City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everybody. Before I officially call us to order, I'm going to remind everybody to please silence your cell phones. Okay. And I will officially call to order our Brevard City Council regular meeting of Monday, September 21st. I want to thank everybody that is here in person. It is always great to see members of the public attend, as well as everybody that's watching us on the live feed. I want to start by introducing the people that are sitting up here. On my far right, we have our city attorney, Mack McKellar. Next to Mack, we've got Councilman Lauren Wise. Next to Lauren, we hav

Amen. Pastor Irwin, would you tell us a little bit about Bethel Baptist? No, I saw that. You were moving pretty quick there.

Thank you. We're so happy to have you and your congregation as part of our community. Thank you. If everyone would please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Attention, honor, pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic

Council, do I have a motion to excuse Council Member Gary Daniel?

Opposed? Council Member Daniel is excused. Council, you have the draft agenda. Are there any proposed modifications to the agenda? Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? Agenda is approved. Council, you have the draft September 8th, 2026 regular meeting minutes. Are there any corrections or modifications to the minutes? Do I have a motion to approve the minutes? So moved. Do I have a second?

Minutes are approved. All right, we will move right into public comments. Do we have anyone that signed up?

All right. The public is invited to speak during public comment at this time on any topic unless it is a public hearing item on this agenda. Anyone who wants to speak must register with the city clerk, which is the sign-up sheet. When it is your turn, step to the podium in front of city council, state your name and address clearly, limit comments to three minutes or less, and avoid repetition. And I will tell you when you have 30 seconds left. Direct comments to the full council, not to an individual council member or to staff. All right, our first speaker is Doug Powell.

Thank you, Mr. Powell. Our next speaker is Mr. Jay Veal.

Thank you, Mr. Veal. Our next speaker is... Okay.

Russell oh okay you're not you don't want to speak ah okay okay all right sorry couldn't couldn't quite read the last name there okay all right all right so he's gonna speak on a public hearing All right, well that is everybody that signed up for public comment. So we will now move on to a special presentation. And this is going to be on the parking study that we've been waiting quite a while to get the results of. And I believe our assistant planning director, Aaron Bland, is going to introduce this.

We appreciate it. I'm going to open it up for counsel to Address any questions they might have and we will start with Mr.. Wise

Thank you so much for that comprehensive presentation. On a kind of macro global scale, I think this, at least for me, kind of confirms what I sort of had a feeling about is we obviously hear from a lot of people that we have a parking problem, and I think now we can articulate how to express that issue, which is really helpful. The thing, this is kind of a rhetorical question really for me, but I'm now more curious about what problem we are actually trying to solve. Is that to try to create more turnover in our downtown spaces so more people can get in and out? Is it more distribution of vehi

And I think the other piece of this, and it's really just something to consider, is how do we communicate to the people of Brevard this kind of message and the things we're trying to look to solve it. Because, I mean, it's been the number one thing we hear about is that there is no parking. I mean, that's the message, there's no parking. So I want to try to think of a strategy to help with that messaging too and create a system that's like, well, there is, but you need to spread out a little bit.

Well, it's a precious commodity for sure. That's all I have. Thank you.

I should know that. The number of parking spaces were reduced because we put the bump-outs in.

Yeah, thank you for all the work. This is a big undertaking and something we've talked about for a long time, so it's great to see it in its final state. I'm gonna start just by repeating something I said about an anecdote about our former colleague up here, Councilman Mac Morrow. When he was having his final meeting, I went back and was doing a bunch of research in Transylvania Times about his past and the first election he had been in and there was a in 1986 there was a front page article of the Transylvanian Times with all the candidates and their positions and I think two out of the four o

And I have a couple of questions on your alternatives on the sort of payment structure. I notice that in none of, and you suggested maybe like a 30 minutes for free in the general area, but not in the premium spots. Is it?

Right. I just wanted to make sure that wasn't like a, Like you're like, do not do that by any... No, no, I don't.

And then knowing our state and the state laws and things like that, I have a feeling I know the answer to this, but I've been in some other places, other states that have... When they create a on-street paid parking system, they also have a way for residents to park for free in those spots. Is that legal in the state of North Carolina, and have you seen that? Is that something you recommend?

Was that in Blowing Rock? I'm sorry, in Blowing Rock.

