Planning and Zoning Meeting - Regular Meeting

Great.

Welcome. Call to order of the Morganton Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. Today is July 9th. Welcome, everyone. Thank you all for being here. We're going to start the meeting with just a disclosure of interest. This is a statement we read at the beginning of every meeting. Any member of the Commission who may have a conflict of interest or a possible conflict of interest regarding any item of business to be discussed at a Commission meeting should declare that conflict of interest to enable Commission to manage the conflict and resolve it in accordance with the regulations of the State of North Carolina. Is there anyone on the commission this evening that needs to declare a conflict? Okay, excellent seeing none. We will move on before we get into the old and new business for today. We do reserve time for public to offer any, um, they can appear before the planning commission about issues other than any of those that we already have scheduled. So, if there's anyone here who would like to comment on about things that are not currently scheduled, this is your time. Okay, seeing none, we're going to move on to old business. Excellent. Okay, our last planning board meeting was on January 28th, 2026. All of the members of the commission would have seen our previous minutes there. If there's anything anyone needs to comment or correct or review. Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to item 2 was then the review. Oh, we're on to number 2. 1st. Is that okay to do them together or they need to be individual? Yeah, you got it. No problem.

We approve.

Excellent. Do I have a 2nd? Excellent seeing to anyone everyone in favor please. Hi, anyone opposed seeing none. There we go. Okay, thank you item number 2 review of city council action since last meeting. So that was the meeting on February 2nd, 2026. Wendy, do you want to share what happened? Yes, the item went to city council and it was approved there as well. Excellent. So any questions or concerns about that? No. Oh, yes, I'll do that next. Great. So then do I have a meeting to approve?

That doesn't require approval.

Thank you. Okay. Great. We're going to move on to new business. I do want to just acknowledge we have two new members joining us on the commission for the first time this evening. So thank you both. We have Amy Jackson and Polly Ledbetter. We're really appreciative of you guys volunteering your time and energy to this. So thank you both for being here. And we also want to acknowledge Don Smith and Eric Engstrom, who have completed their term of service, who are wonderful citizens to be a part of it. So congratulations. We wish them well and appreciate all their service to the commission.

Great.

All right. We're going to move on to new business. We did have the first item of this evening has been pulled from the agenda. So we are not going to spend any time on it. If the developer does change their mind and decides to come back to the planning commission with a submission, we will then alert the public as required. But as of now, they've decided to pull that application. So we're not going to proceed with that item. Is there anything else you would want to add for that? No, it just said it was at the developer's request. Okay, great. So then we are going to move on to item number two. So item number two is a request for approval of an alternative design approval for Thrive Church to be located at 2157 South Sterling Street in regards to landscaping. So I'm going to turn it over to Wendy to share a little bit more about that item. Yes. So this site, Chad, if you can put my screen on.

It's quite a large site. Most people in the community will know it as the site of the former Pavilion Skating Rink off of South Sterling Street between Pizza Hut and there is a store here. It's the strip with the fast food and other restaurants along through it and it sits down back off the road over here. So Thrive Church has purchased the property and is in the process of procuring applications and so forth to turn that into a church body. The zoning ordinance requires certain amounts of landscaping around the site. One of those is that for a change of use, there should be a building yard landscaping where the parking... adjacent to the building so for this large parking lot that we have here where the parking is adjacent to the building there should be I believe it's five feet of landscaping due to the size normally three feet but due to the size of this building five feet of landscaping between the building and the parking spaces if they make that change i'm going to zoom in a little bit here again if you're familiar with the building there is a portico that comes out that already has posts that is a drive under portico share and the parking has been designed around that so if they shift the parking back then those posts are kind of in the middle of the drive aisle and there are people parked where you would need to drive through. There could be some quite substantial changes made to the building. The applicant has proposed, instead of putting that whole row of five feet of landscaping adjacent to the building, that would be a certain amount of shrubs, two per 10, I believe, along the front, two per 10 linear feet. that they would take some of the existing parking spaces and fill those with landscaping, be 400 square feet of landscaping. And so it would be additional landscaping to what's required. And they would actually put trees in here as well. Then that is beyond the requirements of the building yard. So I think I have a more zoomed in version here. So it would look like that. as you come through, come into the site. This part of the site is not terribly visible from the street, probably just this section in here. So the main point of the building yard is the amenity of patrons of the site. And their proposal is that this would provide the same amount of landscaping, still soften that large building. feature and be a replacement. So an alternative to that building yard requirement. Great.

