Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Hey, we're live. Bang the gabble. Um, I want to go ahead and call the um Wednesday, November 19th of 2025 planning commission u meeting to order. If I could start with a roll call from my left, please. Aaron Slade, Ed Harbison, Jesse Elliot, Lisa Christie, Kelsey Wad, and I am Bob Bigger, the vice chair, filling in for Dr. Crawford, who is our chair and is absent this evening? Uh, thank you very much. Uh, we will move into the approval of the minutes from the October 15, uh, 2025 regular meeting. Um, has everybody had a chance to review those minutes? Any comments, questions, changes?

I'll make a motion to approve. A motion uh to approve um for Mr. Elliott. Second. Second from Miss Slade. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Nope. Right. Minutes are approved. Um moving into the confirmation of agenda. Mr. Paradise, is there any changes to the agenda for this evening's planning commission session? No, sir.

All right. Thank you very much. And we will move into uh our first agenda item. Uh this is PPM25-00001. Uh this is a major subdivision prelim preliminary plat modification. Uh request by Rushing Waters LLC to modify the major subdivision preliminary plat for Rushing Waters phase 3. This will change from town homes to single family detached lots. Uh the request affects approximately 20.5 acres located on Montana Loop zoned R5 mixed residential. Uh, and the tax partial number is 011-09-01-049. Um, Mr. Paradise, is there anything else we need to know about this um request?

Uh, yes, sir. Just as as background, um, you may want to mark this date because that's the first time, my recollection, that a developer has requested to reduce the number of lots. Um but basically back in 2021 uh the planning commission approved 178 single family attached homes to be built in phase three. 68 of those are under construction. Uh the applicant wishes to modify the game plan for the other half and basically go to single family detached. Um and he would replat the northern section and have 63 uh single family detached lots. Uh this would reduce the lots in phase 3 by 47. So you go from 178 to 131. You would reduce the density from 4.75 dwelling units per acre to 3.5 dwelling units per acre. And I would also add that all of the required traffic improvements that was required for the previous plan already in place. And um you have any questions for me? I I will go through this right quick. Um you see kind of the area there where the development is zoning where which lots were changing. Now these are R5 lots though so I don't want to misrepresent anything. It's still going to be a small lot. Um, but that that's pretty much it. Any questions for me. Um, just in regards to the um

proceedings, um, there's not a public session on this. We're just uh um voting or do we have a a public comment section? You you should ask if there's any public comments.

Um, again, for those in the audience, uh, um, we will invite the applicant up to speak. Um after the applicant speaks and uh we have questions from the council um and from the commission we will um open up for public comment. If there's anybody here to provide public comment uh we'll ask you to come to the microphone and and state your comments and uh um and then we'll have the uh the applicant come back and respond to any questions from from the audience. So with that we'll invite the applicant to come forward. Please come up and um tell us your name and address please for the record. Good evening. Philip Green, 1233 Augusta West Parkway, Augusta 30907. Um the engineer of record for this project on behalf of uh Rushing Waters LLC. Um as Mr. Paradise stated, we are requesting a reduction from 110 town homes to 63 single family detached lots. Uh changing in market conditions have led us to go away from town homes at this time. Um obviously all the infrastructure is in it's the lots are pretty much graded as is. Um we will have to work with the uh water and sewer department utilities department to adjust the water and sewer cap the services that aren't being used. Um got that addressed on the plans and I've talked to Mr. Caesar about that. Um yeah it's pretty straightforward. Again, we're just uh requesting a a reduction in density and number of lots. Is there any questions you might any questions of the commission? If you'll have a seat though, we'll open for public comment real quick. Is there anyone from the uh community that has a question or a comment at this time? Seeing none, um any other questions or discussion from the uh um commissioners?

Accept a motion. If no other questions, I'll make the motion to approve the major subdivision modification for PPM25-001 with the condition that all staff comments be addressed prior to a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Miss Wadell. Um, all those in favor? I opposed passes. um business meeting. Is that all we go? That's it. Business. Thank you for coming, Mr. Green. Yes, sir.

