Town Council - Regular Meeting

We're specifically asking for strict enforcement of permit requirements, improved oversight of traffic control and property restoration, clear communication protocols between providers and the community before work begins, and a formalized recourse process when private property or essential services are being damaged. Thank you. And I have lots of examples which maybe Mike has shared, but I'm trying to stay under my three minutes. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thanks, Karen.

All right. Next up is Kelly Rusk.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the town council. Again, I come to you today to thank you for your service and to speak about the Whetstone Motel proposal. Our community feels like they're in limbo in the sense that we've not heard from the developer and there's a specter of this motel hanging over us. There's not much we can do about the developer, but there is a proposal I'd like to put forward, which I would love for you all to consider, is would the town council be willing to adopt a text amendment for mixed-use zoning that would prevent hotels and motels to not be allowed to be built in close proximity to a school or residential community? While we understand that this would not be retroactive for the Whetstone Motel project, it does three very important things. One, it protects other areas from stallings and children and other areas of stallings for the greater good from a threat as shown by the national data I've spoken to for the past two months. Two, it would strengthen a strong signal to our community that the town council has heard their concerns and prioritizes the safety of the children. And three, it puts implicit pressure on the developer in the sense that if an amendment is such passed, that the future planning of Stallings is not congruent with the path they are taking. Now, again, we understand this cannot be retroactive, but this could be a reasonable step that sets a flag on the ground to say no. Going forward, we will not allow these sort of developments that are high risk near our children. So we employ as a community, and the community did have a lot of questions I can answer right now. A lot of them were around the lines of, I'm in limbo, a lot of people use that. I don't want to wait for the developer to bring this to the town council for them to vote down. Is there anything that can be done? And so that's why this text amendment idea has been brought forward for your consideration. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much.

And last up that have signed up is Monica Bacon. Did I pronounce that right?

You did. You did, like the bacon we eat. My name is Monica. Thank you, Mayor and the Town Council. It's my first time here, so this is interesting. But I'm excited. the topic and the reason I'm here is I'm not excited about. I live right over there in Parkview, townhouse, home's right there. And I have lived there since 2009. I am in current battle, if you will, over one specific person on the board who's been there three years. I mean, who's been in the neighborhood three years. I've been there since 2009 over my children's, over my two kids who've been parked in their parking in front of my house for, since 2012. And I've come to, I've gone to the Department of Transportation. I've gone through, I've gone through The HOA, I've gone even to the police department. I've had them come to my house because the neighbor is going so far as putting stickers on my car, signing it, Stalin's Police Department. And I knew it wasn't them, so I called them out there, and they're like, this is not even close to our sticker. I knew that, but I wanted them to see it, pictures, da-da-da, and confirmed. Basically, it's a problem of, telling me that this person is determined that my street is a public, I mean a private street. But according to the bylaws of my neighborhood, the two coldest acts are private. The main street and my street are public. Well, we have had bylaws. I've had presidents on the committee who've been there for 25 years go and say she is accurate. We've proven this time and time again. But this is like a witch hunt. And I'm not feeling very safe. And I'm not, I know it's racially targeted. That I know for a fact. Racially targeted.

I did not hear you. No, no, no, no, no.

I'm sorry. I talk fast. I'm sorry. Because I'm watching this person do individual things like put the signs up at nighttime. And it's all in the signs. Everybody's like, we have never even seen a sign that looks like this. But as of last week, there are these big old signs up where everybody, the whole neighborhood is like in uproar. But it's specifically, we have three cars. My car is the only one that parks on the street. It's definitely only me. Don't know why. I don't know what we can do. Right now I'm waiting on an email back from the guy in the Department of Transportation who said that an enforcement code person would be the person that they would have to get permission, even if it is, they would have to get permission to put those kinds of signs up. And I'm just in fear that my child's car will be towed. I have a handicap disability according to even the laws of the state. I took that. You can't. I have to be in proximity of my dwelling. That's just in the law. But then ignoring that completely. And I just don't know what to do from here. So I'm here just seeking any kind of guidance.

We have some staff here that might be able to quickly answer your question. Kevin, is that public or private road? Is it Parkview Way?

No, it's separate. The one that as soon as you turn into the neighborhood, you go right, and I've been told by the police here, I mean, I've gone over there several times, they came to my house and said, this is a public street. The bylaws say it's a public street.

