Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

To the flag of the United States of America stands nationy and justice for all. We'll now have the swearing in of new members. Uh and Katherryn Bowman is Scott Dover. Please over there. I maintain the the duties of my office as a member of the stalling planning board. So help me God. This is I was Speaking for all the members of the U planning board and board of adjustments. Welcome to uh

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Item number two is the election of chair and vice chair for the planning board of adjustments. I can speak. So every every January we hel hold an election for chair and vice chair for planning board and board of adjustments. Since we were unable to reach quorum last month, it's just a leftover from our rules of procedure. So um if you would like to elect uh nominate yourself for chair and vice chair, feel free to have open discussion on that and vote.

Have any nominations? Chairman or vice chair. Vice chair. Well, how about chair? How many, Jackie? It feels feels wrong to nominate someone who's not here. That's when it's the best though, isn't it? Um, chair. I'll do chair. Okay. Okay. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Hi.

Okay, the next um I'll make the motion. I'll do that. Make that motion. And now on to the agenda. Uh make a motion to take out items 10 through 13. on the agenda and move those to the next board meeting. All those in favor?

I I uh next we have the approval of the minutes. I I move that we approve the minutes for October 21st, 2020. I second agenda. Okay. Hey, I make the motion to take items 10 and 13 and move them to the next board meeting. All in favor? Have a second. All in favor? Okay. Yeah. Uh now the approval of the minutes from October 21st, 2025.

Move we approve the the minutes of October 21st, 2025. Second. All those in favor? Hi. Hi. Um, now we have the brief of the planning board training. Hey, uh, congratulations, uh, chair and vice chair. Um, just for everybody who's not aware, I'm Max Shong. I'm the planning director for the town of Stallings. And I'm going to do a very brief training. Um just uh we have so many items that we have to make sure we pull up the right thing.

Okay. Just because we have two new members. Okay. All right. So this is I'm just going to go through a few slides, but some important slides to remember. This is all online. We have a link to this on the planning board agenda. Um and if anybody wants the training, just send me an email. I can also forward it to you. Um, but the planning board is a state is required by state statute. Um, and they make formal land use decisions um, based on all of our adopted plans. The planning board also has 30 days to make recommendation for items. So, for example, if you weren't able to hold quorum for one month and then we'd hear the next item, if you weren't able to meet again, that item would go to council. Um so the role of the planning board is to recommend uh items based on our adopted plan. So the comprehensive land use plan, small area plan. Um we also do public engagements as as you can see we have a a lot of citizens here as well. And we you also recommend and develop policies and ordinances. So we might bring um items like streetscape and make a recommendation to bring a text amendment to you. So we would say hey what do you guys think about these items? and you say, "We recommend that you draft a text amendment to address these." And then it would go to council afterwards or it would come to you and then council. Um we you also hear text amendments and zoning amendments. So conditional zonings and reszonings. Um those are legislative in function. Um you also uh serve as a board of adjustments here for stallings. Sometimes they're separate. Um but those are quasi digital hearings. You're not hearing any of those items tonight. And if you have any questions, feel free to interrupt. I'm just going to go through this pretty fast because we have a large audience. Um, let's see. Um, the chair presides of the meeting presides the meeting and then the vice chair presides if the chair is

not available. Um, the chair only votes um if there's a if he has to break a tie or if there's uh four members present, he gets to vote or you get to vote. Excuse me. Um, let's see. I'm going to skip uh to page 18. Um, so we have we hear cases like general resonings. That's a change from one zoning category to another. We're not hearing any general zoning categories tonight. Um, that is legislative in nature. Um, we're not hearing any special use permits tonight. Um, but I did want to go over we do have to make zoning statement of consistencies. So after every text amendment or resonings, you'll see a page at the end of the presentation that states uh that you have to make a statement of consistency on our adopted plans like the comprehensive lanes plan on whether or not you think it's consistent or inconsistent, reasonable or unreasonable and it could be any combination of those. Okay. Um some of the uh documents that guide decision- making are the comprehensive land use plans future land use. Um the text and the zoning uh implement the laws. So the future land use is the guide for the future of the the town. Other relevant plans are small area plans, parks and recre plans and other plans. Um we are hearing three conditional zonings tonight. So I wanted to go over those. Those are resonings that include a site plan and a set of conditions. Um those are legislative in nature still. So um you can talk freely with the applicant here today and ask questions. You can request those have conditions as well. So you get to see the site plan and then you can also talk about conditions that are placed in the property. Um but they have to be reasonable um and proportion to the impact of development. So, for example, maybe you want to require additional trees um along a buffer, but you

wouldn't want to make all buildings pink. So, just kind of think about reasonable conditions. Um so, just make sure if you have a conflict of interest, so like you know the developer, you're related to the developer, you have any financial interest, you want to recuse yourself as well. Um, and I think that's it was really fast, but I wanted to make sure you guys were aware of some of the processes and also I think it might help the public just to kind of understand what planning board's role is. You have any questions for me for the training. Okay. Just want to make sure I did that before we heard any additional items.

If we could just have make sure everybody speaks into the microphone um when you're making a motion or asking any questions so they can hear us outside as well. Testing testing. Yeah. Okay. Is that slide deck you just went through, is that available for public review or

It is. Um, so it's included in a link in the agenda packet. Um, that's the links aren't they don't last forever, but I'm not sure how long they last. They'll be long. It'll be for a while, a few months. But if the link's unavailable, feel free to email me. My email my website my email's on the website. I can send you the training. We also um submitted modules just for planning board as well. Um, so you guys can also do additional training for your roles. Hopefully it' be helpful in recruiting a few more members. Yeah, you can definitely use it. Send it out. Okay.

So, next we have conditional zoning CZ25.08.01 Stevens Village. All right. So, thank you. Um, this is conditional resoning application CZ250801 Stevens Village to this is the staff report for the planning board. Um, so Stevens Village LLC submitted a conditional resoning request to change their mixeduse zoning on the site to conditional zoning, mixed use. And the reason it's required to be a conditional zoning is because it consists of 18 118 town homes and up to 15,000 square feet of commercial um at the intersection of Stevens Mill Road and Ottawald Road. Um we did have two neighborhood meetings on this um subject. One in October, another in December tonight's planning board and this is going to be going to town council on March 9th for public hearing and we'll be sending mail notices out shortly for that. The aerial and street view as you as you know it's heavily wooded on the site and there's consists of some homes. Here's the intersection. So, if you look behind the um aerial view or excuse me, the street view, you'll see the substation and the Hemi Bridge Church. Right

here's the site plan. Um I know it's kind of hard to see, but the developer presentation is going to go very in depth on the site plan. I'm going to go more in depth on the adopted plans and the consistency, but I did want to let you know that um there's 118 town homes at the rear of the property adjacent to the Shanomar neighborhood. And then at the intersection, there's a um on the site plan is showing a gas station and a drive-through restaurant that has less square footage than 15,000. I think it's showing around 8 8,500 ft². Um, but if those uses did fall through, that applicant has said up to 15,000 on their conditions. And then this grayed out area is a um allowed use for the grocery store tenant. So that's allowed in the mixed use to zoning. If this conditional zoning was approved, they would likely have to submit a site plan for the entire area and override the current approved concept plan for the grocery store tenant. Um just additional information for the project summary. The entire site's own zone mixed use 2 at the currently. Um as you see you can see it's kind of interesting shape. Um it's mostly vacant but it's 17.97 acres in total. The residential area is going to be 12.35 acres where the town homes are going and the area B commercial is 5.62 acres in size. The TIA is included from the previous Stevens Village uh commercial development. and I'll let the developer kind of touch in on the traffic as well um in their presentation. There's a lot of history on the site and if it's a little bit confusing feel free to ask but um there's multiple different applications and byite approvals on the site um so in the back in the day they well I guess 2020 sounds like back in the day but they they applied for a development agreement which is a long uh process with with the negotiation

between planning board, town council staff um and the applicant. They applied for a development agreement at the intersection for a gas station and a drive-through restaurant. Um that application does not expire, so they could move forward with that at any time if this conditional zoning did not override it. Um now there's also an approved site plan in the yellow. Um I think a lot of people have already seen that that has the grocery store tenant and the commercial space. And then there's this resoning that's going to override both and a well a portion of the approved site plan. So there's a lot of different components based on this, but I think that the application of the conditional zoning uh cleans up the development process and just makes it one byite development with mixed use and a conditional zoning instead of multiple processes. So if there's any questions on history, just let me know. Um so the future lane use for this area is walkable activity center. Walkable activity center um promotes a mixture of uses that are walkable to each other including commercial residential highdensity residential um and they're all walkable in a mixeduse pattern. Um they provide it also provides for a density of like one to five um stories for sorry not not density height for town homes as well. I've included a kind of very detailed um explanation of walkable activity center but staff does see that this is consistent with our walkable activity center future land use. Um it's also we believe that it's consistent with the ID wild road small area plan. The Ottawa Wild Road small area plan shows this area for commercial up front and multif family in the rear. But, you know, we believe that we're not looking parcel by parcel. Usually, we're looking at the general area. There are

town homes incorporated in the small area plan. And we believe that it's a the single family homes now uh border an approved site plan for commercial, but the town homes create a buffer for a step down of uses from the Shanar residents. Uh so it' be a single family home detached from Shannamara and with this conditional zoning then it'll be a larger buffer which the applicant is going to go into depth on the buffer with town homes than the commercial. Right now all of it's zoned commercial and they can build commercial by right with only a 40ft buffer. Um this conditional zoning allows the applicant to expand on the well they can we can require a condition to expand on the buffer which they have included with the site plan. Um the Stevens Village has a a traffic impact analysis. They've included a TIA that was approved with the original site plan for the commercial along Idawal Road and Stevensville Stevensville Road which included turn lanes, extended storage, traffic signal upgrades. Um the removal of certain commercial components from the approved site plan has resulted in an overall reduction of projected trips compared to the original TIA. though all original TA improvements are still to be uh constructed um despite the reduced trip generation. Um I I did want to let you know that if you have any traffic related questions, I would um rely on the applicant to answer that. I'm here for the zoning and to talk about our adoptive plans. So staff does recommend approving this conditional zoning to reszone it to conditional zoning mixed use 2. It creates a step down transition between single family residential and the commercial uses. We believe that it's also consistent with walkable activity center future lane use and is consistent with our ID wild small area plan. Um now

the applicant's also here but do you have any questions for for me or for staff before the applicant presents? anyone any questions? Or you can ask me after the applicant presents. Um I think I have a sign in forgot to give you a signin sheet. So after the applicant presents, you'll want to call in some of the people to talk. I'll I'll hand this to you right now. I apologize. I forgot to give it to you. Um see there it is. All right. So I'm going to call the applicant up here to present. And if you have any questions for me, let me know.

This is for you. Good evening, Mr. Chair, board members. My name is Aaron Hal. I'm here on behalf of the of Stevens Village LLC, the applicant for case number CZ25081. With me tonight from the applicant are uh Terry Williams and Pete Paul, uh Nick Bushon and Michael Wickline from Design Resource Group who worked on this plan and John Carmichael who works with me at Robinson Bradshaw. Max already went over the the calendar of events for this case, but here they are again. We had the official required neighborhood meeting uh on October 7th. We had some comments and and made some adjustments to the plan. O had a second neighborhood meeting in December uh where we shared those adjustments to the plan and and got more feedback. Uh we're here at the planning board tonight and the town council hearing is scheduled for Monday, March 9th. Here's the site outlined in green. You can see it's on the north corner of the intersection of Idaw Road and Stevens Mill Road. Uh you can see 485 kind of in the the top left corner there of the map. and the the Shane residential neighborhood is to the north of the site. Has this kind of strange shape that we'll we'll get into a little bit. Here's a the zoning map for the area. The site here is outlined in red. Uh as Max said, the the site is zoned entirely MU2. Uh as are the other parcels along Idaw Road and uh on Stevens Mill Road. to the north of site um are some parcels that are zoned single family residential. That's the Shane neighborhood. Again, uh MU2, the the zoning district that's that's indicated by the green on this map. It stands for mixed use 2. It's a it's a mixeduse

zoning district that allows a variety of commercial uses by right. Um so uh subject to the stallings development ordinances design requirements with concern to setbacks and buffers and that sort of thing. Um parcels that are zoned MU2 can be can be used for those uh commercial uses by right in the area. As Max said there is also uh a concept plan for a grocery store anchored commercial center that has already been approved. Um that site is shown in yellow on this map. Uh it's along Stevens Mill Road. And so the the entirety of that area, are you seeing my person as well? Uh is commercial. Um so there's commercial, you know, here here uh all all of that's commercial. Uh and that's that's an approved uh commercial center right now. the reszoning the conditional zoning site outlined in red as you can see kind of wraps around that approved concept plan site and even overlaps in areas. So what that means is if if town council were to approve this resoning request for this conditional zoning uh the conditional zoning plan uh would supersede this approved plan in these areas. Here is uh a map of that or here is that approved concept plan for that grocery store anchored center. It's the map is a little rotated here. Stevens Mill is kind of running horizontally along the bottom of of this uh of this site. Here's Idawal Road. Uh and again, you can see uh the commercial goes to the back of the site. Uh and the commercial extends sort of to to this boundary of the site. And here's here's Shantae just to orient you on this map. This that's the that's the approved concept plan. The reasoning request uh is to reszone

the site from MU2 to CZ MU2 the conditional zoning mixeduse 2. Uh the site would be broken into two development areas. Development area A would be the residential component of the development would contain a maximum of 118 attached house dwelling units or town homes. Uh development area B would be the non-residential or commercial component of the site and would have a maximum of 15,000 square feet of non-residential uses and a minimum of 3,000 uh square feet of commercial uses in a maximum of two buildings here. Here's the the the site plan for the conditional resoning request uh with those two development areas called out. Development area A, the residential component is in red on this map. devel development area B is the commercial component in blue. And again, this this map is twisted a little bit. Stevens Mill Road is here on the bottom and Ottawa Road is here. I'm going go into a little more detail on each of the development areas. For development area, A, the residential component. Again, it's a maximum of 118 uh town homes. It would be restricted to residential uses. Those town home buildings would have a maximum building height of 45 feet. For the town homes that are internal to the site for the town home buildings along the boundary with the Shanamera community, the the maximum building height would be 35 ft. So there'd be a 10-ft reduction in the the maximum building height as you move to the town home buildings uh adjacent to Shaneo. for develop development area B. Um there could be a maximum of one convenience store with gas pumps. If that convenience store with gas pump pumps were there, there could be a maximum of one restaurant with drive-thru facilities. If that convenience store with gas pumps is not there, there could be a maximum

