STANLY COUNTY Waten Ah Lands Siccenn. Stanly County Planning Board February 12, 2024 - Meeting Minutes Call to Order Chair Jay Eckman called the meeting to order on February 12, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. in the Gene Stanly County Planning Board members attending David Underwood, Jay Eckman, Kevin Brickman & TJ McIntyre meeting room at 10001 N. First Street, Albemarle, North Carolina. Smith Absent: Michael Williams, Joel Mauldin & Tim Fesperman (all excused) Stanly County Planning Staff Attending: Bob Remsburg, Planning Director & Bailey Cline, Planner 2 Chair Eckman asked ift there were any conflicts ofi interests with the items to be heard due to financial or personal relationships. There were none There were none. Motion: TJ Smith Second: David Underwood Approved: 4-0 Chair Eckman askedi ift there were any other additions to the agenda that thel board needed to consider. Chair Eckman asked for ai motion to approve thej proposed agenda. Chair Eckman asked for a motion to approve the minutes from. January 8, 2024. Motion: David Underwood Second: Kevin Brickman Approved: 4-0 Chair Eckman shared the first item on the agenda was ZA 24-01, aj proposed text amendment to add language in the Stanly County Subdivision Ordinance for the allowance of Conservation Subdivisions. Chair Eckman asked for Planning Staff to share the details oft the request. Bob Remsburg shared the following: We dol have a proposal before you: for ai text amendment for both the: zoning ands subdivision ordinance that would allow language for conservation subdivisions. As you might recall this was part oft the land use plan which was adopted back in November of 2022. We were considering what to do, how to do this and how it would affect growth in this county. As we dot this, I am going to start out with ai few pictures here so that you can wrap: your head around what a Conservation Subdivision might look like when iti is done. Mr. Remsburg displayed the images and explained each. The whole goal is to have land preserved. The way we have this written, the densities do not change. 1 TJ Smith "I don't know if we are gettingi into this yet but] I know wej pushed for the 5 acres that turned into 3a acres Bob Remsburg' "Not exactly a trump card because the way this is written, ifyoul have 100 acres and your use the 3 acrei rule then 100 divided by 3, give or take you have 33 lotsi in that situation. The way wel have this written you could still only get 331 lots on 100 acres ifyou are in thej preservation area. The catch ist that you bring them closer together on smaller lots and then the rest of the area is conserved. It cannot bel built upon, iti is outi into aj permanent easement situation. The only exception tot that is that we puti in ai method thati is for a conservation lot which is were you may ownt thel land and iti is taxable property but you cannot build on it. It gets restricted and there is aj portion of that lot that you could never build on. So there are two ways that this happens. The way thati iti is written ist that if iti is zoned RA: andi isi in the Rural Preservation then you can only get 331 lots on 100 acres. Ifyou are RA andi in a TJ Smith "What isi it now Bob, so as it sits nowi it is 3 acres per lot. Can you give me the math on 100 acres as it Bob Remsburg "So, thisi is the chart for calculating permitted density. So this is just an example. 100 acres and the minimum! lots sizei is 3 acres so your density is .33 units per acre. Wel have other parts in here that talk about the size ofl lots. But, thei ideai is that you can concentrate those lotsi in this smaller situation. Ifyou arei in the R20 district and] have 100 acres with the lot size being 20,000 square feet then you get 2.17 units per acre or 217 dwelling units. Now, there are: not many places in Stanly County that are. R20 and 100 acres this scenario is not very likely. But, you can still get 2171 homes but you will preserve al lot of that because thel lots sizes will be smaller. Iti is mandatory that you preserve 35 percent plus any undevelopable pieces oft thej property. Ifyoul have steep slopes or creeks or anything oft that sort then those are: not developable and once you eliminate that you still have to take atl least 35 percent more out of that. You might remember the City) Lake subdivision property, that was done as ac conditional zoning but about 55 percent oft that was left conserved and they were putting 1861 homes on that but is this the trump card ifs someone wants to build in thej preservation area?" growth area then thati is 40,000 square foot lots." sits now?" property." TJ Smith "Isi it being built now?" because of cheaper utilities." Bob Remsburg "Int the city. Iti is not under construction yet buti it has been annexed into the City of Albemarle David Underwood "What about well and septic tanks?" Bob Remsburg "Obviously yous still have to apply." David Underwood "If we are int the RA district where the 3 acres applies but now we have said instead oft that we Bob Remsburg "We could. That again goes back to minimum lot size. Hold onto that thought for one second, Iam going to come back to the chart really quick and as you can see in the 40,0001 that would be R40 areas or RA that is TJ Smith "Let me ask yous since you are on that particular item. It is in a growth area andi is 40,000 square feet. We have not necessarily messed with that because wel have been trying to fight for our conservation plan. Soi in that willl bring you down closer. We still have a well and septic tank issue, do we: not?" in the growth area. You get down to 1.08 units] per acre." 2 particular situation, it would be al benefit for that because instead ofu us wiping out more property and building a Bob Remsburg "I would agree with that, yes. Atl least 35 percent oft the unconstrained buildable area shall be set aside as protected open space. It does not include thej primary or constrained areas which are the steep slopes and things oft that nature. Section 81 here, primary constrained areas identified on thej plat shall not be counted towards thej primary open space areas. Thati includes wetlands, floodplains, steep slopes and Rights of Way. Then you have the conserved open space whichi is the 