Planning & Zoning Board - Regular Meeting

Federal Waterworks is the is the entity that like provided the grading uh approval and like they've been working with the applicant and the developer on this. Uh they're going to have the water main coming from across like the highway and they have like lots of like condition about it. That's like the major two of them that they said they have to meet before like the they can't approve it. And again, if there's any conditions clarification needed, I will leave this to the engineer because he's he's been working with this for a while. Okay. All right. I appreciate it. And we do have like two pages of conditions on this project. Okay.

Is the applicants or applicants representative here? Hi, I'm Hunter Collins. I'm with Craft and Toll on behalf of Buffington Homes, my client. Okay. Here to answer any questions. Have you seen the planning conditions approval? Read through those. You have any concern on any of those? Okay. And Sam and I have worked on Yeah. The before and after like Yeah. pretty much all year. Yeah. Okay. So, talk to us a little bit about the Let me get back to it. the rework. I'm trying to find where it was on the runoff to reduce flooding. Can you talk to us a little bit about that?

Yes. If you could bring up the uh like the grading plan. Um one up. Yeah. This one is sufficient. So see on the north side we have two ponds. Now there was only one pond that was roughly that size. Okay.

Um, going back through and reviewing the drainage concerns in that area and going on site, we we actually walked that creek and saw the erosion in there, we realized how much water was actually running through that site. So, after reanalyzing everything, running some numbers, we realized we needed two ponds for this. And Buffington knew that. And so, that's why they they hired us to come in here and and check it out. So, with this, I think this alleviates a lot of the flooding concerns on Mud Creek and it will eliminate the erosion in that area. We're going to uh beautify those those areas where we're going to channel the water and Buffington's working with landscape architects to do that. So, it's going to look really really nice.

Okay. All right. Uh I think that's and I know you're the you're not representing the previous engineer, but that's the prime that's the basic largest change that's in this versus what we looked at the first time. Correct. Yes, sir. It's the same number of buildable lots. Um that's why the lot count I mean lot count is technically up but buildable lots same. Okay. All right. Any question of the applicant from board members? Okay. Appreciate it. We may bring you back. Is there anybody from the public that would like to make public comment on this item? If you would please come name and address and you have three minutes to tell us what's on your mind.

All right. I'll try to be as brief as possible. Um, I'm Deanna Drake. I live at three I mean at 4841 East Sandy Drive in Fagetville. It's outside the city limits right across the highway from this proposed subdivision. I've been involved with my neighbors for the on this project for over five years. We are very disturbed that Fagatville has changed the um agriculture to small family residential to one house per acre because that's what our community is basically based on. Um and we know our neighbors. We think that the traffic flow is getting to be way too heavy. So, um the number of houses that have been approved or will be approved for this are now up to 57. We had it reduced back over a year ago to 46 or 47. We still believe that it should be one house per acre in that area. for one reason, the septic system. I'm very versed on the septic system because we have one at our house. We constructed our house and um the first septic system failed within three months and we had to have a whole new septic system put in because of the soil. the soil is sandy lom and it created a barrier against the um lines that took care of the waste and so instead it finally popped up as a pool of waste in

our backyard. So we had the whole thing redone. The subdivisions around this area, there have been five of them. Three have failed when they were first constructed. And out of those I think they are trying to remedy the problem. But one of the problem one of the issues was that the um tenants of the houses in that subdivision had to pay to have a waste management come and get a truck to haul their sewage out for them. That's inappropriate for that. The smell from the septic system is not going away. The one out that's closer to Goan smells consistently. My husband and Jim Carson and his wife many years ago worked with the city and the county with the water waste treatment plant that is just south of our houses for the stink and the waste that was being uh let out from that plant. It still stinks on certain days and they still let loose of the odors whenever it's cloudy. Um the water service you said is going to come from an 8 in pipe that is on the other side of this project. Our h my husband and I have discussed this with the city. There is no 8 in to our subdivision. It's a 2-in pipe. We barely have enough water to trickle when we take a shower. We are also very upset that we have had letters and emails every year, sometimes

