Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Meeting of the Menhill Planning Board for June 16, 2025. It's now 6.30. We do have a quorum. If I can ask Kenny to do the invocation, please. Yes.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for all the many blessings you've given us, dear Lord. We pray that you be with us this evening. We pray that you be with all the service representatives of Mint Hill, be it the first responders. We pray that you watch over the instability in the world and provide peace and help us glorify you in all of our actions, dear Lord. And we pray that this, all this in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Kenny. In your package, you had the minutes for the May 19th, 2025 regular meeting. Can I get a motion to approve?

Motion to approve.

Can I get a second?

Seconded.

Ron, a second. All those in favor, any discussion? All those in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed? Minutes approved. Any additions or deletions of agenda items? Nick, anything? Okay. Reports of committees, members, and staff. Nikki, got anything?

So the auto, the indoor auto facility that you all saw, that one was approved. The ball field is still on hold, and EPCON withdrew from the process for now.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. All right. Eric is not here. I guess this was his last term, right? So I understand there's been a nomination.

Yes, but I think we're going to have to rediscuss that next month. Next month? He'll be appointed, yeah.

Okay. All right. Thank you, Nikki. Yes, sir. Any old business? All right, new business. Discussion and recommendation of ZC25-4, followed by Escon of Charlotte, Incorporated, for conditional rezoning to allow a place of worship for property located at 13527 Idlewild Road, parcel number 195-013-18. Nikki, how do you want to handle this?

The representative is here. You can go ahead and state your name and address, please.

Brent Cowan, 8720 Red Oak Boulevard, Charlotte, North Carolina. Good evening, planning board members. Pleasure to be before you tonight to introduce this project. A little bit more? It sounds very loud to me.

Yeah, it sounds good up here.

I don't know. Yeah. Okay, so again, my name is... Wow. It's like echoing right back at me. My name is Brent Cowan. I'm an engineer with the Isaacs Group. I've been working with the ISKCON Temple for the better half of the last year or so on this project, and they're very excited to potentially call Mint Hill their home, granted if you approve us tonight. I have done, over the last 20 years, I've done a multitude of projects in Mint Hill, and I'm excited to be able for you to potentially do another project. How do I... There we go. This one? I see the arrows, but it's not... Oh, there we go. Okay. A little bit about our project site. The site is 9.36 acres, located on the north side of Idlewild Road, where... a little less than half a mile from the intersection of Idlewild and 51 and a little more than a mile from the intersection of Idlewild and 45. The property is zoned residential, which does allow places of worship, but your ordinance requires that we get a conditional zoning approval for that use. And that's the presentation tonight. Next slide. There we go.

Is that the right one?

Yes. So the ISKCON Temple, they're currently meeting at a temporary facility in Stallings. They've been looking for the last couple years for a permanent home, and like I said, they're excited for the potential to call Mint Hill their home. Their current congregation is up to 100 members. They have hopes to grow up to about 200 in the future. Their hours of operation are Saturdays and Sundays from 4 to 8 p.m. And their services are staggered. They have a service every hour. So the importance of that is that not everybody is coming regularly. right before four. There's services every hour, only hour, so people come over that four-hour window and the distribution of traffic is spread out. This map here shows the location of their current members, where they live in the county, all around, mostly to the south and to the northeast. Our site plan that you see here is our two buildings, parking lot and some amenities. The first building is the temple, that's the big building. The square footage on the site plan says 20,950 square feet, but that's actually 16,400 heated. There's a courtyard in the middle that's not covered. And then there's a covered front porch. And so when you subtract those areas out, it's 16,004. There is a yoga hall that's planned west of the temple. That's 3,500 square feet. Parking, we have 117 parking spaces and area to add 64 more in the future if needed. Initial construction would not include that future parking. The amenities we are showing, there's a basketball court and a proposed playground. At council meeting on Thursday when we presented this, there were a few questions about lighting and maybe concern about people playing basketball late at night. So we have committed to not have any lighting around the basketball court. But we do want to still have site lighting for security. But we just won't light up the basketball court. Approvals we've applied for and obtained so far, we have our concept stormwater plan approval from Mecklenburg County, and we have our preliminary sewer capacity approval from Charlotte Water. And on the next slide, I'm going to show you a more detailed zoomed in site plan. Here we go. The main thing I wanted to point out here is the buffers. I don't believe your ordinance requires buffers, but we thought it was prudent to have the buffer in order to screen this development from our adjacent neighbors. We're showing a 15-foot buffer everywhere except in the corner. Am I able to point? Yeah. Yeah. except right here in this corner, we get kind of pinched with this driveway and this property that we're developing around. So it's 10 feet for just a little bit here, but the density of the vegetation would be the same, whether it's 15 feet or 10. The plantings in this buffer will be either existing vegetation if we're not grading it, but if we get into that area to grade it for the development, we'll replant it with evergreen vegetation. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay, so road improvements. So a TIA was not warranted based upon your trip count. I think it's 50 trips peak hour. We didn't trigger that. We had conversations with the NCDOT, and they also likewise did not require a TIA. So this project was exempted from the TIA. This slide, we came Thursday night and showed that we were gonna add a right turn lane, but council made it very clear that to get their support, we were gonna have to do a left turn lane. So we are committing to doing a left turn lane also, as well as the right turn lane. And that can be seen on my next slide. So that's a bigger, yes, yes. So this is an aerial that we have where we've shown the right turn lane and the left turn lane to come into our driveway. So we are committing to doing that. Next slide, please. So the next few slides are building elevations and renderings. This is the elevation for the yoga hall. Height of that building is just under 20 feet, 19, 19 and a half feet. The facade will be brick and will have architectural accents. And then the next slide shows the temple. Likewise, it's brick, brick facade, and ornamental columns. The shikara is the ornamental temple that's on that top slide that's on the right. That caps out at about 45 feet, just under 45 feet. And then the next slide is a three-dimensional rendering of the site. Just something pretty to look at. And the next slide is just, that's it. Thank you. And I'm able to answer any questions that you have. And if I can't answer them, Mr. Suresh Muraki is here with the church, representing the church. He can answer some questions.