Right. Okay. And I had a question in the lumberyard area. This is, I think, probably more for our staff. Whitmire Street is a state-maintained road, correct? But there's not currently on-street parking on Whitmire Street, at least not lined. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I'm curious about that because obviously in that area, French Broad is heavily used, basically full, and King Street is heavily used, basically full. Whitmire is right there. It's the next street over. And sometimes you see people park there, but not really. I think we might just need to clarify, like, where is it legal, and then pe

Thanks. One question I have, and I think I know the answer, but could you articulate, you've got management recommendations, right? What's the problem that paid parking solves that the management recommendations can't solve alone?

And I'm not advocating for it either, but if there were, if we wanted to look at some form of paid parking, what would a recommended pilot look like in order to be able to know whether or not it accomplishes what the intended outcome was from a paid.

Thank you. All right. Well, there is no action requested of Council tonight except for the recommendation to send this on to the Downtown Master Plan Committee for further discussion. So, Council, do I have a motion to send this to the Downtown Committee?

Okay. We will go to the committee and thank you very much. You gave us a lot to think about. And with that, we will take a five-minute break. resume and we will move on to our public hearings our first public hearing is the proposed amendments to the city of brevard unified development ordinance chapters 2 6 and 19 building height regulations and aaron bland will walk us through this one

Thank you, Aaron. Council, since this is a public hearing, I need a motion to open the public hearing.

The public hearing is now open. Nobody signed up to speak at the public hearing. So council, I need a motion to close the public hearing. So moved. I need a second. All in favor? Aye. Public hearing is now closed. I will now open it up for questions and comments from council. We'll start with Mr. Lytle.

Thanks for this. Just curious, are there, I saw in every zone, maximum height is at 35?

Has there ever been consideration for maximum heights depending on the character of the neighborhood? In other words, if all homes are single story, a certain size, on a very, very small street, and then someone wants to build really maximum height structure next to next to it or in the middle of it has that ever come up or has that ever been considered to look at those or is there a way to you know sort of look at those one by one on a case by case that has not come up I wonder how that would be

No, I understand. No, it's clear. It's clear. Okay. Good enough. There may be something that I propose to the committee.

I don't have any questions but I do have a suggestion for next time when this comes back up because as I was thinking through this and reading, The biggest question I had was how would this have, if we had this in place, how would it have impacted some buildings that are currently in existence? So I was curious about French Broad Place. I know when that was built, there was some consternation that it was too, the building height was too high.

Yeah, okay, they got a variance, okay. And then there's a building actually behind FLA Church that is I think like, is it three? I know they had a lot of issues, but I'm curious about some real world examples that might help illustrate this for us when this comes back.

I think if we could just have a couple of just real-world examples like that, it might help us put this in better context. It would help me put it in better context.

I don't really have a question. Just appreciate trying to clean this up because I know this is something we run into a lot. And I really also appreciate kind of looking at the steep slope part of this, too, to kind of make all this a little more easier to apply uniformly. That's it.

Okay. Thank you, Aaron. That's it for that public hearing. This will come back for Council to vote on at our next meeting. We'll move on to our next public hearing. The proposed amendments to the City of Brevard Unified Development Ordinance Chapters 2, 8, 10, and 17, Removal of Off-Street Parking Minimum Requirements. And Mr. Bland will walk us through this one.

Okay. Council, do I have a motion to open the public hearing?

Public hearing is open. No one signed up to speak at the public hearing. Council, do I have a motion to close the public hearing? So moved. Do I have a second?

Public hearing is closed. We'll open it for questions and comments from council. We'll start with Mr. Baker.

Yeah, honestly, I'm personally happy to see this. This is a kind of a nationwide trend towards revisiting parking minimums as sort of a standard practice for city planning i know it does it could be perceived as taking a tool out of the tool kit for for planning staff but in reality it gets back to you know treating parking as part of the market, a part of a commodity like anything else, instead of this separate sort of magically different thing. And I think it was interesting that our, when we were having our parking discussion earlier, It was mentioned that if you're a developer and you're l

Yeah, I kind of do wonder what provoked the state to do this, because I don't think it's for those reasons, Aaron, necessarily. I do think we want to be careful with this, not on our behalf, because while I agree with everything Aaron said, I think it could also act as a double-edged sword. We could see developments that do require use of city, and that kind of goes into city parking and... As you mentioned, we implemented a tier system a couple of years ago, and I know you guys did a lot of work because of the perceived need for that tier system. I want to just be aware as we're moving forwar

It seems like there may be spillover parking right on other streets in some cases. So are there tools that we have that sort of would mitigate that if that starts happening? If there's a developer, not enough parking, they start spilling over to other streets, eliminating parking there?