35 percent which could consist of woodlands, farmlands, natural areas, TJ Smith "So open space in a development such as this, ist topography something that can count as or they could Bob Remsburg "Right, sO A3 says steep slopes are defined as those that are greater than 25 percent as identified by soil scientist or survey. Those steeper slopes are considered unbuildable. They get taken out to start with sO those along with wetlands and floodplains get taken out to start with then youj jump into the unconstrained areas whichi is the 35 percent. Iti is important tol lots size as far as having the well and septic work properly and having a repair area. Nothing can happen on al lot that cannot perk. That's just going to automatically knock something out. Ideally all oft that is determined up front and once in a while you will get into as situation where you are getting ready to get shovels out and thel lot doesn't perk and then you end up having to merge twol lots together. Thati is the responsibility oft thel Environmental Health Department. Ifthel loti is being created and got through thej process and then won't support a septic system then that is going tol have tol be addressed generally by combining lots and thati is what has tended tol happen in the past or reconfiguring lot lines. We do not encourage this but some subdivisions in Union County where you cluster thel lots together and then pump the system way out to somewhere else." modern development this will makei it more suitable for what we as a county want. wildlife habitats and corridors." not build on that anyways?" David Underwood "You couldn't pump it on the conservation land, could you?" Bob Remsburg "Well, that is a good question. Iam not sure thati is really addressed here and you would have to create an easement. And really it isi not al buildable property sO we might need to create that component." David' Underwood "Then you are going to create another issue because ifiti is one of those instances then that land wont be used for anything." Bob Remsburg read through thej purposes listed of the Stanly County Conservation Subdivision. Bob Remsburg "The goali is tol have some of these open spaces utilized as nothing else at least as view sheds but also passive recreational especially. But also, potentially for farm use. These are required in the RA zoning district but are permitted but not required int thel R40 and R20 zoning districts. We do notl have a whole lot of R40 out there, we have some. R201 but this becomes an option for those who are: in those districts. Most of the property in these areas especially R20 are going tol bei fairly close to municipalities anyways. There are ai few strips ofR20. They have to follow the standards for thes subdivision approval process that we currently have and have to comply with all ordinances including fire code. There are two different types ofrecreation areas ify you think abouti it. Active recreation such as public parks are: fine but not much: for wildlife. That only can count for 50 percent oft that 35 percent ofunconstrained area. Passive: recreation areas such as walking trails andj picnic areas do count fully as open space. We did add that all plants put int the landscape buffer are native species." 3 TJ Smith "You showed thej pictures earlier on, there are trees pretty much in the whole front yard and side yard, Bob Remsburg' "They are going tol have to submit a site plan andi ideally in that site plan they are going to identify the different wood lands that are going tol be preserved and where they are going to build. One thing thati is different from our plan these models that were showni ist these lots that are along the roads, there is a 50 foot roadside buffer required. Cabarrus County has this now, thel houses are tucked back behind al berm and I ami not a big fan oft berms but on the other hand, going down the road you don't know that there are 1001 houses back there. You may know by the traffic on the road but you will not] know by driving by. Thati is kind ofaj plus. That is one of our goals is protecting that viewshed driving down Austin Road or wherever so you don't see a wholel bunch of One of the first steps that they are going to have to doi is come up with aj plan that shows where those constrained areas are such as the steep slopes and unbuildable property and then look at the buildable land and then kind of pick up where they are going to lay it out depending on if they are connecting to infrastructure and then they are going toi identify 35j percent or more that they are going toj preserve whether it bei in farmland or woods or wherever. So, we have got undivided preserves which is really what you want which means the constrained and unconstrained areas are not divided and will all be one core group or connected group. You could potentially have these subdivisions connected by open space networks. Thei ideai is that you don't end up with little pods of preserved spots but you have an area of fairly substantial preserved area. We tried to come up with an idea where a property owner could own some of the land that is tol be conserved. This is where the divided preserves come in. You cannot build oni itc or use it and except where there is] pre-existing pasture land fences are not permitted because itc cannot be divided up. Itl has tol be connected to the neighbors freely so that the wildlife or whatever can move Wei then get into the ownership oft the conserved area. It could goi into ai fee simple dedication to aj private non property land conservancy or unit of government, ownership by an HOA where development and maintenance agreements arej part of the bylaws or it can bej put into a conservation easement as a conservation where we allow privately owned lots as part of the conservation but it gets recorded as that on the lots. We then talk about howy you maintain or modify it which would take someone such as al landscape architect and land surveyor. They need to come up with the existing features map which should include forest, farmland, conservation, natural, scenic, historic and cultural features which are listedi in 66-45 that we have already looked at. Any location of septic or well systems located offt thej parcel