Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay, you still got Santa Claus. That's cool. I really miss Christmas mornings now with that little kid. Guess we can go, can't we? The December 16th, 2025 meeting of the Suffach Planning Commission will now come to order. This meeting is videotaped and televised for public viewing. Uh invocation will be offered by Commissioner Goodwin.

Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this another day. How you spared us and kept us. And now, Father, as we come to do this the business of this city, uh we speak your divine knowledge and wisdom and understanding as we go forth. And God, we decree your spirit of peace, love, and joy in this season that you have blessed us in. And we say thank you for all things now in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Now, please stand for the pledge to allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Mr. Wine, will you please call the role? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Commissioner Bower here. Commissioner Creekmore here. Commissioner Edwards. Commissioner Goodman. Commissioner Pal here. Commissioner Thornton Manuel here. Commissioner uh Vice Chair Hicks here. And Chairman Staylor

here. Mr. Chairman, we have a quorum. We do have a quorum. Uh approval of the minutes from the previous meeting. You were provided with a copy of those minutes of the meeting of November the 18th in your packets. Are there any additions or corrections? Not seeing any. They are approved as presented. We'll now move on to public hearings. Public hearings are for 30 minutes, 10 minutes for the proponents, 15 minutes for the opponents, and five minutes for the rebuttal by the proponents. Our first public hearing is conditional use permit request CUP 2025-00001 209 North Saratoga Street. Mr. Wine, will you please read the caption?

Yes, sir. Conditional use permit request CUP 2025 011 209 North Saratoga Street submitted by Fred Walker, applicant and property owner in accordance with sections 31306 and 31406 of the unified development ordinance to grant a conditional use permit to establish live entertainment after 10 p.m. and public assembly uses on property located at 209 North Saratoga Street. Zoning map 34G18 a parcel 49. The affected area is further identified as being located in the Suffach voting bureau zoned CBD central business district zoning district. SCD special corridor Overlay district and HC historic conservation overlay district. The 2045 comprehensive plan designates this area as part of the central growth area mixeduse core land use type. When you act on this request, you'll be acting on a resolution to present a report and a recommendation to city council relating to conditional use permit request CUP 2025 01. Staff planner Isabella Reynolds will present staff's report.

Thank you. Good afternoon, chairman and commissioners. The application before you today is a conditional use permit request to establish live entertainment after 10 p.m. and public assembly use at subject property located at 209 North Saratoga Street. The city's 44 comprehensive plan designates this area as part of the central growth area in the commercial corridor land use type. The subject property is zone central business district also known as CBD and is located within the historic conservation overlay district. To the north of the property are single family dwelling zone central business district and residential medium. To the south are a mix of various businesses zone central business district. To the east is St. Paul's Church and Wells Fargo bank zone CBD. To the west are single family dwelling zone central business district. The subject property is shaded in yellow as you can see is located near downtown. Currently the subject property operates as a commercial deli with a maximum occupancy of 48 people. The applicant is proposing the live entertainment after 10 p.m. in public assembly uses in conjunction with the commercial deli. The existing dwelling on the property was originally residential before it was converted into a deli for commercial purposes. On the screen is a survey of the property. The subject property is 0.17 acres in size and existing structures approximately 2,500 square ft. On the screen is the proposed layout of the first and second story of the building. I have zoomed in on the first floor and have outlined the proposed locations where the live entertainment will be offered in red. The applicant has stated that in their narrative that the live entertainment will move around the first floor. The live entertainment will consist of solo artists, DJs, and small bands. The live entertainment will be conditioned to indoors only. No live entertainment will be permitted outside. Additionally, live entertainment will be conditioned to the following hours.

Sunday to Thursday, 11:00 a.m. to 1000 p.m. Friday to Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. On your screen is a zoomed in view of the rear half of the first floor. Along with the proposed live entertainment, the applicant has proposed public assembly use. The applicant has stated that the property can be rented out for different events. These events will consist of dinner style parties, birthdays, meet and greets, listening parties, and conversational gatherings. Additionally, the applicant has stated that the property can be rented out for live entertainment purposes. On the screen is the proposed layout of the second story of the building. The applicant has stated that there will be a total of eight employees that will consist of three security personnel. There will be no cooked food served on site. All food will be deli style. The applicant already has a ABC license to serve alcohol on site. This is the viewpoint of North Saratoga Street. The subject property is to the left. Please be aware that the most recent street view from Google Maps is from 2023. I would like to bring to y'all's attention that North Saratoga Street is a one-way street with limited on street parking. The subject property has a small driveway that is suitable for one vehicle. The proposed uses are anticipated to generate an increase of traffic and parking demand. The closest public parking lot from the subject property is located further down North Saratoga Street. The public parking lot is outlined in purple. The subject property is outlined in blue. The public parking lot is roughly 500 ft away from the subject property. The parking lots the parking lots adjacent to the property are private parking lots owned by the church and the bank. One of the conditions of the CUP is all employees and patrons shall use on street parking and parking facilities in the area. On January 29th of this year, two notice of violations were issued for both live entertainment after 10 p.m.

and public assembly uses occurring without ACUP. Despite the notice of violations, the applicant continued to operate illegally as the subject property currently is approved for a commercial deli. Additionally, Suffach Fire and Rescue have concerns regarding the proposed uses. In conclusion, this conditional use permit does not sufficiently satisfy the criteria set forth in the UDL. The proposed live entertainment after 10 p.m. and public assembly uses are expected to be disruptive to the surrounding properties. The proposed uses are too intense for the size of the lot and the proximity to residential dwellings. Additionally, staff has concerns about the applicant's ability and willingness to follow the proposed conditions due to a previous history of violations. Therefore, staff recommends denial of conditional use permit CUP 2025-01. While staff recommends denial, the ultimate authority to approve or deny an application for a conditional use permit lies with city council. As such, in the event that is deemed that approval of this warrant of this request is warranted, staff recommends the conditions noted in the staff report accompany the CUP. I would like to bring to your attention a few of the conditions outlined on the screen. This concludes my presentation. I'll be standing by for any questions following the public hearing. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Reynolds. We will now open the public hearing. Who would like to come forward and speak in favor of this item? Please state your name and address if you would. Speaking in favor, Good afternoon. My name is Irving Henderson. My address is 307 West Church Street, Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Um my relationship to Mr. Fred Walker, I'm his um architectural and structural draftsman. I the one who did the um drawings and some of the research for him for this um project. I want to first address the violations that we did receive. um we was able to satisfy all of those violations within the same day or the very next day. Some of those violations was kind of like miscommunication. Um and we have records of that, but we we did fix that. Um the concern with the city about parking, there's plenty of parking downtown. Like she said, there's a um public parking within 500 ft walking distance. And of course, there's public parking on that street as well. um the other concerns he had with other residential properties on that street. Of course, we can't do anything about that, but um we had like sound test to make sure we didn't have any sound coming outside of the property. Um and the owner of this property, Fred Walker, he actually owns the residential property that's next door to him. So, of course, he don't have a problem with that. Um she said parking music. Um,

even with that violation that came from the city and the fire department. Like I said, we addressed that, but we had had we haven't had any complaints from well, not that we know of from neighbors or police department has never been called or the fire department has never been never been called for any information. I mean, any um events, any time customers been at the um restaurant. Um we did get the one of the violations where was because we was over um occupancy. We was only allowed to have 18 at first which was miscommunication but we did get that straight and was up to 48. So we haven't had any violations for that since then. Um what was the other violation over occupancy? Oh, we had a food truck there that belonged to Mr. Walker as well. and we was told that the food truck couldn't be on the property. We did not know that. Once we figured that out, we moved the food truck as well. So, every violation that came up, we was able to fix. That's why he's currently still open. Um, and that's it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Is there anyone else to speak in favor of this application? Good afternoon. Dwight James. I reside in the Lakeside subdivision, 211 Lynon Avenue. Um I'm I'm speaking on behalf of Fred Walker regarding the request to allow this live entertainment um at his speak easy location. I've been there and I haven't had um any inkling that anybody around in the neighboring houses were um upset with Fred um having music. And this was before 10, not after 10. Um, and people love it there. They had a good time. They left. There was never any cops or anything like that called there. So, um I just want to say that the uh the concern that they have for the parking situation, um approximately 500 feet away, what what she just said, um and the potential disruption to adjacent res uh residents doesn't really apply to this. Uh downtown by nature is a shared use environment where many businesses rely on off-site or shared parking. Often distance distances similar or greater than 500 ft. As you guys all know, this condition is not unique to this location and is common throughout the downtown area for restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues. Regarding potential disruption, live entertainment does not automatically equate to excessive noise or a nuance. Reasonable conditions can be applied. Sound level restrictions and indoor performances only to ensure compatibility with nearby residents. These type of conditions are routinely used successfully in other downtown districts. denying this request solely on parking distance or spec speculative disruption would create an uneven standard for downtown businesses. Consistent application of policy and

reasonable operation conditions can allow this venue to operate reasonably while respecting nearby residents. We respectfully request that the city considers approval with appropriate conditions rather than a denial consistent with how similar downtown businesses are treated. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Is anyone else to speak in favor of this application? Have about five minutes left. Anyone else to speak in favor? If not, uh anyone here that would like to speak in opposition have total of 15 minutes. Um please come forward and identifi give us your name and your address. Good afternoon. My name is Carrie Holmes. I live at 230 Clay Street, which happens to be a block removed from this proposal. I rise in opposition to this proposal to reszone an area and extend the operating hours for a food truck in that location. While food trucks can be positive additions to an appropriate setting, this proposal, I think, is not compatible with a residential neighborhood, particularly one designated in the historic district. Extended hours will inevitably bring increased noise, traffic, and late night crowds. This isn't speculation. It is predict It is a predictable outcome of longer operating times. Residents deserve quiet enjoyment of their homes, especially during evening and nighttime hours, and this request undermines that expectation. The proposal also conflicts with the excuse me [clears throat]

stated goals of preserving the character and integrity of our historic district. These areas are protected precisely because of their scale, ambiance, and the residential nature that they that they hold. Elite operating commercial use is incompatible with those preservation goals and risks setting a precedent that erodess the district's historical character over time. Finally, there is a real concern about negative impacts on surrounding property values. Increased noise and congestion and commercial activity late into the night can make nearby homes less desirable to current and future homeowners. For these reasons, unwanted noise and crowds, incompatibility with the historic preservation goals that the city has laid out, and the potential harm to property values, I respectfully urge you to deny this resoning request. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Holmes. Is there anyone else here who would like to speak in opposition to this application? Please give us your name and your address, please, sir.