of two restaurants with drive-through windows. Uh this is a a list of uh uses that would be prohibited on development area B. Um I won't read them all out to you, but you can see some are, you know, ABC store, bars, batting cages, um tattoo, uh parlor, uh sale of tobacco, vape, CPD as principal use. Uh these are uses that that are otherwise allowed by right in the MU2 zoning district but uh they would be prohibited as a part one of the conditions uh as a part of this conditional uh zoning request. Here is the site plan uh colored and render uh rendering of the site plan. Um my next slide it's a little bit larger so maybe easier to see. Again, development area A is over here. Um these are the town home buildings. You'll see that they're in two different colors. This this bright yellow color and this orange tangerine color. Uh the the buildings with the units in yellow here along the boundary with Shanamera, those are the buildings that would have the maximum building height of 35 ft. Uh these town home buildings more central to the site, internal to the site would have a maximum building height of uh of 45 ft. development area B is down here near the intersection of ID Wild and Stevens Mill Road. Uh the the site would have access um in several places. Uh there's a signalized intersection along Stevens Mill Road. Uh there's a right in right out farther down Stevens Mill Road closer to the intersection with ID Wild. You could also access the site as a at a rightin off of ID Wild Road here going into development area B. Uh, additionally, uh, the Stinson Farms development up closer to 485 on on, uh, Idaw Road, um, that's being built, there would also be a road connecting, uh, the

site to the Stinson Farms development here. So, it would be possible for someone in this development to, you know, get to the Stinson Farm development without getting onto ID Wild. In the neighborhood meetings there, we got a lot of comments and feedback that were that were very helpful. Um, I think it's fair to characterize the comments as falling principally into two categories. Uh, one category was concern about the the boundary conditions of this site and how this site works with the existing Shinra community. And so we'll talk a little bit about how uh the plan addresses that and and how we've made adjustments to that plan. The other thing is we've had a lot of comments about uh traffic impacts. So to talk about the site boundary with shame, I'm going to turn over to my colleague uh Nick Bush. Hey, good evening. Uh my name is Nick Buchanan. I'm with the design resource group and I've been currently assisting the resoning team conditional zoning team uh with the plan preparation and uh everything you see with the slides as well. Um just following up on what Max uh started off and then Aaron following up with presentation. Uh just want to first say the overall approach from uh initial concept plan to the conditional zoning plan that you see now was realigning that mutual edge with Shanra. Really wanted to locate a residential use and shift the commercial over further away from that mutual edge internal to the site. And as part of that, um, here's a typical cross-section. Just want to give you an idea of spacing and what we're proposing. Uh, plan right side is just typical existing residence on the Shane side. And then this thicker line right here is the boundary site boundary line.

And then working left, you have a 50-ft buffer. And that is a 50- foot wide landscape buffer yard with a 7 foot tall opaque vinyl fence and landscaped to meet a type A planting standards where existing coverage is not preserved. Um and then another item to mention right here is a 90 foot setback. So that is a minimum 90 foot setback. And as you look at the plan, there's some areas that push up right to that 90 foot setback and then other areas that are pulled back further away. But that 90 ft setback would maintain across that mutual edge as well. And then included within that buffer is also a 7 foot vinyl opaque fence and anywhere where there's not existing trees preserved along this buffer, there would be uh the plantings um per the type A that I mentioned. Another item that we also tried to commit to is locating all the required tree save along this edge as much as possible. Trying to prioritize that along this mutual edge as well. As you can see with the next section um and uh the overall aerial photography there's a good amount of trees within that edge. So that was a big part of the initial plan concept and trying to carry that through as much as possible. And then one other item just uh all the alley rear load town homes. They're all uh front loaded to the street. Um the porches with direct unit connectivity sidewalks and then the garages would be on the rear with a 20 foot tandem surface driving parking area and then also a 20ft alley. So all the garages would be on the back side. The front side facing the street would have uh your promote your pedestrian connectivity, walkability, all your unit porches connecting right to the street, whether it be parallel parking, planter strips and sidewalks. Here is a section and this is just

replicating what was in plan view going up vertical u that you were looking at. Same scale as mentioned, right side, typical house and then working across this line right here is the boundary. Um, and then working across right here is your 90 foot overall setback. And then here would be the 50 foot minimum buffer area. And then, uh, as mentioned, um, trying to prioritize the trees within that area. Um, our client team did go out and they measure trees. They shot with the laser, too. And some of these trees, they're they're really big. And really wanted to get that to scale to show what some of these do look. And I will say it's not existing coverage across the entire area, but the majority in anywhere um especially on the northern side. Um that would be replaced with new plantings where there's no existing coverage.

Yep. And and the and the fence is located just inside the tree line. Correct. It it is. It is right here. Little black mark there. Okay. Yep. And we thought that'd be better. um that's up for discussion, but keeping it out of the existing tree coverage also pushing it back also just makes an expansion of the backyard with the trees a continuation from the existing side across here. So there was intent to locate on that back side. Okay. Then also screen from uh any kind of alley traffic as well.

Um not traffic but circulation. So, uh, one item I did want to point out as well is the 20ft alley, uh, and then the 20 foot tandem surface parking that's between the alley edge and the garage. And then here's the proposed town homes as Aaron mentioned that has a 35 foot max per ordinance requirements um, uh, how interpretation for the height and that was a commitment we heard from the residents from the first meeting, community meeting. Um we were proposing 45 throughout and uh they asked if there was potential to reduce. So we did along that edge where you show in yellow on the site plan and that was trying to get in line comparable to the existing homes. Um these do get up to peak um per label level laser shooting up to 47 feet to give you an idea. So uh for the existing homes.

Yep. And then the parking situation is are those all onecar garages? Uh it could be one or two. It depends on architecture. Um, as drawn, they would set up four too. And that would be internal garages and then your tandem surface park uh in front of that. So, really comes down to architecture. I would imagine they'd be two car, but I I couldn't tell you if there's going to be a variety of mix between okay

one and two garages. There would be additional on street parking along the front sides either on one side or two sides trying to get as much uh parallel parking spots as possible. Visitor parking mixed in and as well mixed in is uh some head-in spaces within the alleys as well. So visitor parking know that's important. Try to get as much in in addition in the buffer area. You're speaking about the existing tree coverage to try to be saved and you're saying the areas where it cannot be or the areas that don't have existing coverage would become type A but everything else would stay as is. Correct. Yep.

And then this slide right here, this is just going to give a comparison uh from initial concept plan. Um, as Max mentioned, uh, multiple years back, the initial submitt per ordinance could go down to a, uh, 30-foot type B landscape buffer. And then that had the ability to drop down by 30% to a 21 ft with a 5-ft fence. So to give you in comparison from initial concepts in the middle, what could occur into where we are now? And then the initial approved by ride concept plan. Um there was some uh discussions during the Duncan uh conventional reasonzoning and there were some commitments made at that time even though that was not a conditional process and that adjusted to a 70 foot minimum setback uh for the commercial buildings with a 30-foot minimum average width type B landscape buffer. Um and that also had the right to reduce to 21 ft with a 5-ft fence. And then the amended approved by Wright concept plan uh that has a 70 foot minimum setback with 30 foot minimum type E landscape buffer and a seven foot fence. And then the current proposed plan, as I mentioned in detail, has the 90 foot minimum setback along that mutual edge as well as 50- foot minimum buffer with the type A landscape for any areas that um are removed or uh there are no existing tree coverage. And we still have to meet the buffer requirements per ordinance as well. And then also the seven foot fence. And then just highlighted right here on the bottom, the requested conditional resoning plan. um the 90 foot residential, 50- foot minimum and the type A and just gives you a comparison uh via chart.

Yeah. So, so in summary kind of the the adjustments and the features of the plan that address the the concern about the the boundary of Shanta. Um the plan has been adjusted to reduce the maximum building height of those town home buildings that are adjacent to the Shaneamera community. Um one change from the approved concept plan is that those are residential buildings uh that are that are closest to Shaneamera rather than commercial buildings. uh the buffer and the setback have both been increased and there's en enhanced landscaping uh compared to the approved plan. Uh that's the status quo. Uh with respect to traffic impacts um quick question. Oh yeah, I'm sorry.

Um so you're talking about reducing the overall height uh adjacent to Shannara, but we still have residential neighbors to the north and to the east. Sorry, north and west. Where? So that white area there that's also residential. No, on the plan right here. No, on the adjac the other side. This right here. Yes. And this is this is vacant I think. Right. That's the storm water detention pond for Stinson Farms. Okay. Yeah. So this is Limrich uh is runs and ends around all the way at the top.

All the way at the top. Okay. Yeah. Does that Yeah, I was talking about more so that P is a property south of your blue pond. Oh, this here that's also residential property. Correct. Correct. That is existing residential. Um it's zoned MU2 and it's owned by the Forbus brothers and at some point they will either likely develop their property as commercial or or we'll be able to acquire it in in the future and do that. So, um, so that's what's there today, but the highest and best use of that property in the future will be will be will likely be commercial.

Thank you. Thank you.

Excuse me. Uh, so this is uh this is a map that shows the existing road conditions. Here's Stevens Mill Road uh and ID Wild Road. uh basically, you know, two-lane roads right now that we we know that uh this intersection can back up. So, uh there are a couple changes uh that that are coming. Uh so, one is there's a series of transportation improvements that have been committed to as a part of the Stinson Farms development. Those are illustrated on this map. So you can see uh the widening of Idawal Road uh from from two lanes basically to to four lanes uh all the way to Stevens Mill Road along with the addition of some turn lanes at the intersection of of Stevens Mill Road and Idaw Wild Road. So th those are coming. They're not there yet. uh but uh you know we believe that that those changes would um alleviate some of some of the concerns and address additions to traffic from the development. In addition, uh, as a part of the the commercial development, um, there was a there was a TIA that, uh, recommended some transportation improvements for the, uh, the commercial center that's approved there and contemplated, uh, you know, a gas station and restaurant with drive-through facilities on this corner. Uh those recommendations included a signal here uh addition of some more lanes uh in addition to a turn lane into the center uh here and here. Um so this this is what the the transportation infrastructure would look like um uh with with this with this uh development complete compared to the current status quo. So yeah, there's there's an acknowledgement that this development

would add trips to the roads, but uh the the the addition of this infrastructure should allow the the infrastructure to to handle those additional trips. Is this part of a uh NC DOT plan or is this part of what you've talked to NC DOT about or?

So there um there there was a NC DOT approved TIA and then um more recently a transportation technical memorandum that that talked about the changes to that this conditional resoning would make to the already approved plan. uh where they also uh uh signed off on the the estimates that trip generation from the conditional resoning plan would be less than uh the trip generation from the the the previous plan that the TIA covered. Okay. Thank you.

So, uh yeah, with respect to transportation traffic impacts, um the transportation improvements from Stinson Farms and and um Steven's Village would work together. uh even with the reduction in commercial square footage uh from the approved plan and and and what the TIA studied to uh the the proposed conditional resoning plan. Uh there's an expectation it would generate fewer trips. Nevertheless, the applicant would would agree to to um install those transportation improvements that were uh a part of that um other TIA. So again, this is another zoomed in version of the the site plan and um we're happy to take questions now or later if you like. Thank you.

Was there design input from NC DOT or just the review of the trip counts?

Michael Wickline with design resource group. So I think to clarify one thing just to make it completely clear is that all of the improvements that are shown here that are not compared to existing essentially these are all privately funded improvements. It's not a state NC DOT plan. So what happens throughout the TIA process is essentially you're studying the before and the after and you have to mitigate your impacts. So these recommendations per the couple of TAs that were completed for each of the developments were um analyzed the improvements were suggested or recommended to the state and to the town based off of you know what how they fix the intersections and mitigating the impact from these sites. NC DOT and the town review those recommendations and if they review those recommendations and they agree with them that those become requirements essentially of the driveway permit or the conditional zonings. So, um I'm not sure I know at least and I'm not sure where um Stinson Farms is in the review process. I don't know if they have fully permitted plan sets or anything else, but I would assume they're under review by NC DOT to be put in place. Um but eventually if they haven't been already they will have to be a full plan set all design sent to NC DOT reviewed and once they're approved those plans are approved that's when the construction can begin.

Thank you. Y one other quick question. What type of street lighting array do you have set up for the subdivision as far as when street line the master plan scale lighting? Um, and it would be within the planter strips internally. Do you need in the microphone? Sorry. Yeah, sorry.

We haven't put together a lighting plan yet. Um, but of course lighting would have to meet ordinance requirements, but um I would v envision along the internal network streets, uh, the private streets there would be and these are all the areas that are lined in trees as I'm following through. And then coming down through here and those would be typ typically 12 to 15 foot um deluxe acorn. I know that means nothing to you but that's a typical spec or something comparable. And then there would be taller lighting within the commercial area specifically but of course would have to meet ordinance requirements as well.

Reason I'm asking because in a lot of these neighborhoods here that were put together 20 years ago uh the street lights were basically covered up by trees now. Mhm. And just curious to see when you guys do the planting and the lighting, make sure you kind of make sure you've got room to where uh when you plant a a tree that's very small now and you know 15 years from now it's not covering the light entirely because a lot of our neighborhoods do have that issue right now. So

it's a great point and you got to maintain separation. Um that's something that we would be um following through if the site were to be approved uh via reasonzoning. we would go into full permitting and that'd be multiple submitts and months and be working back and forth making those separations and and figuring out the right species where that wouldn't happen. Very good. Thank you. Yep. And the street lighting on the back side, the garage sides, what would that be adjacent to the buildings or adjacent to the fence? Uh more on the street side right here. There were discussions along that backside and the intent would be to keep lighting as minimal as possible on that back side.

Thank you. If that additional parcel does get commercially developed, which you mentioned, as possible, would then there be a new TIA study and review to see, you know, these changes that are proposed right now to the streets that could be impacted if that becomes commercial. Uh, so I that you're talking about the Forbus parcel here along Ottawa Road. Um, separate.

It would be a separate project. It's not it's not included in this um in this conditional resoning or or this already approved plan. So it it would just it would have to go through um the the town's requirements for a TIA for for a new development. Okay. Any other questions? Questions? Good job. Thank you. Um, open the floor to public comment. Uh, first on the list is Nick Patatus. Somebody's got three minutes.

