Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

It's 06:00 according to Garmin time, so we'll open our planning board meeting for this evening. Welcome, everyone. Thank you for being here. If you would bow with us in prayer, we'll get the meeting open. Father in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity to be in front of you tonight. We thank you for the day you've provided us and what you're praying forth every day and allow us to have and to enjoy. We pray that you'll be with us in the decisions we make, that you give us guidance and direction, and we thank you for being able to serve the public that we care for, and we thank you for the great town that you've provided us with in this nation. We ask that you keep us, guide us, and lead us. In Christ's name I ask. Amen.

Amen. And if you'd stand with us for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America the and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Well, thank you again for being here this evening. We welcome you and I have a few opening comments to read here as we get the meeting started.

First is regarding our public comment. At our first meeting each month, we set aside some time to allow public comment from our citizens or anyone wanting to address the board. Each speaker is given three minutes in which to comment. Speakers are expected to be civil and respectful to the board in their language and presentation. It is the board's practice not to respond or engage in conversations with anyone who speaks in order to give the speaker the full amount of time to voice their concern.

If you raise a matter you would like addressed either by the board or by town staff, please leave your name and contact information with the board's administrative assistant, miss Smith, and someone will contact you regarding that. Please understand that state law prohibits us from discussing employee personnel matters with you directly. Public comment is part of a public hearing. Unlike public comment regarding general matters held at the beginning of our first meeting of the month, public comment is part of a public hearing is meant to specifically address a particular agenda item being considered by the board. Those wishing to speak must sign up prior to the meeting online or by calling the town clerk.

The public hearing entails a staff presentation of fifteen minutes and the applicant presentation of fifteen minutes with both staff and applicant having additional time to address any questions from the board. At the end of these presentations, I will call on the citizens who have signed up prior to the meeting. Each speaker from the public will have three minutes to speak and may not bank or lend time to another unless four or more people supporting the same position have designated a single speaker to represent them. In such case, the designated speaker will be given six minutes to speak to the board. The total time for public comment will be limited to thirty minutes or the first 10 speakers, whichever occurs first.

Once public comment ends, the applicant will have five minutes for rebuttal. I don't believe we had anyone signed up for general public comment tonight. So I'll ask, are there any adjustments to the agenda? Okay. Then can I have have a motion for the adoption of the agenda as presented? No. Motion from Ms. Temple? Motion from Mr. Red Arrow? All in favor? Aye. Do have a motion for the approval of minutes?

So moved.

I have a motion for Mr. Cole. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Ms. Temple. All in favor? Ask if there's any old business. Being none, we'll move to new business, which is item nine a. And that's to consider a re a zoning request from planning community development. To adopt an ordinance rezoning request R Z 2026 Dash 0 two or point o one nine acre site located located on William Street.

Good evening, board.

Good evening. How are you doing this evening?

Very well. Thank you, sir. Defer to miss Austin.

At the beginning of each meeting, we go over the scope of municipal authority. North Carolina is a hybrid state and we are as a municipality only given the authority to act from the state. There are home rule states and dual rule states. We are a hybrid. The home rule states have broad powers to make their own rules, but in dual rule states, you can only exercise the powers that are expressly granted to you as a municipality, those that are necessarily or fairly implied or incident to the powers expressly granted or that are essential to the municipality's purpose.

North Carolina is neither of these. They are it is a hybrid and we can only act within the authority granted specifically. It's very narrowly tailored. You can see that our legislature is the one provides us that power. We have no inherent authority of our own.

And we also the state legislature controls whether a county or the municipality has authority over certain governmental functions. For example, our county has exclusive authority over our schools and social services and we cannot charge impact fees and we can so we can only do things that are within our power specifically.

Okay. Now I'd like to go over our land development overview. A by right or base district development is all land that's eligible to be developed under local zoning regulations, which establishes permitted uses, densities, and other associated development standards. Development complying with existing zoning is approved administratively by staff. Right or base district rezonings request to be zoning to a base district.

Such requests require approval by the Town Board however, no conditions may be added. This is what we'll be hearing for this case. Rezoning, you can have a conditional rezoning. Developers may voluntary enter into a conditional zoning district to restrict uses, densities, and other site features as depicted on a concept plan. Conditions may include site enhancements or community benefits, for example, increased conditional rezonings may require approval by the Board of Commissioners and become binding through a site specific ordinance approved by the Commissioners and affidavit signed by the property owner. I'm here to present R Z 2026 Dash 02, Heritage Crossing. My name is Ashley Latton.

