Board of Commissioners (boc) - Special Meeting

Tuesday, November 18th, 2025. Board of Commissioners, the town of Pittsburgh. The order of business. We're going to have a moment of silence. If you would please bow your heads for a few moments. Thank you. If we could all stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. Commissioner Frell, if you would lead us to the flag of the United States of America and the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We need to adopt the agenda. We will present the agenda which is the public hearing and the quasi judicial hearing for the Hall River Christian Academy. Motion to approve the agenda as proposed. Second. All in favor, please. I I. Thank you.

So, we're going to introduce this. We are going to have a public hearing and these are really the regulations or the rules concerning this public hearing. So basically a explanation of a quasi judicial process. I will read that. So, we're here for at the request of the Hall River Christian Academy for a special use permit for K through 12 Christian Charter School located on North Carolina Highway 902. And so, the explanation of a quasi judicial process. The hearing on this matter is quasi judicial in nature and will be conducted in accordance with special due process safeguards. A use designated as a special use in a particular zoning district is a use that may be appropriate in that district but because of its nature, extent and external effects requires special consideration of its location, design, and methods of operation before it can be deemed appropriate in the district and compatible with its surroundings. A school is permitted in the town's residential agriculture RA zoning district with a special use permit. The applicant has the burden to demonstrate that a development application complies with applicable the special use permit review standards for a diff evidentiary public hearing. This burden can be satisfied only by competent material and substantial evidence. Any person may appear at the hearing and submit documents, materials, and other written or oral testimony either individually or as a

representative of an organization. Persons speaking at the hearing shall identify themselves, state their name or business address, and if appearing on behalf of a person or the organization, state the name and mailing address of the person or organization they represent. The board of commissioners is not bound by the rules of evidence or limited to the consideration of evidence that is inadmissible in a court of law. The body may consider all testimony and evidence it deems competent and material to the application under consideration and may exclude testimony or evidence it determines to be irrelevant in material, incompetent, unreliable or unduly repetitive. The testimony that witnesses give today shall be taken under oath. If a witness wants the board to see written evidence such as reports, maps, pictures, or other ev exhibits, then he or she should be familiar with the evidence and should explain the document and ask that be it be introduced during or at the end of his or her testimony. Any attorney who speak should not should not give factual testimony but may summarize their client's case. The petitioner and the town for example are interested persons and have stand. So we so we can hear from the staff at this particular point.

You got to swear the witnesses. All of these other witnesses, you know, stand up. If everyone who is signed, I was just going to say I'm holding my hand up for the others. Okay. Okay. If everyone which is signed up for to speak at this particular hearing, if all ones who have signed up will stand at once and you have got to be sworn in.

You swear that the evidence you shall give the board in this action shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help me God.

Thank you. That's it. Okay. I'd like to ask the board members who have any information or special knowledge about the case to please describe that information for the record. So the interested persons will know and can respond. It is understood that board members may have received unsolicited communications from the public concerning special use permit but should not have considered any such information as evidence related to this special use application prior to the hearing to this hearing. So if there are any board members that have information or special knowledge about this case, we need to know. No,

no, ma'am. Not at this time. Thank you.

So, and also before we open this hearing, like to know if there are any board members to give you all a chance to reveal any possible conflicts or withdraw from the these proceedings if necessary. Conflicts include but are not limited to a member having fixed opinion prior to hearing the matter that is not suspect susceptible to change undisclosed or exparte communications on the issues involved in this special use permit application. a close familiar business or other associal associational relationships with an interested party person or a financial interest in the outcome of the matter. If an injection is raised to a member's participation and that member does not recuse himself or herself, the remaining member shall by majority vote on the objection. So is there anyone that has any possible conflicts?

No. No.

There be no such conflicts. I hereby declare that all information received by the board about the property prior to this hearing was and will not be considered and will not be considered in connection with this special use permit or if there are withdrawals volunteer involuntary. So there are none. the remaining members having no such conflicts. I hereby declare that all information received by the remaining board members about the property prior to this hearing was and will not be considered in connection with this special use permit application. I now open the special hearing that the public hearing. Don't have a motion to go to public hearing. Do

I have a motion to go public? So moved. Second. All in favor? I I will now ask the planning staff to make the presentation at this request.

Good evening. Good evening.

Um this special use of permit application is for the All River Christian Academy. The applicants are Haw River Christian Academy via via an affidavit of Pittsburgh Baptist Church LLC and Pete Dichler and Penny Hall. Uh whose address is listed on the application. The location of this is along Highway 902 which is north of Roco Fuerte Church. There are two parcel numbers involved um 0061 873 and 0068572. Current zoning for the site is rural agricultural site is 41.63 acres. It's currently vacant and it's owned by the Pittsburgh Baptist Church. Proposed use is a K through 12 Christian school. Um the utilities pose are on-site septic system and deep well and uh the only special information from our UDO that is applicable here that I'm aware of although there may be any number of other things is that the minimum stacking and loading spaces is 40 which is measured from the building entrance and the source is the UDO chapter 6 section 6.3.6. uh staff has had a very substantial review of this particular uh application and um much of the information that I just gave you is the basis of what we took a look at. There's a traffic impact analysis prepared in August 2025 by DRMP incorporated. This academy is not asking for annexation. They're not asking for a reszoning or any municipal municipal utility services. The school is allowed only by special use permit in this district to

public service excuse me development services director. Okay. Thank you.

Armstrong development services director. Um a couple of items between the NC do letter from the TIA review. One is the note that they are required for phase one and phase two to have items to be construct a westbound left turn lane on NC 902 at the parent entrance for with 1250 ft of storage and appropriate tapers as well as monitor NC87 um at NC 902 for signalization and then again in the phase two to continue that monitoring of NC87 7 um at NC92 for signalization. There says the requirements are for them to do for um Hall River Christian Academy to actually implement these items. The statement of justification that was submitted does not match on number one. It says thoroughare improvements will be implemented by NCDOT. That needs to be addressed. Um,

another item I reviewed the TIA piece and I did notice that there Sorry, could I ask you to repeat that please? The the item that needs to be addressed.

The item that needs to be addressed is the statement of justifications submitted by um Restston Companies Incorporate says number one theor improvements will be implemented by SDOT. The letter from NCDOT does not state they're doing any improvements. The justification says they are. That is something that we need to make sure it is clear between who is doing what because we have to have the letter from SD they are doing it. The current letter says it is required of the applicant. The second part to that is the TIA did not include the impact from 15501 reroute in the TIA. So I would ask the question if um since it looks like it was done right before that rerouting happened. So it' be another item to be addressed. The third item is outside the TIA and I do not see a report for fire suppression piece. This can be done later but it is something that if they're not going to have water zero access for the site and the design piece, they may not have the capacity with the storm water devices. They're using that to make the fire suppression. So there is a a set of calculations based on everything from seasonal high water table to pressures and the volumes and what that capacity of that pond will be and sizing. Thank you.

Does any board members have questions for the planning staff regarding this request? Yes, I do. I'd like to u ask for an opinion about the fire suppression and the details required for the fire department safety.

This is a well well and septic property. Is that correct? It is well and septic. And the other question is if they are just using access from the fire truck or they having sprinkler system and they're pulling the treatment process for that if they're pulling that inside the calculations the pressure to get it from the pond to the building or at least to the truck itself and that access point. That all would need to be worked out from a site constraint requirement and then if they can actually have the volume in the pond if they're using everything from a clay liner or if they have the actual volume on a normal basis. Do you have a volume for the pond? I have nothing on the pond to review. Okay. And how is the pond to be filled?

It's supposed to be a storm water pond. So, it should be filling naturally. Um, no other. And what's the topog topography of that site? Have to go back and review the piece to see that. Flat, isn't it? That section is considerably flat. Okay. But like I said, it may not have to do with the flatness of the site. is more of the soil conditions and the calculations on what they find from the soils borings and the other portions the hydraulics. Sorry to be detailed about this but excuse me. Uh can it can it be filled with well water?

Um it depends if they have a liner and then they'd have to do the calculations per evaporation and other items to do that. So, I can't see it without actually them showing me the sizing of the pond, the calculations, how long it's supposed to stay in there. It has to be before I see that. Is that something that needs to be reviewed before approval at this stage? It would have to be a condition that either they have access to one or the other. It is not something that has approved, but you have to have an either or solution to how they're going to do it and it has to be available one way or another. If they can't get it, they have to wait till they do.

So, is is that rather like I think that our uh justice center has an engineered uh fire uh water uh tower just for fire suppression. Uh so would that it would be a condition that says either the school has to have a water tank and all of the pumps and supports for that or it would have the engineered storm water pond with calculations showing sufficient capacity for fire pressure. Yes. And then what would happen in the event that um the water supply is dropped because of a drought or some of those conditions? You'd have to have an emergency condition attached to it as well. who makes that decision.

It would be based on their engineers design whichever selection they have a right to pick the the choice but they have to have it all in place beforehand and it has to meet all the codes and rights. So if if it then they should be fine. We don't have that currently. Is that correct? No, we do not have nothing. They said they that's what they intend to use. Say

again. I didn't hear you. They said intent to use the pond storm water pond as the the fire suppression. Okay. Any additional questions? Some uh I I have some concerns about the uh septic system. Um but um I think I just need to work through those questions. Is would you be the

I could answer some of those questions. Okay. Um, so I understand that it's proposed to have uh a septic system, septic field rather than municipal sewer. Um, and what what is the reliability of of septic fields?

It is dependent on how they have them outlined. It's going to be the county permitted piece, but they're going to need to know what the perk rate perk rate is for the soil in the area they need to put it. If they have the drop, they need to get it from point A to point B from the facility and if they actually have a large enough field where they're putting they're not going to use something else on top of it. Those type of restrictions. So, it is actually dependent on how they design it. Um, if they're using the tanks near the nail the building to send it down to the fields where that lies as well. Um, use of old water separator potentially is another piece, giving them some capacity on that. Just depends on how they set it up.

Um, and do septic systems for um continuous loads, how do those compare to uh an institution like a school? it is more concerned if they're using a step system or just a straight feed from one box and that has to be sized correctly. They still have the maintenance cycle, making sure if they need to pump it out, they have to have an actual schedule for that maintenance. If they maintain it, it should be fine. But it is more based on how they do the design, which section they're going to use, and then what's their schedule for maintaining if they keep it. So, I've done a little bit on the same topic. I've done a little bit of research. Uh it seems to me that u according to the GIS soil surveys that are published, again, they're not entirely accurate. the county is the one who's going to be doing the the perk test, but it's but uh just as a general description of the soils around the school property, uh they are relatively they're moderate. It's the description of the drainage there is moderate. Um but what I can con what I'd like to ask about is the property right next door that is Pittsburgh Baptist Church as well. They have a contingent septic five-year contingent septic uh approval. And I'm wondering if there is a a way of extrapolating that information or not. I know the soils are similar on the map.

It depends if they're going to have that as a shared use field or if it's going to be separate. So, they would have to have an easement between the two if it were shared um if they're not the same property line. And the other piece to that is if they are the same soils consistently across the two properties, I think there's a swath that goes on the northern section, the two separate soils. So it depends on where they're planting located. What would be the more applicable rate? It depends. It depends. Really depends. I'd literally have to see a plan in design to say, yeah, no problem. Perk tests are uh we we can approve this without the perk test. with

contingent upon passing. Yeah. That is yes. As long as it's contingent that they get that part. So the property congruent with the two properties in in question have a an approved well uh described online. That was four gallons per four gallons per minute. Uh the total depth is 320 ft. I'm I'm wondering if that in your opinion is sufficient for a school or do you have an opinion on I do not have enough information to have back and review.

Okay. So when it comes to the whale and the septic, most of this appears that it has to be a conditional use. And I know the whale and the septic has to be certain amount, certain distance from each other. And so all of that would have to be indicated as a conditional use as well. Yes, correct. Separate enough so that that the field and it's not polluting the draw in the well, not drawing it over to it. And would we indicate the distance that would be necessary for that? They would need to provide the calculations and the the outline of what that needs to be on their plans. It's one of the requirements. Okay.

If they're showing two properties and they're both using the same well, depends if they're both using the same septic site and that has not been outlined enough for me to answer that. So we don't have the designs or specifications for the septic system in this application. I don't have that for the well site. Okay. I have that information. But the well the well is indicated to be four gallons per minute. A congruent property. It's not their property. It's one right next door. So they would still have to actually do a check.

That's yet to be determined. They still need a souls test as well and then a full park for each they're going to try to use for one or both um regarding the minimum stacking at 40 vehicles. How will we increase that stack stacking or how is it measured? That's actually what's outlined in the UDO. I think the big question is if are they on their property with all the stacking or are they off? I didn't know

if they're on or off their property with the stacking because they should be using their property for the stacking and not impacting the road or someone else's property. So that would be the question there. and u the property that belongs to the Baptist church and the Hall River Christian Academy that is on that parking I assume is on two properties correct it shows only the side for the the Christian academy and then the loop seems to be overlapping the other side but I don't see anything on the church side besides that as of yet I haven't seen any other plans

believe it's in our packet here that some of the parking is on the Baptist church. That's that strip I'm talking about. Okay. There was same topic. There was discussion about an easement to that second property. Has that been submitted yet or not? Not to leave the stacking. No.

We would have to have a letter from them saying that they would accept that stacking as part of that as well because impacting the property without their permission, it's not something we would want to Have they given you any indication about when they plan on beginning construction? I can ground

I have not had that discussion. I don't know if it And was there any talk about session into the town? Not to my knowledge, Randy would know that. Okay. Had a discussion about it. We had several discussions. I'm sorry. We had more than one discussion about it and they determined they did not want to annex it. Okay. Have Have they talked about Tri River uh services?

We had a discussion about the distance between u the nearest water line and this site and the lack of sewer available to the site. There was a discussion about a force main that came past there, but you realize you cannot tap into a force man. So, no, currently there's no infrastructure before you get to the intersection, which is a substantial distance, but I guess everything's relative.

Yes, we have one more question. Whittle in septic Please. She's a PE. Sorry. Okay. Yeah. At what point would you evaluate that that well in septic would be enough to for this school? It would be at the site plan and then the CD finalization to say yes, it can move forward.

Okay. So if you if it's determined that the well and septic is not acceptable then what other option would they have? Um they would need to be able to attach to the sewer system and the water system if they can't get those two and they would have to have access. So they would avoid their project unless they can get access which would require annexation voluntary annexation. Okay. Yes. But this site plan she's just describing to you, that's the next step. If you get your if you get your special use permit, there is no other stop between here and there. Okay.

There is one other item I forgot to add just on the bottom of the MSTA site plan comments. If they do not get the easement that's pending for the adjacent property, um that nullifies the analysis for the TIA as well. Okay. Thanks for that. Sorry, can you repeat that?

At the bottom of the letter from SDOT, the MSTA site plan comments, they're required to have an access easement that we're talking about for that second property. If they do not get that easement, it will nullify the TIA analysis that would have to be redone, which means this would actually nullify this as well because that takes into account staffing on that other property. Let me ask uh maybe this is more of a a legal question. If there is no agreement for an easement right now for this property to accommodate for the traffic, then the TIA that's pro been provided to us is moot. Is that correct?

That's correct. According to that's in D's words, they'd have to reassess. They have to reassess. And question is they may still need to reassess because they did not account for the rigor out of 15501 that was still impact that same area.

Thank you.

Any additional questions from the board at this time? This time. Yeah. Just Okay. Just to clarify that that that eastbound driveway access that is proposed is not the same as the property for the Baptist church. That's a different property owner to the east. I think those properties are owned by are owned by the church. Both pieces of land are owned by the church on both sides.

No, I'm sorry. The Hispanic church is not owned by the Baptist church. Baptist Church owns these two parcels that are on one or more of the maps that we'll see in a minute. And so predominantly the school and most of its stacking requirements are going to happen on one parcel. The other parcel has been set aside potentially as a site for church for First Baptist Church.

The church has specific parking regulations that are required for the church as well. So you don't just automatically share the use of the school parking lot. Nice if you do, possibly better for the environment if you do, but certainly not a requirement. So the church be required to have one parking space for every four seats inside of the church and other things that you need to do. Thank you. Everything right now. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

If there are no other questions at this time from the board, we're going to hear from the applicant. Do you have question? Please go ahead. We're going to hear from the applicant and the other proponents of request. That's true. Thank you. Good evening. Uh madame mayor proen Baldwin and board of commissioners.