multiple times from the city water department telling us that we have to conserve water or else face our water being shut off. That's a threat to us. And I can't see that between Highway 45 and Highway 16, y'all are reducing the water to to us, but you want to put in 57 houses across from us and also a septic system that is uncalled for. If you can't dist distribute water to us properly, then how are you going to do it to 57 more houses? The traffic has been a total nightmare for the last few years. Between Gully uh Road, Oakland Zion Road, 45 and Mission, and Crossover, there is continuous wrecks with bodily injuries and even fatalities on a routine basis. You're going to add at least 57 time two car drivers, 114 cars on our streets. We have a problem getting out of our street, which is the Woods Edge that comes out across from the subdivision to get out to go take our grandchildren and our children to schools and um wrecks occur constantly. We are afraid that this roads are going to create more additional problems. Also, infrastructure the um it needs a red light there if you're going to have one. And we were told that the state would not provide one because it's a Arkansas Highway 45 and that we desperately need a traffic line between Woods Edge and the road

that's coming out right across its caddy corner. but right there so that we can get a little bit more managed on our traffic that goes to and from and also the schools. This is an infrastructure problem. Um my youngest son and his wife are school teachers at Happy Hollow. They take overflow from the whole city. This subdivision is going to increase the amount on McNair and um Vandergri Vandergri to uh overflow capacity. What are you going to do with the extra kids that are being bus to Happy Hollow from all the other schools? This is a problem that the school teachers are having. It's not the school board that is maintaining this. And so in conclusion, I just want to say that the Drake family have been a part of this community since 1886. That's where my husband's parents lived in a house in the Holler. It was replaced with eight structures instead of one. The first thing that this subdivision did was bulldoze all the hard wood off of it and most of the pines. It's disturbing and sad that Fagetville isn't that quaint little frontier town. It is beginning to be a highly uh urban town that money seems to be the object of what Favville wants instead of what the community of my neighbors 50ome neighbors that do not want this and want

it or want it to be fixed to where it is at least livable for us that have been here for so long. I thank you very much and I think there are some others that would like to have something to say. I appreciate it. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

Hello. I'm Butch Bond. I live at 18901 two Wells Road, Fedville. That's not really in Fedville, but that's my address. Uh the last time that I stood up in this room and spoke about about anything uh that had to do with the Mud Creek Whed. I received a telephone call on the way home from that meeting and I was right along about that place. just happened to be in that neighborhood where this subdivision's uh been requested. I was told firmly that if I brought up the Mud Creek Watershed again, I would be sued. So, I'm not going to bring it up. But but I will tell you that that that runs into the Illinois River watershed and the all the development that we've done. Yes. Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, some of that is in the county in the unincorporated area has created such an issue downstream. You know, you have acres of land washing away in the Seavoi area and those folks out there are losing chicken contracts because of the turbidity and it's being blamed on phosphorus. Well, yes, sir and ladies, there's going to be phosphorus in that dirt that washes away. And the folks over in Oklahoma, they've showed us they don't appreciate that a bit.

I've I've heard comment after comment about, well, what can we do for these poor people? Well, we can stop making it worse. There's a reason for that one acre minimum lot size requirement and the city of Fedville can ignore it and and anybody else can. It's like, you know, there'll be lawyers ask me, "Well, did you ever vote to approve any of those others where the lots are smaller?" And I'll have to tell them yes. But it was a mistake. And I've received input from people living in those neighborhoods, the ones living in those small acreage lots. Realize now that it was a mistake and and next time you see me, you might have to come down to the jail. I don't know.

Thank you, Mr. Pond. I appreciate it. I appreciate you.

All right. Anybody else like to make public comment on this? Oops, I turned it off. I'm Leah Randolph, 4653 East Mission Boulevard. Okay, I'm speechless. And uh I think D and Butch did a great job of bringing out some interesting facts about the destruction and what we need to think about before we were moving forward with all these developments in this area. Um I appreciate it if each one of you on this planning would go out there and look at that property. They have devastated it. They have just I It looks like a war zone. I'm gonna cry. So, five years ago when we started this, I spoke about the habitat taking down all the all the trees just they just raped it. So anyway, I'm so sad about that we allow this and that we don't have better strategies in place to respect our earth which we're leading to our grandchildren and our children because of big money and big development. There is a way to do this, but this is way too dense. And I'm very concerned about the traffic. And I'm very concerned about like D mentioned the uh water that we are already under conservation in the the last two summers they've sent letters out. So what's about that? Um it just breaks my heart

