The Walkertown Planning Board first official meeting was called to order at 3:02 p.m. by Chairperson Peggy Leight. She then introduced the Planning Board and alternates to the audience: Arlyn Wilson, N.H. Vaughn, Mike Warren, and Larry Marshall. The alternate members are Howard Benfield, Chuck Trivette, and Keith Grubbs. Mr. Trivette and Mr. Grubbs were absent from this meeting.

Ms. Leight:

"As this is our first case review, I wanted to go over our standard procedures and methods. They have not been set in stone right now. We’d like to see how things go with speakers and time limits so I wanted to give you an overview of what we’d like to see today. First, the City-County Planning Staff will present the case to us. Then we will open it up for Public Discussion. Here, any of those people who are speaking "pro" or "for" the case will speak first. We have no time limit on the speakers – we just ask you to address the issues of the case at hand. State your name, your address and your zip code when you get up to the podium and then say what you’d like to say. Once we are finished with the people who are speaking for that specific case, we will hear the people who are "against" the case – or speaking "con". The same procedure – come up to the podium, state their name, address and zip code so that we can keep track of that. Once we have heard both sides of the speakers, pro and con, the Open Session will be closed and the Board will go into what we call "Work Session". At this time, we will speak amongst ourselves and we may ask questions of the Planning Staff, of the members of the audience, or we may answer the questions if you have asked any – but it is not an informal discussion. There will not be discussion going back and forth – it will be us asking questions specifically. I will call for a motion to either approve or deny the requested change, and we will vote. To let you know, all five members of the Board will vote. Alternate members, were they here, would not vote. These sessions are being recorded and minutes will be taken. Agendas and Minutes are available at the Walkertown Town Hall and also online at townofwalkertown.com so you can find out what’s coming up, at not only the Planning Board sessions but also the town council meetings as well. Any of the sessions that are listed as Public Hearings, two of the issues before us today are considered Public Hearings – we will make a recommendation only. Our vote is a recommendation and it will go to the Town of Walkertown Town Council for a final vote. The site plan reviews, the Planning Board decision is the final decision. It does not go forward to an elected body for final vote. Just as a clarification on this agenda, before we get into the cases before the Board, the Glenwood Development case will actually entail three separate votes. We will be voting on (1) the rezoning of the land; (2) we will be voting on the SIDA request – Special Intense Development Allocation request; and (3) we will be voting on the Site Plan. So there will be three separate votes taken on that one issue. Are we ready?"

Item #1 WA-008 – Voluntary Annexation #5

Suzy Gallaway:

"I am a Planner for the City-County Planning Board and we do planning for Winston-Salem as well as for most of the rest of Forsyth County but just to tell you a little bit about me: I live in Walkertown! So that’s how I became the planner that will come to these meetings. The first item on this agenda is Item #1 – Zoning Docket WA-008. A month or two ago Walkertown went through some voluntary annexations and the folks that did want to be annexed, indeed were annexed and as part of that, the zoning jurisdiction has to change from county’s zoning jurisdiction to Walkertown zoning jurisdiction. That does not change the usage of the property; it doesn’t change what’s allowed to be done there; it just merely changes it from county to Walkertown. That property consists of 38.42 acres in random locations throughout what is now Walkertown. Staff is recommending approval."

Public Session was opened at 3:06 p.m.

PRO: No Speakers

CON: No Speakers

Public Session was closed at 3:06 p.m.

Work session was then opened.

Mr. Marshall:

"Since these people all volunteered for annexation, I see no problem with it."

Item #2 WA-009 – Glenwood Walkertown Company, LLC

Suzy Gallaway:

"The second item on your agenda is not quite that simple. This is a request from Glenwood Walkertown Company, LLC, requesting to rezone 7.76 acres from RS-20 zoning, which is Residential-Single Family to HB-S-Highway Business and there are multiple commercial uses that would be possible there. The site is located on the corner of NC-66 and US-158. There’s a shopping center being built there now. Specifically, what’s being requested is the area that’s shaded here. In order to bring this drive in, the petitioner felt it was his best interest to try to accommodate some more commercial on either side of that road to access the