My name is Dr. David Edgel. I reside at 313 Westwood Drive. I'm also employed by Suffach uh Christian, excuse me, by First Baptist Church as the church administrator uh and also uh serve on the board of Suffach Christian Academy. So, I want to speak in opposition to this conditional use permit. Um, I do agree with staff and areas of concern that they laid out in their report. Uh, I do think it's it's very difficult to figure out how you're going to regulate um live entertainment. um in this kind of sit setting whether it's inside whether it's outside uh I do agree with many of the residents who live in this area that the noise factor that's going to go after 10 after 12 uh beyond that and I'm not sure how you really control the nature of the night activities my experience has been many of this will overflow um out into the parking lots of the churches um we've already had some violations just in terms of that Um, and so I just feel like that while there's parkings being talked about closer down Washington by the Bank of America, the reality is parking is going to be taking place at the Episcopal Church and at First Baptist Church and those parking lots are right there. Um, I have concern about putting this in the proximity of two churches and a school and also a playground that's very visible uh without any barriers right to uh where the location of this entertainment center would be. Um, the location already has an Instagram page uh as a speak easy and has already shown events, other types of things that have already taken place there. Um, so the staff report al also speaks to the violations that were mentioned earlier. Uh, I think there is going to be an issue uh with traffic on the one-way street. Uh, that

oneway street has a lot of activity and then when you add all of those types of events going on, uh, they're going to be that's going to become problematic. Um, there are other locations, it seems to me, in the downtown area that would be much better for this type of establishment. And I'm just not sure we want to set a precedent of putting nightclubs in residential areas. People come along and say, why if if they can have a nightclub in a residential area, why can't I have a nightclub in my neighborhood? I just think there's a precedent there that we have to be very careful of. These properties are included in the commercial development district for purposes like law offices, insurance offices, and things like that, not necessarily for entertainment venues. Um, we were unaware of the ABC license being granted. Um, so there obviously was no notification of that. Um, there's been no survey that I'm aware of of actually talking to neighbors. We've talked to a good number of the neighbors. Uh, I'm not aware of any survey that's been done that's actually asked for the opinions of the of the actual neighbors. And uh, and I agree, it's a historic district. I'm just not sure this is the location for this type of venue. So I would agree with staff this to be relooked at.

Thank you sir. Is there anyone else that would like to speak in opposition? Please come forward and give us your name and address.

Keith Emerson, 229 North Saratoga Street. I'm not only a resident of the street in question, but I'm also the director of St. Paul's Episcopal Church directly across uh the way. I'm not going to repeat what others have said. I share the objections. I do want to tell you uh one thing about our experience so far and then ask a question. Uh in our experience when the occupancy was limited to 18 people. Uh we have had several issues with people parking in our parking lot. Uh, I've been called down at 8:30 at night on a Thursday night by being informed a staff member doesn't feel safe going to her car alone. Uh, choir that same night. Uh, my when I walked down, I observed uh, three gentlemen in a car who appeared to be drinking. I was told there were people smoking outside of the car. Didn't see that happening. But we have people in our church who didn't feel comfortable leaving the church, going to their car in our parking lot. Friday nights are a busy night at St. Paul's Church. AA meets there. They've been meeting there for I'm not sure well over 50 years. And the parking lot is mostly full and there have been numerous times when again when the occupancy was limited to 18 people uh that AA people are competing with patrons that are seeking live entertainment. There really is no way for or it will be difficult for us to uh secure our parking lot for use of our people only. Um we have chewed on this at our leadership level and have yet to come up with a satisfactory answer. Uh the question I want to ask her is I was under the impression that a part of this request was to increase uh the number of patrons from 18 which I

understand is what the fire regulations uh allow to 48. But now from what I'm hearing the 48 is already a done deal. And I'm not sure how that happened. I would love to hear more about that because I don't know that anything has changed from the fire regulations. We've had problems, not major problems, but problems at 18. 48 patrons is a whole different game. And um that's what I have to say.

Thank you, sir. Is there anyone else that would like to speak in opposition? Although most of us know this gentleman, I'll ask you for your name and your address. I shall give it. [clears throat]

I'm Tom Woodward. I live at 227 North Main Street. My wife and I have lived there for 42 years. We live between the Episcopal Church and the Baptist Church. Our means of ingress and egress are from North Saratoga Street. These people back on North Saratoga Street from us have maintained their neighborhood. It is a residential street. It has always been a residential street. We only have back there one absentee owner. One. And the tenant there has been there for many years if not decades. The rest are owner occupied where people are single family residents. This type of facility will reduce substantially the values that they have. It will be a detriment totally to the values that they have. It is an example I wish all the streets in downtown Suffach had. And I would say to you in conclusion what nobody else has said. A nightclub unfortunately is a magnet for misbehavior. Sometimes for violent misbehavior, not on the premises. They can put up metal detectors. They can have armed guards. They can have all of that. It's always outside. And when it's outside, it occurs in the parking lot. You read or hear about it in NOFK in Virginia Beach where they have facilities. Two men killed outside a nightclub.

And I would say in conclusion, remember the girl in Norolk who was killed by a random gunfire in what NOFK decided would be a downtown nightclub district. She was a young reporter for the Virginia pilot that killed nightclubs in Norolk. If they want a nightclub here in Suffuk, go find a place for it. Go find a place that'll have you, but certainly not North Saratoga Street. Just say no. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Woodard. We've got about three, a little over three minutes left. Is there anyone else here who would like to speak in opposition? Anyone to speak in opposition? Not seeing any. We'll move on. Um the proponents, you have five minutes for rebuttal. So, uh if you'd like to um speak in rebuttal, you've got five minutes. Once again, name and address, please, sir. Once again, my name is Irving Henderson. My address is 307 West Church Street, Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Um, I have been to plenty of church events after hours and has been situation where there's been violence at church events as well. Also, it's very still stereotypical to think that um a restaurant that's asking for live music after hours could bring violence. Not to be funny here, but churches have a lot of history of violence towards children. So, but churches are everywhere. So, let's get past that part. Historically, we are bound by the fact that we in a historic district. We can't do certain things anyway because historic districts aren't going to allow us to do that. We are no longer um asking for a food truck to be there. Live entertainment is already a matter of right there. It's just that we're asking for that to be past 10:00. We're not asking for live entertainment to be there. We already allowed for that. We are asking for that to be from 10 to 12. So that's that's by a matter of right. One gentleman said we are asking for a reasonzoning. We're not asking for a reasonzoning. This is already CBD. It used to be a house, but it's always is when when Fred Walker purchased this house, it was already in a CBD. We did some structural changes to accommodate for a load for a commercial

business, but it's always been considered a commercial space once uh Mr. Walker purchased the um the property there. Um the occupy law someone mentioned about it going from 18 to 48. That's not bound by that was bound by building building codes and we met those building codes as long as we was under 50 people. the planning department did not have a problem with us going to 48. That's why we told 48 and not 50. Um once we hit 50, we would need new restrooms. We would have needed um fire sprinklers, maybe an extra bathroom or exit, but going from 18 to 48 didn't have anything to do with the CUP at all. Um like Mr. Dwight said about parking, I mean, it's just it's a CBD. We we didn't put these homes in the CBD. There was someone else put these homes in the CBD and parking was taken into consideration for every property that was in the CBD including Mr. Walkers. Um, so when it comes and we had a violation in the past for being over the 18. We fixed our violation and went up to 48. The other violation was the food truck. But during these violations, it was people complaining about seeing a lot of people. But seeing all these people, police wasn't called. Emergency people wasn't called. No one was called. Nothing happened. Trash wasn't I seen Mr. Walker cleaning up trash behind people. 4 in the morning to make sure this the case. The people that own the church before they saw all these extra people. They they know Mr. Walker. They don't have any problem with Mr. Walker. As you see, no one stepped up here and said they had a problem with Mr. Walker. They all talk about the potentials of problems. So if we already had a situation where we had too many people there and no problems arise, then that's a good sign that the events that Mr. Walker is proposing aren't going to bring troubled people. But like I said

before, I've been to plenty of church events after hours where the same people that was drinking in front of this restaurant would drink in front of a church event. And the ABC license, this is part of the CBD. I don't think you need to do a survey to get a ABC license for a building that's in the CBD. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Anyone else to would like to um speak in rebuttal? Name and address, please.

Dwight James. I reside in Lakeside subdivision 211 Lynon Avenue, South Virginia. Um I just want to start off like those violations. I would like to say those were targets. Those was people reporting because they didn't like what was going on over there. They didn't want a food truck and they came there and they got the fire marshal and the people to come out there to come check stuff out and that's not uncommon here in Suffuk. As most small business owners know here in Suffuk that that's not uncommon. So I just want to let that statement start off. Um Baron's Pub is a clear example of a downtown Suffus that operates with late evening activity in close proximity to both churches and nearby residents. The surrounding areas include places of worship and neighborhoods within short walking distance. Yet, the businesses have been able to operate by following reasonable conditions related to noise, hours, and conduct. This demonstrates that proximity to churches or resident prop residential properties alone has not been used as a basis to prohibit evening or late night entertainment downtown and downtown. Instead, Suffoc has historically relied on operational standards such as indoor entertainment, sound control, and time limitations to balance business activity with neighborhood impacts. Applying a stricter standard to this speak easy based on solely on parking distance generalized concerns about disruptions would be inconsistent with how similar downtown businesses have been treated. Downtown Suffuk is a mixeduse environment. I want everyone to know that it's mixed use and successful coexistence has been achieved through conditions and enforcement rather than outright denial. For these reasons, approval of reasonable conditions would align with an established downtown precedence and ensure fair and consistent treatments of businesses. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. James. [clears throat] This public hearing is now closed. Commissioners, questions, comments or motion is in order. Commissioners, I'll make a motion. Um, sorry, I should be um I'd like to make a motion to deny CUP 2025-00001. It's a motion on the floor to deny. Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion?

Yes. Um, Commissioner, I I I have a couple questions. Um, is is Mr. Fred Walker here? Mr. Fred Walker is here. Uh, I'm sorry. Could could uh could he come up? I have I mean, he will probably be the one that could answer some of these questions that I have if it's possible. Mr. Walker, would you like to answer the questions?

Give us your name and address, please. Fred Walker, 213 North Saratoga Street. Suffuk, Virginia, 23434. Greetings to all as well, Commissioner. Good afternoon, sir. Great afternoon. All right. Um, I'm just reading through the package. Um, trying to understand the the the total concept of of your business and um, I think in your package you submitted that this is a commercial deli. It's commercial restaurant.

A commercial restaurant. What are your hours for this restaurant? Um they could range depending on the day like Monday through Friday could be a particular day and time and then Friday, Saturday, Sunday could be a particular day and time. All right. Um this this deli what what is it? Cold cuts, hot food. What what's what are you selling out of there? Um forms of sandwiches. Uh clean eating. Clean eating. Trying to stay away from gra um grease and you know grease the community. So yeah, clean eating. Okay. So, in your in your package, you said that you don't prepare any food at this facility or you prepare food there.

It's a must. It's mandatory. It's a restaurant. I have a ABC license there. So, it's it's it's mandatory for me to prepare food there. And I also have a health department uh food permit as well too. So, yes, ma'am. I do have food there. So, you sell food? That's what you sell food?

