Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Yeah.

I'm sorry. I hereby call the Land Use Board meeting of September 15, 2026 to order.

watching the home wonders why i'm calling the meeting to order tonight's our election of chair and vice chair so i'm lee jensen i'm the planning director i'll chair the meeting until we elect a chair but before we get started everybody please

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us safely together tonight. Pray you'll watch over and guide the decisions we make. Pray, Lord, you'll especially be with one of our brothers that's going through a tough time with his family, his father's on his deathbed. Pray you'll bless Jared and his family, Lord. I know he's known across the county, and I pray everybody will keep him in their prayers. We pray these things, Lord, in your name. Amen.

The whole board can vote, yes.

So get started, we'll open nominations for board chair. Do I have any nominations?

I nominate Darren Green.

Okay, I have a nomination. I have a second. Mr. Green, do you accept the nomination? Sure. Do I close that? Do I have any other nominations for chair? Okay. Hearing none, I'll close nominations for chair. All members in favor of daring to continue another term as chair, please say aye.

Aye. Any opposed? Thank you, everyone, for your support and confidence. This time I'll open up for nominations for vice chair.

I make a nomination Rick Green. Rick Green? I mean Rick Davis, I'm sorry.

I like Rick Green, but he ain't on our board.

Well, you know, it's just me, me, me, me.

Is there a second? I've got a motion and a second for Rick Davis. Any other nominations? Hearing none, I'll close the nominations. All in favor of Rick Davis for Vice Chairman, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Next item is established voting members, and we do have a full voting. Everyone here tonight, both of our alternates, will be voting because we do have two absentees. Second item, next item, additions and deletions to the agenda. Are there any additions or deletions that need to be made tonight? Hearing none, I'd ask the motion to approve the agenda. There a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Approval of the minutes of the August 18th, 2026 meeting. You have those. Do I have a motion? Is there a second?

Second.

Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Next item is approval of a decision letter of the 2020, uh, two zero two six dash VAR dash zero two Augustine properties, LLC variance. Um, at this time would, um, asked you to, um, I'd ask, um, Mr. Walkup, since you are not part of that, I'd ask if you would recuse yourself. Would you recuse yourself from voting on that? Okay. So with that, Mr. Walker will be recusing himself.

Do I have a vote from the board to recuse him?

Okay. So Mr. Walker has agreed to recuse himself from voting on that matter because he was not part of that. So is there a motion to recuse him or to accept his recusal? Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Now I need a motion to approve the Union County Land Use Board decision letter for that variance.

I make a motion we approve the 2026-VAR-02 Augustine Properties LLC variance. I move that decision letter.

Motion is there a second? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Ms. Griffin, do I have that? I don't think I have it. Well, that's no big deal. I don't think it's in here, the official one. Maybe it is, but if it's not, all I see is the one that's in my packet. The official one I don't see, but it may be here. I ain't lying. I won't say it's not. I approved it. I'll sign it. I'll get you another copy. All right, thank you. I don't have the official. I do. No problem. All right, next item is item number two. Let's see. It's a resolution of public censure. You all have that document in your folder there. Do I need to read this or...

You don't need to read it. If the board members would read it, we're going to pull it up on the screen.

As we all recall, our last meeting, we did have an issue. And with regard to Mr. Walkup and the situation with that case, very important that our board remains, particularly when it relates to matters of quasi-judicial issues, Our board cannot in any way, shape, or form have a fixed position. And also ex parte conversations are extremely important that we be very careful with that. So you see the resolution of censure. This is not something I'm happy to bring before the board, but it's also something that to protect our board and to protect the county, we have to take a look at. So if there's any discussion, I will open the floor. Hearing no discussion, I would ask if we have a motion. Motion to approve. Is there a second? Any further discussion? All right. Hearing none. We have a motion and a second to resolution of censure for Charles Walkup Jr. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Next item is planning staff report. That would be you, sir. Nothing to report, sir. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, I don't know if you were there or if it was Bjorn, but wasn't there a discussion from the county commission relating to the small subdivision?

Oh, the high subdivision? Yeah. I presented the board's direction, the board's preferences back to the county commissioners and they want to move forward on modifying the definition lot to take out, talking about across the street. So that will likely, everything else they sort of said we're going to sort of put on the back burner at least for a while, I think. But that will be coming to you likely next meeting. So we're going to look at a couple of maybe different ways that that could possibly be achieved. There might be more than just modifying that one definition, but to still achieve the same result. But we're going to, as soon as that's done, we'll bring it back to you.

I watched that, but if I'm correct, what they want to do with this is where the road split it and create the 8-8-8. There was one scenario where it was split three times or something.

In fact, I believe I found one subsequently that was split four times. Okay.

But basically, right now, the number's still at 8.

That's still kind of a research topic that we're still working on, but we're going to bring back to the board at some future date for direction, and that would likely come back to you, but that likely will be at least a couple months before.

And to be clear, the only thing they would have to do to build more than eight houses is just step it up to a major subdivision. They're not stopping anybody from doing anything. It's just the way they do it. That's correct.

OK. And just since we're talking about some of the discussion, just put on your radar some future things that might be coming down the pipeline. board did direct this this doesn't have anything to do with minor subdivisions but the board did direct staff to work on scope services or to hire consultant to do a cost of community services study what that is it kind of breaks down it looks at your overall county revenues and expenditures and looks at it from a land use standpoint right and essentially tells you how much either the land use category contributes or takes from, I guess, revenues and expenditures. Right. Like how much the county, are you making money? Right, right, absolutely. Return on investment. Return on investment. So that's good services is basically a draft form. Hopefully by sometime next week or week after, it'll be on the streets. That's outstanding. And then we'll work with the consultant to come up with a final report, and that final report we'll present to Land Use Board and the Board of Counties.

I think that's great, because for many years it's been like, it costs this much every time a house is built. So it would be nice to quantify what the true actual cost to citizens are, basically.

Yeah, absolutely. What we're asking for in this report is going to be basically those numbers for broad land use categories so residential industrial and commercial kind of group together and agricultural land and then the other thing that we're asking for is sort of the break-even point when you look at certain levels of residential so what's the break-even point of a house in general and then what's the break-even point for a house with one kid two kids three kids so if you're interested if any of you want a copy of it The county actually did this back in 2004. The planning department got consulted back then. I still have a copy of it, so if any of you want to see it, I'll be happy to email it. I'll just email it out to the board so you can just kind of get an idea of what the report looks like and kind of the information. That's right.

I'll send it out there. All right. Thank you, sir. Are there any other comments? Hearing none, I'd ask for a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Is there a second? All in favor say aye. Aye.

All right.

That was fast. You guys did great. That might have been a record. I'm not 100% sure, but I'll take it.

I'm going to get that decision from her because she didn't give me an official one.