My name is Brady Herman. I'm a local land use and municipal attorney with the Row Law Firm in Chapel Hill, 1526 East Franklin Street. I along with my co-consel TC Morphice uh as well as members of the uh HRCA team are uh here on behalf of Paul Riverch Christian Academy for this special use permit application. Um we're excited to be here tonight and I first want to thank this board and as well as staff for um accommodating and scheduling the special meeting just for this quasi judicial hearing and I also want to give a big thank you to planning staff for working with us and getting us to this point of presenting our application to you all this evening. Now, I will be going and taking the lead uh during this hearing in terms of directing um uh Hall River Christian Academyy's experts and witnesses. Um and which I will go ahead and preface that the testimony and evidence that you will hear from them will show that this project meets all five standards uh for special use permit approval outlined in the UDO. But my colleague TC Morpheus will first give you just a brief overview of quasi judicial procedures. Um but before I turn it over to him, I would like to go ahead and hand out our exhibit notebook. This will have uh documents that are not otherwise in our special use permit application or in our agenda packet, but I want to go ahead and give that to you all because I will be referring to some of those and entering those exhibits into the record uh throughout the duration of this hearing. Thank you.

I'll say with our exhibit notebook, there's a little index on the front that sort of outlines what our exhibits are and as well as a copy of our PowerPoint presentation which will be uploaded shortly and TC will just go through a couple of those intro slides. PowerPoint presentation. Yeah. Okay.

Good evening again. My name is TC Morphus. I'm one of Brady Herman's law partners. Uh, I want to thank Mayor Pro Tim for going over uh a high level of quasi judicial procedure. That's going to save us all some time. Um, I have a few PowerPoint slides that I'm going to use to just talk about the judicial procedure particularly because it's been some years since this board has had a special use permit proceeding. Uh, as with any of our witnesses this evening, please feel free to interrupt me if you have questions. Otherwise, I will proceed. Um, if you could let's skip the next two slides. So just going on to slide four which is SP review standard and if you could go uh two more. That's perfect. Great. All right. So as a board under uh your unified development ordinance section 10.4.10L there are five standards that you have to evaluate whether the Hall River Christian Academy has met uh for granting special use permits. Those standards are one that the proposed use will not materially endanger the public health or safety. Two that the proposed use complies with all requirements uh of the UDO including all regulations and standards generally applicable within the zoning district and specifically applicable to the particular type of special use. And here I want to pause and I want to thank staff for already providing some guidance about conditions. you all talked about there are a number of things that are not before you tonight. Uh that's very typical as you've already heard at this stage is the zoning entitlement stage. Uh there are later stages for site plans for engineering review construction and design and we would have to meet all those requirements. So it's certainly appropriate to impose conditions such as must meet fire code or other things in the future must have an updated TIA but at this stage uh what you're looking at are just these standards. Um,

your third requirement, uh, and I just want to say that, so what you're really looking at is does it meet the UDO? Does it meet these five standards? Your third standard is will not substantially injure the value of adjoining property or as a public necessity. Four is in generally in harmony with intensity, scale, and character of development uh, existing or planned in the surrounding area. and five is generally consistent with the adopted comprehensive plan and any other plans officially adopted by the town board of commissioners. All right, so if you could go next slide, please. Now, this is important when we talk about burden of production and persuasion. The ultimate issue that is before you is whether there is sufficient evidence in the record to establish that the HRCA's application does or does not meet the standards of UDO section 10.4.10 10 L. We have the burden of presenting sufficient evidence that our application meets that standard. And as Mayor Proton has already said, that's based on competent material, substantial evidence in the record. So it's not things that you've heard about in the grocery store or that you think you know. It's the evidence that's presented tonight. It's evidence that's in the application, which at the close of our presentation will ask be admitted into the record. Um once our primmaasia case has been established, that means we put on enough evidence using experts and testimony from qualified lay people. The burden then shifts to anyone who opposes the special use permit to show that the standards have not been met. And the same standard applies. Opposition evidence must be competent, substantial, and material. So again, it's not what you think is good or bad. It is have we met our burden? And if we have, then we are entitled to the permit. If we do not meet our burden, then we are not entitled to the permit. If we meet our burden, then it shifts to anyone who is uh opposed to present similar uh quality evidence. Could we have the next slide, please? And I won't be a dead horse force, but

uh our most recent guidance from this was from North Carolina Supreme Court case PHG Asheville uh LLC v city of Asheville. And basically what the court said is that in the event that the applicant satisfies this initial burden in production and primmaaccia he is entitled to the requested permit at that point any decision to deny the application should be based on findings contra which are supported by competent material substantial evidence appearing in the record with the local government body lacking the authority to deny a permit on grounds not expressly stated in the ordinance given that it must employ specific statutory criteria which are relevant. Next slide, please. All right. So, I want to very quickly go through the kind of testimony you're going to be hearing tonight. Um, we've already talked about competent substantial material evidence. Again, I won't beat that to death, but you do need to know competent is the person that's qualified to give that testimony. Material is that the evidence is relevant to the question before you. So, whatever's happening in Carrie or Apex is not relevant. Whatever is happening uh with some other use in the community is not relevant. substantial evidence. This is where there's a little bit of wiggle room. It is that which reasonable mind would regard as sufficiently supporting a specific result. And that is really for you, the board, to determine what is sufficient. Um, only parties who have standing can cross-examine and direct examine witnesses. So, we have standing. We'll be presenting our evidence. If we choose, we could cross-examine uh other people presenting testimony this evening. Next slide, please. All right. So again, a lay person is someone who lacks professional or specialized knowledge on the subject. General opinion testimony by a lay person is not permitted unless it's accompanied by corroborating factual evidence. An expert is someone whose education, skill, and experience qualifies them to testify about a particular issue. As we'll talk about on the next slide, expert testimony is required for quasi judicial hearings under North Carolina state law on certain matters.

And so the general rule is that anyone with material knowledge can provide factual testimony. A lay citizen can talk about what they know, what they personally have seen. Expert testimony is mandatory in three situations under state law. The first is testimony regarding the use of property in a particular way that would affect the value of other property. The second is testimony regarding the increase in traffic for proposed development, whether that will pose a danger to public safety. And then the third is matters about which only expert testimony will be generally admissible into the rules of evidence. So we have some experts that are going to be talking about a few other things as well. Next slide, please.

All right. So at this point, I'm going to hand it back over to Brady and we're going to begin with our case and chief. Are there any questions uh at this time? Thank you very much for your time.

Yes. I'd like to go ahead and briefly introduce our uh witness experts and as well as other members of our team who also be testifying. The first is Pete Bogle with an architect with the Bogle firm architecture. Uh next is Garrett Neil, civil engineer with Neil Civil Engineering PLC. We have Ronald Stevenson. He is with uh DRNP a traffic engineer. We also have Nicholas Kirkland. He is with um Kirkland Appraisals LLC and is a certified appraiser. We also have Reynolds Neely. He is um a planning consultant with uh Neie Planning and Zoning Services. We also have Matt Williams. He is with um Rson uh and is also our project manager. We have Penny Hall who is the president of Hall River Christian Academy board of directors. And lastly, we have Pastor Peter McDonald, who's probably right behind me. He is a senior pastor for Pittsburgh Baptist Church. Uh, so again, I want to reiterate that the testimony and evidence that you will hear from these individuals collectively will show that we meet all five standards for SCP approval that TC showed you on the slide um just a couple of minutes ago. That pretty much concludes our opening. At the pleasure of the board, I'd be happy to go ahead and call our first witness.

Before you do that, can you identify Pastor McDonald for me? He's right there. I don't if I'll stand right in his way or not. Apologize. Thank you.

With that, I'll go ahead and call Mr. Matt Williams with Rson. Matt Williams, Rretz and Companies, 2075 Juniper Lake Road, West End, North Carolina. Um, good evening, Mayor Pro Tim and commissioners. Um, um, I'm the project manager with with Redson um, helping assist Hall River through this process. Um a little little brief information about Redson. Um we're a full-ervice real estate development um and general contracting firm um that we manage we basically manage projects from initial concept through completion. Um during my four plus years with resin, um I've led or co-led more than a hundred commercial projects for local and national clients with budgets ringing ranging anywhere from 2 million to over 10 million. Um my work primarily focuses on due diligence, entitlements, um and permitting. Um, but I've also developed strong expertise in both the real estate and con construction support of projects to give me kind of a well-rounded um frame of reference u when I go in and and work with clients such as Harvard Christian Academy. Um, so my relationship started with them in November of 2023. Um, we've been working closely ever since to advance their vision for a private Christian academy campus that will serve the needs of their current students, future students, and um, the overall broader community. um to support this effort here tonight

and throughout the process. Um I've assembled a team of respected professionals whose expertise has been integral um throughout our extensive due diligence process up to this point. Um as Mr. Herman continues our presentation and kind of navigating us uh through the testimonies um and introduces our expert witnesses. You will s see you will see the substantial time, effort, and resources dedicated to reaching this point. While the process might have taken a little longer than we all expected, um every step has strengthened this project. Um I'd like to thank Mr. Kahun Tingle and his staff for their support um with all the presubmitt meetings, community engagements, um regulatory review, and just being always being there to answer the questions that we needed answered. Um, finally, I'd like to extend my gratitude to Hall Riverch Christian Academy for entrusting me to run this project for for them and collaborate with them as well as Pittsboro Baptist Church and um, Pastor Peter um, for for all the assistance they've provided as well. Um, we are confident that our work meet that our work meets the requirements for special use permit approval. Um, I'll be here available to answer any further questions with respect to my role or RTS as a company. Um, and at this time, um, I'll turn things back over to Mr. Herman. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Mr. William, before you leave, just one followup question. Were you the one that submitted all of Christian Academyy's special use permit to the town? I am. Um, and the special use permit application that is in the board's agenda packet this evening, is that a true and accurate copy of the application that you submitted? At this time, let me I would like to go ahead and uh submit uh our special use permit application into the record. At this time, I'd like to go ahead and call Miss Penny Hall, president of the board of directors for Hall River Christian Academy.

Good evening, commissioners and prom mayor, and thank you again for uh giving us the time this evening. My name is Penny Hull, and I serve as board president for How River Christian Academy, a K12 classical school. For the past 16 years, our school has faithfully served families in Pittsburgh and Chattam County by providing a high quality education in a caring environment. Over the last 12 years, in our leased facilities at 2428 Soal Bum Spring Road in Pittsburgh, we have grown from 60 students to 180 students. A clear testimony both to the increasing community demand and to the trust placed in us. Chattam County has one of the fastest growing school systems in the state and many families in Pittsburgh are actively seeking a faith-based option right here in their community. At the same time, this growth has made one thing unmistakably clear. Our current facilities are no longer sufficient to meet this demand. This project will provide capacity to serve 300 students by 2030, giving more families in Chattam County a local classical Christian option without needing to leave the area. As the only school of this kind in Pittsburgh, our new campus will offer expanded seats, shorter commutes, and a stable educational presence for years to come. By adding capacity locally, we will allow more Pittsboro families to pursue their preferred educational option and to have their children learning and growing in their own community. Tonight, we respectfully request your approval of a special use permit just as the first step in the construction approval process. The facility we propose will offer modern classrooms, dedicated science, arts, and music spaces, thoughtfully designed outdoor areas, and a master planned lowprofile layout that is designed to minimize impact on adjoining

and adjacent properties. Our educational model focuses on recognizing truth, goodness, and beauty in the people and the world around us. And thus, our campus is intentionally designed to harmonize with its surroundings where education can take place in peaceful natural courtyard areas as well as in the classroom. We're grateful that so many in our community share this vision for highquality local educational options. If you're here this evening in support of our proposed campus, would you please just raise your hand to show your support for this effort? Thank you. We worked intentionally to be good neighbors and active community partners. Our school and family support local organizations like the BFW, senior assisted living communities, animal rescue organizations, the Special Olympics, community food banks, community youth sports programs because we believe our investment in children is also an investment in the greater community. As we build this new campus, we intend to engage with the community, respect natural buffers, manage traffic thoughtfully, and contribute positively to Pittsburgh's future. We are here because we want to invest in our town's future, strengthen the educational landscape, broaden opportunities for families, and serve our region well for decades to come. Thank you for your time.

Question for you, Miss. Is this a year Brown school or is it uh um it is a traditional calendar school and if you wouldn't mind uh I know where your school is now. It's a great setting. It's beautiful there. Uh can you describe a typical traffic day for me? Drop off and pick up. You have you said about 180 students

and you have it staggered. How how are you organizing it right now? Um, we don't stagger. We have a loop through the parking lot and we don't back up onto the road. Um, that was actually I I'm sure our experts can speak to that. That was part of our our preparation for this uh future growth. Any other questions? Just make a comment that you answered one of my questions. Why are you leaving in May? So, thank you. Next, we'd like to go and call uh Pastor Peter McDonald, senior pastor uh for Pit Pittsburgh Baptist Church.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the board. Thank you for your time tonight and having us share with you. My name is Peter McDonald and I'm honored to serve as pastor of Pittsburgh Baptist Church located at the address of 121 West Salsbury Street in Pittsburgh. I'm speaking tonight on behalf of the church pursuant to the authority duly given for me to act and testify on behalf of the church for Hall River Christian Academy special use permit application. I will briefly explain the relationship between Pittsburgh Baptist Church and Hall River Christian Academy. While we have agreed to allow the use of both parcels for the special use permit request and to speak to the documentation we're providing as evidence of this agreement. Pittsburgh Baptist Church and Hall River Christian Academy have maintained a friendly and collaborative relationship with a shared commitment to serving families, the church, and this community. Since the beginning days of the school, we have joyfully watched this school grow and make an incredible impact in the world through generations of students who have been educated in classical Christian education, grew in their faith, and transition into the world of collegiate studies in the workforce with the greater goal of growing lifelong learners who will transform the world for Christ. Pittsburgh Baptist Church has consistently encouraged students and families to be a part of Hall River Christian Academy and we couldn't be more excited for them as they now have an opportunity to purchase land and build a permanent home for their school in Pittsburgh on Highway 902. Pittsburgh Baptist Church has owned both parcels 61873 and 68572 since 1992. And as our church family has grown over the years, we have prayerfully sought to develop this property for the greater purposes of our church and in serving our community. We began discussions with Hall River Christian Academy about the possibility of them b building a permanent school on Highway 902 in 20122 and ultimately

unanimously voted to offer for sale parcel 6861873 to Hall River Christian Academy in October of 2023, which the church's letter of intent to sell is included in your packets agenda on page 35. In addition, Pittsburgh Baptist Church has been working towards developing a new church on parcel 68572 as Hall River Christian Academy has been planning to build on their future parcel. The church's parcel 68572 is located immediately adjacent to Hall River Christian Academy School site to the east. Due to the site constraints of Hall River Christian Academy School site, parcel 61873, Hall Riverch Christian Academy is proposing to construct a portion of the school's parking lot and vehicular stacking on the church's parcel, parcel 68572. In order to comply with the town of Pittsboro's unified development ordinance, we are committed to beginning substantial uh progression for the construction of our church project on the church's parcel 68572 within two years of Hall River Christian Academyy's SUP approval. Included in your agenda packet on pages 33 and 34 is my affidavit submitted with the SUP application that reflects this commitment by the church. We are currently working on a civil site plan design, permitting, architectural design, and ultimately filing a building permit application as we follow the phase process with our developers to move forward with the SUP request. All River Christian Academy requires the ability to use both parcels, one for the school site and the other for the school's parking and stacking. Pittsburgh Baptist Church has agreed to support this need because the proposed use is consistent with Hall River Christian Academyy's mission and is compatible with the long-term vision for

the property. We will work with Hall River Christian Academyy's developers to execute and record a shared access and parking and temporary construction easement agreement so that the school's parking and vehicular stackling stacking needs will be sufficient as the campus is built. This proposed easement agreement will be shared with you later on in this hearing. Thank you for your time and consideration. Pittsburgh Baptist Church is supportive of Paul River's uh SUP request and is committed to ensuring a transparent and well-coordinated process. The church is also very excited to be a part of this opportunity for Hall River Christian Academy. And we're praying that this land will be a blessing to them, to our community, and our church family for generations to come. And we look forward to calling them our neighbors. Thank you so much.

Pastor McDonald, just a couple follow-up questions. If you would I'm going to point you to our exhibit notebook. Um sitting right there next to you. If you and the board would go and turn to exhibit A for me. You mentioned uh during your statement that there was an easement agreement um that the church is is intending to go and convey to the school for this project. Um is this exhibit A uh that easement agreement that you're referring to? Yes. And this easement is in draft form. Is it not? Yes.

And will this easement draft be the same or something substantially sim similar to the easement that the church intends to grant to the school if the project is approved? Again, going to the things like parking, access, vehicle stacking, utility installation, and temporary construction.

Yes, I have no further questions for this. do have a question about the easement agreement. Um I I I do read that this was prepared by uh Brady Herman without the benefit of title examination. Will that be a part of the process? So, um, that is usually put in for attorneys who don't render opinions of title. I'm not a closing attorney, but I do draft easements all the time. So, that's more of boilerplate language. It doesn't

Okay. All right. I understand. Thank you enough. At this time, we'd like to go ahead and call Mr. Pete Bogle with the Bogle Firm and Architecture. And I'll just go ahead and preface to the board that with these next experts that I'm going to go and call up, I need to lay the foundation to go and qualify them as an expert. It seems a bit redundant, but I have to go and do sort over to preserve sort of our evidence that I'm that in the testimony that we're given today. So, I just I know it's going to be a little bit redundant, but just bear with us here. Mr. Bogle, will you please introduce yourself and where you work, sir?