That's the only way, only form of currency. Yes. It's exchange of currency. Yes, ma'am. All right. Um I I noticed that um Mr. Henderson and Mr. James came up before us to um speak about um this this business or this um concept that that you have here. Can can you just elaborate more of why you need to extend your hours past 10 p.m. to 12 pm? I think everything they said they kind of actually held back, but I believe everything they said was almost about good enough. Like I'm just, you know, I I believe everything that was already stated was pretty fair. You know, I don't want to add to or take away from, but uh it's right. I already can have live entertainment up until 10:00 already. So, I already have live entertainment. It's not a nightclub. I didn't heard nightclub stated a few times. Just like you're saying, Delhi, it's a restaurant. It's not a nightclub. It's not a bar. It's not a dance hall. This is a restaurant that can have live entertainment up until 10 p.m. Regardless, all I'm requesting is two additional hours and maybe some assembly use. But once again, there's been no been operating for a couple of years. There's been no type of hiccups at all. on whatsoever until they notified me that, hey, you're going after hours with your live entertainment. That's the only reason we're here. One of the reasons, not going to say only reason. But no wrong has been done. And anytime some wrong has been violated or jotted down, I believe the city, which we have about half of them in here right now, I believe they can contest to me doing and fixing every form of violation in a very proper amount of time. from the fire department to the city hall, whatever the request of Fred

Walker gets completed rather swiftly. You know what I mean? Like I don't take my time. I make sure it's good and they come back and reinspect every each time. All right. And um one one last question. Um so security. So, um, do you have security there at all times or or is it just after 1000 p.m.?

Um, once again, just depending on the day, depending on the evening, but uh, whatever day that y'all would like for me to have security, uh, depending approval of this cup, I'll have security there for sure, for certain. So, whatever you all request of me, I do it each and every time. So, yes, security will be on site. All right. Thank you, Mr. Walker. You're more than welcome. Once again, greetings to all and thank you all. Before Before you leave, any other commissioner have any questions? Property owner? If not, thank you, sir.

Um, commissioner um chairman, um I I do have one question clarification. Um the the city of suffer noise ordinance in residential areas. Uh is at 1000 p.m. in residential areas. No noise after 10 p.m. Correct, Mr. W.

Yep. Depending on the use and the surrounding zoning districts, we have performance standards within our unified development ordinance that would apply. Um, a good example of that is if you have uh in this case, you're in the central business district. Um, but just a block over you have the RM, residential medium density zoning district. So, that's a residential uh district. if um the level of decibb that one could hear on that residentially zoned property um stems from uh a use in question along the central business district block um depending on the amount of decibb and the time of day um it would be under violation of the unified development ordinance. Um, so there are ranges. Um, I believe it is, uh, 45 dB. Um, if that can be heard, um, during the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., you would be in violation. Uh, separately within the city code, we do regulate noise as well. Um, and and once again, that stems, uh, from uses and and districts. Um, so there are two applicable codes in this section um that could potentially apply.

All right. Thank you, sir. Any other questions or comments? If not, we have a motion on the floor with a second. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Walker. I was looking at my notes. You can you can leave the podium. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Uh, so we have a motion and a second on the floor. The motion is for denial. Um, please vote.

Commissioners, please vote. And a motion of approval is for denial. for clarification. So yes, a yes is a vote for denial. Thank you.

Mr. Mr. Chairman, the motion is approved by a vote of 7 to zero. Okay, the motion passes. Um, this will go to U. City Council on January the 21st with a recommendation for denial. Moving on. Next item on our agenda is conditional use permit request CUP 2025-000016. Mr. Wine, will you please read the caption? This is for Wellington Solar Facility.

Yes, sir. Conditional use permit request CUP 2025 016 Wellington Solar Facility submitted by Michael Donnager, Chabertton Energy Holdings Incorporated. applicant on behalf of Adam and Aaron Roundtree property o owners in accordance with sections 31306 and 31406 of the unified development ordinance to grant a conditional use permit to establish a solar energy facility use on property located on whyville boulevard zoning map 65 parcel 12 the affected areas further identified as being located in the wayville voting burrow zoned agricultural zoning district and Scott special corridor overlay district the 2045 Five comprehensive plan designates this area as outside of the growth area rural agricultural land use type. When you act on this request, you'll be acting on a resolution to present a report and recommendation to city council relating to conditional use permit request CU 202516. Making our planning commission debut is our land use planning manager, Caitlyn Abett.

Hi, good afternoon commissioners. So, as Kevin mentioned, this is an application before you this afternoon for a solar facility. As indicated on the general location map, um the site in question is denoted by yellow star. You can see that it is to the south and the comprehensive plan. It is outside of the central growth area. Zoomed in slightly just to give you a little bit closer view of where that's located. You'll see that all the surrounding land is designated as rural agriculture and it is just a little bit north of Wyville Village. This is an aerial map of the property which I have highlighted in purple there. The property itself is along Wayville Boulevard. It is not addressed, but we're going to refer to it as its tax map number 65 star 12. It's about 81.7 acres in size. It and all of the surrounding parcels are all zoned A for agricultural. And then you'll see there um to the south whereville village is that is zoned VC for village center. This is an aerial map of the property. Again I've highlighted it in purple in the site. I'm going to just discuss a little bit about what is around the site. So you'll see that the site itself is um undeveloped partially and wooded and is partially farmed. There was a structure there in the 90s that was demolished. It does not have a house on it at the moment. To the north of the site is single family dwellings on individual lots. To the east highlighted in green is all undeveloped and wooded. And then to the west right across way boulevard we have undeveloped forested land farm field. And then you'll see right across the street with there's that that little orange parcel there is a single family home. So I want to dig into a little bit about this application. And um you can see applicants provided a concept plan. This is a proposal for a 4.9 megawatt community scale solar facility. It's going to interconnect into Dominion's

network and connect to the overhead power lines along Wayville Boulevard. From the concept plan, again, the total acreage of the parcel is about 81.7 acres. Five acres of that, which on the concept plan is shown in a purple dashed line, is going to be retained by the property owner. The other 76.7 acres are going to be leased to the applicant. However, that entire acreage is not going to be utilized for the solar facility. Of that 76.7 acres, about 40 acres are within a fence line, which you can see on the map. Within that fence line, the actual array itself is going to be about 30 acres. And then the remaining acres will be utilized for storm water ponds and open grassy area. Because it's a little hard to see, I zoomed in a little bit um just to kind of give us a closer view. And particularly for this plan, I want to discuss um the unified development ordinance has a series of supplemental use regulations that address items such as screening, setbacks, noise control. Of those, um some of you might recall in this past summer, the subsequence regulations were amended. Um, in particular, these were for setbacks for inverters and transformers and equipment, which I have circled in blue there, the locations of two equipment pads that are going to contain transformers and string inverters for this facility. These are now subject to special setbacks. Um, for a facility of this size, they would be subject to a 400 foot setback, which the applicant has shown in a purple dashed line on their concept plan. These equipment again the inversion and transformers do exceed that requirement um substantially the being set back from the external property lines route closest point 781 feet. Other requirements are around screening. In this case you can see with the green dash line the applicants proposed to utilize existing mature vegetation to screen the facility from the roadway and adjacent properties. And again, there's those additional setbacks um from the

public right ofway, adjacent residential properties, and then the undeveloped property as well. This site's going to be accessed from a single driveway access off of Wayville Boulevard, which is a major arterial road. Um concrete driveway apron, which is typical for these sites, and a gravel road. After initial construction, they do not receive a lot of traffic, so that's appropriate for this site. I want to also point out the fencing. You'll see in the proposed conditions of approval the fencing we're proposing to require that to be an agricultural style and that's just to help it blend in with the surrounding area as part of the application package. Um we require a visual impact analysis to be submitted and what that helps us identify and an analyze staff is okay we have existing mature vegetation is that going to suffice for screening? Um the yellow or pins here show where the applicant conducted those visual impact analysis and where they took photos. Um all those photos are in your packet. I I've chosen kind of a select few here to highlight those areas that the staff we were wanting to make sure again there was adequate screening. Um this is a view of wheville. We're standing and looking directly east. You see in front is the crop field. Part of that's where the property owner is going to be retaining their ownership and not subject to this application. and then a stand of existing mature trees. Behind those trees is where the solar array is going to be located. And so we can see that's dense. It's grown up very nicely, largely evergreen, and provides a really nice screen from the right of way. The second photo is from the vantage point of standing um kind of near the site driveway is um one of the things we wanted to look at was if I am traversing downville to the south because of how the trees are cut and where the road curves in, can you see through that curvature there? Again, this demonstrates that the vegetation is thick and grown up enough that the sighteline is well screened. And then surrounding the entire property is

existing woods and those are going to be maintained to screen the facility from the adjacent properties. Again, I mentioned this property is located along an arterial road. It is a designated as a truck route. A condition of repusal is proposed that during the construction and any decommissioning phase, the trucks do have to use the approved truck hall routes and not residential roads. Sound is a concern for facilities of these type. Um, and you might recall again with those recent amendments that were done this summer, not just holds an applicant to the noise standards in the UDO, but the noise generation specifically identified in their application and the required sound study as is required by the regulations. Applicant did submit a noise study to us to review. What that noise study entails is looking at the ambient sound level and then what the expected again what's what is the what sound is the equipment going to make particularly the transformers and the inverters. You can see kind of there's that blobby um picture there and the dark purple is where it's loudest. That's where the inverters are located on their pads and then as it goes out the legend kind of shows you what what that noise and decel level is going to be. Um, this site again because of its size, where the location of the equipment is, and the surrounding screening, it's not expected that the sound is going to impede on those adjacent property owners during the day or the night. And again, there's a condition of approval that the applicant's going to have to be held to these noise levels. Additional consideration um in the supplemental regulations maximum of 1% of all agriculturally zoned land is to be used for solar facilities. If this application is approved with the total of other approved solar facilities um would bring that total to.33% so still under that 1% cap. Additionally, these facilities are required to be decommissioned. With this application, the applicant gave us a proposed

decommissioning plan which we reviewed and that will also accompany their site plan should this application be approved by city council. And the purpose of that is again to ensure that the equipment if facility ever goes out of operation, it's removed, taken away, and the site returned to its natural state. In conclusion, as far as the size, this is a somewhat smaller scale proposal. Um, and like other solar facilities will operate passively. There are numerous conditions not just within the supplemental regulations but also specific conditions of approval within the cup to both manage noise and any visual impacts for the facility. And particularly what is helpful for this is that stand of mature vegetation that will screen it from adjacent properties and the right of way. Therefore, staff recommends approval of this application subject to the conditions outlined in the report. and thank you so much for your time. I'm here to answer any questions you have for staff. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Albert. Yep.

