Board of Commissioners (boc) - Regular Meeting

Good evening.

Welcome to the Board of Commissioners meeting for the Town of Pittsboro for August 10th, 2026. I will call the meeting to order and we'll start with a moment of silence. Please join me.

Judge Frederick Aguirre-Hell, I saw agents.

Judge Frederick Aguirre-Hell, When everyone rise for the pledge.

Judge Frederick Aguirre-Hell, of the United States of America. Judge Frederick Aguirre-Hell, Which stands.

Judge Frederick Aguirre-Hell, Invisible. Judge Frederick Aguirre-Hell, Thank you.

Thank you. We have the regular agenda and consent agenda that was distributed prior. Are there any changes or additions to either? All right. I'll take a motion to adopt the agenda.

I'll move.

Thank you, Commissioner Farrell.

I would like to talk about the quarterly financials.

Okay, we can do that on that item. Well, it's on its information anyway, so we can talk.

Okay, good.

Thank you. No, I second. All right. Second, Commissioner Foley. Any other discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion passes, and I'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Thank you, Commissioner Farrell. Second.

Second.

Thank you, Commissioner Thurber. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Thank you.

up next are information items are there any questions about information items yeah report 3.1 town of pittsburgh financials i just have a few questions about the financials okay So just a couple of clarification questions so I understand it. So if we're looking at the income statement account summary, that very first page under general fund, right at the bottom, our original 14.1 and now it's 19. And I see that there's a bunch of changes in it. And maybe we can walk through three of them. Maybe you can help me with the definition there. So one by one.

Okay. So loan proceeds was our loan for the Raffi building plus

How much was the Raffi sale?

1.4.

1.4. So we have a difference.

Right. The loan for the Raffi though was 1.05. Okay, good. And then the remainder was the equipment loan.

So the equipment loan.

785.

7855 I see it there. So that's truck equipment.

Yeah, it was police vehicles and truck equipment.

Okay, wonderful. And then the sale of fixed assets. We just talked about that, right?

The sale of fixed assets was the part of the property back to Chatham Park. The park's land back to Chatham Park was the majority of that. There's been other smaller sales of some vehicles that we have that are out of use. We've sold the police vehicle, at least one or two that are older vehicles that we've sold.

Okay. Thank you.

And then the fund balance, we did not use any of the fund balance appropriated.

So tell me about that.

So, due to the fact that our revenues came in higher than we budgeted, we did not have to use any of the funds that we had budgeted from fund balance.

And most of those revenues came from.

So 1 was the, um. So there were increases in so, um. You'll see that we exceeded revenues to date on property taxes, motor vehicle taxes, our utility franchise taxes.

This is growth, is what you're saying?

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah. And these revenues are not complete. There are still revenues that we receive up through September that are for the fiscal year. That's why we tried to state very clearly that this is not a complete report.

I think you said that on the capital page, too. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And then the apartment 4,100 that's the board of commissioners. That's us. Yes. We're missing one. So we got 25, 20% less salary today, but I'm just wondering can you describe what the legal contracting, the contracting services are a hundred thousand dollars for that 110 actually for the current budget. What is that?

So that's our town attorney. And there's additional legal town attorney.

This is Mr. Messick.

Yes.

And but I see that under legal. This is that our new contract attorney down at the bottom of the page 4700 under legal. So

The board attorney is under professional services, the legal services that we had allocated that we did not spend that was money that we had budgeted for the lawsuit. Yeah, but we did not spend.

Okay, wonderful.

So you'll see that's under the budget, but that's not under any year-to-date activity.

But it's under Board of Commissioners?

No, 4700 is not Board of Commissioners.

No, that's legal. So Mr. Messick's contracted services are in the middle of the Board of Commissioners?

No. Messick's contracted services are under professional services under 4700.

Oh, okay. So then what? what is 100 uh what is 100-440-153-45-0 contracted service so contracted services hold on so that's going to be our audit services are under there our um

Then we also have some fees with, I believe it's under contracted services and not under dues and subscriptions, but there's some that are with the Triangle J or Central Pines. Okay. I can't access my switch.

It may be EDC also?

EDC is under economic development.

Okay. So $110,000. For the right spot for the right spot for it. This this hundred and 10,000.

Yes.

That's traditional. And that's, yes. I won't ask any further questions. Thank you. Maybe you can help me with the public wards works. That's 5,400.

Yep.

So we're, we're moving up with our revenue there. But we don't have, we really don't have, most of that is through tribe river, right?

So public works is our streets.

I'm sorry. That's you're, you're absolutely correct. So pass on that. More question, this is a general overall question about. Is a full time. Do we have a way of calculating our full time employee ratio so that we know we're right on track with that?

Where do we start? Yeah, we'll probably go. I think we're a little light.

you're low i would say so yes sir so that's uh the other question for

All right, thanks for answering those, Heather.

Okay, no ceremonial items this evening up next. We have citizens matters and we'll start with the managers update.

Thank you, Mayor. So as previously mentioned, I think in a manager update via email, the town is partnering with Chatham Transit for a transit on demand approach called Todd. That was originally supposed to start the middle of this month. They ran into an issue with the development of their mobile app and I think are still trying to get approval from the Apple App Store to get that app up. So that likely is going to be delayed until probably the 1st of September. But right now it's kind of in a hold until they can get that app approved. Tomorrow we have our kickoff meeting with fire department for our merger study. So we're looking forward to getting that going more to come. We have a staff kickoff meeting for the economic development strategic plan that's going to be on Friday, and you'll obviously hear more about that. Also meeting this week to discuss scale Chatham with Siler City and some of their folks. Next week, a couple public works updates just so y'all see what's going on around town. Got some shoulder and ditch work along Fayetteville Street near Pittsburgh Baptist Church, trying to clean that up a little bit. Remove and replace some sidewalks in Potterstone next week, and they're doing some replacement currently in Chatham Forest. First week of September, doing some work to Masonic Street and East Salisbury so we can get some upgrades there to provide more on-street parking, hopefully to gain about eight spaces on Masonic. um miscellaneous patching around town powell place potterstone lindsay street there's some stormwater drainage basins that need to be raised and fixed so they've done the raising now we'll see to go back and and put the asphalt back so that's going to happen hopefully first week of september and then we have a sidewalk trip hazard project going on in kind of historic pittsburgh so that'll be west street east street salisbury sanford road hillsborough and thompson street so that should be going on first week of september Town Hall is looking pretty good. Did a minor site change to improve the look that people will see along Thompson Street. And staff and the architects are working on the exterior renderings, and they're working on your presentation that you will see in September. And then lastly, just got an update on Louis Freeman. The concrete work and the framing work should begin in the next week or two. So you should see some more activity going on out there. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you.