Yes, sir. I'm Pete Bogle. I'm an architect out in Salsbury, 110 North Main, Salsbury. And would you just describe, Mr. Bogle, what you do, what your firm does and your experiences?

Sure. We u practice all commercial architecture. Uh we do a lot of work with um churches, um some with private Christian schools as well. Um do a lot of uh preliminary planning as well. um specifically with Rson, we've done several projects um that that try to get through these um special use permits or um resonings, things like that. I also have background as a a planning board member and planning board chair for Rowan County for uh two full terms, a number of years. And if I could direct you to our exhibit notebook and specifically exhibit A there, Mr. or excuse me, exhibit C as in Charlie. Um, is that your resume?

See is me. And have you been recognized as an expert in any sort of legal proceeding in North Carolina, whether it's a court or a board sitting just like you all in this quasi judicial capacity? Numerous times on board similar to this. And are you generally familiar with the building, fire, and safety codes? Yes. And are you familiar with the development regulations of the town of Pittsboro that's set forth in the unified development ordinance?

I am. So at this time, I'd like to go ahead and enter in exhibit C, Mr. Bogle's resume. And I would also like to offer Mr. Bogle as a qualified expert in the field of architecture and building and site design. Now, Mr. Dr. Bogle, did you assist in any way with the SUP application in terms of the documents that were submitted? I did. And and specifically, what what did you participate in? What did you get help to go and develop?

Um, we developed the preliminary site plan, uh, preliminary um buildings, um, these that you see with our name on them here in the corner. um and some of the the slides and information uh to digging into the UDO uh that we'll see in just a minute. Okay. And is this concept site plan that you did is this in uh the SCP application?

It is. and would you just go and sort of describe the the site plan and in particular explain how the design of the school fits within the confines of the property and also meets the needs of the school.

Sure. So, this site plan is the final iteration of multiple multiple iterations of uh how to best stack the school's needs uh and meet the UDO um requirements and satisfy building code and uh fire code um provisions. Um we looked at numerous different um options. This all also working in partnership with uh Pittsburgh Baptist Church um with their plans. We did some preliminary just early sketches for where they may want to locate their buildings as well. Um so meeting the school's needs um with specifics to the the the phase one uh phase 1 A and phase 1 B is how they ended up breaking it up. Uh the two red buildings that you see there and then future phases uh in the the kind of purple color there. Um the school wanted to develop as a courtyard type of layout so that um most of the student activity was contained inside of the buildings. Uh thus you know being more of a buffer between them and any kind of public street or access or anything like that. Um providing enough loop road to uh provide all of the stacking, all of the parking for the phase one buildings. actually all of the parking for future phase as well. Um the piece that one piece that we uh had challenges with is providing enough stacking area for when we developed out all of the future growth. And so the way we approached that was to um partner with the church in their parking areas to be able to use those parking areas for stacking uh during times that the church would not be there. Um the we looked further into um well some of

these are going to get into my presentation here. So

can I just interrupt just real quick? It's a bit of a nuance here. Um could you just sort of explain and I know planning staff could do a great job doing this well as well but it just was never brought up that why uh the the Pittsburgh Baptist Church's parcel the 68572 why that was also included in the school's SUP um and why Pittsburgh Baptist um needs to go and have that commitment in terms of them going through with their project um on their parcel in terms of the church which is a permitted use by right

um this is an interesting nuance in the UDO um a parking lot by itself is not allowed as a primary use uh for the RA district. So therefore the the church would have to build something to be able to build that parking lot. We're not dependent on that parking lot um with this layout. Um we did decide to um put the drive in on that side to give more length. Um and that that is because of that drive being on parcel 068572 is why we have to have the SUP uh for both the school side and the church side.

Anybody have any questions in regard to that? I do. Yes. I know this is a this is not a finalized um uh drawing, but I'm wondering where is where would the septic go? I'm I'm assuming that it's going to go south of that Carolina Power East.

No, septic is actually shown up near the top up near Highway 902. Um it's indicated there with some hatched areas right there. initial septic dispersal area that is um the soils that tested out a lot better or that were shown up on the GIS is a lot better. So your well is going to be on the other side of the school.

Well is shown um actually did not make this um the wells locations that we have looked at. Of course, this is one that we'll have to determine later on, which is why we haven't shown it here, but looking at uh I don't have any kind of pointer. The very southwest corner where where the loop road bends there um at the end of the long red parking lot area just north of the 50oot riparian buffer in that area. In in your opinion, was was that reparium buffer feed a pond or not?

Uh that's not the that is not the intent. There won't be a water source for you. Is that correct? For the pond? No.

I have one more question in reference. You were saying something about the park stacking to be done at the parking areas, the church parking areas. So when the church is built, what are you going to do about the stacking then? What's your

It's a great uh shared use of parking area uh because the church will use parking on weekends mostly when the school is not there. Um so this is churches and schools uh co-sharing parking lot is a fantastic match and you can actually see that in this slide here. The green lines uh are where we can stack a lot of uh additional cars when that parking lot is built. And that again is for future phase. The red lines that you see serve all of phase 1 A, phase 1B, uh, for their parking and for their stacking areas.

Mr. Bogle, the diagram that you have here, is that also in the SCP application? It is. And we have some folks who have um who are more qualified than myself actually to speak on the the parking and the stacking will be speaking. Now Mr. Bogle, I assume that you have reviewed the town special use permit review standard. Is that right?

Yes, I have. And in particular, if I could point you to exhibit D of our notebook, as well as the board, that's UDO section 10.4.10, special use permit review procedures. That's on page 234 of the UDO. And if you flip over to 235, subsection L, it sets forth the five standard. It does. So,

I'd like to go ahead and enter in exhibits B into the record video section 10.4. 410. Mr. Bogle, I'll specifically refer to L2. The proposed special use comprises with all the requirements of this ordinance meeting the UDF, including all regulations and standards generally applicable with the zoning district and specifically applicable to the particular type of special use. So with that standard you know when your expertise in designing the school and based on your training experience familiar with the building and safety codes and this welldeveloped regulations do you have an opinion of whether the school will satisfy this subsection L2 standard? I do and it and my opinion is that it absolutely does meet this meet all of the UDO requirements

and I understand that you have several PowerPoint slides that are forthcoming that that specifically goes through and summarizes how this project complies with all the UDO requirements. Yes sir. So if you just briefly go through some of those slides.

Okay. So our job was to uh show the preliminary design um and how we meet the UDO standards. Uh we've explored multiple design options seeking the best solutions for the school working in partnership with Pittsburgh Baptist Church. Um we need this special use permit granted now so that we can dig further into all of the engineering that it takes to come to the final solutions uh for this the site plan for the engineered site plan. Um so this document uh has been compiled um to show that preliminary design of the campus uh buildings of HRCA are in general compliance with the Pittsburgh UDO. Um further design engineering reviews and approvals of course will be required uh to obtain that full permitting. And this document is designed to show well it shows that the design concepts provide viable solutions meeting the intent of all the applicable UDO requirements. Can you go to the next slide please? Start with uh the zoning district that it's in. This is in residential agriculture or residential agriculture district are a um the dimensional standards set for set forth in 2.2.5. Um you can see that the minimum lot size is 40,000 square feet. The the piece of the property that um Paul River and I should I'll preface all of this as saying the my numbers represent just the the parcel on the west uh not the entire parcel. Um so the the minimum lot size is 40,000 square feet. Uh this parcel is 598,000 or 13.72 acres. Uh width is 15 minimum width is 150. We're over 480. Um net density that's that's dwelling units per

acre. So that doesn't really apply for a school. Lock coverage maximum is 50%. Um HRCA when you do the math it comes out to 23.8%. And that's a lot due to all of that area that's in behind uh that remains open. Uh the minimum front yard setback uh for this property is 50 feet. We've actually pushed the the project back uh well away from the road. We're a little over 200 feet from the road itself to the first building. Um middle rear yard setbacks 30 and we're at 600. Um side is 25 and we're at 37. Um structure height is 35. um HRCA as designed to the peak of the roof is 32 feet. So we're already under it. Uh I did include 12 10.5 there that defined structure height as the mean of a sloped roof uh which in this case as preliminary design shows is 20 ft roughly to the mean height. Also listed here that koopas in 12113 don't count into that height. And you'll see on some of the renderings we've provided there is a Koopa there on that front building. Um, so schools um are allowed in the RA district with a special use permit. Uh, special use permits are not common for schools. I did some quick look at all of your uh, districts of the 12 districts that you have. Um, schools are allowed in 10. Um, seven of those tens, seven of those 10 require special use permits. Uh but when you actually do the math of your entire all all of the uh acreage in the in Pittsboro uh town limits, it's roughly 80% of the acreage in Pittsburgh town limits would require an SUP for a school. So we're not uncommon here. Next slide, please. This is just quickly the riparian buffer

where that's covered in 4.2.3. Um we've shown that we've identified that and that area will remain protected. Um section 4.4 storm water management. Again, this is one of those things that we have to dig further into once we get to the engineered design. Um but uh storm water will be designed to meet or exceed UDO and state standards. Um and that'll be handled uh by our civil engineer to handle 100% of the required storm water management on site. Um section 5.2 is has to do with open space and we are well in excess of uh the open space due to the size of the site. Next slide please. Um perimeter buffer and landscaping. Again these are things that uh will be further uh reviewed in in the further developed site plans. Uh but just as in general the the project approach is the existing tree line on the west would be retained uh between Paul River and the Hispanic church. Um additional landscaping would be planted to meet UD requirements uh for all perimeter parking, parking lots, screens, etc. as defined in all of chapter 5. Whether we end up using some BMS or some fencing, again that's to be determined to meet some of those as well. Next slide, please. Chapter six is development standards. Um, chapter six has some important pieces in it here. Development standards set forth in chapter six will be met or exceeded um specifically for a school within a low density residential area holding to the purposes and requirements as listed. uh our project approach um we'll get into this more in some of the next pages but of the purposes that's kind that I highlighted here um the purpose of this chapter is also to

enhance the visual quality of non-residential development to soften the appearance of expansive paved areas and building mass and to create and maintain a pleasing appearance in the community reduce the effects of glare and heat caused by parking areas and to reduce the visual clutter along commercial streets. So looking at each one of those real quickly, the visual qualities HRCA campus is intentionally designed with classically with classic details um to instill a sense of place of permanence and importance of classical education and values. As far as softening appearances, uh we have an increased setback from 50 to 200 feet. Uh we are doing the approaching this as a shared parking lot, um shared driveway entry, um with all the landscape buffers and screens, etc. that would provide that pleasing appearance. Uh and speaking to reduction of um glare and heat again that shared parking with the church property significantly reduces the total required paved surfaces meeting parking requirements and uh pickup and drop off lanes stacking areas for both facilities during their individual hours of operation. And also generally speaking this church or sorry this school is being placed the side of an existing church. So we already have a public assembly type um establishment already established on the site the school and then what would be the um Pittsburgh Baptist Church uh in their byite development uh in the future. So next slide please. 6.3.5 also in your development standards um actually encourages vehicular connectivity cross access between

parking areas of enjoy of adjoining developments shall be provided uh says number four there so our project approach is that HRCA would construct the main drive to then be shared in the future uh by the church when they develop uh their their buildings 6.3.5.4 for also encourages and even requires this interconnectivity. Mr. B would just real quick right there the exhibit A that I entered into the record on U Pastor McDonald's testimony that easement and agreement would essentially suffice under this standard in terms of the connectivity and access. Is that right?

That's correct. So essentially that easement agreement if this project is approved and it's recorded and entered into by the parties then it would satisfy the the standard that right?

Yes. Uh 6.3.6 if you next slide please is vehicular access and management. Um so the minimum parking requirements are provided on the HRCA parcel. Uh the phase one would require 87 total parking spaces. Um and we've provided 89. Uh total of all the phases is 158 parking spaces required and we've provided 158 parking spaces. Uh the shared parking um designated by that 6.4.3H um with legally recorded easements uh per 6.3.5.6. Uh the shared parking area will be used for um event parking for extended stacking and student pickup and drop off in future phases. And you can see the the required um tables and how we got to some of those calculations uh there on the on the left.

Question about that. Um, can you can you site the requirements for kindergarten drop off? And uh are you complying with that or or special education students? Do do they not have to have separate entrances? Um, can we go back to the site plan? Is it on the site plan? Yes, it is. Okay. And then never mind. We have in the front there's a separate area. Um there see two different drop off areas. Thank you. Back wherever we were. Apologies.

Oh, perfect. Thank you. And Mr. Bogle, not to be a dead horse again, but exhibit A would go and satisfy this shared park. Yes. Is that right?

Yes, it would. And next slide, please. 652 talks about public water and sewer. This is one that we've gone round and round with uh and our I love having a fire line and public water and public sewer right there in front of a site. We don't have that with this site. Uh so really the the initial search was well how can we get it there? Uh that was the initial approach was how can we get public water and sewer here? We found public water. That's not too big of a thing to get there. It's um from Highway 87. It's about 2 2400 feet from there to the to the Hall River side of this of these two parcels. Um, but septic or sorry, sewer was just unattainable from where uh this site is to where it currently is. We found the one line, but it was a force main. You can't tap into that. Um, so the approach then was, well, what can we do on site? And we did start looking uh with, you know, what are our soul types? How how are we perking out here? We brought in our um civil engineer that has a background um and has experience with both of these. How do we do firefighting uh if fire department isn't going to bring tamer trucks out to a a site? I will say that the buildings themselves are designed small enough uh each individual building that they do not require fire suppression systems. Sprinklers are not required inside the buildings. Um we've used size and fire um uh type two construction non non-combustible construction u for these buildings. Um that's that's how we will be providing fire safety to meet uh North Carolina fire fire code. Um fire pond is something that we've done before. I've been involved in a project with Sand Hills Classical Christian um and they had uh large ponds actually

there on site that they use for fire uh suppression uh or firefighting water. Um the project that you have in front of you, the proposal for this um project at this point uh to obtain this SUP puts forth that we can provide enough water um with a fire pond. Um, again, that's something that other experts will be able to speak to better than I can, but it is a viable solution. We need this SUP so we can get further into engineering to prove whether it works or not. Thankfully, we also have a viable solution if that for some reason does not work, and that's extending a fire line along uh 902. Again, that's not the direction that the school would want to go, but it is a possible solution. That also would come with an annexation. Again, not where they want to go, but it is a possible solution. We're following this as best for as far as we can until we know we have to change gears, if that makes sense. Um, I probably said most everything in here already, but public water and sewer are not available to the site. There is a 12-in line on Highway 87. um testing has been performed for uh soils um preliminary septic design is based on as a viable solution. Um one other piece that I didn't say actually is um yes we can bring water to a site and still have septic. So public water and private septic. Uh actually this building that we're in right now is a good example of that. Um but that's we've done that on other projects as well. Um any questions on that piece? Okay. Uh general lighting standard again that's something we can easily um um the standards that we can easily meet. Um

the requirements in RA is 0.5 foot handles at the property line. Um we can easily meet the 0.5 foot candles or less. um design will also meet all the other UDO standards for dark dark sky compliance, glare, lighting performance, lighting color, uh parking lot light, building facade, sports areas, signage, and any other UDO requirements having to do with lighting. Uh signage section 6.7 uh is something that will be done uh in the future and uh will meet all the UDO standards as those are submitted. Next slide, please. So commercial development design um the final design will be further reviewed uh of course to comply with the UDO preliminary design aligns with section section 682 by um just looking at your uh list here A1 uh requires building orientation to front the street what we're showing this building is a courtyard design uh with the front building fronting highway 902 set back of 200 feet other buildings around the courtyard will be parallel or perpendicular to highway 902. Um section A3 multiple buildings courtyard design exemplifies the ideals listed in the UDA requirements for breaks in the buildings visible entry points primary building uh entry facing uh etc. And then B is really doesn't apply because we don't have out parcels. C also doesn't apply because we're not three stories. So, next page, please. Uh, further looking at the requirements of what the building is supposed to look like by the UDO. Um, D uh has to do with facades. So, offsets are provided uh in compliance uh as shown on the preliminary design. Uh, alternative facade improvements are also provided uh including columns,

pilasters, roof changes, trim details. uh D3 doesn't apply because our side facades uh are not street facing. However, u the plan is to continue all of the detailing the nice classical detailing on all of the faces of the building um per the per the owner's request and desires. Uh D4 out buildings architectural detailing is consistent across the campus. Um E is uh section E has to do with facade materials. And just quickly one through four there facades will all be brick um with accents of cast stone painted trim um standing seam metal roofs uh with classical and traditional architectural detailing which all of those uh easily meet and exceed the the ordinance requirements. And then the last slide, the one we've been waiting for. Um 68 continues um administration transparency requires 25%. Um we will easily be above that with our final designs. U the approach remains consistent throughout all the classroom buildings on campus with the only two potential um exceptions being the gym and the chapel which are actually in located internal and on the rear. Um, so those aren't those don't have these requirements of the 25%. And then G talks about main roof forms. Uh, what we're showing uh is a 6 and 12 which meets uh the the requirements. The vents would all be located on the back side. Um, uh, as to the maximum extent practical is how G says this. And then off streetet parking h allows two bays of parking maximum um between the street and the and the building. And that's exactly what we're showing is two bays of parking. Um and then the last piece here is a loading zone and those will all be uh

clearly in the back of the of the campus. Um so those are all of my uh comments and my notes that I took earlier. Uh any questions? Mr. Bogle, just to go and briefly summarize from everything that you just said previously, if the school's project is built as proposed at this stage, will it meet or exceed all UDO requirements?