being served whether on private parcels, HOA owned parcels or preservation conservation areas shall require the establishment ofai recorded easement for that purpose. So, we do address this. By this language you can have them as ai recorded easement off of your property." David Underwood "But, ify you do that then you are disturbing the soil andi it defeats thej purpose ofv what we are Bob Remsburg "To a certain degree, yes, the answer would be true. But] how much is okay? Idon't know. Wec do see this oncei in a while where the septic is 500 feet away from the house and) It think iti is happening more and more where intense development is taking place. This is up for discussion sO ifv we want to come back and look at that then we can. We can look ati it and say that we aren't going to allow it and limit it to a certain degree which Iwould do they have to leave a certain amount oftrees, how do wei regulate that?" houses. from one spot to the other. trying to do." have to think about. Orisi it okay?" 4 TJ Smith "Sol Ig guess Ia am confused, who brought this up to begin with? Was this something you guys wanted to do?" Bob Remsburg "Well, the Land Use Plan called for us to create a Conservation Subdivision." TJ Smith "In what ways would it conflict with the 3 acre conservation language?" Bob Remsburg "It doesn't conflict except when it comes to lot size. The 3 acre rule says that you! have to have 3 acres for al house. This says that your density is the same but you can get it onto a smaller lot andj just not cut up all oft the 100 acres." TJ Smith "So, smaller lot as in how small?" Bob Remsburg "Hang on to that thought. So maybe we: need to address this particular area with septic." David Underwood "See, that is a two-part problem. Ifitisa a divided lot like you said then Ia am going to havea hard time knowing that I cannot put a septic tank there ifI own it. Ipay taxes on it but I can't put my septic oni it. But, ifyouz are going to leave it as one whole lot of conservation area then yous should not disturb the soil. You are putting these homes close together and we are going right back to what we were trying to stop." Bob Remsburg "AsIhave understood it over the years from Environmental Health, ift the dirt is good you can actually get down to 15,000 square foot lot andi it will support well and septic. So, the goal is to get things tighter and preserve as much open space as possible. So ify you starti increasing the lot sizes too much then certainly ini the R40 and R20 areas you are reducing thei incentive forj people to do this. Second, somewhere in there you start to defeat the purpose. For the RA district youl have already stated in thel beginning that you have to build a conservation subdivision, you cannot build a standard subdivision anymore. We can look at it differently and make ito optional in all three but you need tot think about what is thei incentive to do this. Or you can: make it requiredi in all areas. We did noti include R10 or R8 areas because generally thati is multi-family and wel have little to nonei in the county. The way iti is written now is that minimum lot area requirements would be: reduced to 15,000 in the RA and R40 districts and 10,000 in thel R20: zoning district. Minimum lot frontage will be no less than 35, average lot width shall be no less than 75 feet in the RA and R40: zoning districts and 601 feet in thel R20 zoning district and minimum front setback shall be no less than 25 feeti ifg garages are: front loading and homes with rear and side loading garages may have 15 foot setback, minimum side and rear setbacks shalll be what is required in the underlying zoning district and flag lots are not permitted. 15,000 square feet is not very large but then again that is the minimum that would support a septic system. That is between the developer and Environmental Health TJ Smith "So we are going from 40,000 ifiti is noti in the conservation area and we are talking about 15,000 and department andj potentially their soil scientist." make it kind ofa clustered subdivision with more trees." Bob Remsburg "It preserves more land. More contiguous preserved land." TJ Smith "But, who regulates that. If feel like we. havel been down this road before." 5 Bob Remsburg "Well, wel haven't as a county. The only place that wel have sort ofis because we did that one development offofLong Lake Drive that ist nowi in the city and that is where we went this way with this ideal but it Conservation Subdivisions would be by right. This does not require a rezoning. The way the ordinance is currently written, it would come to thel Planning Board for review of the subdivision design. Of course ifiti meets all the codes then you better pass itl because ifyou don't then we will get sued again. Wel have been down that road." Chair Eckman "So, because we are making these more dense, the density is still 3 acres but with a smaller lot size. So, those lots would stilll bet the cost ofa 3 acre lot. Icould see someone saying that this isj just going to drive Bob Remsburg "Again, this is ai major subdivision so it does not affect individual property owners or minor was a conditional zoning district. up the cost of building al home." subdivisions. You can still create your minor subdivision with 4 lots." Chair Eckman "Essentially: a 15,000 square foot lot and 3 acre lot have thes same cost." Bob Remsburg "Thes savings for a developer comes on the infrastructure side ofit. It'1l bei interesting to seei ifit does affect land prices. Thei initial price of property but of course all oft thati is rising now anyways." David' Underwood "This is cluster housing no matter how you painti it." Bob Remsburg "Alot of places use as sliding scale for density but we decided not to go that route. Michelle Nance is here and she can speak on this as well. Wel have all of thel buffers laid out as welll between subdivisions and also streams. There are goals listed for each oft the conservation types when it comes to forestland, farmland, scenic views and historic." Jay Eckman "Who determines what the goal is? The developer?" Bob Remsburg "Thati is going to be determined by the developer and staff. It becomes what your goals arei fort the use. Staff would) have the authority