Dizzas. Dizzas. Come come to the microphone, please. You have three minutes. State your name and address. Oh, and please state your name and address. Uh Nick Petitus, 2304 Canaran Lane Matthews. And I'm going to just speak uh for a short while and then I'm going to yield my time to uh to Jean Jean Lindsay. Um questions. First, this parcel that you referenced that's on idle while Okay. in between where you see looks like a retention pond on the top and then to the uh the development proposed development. Who owns that?

Is that part of your uh corporation? So just so we start off our way. I'm happy to answer any questions from the chairman. You want to direct a question to Oh, do I direct questions to you and then Okay. And then you direct them to him. Please inform him of who owns that piece of property and what its intended use is. Forbis. It's a nice circle. We'll go around. Okay. So, okay. Who owns that? The Forbes brothers. Ricky Forbis and Jimmy Forbes. Okay. Are they affiliated with your company? No. No, they don't. That's the name. They're not. Okay. Um, do we have any idea what what the plans are for that parcel?

No. The plan south of the blue square there? Uh, yeah. the section of it. Section not okay that that's in white I guess that's bordered by uh the uh proposed development on the bottom left and then there's like a a blue looks like a retention pond. Okay, that's the parcel I'm talking about. So we do we have any idea what the plans are for that? Do we know who owns the piece of property plan north of the detention pond? That's part the detention pond and the property north of detention pond apart sten farms.

Okay. But that's north of Okay. But I'm talking about in between that's the section I'm talking about. That's the four brothers uh plan on just right below that right. Okay. Um also okay the when was the the TIA that was done that was done at the height of COVID correct? Um yes. Yes. I don't happen to have the date in front of me. Do you happen to have the date of the approved TIA? Um, the approved TIA was from 2023 was the final approval date. And when was the traffic study conducted? Okay. Started in late 2021.

Okay. Late 2021. So that was during the height of COVID. So approval and actual conducting of the test is two totally different things. So if it was done during the height of COVID, we know that that was primarily when everybody was major lockdowns and the traffic we know was at a minimal amount. Okay. So we agree on that. Okay. Uh next the uh the grocery store the proposed uh site for a grocery store. Is there any commitment by any uh grocery store chain to that site at this time? Uh, is there a commitment that you have to the grocery store?

We're not going to disclose any of that information. Well, we're not asking for a name. Is there a commitment? That's totally different from uh is there a firm commitment, a signed commitment by a company, a reputable grocery store chain that plans on moving in there. We're not going to disclose any information about the tenants. Sorry, sir. You're out of time. Okay. Pardon? I'm sorry, sir, but you're out of time. Oh, I'm out of time. Yes, sir. Three minutes. That was quick. Yeah, fast. Great. Thank you. Uh, Phil Sylvester,

can you please state your name and address, please?

Uh, Phil Sylvester, 5218 Shannar Drive. I'm one of the folks that's concerned about the traffic and the TIA behind it. Uh, one of the concerns is just looking at kind of what it was based on, seems it was only based on IDA wild road traffic, not Stevens Mill traffic. And it seems it assumed a 1% increase in traffic population despite the fact that the last 3 years stallings has grown closer to 7% in population. Um, so my concern is around the infrastructure behind the plan. Um that uh the other part is when the the um folks were talking about the plan, they mentioned planned road improvements. I didn't hear any commitments or anything that said that those road commitments were going to be in place before this traffic was added as a result of all this building. It sounds like it's part of some other plan from some other building project with not a direct commitment or dates or requirements that that be in place. So, they're saying that we need these road improvements in order for this project to be successful based on a very conservative TIA that was put in place and yet no commitments to having that in place in order to proceed with this building project from what I've heard. Um, and so I would look that if we were looking to reszone to add all of this commercial property that we do it based on reasonable data, which is like growth projections we really have on traffic. we really that really exists. Um that we include the road that is most impacted in the plan, not an adjacent road to it. Um and that there be commitments to those improvements being part of it in order for the building to uh zoning to be approved and for the project to be approved as opposed to saying we think that another project is going to handle these roads. They've suggested expanding it but not having a commitment tied to this building project uh in order for it

to go forward. Thank you. Uh, next is Joe Horworth. Please state your name and address.

Yeah, sure. Joe Horvath, 719 Donagle Court. Um, so I guess I'll kind of cut to the chase. No one wants this. Anybody in this room? Anybody? There's no one that wants this. Um, and then these are not improvements. A stop light in this weird spot next to Shannamara that is weirdly blocked out from this. It's right there. It's that's the pool that you can barely see the gray piece on. And so it's going to jack up traffic. How Shannon was not included in the original TIA or is not being required a new TIA is insane. um you're going to have that that entrance will become useless and all traffic will go to the divide entrance and exit and then everything else will go left. So the people you Stevens Mill uh uh to the gentleman's point was not studied at all and that is a devastating impact to the whole neighborhood not just Shannamara enclaves uh uh you know all the different neighborhoods further down um these are not improvements and in fact uh they're going to kill our quality of life and probably plunge our property values. Um, and I would say regarding TAS that it appears the town has violated its own ordinances and not mandating Shantaara, Enclaves, probably Fair Haven, Vickery, and several other neighborhoods because the own or your own ordinances demand that every street within one mile be studied. This did not happen. And when I talked to the NC DOT twice, they said it should have happened or it usually does happen and Stallings has a history of including neighborhoods. Why? It's inexplicable that this was not included. And I know some of you are new to this and didn't have a hand in it, but um it's it's beside beside myself with it. Also, the the comprehensive

land use plan is a 252page document. We saw one bullet justifying this project. 252 pages. There's going to be a lot of inconsistencies in that plan compared to this. So, I would I would encourage this this body here to go back and look at its own ordinances, make sure everything was done on the up and up. I think we're to the point where not only is this an obvious denial, but that we go back and look and see was everything followed correctly in the initial uh zoning.

There's no original no one's informed. It's amazing and thanks to everybody who did come out tonight. It's amazing that we got this many people because if this were such a good thing, you guys would be shouting from the rooftops. But you've done everything you can to hide this from everybody. Amen. Everything. I'm I'm 90 ft away and I don't get noticed. It's insane. Oh, real quick. People will die turning left and I want that on the record out of Shannara. Max, put that on the record.

Thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU. UH, next is Michael Wilson. Uh, Michael Wilson. I live at 236 Limmerick Drive. Uh, my home will be looking straight across the road at the proposed town homes. Uh on my section there's very few trees to almost no trees on the upper end of Limmerch. So there will be no visual buffer between our home and and the apartments. I I understand that they're talking tone town homes, but this also allows for this zoning conditional reszoning allows for apartments if they so choose. And it's my understanding from the developer that they will sell off this track and to another party and they will develop it as they see fit. Um my concern is this not congruent with our own neighborhood uh transferring from uh single family homes that have been there historically for 20 years to a new multifamily or apartments right adjacent to them. If you look at the Stinton Farms plan, I assume that's official. It has a row of single family homes that are join Shannara all up the side. So I would suggest if uh the board considers in the future or if the developer considers that maybe they shift that to single family homes rather than multifamily homes. I'm not opposed to the commercial on the corner, but I am opposed to the multifamily alone. Um, General Moore, thank you.

Uh, next we have Tom Twitchell. Evening uh planning board members. Uh to level set here, my name is Tom Twitchell, 910 Bailey Court. Uh my home borders the proposed town homes. The uh corner where you see that green uh landscape barrier tie into that gray outline. Our home is directly behind the first yellow block of proposed town homes. Just to give you some perspective. I think it's important to level set uh one thing is uh the motto for the town of Stallings and the fact that it was originated and designed to not only empower but also to guide decisions made by the town and the planning board to create a small town feel and a place that is livable. This project and the way that it's been managed in the past, which predates most of you, if not all of you, does not honor the motto of the town of Stallings. Stallings, I don't know if y'all are aware, 17,000 people in the town of Stallings. That's a small town. Shannomara, 2,000 people, 11%. We have about 50 maybe 60 maybe even now 70 people here. That is a crime that 2,000 people that are going to be massively affected by this development in addition to the people up and down Idle Wild and the rest of Stevens Mill are not aware of what's happening tonight. That's wrong.

There's been a conglomeration and a sequence of events that have allowed certain things to pass that allow within 500 ft making people aware that's not even a softball throw for somebody that's got, you know, a gifted arm. So, that's a problem. We uh uh had a neighborhood meeting in December and since then a number of things have changed, but I will uh try to focus on the specifics at hand tonight. I'm going to tie into a few things that have been said by the people that were up here earlier. The TIA that was conducted. It concluded, as was noted, in September of 23. It was conducted much prior to that during the height of the pandemic when a lot of that information was pulled and codified and memorialized in that document. And NC DOT's uh wisdom at the time, as was also noted, was to say it's this development will probably only increase traffic by about 1%. That's woefully inaccurate. That alone would justify having another TIA before this moves forward. The uh sheet that was presented by the by council of the developer listed a large section of exceptions started out with area A and B. A being residential, B being commercial. There are many statements within those exceptions listed that say it will be done as generally depicted. There is another comment that's repeated several times saying that it will coincide with a flexible development plan. I have a career in commercial development. Both of those are fraught with problems. Those two statements, flexible development and generally depicted. That's not acceptable and it's certainly not acceptable to the constituents that aren't represented tonight. We need a new TIA. It needs to be uh one of the key things that's driving the

decision that you all make tonight when you rule on this. Uh the tree save that was talked about where in the past it was going to be specific to certain sections of the development saying no, it'll just be in general. What that means is there'll be less tree save. That's the bottom line. So the depiction that was given the graphic where they showed here's what the uh tree save and the type A buffer will look like that's inaccurate as well. The canopies that were drawn on those trees show a canopy that starts probably about six foot from the ground and goes all the way up 30 or 40 feet. I live backing onto the forest that would be part of that tree save. The canopy starts at about 30 ft. So this development would be entirely visible below that canopy. It is not represented well in that graphic. One last two last items. Donable court cutth through uh that keeps being brought up. Nobody wants that. And that would also probably coincide with a limmerick cut through. Nobody wants that either, particularly people that live on Limick. I question how that manages to continue to find its way into these plans and why it's being brought up as something that might be desirable for the people that live in the town. And the last thing that I'll bring up is that although what's been going on predates most of you if not all of you and it predates most if not all the people on the town council, you have an opportunity to make make a decision this week and in a couple of weeks and you will be able to make a change with the way this development is rolling forward and speak effectively and clearly for the people in the town. Thank you. Uh, next is Dennis Leer.

It's already been handled.

Susette McDaniel.

Good evening. Susan McDaniel. I live at 7047 Kidwell Lane. I just wanted to echo that I agree with all of the comments that have been made. so far as shared by others have serious concerns that the proposed traffic improvements are not enough or transportation I should say improvements are not enough to effectively handle the additional trip counts the infrastructure plan is incredibly short-sighted and unrealistic to only view this area in isolation I in in encourage all of you to say that we need a new much more comprehensive realistic TIA day before any of this can move forward. Thank you.

Sheree Bolig. Sorry if I pronounced that wrong.

That's all right. I'm well used to that. Sherry Bolley. Uh 7038 Kidwilly Lane. Okay. I'll um make hopefully three short points. Um again in regard to the TIA um and now we all tonight have recognized that the TIA was done on a Monday morning. I think it was a four-hour um study um in the middle of COVID. Um and we understood at our Shannara neighborhood meeting in December uh we we thought what we heard clearly was that after the discussion of the development um that that um because of um all of the issues that were brought up that uh we met criteria to have a new TIA done now. And uh one of the main reasons was because um what um was said was that the TIA that was done in 2021 did not include all of the new developments that have already been started. Um so when there's conversation that um there will be decreased trip usage to the storefronts and the gasoline station then um with all of the new development that we have that's uh impacting the traffic now as it is um then there's no question that the um that there will be a tremendous increase of stops at all of these um shops especially if we're increasing um more cars at the town homes. So, another reason to consider um very quickly um getting the new TIA set up so that we can evaluate that for the roadways. Um okay, two other things. Um water hasn't been discussed tonight. Water was discussed a lot at our meeting in

December. Um and one of the questions or concerns that came up repeatedly is that Stallings is near um out of the capability of being able to provide water to our citizens. And so with a development of this size um growing and Stinson farms growing, where is that water going to be coming from? And again, it was mentioned that many of you are new to this. So that's something that has got to be discussed. I believe that over the last couple of weeks with the storms um there were some areas in Union that were asked to conserve uh their water usage because of the shortage. So again, another point to be discussed. And the last thing I'll just mention, um I don't live on Limmerch, but um I did uh wonder in my mind and now it's crystal clear for people that have lived um on Limmerch that back right up to the development that have enjoyed that beautiful privacy of their backyard. Now, um if those um if those yards don't have already grown trees or like many in the neighborhood, the trees have grown grown so tall that there's no f low foliage, um then that means that people that are living um in a town home are going to have a direct uh view right into all the um backyards of the people that live in Shannara. And I don't live there, but I think that that's rather concerning as well. So, thank you very much.

THANK YOU. GENIE LINDSAY.