I'll ask the board if there might be any conflict of interest from any board member in this matter.

No.

Thank you very much. And proceed, miss

Thank you, sir. RZ2026Dash2HeritageCrossing, is a request to rezone 0.19 acres from TN District to the RG District. The smaller parcel is the one we're going to rezone. So, it's that little gold rectangle, if you will, on the left. They're truly asking to rezone a line of trees. They will later recombine this to the larger parcel that's already zoned RG. The strategic priority area is the individual and economic economic vitality, with the strategic plan goal of supporting development of housing, employment, and educational choices to support economic sustainability. The owner is Habitat for Humanity with the applicant being Mal Riesler. The location is the corner of Williams Street and Selma Drive. The size is point one nine acres, and the voting ward is number two.

Here's a site photo. So you can kind of see where the corner I don't know if you've driven over there to take a look. But at the corner of Selma Drive, there's the tree is no longer there, but there's a little, little, little strand of trees. And they're just asking to rezone that one sliver so that they can combine it to the other to make it develop. The site history. The site is currently zoned TN. It's requesting to be zoned to the neighboring RG to allow for consistent zoning across the project site. This site does lie within the WS-two balance of the Back Creek Watershed, restricting impervious coverage to 30% with appropriate storm water control measures. As you can see that there's TN and RG, along with a little bit of conditional zoning up top. The Future Land Use Plan indicates that this area is designated as town residential.

And the site is located within Tier one of the Growth Map, which is designated as a priority area for utility growth. The site is compatible with existing land uses, creating a logical transition and orderly development pattern. The property is currently zoned for medium density residential, and the request is to align with that adjacent RZ zoning. Site is consistent with the future land use character map being designated as town residential, and the site is within the four mile fire response coverage area. Are there any questions? I can happy to answer any questions. I also have the applicant here with a short presentation if you care to hear it.

Alright. Certainly. Well, thank you very much. Were there any questions for miss Latton while she's voting? And if the applicant would like to come.

And if you'd please just state your name and address.

Good evening. My name is John Floyd. I'm an attorney with Moore and Ben Allen in Charlotte. My business address is 100 North Tryon Street, Suite 4700, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Thank you very much.

I'm here tonight on behalf of Habitat for Humanity. I'm joined by members of the Habitat team, including Jennifer Morell, who's Habitat's director of land acquisition and development. I don't have a lot to add beyond what miss Latton presented. It's pretty straightforward rezoning of two tenths of an acre. Maybe the smallest rezoning I've done in my career, maybe the smallest rezoning you guys have handled.

The parcel's located at the corner of Selma Drive and William Street. This area just, again, emphasizes the the small nature of it. It's that tiny sliver of land that we're talking about, and Habitat actually owns the piece to the right of that. And so the the goal here is kind of combine everything. So you've got one, you know, consistent uniform standard of zoning across that entire parcel.

This slide shows the zoning in the area. As miss Latton pointed out, the parcel we're talking about is kind of right on the border between the residential general districts and the traditional neighborhood districts. So, know, making a change on that one small parcel, it's still contiguous to other residential general district property and it's consistent with what's in the vicinity. This is a slide just showing the the comparison between the two districts. The residential general that we're looking to to change to is what I would call more restrictive.

You've got larger lot sizes, larger setbacks, lower density, and that sort of thing. So we're not going for a more intense use. I'll add, I looked through the use table and the one use that I could find that is allowed in residential general and not allowed in traditional neighborhood is a golf course. And don't think we're getting a golf course on that two tenths an acre. As miss Latton pointed out, we think this is consistent with Mooresville's comp plan.

You know, it's residential going in the town residential area. And so, you know, we meet that general consideration for a rezoning. And that's really it. Again, pretty straightforward. Happy to answer any questions anybody has, but we're just two tenths of an acre from RG or from TN to RG.

Well, thank you very much. Were there any questions from the board?

I Thank you all.

I think it looks pretty simple just like you stated. Thank you. Thanks. I will both open and close the public comment portion because we have no one signed up to speak. Alright.

And with that, is there any discussion or if not, then we are open for a motion.