Anyone have questions for me before we pass it over to the applicant? Any questions from anyone on the commission? Yeah.

Quick question. The handicapped spaces.

Yes.

The two of these would be taking the place of handicapped spaces that would be moved to the side of them. Is that?

I'm not exactly sure where the existing handicap spacing is or if it's even really shown in mobile on there, but they would be required under the building code to put in, I believe it would actually be additional handicap spaces to what they have now. So they are proposing two on either side of the door and then two across that frontage with the hatched area in there. These two are van accessible spaces. The two, sorry, the two on the, these two. I know it's not terribly clear to those of you in the, well, maybe it's more clear on your screen than it is on my screen. But these would be van accessible spaces and they would be able to have that pre-flowing cross area there. And then you would still have these other spaces there.

They'd still be the closest to the entry.

Yes, sir. Yeah.

Okay.

Great. If there's no other questions at the moment from the commission, then we will open it for public comment. So if there's anyone from the audience or the developer who wants to.

Yeah, absolutely.

If you could please state your name and address.

My name is Paul Kidd. I live at 2445 Jeans Loop in Morganton, North Carolina. I have the honor to pastor Thrive Church today. I could give you a little bit about our church, and I may do that if you all so propose. But I would like to read a statement, if that's okay, regarding this particular setup. Good evening to members of the Alternative Design Council. Thank you for the opportunity to present our request this evening. We appreciate the time and consideration you will give to each application that comes before you. Our request today is straightforward. After multiple revisions and a genuine effort to comply with the zoning ordinance exactly as written, we've reached a point where we believe an alternative design is the only practical solution that still fulfills the ordinance's primary intended purpose while allowing the site to function safely and effectively. From the beginning of this project, our church and team has worked diligently to stay within the standards established by the ordinance. We explored numerous layout modifications. Some of those are over here, because we tried to work with what we had. Adjusted parking configurations, revised landscaping, probably wore out Wendy and Michael in asking a lot of questions. And we evaluated several alternatives before arriving at the proposal we have set before you tonight. Unfortunately, strict application of every dimensional requirement left us without a competent workable design as is by ordinance. So we believe particularly important is the language of the ordinance 4.4.6 itself. It says, rather than presenting every standard as an absolute, the ordinance requires refers to the intent of what we are doing, right? To break up the big building, as Wendy just said, to soften up some of the front. And one of the requirements is to improve the appearance of building entrances, which is why we took the space right beside both sides of the portico and put some green space right there to help establish that. So instead of encouraging pedestrian traffic along the edge of the building, our design naturally directs people back towards the wider internal aisles because they cannot walk along the edge of the building anyway due to the islands and the parking. This creates a safer and more comfortable circulation pattern. This also provides the safest placement for handicap spaces, as the gentleman alluded to, to be in place as the first spaces beside the main entrance and both to the sides and to the front. So they are the closest parking spaces to the entrance. We've also substantially enhanced the landscape plan. The revised design breaks up areas that previously lacked green space by introducing multiple larger landscaped islands. We increased the total mulched landscape area from approximately 1,000 feet, which would be the five feet by, it was five feet wide by 200 feet long, it's about 1,000 square feet, to 1,440 square feet by doing what we did. We also increased the number of small shrubs, which is three to every 10 linear feet. It increased it from 70 to 76, so more shrubbery. And it also allowed us to add a large shrub and five new trees that would not have been included in the original design. So we actually are doing above and beyond, and it's more than what would have been originally required. And finally, this revised layout provides the proper spacing needed to safely accommodate the drive-through portico. So I have some illustrations just to show. If we could see the first, Chad, I know we have three particular pictures. There's one with the picture of the truck sitting in the old proposal.

