Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you.

All right. I would like to call the Planning Board meeting August 13th, 2026 to order. Do I have a motion to adopt the agenda?

Yes. I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda.

Second.

All right, and can we have a vote? All in favor? opposed all right agenda has been adopted on to the approval of the meeting minutes so first we have a revision of the May 14th minutes from the May 14th planning board minutes where we had a attendance error So we have amended those meetings and adjusted the attendance so everybody is in compliance with attendance policies. Do I have a motion to approve the revised May 14 planning board?

Moved.

And do I have a second? I'll second that. And let's have a vote. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. That passes the revised minutes of May 14th. Now we'll move on to the July 9th Planning Board meeting minutes. Do I have a motion to approve?

I make a motion to approve the July 9th Planning Board meeting minutes.

All right. And do I have a second?

I second.

And let's have a vote. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. The July 9th planning board meetings are approved as well. Do we have any public comment?

Yes, sir.

All right, we're flying through the agenda right now. We have two items for consideration. First, a P2610 major site plan at 1222 NC Highway 210 East for the town of Surf City. Jeremy, you want to discuss that?

Sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the planning board. P-26-10 is a major site plan submitted by the town of Surf City. This is phase two of the public utilities complex, a town project. News before you on the screen and in your agenda location at 1222 NC Highway 210 East. This is directly behind the new customer service facility that just had its recent grand opening on the same property. Again, the applicant's town of Sur City is requesting approval of a 42,000 square foot government facility. For equipment and material storage, it is made up of three proposed buildings with a fourth building planned for future development on a total of 6.17 acres, currently zoned G1 Governmental District. This is a by-right development in the G1 District and comes before you only because the size classifies it as a major site plan as it is over 20,000 square feet total. Before you on the screen and in your agenda is the zoning map that shows the property is zoned G1. Properties to the east along H2O Place are also zoned G1, bordered by property to the north zoned Mixed Use. That is Mr. Turco, Mike Turco's development, the resale and office building complex. Across NC Highway 210 from this property is property zone residential performance within Pender County's jurisdiction and one property in the town of Surf City's jurisdiction zoned multifamily cluster currently used for single family residential. Properties to the west also lie within Pender County's jurisdiction and are zoned RP residential performance. Again, this is a by right use in the zoning district. As proposed, a warehouse facility or government facility as such as this requires one parking space per 1,000 square feet. Most vehicle parking and equipment will be indoors or within the gravel area as shown for you on their site plan and as part of your full agenda. The project preserves the existing natural tree line surrounding the site, creating a very intensive natural buffer that exceeds in great detail the minimum type B buffer requirements. The landscape plan also identifies required type B plantings in the case that there is an aggressive clearing of property and the town would have to restore the buffer in its entirety. In regards to lighting, Jones-Oslo will be working on any proposed site lighting and that lighting plan will come at the building permit phase. in regards to sidewalk and access the properties are access to the existing driveway on nc-210 and then we'll have some interconnectivity to h2o place that is part of your site plan and on the screen before you in the The cut sheet to the upper right of the screen shows the connection out to H2O Place. So there'll be internal access to keep town vehicles back and forth on town property and not having to enter 210 as often, as little as often as possible. In terms of sidewalk or multi-use improvements, multi-use path is currently required along the entirety of this project. and will come at a future date, but is identified on this site plan. And that is the 10-foot multi-use path along NC-210, part of Segment 1. Traffic, a government facility of this size, wide, large, and square footage does not trigger a traffic impact analysis per ordinance. This facility at maximum AM is 72 trips, daily trips at max. And that is the peak of either AM or PM. And as stated, does not meet the threshold for a traffic impact analysis. The site has already received state erosion control permit approval and is currently working on NCDEQ stormwater approval. Once approved, they should immediately start clearing as DR Rental, the selected contractors, are ready to begin work. With that said, this project has been through the TRC Technical Review Committee and has been found to meet town requirements. And with that, the staff and the TRC are recommending approval of this project. I'll be happy to answer any questions that the board may have.

What is the main access, Jeremy? Are they going to be cutting through that parking lot or are they coming on H2O?

They can access it through both off of H2O place or through the primary driveway there beside the new building.

So they don't have to get a DOT driveway permit?

They've already gotten one through the project, the renovated building.

Did that factor in the full scope of this project?

Yes, sir. It is.

Got you. And what about the pervious surface for the ABC that six or eight inches that engineer, like what are they doing for that? What's the detail?

Lay down yard. It does have engineering to it because it has to meet the state stormwater requirements for gravel lay down yard and be able to permeate through or handle the stormwater efficiently. It is not within a, the, it is not within the CFOD. So they do not have to meet a certain type of gravel type. Um, but it is part of their state stormwater permit.

Are they just putting down ABC, or is it they're going to have like a containment system?

It'll be ABC. It won't be a grid system, but it will be contained on site through the development of, I wish the engineers were here, they could describe it to you, but it's state mandated through their stormwater permit. That way it doesn't run off and end up in a stream.

So they have to complete the multi-use path before they get a CO, or how does that work?

So it's always the running joke with the town project. Not that the town doesn't have to uphold to its own development. It is coming as a town installed portion of it. But like with any development, if it was any of yours or any other private developer, They have that option to bond it, you know, for future improvement. At this case, you know, like we issued the CEO for the new building there, the town technically is not going to bond to itself with that project. We know that section of the multi-use path will come with this project at some point.

There's no elevations?

no not for this um these are these are governmental facilities and they do not have to meet building design criteria under section 7.8 building design religious institutions governmental facilities industrial uses do not have to meet building design criteria

Are you saying that this building we're sitting in doesn't have to be?

The ordinance would not have to look as great as it does.

