Town Council - Regular Meeting

Everybody laugh. and welcome to the regular town council meeting of Garner on April the 7th, 2026. We're all excited to be here this evening. It is springtime outside and we're just here to shine and be living in the greatest place on earth in Garner. Uh, with that being said, I'm going to ask the town clerk to please call the role.

Okay. Mayor Gupton here. Mayor Pro Tim Dinger here. Council member Matthews here. Council member Singleton here. Council member Sawings here. And council member Vance

here. And I'm going to ask Council Member Grace Singleton to lead us in the pledge of allegiance and the invocation 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. If you'd like to join in the invocation, please bow your head. Our father, we thank you for this beautiful day as the mayor mentioned here. Time of year, spring, new life from plants, trees, the beautiful flowers in front of town hall. It's that time of year. Father, we lift up and ask that you be with us tonight as we talk about issues important to our town. lift up those who are sick, those who are undergoing and recovering from serious medical issues. We lift up those who have lost loved ones recently. Ask that you wrap your arms around them and comfort those people. Father, we want to lift up the men and women of our military who are stationed at military bases and installations around this world. We ask a special blessing on those men and women and their families. That's a special blessing on those men and women out in the Middle East with the complex issues they are dealing with out there. Please be with these men and women and protect them. Be with them. Be with their families wherever they may be and comfort them in this time of serious issues on in our world. We thank you, Father, and pray these things in your son's name. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Thank you, Mr. Singleton. Uh item B on our agenda is an adoption of the agenda. Uh and I think our council members have had a chance to look this over. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda? So moved. Second. Uh there's a motion by Mr. Matthews and a second by Mr. Stalins. Uh all in favor of adopting the agenda, please signify by saying I. I.

Any opposed by nay? Hearing none. That passes unanimously. And brings us to uh item C on our agenda which was our presentations. And we will start uh with one including the introduction of our housing and community development specialist. And I'm going to ask Mari How, our strategic initiatives director, to make that introduction.

Good evening, mayor and council. Thank you so much for the time this evening. Um I am pleased to be here tonight to introduce you to Lewis Hurd who is our new housing and community development specialist. Um we talked a couple of weeks ago at your retreat about the um priorities that you have for affordable housing and we are glad to say that uh Lewis has been with us for two weeks jumped in with both feet um to help us start implementing many of those priorities. So, I in just a second I'll let him talk a little bit about his experience, but um what I want to say is we had an excellent pool of candidates for this search and um Lewis quickly rose to the top as someone with a great deal of experience um a wide ranging diverse amount of experience um and we're very grateful and thankful that he was able to come and work for the town. So, I'll let Lewis tell you a little bit more about himself.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Lewis Herd. very happy to to be standing before you. Um, just a little bit about myself. I recently ro relocated to North Carolina after many years of visiting down here and enjoying uh spending time down here. Um, I have over 30 years of experience in housing, affordable housing, and community development. Um, I have experience working in banking, nonprofits, public housing, and municipal government. All of them was centered around affordable housing, community development. Uh I've held positions as CRA officer, which is community reinvestment act. And I enjoy doing what I do. You know, I came down here thinking that it may be time to slow down, retire, and I found out that I wasn't ready to retire. And I needed a reason to get up in the morning. And when I saw the advertisement for this position, I just knew it was made for me. I mean all the criterias, all the qualifications I met and I was very happy to go through the interview process and meet with a number of staff during that time and found it found them to be very enjoyable individuals and people that I would want to work with. So I am I feel very fortunate to be standing before you uh to work with you work with other stakeholders in the in the mun in the town and uh hopefully and I'm I'm almost positive we can give you the goals and objectives that you uh desire. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Herd. We're glad to have you on board. As I mentioned earlier today, two things stand out about Mr. Hurt. Uh one, he has years of experience doing this, which is good for us because this is the first time we've ever filled this position. We are rookies at trying to manage this affordable housing, community development, all the things that he has, decades of experience. So, we're very fortunate to have an experienced member of our team. The second thing that got my attention, he had the maturity, good judgment, and perspective to choose North Carolina before he even heard of this job. And he came on down and he fits right in. Uh you may we may have another comment or two from other council members. Mr. Vance, let's start down at your end.

Mr. We spoke briefly in the in the council council conference room. Welcome. Uh we are pleased to welcome you to the town of Garner as our new housing and community development specialist. We look forward to your contributions and the positive impact you will have on our community. Welcome to Garner and we wish you much success. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Challenger.

Yeah, we're we're lucky and glad to have you. Uh I had three bullet points and then I could talk all night, but I won't. Um, I just want to say I was thinking about it this weekend and that you were going to be here and I said I want you coming to work every day saying, thinking and believing that you're going to change the world from right here in Garner.

Yes. We want to create a model of dynamic and pragmatic but aggressive housing affordability policy and solution that other communities will look to us and say what did they do for their size town that was feasible and impactful. Um, and the last thing I'll say is, you know, as I think you've met with a lot of folks, and I know everyone's going to do their best to surround you with a a powerful team of energized, committed folks to help your time here be a success for you and our entire community. So, welcome aboard. Thank you, Mr. Tons.

So, Mr. Herd, it's a pleasure to have you here, and I'm definitely excited to have you on board with us. Housing is a complex issue as you know. So it's definitely important to have somebody on the ground doing the research, building the relationships and moving our affordable housing strategy forward as a town in an everchanging environment changes daily. So we're definitely glad that you're here with us and welcome to the team.

Thank you Singleton. I'm glad that we uh were fortunate to get somebody with your years of experience. Um we use your years of experience and guidance as we develop a strategy to move forward because this is not as you know this is complex and uh your insight will be helpful as we try to move forward and try to get some answers and solutions for people here with some housing affordability. Thank you. Welcome aboard. I know we met a week or so ago one day when I was up here and uh

look forward to finding out more about your experience and look forward maybe one day sit down talking with you and just uh throw some ideas at you and say what you think and uh get your feedback on and uh as mentioned it's a complex issue we're dealing with. Nobody has all the right answers that I've seen so far. you know, everybody makes stabs at it, but to try to find something that it that'll be workable that we can use long term uh and make it work. And as mentioned, maybe other towns look at us and say, "How do they do that?" You know, and uh because all of them are asking the same question. So, uh yeah, you got a challenging job. So, welcome aboard. Thank you. Look forward to it.

Thank you. And Mr. Herd, I think you can pick up the feeling from the council here that we're glad to have you. We are here to make you successful as you help us be successful on these projects. Thank you, mayor. Thank you so much. And that brings us to uh item D on the agenda, which is petitions and comments. And we do have a couple of people signed up to speak this evening. Yes, sir.

Okay. Then I will be obligated to read the legal disclaimer we always start this with here. Uh this portion of the meeting is to receive comments from the public on items not included in the agenda regarding matters gerine to town policies or business or subjects within the town council's real or apparent jurisdiction. Individuals or group spokespersons must sign up with the town clerk prior to the start of the meeting. The council is interested in hearing your concerns, but will not take action or deliberate on subject matter brought up during the petitions and comment segment. Topics requiring further investigation will be referred to the appropriate town officials or staff and may be scheduled for a future agenda. Each feature speaker is limited to three minutes. Uh and we've had great cooperation from all the speakers on this. So, thank you for sharing the time. That being said, uh, who is our first speaker tonight?

Um, our first speaker is Adar Yadli. Yes, sir. If you would come to the podium, please, and, uh, introduce yourself by name and address.

Hey everyone, this is Adar Adli. I live at 123 Woodid Lane in Garner. Um I'm here today to just uh share some remarks as well as uh leave some comments about the growth of the town and what we could see to keep that growth flourishing. Um good evening everyone. Thank you for your continued efforts in making our town amazing um and also continued efforts to serve our community to keep it amazing. I'd especially like to uh recognize our parks and recck team who's worked with me hand in hand and a couple of these same council members that are sitting right now who's helped me um throughout last year to bring badminton into GRC. Badminton is a sport that Indian community, Chinese community and a lot of uh um folks who are immigrants uh play and enjoy and this is something that we all wanted to take a moment to come in and um say we are thankful for bringing it in. Um and the amazing uh thing that a town of Ghana for example what's amazing here is that the strong collaboration this this brings in the sense of accomplishment to us like hey our town listens to us and takes feedback from us. So thank you for doing that especially to Maria Sara Zach Eric and a few others that work with us. Um I would like to move to education. Education is a very very critical aspect and we talked about it over the last year at least with a few of you guys one-on-one. Um and there's concerns uh growing around school quality ratings as well as opportunities that of where the community could invol could be involved more. Um so I want to take a step forward and u give out a lending hand through shiny stars. We're eager to support tutoring or mentoring efforts. We are happy to take on if there is uh if that's what Wake County wants us from the town to seek any help. Shiny Stars

