Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

United States of America to the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Call the meeting to order. So, first on the docket here, we have to approve the agenda. Can I get someone to make a motion to approve the agenda? Make a motion to approve the agenda. I'll second it. All those in favor? I I um

it's raining. Yeah. Usually there's minutes on here. Uh, planning board training. What does this have, Katie? Yep. The minutes probably in the next meeting. There was a lot of minutes in the last one. Yes,

they're still writing. Ink's wet. Okay. Hello, planning board. Um, for those of you who I haven't met or spoken to much yet, my name is Katie and I am the senior planning technician with Stallings. Um, and I know Max briefly went over a little bit of training at the beginning of our last meeting. Um, but we're going to go a little bit more in depth today about the responsibilities and our adopted plans. Um, especially since we have several new members and just as a refresher for everybody else. All right. So, planning board is a statemandated recommendation board that hears all zoning amendments before they're brought to council. Um, however, if a case is unable to be heard by planning board within 30 business or 30 days from the submittal date, it can go directly to council. Um, this was the case on a reasonzoning we had recently because we were unable to meet quorum for three months in a row. Um, so it went straight to council without a recommendation from planning board. Um, we must have a quorum in order to hold a planning board meeting. This is four or more members and if we do not have four or more members, you cannot vote and so there's no point in having the meeting. Um, that's why we always ask you to respond to that email that we send out every week. Um, just to make sure or every the week before our meeting just to make sure that we will have enough members for that meeting. Um, and all of the general information about planning board is comes from our planning board's rules of procedure. Um, I can show you where to find that on the website. Um, it's something that all members should um, read and just kind of

be familiar with. Um, and those the rules of procedure can also be amended by planning board. Um, so if you have any questions about those later on when you read them, just let me know. Um, and I'll show you where to find that in a minute. But, uh, complete planning board is made up of seven full members and two alternates. Um, right now we have all seven members and our two alternate seats are vacant. Um, if all seven full members are present, then the alternates can still participate in the discussion, but they won't vote. If any of the full members are absent, then the alternates can kind of fill the place of the full members. Um, and we currently hold a vote for chair and vice chair in January. Um, we're hoping to amend this for next year and do the vote in April since all of our members terms end um on different years, but they all end in March. So it just makes more sense to hold that vote in April once any members have left. Um these positions are elected by majority vote from the other planning board members and the chair also does not normally vote. Um they can only vote in instance of a tie between six other planning board members and if there are only four total members present for the meeting. Um, planning board also serves as the board of adjustments. Um, I'm not going to go over the training for that tonight. Uh, we'll wait until we have a board of adjustments meeting. And the board of adjustments here's quasi judicial cases which kind of run more similarly to a court case whereas the planning board hears legislative cases that we can discuss freely without as many rules.

Okay. And then if you think you have a conflict of interest with any of the zoning cases that are being heard by the board, um you can request to be excused from voting. And a conflict of interest is when the decision will have a financial impact upon you. And if you also have any relation to the applicant, whether it be personal, family, business, um you should also make that known before the case is heard. and the board will then vote to excuse you from voting, but you can still participate in the discussion prior to the vote. And some factors to consider while you're making your decision on any zoning case is um things like our adopted plans, the zoning ordinance, and concerns from the public. And I'm going to go a little deeper on our adopted plans later in the presentation. The first type of zoning cases that you'll hear are text amendments. We actually have four of those tonight. Um, but these are mostly drafted by staff um at the request of council or the public, but they can also be applied for by residents. And a text amendment alters the adopted development ordinance which applies to the entire town. So you must take that into consideration when hearing those cases and not just what the applicant is wishing to use the text amendment for. Another type of zoning case are general resonings. Um these are also referred to as conventional resonings and straight resonings. This is where an applicant can request a change from one zoning district to another and no site plan is required during this but the applicant can present one. If the resoning is approved, all the uses in that new district uh will be allowed on the property and you may ask the applicant what they plan to do with

the land, but you must consider all possible uses when making that decision because they do not have to follow a specific site plan. You can also not place any conditions on that approval. It's either yes or no. One thing is that you can't use their site plan as part of your recommendation as well, even if they submit it as part of the general resoning. Just wanted to make sure.