RM-18 portion of the previously approved site. Just a little background information on that site, the front portion on 158 has already been approved in 2000. Towards the rear of the site is RM-18S, which is multi-family. That’s also been approved. There’s also a small section of office that has been approved and this would be sort of in the middle – a pie slice out of that property but not included in the original request. The property is in the Salem Lake Watershed and what that means is that without a SIDA, the property can be developed at 24% impervious surface coverage without any storm water control devices and 24% includes buildings, roads, so you can see that that’s not a whole lot of property to develop. Oftentimes when a developer is located within that watershed, they’ll ask for a SIDA – that allows development up to 70% of the property. Originally, when we saw this application come before us, the petitioner had requested 70% and his requested tract was just over nine (9) acres. There are also several other uses that we did not feel were appropriate in this area. The petitioner did work with us extensively and took these tracts out of the request and also a tract that was impinging upon the RM-18. He decreased the amount of land he is asking to rezone, which in turn decreased his SIDA to 65% from 70%. However, Staff was still concerned about the creeping of commercial up 66. It’s more of a residential street in character. Other than the shopping center, everything else around it is either rural or single-family residential. So the concern about the creeping of commercial up 66 as well as current high-traffic volumes on both of these roads – that was another concern. Also, currently, Walkertown is in the process of developing a Small Area Plan to look at sites and exactly what they want to have developed at each of those places. And since there was no area plan yet, Staff did not feel comfortable giving a positive recommendation with this creeping up the road at this point. We just felt it was premature. Staff also did not find that the SIDA request – there are five findings that a SIDA must meet in order to be granted and one of those, Staff did not feel that it met, and that was "Did it conform with Legacy, the comprehensive plan for the county?" And we felt that it did not because there is no Small Area Plan and Legacy calls for Small Area Plans when appropriate.

Staff is recommending denial."

Peggy Leight:

"So you’re giving it a No on that very first finding because there is no Small Area Plan in place as opposed to just a neutral?’"

Suzy Gallaway:

"Right. Unfortunately, those findings are either Yes or No."

Arlyn Wilson:

"But you only gave two No’s out of the five? Two No’s and three Yes’s?"

Suzy Gallaway:

"Right. According to the ordinance, all five of those findings have to be positive in order for us to recommend."

Public Session was opened at 3:11 p.m.

132 Greenhill Lane

Walkertown NC 27051

Public Session was closed at 3:43 p.m.

Work Session was opened at 3:43 p.m.

Ms. Wilson:

"Patrick, could you not cut that OP-8 off and that would give us less acreage? I just ask. That would give us less acreage taken out of our SIDA allotment."

Mr. Hennigan:

"Can I reserve my comment on that till I hear the other comments? Can I sleep on that for the next ten minutes till I hear the other comments?"

Ms. Leight:

"Okay. Actually, I had a question, too. You had mentioned that D.O.T. has said something about putting the stop light in at the two different intersections, or at the two other access points. Is that guaranteed? Are you going to be doing that? You’re waiting for the D.O.T. to do it? Whose responsibility?"

Mr. Hennigan:

"On the traffic lights……..we love traffic lights because they make our project work better! The way the traffic light world works is there’s like five different tests – or hurdles, they call them warrants – that have to be met in order for a signal to be legally allowed to be put in by the D.O.T. So those are based on traffic counts and other factors. So we made it clear to D.O.T. that if they will allow a traffic signal to be installed, we will pay for it. Because the way it works is if a traffic signal was warranted here, in the normal course of things, it might take five years to work its way through Raleigh and get funded and everything else. But we see that as a sensible investment – we’d rather have it in today rather than five years from today. So we tell D.O.T. that when it meets warrants, when you say we can do it ---- we’ll do it! And then we work with them and the state to design it and we pay for it. But to answer your question, they like the road setup because it sets up well for future signals. The signals will only come when D.O.T. says they can come. But we want them to come and we’ll pay for them to come when they’re ready to come."

Ms. Leight:

"But that won’t happen you said until the traffic patterns prove the numbers. We may have to wait until the entire shopping center is finished and fully developed and we’re coming and going."

Mr. Hennigan:

"Right. You can never get a signal based on projections. They always want the traffic to be there – they want to be able to study it and then make their own determination.

Ms. Leight:

"In the meantime, are you planning to put in islands, with the turn lane, or not?"

