UDO that we was overlooked and we need to correct it." the the flood plane limits were like 20 years. You said they're supposed to be at a hundred, but but the document that was approved that went through all the right channels said 20. And we said, "No, that was an oversight. That was a mistake for the benefit of this town and our future development. We need to correct that." And we did. That was one of those 11. So yes, when we find something that is an oversight,

we as elected officials have an obligation to correct it. I believe what we should discuss begin the discussion about mending amending the downtown overlay for the following reasons. The property in question is in the town center. It's not down church. It's not over near the high school. It's right there. You saw the You saw the video where I stood out there. Number two, it is already zoned commercial. There is no reasonzoning. Why do people keep saying that? People here tonight stood at that podium and said, "You're gonna I'm opposed to reszoning." There's no reasonzoning to commercial on that piece of property. The only reasonzoning that could possibly be talked about are the two residential lots that are in the you the overlay right now. And thirdly, the property is land. I've heard that as a concern. It's going to spread. If you do this, my gosh, it is going to go up and down the, you know, Providence Road. It's bounded on two sides by conservation property. It's bounded on the third by a church that's been there what, over a hundred years. Doesn't hold water, folks. Sorry. I maintain that not being included in this overlay was an oversight. and for the last 12 years that that property has been de facto a part of the downtown overlay by what it is, by what it's zoned, and what it's being used for.

Now, by using the current this current parcel to deny the Polifa family's request for full use of their property and and I'm sorry, I've got to talk about this about that the government did or we did a gracious favor to the Polifa family when we graciously approved what they, you know, proposed. I'm sorry. I don't think the government should be in the business of doing gracious favors. We do what is right. We should do what is logical. We should do what follows the law. But they have been they were denied a fundamental principle. I don't care whether you own a house or you own a business or whatever else you've got. You have the right within the legal limits of the law to do on your property what the law says you can do. Period. It shouldn't be up to your neighbor or your neighbors to say, "We don't think you should do that because we don't like it. We think it's a bad idea. We think it could lead to this, this, this, and this." Okay? They have been paying commercial taxes on that property for the last 12 years. So yes, they have every right to have a a proposal judged on its merits and not summarily refused because they're on the other side of four lanes of traffic. Now, at our July meeting when I mentioned and I said I was going to be bringing this up, I said that I would be having a meeting at town hall and I invited anybody that wanted to come out and talk to me about it and understand where I was coming from. I want to hear your side. You tell me yours.

11 people showed up. Three of those from the planning board. And I do want to thank the planning board for showing up because it was a very good conversation. 11 people and we had a great discussion. Some things were brought up that I hadn't thought about and that's the very reason I think we need to start this discussion. But it's funny to me that a lot of the same people that I see writing letters and standing up here haven't reached out to me, haven't said, "Jeff, I think you're wrong. and I'd like to get together and tell you why I think you're wrong. I wonder why that is. I don't know. Maybe it's because everybody that I've had a chance to actually sit down to show them the maps, talk about the facts, nobody has told me that my facts are wrong. Nobody has told me that my reasoning is wrong. It's all this other peripheral stuff. Oh, it's the Pandora's box. if you do this, this is going to happen. Uh, you know, D, we we talked about this and majority of the people in town said they don't want it. Well, let me talk about that for a second since it's been brought up at the podium. Yes, we paid a company a great deal of money to update our land use plan, which is a plan. It's not an ordinance, by the way. And there's a reason for that. But when they did, if you look at the number of people who actually responded, at best being as as generous as you can with the responses that were received, 3.3% of the voting eligible people here in town, and that's based on the 2020

census, so there were probably more than that when it was done, responded. Now to put that in perspective that is 33 out of a thousand. So I ask you not that and I will say this those 33 people their opinions are valid. They should be listened to. They should be taken into consideration. But if you're sitting in the dock, if it's you behind the desk and I said, "Well, Jeff, um, yeah, we sent out a thousand surveys to see what we need to do with you." 33 people bothered to tell us, and we're going to base what we're going to do on those 33. And even those 33 didn't all agree. I wonder what the other 967 people would think. So, like I said, nobody so far has said that my facts are wrong or that my reasoning is wrong based on the map, based on the intent of the overlay, based on what they've been doing there for the last 12 years. Also, no one has been able to explain to me so far the obvious contradictions and irony that opponents to this are using in their arguments. Number one, it would expand commercial. Talked about it already. No, the commercial the the Palifa property is already zone commercial just like the shopping center, just like the gymnastics center. If you don't believe me, you can do what I did to make sure I had it right because I called the Union County Tax Office. I got their phone number right here if you want it. If you call it, a very nice lady named Lynn will answer. And all you need to ask her is to look in the tax records