Yes, it will. And I want to point you to another standard of the SUP um uh review section in 10.4.10 L1. The proposed special use will not materially endanger the public health and safety. Do you have an opinion as to that standard control?

I do. This building um again is the courtyard design uh encapsulate these encapsulates most of the activity of the school within the courtyard itself. Uh the building is set back over 200 feet from the street. Um we're in an area that already has an an established church and will soon have another church as a byite beside of it. It is a fitting use um within this area. And Mr. Bogle, I believe you have some drawings or renderings of what the school project will look like in these next couple slides. We do. Do you want to go through those? Sure.

Can I ask one question? I seem to miss where you address this 2.6.3 the watershed protect uh protected overlay district. I don't see that in your sections and it is in the protected area 2.6.3 6.3 is the watershed protected density overlay district those I don't have that in my notes here um to impact it is in that watershed right so the it is the watershed 4 sorry what was that it's in watershed 4 and that has not been addressed okay

um would you like to address it No, that something you'll be talking about any looking I'm a civil engineer for you have not addressed that that

would you share what that wershed overlay addition requirements are couple pages um I feel certain that we've could address that at the time of construction construction drawings. Um I mean this site is considered low density under 24% built upon area at its post development stage. Therefore I I would imagine as a licensed professional engineer in the state of North Carolina that we would meet all watershed overlay district regulations.

Okay. And you're including Okay. There's two partials to that. Okay, I'll put that in the conditions list. Thank you. That should be a fine. I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you just said. I have to put it in the conditions list because it's not fully outlined are uh while we're on this topic, are there any other uh uh UDO requirements that have not been met or that includes the 100 foot buffer for the vegetative portion that needs to be shown as well as part of that district?

Anything else besides that? Not that I can tell. So the two things I missed. I feel pretty good actually tried to summarize. Oh the yeah the building. Thank you. The elevations if you would please renderings. So these are the renderings that we've generated that that that give the flavor of what Hall Christian Association Hall Christian School is. Hall River Christian Association Academy HRCA I've used up my words for the day. Sorry. Um these give the flavor of what HRCA is after. Classical detailing. Um you see the the use of brick of painted trim. uh the columns at the the drop off areas here and the Koopa on the top there. This this would be the the building phase 1A, the one that faces the street uh set back 200 feet from the street and go to the next one. Again, getting a little bit more of a feel of what uh this would look like from the from a street area. We're still a little close. And the next to show kind of the overall campus. There you go. The phase 1 A building being to the lower left. Phase 1B um is the upper left. Then the future phase buildings are shown as another classroom building. Lower lower right, the chapel um in the middle, and then the gymnasium in the in the rear. Believe that's all of them. Oh, nope. There's one more

spun around uh to the back with the gym in the lower left and the building in the upper right. Have any further questions? Mr. Good job. Thank you guys. I'd like to go ahead and call Mr. Garrett Neil, civil engineer. Good evening again. Neil, just state your name and address for the record, please. Sure. Garrett Neil, 107 South Salsbury Street, Lexington, NC 27292.

And just go over your experience, where you work, what you do, and what your role was in this project. Sure. Our firm specializes in commercial site design, storm water design, utility design. Uh in this particular project, we assisted the Bogle firm and RSON companies uh on our site specific portions of of this conceptual SUP design. And you're a licensed engineer, right? Yes, sir. I'm a licensed professional engineer, license number 057762. And have you previously been recognized as a legal expert at whether in court or at a board hearing just like this where the board sitting in applause additional capacity? Yes, earlier this year and in fact in other chart school.

And as part of your profession, you're generally familiar with the building fire and other safety codes that's applicable to this project? Yes, sir. And you're also familiar with the town's development regulations? I am. And if I can go and point you to exhibit F of our notebook and as well as the board. Yes, sir.

I'd like to go ahead and enter in exhibit F, Mr. Neil's resume. And I'd also like to offer Mr. Neil as a qualified expert in the field of civil engineering and site design. So, Mr. Neil, I know there are some questions asked to staff by the board which I can pause and let them go and ask, but just generally go over the utilities and uh the storm water par. Yes sir. So let's just start there.

Sure. Um let's start with septic that that would be attracted to the board. Um on the septic design front, we uh subcontracted with a soil scientist to complete a preliminary soil evaluation of the site area. Uh those conditions came back very favorable. So we we were able to verify the GIS data that was mentioned. We have a preliminary soil map that we utilize to identify these areas. They're not pie in the sky, if you will. They are um based on a preliminary soil evaluation signed by a licensed soul scientist. Um, we've identified that front front yard area, if we can label it that as our dispersal area. Um, long-term acceptance rates, which are the new term for a perk per perk test uh loading rate, uh, have not yet been identified. That will be an item in the in the final design. But for now, you know, like most schools, we expect pre-treatment of some sort to reduce the high strength waste. uh at schools you have uh a lot of kids going to the bathroom that's you don't have much water usage you have a lot of kids going to the bathroom so pre-treatment in today's technology is used to reduce the strength of that waste very common in the septic practice uh the next item of design that we intend to examine would be flow equalization uh you see that oftentimes in assembly spaces such as churches wedding venues uh school settings and what that does is holds waste water in tank a singular tank or multiple tanks and evenly disperses that into the septic field throughout the day. There might be a a 3:00 a.m. dispersal so that it is dividing up to not overburden or overbearing the dispersal area. Um there will be hydraulic analysis as pointed out by NC18 rules uh because our septic system will likely have more than 3,000 gallons per day. One strength of the septic

design is Hall River Christian Academy currently operates as a school. Uh what better place to get existing flow data to base our design from. Obviously there will be conservative approaches to that but we will start there. We will obtain Hall River Christians Academyy's water bills to see how much water they are currently using. Um again this is all preliminary. I feel as a professional engineer that on-site septic is very viable here and have no concerns over the related to the the feasibility or uh safety compromise related to the septic design of this school. Are there any questions on the the septic design before moving on to the fire pond?

Was the name of that system that it's used to meter the flow flow equalization? Yeah, it's more of a of a style or an approach, not necessarily a specific system type. Is it pressurized or It is. Yes, that's how you dose the system through through a series of pumps. While we're at the septic uh topic, uh well placement, have you talked about that?

Yeah, I mean generally well placement 50 feet away from from from a dispersal area. I believe we're well well away from that. Um there will be a well subconsultant that will verify the the water demand uh as we get into construction documents. We have identified the need for that but at this point uh we we aren't there yet. Have you done a cost analysis of hooking up water the county water or Tri River water? We have. I was copied on a series of of emails. I didn't personally do that cost benefit an benefit analysis, but I know it was it was done. Yes, sir.

Yeah. One thing on the uh septic when this is designed is it and you you said you were going to take the water sample I mean water bills from the the current at what 180 students your septic will be designed for 500 students. Yes, we we will conservatively take those on a per student unit rate, multiply that out times 500 students plus any additional staff plus say if there's a gym use. Uh I mean the most conservative dense packed out school field day and graduation and fire drill all happens at the same time.

Thank you. You know, we're asking these questions uh for the health and safety of your student. Uh we want we want them safe.

Yes, sir. Moving to the fire pond. Uh the fire pond was examined from a volume standpoint uh at this point. So, we know that that area shown on the plan will hold a certain volume of water needed to fight a fire at the preliminary design level. What is still left to study is infiltration rates as was pointed out earlier. Um, and if the infiltration rate is too high, which means water is leaking through soil, then we'll add a liner and then it it's an impermeable liner. It cannot leak at that point. From there, we would study evaporation. Um, if evaporation is too high, we'll add a storage tank. And I say that to say like we're we're proceeding through a flowchart, if you will, of how this fire can be this fire pond can and will work. As a professional engineer licensed in North Carolina, I feel that this fire pond will work to serve All River Christian Academy. Are there any additional questions related to the fire pond? Will the fire pond have a dry hydrant?

Um, we haven't got to that point. There were a couple email exchanges with the fire marshall. Uh, and the design team was super relieved to know that he was familiar with this type of firefighting reservoir. Not sure if there would be like a dry FTC or something. Uh, likely not because there's no sprinkler to back feed it. So, you know, there would be likely a pressurized uh component to, you know, produce the fire flow needed for firefighting. Yes, sir. Hearing no other questions, I yield my time to Brady. At this time, we'd like to go and call Rhynold Stevenson, traffic engineer with uh DRMP Incorporated.

Um, good evening. Excuse me. Good evening. Uh, Ronald Stevenson with DRMP. Address is 580 Fairington Place in Raleigh. Mr. Stevenson, just briefly explain your profession, who you work for, and your years of experience.

Okay, sure. I have um um I've been practicing traffic engineering and transportation planning for about 25 years. I have been with DRMP for about 24 years and I have been involved and authored numerous or hundreds of uh traffic uh impact studies for various types of development projects and projects across the state of North Carolina, including dozens and dozens of school projects. And you're obviously a licensed engineer. Is that right?

Uh, yes. I'm a licensed professional engineer in the state of North Carolina. And have you previously been recognized as an expert in a legal proceeding either in court or before a local board sitting in a quasi judicial capacity? I have numerous times. And in going to our exhibit notebook there, specifically exhibit G, is that a copy of your resume, sir? it is.

I'd like to go ahead and enter in exhibit G, Mr. Stevenson's resume into the and I would also like to offer Mr. Stevenson as a qualified expert in the field of traffic management and engineering. So, Mr. Stevenson, are you familiar with the concept design plan of the school uh as shown uh in the SUP application? I am. And based on the school's plan, did you perform an analysis of the impact that the school will have on the traffic in an immediate area that this project is built? Um, we we did that was accomplished through the preparation of the traffic impact analysis report. And that's in the SUP application. Is that right?

That is correct. And specifically on pages 65 through 255. Is that right? Yes. So it's a very short report, right? They typically are. And you have done actually TIA reports for school project reports for HRCA. I have. Yeah. Dozens and dozens of schools. Um is is HRCA school project in this case is CIA required?

It it is required. It will it is required in order to um get the approvals we would need from the NC DOT for driveway permits and so it it was it was required. Okay. So is there like a certain threshold of traffic count that triggers a TIA or just it it can vary but schools typically are looked at from a traffic impact standpoint and I guess just going through to the extent that you can in those over 200 pages. uh could you just kind of go through your report, explain it, the methodology, you know, just summarize uh for the board and dumb it down all those 200 pages for us.

Sure. Yeah, I'll try to be brief with it, but the the traffic impact analysis prepared for schools is done in coordination with town and NC DOT and actually NC DOT has a group within the Department of Transportation that focuses exclusively on schools. And so there are several folks in that group that do nothing but school projects essentially um analyzing schools, reviewing these traffic studies like ours and even working with schools on ways to improve uh the traffic operations of their facilities. So we work very closely with that group um throughout the uh traffic impact analysis project. And the way these u traffic impact studies are done is we um in this case we went to the existing school took traffic counts measured stacking all those kind of things that relate to transportation and then we uh project that forward to the uh future enrollment of the school and we're able to uh get a really good idea of how many parents are coming to the facility uh staff everything that's going on there. how they stack, how the traffic's going to flow um at the campus, and we're able to um look at that and analyze how that's going to work. As part of the um TIA and the approval from NC DOT, you'll notice that there's a U recommendation to provide a lefthand turn lane on uh NC92 and that was identified as part of the U traffic impact analysis report. Uh there was also um a recommendation u to uh evaluate or monitor the intersection at NC87 and NC92 to determine if a traffic signal is warranted there. So those those recommendations for u

improvements or potential improvements came from the analysis in the uh traffic impact uh study. You mentioned those recommendations. They're actually in the agenda packet. Staff referred to them presentation, but specifically exhibit H and exhibit I, those were, I guess, comments and feedback from NC DOT. Is that right?

Uh, they were not. Let me address um exhibit H, which is the letter from NC DOT dated October 15th, 2025. That particular letter I think would address one of the questions earlier about the um improvements and and DOT constructing the improvements. But that that letter that DOT provides in exhibit H is utilized to um provide reimbursement to the school for the transportation improvements listed in that letter. So the way the process works is the school would initially have to fund those or build those improvements. then NC DOT will reimburse them for that. That's the purpose of the letter in exhibit H is it spells out the improvements for which NC dot will reimburse the school for.

It's a left-hand turn improvement. It is a left hand turn lane uh on NC92. And you'll also notice in that that there is a potential signal traffic signal on NC87 NC2. So those improvements potential I'm sorry to interrupt you. Apologize. When you say potential, do you mean to be determined later depending on traffic or Yes. And who makes that decision?

Um, we'll have to coordinate with NC DOT on that. NC DOT will not any road improvements. You know, they own and maintain the roads and so we can't do anything without them approving or allowing us to do it. So, they're going to be involved in this to say, "We think the traffic's there. put the signal in and they, you know, they need to be involved in it because obviously they're going to reimburse that. They'll have to reimburse school for that if the school does put that in that topic of this NCD letters exhibit I is there anything of the October 28th letter that you haven't already tested positive? That's that's essentially uh the letter that DOT provides that says they've reviewed the TI TIA and here's and it spells out the improvements that they feel are necessary. So it it is those same improvements we just mentioned, but the reason that's on a different uh cover letter or different letter head is that the the letter in exhibit H essentially says the same thing. That's the letter that is used for reimbursement uh for those improvements, but they do they do spell out these same improvements.

I'll go ahead and enter in exhibit H and please. Can you take us through uh the ingress and egress in terms of the plan of the site? Will you just describe that a little bit?

Sure. Yeah. the um so there's two driveways as you've seen on the on the plan and the the way the traffic flow would work for this is the traffic would enter into the There we go. There we go. Yeah. Yeah, that's perfect. So, the traffic would enter into the uh eastern or northeastern most driveway which is kind of page right uh here. They'll enter in that circulate um clockwise through the u through the site and then they'll exit at the uh western or southwestern driveway onto NC92.

So is this ingress and egress designed to minimize congestion out streets probably more particular? It is and as I said we we work this uh this traffic pattern out with NC DOT. Now, in your expert opinion, does the proposed ingress, or any other additional traffic coming from the school's project pose a danger to the public safety? Um, it it does not. And can you go over the stacking for this project?

Sure. And again, I'll reference the um exhibit I think on on the screen. I think it's easier to follow. But as I said, following that traffic pattern of entering the eastern driveway, northeastern driveway, circulating clockwise around the site, the available stacking is illustrated primarily in the red um uh arrows uh that you see on the on the screen. And uh one of the one of the one of the uh primary considerations for a school is the stacking. And and one of the reasons that NC DOT is so heavily involved in these schools is they want to make sure that the stacking that the school will generate can be contained on the campus. And as as we all can can imagine, we don't want traffic stacking out onto the public streets. And so the as part of the uh traffic impact study uh we did identify a a future buildout of the school campus at future buildout the maximum queuing for the school will be I think it was just over 2,000 ft. And so what we're planning for with uh this plan, we have planned to accommodate uh over 2,000 ft of stacking uh on this campus u which would accommodate full buildout of the of school. One thing I will say about that number, it is a it's a big number, you know, but do what DOT looks at is they take the NC dot takes data at schools across the state. They collect a lot of data and one of the primary things they're collecting is not just numbers of cars, but it's how far they stack on on the school campus. So they take that and they break it down into a typical stacking. So what you would expect on a normal day and then they

have what they call a high demand factor that they apply to that. So they have they have taken enough data at schools across the state to determine that uh on very high demand days that average stacking that you would expect could be up to 30% higher. And so that's where that number the 2,000 ft comes from. We don't expect that to happen every day but NC DOT has said we want to accommodate that maximum queuing that we would expect here. We want to accommodate that onsite. And so that's where the two that's what the 2,000 ft is for this. It's that high they call it a high demand day. A very unusual day, but they've determined it's about 30% higher than a typical day. So we're accommodating that on our campus.

So if I can uh I I just need to understand this. So if you take that drawing you have there, the conceptual drawing, you have uh without the easement, you have a U-shaped um um a U-shaped automobile movement from east side to west side and then left or right turn out of there. If you add then also the the green poke the green dot would that add up in square in not square feet but linear feet to 2,000 feet? That would be over 2,000 feet. Okay. Can you give me a It's over.