to come in and say what their goali is based on what is there. Iti is hard to nail all TJ Smith "Thel by right part scares me as well. The past two years we have gotten stuff that is by right but we vote Bob Remsburg "Legally we need to change the ordinance to take away that right for you. You do not need to be approving subdivisions that should be an administrative thing done by staff but thati is not the way the ordinance is written and Id do not think the commissioners are: ready to do that.) Ia agree with you. But thati is the way the David Underwood "Soi instead they bringi it to us and make us look bad when wei review it. Let's go back tot the 10,000 square feeti in R20. Where is that going to apply?1 Because youj just said Mr. Ezzell said 15,000a andi ifwe of that down because in some areas you may need to dot two of these things." oni it anyways." ordinance is and you all could decide you want to change it." have 10,000 in here then how is that going to support a well and septic tank?" Bob Remsburg' "It won' 't, you will have to do water and sewer." 6 TJ Smith "So you would have tol be close to infrastructure fort the 10,000 square feet?" Bob Remsburg "Thati is right. We are not addressing utilities much in this. But, the R20 districts are near utilities in many districts. They may notl have service there now but they could with a developer who wants infrastructure to TJ Smith "I know we worked hard for what we have and obviously itl became al big controversial conversation and certainly don't want to go against that. The only benefit Is see oft this is taking thej place ofa cluster Bob Resmburg "Wel have some old language for a cluster subdivision and wej potentially need to take it out] I think. There is not much ofa an incentive to use it. It does not have thel layers or requirements that this does to make TJ Smith "We are already runningi into these developments where we live and there is noj place to park and that is always an issue. Ifv we don't have aj position to where we can give conditional or like Long Lake, we were able to put al bunch of restrictions there. Wej put an overflow parking lot there and Id did not: necessarily care for that but they listened to us and made al list of things to do. Can we do that with this?. A fancy cluster scares me and Ifeel like we: need to be more restrictive than just letting them tell us where they want toj put thel homes." Bob Remsburg "Thel keyi is that a conditional zoning district like Long Lake requires a rezoning. Iti requiresa presentation to you and your recommendation to the commissioners. As part oft that process you can come up with that list of conditions. What we try to do by right like this is to come up with the right conditions that would be acceptable without having to ask for any more. Because thisi is thel legislative process to set those requirements and apply to any conservation subdivision int the county and therefore someone shows up with aj piece of property in the county and says they want to do a conservation subdivision in the county it becomes by right and they dor not have to do ai rezoning request. Ifthey want to get their density up then they would have to rezone it tol R20 and then TJ Smith "Asi it sits right nowl Iami indifferent, Ijust do not want it to conflict with what we. have in place right Bob Remsburg displayed a Conservation Subdivision layout and further explained the density rule. be extended to this area." development itself. Do we have that in place currently?" sure the lands are put in a conservation easement or anything." apply the conservation subdivision toi it." now." Bob Remsburg "There are some people that are going toj prefer to be on three acre lots but our point was to make that required int thel RA district. That way you have got toj preserve land ini that area because that is what wel have heard from thej public is that we want toj preserve as much land as possible. So, they wanted the five acre lots but TJ Smith "Where we livei is not always fields like that. What ifiti is just a 100 acre field and you are going to have Bob Remsburg That is why you have several options here as far as doing woodlands or farmlands, etc. You can what they really wanted was conserved land." as small cluster development in the middle ofi farmland." do different types. You can have it as pasture land, there can be al herd of cowS out there." 7 Chair Eckman "In that situation with the 100 acre field, with those buffers they are going tol have toj plant tons of Bobl Remsburg' "They are going tol have to meet the buffer requirements, yes. If they pick a wide open field and put houses in it, they are going tol have to shield thosel houses from the rest oft the world. It won't be instant but Michelle Nance "Youl have done a great job. Iam with the Centralina Regional Council and this was ai team effort with your great employees. Itl basically came up because of thel Land Use Plan andj people wanting to preserve some oft that space. I1 think one thing that Idid want toi mention is we looked at Conservation Subdivisions from not only NC State (University)! but alsol Moore County, Henderson County, Rowan and Cabarrus County. One oft the things we did not want to doi is allow: more density than Cabarrus County and have folks coming across thel line and be able to demolish more open space than they would be able to in Cabarrus. Because that is where thej pressure is coming from and we wanted it tol be in line with it or more stringent. Lets say a 100 acre lot in the rural preservation area, the other counties actually said in the Conservation Subdivision you can do: more density. But, with Stanly County they said let's not do more density. Iti is the same density you are. just moving it around. That is really thel key thing Ib had. Ithink before we got to the Commissioners, I think we should do one that is very specific trees?" someone 40 years from now willl be thanking us for it." to what this ordinance calls for." Chair Eckman asked ift there was anyone in the audience wishing to speak. Kevin Farmer shared the following: Ilive at 31986 Blakely in Albemarle. Itis funny that you all talk about thel Long Lake Subdivision becausel Iwas there the night that they bullied