to look over there now because of the destruction. It it's it's just gone. And so there's nothing left for anything. I mean, I I can't believe that we're setting an example like this, that we even allow this kind of destruction to this beautiful part of the country. Northwest Arkansas should hold up uh an example to other communities and other other states about overdevelopment and how we go about this. And so then the other thing that concerns me is the uh that septic tank that is going to be what 100 how far is the septic tank going to be? The last I heard was 150 ft from Mud Creek which is a tributary to the Illinois River and so and I've seen Sloan estates and there's another one back there that have failed miserably and and and then you've got uh Windmir is right there right beside them. there's a small housing development and then all of a sudden you've got all this waste right there. And so anyway, just before you guys make a decision, uh pray on it and think about what we're doing uh for the destruction in this community and um I understand growth. I understand the need for housing, but there's got to be a better way to go about this. And and it is still zoned one acre. I don't know. I read something about 341 uh that in the you know and there's that the city of Fateville can't make the final decision on what we do out in the county still as far as I know I may be wrong on that and uh so but if everyone would just think think about this don't make a hasty decision uh you know they've already rent the land but I don't know we could still could maybe bring it down to less houses and where

they still need to put that septic tank further away from the creek. I don't know where they're going to put it because, you know, right now Windmir's on one side and Lotus is on the other. Neither one of them want to smell that. And then Mike Parker's behind it. So anyway, blessings and prayers and I'm just devastated. Thank you. Thank you all. Appreciate it.

My name is Clay Moer. I live at 4475 East Windermir in Eastern Park. I have two items um that you know I could I could tag team on all that but I agree with all of it. Number one is uh we have been told that there will be a a cut through through our neighborhood which consists of 11 homes and they would cut right through the culde-sac which we actually bought on the culde-sac for that exact reason. We were the very first ones that lived in there. And so I want you to grasp I want you to grasp these numbers. Okay? If there's 55 homes going in this subdivision, there's 11 in ours. There's going to quintuple the amount of traffic between coming off of 45 into our neighborhood into that neighborhood both in and out. Okay. So, we've been told there's two uh ingresses and egresses that are cut out on 45. We believe that's enough. The second thing is, and I concur with that, uh, invite some of you to come and, uh, stay in our guest room for a couple nights and drive out of our neighborhood where traffic is moving and see how long it takes just to get out of our neighborhood on certain mornings. We had small children at McNair and and Vander. They're they're uh out now. But there would be mornings, and I'm not kidding you, that it would take us 10, 12, 15 minutes just to get out of our neighborhood. And if you come in the when the when it's dark out, you can see lights as far back as you can see over the nles that go back towards Goan towards the fire uh fire department. And so I just want you to understand what's happening with the people that live there on on a daily basis. It's nearly impossible to get anywhere on on time if you leave during normal rush hours and it's nearly as impossible to get back home. And in a community of 700,000 people or whatever whatever this uh the market is here, that to me is crazy. And the last thing

I'll leave you leave you with is I've lived in 17 states. I've I've owned property in 13 of them. Fagville has the worst infrastructure of any place I've ever lived. You just keep stuffing subdivisions and apartment buildings. Just stuffing them in places where normal cities would have parks. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Is there anybody else like to make public comment on this item? I would. Yes, sir.

Thank you. My name's Robert Dennis. I live in 10964 Prairie Grove, Arkansas. And uh I'm shocked. I was totally shocked. I was doing my homework for tonight and came across this and I thought, well, what's why are we looking at Fatville? And I thought we were looking at a city council type promotion and I thought this can't be the county. No way. I live where I live is border of Prairie Grove and Farmington. And so I've got, you know, it's a country location when I originally bought there. And I've got I've got three acres And every neighbor that I've got knocks on my door, would you sell yours to us? We'll trade you ours for it. My neighbor and I will trade both of them for it because no one wants to live real close together. And I'll tell this little story. I wish I was like uh John Kennedy and make it really nice and funny, but uh had a neighbor that had died and his daughter was there and she said, "Do you know anybody that mow my lawn?" because we don't we don't know people here. We're from out of town. I said, "Yeah, I'll take I'll bring my grandson down and he can mow it for you." And so I took him down, mow it mowed it for him. Went out of started going out of the neighborhood. I got locked in by the cars because so many cars were parked on. It was weekend and so many cars. What happens? Mom and dad move in to the house. They've got they got things that they've got to store. They park in the driveway. They don't park in the garage. Then Susie and Billy, they grow up and both of them get a car and dad's doing better and he buys a boat. And so then you've got four cars in a boat and maybe an RV on a little lot and then they park in the street. I got locked in by traffic.