Uh the it's a it's right at again if you look at just the red lines on here. The red lines if you add up sort of the red lines where it goes around sort of page left if you will by the future phase you know building there's there's two lines there. If you add those two lines up back to NC 902 that's about 2,000 ft. Anybody else from the board have any staffing access question?

Yeah, Mr. Stevenson, were any scenarios examined of future where some fraction of the students arrive by bus? Um, we didn't we didn't evaluate that just in talking with the school and the future plans of what we how we think it's going to go. Also, um, one of the reasons we typically wouldn't do that for schools is that we're if there's buses, there's usually fewer parent trips, which means there's usually um, fewer cars. And so, we're sort of accommodate, what we're trying to do here is accommodate the

worst case scenario. So, that's what we're we're looking at here. And that's one reason NC DOT feels that it's appropriate to do so for this particular case. So maybe it's more of a question for the architecture team where where that might happen. Yeah, we could we could certainly accommodate that and just the additional parking lot we've talked about uh kind of showing green here just gives a lot of flexibility, you know, for things in the future as well. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Another question for you. So, right now you have a total student population of 180 at the Gum Springs uh school. Uh can you tell me how you came up with 129 students entering or tell me how you came up with the parents trip versus just total students?

Sure. So, there's a couple of there's a couple things we look at. one is we can take the um in this particular case since it is an existing school, we went out and counted all the traffic at that school. You know, where they were dropping off, what building they're dropping off to try to determine what grade levels and how many cars are associated with each grade level, you know, at the at the school. Uh and so we have that data, but we also have um data, as I mentioned, that NC DOT utilizes across the entire state. they they go collect all this data and one of the things that they do break down in that data is the number of student drivers and the number of parent uh drivers as well as the number of staff buses. So they have all this data for schools like this.

I love that. It's sort of a formula based on all all the data they collect across the state. Absolutely. Okay,

since there's a bit of a pause in the action here, you know, staff brought it up that the town or the NC DOT changed the truck route since the TIA was submitted. Now obviously if that was something that was addressed we knew about much earlier that would have been addressed in the t but could you just sort of address that change and and how that could be you know addressed with our application here what impact that would have if that helped

well I think first of all I'll point out that um the the the traffic study has some additional traffic kind of projections built in to it for the future. Now, while that may not have been necessarily in response to the um change in the truck route, there's extra traffic built into our traffic study, but obviously in coordination with NC DOT, um you know, they're well aware of this and uh that this is happening and and um I can't speak necessarily for them as to how that played how and if that played into their uh decision to um provide recommendations such is installing a traffic signal but um so I don't want to speak for them but they are aware of it. We've had coordination with them about this and the future you know traffic patterns in the area and uh they you know they have taken all that into account in the uh letters that they provided for improvements

and also that could be something that could be addressed as a condition that we go and update our TIA report to reflect that truck traffic change within a certain amount of time. Is that right? I would just say we could if required by NC DOT. Okay.

So if uh we just we just shaped that traffic pattern to avoid traffic around our circle. So a lot of trucks from 3M now are are are avoiding that that inner circle there. It's a beautiful place. Um, are you saying that that has been included that that that truck traffic is now included in this or are you going to revise it?

Um, what I'm it it's not specifically accounted for in the TIA. So, not specifically, we said x number of new trucks, you know, be coming by uh by this area. But what I did want to point out is we do add traffic in our TIA to account for various changes that could happen, you know, on the roads in the future. So, while it's not specifically trucks, we do have extra kind of traffic built into our models to handle future changes and increases to traffic in the area. Not trucks specifically. Uh what we were saying is that um if NC DO would like us to update the traffic study that we would we would have to do so. I personally, my opinion is they will not make us do that, ask us to do that, but we're certainly happy to do so if NC dot feels it's appropriate to do so. I'd like to ask some questions about those scenarios. Uh because u the DOT letter as I recall said that there would be monitoring of the intersection of 87 and 902 for the potential need for improvements there. Um, are you familiar with A, are you familiar with the AADT on 902 and B, are you familiar with those numbers at that intersection on 87 and 902 by chance?

Yeah, I I'll um I can I can address the in terms of the potential for the traffic signal. So, I am familiar with the traffic at at both of those roads and at the intersection. Um the the way the reason DOT words uh words the uh recommendation as I'll read it monitor NC87 NC2 for signalization. So the word monitor means they want to keep an eye on it to see if it is warranted. They can go out and do that themselves. You know, they have staff in their office that goes out and they do this all the time in their offices where they go out take counts or they go look at it and they say, "We think this traffic sign is needed." If it is, they could put it in on their own, but they may um, you know, come to the school and say, "Identified in the TA, want you guys to, you know, move forward with putting this in." Now, they have to pay for it either way, but it it would uh they could put in on their own. Um or they could have the school put it in just reimburse the school for it. But what I think what what typically happens with schools and this is why you don't see a lot of times a recommendation as part of any school to say install traffic. So is that the school will add traffic to that intersection for about two hours of the day and then other times of the day the school is going to have very little relatively little impact on that intersection. And what DOT likes to do is DOT does not they would prefer to install a traffic signal when it's needed for multiple hours of the day, many hours of the day and not just for one or two hours of the day. And so, uh, I think that's why I can't sit here and tell you that I think the signal is going to go in. I think what's

going to happen is um and you probably seen this uh in the presentation earlier about sort of the the ramping up you know of the school and you see the phasing on the on the diagram. We and DOT will have some time to keep an eye on this to see when we add a little traffic here when the school opens. We'll see how that intersection works and as future um students are added to the school campus. we may have to put signal in, you know, as we add more traffic, you know, to the intersection. Uh, but there's there's going to be a period of sort of building up towards the ultimate enrollment where there will be time to look at that to determine if it's if it's need needed or needs to go in. It would I I I can tell you that uh technically there will be enough traffic at that intersection to meet the warrants for a signal for two hours of the day. beyond that, you know, is sort of a that's where DOT's kind of judgment is going to come in as to whether they want to want to put the signal in to handle the other hours of the day. So, I know that's not a great definitive answer, but it's um it's something that we're going to have to monitor. And in this case, we are going to have some time to monitor that as the school uh increases student enrollment. And and so the average annual daily traffic on 902 today and post project are

it was I can look it up. I think it was around 3,000 cars a day if I remember right. Uh around 3,000 cars a day. Um after the project the school the actual the school doesn't necessarily generate a lot of traffic over a whole day. It's really comes in two you know two waves. So, it it adds um some traffic there, but I it's probably more like 4,000, you know, in the ballpark 4,000 cars a day. Um, you know, with that, there'll be some other traffic that'll be added there, you know, over probably, you know, over the next several years. Um, but it's those are the kind of the the ballpark numbers of the daily traffic. We we've had some uh interactions with residents around your school and that's probably the biggest issue with the folks on 902 and around uh the the school. So it's it's a concern.

Well, that's one of one of the reasons a left turn lane is is required there to sort of get that traffic. All right. Yeah. get the keep the traffic flowing on NC92 and sort of minimize any disruption to uh the traveling public on NC92.

So if if you were to uh address a neighbor, how would you reassure their concerns about increase of traffic? Well, I uh like I said, I've done school studies u all over the state and I there's not a school, this is no exception, not a school that's not going to add traffic to the road. I mean, that's just what it's going to do. That traffic that traffic that's added is during a relatively short period of time. Uh I'm sure we all in our commutes, you know, every day. Um know kind of where schools, you know, traffic is and when when to sort of avoid it and and uh what times that sort of, you know, kind of there's a little bit of congestion there. There's going to be a little bit of traffic there during those two times of the day. There's just no way. If anybody tells you that school doesn't generate traffic, they're not telling you truth. But there is going to be traffic there and and it's going to it's going to um because of the nature of that traffic coming in and out in about 30 or 45 minutes, you know, period, it's going to be noticeable there. So, the neighbors will notice it. I'm not going to say it's not going to be noticeable. There will be noticeable traffic during those times of the day. The good news is in the afternoons um the school traffic typically peaks around 3:00 p.m. which is which is kind of off peak for rush hour uh the typical rush hour. In the morning it does coincide with that. So uh there'll probably be a little more I would call it friction or uh noticeable traffic increase in the mornings for morning commute hours. But as I said, the traffic pattern that we've identified for the school uh will help that traffic flow to be better, minimize any congestion on NC92. And the the lefthand turn lane that will be provided will do the same thing. It'll minimize uh the congestion on

NC92. So the through the through traffic there should have minimal as minimal as possible uh disruption or impact. And what of the specific concern that perhaps uh something goes ary with the flow of traffic on the site and the left turn lane uh starts to stack? Can you speak about that potential concern? Well, one of the things we have looked at is how long that turn lane uh needs to be and that that is one of the things we do. So, we look at the worst case scenario. So, that turn lane is identified to be 250 ft, you know, in length. Um when when you go to when we go to actually design it, it'll end up being a little bit longer because of NC DFT standards for how the turn lanes are laid out. So you'll end up getting a little bit more stacking u than that in the design, but it is designed to handle the longest uh longest stacking that you would have there. So as long as we can keep the traffic moving um on the site, you as we're planning to do, uh that that shouldn't that should not be an issue. if not at this moment just to summarize bring it all back in terms of your

report and your opinion testimony that you gave today here Mr. Stevenson's and based on your training and experience going to the SUP standard number uh one, do you have an opinion of whether the school will or will not materially endanger the public health or safety if developed as proposed as it pertains to traffic coming to and from the school? Um I do have an opinion and it it it will not endanger the health and safety of the public. Do you have an opinion as to where the school's ingress and egress access to the site and stacking for the school meets all NC do and town video requirements?

Um I I do have an opinion and it it does meets all the requirements. Unless the board has any I don't have any further questions from Mr. Stevens.

Thank you. And with that, I do have and I hate to go and do this, but it was because it was addressed in Pete Bogel's testimony. I would just like to call Mr. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to call up Pete Bogle just real quick. There was a a question posed by staff about the wershed that was not addressed. Actually, can we get Mr. outside.

Yeah. So, Mr. Neil, um the question was, does the project comply with the watershed protection overlay district? And we've got the Pittsburgh UDO section 2.6.3 uh out. Have you had a chance to review this? I have. Okay. And subsection D says uh lot coverage maximum lot coverage for non-residential multif family development is 24% if there is a curb and gutter system or 36% without a curb and gutter system. Um and you've read that that standard? I have. And what that's saying is that's the maximum allowable imperous surface. Correct?

Yes, sir. And and just to make sure we're all on the same page, when we say impervious surface, I know that's a defined term. That's generally surface that doesn't allow water to drain into the um into the ground. That's correct. Building roofs, sidewalks, parking, drives, gravel, and the like. Okay. And and is it your opinion that uh the project as proposed will meet this standard? Yes, sir. Okay. Um are there any other questions about the watershed protection uh standard at this time? Thank you very much, Mr. Neil. question to staff. Does that answer your your concern? Yes. Thank you.

This time I'll go ahead and call Mr. Nicholas Kirkland. Mr. Kirkland, please state your name and address for the record. Uh, yes. My name is Nicholas Kirkland. My address is 9408 Northfield Court in Raleigh. And could you just describe what you do uh your experience and certifications?

Yeah, I'm a state certified general appraiser in the state of North Carolina, which is the highest u rank in appraising you can get through the state. I also hold that same um certification in seven other states. I've been accepted as an expert in property value impacts before this board and other boards like it um through the state level and for actual court at this point probably 300 times or so give or take. Um and we regularly provide testimony and for development and representing neighbors as well against development where the research shows that uh as well as doing typical um real estate appraisals. So, it's fair to say you have and um in looking at the exhibit our exhibit notebook specifically exhibit J if I point your point you exhibit as well as the board is that your resume?

Yes, it is. I'll go ahead and enter exhibit J for the record and I'll also Mr. Kirkland, a qualified expert in the field of learnation in the certified employee. So, Mr. Kirkland, have you had a chance to go and review um the school's proposed plans that's in the SCP application? Yes. And you're familiar with the project in this location? Yes. And I'll point you to the town of Pittsburgh's special use permit review standard, specifically section 10.4.10 10 L3 has a required finding that the special use will not substantially injure the value of adjoining property. Are you familiar with that standard?

Yes. And did you prepare an impact study based on that standard? Yes. And if you look at exhibit K of our exhibit notebook, that to the board, is that a true and accurate copy of your property impact report? Yes. Like to go ahead and enter in Mr. Kirkland's uh property impact report exhibit K into the record. Now, Mr. Kirkland, just sort of briefly summarize what you did, what the report said, um the methodology you use, the source of information, all of those things that go into rendering.

Sure. So, what we were asked to do was to determine whether or not the proposed development would have an impact on adjoining or nearby property values. If so, what would that impact be? and also if we were able to provide any information about the harmony of where this is proposed to be located. So to start what we did is we just looked for similar comparable schools and identified what's next to those and how does that compare to what's proposed right here. Uh what we found is that typically a rural school like this is going to have some houses next to it. It's a very common thing for there to be some lowdensity residential or even some subdivisions next to the schools or in some cases developed after the schools were already there. Um oftentimes they also adjoin religious facilities and for the proposed use this is very consistent with residential uses just across the street and religious facility proposed on one side and existing on the other. Um so at least in terms of the harmony where it's proposed uh it's my professional opinion that the proposed use would be harmonious in its location given that comparable school facilities have very similar mixes of adjoining uses. But in order to determine whether or not there would be an actual impact to adjoining property values uh we've used a methodology called a matched pair or paired sale. So this involves comparing a home that's sold to another nearby home. Um, and the importance is we're trying to measure if the first home is next to a similar comparable school, is it selling for more, less, or about the same as that house that's not next to the school? In other words, are active market participants paying the same amount or a different amount for a property uh located directly next to a school just like what's proposed right here. Uh so what we've done is we've found examples of homes that have sold right next to existing schools in the area and they are showing that there's

no significant difference in what's being paid due to the being adjacent to the school. In other words, homes in the market area next to comparable rural schools are selling for similar values as other homes right nearby that were also on the market at the same time that are not next to the school. uh which is strong support that the proposed school will not impact adjoining or nearby residential uses. Uh and if it would be helpful since I know you just got this, I could briefly walk through an example of one of these within the impact study if that would be helpful for you all. Sure. So if you turn to page 10 in the impact study, you'll see that it's labeled comparable 3 orange high schoolsboro. And this is going to be uh fairly high level, but we identified the home that sold right next door in the second paragraph there. And you can read the physical description of that home. However, it sold for approximately $98 a square foot. The following three paragraphs outline three other nearby houses that also sold in a similar time frame. And these range in prices per square foot after adjustments for differences in time of when it sold which month. Uh financing concessions and things of that sort. Uh for the comparables were at $91 a square foot, 98 and 96. Again, the one right next to the school was at 98. So, in an area where the homes that are most comparable after adjustments are selling for $91 to $98 a square foot, the home that backs right up to the school selling for $98 a square foot is indicative of it selling for market value. And it looks like towards the high end of that value, but certainly not being impacted for being adjacent to the school. That is the type of analysis that we've done throughout this. And what we found is that the homes adjacent to this proposed uh

school facility are at similar distances to the other schools that we looked at in the area. And therefore, it's my professional opinion that the proposed use will not substantially injure the value of the adjoining properties. And I'd be happy to answer any questions about what we've done. Anybody have any questions?

Any questions from the board? This section. Thank you. Question expert opinion. Um proposed school will not substantially injure value of adjoining properties. There's an the other um SP ordinance standard section 10.4.10 10 L4 has required finding that the special use is in general harmony with the intensity, scale and character of the development existing or plan in the surrounding area. Are you familiar with the standard?

Yes. And in your report, you say that the proposed school is consistent and compatible with the existing uses and thus is harmonious with location and surrounding property uses. What's the basis for that opinion, Mr. Kirkland? Uh the basis was as I had described earlier comparable school facilities in the nearby area have a similar mix of adjoining uses. They have a similar distance from the adjoining residential uses to the uh school structures and therefore it's my professional opinion that the proposed schools will be in harmony where proposed to be located. And is it also common in your profession not only to provide an opinion as to impact of property values but also as it pertains to the harmony standard? Yes. I have no further questions unless the board does.

And next we'd like to call Mr. Reynolds Mill

before we begin before we begin this next presentation. Uh would there be others you might be interested in taking a brief break? Good. Okay. So we need a quick motion. Yeah. Move for a fivem minute break. Second. All in favor say I. We'll be back in 5 minutes.

you may for I was the same way. find her. Yeah,

sure. We have an announcement from one of the board members. Me.

I was approached by a concerned citizen. I just want to make sure that everyone understands that it was not under oath. Uh it right during the break and it was my own mission to actually listen and converse with this person. And uh I want everyone in the room to be assured that that that conversation will not affect my decision makingaking process today. And again, I apologize for the the oversight. Thank you, Commissioner Foley. Resume.