Make a motion to recommend to the town approve the board approve r z twenty twenty six zero two as the proposal is consistent with the town town's one Mooresville comprehensive plan, specifically rezoning sorry. Rezoning the subject property on William Street to residential general appropriately extends the adjacent zoning district on future character and land use map designation to town residential, which identifies duplexes as primary uses in this area. Furthermore, the proposal is reasonable and in the public interest because it provides a logical and orderly transition between a higher the higher density multifamily development to the West and a lower density single family uses to the south, north, and east lines with tier one growth policies and supports continued residential growth within this Eastern Mooresville residential corridor.

Thank you very much, mister Fred Arup. We have a motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. Second from mister Mack. All in favor? Aye. With that, the motion carries and we'll recommend to the town town board to adopt it as well.

Thank you.

Thank you. We'll move located at 123 Dooley Road.

Good evening, everybody. My name is Patrick Warner with the planning community development department. Again, presenting CZ202606 for 123 Dooley Road.

I'll ask the board members if there are any conflict of interest in this matter. Being none,

mister Warner, please proceed. Alrighty. So the request before you this evening is to rezone from Iredell County general business conditional use district to town of Mooresville conditional community commercial. This request will allow the existing personal vehicle repair and maintenance business to extend utilities after taking four right away due to the N C one fifty widening project. The rezoning request aligns with the town's strategic priority area of individual and community economic vitality by supporting the strategic plan goal to assist sustainable business growth by leveraging local strengths and identifying new market opportunities for expansion.

Quick overview of the property. The owner is Amcar LLC. The applicant with me this evening is Jacob Einwechter. Again, the location is 123 Dooley Road, approximately 8.37 acres, and resides within voting Ward 4 if annexed. Here is a current site photo of the existing personal vehicle repair and maintenance facility, as shown with two different tenant suites.

Some highlights about the site. The subject property is currently in the county, and is located approximately 600 feet south of the intersection of River Highway and Perth And Dooley Road. The site is a developed commercial use and is located within an area characterized by an established commercial development corridor. The site is designated as neighborhood residential residential and is located within a village center node. Additionally, utility extension is necessary to allow the business to continue operations as due to an NCDOT encroachment in preparation of the NC 150 widening project that we're all well aware of here in Mooresville, which impacted the business's Leachfield.

The remaining area that is suitable for relocation of the Leachfield conflicts with the required separation required by NCDO DEQ from the existing well zone in the rear of the property. Here on the screen is an exhibit provided to us by NCDOT that outlines the taking that was for the property. This is found as Attachment 12 in your packet. Additionally, Attachment 11 is the deed that indicates this right of way taking. Zooming in just a little bit here, the widening here extends down approximately 1,500 feet south of the NC 150 And Dooley Perth Road Intersection.

The taking is to allow vehicles to access Perth Road from NC 150 headed east when they're going towards 77. The required neighborhood meeting was held in person at the subject property 02/03/2026. All five neighboring parcel owners were properly notified. However, no community members attended. Staff has found that all map amendment standards have been met as the site is consistent with being a growth area for utility connections within tier two.

The site is compatible with existing land uses, creating a logical transition and orderly development pattern. The existing land use is consistent with the future character and land use map, identified as a secondary use within neighborhood residential. And the site can be serviced by public safety services and town utilities. Happy to answer any questions and the applicant is here with me as well to answer any questions.

Thank you, mister Warner. Any questions for staff on this? One

question. I see that in our proposed motions, you guys gave us three options. Is that so one of them is proposing as presented and the other was just put it in the order mixed use larger

yes I can provide some context to that so project needs to be annexed, we must assign a zoning. So, the site cannot be remain unzoned. So, if the Board tonight recommends denial of the corridor conditional corridor excuse me, conditional community commercial, the board can recommend an alternative by right zoning of corridor mixed use, which also aligns with the existing business and some of the surrounding land uses as well.

Thank you. Absolutely.

Any additional questions or any discussion on that, miss Temple? Did the applicant wish to give a presentation or speak on it or just available for questions if needed?

Available for questions as needed.

Any questions that the board might propose to the applicant? Think you satisfied those. Perfect. If there's no further discussion then we would be well, first let me go through I don't believe we had I'll open and close public comment portion because we had no one on this either, did we? That's what I thought. Mister Warner?

Mister Einwechter, would you join us here at the podium to agree to the conditions?

Oh, sorry. Miss Allison.

Good evening. I'm Jacob Einwechter. I currently reside in Charlotte, North Carolina, 425 Wilcox Street, and I'm also the, managing partner of Amcar LLC. So, yeah. I guess if it helps me give any context here, essentially, it's been a struggle with the NCDOT taking our land as Ms.

