Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Um, I'm going to call to order the Town of Pittsburgh Planning Board regular meeting for Monday, February 16th, 2026. Um, we do have a quorum. I think actually we're all here today. Um and then uh assuming no one has any modifications that they would like to make to the agenda for um sorry December. Um, I will accept a motion to approve. Sorry, the minutes, not the agenda. Minutes. Oh, I'm Yep.

Got to adopt the agenda, don't I? It's been too See, it's been too long already. Too long. Anyway. All right. So, um, yeah. Again, if uh nobody has anything that they would like to modify on the agenda, I'll accept a a motion to approve tonight's agenda. I'll make a motion. Motion by Freda Alustin. Second. Second by James Buster. All in favor say I. I. The agenda is approved. All right. Now we can move on to the minutes from December 15th. Uh if we no one has any modifications they feel needs made. I'll accept a motion to approve those. I make a motion to approve.

Motion to approve by Freda Alston. Have a second. Second. Second by Connie McAdams. Uh, all in favor say I. I.

All right. Minutes for December 15th are approved. We will move on. Do we have anyone for public comment? Carrie, I think I did see somebody walk in. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Before we get into public comment, I just uh please when you do come up, please state your name and and address uh at the start of your comments. There is a time limit of 3 minutes which will be displayed on the screen. In the interest of time and fairness, it is the board's policy not to respond directly to comments during this period. staff will follow up as appropriate. Um, any speaker with handouts shall be given to the town clerk and will be distributed to the board at the conclusion of the meeting. And we do have one speaker, Miss Don McBride,

handouts, do they go before they'll be receiving?

This is uh my name is Saunders McBride. I live at 324 Oakwood Drive. I'm talking about the Corbington development. There are possible graves that are located there that Sai Robbins has written up a thing for the Chattam Historical Society. A gravestone was actually found at the southwest corner of the property. And there's also possible graves from the abandoned rail project that went through there late 1800s. There's a there should be a fence around the retention pond because it's proximal proximal to a 90 bed senior care center and um legislation is pending right now to put fences around them because of children drowning and and the um guard owls are protected and they live on that property and through March through August is their nesting season. The um builder said they were going to consult with the soil environmental consultants. I wonder if they had done that. And they they were talking about alternative nests nest boxes and that also number 120 Oakwood Drive when it was constructed because of the way the property is there's like a swale there was flooding at at adjacent number 115 and 135. And so I'd like for them to consider having some kind of prohibitive thing there. And also that the U permeable ground percentage of this concerns me like I know with Shadow Park there's percentages they have to adhere to. It seems like these weren't. And I also like to point out that there's 6,22355 plus homes that are going to be built in Chattam Park and I find this project redundant. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, we will move on from our public comment period uh to old business of which there is none. So, we will move on to new business. Um, PB25548, Corbin Major Subdivision Preliminary Plat. Hey, good evening. Good evening. It's

good to see all of you and wanted to share with you the pictures in this presentation starting the one at the top are actually taken on the site. So this isn't sort of a rendering of what the woods may be like. That's what the woods are like as we're sitting here today. Blue Hill Development LLC and JLA Engineering, all of whom are sitting off to my right. It is right, isn't it? have submitted a preliminary plan for major subdivision 98 lot single family residential that's located on Old Graham Road. Um and it's located north of Cambridge Hills Assisted Living and in this presentation we'll go to the next slide. Uh as I say it's uh 32.7 acres. They're going to create 98 potential residential lots and uh per the approved conditional reszoning for this project, the development is subject to the town GDO. No real surprise there. This is essentially the lot layout. Um there is a greenway. Do we have a does this do?