and see what the county says the tax zoning classification is for those three pieces of property. And guess what Union County says? They're all the same. They are all commercial. Next, there are people in town who are saying and posting on social media, and I quote, "Limit commercial growth to the area already zoned commercial." This is very similar to what other people were saying about two years ago, and I quote, "Restrict commercial development to the area currently zoned commercial." I couldn't agree more. Finally, it's been stated that we should not be changing the current uh overlay, but it also contains two residential properties. Was that an oversight? Are we going to change that type of Orwellian double thing does it take to reconcile those three statements? I don't know. Finally, I want I'm going to finish by saying this. I strongly believe I firmly believe that everybody wants to be treated fairly. I don't care whether you're at work, at home, or most importantly by your government officials. Whether you own a home in Weddington, or you own a business, when you come before the government, you should not with a request to do something, you should not have to start with a no and then earn a yes. The benefit of the doubt, if everything else is about equal, should always go to the citizen and not the government. What I am requesting tonight is that we start a conversation, that we start the process. The Polifa family deserves that from this town. And if you think otherwise, ask yourself, if you were on the other side of the fence, if you were on the other

side of the table, how would you want to be treated? And at this point, and I do apologize for going longer than expected, but again, the some of the comments up there, I just could not go without making a few comments. If fellow council members have any comments or questions for me, okay,

then yes. So, I'm irritated that for 60 days we've been, you know, the the vote in January was the vote in January. They can reapply a year later. I talked over the last 60 days to several members of the planning board and the reason which you and I discussed this as well that the and we didn't have answers and so I found answers for the planning board members that the residential was included because it's an overlay and the overlay was not and shouldn't have included and purposefully did not include the property that we're talking about the PIFA property because it's not pedest pedestrian friendly and it can never be pedestrian friendly because it's over four lanes of traffic. So, for that reason, I feel like this is a mute point and that it shouldn't have. No one ever wanted it to be included in the overlay except for, you know, when you brought up that side of it, which so I'm just that's where I stand on it. I'm just kind of beside myself that we're talking about two different things here and it like the planning board even advised do not include this in the overlay because

when which two of them okay when did that come before council where they said in other words when is the any planning board come before this council and said well we don't think that piece of property should ever be included in the overlay they told me that on the phone agent. So am I supposed to like Well, when I had when those three members it was uh Mr. Deer was there, the chairman um um helped me out here, but we've never discussed overlay. This was if they But I'm saying you said you you said you spoke I did.

Okay. I spoke to three of them when they came out here and we talked and none of them made an objection. Their objection was going they they said, "Jeff, we really need to go back and look and see if there was anything when it was originally approved. If there was any language included that that precluded them from doing anything else." That was what those three planning board members told me. Well, because you asked why is the residential included and an overlay. That is why because it's it was always like anyway. Do you not see a contradiction in that when you when somebody talking about two different things? No. When somebody says, when somebody says we need to restrict commercial growth and commercial development onto land that's already zoned commercial

and look at that map, you don't you don't see a contradiction. The overlay though is not commercial growth. The overlay is what they're recommending to be the Thank you. It's a recommendation. Thank you. The center of the community that is pedestrian friendly, Jeff, and that's why that was excluded purposefully. Then then if that if that was as big a danger, then why were they ever permitted to build over there? Why why did they allow that to happen? I don't know. I wasn't. There's a there's a Well, I was okay. There was a there's a sidewalk that runs right up there at the intersection that there's a a perfectly safe pedestrian crossing that can be used. It's never

And I doubt I doubt that. I think I don't know if the deputy is still here. I don't know how many jaywalkers they've ever caught going from that property over to the to the shopping center. You don't mind? Okay. Go ahead. I would like to make a motion. No. No. No. We because after a motion there is discussion. Okay. Go right ahead. Make a motion to instruct staff to begin downtown overlay amendment process. Thank you. Now you can have discussion. Okay. Is there anything you want you want want to say before I say anything?

I just wanted to get this to the discussion phase. Okay. I I want to say Jeff um you mentioned in since 2021 there's been 17 amendments or changes to the UDO. Exactly. And 11 by this council. I I consider that a compliment. So I I I think this council for for doing it because when we came in I came into office my goal was to tighten up things this town I wanted to I want to put the guard rails back up on way

and and that's been my goal is to tighten up this town from development that has come into town and sort of told us what they're going to do instead of us telling them what you are going to do or what you can do. They've been telling us for so long this is what we're going to do and we just sort of roll over. So my goal was to change that and we we've done a great stride in doing that and we have more work to do.