So I've got a question for you, Jonathan. The trip review that you're going to be conducting, is that an annual thing or how is that?

We will likely do that annually, but the trip hazard survey has already been done. They're going to come back and they're going to use like a grinder and they grind down those rough edges. So there's the trip hazards.

It's been done in Pitt Powell Place and it's great. I love it, especially for the elderly. Also in Powell Place, there are some, maybe you can provide a little bit more details about my subdivision, but I'm wondering about the street improvements Powell Place has with the Powell Build.

Just let me know. Cobblestone? Cobblestone.

My update, the Central Pines Rural Planning Organization has their next meeting on the 13th, which is Wednesday, I think. Yes, Thursday. Anyway, I'll be there on the 13th, and we'll be reviewing the scoring for upcoming projects. And then on July 18th, I went to the Lowe's Hardware 20th anniversary. So Lowe's Hardware has been in Pittsburgh for 20 years, more than 20 years now, and they had a big event on July 18th.

uh say commissioner bonnets yeah no updates from me okay thank you thank you mr farrell i was at the lows it was hot that day yes it was really kind of cool to see your son interact with the police department and the staff at lowe's uh in the in the slide you know all those good things you probably got some good photo ops there so um I do have to mention Sarah Cooney, just a wonderful woman and focused outward always. She's a guest part owner with The Root Cellar. She has a project that she's excited to unveil. It's called Feed Well Fridges. We're going to have six refrigerators in North Carolina open to whoever needs fresh food. There'll be two in Silo City, two in Pittsboro. This is just a wonderful thing. Since launching in April, in August 2023, more than 350,000 pounds of edible food have been rescued from restaurants and diverted to their program. And they're diverted away from landfill as well. And then redistributed through these refrigerators. And what a gift that is. It's all fresh food. It's processed at a new kitchen that they will be opening up on the Chatham Park warehouse on the corner of It's at Eubanks and E Street, right? They'll be in there. It's kind of a cool kitchen. They focus like that and just totally cares. And she's one of those women, so I love her for that. The other thing I want to talk about is conservation subdivisions. And conservation subdivisions are just a great idea. And I know we have that in our UDO right now. And I want to make sure that it's enhanced and bright and shiny as it can be. I remember when I was working for Pan Am. with us today and he wanted to demonstrate what conservation subdivision was in this room he would probably stand over here next to the princess lie down till you got 25 percent at the back of the room and the rest is conservation I think it's a wonderful, proactive way to keep Pittsburgh green. We just got to define what it is and make it easy for developers to take advantage of it. So I fully endorse your work and I have some recommendations that you might want to use. I've looked at Chatham County's work and conservation subdivisions. I also look at Chapel Hill. Both are very innovative. They are less inclined to concentrate on setbacks or the size of the house between the houses or in front of the road. I guess that's smart, smart development, like Commissioner Bonnet says. And I think it's time that we refine it and sell it like it's what we want here in Pittsburgh. We want green, we want smart, and we want it so that it's a win-win for our engineers, for our fire department, for the deer that run across the roads, just for everybody. So I know this staff is focused on that, and so I strongly encourage us to continue it. And that's all I have.

Thank you. Commissioner Thurber?

So I have a few small updates about the Chatham Chamber. They are having a State of Chatham Breakfast and Data Briefing on Thursday, September 3rd at 815 right here at the AgCenter. You can register online, I believe. And they're also having a Leadership Chatham, which is, and they're taking applications for that class right now for 2027. There'll be small groups offering a deep dive into the community with day long sessions once a month covering everything from agriculture to public safety to education. And that's it.

Up next, we have public comment, and five people signed up this evening.

So when you come to the podium, please state your name and address at the start of your comments. There's a time limit of three minutes, which will be displayed on the screen. In the interest of time and fairness, it's the board's policy not to respond directly to comments during this period. Staff will follow up as appropriate. Any speaker with handsouts, we'll give them to the town clerk, and they'll be distributed to the board at the conclusion of this meeting. So we'll start with Mara Dillon and followed by Lenore Yarger.

Hi.

My name is Maura Dillon. I live at 326 Markernet Road in Pittsboro and I'm one of the organizers of the Chatham Climate Action Network. As you know, the Chatham Climate Action Network has had ongoing concerns about Chatham Park's South Village Small Area Plan or SAP and we joined the litigation against it this past January. We're here tonight to help ensure that you're aware of the context for the case and how it's proceeding. I'm gonna read the beginning of our letter, and the following two speakers, Lenore Yarger and Vicki Atkinson, also organizers for Chatham-Cann, will complete it. for some background when the sap was approved at your november 10th meeting last fall the town planner said that the draft sap did not limit the town's legislative role in the development process planning staff insisted that the proposed conceptual small area plan followed by more detailed section design plans would preserve meaningful public engagement and board oversight This commitment, however, was not totally clear in the written sap and the master plan development agreement and other proof governing. Governing documents did not account for a single large conceptual small area plan or section design plans, this is legally inconsistent and open the town up to problems down the road. In December, Attorney Megan Kimball from the Southern Environmental Law Center submitted proposed amendments to the SAP and its governing documents that would have one, ensured that the SAP's language was consistent with planning staff assertions, that the town retains legislative discretion over section design plans, and that those plans would contain the level of detail the governing documents require at the SAP stage. And two, the amendments would have added language defining the section design plan process to related governing documents. That's the development agreement, the master plan, the additional elements and the SAP process. And that would have made the whole thing procedurally valid and legally sound, but that was not done ahead of time. When these recommendations received no response, we filed a formal complaint within a 60-day statutory window. Had we not filed within 60 days, we would have lost our ability to raise these concerns at all at any point in the future. we took this step fully expecting and hoping that our complaint would prompt further discussion with town planning staff in the board that would make the south village sap transparent and legally consistent our goal which we also understood to be yours has never been to stop development but to ensure it moves forward with the transparency public engagement and board oversight that it requires

Thank you. Up next is Lenore Yarger, followed by Vicki Atkinson.