We'll find out if I know how to do that. What's that thing? I'll be dag on. Okay. New trick. Old dog. Anyway, up here, I'm pointing up here. There is a greenway trail that runs north to south here. It does connect to the sidewalk system within the culde-sac there. Um, the biggest change from when this went in as a conditional reszoning is that right up here at this culde-sac vault, there is a gated, and they're going to speak to you about it a bit in a minute, but there's a gated fire uh egress ingress that is only going to be open in the case of emergencies. Nice big open double driveway at the front here and essentially what amounts to two sort of roads that sort of weave through. Go to the next slide in just a minute. I believe they're going to have a presentation. On the right there's an aerial of the site as it currently is which you all could guess is the woods. Um it is uh again 2.996 dwelling units per lot and the approximate um impervious surface area for the entire uh neighborhood is 37.79%. In your packet itself there are a series of maps that were created by our GIS department. The first one covers comprehensive transportation map. These the maps that are near the back of your packet. The first real map is the comprehensive transportation plan. Transportation plan says that there's a road out in front of that old Graham. Uh when you turn to the next one, which is the bike and pedestrian plan, that's where you see the request for a sidewalk or greenway path down to the community college and then a a walking trail, a proposed multi-use path at the rear of the property, which does actually show up in this proposal. And then the parks and

wreck master plan again on the third picture shows you a nice blue line that shows you where the sidewalk is supposed to terminate and where the um greenway path is. I'm going to turn it over at this point over to Nick Robinson who represents the petitioner. Sir,

thank you Randy. Good evening members of the planning board. My name is Nick Robinson as mentioned recall here in Pittsburgh at 128 Hillsboro Street. Uh delighted to be back in front of you all again tonight on behalf of the uh applicant that is Blue Hill Development LLC. Uh for context, this is um a byite preliminary plat application and review. And as Randy mentioned, it's about 32 acre site located on Old Graham Road uh north of the traffic circle at the library. It's approved for a 98 unit uh subdivision. And I'm pleased to be here tonight with uh Mark Ashnes and Mitch Craig from LJA, which is the engineering and land planning firm that has worked on the project from the beginning. And also Julie Gavigan, who was here from Blue Hill Development. Some of you may remember our conversations about this last summer when we did the resoning. Um, so as I mentioned, the zoning for this project was approved in June of last summer or last year. Um, and once that was completed for the purposes of platting lots, we moved from last summer's discretionary conditional zoning uh, review and decision-m process into what I've referred to tonight as a byite administrative platting process. Many of you already know this, but in other words, so long as the plat that is in front of you today meets the requirements for preliminary platin that are explicitly detailed in the UDO and so long as it conforms with the conditions imposed by the resoning approval, then as a matter of law, the plat will be approved. Fortunately, um you are not left to your own devices to determine uh all of the intricacies of the UDO and the resoning conditions, but your professional planning staff has reviewed the plat in great detail to make sure that it

conforms in all the ways that are required. Um and as Randy has just said in his staff report, it does meet all of the administrative requirements and should be recommended for approval. Um this also means uh that the plat has been reviewed by all town departments including engineering for compliance. We've had several meetings with them since the application was filed. Um and that's how we arrived to where we are today. Um we also had a an additional community meeting for this um regarding the filing of the preliminary plan which was held on September 4th, 2025. Um was attended by about 11 folks. preliminary plat application was filed on September 8th uh 2025. And so in the five months since we filed the preliminary plat application um and that time it has passed, the applicant and the town staff have worked diligently through the process of ensuring that the plat is accurate and complies with all of the requirements. Um hopefully the uh staff and I have anticipated any questions you might have, but we're obviously available for uh any questions. um and happy to go over uh any any element that you'd like to cover this evening. Thank you.

Thank you. Um I know I have a few questions flat related that um I'm not sure Randy you might be able to tell me are I might be getting ahead of myself. So well actually first one came up you mentioned about 37% impervious. Yes sir. But we have shows about 45. That's correct.

And some Okay. Um and then nice round numbers for per lot impervious being 5,000. We have some lot you the smallest lot size being 5,500 roughly. So, is is that number going to be exactly per lot 5,000 or is it going to be based on lot size because if you have a

great question mark Ash's LJ engineering planning uh is that that would be the maximum that a lot could have and reality just to your point is that some of the larger lots could approach that a smaller lot wouldn't. There's always going to be grass in the front yard, but when we sized the storm water structure, we assumed a more conservative number for the runoff. I guess my question is, so then if so, if I bought one of these smaller lots, would I then still have up to 5,000 8 5,000 square ft of impervious to to put on my lot?

