Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Uh, chairperson Lame, she's stuck in traffic. I will point out it's Charlotte traffic, not Waxaw traffic. So, um, she's a little behind. So go ahead and get it kicked off. If I could get um a determination of quorum. If everyone could state their name and we'll determine quorum. Start there to the left. My my right. Rick Krauss. Present. Totoer.

Pal Taylor. Awesome. Uh moving forward to item number uh C the approval of agenda. Are there any amendments to the agenda? Yes, I'd like to add one item uh G2. Um and uh as was uh deferred from last month's agenda since I wasn't here and and that would be called of course I can't find my paper. Where do we go? Um, enhanced uh planning, I'm sorry, enhancing planning board deliberations and recommendations. I'd like to add that as a short conversation to the end of the agenda.

Can you restate that real quick? Yeah, I'll move I'll make a motion. I move to add agenda item G2, enhancing planning board deliberations and recommendations. Any discussion? All in favor? I I I will also make a motion to add adding the proposed 2026 schedule of regular meetings for the town of Waxaw Planning Board. Any discussion? All in favor? I.

All right. Can I get a motion to adopt? Excuse me. Can I get an motion to adopt the agenda as presented or as amended? Excuse me. I'll I'll um make a motion to accept the um amended agenda. All in favor? I [clears throat] Sorry, just making sure.

Yeah, thank you. No worries. All right. Um thank you for that. got a little that housework out of the uh out of the way. Looking moving forward, moving our way down. Any inquiries into any conflicts of interest of the agenda as it's presented. Okay. Hearing none, we'll move uh into the approval of the previous minute meeting minutes. Uh that was dated October 29th. Can I get a motion to approve the planning board regular meeting minutes from October 29th? I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from last meeting. I'll second it. All in favor? I

I. All right. Old business. Well, none. So, we'll skip directly to new business and um turn it over to Janet to present uh the reszoning petition RZ 016503-2025 4 uh 4848 North Providence Street.

Good evening. I'm Janet Pirano, senior planner for the town. I am here this evening to present the resoning request for 408 North Providence Street. This request is by the applicant Trang Fam for a reasonzoning map amendment for parcels 05112063 and 2064 from R4 residential to TC Town Center. The properties combined are approximately 1.03 03 acres located on the east side of North Providence Street between Miller Drive and Oldtown Village Road. Uh on the screen is a map of the property location. Current zoning on the parcels, uh both are currently zoned R4. The northern parcel is vacant and the southern parcel has an existing single family home. adjoining properties to the north, east, and south are all zoned R4 uh with single family homes and the one property directly to the south is common open space for the Oldtown Village development. To the west, the properties across the street are zone Town Center. There is one uh with an existing single family home and then two vacant parcels directly across the street. State law mandates that zoning be undertaken with consideration of a comprehensive plan and that a consistency statement be prepared and approved for every zoning amendment. The Waxaw 20 future land use map designates the property as medium density residential along with the adjacent properties to the northeast and south. Uh principal uses are uh mixed housing with a density of three to four units per acre. The requested zoning is TC town center. Uh town center zoning allows for the development of larger scale mixeduse buildings that accommodate retail

services, offices, artisan studios, light manufacturing, uh workshops, landsc landmark civic and institutional uses as well as upper story apartments. Town Center is intended to encourage an active urban core that provides employment, access to daily needs, entertainment, and housing that complements the design and scale of the historic downtown while maintaining the dynamic, walkable small town feel. So, a little bit of background information about um these parcels. In 2020, the town developed a collaborative growth strategy which replaced the old unified development code with the land development code and an updated future land use plan. The growth strategy process included a focus group with the residents of North Providence Street who unanimously requested to keep the east side of North Providence Street zoned residential. That sentiment is reflected in the plan and on the 2021 future land use map. In November of 20 23 the board of commissioners commissioners adopted the Waxaw 2040 comprehensive plan. The development of this long range plan included many public input sessions and the residents of North Providence Street remain steadfast in their resolve to keep the east side of the street zoned residential. Planning staff recommends against approval of this reszoning request. and and on the screen and in your packet there are uh potential actions for this evening. Option number one is a motion to recommend denial of the resoning petition and to approve a reasonableness and consistency statement as provided. Uh and that states that it is the reasonzoning is inconsistent with the comprehensive plan and future land use map and that it is neither reasonable nor in the public interest as town center zoning on these parcels is contrary to the public sentiment expressed at various input sessions and will negatively impact the neighborhood