Had to go knock on doors before I could get out with my trailer and lawnmower just to help someone mow their lawn. And what if I' what if it had been a fire? It would have been bad. But there's things like that that make you really pay attention to the size and how many street how many houses are on the street. I saw this and I thought I'm reading that wrong. And then I saw it the map. Well, take off take four lots and put them together and you've got a reasonable you got a reasonable deal. And I'll telling you another story and uh I'm a politician so I have to qualify the ones from true true from false, but I had a knee surgery about eight years ago and I was laid up and so we had had to at corn court company come to us and say let us show you what we do and how we make these uh sewer systems and I thought I'll pay attention because I live by Valley View Golf Course and so I I was off work and and I went and hobbled on one leg and went to the one out at Goan. I went to one down to West Fork. going on down to County 62 and they showed me everything about their sewer systems. And the thing that they said was how important it was not to have too many on one system. And then they would say, "Oh, but they're good." I said, "Well, what about the one in Westport?" "Well, it wasn't done right." Well, what do you mean it doesn't it doesn't it wasn't done right? Because Westfor wanted us to come and bail them out as a quorum court and we couldn't. and we can't spend county money on on someone's private sewer systems. Well, it was too far downhill and it couldn't pump it back up and it was overflowing downhill and getting out. Well, no, it never gets out. They say it never gets out. Well, it got out. It got out. Valley View Golf Course. First time I ever came to quum court was

to argue that you shouldn't put it in because I'd called our Philadelphia where one existed and they said do not put that in unless it's 10 miles away from your uh development because the smell will be so bad that the southern wind will blow it right into you. Now Valley View doesn't like to be identified to that but that's what happened that they they had a lagoon lake and it failed. Now, what does that cost the neighborhood? Bob, you correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it was 7 million. They had to pay Prairie Grove to run a sewer line to Prairie Grove to take their sewer because they couldn't put it in the lake anymore. But we had all these guarantees from all these people that it will be done right. John Gibson even said, "Robert, it's not done right. Look me up." I looked him up. He said, "Well, I can't do anything about it. I'm retired." And so builders will tell you one thing and then do another. So keep that in mind. And then sewer systems do fail. They they do too many examples of it. West Fork, uh, Valley View, and and the list could go on. My three minutes is probably up. But think about this because well I can tell you I'll be voting no against against it if it if you pass it on because uh it's too many houses on too small of an area in the county. So we we need to stick to that that one acre. Someone was pretty wise when they said it. And I heard I heard that Jim Lindsay was quoted one time as saying, "Well, what should it, you know, talking about the how much space as much space as you can give a give of someone a lot, give it to them. Otherwise, the green area is worth it. And it'll be worth it later on, too. But trust me, these the tiny houses and the crowding them up, it's going to be a disaster later on. Someone else have to

pay for the sins that we do today, they'll have to pay for them tomorrow. So, think about it. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Anybody else like to make public comment on this?

Okay, seeing none, I'll close public comment and bring it back to the board. Um, couple of statements. Um, so I built my first house in East Fable in 2001. I've lived in Gan since 2005. I am also the chairman of the city of Goan planning. Obviously, there's been a ton of development in East Fable and since I've lived in that direction. Traffic has always been a concern. Uh, the problem and it was mentioned by one of the one of the people today is Highway 45 is a state highway. So we have very little authority or regulation over that highway. Um I know Gan Favable have shared done cost shares in traffic studies and have made recommendations and requests from the state for improvements on that highway. Those are in planning staff planning sessions but then nothing's been done to date. So I know that's been an issue. It has been an issue. It took me 10 minutes to get out in 2005 to take my kids to school. So traffic's always been an issue that direction. Uh city of Fable is completing a water project that will bring water to this area again from Gan. We've had a moratorum for new growth in new houses in Goan for this water uh project that's being completed. That's where the 8 in line that was referenced by the applicant is coming from to service this this uh area. The other thing I wanted to make comment on is this is a very unique situation because when this project originally started, it was being approved through the city of Fagatville in their growth area and that was prior to the change in the state law that took away the ability for municipalities to have access in the growth area. So in my mind, this is a very unique situation because it started under one set of pretense where the city