Let me back up. I don't mean to put Kevin on the spot. No, that's okay, but I'm saying. He'll probably need to look at a map to be 100% accurate, so let's let, Kevin's our director, or engineer, he knows the streets. He knows the streets, he'll figure it out, and if it's public...

Yeah, it's Sapwood.

I'll be able to handle it from there.

And I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you, guys. Thank you for your help.

Thank you. Thanks for bringing it up.

I appreciate that.

It'll hook you up.

It does exactly what I need it. Thank you.

Well, if he can't, the chief's right there, too.

I love it. Thank you. They actually told me to come to this meeting. A couple of policemen last week told me to come.

Well, good.

So thank you, guys.

You're welcome. Oh, you would know. Well, yeah, you would know, too. I didn't see you there. All right. We like being able to solve problems with our staff when we can, and the other problems, questions will be noted through and taken care of later. All right. Wow, that's loud. Next up is the consent agenda. How does the council plead, please? Mr. Mayor, can we move 1B to item 4B, please? Sure. Does that need a vote? Erin, does that need a vote?

A second and a vote.

So I'd like to make a motion to move item 1B to 4B and to approve the consent agenda as amended.

All in favor? Aye.

Aye. Aye.

All right, so we get the agenda approved.

Sorry for... Well, I think the consent agenda. Consent agenda.

What did I say? Oh, the consent agenda. Now we're to the agenda approval. How's the council? Want to move on this?

I move that we approve the agenda... As previously amended. Second.

Yeah, that was a consent. Now we're to the agenda. Any second? Second. All in favor?

Aye.

The unanimous. Thank you all. Item three, TX26.01.02. Bridge, she will come up. Talk to us about the streetscape and fee-in-lieu addendum.

And it's Sheehy. It's a tough one.

What did I say?

I don't know. It's a hard one. I have a hard first name. But he got Bridge, right? And a hard second name. Yes, exactly.

It only takes me. See, I've explained this before. My daughter's Bridget as well, but she does not go by Brig. You do, and I, for the longest time, called you Brig, and you gave me a funny look, but you didn't say anything. Now I get it. You're Bridge.

Yes.

Or Bridget.

I never.

Anyhow, on with the item.

Okay. Hello, council. So today I'm bringing back text amendment TX260102 for an amendment to the stalling streetscape plan. As a reminder, this amendment is proposed to update the staff and board recommended design standards within the stalling streetscape plan to simplify options, improve clarity, and revise the fee-in-lieu structure to ensure adequate funding. As mentioned previously, some recent conditional zoning applications within town center have highlighted challenges with our current streetscape standards. And staff has brought this amendment back following direction from council to further research NCDOT regulations related to street trees within the right of way, as well as to evaluate the costs associated with constructing streetscape improvements. I would like to emphasize that this text amendment reduces the required widths within the streetscape design standards, and it also lowers the cost of constructing the streetscape improvements through changes to material requirements and reduced section widths. Okay, you have this printed in front of you, but this is just the breakdown of the estimated construction costs associated with the current streetscape standards as they exist today, which are also, like I said, printed for you. These estimates are based on an average of 100 linear feet for each plan type, and just for reference, the length in front of the main town hall building is 125 linear feet, so similar to this. Each plan type shows the estimated cost for the concrete sidewalk, pavers, and trees and grates. Destination by Design recommended applying a 4% annual compounded increase to the previously developed cost estimates in 2022 for the trees, grates, and pavers to account for inflation and current market conditions. And for the sidewalk costs, we coordinated with the town engineer and used unit prices from a recent town bid for sidewalk construction to develop those updated costs. So as I said, these are the current streetscape plan pricing.

Are those trees producing gold?

I do not think so. Okay. This was the cost estimate with the 4% compounded over five years from the... DESIGN.

I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SAYING. SAYING. LOOKING AT THAT TREE, WHAT LOOKING AT THAT TREE, WHAT KIND OF TREE IS IT? KIND OF TREE IS IT?

I'LL DIG UP TREES FOR MY I'LL DIG UP TREES FOR MY OWN YARD FOR 20 GRAND FOR OWN YARD FOR 20 GRAND FOR TWO TREES. TWO TREES.