So So what I'm where I'm going with this is you know the character of this town and I know you've been your argument is is is for that. Weddington is not a commercial town even though we have the the overlay here. We are a a higher scale higherend residential community. When you go back to uh the the survey, it was done in 2018 and it was already mentioned tonight. Uh would you like to see more small business office or retail development in Wellington? Of the 920, not the 917 or wherever you're only 33 people. Of the 920 answers to the question, 62% and this has already been spoken tonight, 62% said no. So it's it's not a a small group and someone mentioned mob rule or whatever. It it's not 62% of the 920 said no. Okay. Um, I I will say this, as elected officials, we have we have an um a responsibility to we I'm going to use the term we're hired. We're hired to follow the um the will of the residents who put us here. and and so if if I'm hired to do a job and and say my boss says I want you to do this, I'm going to do what my boss says or he's going to fire me next time

and and and that and rightfully so. So my my goal has been to follow the will of the residents. For three months, we have been blown up with emails saying don't want it, don't you know. I have gotten two emails of all the emails that we we got and you guys were copied on this stuff. Some of them you weren't. A lot of them were directed to me and I assume individually to you guys as well, saying we don't want it. Here's why are we visiting this again? What are you guys up to? We're not up to anything. But what

what I'm saying is do you know how many I got saying I want it? Two. Jared and you. I I didn't get a massive number of people said, "Throw it in there, build it up, blow it up, you know, and and add more to it." I did not see that. The residents spoke to me and said, "We don't want it."

All right. So, I I am the employee following my boss. Okay? That's the way I see it. We we have a right, I feel, to do to I say protect our town, the character and and what this town is and um and so so to say, you know, oh, it's not fair. Well, you know, it it we're not talking fairness here. The the PIKAS knew when they they they requested five buildings in 2012, correct? Yep.

All right. came back they they uh then they came back and said we you know give us three didn't get that give us one. So they sort of knew what they were playing with back then. So again they could have said ah we know what we're facing here. We don't we don't want to you know let's just hey we'll sell that to somebody else or we'll build something else and we can go someplace else.

Um so I I don't buy the thing of of of what's fair. they s they sort of knew when they were buying when they were buying when they were building what they were getting into. All right. So even in the even in state law um uh state uh North Carolina state law and statutes uh a land owner is entitled to a reasonable use of their land not the most profitable and valuable valuable use. So, um, so you're saying I feel that's a reasonable use of that land.

So, you're telling me you know what the reasonable use is for that for property that you don't own that you're not running. I can say what what I've said all all what I just said. I feel it is a reasonable use of that land. This town has spoken. I'm following the will of the town. We have a responsibility to protect the town and to protect the the will of the residents. All right. Now, I understand there's probably some out there says, "Oh, you know, hey, we would like to see commercial all the way down the highway." That's not Weddingington. Never will be. I don't think it will. And that's not we're talk we're talking about here.

Exactly. But I've had since I've been elected, I've had two developers, let me finish finish here. I've had two developers come to me and and want to expand the overlay. We we want commercial growth. We think this would be good for Weddington and and I I think you know you guys would love what we would do for you. Two two different ones. Can we expand the overlay? So I I said I said look here's how here's the town. You can you can try whatever because you know we can't say no. you know, ask us, you know, we legally have to let them pursue if they want to.

And that's correct from our attorney. We told them we we can't just say no, you can't do it. But I've told them here's the reality of what you're looking at. And and this is the character of Wellington and this is what the will of the residents want. So So too so I've I've had those two times. Mhm. If we keep extending the overlay for every person that comes through, we might as well just say, "Hey, let's just make it all overlay and just see what happens." Well, the fallacy in that, mayor, is the fact that you're saying if this is done once, it has to be done again. And that is not true. This town was founded in, look on the thing here, 1983.

I don't see any McDonald's up and down the road. I don't see any Super Walmarts. Everybody who sat in these seats has done an excellent job of to your point maintaining the character of this town and being fair to everybody. And you know, in my book, being fair to everybody means not just being fair to the people that voted for you and elected you, but sometimes being fair to an individual because individuals have rights too. And yes, uh, you know, uh, and to your point that you've been approached, uh, I guess it was about five years ago, we were told by the town attorney that Union County Board of Economics had sent us a message and they said, "Hey, we've been approached by a major uh, grocery chain, national grocery chain that wants to build down here at the corner of Ray and and uh, providence on that what it 60 some 40 some acres is that's down there this is a high-end grocery chain it would have mixed use it would have you know town homes it would be oh it would be beautiful just like you said there oh they're painting a picture and just to your point they said well do you think your council would be interested in doing that we just want to know and me included all of us said no because that does not fit the character of the town that is not what the people here want that and we said no. About two weeks later, town attorney comes back to us and says, "Oh, um, we heard back from the board and they wanted to know if you'd even re might want to reconsider because they just wanted you to know that that that deanexation is always an option." And guess what? Me and everybody else said no. I I I fail to see folks why denying this