of Fable would approve it. This is designed to city of Fable standards with sidewalks, streets, gutters, lights, ingress and egress that mentioned was a requirement from the city of Favable when it was under their jurisdiction. It's finished out in a way that is much more developed than what you would see in the county. So, um, obviously, you know, it is tremendously more dense than what we typically would see for a development in the county, but I think that's basically due to this being kind of a one-off situation of it being started by the city of Favville in their planning area and then with the change of the state law coming out of that and coming before us. So, Sam, is that you concur?

That's that's correct. And like one more thing like if Hunter if you can come um just making sure like Hunter can explain this there is not a single like individualized like septic system on each on any lot. Correct. There is not. No it's it's going to be a treatment plant and uh it's already been approved by ADH. So it's been engineered and designed for this for this number of lots. Right. So it's not just a tank. Waterford is the subdivision I'm thinking of in Gan that there's 139 houses and it's on a step same system as that. Right. Okay.

All right. So, just so you understand, there's not individual septic system. There is a step system in place that treats this treats the sewage and then has a leech field on from there. And it is at the front of the subdivision closest to Highway 45. It is not on the back of the project near the creek. Is that correct? Correct. And it's like I said, it's been approved. There's also going to be an HOA, so it's going to be taken care of. I mean it's the buy in is there. All right. What other questions do we have for the applicant or staff? So would it be potential to lower the the density like make on one acre? Uh that would not work with the market standard with what my client has already paid for.

Okay. So given that that's one of the regions I mean we have to protect our rural areas and I know that you got caught in this project got caught in the fat bill and then the legislature changed it. However, we should focus on that that's what the area is for and we should protect our unincorporated areas. So being said I will vote no just because I think that we're we can't move so fast and because we have to protect our rural neighbors. So thank you though. I can understand that. I think it would uh price it out of the market if we tried to do that.

Well, and I I guess I will state u I do feel like this was started under the context of the city of Fable. It was designed and built to designed to the standards of the city of Fable. If this was not in that situation where it started under one pretense and another, I wouldn't support this sort of density in other parts. And I don't setting a precedence where we would have small lots with step systems anywhere else in the county. I think this is a unique situation that was created by House Bill I think it's House Bill 1510 and if that law hadn't changed and we honestly as a planning group weren't given there was not any sort of you know leeway into that it was just passed adopted ratified and dropped so it kind of caught these projects that were in process I think this is a oneoff deal so I understand your position

all right any other questions I've got one yes sir when did your client consummate the purchase of this subdivision? Uh, I will let her speak to that actually. That was prior to my involvement. Hi, I'm Mary McGetric. I'm with Buffington Homes. My address is 3238 West Essex Drive in Fagetville. Um, we started the contract review and due diligence over a year ago. When was it consummated? Like when was it executed? No. When was the when was the purchase consummated? I don't know that date off the top of my head. When we actually closed

ballpark before or after the ETJ launch before Oh, no. Definitely before you purchased it. We purchased it when it was in the ETJ. And that's why this has been difficult to navigate. We were It was back Oh, I don't know probably April or May of uh of last year.

Wait, hold on. The ETJ was was like approved like May of this year and it took effect in August. So, they purchased the land prior to the EG ETJ when when it was in the ETJ. Yes. in our in our contract term and our review that was the whole time our understanding was that this project was approved in the ETJ and so so the the plans that we were working off of um were were approved you know as as part of the ETJ which was approved by this board correct

at that time Other questions of the applicant? As far as ingress egress goes from 45 uh right now you have no deceleration lanes proposed. Correct. Correct. Yeah. Is there a reason why being with this being with with the traffic concerns there was no traffic study performed? Uh I see that you did include the sightelines in the packet. Um, would that be a consideration to alleviate any of the traffic concerns?

I mean, that would take coordination with ARDOT. Um, that's something that I can try to track down, but I mean, that's going to take ARDOT's buy in on that.