the city into takingi it over. You guys did all of that hard work and they rezonedi it to R10. My biggest concern and why Ishow up to everything is because oft thel buffers with the water streams because there are: zero: for Stanly County. Ii read this through a few times and It think no matter what, ifyou get someone wanting to divide iti into three acres then iti is going tol be good but these developers who are coming out here are not looking for three acre lots. They arel looking for R10 and not even. R20.1 Ithink thel biggest thing we need to implementi is thel buffers. Myl land is RA and therei is a current plot behind mei that is the old Kingi property and there isa developer whoi is wanting to squeeze. houses int there. They arel looking to do R10. Asi it sits now, there are no buffers required between the two and they can go right up to my property line. Ia also have an intermittent stream that comes through my property and] IH have seen thej plan that they want to do and they want toj just flat clear all of that and build homes over top ofit.Iknowi iti is a preliminary sketchl but the fact that no one on their side looked at the USGS map and said there is a stream. Iwatched them drive straight through the stream. Iti infuriates me that all of this has gone on so far. Imoved out here to get away from the city and I guess I picked al bad spot where there is high development. But, regardless we create these buffers and ordinances tol hold these developers to high standards and you won't get suedi ifthisi is what your ordinance requires and they do not meet that. But, ifyou go back and say that youl have nothing in place then they can get around it and thati is why the developers are coming this way and bullying people into letting them do this. The 1861 homes on Long Lake are supposed to starti in October and then they are wanting tol build those 2001 homes right around my home. My property floods and it all runs downhill. In Stanly County it is only registered as a watershed ifiti is a classified watershed which is not right because the stormwater has to go somewhere and that happens tol bei my property. It goes over top of City Lake Drive and then out to Long Lake. Ithink what wei need to do as a community is come together and create these ordinances toj protect the community and this is the only way to doi it and hold these developers to as standard. I know that Cabarrus County has a great watershed ordinance that specifically talks about everything and stormwater where they have 100 foot buffers. We are really headed in thei right direction with this but we need to make sure 8 that applies ift they want to rezone that property behind me tol R10 and they are going to come to you guys and want tor rezone it and apparently there are no standards for buffers or protecting the waterway right now. Iti is zoned RA right now but they are: not going to keepi it zoned that because of the money. It think they will dot the same thing the other company did and do all the legwork with you guys and then go to the City and talk them into taking it over." TJ Smith "You said 1001 foot buffer in Cabarrus County?" Kevin Farmer "100 foot stream buffers. Wateri is not being protected herel because there is no watershed or stormwater protection. Idon't want to movel but Ispent al lot ofi money for this property and now Ihave to potentially find more land tol keep doing what] I want to do." Carla Weyrick shared the following: Iappreciate the opportunity to address you. Iam here to advocate for the Conservation Subdivision amendment. Over the last 3 years Ihave been before the City of Albemarle for thej protection of acreage surrounding conservation areas. Ia am asking as well as the conservation for the county subdivision and stormwater ordinances tol be added on. These guys have done an amazon job. The work that Bob, Bailey and Centralina have done is because they havel heard you and are listening to you and the community. The three years Ihave been working on this, If finally got a chancei in. June to call the Army Corps of] Engineers, North Carolina DEQ and got a great response from North Carolina DOT because we havel had an excessive amount of flooding along Long Lake and City Lake Drive. Inl March of2022, we. had ai neighbor that lives along that creek line drown because oft the hydraulics of the water. Once the community college began to expand before the land was cleared, the 100 acre plus the 86 acres oft the King property, when they expanded the school, which is great we all want growth and development, but we all began to experience flooding and the retention pond that the community college has currently is not able to stay within thel banks of the community college. I can give you so1 many pictures from over the years of the water overflowing the roads and you don't ever know when itis going tol happen because you may not have al heavy rain but you may have twoi inches fall within at twol hour time frame and the water has no place to Ihave done al lot of work with this and in research with] NCDOT. Ihave been at city council trying to protect the 86 acres and Ii missed thej planning meeting for the 100 acres and we were not notified. We were 800 feet away from the property and we were: not notified at all. We lived out there, my grandfather lived out there and we have been on that road for 60+ years. Things happen andi iti is okay. Alot has happened with growth and development over the past couple ofy years and everyone is learning. So anyways, with this subdivision ordinance when we are talking about buffers, Iask that al buffer be considered around all single family residences and subdivisions. This buffer would be considered common open space and promoting aesthetically pleasing neighborhoods, encouraging developers toi incorporate streets, trees, sidewalks and potentially walking trails that not only enhance the visual appeal but contribute to the pedestrians safety, healthy lifestyles and also increases the community's desirability. On the hand out that I have given you this is in Midland. This is as you are coming in Locust and you see thel land being cleared and what this is is that they are, going tol have 1121 lots and there are no perimeter buffers at all. Iam selling thesel homes and Ib have clients wanting tol buy homes here and wes sat down with the sales agent three weeks ago and just yesterday had a conversation, there are only twol lots through the whole subdivision that they can build one oft threel homes and it would give them the privacy they want. Behind there is a triangle lot and the gentleman that owns iti is holding onto iti for his daughters so that they can: run their business from there. Which is great, nothing wrong with that and iti isi in the right spot. But, there is no buffers at all. My client does not want tol bes seen from 24/27 and they definitely do not want tol be backed up to al business where there are no required buffers of go except down stream. anyone who develops there. 