is open to provide that efforts as Garner grows especially South Garner there's increasing need to evaluate the middle school. Uh the ratings currently in the middle with the middle school are uh we could we think it's could definitely improve and I know there's a education committee there's a lot of conversations happened last year. uh we don't have visibility into where we are with that, what the county has responded. If there could be a PR released out around that, that'd be amazing. Um and obviously if there's if there is intent where we seek some feedback from the community, I'm happy to gather that through shiny stars or through just in person. Uh also lastly, um obviously a great day for housing. Um Luis Herd, welcome to the town. Thank you so much for accepting the offer. U Shiny Stars has so far done a few events. I'm sure you guys are aware of the drives whether it be food drives, clothing drives, all of these only take us one step. But this uh housing and community development specialist the committee that we have uh I feel like we are go we are in need of it and shiny stars again we want to be involved in this not for the short-term gains but we want to be involved also into the long-term um success story. Please let us know uh if there's anything u we can do. There's over, I want to say, at least 100 to 120 volunteers that are uh that have raised their hands and that will just show up if and when we need any help. Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you. We appreciate your remarks. Thank you for your comments. Thank you. And who else do we have signed up? The next person that has signed up is Jesse Hinton. Yes, if you would please approach the podium, introduce yourself, name, and address, please. Good evening

to everyone. My name is Jesse Henson. I live at 814 Apex Road, Kerry, North Carolina. And I am happy to be here to meet all of you, especially you. I've met brother how before hard before but to meet all of you and see all of you to know who faces I'm looking at now to recognize but I'm here on behalf of the Ghana consolidated alumni association which is a part of the Ghana mil Ghana middle school which in the future will be redid in other words it's going to be torn down so I'm here on behalf of the alumni to we want to tried to preserve the water tower as a lookout for not only for the school but also for the Ghana community. And we're here to show how that tower can be redid to the point where it will show not only Garner but it will show the heritage of Ghana Consolidated High School. So my point is here today is uh we always say God's word says hearts are changed by the renewing of the mind. So I'm here to work with your mind to see if I can con ask you to consider what we're asking for in the future. It won't come off in the next day or the next two days or anything of that nature. But it is coming as soon and when it does come I would like for you to really really consider what we are offering to you as a part of Ghana consolidated high school as a part of Ghana consolidated community as a part of Ghana consolidated in entry here and that will be a absolutely beautiful site to see when you roll down Ghana road after they build the new school that they are building there to take care of that and to have that water tower to be part of that new structure that's going to take place there. Yeah. Uh my sister, Sister Cynthia, yes, she's coming up. She will

give you uh some photos of how we are looking at how that tower will look. I trust that you will keep it in mind and that the first thing that you can do when you get up in the mornings, look over at it, see what you'll see, see how you like it, and come back with a wood word for us in the future. Thank you for t allowing me to be before you. Our next one will be Sister Cynthia. She will be coming before you. God bless all of you. Thank you, Mr. Hinton. Uh that's something I had not heard much about. I'm glad to hear uh something dear dear to my heart. Garner consolidated. Thank you very much sir. It's a pleasure meeting you also. And another person we have signed up this evening. Cynthia Nesbbit.

Yes. I first of all I look

sure is car Uh my name is Cynthia Nesbbit. I live at 111 Aerson Street in Garner. Thank you very much for allowing me to come before you today. As Mr. Henson said, um we want to address you regarding the water tower that overlooks East Garner Magda Middle School. Uh also as he also said in the near future that school is going to be renovated. A lot of construction is going to be going on because our town is growing. Excuse me. Uh the water towel will all will be overlooking the new athletic complex and the uh Garner Consolidated Association alumni. We thought this would be a great opportunity to highlight the town as well as the schools. um by recognizing the legacy of Garner Consolidated High School Tigers and the merger with Garner High School Trojans on that water tower. Now, we did speak with your assistant town manager John Hodes and he really clarified made it real clear that usually a logo comes from the town and it usually represents the town. Well, we feel like that what we've presented to you represents the town. Um, as you very well know, in 1969, uh, the integration took place. Okay, that was a major impact on the communities here in Garner. I went to both schools. I went to Garner Consolidated and I went to Garner High

School. And my time is running out. Um so we felt like this was a great time to merge these two ideas together. A diverse community coming together uh not only with education, athletics, but also social events. Uh we provided that design that symbolizes the Garner community uh the past as well as the present. Now, we do understand that there's a big cost in that and we hope that if you look at that, you may come up with a different design, brainstorm, but also keep in mind keeping those schools together because those two schools built Garner. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Excellent report there. Thanks for the graphics. Thank you. And do we have another speaker? Uh, yes, sir. Mr. Eric Austin. Yes, sir. Mr. Charleston.

Good evening, mayor and council members. Uh my name is Eric Austin, and I'm here tonight to speak about an issue that I believe is not being taken seriously enough. Uh ongoing drone harassment and the lack of protection for citizens when technology moves faster than the law. Over the past six months, we have experienced repeated incidents involving groups of seven to 14 drones operating over our prop. I'm sorry, Air 1412 Kennon Road. I I apologize. Um, groups of seven to 14 drones operating over my property and in our community. There are these are not isolated flyovers. This is persistent activity that raises serious concerns about privacy, safety, and accountability. I have personally observed drones hovering or encircling over the area near Vendor Springs Elementary. That raises even greater concern, not just for myself, but for families, children, and even the broader community. Regardless of intent, that type of activity near your school should be taken seriously and looked into. In addition to the presence of these drones, there have been disturbing incidences where audio has been projected from them. The messages include targeted harassment including racial anti-LGBTQ har language as well as statements intim attempted to intimidate us about being Christian including being told that we are not allowed to pray unless they tell us to. This type of behavior goes beyond nuisance. It creates fear, distress, and a hostile environment. When we've reached out to law law enforcement, we've been told the airspace issues fall outside of this jurisdiction district jurisdiction.

When I've looked to federal agencies, there have been no clear investigation or response. An example of that is I have driven past after being followed by drones to the governor's mansion. They were able to fly with the governor's mansion. I called later that day and spoke to his secretary. There is no laws to prevent that. This leaves citizens like myself in a gap where something is clearly happening, but no agency is taking responsibility. Right now, the laws have not caught up with the capabilities of modern drone technology. These devices can hover, record, broadcast audio, follow individuals, and potentially interfere with daily life. Yet there are no there are limited tools for a private citizen to protect themselves or even report the activity in a way that leads to action. So my question to this council is what protections do residents have right now and what steps can this city take to address the growing issue? What I'm asking for is a clear local guidance on how citizens should report drone harassment, coordination with state and federal agencies to ensure complaints are investigated, consideration of local ordinances that protect privacy and prevent misuse of drone technology. Public awareness to residents, understanding both their rights and limitations. This is not just about one person or one situation. As drone use increases, this will become a broader commu community issue. We need to be proactive now instead of reactive later. I'm asking you to take this seriously and help close the gap between technology and public protection. Thank

you for your time. Thank you for sharing with us very important information. And do we have another speaker? Yes, sir. Mr. Ricky Pierce. Yes, sir. Mr. Pierce, if you would come to the podium, introduce yourself with name and address.

I'm Ricky Pierce. I live at 1810 Vandor Springs Road here in Garner. As I've said before, I've lived here all of my 74 years except for the first two years of my life. I lived in Raleigh when my grandparents where my mother and dad lived. Uh my family settled in this area over 200 years ago. I'm proud of Garner. Uh I love this town, but I'm not happy with some things that's going on, and that's what brings me here tonight. I know some of the people are tired of hearing hearing me speak and being up here, and I'm tired of coming here, but it wouldn't I wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for the scheme poured off last election cycle. and I'll keep coming back until I've said what I had to say. Start with I'll inform everybody I'm not running for public office. I wouldn't have your job. So, I'm not out here soliciting votes. I'm not trying to make friends at 74 years old. I got plenty of friends. But if I do make friends through my being here speaking, I'll I'll enjoy that because that mean will mean they're like-minded. And for all the Facebook responders to the town's Facebook, the opinions of woke liberal soccer moms who've moved moved down here from up north don't really bother me. I don't appreciate I don't really care if you appreciate what I have to say. All I can say is I was here before you. I'm retired. I no longer have a business in this area and I'm not interested in in worried about losing business because of saying what's on my mind. I have here in my hand something that some of you have seen though I think some of you need to look at it again. It's u the town's code of code of conduct and ethics for the town board and town people. I've read it and highlighted it. Uh I see some of you in these highlighted areas and I think that should bother you. It should bother the people of this town to know what what goes on. Because you sit elevated from us doesn't mean you can lord over us or talk down to us. and that's happened in the past. There have been some good

citizens of Garner to sit in those seats previously. Don't dishonor them in what they've done to build this town to where it's at today. Um, like I said, I've read the code of ethics. I've highlighted it. I think it's time for some refresher courses and some sensitivity training as some of you seem to have gotten too big for your britches. I town deserves more and better from you. Garner is in this county spotlight right now. did some dictionary work. Got two two two words that's stuck out for me. One is um fair play. If I can find it here. Fair play means just and honorable treatment, action or conduct. An example of that, the political campaign was notably lacking in fair play. That's not my words. That's the Googles. an established standard of decency, honesty, and and and an abidance by this standard. The other word you need to pay attention to called collusion. Collusion is an agreement between people to act together secretly or illegally in order to deceive or cheat someone. Uh an example is an agreement especially in secret for illegal or dishonest reason. An example of that, the companies were accused of acting in collusion to fix the elections. Google says that. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Pierce. Appreciate you sharing your concerns. Do we have any other speaker tonight? No, sir. That will conclude the public speakers.