And and with that, before calling our next witness, uh during the break, we realized we just had some clarifying information we wanted to get to you all very quickly from Mr. Stevenson, so I'll let him go.

I'm just going to clarify two things, two points. Number one, the um improve road improvements to be uh constructed uh specifically the lefthand turn lane on NC92. That improvement is going to be constructed by the school and then NC DO would reimburse the school for that uh for that the cost of that improvement um at a later date. Um second uh second uh item I want to clarify there was a question about potential buses. Um there are no buses and there's no intention you know at this point to have uh buses or operate buses at the uh school site. I don't think I addressed that clearly either. Those are two points of clarification. Thank you.

Our next witness would like to go ahead and call Reynolds. Mr. and your address for the record. Yes, that's Ryan Rose Neely, Jr. 703 Sunset Avenue, Ashboro, North Carolina. And just go through your experience and your trade and your expertise.

Um, I started working for the city of Ashboro in 1977. I retired in uh basically 2012 as the community development division director. I had fire building inspection, uh communications, planning, community development, um the whole shebang uh was put together uh the last few years as I was the director. I have also continued to consult with local governments around uh the area. Um, I just retired in uh 24 as the uh own call planner for the town of Liberty. Um, and there's a connection there. Liberty hired one of your people to take over after I convinced them that with everything going on in Liberty that they needed a full-time person and not an old broken down planner that was needing to retire. So, uh, they brought Jamie Phelps on and, um, they have a bright future in Liberty and so does Pittsburgh. I love Pittsburgh. I come down at least once a month. I am sad that Postal Fish has closed. It was one of my favorite restaurants.

And Mr. or Mr. Neely, um, obviously you've had experience being up in front of boards just like this. a former planner, but have you ever testified as an expert in court or in board hearing as causing judicial? Yes, sir. I have been uh doing consulting uh for many years, like I said, with the town of Liberty, but also for private sector, and I have appeared in many uh cases just like this before boards on special use and quite judicial. And looking at our exhibit notebook, specifically exhibit L, is that a copy of your

It is. I'd like to go ahead and enter in exhibit L into the record and al also offer uh Mr. Ney as a qualified expert in the field of municipal plane. So Mr. Ney, have you reviewed the SP application and schools plans? Yes, sir. And have you heard the testimony of the other witnesses before you? Yes, sir. And have you reviewed the town's UDO and as well as the town's land use plan which also referred to the comp plan through the SCP standard

and did you prepare a report as to required findings SCP findings in this case in particular as it pertains to L4 with harmony and L5 consistency with the complaint? I did. And did you provide an opinion as soon as required by I did that also. And and looking at exhibit N of our exhibit notebook. Is that the report that you compiled? Yes, sir. And that report is carried out.

Yes, sir. like to go ahead and so in looking at this standard right here proposed use the proposed special use in general harmony with the intensity scale and character development existing north pl you just I guess as a as a former planner expert in this field how do you assess whether those use is in harmony with the I think uh you heard a good example of that in your previous uh speaker. However, there is an aspect of this that that is actually in the UDO and that is that harmony is a functional determination very easy to do. It's not subjective. Uh section 10.4.10 10 of the uh unified development ordinance actually states that it is based on intensity, scale, character. Uh these are again functional characteristic. For instance, is a um house able to be used by house if there's a farm next? Um it's it's a functional description. Does it impair the use of that? So with that and in your report, did you have an opinion as to whether the school's project will be generally in harmony with the surrounding area?

Yes, sir. It will be in harmony based on the UDO land development plan and my knowledge of schools and their surroundings. Could you just give us a 10,000 foot briefly summarized view of the basis for that opinion?

Okay. Uh, I derive it from presumptions in the town of Pittsburgh's unified development ordinance. uh the land use plan including the future land use map um the location of property, the character of the use, my inspection of the property, the surrounding areas, the Hall River Christian Academy application and it proposed plan, the reports that we've heard tonight, the personal experience with schools and oper how they operate and function, the legal precedence uh from the courts that Harmony is a function uh uh determination. just throw all that into a pot and you come up with it.

Will you on that latter point, the presumption, could you explain how when harmony is presumed under the law and from the land's perspective?

Yes. Um the the UDO establishes zoning districts and in those districts it establishes uses that are permitted some by rights, some by special use or other mechanisms. Um but once the legislative determination has been made by a town to put that list together of uses whether it's right or special use the uh courts have determined that that is a presumption that that use is in harmony with those other uses. And in in the uh particular UDO uh uh for Pittsburgh, I have as an uh appendix to my report a complete list of all sorts of uses that are permitted in the residential agriculture district and they range from channels to equestrian facilities to emergency services to hospitals to nursing homes. uh you can see that list in the back and all those are presumed to be harmonious with each other in the way they function, scale and intensity. Now obviously the surrounding uses plays a factor in the harmony standard fun and so here obviously we do have some single family residential that's near the proposed school site. Is that right? That's correct.

But you also have non-residential uses. Is that right? Could you just elaborate a little bit more even the record as of the adjoining uses?

Yes. Uh we have surrounding these properties we have as mentioned the school um the church that exists. We have the proposed church. We have residential structures across the street. We have some agricultural activities going on uh surrounding those properties. uh whether it's timber or just uh some fow land that there is uh some vacant or underutilized or possibly uh farm land surrounding this property. There is an easement or a utility line that runs through there and there's also some uh natural areas that need to be made. So again to to reiterate your opinion that's in your report uh that the proposed use would be in harmony. Is that correct?

That is correct. So the school site does satisfy the standard. Is that right? Yes. That is correct. Now looking at standard number five or L5 rather proposed special use is in general is generally consistent with the adopted comprehensive plan and every other plans officially adopted by the town board of commission commissioners. You rendered an opinion as to that standard, did you not? Yes, sir. And could you just generally explain sort of the relationship between a comp plan, but the town calls it a land use plan and how that relates to the UDO.

Okay. So, the the comp plan, the land use plan uh is a policy document. The UDO is a regulatory document and the policy document is adopted by the commissioners to to allow them to determine if their legislative decisions have merit and and work under the guidelines that the policy document has developed for. And in rendering this opinion, you reviewed the town's land use plan. Is that right?

That is correct. I'm handing you what's been marked exhibit N. Could you go and identify that for me? This is the updated plan of zone 1023. And if I'm correct, Mr. Jamie Phelps is listed as the acting director when it was. So that's the town's current land.

At this time, I'll go ahead and enter in all of the town's land use plan as exhibit there. So could you just briefly go through and summarize your report of why the school is generally consistent with the town's land use plan?

Okay, that takes a lot of language. Basically the the land use plan uh has four sections. It has chapter one, two, three, and four. Um the first check uh chapter is an introduction to the plan. It gets into providing a vision. Um it it um just generally discusses what the plan is going to do for the community. Uh the second uh chapter is the plan development. It has the what I call the environmental scan where we look at demographics, population growth projections, housing types and values, household incomes, all those uh census type datas if you will. Um, and then it it brought in the community through meetings to to create some community priorities and themes. And some of those were sewer capacity, density versus open space, regulations versus property rights, new jobs, the need for schools, housing, transportation demand, safe routes uh to the to schools and other facilities, and the protection of natural resources. Those were all themes that were developed um through uh chapter 2. Uh chapter 2 also described six planned goals for the future of the town and these were grow strategically, collaborate, support a vibrant energetic downtown, create opportunities to innovate, balance preservation of existing neighborhoods, and diversify housing and protect natural resources. Uh, chapter 3 then creates elements and these elements that became the kind of the focus of the plan

were land use and housing, infrastructure, downtown and natural resources and conservation. Um the one that directly deals with this particular special use permit request uh is the one for land use and housing. Uh but you can't ignore the others. A lot of a lot of these parts of the plan would be considered not applicable or not they don't apply in some way. But in my opinion, you can't just write them off that way. you have to say, well, is the request inconsistent with that or is it um is it in some way not going to support that? Is it going to be contrary to it? So, instead of just writing things off in those sections of your plan where where they don't seem to apply to a specific special use permit, I think you have to look at them and looking at all those elements. Um, this this project basically meets everything in your plan, whether it's the elements or the the goals and policies. It it it has no conflicts with those things that appear not to be applicable. It um it basically just checks all the boxes for collaboration and and strategic infrastructure. I mean, you've got a group here that wants to build a facility, staff it, and maintain it. town doesn't have to do. That's a collaboration for facilities. It just checks all the boxes as to compliance with this plan. And then basically the the the UDO tells you how you approve the special use permit and you set up the standards of the UDO. You then set up the

standards for the specific special use permit. And with all this testimony we've heard, those have been satisfied. So once you do that again, you get this presumption that you have complied with the ordinance and that you are consistent with the plan. Can you speak a little bit to the future land use map which is typically always within some sort of comp plan or use plan just like the towns. Is that right?

The future land use map is is always part of a plan. It it puts down the visions of the plan. It gives you a a a pictorial uh evidence of what the words in the plan are trying to say. So you set up the the different sections of the community on this map and then that is one of the key pieces to guiding development for these elected officials to make decisions from. And the school site is identified in the future land use map as rural and conservation design. Is that right? That is correct.

And according to land use plan, this is around pages 28 and 29 under the rural and conservation design. It states that these are areas that encourages low inensity uses on large track of land which that's consistent with the proposed school.

So it's consistent. Yes, sir. And in addition, it also states that um that in these rural rural rural rural conservation design area which require large lots or lower overall density, the new development is not connected to sewer. So again, this goes to that the school will be going and using septic on a large track of land. So again, that would be consistent and less than 24% in peruse. That's that's low. that that's exactly what you're asking for. So just to go and summarize, it's your professional opinion that proposed use is consistent with the town's zone use plan.

Is my opinion? Yes, sir. And you also in your report refer to some other uh plans that are adopted by this board that are either not applicable or otherwise. Yes. To show it's not.

There's the comprehensive transportation plan 2015. There's the parks and recreation master plan 2019. There's the bicycle ped plan 2020. Then you've got the land records viewer and the natural resources green growth story map which I found very interesting by the way. Um but all those extra pieces play in all those things the UDO the plan itself all these other things go into being what is the plan of development for the town of Pittsburgh.

Does anybody have any questions? So at this time the school doesn't have any other permanent witnesses we wish to to call at this time. However, I do go and reserve time ask the opponents have an opportunity to go and speak or or the public rather to be able to go and submit rebut rebuttal evidence and also go and potentially call rebuttal witness and also reserve some time for closing at the end. Thank you. Thank you for those presentations. We have several individuals which have signed up to speak in favor of the school. So I will start with them with Ed Kelly, please. And then after Ed Kelly, it will be Jeff Haidider. if you would come forward and speak at this time.

Uh my name is Ed Kelly. Um I'm just here tonight as a foremost as a parent. I've uh had just a wonderful opportunity to experience my children's my child's growth to this school. Um, we wake up every morning and every day wanting to do the best for our children and for this town and for building a future together. I understand why we're here. I understand sometimes growth is never easy. Change can never arrive without friction. And I want to begin by acknowledging something important. The concerns of the neighbors who live near the proposed site and the concerns are real. Their homes, their peace, their land, those matter. They matter deeply. But you also must face the another truth. Our town is growing. Families come here because they feel safe. They see a thriving community, one with values, one with heart, one that invests in their children. And that growth brings our responsibility. Our River Christian Academy has been quietly shaping the character, discipline, compassion, and leadership in our children for many years. And they have earned the chance to continue doing that work. They're not only asking for this luxury, but they're also asking for them to have a space to keep raising up wonderful human beings. And I just want to say that that everybody consider how important these decisions are that so many people are going to pass through those doors in the years to come. Doctors, lawyers,

scientists and it all starts right here like three minutes. So I just ask for your consideration. Thank you. Thank you.

Embarrassingly, there was a form out there said, "Do I support or not?" I do support, but I have no intent to speak. I I am in full support of the school. By the way, you're Mr. Hatter. Yes. All right. Thank you. Next we have Carol Sanders. Please commission they identify themselves with the dress. We're going to call Miss Sanders in in rebuttal. Thank you. Okay. This looks like Joshua Maddie. Is that correct? Oh, I accidentally thought I thought that was a sign.

Okay, that's fine. That's fine. Okay. Right. So, we're going to move on then to the individuals. The opponent are those which are against the school. We'll start with Melissa Henry. If you could step forward. No, I also thought she

Oh, okay. All right. That's fine. Hi, Jim Henry. Sign up. My name's Jim Henry. I live directly across the street 1234 NC Highway 92, Pittsburgh, North Carolina. My property road frontage is D within the scope of that 13 acres road frontage. uh the two access roads going in and around the school and exiting out. My driveway sits right between them. And so I have a concern about the traffic and listening to traffic engineer talk. But I feel like in those peak times, I'm going to have a nightmare getting out of the driveway and turning eastbound towards Pittsburgh, which I think majority of my neighbors turn that way. Not many turn right towards towards Goldston. And so I don't have evidence, but I feel like that that is going to be just a nightmare for me. And no matter whether they got double stacking through there, I'm still going to be facing the increased number of vehicles heading westbound from 87 intersection down to turn in that I've got to turn against somehow and go through and also coming the students the 30% or whatever in the traffic impact study that said they were going come in. I've got to

turn with them. And I just feel like that is just a situation. I don't think any of these people that do support school, and I I don't blame them for supporting their school, they don't want to live across a high volume traffic intersection. I don't think nobody does. And I know that's not any evidence, but that's what my main against argument against it is is that it's just it's just going to be unbearable traffic for everybody that has to turn against the traffic. And the increased traffic through 2030 and 2035 is just going to increase. And secondly, because I know I'm just thinking off the top of my head here, you're creating three church related buildings in that area, which is fine. It's you're effectively changing the zoning from rural agricultural or residential agricultural and rural and conservation to institutional and and and office buildings right there across the street from me. And I just I just disagree with that.

Thank you, M. Next you have Tim Collins.

Good evening. Uh my name is Tim Collins. I live across from this uh property proposed development. I'm still not convinced there's no impact to road safety. The stretch of road has been identified as being a highfrequency crash location in the town of Pittsburgh comprehensive transport plan which is published some years ago. This was made in co um coordination with the department of transport this plan identifying it as a hazard. The eastbound and westbound approaches to this school land are on blinding curves and you wouldn't have a good appreciation once you went towards them. I'm personally aware of four deaths within 700 ft in the front of my property or the adjoining properties in question here. In addition, um NC DOT accidents analysis um over a.7 mile stretch show that there's an average of four accidents a year. Um the abs the vehicle stacking the drop off uh pickup times. I'm questioning how emergency vehicles could get to a point around that stacking area should there be an emergency because you got two lanes of vehicles. It's um the DOT report indicates future turn lanes. This will put as risk as I would need to get out my driveway crossing two lanes. One uh a stacking lane in the middle. Be quick. Uh the D reports the church traffic impact on the SUP in their traffic analysis. Now I understand that's been made missible. Um, but it's also some vague area here. They you've been referencing back and forth this car park as being in church being used by the school and it's somewhat vague, but we understand. Um, additionally, the impact of highway

15501 uh has been uh quickly the official rroot of this does not been reflected in this report. Data was collected before the study was made. um 15501 was overburdened through Pittsburgh. So that traffic can't be just a marginal increase where the DOT I understand allows a 3% margin. And I I stand off the the allowance there. Um there's no allow land allowance for this DOT turn lanes. So um the DOT state that the right of way would allow allow this but the right of way would have to be replaced and that would um add to land loss from the neighbors uh and it would yeah so also it doesn't take into account your future plans for bike or recreational footpaths that's not taking into account. So if any land needs to be taken it should be planned into the plans right now. I hope you consider my considerations. I'm trying to get Thank you.

Thank you. And um members of the board, before you have the next witness come up, we would simply object to Mr. Collins's testimony coming for traffic safety purposes who's not qualified as an but I have a statement here by the Department of Transport. I I'm not trying to argue with you. Wait, wait, wait. Okay. All right. Mr. Collins, do you have the study that you're referencing? Please give it to our clerk. If if there's one that you were referencing, please give it to our clerk. Certainly.

I know you're not an expert. For due process reasons, we need to be entitled to copy and examine it. We've never seen it and we'd object to it coming in as an expert. The law requires expert testimony. Nobody testifying too. So, one at a time, please. And if I could, I'd like to distinguish, but the gentleman who came before, the gentleman who came before said,

ma'am, the gentleman who spoke before said, I live here. I'm concerned because I'm right in between the the driveways. So, he's speaking as a lay witness about facts that he can testify to. Mr. Collins, however, has talked to you about traffic safety, about reports and studies. He's not been qualified in that respect. And that's the basis of our objection of his testimony and also of his evidence coming into the record. Anything that he tries doing, I'll re reiterate that we object to anything that he enters into the record as well as his testimony.