Um we will now open the public hearing. Um is there anyone in attendance that would like to speak in favor of this item? I might just remind you that public hearings are 30 minutes, 10 minutes for the proponents, 15 minutes for the opponents, and five minutes for rebuttal. So, if you would please give us your name and address, sir. Good afternoon, Chairman Staylor and members of the commission. Um, my name is Steve Romine, local attorney with an address 222 Central Park Avenue, Virginia Beach. Uh, glad to be with you today. I'm going to do a quick overview of the project, introduce you to the team, and then let Avery Clemens come up and do a little deeper dive. Um, so we have with us today U. Mike Donner, who's president and CEO of Chabertton Energy Holdings, Inc., the applicant, Averly Avery Clemens, who's the development manager, and Ricky Hwitt, uh, the project engineer. I'd like to thank Caitlyn for that excellent, um, overview, and I'll try not to be redundant. Uh, real quick, what the project is is, um, 82 acres with 40 acres in the fence line on Wyville Boulevard in the way Burough, Mr. Goodman's district. The current zoning is agriculture and special corridor overlay district. CUP is required for the smallcale facility which is 4.9 megawatts. As indicated the electrical onsite will be underground. It'll be connecting overhead to a distribution line. The site is well cited and screened away from neighbors. All setbacks are satisfied. Uh buffers meet or exceed all requirements. There's a single driveway of access offerville Boulevard. Uh I'll next I'll just highlight the city process. We've worked with the city for over six months starting with a pre-application meeting back in July. Uh the project was modified to address feedback from the

city and neighbors. Accent uh noise study resulted um in what's in your packet uh indicates that the noise levels are well below ordinance standards which was your new standard was adopted in June of 25. Um the application is subject to eight conditions. Condition number seven is very detailed and addresses the noise requirements. All this has resulted in a recommendation of approval from the staff. Uh the staff notes um in their report also that we're compliant with the 2045 comprehensive plan. Uh the project uh complies with the use regulations for developable land within the agricultural district as well. We're well below the 1% threshold. Um next I'll briefly touch on community engagement. Uh the applicant conducted extensive community outreach which included a meeting with the mayor and other elected and appointed officials and three community meetings, a neighborhood sitewalk, uh Liberty Spring Church meeting, and a virtual Zoom session. We received feedback and made uh some adjustments based on that input. The project's wells cited, well screened, and will provide much needed energy for the area and the state. Uh, I'll stand by for questions and Avery Clemens will give you some additional information and technical highlights. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. Name and address, please.

Good afternoon. My name is Avery Clemens. I live at 1436 Minor Ridge Court, Charlottesville, Virginia. Good afternoon, Chairman Staylor, Vice Chairman Hicks, and members of the planning commission. Um I am here on behalf of Chverton Energy to talk to you a little bit more about the Wellington solar project um parcel 6512 located in the wayville burrow of Suffach City. Before I begin, I want to take a moment to thank the city planning staff um especially in particularly Caitlyn uh for their thorough presentation and recommendation of approval today. and I greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak in front of you all. Chverton Energy, we are a public benefit corporation. We develop community scale solar energy projects with a focus on distributed solar and battery energy storage. We have deep local experience in the Commonwealth of Virginia developing deer and shared solar and we take seriously the responsibility of being good community partners and neighbors. We hold our projects to high standards that meet or exceed the regulatory requirements because we believe that is what the communities deserve and what earns us the privilege of working in places like Suffach City. Our approach is guided by our three core values, creativity, excellence, and humanity. Values that we hope are evident are on in display in how we've approached Wellington Solar from site selection through community engagement and permitting. When we first engaged with the Roundtree family, they expressed interest in utilizing a portion of their 81 acre agricultural property for solar development. The site had several distinct advantages. Portions of the property had been previously timbered, making it less disruptive to convert to solar use. The site has direct access to Dominion Energy's existing three-phase

infrastructure that lines runs parallel to Wley Boulevard and is directly on our site, meaning that we don't need any additional site control or easements in order to be able to tap into the grid. Additionally, [clears throat] um the there is a mature woodland buffer that totals almost 23 acres that naturally screens the project area both from the public right ofway but also from additional adjacent properties and residences nearby. And critically, as highlighted previously by P planning staff, that our project site sits 700 feet back from Wayville Boulevard and um existing residences in the area. The tenant farmer, Mr. Glover, currently farms approximately 12 acres of this land, which is a very small tract by commercial farming standards, on fields that have historically produced lower yields compared to more productive operations elsewhere in the bureau. Mr. Glover supports the project because as he stated in his letter to the planning commission, transitioning these least productive areas to so solar would allow the soil to rest and ultimately make better use of the ground that hasn't been very productive in years. To put this in mathematical context, Wellington solar represents less than 0.03% of SuffK 161,000 acres of agricultural land. We believe that this is a responsible land use that balances both agricultural stewardship with the land owner's objectives and the Commonwealth's renewable energy goals. Chverton engaged with the community early and extensively. We mailedformational letters about the project and then conducted door-to-door outreach to every property owner within 12200 ft of the project. If they weren't home, we leftformational material materials at the doorstep. We also held three separate public meetings, as Steve referenced, an

on-site walkthrough for adjacent land owners and neighbors to see how the project would be naturally screened and invisible from their properties. We also held a public meeting um at Liberty Spring Christian Church. And then lastly, we had a virtual meeting over Zoom as well to accommodate different participation preferences. And there was community attendance at all three of these meetings. The primary concerns we heard from neighbors were related to visibility and noise. These were fairly straightforward to address because of how the site is naturally configured and how we've designed the project to this point. The existing woodland buffer means that the facility will not be visible from way boulevard or from adjacent properties. We also responded to feedback by mod modifying our construction schedule to eliminate weekend work in response to a specific request by a neighbor. I know that there has been some very valid frustration about noise on solar facilities and other solar projects in the city. Um I want to emphasize that our project is fundamentally different in terms of equipment design and placement um compared to some of those other projects. Our noise reducing equipment is located over 780 feet away from the nearest property line positioned in the center of the array with over 300 ft of mature woodland buffer providing additional natural sound barrier from the project. Um, and we had the noise study conducted in order to be in compliance with the SUFFK solar ordinance amendments that were passed in June of this year. The noise study conducted by Asentech um determined that Wellington solar operational noises will be 15 dis decibels below the city's residential standards which is equivalent to a whisper or a rustling of leaves outside

of the project premise. This highlights to us that after the construction period is complete, the site will not be visible or audible um to anyone off the project property. Wellington Solar is a 4.9 megawatt AC facility that will generate enough electricity to power 850 Virginia homes annually. The project exceeds every applicable setback requirement in the unified development ordinance and preserves a minimum of 700 feet between the closest residences and the solar array area. As outlined in the staff report, this project complies with the UDO and the comprehensive plan. We believe that the site is appropriately cited for the property with natural characteristics that make it ideally suitable for solar. The project exceeds the regulatory requirements, creates no visual or auditory impact to the neighbors, and serves the land owner's objectives and desires for the future of their property. For this reason, we respectfully request the commission's recommendation of approval. And I'm happy to answer any additional questions that you may have. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Clemens. Um, it's uh 27 seconds left. 23 seconds left for the proponents. Um so uh we'll let the clock tick down, but um we will now allow 15 minutes for any opposition to this. If there's anyone in the audience that is in opposition to this, please come forward and give us your name and address. Anyone in opposition? Does not look like any opposition here. So now the proponent uh you have five minutes for rebuttal of nothing. So do you need any additional time? No. Okay. In that case we will close the public hearing. Commissioners questions comments. Our motion is in order. I'd like to make the motion uh to pass CUP 2 2022 016

with conditions. With conditions. Okay, I second that. We have a motion made and a second. Uh is there any other question or comment?

Um I'd like to make a comment. I think the uh well I be brief the uh letter of support from Mr. Glover, who if if you're like me, you lived in Suffuk for a while, you know he's a pretty well-known farmer. And um up here we hear primarily, maybe not primarily, but a big opponent obviously of solar farms is our farmers. Um I think he was very succinct in pointing out the appropriateness of this proposed use um and the uniqueness of this specific property. Um I voted against some solar um applications in the past. Um but uh this is a uniquely positioned um the buffering that's already there. It's almost like it was meant to be, which I'm surprised I'm saying that out loud, but um uh I it makes me happy when I'm able to vote for something that is such a makes such clear sense because I feel as though cups that's the purpose of a cup. It makes sense. It's outside the boundaries of what the zoning is, but it makes sense. So, um that's why I'll be voting in favor.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioners, any other questions or comments? Yes. Um chairman, this is for um planning department. Is is this our first? And I'll introduce Meg because she's uh she's standing in uh we had a switch take place uh during the during the public hearing. So Meg uh we all know her. You can direct them to to Meg or to the um to the uh K. Yes. Yes. Is this our first um solar form that has come before us with the 400 ft setback?

Yes. This is the first application that we've received with the new regulations. Yes. All right. U Okay. That's it. All right. Commissioners, any other questions or comments? Don't see any. So, let's uh call for the vote. All right. I'm rusty. So, let's see. Please vote. Hopefully, I can uh figure out all these buttons. Well, if not, we can handle that. So, commissioners, please vote. Commissioners, please vote. It's not showing up. Oh, hold on. Here we go. Okay. Sorry. Please vote. And yes, is a vote of yes is for approval of the project.

Oh, got our stop. There we go. Uh, Mr. Chairman, the vote passed by a vote of 7 to zero. Okay, the the vote passed. Uh, so this uh since it has been approved, we'll go before city council on 12126 with our recommendation for approval. Moving on. Me, we now have on our agenda old business. Is there any old business? There is no old business today.