Hello planning board. My name is Jeannie Lindseay, 5639 Anglec Court in Shadowara. Um, this proposed densely packed site plan is yet again great for developers profit but terrible for the three types of residents. Those three types are the previous, the current, and the future residents of Stallings. But the common thread in all of these is especially the children of Stallings. The previous Stallings residents who lived in homes along Stevens Mill for decades did not expect to see their homes reszone to a higher tax burden without their knowledge. They didn't expect to have the town to have to ask the town to reszone back to single family in order to afford their taxes. They didn't expect to have neighbors around them sell and then be surrounded by a commercial site plan. I doubt any of those circumstances would have happened to the residents in Shannara and it should not have happened to the neighbors whose homes predated Shannara. The town had an opportunity to correct that mass resoning situation but chose not to. So I would ask that you continue to distance yourself from those decisions tonight. The current stallings residents who are adjacent to the site plan and those nearby who travel past it did not have the opportunity to weigh in on the mass resoning because they weren't given notices. The Stevens Village site plan does not work for them for a lot of reasons. This plan is not in keeping with the town's important goal of transitioning, as was already mentioned, from lower density to higher density um with Stinson Farms through at least four subcommittee meetings um with a development agreement with these same developers. It was negotiated that Clone Road and Shannar would have single family homes behind them and then the site plan would transition to town homes and then apartments with commercial located along Idle Wild Road. The homes behind Stevens Village should have that same consideration with single family behind them. Current residents installings don't want to see

their communities boxed in with commercial gas stations and fast food restaurants as highway pit stops. We don't want our limited precious water and sewer capacity absorbed like sponges by unwanted development at a cost to developments that we would be would prefer. And we don't want overcrowded schools made worse or the remaining old growth trees in town pave paved over. The future of Stalling's residents who rent from a corporateowned entity in Stevens Village will be squeezed like sardines between a fence and a grocery store, not exactly living in a walkable activity center as a small area plan suggests uh should be appropriate for that area. The tiny space for an amenity surrounded by this this much density is the exact type of development that our extensive expensive land use consultant claimed he was trying to prevent. Their small pool and or whatever other small amenity for 118 homes located adjacent to a public dirty commercial complex is not the kind of placemaking our comprehensive land use plan claims to value. Meanwhile, a quick internet search shows that corporateowned rental units are a huge national problem for several reasons, including recent changes recent charges against 10 large corporations for price gouging and price fixing, raising the overall cost of living. This time last year, North Carolina General uh North Carolina Attorney General filed a lawsuit against six corporate landlords for illegally working together to inflate the rents of state residents. combined these landlords uh only six of them manage over 70,000 units in North Carolina. We already have the national in issue of corporateowned rentals installings with Stinson Farms because Dr. Horton is the unfortunate builder choice for hundreds of residential units there. These issues and the general unsustainable na nature of unchecked growth have led Stallings to require

conditional zoning for all highdensity projects for many good reasons. Slowing the fl floodgate of new homes that the mass resoning opened up should be a top priority. Since that mass resoning in 2018, there are too many approved highdensity projects already. Road improvements are only meant meant to mitigate the developer own traffic, which is questionable in this case with the existing conditions taken in January of 2022. that with a minimal scope to the TIA which is now outdated with multiple newer projects that weren't included. Unlike South Carolina, we're not allowed to charge developers impact fees. In South Carolina, the fees are levied for sher sheriff, fire, emergency service, parks, recreation, senior centers, transportation, traffic, and more. In North Carolina, those funds come largely from the residents. The one informational subcommittee meeting for Stevens Village is not nearly enough to sort out the problems that this site plan will cost our town. Traffic is obviously a big concern, but it's still only a cost of the uh still only a fraction of the real cost to the current and future residents of our town and our county, including most importantly the overcrowded schools. with Stinson Farms. These same developers came through the town's development agreement process and still refused to make their site plan a true mixeduse plan to suit the small this town small area plan. That's what opened up the novel legal question which the town documents of which town documents carried weight. No thanks to our expensive consultant. Thankfully, this current reszoning request is more straightforward. The School of Government reports that quote, "It's noted that no challenges to the denial of of a reszone have ever been successful." So, shouldn't development pay for itself? Or asked differently, why should town and county residents have increasing tax bills and rate hikes to

cover development we don't want or need? This conditional resoning request should be denied as it is. Thank you. Uh, Chris Gares.

Hi, good evening. Um, my name is Chris Carlus. I live on 237 Limmerch uh Drive, which is right backs up directly uh behind the u the proposed development. So, I too echo all the concerns regarding traffic. I think those have been voiced very very well, very detailed. Um, I learned a few things. I don't know if I'll sleep better tonight because of them, but you know, I have u two girls that one got their got her license a couple years ago. One just got her permit. So, I'm very much concerned about the traffic situation and the safety around that. Um, so I too echo my concerns of my neighbors. Um, one thing, and I don't want to sound accusatory with this, but every time I hear the zoning and reszoning and the proposals, the way it comes across to me is, hey, it's better than having commercial here, so just accept it. And that's not good enough. It's what should take priority is our neighborhood, our town, and the betterment of that. Not just it's not just my house that's being impacted. It's the entire neighborhood. It's not just the neighborhood. It's the whole town. It's the people driving through it. So I I think there's a better solution than what's presented here. So I am opposed to it and I hope that it'll be uh sent back to revisit especially around traffic. Um and I did have one specific question if this were to pass and it's really about the topography of the development. So when we say 35 ft is the place where the proposed town homes are, is that going to be elevated? Is it going to be more level at road level? Um just kind of curious as to the height u kind of the elevation of that

slope as it butts up against uh Limrich and other uh culde-sacs there. So I'd like to ask that question to see what's in the plans. Do you have an idea of what the proposed elevation is compared to the existing streets in Shannaro? Like the height difference? So, so we have not engineered this site yet and we won't be able to to do that until we till we engineer the site. Um, but all I can point out is that the 50 foot remaining existing grade will where those trees are saved in the 50t that will remain at the same grade and then we would obviously have to transition to wherever our grades are on our site from there.

So, that's a key concern. Is the transition going to be up stay kind of put? Is it going to be a gradual increase up to that level? Um because 35 ft on top of I don't know another 10, you know, then you're looking at a four or five story building for the houses that back up against it. So 35 ft sounds okay, but when you put it in context, it's it's more intrusive to the neighborhood and the especially houses like mine that are right up against it. Correct. Great. Thank you. Thank you. And last we have Brad Ray.

Okay. Hey, I'm Brad Ray, 909 Bailey Court, Shanara. Um, I I come tonight mainly on behalf of this TIA that was uh it was done. It was uh completed two years later. Um it it uh it doesn't hold water. Uh I think anybody breathing in this room with common sense would say that does not support this development. Right. Um you've got you've got enough cars trying to funnel out of Shannara already that is only 40T short of that light. Then you've got the light and you got that multifamily section trying to funnel out of there. It just doesn't work. So this board, as Tom said, many of you weren't on the board when this decision was made. This board has a chance though to write the ship or they can turn their head and endorse this that but it doesn't hold water and we all have to be accountable to ourselves and decisions we make. The other thing is we we've been I feel like held hostage here in a way. We've been held hostage and we've heard uh more than one time and I hope I don't have to direct everything this way. We've heard more than one time we'll just go ahead and build the commercial project. We got it. We It's been approved. It's been approved. We go ahead and build it

with no input from any with no input. However, I had seen the commercial project come out of the ground. I'm not sure it can be built. It needs that multifamily to support it. Can you please ask the builder or the the developer, can they commit to building this today? Um, and your question is to the entirety of the project or a specific part of it? Any part any and um residential. Yeah.

Is there an idea on the timeline of construction of the different parcels or different pieces if the prior approved would go first or the residential would go first or the commercial uh area B would go first? Is there to to reiterate what you how you started your statement? If the reasonzoning is denied, we do intend to move forward with the plan that's already approved. Perfect. Thank you. Second question, please. Are you going to be doing that? Are you going to dress this up to sell it?

We are We are a long-term land investor on the entire IDA road corridor. We often bring partners in with us and we remain in the deal, typically through joint ventures, to develop the property, and we would be a long-term holder of the commercial development. So my fear is my fear is this is u we're arguing over this now but it could be another developer later. Okay. So this thing has got in real estate we say if the project's too hard it's got a lot of hair unlike me or you right. This has got a lot of hair on it and it's growing and and we need to we need to hit the hit the brake pedal and slow this thing down. I implore this board, everybody on it to table this additional zoning because this this does not make sense. This does not make sense. Like I said while ago to the TIA, if you're in this room, you're breathing, you got any common sense, you know that TIA doesn't support that. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. And that concludes public comment. We need to talk about it. Yeah. Motion. One more. Becky, can I readress? Yes. Uh, you can have three. You have Let's do a minute and a half. Do you want me to come back to the mic? Yes, sir. Yes, please.

Two things again. Tom Twitchell, 910 Bailey Court, Shaomar. Two things. The director of planning came up here and said the staff recommends this development. I think all of you need to question that and understand who is the staff and what are the underpinnings as to why a staff that purports to serve the town of Stallings why they would recommend it. That's one. And the last one is in this sheet that was prepared by the developer item 10. I item 10A. The changes and exceptions to the ordinance set out below in this paragraph 10 are being requested by the applicant and such exceptions will be deemed to be approved in the event that the conditional zoning request is approved by town council. That's not the lead line. That was buried in the text of the exception document that was produced. Be aware that when you all vote and you all pass this on to the town council, if you choose to or table it, which I think was an excellent suggestion by Mr. Ray, ask yourselves if an automatic approval of everything within this document is really what you want to do tonight. Thank you.

Can I have the opportunity to to rebut some of the comments? respond. No, we only have three minutes. Talk to the chairman. I couldn't hear. Uh, it's up to the chair. He has asked to readress the the planning board. Sure.

Same three minutes.

All right. I just want to point out a couple things. This this is not a legal or a technical term, but I want to make sure everyone understands we're actually attempting to downzone all the property in area A that's up against Shane. It's it's currently zoned MU2, which allows all those uses that are in the use table that that are commercial. And so, in my eyes, we are downzoning it from a commercial. And we have to come before you under this conditional zoning process to downzone it. And and that's what we're asking to do here tonight. Um, another thing is I want I want to go back to if if you have any specific questions, I want to make sure everybody got that about the buffer. We started with a commercial buffer against Shanamera or residential zoning. We increased that buffer when it was going to be commercial against residential and now we're back to residential against residential and we've made it even larger. So, we're doing as as much as we can to to increase the buffer, especially since it's just a residential use against a residential use. And then I want to quickly touch on the the overall road improvements because they do build upon one another. The first project that's that's about ready to to break ground um is Stinson Farms. And to to help everyone visualize that, Stinson Farms is basically fourlaning from the autobell. When you come off of 485 right now, that's four lane to get down to Autobell and then the lanes start squeezing down. By the time you get to the traffic signal at the Goodwill there, it's a two-lane road. Stinson Farms is com is widening that two-lane road into a four-lane road all the way from Autobell to Stevens Mill Road. That's that's private money that's doing that. That's not NC DOT money. And that was based upon the traffic study that was completed for Stinson Farms. Then when Stevens Village comes in, it builds upon those improvements. If if Oh, and by the way, those aren't those aren't just things we're saying we're going to do. Those are commitments that have to be done before the first certificate of

occupancy of the first building on the property in Stinson Farms. And then the traffic study for Stevens Village is built upon those improvements and it assumes they're there. Once those are there, the additional improvements from the traffic study are being built by Stevens Village. And although the the traffic the traffic generated from the current plan is less than the traffic generated from the approved plan, we're still willing to commit to do those traffic improvements on the higher trip generation from the already approved plan. And I'm happy to answer any other questions you may have. Thank you.

What is the in the uh the drawing up there? What's the light green differentiating from the dark green on the tree line? Um, we believe that the dark green has a very good forested tree line all the way to here. And when you get to the light green, there's only trees on the fence line. There may be property owners here that could better describe that than me, but in this light green area, um, it the the the it's not what I would call forested. It's more like a a single row of trees. And that's where we're going to plant the type A buffer along with the fence to to to uh build that back as best we can. And type A buffer is the most dense buffer within the ordinance.

Okay. Okay. Any other questions? No. You have people that want have questions or want to speak? What do you want to do? I didn't sign up. Yeah. Go on forever. Talk about it. We're going to take a few minutes to talk among ourselves on this and we're going to vote on the motion.

No one's closer to this piece of property than me. You have to talk while you open. Okay. to the chair. I think I think I'm negative on the traffic. Same here. I think I think part of our concern is from what we've heard some would tend to agree about the TIA issue um that needs to be redone. It's much too old. The original one was much too old. It's got to what traffic has gone up every years, every six months from then that time

and with the additional developments along Idol Wild as well. Right. So that alone additional there's additional developments along Steven's Mill. I mean right when that started the enclaves weren't there. Right. That's correct. They weren't. Neither was anything else you see here besides that? I think we should table it until the new uh can I offer a comment to that? Nope. Sorry, the public comment is closed. Can I say it from here? Be sure that TIA goes farther than it did because there's some neighborhoods on down Steven Hill that need to be included.

While on over we'll make sure it's we can we can request to how complete it needs. We can get it done. Thank you. We won't do that. The right thing and up the whole thing. So is the request to to defer the request until the TIA is done? Table it, I guess, versus just killing it. You can't I don't think you should kill it. No, let's defer it. I think you should table it. Okay. Until the comes in. that make that as a motion then to to defer it defer the request into

Yeah, I move to um table the motion um to issue until a new um TIA is presented. I second. All those in favor? Hi. Hi. HI.

Please inform us when you have another meeting. The second second Tuesday of every month. Are we the third Tuesday? Well, it'll go from here. Uh the recommendation this will go to the town council from here and they'll have that discussion. I think that's it. You good? You want to next? Yeah. Because I don't know what the requirement like can we require?

We can we can do that. Sure. That seemed like a very reasonable traffic report. I'm afraid like if we can't make them do it. Well, the thing is I don't know how we get town council to say this is what we heard, you know. So, uh, the please the the meeting's not over. There's still other things on the agenda that we need to hear. So, I'm sorry. We understand. We understand. It's important.

I don't know. He knows Robert. Okay. Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen. We still have to move forward in the meeting. Thank you. If you're uh if you're all finished, appreciate it. Thank you. We have other issues to review. What a way to start a new year. How can How can you approve something out of traffic service 21? How did How do they do that? That doesn't make sense. Okay. I guess.

Sorry. We give you what you want. You couldn't vote. We got close enough. Yeah. Okay. Let's I guess we can go to the next one, right? Uh um you can't table that. I didn't I was talking to a resident when the final decision was deferred. We deferred it. It is it's by state statute including I I What was the point? It has to go to town council because it's been over 30 days. So, it either goes with or without a recommendation.

Correct. So, it's going to go with no recommendation. By state statute, they have to go. The plan board has 30 days to make a decision. We put it in the agenda last month. There was no quorum. Now, we had the meeting today, but by the time it reaches March 9th, it's going to be over 30 days, and the applicant has the right to move on to council. So what and then they deny it. So we can can we give a recommendation to council? You can either vote to um resend your deferral and then re revote but everyone just left. So I'm not sure if you want to do that.

Then then I would say we resend the deferral and you got to vote on that too and and not approve. Yeah, that's what I would say. Mhm. So, we need a motion to resend the vote. Okay. So, we need uh I make a motion to resend the deferral vote. Yes. I I make a motion to resend the Okay. I second. All those in favor? I I. And now we'll vote on to um send to council with the recommendation or without uh deny the request as submitted

if you would like to. They recommend you recommend denial based on sub the submitt and you can add conditions on it. Uh denial based on the TIA not being updated and needs to be redone completely. Is that a motion? Was that a motion? It's a motion. Yes. Second. All those in favor. Okay. And then we also have to do a statement of consistency and reasonleness that we find.