Thank you. And that concludes our petitions and comments sections. And that takes us along to uh item E, which is the consent agenda. There are seven items uh on there this evening. council has had time to look at these and consider these. These are typically of a more administrative or more routine function that we've had a chance to look at and we can often approve these in mass without further discussion. Uh is there any item on here that needs to be removed in the opinion of a council member? Any item that needs to be pulled off for separate discussion? Okay. Hearing none, I will accept a motion to uh approve the consent agenda. So moved.

Second. Okay. I believe that was Mr. Matthews who made the motion and second by Mr. Stalin. Okay. So there's a motion and a second to accept the consent agenda. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I.

Any opposed by nay? Hearing none. The consent agenda is adopted. And thanks to the people particularly in the back row wearing the our golden shirts back there. Your item is on there and we're for it. Thank you. That brings us along now to item F which are quasi judicial hearings. We have one of those coming up. And since these are as it says uh related to a judicial process, there are certain set of rules that apply. And we'll we'll read through this little set of rules as well. This public hearing involves an application for a special use permit which requires a quad a quasi judicial hearing. Each council member will be required to disclose whether he or she has a fixed opinion prior to the hearing that is not subject to change. Had any exparte communications any close familial business or other associational relationship with an affected person or a financial interest in the outcome of the case. Quasi judicial hearings are factf finding hearings and only competent material and substantial evidence that is not repetitive is allowed. Only expert witnesses based on training and experience may testify as to the impacts on property values, traffic safety or noise levels. All persons wishing to testify or provide comments must sign up with the town clerk. Please proceed to the dis or actually to the rear corner to be sworn in. That's the folks who will be testifying this evening.

We're gonna do it right here. Mr. Mayor,

we're going to do it over here. Okay. If you would see our town attorney over here, uh the ones who are planning to be testifying uh based on experience and if you'll be sworn in over there. Thank you. Uh the staff report will be offered as evidence in the case and will be accepted into the record unless an objection is raised. And our sponsor on this is our development review manager, Nicholas Defelski. Uh if you would give us a little overview of this particular one here, Nick.

Yeah, thank you, mayor. Good evening, everybody. Um for the record, Nick Tvelski, development review manager. Um the case before you tonight is SUP 26001. Um, just real quickly here before we begin, I do want to just clarify uh in case there's any confusion. Um, the SUP before you tonight is for the proposed use of the site. Uh, it's not for the size of the buildings. It's specifically the use of um warehousing and freight movement. Just some brief details here. Uh the application was submitted uh by the applicant's attorney who is Hunter Winstead of Morning Star Law Group on behalf of Longleaf Industrial. Uh the property is owned by an LLC and again the request is for the approval of the use of warehouse and freight movement uh on the tract uh located at 500 North Greenfield Parkway uh which is just over 36 acres in size. property right now is zoned light industrial and the current use is that there are the two buildings going on the site and the sites are currently under construction. Um the extreme southwest corner of the site falls within the limited access highway overlay district. Um as far as the requirements of that overlay district that's not having any impact on this site or the proposed use. Uh the property is already within the corporate limits of the town of Garner. So there's no need for an annexation. Um it is one of two or was one of two vacant parcels remaining within the Greenfield North Industrial Park. Um the other one being 2011 Green Trace Court and there is water and sewer readily available along North Greenfield Parkway. Within the comprehensive plan, the

project is proposed as an or excuse me, the project area is proposed as an employment center in terms of character type. Uh the site falls within a regionable regional employment activity center on the general framework map and then the site is identified as a level three area to enhance. So this group of designations strongly implies that the site is supposed to be an area of growth and employment that has close access to the transportation network. The applicant did hold uh the required neighborhood meeting on February 25th of this year at the Omega Multi-purpose Center. uh 338 properties and occupants were noticed for this and 13 people attended. Um there were no significant comments um just clarifications for the applicant and the full meeting information from that neighborhood meeting is available in the staff report. So the request uh again is for the use of warehouse and freight movement which does require a special use permit within the LI light industrial district. Um the property has had sort of an interesting process um because it's in multiple phases. Uh phase one being the building on the east side of the site, phase two being the building on the west side of the site. Uh phase one has already been approved by TRC, the technical review committee. Phase two is currently in the process of being reviewed by TRC. Um and this requested use is because the um the property owner and the developer has a perspective tenant that's interested in that warehouse and freight movement use specifically.

So the uh recommended conditions honestly are pretty general. Um they tie more toward the um standard that we would apply for um site plans, but just wanted to make sure that you all were aware of them. Um part of the process of developing any any uh parcel in the town of Garner uh is going to be um right-of-way dedication if it meets the criteria in the UDO, in which case this one does. uh not along Greenfield Parkway, but uh the eastern and southeastern portion of this property uh abuts up on Auburn Road, which is uh an existing road. Uh currently does not have the ultimate width. And so the applicant is dedicating some of that right of way. Uh so that is one of the conditions is that they uh record that right-of-way dedication plat prior to receiving building certificate of occupancy. Um and I can tell you that that dedication plat is already under review. Um the second condition just relates to a me memorandum of agreement related to operations and maintenance of the storm water control uh measures that would be on site. It's very standard language anytime we have on-site storm water management. Uh and then again the third condition is also very standard just relating to the requirement of them installing the tree protection fencing and providing staff with a surveyed uh staking map showing exactly where that tree protection fencing was installed. Uh and then um information there about contacting the appropriate employee once that's been installed so staff can inspect it. Um so that's the information that I have. I'm happy to answer any questions. Um, I also know that the applicant's attorney does have a presentation as well.

Okay, thank you very much. That's great information. And again, for you watching from home who may not be familiar with this, the zoning of this area took place some years ago and it's coming back before the council now for a special use permit based on a particular usage that our unified development ordinance requires special attention to to make sure it's meeting all the requirements. And the people who will be testifying generally are engineers and experts with experience in this area to talk about. Uh that being said, I'm going to suggest perhaps we we hear from the applicant then see what questions, comments that that we have. Okay.

All right. Yes, sir. If you would introduce yourself, we'd be glad to hear your addition to this.

Absolutely. Good evening, mayor, council. My name is Hunter Winstead. I'm Lanny's attorney with Morning Star Law Group. Represent the owner and the applicant, Longleaf Industrial. Um, thank you, Mr. Powelski, for that presentation. Uh, as he mentioned, this site is already zoned and as the mayor mentioned, already zoned, Light Industrial. Um, two buildings, two industrial buildings are currently planned. One of them is already under construction, has the permit, um, through the site plan process, and the other one is still going through that administrative site plan process. The sole purpose of this application is very narrow. Um it's really just to tack on one pretty industry specific uh light industrial use through the special use permit process to the suite of already permitted uses um for this site. Um what what that use entails it's called warehouse and freight movement. Um the way that I understand it differs from a lot of the other uses for instance general warehousing is because warehouse and freight movement really focuses on a businessto business transfer and storage operation as opposed to more of a consumerf facing um individual storage areas like a self storage you might see. So that's that's really the distinction. Um in order to obtain this permit the UDA requires that we uh put on evidence competent substantial material evidence to establish eight elements. Um there are many of them and they're on the screen. Uh the way we will establish these elements this evening is through expert testimony. As the mayor mentioned, uh I have a team of three experts with me. Uh first, our site civil engineer, Mr. Preston Royster. Um he will be addressing the first four elements. His testimony is largely going to focus on safety uh and compliance with the video and the comprehensive plan. Uh our second expert will be Mr. Jarvis Martin who is our appraiser. um he'll be addressing two of the elements. They're largely focusing on how this use is compatible with the surrounding area and how there's no adverse impact on the adjacent sites. And then finally to conclude us um our third expert witness,

Mr. Josh Ranki, our transportation engineer, um will we will touch on the final two elements uh discussing the adequacy of transportation facilities and there's no adverse traffic impact. Um before I call up Mr. Royster. What I'll do, I understand the uh staff report is already admitted into the record. We just have one documentary um exhibit that I'd like to hand up to the town attorney.