Okay. Is there any new business today? Uh so first we will have um a staff report which is a presentation from various uh department directors on the proposed capital improvement plan for FY27 to 36. Uh this will be planning commission's first sort of glimpse at um what is being proposed this year in the capital improvement plan. Stephanie,

good afternoon everyone. We are going to have a uh multi-presenter process for this CIP today. So I am going to start off with a little bit of background and then we will have the department directors come and discuss their uh respective projects. So what's this purpose of the CIP? Obviously capital improvement plan addresses capital needs. We do have a five-year plan with a 10-year outlook. And so the CIP does cover first five years plus a a fivefear extension. So a total of 10 years. We use it as a financial planning tool. So we need to know not only what our capital projects are going to be for the year, but how does that affect our annual operating budget? And of course we have to be in compliance with financial policies which I'll talk about briefly. The document is updated annually. Uh we approve the first year of the plan in the proposed budget. The outy years are not included in the approved budget for the year. So if we approve $5 million say for a school to begin um planning and design the rest of the school will come back in future years to have the rest of the project funded. So, it is a one-year funded project, but a five-year outlook. So, what's our process? In September, the city departments provide to the budget department a list of their requests. Um, obviously before September, the budget department sends out the documents that they request to have prepared by the departments. And the document includes not only a description of the project and a plan for funding, but also how is that How are these projects that they're requesting? How does each one affect the

operating budget so that we can include those considerations in our fiscal year operating budget? In October, we start meetings with departments. The budget department, the each department request making the request and the city manager's office. The city manager after meeting with each of the departments will develop a proposed capital improvement plan and lots of considerations go into that proposal. not just what is requested but what is what are the needs what is the funding available so there's lots of considerations that are um used in coordination with this proposed plan in November we start city council review meetings uh internally people refer to them as twoon two meetings and so two city councilors will meet with people from those of us from the budget and finance department but also the city manager to discuss what has been proposed or actually what has been received but also what has been proposed. And then we have a CIP subcommittee. in the CIP subcommittee. Two of your members are involved in that process and they also receive um not two on two but the committee will discuss the projects as they've been proposed by the city manager some of the considerations that have gone into creating the procreating the proposal and then each department can provide their back the background information. Then in December as we are here today, we propose the uh present the proposed CIP to the CLA planning commission. The planning commission will review and or listen to the proposal and then uh consider adoption of the recommended CIP in January. I believe you all have a book of the recommended CIP. It is a draft. It is a plan. So you know there are there is a potential that things

could change and what has been presented to you today and what ends up being adopted. So the recommended CIP presented to city council the first meeting in February and then there's the second meeting in February we do hold a public hearing for uh citizen comments and then the city will adopt the CIP in April. The first year of the C CIP as I mentioned will be approved in the operating budget. Well, it'll be included in the request and then when the budget is um adopted that first year is approved at that time. So what is the role of the planning commission? So the CIP subcommittee as I mentioned does have two members. two of your members. Uh they provide an initial overview, proposed overview of the CIP and ensures that it aligns with the comprehensive plan. Uh considers whether or not it addresses any infrastructure needs. Um then when we come back to the planning commission, you review the proposed CIP and make a recommendation to the city council. So what are some of our CIP priorities? Obviously completing ongoing projects. As I mentioned that first year of the project of the budget, the project is approved then. So if we have approved planning and design for a school, we definitely want to keep that moving forward. And so the next year we will consider funding the rest of the school or some portion of construction for a school. Just using that example. Um, we want to maintain city buildings and facilities. We have lots of aging infrastructure and we definitely want to make sure that we maintain it and keep the historical presence of the city, but also when we build nice facilities, we want to make sure we maintain them. We definitely want to leverage state and federal funds. We do that as much as we can. We definitely are doing that on the roads

portion, but we have lots of grants as well that we incorporate into the capital improvement plan. We want to enhance the quality of life for citizens. That's what they're interested in. That's what they pay their taxes and want to see a result from is are there is their quality of life improving, roads, schools, public safety specifically, but also other things like um parks and recreation. We have to obviously address any regulatory changes. Sometimes we get um unfunded mandates that come from the state. A really big one that you'll hear about is our leadline replacement. And so some of those unfunded mandates we're required to address in the CIP because these are capital improvements. Last but certainly not least is to maintain affordability. Uh we don't want to consider tax increases if possible when we approve this or develop this CIP plan. We want to make use of any surpluses and definitely at the waterfall that is approved by the city um policy where at the end of each budget year if there's a surplus portions of that surplus go into capital reserve for some of these projects. So how much do these projects cost or going to cost over the next five years? So this is each major department here or major uh function of the city general government utilities storm water refues transit fleet you can see uh refuge and fleet neither one have any projects proposed in the five-year portion of the plan but the overall plan is 472 million and I'll tell you the requests were around 800 million so there was a lot of cutting that occurred and you know we don't want to cut but Again, considering we don't want tax increases. We want to

provide quality of life, pay for things like public safety, education, roads without a major impact to our citizens. So, we definitely had to make some cuts to make that happen. So, first general government overview. The planned expenditures are $325 million. The planned revenue, you can see here, general obligation bonds. Right now we have a $35 million limit on how on our annual general bond obligation general obligation bond issuance. So we try to stick to that strictly and that's a part of our financial policies and parameters that we have to work within. We have a general fund and capital reserve that we are making use of. again waterfall policy the or the waterfall provision helped us create some capital reserve but we are also going to have some payo items from the general fund budget annually we have some state and federal grants this went down a lot for this uh coming five-year plan mostly due to roads and we have a little bit coming from route 17 district taxing district and a little bit from the cemetery fund so This lays out percentage-wise what we're looking to spend. Public schools, you can see, is a really big one. There's uh definitely one school completion and then another school is being um another school is starting in that five-year time span. Transportation being the second, we do have a lot of uh road uh feedback grants. So luckily the uh that transportation at $98 million is going to be paid for part partially by the state. Public safety 67 million neighborhood initiative 17 million public buildings part of our infrastructure we have to make sure that we maintain those 15 million and then 12

million part of that quality of life I mentioned for parks and recreation that slide I think was an error. So, where are the funds coming from? I've already mentioned this briefly. Bonds over the five years, $35 million a year, general fund, reserve, and state and federal funding. So, that's all I have for the financial portion of it. Um, I'll come back in just well, in a few minutes, I guess, at the end and give you a brief recap. But the next department or the first department up is parks and recreation. Good afternoon, chairman, vice chairman, members of the planning commission. My name is Mark Furllo. I'm the director of parks and recreation. Uh so our first project that I'll be talking about is our parks capital m parks capital maintenance line item which I believe is one of the most important uh line items because it allows us to maintain our current infra infrastructure. Um, so some of the projects that we have planned in this particular uh project for next year are replacing two of the older boat ramps at Penets Creek Park. Uh, we also recently replaced the um the playground at Lake Meade Park and there was a plan to put in a splash park, but we um we got some grant funding that made that possible. So there'll be some funding in parks capital maintenance to help us finish complete that project. the add the splash park to the kids home playground and then also um expanding the parking lot at Pewville Park. Um those are some of the bigger projects that will be done next year or we're planning to do next year in our capital maintenance line item. Uh $650,000 for the Lonear Lakes Park project. Um this is to pave the northern uh the northern road. Uh a few years ago

we paved all the southern roads at Lonear Lakes Park. This will be phase one of the northern roads. It's going to take us up to about where um there's a little driveway that goes back to Kings uh to Godwin Boulevard. Um that project is under design right now. We're at I think we just submitted 100% plan. So uh this funding will get us through that phase one of the uh paving seaborg coastline trial phase 3C. Uh 3C is probably going to be the most expensive segment of the Seabard Coastline Trail. This segment of the trail will go from the Cedar Lake Shores neighborhood up to Nansen River High School. Uh we'll have to acquire a lot of right rightway for this project and um it's in wetlands so there'll be elevated walkways or boardwalks for portions of this part of the trail which are really driving the cost up. Fortunately, we got a raise grant from the federal government. Um, we're in the process of uh completing all the paperwork and the agreements. Um, this funding will be to match that along with a transportation alternatives grant that we got. The Great Dismal Swamp Park. This project is to construct a park uh off of White Marsh Road near the Jericho Ditch entrance to the Dismal uh Dismal Swamp, Great Dismal Swamp. Uh this project was done in conjunction with the Dismal Swamp. uh we the uh the refuge and um the city purchased two pieces of property right next to each other with the intention of the the city's intent was to build a playground and a picnic shelter and the refuge was going to build an education center. Um so the um playground and the picnic shelter would function as a city

park most of the time, but it would also complement the education center. So when the swamp was brought school children in for education programs, they'd have somewhere to go and eat their lunch and maybe plan the swings and stuff. So Holly Cemetery improvements. Uh so we got design money this year. So this is to um open up the last section of uh Holly Lawn Cemetery. Uh in order to open that section up, we have to construct some roads and um those roads are under design right now. The 210 will be the funding to actually construct those roads. JFK field lighting. Um so the new JFK middle school was constructed on one of our softball fields and a football field. So part of that project to um build a new JFK, they're building new fields, but they don't really have a use for lights. So, but we use those fields in the evenings for our softball programs and also for um uh pop one or football. So um we really need to have lights and we need a concession stand and restrooms for our types of uses. So this funding will be for us to allow this funding will allow us to add to come in and add lights after the fields are constructed by the by Suffach public schools and also a concession stand and restroom building gateway beautifification. This funding is to make improvements along the downtown corridors. These are corridors that lead into downtown. Um, the first two years of funding were focused on the East Washington corridor. Uh, future years of funding will focus on the Carolina Road Corridor, the Holland Road Corridor, and the Main

Street Corridor. Holyneck Recreation Center. The $210,000 is to perform a feasibility study to look at a location for a future recreation center in the Holy Neck Burrow and a regional park. And finally, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. We have $300,000 to look at constructing to construct a memorial to Dr. King at Peanut Park. As many of you may know, uh Dr. King gave a speech at Peanut Park. And so this would this memorial would recognize the fact that he was he visited Dr. King visited Suffach and gave a speech there at the park. And I think uh so in these are some of the outyear projects. Um trail enhancements. We get $60,000 every other year to make improvements on the trails inside of internal to parks. Uh and then uh $100,000 to do a master plan for the Brady Marina's site where we're building the boat ramp. and then 823 to for Sleepy Hole Park to add a dog park and um some basketball courts and then four $545,000 in in FY30 to build construct a park in the Jericho neighborhood and 270 to do some master planning for the trail 757 used to be the boat trail or the birthplace of America trail and then $360,000 in FY31 one for the uh to do some design for an aquatic an indoor aquatic center and $840,000 to do some design to add a gymnasium at the new Bennett Creek Recreation Center.

Thank you. I was going to ask you you folks will be available for some questions following the presentation, correct? Yes. Thank you. Yes. after everybody finishes, let us get through this monstrosity first, but this monster here, but let yeah, we'll be ready to answer the questions uh at the end of the presentation. Um Gary Jones, good evening. Uh afternoon, uh commissioner, um commission, I'm sorry, let me start over. Good afternoon, chairman, vice chair, members of the commission. Let me pick out who I am. I'm incognito, so that's good. [laughter]

Um Gary Jones, interim deputy city manager. I want to cover a couple of categories today, but I'll start with public buildings uh and facilities. Uh very similar to parks and recreation, uh capital maintenance, public buildings, capital maintenance, $7.1 million over five years, the first five years. Uh this fund um uh provides for the renovation, repairs, system upgrades to city buildings and facilities. uh $1.7 million for fiscal year 27 which includes funding for security upgrades uh exterior restoration of the visitor center Rick's folly and the seabboard train station museum we typically this is typically uh a $ 1.35 million annual effort as you see in that first year we have a few extra projects in there to cover mainly security upgrades and uh the uh the visitor center upgrades that included in the first Uh second up is $400,000 for the Godwin courts building improvements. Uh this is for the enter enhancements to the courts building funding is program for fiscal year 28 uh through 31 for additional renovations and the construction of a courtroom on the third floor of the courthouse. Uh the first phase of this project is underway. We've just started it is the renovation of the first floor of the recently acquired Virginia pilot building. Um, this is to house the Commonwealth Attorney's office, which is currently in the courthouse, to relocate them to the first floor, as well as relocating some of the uh police administrative offices there. Morgan Library use renovation. As you know, we're about to wrap up construction in the spring on the new downtown Suffuk Library. Uh, as a result of that, the old Morgan Library, which has been in service since 1985, I believe it is, uh, will have to take on a new use. We're going to use $125,000 to look at a feasibility study for how to utilize best utilize this in the most

efficient way to meet some of the needs of the city. And I'll bring uh Chief Dickens up for public safety.