Mr. Hennigan:

"No. But this is a protected storage lane….in other words, if you want to take a left, you could go into a left turn lane and you’re right there. It’s called a protected storage lane, like most storage lanes are. What D.O.T. wants to do, however, is if this property ever gets developed, the Neal property, D.O.T. wants to do a concrete median back like this. Just like they had us do right here. So if this ever gets developed, they want to split that and do that concrete median."

Ms. Leight:

"So what about people wanting to turn left at that entrance, coming out of the shopping center or the apartment complex?"

Mr. Hennigan:

"Okay. If you’re coming out here and you want to turn left, you would wait for a gap in traffic and take a left! And that’s really all we can do. If D.O.T. says, ‘Hey, Glenwood, if you pay for this signal – if you’ve got $50,000 for this signal, you can have a signal.’ We’d say, ‘Great! That’s a good investment. Here’s your money. May we please have the signal?’ We’re doing the best that we can. We’re going to spend probably $100,000 combination of this road and this road to improve 66."

Ms. Leight:

"I have another question; you have the four out parcels…..out parcels 5, 6, 7, and 8 listed? What are the other two back lots - the ones behind the side roads?"

Mr. Hennigan:

"Right. This one, we’ll call this one back lot. This is where the Weavil’s home is and I’ll just put an X on it. It’s right there. We see that as a future dentist office or an insurance office. It’s a beautiful building, a beautiful home and hopefully it can be used in that sense. It’s real pretty and it would make sense for use there. That’s kind of what we’re thinking about. And for this parcel, I’m not sure. It won’t be in use as what you’re typically used to seeing along the road because it won’t --- people that need to be along the road won’t want to go there because not along the main road so I don’t know exactly what it’ll be. It might be an office use; could be a fitness place. I’m just not sure at this point."

Ms. Leight:

"And that extension that would go up into the apartment complex, those people would be sharing that road with OP-7 and OP-8 businesses, correct?"

Mr. Hennigan:

"Yes."

Michael Warren:

"Is there a planned access to the apartment area off of 158?"

Mr. Hennigan:

"Mike, the way MV Communities wants to do it for their own internal security and so they can monitor things, they would prefer to have ____________and like so, or you can come through like this and like so. Or you could just come in through the center and go on this road so there’s several different ways to get there."

Mr. Warren:

"The access that would be at the bottom, closest to you, would you be able to turn left or right from that location?"

Mr. Hennigan:

"Yes. This is a full movement intersection. D.O.T. wanted to pull the full movement intersection as far away from the corner as they could; so, yeah, that’s full movement."

Mr. Warren:

"One of the things that I noted in the staff plan was that 66, according to the records, is at full capacity; I believe it’s 11,000 vehicles and there was some room for capacity off of 158 so I was just curious as to if there was going to be an option to access the apartments off of 158."

Mr. Hennigan:

"Yes."

Ms. Leight:

"That extension right beside the Lowe’s – that road will actually be going, what would actually will be accessible?"

Mr. Hennigan:

"Yes. Because that’s the only lane that’ll be able to get to the parcel because we don’t have a direct access off of ……."

Ms. Leight:

"……They would come in the main entrance because then they could come either way….behind the Lowe’s or come from that entrance."

Mr. Hennigan:

"Right."

Mr. N. H. Vaughn:

"Will there be a stop light right here?"

Mr. Hennigan:

"No, Sleepy. D.O.T. wants to have that, they want to pull it out further away from the main intersection. So when we have enough traffic, and when D.O.T. says we can have a signal, it’ll be here. That’s by design that way."

Mr. Warren:

"If this were not approved, is there a plan for the use of that land that your company already has?"

Mr. Hennigan:

"That’s a good question. If it’s not approved – and don’t take this the wrong way – here’s what happens. The Weavils live there; this is just a field. And that’s it! We have a shopping center. We have no office; we have no apartments. There’s just a shopping center – exactly what the County did want when we debated this for three years to get our approval."

Ms. Leight:

"Have you got any traffic estimates with 80 apartments and 4 businesses what the additional traffic would be on to 66?"

Mr. Hennigan:
"We haven’t yet because we haven’t gotten that far at this point. But we always work through all that with D.O.T. in all our projects all across the state."