character and quality of life of the adjacent residents. Um, option number two is a motion uh to recommend approval uh with a reasonleness and consistency statement that does state that it is inconsistent with the plan but that it is reasonable and in the public interest because it provides diversity to the tax base. Uh so those are two options. Um, and just a note that this is a general resoning request, so no conditions can be placed on approval. And I'd be happy to answer any questions. And the applicant is here this evening as well if you have any questions for her.

And then once you are uh ready, we do have two individuals signed up for public comment. So whenever you're ready to hear that public comment as well, I can uh walk up and hand you the sheet.

Thank you. Need to ask that earlier. Um yes, thank you. Um in the uh staff presentation, um it seemed like uh the strongest case for inconsistent and unreasonable is the um feedback from the neighborhood. Um and you did kindly provide a copy to us of um the notes of who attended the 2020 uh three I think focus group uh as well as the notes from the 20 the 2020 focus group. Um, but in skimming it, and I've only had a few minutes to skim it. In neither of those documents did I see any statement about or or quotes or anything or even a summary takeaway that the North Providence neighbors felt strongly about this. So, can you shed any additional light on um on where that bottom line came from that that was unanimous and strenuous and uh reasserted? Um

so the focus group meeting um the original presentation uh had the east side of North Providence Street as neighborhood center or mixed juice uh zoning and after meeting with the residents they changed that. So you'll see in in the final plan it actually is zoned as future land use as residential. Um and the the zoning that changed from the UDO to the LDC remained res4 residential. Um and that was based on the feedback that that it was received. Uh I was not present at that meeting. Um but Madison was uh and some of the uh people in the audience were present at that meeting as well.

Okay.

Yeah. And I can speak in greater detail to that. So there wasn't a summary document because it was a live working focus group where we sat around in a circle with North Providence Street residents actively showed them the zoning and then actively changed it right as we were in the meeting. So, as Janet alluded to, it was a prezoned neighborhood center, but after that discussion and a lot of interaction with those residents, they felt very passionate about keeping their side of the street as residential. Um, and so as a part of that, you may remember, uh, maybe six to nine months ago, you had a zoning request on the west side of North Providence Street where it was a historic house and an empty lot. Um, that was previously zoned residential as well because that property owner at the time was a part of that focus group and felt very passionate about keeping her property zoned residential. Um, so then that property owner changed. they have a had an interest in preserving the home and trying to market it for commercial. Um, but from that overall meeting and actively changing and listening to the feedback, we we changed the zoning right there in that meeting to R4 to make sure that we were listening to the residents.

Thank you. And and um I I don't know how many were at the focus group um in 2020 um but in 2023 you've got five names. How many people live in that would be defined or pro how many properties are there in what's defined as the um North Providence neighborhood? Um if I were to give a safe estimate on North Providence Street from Ble Mill down to Howy Mine I would say probably not even 30. I would probably say 20 20 homes fronting that street. Okay. So maybe approximately the five people that gave you the feedback would be about 25% of 100% of all the people that showed up and and uh

right and 25% of all the people that went there. Okay. I appreciate all that.