9 The developers are just looking at their bottom line. They want as many houses as possible to go on their lots. They are not preserving the trees. This is not Stanly County, I am giving an example ofwhat developers are doing and in Mecklenburg county iti is nothing but urban areas now. We have no more land there. The existing homes and land that we do have, the UDOs1 have changed to where they can goi in a neighborhood: and put a duplex there. People there want to get out to this county. That is why Ia appreciate the ordinance ini regards to the buffers and also asking that the developers put in trails. You guys are great. With the Cityl Lake property that went before the City Council, Carolina Thread Trail called and asked to meet with them and they never called them back. What] I had hoped we could doi is expand the Carolina Thread Trail.Ilivei inl Mecklenburg county now butI I have al home on Cityl Lake but all the flooding I experienced 30 years ago in Charlotte and the city had to come through and buy up the Thisi is al beautiful community but you guys have thei influence to really preserve the true character oft this community. My encouragement is that you expect for these guys coming before you to have a plan and thati itis well thought out. WhatIrealized inl November, Ih have been petitioning trying to create change and Iami not getting anywhere and Ir need to come to the Planning Boards. To educate, I ami no expert but I have been selling land here for 25 years and the whole Charlotte region and I am an appraiser and Iknow what affects property values andI I The watershed ordinances, when I called NCDEQ and II kept hitting a wall and they werel like therei is no watershed ordinance in Stanly County at all. The minimum standard is NCDEQ. Then I found out that Albemarle has 4,000 houses that they agreed to build in the City. I was even more alarmed because wel have development happening in the county, rightfully sol because wei need growth everywhere buti if our streams and buffers are not] protected and we are not mindful of how we. handle things and then the City is doing it three times more with ay water system that isa already failing, then we have problems and willl have continual flooding. I emphasized tot the City Council and there arei no water buffers for them yet. When the City voted for the 100 acres the mayor did ask for more buffers around the lakes and intermittent streams that were not there before. Wel have to start somewhere and the municipalities will follow your lead on how we protect that. The water just drains down that 86 acres on City Lake and therei is nowhere for it to go. The erosion is exponential and after the 86 acres was approved by you all they took their plans to NCDOT and they turned the streets down. There are: four blind spots in a mile on City Lake. DOT decided to order a hydraulic study and when it came back I got a copy ofita and the section where our homes are, therei is sO1 much that needs tol be done to that road. Wei really need to be more: mindful about how manyl homes wej put into the communities andi really protect the streams. Iti is really putting our citizens in harm's way. Iwasi in a neighborhood with three acres this morning and it was beautiful but it was almost too much land. With what you With City Lake Drive, we havel Bald Eagles out there. Those developers havej just been clearing all thei trees. We have wildlife everywhere. This is something to really protect when it comes to all oft the communities. Even behind City Lake, you have. Austin Road and Hatley Farm Road and all ofthat flooding is from thes streams. The importance ofhaving these guidelines up front is to avoid over taxing the systems. These proposals serve as the first line of defense to manage growth at ai manageable rate. Creating this ordinance willl bei for all municipalities to imitate. Ip propose that these ordinances be written and implemented before further rezoning or subdivisions. This preventive approach ensures that once an application is approved the county cannot go back and fix ordinances. As itisg grandfathered in under existing guidelines. Iti is crucial toi implement smart growth in Stanly County. Iwant to express my gratitude to Bob and Bailey on this conservation guideline. They have taken al lot of feedback and properties where everything was flooding and make them pedestrian greenways. know what buyers want. have thisi is pushing conservation. input. I am happy to share with you all any oft the information that Ihave. 10 Chair Eckman asked ift there was anyone else who wanted to speak. There was no one. Bob Remsburg "Technically: you should have a1 motion to discuss but we can talk abouti it some now and ify you want to doi it further then you can goi into the motion. I will mention, I talked al little bit with Bailey andl Mrs. Nance dealing with David's concern dealing with lot sizes and again this has to fit everybody and of course it will eventually go before the commissioners. The question I have is whether you would feel more comfortable sending itu up the chain of command ift the minimum lots sizes were 15,000 and 20,000 as opposed to 15,000 and 10,000?" David Onderwood "Yes." TJ Smith "I know I am out and abouti int these storms and Ihave seen it on the western end of the county with some developments. Idid! know it was an issue but) I did: not know at ton about it until you brought it up. But, ist that Bobl Remsburg "We probably need to