You could, but in this instance, our client is actually the builder of the project. They're not it's not individually and so you would never on a smaller lot you would never be able to achieve that because you're going to have grass in your front yard just because of the restrictive covenants. Right. Yes. Yeah. We just picked a conservative number to use for the basis for calculating that.

Okay. I only bring it up because, you know, if somebody bought one of those lots and then wanted to do an extravagant backyard with all sorts of paved surface, like would that be the um I might be getting too far into it, but um that and then thank you for answering that. Also, I noticed the there was one um one wall in particular is on there's a it's shown a retaining wall on lot 86. Should should that have an easement shown on it?

Okay. is that which would likely happen during the construction. Okay. And and that that was kind of the answer I was I was expecting. Okay. Um then also I think that's this would be the same answer there. Uh there's a lot of storm uh that did not have easements placed on them on the from what I could see. Um but you said that would be during construction I believe is any that was left out will be recorded as certainly final platinum certainly be taken up during the construction drawing phase. Okay. is the next part.

And also the storm drains was like in an open space that that would have like a blanket easement if that makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. But there was a lot of it uh I think there was one in particular that was along the backside of like ' 89, 88 and 87. Um that would be on private lots and whether it was private, you know, being private drainage, it would need a easement. That's correct. Yeah. any kind of drainage easement that's conveying water from one lot across another lot, let's say, to an inlet in the common space would have a drainage easement on.

Okay, thank you. Um, in the construction drawings and then the the open the open spaces were not very clear to me. I think it shows about 14 acres worth of open space. Um, and I the the labeling for where there's open space, I think I only saw three labels. one of them being in the buffer uh for Rosen Creek being 4.8 acres. Um and then one near the uh SCM uh and the label says 43 acres. It's not clear where that what makes that up. So they everything that's not inside the road right away or the lots is going to be open space on the so there it's either someone has an individual lot or there's a public rightway but even the uh like where the storm water pond is all of that's open space. So anything that's not physically in a lot or in the public rightway would be an open space.

Okay. Um and then I think one more uh was the legend shows um some RC it shows RCA and I didn't see any um didn't see any RCA on the map. It's all just open space. Okay. And then I guess I would I would just like to know if there has been any any consideration for um as it was it was brought up the cemeteries if that's been looked up and also B owls to address those. So yeah, there was there was a lot of um research and review on the um headstone that was located in the um front part of the area that won't be disturbed. And to make a long story short, uh we concluded uh several things and we um submitted all of this evidence to the uh Chattam County um historical association to Bev Wiggins and um she wrote back um and there's a number of things. One of them is that um it it is believed by uh one of the owners of the house next door to this property that the headstone was inadvertently placed on this property. It commemorates the death of the son who lived in that house uh at the time, but his he was cremated. Um and then his

ashes were actually spread at sea and we got confirmation of that from the um the North Carolina State Office that regulates that. Um and so that the tombstone was really never supposed to be there. There was never any remains there. Um, and we also had a ground penetrating radar company come out and do research. Yeah. And they found no evidence of of any of it. But we submitted all of that paperwork to the historical association and they said, um, well, I'll read to you what they said.

Thanks for providing the information confirming that David Woody's remains were not located on the Cormington parcel and explaining the presence of the memorial marker there. This is just what we need to be confident that a grave will not be disturbed. I appreciate your efforts and those of your clients to answer all of our questions. So, um, that issue I think got conclusively resolved. Um, and then with respect to the Bard owls, I think some of y'all may remember that there was conversation about this back at the in the summer at both the planning board meeting and then it was also at the board of commissioners as well. And we we said then and we're saying the same thing now, which is that um during the nesting season, first of all, there's there's going to be some undisturbed areas with lots of trees left in them all through the riparian areas. Uh but uh it is my client's commitment that they're just whether they see any owls or not, they're going to put uh nesting boxes in those tree safe areas um just in case. Um and so um we feel like that that issue has been adequately addressed as well.

Thank you. Thank you. So were there also graves along the back part of the property? I'm not familiar with any of those. I don't think there was any any locating of those. Okay. And and what about the um the idea of fencing the pond? Yeah, I think we've Oh, I'll let the engineers draft that. Close my mouth when engineering questions come up.