And I will say with the Oh, sorry. We wouldn't be opposed to that. It's just it's it's more a matter of getting AROT to approve that. Hunter, did you get like approval from Ardot for the driveway? Yes. Yes. Okay. Other questions of the applicant or staff? So, there's no possible way to reduce the number of houses? Not at this time

by any number whatsoever. I mean, no, I we're we're we were under construction. So, every proform that we've done, all of the design that we've done was predicated on that number of lots. But you started construction knowing that this was a possibility. Correct. Knowing No, I mean, we didn't that you needed to come to the county for approval. It did. And the county approved it. So, you know, we we started construction. We started actually the swip fencing went up before we had even closed and that was back in like I mean that was a year and a half ago. When did grading start?

Um probably six or seven months ago. I have all the invoices that I can I can show you. But when we started working with a seller on on grading and putting our sweat fencing up and stuff like that, it was still in the ETJ. So we we were not under our like our understanding was that we were working under an approved set of plans.

Why don't you explain to the board Sam why this had to come back for approval.

Yes. Um it was explained in like the staff report. So the grading was like approved by the city of Fedwell multiple times and it's been renewed each time before like it's expired. We do have like in our ordinances we do have uh time limit on like u building and moving forward. So the previous previous like contractor like and the engineering company they were like working with the um state the city and the ADQ to be able to get all like their like approvals and it took like forever and then like forget about the ETJ before that like COVID hit as well and that slowed down everything after like 2021. So they were unable to so we have 18 months from the date of the approval uh the initial approval with like extensions and that approval date like expired in 2023. So that that expiration was not explained to the applicant when they bought them the new like contractor when they bought them by the city of federal. So they had the idea is as long as you're working with us since like we approved the ETJ and we we we maintain that jurisdiction we are okay continuing. So when they came to us and says like hey we need to apply for a final and I told him hey like you need to reapply for that like preliminary because like our engineer need to see the new changes since the the first time like you applied or the the the plans that we reviewed and the city like the county approved it was in 2021 and then the 2023 like expiration and that modification if we've never asked him to come back would have never seen that and our like engineer reviewed this and f found like few fine-tuning and they ask them to like fix it as well. So it's not that like we just like followed everything they said like we have to ask them to go and fix stuff based on our like ordinances. Yeah, it's might be like Yeah. So that's why they came back because like we have time limits for like each each application we have and it expires and like just to be

true like to what we do we had to ask them to go and apply again and there has been material changes but the material changes are actually better. It's got more storm retention than what we originally proven. Yes. Like they fixed that like drainage issue and they added like a detention bond like to absorb all of this. Yeah. And even the system the step system is like more advanced than the one like originally they were working on in 2021. So somebody was up here that said that the original plan had like 40 houses. Was that a different one or was that something totally then it went for 58? Yeah. Was there original

approval from the city of Fateville? The approved plans that we got were for 55 homes. I don't know if there were previous iterations, but I think the approved county and city plans had 55 homes. Yes. And they continued, they never changed that number because the city of Federal like part of their approval was like not to change any of the buildable number of flies, right? Because they are literally wanting more housing. So, they're going to the city of Federal is pushing Yeah. more housing, urban infill. That's what that's what the city. My question is, can you go back to 40? Was it never 40? It was 55 when we looked at the first.

I mean, I wouldn't be able to make that call tonight. Um, and I will say, you know, our our system um our our step our step system. We built two of those and we build we have a company at state that designs them. They're $2 million systems. Um we have one that we built in Elm Springs that has 24-hour monitoring. We commit to having and we've actually had the monitor tripped by accident. We had someone out there on site within 25 minutes. Um and you know these systems, a lot of the systems out there, Waterford, some of those other ones, those are 10 to 15 years old. Um our system is a state-of-the-art system designed specifically for this site. And then on top of that, we pay into um a trust fund with ADQ every year $120,000 to maintain these. Um, and then we also as Buffington, we do our own HOA. So, we don't turn it over to the community or the a company. We maintain that. So, we'll be maintaining that system for the life of it or as long as as we're a company. Um, and we're also working with a a stream bank restoration engineer out of Tulsa to do actual channel design for that stream that we're rebuilding. And we're using all the native stone on site. We're doing these drop pools in it to be able to hold more water on site than what we're actually detaining in the ponds so that we can any any additional water any water that comes through that creek will hold in these drop ponds. Um so what we're trying to do is keep as much water on our site as we can. Um that pond before we kind of took over it was completely sedimented over. Um it the banks had completely eroded. Um we're working with the watershed conservation um group right now to we're going to rebuild it with um the big trees that you put in the sides of it. So we're going to do a full stream bank restoration so that we can hold additional water that we're not even required to do um outside of just those ponds. And that's completely separate from our storm water drainage system.