Um just as a point of order, I would like to hear public comment before we um vote if that's possible. 100%. I just want to see if there's any other questions before I was going to move to public comment. Point of clarity. Two minutes per three minutes. Thank you, rookie. I apologize. All right. Well, we'll move forward. Uh, great idea. We'll move uh call up uh Terry Dale. Mr. Dale, thank you for your time. I'm going to give you three minutes. What you

Thank you for your Thank you [clears throat] for your service to the town. We really really appreciate it. My uh my name is Terry Dale. I reside at 615 North Providence Street and I own several homes on North Providence Street. So, when you consider the number of participating residents, I count as four. Okay. Um, [clears throat] I appreciate the opportunity to address this board and to communicate our neighborhood's strong feelings about the request to reszone the property for commercial purposes. We did submit a letter to the planning board a couple of days ago, which I think you've received a copy of, and there are 18 people that signed off or endorsed that letter. Would they have received that?

They should have a town clerk should

Okay. Um, [clears throat] excuse me. The street is predominantly residential and is very close-knit. We've banded together to ensure the neighborhood is protected and over many meetings, not just one, uh, with the town, we came to an understanding, which I would think of as a concession or a compromise because the original intent was to turn all of North Providence Street into town center. So, as a result of all these conversations, we came to a a reasonable conclusion that supported the neighborhood and also the town and the needs for the town. And I think we did that in a fair and decent way. Um, [clears throat] the neighborhood has had that understanding since 2020. Uh we've accepted that certain properties on the west side of the street, especially those that extend from Broom Street all the way through to North Providence Street are appropriate for commercial because they front on Broom Street. So again, it was an understanding that part of the street needed to be commercial and part needed to be residential. The recent seller of 408 North North Providence Street was intimately involved in all of these meetings and was instrumental in helping us to get the uh the agreement that the houses on that side of the street would remain residential. So if if the recent buyers were led to believe that that property could be readily converted to commercial, then they were misled. There's a number of reasons why the neighborhood is against the change. We've already we've already got kind of a heavy burden on that street. The commuters use that street to avoid backups on Broom Street. The volume is so high that parking on the street is

prohibited. Another reason not to have a commercial entity on that street. We've lived with heavy construction for several years on all sides of North Providence Street. We deal with air pollution, light pollution, noise from outdoor entertainment venues and odors from sanitation and restaurants downtown. We're also staging. We're a staging ground for the seasonal parades which closes our street down. So, we do not complain. Uh, we accept the downside and the upside of living downtown. However, we want to maintain the residential family culture and the livability of the street. We want to make sure that 408 North Providence remains residential regardless of the type of business

that's presented for there. Unfortunately, I need to cut you off as we've hit three minutes. Am I out of town? Yes, you are in town. Okay. I actually have some printouts. Great. So, I appreciate your time. Again, I thank you for the service to the town and for hearing us out. Thank you, sir. Appreciate.

Next, we have uh Tracy Weslech. [clears throat]

Hello, my name is Tracy Weslick and I currently serve as a commissioner. However, I am not speaking on behalf of the board. As my term concludes before this hearing is scheduled to come before the board of commissioners, I am able to offer my personal perspective and opinion on this matter. I wish to provide some historical context regarding the designation of this property. During the development of the current land development code by the previous board of commissioners that I was a part of and the planning board, the eastern side of North Providence Street was specifically designated as residential. This designation was made at the direct request of the long-term residents of that street, many of whom reside in historic homes, including the previous homeowner, Angela Sutherland. These homeowners indicated their acceptance of the Broom Street side of North Providence being classified as Town Center, but expressed a strong desire for their side to maintain its residential zoning status. The board at the time agreed to honor their wishes. When Angela Sutherland listed the property, a real estate sign was placed on the property and listing it as commercial. Knowing that this was zoned residential, I qu inquired about the sign. I was told the listing agent handles both residential and commercial real estate. So that was why his sign said commercial. After further research on the property, I discovered the property was not listed as a residential listing on MLS. It was instead marketed as commercial even though it had an R4 zoning. One must wonder why the seller chose to market the property as commercial when this was inconsistent with its current and future zoning. Regardless of any external communications or potential misrepresentation, it remains the legal responsibility of the buyer and seller agent to disclose

the correct zoning and the current property owner should have been aware of the residential zoning classification at the time of purchase. The town holds no obligation to change zoning to protect the buyer or the seller based on a thorough review of the current land development code, the future land use map, and the 24 comprehensive plan. And in consideration of the explicit requests of the surrounding residents, and the need to protect the integrity of the historic homes in Waxaw, it is my opinion that this property should not be approved for the requested resoning. Thank you. That concludes public comment. Um, any other questions for town?