Good afternoon everyone. Good to see each of you. I appreciate the opportunity to come visit with you today and uh talk to you a little bit about fire's plans in the CIP for primarily the first five years. Uh we'll start off with fire apparatus replacements. Uh we're requesting $32.6 million over the first five years of the CIP for replacing fire apparatus. Uh by that we mean fire engines, tankers, uh ladder trucks, rescue trucks, the larger apparatus that you see. Uh the replacement plan would address uh units that have exceeded their useful life. In FY27, uh it includes $1.5 million for one fire engine replacement. Moving on to ambulance replacements, we have $7.7 million over the first five years to replace ambulances that have exceeded their useful life. Uh we typically run an ambulance uh five years in frontline status and two years in reserve. Uh and that pretty much takes us to the end of that useful life. Uh backing up just a moment to the fire apparatus. Uh we strive to run those for 20 years. Uh 15 years front line, five years in reserve, and typically by that time they are uh reaching the end of their useful life. So FY27, we're requesting $ 1.9 million for three ambulance replacements. Next up is the station 4 replacement. Uh that's the fire station on the corner of Lake Kilby Road and Pitchkettle Road. Uh built in the late 50s. Uh we have a request for $9.5 million in FY27 for the design and construction of a new fire station which will include an ambulance. The station currently does not have an ambulance and has one firet truck. This would replace the undersized facility which has exceeded its useful life.

Next up is station 9 upgrades. Uh station 9 is uh the Chuckatuck fire station in 300 Kings Highway. We're requesting $1.4 4 million in FY27 for building upgrades to that station uh which previously served as the uh headquarters for the Chuckatuk Volunteer Fire Department. Moving on to self-contained breathing apparatus or SCBAS. This the uh breathing air apparatus that you see firefighters wearing into hazardous environments. Uh requesting $2.2 2 million in FY28 to replace uh SCBAs that our firefighters wear and they are recommended for replacement within 10 years and we're getting close to the end of that 10ear cycle. Next project is a breathing air system uh which is actually a system located within a fire station to fill those SCBA cylinders requesting $120,000 in FY30 for replacement of that breathing air system at station 3 on White Marsh Road. Finally, that brings us to uh station 10, Bennett's pasture renovation, requesting $2.5 million in FY30 to modernize the station there on Bennett's pasture road and driver uh through site and building improvements. Thank you for the opportunity and I appreciate your time and your consideration. And with that, I will invite Chief Buoie up. Good afternoon everyone. Mr. Chairman, vice chairman, commissioners, I appreciate the opportunity to stand up here and represent the police department today in our CIP bids. The first one I want to

talk about is a police training center in Wyville. Those of you that are familiar with it, um it's the former WHville Community Center. We're asking for $1.2 million in supplemental funding for fiscal year 27 for building modifications and site improvements at that former Wayville Community Center for reuse as a police training center to include a K-9 training center. The purpose for that and the use for that is that we often have to pay to attend training elsewhere. You know, it's my goal and the police department's goal to try to be as self-sufficient as we can, not having to go outside to get assistance for training. By having this facility, it's going to allow us the opportunity to not only conduct our own training, but to host training in the future, which will give more opport when you host the training, you get more opportunities for your personnel to attend that training for free. So, in the whole scheme of things um down the road, it would be a big money saver for us. the second uh pro project that we have and uh I really I I really should be standing up here telling you that uh we want to have the Holland Road precinct 4, but I here I am asking for precinct 3. We are we haven't built a police precinct in the city of Suffach since um the year 2003 almost 23 years ago. The population in the city of Suffach in 2003 was around 73,000 people. Now I think the population we're pushing around 103,000 people. So 30,000 new residents have come to the city of Suffuk and um we in that amount of time we haven't put a new police precinct in play. We're asking for 900k or 900,000 in fiscal year 27 for the design to start and then another 9.1 million over the next couple of years to complete construction on a 13,500

square foot police precinct. That would include a community meeting place and a wellness area for police officers. what it's going to do for in the placement of this precinct. What we're looking for is in the Route 58460 corridor. The growth continues to go west in our city and it would increase it would reduce our response times for officers and increase visibility in that area right now that if a situation occurs in downtown Holland and our closest police officer is may be coming from at downtown at best. So, it's going to reduce the our response times to get a police officer there quicker. And this growth is coming and know it's here. Route 58 corridor. We've seen it with the construction with the roadways, uh, Port 460, it's here. And, um, in order for us to get a handle on, to keep up with the growth, then it's it's time for us to start um, building new police precincts. Uh, I see our city as a five precinct city and I'm asking for number three. The the fourth going on the route to Goblin Boulevard corridor and the fifth somewhere out towards the Wyville corridor. So, in order to keep up and provide the service that we we provide now, crime rates are down. Uh, everything is going well, but in order to continue to provide that service, we are in desperate need of this third precinct. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Chief. I just said thank you.

Good afternoon, chairman, vice chairman, members of the planning commission. I'm Greg Benton, the director of public works. I have 21 projects to go through with you and then come back for 10 more. So, first up, Godwin Boulevard improvements, 1.25 million in FY27 and 5 million over FY29 through FY30. Uh, this will be a widening of a 1.5 mile span of Godwin Boulevard. Uh, uh, from sorry about that. Uh, from the 460 5813 bypass all the way to Kings Fork Road. Uh this is a combination of state, federal, and local funds. This project will take four lanes and turn them into six lanes. Next is Route 17 Bridge Roadway widening 9.2 2 million over FY27 to30 to widen and extend travel lanes in both directions, add and improve turn lanes, replace signals at four intersections, and provide bike accommodations from just west of Winward Lane to Harborview Boulevard. Again, this combination of state, federal, and local funds. Next, Shoulder Hill phase two and three, 17.8 8 million over FY27 through 28 to widen Shoulder Hill Road from Lakeok Lane to Pewville Road and also include a multi-use path as well as a four-lane divided roadway. And this project here, these two phases we would want to have as a single award. Next, I will shift to intersections and interchanges. Godwin interchange 1.75 million in local funds in FY27 to match 12.9 million in state and federal which we have already

received. Project will reconfigure the US 58 ramps at Godwin Boulevard and construct additional turn lanes. This project here was previously a DDI or diverging diamond intersection. However, due to cost, we've had to rechange the design. Next is the East Constance Road, Wilroy Road intersection, 700K and FY27 and 2.2 main and FY28 to construct a right turn lane at Wilroy Road onto East Constants Road. Next, Milroy Road progress intersection 700K and FY27 and 1.8 8 and FY28 for turn lane and signal upgrades. This is to prevent backups due to a left turning vehicle that cannot make the turn due to a train being uh going through the railroad tracks at that time. Further betterments in the city miscellaneous roadway improvements. So this is 200k per year of nonvot work to get after missing sidewalk segments, replace wooden curbs and other decorative enhancements. Townpoint sidewalk roughly a million dollars in FY27 install sidewalks along section of Townpoint Road in Pewsville. North Suffach connector 750K and FY27. The study uh will be to develop a new two-lane roadway alignment connecting Nansman Parkway to Shers Hill Road in the pro in proximity of Suffach Meadows neighborhood. This project will avoid two railroad crossings.

Next, uh Hunter Court sidewalk 231K and FY27. install a sidewalk along the entrance at Hunter Court adjacent to the fire station uh property at uh College Boulevard, Harborview Boulevard. Pedestrian improvements 350K and route 17 taxing taxing district funds programmed in FY27 to modify and add ADA curb ramps. Audible pedestrian signals at signali audible sorry pedestrian signals at signalized intersections crosswalk updates and sidewalk connections. Lastly for this slide, Prudin Boulevard, Route 460 improvements provides road widening, median construction, sidewalks, and closed drainage system along the Prudin Boulevard, Route 460 to the bypass. Previous funding was 31.1 million in state funding and 6.2 million in developer contributions. 92.9 million in state and local funds programmed in FY29 through 32 for construction. Speeding up a little bit here. Uh we are looking to do uh dredging um looking for funds in 28 through 31 for dredging of Bennett Creek. Sidewalks sidewalk signal system upgrades. This is just upgrades throughout the city. Looking for that funding in FY29. Electric car charging stations in FY30. Bridge Road College Drive left turn lane. That's 2.9 million in FY30 and 9.3 in outy years to provide an additional southbound left turn lane and modification to the traffic signal product. Uh project is programmed with 100% federal funding. Suburban Drive sidewalk. Uh this 850k in federal and local funds in FY30 to provide connection from the Suffach

Seabore Coastline Trail along Suburban Drive. And as you heard previously from parks and wreck, uh these uh projects work in tandem to make sure there's no gaps. Railroad crossing improvements. This is to make better rideability as you cross our railroad tracks throughout the city. Carolina Road connector 300K and FY31 for a study for a new connector route between Carolina Road Route 13 bypass uh to Hoser Road. Will Wilroy Road widening 200K and FY31 for preliminary design study to widen Wilroy Road from the base of Route 58 ramp extending northeast 1.27 miles to the Nansman Wilroy flyover. Route 58 IT sensors. IT is intelligent transportation system. It's a 3.2 million in federal funding program for FY31 for these systems which would include fiber optic conduit cameras and variable message boards to improve traffic flow and safety. With that, I will turn it over to Gary.