I'm Lenore Yarger from 3355 Woody Store Road, Siler City. We want to make sure you're aware of several developments in the lawsuit that have been discouraging to us and may have implications for the town's role in board's oversight. In most instances, the town's filings and discovery requests have followed those of the developer word for word. This raises questions about whether the town is exercising independent judgment on behalf of the public. Discovery requests directed to our organizations by the town are copied directly from the developer's requests and seek detailed personal information about our entire membership, including names, home addresses, and property ownership, as well as internal organizational and funding information. While we are responding through normal legal channels, requests of this scope are atypical, undemocratic, and can discourage public participation in matters that have involved significant community engagement. Most recently, the town has taken the extraordinary step of joining Chatham Park and asking the judge to force us to hand over our full membership lists or else face being held in contempt of court. We just heard a few hours ago that the judge had in fact filed the order forcing us to produce those lists. We understand from our lawyers that there's no good reason for doing this at this stage, or ever, really. They've explained that all we need is a few willing members to provide a statement of their interest in the case. And this request is clearly unconstitutional. The United States Supreme Court has ruled multiple times that forcing an advocacy group to reveal the identities of all their members restricts the First Amendment right to freedom of association, and by extension, speech, petition, and assembly. If we are forced to hand over the personal details of hundreds of our members, it could chill participation in Chatham can and public engagement in town decisions. This is shockingly undemocratic. People need to be able to organize, share information and engage in civic matters without fear that they'll be unmasked involuntarily if there's a legal conflict down the road. We're deeply disappointed that the town is participating equally in these aggressive litigation tactics. lawsuit through the targeted revisions to the sap proposed in december or through a written clarifying statement as easy and beneficial as this resolution would be the town has indicated it will not consider it in any way unless the developer agrees Chatham Park's attorney has stated that they are unwilling to settle as they believe doing so would invite litigation at every future stage of the development. From our perspective, this issue would never have gone to litigation had the town agreed to give the SAP the written clarity indicated at the recorded Board of Commissioners meeting on November 10th and made its definitions legally consistent throughout the governing documents. We sought a conversation and instead felt forced into this lawsuit by the town's lack of response. Thank you.

Thank you. Up next is Vicki Atkinson, followed by Ian Scott.

Good evening.

I'm Vicki Atkinson. My address is 361 Wild Ginger Ridge, Chapel Hill. We're not asking for anything beyond the pale. The town could resolve this case without Chatham Park, but has not been willing to do so. At this point, we feel that the town is picking the developer over the residents. and allowing Chatham Park to use intimidating and harassing tactics that discourage people from organizing around issues that are important to the future of our community. We are here tonight asking for more cooperation from the board to resolve the matter as we believe that we share a mutual goal of ensuring transparent, robust community engagement, and legislative oversight over the SAP. We would welcome the opportunity to speak with you directly if that would be helpful. We want to reiterate that once the Town Board approved the SAP, our intention was not to fight it, but rather to ensure that the approved version reflected what the Town staff and the Board of Commissioners had promised. We thought we were collaborating with many of you on this project and doing what was in the best interest of the Town of Pittsboro. We are very disappointed that instead of working with us, the town has forced this issue into litigation. we don't understand why the town attorney is now rubber stamping everything that Chatham Park is asking them to do, rather than working with you, the commissioners and citizens to negotiate an acceptable solution. We feel like this is a betrayal of the people of Pittsburgh and of Chatham County. we continue to hope for a collaborative resolution and would like to see your advocacy and leadership towards that end as always we appreciate your continued service to the community thank you up next is ian scott followed by lou hendricks

Good evening, mayorship, commissioners. I appreciate the time.

I'm Ian Scott with the Home Builders Association of Durham, Orange, and Chatham Counties. Coming tonight to speak just briefly about the proposed text change amendments to the UDO that were released to the public on July 23rd. I appreciated the opportunity to meet with May and some members of her team last week at a community meeting. about the udo learned quite a bit more there but felt compelled to come speak tonight just to reiterate to you all our perspective that the changes that are being proposed are really consequential these are not minor cleanups, these are significant policy changes and many really knowledgeable people, people who spend their whole careers working in code like this and who do a lot of work in Pittsburgh were caught both confused about the process and off guard about those changes and the timeline for policy generation, policy creation. Our future in Pittsboro really does depend on a productive working relationship between the public, the development community, and you all, the government. And we want to make sure that these UDO text changes reflect that spirit of cooperation. Certainly our intent as an industry to work together. So I've come with three really simple requests. understand that there was a letter sent from select members of the development community to the commission i've had a chance to review that i'd urge you all to please review and give really careful consideration to both the practical and legal issues raised in that letter they are consequential And they really do deserve your attention and response. Two, lay out some really clear policy goals in a public setting that we all can understand and help hold to. And with that, a process and a timeline for these UDO changes. Again, these are really, really major. They'll influence what happens in the town and what the town gets from the development community for a long time. So it should be good. And three, to offer ourselves as an organization to partner in any way that you all see fit. In the process you lay out, we are happy to engage the engineers, planners, architects, designers, developers, bankers, and attorneys that comprise our membership, who have experience working in multiple jurisdictions, some of which you probably want to mirror and maybe others that you don't, to help design a process that meets the goals you've all laid out, but in that same spirit of collaboration and clarity and transparency. We hope you take just a pause with this layout some really clear goals that we can rally everybody around. Thank you again for your time and your leadership in the community. Thank you. Can you say your address to please? Yeah, I'm I personally live at 500 East Main Street in Durham.

Thank you. Up next is Lou Hendricks.

Good evening, Commissioner. My name is Lewis Hendricks.

Address is 227 Bluffwood. I am the chairman of the Chatham Chamber of Commerce here to speak on behalf of our members about the recently proposed UDO amendments. I do not have any comments tonight on the substance of the proposed policy changes, but I want to raise concern about the process by which they've moved forward and to ask for your help addressing it. Many of our members only learned about these four significant proposed amendments in the last two weeks. And most thought the public comment was only open for a couple of weeks, an unrealistic window to review and comment thoughtfully on significant policy changes. A number of them have told us directly that they're still unclear where these proposals originated, what problems they're intended to solve, and why they're moving on the current timeline. That confusion reflects a gap in how this process has been communicated to the business community that will be most affected. Our Chamber believes strongly in partnership between local government and the business community, built on clear communication and mutual respect. We don't believe this UDO situation reflects the partnership either of us wants. So our ask is simple. Slow down, articulate your goals, and outline a clear process. Give the business community the time and clarity it needs to understand and meaningfully engage with these changes before the board takes action. And probably most importantly, we want to be a partner. We want to be an asset to you guys, representing the business community, talking to them. Things come up, no hesitation. calling us up and for us to be an asset. Hey, how does the business community feel about something? We can get answers, allow you guys to continue to make great decisions and help Pittsburgh grow and flourish the way we want it to. Thank you for your time and we'll see you around.