He's entitled to testify as a lay witness just like the the first witness did. He's not an expert. He's not been asked to be an expert. He's not qualified to be an expert and his opinion is a late opinion and you and I know what that means and I will explain that to the board. I'd like to get some more things in present if I may. Come back to the podium. Mr. Henry, Mr. Collins, Mr. Collins, let me say this bas basically it has to be expert information. What I'm referring to is somebody from the MTSA which is part of the DOT. Yes, I understand. I'm justing that information. I I understand you're relaying it, but that particular expert is not here.

Okay, ma'am. Say that from them. But you can certainly express your opinion. Okay. And you have expressed your opinion in reference to the traffic situation. Okay. Would you like this to be copied in direct? We cannot because he the individual from here. Yes, he is. Any other reports? Thanks. Okay. All right. Thank you, Mr. Collins. June Collins, please.

Good evening. My name is June Collins. I live at 11:30 NC State Highway 902 directly across the street from the proposed site. This SUP represents Hall River Christian Academy as a charter school. It's referenced by the town RTSen and TIA 15 times as a charter school. However, the executive director of the office of charter schools of NCDPI states they are not a charter school and a charter school cannot be religious-based. HRCA is registered with the state of North Carolina as a private school. In addition, the general council of the NCOA states that they are a private school. The SU piece represents them as a charter school which is a publicly governed and funded funded school when they are clearly not a charter school but a private entity which is privately governed and charges tuition fees. I question this and how the permit application could proceed. Moving on, I believe that the five required SUP review standards have not been met. Prior to this meeting, I sent fi I sent a five-page letter to the BOC through the Pittsburgh Town Clerk. In this letter, I addressed all five SUP review standards individually. I provided valid points in detail with references and evidence of non-compliance for all five of these standards. I can't cover all of this in three minutes. I tried. I timed myself and I would have to reduce it by 80%. that would be equivalent to reducing this 278 page SUP down to 56 pages. It would not convey the same message. Therefore, if you haven't already, I urge you all to read my letter. I

invested a lot of time and effort in gathering the evidence presented in this letter. I referenced materials such as the town of Pittsburgh comprehensive transportation plan, the NC DOT, Pittsburgh Unified Development Ordinance, Pittsburgh land use plan, the DRMP traffic impact analysis, and the Pittsburgh future development map. Respectfully, I ask you to please read my letter before making a decision on this SUP. Granting an SUP for this development would be contrary to the very purpose of Pittsburgh's UDO and LUPS for the RA zone.

Thank you. Thank you, Miss Collins. I have a Brian Hider. My name is Brian Haidider. I live at 34 Carriage Court directly across from uh the proposed school site. I'd like to thank the board for the opportunity to speak and be a part of the process tonight. My first time doing this, so it's uh always interesting to try something new. I come to you guys today as uh as a guy with two small kids and somebody who works and I share some of the same concerns as my neighbors,

right? a lefthand turn lane. Could it impact my ability to get out of my drive and take my own kids to school in the morning? Yeah, it might. It might. So, I'm definitely not an expert witness by any means, but I'm certainly not the village idiot either. So, uh my goal tonight with my testimony is to provide a few facts that have come across. And my hope is that by providing some of those they will prompt you all to ask the right questions and put this right considerations in place. The school is planning for a future growth of around 500 students all by car, no buses. 902 is already a commuter route for folks on the west side of Pittsburgh. not only that immediate area but also for the folks in Goldston who will also be impacted by their journeys to work in the mornings with the uh the move of 15 to go up 87. I can tell you myself each morning trying to get my kids to school is more difficult since that move has been made. Mostly trying to decide when to turn left in front of dump trucks full of gravel coming up that route. As a concerned citizen, just in that note, I highly recommend a signal there because that would really help me out in the mornings. And I will try and speed through these with only one minute left. There are already two schools and two daycarees within a mile and a half of the proposed site. All of that combined is going to create an issue for Pittsboro and general congestion across from it. Pittsboro Elementary and Horton Middle already fill their cues in the mornings.

All you have to do is drive by those sites at those peak times. You can see that the proposed future growth of Harvard for Christian Academy would be larger than each of those two schools today. The other concern that I have is around the traffic study. I don't think that it accounted for all of the parent trips. the parent trips were only 66 and the staff and student drivers were combined together as 39 and that data can be referenced on page seven of the analysis. So thank you for the time.

Thank you Mr. Hatter Dale Spalding and then we have Candace. Candace won't be speaking. Oh, okay.

Um, as the others have said, thank you for your time tonight. Um, in going through some of the documentation, um, there's one thing that I that we've we excuse me, Dale Spalding live at 15 Carriage Court directly across the entrance driveway that is proposed. One of the things that we've been concerned about is the lighting. And um I think it is in the Rustin paperwork that it says all the lights will be turned off at night. I didn't see that on the documentation here today, but if that happens, that would be wonderful. That is a concern that we've had that that field is beautiful as it is empty. the stars, the the animals that come through there. It's it's just incredible. Obviously, all that's going to change. Um, yeah, traffic is definitely a concern for us. Do you people know that's a 55 mph road? Did you hear what Tim said? Four people have died on that road. Can somebody change the speed limit? Is anybody concerned about that? It's your children. Um, in regards to the value of the property, I have firsthand experience with construction destroying the value of my property. That is not to say that after the construction was finished, it did come back up, but I am

very concerned about the length of time that it's going to take to build this whatever starts out with phase one and then who knows when phase 2, three, or the church is even going to be built. We're talking about possibly a decade or something. Our housing prices will be affected during that time frame. Um, you brought up a very valid point about where is the water for the fire suppression coming from. If it's runoff water, rain water, that would be excellent. If it's well water, how does that affect us that are all on wells sucking out our well to provide for fire suppression? And just to be clear, fire suppression doesn't have to be water. There are plenty of other systems that can be designed not with water and you ought to consider it for your school. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mrs. Sping. Jim Shabers. Thank y'all. Hope that y'all received the letter that I wrote. Um, I was portrayed by these people as the man that cried about the dead babies. So, yes, I've lost three children, and my most recent one was uh in a wreck with two children, both high school age. So, what these people don't understand is we've seen the wrecks. Whether it's the parents driving or the children driving, we've seen the wrecks directly. And I live directly across from the site, 58 Carriage Court. When I pull out, it's a death trap every day. 55 miles an hour coming up from Bear Creek. 55 miles an hour with the motorcycle drag races every single day and night. Um, let's put a turning lane there. Let's count the wrecks. It's going to happen every single day because of the way people drive through there. Now, yes, I'm very emotional about this because yes, I I've seen it happen and I know what happens. And no matter what traffic study you have out there, you're not accounting for what's happened already. Two weeks ago, a serious wreck. Kids all over the street, a guy in his yard. you know, since I've been there 13 years, I've seen all this. Um, when I heard about this school coming, first thing I want to do is move. Now, they're going to ruin, destroy my beautiful property values that I've

worked so hard to create. Um, I am the owner of the well, the caretaker owner of the well for three families here. Um, I pay the utility bill for it. um that's going to impact us. Do they care? No. Uh they've trespassed on our properties. They've been trying to buy us off with little bribes and flowers and um I pull in and she's having to run that lady off her property. I couldn't get in the property. She's blocking my driveway. That's the kind of harassment type stuff that we're getting out of these people. They bring all their experts in. And they waste all of our time listening to all their experts. And not a single one of them live across the street from where that school is going. Not a single one of them is going to have to pull out every day and have to slam on their brakes and hope somebody doesn't hit them when they go to turn in every night. That's what we deal with every day. Changing the speed limit, it's not going to fix it. putting a red light at our driveway is going to make our life worse because you know we don't need a driveway red light at our street. What you need is traffic enforcement, some police down there slowing it down. Um it's not going to help having a school. Uh yes, we do have a beautiful place where we live. We love the field. We know the school doesn't come and the church doesn't come. Which a matter of fact, you know, when I bought it, y'all had a sign out there. future home of the church. And I said, "We'll buy that place because I'm a I'm a Christian man. I went to 12 years of Christian school.

You're educated. I'm a subject matter expert for a top company locally. So, I'm not an idiot." Yes. I know what's going on around here. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Does any of the board members have questions for the witnesses? any questions for the witnesses? I

I do have a a due diligence question for uh for the the H River Christian Academy group and their spokesperson. Uh this is not to impugn this is not to accuse. It's a due diligence question because I I just want to cover all bases. So the question is this. In the past 10 years, have any of your expert witnesses or their firms presenting evidence tonight been involved in litigation with a local municipality involving alleged errors andor omissions of evidence that they provided. So I would love to hear from anybody could answer that. I'm trying to find the connection of how that's relevant. But is your question about if if their expert testimony has been subject to a court saying that it wasn't accurate or that one of their projects that they testified to got overturned?

Rephrase that the two options for me again. So whether the testimony that they presented was accurate or just that uh project that they testified to got overturned in court. I understand the the uh my question is more of accuracy overturn. Guess I can go and start down the line with Mr. Bogle. Mr. Neil, Mr. Stevenson, Mr. Kirkland. No,

Mr. Neely. Sure. Thank you. I know that we still have a couple additional rebuttal witnesses we would like to go and call. We're happy to go and entertain questions now if we call those and we can go and answer questions, too. Okay. One moment, please. Any additional questions from the board first?

Go ahead, please. I just like to call Miss Penny Hall real quick. Okay. to go over this distinction between private and charter school. I believe that there was uh an error in some sort of agenda packet or something, but I'll have Penny go and clarify of something that was brought up by one of the opponents. Okay. I can clarify that we are a private Christian school. We are not a government funded school. There any other questions on that? And next, I'd like to go and call Miss Carol Sanders.

My name is Carol Sanders. I live at 73 Woodbury Forest, Pittsburgh, North Carolina. I am a neighbor of this property. I am within 1,000 ft of this property. I have lived there for 27 years. I do have the experience of turning left on that road every day um many times a day and I don't see how the school will cause issues anymore than a normal day of Sunday afternoon when the 100 motorcycles come down 902 anyway. Um there are traffic issues. Um I am a proponent of Paul River Christian Academy coming to this facility, coming to this property. Um, I'm excited to have children um being playing and having sports and extracurricular activities on that property. I would rather see that happen than a 400 home neighborhood be put on that property. Um, this will be a property the school will have the yard maintained. It will have beautiful landscaping that will be maintained at all times. Um, I feel that having another school on the west side of town is a necessity for our growing community. Um, I feel that we have so many people moving here that this just gives another choice for the parents that are coming in. We all like choices and as parents we always do. Um, this school will create jobs for teachers, administrative staff, support staff of many different kinds. Um, I see that this will provide value for the um for sports and different children activities being held on this property. Um, I feel that building this school on that property is a commitment to the future of Pittsboro and its development, how it can grow, and the children that graduate

from that school, how they can come back and contribute to our community. Um, I don't see really, like I said, the impact on traffic more than any other day. Um, considering the school it will just be certain times of the day. Um, I would whole lot rather see this kind of development than a neighborhood at this time and I just thank you for your consideration of this special use permit. Any questions? Miss Sanders, just real quick, could you go and state your address again for us? Yes, it is 73 Woodbury Forest. And then looking at this GIS map, is that where that blue dot is located? Yes, sir.

So, you live very close proximity to not only the Well, it's both the church the church's parcels, but the site where at the school Yes. And I have to come to the end of that road and turn left many times a day. So you obviously living in close proximity do not share the same concerns and sentiments as some of the younger joining neighbors. No, I do not. Okay. Thank you.

So at this time that's all the witnesses that we are prepared to go and call. Um, I guess before I go into in closing and before you guys close the public hearing, um, and deliberate, uh, we're happy to answer any questions that you all have. Otherwise, just go into my my closing slides, which I'll try to make it very brief. Does anybody anyone on the board have any questions at this point?

All of the opposing uh parties spoken. Okay.

I heard so much testimony tonight just compelling. Um, and I know that our staff has been diligently acrewing conditional um, conditional um, arguments whether not to approve this. Can you step forward and recount exactly the conditions that we had some doubts with, Miss Armstrong? I made a list of nine items that would need to be conditions should it be approved and they are as follows. Um the shared access agreement per DOT's requirement must be met. The second one, the TIA must be updated to include 15501 and the church impacts with the NC DOT re-review to make sure that that still meets with the adjustment for both completion of the NC DOT improvements as required in both phase one and two for the October 28th, 2025 in DOT letter. And if they per the new TIA provision if they see any additional items they will have to be met as well for that that road. The fourth one is water sewer and fire must be identified at site plan and provided design at CDS otherwise it can't be approved. Five per section 2.6 6 of UDO for the um overlap district for the uh watershed 4 buffer and density conditions must be met and per 10.4.10 K3.C not to exceed 10% increase in the U total non-residential floor area. So anything that's outlined right now can cannot go over 10% more or they have to

come back here. And that meets the 24% requirement and the buffer piece for both of those. The only allocation will be allowed to shift the footprint where they're at that buffer because they do not share the 100 foot. And then six per chapter 4 storm water and flood plane management. It will require a flood study of over 40 acres and there is a stream on it. So that will have some impact and they need to address that be u that need to be submitted at site plans. The sixth item is per chapter 4 again um meet all future reviews and be shown accordingly the site plan to CDs for storm water must meet um the storm water requirements if they intend to use it as fire suppression. It must meet the storm water if it's a primary storm water device first and then any additional items for the fire will have to follow so that it does not impact storm water requirements. The development as number seven the development were required to meet the conservation open space requirements and the items outlined in those which would include um uses for that piece. Number nine, a lighting plan shall include the phototric plan for the site and the limits of the property line will be the extents which should not exceed.

Can you repeat that one? The lighting plan shall include a phototric plan. So basically there's a set of numbers per light and shows kind of like the light is and they can turn the structures heads. So it would need to include that so it's not off the property and or in sensitive areas such as the stream or the wetlands pieces and that would be included at what point now that should get sight plan plan. Yes. That's what I have on the list. That's completion of the list.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Another question. Can I have one of our experts go and and at least address some of those conditions? Just one moment. I think that you had a question. Uh I'd like to hear this first. Okay. Yeah.

All right. several of the conditions and we want to work with you guys to make sure we're meeting everything when we get to uh the the next phase of um of submittals, but several of those conditions sounded like things that would already be required. As I understand a condition, a condition is something that's needs to be met in order to approve the SUP. Correct. Um, so if we're going to meet those pieces in the next round of submitts and the engineered plans, those really aren't conditions for whether you would, you don't need to add those as conditions to the SUP because we have to meet them anyway further. Does that make sense?

That's dependent, but in this case, they need to be met as part of the requirements, right? So, like with the the light study, that is something that's required for our engineered plans and is something that we will submit, but shouldn't have to be a condition on the SUP because it's already required later.

The condition in this case is actually the limits of the property line cannot exceed it. That is not a normal one in this case, especially with the this that section back there aren't requiring it because it was brought up. Okay. So any of these, we're glad to work with you guys to make sure we meet them. We just there were several of those that sounded like there were pieces that are already required so didn't need to be listed as a condition. It really doesn't affect the SUP if you add something that is a requirement later anyway. So we're glad to to meet those. Yeah, I will write them out as the conditions.

Perfect. That's that's what we need is how they're written out. Well, I will make sure typed up. Um, so, uh, Miss Armstrong, uh, and Mr. Tingle, u several of these, uh, conditions that you've described, um, there's been some push back from the applicant. Um and um uh one of my least favorite things is when we try to word Smith in the course of a hearing and um yet I still have some additional concerns that that um I'd like to raise and and questions that I'd like to probe further. Um, but I am leaning in the direction of uh remanding this application back to the planning director for further consideration in order to sort those things out so that it's explicitly clear to both parties uh and so that when it comes back to this board, we know exactly what it is that we're uh voting on. Um, I'm not quite sure how to proceed with some of the oral testimony that was presented. Um, because I don't know whether the traffic impact analysis study that was conducted and for which expert testimony was presented incorporated those four deaths along that road. I'm further curious about the process by which NC do changes the speed limit on highways around a school

and at what step what stage that would happen. Um, and I have a lot of history of frustration with NC DOT and their, in my opinion, unresponsiveness to municipal requests to change uh, speeds. Um, so I'm quite nervous about that and I would honestly prefer to have assurance that A precedes B, that indeed the highway speed is going to be changed and then we could contemplate this. But I don't know if we have that prerogative. ETJ it's a it's a county it's a state road

and I assume that they would not lower the speed limit until there was a school there. May I I it seems like that a lot of those questions our traffic engineer would be able to at least give some sort of an opinion on. Would it be helpful for him to come up?