So you could vote it. Um, sorry I made the last slide to make it easier on you. So you could do um do you believe that it's consistent or inconsistent with their adopted plans or re and reasonable and not reasonable with the comprehensive plans plan? You have to make that decision as well. It's inconsistent with the development plan. Yeah, I would agree. So someone will have to make the motion. Okay. make a motion that the um statement of consistency with the proposal is inconsistent and um not reasonable with the comprehensive land development plan. Is there a second? Second. Do you have a reason? TIA is outdated. Okay. Out of date.

Second here. And all those in favor? I I Okay. And so we'll go to council on March 9th with a recommendation of denial from planning board. I just want to let you know with because of the TIA. Correct. Not today. Okay. And from now on I'm actually can't leave the room. Sorry. I I was actually listening and then I ended up having a conversation with res. I apologize. There was there's a lot of people out there. Explain what they to them then because they're still waiting behind you. Um what would you like me to explain what the what we just did? Oh, they recommended denial. All right, good job. Thanks, guys. Thank you.

Uh, next on the agenda is commotion, uh, conditional zoning, CZ25.04.01, Pleasant Plains Town Center 2.

Okay. And I also have a meeting signin sheet from that as well. There's uh I think two people but they two people on that um uh okay so this is um it's consist it's it's a that's the wrong name I apologize I meant to change this to conditional zoning CZ250401 for Pleasant Plains Town Center 2. So just ignore it. It's just lame as the other one. Yes. It it was just the template for the title. Okay. That's what I thought when I looked at that. Yeah. So I apologize. Two blocks to my house.

Um so the applicant, Mr. Jolly with Consultant Urban Design Partners, submitted a conditional resoning request to change the property at 3732 Pleasant Plains from Town Center to conditional zoning town center to accommodate 60 town homes. We had the neighborhood meeting in June on uh June um excuse me 3rd and the original proposal included shopfront units so commercial units and they are allowed to move forward in the process because it's a less intense use that they're proposing now. So changing from commercial to residential is less intense. And then the planning board today and town council this will actually be March 23rd. This is updated online not in my presentation. I apologize. It's not going in next Monday.

This is going to council on March 23rd. Okay. Um February and March have the same council and council dates, so they're um even more confusing.

Yeah. So, the current aerial is there's a minor car repair shop. So, they do upholstery on the site. Um and it's quite large. So, if you look at um sorry, I'm going to go back to the site plan. It is 6.17 acres total. Um, and this is the site plan is for 60 town homes. They're incorporating the streetscape. Um, they're required to incorporate the streetscape and I want them to add conditions based on the streetscape plan of the front. They've changed the frontage from shop fronts to town homes. Um, and the rest of the development has a uh drive with um 60 town homes and the zoning is town center. Um, adjacent to multifamily transitional.

Excuse me, I just need some water. I can I was like unable to talk for a second.

The future land use plan identifies this area as walkable activity center which is uh very similar what or it's the same feature land use what I proposed for the previous conditional resoning. Um this one promotes a walkable area with a mix of uses. It no longer incorporates that, but they do have streetscape and a walkable component to future possible uh commercial in our town center which is not currently there yet. Um we do have you know the Asian market and out commercial out parcels. Um so this is something to consider. Do we want to con make the recommendation based just based on the parcel or the overall future land use for the entire area? Um the town center small area plan also identifies the frontage as offices and the rear as town homes. So the use of only town homes is inconsistent with the small area plan. So staff does recommend approval to reszone the property CZTC as long as the following items are addressed. So the final streetscape and greenway design is incorporated into the site plan and their standards incorporated in the conditions. The internal pedestrian connections and small open space areas should be integrated to support walkability for the town center area. Um and submit and create a list of conditions like the previous conditional zoning um for the first Pleasant Plains Town Center to uh create design consistency and harmony in our town center area.

You have any questions for me? The developer is also here to present. Um, can you just give me a brief description of town center just for Yeah. So, town center is a walkable commercial center. Um, you like a downtown. Um, I would pull up their definition, but um you have in your presentation um Oh, no. I I have an idea. I just wanted to make sure everybody Okay. Yeah. I don't have the exact definition memorized, but I I'm glad you have in your presentation. I would pull it I was going to pull it up, but online just to make sure everyone's aware of the town's definition. Um, but Maxim, what are the requirements that the front of it be commercial?

Commercial.

Um, so there is there are no requirements, but the future land use plan and the small area plan recommend the uses to not be residential on the frontage for Town Center. So there's no requirement, but they're that's why they're bringing in that's well that's why they originally brought in commercial as part of their uh conditional zoning because staff urged them to create a town center type of area with commercials up commercial zoning up front, but the applicants changed the site plan based on site conditions. And I'll have them explain that in their presentation and then I'll be this too. Thank you.

Sorry. All right. Good evening. My name is Steve Singleton, senior design consultant with Urban Design Partners, and we're representing um the developer Josh Jolly, who's here um for this project. So, I think you're already aware of the site, so no need to really go into this unless we need to, but um certainly kind of um we see this as a potential future gateway, if you will, coming from Matthews into Stallings. Um there's you can see the county line in black. So, we're not quite at the the county line, but the the existing development to the west is um already there. It's loaded with town homes and and and uh residential. We feel like this development would be when developed would be the first like new fresh development on Pleasant Plains in Stalling. So it would create the sense of um of a gateway feature. So um little bit of site context. This is kind of an aerial view just looking down looking south on Pleasant Plains. So our the subject site is here to the right on the right hand side. I think you guys are probably aware of like the location. U but just for context want to point out some of these items on here and there's no need to really read all these but I did want to point out the fact that there is no on street parking that's going to become important later because that's really important when you start talking about commercial retail uses. um ob obviously autooriented and very limited in pedestrian um connectivity and in fact you can see in the image currently there's not there's no pedestrian infrastructure on the um uh right hand side or south side of Pleasant Plains

that's looking that's looking direction going toward Potter we're looking toward yeah sorry look from Matthew's looking towards Potter okay so subject properties on the right hand side okay

um yeah just just shy of the Potter intersection and then um because of the lack of infrastructure and some of the other points I just pointed out, there's no established retail pattern or destinations currently in the town center. So, we understand that that's the goal and we strongly um support that goal and encourage trying to achieve that goal. Um we believe that we're going to show you how we believe that we can help um the town achieve that vision with town homes. And then I talked about the gateway already. So town center definition as you guys kind of asked no need to really go through all these but I just I wanted to highlight some of these taken from your um um or uh land development I'm sorry comprehensive land use plan based on town center the top one is more just the summary the town center district envisions a walkable mixeduse core and I think it's important to point out that based on the comprehensive land use plan it encourages mixed use. There's no requirement for mixed use on every parcel. And I think Max even mentioned that might be something that as a planning board need to kind of um decide and and maybe cancel as well. But um based on the interpretation of the of the of of the uh comp plan, the goal is to create a district that has a mix of uses that would be supported by residential and you have to have rooftops to support commercial retail, which we know. Um, so that's kind of what I wanted to touch on there as we move into the site plan. Um, and so it's not like an illustrative plan just yet. We're still on the very preliminary stages. Um, but hopefully just the color kind of helps understand the the masking with um, landscape or hardcape and then the gray areas are just the rooftops. So as Max mentioned earlier, the initial submitt was shopfront first floor commercial retail with residential above. He also mentioned the previous Pleasant Plains

project that I believe you guys are aware of that was approved just for context that was kind of a similar um building type. And so fast forward to this project, the initial plan was commercial uh retail first floor single family and then town homes behind. And so what had happened, there's a couple of reasons why we believe the town homes is a better better application, but first and foremost, and you may have noticed on the timeline from the uh June um neighborhood meeting, it was it was um God, was it January of this year before we had the next meeting, there's a big there was a big delay. And so the reason for that was we actually got a geotechnical report and that study uncovered the fact that there was an um an old farm pond right in the middle of the site literally about an acre in size and about 12t of depth of unconsolidated fill. And so while it doesn't necessarily impact the layout for you guys it is a significant obstacle to overcome for this thing to be feasible. So the challenge then is why would we want to take a risk on commercial retail when we know town homes are in demand and would would be um that could be sold. So we just feel like it's the safer play while also helping achieve the goal um for the town zoning district here in Stallings. So a couple other things to point out as well with the site plan. So we've the proposal I'll go into some imagery or character imagery here in a moment but the the frontage the fronts activating pleasant planes. So that'll be the front door. Obviously you'd have a rear loaded alley behind for for a garage and parking. And the goal there though is to create that synergy with pedestrians, people, porches, um, and then the streetscape that we've talked about um to to truly activate that edge and create a precedent on Pleasant Plains for what we believe would be a precedent and then hopefully uh spur or catalyst for future development towards Potter Road to

create what we hope and what we want in Splings, which is that connectivity. So that that um language is kind of the face along Pleasant Plains. The other thing that the other changes we made in response to some of the um neighborhood concerns. Um one of those concerns was parking um adjacent town homes have issues with people trying to park in front of their driveways or on streets because there's not enough adequate parking. And so what we tried to do was address that. And so while we've got twocar garages um or the opportunity for two cars to park per unit, the central spine, which is the kind of the primary public street then that is perpendicular to Pleasant Planes that comes through the site, we've um we've widened that slightly to put on street parking. And so this graphic just shows one side, but we there's there's room to do both sides if we believe that was the right approach. And so the goal some challenges with wider streets though from a planning purpose wider streets create the psychology of wider streets increases speeds and decrease the safety. So the goal here would be to put bumpouts if you ever heard of bumpouts or bulbouts on the on the ends and maybe mid block as well to create visually a narrow street reduce those crosswalks. Um it creates organization for parking but it also provides the opportunity for parking for visitors or or residents. So, that's another feature that we added as a result of concern from the neighborhood meeting. And the last um or not last, but another comment, we've also decided that this plan would be better. It would better serve the community here if it terminated in green space rather than more um town homes. So, we haven't made the changes yet because we're still trying to capture all the comments and feedback before we finalized plans. But we've already the gel developer um and myself or urban design partners has committed to removing at minimum the four that you see on the very southern point of that terminating feature

potentially all seven and then creating more of an amenity um for the the community here and then perhaps picking up three or four more somewhere else on site um when we get into design permitting. Um, and that was also a comment or a concern from adjacent um, neighbors was they were concerned that these tenants may come over and utilize their amenity or their pool and they were hoping that we could provide an amenity. And so while 60 town home units does not justify warrant a swimming pool, it does um we do believe that adding uh amenity, dog park, open space, mail kiosks or whatever would be an amenity for the for the community. Um couple of things to touch on with the site plan. I think I addressed I think I addressed them all. We can come back if not. So, a little um moving kind of into the just the look and the feel of the form. I'm talking the bumpouts and I think if you you some of you nodded your head so you're aware what those are, but the two left-hand images are just what those would look like as far as like a bump out, just a concept. It's not actually our design. Um but I think the the form and scale and the on the right hand image, this is not the design by the way. Um this is more just about form, but this is kind of the scale and what we believe would be that look with on street parking down that center street um internally with um town homes up on the edge and then rear loaded with garages. We have actually reached out to an architect to start the process of getting um plans or um elevations and renderings prepared to help kind of capture the look and feel. And then our request ultimately would be that that just gets either um maybe through council um they might actually have some idea of the direction for the architecture and then actually have it

um finalized during design and permitting. So these are just like this is again not our product. This is just other built environments that we feel like start to capture the essence of activating the edge with people instead of commercial retail. And again, the concern for us is um commercial retailer developers are they live and die by rooftops. They live and die by pedestrian connectivity. And the reality is right now it just doesn't exist on planes. And so it's a great risk to do that. But we do believe activating the front with town homes like you see here would be a good first step. Porches, um large sidewalks, and kind of um pedestrian connection. just another one kind of a balance area, but just it starts to capture maybe a three-story product and the relationship to the street. The distance from the from the building face to the curb is approximately what we're showing on our plans, but depending on final design, we may pull it over pull it a little closer depending on um the greenway or streetscape standards that we come up with. And then this one is starting to capture a little more about the look and feel that we believe um would would would be best maybe for the the front edge on Pleasant Plains. Two to threetory is permitted. Um so we showed you threetory products. This is a two-story product, but really starting to capture um some architectural language that's attractive of visual interest, breaking up the the buildings. We've got porches. We've got a sense of front door. Um, and then connection to the street. These are all the design features that would be imperative for the towns on Pleasant Plains. And so, just a few more slides and then I'll wrap up, but I think again I've already kind of talked about why commercial is risky. And I don't really want to read these. I think you can. And and first of all, yes, this is not Stallings. That image is obviously

Matthews. I'm a Matthews resident. I drive by this every day. The only point is in Matthews where they have the connectivity, they have the pedestrian um and rooftops and you can see it on any weekend it's pretty busy. This is a sitting dormant and didn't survive currently or never even opened in Matthews. And so I think the concern from us then is commercial is risky at this time in this environment. On the flip side, we believe residential works for these purposes, but primarily because uh it would create immediate residential demand. We know that people want houses, they want town homes. We we talked about stallings growing about six or 7%. Um so there's certainly demand for the product. Uh we talked about front doors, the activation of the edge, u regular day and evening activity, right? People are known to police their own environment where they live for commercial which would be shut down after business hours. We believe this is more 24/7 engagement versus 8 to 5 or whatever commercial might be. So these are some of the reasons we believe residential works. And then just to wrap up, while we believe our site plan and proposal works for these reasons. So, we activate the street now. We encourage and believe in the long-term play for the the town zoning district, and we believe that this um proposal, as we've presented, it helps deliver that sooner than than um than than avoiding the risk of potential vacant retail. Two, we believe this builds the foundation for future retail. So again, if we can create a precedent for that streetscape edge, the streetscape that we've talked about um and and and activate that with people that comes a becomes a catalyst for future development. So we believe that as we grow towards Potter Road, we're setting the foundation for that future connectivity for retail. And then obviously as I've said it before, but we believe our plan advances the town center vision responsibly. And so we can you can kind of read um

the points, but that wraps up the presentation if you have questions. What does what is on the west side of the property? Uh the west side of the property is a single I wonder if I have any single family house. It's a single family house. It's an acre or acre and a half. Yeah. I mean I don't have an aerial, but this piece right here it is. And then going down behind that house, what is what is it facing? I'm sorry, what was the question? What is it facing as you go past that property further south? Um, you mean south on Pleasant Plains? No, no. You got the single house up there by itself and you come down. Oh, yeah.