Thank you. Up next, we have a few presentations. The first one is from the New Hope Bird Alliance. So Barbara Driscoll.

Barbara Driscoll, I'm with New Hope Bird Alliance. You need my address? 504, okay, okay. All right, thank you for the opportunity to come and speak to you. I understand that you received a large parcel of land, 72 acres, Robeson Creek. And part of what we do is do yard certifications and evaluate property for bird-friendly habitat. And I wanted to give you a little background information on what that is and why it's important. So how do I forward the slides? Okay, thank you. uh we are the local audubon chapter we cover durham orange and chatham counties if you're interested we have twice weekly walks we do a lot of conservation i am co-chair for conservation bird friendly habitats as well and we do a lot of other projects in the area All right, so part of the issue is, and I think a lot of people are aware of this, if I could click this correctly, that we've lost a lot of birds since 1970. And birds literally are the canary in the coal mine. A recent study also showed that our butterfly populations have decreased by 22%. in 20 years and as you can see there's not many butterflies out there so we are doing a lot of damage to our ecosystem in a lot of different ways and that is being reflected in our wildlife and we know this because we do counts we do spring counts we do winter accounts we do Christmas counts we do eagle counts we do brown-headed nuthatch counts we do a lot of counts so all of the data that we do feeds into the national data and it does show that there are a lot of birds decreasing in our area. And some of the things that we work on is to improve habitat. And I think habitat can be improved anywhere in anybody's yard, no matter how big or how small. One of the problems has been that 80% of what goes into those yards is not native. And that leads to a lot of problems. one of them particular is that our insects evolved along with our native plants they did not evolve along with our non-native plants therefore they cannot eat or reproduce on many of the plants that put her into our yards and one of the reasons i think a lot of those plants are put in our yards is because we don't want them to get eaten we don't want the deer to eat them we don't want this to but on the other hand what happens is that we're creating a food desert in our yards by that So 90% of the insects evolved with our local plants. And what is that important? Baby birds need insects. In fact, baby birds only eat insects. How many of you might happen to feed birds in your backyard? Thank you. So they don't eat seeds. They don't eat suet. They only eat insects. And what are they like? Doug Ptolemy has done a lot of research. He's an entomologist and he's done a lot of work in this area. They like caterpillars. And what are caterpillars like? They like native plants. So think about a chickadee. A chickadee is a very small bird. It's about an ounce. weighs about an ounce, it usually has one brood a year, four to five eggs, four to five very small mouths. How many caterpillars does a chickadee need to feed its chicks in order to raise them to evolve, get out of the nest? Six to get out of the nest, just to get out of the nest. 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars. And why are caterpillars important? Because they're little bags of protein that the mother can shove down those chicks throats, and they're easy to digest. But in order to have those caterpillars, they need native plants. So one of the things that we promote are keystone plants. Out of all our native plants, only 14% provide most of the food for most of our insects. And those are called keystone plants. And we have this information on our website. The top ten trees for caterpillar production and in our area most of the host plants for butterflies and moths are trees or shrubs. They aren't perennial plants other than milkweed from monarchs which most people know. Oak provides 534 different species of Lepidoptera and these other trees are also providing quite a bit of food because they're native and because the The caterpillars and the butterflies and the moths all evolved with that. So that's one thing that's important in creating a bird friendly habitat and why this park is important because there's a lot of native trees in this park. The other thing that is important is to have vegetative layers within the park. including canopy trees, which I just expressed are very important, mid-story trees, understory. And this is important because birds live at different levels. They don't always live at our viewing level, even if you're feeding them. So one of the problems I think with the Robeson Park has been expressed to me is that there are a lot of non-natives or invasive species. How many of you are familiar with invasive species? Sounds like you are. You've been through it a little bit. I have spent countless hours removing invasive species from an area on Chapel Hill. You know, they're non-native. They're harmful to our environment. They're introduced. And not all introduced species are bad. But at the same time, they're not necessarily what helps anything in our ecology. So one of the things that we have proposed is to do an evaluation of this park. and provide some information on what the invasive species are, which I think you already know some of that. But as well as that, to also point out what the good native species are that you should be focusing on and want to bring in when you remove the invasive. So things that are familiar with are the Japanese Diltgrass, the Iliagnus. These are common privet. These are ones that are typically found within all of our counties, unfortunately, I will say. And I think stiltgrass is terrible because not only does it cover up most native seedlings, it also secretes chemicals that suppress native plants from growing. So it does two things that are very bad for our environment. I should, since I have been given the opportunity to at least talk to you guys, talk about some other things. Obviously, you're working on your UDO. Up to a billion birds die from window strikes each year in the U.S. And most of those strikes are not high rise buildings, although that's where we hear about them. Most of the bird strikes are on low rise in the first hundred feet of a building. And I would like for you to think about bird safe construction and that there are some models out there for that. And also in residences, there are some things that can be done to help for create bird friendly buildings. Lights Out this time of year is migration. It's starting now and going through the end of November, and New Hope Bird Alliance has partnered with Durham, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, Durham County, and Orange County for a Lights Out initiative, which is communicating to the public the need to turn off outside lights during migration. Birds migrate. at night and by the stars and outdoor lighting impacts the birds migration and that's what causes them to collide often. So we would love to partner with you on communicating how to get that information out. So going back to just a journalist's solutions, native plants, water, remove invasive plants, keep cats indoors, lights out and prevent window collisions, reduce turf, leave your leaves, which is another program that we are big on. Eliminate or avoid the use of pesticides provide nest boxes and advocate for policies to protect wildlife, those are all things that are important, especially as we develop more and more land, so this is just I now have given carrie. a bunch of our brochures and uh information about bird friendly habitat certification program as some of as well as some of our other programs to distribute to you after the meeting and then you know i think together working together we can do more to create a bird friendly community that's it any questions and uh leaving the leaves benefits birds Oh, in many ways. It's not only good for birds because birds, a lot of birds eat the bugs and leaves. Our deciduous forests evolve so that when the leaves fall and the insects also, most of the insects overwinter in the leaves, moths and butterflies, fireflies, a lot of larval bugs overwinter in the leaves and that's where they stay. So when you remove your leaves, you're also removing all of those insects and and there's also creates better soil conditions it holds up to two inches of water so if you leave your leaves on your ground you're also helping with storm water and helping to purify water so there's just a lot of different things that leaving your leaves does does that answer your question thank you thank you

Do you know of any successful communities that do that Leave Your Leaves program?