I'd just like to let you know that I just sent the uh letter that Mr. Dale wrote uh to Brandy and she'll make sure to share that with you. Okay. would the applicant like to speak? Do you want to speak, Tracy?

Not required, obviously. No. Okay.

Any questions, discussion? I mean, the only thing I have to say is that I don't see any compelling reason to reszone it besides the applicant requesting it. It seems like um so from that perspective just I just don't see anything really compelling about making any changes. [clears throat] Agreed. I agree with all.

Okay. Well, um someone like to make a motion. I'd like make a motion to recommend denial of the resoning petition RZ016503- [clears throat] 2025. Um uh this zoning request is is inconsistent with the Waxaw 2040 comprehensive plan and future land use map. It is neither reasonable nor in the public interest as a town center zoning on this parcel is contrary to the public sentiment expressed at various input sessions and will negatively impact the neighborhood character and quality of life of the adjacent residents.

All in favor? I I [clears throat] thank you. Thank you. Okay, moving down to uh item number two, which is enhancing planning board recommendations and deliberations. We turn it over to to Rick.

Thank you. Um I just intended this to be a short sort of um discussion to tea up and just to explore the level of uh interest and support here on this board for contemplating uh ways that we might be able to enhance the um our processes through which we um analyze and deliberate uh on the issues that come before us. Um what's on the screen here is really just a straw man and we don't need to discuss the details. It's it's sort of an example uh more than anything else um that if we were to come to some agreement that it makes sense to um um do some planning uh around ways to improve uh both the value of the recommendations that we make for the for the board of commissioners so that the recommendations that are put forward um give the board of commissioners u more information to make more informed decisions. Um that might be something we're thinking about. Um at the same time, um if we were to improve, um the way in which we um consider the factors that relate to the decisions that we make, uh that could help improve consistency. Now, uh what I don't know for sure is although my observations are that there might be some ways to make improvements that would be worthwhile, uh none of that's been validated yet. So not not validated with my peers here on the on the board uh the planning board nor with commissioners nor with town staff. So um I see this uh really as a discussion simply to um explore or to get your uh to get the authorization from the rest of the board members to explore this and bring something back. So, just some example questions to ask. Um, and I would propose making uh having conversations around questions like this

with board members, with um each of the commissioners uh and with selected town staff. Um, are there some ways that we could make our recommendations more valuable to the board? uh would richer context more context around the decision as opposed to simply um referring um the board of commanding board's decisions as uh you know we find it um consistent or unconsistent reasonable or unreasonable and we recommend approving or not approving. Um if we were to provide a little bit more context about why we came to that decision, would that be useful to the board of commissioners? um could we be more comprehensive and consistent in applying a set of factors to inform those decisions? Um for example um and I speak in first person here um it's easy when we receive a proposal to address concerns related to how that proposal is presented. So things that aren't presented at all might not get uh scrutinized. things that are focused on in the proposal might be overscrutinized. Um it's a way of shaping um uh unless we have some overarching uh set of agreed upon factors to consider in each and every decision that we make uh on a on a given type of um request coming to us. Um so um would it be useful to be explicit about what factors we're considering and then to apply that explicitness to our procedures and include um that information as part of the referrals that we make uh for or against. Um I think at least again speaking first person I um would like to hear how each of us defines consistency, how we think about consistency. I think that's a