Okay. All right. Ken, start down to your end.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Brent. Just a few questions from me. Number one... Who's the resident that lives in that parcel at the very front?

So my understanding is that he doesn't live there. I believe it's, I have seen a website where it's presented as like an Airbnb. It's a rental house for like short-term stays. He did come to our community meeting and ask some questions. But yeah, he wasn't here the other night and I don't see him here tonight either. Okay.

The second one, I guess y'all are going to have to put the public sewer extension down Idlewild to connect to Riley Nichols Way.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir, we're extending it up within the right-of-way in the shoulder of Idlewild Road, and then our site is still lower than the road, so we will have a private pump station that will send the sewer up through that little finger on the property that's to the west. That's where all of our utilities are coming in, and it'll tie in right there.

Okay. And then I guess the last one, these are just, Kind of random questions, but I guess the widening, to get that left turn lane in, are y'all going to be able to, is that going to require the acquisition of right-of-way from across the street? No, sir.

We're going to do near-side widening and keep it on our side. We will have to get some right-of-way from New Hope Church, or Church of New Hope, that's to our east, immediately to our right. And then the development is immediately to our west. The right of way has been dedicated already. And we'll be tying out just past that driveway into that neighborhood to our left. And I don't believe we'll need to get any more right of way after that.

Okay. All right, and then the buffers. Do y'all have a blow-up of that to know what that buffer, that perimeter buffer is? Do you know what I'm talking about? The buffer along each side?

Yeah.

The number of plants. I mean, I see some trees, but I just didn't know if there was a typical section of a buffer detail.

What I recall we did is we looked at your ordinance and found a similar buffer where they are required, and that was the planting rate that we went with. I don't remember on the spot what that was, and no, sir, I don't have a typical, but we laid them out using that density.

Okay. All right, well, that's really all I got, Mr. Chairman. Scott?

I don't have any questions.

Okay, Rhonda, anything?

Good evening. Hi. I apologize in advance if I sound disrespectful. I'm not meaning that. But the yoga studio, will that be like a retreat type where people can come in and rent the space or they'll be hosting events there?

Srish, would you like to answer that?

Hi, I'm Suresh Muraki, 9828 Branchwood Avenue, Charlotte, 28277. So the yoga hall is primarily for our visitors who are coming in for the... service. So it is for them to stretch out and they might be there for 30 minutes or one hour and then come for the service. It is just for them to stretch out if they are coming, you know, sitting for too long and if they can't do that. It's just for internal use.

Just for the internal members?

Yes.

As well as the basketball court? Yes. Is that as well? Okay. Yes. Like there are no leagues or anything or other participation from other... facilities coming in?

No, we have seen our congregation kids who like to be active. So we have a playground and a basketball court. So while we are operating hours from 4 to 8, so they will be there at the basketball court under supervision.

Okay.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you. That's everything.

That's it? So your schedule, what do you think your schedule is for this to get this thing operational?