family who has been here 12 years the option of asking for not I'm not saying approving it but asking for the use of half the property that they're paying taxes on. Call me oldfashioned but if I'm paying taxes on a piece of property I kind of think I have a right to be able to ask. And what happened in January was despite what the planning board said and voted to approve, despite what our town planner said that yeah, it meets our codes and ordinances and laws. This group said no, it's on the other side of the street and we're not going to let you. It stops here. And and if and again, mayor, you said, "Hey, I want to come in and I want to clean things up." Then why are those two residential properties still in the overlay? Why haven't we made a motion? Why haven't we support you? Like I think you are right. I think that you are right that residents are fighting over the wrong thing. But I think that you are wrong understanding what the overlay was meant to be and there should be no more discussion because it was meant to be pedestrian friendly. Whether or not they're in the overlay doesn't make it yes or no. Like clearly you can have different zoning within an overlay. Residential's in there. That's because it's pedestrian. They're commercial already. So y'all stop talk about expanding commercial. This is about the overlay today. And the planning board said it is to be pedestrian friendly, which I did not understand prior. And so now that we've all researched this at Nauseium, the I mean that is why it's not in the overlay. That's why the residential is. But I do understand like I support you and I feel for you that the town is fighting with you over the wrong things. Like it's not even what we're discussing tonight.

Well, I just want to make one clarification. It talks about two residential properties. Yeah. One of them is the park site. Okay. So, if it's going to be changed into a park, it's got to be reszoned to that proper thing. And I believe that's also a site. How many inquiries have we had on that property to instead of doing a park to turn it into commercial development? Numerous. Numerous. Numerous. So, I wouldn't call that a residential property. It is a potential park site owned by the city. Now, the the adjacent property is residential. I just stopped there.

Well, let me say this. I I appreciate everybody's patience. I feel very strongly about this folks because I feel like a citizen, a family is being denied their property rights and I'm and I'm very passionate about it. Yes. And I have no idea why it has turned into what it has turned into. But we've all done our research. You've been very patient with me. Let me make my points. So, in the interest of time, if you would like to go ahead and call for the vote, let's just call for the vote and press on. Well, I want to say two things and we can do that. We've had a couple people talk about integrity tonight

and and and and you're you're a person of integrity, correct? And and I think you are. When I ran for this office, I ran on promoting, you know, large lots, you know, all those things and limiting commercial growth. Okay. I am I am a person of my word and I'm not one to be elected and changed as no I I feel you know I'm changed my mind or you know I flip-flop like a lot of people have done or do you say you're going to do something you do it hell or high water and uh and so I am a person of integrity and that's what I ran on that was one of my primary platforms so where I'm going with this is I I I don't feel again what I said earlier in representing the residents that I would be doing justice by by doing this and but okay so with that being said I'm going to say this going back to the safety UDO page 25B says any proposed development site plan must uh create pedestrian stubs to connect with any or all adjacent parcels also known in the downtown overlay district. There's no way. I mean, you talk about crossing that that would be a lot like frogger coming across the road over there trying to, you know, get across from over there to over here. You know, you got to, you know, cross your fingers and hope I don't get hit by five cars. And so, I wouldn't do that. I don't expect anybody would do that. And so um uh and then it says also on page 25c uh any proposed development site plan must include clearly uh identifiable uh crosswalks to allow pedestrians to

safely cross parking lots and uh uh and streets. So, where I'm going with this, I don't see that that would ever constitute being in the overlay just for what our UDO says. And and so, you know, yeah, it's MX and the this this side over here is is uh as as you've printed out is uh is B1 and B2.

So, I I I can't go along with making expanding the downtown overlay. If we do this, the next person down the road will come in and say, "Well, you did it for these guys." And and the Palifas are great folks. I assume they are they are great folks. I don't have a problem with them. We're looking we're not looking at their character. We're looking at the the what fits for the town and what works for Weddington.