Latton pointed out to me from her experience with them it's not usually a conversation it's a taking so right now we're in a bit of a bind and it's causing a health and safety issue as Mr. Werner mentioned if we end up having to put our leach field near the well. So anything that allows us to do that swiftly and keep our tenants in business would be very much appreciated and very helpful. I certainly understand.

Have you been have you been able to look over the ordinance, the proposed ordinance, and the conditional uses that

Yes, ma'am.

That are proposed?

Yes, ma'am.

And I

agree to with those.

Yeah.

Okay. Thank you.

Any questions while the applicant's here? And thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Thank you

very much.

If there's no further discussion, then we have motion. Mister Cole?

I make a motion to recommend the town approve CZDash202606 as the proposal is consistent with the town's one Moorsville comprehensive plan specifically rezoning 123 Dooley Road to conditional community commercial compatible with the existing commercial use on the site is consistent with the recommended secondary uses within the designated nodal centers of neighbor neighborhood residential. Additionally, the site is identified within the tier two of the town's tiered growth designated as a utility growth area. The proposal is reasonable in the city and in the public interest because it provides logically an orderly extension of utilities to an area characterized by established commercial uses in close proximity proximity to busy and predominantly commercial corridor.

So we have a motion a motion from mister Cole to approve under option one. Do I have a second for that

motion? Second.

I have a second for miss Smith. All in favor? Aye. None opposed? So we would recommend as well to the town board approval.

Okay. We'll move to item nine c at this time, which is to consider a request from planning community development department to adopt an ordinance approving text amendment TA two zero two six dash o one. Amendment to the Unified Development Ordinance revising language relating to CBD, vape, and or tobacco shop definitions and use standards.

Good evening. I'll be presenting TA twenty six zero one. This does support our strategic priority area of safety and well-being for all. And our strategic plan to support forward thinking and learning to provide relevant cutting edge services. The applicant is the town of Mooresville.

The topic is CBD vape and or tobacco shops, and the purpose is to amend the UDO to clarify CBD vape and tobacco top shop definitions and use standards. To start with our current definition of CBD vape and or tobacco shops is a business that devotes at least 50% of the gross floor area to the sale or display of tobacco, vaping products, or CBD oils, and other consumable hemp derived commodities that are permitted under state law. Under our current use standards, there are three. The first is no lot, parcel, or tract of real property upon which a CBD vape and or tobacco shop is situated shall be located within a thousand feet of any religious assembly, day care, or park, public park, or recreation facility. Furthermore, no CBD vape and or tobacco shop shall not be located within one mile of any public or private school property line.

Second, indoor smoking lounges shall be prohibited. And finally, outdoor display sales and or outdoor storage accessory uses are prohibited. Revising this definition so we will have a primary use and accessory uses. The primary use would be a business that devotes any sale area or display area of tobacco, vaping products, or CBD oils, and other consumable hemp derived commodities that are permitted under state laws. The first accessory or use when the sale of gasoline is the primary use, no more than 5% of the gross sales area may be devoted to the sale of tobacco, vaping products, CBD oils, and other hemp derived commodities permitted under state law.

The second access or use would be grocery stores and supermarkets where their primary use is the retail sale of food and household goods, may sell tobacco, vaping products, CBD oils, and other, consumable hemp derived commodities permitted under state law provided such products remain incidental to the primary grocery use and do not constitute a primary principle business activity limited again to no more than 5% of the gross sales area. We also have two additional use standards we will be adding. The first, no CBD vape and or tobacco store may be located within a thousand feet of another CBD vape or tobacco shop. And the second, that only one shop would be allowed on any parcel regardless of that size. Happy to answer any questions you guys might have.

Thank you, mister Coley. Any questions?

Just generally, what does this do for us?

So we have a lot of these stores that are kind of popping up that have less than 50% of the gross four areas, so they are not designated as these types of stores. They are more in that convenience store kind of category. So it'll help tighten some of those restrictions and eliminate the subjective nature of it as well with the percentage.

So we have stores now in Mooresville that are not

That sell these products without being classified. So it it would it's a requirement that they be located in our community commercial district and that they have a special use permit if they qualify. So if they are greater than that 50%. However, if you stay under that 50%.

5%.

No. The 50% are current definition.