I THINK IF YOU LOOKED AT I THINK IF YOU LOOKED AT THAT COST, IT MAINLY WOULDN'T BE THAT COST, IT MAINLY WOULDN'T BE FOR THE TREE. it would be for the tree and i believe there was some sort of membrane system such that you could plant the tree and a lot of times especially in older cities these trees that trees that grow up and just destroy all the infrastructure around it right it messes up the stormwater infrastructure the road the sidewalk And what, if I recall correctly, is being designed here as a system, whereas the roots can grow, the tree can stay healthy and grow as big as it needs to be, but it won't damage the infrastructure. And I think that is much more expensive on the front end, but it's much cheaper on the back end when you compare it to all the damaged infrastructure. So really good, valid question. I appreciate you, Chris.

And as well as for the grates as well, which are like under the sidewalk as well.

So that's part of the cost.

And then in orange, we have a breakdown of the estimated construction costs with the proposed standards included in this text amendment. These estimates are also based on an average of 100 linear feet for each proposed plan type. And each type includes estimated costs for the concrete sidewalk, the stamped concrete pedestrian areas, and the street trees and grates. Similar to the previous slide, we applied a 4% annual compounded increase for the street trees and grates. and for the sidewalk and stamped concrete cost, we use that same unit prices from the town bid I stated previously. And as you can see in front of you and on the slides, the proposed standards reduce the overall estimated construction cost by around four to eight grand per, depending on which plan type you're looking at.

Bridge, what is the advantage of the stamped concrete over the pavers? Because I see the unit price was less on the pavers than the stamped concrete.

Yes, this was a recommendation from our town engineer. The stamped concrete is actually cheaper in the long run because those bricks tend to move and crack and everything, and these are a lot easier to upkeep. So they might cost a little bit more on the front end, but overall, and throughout time, they'll cost less with less replacements.

Thank you. That was one of the concerns Council Member Van Der Reest, the Board brought up. We're really glad you did because we were allowed us to look into it and come back with a product that'll be less expensive maintenance-wise in the long run.

During the original preparation of the streetscape standards in 2022, Destination by Design coordinated with NCDOT on the proposed street tree placements, which were found to be generally acceptable at that time, the current standards. Staff also reached out to NCDOT for additional guidance regarding street trees in this proposed plan, but have not received a response. We also consulted with the town engineer regarding NCDOT's complete streets program, which allows municipalities to adopt small area plans, policies, and other planning documents that support designs that differ from the standard right-of-way guidelines. However, each project is reviewed by NCDOT on a case-by-case basis and there is no blanket policy guaranteeing that street trees will be permitted in any specific location. So based on this research, staff recommends adding language to the streetscape addendum stating that all proposed street trees are subject to final review and approval through NCDOT and may be modified by NCDOT during the permitting and review process. And again, this is just the streetscape addendum, if anybody had any further questions on that.

The question I have is, so let's say somebody comes with a plan. They have a development. They want to have Greenway and trees along the side of that. And NCDOT comes back and says, you've got to scrap all of this. Is that a situation where they would pay the fee in lieu of that? Or is that only reserved for things like where it would be in an area where it's not even possible to build because of floodplain or whatever the case might be?

That would only be reserved for where it's impossible to do. There are ways that we can change some of the widths if we needed the street trees to be further from the road. For example, if we looked at the greenway section, we could make that stamped concrete strip two feet wider and then the multi-use path two feet shorter. So it still has the same total width. but just changing the width of each little section so we could do that. But that wouldn't be a case for the P&LU, I don't think.

Got it. Thank you.

Mm-hmm. So again, Planning Board recommended approval of this text amendment on their February 17th, 2026 meeting. And staff also recommends approval of TX 260102 with the addition of language to the streetscape addendum, stating that all proposed street trees are subject to final review and approval by NCDOT and may be modified by NCDOT during the permitting and review process.

The bridge, in a case where NCDOT says, no, this isn't going to go, do they assist in redesigning it, or do they just throw it back to the developer for a new submission, or does town staff have flexibility to work with the planning in that?

So there are specific right-of-way standards for street trees that can be changed with their Complete Streets program. So if we came in and it wasn't to those standards and NCDOT said no, I think it would be on the developer to change that process, but they can give guidance based on where they want the trees. But I don't think they would like help in redesigning it, but they could give guidance saying, for example, we want this 10 feet off of the road. So redesign it to do that. So they could give guidance.