Yeah, we have been running a program. Actually, we've been working with Matt Jones at the Ag Extension agent here to promote that here as a Leave Your Leaves program. We've been doing it in Chapel Hill and also in Durham for a number of years, putting out signs, encouraging people through information to leave your leaves. And we've been seeing A big change in Chapel hill they recently stopped doing their leaf pickup some of that was for budgetary reasons, I will say, but we had been working with them for three or four years on. Educating the public on the benefits of leaving the leaves, especially for biodiversity, but also for stormwater it helps improve quality of water, because it sinks into the ground it doesn't run off like it does with turf and other things. Leaves clog in storm water and they create nutrients that flow into Lake Jordan and other waterways. Because if you, like in Chapel Hill where I live, they would blow them out to the curb. And that, one, creates safety hazards because you have to walk around those or cars have to go around them. It also creates problems because it gets into the gutters and into the water supply that way.

What do you recommend?

I recommend that people leave their leaves on their property for the most part. And you know a lot of people want you know, want to leave their lawns. You can grind it up in the laws I don't recommend that because it's not good for the insects, which you are wanting to promote also so I I recommend putting it around shrubs and trees extending the drip line for most trees is actually healthier for trees. Because then it allows more than nutrients from those leaves to infiltrate and help the trees grow it also helps with our soil and biomass.

electronic records when that was initiated by the board of commissioners and there's nothing to my knowledge in the in the public record indicating when how far back that dates but it's a long time certainly and I think there's a whole lot of folks who really appreciate the bird population. We do still have. And I do hear from folks, neighbors, residents, businesses that would like to see those bird populations increase. So thank you very much for helping the public understand what we can do in that direction. I'm also very eager to empower the New Hope Bird Alliance to do this study at the Robeson Creek Park. I understand that there was a But that was all wildlife, I think. Yes. And so that's really impressive. I've seen the two beavers in the pond myself. It's just a really special piece of land. So I'm excited about the possibility of working with you.

All right, great Thank you yeah we're looking forward to working with you and helping improve that habitat, so that it is better for all kinds of wildlife and for people as well, and it will also improve. The stormwater runoff, which I think is also something that everybody every municipality is dealing with flood mitigation at this point in time with the intense rains that we get yes.

up next presentation from rewild within amy allen my name is amy allen and i'm the owner founder and director of rewild within And if you take a look at this amazing photo here, this is the beginning of what could be for Robeson Creek Park. This is a community powered restoration project that's going on here. I just moved here not too long ago at the end of September and I met Commissioner Bonitz and I met Commissioner Hunsinger and I met several people from the community And I was like, I have found my people. So a little bit about me. I'm from North Carolina. I am an App State alumni. I have my degree in biology and my mom lives in Asheville. That's where I grew up. I have over 10 years of experience with ecological restoration in the West, in Colorado, where I took on mobilizing thousands of volunteers to work on catastrophic floods and fires. My specialty is in invasive weed eradication with volunteers, as well as native seed collections, as well as big tree plantings, and the list goes on and on. I have proven experience with working with cities, agencies, as well as national parks. I've worked with a variety of from 10 to 300 volunteers on a project. I am here and my my dream is to help the city of Pittsburgh continue to grow and build a community of volunteers to help heal the land.

So I.

to all of these crazy critters that we started in February with a goal to take out all the invasive species, not all of them, but we focused on the privet. And when you bring volunteers together, it's such an incredible experience. You have this feeling of community pride. You learn about the land. And there is no better place to have community than here in Pittsburgh. So take a look at this beautiful photo not so pretty this is privet that has taken over the area here in robeson creek, this is our before dun dun dun. and this is after this is yeah i'll show you the stats in a minute but you can see this beautiful eastern cedar in the the front ground there beautiful black walnuts places for the birds to gather um yeah we took out the privet we added some mulch and what is so flipping cool is there are natives coming up that were in the seed bank ready to go we did have we did have some native seed added to that we suppressed it with some mulch there but it is beautiful and it is thriving and it is a place to for our ecosystem to grow and heal So, yes, we have in Robeson Creek the largest black walnut of Chatham County by the Grand Trees of Chatham did tell us about it. And it's fun for all. We want to create volunteer experiences. Not only are, you know, you're getting the privet out, but you're also able to grab some mulch and clip trees and provide you know, experiences for for families and for Boy Scouts and for corporate groups, and all of these amazing fun people can all come together.

So here is our outcome from February to April.

We had 79 individual attendances, 8 projects, over 200 and plus volunteer hours. We had about 10 volunteers per project, and that equals $6,000 of of free skilled ecological labor to the city of Pittsburgh. This is not a number I just made up. This is from independent sector. They are used by agencies as well as nonprofits to determine the value of volunteers per hour.

So

had an MOU. What if we could do more? What would happen? Well, we would build community engagement. We would build collaboration. All of these organizations that you see are already talking. They're already working together. They're all ready to go. New Hope Bird Alliance, you just heard from them. We've been talking with Grand Trees of Chatham and all of these people have something amazing to bring to the table. And that's that's my jam. That's what I do. I like to find the people, the right person at the right place at the right time to do the right things. So if we did all this collaboration is going to grow that that's going to have a much bigger number of of organizations working together. You're going to have a lot more people working together. And then after Robeson, what if we worked on Town Lake Park Trail?

What if we worked on the Robeson Creek?

What if we did litter cleanups? I love litter cleanups. I love annual litter cleanups. It's so much fun to bring people together. I've been walking Robeson Creek Pathway quite a bit, so I know the need for that, especially in the wintertime when you can see it all and you can get it and you can attack. It's really fun. So another reason why it's win-win is because Rewild Within would take on the insurance position and the risk liability in this matter. We also are very strict on our safety policies. We're very strict on our volunteer waivers. And we're using science-based execution. We're not just going out there all hodgepodge, figuring it out as we go. We are using best practices in the field. I have over 10 years experience with that stuff. And I'm also working with experts. I am not working in a vacuum. And that's just how I am. So, so yeah, your return on investment is pretty darn great. Like, you get, you know, minimal costs for for the city of Pittsburgh, and you get a lot, you get a lot done. So we can hit the ground running. So what's up? What do we do first? So ecological planning. We work with New Hope Bird Alliance. We learn about the different species that are needed. We learn what needs to be taken out and we can adjust and pivot from there. We're also going to be planning out what projects are going to be going into place and when, and then we're going to be promoting that. We haven't promoted a single project, like really marketed it hard. Like, yes, there has been some social media posts here and there, but wow, what if we actually organized everything and executed and brought it all together and made it alive and And it's going to be pretty fun stuff. So the second part of that is, of course, yes, we're going to be where I'm going to be working on the funding, finding funding from other places other than from from the city of Pittsburgh. And third, I'm going to be working with Katie and we're going to be coordinating of what's going to work and what's not going to work. And I'll be doing monthly progress reports. And this is all scalable to future projects for Pittsburgh and all the fun things that we can do in the future. So I wanted to keep it short and sweet. That's a great picture. Isn't it great?