All right. This will come back for action at another meeting. Thank you, Aaron. We will move on to the consent and information agenda. The following items are on consent. One, tax settlement report of August 26. Two, property tax releases September 26. Three, accreditation grant police department $60,700. Four, resolution authorizing application for SRF loan and or grant assistance for azalea rhododendron sewer extension. Five, Public Works and Utilities Committee meeting minutes August 5th of 26. Six, Downtown Master Plan Implementation and Downtown Advisory Committee meeting minutes of Augus

Consent is approved. Moving on to unfinished business. Our first item is the Silverstein Picnic Pavilion and Bathroom Final Design. And I believe, Wilson, are you?

I think one important point to point out, David, is that we had to be really careful in the design because of the flood zone that this is in. And that did limit the placement of where we could put things. And so that's why you see the bathrooms located where they are very specifically after all the testing that we did to make sure that we weren't going to interfere with the flow of the stormwater.

Okay, well... We are actually looking for approval from council of the resolution approving the design of the Silverstein Park Pavilion and bathroom. Do I have a motion to approve the resolution?

Okay, we will open it up for comments and questions. We'll start with Ms. Holder.

We can't apply for PARTIF because we don't have a comprehensive recreation plan that includes this facility and all the others. Ours is more than 10 years old, and so it no longer qualifies, so we would not be competitive for PARTIF for any of our recreation facilities right now.

I WOULD JUST POINT OUT THAT TONIGHT THE ONLY THING WE ARE ASKING COUNCIL TO DO IS TO IMPROVE THE DESIGN. WE ARE NOT LOOKING TO MAKE A DECISION ABOUT FUND 88 THIS EVENING. RIGHT, RIGHT. WE'LL COME BACK FOR A SEPARATE DISCUSSION AT ANOTHER TIME. OKAY.

Thanks for taking a look at this. My only real question, and I think I see it on the site plan, is we will be doing a little bit of screening behind the picnic shelter and that existing residence. There's some trees indicated there. Something just to kind of help the buffer. I said that as an affirmative, but as a question. Yes, sir. Yeah, otherwise, yeah, let's, I don't have any recommendations for changes. I would say let's, Let's get this thing out on the street. That's all I got. Mr. Baker.

Yeah, I want to just start by thanking the private donor who donated a substantial amount of money. It takes more money than you think to get the design to this point and having construction ready design documents is really a big step towards increasing the fundraising possibilities for any project and now that we have that we can really go to work on grants and also private fundraising and we know where we stand in terms of the total cost and I just want to take this opportunity to mention some other projects that we have recently completed that were either a combination of private or public

No questions other than I want to thank the donor as well. Each of our neighborhoods are important and every neighborhood needs to be inviting and needs to have its own character. It's nice to have destinations all over the city and it doesn't matter which community that you enter. So designs look good to me, mainly because I know nothing about design. But other than that, they look pretty good. Thanks.

All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. We have an approved picnic pavilion and bathroom for Silverstein Park.

All right. We are moving on to new business. Our first item is Clarification of Naming Conventions for City Trails. I believe Mayor Pro Tem Baker is gonna brief us.

Yeah, so this came out of the Parks, Trails, and Recreation Committee, which I chair and Lauren Councilman Wise is on as well. And really this was spurred on by the upcoming really exciting project of the Acousta Trail. and we're about to get some big news on that with 65% design being completed at the next meeting of the Acosta Trail Advisory Board. This council has previously designated the existing city trail all the way to Main Street as a part of the Acosta Trail. And we also have this name that we've sort of all assumed that the Estetot Trail was the name for the entire city trail system

Okay, thank you. We are looking for action tonight. Council, do I have a motion to approve the attached resolution affirming the naming conventions just briefed that were recommended by the Parks, Trails, and Recreation Committee?

Okay, we'll open it for questions and comments. And we'll start with Mr. Wise.

Yeah, I mean, I've actually talked to people who get the Estetot and Acusa Trail confused a lot. And I think this is such a major, the Acusa Trail is such a major piece of infrastructure coming in. We want to make sure people know where they're going and what they're riding on. And then we did do a little bit of looking into what the Essato Trail really was and how it was really kind of historically more aligned with the forest. So I think clarification here as these trail systems emerge is gonna be really important as we get thousands of people coming into our community. I would also say that

All right, do not confuse the situation, please, Mr. Wise. That is not on the agenda tonight.