Mr. Warren:

"How did the Andersons react when they learned of this?"

Mr. Hennigan:

"I’m not sure. I haven’t spoken to them. I’m sure they’re disappointed but that’s the way the ball bounces."

Ms. Leight:

"Would you accept a condition that if this is approved, that this roadway to the apartment complex, that these renderings, what you have shown us, will be what is designed and built?"

Mr. Hennigan:

"I can defer to Brandy on that because we’re not the apartment developers. It would be Brandy’s company."

Ms. Angus:

"To answer that….right now, those are – we actually have ____ renderings. They have been given that rendering and they’re basing the building on that. There is one other building design that we’re looking at. We’re considering instead of having a breezeway, putting an entrance on either side so that you don’t have large families all coming from the middle. So that’s not really final. We’re going to look at some rooflines. The general concept is still going to remain. The buildings will still be a combination of brick and vinyl – that will not change either. But the way your entrance comes in and where you have your stairwells – the roofline may change a little bit. Certainly I’m happy to come back as we get further along with more renderings as we get them. We’re willing to work with the Town of Walkertown."

Attorney Bo Houff:

"I may have - not intentionally - been misleading in talking about conditions. Certainly you have a right to request that they accept certain conditions as a condition of recommending rezoning. In this particular case, however, the apartment ___ area is not on the site that’s being rezoned and so there’s a little bit more attention with regard to whether you can require off-site conditions. And that’s my fault for indicating to you – you do have a right to suggest conditions; however, those conditions, at this stage, probably have to be tied to the particular land that’s subject to the rezoning rather than ____. You still have site plans that are coming in and as you continue on, you may require certain aesthetic requirements in site plans for multi-family housing. You haven’t yet gotten there, I think, and that sort of thing I’m not sure what the County has in regard to that. They have their zoning and it’s in place and they can build it in accordance with that. So it’s kind of difficult not to deal with Mr. Hennigan, Glenwood, at this stage and at the same time require that another entity commit. She’s here, I assume, for purposes of providing some information but it might be kind of difficult at this stage to require that Mr. Hennigan ensure that, as a condition of his zoning, that her company do what you ask them to do."

Ms. Wilson:

"Could I just make a suggestion? Would you please make some of them senior-friendly? By that, I mean able to get from one floor to the other without going up and down steps; handicapped accessible. In your planning, please think of that."

Ms. Angus:

"There are going to be eight (8) handicapped accessible."

Ms. Leight:

"With the proposed roadways that go through across and horizontal and vertical, are there any plans for sidewalks? I mean, you have 80 apartments and you’re talking about having a shopping center so close, you’d think people would want to be walking."

Mr. Hennigan:

"Yeah. On that count, the County, in our negotiations with Suzy, asked us to put in pedestrian crosswalks that would access these parcels onto this road. But that hasn’t been raised yet as an issue. But it’s a very good idea. I’m a senior now, too – so I like to walk, ride my bike…"

Ms. Leight:

"You have a pedestrian walkway marked here … that’s just a crosswalk, is what you’re saying?"

Mr. Hennigan:

"Yes. It’s a raised concrete – kind of like a combination speed bump and something you can walk across. We did it in Lewisville and it’ll be in the shopping center as well. These that you see in the shopping center here - - -."

Ms. Gallaway:

"Let me say just one thing as a reminder …. Every one of the out parcels in this project already approved will come back through and Staff would be looking for sidewalks(?), etc., and that sort of thing."

Mr. Houff :

"You did happen to mention about their agreeing to finance the traffic signals in the event they’re proposed. You can’t control whether D.O.T. approves them or not but you could make it condition, the changes are, get them to agree to that, formally agree to the condition that upon approval by D.O.T. that they would finance the installation of those lights."

Mr. Hennigan:

"Yes. I meant that – I’d just like to state it carefully if they came in twenty years, it might be different than if they came in the next five years! You may like to kind of have a sensible limit on things because who knows where we’ll all be in five years? I could agree that if, as a condition, D.O.T. in the next five years – that’s a pretty long period of time – approves signals here and here, we would fund the signal. Which means, it’s got the poles and the wires and the signal. The last one we did was about $50,000 in Mooresville."