Well, the reality is is that that building with a lot more people in it has been there 12 years. And as I said, there's already a crosswalk that's functional that works up there by the church that I know is being used. And I don't think we've had any reports of pedestrians being struck or anybody jaywalking and playing frogger or going across the street. But like I said, we're we're all where we're at. I get it. I'm I'm a lone voice here and uh but but I have to say the things I'm saying because they're important. And I'll say this and that's you know,

I've seen J. It is what it is. uh Nancy Anderson, not knocking her her farm's just right across the street. So she was over here doing business and so she was doing the Frogger thing one day and I said, "Nancy, you want me to drive you up?" "No, I can get across. I just have to wait in the medium for a little bit." I said, "I'll take you across. Just jump." Well, Mr. Mayor, I respectfully ask we go ahead and call for the vote and put this to bed. Okay. Anybody else uh have anything to say? Okay. The motion's been made. Will you restate it, please? Tom, the motion is to instruct staff to begin downtown overlay amendment process work.

Um, can I get I'll ask you can I get a vote in favor of asking the staff to move forward on this? Okay, so we have one vote to move forward. Meaning we have two here that would have well we said earlier the motion is an affirmative to ask the staff to move forward. We have one vote in favor and if there is against then the motion fails. That's where I was going. So the motion fails. Not yet. No we haven't voted. I have to ask the the other people to

Okay. All right. All all all against this motion of asking the staff to move forward. Raise your hands. And it's two. So the motion fails. So this is this has been put to bed. Okay. It's been put to bed. And so we're not going to move forward. The staff is not to move forward on this and take any effort or spend any time on moving forward on this subject. Okay. Any questions on that? Okay. Uh, anything else uh legal that we need to do with this? No. Okay.

Okay. So, the motion again fails. Okay. All right. So, by ending that subject, we're going to move on to the next item on the agenda. Um, new business and possible uh discussion and possible consideration of speed limit ordinance for Weddington Matthews Road. Um, back at the U I'll bring us back at the U when we had a retreat we brought up uh for and I'm going to ask can I ask uh Karen to would you rather introduce this?

Whatever you would like, mayor. Okay, go ahead and introduce this and you can fill us in from how it how it came came up. Um, at the I feel like this is so far away.

At the 2025 um work session retreat, town council directed staff to research reducing speed limits to 35 mile per miles per hour at four spots throughout town. Um the first was on Providence Road from the Meckllinburgg County line south to the beginning of the 35 mph zone. Second was Providence Road from the railroad intersection north to where the 35 mph zone begins on Weddington Matthews Road approaching the roundabout at Highway 84 and on Deal Road from Highway 84 to 12 Mile Creek Road. when I um staff spoke to John Springer, the assistant DO NC DOT division traffic engineer and he conducted a field study uh field evaluation for speed on the areas and reported that NC DOT bases roadway speeds and speed limits on roadway characteristics. In order to change the speed limits, a substantial change in roadway characteristics or use would be needed for Providence Road and Deal Road. There is not a substantial change to the roadways to warrant speed limit changes. The Weddington Matthews Road segment would be able to match the 35 mph transition zone as approaching the roundabout because it was never changed when the roundabout was put in. So to change the speed limit in that section on Weddingington Matthews Road, the 45 mph limit needs to be repealed and that's ordinance 2025 um 07. And the 35 mileph speed limit needs to be enacted and that's ordinance 202508. And also in ordinance 202508, it enacts the 45 mile per hour speed limit beyond the um the 35 mile per hour zone. So those ordinances are in your packet. And

for the public, where is the break? The break is at Tomato Vine Lane Court. Let me look at it.

So from Thank you. So from the roundabout to tomato line, it's right past the curve lane. And then um that'll be 35. And then from that point to through the Tilly Morris roundabout, but I think it's it's he said all the way to Antioch Church, it will be 45, but I believe it goes back down to 35 up there, but that's not it's already there. I'm not worried about that. This is all I wanted.

Yeah. And and and the reason u we we're looking at changing right here is because if we do something over here, right, people need to slow down, especially and really if nothing ever happens here, you're you got a 45 mph speed coming up to this roundabout right here. And that that was one of the reasons we we talked about, you know, put putting this at 35, which I think it was oversight probably. Well, also we have several three homes going in right there, too. That's true. which makes it a lot more residential than it has been when there was really nothing right

along especially I guess the east side of the road. So with with more homes coming and the roundabout being there it makes good sense. Yeah. So, um, as far as, uh, uh, municipal declaration to repeal speed limit, uh, 0 20257, uh, this is to repeal the 45. Uh, I've got to repeal the 45 before we can vote for the 35. Um, so can I get a I guess a motion to repeal um, I'm making a motion to repeal 45 on Matthews Weddington Road up to whatever. Well, you got to do the whole road or you do

it's all written down in the ordinance. So, if you just make a motion to approve the ordinance, that'll be okay. Okay. So, we don't have to a motion to approve ordinance 0-25-7. I make the motion to do that. Well, that's all we need to do. That's the first one. That's the first one. Yeah. And that's that's what we're doing. That's the repeal. Yeah. Call the vote. Yeah. No. Can I get a vote on the repealing of uh of that? that ordinance. Uh, all those in favor? Yeah. All in favor? I think it's unanimous. Okay. All right. And that's where I was heading with that. So, now we're going to vote for we're going to uh enact the uh the the speed limit change.