Um, and another one is uh conditional zonings. This is similar to a general resoning, but it does have a site plan attached to it, and it has special conditions that can be attached to it. Um, conditional zoning request includes a list of conditions. They've also been referred to as exceptions from our development ordinance. And these conditions can be as simple as requesting a certain use like town homes um which our ordinance requires a conditional zoning for to other things like enhanced buffers, modified density standards etc. Um and then the conditions placed on the approval must be reasonable and relate to the impacts of the development. For example, conditions can request the applicant to comply with the development ordinance, align with our adopted plans, or miticate impacts of traffic to the surrounding neighborhoods. And these conditions are voluntary and have to be agreed to by the applicant before it's approved. And then planning board and or board of adjustments will also see other cases like development agreements or variances, but we'll go over the training for those separately because those are more rare and they happen much less frequently than the other three. Um a zoning statement is required for council and planning board also makes a zoning statement just to stay consistent with council and it is called a statement of consistency and reasonleness. You can make this statement following the approval or in the same sentence of the approval. And a case does not have to be both consistent and reasonable in order to be approved. Um, for example, a reasonzoning to develop a

commercial property could be inconsistent with the comprehensive land use plan because it shows residential town homes on the property, but it could still be reasonable because there's already a lot of high density residential in the area and there's no commercial in that area. And so the commercial would help the growth of that area, right? And then so our comprehensive land use plan is also referred to as a future land use plan. Um this is a long range planning tool that is meant to guide how a community grows and develops over time. Ours was adopted in 2017 and sets a vision for the town for the next 25 years. Um I've also included an image of our future land use map that's included in that comprehensive land use plan. Um, this shows what the land use is predicted to be in the future for each parcel in the town. During a reasonzoning or conditional zoning request, you'll use this map to find future land use and then determine if the proposed zoning request aligns with that. Um, with each land use category also has a page in our comprehensive land use plan that describes it. Um, this is just one example for walkable activity center. This is probably our most requested future land use for reszonings and conditional zonings. Um, it shows the intent of the category as well as the land use and development patterns and staff uses this to determine if the resoning or conditional zoning um fits with our comprehensive land use plan. Uh, another adopted plan is our small area plans. We have six in the town and

they illustrate what those areas are predicted to look like in 50 years. Um, I've picked a few examples from ours. Uh, on the right is the ID Wild Road corridor small area plan. Uh, this shows what the future use for each parcel within that area is just like the comprehensive land use plan. And it also shows kind of a more detailed map of the full buildout to the extent that the plan calls for. And on the left is our Silverline small area plan, which several of you probably saw when we adopted this last year. Um, and then on our website, um, under It's under Yeah. doing business. Um I guess I'll go through your government under planning and zoning. We have a page called plans and policies. And this lists out all of our planning documents um like our comprehensive land use plan is here. Small area plans as well as our streetscape design plan and the greenway master plan. All of those are important um that staff uses in their decision to recommend or not recommend whenever they bring something to council or to planning board. Um and all of those are available online, but if you'd like paper copies of anything, you're welcome to ask for those and we can get those printed off for you. Um if you want any extra training or if you have any questions about any of those plans as well, we can always set up a meeting to go over those. Um, and then under planning board and board of adjustments, that is where the rules of procedure are linked there if you'd like to look over

that as well. Um, but that's all I have for you. Do you'all have any questions? Um, sorry. Go ahead. Just one quick question. the 25-year plan. I saw that there was something that was initiated 17, but it was amended last year. Does that mean when the change the environment changes, conditions change, you can go in and do the amendments as needed? Correct. Is that a firm hard? I'll answer it for this one. Okay.

So, uh, comprehensive plans by state statute are required to be kept up to date and reasonably up to date around 10 years. We did a very small amendment last year. We got a grant for a silver line amendment. Uh and we adopted a new small area plan as well with that. But you can see uh we got the grant before any word about like the red line was done, right? Um and we were in the middle of the study process. So that's the only amendment that we did for it is just to incorporate that silver line into our comprehensive planning plan. um our comprehensive lady's plan um will likely still need an update um soon. Okay.