And that document is uh Mr. Jarvis Martin's appraisal report just for the council's consideration. We submitted that town last week. I just wanted to make sure there's printed copies as well. Mr. Martin will walk through it. Um, I also just ask that the council take judicial notice of the requirements of the unified development ordinance, the comprehensive plan, um, and any other adopted, uh, policies by the town. And with that, I'll call up our first witness, uh, Mr. Preston Royster.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. U, my name is Preston Royster. I'm a professional engineer with Thomas Hutton Engineering Company in Durham. I specialize in civil engineering and particularly in with site design and site entitlements. I received my bachelor of science and master of science degrees in 2004 and 2007 from NC State University in civil engineering. I have 20 years of experience in the field of engineering, civil engineering, and I am familiar with the design of the project site as well as the town's adopted plans in the UDO. Let's see. So, the subject site um as as staff mentioned is outlined in orange in the middle of the screen where you can see a rendering of the proposed site plan. As staff mentioned, phase one is approved, phase two is under review. Note the site's close proximity to US70 to the south and I40 to the west. This proximity to in easy highway access makes this site an ideal location for industrial uses. This site is zoned light industrial which is reflected in the purple portion of the town zoning map. Uh some of the industrial uses which are already permitted by right in these two buildings are outlined in green on the bottom of the screen. Uh for instance, general warehousing, manufacturing and production uses are already allowed by right. Importantly to note, uh this application does not propose any changes to the existence zone or the proposed site plan that you see on the screen. Uh rather the sole purpose of this application is to add one more industrial use to the list of already permitted uses allowed in these two buildings. This specific use to be added is known as warehouse and freight movement which is shown on the right side of the screen. Essentially, this is a specific type of warehousing that focuses on businessto business operations rather than on-site consumer sales from a

compliance, health, and safety standpoint. This use is not materially different from the other industrial uses already allowed on the property. Uh turning to the town's 2023 Garner forward comprehensive plan. The project area is designated as an employment center character type, a regional employment activity center and a level three area to enhance. As explained in the staff report, this group of designations demonstrates the site is intended to be an area of growth and employment with close close access to the transportation network. As I mentioned mentioned earlier, adding to the warehouse and freight movement used strongly advances these comp plan goals by bringing an employment focused businessto business use to this planned employment center site. Also, as Mr. Ranky will discuss in more detail, North Greenfield Parkway is built out to its full width as contemplated on the transportation plan. Therefore, in my professional opinion, the proposed use is consistent with the town's adopted transportation plans, other relevant adopted plans and policies, and the stated purpose and intent of the UDO. Turning to the UDO's development regulations and the public health and safety, this proposal does not make any changes to the existence or the proposed site plan uh which is thoroughly reviewed by staff through the administrative approval process. Consistent with the light industrial zoning district, all of the warehouse and freight movement operations will take place inside these two buildings. As explained in the staff report, the applicant's proposal complies with UDO's open space, storm water, landscaping, buffers, lighting, parking, fire protection, utilities, transportation, environmental, and architectural regulations. Public safety and utility facilities and services are available to serve the subject property. And once these buildings are connected, these facilities will continue to operate at

sufficient level of surf levels of service. Therefore, in my professional opinion, the development complies with all requirements of this ordinance, poses no danger to public health or safety, and promotes adequate assurances of continuing maintenance. With that, I will pass it off to Mr. Martin. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, my name is Jarvis Martin. I'm with the firm of Steuart Martin and McCoy. I'm a state certified general appraiser. Uh I'm a retired member of the appraisal institute. Uh did hold the SR designation through the appraisal institute prior to retirement from the organization and has been in the real estate appraisal valuation business here in the triangle for approximately 50 years. I hold two degrees of BS of the business masters from North Carolina Central University in Durham. I was asked by the applicant to visit the site uh on Greenfield uh Parkway which I have as well as drive the surrounding uh industrial uh park to get a feel for the activities that are taking place. Uh there are several um businesses in the park already that are being used as warehouse and freight facilities that will be similar to what's being proposed uh by the by the applicant. Also uh looking at the proposed site plan and a sketch of the building that the adequate buffers etc uh will be in place to protect the site from adjoining properties and that the scale of the buildings and all would be in harmony with what uh primarily exists in the

park today. To determine if there was any adverse impact or would be an adverse impact on surrounding properties. Uh we looked at three properties that are similar in terms of scale and somewhat use. One property being just west of the site at 600 West Greenfield Parkway. And what we did was look at the activity in the market after this uh facility went into use. uh within a 5mm radius there have been uh over 50 transactions involving light industrial warehouse sales here in Wake County. We concentrated on three and found activity for uh sales uh that had occurred adjacent to and in close proximity to the 600 uh West Greenfield Parkway. And in analyzing these sales, we saw no adverse impact in terms of the sales price of these properties, some being improved and a couple of being uh vacant lots. We also looked at comparable uh apartment complexes since there is an apartment complex adjacent from the site and looking at the data on those complexes as well as the uh apartment complex adjacent. uh that complex currently is 95% occupied which is well within the appropriate range for apartments and that the rents are are very favorable in terms of u market rents for the size units. So the existing activity that is going on today since this is a proposed project is not adversely in fact impacting the uh adjoining apartment. The other two projects that we looked at at uh 5100 Jones Sashes Road and 900 Aenddale Drive

also supported the fact that the use of this the construction and use of this facility as a warehouse and freight uh facility would not have any adverse impact on the surrounding properties. With that being said, it is therefore my professional opinion the proposed use will not adversely impact the value of surrounding or abuing properties would not have any substantial major adverse impact on the marketability or value of these properties. It is comparable with the adjacent use proximity uh neighborhood in terms of building scale, site design, buffering, screening and operational characteristics. I am available for any questions as it relates to my market study.

Okay. Thank you very much. We'll probably hear from your other presenters on the team and then we'll see what questions council members may have. Okay. M

Mr. Rain is next. Good evening, mayor and council. Josh Ranki, um with Bolton and Mink, uh senior traffic project manager for 18 South Dawson Street, Raleigh, North Carolina. I'm a professional engineer with pre-qualification with NCOD to do traffic analysis and I received my bachelor's in civil engineering from Valparezu University in 2001. uh been practicing transportation engineering pretty much my whole career. So uh as was explained by the staff report and mentioned by Mr. Royster, this stretch of North Greenfield Parkway is a four-lane divided 120 foot ride ofway roadway that is already built out to its ultimate width. Uh this roadway serves multiple industrial sites along Greenfield Parkway and provides quick access to US Highway 70 as well as I40. It's important to note that adding this warehouse and freight movement use to the suite of already approved industrial uses will have no meaningful traffic impact. And I'll talk a little bit about some trip generation potential of what what's currently, you know, planned and what this will be. uh to determine the anticipated trip generation for this site, I consulted the published data from the Institute of Transportation Engineers, IT, which is the leading source for accurate trip generation data and the source that NC dot requires you to use for traffic impact analysis studies. First, I looked at the IT's analysis of the general light industrial use, which is classified by IT as land use code 110. It describes a general light industrial site as a typical single tenant site devoted to light industrial activities such as printing, material testing, assembly, fabrication,

packaging, and processing materials. This classification fits the general light industrial uses that are already permitted on the site through its LI zoning designation. According to IT, for the 387,158 square ft, which includes both buildings on the site, a general light industrial use is expected to generate approximately 1,394 daily trips. And to kind of give you context there, that's about half of what the DOT typically has a threshold to require a traffic impact analysis. Again, these numbers are addressing what is already permitted on that site. uh the warehouse and freight movement use is a much lower trip generator when compared to a general light industrial use. For my analysis of the IT classification, the most appropriate code for the town's warehouse and freight movement use is land use code 154, which is a high cube transload and short-term storage warehouse. This code is described as a building of typically at least 200,000 square feet, which we exceed, used primarily for the storage and/or consolidation of manufactured goods prior to their distribution to retail locations or other warehouses. This description pairs nicely with the UDO's definition of warehouse and freight movement. for this IT land use. For this IT land use, the expected daily trips for 387,158 square feet is just 542 daily trips. So significantly less than what would be a general light industrial. This data demonstrates that using all or a portion of these buildings for warehouse and freight movement will actually have less of a traffic impact than if the entire buildings were used for general light industrial purposes as which is already permitted by Wright.

Therefore, in my professional opinion, there are no significant adverse traffic impacts resulting from the proposed use and any potential impacts are mitigated by the fact that the available transportation facilities, namely North Greenfield Parkway, is built out to its full width and operating at a sufficient level of service. And I'll be available for any questions, but for now, I'll pass it back to Attorney Winstead. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Ryan Key.