Can I get a uh a vote uh or a motion to uh to enact uh operation enact to enact speed limits uh 0 20258. So moved. Okay. All in favor? Okay. I Okay, that's unanimous. So, we've enacted that. Okay. Council, do there's anything else we need to do in pertaining to that? Okay. So, um we've moved forward. Um now, again, this is one of the I think Jeff you want to talk about this. You don't

mind? This is hopefully very simple and I do hope in the future that it's going to be beneficial to the folks sitting in these seats. I know there are many times that when a subject comes up uh you know either when in one of our meetings or whatever that there'll be a lot of questions bouncing around that that any one of us as an individual may have that information that we'd like to get out. And in an effort to make it simpler for the folks sitting here, I did uh ask our town attorney about this. Um, I said, "Would it be okay if we, as part of our town web page, if you were a sitting member here on the council, that you were given a um a what do you call a site, a a a page

to where you as district one rep, two rep, three rep, four rep, the mayor, that if there's something that you want to, you know, kind of expound on and say, "Hey, I know this question's been asked that you've got a place to go do that because right now we don't. In other words, there was something that came up earlier that I said, "Hey, I'd like to, you know, I've researched something. I'd like to put it on the web page." And and Karen said, "No, we can't you can't do that because then you're using the town's resources for a personal type thing." And so, and and if we want to make it so that it doesn't become effective till after the election, January 1, when everybody's, you know, in their seats, that's fine with me. But I do think it would be helpful to, you know, future council members to have a place where if something has come up, if there's a lot of email traffic on something that you as an individual rep can go to and and can expound on it and say, "Hey, you know, these are my thoughts on it and go into maybe more detail, you could."

So, it's like you're a lot of pain sort of. I mean, again, I'm not as well verssed on a lot of that as some folks are, but but based on my experience earlier in trying to get something posted where a question had come up and I was told no because you don't have a designated spot on the web page to do that. That's why I would hope c the council would consider establishing that for each of the positions so you do have a place to do that or you know post things that you would would want to talk about. I'm a bit hesitant to do this. Yeah. Who polices that? Well, that it's not even that.

Well, but the po the point is we all get to make council comments at every meeting. And if we're getting inundated with a question on a certain topic, we can give an answer at that time and it's public record and it's, you know, it's done in with the public. So, I I I'm just hesitant to do this. I'll just leave it at that. I think there's there is an appropriate place to do it and it's here. Darcy, do you want to expand on what you just said? No. Brandon, do you have anything? No.

Okay. My my only question is what if you know there down the road uh a council member or a mayor or whoever uh if you get into like vote for me I've been doing this now now you're into campaigning on this site and that would that would be again we would have a policy about what could and could not be posted your mic on

we would have a policy about what could and could not be posted and any campaigning or any that that would be illegal. That would be an illegal use of town resources. And so there would be strict rules about that. I think the idea would be um facts or followup to questions or what have you during a um that might come up during a meeting or through uh social media. That's I'm scared that could be conflicted though in that somebody people think that making a position statement as a answer to a question could be deemed political and I have real issue with that. Yeah, that's a valid concern.

Also, like I'm medical, so if I put my opinion or facts on there as I see them, someone's going to dis like there's another medical person that's not going to see it that way. I just don't if somebody can give me an example maybe I'll understand better but I'm not understanding this right now. It opens up a can of worms on do you like do you like we can drop it I'm just saying that that in instead of like you know if you get 15 emails or 10 emails on one subject okay and we only meet once a month. Yeah.

And you feel like hey you know we need we need people are looking for an answer before we meet again. at least you would have a spot to go and we could tell the public say hey and if you're right and you ask a question if you ask a specific question of you know whatever it would just provide a place for that to be done. I'm not, like I said, it say it's from you. So,

if we don't want to do it, then it's fine. But, but it it I thought it would just give the people in the seats here a valid place to postformational things without violating the the policy, you know. So, but again, then if we don't do it, we don't do it. That's fine. Do you have other towns that have designated space on their pages for representatives?

It's usually just the like a mayor's newsletter and it's very factual about events coming up, um what debt meetings are, um commenting on a event that happened. So, they're usually just very factual. Um and it's one it's like the mayor's corner kind of some something along those lines. But I do not have any of my towns that have individual pages for each commissioner. Are you familiar with policy newsletter type thing? Yes, correct. We're starting back in Are you familiar with like a a polic like um a policy that another municipality may have that we could use as a baseline?