That was taken at the end of July.

That is the champion, I believe that is the champion black walnut there. Yes.

Yep.

Yeah.

Any questions?

Tell us a little bit about the diversity and and ages and demographics and such?

Yeah, I believe our youngest, I believe, was around 13 years old. And then we had, yeah, 13. And then I don't, you know, we had a bunch of, you know, the seniors here are freaking... Like they're Hercules, man. You don't mess around with the senior here. They get stuff done and they're powerful. So we have a wide variety. Our goal is to have even more of a wide variety, but we were able to pilot it with a younger, um to an older generation and seeing those folks working side by side next to each other sharing stories having conversations helping each other out of hey maybe you should try it this way or or have you used this approach it's it's pretty amazing so yeah and how much of the privet and autumn olive was removed yeah um for last year uh we had about two acres of privet by hand removed so we're hoping to do a lot more than that this year yeah thanks a lot i can add

testimony to this because I participated in several volunteer days. If we could go back to that image for just a second, please. Maybe staff can do that. Yeah, so that image, remember that the photograph of the wall of Chinese privet and autumn olive is what we were looking at. It was a 12, 15 foot wall. so it was impenetrable uh you really couldn't walk through it you definitely couldn't see through it and that tree was rediscovered obviously it's been there it was a really thrilling experience highly recommend

So we have a new with rewild within in our packet as well. I will take a motion to adopt the wild within LLC MOU for Robeson Creek Park.

All right.

up next we have a public hearing for the development fees ordinance for fiscal year 2627 i'll take a motion to enter the public hearing second thank you commissioner foley second commissioner bonnets all those in favor say aye aye okay all right uh in the public hearing um

Um, we had just 2 minor changes to the ordinance. The 1 was to add, um, an additional fee per acre to, um, they're both highlighted in the memo and I don't have it in front of me, but there was 1 was to add, um, a fee per acre to 1 of that was left off when we did the revisions and then the other fee that we added. was to an amendment to I believe a construction plan submission so and that is half the original fee and that is what was in the prior years ordinance that was also left off when we did the revision to the development fee ordinance yes there should be highlighted the changes are highlighted yep so those are the two changes to the schedule

There's a list of fees that will be affected by House Senate Bill 445. And I really think we should look at it before we agree on approving this. Let me just take them. Has the staff reviewed this?

Yes. These changes were recommended by our engineering department.

so because they were previous fees that were on there that would just with the adoption of the new fee schedule as of july 1st they were inadvertently left off that's the only change yeah let me talk about uh the affordable housing 120 000. i do know that the language of this bill 445 uh requires us to justify our fee and uh i i think that's something that we want to talk about 120 000 is probably about right but it all depends on market rates and where we we we put place our ami numbers 80 percent and i think a more valued uh approach would be instead of a flat number like we're doing to justify to the general assembly by saying let's take a market rate for this lot let's say it's $600,000 and then you say 80% AMI, which is 250. And the difference would be the fee that we would charge. It's justified. It was more justifiable to do it that way than just an arbitrary number of 120. It's very fluid and it, it keeps up with exactly what the cost of living is. And it also keeps up with the markets as a realtor. I know they go up and down. So, uh, I would like to encourage us to take a look at that, maybe set that aside and we can talk about it. I don't know if the development director has addressed that or not, but I think it's a way that we could probably avoid any pushback from the General Assembly.

Yeah, I mean, we will review the changes that are in that Senate Bill 445. And we will make those changes when we have to. We can make a change in a future version of the fee schedule.

What you're saying is we approve what is right, what is before us tonight. But then you have enough fluidity to reassess at any given time and shape it in a later month.

The only requirement is that we have to have a public hearing when we're making a change to the development fee schedule.

Yep. Here's a fee. But, you know, I don't really there's been so much activity. From the general assembly, and I don't know why particular, but all these bills are coming out. And a lot of them have to do with formal housing. They have to do with parking. They have to do with. Municipality power municipal power and how we, uh, conduct our, so we need to be very careful with the language. And I guess I think we get to talk about that. I don't think this is the agenda tonight to do that. But or is it? You're right.

I think we can pick it up in the future. And 445 is not law yet.

Yeah. It was voted 37 to nothing by the Senate. So you don't see that very often in the General Assembly. Both sides agreeing on something. But this is 37 to nothing. So I think they're focused on this values and how we're doing things. And, uh, I think it's also focused on economic development. So, uh, we, as we, as commissioners really need to be sensitive to the things that are coming up with, uh, out of Raleigh right now.

Yeah, I certainly don't want to attract undue attention from the state legislature. Um, and I appreciate your comments commissioner fully. I think that, uh. Given that this was an inadvertent omission. Um, I think we can proceed with, uh. Approving this schedule tonight, that's my suggestion, but I would also like, um, either the assistant manager or the town manager to speak about the legal defense ability of doing that.

The action proposed for tonight here we have no attorney here yeah certainly with I mean you mentioned the affordable housing specifically that was not an arbitrary number. I didn't I'm sorry I didn't mean to imply that that's okay I did the calculation kind of just exactly as you described like what is the difference between a housing unit for 80% am I compared to what the average market where else was going for it was actually 156,000. But we felt like going from 85 to 156, this was a discussion in the, what are we in now? 26, 27? That was in the discussion of 25, 26 fiscal year. Being that 156,000 is a lot of money, we just left it.

My only concern is that we have to defend it. Sure. And to do that would be using something that is defensible.

So, Ms Armstrong went through each kind of style of permit or application that you might submit looked at the number of staff hours that would be used to process 1 of those. And then did the, uh. The fees according to that.

Okay. Okay.

I'm happy.

So moved. Thank you, Commissioner Bonnets.

Second.

Second, Commissioner Thurber. All those in favor, say aye. Aye.

And take a motion to adopt the development fee ordinance for fiscal year 26-27. Thank you, Commissioner Bonnets. Second.

Commissioner Farah. Second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Up next, we have a public hearing for PB26255, Hydro Attended Rezoning Request. I'll take a motion to enter the public hearing. So moved. Thank you, Commissioner Bonance. Second. Second, Commissioner Farrell. All those in favor, say aye. Aye.

Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, Board. This is general use rezoning case PB26225, otherwise known as Hydro 2 and per UDO section 10412, a general use rezoning is to amend the zoning district map to a base zoning district that already exists and subjects all future development in the district to all of the development regulations that are applicable to that new base zoning district.

The subject property.

Is approximately 5.98 acres and is located south and east of the pal place subdivision along highway 15501. The property is currently vision vacant and vegetated with existing concrete pads and some asphalt, as you can see, and the property is also considered a brownfield site, because it was a previously used industrial manufacturing facility. The property is currently zoned heavy industrial, which is the M2 district, and the adjacent zoning districts up to the north, south, and west are the mixed-use plan development district associated with Powell Place. And to the east, across 15501, you have a mixed-use plan development district and highway commercial district, which is the C2 district. The applicant is proposing to rezone the property to highway commercial to match across 15501. This map classifies subject property as employment mixed use within that mixed use activity Center, and so the proposed rezoning to highway commercial see to is consistent with the land use classification. applicant conducted a community meeting on april 26th or sorry april 16th 2026 the community report is attached in your packet and as previously mentioned the proposed rezoning is to amend the current m2 zoning district to the c2 zoning district and all of the principal uses per udo section 3.2.4 principal use table and the accessory uses City Council Chambers, Per video section 3.3 point for accessory use and structure table within the C to zoning district would be permitted on this property. The Pittsburgh land use map classifies subject property again as employment mixed use within the mixed use activity center and the proposed rezoning to highway commercial is consistent with the land use classification. The highways commercial district in the Pittsburgh is intended to provide lands to accommodate retail office and service areas to serve the town and the region. Development allowed includes a mix of retail, office, eating, entertainment, medical, vehicle sale, and service uses that would serve community-wide needs. The Planning Board heard this at their July 20th meeting and unanimously recommended approval. And planning staff also recommends approval of the general use rezoning case as proposed by the applicant. kind of sped through that. My apologies. I'm happy to answer any questions, but I can also turn it over to the applicant, and I believe they have a presentation as well.

I might pass it over to him, but I will come back.

All right, that's fine.

My name is Jody Lightoff. I live at 481 Bennett Mountain Trace, and I appreciate the time to speak on this rezoning. This is a fairly clean rezoning, six acres of a former, we call it the HydroTube, that was the operating business at the time. And we were able to purchase this We went under contract about a year ago, and at that time we submitted a redevelopment plan to the DEQ for the brownfield. It hasn't been fully accepted. We've done all the paperwork. It just takes a while. Even though we're trying to do the express brownfield cleanup, it hasn't been completed yet. Dave Kuntz, What we do know is it has to deal with some groundwater and then we'll develop some techniques during our due diligence, we did put in monitors, we are starting to get a. Dave Kuntz, understanding of what was there prior and I would say that you know the sites been vacant for 18 years. And so this opportunity to clean this site up and get it back into an economic driver for the town of Pittsburgh is really what we're all about here. And it seems pretty clean. It's the same ownership as power place. So all the surroundings. So now there's that ability to do a cohesive. development plan for you know along Powell Place Lane there was like a 30-foot Spite strip that Powell Place owned so you couldn't access the HydroTube site from Powell Place now that opens up that possibility for inter-parcel connectivity and getting into the cruisers as well so I think it's appropriate and I'm glad to answer any questions I've got some historic images you know I think The building came down in approximately 2008 is when that building was demolished. And, you know, if you go back to the original, if you go through Chatham County GIS historic photos, you know, the original construction was 1979, thereabouts. And at that time, the bypass wasn't there those food or those home improvement wasn't there and this is an industrial site that the community has since grown up in and around. And I think modifying that land used to be in alignment with what's happening today is appropriate.

Oh, mentioning the. uh ownership context and uh the adjacent properties being owned all the same same ownership uh i appreciate you mentioning the opportunity for connectivity that was going to be my very first question is what do you envision uh what kind of connectivity do you envision because i think that we've already previously approved some residential behind this is that right

John Potter, Well, what you approved was the additional units to the original power place M. U. P. D. So you know, a little higher density. And so what we're trying to work through is really creating pal place lane as the kind of main street, and I think historically you know just going back and looking at the site now most of the frontage was sold off so you really couldn't begin to develop that view shed and that value deeper in the parcel this allows us to do it a bit more cohesive so you get longer view sheds and can get more of that mixed use context around pow place line in addition you know we've got the stormwater management ponds and then the stream that runs through this protected wetland so getting trails through there and connecting to the open space that we had presented via pathways trails sidewalks yeah we i mean we want it to be a unified development that people can walk from powell place into this and you're calling this powell lane oh that's the original uh that's the road name right now okay yeah so if you take a ride at the subway slash refuel that's Powell Place Lane right there so that's what we're seeing is a commercial once tends to want to be towards 64 where a residential tends to want to be by the existing town homes and old Rock Springs Cemetery Road and the proposed daycare that's going in in the church yeah I have I have a couple questions yes thank you um

First off, there's a, there's a considerable drop. It's cool back there by the way.

Yeah. Did you appreciate it? Well, we did go back and we have cleaned it up since we've purchased it and went in and just the existing asphalt parking lots and just tried to make it a safer environment back there.

Probably prevent. but it's it's it makes it private it's a great place to have a sandwich back there yes yeah we're just reading a book there's kind of a beautiful canopy we're some street lights working there parking lot lights are still there but a whole bunch of concrete there is that coming up I would presume so I mean I think there'll be a pretty comprehensive redevelopment to where using the existing asphalt or the loading dock I think that you know when we get into our specific development plans we'll

It'll be hard to preserve that.

Okay. A little bit more difficult question. Okay. So there's right by the loading dock, there's a six foot drop, maybe five, six feet, and then flattens out. It's mainly water back there. The Brown site, Brownfield, what were the chemicals that were identified as?

I don't have that specifically. In our application, Just leave that. There were some solvents that got into the groundwater.

Solvents?

Like cleaners, you know, when they used to bend the hydraulics.

So like hydrocarbon.

Yeah, I think, let me just pull that out real quick. Chlorinated solvents was found in the soil and groundwater. Okay. And then a little bit of petroleum vapor intrusion is what's noted on the application.

Okay, and that was 50 years ago.

um or was it well it was stopped yeah it was decommissioned I want to say in 2007-2008 so it's been sitting that way for 18 years okay and that's just me going through the aerial photos saying building they're not there when when will you have an idea of what it is exactly because we as a I am a board member I'm concerned that I'm going to approve something that's dangerous Well, I think, you know, we've, you know, the application's available publicly that we've filed. Hopefully, you know, we've paid the extra amount for the express. Okay. And what, you know, we don't know if we're eligible yet or not.