So hopefully that answers your question. Okay. Yeah. I was just curious if you could do that you could amend it over the time. It's not a hard and fast we got to stick with this for now. Yes. We we we plan on but conditions change years. We're gonna probably end up bringing recommend a request to recommend a new conference plan. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Is that following a schedule? Like is there a No, no, but the longer it gets is the more it could be challenged by uh future projects. And you said the small area plans every 25 years.

That's whenever council or the public or you guys recommend that needs to be amended, but it's what it will look like in 50 years. I think it's 50 years. Yes. Okay, sorry. Lies plan 25 for ours. You can do longer and then our smaller plans did 50, but you could choose a specific date when you adopt them when about the vision and that was a state statute to do the 25 or is that the what we do here? We decided when we adopted their comprehensive plan.

Okay. You want to keep them as far out in the future because you mean uh they still have to be reasonably up to date every 10 years around that. It says reasonably up to date and that's 10 years is around that. Okay. Recommended time. Okay. Any other questions about that?

All right. background music. Thanks, Katie. Thank you. Updates. Hello, planning board. Hello, Bridge.

Hi, For those who don't know me, my name is Bridge. I'm a GIS planning tech. I'm just gonna pull this up. I'm here to present text amendment TX260103 for an update to our fence ordinance. This amendment aims to improve clarity, consistency, and the enforcability of the fence regulations that we currently have outlined in article 2.13-2. Obviously, today is our planning board meeting and this will hopefully go to town council on April 27th. Just some background for this text amendment. It's being proposed because we've seen an increase in fence permit applications just in this past year, particularly an increase on corner lot applications. The standards that we currently have for these lots that have side streets, um they've been difficult to interpret consistently. Right now I actually have around five to six applications for fences that are currently on hold for this text amendment um that they all requested six feet in height on the side which is more than we currently allow. So here we have the exact text amendment. Um just for reference it's not stated here but a 22.13-2A is not changing. It just states that permits are required to build a fence. We're adding in letter B to clarify fence appearance and material regulations. For example, chain link fencing, vinyl coated chain link fencing, and similar appearance or construction of these are not permitted. For letter C and D here, it clarifies height regulations for fences located in front yards. We're also adding a figure here that further clarifies the fence location and height. So if you look here, anything in front of this red line cannot exceed 5 ft.

Letter F includes a change to allow fences in side yards abuing a street. So a sideyard that's against a street to be a maximum of 6 ft. This is a change from our previous ordinance that only allowed these fences to be 5t in height. We're also again adding a figure here that should be able to clarify these regulations again in front of that line not to exide exceed 5 ft and on this side of the side of this red line not to exceed 6 ft. This is just an example of what it could look like on a corner lot where it steps up from that five feet in front and steps up to six feet on the side. Just a look of what it could look like. Staff does recommend approval of TX260103 as it clarifies existing fence standards within the ordinance while also improving clarity and consistency with new figures. These changes will also align in common practice with surrounding municipalities and your consistency and reasonleness that I will show. Any questions? Is there specific reason why it's not all six feet or all five feet? I'm just curious.

So, so um we don't want to create too many inconsistencies with what is already built. So, our current ordinance does state that everything in front can only be 5 ft. And because we haven't had a lot of applications that want to go above that in front, but we have had applications that want to go to six feet on the side. I see. So, we just don't want to create too many inconsistencies with what's already built. Okay. Um, if a neighborhood challenges that, are they allowed to challenge it and increase it or does it stay with what the town is?

So, it's whatever strictest. So, if the HOA, say the HOA wants to allow 8T on the side, ours would supersede that because it's stricter. If an HOA only wanted to allow five feet, that would be what would be allowed. So any town ordinance would override an HOA in most cases. I mean of any any ordinances that are in the town that the HOA has different, the town ordinance would override it. If it's if it's stricter. If it's stricter. Okay.