So, absolutely. We put a fencer. It'll be probably a little more ornamental than like a typical chain link fence, but one that would discourage anyone from from trying to get into the pond. The only other question I had was just to talk a little bit about the you said that there was going to be a fire or something at the end the fire that the gay

Yeah. So um see does this work? Yes. So we're talking about this area here. Sorry about that. That's a terrible charity to have the crane, but it's it's up here in the northern part on Old Graham Road. Yeah, there we go. Very good. Thank you. Um, so I don't know if everybody will recall this, but one of one of the um issues that came up when we were at the board of commissioners last summer was the question of whether or not there would be two access primarily uh a second access for um emergency services. Thanks.

Ah, there we go. And so at the board of commissioners meeting, we we discussed it in great detail. And what was agreed upon at the time was that we would do two things. We would pursue the possibility of an emergency access here to Old Graham Road that would be gravel uh and gated and and the um the fire and police department would have the code to get in and and for that purpose, we pursue that. Simultaneously, we would pursue seeing if there was a way to connect in the southeastern corner where uh Cambridge Hills is. Um and so we did we pursued both of those options, checked with DOT to make sure that we could put a driveway there at this place on Old Graham Road. We also checked with the owner of Cambridge Hills. The owner of Cambridge Hills told us in fairly certain terms that he was not interested in our connection to his property, which would require his consent. And so we we moved over to this one. worked it out with the DOT and talked with the planning staff a fair amount um to make sure that it uh was set up the way that they wanted it when the gate is where the gate ought to be. So that's how we came up with that.

Thank you. The gate is at Old Graham Road. Yeah, it is. The gate is you can see is this thing right here green space. Sorry.

Okay. Uh my questions have to do with the traffic study. Okay. So first of all it says that the assessment uh came up with a figure of 990 trips per day and unfortunately that falls 10 below the threshold for a traffic impact analysis. So I mean was that a conservative number or what? That's a great question. Uh it is a conservative number because uh age targeted housing generates less trips than a normal subdivision with houses in it. So that that trip count is is a conservative number.

And so the DOT has a threshold where they would require like a left turn lane or something like that. And uh this trip count coupled with the traffic that's on Ram Road didn't meet either threshold. uh you have to have 4,000 vehicles per day per DOT um on the road itself to trigger that in addition to the improvements that we're proposing. Okay. Now, refresh my memory. Are these houses they're not strictly 55 plus are they? Julie, do you want to speak to that? Question.

I'm Julie Gadigan. Uh I'm the owner of Blue Health, one of the owners of Blue. is one of our projects. Um it is age targeted and but all of our communities that we built are um age targeted. They're all downstairs map three bedrooms down a story and a half up. So I mean it will be age targeted. We you know most people don't want ranch homes just for ranch homes. So yeah I guess what so it's not it's not deed restricted essentially is what you're saying because of the fair house. Okay, you want to hear that? Okay, Fair Housing Act, you wouldn't be able to do that. Okay, but you can certainly target that's moving, but anyway, you could certainly target uh

your plan you advertise to and the amenities that make it attractive. Okay. So, as as a followup to the traffic study, Yes, sir. Where did you see most of the traffic coming and going from? question was traffic. Yeah. Where did you see most of the traffic coming to and from that area? That's a great question. So, uh I think it was somewhat split because you got fairly quick access back up to the bypass, you know, going north once you come down to the circle. Uh which is my point. Okay. Thank you.

That's the the what here's the way that's set up. We don't get to make those decisions. What happens when you start a project like this is you actually meet with the town staff and the town has representatives and you meet with NC DOT and before you even start the traffic counts. NC DOT says basically we want you to study all of these locations that are offsite. Uh and then we they will also tell you the direction the sort of the percentages of allocation of where the traffic is going to be coming and going and that's just based on background information that they already have. So then we just basically run the our traffic consultant runs those numbers. Is it is it fair to say that the vast majority of the traffic is going to hit that circle in some fashion?

Uh the circle that's right there of the council where the community college is. Yes, there'll be quite a bit of traffic that would hit that. Yes. So Oh, and I was just going to say that a traffic circle is also considered to be a calming device. True. But that I I just need to say it that traffic circle is inadequate especially in light of additional traffic coming through that area.