So could we ever get into a situation where this developer develops this corner, developer develops this corner and gets one, This one gets one thing, this one gets one thing, and then in the middle gets a whole different thing? Or would we have any recourse to say this doesn't even fit the bill because it's un-uniform at some point?

I believe if, I don't know exactly, but I believe if NCDOT didn't approve something on this part of the road, they would do the same with another section of the road so we could keep it consistent throughout that.

But kind of, Side to his question, do we have any recourse if for some reason they did decide, you know, these two properties are right beside one, one got this type of look, this side. Can we go to them and say, hey, look, y'all shut this down, but we already have, you know, 50% of this road looks this way already. Do we have recourse for going back to them?

If it was within, if it was similar or within the same widths that we have approved, I think we could work with them on designing it because we do have to approve the designs. So we could go back and say, hey, this is designed this way. Can we continue that throughout the rest of the road?

Okay. There is enough flexibility built into this that it's not going to have to go before Board of Adjustments for minor little things that the staff would have discretion to resolve any disputes?

Yes, because in each section there are like 6 to 8 feet, 10 to 14 feet. So there are ways that we can...

You just don't want it to become an overly burdensome process. Yeah.

Yeah. These kind of modifications happen all the time in this context. Like, for example, over by the hospital, the trees were originally much closer to where the runway is. DOT required them to move it back. So, I don't see, we could probably kind of dream up a scenario, right, where everything's thrown out, but Almost always. It's going to be some modifications. You can keep some uniformity in making it the same. You can still have the same color schemes, location. And frankly, with designing a town center, sometimes it's okay to have these little oddball parts. If you see, if everything's just perfect all the time and matchy-matchy, it can almost feel less organic. even if we do get into something, it doesn't fit perfectly, a lot of downtowns have it and they're still successful. Is that a technical term? The mumbling part or matchy-matchy? Matchy-matchy, yeah.

I'm going with both. I trust Alex. It must be. Will it still be staff's, I guess, objective, even if the belief is that in a certain stretch of road, NCDOT would say no, that you would still suggest roadside trees, even if you think the answer will come back as no?

Yes, we would still suggest them because that's what's in our plan currently, where they are in our plan currently, and we would hope that NCDOT would be able to work with us. But ultimately, if they say no, we can, again, work with them to design something different.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you, Bridge. Yes.

Bridger there. Thank you. This is good work. I notice in the renderings there are streetlights. We're not talking streetlights in our streetscape plan, or are we?

They're in there. I think it's similar to street trees. They have similar requirements to street trees, but those are in the plan currently as well.

Okay, so we do require trees, stamped concrete, regular concrete, and then street lighting at a certain distance. So those aren't included in the cost, but is that important for us to know tonight, you think, or not really?

ME? YEAH.

YEAH. SO THINK OF THE COST SO THINK OF THE COST ESTIMATE, WHAT A DEVELOPER ESTIMATE, WHAT A DEVELOPER WOULD HAVE TO PAY ABOVE AND WOULD HAVE TO PAY ABOVE AND BEYOND THE NORMAL STREET SCAPE. BEYOND THE NORMAL STREET SCAPE. I JUST NOTICED WE DIDN'T TALK I JUST NOTICED WE DIDN'T TALK ABOUT STREET LIGHTS BUT I WASN'T ABOUT STREET LIGHTS BUT I WASN'T SURE IF THAT WAS, WE DON'T SURE IF THAT WAS, WE DON'T KNOW A COST FOR THAT. KNOW A COST FOR THAT.

SO WE JUST DIDN'T HAVE THAT SO WE JUST DIDN'T HAVE THAT COST IN OUR ORIGINAL COST COST IN OUR ORIGINAL COST ESTIMATE FROM DESTINATION BY ESTIMATE FROM DESTIN be what they currently have to do. So they have to do it anyways, whether we adopt this or not.

Okay, so street lights are part of the current.

Yes, yeah.

Mayor Perkton, can I jump in? I've got a question for Mr. Parker, our town engineer. I seem to recall with street lighting, there are options, right, to be chosen from depending on the provider that you have, whether it's Duke or anything. And I recall some of the costs might be higher if it's decorative or things like that. Can you talk a little bit about that process and how it works?

I'd say a more typical street light, a standard wooden pole, is closer to $1,500. And then a more decorative light is put $3,000 to $5,000, depending on how... How far apart, I guess.