fairly narrow pretty well- definfined um uh factor. Uh it's governed by the four corners of the major planning documents that are approved by the town. Um same question for reasonleness and and that one isn't so clear. There's a lot more uh wiggle room in that and I'd like to know if there are some guidelines that we all want to adopt or have already adopted um to ensure that we think holistically and consistently about how we evaluate Um and uh is there a better way to communicate um those decisions uh down the line? Hello. Um and then uh finally, as part of an improvement um regime, uh it's great to include are there ways that we could be evaluating the our performance as a planning board. uh and that could be determined, you know, not only by how it's perceived and used uh by the board of commissioners, but uh could also um be uh assessed from the perspective of uh owners and residents. So, those are some of the questions that I feel like maybe haven't been thought about for a while, might be useful to think about them. And what I'm asking for is um the board's support for uh engaging with each of me engaging with each of you, me engaging with the commissioners and with select staff that would be involved in this to explore some ways to make those uh to first of all validate that improvements are warranted and then to explore some ways to make those improvements, all of which would be brought back for um further input. I'll take any questions or comments and if appropriate we can have a little bit of a back and forth.

No, I agree with you. Worth this is where the kind of the advisory uh leg for the um the board of you know commissioners. It's probably great to get their feedback and just really what they'd like to see from us versus a um you know recommendation to approve or deny something. So I agree with them from that perspective. So, it' be great to get their feedback and just really how things [clears throat] are going as far as communication and additional information they they'd like to see from us and how they like to see it kind of laid out so that it's very efficient for them to understand our decision process and why it felt the way we did. As far as your question about reasons, I think that to me that's kind of tough because it seems like every um thing's got kind of a story to it and it's really I think hard. I mean, you can have some sort of, again, if you want to try to come up with some sort of a broad definition for reasonable, it's great. But I think it's a situation where so much of it is just kind of a fact-based on each individual case. But again, be great to have some sort of a benchmark on kind of what we're looking at from that perspective. So, I think what you're proposing um makes sense to try to make us more efficient uh in our role as an advisory group to the board.

Yeah. Similar I I always think it's good to get feedback obviously um from the board of commissioners who essentially we serve as well as the as the town uh and its residents. Um I do I'm kind of a project manager by trade. So I'm looking like tactically so trying to quantify the unquantifiable is where I'm a little cloudy I guess or uncertain. Um, so maybe that's maybe it's an outcome, maybe it's not an outcome, but I think um the pursuit could be worthwhile um so to speak. So I I do want to be um so I think it's worth kind of exploring. I do want to be mindful of of staff and make sure we're not burning them, but you mentioned that. So um so no, makes sense to at least start uh the investigating phase, so to speak, or discoveries. Any other questions, comments? Rick?

Uh, if there aren't any others, I I did draft a motion. If uh Madison, if you're able to put that up on the screen or if it's distributable, um just because it has a few words. It's probably easier to see it on the screen. There we go. So, I'll read this. Um but um let's see. Yeah. So, I move that the planning board authorize me to engage directly with commissioners, selected town staff, and planning board members to expeditiously craft for further review by the planning board a problem statement describing opportunities to enhance its deliberative process and recommendations that should be and instead of. Um, I move that.

Okay. Any discussion? All right. All in favor? I Yes. [clears throat] just Thank you. Awesome. Thank you, Rick. Uh, moving down to item number three, which will be the 20 proposed, excuse me, 2026 schedule of regular meetings um for the town of Waxaw Planning Board. I'll make a motion to accept the the uh plan schedule for next year. I can second that. Okay. Any discussion? All right. All in favor? I I

Great. Appreciate it. I think we missed all the holidays uh this year, including my birthday for next year at least. Um All right. Uh well, that's it. Uh do I hear a motion for a German? Can I make a motion? [laughter] Yeah. I'm so sorry. I'll make a motion to agenda the meeting. All in favor? I I Thank you, everyone.