Write us and tell us you want BATS. That's all I have, thank you.

No questions really. I think it all makes sense to get clarification. No comments or questions.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. We have clarification on the naming. Moving on to our next item of new business. We have resolution authorizing application for an SRF loan and or grant assistance for a capital improvements program, priority one sewer system improvements. And Mr. Todd, our assistant city manager will be briefing us.

All right, council, we are actually looking for action on this. Do I have a motion to approve the resolution authorizing staff to apply for the SRF fund to address the number one capital improvement priority?

All right, so, and Mr. Wise, were you second? I'll second. Okay, we've got a motion and second. We will open this up for questions and discussion. And we'll start with Mr. Baker.

Yeah, I'll just say I've been witness to what these improvements can actually do in terms of reducing sewer system overflows. I had a manhole in my neighborhood, which before I was on council, I made a lot of noise about, and I'm sure the mayor was annoyed with me. because there was literally toilet paper in the street after sewer system overflow and it was pretty disturbing to me. And now I can happily say I drive there all the time or walk there all the time and I haven't seen that manhole overflow in years at this point. So this can really do tangible good and I'm excited to see it continue

In terms of the $500 loan forgiveness, is there a possibility that that's not guaranteed, is it? Or there's a possibility that we may not receive that?

uh... i don't really have questions i just want to point out that uh... the kind of relative costs were talking about uh... for these kind of projects is in my opinion staggering uh... and and why it's so important that we maintain these systems because they will impact almost everything else in the city we're looking at a new wastewater treatment plant and if we can control the sort of eye and eye that happens here we could actually possibly reduce the cost of that plant so These kind of repairs and maintenance do telescope over the scope of the city. Even though on paper it looks like an eno

Okay. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. All right. That is the end of new business. We will move on to remarks and future agenda considerations. And we will start with Mr. Lytle.

Okay. I just wanted to sort of address the last council meeting just a little bit and, you know, I had a chance to reflect after the meeting and I think it's important that we continue to treat everyone on committee as an individual. Backgrounds, life experiences, they'll inform our positions. But we can't assume why anyone votes a certain way because of those experiences. And I hope that, and as I said last time, I hope to challenge, and we challenge each other's ideas and assumptions, but we shouldn't make assumptions about their motivations. And the last thing I'll say is disagreement on th

Yeah, I mean, I'll pick it up there. I think when I was running for a second term, one of the questions that Transylvania Times asked was about, you know, what did you learn the most in your time in office or your first term? And the thing I came away with when I was reading through that question was like, actually the uncomfortable moments are the important moments on council. And that's when you, instead of shying away from that, you need to lean into it and be able to have those conversations. And so I appreciate Councilman Lytle saying that. I guess I would say, regarding my comments at th

Yeah, I just want to thank everyone for spending the evening with us. I am sure you, I'm not sure of this, but I hope you realize how important you are and how important it is that you're here. We talked a lot tonight about communication in different ways, communication about parking, about the trail, and I see a lot of miscommunication happening out in our community, and so when people are engaged and they talk to us and actually spend time with us, we can try to help them understand where we're coming from, the decisions we make, and I think people are more likely to understand decisions if

Yes, we do know that. Madam Clerk. Nothing, thank you. Mr. Manager.

Yeah, just to follow on with that, we were very pleased to have Representative Ferguson here. I mean, one of the big jobs that we have as elected officials is to work with our elected officials at both the state and the national level. And we work as a team. And we were very fortunate. We had great staff support. Thank you, staff, that put a lot of time in. We took Representative Ferguson out to our wastewater treatment plant because that's going to be one of the big challenges over the next seven or eight years to get phase two going and funded. And I think... Thank you to Erin for really sho

That's it, I'm very technical. Yeah, is it technical? But I encourage you, and it's just another way that people can help the city because we're all in this together. This is all of our city. So adopt those drains, folks. I've got some flyers over there. You can pick them up, and it's very, very easy in case you want one.

All right, very good. And finally, we have Meet the Mayor this Thursday, September 24th, 1130 to 1. Again, another opportunity to hear, to communicate, to share information and ideas, and to get accurate information. You know, that's what transparency and communication is. teamwork are all about so join me at meet the mayor on Thursday come to the town hall adopt a drain and think about donating to our new picnic shelter at Silverstein Park and with that I need a motion to go into closed session for economic development so moved second all in favor aye we are now in closed session please stop