We've not talked about street lights. I didn't think about it until I just saw the renderings, but... I CAN PULL UP THE SPACING, I'M NOT QUITE SURE. I THINK WE'LL APPROVE THIS. I'LL SUPPORT THIS NIGHT, OF COURSE. I'LL JUST MAYBE AFTERWARD JUST SEND THIS. WHAT IS REQUIRED FROM AN ON-CENTER STREET POLL? WHAT DO THE LIGHTS LOOK LIKE? I DON'T REMEMBER. THEY'RE NOT WOODEN, I WOULD HOPE. THEY'RE PROBABLY DECORATIVE.

SO THEY ARE IN OUR CURRENT PLANS, LIKE THE WIDTHS OF THOSE AS WELL.

OKAY.

THEY ARE, YEAH. THAT'S FINE. SO IT'S IN OUR PLANS AS THEY'RE WRITTEN.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Do we have a motion to approve the streetscape in lieu of addendum and the statement of consistency and reasonableness?

Well, I'll make a motion to approve text amendment TX260102, streetscape fee in lieu of addendum.

And the statement of consistency and reasonableness? And the statement of consistency and reasonableness. Thank you. I'll second that. Well, usually there's reading involved there for that last one. We don't need to.

We don't need to anymore.

Okay. All in favor? Aye. That's unanimous. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Appreciate your work on that. Next up is the Historical Committee Historical Marker. Debbie Wegenhauser. Hope I pronounced that one right.

That's close. Close enough. Scroll through as you need to. But I pulled it up there for you. Thank you.

Yeah.

It's good to be here this evening. I am Debbie Wagenhauser, and I'm representing the Historical Committee. The Committee is requesting Council's approval to purchase a road marker in recognition of Staling's Methodist Church. A few weeks ago, Councilmember Wojtowicz, and I hope I'm saying that right. Wojtowicz. Wojtowicz.

Took me a while, but I got it now.

Well, she's not here. Tell her I came close. She and I met with a gentleman who is a church trustee, and we discussed the road marker and tried to determine a possible location. And let me see if I can... Let's see if we can get that on here. We're looking at the front of the old sanctuary, between, of course, between the road and the sanctuary itself. This is another view of where that would sit. Of course, Public Works will have to look at the location and determine if it's got to be a certain setback, if there's utility lines, but they will give the approval, I'm sure, on the location. Also, Marie Garris was able to attend a meeting of the church council and she stated that the members present were very excited about the option of a proposed road marker and were also very appreciative of the town considering this. The proposed location and the text draft are in the packets and here. The draft itself can be tweaked, but this is what it's proposed to be. We have checked the dates and the accuracy of the text. And other than maybe some grammatical changes, this is probably how it will read. If approved, again, Public Works would have to confirm the location. And I'm just here to answer any other questions y'all might have.

What was the origin of the idea for the sign? Obviously, the church has been there for a long time. You noted in 2010 that it was recognized by the county. So how did we come to where we are now?

Well, this will be the fifth road marker that the town is going to place. And we're trying to use the road markers to kind of distribute some of the historical information to our residents and other members of the public. The church itself, of course, was such a big part in the early history of the town, and a lot of our early elected officials were members of the church. I'm sure that in some instances there were meetings that were held there. And in fact, the first church building, as it says, was held at Matthew Stalling's General Store. So it's a significant historic site for the town.

Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you.

Any other questions?

All right. Just, is this... I guess a request. Is this a budget type amendment request or is this just approval to go forward? Okay. Okay. I got you.

House of Council, I need a motion to approve. I'm making a motion to approve, Mayor. Second. Oh, it's a raise. It's a tie. Put them down as a tie. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Unanimous. Good job. Thank you very much. We'll move on. I look forward to seeing that getting placed. Next up, the item off the consent agenda, police off-duty employment, hourly rate. I guess that would be Chief to explain the... Good evening, everyone.

How are you? Hourly rate from $30 to $35 an hour. This is an important piece in an officer. So one of our issues is to try to stay competitive because we had an officer leave to go to another department where they had opportunity for more hire back opportunities or off-duty employment. So we have an off-duty coordinator and we're from 40 to 50. Matthews, $55, and Monroe, anywhere from $45 to $60 an hour. The lieutenant recommended to me that we move from $35 to $43 an hour, which keeps us in that competitive range without trying to be the highest paid and tell a business, hey, we're going to go from $35 to $60.