Very good information to share with DOT the next time we have one of these. So everyone has an opinion on that that so there's there's levels of service for for any kind of intersection whether it be a circle or a three-legged intersection or four-legged intersection. And those levels of service are A through F, right? And my recollection was is that this one was not in that lower category. Uh it was it was a higher level of service. And even an F service is not failing. It's it's it's sort of like your grades in school. If you made a if you made a 68, that might be an F, right? But some people think of F is that's a 30. I made a 30 on that test. That that's not the case. So it's there's a there's a lot of things that perform but in this instance uh it wasn't operating at a it was operating at adequate level of service

as of right now

as of right now plus with the addition of this project plus some additional background. So the way that the DOT makes you do a TIA is you add the traffic for this project and obviously the peak morning or the peak afternoon it varies. Um, typically for a subdivision, it's the afternoon that that may be the higher peak, but it it varies uh depending on what else is around it. And then the DOT also makes you do a background growth to account for other things that are happening. So, so they're looking into all the there's other any project that's been approved by the town shows up in that study, if that makes sense. So, it's not you don't look at it in a u in a Yeah. in a vacuum. Exactly. Of just this project. you you're taking the build out of everything else plus a normal growth patterns that are like that would be projects we're not even aware of today.

Uh and that's that's basically so it's a very scientific straightforward way of calculating those things. So that doesn't really leave much up to our consultants and then that information is shared with DOT and and shared with their congestion management. One final question and that is the construction traffic that is going to occur during this

where where do you anticipate most of that traffic coming from and will it be going around that circle? Um, I mean, I'm sure some of it will go up and around that circle. Um, just because I think people will come, you know, subcontractors can come from that tradition. You know, it' be hard to say where my subs were coming from. I know we have some subs that are in Durham, so they might come from the north down. Um, but it would be really hard for me to see that, but the construction entrance will be at the at the main entrance, which is down from there. So it would just be and you know typical construction entrance.

Well, but is your construction entrance going to be on? Yeah, I was going to get her to slide it so that you stay at that. We were just going to use right the main entrance as we're not going to use the fire entrance as as an occur. And I that the fire exit and entrance is really just for emergencies of the fire department. It's not really intended as an entrance or exit. So, we would just be using the main entrance, if that makes sense. And that entrance is designed in such a way that if one of the two lanes was jammed up, you can still have traffic on the other side. That was deliberate.

That was actually a request from Mr. Frell in the railing room. Ideally, the uh entrance on the north would never be used. Something catches fire. Ideally, exactly. It's just if you something catches, you got to get in and out and there's way whatever. It's a good emergency. There is an asphalt apron that takes you off of the road and into this thing that becomes gravel at the sidewalk.

I'm sorry, I'm pointing like I don't have a pointer, but anyway, guys, I'm just used to it. bad happen right here. That right there. Yes. That right there is an that is that is going to be constructed in a material that you could you know you're not having such a hard transition. You're not going to end up with a pothole that makes the fire truck go like a low rider. It's it's it's very smooth transition and you're literally not using that gate unless you have the key. Can I mention a couple of So, we will have coming out of the circle going north, we'll have a slight right turn dive in. So, the traffic will kind of move off old Graham Road as they come into this project. We also put a median there to make it easier for cars to turn coming out. So, it's not kind of a tight entrance like a lot of the streets are. And then since uh former commissioner Jay's in the house, uh there were two things he asked specific of us when we got to the council meeting. Um, one was even though we were under 100 lots, having emergency access and then two, uh, storm water. You know, obviously we had just when we came in front of y'all, it was it was after significant storm events and y'all had more this summer. And so we we, uh, basically said that we would provide over detention of the storm water on our project before it left the site. The town's requirements are the 25-year storm and we're approaching just under the 50-year storm. So, almost double the level in the pond that we've designed on our property. So, we did both of those things, emergency access and additional storm capacity. And that pond is to the south on this drawing. Sorry. Keep going north a little bit. There you go. Right. No, down the bottom. Not that one. The pond on this property. Yes, ma'am. Right there. Can't miss it. To the lower left. Lower right.