Thank you. Good evening again. As I hope it's clear from the testimony, uh our team of experts in conjunction with staff really has done a thorough uh detailed analysis to ensure we're complying with all of these uh UDO requirements. Just to briefly summarize, uh Mr. Royster focusing on how this proposed use complies with the requirements of the UDO, the development regulations in the UDO and the comprehensive plan and is safe. Uh Mr. Martin focusing on how the proposed use is compatible with the surrounding area. Um, and Mr. Rankkey's testimony established that there are no significant traffic impacts. Um, I'll conclude by saying that my client, Longleaf Industrial, was very excited to be doing business uh, in the town of Gardener. Um, it's our position that we've established each of these eight elements and we respectfully request that the council approve. Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Winstead. And while you're there, that concludes your your team's presentation. Yes, sir. And I'll take this opportunity to call on council members who may have questions of you or staff here. And we'll start with Mr. Matthews this time and come this way. Questions for staff or the applicant. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. A very good presentation and uh u I think looks like you have a a a nice facility what you want to do out there in the Greenfield Park and uh and from what you present it will blend in well. and as we are growing, we're going to be needing more and more out there. But, uh, thank you for your presentations and I have no technical questions this time. You've answered all my concerns. Thank you, Mr. Matthew Singleton.

No questions. Mr. Stal, uh, no questions. Mr. Dinger, no questions. Mr. Bance, appreciate the work. Have no questions. Thank you, Mr. That was pretty pretty comprehensive presentation you made. Answer most everybody's questions in advance. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. Uh yes, thank you very much. You may have a seat. We may think of another question. Uh we also will recognize any individuals who have signed up to speak. And do we have any? We have Gary Curtis.

Eric Chwick. Okay. Eric Austin. Okay, that looks like everyone on the list.

Okay, so there's no individuals here who signed up to speak on this item tonight. I think some of the folks that you read may have spoken during the petitions and comment section. So that's fine. So uh basically we we've heard uh the introduction from our planning staff who's been working long and hard. The technical review committee has looked at this. We've seen the report. We've heard the report from from the experts, the ones qualified to speak on this and their attorney seems pretty comprehensive there. Uh at this point then we will close the public hearing. We've heard the basic information and we'll now move ahead to the t the council members and the task before us is to approve or deny the special use permit SUP-26-00001 related to this project there. We've heard a lot about it. Uh, so I'll ask for a motion and a second to either approve the special permit, special use permit, or to deny that and then we can have some more discussion before we take a vote. So, is there a motion on the floor? I find the application SUP 26001 meets the town's 8 criteria for special use permits as identified in article 4.7.4.D. Therefore, I move the town council approve SUP 26001 500 North Greenfield Parkway with the three sight specific conditions recommended by the TRC to be listed on the permit that will be prepared by staff.

Thank you, Mr. Vance. There's a motion. Is there a second? A second. Mr. Matthews uh seconds the motion to approve the special use permit. And that gives us the opportunity to have more discussion uh from from council and I'll start at Mr. Vance's end. You recommended this. Any further comments or you'd like to make?

As I stated, I appreciate the hard work that went into the uh into this particular project. It was thoroughly done. Uh I believe that light industrial uses can be appropriate along this particular corridor and I see the benefits in terms of the economic growth. Uh my main focus as uh quite often speak about is that making sure that the project fits well within the surroundings area with the right conditions in place especially around buffering and traffic. you seem like you've done that in operations and I'm comfortable supporting this request and um it's important that we continue to balance the growth with protecting our residents and we residents have opportunity to speak if they needed to or wanted to and I believe that uh that can be done going forward and and has been provided opportunities and through the process and I have no problems with with approving this project.

Thank you. Mr. Dinger, comments, questions? Uh no comments. No comment, Mr. Singleton. No, sir. Okay. Well, again, pretty comprehensive motion, second and good information presented all along. Uh that that being done, uh there's a motion and a second on the floor. Uh I'm going to call for a a voice a voice vote here. Uh all those council members in favor of approving this special use permit, please signify by saying I. I.

Any opposed? By nay. Hearing none, it's unanimous. The SUP uh is approved. Thank you for all your hard work. Our town staff, particularly technical review committee, who has spent a lot of time looking at this from every angle, the experts who's testified, uh does seem to be the right thing at the right time, at the right place. Uh we appreciate what you're doing to help us grow here in Garner. Thank you all. And that brings us to item G, uh, new and old business. Item number one is a, uh, tier one conditional resoning request, uh, related to Lawndale. And Jamaiah Ryans, our planner, will make the presentation, give us the basic introduction on this.

Yes, sir. Thank you, mayor. Uh, good evening, mayor, council members. Um, so I bring back to you KCZ25003 Londell. This is a tier 1 conditional reszoning submitted by Brett Mangum representing Woods Holding LLC. It is to reszone approximately 2.4 acres of residential 2 and residential 4 to residential for conditional. Um the site is made up of three parcels along Lndale, that being 925 Londell, 981, and 107 Lell Street. Again, with this being a tier one, there is no master plan or sight specific plan for this resoning request. Um again, as mentioned, this is the current zoning is R2 and R4. Um typically, but in the R2 district, you will find single family residential, low density. In the R4, you'll also have duplexes along with that single family. um and a requirement for public water and sewer as well as amenities for walking and recreation. Um looking at our framework map, it lies majority within a neighborhood activity center. So typically within this area, you'll see single family and multif family residential uh with neighborhoods serving non-residential uses. And the applicant has narrowed a list of permitted uses to one of the 14 permitted uses allowed in the R4 district that being single family residential or detached. And he has also provided a pro a list of conditions speaking to the architectural conditions of what he's proposing. Um and you can find the conditions within the your agenda packets. So looking at the requests against the plan's grow growth framework and land use uh staff have found a strong level of consistency as far as the plan's growth framework and find an overall finding of consistency for for more

details on the staff consistency that's also in your agenda packets. Um as mentioned before we did bring this case to you all February 17th uh for public hearing. During that meeting, there was cons concerns voiced by neighboring um neighboring residents. Uh those concerns related to flood risk, traffic and parking impact, and concerns about density. Based on these concerns, staff did conduct an analysis where we compared the density of nine Seagull family lots south of the site to the density of what is being proposed. We did find that the density um did increase slightly but did not pose significant impact on neighborhood character, traffic or parking. This request went before planning commission March 9th. Planning commission did have questions related to water and sewer access as well as comments made towards the condition about the porch size and the overall suitability for surrounding for the uh other surrounding street frontage character. Planning Commission did find that the request is consistent with the town's adopted land use plan and did make a motion to recommend approval. Um, this motion was made by Vice Chair Carson, second by Commissioner Boland and it was a uni unanimously passed. Apologies. Here we have six points of reasonable reasonleness. And here we have our draft motion. We ask council to consider uh finding consistency and reasonableness with approval. Um and you can find all four draft motions at the end of the report in your agenda packet. Staff is here to answer any questions you may have as well as the applicant.

Hey, thank you Miss Miss Ryan. That's very very helpful. As you recounted, this not long ago was before the council here for a reasonzoning. Uh we heard from some neighbors at that time. There had been a previous neighborhood meeting. Uh after we heard it, we referred it on to the planning commission who uh again had a public hearing, had some input there, continued to work with the developer and the neighbors. Uh the staff has worked closely with this, seems to have reached uh some conclusion that this is an appropriate use at this place. And now the question before the council uh is to consider approving the statement of reasonableness and conditional resoning by adopting this ordinance 20265381. Uh that being said, we'll recognize council members who may wish to ask questions or make comments and we'll start down at this end with Mr. Matthews.

No questions. Mr. Singleton, no questions. Mr. Stalins, no questions.

Mr. Tallinger. Yeah, I remember during the public hearing the mention of the drainage issues and then there was mention of water and sewer to plant. What was the ultimate sort of analysis or resolution around the concerns of the neighbors with regards to the potential drainage concerns? Again, I don't think those were recognized professionally at the time, but I know there were concerns. So, at this moment, um I cannot necessarily speak to that, but if the requests were to be approved, um and site plans were to be submitted, staff would do a thorough review to ensure that all storm management and flood um flood requirements and compliances were made as far as you know, detent towns detention requirements, uh swift creek land management plan, news, nitrogen rules, the appropriate buffer requirements, and everything um to ensure that that was addressed. And I don't see any one from the community. So was that sort was that communicated to the residents as well or um don't I'm trying to tie up a loose end that folks had when they came here because I think there are at least half a dozen folks from

Yes. So during public hearing I know that uh council did guide that the um residents reach out to planning department. They did not reach out. However, I did attempt to reach out to the residents that spoke um during the public hearing but there was no response. um via email and phone. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Vance. No questions. Okay. Uh if there's no further questions, uh may I may ask for a motion, accept a motion here, uh to either accept this statement reasonleness or or otherwise. Is there a motion?

Mr. Mayor, I move that the town council accept the planning commission's written statement regarding consistency of the zoning amendment request adopt a land use plans detail in section 3 of the staff report as her own. And I further move that the town council adopt ordinance number 20265381 approving reszoning CZ-25-00003 as the request is reasonable in the public interest because proposed district is compatible with present zoning and conforming uses on nearby property and with the character of the neighborhood. Second.