Yes. So, under the new definition, what happens?

So, all of the ones that already exist would be grandfathered in but any new ones, if they are designated as a CBD shop, would have to go through that special use permit, and they would have to be located in that community commercial district.

Gotcha. Thank you. Mhmm.

Yes. Any additional questions?

The 5%, is that is that square feet?

So that would be a gross sales area. So that is the sale area, and that is one one of the things we talked about with one of our convenience store owners that we know locally, and that was an more inadequate for him. So, like, the cigarettes behind the counter in the convenience shop gas station.

Yeah. Yep.

And I don't believe we have anybody in the public on this too. So I'll open and close any public comment portion. If there's any additional discussion, if not, then we're open for a motion.

Have one question.

Yes.

Where supports will fall on the scale of other North Carolina towns with

The regulations? So they're kind of all over the place. Nobody's figured out, like, a silver bullet for the issue kind of locally. We looked at eight other municipalities and kind of cherry picked from from theirs.

Okay. I think we're always open to hearing about it.

Yeah. Well, I think we've been navigating this or at least having some discussions here past year or so.

Would you say these are these are you know, they're they're they're tighter than the current definition. Would you say they're comfortably or uncomfortably tight?

Comfortably tight? I think that this is one of those things that as federal laws change might not even be necessary at all. But as we continue to go down this road, it might be something we need to revisit in six months or a year or, you know.

I I know a little bit about this space and it's the current law is nobody knew what they were doing when it was written. And so you could go in and buy products that are technically compliant with the state law that are No they're not. Well with the federal law. Sorry. So

That's a

so that I don't wanna go down that rabbit hole.

Point is it's tight.

No, I agree.

I'm agree. I hope we can tighten it down as much as possible. Yeah.

And I think my point was, you know, if you have to bring some emotion to us next month about this, we'll hear it again.

Yes.

So

this this is on the town board agenda for Monday as well. So this is a very short window between the two. Okay.

If this is as tight as we can make it, then so be it.

And just so I understood the answer to the question is that it's not 5% of the square footage. The percentage is based on gross sales.

Sales area. So if it's a warehouse with a small area up front, which we also have where, you know, if you have 10,000 square feet, 50% is a really big area.

Yeah. I'll point out that it's any the the 5% only applies to the convenience stores and grocery

stores.

For the accessory uses. Correct.

So those are the accessory uses. It's every other business, it's any sale. So that is as pretty much as tight as you can get it.

Okay. Any additional discussion? If not, then we're open for a motion.

I'll make a motion.

I recommend approval of the proposed text. Make a motion to recommend approval of t eight twenty twenty six zero one. The amendment is consistent with the town one Morsal's plan. Specifically, the amendment provides a better definition and additional use standard for the regulation of these businesses. Furthermore, the text is reasonable and in public interest as it clarifies the definitions as primary and secondary and includes for additional new standards to better regulate these businesses.

So we have a motion to approve option one from mister Mac. Do we have a second?

Second.

I have a second from miss Temple. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much, mister Coley. Absolutely.

I might mention I saw that you had a where there there's an error in our current UDO. Might be great to fix that.

Fix that too.

Since we're fixing it. Absolutely. Anyway, since we're amending it.

Yep. We'll

move to item 10, which are administrative items.

We have none for you this evening.

Oh, none this evening. Okay. Then we'll move to item 11, which is adjournment. Oh,

mister Cole. I've been holding myself back.

He just had to get in there in the nick of time.

I might I might have thought of the answer when I was in the shower, but I'm still gonna ask. Why are these now redacted?

Because we have had a several of our applicants have come through, and the information has been skimmed. And they have been getting fraudulent requests for payment by wire. So we are trying to hide that information by redacting it so that it will avoid them potentially getting scammed.

Like their application information?

Yes. Well, just the email addresses, phone numbers, that all

of them. Yeah. Which is on it. Yeah. Mhmm. Okay.

That's the only information that's been redacted. If anybody would like it, you can we can provide that to you or they can No. I understand. Get it through a couple of records request.

Trying to accomplish by that?

Yes. There been several that were very close to wiring money because they wanted to keep applications alive. We've been very lucky that most people have called us to make sure that we accept wired money, and we do not.

Wow. That's good. That's very good. Interesting to note. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Anytime. And with that, then we'll move for a motion to adjourn. Mister Red Arrow, second? Okay. Mister Brett's? All in favor? And we are adjourned.