consider a couple oft things. We dol have a watershed ordinance but thati is for drinking water and the watershed ordinance thati is inj place is toj protect drinking water SO waters that are flowing into drinking water so in this case, Badin Lake, Lake Tillery and' Tuckertown. Wel have buffer and density rules that apply in the eastern edge oft the county. What Mrs. Weyrick is primarily concerned about would be stormwater: regulations and that is a whole other set ofregulations and we can go there eventually and it may fall under zoning or you may have a whole separate department int the county that becomes the Stormwater department. The City has been around and around about how to address stormwater in Albemarle. Stormwater regulations are important and the only regulations we. have inj place are through DEQ. That would be a whole other ordinance and that might come at some point but as ofi now it is not on thet table. We can put these buffers in place along the streams and we can eventually look att thes subdivision ordinance and say that applies to all subdivisions but right now we arej just dealing with conservation subdivisions. So we are making sure iti is in this ordinance. Again, ifyou make this ai requirement ini thel RA zoning district then all subdivisions would have toi meet those buffers." TJ Smith "I am fori it. But, just like that situation at City Lake andl how much time wej put into that and we approved it.I did not like the 101 foot setbacks and thej parking. I just feel like if we are going to do al by-right Bob Remsburg "They can gol larger than the minimum allowed lot size and they will have to clear the areai for septic but of course not disturb the ground too much. Page 6 of dimensional standards, you mentioned parking and that was also a concern of mine. Letter 4D says minimum front setback for front loading is 25 and if they are side or reari iti is 15: feet. We can adjust that, ift that would be preferred. My thought of course is that you want that setback ifiti is front loading when that person is driving the Suburban or pick up truck." TJ Smith "So ifv we add these buffers which I agree with the gentleman from earlier. Can we add as we develop this aj parking section that says per home there has to be a certain amount of parking? Can we do some sort of chart Bob Remsburg "Under the general criteria we can do something. You are: facing al back and forth on that. Do you require parking and then you are increasing impervious surface and increasing runoff and then you are defeating stormwater. In our zoning ordinance it requires that every house have two parking places. Most ordinances have something that we can talk about as well." situation then it needs to be heavily regulated." or an overflow parking? Ij just feel like ifit by right then we need to establish it." some parking requirements. City of Albemarle does not have any." 11 Carla Weyrick "There is sO much happening in the county, andi in Highland Creek in Charlotte there are two cars per home and you canj park in the driveway or your garage. But you cannot park on the street after 11 ort they will TJ Smith "T happen tol be int thel business on one end of that and wel have a lot more going on than sticking parking bet ticketed and thati is how they control it." tickets on cars." Carla Weyrick "The HOA actually does it." Bobl Remsburg "So our ordinance says) you have tol have two.] I think the way to allow or provide parking space we could say that itl has to be more than two. Or you make your setbacks a little larger that way there is space in the driveway. Currently ifyou are int thel RA district iti is 50: feet and thel R20 is 40 feet unless you: are on thel lake andi it TJ Smith "Wel have apartments that werej just built and they have two parking places with a 201 foot pad andI Bobl Remsburg "The state regulates parking sizes now. You can't make the requirement any wider than 91 feet." TJ Smith "What] I am saying is you don't havel but twoj parking spaces and plus the garage which is storage most of is 30: feet." want to say iti is not very wide. My truck could not go there without hitting something." the time anyways sO the cars will end up on the road." Kevin Brickman Parking on the road is regulated by) DOT and we don't have any local roads." Bob Remsburg "If you are talking about parking spaces then I think we put that under general criteria. We either add a section under there forj parking or you simply increase the front setback al little more for more parking in the driveway. For minimum lots size wei talked about changingi it to 15,000 and 20,000 and I don't think you want to do moret than that really tol keep this as an encouraged thing to do in the R20 and R40. It think you could upt the TJ Smith "Idon't want toi make ai motion yet but I feell like wel have three people out and Ifeell like iti is al lot.I will say this, If feel like this needs tol be studied and wei need to come to a good agreement and implement the buffering andj parking and still make it cluster like event though) I don't necessarily like that. Bob, you said we could setbacks about 51 feet or so but I wouldn't go any higher." bump it up to 20,000 square feet and 15,000 square feet." David Underwood "A 15 foot setback is not very far guys, that isj just not a lot." Bob Remsburg Remember that is for side and rear loading garages." David Underwood "T don't care, iti is still not enough." TJ Smith "Ify you say al house is 2.5 people and they could have three cars, where are you going to put the third?" David Underwood "Number one. Ia am tired ofbeing behind. We are always chasing a cats tail. We need tol look at this as tol how they can come to our terms and not us fix something that we put before them. Number two, wel have to think down the road, who is going tol buy these houses?. Are we going to have realtors buy these things andi rent 12 back out? Probably notl but behind' Tim Marburger they have that issue. Ijust want to fix that front setback because TJ Smith "They are going tol bei forced tol break the rules with the noj parking on the road. Iti is just too small." that is sO close to the road." TJ Smith made a motion to table thisi item until the next meeting Second: Kevin Brickman