Thank you. And thank you Mr. Stingleton for the second there. So we have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Yes sir, Mr. Dinger. Yeah, just a comment um just related to the nature of the project as being a a tier one project and the appreciveness of the use of tier one in such a way that it narrows the scope and use of the project so that we're very clear on the outcome that we're going to get. Um we've had a couple of these smaller projects that have done that and I think that's a good practice for anyone who comes before us with a tier one. Okay. Comment.

Thank you. That is a good comment. We get a little confused sometime between the resonings, the SUPs and the tier ones and the tier twos. Uh but we're we're confident that staff has done a thorough analysis. The neighbors have had a chance to be involved in the discussion and this seems to be heading down the road in the right direction. So we have a motion in a second. If there's no further discussion, I'll call for a voice vote on this. All in favor of accepting and approving the statement of reasonableness and conditional reszoning on ordinance 20265381, please signify by saying I. I.

Any opposed by nay. Hearing none that passes unanimously. Excellent work. Thank you. Thank you team. Uh that brings us to section H of our agenda this evening which is updates to council and we will start with committee reports uh from council members related to committees they may serve on. Let's start with Mr. Vance down at this end this time. Uh well the nomination committee will meet on tomorrow at 12 to continue looking at applications and planning for the future interviews and filling of vacancies uh in the coming future. Uh, and uh, that's all I have right now. Mr. Dillinger, you want to add anything to that? No, sir.

Okay, Mr. Talons.

So, the parks and recreation committee met on March 23rd for their rescheduled meeting. Items for discussion were the Jurgen Park operating plan policies around the White Deer Park splash pad as well as a couple of programming updates. So, overall, a lot of topics were discussed during this meeting. The downtown Garner Association will meet this Thursday, April 9th at 5:30 for the month, our monthly meeting. So, I look forward to being in attendance and looking forward to a a great meeting. And I also want to take a moment in time to commend Bella and Rick um on the youth council work. Um at their last meeting, I got an opportunity to see them get in front of everybody and discuss the work that they've been doing in their committees on youth council. And I want to give them credit for just the vision of the program, the self-governance model of the council, just giving the youth ability to choose their leadership path on council, problem solve, and remain accountable to their own program that they are actively having a hand in developing. So hats off to Bella and Rick for giving them that space, opportunity to do that, and I look forward to seeing what they'll accomplish throughout the rest of their term.

So the youth council is off to a great start. Absolutely. Yeah. a lot of energy by the by the staff and as well as the students who have jumped in on that. Thanks for your leadership on that. Mr. Singleton, yes, senior citizen advisory committee met a week ago on Friday, had a good business meeting, talked about some upcoming events, and uh we'll meet again in May. Thank you. Are you old enough to attend the senior center by the way? I think so. But anyway, ju just checking. Not not a question. your credentials. I just want to make sure you you fit in the demographic.

I have frequented it for year because of my delivering meals on wheels. I've been going there for 20 over 20 years, but anyway. Yes, sir. I think I qualify as a senior citizen. Thank you. We all are at heart. We have the senior citizen. Uh Mr. Matthews.

Uh yes, Mr. Mayor. Uh uh regarding the veterans advisory committee, uh they have a request and if I may have about a minute just to read the request, better than I could explain if that's okay with you. And uh it says, "As you may recall, the city of Raleigh held an annual Veterans Day parade in which military equipment and various veterans group from around Wake County took part. However, since the tra the tra tragic accident during the 2022 Christmas parade, there's not been a Veterans Day parade held in Raleigh. The parade was counsled as uh not since been held by the city of Raleigh, which deemed too restrictive to continue. This included a restriction on motorized vehicles in the parade which Veterans Day parade would normally have. Vehicles are helpful for vets since many want to participate are handicapped and unable to walk in a parade. Many veterans groups around Wake County have voiced disappointment in not having the Veterans Day parade and the parade is way of honor our veterans and our family for service to our great country. Garner American Legion Post 232, VFW Post 10225 along with the Garner Veterans Advisory Committee are looking possibly at setting up a Veterans Day parade here in Garner. This would be the first Veterans Day parade in four years anywhere in Wake County. We believe a Veterans Day parade would bring together residents, local businesses, visitors, and a spirit of joy and togetherness. We believe it would not only strengthen our community bonds but also provide a positive boost to our town's economy. The American Legion Post 232 will be the lead sponsor for this event in our discussions we are having on this parade. They're looking at uh November the 7th 26 which is Saturday. Staging location would be the Pool Family YMCA parking lot. Start time at 11. Leaving the parking lot and down Aversboro Road and proceed to Lake Benson Park. at the park. The route is

nine mi 0.9 miles with no major intersections. We have discussed the timing of this participate with no more than 15 with limiting the number of participants. We believe the parade will last no longer than 45 minutes and considering combining the Veterans Day program normally held on Veterans Day uh into this event possibly. After the parade, the Veterans Memorial discussion will combine the events. What we have done so far winding down is we have reserved the Lake Benson Park for November 7th, obtained permission from the YMCA for our staging point and have discussion with Captain Don Johnson and Kim Wood of Garnet Fire Department discussing the pros and cons of parade and things they've learned over the years sponsoring the fireman's parade. We have consult with Lieutenant Jones of Garner PD on route for the Veterans Day. We first discussed stage in Aversboro Road School, but we thought that crossing over Timber Drive, closing down for an hour, the new route would be shorter and much safer and faster. We're committed to working closely with the town council and relevant departments to meet the requirements including permits, insurance, and public safety protocols. We kindly request the council's consideration approval so we may proceed with planning and promotion and let us know if there's any additional information. a point here. Uh they're looking at two things. Uh uh if it happens would happen this year yet to be determined. We might have they might shift it all to the following year. Secondly, they might wind up calling it just a veterans parade and do the parade park during the summer months sometime where the weather will be bad better where people can be outside and the sidewalk on both sides of that street. It would be perfect for a a veterans parade. and they just want to know can they get a thumbs up from the city council to proceed uh moving forward on working on this reaching out to different veterans organizations to uh see what the participation level would be but didn't want to assume anything

unless the city council was okay with a parade whether it be on November 7th this year or next year or just a veterans parade period and I just want to is the council okay with us having a third parade and hopefully making this long term to do it every year. So that is their request and so I'm guess I'm asking the council members on their behalf since I'm the leazison with uh the council being all right and and with staff to and I'll give this to the town manager to have a veterans parade. Well, I'll go first and say I love a parade.

I do too. And and who would ever thought that Avis Road would be considered a part of the main street or a parade worthy route, but suddenly it is. I think particularly with the end being there at the Veterans Memorial at Lake Vincent Park, a very logical and appropriate place for a short parade because I know some of the guys are your age and have a hard time walking much further than that. So this this is very appropriate. It's a good idea. Whether we do it this year or next, I think in my personal opinion, it's worth looking into. is worth considering and bringing back more details to staff and council. Absolutely. Absolutely.

I think what you're looking for now is just some sense of council that it's worth looking into for future final approval with the details after we see the implications and they'll have a meeting probably in a couple of weeks after I report back to them to look into it further. It's a work in progress. Yes, work in progress. Uh let's start with Mr. advanced with any questions or comments related to the possibility of adding a a a parade uh during the year.

Um I think it's a good idea. I think that it needs to be looked into like as mentioned looking at detail and look at the cost and whatever resources are necessary to pull it together. Uh and u that's all I can say. I'm I'm in favor of it. Just got to go deeper into it. Okay, good. Yeah, it was not up for a vote or anything. Just getting a sense of council. Mr. Dinger, comments, questions? I know about parades. I thought that would hit home.

Oh, our praise. Uh, I'm in favor of looking into it. I think it's definitely something we need to get all staff's brain power into and logistics. It's a very time consuming, high-risk event and activity. Um, so I think getting a full recommendation from staff and and working through that on council. Um, and then what the town's role is, what what all the stakeholders are and what their roles are. Um, but I'm in favor of doing kind of the analysis. Maybe get like a few page summary and timelines and things like that. Um, but it is a lot of work and the planning is the hard part and the parade's this long, but the planning takes a long time. And we always reiterate with the Christmas parade, safety, fun, safety, because they are potentially dangerous events if they're not handled properly. So, um, look into it.

Excellent. And you certainly can speak from personal experience. There's more to it than just Santa Claus riding down the street, isn't there? A lot more a lot goes into Mr. St. Definitely in favor of looking into it. Okay, Mr. Singleton, comments.

A couple things. One, uh, about 15 or 16 years ago, staff at that time wanted us to change the Christmas parade and make it go down a road. It was going to start at town hall. It was the old town hall in Forest Hills. Go down a spur road. They wanted to cross timber and ended at Lowe's. That part got nixed and said we're going to end it at the old Aversboro School. That got nixed because we were talking about downtown development. Now my question was why are we sitting here talking about downtown development? We're going to pull the parade out. You see what a parade is.