The photos that were sent today?

This is the photos, yes, that were sent today.

Chad, do you have the photos that were sent today? If not, I can pull them up. Okay. Hang on. We took a picture. Can you go off my screen for a minute?

Thank you.

Sorry. Don't know what's in my emails. It might be confidential. Secretly reveal a new project. It's not ready yet. Okay. All right, if you can go back to my screen. Yeah, can you see on your screen there?

So this particular truck is parked in an as-is space. So this is where we would be if we do it the way we're proposing, being able to pull forward. This keeps you the 36 inches away from the edge of the building, et cetera, right? If we do the one where five feet by the length of the building pushes another five feet away from that building, if we can go to the second and third picture, it'll show you how in the drive aisle.

Just stay on my screen, Chad. Sorry, I've got it here.

Yes, here we go. So just showing you that this is the space away, the five feet plus the 30 inches away from the building. And then you'll see the third one. This is where it puts the back ends of vehicles in the thoroughway. You can see there's not even enough room to pull through. And so the five feet just doesn't work without... revamping the entire thing. Sure, if this was a brand new build, no doubt we would build it differently, but having to work with an existing structure, this is what we have. So for these reasons, we respectfully ask for your approval of this alternative design. We believe it not only satisfies the intent of the ordinance, but also results in a better overall project for the property and for the church. So I thank you again for your time and consideration. I appreciate the opportunity to present our request, and I would also be happy to answer any questions personally you may have.

Does anyone have any questions? Thank you very much. We appreciate your comment. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to make a statement or have any questions for us? Okay. Seeing none, I'm going to close the public comment. Great. Is there anything the Commission would like to discuss before we make a motion or not? I think my reflection is that it seems a very reasonable accommodation. I appreciate the work that sounds like the group has done along with Wendy to kind of make it work based on the building and how it was situated. And it seems a very reasonable way to, to your point, not have to totally redesign the building and make it useful. So, I, I always like to see that these buildings get reused and not have to be totally redone. So I think that's a definitely a win. Anyone else have any other? That was pretty good to everyone. Okay. As such, does anyone want to make a motion on this one? Great.

I would, acknowledging that this sounds like a tremendous improvement in the appearance of the building, I would move that the Plain Zoning Commission recommend the City Council's support for the alternative design proposal for the proposed church use at 2147 South Sterling to cluster building yard planning in five beds adjacent in existing parking spaces adjacent to the building which will include an additional 400 square feet of landscaping with a minimum of four trees instead of providing a linear line of shrubs between the building and the parking.

Great. Do I have a second?

Second.

Okay. You got it, Rick. All right. All in favor of the motion? Anyone opposed? Okay. Seeing none that passes. Excellent. All right. We will move now to our next item of business. That is the review of a major subdivision submitted by Western Carolina developers Clover Ridge subdivision. So I'm gonna turn it over to Wendy to update us on that. Yes.

So back in the 1990s, there was a subdivision that was began to be developed off of Latimer Lane, which is off of St. Mary's Church Road. about seven or eight, maybe nine lots of those were developed. And then there was a large remainder parcel that appears on GIS with these little cul-de-sacs and a road in it, but those don't actually exist. That's why we say GIS is a suggestion. It is actually, it may be two lots, but it's still one big empty parcel in there and those roads are not actual roads. They were plotted as future phases of a subdivision that did not happen. So a new developer has come in and proposed to finalize or build out that subdivision in a slightly different format with larger lots that meet today's subdivision requirements. that are a minimum of 20,000 square feet. So it would, again, sorry, this isn't, we've shifted 90 degrees to the right here, but Latimer Lane, this is Latimer Lane down here, and the existing houses here and here. And so it would continue forward north this way, and then a new street, Tyndall Circle, is assigned by... Burke County would be created over here and a total of 30 lots would be subdivided around it and set all minimum of the 20,000 square feet that's required by the zoning ordinance for zone LID. The engineering department has reviewed the plans for the water and sewer connections for the street, as well as the road design. It's a 40 foot wide street, 24 feet of pavement on water and sewer connections that meets the city requirements. And is there anything else?