Yes. Yes. So it doesn't matter if it if the fence is in from the back of the house out to the side. So the rear yard and sideyards that are not ab budding a street, those are not changing. They are staying within our current ordinance. Those are up to 8 ft I believe. Okay. What about if you had a side Mhm. street and somebody wanted a fence from the back of the structure out to their line and back up with that. So, anything that is from the parallel line here. Yeah, that would

anything here cannot exceed 6 ft. Or actually, no, I I'm wrong. I apologize. Anything along this back line can be up to 8 ft. Anything here, anything that's abuing the street, so parallel to the street, can only be six feet. So if it's going this way, yeah, then it can be up from the back of the or the back of the building. What if it came from the back of the building and went out to the property line up beside a street and then back? So here would allowed would be allowed to be six feet and then six feet back. Yep. Okay. 5T is anything 8 ft. You can go 8 ft to the street on the side for this back portion, right?

That's uh that is abuing another parcel. Okay, that's what I thought it was saying. But from the front forward, it's five only. Yes. So, anything in front of a parallel line to the front of that house or structure that's not changing and that Yeah, that's staying the way it is currently in the ordinance. Okay. Any other questions? No.

Are they Do you work with the HOAs to make sure that they are pushing these out to the It's Yeah, it's the property owner's responsibility to put in fair fence permits. So, we just regulate what our ordinance says. If the HOA says it has to be shorter or a different material that is stricter, then that's up to depending depending what John and I have learned on the HOAs that are a lot are like 20 plus years old. Um, a lot of not sure the ordinances were in effect 20 years ago that are now. So, they overrode basically anything that was the town ordinance

at the time because it didn't exist potentially. And the town enforces the stricter or just the town only enforces the the town ordinance. The town only enforces the town ordinance. So, and if they I mean if you apply for a fence that's a budding aside street and it's 4 feet that's allowed. You know, if it's stricter for your HOA, you just apply based on what their rules are. Okay, cool. So, does everybody have to apply to the town or do they apply to their HOA? Even if you have um a separate application through your HOA, you still have to get a permit through the town. Interesting. Many fences out there haven't been applied for.

Yeah, let's say code enforcement. I think that would be news to some HOAs. I mean, code enforcement does that's why I asked. Code enforcement does um regularly uh send out uh courtesy letters to people already constructing fences to apply for offenses. But most of those are from neighbor complaints. Correct. They they don't we don't have the bodies to do that on a regular basis. Well, it depends. Some are neighbor complaints and others are based on Matt uh doing his rounds around town and Okay. Seeing them. Are you volunteering for a shift? No problem. I spent a year in HOA. I know exactly what goes on.

All right. Would anyone like to make a motion to approve? I'll make a motion that we approve this text amendment TX26 01.03. Second. All those in favor? I I unanimous. And then a statement of consistency and reasonable beliefs as well. I find that it it is reasonable and consistent with our town comprehensive. Perfect. Second. Second. All those in favor? I.

Thank you. Okay. Okay, I'm also here for the next text amendment which is TX26012 which is an addendum and amendment to our streetscape standards. This text amendment is proposed to update the staff and board recommended design standards within the stalling streetscape plan to simplify options, improve clarity, and create a more cohesive town center. It also revises the fee and loo structure to ensure adequate funding where necessary. Some background for this text amendment is with some of our recent conditional zoning applications we've seen within the town center, we have highlighted some challenges with our current streetscape standards, especially where required widths were not always practical for typical sites that we have located in our town center. In addition, the fee and lose structure is not based on actual consistent or construction costs and may not s oh my gosh sorry and may not generate sufficient funding. Staff determined that an amendment is needed to improve just long-term imple implementation of streetscape standards. The first part of this text amendment is for the fee and loo. So, article 21.3 states that all developments requiring a major site plan review must abide by the recreation and greenway master plan and the stalling streetscape design standards and details plan. It also states where improvements identified by these plans are not feasible or practical as determined by staff. The fee and loo structure will be according to the following A, B, C, and D. A states where there will be a required easement and or rideway to be dedicated to the town based on the

identified streetscape or trail type. B states that the developer will be required to prepare and submit a detailed cost estimate. C states that the fee and loo amount will be equal to that cost estimate plus a 20% contingency. And lastly, D states that any fee and loo collected for streetscape or greenway improvements must be used solely for those improvements. In article 21.4, we add in just 21.4-5. This just reiterates that where improvements for streetscape are not feasible as determined by staff, the fee and loo structure will be followed as previous. Is there any questions on the fee and loo before I move on to design standards?