Um the question I have, M. Matthews, I'm I'm in favor of the break is you talked about maybe not having it in November because we got fireman's day in October and Christmas and maybe another time of the year. That's the only thing is another spread the parades out. We don't have three in three months. But uh Oh, yeah. Starting there and going to the Veterans Memorial tomorrow. Sounds like a winner. Okay. To me, I think back to the uh what do we have three or four years ago? Oh, the Wallet Hills. The Walnut Hills. That parade. We had that parade. Yes, sir. And how uh they were crowded on both sides that came up Buffalo Road, did it not? Didn't it? We come out of the church ride at Buffalo Road, march down into the park. And so that was a big crowd, very successful. So that was a a little shorter version than what you're talking about, but it's very similar. So I think it would be very well attended. Yes.

Thank you. And that was also in like in June, I believe. Yeah, it was in the summer months. Yeah. Yes. Thumbs up. Well, I appreciate everybody's uh going along with it. We'll a lot of the details and the planning, but I'll report back to them that the board has gone along with it and uh we're looking to get more feedback and plan of actions and see where it goes. But this was one of the hurdles we wanted they wanted to make sure we had it covered and uh and I'll pass this on to the town manager what I read. So she'll have a copy of it and we'll see where it goes. Thank you very much on behalf of the veterans. We are a veteran friendly community and a Purple Heart community. So good way to illustrate that. Good way to publicize that.

Thank you very much. So that concludes our committee reports and takes us to part two manager reports. Yes. Good evening mayor, members of council. Uh just two items I wanted to bring to your attention. Uh first I'm going to ask u Mr. Hajis to demonstrate for you a new tool that we are using to support our boards and commissions process in terms of work that the nominations committee is doing but also helping us in terms of keeping track of of terms for our our visitors. So Mr. Hodes turn over to you.

All right. Thank you Miss Miller. U mayor and council members uh in the past uh we have had separate pages on our website for each of the boards advisory boards and commissions. We've had different formats for the way that we are preparing uh and displaying information about each of these. Um and we've also um as we continue to grow and have additional boards, advisory boards and committees um it has become a much harder task to keep up with the behindthe-scenes work of the membership, the vacancies, the recruitment uh and the management of members of those. Uh so following the successful roll out of our escribe agenda software that you've heard about and seen the results of we have implemented a second module by that company called board manager. Um so we now have uh a back office system that helps us with all of those functions that I mentioned previously. And to display that better to the public uh we've consolidated everything under one page. So on our website under government, there's now a link for town advisory groups. When you go there, there is information at the top about how to apply to a board and serve on a board and committee. There is a new frame that is called that is a product of the board manager that is displayed. And you'll see here each of our boards and commissions uh is listed here. There's a brief description. There's a longer description if you hover over it. Uh if there are vacancies coming up, there's a view vacancy button on the right. Uh if you click on one of the uh the descript uh the the boards or committees, you will see a window open where there's additional information there. the length of terms, term limits, numbers of members, details about meeting times and locations, uh, chairs, liaison, a link to minutes and bylaws, and then also a

roster of members. and to be able to better manage especially with board of adjustment and planning that have specific numbers of members and alternates and representatives from the ETJ. You will see naming nomenclature uh like this position which is u board of adjustment uh in town seat one seat two seat three seat 4 uh ETJ1 um alternate in town one alternate ETJ. So these are names of the seats on these uh specifically the planning commission and board of adjustment uh to provide better tracking because these are requirements that are laid out for those two in our our UDO or in their bylaws. Um and so you'll see that that people that are serving there are assigned to those seats and that helps us manage their terms. If you click on a member, uh you will get additional information about their service and you can also see if they've served in past terms here. And then you can also see if they're currently serving on other boards or committees. So you can do that for each of these here. If there is a vacancy, as I said, you can click on it on on the right um up at you can also access this by the the tab at the top. So this is our boards tab. If you click on members, this shows members of of all of our boards and committees. And you can scroll through here. It shows you um how many they're currently active on, any upcoming terms that are expiring, and any expired terms that they may have. So, for example, uh Mr. Ralph Carson that serves on our planning commission, he currently has a an active term and he has had a previous term that has expired in the past. And you'll see that throughout the system. Also, if you go to the vacancies tab, you will see any of the boarding commissions that have vacancies upcoming. So, this would be vacancies that become available for seats that would open July 1. And so, for each of these, you'll see parks and

recreation advisory has two vacancies. Planning Commission 2, Senior Advisory 1, Veterans Advisory 2. You do not see uh board of adjustment here because there is not an upcoming vacancy there. So, there's nothing to to represent here. If you pull these down, uh you will see which of these seats like parks and recreation seat one and parks and recreation seat nine uh that are um included there. Uh which seats are available. Again, most of these don't the naming is for us on the back end to help us with management. If you scroll further down on this page, you will see um an upcoming minutes tab. This looks very much like the uh board the announcements for our council meetings on another page. We're using the same tool from escribe there. Uh and we we are working on moving all of the board uh agenda packets for these boards and committees into escribe. And once we do that, you'll actually be able to find their agendas here. Uh and then past meetings going forward. uh we are the past meetings will show up once they occur just like on your fairly new uh agenda council agenda page. Uh and then at the very bottom there's a couple of other links. There's a minutes archive. There's also links to our two economic development nonprofits. Uh as you're aware, we handle the recruitment and board management for those differently because of their unique makeup, but we provided links here in case anyone's interested in those. Uh they're all on the same page. So, this is our our one-stop page for um every anyone to find out anything our boards and commissions. Um on the back end, when someone uh submits an application, they're choosing which of the vacancies they're applying for. Uh and then this helps uh on the back end because if if they are uh approved to be on a board or committee, then their information is in the system uh and is easily able to be uh moved over to an active status. So,

we previewed this with the nominations committee at their recent meeting. Uh, we got a thumbs up from them to continue moving forward. Um, and so we wanted to show this to you tonight and also to the public tonight. So, I'll pause there and see if there are any questions about the new tool and the new web interface. Yes, Mr. Vance, we'll start down this way.

U, well, as John said, we got an early briefing on it. Um, I like it. It's organized and everything is one place and it it makes management easier from a from a from a a nominated committee standpoint from my perspective, everything being in one place and pretty easy to use. The question I brought up was those individuals who are not techsavvy uh who may want to try and apply for a position just being sensitive to those individuals and helping them u navigate the process. Mr. Challenger,

I just want to thank all the years of the clerk's office help and helping us do that work. Um we did get a demo of it. Thanks Mari for what she's done too. Um, this is going to help streamline a lot of what we do and a lot of the work we do and just based off of the capabilities of the technology to take applications. It's going to probably allow us to do some other interesting things with volunteers and volunteer placement outside of our traditional appointment work. Um, we'll be focusing on filling vacancies over the next few months for existing board seats, but we'll also implement this for our advisory board, housing advisory board outreach as we get that ramped up. Um, and then later in the fall, we're looking at maybe doing some other stuff in partnerships with um, volunteers. I think one of the frustrations we share with the work is we have so many applicants. We have done the ill-advised practice of interviewing everybody who applies and we end up with so many people who want to do so much but we only have so many positions. So we're hoping over the course of this year to be able to place these enthusiastic energetic folks uh throughout the community but also on our own boards and so uh excited excitement tempered by all the work ahead I guess is probably the approach. But thanks everyone for all their hard work. It's a It's a great leap forward for what we're trying to do.

Excellent. And before we finish with council comments, I've just got to thank you two gentlemen, Mr. Vance and Mr. Dinger for being in charge of what used to be called the HR committee now nominating committee to try to find the right fit for all these commissions, these boards, advisory groups, and and and thank goodness we have the problem of many great applicants that we have to choose go from. uh this is real important to the town to get this involvement from our residents, find a place that they can have an input. So, thank you for the great job he's doing. This is just another tool to help us get organized, stay focused, and don't get lost in the weeds. So, we we really appreciate what staff has done. Mr. Stalins,

um I think it looks great. I mean, the interface is amazing. A lot of the information is consolidated in one place. You don't have to go far to reach the minutes or see the members or where they serve. I think it's I think it's amazing. Excellent. Mr. It's good. Thumbs up. Great management tool and it appears to be user friendly for people like me and uh so thanks a lot. This is going to be a great tool.