On the angle. What's the next next to that? Cuz it's not it's housing further down but not right in that area. It's a neighborhood. Um, well, there's a there's a detention pond right there. I wish I had my area. The border the border is a multif family development. There's an existing town home development right there to the west. I think that's a pond literally right there adjacent. But yeah, there is a development. Sorry. There's there's no on street parking in front of the onen planes. It's an NC DOT road. They're not going to allow on street parking, but I firmly believe the plane or on street parking is is really needed to really justify commercial retail in a town center environment. What about the uh you going to have a sidewalk in front?

Yeah. So, what we're showing and Max touched on it. I mean, we still need to work through the details so that aligns with kind of the the town streetscape standards, but the streetscape standards as it currently exists as for a 30-foot paved section, which seems really large, especially when you consider the scale of of of of stallings. Um, and I mean not to go into too much detail, but Charleston to Matthews or pick out what you guys think you kind of want to look like. Wax off. I think 12 foot really is that magic number, but we're willing to go, you know, 18 or whatever we whatever helps bridge the gap with planning.

Max, what's the width of that sidewalk that was put in when they redid that Potter Road Pleasant Plains intersection? Um, I actually am not aware at the top of my head, but it's It's larger than 6 ft cuz that only goes so far down westbound on there. We can present that measurement to you in an email and present that as part of our council.

Yeah. Cuz I what I'd like to see with this going in cuz that sidewalk only goes so far on that side of the street. Then it stops from where the road construction was. And if this is going in and has a sidewalk, you have a have to continue that further west. So, I don't know if it connects it or not at with this going in. I'd be curious to see that. We'll get there. All right. To you and then also present to council as part of the presentation.

Okay. Thank you. The way we presented this for the last present planes just just since that president is already established was to commit to a 12oot concrete sidewalk. There's also supposed to be a sixft pa brick paver utility strip if you will from back of curb to that 12ft sidewalk which on here we're showing street trees. So in an urban environment if you can imagine that would be trees and tree wells. Right.

Correct. Um, on that last Pleasant Plains, the conditional note was that we would keep that as turf currently because we believe grass or landscape is makes it more comfortable for pedestrians to have that literal landscape buffer between cars and the sidewalk and at a point in the future when development came online left or right of the that development um, and they were asked to put in the brick paper strip that our development would then comply as well. So, you have that. Would there also be a a fence in front a fence in front of the pond? Depends on the design of the pond. I mean, if we keep it shallow enough, there's no reason. I mean, unless unless that was a a requirement, we could do a fence. Yeah.

Just depends on the design. And then the greenway that's on the west side, how wide is that? Uh greenway and the west side. That little strip, that little strip of greenway behind the last road, those town homes on the left side. Oh, sorry. So, the buffer, the perimeter buffer is 20 foot. It's 20 foot foot type C buffer. Okay. We'd be open to a fence as well if that was if that helped.

One more thing too, I think just as a planning board and because I I'm a Matthews resident and I'm spending a lot of time here in Stallings, so I care about I care about you all. Um there will have to be further coordination to achieve the on street trees that we keep talking about and that it's in the streetscape standards as well because again because it's NC DOT they don't like street trees in there right away which frustrates me sometimes but that's going to be a challenge we'll all have to kind of overcome um through design permitting or future planning sessions. Just don't just don't put in 40 foot maples. I want like something that break something that's going to break away if you hit it. Like something that's going to snap. Something that's 15 foot max. That would be perfect. Yes.

Yeah, sure. I'm just concerned about the traffic, additional traffic. They just just fixed um Pleasant Planes. There's no turn lane into the shopping center on the other side of the street. Um in the mornings, in the afternoons, it's backed up. Still backed up beyond this. Yeah. We get out of come out of Kenwood and making a left out of Kenwood in the morning before the Wington 45 exit opened up was bad enough. I'm aware of it cuz I have and now today it's like it was today was like really going right also going well going right's coming back at 9. Going left really tough out of count right is Yeah. No, we understand that. So I mean

we're not even close to hitting the standard for a TIA. I mean, it's something that we could consider, but we're not even close to a thousand to average daily trips with 60 town home units. Um, commercial retail might put us closer to that threshold, but town homes. Will there be a right turn lane into the subdivision going to put it? There's no TI, there's no traffic improvements for this amount of town homes. I would say it would be like 150 town homes probably that would trigger the TI. Okay. Around that. Okay. Doesn't. All right. Well, I noticed you have a a public street that runs all the way from the front to the back, but dumps into private

private streets it that way, but there's no way without going on private streets for somebody to turn around if they came in wrong. Well, the alleys the alleys actually would meet fire turn fire code and allow for someone to turn around because the alleys themselves would be 20 foot in width. Okay. And it looks like plan left there. You're leaving that open to connecting to that adjacent parcel at some point.

I wish we could personally. I think interconnectivity is good planning policy, but there's no way to connect. There's it's chalk full of um bu buildings or uh wet ponds. In fact, yeah, kind of bothers me when I look. I mean all these all these neighborhoods are just little pockets with no interconnectivity and no opportunity for future connectivity unfortunately.

Um so in terms of the term town center so this is still considered a town center even though you're removing the commercial. So according to the comp plan, this is still in the town center zoning district and but a primary use that is permitted in the town center zoning district is town home. So I kind of touched on earlier that I think as a planning board and as as a town I think identifying what mixed use really wants to be. Um but I there's I don't see how it's in enforced per percol. It's more of a district. Okay. If you want. Okay.

Yeah. So, um I think it's really up to the board to decide, you know, and also sets a precedent how you want to vote. Do you want to vote parcel by parcel? Because if you do, this is promoting offices on the frontage with town homes in the rear. But if you want to vote as an area for for town homes to support future commercial for town center because you do need that uh residential component to support a town center, um that's really um I would say a policy decision and we really haven't been confronted too many times about that yet.

Well, there's residential uh developments from from this lot all the way down to McKe. We already have the residential on that street, you know, and they're all separate. They're all This will be proximity with Town Center and we'll be requesting a a sidewalk that would promote a town center type of feel. So, people be able to walk to those commercials and hope commercial developments and hopefully the adjacent parcels would end up being developed to commercial and this these residents will be able to walk that. That's the what's the plan? That's what the plan promotes. Sorry, I'm losing my voice already.

We chip away at these lots, these areas with residential, we're not going to have a town center. Yeah. And that's apology. One one block at a time. You know, everybody's got a good reason to have residential to support a town center, but we don't have a town center.

Our current residential is not walkable. So, we got to think about walkability opportunities for future residents and current residents as well. If you look at the parcels to the east, the parts that we're talking about now does set itself up well for the multif family residential unit. As you move east, those are better positioned for commercial. You get closer to the intersection there, which allows in outflow of traffic a little bit better. Those parcels are smaller. Um, and so they they they set better for the commercial shop front. The only thing that is excluding this from being a town center designation like just a bike ride essentially is that there aren't commercial shop fronts around Pleasant Planes anymore. um even if they were there, we'd still be proposing the back fill with the town homes. And to echo Steve point, the one thing we don't want are vacant shop fronts. That was the big concern here with 12 shop fronts running fronting Pleasant Planes. We don't want to be sitting there with 12 vacant shops.

And you you pulled up the picture of the little vacant building downtown. And I understand there was a it was all set and ready to go for a specific restaurant and the Flying Biscuit moved in and moved them out. So they decided they didn't want to be competitive that close to Flying Biscuit and they went to Valentine. Yeah. There were some lease disputes with the right people moving in, right? And yeah, I'm aware of some of what the Yeah. But the challenge now is because that was developed for intended for a specific use, it's really hard to go back now and re in redevelop it

for a flexible or another type of use because it was it was currently developed or at the time developed for a specific use. Just just go to make it a parking garage. Was there it's needed for sure. Is there the possibility or was there consideration given to doing like first floor commercial second floor residential? That's what we proposed initially. Yeah. Mhm. That was the only original plan. Um, they submitted that. That's what was presented to the public in June last year, and based on all of the months of discussion with council, with the developer, and they also did a study on the land. Um, they the wet wet land, the wet pond, is that what it's called? The the one we found.

Yeah. the property um is making it not feasible to put commercial and then it would they're they're proposing that if you put the commercial there now there's no one to go to it. There's not a town center there yet. Um they don't have the rooftop. There's just not a lot of commercial folks that are interested either. It might stay empty and not feasible for the developer to build. I'm monitoring the other pleasant planes really closely right now because they're in permitting and they just submitted it today. They just don't have a whole lot of interest yet either.

I guess my my reason for asking is I I understand the the attraction of the the highdensity residential. Um I also understand the abandonment of the commercial aspect and looking at it future-wise is something that we all have to do. So if we set this president where we're like, okay, you can remove the commercial altogether. I'm not sure that we're not causing ourselves some headache down the road. Well, you're not going to have a town center. Well, so that's why this is a conditional resoning, right? That's why there's conditions upon it. We're not we're not asking to change the zoning designation every parcel that follows this.

What we're saying is we believe this parcel sets up for a fantastic transition from the residential area, activates the which is we've heard over and over again the importance of activating the street and making it pedestrian friendly. We believe that it accomplishes that p that purpose while you then merge into the more heavy commercial development that is in the future to come. So we're not asking right and you are my name is Josh with Rosegate Holdings. We're the developer on the project and I I'll just pull up an aerial just so you can see the town center. Yeah, that' be helpful. Yeah. And Max, you did say that it's not in the town plan. It's not required to have commercial. It's

No, it's not required. Um, but it's recommended. When I talked to the developers, uh, when I started talking to Steve, I was telling him, hey, our plans recommend these things. This is what I'm pushing them for during those early conversations before they submit. Um, and that's why they originally submitted strap front on the front edge. But as things moved through the process, um, it it ended up being not feasible based on um, what the developers presented. There's a wetland right here somewhere. And pond, I get wetland. I'm sorry. Sorry, my different permitting.

I apologize. But yeah, here you go. Here's the aerial. Um, and there's streetscape plan required on the front edge of Pleasant Plains. Our ordinance requires it. We have a streetscape plan adopted. So, that's why I'm pushing them to incorporate that. Um, as you go towards the middle of Pleasant Planes and Potter, you get to more of a commercial oriented area that we do have out parcels right here that could be dedicated to commercial. Um, there is commercial. um the multi-tenant here

they're proposing commercial as well and then these sites are vacant so there is development opportunity at this specific intersection does the planning board you know recommend more residential here to then transition into this intersection for commercial commercial more toward the intersection that's up yeah to plan work

I would just add to again as a planner Um, and maybe just for longer term considerations, really for successful downtown or town zoning, if you will, a town center, it's about intensity of of use. So, if you're really going for a downtown street um that we can envision is activated with commercial and retail and people walking and people dining on on the sidewalk that really wants to be um in a in a designated area or or intense area, if you will, where people can park wherever, walk to that, and then they can walk up and down that street. I I I know there's a long way to get from point A to point B where we are right now, but it seems like Potter Road would be if we had to pick out a place to focus on in town center that would come the urban core and then you kind of um go less use or less intense as you work out towards the fringes. I think that would make a lot of sense. And then we also know commercial retail usually thrives at intersections. So you start thinking about these two intersections on Potter. Um, it seems like a logical

but my understanding is the intersection at Potter and Monroe is not is going to be a no crossover like 74. It's going to be a UI. Uh, yeah. You're not going to be able to cross directly from you can't go from Potter to Stallings directly across from either direction. That's the last thing I read in the NC DOT part. You were they were going to put the light there with the UI's light and make it like 74 which is kind of crazy. Yeah, it is. But so it would dead end like or McDonald. Yeah, you make right turn only and then got to go down to a UI. It will do like a figure eight loop. Oh, I know what you're talking about. Yeah.

So if I am coming uh towards Indian Trail, I'd have to turn around at behind McDonald's then go straight into Stallings Road. Yeah. But that is uh splitting our town center area. Right. One of the council's directives for this year was to look into the small area plan. Um they are aware that the town center is being split by the um super street, right?

I think we're looking into studying it in a year um because the super street has not been built yet and it's not being constructed. We we're waiting to see how those land uses affect that area. This area is not being affected this far down with the road improvements, but they do have uh there are a lot of road improvements in this area. Um they Potter Pleasant Planes just finished. There's a Super Street proposed on Old Monroe, McKe road extension as well. The 485 exit just opened up on Weddington. So there's a lot of alternative transportation paths in this area that um will get people here for Town Center. Now you just need destinations to get people to stop instead of driving through.

Yes. And rooftops to get those destinations here. Right. Okay.

So, just out of curiosity, you guys are going to have to cut and fill or what to mitigate the bad soil or pond. You've got two options. is to completely excavate the entire pond which is about 12 foot depth at average at the deepest point. It definitely is. It's over an acre. Um and then back fill it with structural fill. Um the other is they're not helical peers. What's the name that's piles? Yeah, you call them something different than piles that you sink into like ques that you pound into the dirt to stabilize the structure so that you can ate a fish to move forward. Any other questions?

The problem is they didn't fill it in with the right dirt, so we can't build on it. So, the poor fish are already gone. They weren't planning on building on it. I don't know what they were planning on, but they didn't use the right dirt to build on. Any other questions for the applicant? No. Uh, we'll have a public comment if you want. Yeah, it's a you don't Okay, it's planning board. We added public comment because there were so many people, but planning board usually does not have a public comment period, but I would I would address that now. I would continue with it today for sure. Uh the first person we have is Dennis Leaden, which I believe was a I think he signed up for the incorrect list. Okay.

Uh the next one is Noble Zach. Zachik can't quite make out what the Anybody here to speak on this hotel Zik anybody that would like to claim to be this person to speak for three minutes. Okay. Not not here. All right. So, with no further questions and no public comment, um it's up to us to decide if we're going to pass it along with recommendation or without. Right. Correct. And you can also re recommend conditions if you'd like to. Can you just real briefly I'm sorry you had made some recommendations for them to make changes. Could you bring up that list again?

Of course. So I want them to incorporate this final streetscape and design incorporation. Right now we had a text amendment to amend some of our streetscape design, but that's going to go to you next month. Now um but we can still talk to developer about um how to make the streetscape work. um additional pedestrian connections to open space as well. I know he mentioned that that he was going to create an open space of that and maybe some additional areas to support walkability in the area and then create a list of conditions. Um and also the list of conditions I want to be in harmony with the approved Pleasant Plains Town Center 1 because it is in the town center area.

It's called town Pleasant Plains Town Center. I I might just ask the developers to rename it. Uh I I named it and I know it's a little bit confusing, but it was very similar projects at the time. Please, I say no. Um except on different sides of Pleasant Plains. Um now it's changed. Every every pro project changes during the process. Yeah. Okay. What do you guys how you guys feeling? Go with the approve pending these conditions being met. Okay. Um I maybe have one more question.