Yeah, that's pretty much it. So, are they asking for any special allowances or it just is as it all would be the regular it would all fit the regulatory requirements.

The only thing they're asking is to pay the in lieu fee for the neighborhood recreation site instead of giving us a point 6 to 4 acre parcel that the city would need to take care of out there in the.

Not really.

Outer reaches of the area.

It's not really. I think the council knows my feelings on that fee. That should have been done away with years ago. It's just an extra fee that the city gets out of developers for not putting in some playground equipment that if you put it in, the neighbors hate you because it attracts all the homeless. I mean, I'm just...

Just we will take your comments on board for the video. We're in the process right now. It's perfect timing.

Yeah, this property is direct. This is literally at the edge of the city limits. Yes, sir.

So the, um, so I can turn this off and on if you can see it. Yeah, that red line. Yeah, it's on the very, very edge. Okay.

And you're saying, sorry, I might have said this, but that street does exist or does not yet exist?

It exists to the extent of the homes that are there. I see. And then that is not actually a platted road, to my understanding. Even though it appears. Even though it is drawn on GIS. The original plat, I want to see if I can look this up quickly, unless Matt knows the plat number. Is let's see.

Yeah. Are there any, um, yeah, so there was an original plat here and you'll note over here phase 1.

I'm going to zoom in because my eyesight is not quite that good anymore. Phase one is lots one to five and 49 to 60. So those are the ones that were built and the rest of it would not have been able to be finalized because it wasn't constructed. So that's where those little random cul-de-sacs come off. So it was planned. And was signed off to and intended to be done. But whatever happened shortly after that, this was signed in 91. Possibly something with the economy and so forth or house sales, et cetera. And it just didn't go forward. So the rest of that, that's why we do preliminary plats and then the final plat. So what you are being asked to approve tonight is probably a good teaching lesson. Education is the preliminary plat, which is this. But you don't sign the final plat until it's built. So this is kind of a mix of that and probably shouldn't have had the rest of that on there, but they did mark it as phases.

Are there any more additional? Yes. Any floodplain or slope issues on this property?

No, not that I'm aware of for this.

Okay. If there's no other questions from the commission, I will open up to public comment. Does anyone want to make a statement or? Speak anything about this? Okay. Okay. Then we'll close public comment. Easy. Great. Any additional questions or concerns? Sounds like there's no real. No real issues that you're finding from your team. Great. They seem confident. It can be built as proposed. Excellent. If there's no further questions, do I have a motion?

Mr. Torpero?

Oh, great. Will you please read the motion? Sure. Sure.

Planning Zoning Commission recommends to the City Council support the proposed subdivision of 309 Latimer Lane pin 1794175020 and 0 Latimer Lane pin 1794175470 to create 30 lots as a preliminary plan meets all subdivision ordinance requirements including minimum lot size and lot access as referenced in the zoning ordinance.

Thank you. Do you have a second? The 2nd, great all those in favor any opposed. Okay. Seeing none so fast. Great. Excellent. That concludes our new business items. So we're going to move on to other items of discussion and we have the updates.

Do you want to share with us about those? So we've had some of our first rounds of consultation on that. We had some lots, actually, of individual stakeholder consultation with different groups, with all of yourselves, with city council, with board of adjustment, as well as with local developers, local property owners, real estate agents, the downtown committees. landscapers, architects, people that are involved in environmental programs and things through our organizations throughout the city. So we had lots of consultation with them. Then on Thursday, the 25th of June, we had in this room a public workshop, open house discussion, and we had about 50 some people attend that. to give feedback on a variety of things. We focused on landscaping, on lot sizes at that, as well as just general comments. We then went to the TGIF event, and we actually made it until 8.30 before it rained. So that was a good three hours of consultation there with kind of a different group of people that probably weren't expecting to go out that night and talk about zoning and subdivision and landscaping and all of that. which is good because we want the people that aren't necessarily going to come here for those. They are also clearly people that are using our town because they are on our town square on Friday night. So it was great to get a perspective and in some cases a different perspective than the people that had come here that evening.