Metric, I'm sorry. When did you say you purchased this property? Do you want me to get you the exact date? I'm happy to do that. I'm looking at it. It was in June of this year of 2025 of June after the ETJ had passed. Well, so when we closed, that means we've been under we were under contract for like six months, but you consummated the transaction knowing that this was a possibility.

I suppose that you could say that was true. I mean, well, with the ETJ going away at the time, and I I've got our attorney here. Our understanding was that we were still protect We had an active grading permit from the city of Fyville. So, and we'd already started construction. So, if we had an active grading permit and we'd already started construction, then we I mean, how were we how would we know that that that wasn't going to work? I mean, nobody could tell us what it was going to look like after the ETJ went away. And that's why I think this is such a special case. I mean, they actually were you were pulling grading permits from the city of multiple project that's now we're trying to regulate in Washington County.

And we reached out to the county when we were under cont. We're not trying to like hide anything. We reached out to the county. We reached out to the city. We talked to people to say what what do we need to do? And so our understanding is that we had done everything that we needed to do and that that our grading permit was valid. Um, I know it's it's complex, but I don't I don't think that we intentionally misled anyone or did anything, you know, wrong on purpose.

You know, I I think this is a a just a rare incident and and you know, normally I would vote against this because of the density. I I I do feel for the proponent because of a state law that changed it. And I don't know, you know, I live near this and I I know all the concerns the people have expressed and they're legitimate and the traffic is terrible, but by the same token, I don't feel like I can penalize somebody that thought they had approval and and so I don't know where we stand legally, but it is a concern of mine.

Again, they never had app in the county and when you're building such a multi a complex thing like that then I'm not saying that it's your actually your fault that you got caught up in it but that is your error but it was the county the county did not approve it Shantel the county did not have jurisdiction right I know the county so there was nothing for the county to approve exactly but what I'm saying is laws change and people have to deal with it and they bought it in June

and I hate that you got caught up in it, but these people in the unincorporated areas still have rights and your subdivision is going to impede on their rights. And so I do hate that for you, but we still have to think about the rural areas and like, hey, I mean, I would love if you pulled your plan and seen if you could work out if you could lower your lower how many pe how many houses you have. But this wasn't a rural area until a law changed. It's It was in Fagville. I get that what you're saying. It was built to Favville standards, but that was a different lot.

Okay. All right. Any other comments, questions? All right. Well, I I've stated I think that we voted we approved this at the county originally. I think this design's better than what was originally approved. I think that the fact that it started and was built under Fable code, the fact that they pull grading permits from the city of Favville puts us in a very precarious situation. I think it's undue hardship for the applicant to change at this point based on the standing of the property that they bought, the project they bought. So, I'm going to make a motion for approval of Ellis Estate's preliminary subdivision as stated.

Is there a second? Second. All right, we got a motion in a second. Let's do roll call on this one, please. Michael Thompson, no. Anthony McNot is absent. Shantel Pereier, no. Robert Dory, yes. Mara Pearson, yes. Jay Piercing, yes. Lauren Shackle, yes. Motion passes.

All right. Thank you. I appreciate it. Okay. Um, moving on our agenda. Other business. Discussion of current development. Reminder of the meetings. next meeting February 12th 26 and March 26th 2026. Anything else for the good of the order? Yes sir. Um we we're going to have like an appeal after this. So if you just give us like about 5 10 minutes so we can like regroup. Uh one more thing um this last month was like the last month like you would be receiving uh payroll stuff. So if you need any copy you can always contact the um HR. So, can they send you like a electronic one or like set you up like to get one financial statement concern if you guys haven't filled those out?

Yeah, I already email that as well. Yes, please do that as well. So, all right. Anything else for the good of the order? If not, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. I make a motion to adjurnn. Motion in a second. All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Thank you. No. County clerk upstairs.