All planning requests by Glenwood Walkertown were unanimously approved by the Walkertown Planning Board. The two requests for rezoning and for SIDA will be recommended to the Town Council for approval by the Planning Board. The Site Plan was approved by the Board.

Public Hearing was closed at 4:02 p.m.

Ms. Leight:

"We have one more issue on the agenda. Also, to let you know that these two issues that we just covered were the Public Hearing portion of it and our recommendations will go to the Town Council. The Town Council, when they review it, will make the final decision – yea or nay. I’m not sure at what point it will go on the Town Council’s agenda. They’re meeting next week – I think that’s too early for them to see it so at some point in February, they will be hearing these cases. It will be the second February meeting. The next item on the agenda is a site plan review for Westview Development Company. It is strictly an approval or denial of the site plan itself but the site plan conforms to the law. There will be no Public Session on this issue."

Ms. Gallaway:

"The site plan, the subdivision is north of 158 through Martin Acres subdivision at the end of that; High Knoll Road. It’s 87 acres – 141 lots are proposed. They’re all about 20,000 square foot each. There’s also an access coming off Reidsville Road a little farther up – close to Councilman Larrimore. There’s also a proposed stub to the east for future connections up to Swain Lane. They have met all of the subdivision requirements. We would recommend approval."

Ms. Leight:

"Question. Which, do you know, of the two egress/entrance areas what would be considered the main one? Are there going to be differences in the traffic or how they’re going to access 158?"

Ms. Gallaway:

"John Beeson could better answer that."

John Beeson:

"My name is John Beeson – 4524 Reidsville Road – 27101 Winston-Salem. The intensity of this, because it’s in the watershed, is a minimum of 20,000 square feet. At this point, because of sewer and various topographical problems, we feel like we’re going to have to phase this and probably do it in thirds or something on that line. The first access would be starting back in the area off of Martin Acres. The real contention is the Reidsville Road, and I know my dad had right-of-way taken from him 35 / 40 years ago because of widening of that road and, believe me, I bring it up to D.O.T. on a very regular basis. But we’re not going to get a straight answer out of that. If this proceeds the way it should and this comes through a fairly short period of time – a couple of years – then I would anticipate this being done. There certainly will be turn lanes here plus D.O.T. is saying we will have to put turn lanes at Martin Acres. So both will generate new turn lanes on Reidsville Road. This, I think, from the lay-out when completed, is certainly the main entrance that people would consider."

Ms. Leight:

"Once it’s completed, how far away is that from the Darrow Road stoplight? Do you know?"

Mr. Beeson:

"A quarter of a mile or so….maybe further. The original Angel home is located back in here."

Ms. Leight:

"Now when you said there would be turn lanes, is that part of your development or are you waiting for the D.O.T. to produce it?"

Mr. Beeson:

"You can’t wait for D.O.T. That will be a requirement by D.O.T. They have already stated that."

Ms. Wilson:

"And you’re stating the entrance between the Debbie Pegram property and the Morton property? There’s already a road there."

Mr. Beeson:

"There’s a drive up in there. It’ll be in that exact location. It would be improved to state standards, of course."

Ms. Wilson:

"And that’s where you were talking about putting the other lanes…..extra lane."

Mr. Beeson:

"That’s where we would put that lane, on 158, yes. Fortunately, at this point, in the entrance at this point, is primarily because of the availability of water and the sewer. And our attempts is to, in looking at this preliminary, we will be able to sewer this part of the project by going out on our extreme southern end, which is getting pretty close to Mr. Duggins’ end to an existing manhole which is less than 200-feet away. So we’ll be crossing this direction. As this part is developed, because of an intervening stream that shows up on flood maps as a stream and there is a 100-foot each side of this buffer required in development which there will be no buildings on. I am very limited in the crossing of any streams so I only have one crossing so this would be that. This will have to be sewered back and there are a couple of areas down in here that we will have to work out a sewer to get over to Swain Lane out that direction so that will be one of the forces that will affect this spot."

Ms. Leight:

"You’re saying that there is a stream that runs right through….?"

Mr. Beeson:

"There is a little stream in here and it does show up on the flood map and once that happens………."

Ms. Leight:

"……..Is that the one that’s running directly in the middle of the 49, 48, 47, 46? Is that the one?"