To build on it. Right. On the site.

Right. I mean, until we get the final sign-off from DEQ, we won't know the eligibility.

So the procedure today, then, it would be...

So when we bring a site plan, I think in, you know, probably it's. A longer process when we all want to get through DQ and in the brownfield program, but I think there's a lot of good potential. 1 of the things that you'll note, Elizabeth was wonderful in her presentation, right? Um, she did not mention residential and so residential, even though it's allowed in the C2 use. Will not be allowed on this site.

so and she was very careful in her analysis and so wonderful you know okay no residential and then you know it's really just about the containment and the type of construction when we get into there oh you know when powell place was first conceived and developed there was a lot more commercial that was supposed to be coming down right powell millbrook drive and powell place lane so i'm glad to see that

just starting with that yes I think that you know there's you know it's going to take uh the right thing to stimulate that mixed use in that commercial portion but yes we've always been committed to providing that coffee shop and beer garden that all the residents want and with 300 new units behind pal place it just adds to the context of the why to make it and how to be successful when we do it yeah one more question for you yes

There's a beautiful tree on the corner of power place drive.

Right. Right.

I I think I can make that promise just knowing I need to see the location but I think it's within that easement and there's buffers and you know our set building setbacks parking setbacks if I go through with Elizabeth we'll try to figure out a way to get there thank you thank you Jody you're welcome Jody one regarding the Brownsfield after you get your test and all is it a possibility that will come off of that land it will not be considered no it will stay in a brownfield remediation program so it'll always have that designation so i understand so you make the application and then it's on the onus of the owner of the land to monitor and make sure that it's all contained it's going to be an ongoing problem it is it is payment or testing

i did one other brownfield redevelopment site up in front royal virginia and it was we were capping basins it was wild you know oh sorry that's going to help add to the brownfield edward holmes and i'm the property owner brownfields is really a protection for the property owner to buy the property it has nothing to do with the previous contamination and so i bought the property without having the brownfields in place the brownfields gives me an additional environmental protection and for future claims coming off the property it also has to do something there's some tax credits that i'm not applying for that because i don't even understand them but it's just a designation it would help me to make the property more if marketable in the future should i want to sell it suppose a grocery store or bank or someone comes there it helps them know that that whatever the contamination in the ground below them they have no liability for but the property can be utilized with without the brownfield designation that's just an added benefit and the chemicals we know what they are there Jody probably has never seen the report and I can get you a copy of what the environmental consultants found there and Edward tell me if I'm right in this regard I think it also helps document

publicly these contaminants and gives you, as the owner, insights into how to avoid risk in future, like how to encapsulate it or cover it or prevent penetrating the contaminant or something like that. That's correct. Reduce the human exposure.

Correct. And so if there's certain uses of the property that we'll never be able to do, a daycare, I believe, is one of them. There are a couple of things like outdoor playgrounds for children. But when we build a building, if there's any soil vapor, we'll have that tested and put a vapor barrier down and vent it. But I don't think that's going to be an issue. Back to the brownfields, the reason brownfield acts occurred to begin with is there were so many industrialized properties all over the place that were abandoned and left in place because no one wanted to go and take the environmental risk. And it was unproductive land, and so they created this act to enhance, entice people to go take sites that have contamination and take the risk. put them back in production and utilize property that's perfectly fine. It's just something up under it that has that issue.

This public hearing, so I'll take a motion to close the public hearing.

I have one more comment before we go further. We get to, as a board member, understand that There is a brownfield connotation to this, and I want to make sure that we are not liable in any way if we approve this, not the rezoning, but the project as it moves forward. And I know that we have to go through our town attorney who's not here today, but we get to take this carefully.

You would have to go back to the public health and welfare of our citizens.

Yes. And we'll have staff's guidance on that. That's it. Thank you.

All right. Take a motion to close the public hearing. So moved. Thank you, Commissioner Bonds.

Second.

Second. Commissioner Thurber. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All right. Any other discussion?

On case PB-26-225, HydroTube.

Thank you.

Second.

Second. Commissioner Bonnets, any other discussion?

I'll just say I think this is great. I'm glad that it's finally moving forward. We certainly need more commercial in town, and the prospect of reusing this land in a way that is safe is very enticing, and I look forward to learning more about it. I think the first step is this rezoning, so I'm glad we're voting on it.

Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Thank you. Motion passes. All right. Up next, we have an action item. Chatham County Agricultural and Industrial Fair Association Greenway Easement. Jonathan.

Thanks, sir. So yeah, I had Paul draft this up because it essentially sign an easement with the Fairgrounds Association once we figure out the details. But I had him type it up because I didn't want to be the one asking you all to give me blanket authority to sign it. That's a good idea. We're pretty close. There's only a few minor things about gate locations, et cetera, but all minor things. I'm sure generally looking to add basically the word greenway to two existing easements across the fairgrounds property. Currently, there's a 20-foot easement with a sewer line in it. There's a 20-foot easement without a sewer line in it, and we would like to install greenway in that same easement. Unfortunately, legally, we don't have that right at the moment because greenway is not listed in the existing easements.

I will remedy that.

By this agreement. Okay.

This is the missing piece really from the greenway from. Downtown on Sanford road out to the new park.

Yes, this piece will connect to, uh, Robeson Creek park, which 1 day I think we'll have probably a different name. Maybe not, um, to. And then Chatham park is agreed as part of their affordable housing element. In partnership with Robert's run, which is the habitat for humanity project to then. build a greenway from MLK to Small Street, which will then tie into the existing Robeson Creek Greenway that ties into that.

I know how much effort the staff has placed on this. And I also feel like it's a win-win for the owners of the property. So thank you for your efforts. He said two years.

He said maximum three years to get this completed.

I'll thank you. I'll thank you in three years. Perfect. Yeah. Just don't make that part of the motion, please.

All right. Any other questions?

I'll make a motion to adopt resolution authorizing town manager to negotiate the Greenway easement.

Thank you. Is there a second?

I'll second.

Mr. Thurber, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. All right. Motion passes. Up next, we have a budget amendment. Before that, Greenway easement?

Yes.

Any questions on this? i'll make a motion to approve the budget amendment for funding this greenway easement uh purchase all right is there a second again second fisher foley any discussion all those in favor say aye all right and i will take a motion to adjourn the meeting So moved. Thank you, Commissioner Bonnets. Second, Commissioner Thurber. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Thank you.