Okay. I saw it's a single in single out. Is that um we're fairly certain that's going to get approved that way with a single ins with a single entrance and single exit? Yeah. I mean TBD, but yeah, I would think so. There's no real back entrance like in Kenwood to go out. Yeah, it is really up to NCDOT. They have but it's they're not required to do traffic improvements and our engineer has looked at and didn't have any comments. I think our front is just short enough of into DOT typically wants for for two two weeks, but that would be uncovered ideally I mean permitting.

Okay. Then I' I'd like to make the motion to recommend um on CZ25.04.01 1 pleasant plane sound rental ren uh center 2 approval of the request with the recommendations of what staff has just recommended to us to uh following items need to be addressed for staff recommendation. The final streetscape greenway design incorporation the internal pedestrian connections and small open space areas should be integrated to support walkability and town center intent and creation create a list of conditions like the approved CZ25.02 02.03 plus planes town center 1 for town center design consistency and harmony. All in favor? I second.

Second. Oh, you second. Okay. All in favor? I I Okay. And now we have to do a statement of consistency and I'll zoom in on this one because I think the last one it's really hard to see. So yeah, I can't read it. So you can make a statement that it's consistent or inconsistent with their adopted plans like the comprehensive plan and reasonable or not reasonable and you can have a reason as well. I just have an example reason here. So would someone like to make a motion to find it reasonable and consistent?

I'm making a a motion to find it reasonable and consistent within the existing plan given the recommendations that need to be looked at. That works good. A second. A second. All in favor? I thank you. All right, that one's going to March 23rd to council. 323. Okay, 323, not 223. Uh, and next on the agenda is conditional zoning CZ 25.10.01 Chestnut Lane mixeduse. You

too. I can't even see. Sorry. Okay. So, this is actually the Chestnut Mill mixeduse one. So, this is Yeah. Conditional zoning CZ 25101 for Chestnut Lane. Uh Chess Lane mixeduse is a proposed non-residential mixeduse development on approximately 5.86 acres. Um and it's on the southeast corner of the roundabout along Matthews Woodington Road and Chestnut Lane. Um the request seeks to reszone it from the Union County zoning of R20 to conditional zoning mixed use 2 um with an annexation. Planning board does not hear annexations, but this is uh the final hearing and the final date of the conditional zoning and annexation have to be the same date. It's at the farm, right?

Currently, yes. Um so the neighborhood meeting for this was on December 2nd planning boards today and this is going in 3:23. 3:23 to council. I apologize. I need to make sure that that's fixed online on the agenda. Um, so the current current property is the aerial right here is a farm. It's vacant mostly. Um, as you can see, it's in Union County as well. Um, it's not a farm. No, it's a single family resial house. It's being rented currently.

Okay. So, currently it's a single family residential house that's being rented. Um, here's the current site plan that they're they're proposing as a conditional zoning. I'll pull up a larger version of it, but as you can see, it's a commercial development with medical. They're proposing commercial and medical offices as part of their use. They're also incorporating a future developable area that could be anything within mixed use. And uh also a drive-thru bank if they if it desired. Um but that's based on market conditions. And all that review would be administrative. That's what they're requesting for this this rear area. There's also power lines going through the site, so a lot of it's not developed on the um eastern portion of the site. Um so currently it's Union County R20. It's across from the Chestnut neighborhood. Um and the TI is not required. Doesn't meet the threshold as well. Um for our standards, as you've seen, walkable activity centers everywhere. Everybody's really interested in reszoning and walkable activity center. Um uh it's a walkable mixeduse community is what they're recommending. Um I'm not going to keep hitting uh future lane use again, but um the Chesnut Lane small area plan does differ than this. Um so it's recommending this to be all multif family in this specific area. But um this is like I said for an example of are we looking in just this parcel or are we looking up the overall small area plan because we just approved cottage green across the street which incorporates commercial and a mixeduse residential community with single family multif family duplex and things like that. So um it looks kind of like this area plan was flipped on what's been actually approved. So there was like a grocery store anchor on this side, but it ended up being cottage green. They putting a lot of multif family here. So it's changed our small area plan a lot.

Um so staff does recommend approving CZ2101 to reszone the property to conditional zoning mixeduse 2. This resoning propos proposes a non-residential mixeduse development that's compatible with our surrounding intent of the mixeduse zoning. It's consistent with our walkable activity center feature lanes for commercial even though it's inconsistent with the Chestnut Lane small area plan. We do believe it's reasonable. We just approved apartments across the street. I was going to say this is right next to it, right?

So, we do believe that the additional commercial is reasonable in this area. Um any questions for me? Um the applicant's also here again to present if you um like to hear them first or ask me questions. Let's hear I'll let them present. Let them talk to me. Yeah, I'll be here. Max, I'm just likely to ask you the same question he's going to have to answer anyway. So, yeah, it's I might just go ahead and say here.

Okay, it's officially my bedtime, so if I stutter, I apologize. Um, but again, Steve Singleton, Urban Design Partners, representing my client, uh, Brian Rollar here with Project X is the name of his company. Um, and he's the developer of this mixeduse property. Um, we already kind of know where the site is. Max did a good job laying that out. Just thought I'd show this a little more for context. Um, the primary features being Chestnut Farm Apartments, uh, the existing roundabout, obviously the corridor there on Matthews Weddington, and of course the future, uh, recently improved future cottage green development. So, a couple cool things that I think are going on in this area that really support the small area plan, the chestnut uh small area plan. And so, for one, we know that the comp use the comprehensities plan uh designates as a community growth center which is kind of outlined here, which encourages development at major major intersections. So, we believe this site um supports that um that goal. Uh we talked about the walkable activity center place type. So designing encouraging pedestrian infrastructure. We talked about the chestnut lane small area plan and there's two items that are really applicable to the site. Um one development of a western gateway as kind of stated multiple times for the small area plan. And so by developing this corner and in um complimentary in form um in function I guess or sorry in form to the chestnut farm apartments. We believe that we really start to create what we we want here in Stallings which is a gateway at this um roundabout. And then we talk about the entirety of the corridor also being activated as a as a the Chestnut Lane small area plan. So again, we'll kind of get into how we're doing that um comprehensively. Um but it starts right here with the the greenway

master plan system. There's quite a few trails that are um proposed in this area. And so we know that currently we've got existing 12 foot wide um greenway. This is built, this is installed, and it does connect to Colonel Francis Arbad Park. We know that with the new development at Cottage Green, we'll have um additional greenway and sidewalks installed. And then per the greenway plan, we also know that another um component of that uh network is right here in orange, the um green work, the greenway plan asks for this connection to be all the way down to Antioch Church Road, all the way up through our site and then east on uh Chestnut Lane. And then finally, the gateway. So, let's talk a little more about how we achieve that. Um, encourage mixed use neighborhoods. It's one of the the land use goals of their comp plan. And we believe that this project is consistent, I would argue, with the Chestnut Lane small area plan um because it helps achieve these stated goals for the the plan. So obviously um activating the intersection the connectivity we talked about greenways. Obviously this graphic is representative of this of the small area plan. I think this makes sense to you but in the the background of the image would be um the roundabout and then of course in the foreground would be Antioch Christian Church Road. So with the Cottage Green and then our proposed development Chestnut Farm Apartments, we're starting to kind of see that infrastructure come to fruition. So our site plan as we had up earlier, this is the site plan. Couple things to point out high level. Um first and foremost, we really believe that activating the edge at the intersection is imperative again for kind of creating the gateway. Uh the biggest challenge currently that has come up and you can't see on this

plan I apologize but um there is a a lot of utilities currently that run um at a 45 degree angle I guess through the site from Matthews Weddington up towards Chestnut Lane, right? And so the the building placement right now literally is right up on those easements. And you know, the developer plans to coordinate with some of those utilities. And if there's a way to relocate and kind of bring some of that form closer to the um intersection or maybe even pivot the building to front a little better, that edge, that might be something we would consider. But it really is dependent on the um utility coordination. I mean, gas overhead, underground, fiber optic, water lines, you name it, it's all running through that corner. Um, the second big item that Max touched on is the big gray area to the right. And so, we're calling this future developable area. Not sure at this point what that might be. A lot of it just will be driven by demand or interest. Um, but the real challenge is what we can develop in that area. And again, I know it's kind of hard to see, but if you can squint, you can see kind of these double lines running um through the site. So, the whole eastern side of that site are overhead utility transmission lines, and those are easements that run through there. So, there's there's a lot of limitations on what we can and can't do on the east side of the site. So, the the gray area, future developable area, as it's represented now, is about an acre. It's probably about a half, maybe a little less. That's realistically uh developable in the future with buildings. Now, we can park under that easement. Um but that will be u TBD in the future. And then like Max had touched on, that could be a small a small bank with drive-thru if there's a need or demand and interest. Otherwise, it would just be a use that would be otherwise permitted in the mixeduse zoning district. The rest of these buildings are um and

I'll show you images here momentarily, but uh singlestory the the the form and the building uh architecturally are going to kind of mimic complement what's the precedent that's out there now, which is the Chestnut Farm Apartments. So, we'll get to that here momentarily. The diagonal hatch there is what now in the low So, the lower plan east diagonal hatch is um tree safe.

Okay. common open space. Some of it will be programmed, some of it will be unimproved, some of it will be improved. Um, and then some of the rest will be storm water. So, we've we've we've set aside 10 or 12% of the site for storm water, but it doesn't really get designed till we get to permitting. Um, so moving along, uh, again, kind of the architectural form and character, the Chestnut Farm Apartments. Obviously, this looks familiar to everyone in here and we believe that trying to develop um our buildings that are informed and influenced by this precedent is the goal for us. So that the the two-tone pallet, the contrasting dark verse light, the vernac um architectural u board and batten and siding which just gives it kind of visual interest are all uh features that we're going to integrate into our architecture. Um and then last but not least, the um pedestrian um entrances. So making sure that there is a a visual connection from the street and internally to these buildings by way of architectural fenistration, canopies um or other obvious points of entrance. So got a couple um renderings here. Again, this the whole goal is to kind of capture the essence of what has already been established at the Chestnut Farm Apartments. So, from a, you know, pedestrian scale, singlestory, it's got the again the two-tone pallet with the dark verse light. Uh we've talked about some of the uh awnings or or uh overhead canopies to signal that pedestrian connections. So, these are this is just kind of a um an illustrative concept. We are working with an architect that will actually help take this and develop this further. But this is the goal that we are committed to um achieving with this development.

So this is kind of just another angle for the form um kind of look and feel. And then another important feature too just if I can go back to the site plan real quick. Uh we talked about that intersection there uh the roundabout and how important it is to make sure that we capture or create a gateway. Um so the goal again ultimately will be determined as we figure out what we can do with utilities, but we want to make sure that that corner has um some visual interest to help um convey the gateway, whatever that might be. So it might just be more of the the dark glazing that we see in these images. Mhm. Go back to that last slide.

So the commercials on the left and you've got two apartment buildings in the middle. Oh, sorry I didn't explain that. No apartment buildings. So it's all profess professional services or uh healthcare offices, medical office. Okay. Um we we actually define the the uses in the conditional notes, but it's typically everything that would be permitted in the mixed use, but the goal right now is medical office professional services. And then we also have exclusions which include vape shops and smoke CBD stuff, all that kind of fun stuff that you don't want to have. So Starbucks, um I wouldn't rule it out, but I think that I don't think I don't think that Yeah,

peritted zoning. Yeah, it would be permitted, but um I think most Starbucks drive Yeah, I don't think we have we would do that on this site. Wouldn't rule it out. Starbucks walk I could walk to my house. That's what you know what I'm saying. Love it. Condition. Yeah. This was not car oriented, if you will. Car washes and Oh, sure. Okay. transmission places and things like that. That's all carved out. This is more just kind of classic retail and Okay. Really kind of focus on health and wellness is what dress it up a little bit. Yeah, that's good. Do we have potential uh res att t att t att t att t att t att t att t att t att t att t att tenants? Do you have potential tenants? I don't you know

uh so I have been hesitant to market because until I get approvals I can't sign leases and legally to contracts and so I was getting through the process first before we started marketing more than likely it's it's um you know the Pilates places, the med spas, dentists, doctors, there's plenty of those. Yeah. Yeah. Things of that nature. uh and making it a little more convenient so folks aren't having to travel, you know, 10 miles that way and five miles that way. It serves the neighborhoods. It's like a neighborhood amenity. It doesn't live and die by drive by retail like Starbucks might. It's more of a destination. So the uses would kind of be in Yeah. We don't want empty buildings either.

What was that? We don't want empty buildings either. No. Right. Yes. My whole existence is risk mitigation. Right. So, I've I think there's a good amount of absorption there. One of the other things, too, I didn't want to overbuild here because it would be competing product in Cottage Mill. And so, I didn't want to show over on that other side, like let's do all this square footage. Um, let's just see how the market reacts to it.

What have you guys looked at from a market standpoint? What the market will give you there? What typically businesses are you looking at that would probably be a good fit? I'm looking at a lot of medical uh a lot of the dentists, the doctors. Um I'm also looking at I'm sure there's going to be some restaurant of some sort, but I really don't try to over restaurant things because one, the lenders don't like restaurants uh restaurants because there's a risk they'll go out of business in a two-year time frame. Um I'm looking at gyms. I'm kind of hesitant to put any like national retail names out there just because I can't promise that. I mean, sandwich shops. Um, I'm sure a nice restaurant would go well there on the corner. Um, I don't have anyone specific right now. Um, again, I haven't I've been getting some calls, which has been really great. Right. The reasoning signs up there and brokers are calling me. I'm saying hold off until we get through this process. Uh, and then we'll start developing it from there.

Can you zoom in so I can see what the what are the proposed square footages on the areas there? I don't know if I can zoom in on here or not. Show me how to do it. 12,000. Oh, on this thing. So, it's 14,000 on the the building on the west side is 14,000. The building on the top is There you go. 12,000 and then I think it's 10,000 on the bottom. It's 14 12 and 9. So, but so what we're what we're trying to capture in conditional notes is up to 45,000 square foot only to protect if we can work out some of the utilities and kind of create a little more infrastructure on the corner and depending on what we can get in the developable area.

So, the reality is it's probably like you said going to may end up being on the smaller scale. Um we're trying to give oursel flexibility. I just developed a center in Waxaw um where Prescott Village is. you know where that new Lowe's food store is.