Ms. Wilson:
"Runs 30, 31, 32, and 33?"

Mr. Beeson:

"No. The stream toward the back of those – that is a 100-foot buffer line out each direction….."

Ms. Leight:

"………..Of the stream………"

Mr. Beeson:

"This is the stream and there’s a 100-foot buffer here and here."

Ms. Leight:

"What does ‘buffer’ mean?"

Mr. Beeson:

"It means there can be no building in that area…..no impervious surface within that area."

Ms. Leight:

"So all of these would have to build their houses on the front portion?"

Mr. Beeson:

"Yes. Each of these will have to be in the front portion; these would have to be front here, here and then of course back here. We had lost some lots in this area because of all of this so the house would have to be located here or here. The density on that was 1.62 lots per acre. We’re less than 2 houses per acre on the total development – pretty light development."

Ms. Leight:

"These are all ½ acre lots right here that you’re looking at if it were the 100-foot buffer."

Mr. Beeson:

"It’s 20,000 minimum period. There will be no lot less than 20,000 – not quite half an acre."

Mr. Warren(?):

"Is 48,000 the acre?"

Ms. Gallaway:

"43,560."

Mr. Beeson:

"We do not voluntarily but we do not anticipate a great deal of grading with this site. We’re certainly going to try to minimize the grading so I don’t look at it as a mass grading site at all. The streets and a small portion of the front of the lots would be all we would anticipate grading and of course it’s all open at this point, so we’re not dealing with tree removal."

Ms. Leight:

"The entire area is treeless right now?"

Mr. Beeson:

"There may be some trees down and if ….. and I know this is ___________. These two cul de sacs…. Joyce, do you remember if they have trees in this area or not?"

Joyce Larrimore:

"A few."

Mr. Beeson:

"It was pretty much the Angel farm – and was all farm."

Ms. Leight:

"You can’t tell it from the site map but what are your plans for curb and gutter and sidewalks?"

Mr. Beeson:

"That is ---- the developer, he would prefer to have curb and gutter. I would prefer to have room and pavement. Mine primarily for water quality but if we are in to some areas that we have that warrant it that would cause side ditch problems then I could see closed drainage systems. But we would like to not obligate either way but if you have a preference – his preference is to spend money on curb and gutter and storm sewer. But I think you get much better water quality if we use side ditches and control water run off into closed sewers."

Ms. Leight:

"So there are no plans for sidewalks?"

Mr. Beeson:

"We’re into huge discussions about these things nowadays. Everyone’s calling for wider streets and more sidewalks. It certainly is more open and certainly safer to drive on and certainly easier to get around the neighborhood but I think we are putting ourselves in real positions in areas where we can do it. And, particularly we’ve got almost ½ acre lots – we just want a little more openness to it and it’s a tremendous difference in water quality of the run-off if I can stay away from sidewalks and curb and gutter."

Ms. Leight:

"What about I don’t see any areas of buffered areas or any community areas set up?"

Mr. Beeson:

"No."

Ms. Gallaway:

"Currently, the UDO for a major subdivision doesn’t require sidewalks or street trees or any buffers."

Mr. Beeson:

"When you get to that point some day, I would like to volunteer to come in and have input – street trees lined with maples and all that are nice but it really complicates utilities. We would be required to put all the water and sewer outside the street, which is something that I would like to see changed also. If I get those other streets, I open myself up to sidewalks, grassed areas and trees. If they set right behind the curb and gutter then we become real confined in putting trees in that area with underground utilities that are a real problem. I digress; I’m sorry."

HEARD IN THE BACKGROUND:

Mr. Houff:

"You may ask any unknown or considerations that you may want to think about. You may want to say, ‘Look. You can develop your subdivision under current ordinances and this is what it allows you to do. But you may use the carrot of ‘more dense development’ if you will do some of these other things. If you will, for example, put in curb and gutter. If you will, for example, put street trees. If you will agree to certain kinds of architectural standards – to vary architecture of the houses as opposed to having a range of, in this case 142 houses, all of which look exactly alike.’ All of these kinds of things can be done – I’m not suggesting that you do it – I’m only suggesting that you provide yourself, perhaps a little bit of time at the end of meetings while this is soft and fresh in your minds, to consider things like that. There may have been some things that come to mind during the course of Glenwood, for example, you can say, ‘While I was thinking about it; let’s get something on the record about X, Y, or Z topic.’ And then Staff can look at – you may want to ask Staff to consider looking at some other jurisdictions requirements with regard to elevations for projects that are within commercial districts. Again, I don’t take positions on what the Board ought to do. I’m just offering you some alternatives. You have this wonderful staff available who can look into these things for you; look and see what other folks do. Then maybe at some time you may want to do signs, for example – that’s always a real fun topic to look at – but you maybe in your NEW BUSINESS time you may want to say, ‘Is there anything that the Board wants to bring up for discussion?’ Again, I wouldn’t suggest a necessarily prolonged discussion at the introduction stage, but simply a little bit of give and take back and forth about topics as they arise. Because what you do is – you’re not simply required as you sit here as a Board to respond to what comes before you. You’re going to see issues arise and you may all go out sometime and you’ll be driving somewhere and you say, ‘You know – this development ought to look like this!’ Or ‘I think this would be a perfect place to encourage that.’ --- whatever that might be. And this Board is certainly in a position to be able to propose new kinds of ordinances and requirements relating to land use planning. And then, of course, it goes up to the Council for their consideration but you can propose as well as accepting things that just come in before you. And sometimes there may be things you say, Staff may say at certain point, ‘You know, there’s nothing we can do about this proposal.’ You can either pass it or not pass it – either up or down it – if you’d had your ‘druthers about some things, you may have said, ‘I would have preferred to have required X, Y, or Z.’ But that wasn’t available to you. Once that’s passed, and you can see the problem that’s arisen, you may want to say, ‘We’re going to be pro-active for the next time. Next time something like this is likely to come before us, we’ll be ready and waiting for them saying, "That’s fine. Let’s do this, this, and this. Or there’s some things you’re going to have to do in order to get the zoning. Or at least, we’re going to recommend that that be done.’ But at the ends of meetings, as you’re making notes about things to get that out in some initial discussions."

Ms. Leight:

"I would like to see the current subdivision rules and see what options we have because I think we’re going to be getting a whole lot more of those in Walkertown. There are going to be a whole lot more of these coming up and I would like to be able to have us be more specific than what the UDO currently states."

Agreement all around by other Planning Board members.

The UDO is on the internet.

Ms Gallaway:

"There is not any other information other than what’s in the UDO. But it is a lot. It basically deals with – you know, there’s two types of subdivisions currently a developer can do. You have your conventional subdivision like you just saw or you can do a PRP, which is a Planned Residential Development. They have -- basically, if you had 87 acres and it’s zoned RS-9, you take the 87 acres and get the square footage - how many square feet that is. Divide that by the underlining(?) zoning district and you come out with the number of blocks and ______. Create that number of lot with a foot in exchange for that so they have smaller lots but in exchange for that, they also dedicate a certain amount of open space."

Ms. Leight:

"So they can cluster more of the homes but then have more buffer, more open, more community areas. Ok."

Ms. Gallaway:

"Right. Currently those are two options. I know that either Clemmons or Lewisville has added to their subdivision regulations sidewalks and trees and various things like that."

Mr. Marshall:

"So we can require that?"

Ms. Gallaway:

"You can request it. I’ll have to write up a text amendment and it’ll have to go through that whole procedure too. Every change like that would require a text amendment."

Ms. Leight:

"Clemmons’ and Lewisville’s amendments are also in the UDO – it’s just that we have to look for their…."

Ms. Gallaway:

"Yes. In fact, you’ll see the little "c" or "l" by it."

Ms. Leight:

"Also, just to announce that our next work session meeting will be the third Monday in February which is February 16^th and then the next session of the Planning Board where we will be hearing cases will be on Tuesday, February 17^th at 3:00. Okay."

Mr. Houff:

"Just for protocol, I assume that unless I’m otherwise directed, I will come here to these public sessions. I’ll come to the work sessions if you determine there is something in particular that you’d like for me to be here for. I’ll be glad to do that. I want to be sensitive to time and obviously time includes money and billing from our perspective. I’m happy to come to any of the meetings, provided schedule allows but I will have kind of a standing order that I’ll be here for public meetings."

There is no NEW BUSINESS.