I So they were asking me outside in the lobby, you know, how long it would take from, you know, after this is approved to get our design done and get all the permits in hand. And I told them it's probably a four to six month process to get, you know, more than four, hopefully not more than six. And then beyond that, it'll probably take six to eight months for construction. So it would probably be Late 2026?

Yeah, year to year and a half, something.

Yes, sir.

Okay. It's pretty dense with trees, that whole area from what I saw today. The part of the buffer that you're saving, I can't read what the distance is that you're kind of anticipating that buffer to be.

It's 15 feet.

15 feet. Are you going to, I mean, is your plan to save trees down through there, I hope?

Yes, sir. Let's see. If you go to the first zoomed out site plan, please. Okay, so the hatching. that you see coming up and around, that's all tree safe. So our pond is on the west side there. And I wish I had brought my, on the concept plan, we actually show a limits to disturbance and it shows how much we're not disturbing. There's quite a bit of area that's even not hatched between the basketball court and the pond where we're just clearing a corridor to get our stormwater to the pond, but we're not clearing any of that area back there. That's pretty much all undisturbed with the exception of a 30-foot corridor to get our pipe down to the pond.

Okay. What about down the sides? I'm kind of concerned about the neighbors and the buffer they have now versus what's going to be there. Is it going to be natural, or do you think you're going to have to come in and berm it and plant it or do whatever?

We're showing proposed landscaping there.

Okay. Okay. You already talked about the turn lane. What's the size of y'all's congregation?

Currently, they have up to 100 members, and with the HOPE's expectation for growth, up to about 200.

And you've got, I saw you had, I think, 117 parking spaces, and you've got room for expansion if necessary, right? Yes, sir.

Okay.

All right, and we've already talked about, or they talked about, so there's no lights on the basketball courts, no lights on the playground?

No.

Okay. Okay. And we've already talked about the fund. That's all I have. Anybody else got anything?

Of course. Of course, I got some follow-up. I think you said it was 15. Your plan says it's a 20-foot buffer on each side.

Forgive me, it might be. I'm sorry, I can't see this. I can't either. Could you go to the next slide and zoom in?

I'm afraid the resolution on this is... Yeah.

Is it 30 feet, the minimum, before you can consider it tree save without surveying the trees?

Yeah, a lot of municipalities have rules where 30 feet is a minimum.

That city of Charlotte? Yes, sir. Louisa doesn't have that? No, sir. For this location, okay. All right, that's fine. The last question I had I meant to ask. So the TIA suggests that, or the preliminary analysis suggests that the TIA is not required If you've got 100, I know you're saying you're going to do the services every hour, but it just concerns me that if you've got 100 already proposed and the expansion of another 100 more, right, then that would be 200 cars for one service. And I'm just worried because that is, I mean, I drive that, what?

It would be 200 cars over four services.

And I would add that a lot of people have families, so a family of four is in one car.

Yeah.

So it's not exactly 200 cars. It's something less than that.

Yeah, and I can appreciate that. My only concern is that in a year or two, all of a sudden y'all decide that you want to start having 200 people there every hour or something. I don't know, and I'm just wondering if that – If it's just, is there any kind of restrictions we could have because no TIA is warranted on when the service is so that in a year or two they can't change when they have services and how many people that come in there because then that would kind of throw out the whole TIA approach? Is there any restrictions that we can have that would prevent Y'all changing it in a year to have 200 people.

So for last, we have been operating in Charlotte for 2009, and we have been registered as an official in 2017. And we have seen the group split between Saturday and Sunday. Some people are comfortable, some congregation members are comfortable on Saturday, some are comfortable on Sundays. So that is giving us a staggered approach, and in case Here and there we have seen, so we have hired off-duty police officers to help us in case we are expecting more members. What happens is if it's an auspicious day on a weekend, like on a Saturday, then we may expect more members, like what you are saying. Once or two times in Stallings, we have hired off-duty police officers to help us so that things are smooth and clear.

Is your concern with the turn lanes? There's two turns, a left and a right turn lane.

No, it's just that if the TIA is not warranted, I guess you're basing that TIA, what's the initial one they do to determine the warrant?

The metric that they use, transportation consultants, which I am not, I made a call to DRG, asked them what the trip count would be, which I put on the slide, and it is, the metric that they use is the square footage.

Are they staggering their traffic flows, their traffic counts, based on the services?

He did not ask me that question. I do not think so. I think that they just take, this is the square footage of this type of use, and this is what the charts say is the peak PM trip count. Okay.