Southeast. Yes, sir. Yes. Right there. That. So So we we did both of those things that were requested. So last summer when y'all were here, you talked about the sidewalk being done at the beginning of the process outside on the road on old Graham. So come on up. Apparently, we're going to talk about that, too. Come see me. Come see. Yes, ma'am. They're We are still going to be completing the sidewalk. I think it's by the 50th. Yeah. About what? By the 50th. Certificate of occupancy. Certificate of occupancy.

So, you'd be completing half the houses on the onto that on the east side. Is that going to be an easement for public use forever? Greenway Trail is a multi-use ped. Yes. I don't think that's a private. No, I think the only piece that's private is when it comes off into Yeah. Yeah. When it goes through the community this way, the the open space and the amenities associated with this are for the people who live there. But that trail on the farthest eastern side is 100% open to the public. And one more quick question. I can jump.

Oh, go ahead. under normal, let's call it 50 or below conditions, the with the storm water sub as it's done today, it looks like there should be no impact in Robersonson Creek area whatsoever from all the the more requested.

Yes, I mean, so we're doing our job. Uh there'll probably be other projects in this corridor that uh will help that situation out, too. But yeah, we're for our site, we're doing more than what the town's requirements are uh for that storm water. And the other thing we're doing to the south there that the existing natural swale kind of jutted into the uh the apartments that were just below us and when it leaves the pond now it stays in the pipe and goes directly over to the flood plane. So we we basically ensured that the the runoff wouldn't go onto that property to the south of us. Uh yeah, look at the elevation. Like it all goes to the right or there's a little bit of a

I mean that water still would go to that flood plane eventually, but it would go through that other property before it got to the flood plane. So we're just making sure that that doesn't happen basically. Right. Any other questions? We have anything else? All right. Um, if no one has anything else, then I'll accept a motion. So, what is that? I will uh I will submit a motion to approve the to recommend approval of the preliminary P.

Hope I said that right. I think it will work. Um, all right. Motion on the floor is uh to recommend approval of PB25548 Corbin to major subdivision preliminary plat. Do I have a second? Second.

Second. Rita Alustin. Sorry. The motion was made by Christina Pard. Um all in favor say I. I. Uh any opposed? All right. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Um I'm a little skimpy on the uh planning department update but not tonight. So y'all have a good evening. All right. Thank you very much. Um so next month the assumption and this is not a guarantee this is an assumption. We will be bringing in at a minimum two amendments to the UDO. One relates to um voluntary annexation and the other one is a couple of minor adjustments to zoning districts. We're going to have either one or two subdivisions that are coming back. One of which will be the WBLE tract which you all were involved in the conditional resoning of. It's above you Bland was down on and then WLE's up here. So, it's up John Parkway. Um, and there will be a conditional reszoning placed in front of you all, which is for the Cooper property, which is the property behind the existing POW place. And that's a conditional reszoning that is next month.

Great. So, anybody have any questions about any of those projects? I I can tell you this much, but I'm just asking. I'm sure we'll have plenty of questions next month. No doubt. That's when they come forward. Yeah. But I I would plan for next month to be a very wide thick agenda with a great number of projects. What were the two amendments?

The amendments, they're both to do with the UDO itself, and one of them is specific to voluntary annexation. The other one is just some tweaks to um acreage in some uh districts, but the um voluntary annexation is spelled out clear as day in 16A. We just feel like there should be something inside of the UDO so people don't go, "Oh, how do you do that?" You follow the process in 168, but we're going to have a lot of voluntary annexations. They don't come to this board, but certainly it is a condition in nearly every conditional reasoning that at a certain point you have to have your annexation in or you can't get a final plat approved. And so that's likely to come in. Um, other than that, like I said, come bring eat a big dinner before you come next time because you're going to be here quite quite a long time.

All right. Um, thank you, Randy. Um, I I guess I would like to mention I know everybody's been waiting for uh the the place to be. I think tonight was their uh I think they were I don't know if it was a soft opening or uh but there some they were opening tonight so that's exciting. Glad to see them making progress. Um former red moose red moose former red moose. Yeah. So you know small business downtown.

Um does anybody have anything they would like to share? If not, then uh make a motion to adjurnn. Make a motion to adjurnn. All right, Freda have a second from Allan. Own favors.