The cost estimate is generated by that developer. It is generated by the developer um and it is reviewed by the town engineer or his designate. So they can uh ask questions on it or change it where needed. And any of these changes, do they apply to people that are currently like under application? Like people that we've heard come in recently that are currently under construction or just the So this would this would this would be for anybody who would apply after this is approved. Okay. So everything that's already been approved is under the old.

Yes. And they have um the current one that's been approved and the one that is going through approval, their widths are similar to the ones that we're proposing tonight. So it's not too inconsistent with the changes. And how was the 20% contingency come about? That number?

Uh that was uh recommended by our town engineer Kevin Parker. Okay. Any other questions before I move on? Okay, so this is just an overview. I'll go more into depth in the next few slides, but we had three main sections. The greenway section, typical section, and the narrow section. For all three of these, we removed the four current subtypes and we added in three new main types which were against a building, not against a building, and the landscape form. Again, I'll go through those in a few minutes. These are just some examples of some surrounding municipalities. This is Raya Farms in Charlotte. A 26 ft pathway. In downtown Matthews, a around a 10 foot pedestrian walkway with a around sixoot landscape strip in again downtown Matthews around a 9 foot pedestrian walkway. This is in downtown Waxaw. 11t pedestrian walkway. Another 12 foot additional sidewalk to the curb. So staff does recommend approval of TX260102 as it updates the streetscape design standards and establishes a new fee and loo structure for these improvements. Based on staff research, this amendment brings our plans more in line with what the character of the streets of the streetscape in town center should be and helps it become more in line with surrounding municipalities as well. Before a motion, I would like to go through the exact addendum that will be put in the um plan. It's also printed in front of you for your reference. Our first page is a map. This just shows where each of those corridors are located. So the green you'll see um is the greenway corridor. The purple is the

typical corridor and the orange is the narrow corridor. The orange, we only have one of these right now, but they could be added in later based on adding in streets for bigger developments within Town Center. Um, these locations are also referenced in our greenway master plan, which is how we came up with uh where these corridors are located. Again, this is an overview of the greenway, typical and narrow um corridors. Here you'll see the greenway corridor. The main multi-use path is 10 to 14 ft. For the greenway against a building, it adds in an additional pedestrian zone against the building. For the greenway not against a building, it takes away that pedestrian zone. And then for the landscape form, we add in a three- foot wide landscape strip on top of the concrete strip or beside the concrete strip, sorry. For the typical corridor, the multi-use path is 8 to 10 ft with an additional pedestrian zone for the against a building subtype. For not against a building, again, it takes away that additional pedestrian zone. And for the landscape form, we're adding again a three- foot wide landscape strip to go aside the stamped concrete. And lastly, we have the narrow corridor. The main multi-use path will be 6 to 8 ft with again a building. An additional pedestrian zone. Narrow not against a building takes away that additional pedestrian zone. And the landscape form adds in a twoft wide uh landscape strip on top of the stamped concrete. And that

does anyone have any questions? I know that is a lot of information.

You did an excellent job. Thank you. Makes it easier.

Yeah. Any other questions? All right. Can I get a motion to approve? I make the motion to recommend approval of the request as presented of TX26.01.02 streetscape pendum. Uh and the planning board recommends approving the proposed text amendment, finding it consistent and reasonable with the comprehensive land use plans goals of promoting quality development and adhering to state regulations NCGS160D based on the following reasons. Improve clarity, consistency, and feasibility in design standards for the stalling street design standards and details plan. Ensure designs that remain consistent with the character of the town center district and create and improve the fee and loop structure when design standards are unable to be met. I'll second. Yeah,

we'll second. All those in favor? I I unanimous. Thank you. Thank you.

Excuse me. Do you want to announce it or do you I can announce it if you like. Uh next is tax amendment TX26.02.01 resubmitt waiting period.