I could I could I would look for one for certain if if y'all are interested. I could look to see if I could find a policy on this. You know, again, there's a completely valid concern about misusing uh government assets um for personal gain. And so, it's a valid concern. We would have to work very hard to make sure that didn't happen. I do have some hesitation in terms of like if there's no uh like example or, you know, just starting from infancy. We we are a 14,000 person town. Like I said, I I just wanted to bring it up for discussion to see if there's any interest in it. No, I understand where you're coming from. I just

having made 17 amendments to our UDO, it feels uh just like an uncertain bet that at the first swing we would get the policy just right and you could get a lot of things out there that you that shouldn't be out there. uh you know with a an evolving policy that has no precedence. I think that's what I think. Okay. We we can move on. We can we can let it go and just let it stay where it is. Say there's no motion. No motion. Just just move on. Yep.

And and and I'll say this, Jeff, if you feel strongly about it or have some other ideas, come back next month and say, "Hey, I really, you know, here's what we need to do." Oh, I think I'm about done with my strongly felt ideas. Okay. All right. Uh uh code enforcement. We're moving on. Code enforcement in your packets. Great. You have any questions? No. Uh no, ma'am. I I saw the uh the one up there on the corner of uh Builder Church and Wington Matthews Road. Uh that was that was taken care of. It was all grown up and finally they cut that and it's part of Wedding Than Glenn.

Yep. Uh so so will that be taken care of now on? It's not just a once and done. It was like we'll see. It's been several times that's happened. Correct. I remember it's grown up a number of times. I've only received one complaint on it at one point. I've seen it's grown up several times. Okay. Well, nobody complained about it. Yeah. I'd like to see that. It's part of the neighborhood. is part of that of their uh they have um I believe they have the builder has not turned over the HOA yet. Correct. So

yeah. So yeah, it it needs to stay cut. It represents the neighborhood if it grows up like that. And if the the weeds were higher than the shrubbery and it was just getting lost in there. So if we can just keep a watch on that be awesome. Uh any uh any uh other concerns questions? Okay. Just keep us posted on some of those, especially that uh unbuildable that's going to have to be cleaned up at some expense. I just hate the idea of spending that much money for it. Galls me. GS me. Anyway. Okay. Yes. All right. Cool. All right. Finance officer. I see Leslie's not here.

She's not here, but she passed along her report. Okay. Said the monthly financials are in your packets and they include the June 30th quarterly grant summaries. Tax bills were sent out and payments are already being received. The final appraised value we received from the county was approximately 300 million or 6% higher than the estimate they provided us in April and this equates to about $100,000 more in advorum revenues than originally budgeted. This potential budget a adjustment is not reflected in the current monthly statements and that's what she wanted me to share. Okay. So does the tax rate set. So we're it's set. So all right.

You don't know what that percentage increase ended up being. Did you include that number? I know the number total increase was bigger than estimated, but was the final percentage or as her oh the the total yeah it end up because I know it was supposed to be 50% or something like that. Um I know she has it but we can I can get it. be good to have for the next one. Okay. Okay. Um, anything else to add to that? I do not. Okay. Um, updates from the town planner, town administrator.

It was a quiet month for the planning board. I have nothing to add today. Okay. Um, Karen, anything from you? Uh, um, I have nothing to add today.

Okay. All right. Uh, I know it's getting later. I'm just going to add just for the transportation report. Uh, just a little FYI. I shared this with the uh the folks at my town hall meeting, meet with the mayor. Um, just a a little uh just a little bit tad bit of information. Um, North Carolina Turnpike Authority has uh informed me that uh 485 down through Pineville and down through here. Um, it will be open before the end of the year or by the end of the year, hopefully before the end of the year. Um, because it's a state project, it's not a private project. Um, they're going to control the tolls. They're already predicting that it's going to be one of the most su successful being meaning successful use toll areas probably in the state because their goal is to keep the prices down. uh at the last CRPTO meeting uh I was told that uh that they have been given the directive to start coming up with the tolls uh figure out that pricing and the only thing is keeping them I think it's pretty much done the road work is done they're putting in the electronics now as you're starting to see that up there you know all the the toll sensing stuff so they're they're installing that that's the only thing they're waiting on is get the electronics installed called uh and I think there's some marking areas.