Great. Well, I would like to thank the folks that were very involved with this. Mari How um our uh strategic initiatives director uh led the implementation of this like she has done so many of our recent uh software implementations uh working closely with our clerk's office both um Miss Gibson and Miss Murray in thinking through all of the things that had to be thought through and there's a lot of them trust me to go from a manual process to one like this the the process mapping is the key to success with these and with them working together it was done very successfully so thanks to all of them. Um, also thanks to um, Miss Murray, our deputy clerk, took on um, the coordination and the primary staff uh, support for the nominations committee. So, in addition to her work with the nominations committee, she played a key role in getting all the current data loaded in this. You'll see a few places along the way that we'll be enhancing descriptions um, of the the boards and committees to better match their uh, their bylaws or to just refresh and update descriptions. you'll can see this work uh continue to evolve, but we wanted to show it to you tonight and to the public. Um following tonight's meeting, we will be launching an announcement of vacancies. And so you will see information come out from the communications office uh in the next day or so that we'll be uh launching this to the public and also advertising vacancies so that the nominations committee uh will be able to move forward with those activities. We've discussed with the nominations committee um a vision that staff had for future cycles that I think aligns with their goals. Um our future uh for future cycles, we're hoping to open up um nominations in January of each calendar year. Uh have January and February to collect nominations. Have March and April to make interviews and uh internal appointments. The month of May would be presenting those to council for their appoint their formal appointment. that lets us follow through in June with our standing board and commission

orientation that we started last year so that everyone has proper orientation and onboarding ahead of their terms coming on July 1. So, um we checked in with the the nominations committee and they're agreeable to that being our future goal. Uh and this year, um we're well on our way to to getting those applications in in time for them to make their decisions. So, thank you again to um everyone who's responsible for doing this and thanks for your time tonight.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Hodgees. Great work by everyone on the team. Excited to launch this for our community. Uh the only other update I want to share with council is we launched our civic academy last week and it was an exciting um opportunity to to relaunch our garner 101 sort of citizen academy. We've got a very enthusiastic and engaged group um who who will be attending and be part of the cohort for our civic academy. Uh we have our second session coming up this week. they'll be looking at development services and just really excited and energized to see that program um up and running again. So, those are all my updates for this evening. Happy to answer any questions council may have.

Any questions for town manager? Um what's what's the cadence of the civic academy? So, um Mr. Hodes, uh could you talk a little bit about the schedule and the cadence of the civic academy, please? So, the the co current cohort, it'll be eight sessions long. Um, and this is the first year we've we've launched this version. So for this year, we're we're planning on having one cohort this year and then evaluate whether and plan it again for the same time next year. I don't if that was the the cadence that you meant, Mr. Solins. Meeting cadence. I'm sorry. Meeting cadence is weekly. Okay. So it's u eight consecutive Thursdays uh beginning last week um and then it'll end uh the end of May. Thank you.

How many people are enrolled? Uh we we seated a class of 25. We've had a couple of folks contact us that they weren't able to make them or had to make a change. Um we had had selected five additional applicants that were our on deck uh folks that had been vetted. We've now actually pulled two of those in to take seats uh that that for some reason or another um folks were were having to u withdraw from that. So we believe that we'll be able to keep a consistent 25 even if we have to um make changes during the c the class. Excellent. Very good. Those are all the announcements for this evening. Thank you for your attention. Thank you. Great observations, great news. Uh brings us to item three, attorney reports.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm excited to report that Assistant Town attorney Morgan Pierce returned to the office yesterday. So, we are fully staffed in the legal department at this time. Well, somebody take a picture of it because you're about to be gone for a week. That's right. Great. Yes. I plan to be on vacation next week. Great. So, no other reports from you. And that brings us back to uh council reports uh as opposed to the committee reports. Let's start with Mr. Matthews who finished uh the committee reports. Any other council reports? No, sir. Mr. Singleton,

two things. One is uh thank public works for the beautiful plants at the front of town hall. It's colorful, looks great. It's that time of year where you can put it out there and don't have to worry about the heat, but it does look uh much improved in the entrance to town hall. So, always look as sharp as possible. And also didn't know if people appeared knew that the Garner Karmas Center got sold recently down on Highway 70 to three buildings to uh what isund 128,000 square feet got sold. Uh when it opened 2024, it was assessed at $24.1 million and it got sold for $36.35 million. So that's the the one of them the three buildings there on Highway 70. It says according to this the lease right now is 91% lease. So that was in triangle business.

Good information. Just want to pass that along. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Stalins. Um I want to touch on it again as well. Last week, me and Mayor Promp Dillinger got the opportunity to attend the Garner Civic Academy, and I would say I was quite blown away with the energy, the enthusiasm in the room. Um, and just they're willing to learn, be a part of the cohort. It was the diverse group of of residents and age and race and profession. And I want to give a a huge hats off to the town manager, um, and both assistant town managers for getting that program up and running. Um, and I definitely look forward to being at graduation with them because they were definitely fired up and ready to go and participate and seemingly not wanting to leave. So, that's always a good thing.

Couldn't get enough. Great. Thank you. Thank you.

They I think they weren't ready to leave because they didn't think they could. Some of them thought it was going in 6:00 to 9 and then 8:00 rolled around. They're like, "Hey, time to go." People like, "That's it. We're done." Uh, I echo Mr. Councilman Stallings. It was great to see that energy in the room and from all parts of Garner. Uh interesting kind of pattern. A lot of them have moved here in 2022 like kind of migrating postco. So that was interesting to see. But everyone had sort of adopted Garner as home. So they're in it. They're in it now. So um I just a few things. Um I do want to um highlight the success sort of of our first roll out of our early development meetings that we did at the work session. I think that was really um insightful and eye opening and you know everybody was kind of doing something for the first time. I think there are expectations we can align better. Not to say it was done wrong but I think uh maybe a little more staff input on the front end. I think I for myself personally sort of had a list in around tax exemption questions that I think should be standard accessibility with regards to elevators in apartment buildings uh partnering on affordability. So uh and verticality and misuse mixed use. So kind of some of these pre-screen questions that I think are of concern to council to kind of know where some of these folks have landed early in the process and what conversations been had. But I I thought it was it was a really good dynamic. Um I don't know what the applicants thought. Did you did we get any feedback from them on

uh just appreciation for hosting but no no detailed comments. Uh the kind of dovetailing with that uh the question we had a lot of conversations around at the retreat and in conjunction with the tax exemption conversations we've been having around fiscal impact analysis of projects as they come in and I say that on the heels of the developer meeting kind of curious as to where we are in the process of sort of doing these sort of preliminary net gross and sort of net revenue calculations on project. So, we made any progress on on that yet?

I would say we have it's a work in progress. Um, we've got some uh employee uh groups together to start looking at thinking through um what a simplified model that council had described uh may look like and what is the best information um to be to pull together to pro provide a more accurate um picture in terms of cost of services. I will say though that we are all heads down on recommended budget for the next few weeks and so um we'll be focusing on that but getting the cost of services information to council as soon as possible. So what's sort of the timeline for that work? Is it postbudget po like first quarter of next fiscal year? Just kind of trying to

I would hope by the end of the fiscal year. I think once we get the recommended budget out then then we can continue to focus on that model and get something to council before the end of the fiscal year is what I would like to target.

And last thing um we had the one project the 1010 Costco project. Did we have any conversations with them about uh sign easements down there or I know I've been talking for six years about getting garner signage around 1010 and old stage and that area. Um, I don't know if we did with that project specifically, but I'll reach I'll ask staff. I I believe that there had been some discussions about that because our neighbors across the street have signage right at that. So, I believe there's been some discussion, but I don't know if there's been a commitment made for that. I'll follow up with staff on that. Mr. Dillinger,

there's one sign on uh 1010. If you're coming from uh Old Stage Road on the right, it says welcome. That's the only thing I've seen. I know we did talk about it having something this is a gateway to garner right here and something of that magnitude and I agree with you. Yeah. And the opportunities don't come up very often to get you know that those opportunities just don't come. That's all I've got. Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Vance. No report tonight. Wow. Thanks. Well, that that concludes the things that are on our agenda. I'm told that we may have a need for a close session. I'll ask a town attorney to tell us what we have going on.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm requesting a close session, two close sessions. one under um general statute 143-318.11 A3 um to consult with the town attorney regarding litigation or settlement of a claim and also pursuant to North Carolina general statutes 143-318.11a um to instruct staff regarding material terms of an employment contract. Okay, thank you. Uh, so I don't do we need a motion to move to a close session?

Yes, we need a motion to enter a closed session and then if you also want to take a brief recess before we start that, you can break that as well. We could do that simultaneously. Is there a motion to move to a closed session? I move we uh move to a close session to the two specific statutes cited by the attorney. Second. A motion by Mr. Singleton, a second by Mr. Vance, I think it was. Okay. All in favor of approving that motion and moving to the close session, please signify by saying I. I.

Any opposed by nay. Hearing none. That passes unanimously. We will move to a short recess reconvene uh as a close session and we'll take it from there. Thank you all for coming this evening. Uh come back a little later. We'll be back in here for a quick synopsis. Thank you.

And we have completed our work in our close session. We return now to our regular session here. I'm going to call on our town attorney to give us a summary of what was accomplished. Um thank you, Mr. Mayor. um council um consulted with the town attorney and gave direction on uh regarding pending litigation and also um on how to proceed with an employment contract with town. Thank you. So mission accomplished. Uh if there's no other business before the council this evening, I will accept a motion to adjurnn. So moved.

Motion by Mr. Stallins and second by Mr. Matthews. All in favor of adjournment, please signify by saying I. I. Any opposed by nay. Thank you. Meeting adjourned. Everybody.