How many people talked to you there?

I'd say probably about 30, 35 or so on there. It was pretty good when the music was on. It was kind of loud at times. But, you know, some of us kind of lost our voice there trying to talk to people. But, yes, there was some participation there as well. uh the next upcoming we also had our first advisory committee meeting and thank you if you're not aware there are four members of this commission that are on the advisory committee so leave they and i pete wallace aaron kaiser and judy francis are your representatives on there But there will be multiple opportunities for P&Z and City Council to also be involved in the consultation throughout that process. The next step is our consultants are continuing to review the five or six different ordinances that we're having reviewed. To give us some comments on that, we've definitely, and this is for the public as well, we know there are some things that aren't our favorite about the ordinance or maybe confusing and so forth. So... There are already things flagged by staff as well that we would like to clarify in some ways or maybe update. So we are at that point in the process. Currently, the next scheduled community event is, I believe, I'm going to say this wrong. It's either August 12th. I've got a little calendar here. August 11th or August 12th. Let me see which day of the week that is. I believe it's August 11th on the Tuesday night rather than the 12th, but it could be August 12th. Watch social media and our city website. The city website will actually, Chad, can you bring my screen back up? So if you go to the city of Morganton website and you scroll down here to news and announcements for the life of this project, this third column and news and announcements will be about the UDO process. You can read more about that. And this is about the consultation that we just had here, but there is a website that is dedicated. to the UDO. There's some information. There's a lot of information up front at the moment. People remind them what they did with the comprehensive plan and so forth. There's a map down here where you can give us your input. You tell us about the places you like, areas that could be improved, where local development regulations played a role in their experience. I think you can see what other people have said. What's good for the city needs to update this facility to be compliant with the new UDF that is part of the plan There you can drop your own pin on there Over here you should be able to see the boards that we had up at the public workshop If you weren't able to come or so forth and you want to make comments There are so for example weren't here here with some of the landscape testing do you want a little bit do you want a whole lot somewhere in the middle different types of that um they're in our foyer of city hall um we have several of the boards we have the board with the timing on it the kind of what's happening here we have a board Where people, the one about the barriers to development, post-its, things you can write on there if there are things that people are finding this just makes it difficult for them to develop. And then there is also the QR code so they can go and scan and find out more information about that. Following the August consultation, we will have a booth at the festival. We would like some volunteers from the PNZ committee to help staff for an hour or two each on that. Just throwing that out there. And that will be on from Friday afternoon, what starts at 12 to 1 a.m. on Friday and then from Saturday morning on through as well. That will be a lot of the bulk of. the consultation at the beginning to get some ideas if we find there are issues that we're just really not sure what the public is wanting or how this is laying out. We may have other public consultation events. We may have other pop-ups. If there is information that as we're working through it, we're like, well, really, which way do we want to go on that? There may be other consultation. But following that, they will start producing revised chapters for the advisory committee to review, for staff to review, and to provide comments on and start putting a document together slowly over time. That's where we are at the moment. Any questions about any of that? I realize I turned my head to look at you and it may or may not be picking up with the microphone.

Thank you. Yeah, no problem. It's there. There's a great group of consultants and a very robust process. So I'm encouraged that we're going to make some good updates to the code.

I was pleased with the makeup of the advisory board.

Yeah.

I thought it was a really well-balanced. I'm a grump. You know, if I was pleased, you know, I was pretty good. It's high standards. It's a board of grumps. Yeah.

All right. Well, I believe that concludes our agenda for this evening. There's nothing else. So I will adjourn us. Our next scheduled meeting will be here Thursday, August 13th at 515. If we have items to review, we'll see you then.

Excellent.