Thank you. Um good job bridge and Katie. I just want to thank you for your research on that. Um so this is like you said TX260201 for the resubmitt waiting period. though this is an amendment to our article or section 5.3-4 our race submittal waiting period for subsequent applications. Um we currently have a 4month waiting period for reasonzoning petitions. Um under 160D session law 20594 house bill 926 section 11 eliminated local authority for waiting periods. So, our current ordinance is inconsistent with state law. Um, state law no longer mandates waiting periods. So, we do have to remove that from our ordinance. And even if it wasn't removed, an applicant would not have to wait for any resubmitts at all. Um, so we original language, like I said, was 4 months between applications. Now, our new ordinance is going to read, "Alications for zoning map amendments, including reapplications for the same property, shall be processed in accordance with chapter 160D of the North Carolina General Statutes. No mandatory waiting period shall apply unless expressly authorized by state law. Uh, for administrative record keeping purposes, an applicant shall identify any material changes from a prior reszoning or prior zoning map amendment request involving the same property. So, we would request if there's any changes at all. If there not any changes, they would just state so. Um, and each application shall be processed in accordance with our procedure set forth in the ordinance. So, meaning they have to submit an application and payment, a reapplication and repayment. Staff recommends approval of TX260201 uh because it meets compliance with our state statutes. Um, any questions on this? So the current standard is a fourmonth

waiting period and now we're going to go to a zero month waiting period. Correct. Uh it was adopted by law under in North Carolina. That's for the waiting periods for what? For any reasonzoning applications, text amendment applications, variances. Um so in other words, they before they had to wait four months once they put the resoning request in or once it's denied or withdrawn the reapplication. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So, um, they could deply the next day. Wow. So, as long as they're willing to pay the fee. Correct. Yes. And Yeah. And risk it again, right?

I would say uh very risky to just apply the next day with a with a denied application, but they are able to go through a process again with But we with this ordinance, we're requesting them to submit like a list of changes if they changed any of the Did the state give us any reason why they changed that? Um, yes. Um, but I did not record that in our in the memo. Um, I I did talk to our land use attorney in detail, but I I don't have any specifics on that right now. Okay. Okay. Is there any concern in and this is all side conversation, but concern within the staff of this becoming an issue for

Yes. Uh, but I don't know if there's anything we can do. Um we like uham for example we have received a in influx of especially conditional zonings in the last two years more than we've ever received before. Um it takes up a lot of staff time and um it's going to if it probably will continue to do so. And this was from the state legislature. Yes. Correct. Um so even if you if this text was denied it didn't wouldn't matter. they would the state law would supersede this also we don't have to do either technically but uh for consistency I think um it was recommended to make the amendment

okay any other questions comments no concerns only concern is the staff will have enough time to do it just need more staff I guess the benefit is that you collect more fees so you're able to hire the state did the state say they're going to give us more staff funding. Is that No, I don't have a face. I know. I I don't remember that one specifically exactly. Mr. I feel like I would remember that one though. Um Okay. Currently re So just currently a reapplication would still go to the back of the queue of whatever's on staff's

Yes. Correct. So any it would start the entire process over. So for example, anything going through the queue right now, if it were to be denied and they apply the next day, they would still have to follow that probably likely four to six month minimum time frame. They usually take longer now. Okay. Is there a law requiring a certain a review within a certain amount of time of the application? There is some laws floating around that way, but it has not uh there is no requirement. Okay. But it has to be within reasonable time frame. Okay. So we can't hold them on in for years or anything like that. not even reasonable, right? Everything's reasonable and that could be challenged, but we don't, you know, some there are some specifics. Um, but that one's not clear yet, I don't think.

Cool. So, would like to make a motion to approve? Yeah, I make a motion that we approve um the text amendment TX26.02.01 1 resubmittal waiting period and find that it is reasonable and consistent with our comprehensive plan use plan and North Carolina state law. Yep. Second. All those in favor? I

I unanimous. Uh next we have text amendment TX26.02.02 reszoning and annexation current concurrency. Okay, so this is another one of those clarifying text amendments. Technically, we could probably do it without any amendment to the ordinance, but this is just for clarifi clarification. Um, recently we had an annexation and uh reszoning and under state statute, you if someone has an application, they're required to be able to present their case. So, um, but if you deny their annexation, it technically can't be adopted anyways. So there was some confusing clarification uh processes going on there. So this is hopefully going to fix that. Um so this when an application or uh involves a property that's also up for annexation, the council may hold a public hearing for both the annexation and the conditional zoning at the same time. So for example um and they can technically do this by state statute regardless but um it would have two separate agenda items annexation then a conditional zoning but then we could present the annexation and conditional zoning at the same time under that um under this new uh amendment. Yes.