What are they putting back here? These are like sheds?

They're big if you take the 42,000 divided by four. If you've been over on Juniper Trail where the current public facilities, it'll be the big narrow warehouses there where a lot of our utility piping in

any kind of rock any landscaping items or anything that public utilities needs for their work will be stored it's like a lay down yard yes sir gotcha all right anybody else have more questions make a motion to approve as submitted a second the motion all right um let's have a vote for approval of the p2610 major site plan all in favor Aye. Opposed? All right, that passes. We'll move on to the economic resiliency corridor land use plan implementation. Jeremy, you want to touch on that? Yes, sir.

If the board remembers, and I know this may be an education for Mr. Bailey and Mr. Buchanan and Chairman Moxie, Earlier this year, I brought this back to the board. It was previously presented as a job growth corridor. We presented it to council earlier this year after the board recommended approval last December. They reviewed it at a work session and made some questions and comments. I then brought it back to this board in June of this year, letting you know that they had some revisions that they requested and that I would work on it and bring it back to the board at a future date. And that's where we are tonight or this evening. Zoom over to the map right now so the originally the job growth corridor when we call it that has now changed to an economic resiliency corridor because Council did not want to look at it as the the lane use plan supporting more jobs more bringing I guess, desired growth through job creation, but creating, giving policies that outline it to encourage development that are high employment, that encourage live where you work, but impacting mainly on the corridor along 17 and then that corridor from Cape Fury Community College campus to 17. Originally, we had the corridor from the intersection of 210 and 50 to the Oslo County line identified, but that has been removed at the recommendation of council. The original policies too with the job growth corridor referenced a lot to encouraging workforce housing. The council did not believe that kind of supported our strategic plan and the initiatives within that. So references to workforce housing were taken out. And so that is where we are with the new policies. Policies are related to economic diversity. These support a broader range of employment generating uses to reduce the reliance on seasonal tourism. Regional connectivity, US 17 connects us to the Hampstead and further to 17 connects us to Holly Ridge and then further to the city of Jacksonville. Infrastructure efficiency prioritizes development where utilities and infrastructure can efficiently support it. As you're aware, the town is currently at capacity for sewer. But with this policy in mind, when sewer capacity becomes available and we move through a full update of the comprehensive land use plan, developments that can effectively tie into existing infrastructure will be supported. Environmental stewardship calls for low impact development practices that protect water quality. While industrial or big boxes are great that they bring employment, but there is also that negative factor of what they use in terms of design and energy use. So if they come in and propose energy efficient buildings and programs like that, then that policy would give this board and the council a policy to support a lane use decision. And then year-round employment base supports any decision that would expand the non-residential tax base for local jobs. Mr. Buchanan had shared with me a question, and I know I talked over it with the board last year. What does this corridor have in effect on the existing future lane use map, and how is it incorporated? Looking at the future land use map, it's easy to see a lot of yellow and brown. If you look on the map before you, the yellow and brown are future residential zones. Your purples and your blue are regional mixed use, neighborhood mixed use, and office and institutional. The concept with the economic resiliency corridor is to give this board, when reviewing specifically rezonings, conditional rezonings, additional policies in the cases where they may be proposing a new use on a property that's identified as mainland residential. This would give you an alternative and say, well, the future land use map doesn't support your rezoning. but you're proposing to bring in this type of facility that would have job growth would be high employer it connects us regionally to other communities around us and it encourages folks to who currently live here to have a job that's here locally It doesn't choose to replace the future lane use month, not at this time. When we go through a five-year update on the comprehensive lane use plan, with the corridor in mind, it may rationalize some decisions to update some of the undeveloped tracks to future regional mixed use or neighborhood mixed use or industrial. The town of South City has an industrial zoning district, but we have no industrially zoned properties. With that said, the primary takeaways are removing references to workforce housing, making this more as economic diversity versus job growth, and giving both this board and the council additional policies when making rezoning lane use decisions when projects are along this corridor and could potentially conflict with existing policies and future lane use map as the comprehensive news plan as it lies now and i say now because we will be going through an update around the 28 29 fiscal year and then the lane use plan is due for a comprehensive update around year 2033 With that said, staff is recommending approval. If the board recommends that we take it to the council, we'll take it to a workshop in September and then present it to the board at public hearing in October. With that said, I'll be happy to answer any questions that the board may have.

What was the reason for taking it all 50?

I believe traffic was one of the discussion points in some of the recent land use decisions in terms of mixed use residential development along that corridor and lack of larger tracts of land for development.

That was the only thing removed, right?

In terms of the corridor map, yes.

Anybody else have any questions?

I'll make a motion to approve as submitted.

I'll second. I'll second.

Let's have a vote on this economic resiliency corridor land use implementation change. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. That passes. Onto any updates, reports.

As I mentioned last month, the project tracker is live, so you can log into the town's online GIS collection and check on current developments within the last five years, commercial and large residential, to know, get information about them, see their approved plans. If they have approved plans or the plans they've submitted for review, we update that monthly. next tuesday evening i'll be making a presentation to the beautification and enhancement committee on tree preservation what we have what we do what other communities have and then some possible initiatives for that board eventually to make recommendations to this board on updates to our tree preservation standards and what that looks like Once I make that presentation, or once I get that report and presentation drafted, I will share it out to the board so you can see what I'm presenting to them. And that will tie heavily into some initiatives that this board has in terms of our tree canopy and tree studies that I presented back in June coming out of the town strategic plan. Other than that, Mr. Chairman, I have nothing else.

Thanks, Jeremy. Anybody else have any questions, comments?

I make a motion to adjourn. Second?

Third. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. We are adjourned. Thank you all so much.

Thank you. Thank you.