Tabled 4-0 rear good?" Bob Remsburg "I am going to ask this before we move: forward, is 30 feet for front loading and 201 feet fors side or David Underwood "I would: rather see 25 and 30." Bob Remsburg T don't know that iti is aj problem at all but we will come back toi it next time." TJ Smith' "Iti isj just al hot button topic and what makes itj pretty is all the trees but you still have to build these houses really close together with zero parking and there is no room." David Underwood "I think these storms are not going tol be typical anymore." TJ Smith "T feel like II have just been poking holes in what you alll have put together andl II have been on your end trust me. You feel unappreciated sometimes but Iappreciate all you do and these decisions are on our necks if we Chair Eckman introduced thes second item on the agenda ZA 24-02, aj proposed text amendment to amend the access easement requirements and: related language in both the Stanly County Zoning and Subdivision Ordinances don't doi it right." to be consistent with North Carolina Fire Code Requirements. Bob Remsburg shared the following: We realized that we had aj problem when some oft the requirements we hadi in zoning did not match up with what was required in the fire code and again with Centralina'sl help we have gone through both ordinances and have met with the Stanly County Firel Marshall and we worked through everything to make us consistent with the fire code. Iti iss scattered all through both ordinances. First off, the fire code requires a 201 foot wide all weather surface with a 13 % foot high clearance for thej passage ofa vehicle. Our ordinance said 20 foot for the easement size. DOT streets are a different animal but in this case we are uping things. The reason we are going to: 30 feeti is because if you think about the way a street is done you may have an angled line to the ditch or culverts, etc. and extend beyond the 201 foot surface. So thei idea ist that you have al little bit to spare and make it consistent with 30 feet. We have corrected things that say 20 or less to 30. Because of this we were able to do away with some oft thel language about flag lots. The one thing we did change thati is not quite related' buti is a violation really of the state statute. If someone has aj problem with the action of thel Planning Board, their recourse is to appeal to superior court. Thisi is language we didn't realize was in there with the 160D updates which says that someone can appeal your decision to Section 66-38, the whole deal in the fire code is that it does not address one or two lots but it does address three to four lots or more. Four lots is a minor subdivision in our ordinance. One to two lots is ai minor sub and then five the commissioners within 30 days and that is not legal or statutory sO we took it out. 13 lots is ai major subdivision. One to twol lots can still have a 201 foot easement with a 12 foot travelway because itis really more ofac driveway. Firecode kicks in ati more than two. We are trying to discourage any easement ina a major 66-76, there was language added to require as second entrance fora a major subdivision when a' Traffic Impact Analysis, the Fire Marshall, Planning Staff or Planing Board determines iti is necessary. Additionally, a subdivision containing 60 or more lots shall bei required to have atl least two entrances. So currently if youl have aj plan before you and you determine that thes shape, topography or whatever makes it need a second entrance. subdivision. David Underwood "Where did you come up with that number?" Bob Remsburg "Current fire code says that ify youl have 30 lots youl have tol have a second entrance. My understanding is that they are currently reworking the fire code and they are going to take that out of the appendix and put iti into the fire code and that it willl be changed to 1001 lots." David Underwood "So, what happens to us here?" Bobl Remsburg "We can be more: restrictive if we want to." David Underwood "T would love to see the 601 be: 50. What happens if we come in and revise that subdivision?. I Bob Remsburg "So, that would be ai major subdivision and it would not only come to you all but to us as well." havea a 39 lot subdivision and add 201 lots. Because this has happened before." David Underwood "Would that automatically make them have tol have a second entrance?" Bob Remsburg "I tend tot think that the answer is yes." David Underwood "That is what Iwould like fori it to be. That way no onei is blamed for anything." Bobl Remsburg "Then we started thinking about the odd thing that happened on Brattain Road or Millingport Road where there is a court. DOTi is not wanting driveways on major thoroughfares. DOT is either going to say they have tol have shared driveways or put al loop int there and allow them to enter off oft that easement and we only have two entry points. So how do we treat that? It says that they have tol be a 301 foot wide easement with a 201 foot surface andi it can serve 12 lots and noi more. Millingport Road, the fire department can access most of those houses, nott the ones in thel back but the ones int the front from Millingport Road eveni ifthey don't get on thel loop. Mr. Barnham recommended that we add this about major subdivision served by public utility water shall have hydrants inj place and approved by thel Fire Marshall prior to the issuance ofbuilding permits. Ican control whether We do point out turn around options which are. listed in images here. There are a whole lot of grandfathered easements in the county. These would be affected ifl lots were added to them. We did change the campground language to 201 feet and the telecommunications tower language to just meet current fire code. Besides the 50 foot abuilding permit isi issued or not. are there any other changes?" Chair Eckman asked if there were any questions from those present. 14 There were none. Chair) Eckman entertained a motion lots in section 66-76. Second: Kevin Brickman Approved: 4-0 Motion: TJ Smith Second: Kevin Brickman Approved: 4-0 Time: 8:47PM David Underwood made a motion to approve text amendment ZA 24-02 with the amendment of 50 or more Chair Eckman entertained a motion to adjourn 4 Chair,ayEckman &yptine 15