So they're right right on it's called Aspen Allway in Kimble. There's like a little it's 15,000 square foot center. Um which was which was kind of speculative and that got 100% leased and it's 100% stabilized within a year. It's done really well. I'm really looking to stamp something very very similar to that. And that's that's got what? Hotworks in it. has um uh club Pilates, Lindora, which is a med spa, um another like smoothie kind of place, little gym, uh dentist office, and was a grocery store on your list at all or too close to to Harris. I'm sorry. Is there a grocery store on your list, too, or is it too close to Harris ter? The site is too small. Too small.

I think the site was looked at for a grocery store in the past, but it's just not big enough. those power lines. Yeah, that's the reality. And on the corner, is that Duke or is that Union Power? Thank goodness it's power. Yeah. Say you don't want to deal with Duke because you get down at back in our subdivision. That's Indian Trail. Yeah. Union Power has been great. I dealt with them down in Waxaw. They were had a transformer in two weeks where to powers sometimes eight months. Yeah. It's crazy. I agree. engaging that street front would be a little better, but I understand the tolerances and and setbacks that you have to deal with.

It is hard to see. How'd you zoom in on that? Pont usually get to work with unique power is really great to work with. I just don't know how many just hold control. It has to be it has to be in the presentation mode and you can scroll and using this up and down stand sorry it can't be in sorry out of presentation I would like to see. So, I can do this. Oh, yeah. Look at that. Sweet. Thank you. Yeah, of course.

Maybe it'll show up on here. You can start to see all the line work through here. I apologize. It's not easy to see, but I mean there's a ton of utilities through here that we've got to kind of navigate. But another um I another thing that we wanted to show you as well is our initial submitt um had a 8 foot planting strip and six foot sidewalk. And so after our um subcommittee meeting and in Taho planning um we have agreed to a full uh greenway uh suburban spine through here. So 12T 12T um concrete path. So the entire frontage now has a 12oot greenway. It's actually really important that we engage folks coming from Strawberry, coming from Chester Farm or excuse me, Chestnut Farms and really getting this everybody's walking up to it and it really can be achieved right in this district.

Is there a dedicated crosswalk space from Chestnut Farms because, you know, I worry about the pedestrian crosswalk. Actually part of the conditions that we had worked through with Kevin Parker was that we would work within CDOT and we would we would finish some of the striping to or the crosswalks. So the the north the one going north south you can see it kind of in gray and then I don't know why it's not on here. Um there will be one going across towards Chestnut Farms as well. We're trying to push everybody to where it's more controlled since there's not. I'm sorry. Go ahead. So, we're just where it's more controlled instead of going like right across the street and trying to look both ways. It's the speeds and everything around that traffic circle are all slowed down.

The biggest challenge to the people that live off of there is lack of sidewalks neighborhoods to get there, right? And I know we've had discussions with our friends in Indian Trail that didn't go too well outside of our subdivision because when they built the subdivision, they only had to go so far. And you've got that uh senior community right across from Harris ter at Chester and Potter. And you've got about and that sidewalk went pretty far. You've got about a 200 yard gap of no sidewalk. And to walk out of a really inepth discussion about sidewalks here that was the subcommittee and to walk and walk walk out of the back end of our subdivision. Yeah.

You can't you have to walk in the road to get on the sidewalk on the other side. That's right. And so Brad Brad Richardson lives here as well and we had a lot of discussions about how to get folks over here and safely. Yeah. Because NC DOT said they don't do sidewalks because I called them and and when I talked to the Indian Trail people, they basically had to say they said that we have to go across some of the guys property. We have to go across a creek. It's going to cost 150 grand and we don't have the the funds for it. We're just going to run it along the whole perimeter. Okay. Yeah, there's going to be some gaps as you head east towards is Austin Village. I mean, the whole goal is to have connection in there, but yeah. Yeah, it's just may not happen.

When the parcel develops across the street is when it's all really going to come together. That two acre just south of Mario's and then you know what I'm talking about. Oh, just north. You mean up here? Oh, shoot. So, just north of Just north up here. Yeah. When that side then tie it all together. But that side's tough, too. It's got a lot of topography. It does. But we're providing every opportunity to connect. We want it to connect. But like your to your point, it has to be done safely because there's there's nowhere to walk on Chester right at that main entrance might not be the best because speeds are going to start picking up slow and my concern would be as they're coming around and I go around that circle all the time. Yeah.

And people come flying around from the other side and come zipping around that corner. That's I think they just brought it down to 35 if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, it doesn't stop people. I was going to say there's no county sheriff sitting out. Fines don't slow people down. I live on Providence Road in Proidence Country Club. You want to talk about a nightmare? Yeah. I'm not walking out on Proidence Road. So there's no requirement for a light at that entrance then. Okay.

Yeah. So, but as proposed, I mean, now that you bring it up, it's a good point. This would be a ride in and right out only. And then this would be the goal. The goal is to try to put um how we doing this. Oh, yeah. Kevin asked us to put left turn lane from both angles, didn't he? Yeah, I think we have that. Yeah, I think we had some unconditional nodes. So, getting out of here,

um I know the cottage mill is doing some improvements as well as part of their TIA. What we've also committed to is that we're going to work with staff when we when we know exactly who those tenants are going in and we can run that trip gen table with the traffic consultants. If it ever trips over the 10,000, we'll do a full-blown traffic study that scoping area and everything else that goes along with it. Right now, I don't think it's going to trip, but it may right in the future if there's more intense use. to monitor who's going in there and once it trips a certain number. If it does trip a number, then we'll have to do a traffic stud. We also had a note here that was a little energy uh in the subcommittee meeting was committing to the materials on the building. Sometimes you get nice rendering and you end up with something that might not be as nice. put notes in there that are basically saying using these like kind materials. So it's really creating that gateway concept, right? We're respecting that that's important for this part.

I think it adds to the story quite honestly. Okay. Uh so anyway, this is the last slide. Anyway, so just development summary or another reason of why we believe this proposal um works. So, meeting demand for professional services, activating the corner gateway, which we talked about, the frontage component, the linkages, the greenway, a lot of a lot of good pedestrian connectivity in this corridor as a result of all these developments, including this one. And we believe ultimately incre improves walkability, safety, and connectivity. It's kind of where we're at.

Any other questions? You have one subcommittee or two? I forget. Oh, just one on this one. I've had so many stallings. Now,

any glaring concerns and we'll make a motion to move forward. I make a motion to uh recommend approval of the request as presented and um approval of the request with any kind of recommendations that were made here. I second. All those in favor? I

I post that right here. All right. Um I always forget to memorize. Yeah. And then statement of consistency and reasonableness. I'll pull up the vote right here so you can say if it's consistent or inconsistent or reasonable, not reasonable. Make a motion to recommend approval of CZ2. Just use the you can start at step two. You already did step one. Uh cons. Can we zoom in? Proposal is consistent and uh reasonable with the comprehensive land use plan. There's a motion to approve the constant that way. Make a motion to approve.

I'll second. All those in favor? I. Anyone opposed? Sorry, I couldn't say that. No, you just control the me. Yeah, control the meeting. You're good. Um, uh, item number nine, which is a text amendment TX26.01.01 indoor amusement. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome, guys. Have a good night. Thank you.

Only three more hours to go, guys. Promise you my presentation is very short. I said 9:00. It's 5 off. All right. So, hello planning board. Um, for those of you that don't know me, my name is Katie King and I'm the senior planning technician for Sings. Um, tonight I've got a text amendment uh TX260101 for indoor amusement. Um, the applicant is proposing an addition to article 8 of the table of uses to permit the use of an escape room and other similar uses. I'm sorry, what a what? Escape room. Escape room. Escape room. Yes. Yeah.

Um,

where is it? I'm going to go to it. Um they're also proposing a corresponding definition with this new use in the table of uses in article 3. Um so the name of this new use would be called amusement/entertainment indoor. Uh this would be a listed use in the mixeduse 2 zoning district and staff is also requesting to add it as a listed use in the C74 zoning district um which is the commercial corridor along US74. Um this use would be entirely indoors um as it says in the definition and it's mainly for entertainment purposes like enjoyment any type of I don't fun businesses basically. Um possible businesses that this would allow would be escape rooms, indoor mini golf, um like interactive game show centers and other similar uses. and it lists things that are prohibited like that don't aren't included in this use which would be like movie theaters, nightclubs, bars, all of those are previously defined in our table of uses and would not be included as a listed use for this one. Um and staff does recommend approval of TX260101 uh to expand the permitted commercial uses in a way that is consistent with the uses in both the mixeduse 2 zoning district and C74. It also supports the town's long-term economic economic development goals. Um and all right, that's all I have for that. Um, do y'all have any questions?

Where is this at? Where's this located? So, this would be permitted in all mixed use two zoning districts. Okay. Um, and C74. Okay. And I've also got the applicant here if y'all have any questions for them. My only question was this expanded definition wouldn't include gambling. Right. Correct. That is um already defined in our ordinance and has special standards that go along with it. Okay. if you want something like that um included in the prohibited uses of this. I think that would be helpful. Yes, definitely.

Any other questions for me or the applicant? Well, the applicant can tell us a little bit more about what he's planning. Sure. Do I need a microphone? My name is Yuri Braden. I currently um we currently operate we're in Indian Trail. We're called Masterpiece Escapes and we're just moving and so uh the Do you have the We're moving like right across 74 from the hospital? Those buildings that are right down there. One of those buildings is going to give us twice as much space to create more games. And um like I said, we already Do you have any questions about like specifically what an escape room is or

No. What do you What have you been doing in Indian Trail? We we've been there for 10 years operating escape room and uh is that is that like a corporate outing type of thing? No, small business just me and my partner. No, do do you have like businesses?

So, primarily like our most of our business is families and people just out doing something. Um corporate business is about is a leg of the business. For us, it's about 15 20% of people doing corporate outings. Hey, we want to take our team out for team building. if you guys want to all come play one together to get to, you know what I mean? That type of stuff. Um, and then we um a significant part of our business is is uh is out of town people that uh it's hard to say this without sounding kind of egotistical, but like we're one of the better places in the state, if not the country actually. I mean, just this year, we've had people from this year, like January, February, from Norway, from Finland, from England, from New York, from Philadelphia, Connecticut, Michigan. I try to keep track of all the outdoor people from miss from uh Arizona, California, Florida. We get people regularly for the drive up from Atlanta, from the from the tri area because like we we've won several awards and actually in other places open up in Charlotte that's really good. So we've sort of become this destination in Charlotte where people come here and they can hit two or three locations that are really highly rated and so a good chunk of our business is actually significant out of town people and we pull the whole Charlotte area as well. We routinely people every week. We get people from Gastonia, Rock Hill, Lake Norman. That whole is in addition to just Charlotte proper. Most of our business, I mean 30% or 40% is Union County, Matthews, Menhill, Indian Trail, Stallings, Weddington, Waxaw, that whole area. But, uh, a significant chunk does come from out of town.

So, the escape room is basically you're in a room and you have to figure out how to get out of it. So the the the best way I describe it is the the term escape room is bad and outdated almost that we try to prefer to describe it as an interactive adventure. When the whole concept first started, it was lock you in an office room, give you some puzzles, you got to find the key to get out. Now it's much more themed. So think of it as like a story. And so one of ours, you're in an old west saloon and you're trying to find a map to some longlost gold. And so you go in there, it looks like you're in an old west saloon. And you have to finish the story. And the way you advance the story is finding clues and solving puzzles. Okay.

And so it's prim it is at its core sort of puzzle solving and adventure, but it's more just an interactive movie. You feel like you're interactive entertainment that when it very first started, it was about time pressure and puzzles. And now it's much more about just the experience about just like, hey, I get to go be somewhere else for an hour. One of our games, you're trying to save the city from Dr. Devastation, our evil genius. you know, I mean, it's kind of goofy and plays on the evil genius motifs, but uh yeah, it's just an interactive a scavenger hunt strategy game basically. Yeah. Highly themed. Okay. Hopefully very immersive. So, they come all the way from Europe to just to play the game in your room.

Well, I mean, like I said, that they're coming to Charlotte specifically because like it's it's just so happened that like this area is sort of got several really good games altogether. There's us, there's one place in Charlotte, there's a place in Hickory, and then there's another really good one down in Greenville, South Carolina. And so people come in and make like a two-day trip out of it. Wow. And so, and we've managed to to maintain that that level of quality, and it's been it's been really cool to see that people are like, "No, no, we're from wherever." Like, so you're moving out of Indian Shield because of space. Uh it two thing. one like that that uh are the some new people took over our building and they're basically doubling our rent which made us start looking. Okay.

And then once we started looking we end up finding a situation that's like wow this is good for everybody. We can get thrown out Indian trail. We could stay there if we wanted to but for the same the same rent they're wanting to charge us. We can rent a building with double the space. Okay. And so it's like we never would have started looking, but I'm it's one of those, oh wow, this is the best thing that ever happened to us because now we're going to be able to for the same rent they're wanting to charge us so we can have twice as many games. Okay, that's cool. And so yeah, it's always one of those like the day that the day that we found that out, we were like I was like, you know, these often times work out to be really good things. So it's like we're excited about it. Okay, thank you. Thank you.

Any other questions? And um that's a good like he did good at explaining you know what the business is and what he wants to do with it. But you do have to consider that this is applied to all mixed use to NC74 right zoning district locations. Okay. You guys have any more questions? Yeah. You supply refreshments or do they bring it in? The refreshments isn't really part of it. Uh so you control what they bring in that people usually don't like well usually don't but you know you can't serve alcohol so they can bring in alcohol

they don't I mean like we don't allow it pretty much like okay some places we don't currently some places do serve beer and wine but like inebriation and destruction go hand in hand so they break our people that come in drunk break our stuff well you can't serve alcohol anyway here, which is why we don't we don't have late bookings because of that. Okay. Okay. But we can't control that as part of the Okay. Yeah. It's like it's an hourlong experience. So there's usually not like Okay. Refreshment isn't part of it. Part of the But I need the motion.

Anybody want to make a motion to approve? Okay. I make the motion to uh approve the uh text amendment TX260101 indoor amusement uh change as stated uh approval of uh the request as presented. Second. All those in favor? I I. Anyone opposed? We can do the statement substit um recommends that the proposed amendment is consistent and reasonable with the comprehensive land use plan adopted on November 17, 2017.

You want a second? All those in favor? I I want to make a motion to adjurnn. Make the motion. Motion. All right. I think I have a second. Second. Second. All right. Yes. I told my wife when I looked at the agenda, I told her 9:00 9 minutes off. Is that