Yeah. Uh that they need to do but other than that pricing and electronics are the big two two items they're working on. So by the end of the year uh that that will be done and like over the brace uh Y I asked the questions is that going to open when's that going to open that that on offramp it's going they're going to open it all at the same time. It's going to be one hoopla one at one time, you know, doing that together. Uh just a a side note here. Um people have asked me about this. I mentioned this too. Uh it's it's not us, but I'm just going to let you know about it. Uh on 485 again, uh going into uh Matthews John Street, they're widening that. That's been discontinued. Uh so uh there was a thousand people crossing that intersection on a weekend. Uh way too many people would be crossing a four-lane highway like Frogger up here. And so they decided that uh it's too many people on on a weekend for that busy downtown of Matthews. what was going to start out at $25 million to widen from 485 through Matthews and connected four lanes uh turned into 44 or $45 million. So the price jumped way because Matthews said do this over here first, do that over here first, do this last, and the price kept going up. So it priced them out. They gave them money. we approved at the CRPTO meeting to approve giving that assigning that money to another project in in Monroe. So anyway, uh just an little FYI on on a side note there. Um just another side note is that uh uh the widening of 77 South from downtown to uh the state line past Carowinds. Uh we're

looking for beds. Uh we require we required an inh when the north part was bidded on there was one bidder and so we all feel we got gouged and and we're paying the price for those high tolls. So we've been very direct that we're not making the same mistakes that we did last time and uh we want at least three bids, three different companies to bid on that project. Uh they've gotten the project down. They estimate about three for 11 miles,3.2 2 billion for 11 miles. It's most expensive project the state of North Carolina has ever done and uh and the state can't fund it. State only will max out at $600 million for a particular project and this is going to be 3.2 started out at 4.2 billion. Uh so we've told uh DOT to get at least three bids and so they're shopping bids now for that project. So it'll take about 10 years to finish it once it's started and it'll be a mess. So you have to rebuild every bridge all the way from downtown to south to South Carolina state line and I don't know what they'll do with 77 and all that mess right there. So anyway, just to throw that out there that's coming. So um it's all I have to say about uh transportation. Um any uh council comments as we start to end this?

No, no comment. Ladies first. Yep. Oh, sure. As always, um thank you so much to town staff uh in the way you support us and help um not just the council but the citizens. And thank you to everyone who came out tonight um to participate. Yeah.

Um, yeah. So, thanks to the committees. We cannot get near as much done without our subcommittees. I appreciate you. Um, and then just a reminder that, you know, we all have different opinions and it doesn't mean anyone is right or wrong. So, just take it easy on people that you disagree with. It's okay. Thank you.

Well, thank everybody who came out tonight and stayed through the grueling meeting that we had. Thank staff for the work they did this past month and I really appreciate it. And everybody have a good evening. Thank you to staff as always. Um I've said it many times, I'll say it again. And this town is the luckiest town in the state with the staff that we have and the job and work that they do. Um, can't say I'm sitting here feeling great because when I moved to Weddington 32 years ago, uh, as one speaker earlier tonight said, things have changed. And yes, I will always speak up for an individual property owner's right to have the full and best use of the property that they are paying taxes on to their government. And I'll just finish by saying this. If this is the kind of leadership that this town feels they need and want, I'll tell you what my dad used to tell me. He said, "Son, be careful what you wish for because you just might get it." Thank you. No, I you know we we just uh dis disagree as you as you see and we have for the last year and a half. You know, it doesn't mean I don't disrespect Brandon or Jeff or Tom and Darcy any disagreement. this is just we're we're passionate and we should fight for what we're passionate for and I think we we have even though we disagree with each other from time to time and and and again so uh it doesn't mean I I disrespect or don't think I still think that the world of all all four of you guys uh so but uh but we do we we fight for what we're passionate for and and and and where I come from is I I fight for what I feel like I said earlier tonight what I feel like I've been hired for and And so, um, that's that's where

that's where I'm at with it. And, uh, and I appreciate all the emails that we get. We need we needed input. We need to hear from you guys. And, and without you guys, we're sort of like, you know, just wandering in the dark. And, and so, uh, you guys, um, let us let us know. A lot of times I get so many emails and I apologize. I'll say, you know, thank you for your email. Your, your input is greatly appreciated. That's sort of my two sentences. It's because I'm get if I had if I typed a big long email for everybody, it's like I don't have time to do it now. But at least want to you to know that I got your email and we got your email and we're hearing you. So anyway, um again, thank you for coming out tonight. Uh I appreciate the attendance and all the input and and our thing tonight is nothing against the Polifas. You guys are great folks. don't you know it's not you know I'm not we're not slamming you personally but uh that's uh that that's how we feel and how we feel like we represent the town. Again, thank you to staff uh our attorney and uh thank you council for all you've done. Uh can I get a motion to all in favor? I

unanimous. Thank you guys.