All right. It's the uh um most fun time of the year. Uh our business meeting, uh the election of officers. I want to open up for a nomination. If anybody is interested in um volunteering to serve as chair or vice chair, please um acknowledge and we will get you nominated. Mr. Chair, yes.

Um I would add that Dr. Crawford is not here tonight. Um whenever I was talking to her for the meeting, I asked her if she would serve as a chair if she was nominated and elected and she was willing to do that. Now, I'm not trying to weigh y'all, but just so that y'all have that in in your information. That's that is good information to know. Thank you very much for sharing that. I'd like to nominate Dr. Christine Crawford. We have an a a nomination for the um chair uh for Dr. Crawford. Do we vote for these separately or do we put a slate together for um Mr. Chairman? Either way you want to do it. Well, we'll go ahead and vote for the chair. All those in favor of Dr. Crawford, say I.

I. That was easy. All right. So, we need a vice chair. I'd like to nominate Bob Bigger. Second. We have a first and a second for um myself as vice chair. All those in favor say I. I.

That was quick and easy. Thank you very much. Passed unanimously. Um with myself abstaining. Um perfect. We have the slate of uh we'll continue for next year with Dr. Crawford's leadership. uh uh her much appreciated leadership and appreciate her not um taking more than two nights off per um staff report. Uh Tommy, we appreciate your department. Uh what all you've been doing? Um any updates on what's coming down the pipeline? Well, the one thing that um do want to remind you of is December the 3 and 6 pm here in the um conference room behind you, we'll have training. Uh it'll mainly be about economic development what I've got slated. It seemed to be the most modern um topic that they had that I could pair a couple together and get three hours. I know I could have done some that would have been four and I know y'all would have enjoyed it, but you know I have a long date so I don't I cheated you out of that other hour feeling.

Yes, ma'am. 6 p.m. 6 to9. Oh. Oh, yeah. So, is there right an adoption of the 26 calendar? Um, correct. We need to do that. knew there was something. Is that as simple as staying on uh approving to stay on the same nights and times or do we need We have a schedule in your agenda packet. It's back there. Yeah. And uh if if you want to look through that and if that is good, then we just need a motion, a second, and a vote. I'll make a motion to approve calendar schedule. Motion from second and a second. All those in favor?

I thank you. Um any other business discussion?

Can I bring something up? And this is just sort of I guess for us to ponder on. Um we're well aware of you know the community doesn't like the clear cutting that's happening and we have obviously have to go by what's in the code and there's so many things that we can and can't do when we approve these things. Um when I lived in Aken um years ago I bought a house that was kind of up on a hill and I worked for a builder developer. I I understood how that worked and below me, they were going to develop that land in the future. And I knew that, but where the trees were that backed up to my property weren't in the footprint of the of the houses that were going to be built. And um I never even put curtains on my back windows because I just had treetops I was looking out on my back. Um and we found out that they were going to start clearing and developing and they were going to take all the trees out. So we went to Aken County Council and just said, "Hey, can you can you save these 100 foot tall trees that are not in the footprint of these properties that were kind of on a hill to probably help stop erosion?" And council went out, looked at everything, and they were like, "We we can't stop at this time, but we can maybe stop it in the future." And they actually changed the code that if it was x amount of feet, you know, if it wasn't in the footprint of something, is it something that they could, you know, keep it in on the on the land without stripping it bare. So, I'm just pitching that out there. I think there there could be something um without impeding builders or development where we could preserve a little bit of what we are lo I mean, I hear it. I know you guys hear it. So, just throwing that out there. don't know what the steps are, but um yeah,

thank you for that comment. Uh anything else? A motion to adjurnn? Yeah, Mr. Chairman, is that something that the commission as a body no offense miss as a body would like information on for the next meeting? Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. Yes. need to check that box. Yes. Motion to dismiss.