Thank you, Mr. Benton. Uh it's me once again. I'll be covering the next two categories, which is public schools and then uh neighborhood initiatives. Uh starting with public schools. Uh the first project is Northern Shores Elementary School addition, $3.2 million in fiscal year 27 to complete construction of an additional two-story wing uh restrooms and cafeteria extension to Northern Shores Elementary School. The uh project will provide additional student capacity and eliminate the uh dreaded mobile units. As you aware, this particular project uh the school had a groundbreaking ceremony back last month to initiate construction of this project. Elephants Fork Elementary School u $59 million over fiscal years fiscal years 27 and 29 to build a new 800 student replacement elementary school. The current school is uh over 40 years old. We're currently in the process of nailing down a site for that particular project. School administration offices $7.6 million uh over fiscal years 27 through 29 to address the space needs of school administration office. Summer public schools currently leases space in the professional building downtown. School's major repairs and systems replacements, $18 million over fiscal years 28 through 31 for repair and replacement of heating and cooling systems, roof systems, storm water drainage infrastructure, as well as testing and abatement of hazardous materials. Nansman River High School addition, $42 million over fiscal years 30 through 32 to provide for the construction of a two-story addition to the Nansman River High School. Below you'll see a chart

there for some Iyear projects with the schools um including college and career academy center at prudent $3.5 million. Kilbury Shores Elementary School replacement 800 student replacement school uh $72 million for that. Forest Glenn Middle School replacement 800 students 84.7 million for that. Nasman Parkway Elementary replacement 800 students 73.8 8 million for that. John Yates Middle School replacement, 10,000 students, 87.75 million dollars for that. And then a early childhood center, uh, in the former, which will be the former Elephants Fork Elementary School, $18 million. Next category, neighborhood initiatives. Uh, the first one is neighborhood improvements. $1.5 million per year over the first five years to provide closed drainage and street improvements in the Lloyd Place, Rosemont, and Pleasant Hill neighborhoods, as well as funding for future projects to be determined as identified through neighborhood needs assessments. Uh as I mentioned these these drainage projects will consist of installation of drainage pipe uh curbing gutter and pavement in the three neighborhoods I mentioned in the Lord Place uh neighborhood on Halifax Street. Uh we're looking at improvements there as well as in the Rosemont neighborhood which will include uh Fourth Street, Fifth Street, and Ninth Street improvements as and then in the Pleasant Hill neighborhood on Web Street, drainage improvements in that neighborhood. Open space improvements, $250,000 per year over the first five years for property acquisition and improvements such as neighborhood parks and other quality of life enhancements.

Downtown implementation plan initiatives, $9 million over the first five years for projects identified in the downtown master plan. Projects include streetscape improvements, public art and mural projects, interior and exterior improvements to the Phoenix Bank building, Sunrust building, bank, I'm sorry, Sunrust Bank building, uh, redevelopment, as well as wayfinding gateway improvements and real estate acquisition in the downtown. I'll now bring up Mr. Martell for public utilities.

Thank you, Mr. Jones. Good afternoon, chair, vice chair, members of planning commission. I'm Paul Retell, director of public utilities to touch on some projects related to our water and sewer systems. So, for the five-year overview, we have planned expenditures just a touch over $125 million with revenues, which are a combination of revenue bonds as well as cash uh balancing that out. So, we've divided this up into some broad categories. So I'm going to start with the water source development water treatment plant expansion category. Roughly $43.8 million over the first five years. So some of the projects that are included into that bucket of projects are the surface water treatment plant expansion. So I've spoken about that before. That's the G. Robert House water treatment plant owned by the city of Suffach and Chuckatuck. Uh we're expanding that starting the design work to expand that for 5 million gallons a day. Also included in that is the groundwater permit renewal. We have a groundwater permit with the uh with the with the state of Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. So we're going through a renewal process with that. We are planning on doing a an evaluation on our EDR well. That EDR the mouthful word there is the electrodialysis reversal well. That is where we one of our three large production wells where we draw water out of the aquifer. The EDR well is located at the treatment plant site. We also have some funding in there to rehabilitate our second of the two large three large production wells. That's the Reeds Ferry well. And then also included in that bucket of projects is what's something called the water source development charge. That's essentially uh funding that we have for the reserve water that we buy from the city of city of Norfol. Buy water from the city of Norfol. It gets pumped up north to our treatment plant into the Lonear Lakes and then we treat it at our water treatment plant. Second bucket of projects, water distribution and

transmission main expansion, $43.3 million over the first five years is to start the construction of the pitchk road transmission main extension as well as looking at extensions out in the western Suffach area along route 460 with respect to additional water capacity out there with transmission mains and a water uh a new water elevated tank underwater system upgrades. So this would be in more of the distribution level of the conveyance of water 20.2 million over the first five years to replace aging water meters, water service lines and address regulatory requirements. And I'm going to stop there for a second when I talk about addressing regulatory requirements. We heard before and I think I spoke uh to this body a year ago when we spoke about the EPA mandated lead service line replacement program. So, if you recall, the water service line is that piece of piping, small diameter piping that's between the city main and a dwelling or a business. The EPA is mandated that by 2037 that if we've identified any lead constructed water service lines within our distribution system, those have to be identified and removed. That's a very heavy lift with respect to CIP funds. We've budgeted almost 20 million, $30 million actually over 10 years to get that accomplished. Uh right now there's not a lot of funding floating around out there at the federal government level to in order to accomplish that. Right now we are in the midst of completing what's called our lead service line inventory. We have contracted with a a a firm that is targeting various places around the city with a vacuum excavation unit where we go and we actually excavate on both sides of the water meter to dig down, excavate down and determine what the construction of the water service lines are. And then we feed that back into a

computer model. And that shows through the city where we would expect to have lead service lines. and that would then inform the program to replace those lines. Also included in the water system upgrades are find and fix repairs. We make use of our two large contracts with uh with contractors so that if for their water service line replacements, not water service line, actually water distribution line repairs that we cannot handle with our own in-house staff and equipment, we go ahead and farm those out to a contractor to get those done expeditiously. Moving on to a couple other buckets of CIP spending. Sanitary sewer extension program in $300,000 every other year to extend sanitary sewer. This is into existing developed areas that are currently without sewer service. And then moving down to sanitary sewer system upgrades, 17.6 million over the first five years. That's for management operations and maintenance. So that's the MOM acronym. That's a regulatory required program where we pay very close attention to the management operation of our sewer system to protect against sanitary sewer overflows. Our sanitary sewer overflows or SSOs have dropped dramatically over the last 15 years as a result of this program. And then we have find and fix repairs similar to our water system where we rely on contractors to do the more complicated and time-sensitive repairs to the sewer system as well as some of the pump station electrical and mechanical upgrades and then also some sanitary sewer neighborhood improvements that I'm going to turn it over for storm water. All right. Uh, storm water. So, our five-year overview, our plan expenditures are 18.4 million. Planned

revenue is sitting at 12.6. And then we go into our storm water fund with an additional 5.8 for a total of the 18.4 to cover our expenditures. The next two slides are our drainage improvement projects. So I will summarize however they are in uh chronological order of how they are looked to be accomplished and the year of funding that you see there uh some projects may require design and some may not. So each one is unique but they all are after improving our drainage throughout our city in these specific areas. So citywide that's 500,000 per year that we develop a plan and then downtown gets a thousand 100,000 per year. Next FY 2728 focus on Wyville Village 27 through 29 Woodro South Suffach 28 through 30 Oakland drainage. Next 28 Wilkins Drive. Again, 28 Jefferson Street, followed in 29 and 31 by Highland Village, and 30 through 31 would be Oldtown. Shifting gears to transit, our bus system. Again, our plan expenditures 2.8 million. Transfer from the general fund is uh 2.6 6 million and state and federal is just under 200k and this is after our new facility as shown on the screen here. This is our transit operations facility that uh is to be constructed at Carolina Road. So 2.8 million in local and state funds in FY27

for construction of that facility and we are looking for a contract award in early 26. So, we looked forward to breaking ground on that facility. And this is where we will house our buses, um, garage them, store them, perform their maintenance, clean them so that we can provide that transit service to the city. I will turn it over to Stephanie. I am really glad that the department heads were here to present all their projects to you. I don't think my voice would have lasted. So, uh, thank you to all the department heads that were here to present this. Uh, also a special thanks to the budget department, Tracy Dickens and her staff did a lot of work to put this together. To summarize our CIP planning, the document again is a plan and not a budget updated annually through this process that I've already discussed intended to identify needs and guide our budget recommendations. Of course, that budget not only is for this CIP but operating as well. We will hold a public hearing and the proposed one one year of the proposed funding like I mentioned it will be in the recommended operating capital budget. the next steps CIP presentation review and adoption by the planning commission. So today um sorry January 20th will be the next CIP uh presentation to you and then February 4th we will do a CIP presentation to city council and February 18th the public hearing hearing and city council adoption. So with that if you have questions we are here to answer. Thanks, Miss Wells. Um, commissioners, uh, Nav's at time. Um, I we had two members that served on the committee.

Um, Commissioner Creek Moore and our vice chairman. Uh, would y'all I'll let you all start off with any comments you might have. I I know we've we've had some uh some a little bit of grief over the process over the last several years, but I'll let you I'll let you two guys lead off first. So um the only comment I guess I have to do that. The only comment uh I have on this is that when we met for the subcommittee [clears throat] school board uh presented uh their request since then my understanding is that they've had a meeting with the city. Gary is Gary still here. [clears throat] that this meeting with the city uh indicated uh different um projects that were coming along. My question is did any of that change since our subcommittee process went?

Nothing's changed in the in the presentation by the school since then? No changes. No changes. Okay. Thank you, D. I brought this one slide back up because I did want to mention that these uh years 6 through 10 outyear projects are the requests by the schools. Um we did leave them in years 6 through 10 uh as presented initially. So whether or not any of that changes will depend on council. So can you leave that up? [clears throat]

Yes. I had to get on the one second. Um because um for some reason public schools never seems to show up for us. I don't know. They they show up for city council. I don't I guess we're not so important. Um but I have to say this over and over again because I just don't like the way it's being done. Mr. Jones, can you please step to the podium to take his his uh his question? Um, I asked this question uh Mr. Gordon at the CIP presentation to uh subcommittee level and I wasn't at all um fond of his answer and then when I got home and started looking up stuff I got even less fond of his answer. Please help me understand since we have an elementary school at called Elephants Fork and we are talking about that it being an 800 person facility upcoming in out years and we also have Kilby Shores Elementary School which has the same need as Elephants Fork. Please help me understand why it's not possible to combine those two efforts and have one facility. um cost less money, uh get more done. My answer, please don't give me the same answer he gave me.

Commissioner H, why you want to ask me that question? Because I need to understand [laughter] and I need it on the record that it makes sense to me. Well, not to anybody. I'll put it this way. I can't speak for this school board's request, why they make the request the way they make their request. Uh I can't speak to the uh the judgment calls they make on how they want to do their schools. All we can take in is what they do requests of us and evaluate it from there. To answer your question from a another standpoint, can schools be combined? Yes, schools can be combined, but that's that's not the request we have here. Okay. Thank you. But I had to ask it. Okay.

Commissioners, any other questions at this point? I might I might comment that obviously this is just the uh presentation. Uh we were presented with the hard copy that you can take home and study this between uh now and next month's meeting and it will be brought back in a briefer form next month I presume and um and we will also have some opportunities to to raise questions or make any suggestions etc. So anyone else have any questions at this time? Yes, Commissioner. I I do. Um Um Mr. Jones, you're on the hot seat. Yes. Yes. Please, please stay. Okay. Go get question.

Um I have a question that you briefed on for the for the schools. If can we bring back up that slide on the schools here? Was that it about the SAO building? Oh, school administration vote. Yes, that one. Okay. Okay. Where we at? Is that the one you're Okay. Yes, this one. Okay. This 7.6 million for u fiscal year 27. Is this based off of the decision possibly for uh the riverband project? This particular number is based on the estimate that was put together for that particular project. Yes.