This commercial only not residential or this is for anything. Okay.

Yeah. Um so we couldn't really uh differentiate between commercial residential and the processes. Um but so example 5.3-3 review by Stallings Town Council D is staying the same which means that the council shall hold a public hearing on a conditional zoning and do the notices per state statute. Um but I also added just one more number. So when a zoning map amendment involves a property uh proposed for annexation, the town council may conduct the public hearings for the annexation and the zoning map amendment at the same meeting and may take actions action on both matters concurrently. So meaning uh just just for example, they could vote to annex and approve a conditional zoning or deanex and approve deny or they'd have to deny the conditional zoning if they didn't annex it. But um they can say that all in one sentence. Um any approval of the zoning map amendment shall be contingent upon the adoption and effective date of the annexation ordinance and shall have the same effect of date at the as the annexation in accordance with our state statutes.

We had five houses in Kenwood back in09 that are in Meckllinmberg County. Okay. At the end of my street actually that request annexation and they go nowhere. Meck just didn't want to give up those five properties. Yeah. Um, yeah, annexation's really up to they want to get in Union County where everybody else is in our subdivision pretty much, you know, for lower taxes. They wouldn't give it up. Yeah. And it's up to our board if they want to annex a property ultimately. Um, so they could annex and then not approve a reasonzoning or something like that. Um, and they can say that concurrently under this text amendment or they could vote to annex, approve or deny or de not annex and then deny it concurrently. No,

those are really the only three options. But currently the way that it's written um it could still be seen both at the same meeting or no? Yes, currently it could. Um but it's not clear. So the new text will just make that clear that it is a possibility to do both or defer one to another meeting. Yeah, they could still defer it. They could defer both decisions concurrently. Um, so right now under we have an agenda item for just annexation. Then they have to make their decision then and then they'd have another agenda item for the decision on the resoning. But if the reasonzoning the annexation was denied,

then there's really no point to hear the resoning, but the state statute says you shall hear that application. So it's a little bit uh confusing on that part. So, we just want to make sure that's concurrency is a little bit uh best practice probably for for that reason. But there's nothing currently or in this text that is going to make it where both are heard regardless like they have to be heard in the same meeting.

No, they just have to meet the public hearing and state statute requirements, but they could defer it. The council could definitely defer it. Okay. I guess my only concern is that you know you start to compress things and you don't give public who have other jobs and obligations time to organize or time to to form an argument where uh it seems as though that's not really written into there anyway and it will not be into the into the new text. is a clarification on the ordinance.

Yeah, it's just purely clarification. Doesn't change any processes real really. Um I would say they would probably have to defer it concurrently then, right? But again, it's going along with the the North Carolina statute statute allows us to do that anyways. Okay. But this just allows us in for clarification. So given his concern, the only way to make that change would be at the at the state level to do that, right? Um well, no, there could be additional timeline requirements in the ordinance, but they still would have to meet state statute. So um we just hadn't written research that for this text amendment. Okay.

Any other questions or comments? No. So we'll make a motion to approve. I mo make a motion to approve the zoning amendment TX26.02.02. Um the that the town council may hold public meetings for both annexation and conditional zoning. Same meeting may take action on both matters concurrently consistent with NC general statutes uh 160D-204. Anyone want a second? Second. All those in favor? I

I do a statement now. Um it's consistent with the uh find it uh approving the proposed text amendment finding it consistent with and reasonable with the comprehensive land use plans goals of promoting quality development and adhering to state regulations. NCGS 160D based A second. All those in favor? I I It's unanimous. Uh, next is adjournment. I move that we adjourn. Second. Second. All those in favor? I'll take that as unanimous.

Thank you. Very good.