Happy to hear traffic engineer's opinion. Also like to hear staff's opinion. Um Ronald Stevenson again. Um in relation to the speed limit, the way the DOT typically does it is they can accept a request for a speed reduction, speed limit reduction. But the way they evaluate that is they actually go out and take speed measurements along the road. And then if there's um and they they would they would reduce the speed limit if there were um if the the data that they collect in the field would support that, but they wouldn't reduce it sort of in advance of that. So they wouldn't DOT typically does not just reduce a speed limit um because there's quote speeding you know on the road on the roads they would typically reduce it if they went out and saw data that would um support that vehicles are actually going to drive at the lower speed limit. That makes sense. They don't want to go lower the speed limit to 45 if they're not going to drive that, you know, and so they don't want to create an issue there. But what I can tell you is that it it is very common for uh and I know we've all seen these to have school speed limit zones. So school zones where the speed limit would be reduced by at least 10 miles an hour in that school zone. So, that is something we could work with DOT on um for this particular location here to see if we could get get that done, but um and we'd be happy to bring that up to them as well. But they you wouldn't they wouldn't do that in advance. You It would be when the school actually was there open when that when that would potentially occur.

Thank you. I'm very aware of the 85th percentile rule and um how utterly inadequate that is uh in the face of modern science about uh speed and safety. Um but we're trying to drag NCDOT into the 21st century and so you know um but I appreciate your willingness to HD dot on that request. Yes. Can we hear from from staff

as part of the updated TIA? We can request the DOT review for the reduction of speeds and address the deaths in the actual area along that section because that is usually what is done from the national when you go for improvements as well. Wonderful. do have one additional comment and my concern is about the fire pond and the whale and septic. I would like to can't really I would like to hear some more additional information about that fire pond and how that works. So if you could you all could bring back some more information from other specialists about that and also is there an example of one that you are aware of?

It has been a while since I've seen one used. Okay. Usually in the county. So I could request since they've already done an initial analysis that they could submit that as part of it so we can actually see what he has outlined and suggestions for it directly. Thank you. One of our experts addressed your question.

That'll be fine, but I still want some from our staff. Yes. I've been a um on a project that had one of these. I was not the the person who designed this because I'm the architect, not the the civil it was a different civil engineer. Um but Samuel's classical Christian um does have um an existing fire or existing pond that they use as a fire um fire pond. Um as we said in in this phase of the project the SUP um we need permission basically to go further so that we can do all the engineering design because that's that's our next step but we have to get past the SUP first um before we encumber all river uh with all of the engineering costs that are uh associated with designing fully designing this pond. Um so identifying that as a viable solution now with a good backup solution of being able to extend the water line uh is where we stand at this point with that fire with fire safety that and also uh setting up the building so that it's not so that it does not require sprinklers.

Thank you. Just need some more information from the our staff background information and different things such as that for the board. You want that report at a later date? Yes. Yes. What do anybody have any additional questions concerns discussion?

I'll just mention um this being a quadside judicial um hearing, our objective tonight is to either grant or deny the SUP the special permit. Uh, a lot of these other issues will be coming out during site plan review and and other issues at a later time. I'm a little I'm don't have all these conditions that Miss Armstrong wrote down. I tried to write them down as soon as possible. But, uh, if the applicant is okay with, uh, correcting and going along with these conditions, I'm, uh, I feel like we're in a good position to move forward with this, uh, special use permit. This is what we're, this is the night is a special use permit, not a site plan,

not a preliminary plan. It's a it's a SUP. Okay.

All right. And we and by law we are supposed to make our decision by the findings of facts. So just let me remind the board for special use application about a special use application just as you stated shall be approved only upon a finding. The special use complies with all of the following. The proposed special use will not materially endanger the public health or safety. The proposed special use complies with all requirements of this ordinance, including all regulations and standards generally applicable within the zoning district and specifically applicable to the particular type of special use. The proposed special use will not substantially injure the value of adjoining property or is a public necessity. The proposed special use is generally in harmony with the intensity, scale, and character of the development existing or planned in the surrounding area. and the proposed special use is generally consistent with the adopted comprehensive plan and any other plans officially adopted by the town board of commissioners. So that is the basis of this special use permit and if it complies with those things

all of those things. All of them. Right. Yes. All of them. I think the biggest hang-up I have, I'm I'm just speaking um to my fellow commissioners, is the health and safety part. uh namely um what to do with uh as as as long as as as long as uh the Haw River Academy complies with DOT requirements and DOT approves that. That's the largest health and safety issue I have with this project. to traffic, the safety of the children going to school back and forth. Love to hear any other comments about that.

Yeah, I think that's the crux of the matter and uh from what we've heard tonight uh unfortunately um the traffic engineers testimony is is undermined by the revelation of of these four deaths. And uh frankly, I did not know that it was 55 mph in this stretch. I've driven it before myself, but it just Do we have evidence of four deaths? I know there was a there was a public comment there were four deaths. Do we have evidence of that,

but is is that irrelevant to this issue? I mean well health and safety is my well never brought up accidents and deaths and any issues. We can ask for that information and um as I asked for the average annual daily traffic and um we can ask for that.

Go ahead. Yes, Mr. Chair, at the appropriate time, we ask for opportunity to close. We can address again the evidentiary standard which is before the board which says it must be competent substantial material evidence. While we are all concerned about traffic deaths, Mr. Bonnets, that was not presented as competent evidence. The only competent evidence regarding traffic safety on that road has come from our engineer this evening. And so, uh, it's simply with all due respect to human life and to the decision you as a board have to make, it's not relevant. We would like additional time to make our closing argument. Thank you. You all have any additional comments? I don't have any time. No.

Um, yes. I would like to ask uh Mr. Stevenson uh to present uh the fatalities data for this stretch of road. the um traffic impact study did not address that specifically. So I I do not have that information available. Uh I will say though that we followed all the requirements that we asked to follow to have an approved traffic impact analysis report which was done so by the department of transportation who owns and maintains the roadways.

And what is the speed along this stretch of road? the uh speed on this section I think is 55. They like I said they there will be a u there'll be a coordination again as you've heard tonight that there will there'll have to be additional design done and coordination with DOT for the construction drawings. At that point is when we would look at uh details related to reducing speed limit for a school zone or for them to look at it uh on their own and determine if they want to reduce the speed. But we can make that request. But that's again sort of as you've heard tonight, we've got to get get to that step to be able to work on those specific design related items. Any additional questions from the board? If not, you may present your closing. I just have a few closing slides there and I'll I'll go and reiterate too. I heard some comments by those speaking from the public about you all receiving information outside of this hearing. That is information that you cannot go and consider. You guys are the judges and jury. So, I just want to be sure that we're clear that anything that was submitted should not go and be considered in this case and cannot be considered in this case. Otherwise, that that's a due process violation.

Understood.

I also want to go and reiterate and I have a copy of my PowerPoint presentation that I have with you all, but it's the beginning of the PowerPoint presentation. It's on page nine. This is state law 160D-1402 of section J3. There's going to be testimony at this quasi judicial evidentiary hearing as it deals with the effect of property value. It has to come from someone who's an expert in that field, a certified appraiser. We have that with Mr. Nicholas Ker. If there is testimony regarding the increase in traffic from a proposed development will pose a danger to public safety. Again, that has to come from an expert. This is state law. It is crystal clear. So, I just want everybody to be sure that we have entered in by testimony and the report particularly as to those two standards expert testimony that is substantial, competent, and material. And there is no evidence to the contrary there. So um madam mayor promp already went through the standard so I won't go and reiterate those again but can you go to the next slide please? This again goes to our burden of proof which Mr. Morphice explained to you all. The ultimate issue is whether we met the standards of the ordinance and we did. We met all five standards through competent substantial material evidence and once we establish that we have a primapcia case of entitlement to burden and it's on the burden of the opponents to have substantial competent material

evidence to the contrary and it is our position from the evidence and testimony that was entered into the record and discussed at this hearing that there was no evidence to the contrary. Next slide please. So our team our and experts have done our homework in this case and showing that we meet all five standards. The detailed site plan, the building design, the traffic analysis, the appraisal information, the consistency and harmony report and that the project will have solid engineering architectural work. We talked with town staff and as well as the agencies throughout this process and again the opposition bases many of their conclusions on conjecture, false assumptions and stuff that would not be admissible uh if this was to go and be reviewed by the trial court. U I'd like to briefly go through how we met each standard through the expert testimony. I'll try to go and be brief with uh this portion. So the first one material endanger the public health and safety expert testimony that our project will meet all fire and building codes will be otherwise meet all utilities for uh septic and sewer. Michael um once we get to that permit stage and again the traffic impact analysis was performed by Mr. Stevenson and he again testified in his expert opinion that there would not be uh materially in danger of public health and safety from the school and the traffic from uh from the project. And then going into standard number two, compliance with UDO. Go ahead and go to the next slide, please. You heard a long rendition from Mr. Bogle about how the project complies with all UDO requirements. You also heard the testimony from uh Garrett Neil, the civil engineering side about how the project will go and meet uh all

the requirements as it pertains to the utility and the fire retention pump. And you also heard from Mr. Stevenson that UDA requirements as it pertains to the access and stacking would all be met. Next slide, please. And this has been said a couple times, but most jurisdictions do not require detailed plan showing compliance with technical ordinances just like they don't for construction drawings to show compliance with state building code. So instead, again, there's usually condition that must be satisfied with final approval and that's what will be the case here. This is just getting the SU then there's other plans and approvals what happens at those various stages. Next slide please. So again, standard number three goes to the injury to the value of adjoining property. You go to the next slide. Mr. Kirkland's analysis provided that there will not be any injury to nearby property values and that this location is actually very compatible for school type use. Next slide. Going to standard number four, harmony with the general area. Next slide. The law provides that if a use is permitted in a zoning district, even as a special use, there creates a presumption of harmony, which a UDO does. Next slide. So, the parcels surrounding the area are not just single family homes. There's actually an existing church as well as the Pittsburgh Baptist Church that would be next door. There are a mix of residential, developed, and undevelopable uses. all all will be in harmonious with the uh character of the general area as you heard from Mr. Neely per his report and lastly consistency with the land use plan again Mr. Neie went through how the school project would be consistent with the land use plan going through examples provided

both in the UDO and the land use plan the future land use map and all that is set forth in his expert report. So and finally you know we we discussed this a little bit as the discussions went on latter part of the hearing you know appropriate reasonable conditions can be imposed on special use permits. I'm sorry, next slide.

Pursuant to 160D-705 um and so we're open to some of those proposed conditions if those can go and be ironed out. But I will say the most important thing, next slide, is that we the applicant have met our burden of proof in this case through substantial competent and material evidence. There has been no evidence to the contrary by any of the opponents here. So therefore, we are entitled to SCP approve. At this time, we would ask that you all render a decision on our SUP permit here this evening and find in our favor that we have met all the standards in the town's unified development ordinance as required by state law and ask that you approve the special use permanence case. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Herman. I think this is in my 10 years, I think this is my third or maybe fourth quasi judicial proceeding that I've taken part in. And by far this was overwhelmingly uh the best and uh most thorough, most detailed. Um however, um I'm not convinced. Um Mr. Herman, uh, you state that there's been no evidence to the contrary of any of these assertions, but very significant doubt has been raised in my mind about the safety question uh because um the traffic engineer was unable to answer one of my questions. So um our attorney has informed us that we have four options that we can approve the application as submitted. We can approve the application subject to conditions. We could deny the application or we can remand the application back to the planning director for further consideration. And um

before you do that, I have to close the public hearing. Oh, of course. Thank you. Sorry to jump ahead. If there's no public discussion on this case by the board, is there any? I will now close the public hearing. No additional testimony, evidence, or public comments will be heard or considered. So now you can go forward. Thank you.

Uh sorry, I got ahead of myself there. H well I I believe that we've heard nine conditions but again one of my least favorite uh most disliked aspects of of this job being a town commissioner is when we're engaged in something like this and we're read uh conditions uh for conditional zonings or or quas judicial uh su um I think we need clarity. I think we need it in writing. And so I will make a motion that we remand the application back to the planning director for further consideration so that we can get those nine conditions in writing and as many of them as possible worked out between the applicant and staff.

Just as a point of clarification, would that be coming back to the board? I'm think he's possibly doing that. I just want to understand what what the condition or what the the motion was requested. Okay. He's going to repeat his motion. Thank you. Uh I move that we remand the application back to the planning director for further consideration. And Mr. Messik, what is the next step?

Well, that those four options come from the UDO as far as what your choices are in in terms of disposition. Uh assuming you get a second and assuming there's a favorable vote, then it the matter would be sent back to the planning department and the if there are to be conditions to the permit then they can be proposed and discussed with the applicant and um and presented back at a further meeting of the board. But there are some technical issues since there are two board members who will not be with us uh after you know December and the two there will be two new board members who have no idea what's going on but we will have to address that if that's the will of the board and with all due respect we would ask if that's the decision of the board and perhaps it won't be. We understand what's going to be considered what additional information is needed. The hearing has been closed at this point and so it's unclear what the pling staff will be doing aside from putting conditions in writing. So we'd ask for additional clarification as well.

It was my understanding that Mr. Bonnets was asking for conditions to be uh written down and worded and uh discuss with the applicant.

Precisely. Um, just want to clarify Commissioner Frell's assertion that the SU is what is in question right now and whether or not there was compelling evidence, opposition evidence that was presented tonight by qualified people, qualified witnesses, expert witnesses I think is what the term is. And I cannot second it for that very reason. I think we have legal obligations here as opposed to what somebody might consider right or wrong that we have to consider. Mr. Herman's and Mr. Morphus's u recitation of what the law requires is accurate. We have an opinion by our town attorney and uh I don't know if we're going to get a second for Mr. or Commissioner Bonnet's motion. Are we in still in discussion?

Well, there's a motion on the floor. There's a motion on the floor. So, you can make comments on the motion. Second, but I have some discussion. Okay. Okay. No. Is it going to die for a second? It is.

I guess maybe this is for staff. um with the SUP and the conditions that are erodess. Is it a the can we move forward with the SUP and assure that the conditions will be met from the applicant and written format. Sorry.

If they're in written format, yes. An awful lot of them are just as said, future issues. Yeah, I agree that some of the issues are future because you address them during site plan. If they were in written format, they would be included as conditions. Yes. Right. His question was, if we move forward without conditions, can we meet these? Is that what is that? So, is that can we move forward to SUP and address the conditions later?

Yeah.

That are not involved with a site plan. probably a few of them, but some of these I mean I think May pointed out that these would need to be written conditions that we tackle into the SUP. But if they're not in writing, then the applicant's willing to adhere to those conditions, then I I don't see a reason not to put the conditions in writing. So some you said some are and some are not. Can can you more clear with that? Do you think I I believe the storm water, the septic, the well, the fire, all are technical requirements that will be addressed and have to be met before any site plan is approved. I'm not sure what the other conditions were other than those. It can all be required at the site plan to be done and addressed no matter what. But to a point to the detail, some of the stipulations that we talked about were are not normally in full sight plan. They're some of them are CDs, but they can make or break the project.

Do you have a microphone? I don't know if if I don't know if you I couldn't hear you. That one works.

There you go. I apologize. I'm not person. That's fine. All good here. They would all have to be addressed in the site plan because waiting to the CDs may cause problems if they're not in this form written. At that point, we could say no. Correct. Yes. The site plan. But for example, they're not going to get a driveway permit unless they comply with whatever DOT requires. Yes. And whether you have it in a written condition today or you wait until the site plan, you're not going to give them a site plan till they have a driveway permit. And so you're going to be dependent on DOT to be satisfied. So they'll have to do

an implication that there were other some some conditions that may not have we don't have the leverage to Yes. So UDO doesn't specifically require it, but there was statements directly on those items. Um, for example, the safety projection evaluation piece. They're talking about safety issues have to be in the TI with the request for reductions looking at the deaths. That would be in that's actually what it's called, the safety projection evaluation that would be in there. We don't have anything in that specifically but there is no there is no opposing evidence of that. Correct. Correct.

So we shouldn't be ruling on that. Correct. So that cannot be a conditional part of this uh agreement. This ruling not agreement ruling. Um, this is a discussion and I'm I'm open to other comments about this.

Mr. Mes, I look for you for the for that answer. Mr. B, I just want to say we've conferred Oh, thank you. Thank you. We we conferred with our engineer and also our client and the nine conditions that Miss Armstrong had previously put forward. Um, did you include the safety projection language in that condition there? the request for the speeds and the deaths. That's pretty much covered. We would accept those nine conditions um as per the special use permit. Thank you. Thank you. Good. Okay. So, all nine. Yeah.

All right. So, Commissioner Bonnets had made a motion. That motion was not seconded. So therefore that particular motion is null and void. So the other options now open the floor for another motion. You can approve the application as submitted. Approve the application with subject to conditions and you indicate you can deny or remand the application back and that is what commissioner bonds wanted to do. So whatever the whatever type motion the board would like to make at this time committee anything else I don't have any

so I move to approve the petition a small area thank you condition with conditions as a nine Nine conditions that have been agreed on by both parties. Second. All in favor? I. All those opposed? All oppose.

Well, the eyes have it. So, special use permit has been approved. Hey everybody, we're still in session. Sorry. It's okay.

We have to We got to have a motion. We haven't adjourned yet. So now we have to have a motion to adjurnn. Make a motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I I thank you all.