Oh, okay. I just wanted just wanted that clarification. And one more clarification. Um, Elephants Fork Elementary, when can a decision be made on the land purchase? That's to be determined. That's that's an ongoing um search and ongoing negotiations. At this time, I can't speak to when that will actually happen, but we look to hope to hope to have that wrapped up in the very near future. All right. Okay. Thank you. Uh, could I get um Mr. Mark Furlow for parks and recrecks? You certainly can. [laughter]

Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. Um, thank you for your um presentation. Uh, I just have something that came up maybe a couple months ago about improvement to the baseball fields at at the elementary uh to be used by parks and wrecks. Which elementary school? Uh, Creek Side Elementary. Let's just take that one for example. Um, I'm not sure what what the question is. the question uh a couple months ago we talked about making improvement to the baseball fields.

So we we met with Suffach public schools and um we had some conversation with them. We we looked at it wasn't just Creekide. We looked at a number of schools and we really felt like um Kings Fork Middle School would give us kind of the the most bang for the buck to do improvements there. Um but the schools unfortunately they didn't they weren't interested in in um entering into a joint use agreement for Kings Fork Middle School. So, we we haven't gone back and looked at any of the other schools yet, but we have started having some conversations with them.

All right. Um are there any improvements to the Ciphus U public pool? I didn't see that in the CIP. Uh well, we just did a major renovation to that two maybe three years ago. Okay. Um so no, we don't have any any other plans for renovations for that. All right. And I would like to see this lake me splash pad done. Yes. Uh so would I. All right. I'm going to work very hard to make sure that happens. All right. Thank you. Okay. Could I get the fire chief next? I'm glad you guys stayed. [laughter]

Yes, ma'am. Uh yes, sir. Um being prior Navy and I was a duty fire marsher in the Navy, uh fire uh is is near and dear to my heart and I would love to see that Lake Kilby uh fire station done. So um you you have my support on that getting that replaced. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. All right. Yes, ma'am. Let's Who's next? Uh, Mr. Benton. He just left, didn't he?

Is he here? Okay. Public works. Y'all see we have lots of roads improvement, but couple things I didn't see in this in this presentation. Kings Highway got any information on that? Uh Kings Highway, that one is uh you're talking about the bridge. Yes, Kings Highway bridge.

Uh that one is under uh uh being brought up to 30% design. And then we've also reached out to the Coast Guard to make sure that the clearance of that bridge meets their standards and so we are pushing forward on this. There is a price tag of 200 million on that project right there which uh we don't have the funding for right now. All right. Um I I mean I understand we don't have the funding. Uh can we please get that back on the paper so we don't forget about this um Godwin Bridge 17? I mean sometime in the future this has to be addressed of getting getting that bridge expanded. So I just I just want to make make note of that.

Copy. And uh keep filling these potholes that's going on around the city. All right. We had a pothole blitz and uh continued that for the next week or two right after every uh ice snowstorm we're out there.

Oh yeah. Yep. I I appreciate that one. And also um I appreciate the sidewalks and I'm quite sure Vice Mayor uh appreciates that too with these sidewalks. That's his project. Just making sure I don't leave anyone out. All right. um CIP quality of life and let's take this serious quality of life. That's all I'm going say about that for right now till next year.

Thank you, Commissioner. Certainly

this the the your questions um commissioner reminded me of something that I wanted to point out to the commission. So in the capital improvements there's actually two documents that we combine into one. There's a capital improvements program that's for the first five years and the capital improvements plan which is for the full 10 years. The according to the code the um planning commission only covers the first five years. So that's why you'll see things like the driver replacement bridge not in the presentation because they're outside of what this body would consider. So I just wanted to clear that up because it gets confusing because we put both in the same document. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Any other comment concerns? Um okay. Um I I thought I'd say this. Um um several years ago uh when this came before us, we actually um to for the new members, the we can offer a recommendation or suggestions to city council when this comes back to us next month. if there's something that the planning commission determined that um we could still approve the presentation as presented, but we could send the recommendation to city council since it's their final decision on everything. So, if there was something we saw that we wanted to suggest that the council take a look at, that can be done uh at our meeting. So, legally, we as a planning commission can offer a suggestion for a change to the presentation. With that being said, uh we did that several years ago, uh I think it was during COVID when uh some of the school kids were were not able to access the internet and were having to go to the schools and sit in the parking lots. And we made a recommendation city council that they put some money in the budget for extending uh that service to the outlying areas. And at the city council meeting, they actually did approve that. I didn't uh there were some federal funds came before we actually spent the money, but um just as an example, this body can make a recommendation to city council for consideration in in changes to this. That being said, um in in being here for 10 years and looking over 10 of these, uh the process has changed from time to time and I'm I'm glad we've got a good hard copy here we can take and and look at everything between now and the next meeting. One thing that uh continually has come up over the years that's kind

of been stuck in my crawl is when we have new developments coming forward. Um the comp plan as you know extended um the areas that are are subject to or that we're saying we would like to see development come in and look at these areas. So we're inviting developers to come in and look at some of these additional areas on the different corridors. Um but we we and we fight this over traffic and safety on on just about everything that comes before us for reasonzoning. And that is that there's no money that has been spent to improve roads like Manning Road like we had on the last month. Um and um [snorts] uh let's see, it was um u we've had a couple that came up where these sub u um these roads are substandard and can't handle the additional traffic and there doesn't seem to be any way to to satisfy that. We do ask for the developers to provide turn, stop lightss, etc. sometimes on on different projects, but we just don't do anything to get ahead of it. And it would look like to me and I I'll just ask everybody to think about this between now and next month um that and we've done this on some other things like the U East Suffach area where we put a million a half dollars in a year for a period of like five years to improve the drainage etc in some of our areas uh across the city that should have been looked after probably 25 years ago and weren't. But maybe consider that uh and I know state funding is is also a consideration whenever you're doing any road works etc. But think about the possibility of looking and saying let's let's set aside in the capital improvement plan some funds for improvement to these secondary

or thirdary roads that are nothing but buggy paths out in there where we're asking developers to come in and and put 300 500 homes. So, uh, it would be a way to maybe build up some funds to where, uh, we can maybe get ahead of it, uh, in future years, saying, okay, if we know that this particular area is going to be developed, I know we had a one that's coming out on, I think it's Lake Prince Road where there's some severe issues with the with the uh, road improvements that are being required, you could maybe get ahead of just some thought between now and then to u to set some funds aside over a period of years so that we can maybe get ahead of that so that when we have a subdivision come here that the infrastructure has basically been started or gotten into place where we are ready for it and we're not having safety and and traffic concerns that maybe get ahead of just for some thought. That's all I got to say on that. st.

Yes, ma'am. I just wanted to try to help by providing a little bit of focus for when you do go through the CIP plan. Uh Mr. Hutchkins did mention that you will be looking at the five-year and whether or not to approve the or propo make a recommendation on the first five years, but in addition to that, you're mentioning roads. So, that's uh right on par with what you would be looking at. Does the CIP address critical infrastructure needs and how does it align with the comprehensive plan? So, just something to help help you as you're looking through the CIP and what you may want to recommend.

Thank you very much. Any anyone else have any other questions before we move on? And u I I ask you to review the information that's been provided today. Uh it's it's a lot of detailed information. I want to thank each and every one of the department heads for for coming here and taking your time out of your very busy schedules to meet with us and enlighten us with the way that we need to go over the future years. So, I do appreciate that. We're about finished. If you have just a few minutes and you could hang around, we do have a few new members of the planning commission. Might be a good opportunity for them to be able to step down and and introduce themselves to you and say hi. So, if you if you can do that, we'll we'll just move on along. Uh, Meg, the the next item is the status report from the city council meeting of November the 19th.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. And I will say that Greg passed the suffic litmus test of having to say Willroy Road multiple times. [laughter]

Um, yes, at the November 19th city council meeting, there were four items that went forward. One actually got approved. Um, the others had some different outcomes. Um so we had reszoning requests RZN 202413 which was Lake Point also known as Manning Road. Um that got continued to the city council meeting um of January 21st. um reszoning request 2025 RZN 2025007 um which is the Bennett Creek uh health and rehab center that did get approved with the um proposed profers uh conditional use permit CP 202504 which is the Zeal Blue commercial dog kennel. um that did get deferred until the city council meeting of um February 18th to give the applicant some time to make some adjustments to their application. And then finally, RZN reszoning requests RZN 2025004 um the Riverbend project um otherwise known as the VOTE uh site, the former VOTE site on North Main Street. That also got deferred until the city council meeting tomorrow uh December 17th. Uh so those are the results of the city council meeting.

Thank you, May. Um moving on along. Uh we've just about finished the agenda. So I'll ask anyone if you have any comments. I'll start to my left. Anyone have any comments? These are closing comments. Yes, ma'am. Oh, okay. Uh happy holidays to everyone um up on the D. Uh, thank you, Miss Kina. Um, we held out, no one fell asleep. And happy holidays to everyone in the city of Suffukk. Looking forward to seeing you in uh, 2026.

Mr. create more. I'd like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year uh for the holidays and uh and there are the other holidays that are going on. appreciate the support of u of all of the you know we we served on this subcommittee and it's a lot of work that goes into putting all this to uh together particularly for the budget office of the city and coordinating all of that with the different departments and we we all appreciate that and uh to keep us all straight uh financially. So um we'll we'll see you next year. Thank you, Vice Chairman.

Um, just as a member of the CIP subcommittee this time, I would like to first say personally thank you to the the department heads, the budget folks, cuz you guys had to do a lot of work to get us to get us where we are today and you had to do even more work to get me to understand it. So, for that, [laughter] I appreciate you guys. Um, happy holidays to each of you and wake up on January 1st, 2026 thinking about being good to somebody. Thank you, Commissioner. Go ahead.

Uh yeah, of course, merry Christmas uh to all my friends and neighbors. I would like to give a shout out to James uh our our fire chief uh Mike who has been with his daughter Lauren in Raleigh uh for the last couple of months. Uh she's really made a great rebound and we're just thankful and and and that our prayers are continued to to heal her and it looks like she may have a discharge uh before the holidays. So, we're thankful for that. I wanted to mention that as well. Thank you, Commissioner Goodman. Uh, so I will say merry Christmas and have a very prosperous new year.

Thank you very much. Um, I will just say this. Love your neighbor. No matter what religion, faith, belief, all human beings, anti-semitism has no place in a civilized world. Have a happy holiday season and keep your family safe during the coming year. Once again, thank you to the staff for all you do for us all year long. Um, Kina, uh, we can't do anything without you, dear. So, so if if you decide to go anywhere, we're all leaving. So, so thank you all and have a happy happy new year coming forward. See you next year.