Well, I guess what I'm getting at is that in a year, maybe this service, this service, and this service, we're not getting anybody, so we're just all going to start. Next thing you know, we've got 200 cars showing up for each service, which I think would throw the traffic impact analysis out. And that's fine. I'm just thinking, is there some way we can restrict, prevent traffic? them from having so many more people. I mean, you know, like I said, in two years, if it, hope it does, takes off and everybody you got, everybody in western North Carolina coming here on Sundays, Saturdays and Sundays, it would be great, but that kind of throws this whole traffic issue out because that being close to that roundabout, it can be problematic in there. So is there any kind of restrictions we can put on?

You want to restrict their congregation? They're not allowed to grow their congregation? That's what you're asking.

You can't do our invocation anymore.

But I understand what you're saying. I get it because it's really close around the roundabout.

If they get to the point where they're that large, they're going to have to relocate to another facility. They don't have any more room to grow there.

But if they've got 200 parking spaces and 200 people are showing up for each service.

If that's an issue, then yeah, but I'm not sure how we're going to restrict it. You're allowed to have your church, but you can only have this many people. You can only have services this time.

Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I'm just, like I said, I'm concerned that in two years.

It will be in one car, we might expect at least two, minimum two. So there may be not that many cars, and we are staggered for Saturday and Sunday. And once we do exceptionally well here, And we were thinking, you know, we have not decided yet. We will have another place in Concord and Statesville area because it's too far for somebody to come down here. And we have been started... Yeah, that was our plan. So we limit here because this is very green, pasturist area. We don't want to overgrow this or anything. You know, we already see Ideal Wild Road, you know, quite a busy place. So that's what we were thinking and we kept it simple here so that in case if our congregation goes at a certain point, And now if you see Mint Hill was our strategic center point location for north and south of Charlotte. So we are trying to find something very similar in Concord or Statesville area so that we can because the congregation members don't need to drive that long to attend and come to Mint Hill here. Thank you, sir.

Okay. When you say 100 members, is that 100 families or 100 members? It's a members. Oh, yeah. So that's not.

Well, no, I'm just, if you're planning on another 100-car parking expansion for a total of 200 parking spaces. Yeah. If there was a shopping center or anything else that had 200 parking spaces, I'm pretty sure that a traffic impact analysis, it would impact the roadways. So it's just, what's the need for 200 parking spaces if you're not gonna have that much of an impact?

Based on the survey, what we found was in that 117 that was listed, there are very nice oak trees, huge oak trees. So we want to save as much as possible. And we may not get 117 that we are planning in the front. We may get 90 or something. So that's why we planned additional area in the back that in case if we were to use our overflow parking, So we just wanted to use that area as an overflow parking. But if we suffice with the first one, because we found a lot of big, big oak trees. So if they are worth it to keep it, we want to keep it. So we may not get full 117 parking spaces in the front. That was the reason we want to have additional parking in the back.

OK. Yeah. And if I've got it right, you're saying there's 100 members. I mean, even if it was just two per car, that's only 50 cars, right, over a four-hour period of time?

Yeah. In that case, yes, that's the truth. So we went for a maximum so that we don't need to redo it again and all that additional work.

Okay. Anybody got anything else? All right. I'll entertain, and we have this statement we gotta read into the proposal at some point. So can I get a motion from someone?

That's a lot of reading. I'll be glad to do that, Mr. Chairman.

I'd like to make the motion for a favorable recommendation For ZC25-4, on the basis that it is consistent with the updated land use plan which designates the subject property as medium density residential, the areas consist of or can support single family detached homes and one quarter acre lots, improved open spaces in the forms of neighborhood parks and recreational amenities are interspersed. Greenway trails within Pardon me? Greenway trails within provide links to greenway trails in the area, I guess. Places of worship may be considered in the residential district through conditional rezoning process based on the information presented, interviewed in connection with this petition. ZC 25-4 is found to be reasonable and in the public interest.

All right, can I add a couple things to that before we finish the motion? All right, so that we've agreed there'll be no lights at the basketball courts or the playgrounds and that there'll be right and left turn lanes into the facility, okay? So I have a motion, can I get a second?

Second.

Any more discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstain? So the motion is, the recommendation is passed. Thank you all for your time. I'm glad the system worked this time. All right, can I, any other business? Anybody got anything? If not, I'll take a motion for an adjournment.

Motion to adjourn.

A second? Second. Second. All those in favor, aye. Aye. And we might not want to leave right now. Goodness gracious, is it pouring out there. Holy smokes. Yeah.