The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My Public Portal About02-09-2009 Regular MeetingFebiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: l~7arch 9, 2009 Page 1 of 33 'I"c~wY of sVE Sleu~e 1354 E~~~`--~ MINUTES HILLSBOROUGH TOWN BOARD February 9, 2009 7:00 PM, Town Barn PRESENT: Mayor Tom Stevens, Commissioners Frances Dancy, Evelyn Lloyd, Mike Gering, L. Eric Hallman, and Brian Lowen. STAFF PRESENT: Town Manager Eric Peterson, Assistant Town Manager/Public Works Director Nicole Ard, Town Clerl~/Director of Administration and Human Resources Donna Armbrister, Planning Director Margaret HaLrth, Town Engineer/Utilities Director Kenny Keel, Police Chief Clarence Birkhead, and Finance Director Greg Siler. Mayor Tom Stevens called the meeting to order at 7:01 p.m. 1. PUBLIC CHARGE Mayor Stevens did not read the Public Charge but indicated it would be followed. 2. PUBLIC HEARING A. Public Hearing to discuss the potential closing of 839 square feet of public right-of- way currently located under the front porch of the existing structure at 153 West King Street 7:01:45 PM Mayor Stevens opened the Public Hearing, noting they would discuss the potential of closing 839 feet of public right-of--way under the front porch of the former Colonial Inn. Planning Director Margaret HaLrth said that in working with the owner of the former Colonial Inn building they had discovered that the right-of--way for King Street basically began at the front door of the building, and extended for 66 feet which would put the front porch and the second story balcony above it in the public right-of--way. She said the State declared the public right-of--way as belonging to Hillsborough because the Town was here before there was a State Department of Transportation, so Hillsborough owned the right-of--way but the DOT accepted responsibility for maintenance within that right-of--way. Ms. Hauth said that begged the question of when dealing with a stricture that encroached within the right-of--way, whose responsibility was it to maintain that stricture. She said the owner approached the Town about how to deal with liability issues as he moved forward with renovations to the building, and in tallcing with DOT it seemed a reasonable course for both the State and the Town to give up that right-of--way, turn it back to the private property owner, and make him responsible for it. Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: l~7arch 9, 2009 Page 2 of 33 Ms. Hauth said that brought them to the State requirements for closing of a public right-of--way which included the owner malting that request to the State, and the Town was now moving through that process. She said closing the public right-of--way would make the Town no longer responsible for it and turn it back over to the property owner. Ms. Hauth said in answer to the owner's request to the State, the State asked that the Town also conunit to malting fiiture improvements to the sidewallt to bring it into ADA compliance and to a reasonable width. She said that would require that some work tape place in that location, but they had not yet determined what the cost of that might be. Ms. Hauth added there was not a timeframe within which the work would have to be completed, but it would mean that the parlting in front of the building would need to be removed, unless improvements were made to the opposite side of the street as well. Ms. Hauth said there was an item later on the agenda which would allow the Town to tape action on an order formally closing the right-of--way. 7:06:47 PM Mayor Stevens said when they bolted at the order, the order itself only tallied about closing the right-of--way. Ms. Hauth stated when the Board had first discussed it and they had laid out the issues and what DOT would want to see from the Town in order to process the request from the property owner, the Board had appeared willing to move forward and not conunit to a specific timeframe to do the improvements. 7:07:58 PM Lois Lanier, a resident of King Street, said she had lived in Hillsborough for 14 years and wallted her dog along that route. She said she had observed the sign regarding closing of the right-of--way posted in front of the property, and asked did that mean the owner was trying to close the sidewallt. Ms. Hauth responded it was the higher sidewallt that ran directly in front of the building. She said the lower portion that was just behind the curb on the street would remain open, but because the building encroached into the right-of--way including the stricture that supported the two- story porch that was what was being requested to be closed. Ms. Lanier said it was mentioned that the property owner was considering renovating the stricture so that it was safer to go under the passageway. Mayor Stevens stated that was not a part of the issue tonight, but it was in the longer renovation plans that in order to get everything addressed due to that dual ownership, they were trying to separate it out so that the Town had the sidewallt in front and the owner had a totally clear title for the property. But, he said, right now the right-of--way literally ran right across the front porch of the stricture. 7:09:16 PM Ms. Lanier said but if you closed the front porch, there's no guarantee that anyone would ever be able to use it again, correct? Mayor Stevens said that was correct, because it would be someone's private property. He said you would be able to go down the street, but you would not necessarily be able to go onto the Febiuai-~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: l~7arch 9, 2009 Page 3 of 33 porch. Ms. Lanier asked was there anything that could be done about that, or was it something that was going to go forward either way. Ms. Hauth said this was the appropriate opportunity for her or anyone to tell the Board if they did not believe that was appropriate and that it should remain open as a public right-of--way for whatever reason. Ms. Lanier said she absolutely did feel that it should remain open as a public right-of--way. She said it was there long before any of them were here and it should remain so. Ms. Lanier said it was part of preserving the historic beauty of the Town, so that when you wallced down King Street you passed the shops and the Colonial Inn, and the idea of not being able to access that changed the entire street. She said she understood there was a sidewallc on the other side of the street, but the cobblestone was beautifiil and it represented the historic nature of the community. Ms. Lanier said she would certainly like to continue to have access to it. 7:11:24 PM Upon a Motion by Commissioner Hallman, seconded by Commissioner Dancy, the Board moved to close the Public Hearing by a vote of 5-0. The motion was declared passed. 3. AUDIENCE COMMENTS REGARDING MATTERS NOT ON THE PRINTED AGENDA 7:11:37 PM There were no members of the audience who offered comments at this time. 4. AGENDA CHANGES & AGENDA APPROVAL 7:12:00 PM Town Manager Eric Peterson added a Closed Session item regarding an update on a Personnel Matter. Commissioner Hallman said the Board had received a request about a petition regarding the Jordan Lake watershed, noting that he understood that it was about concern for how the watershed was defined around a new proposed development at Jordan Lake and concerns that there should be an independent assessment of the watershed and how it would impact that development. He said at some point the Town may need to rely on Jordan Lake for their water, and believed they should take a stand and support the evidence with the other municipalities. He added an item regarding the Jordan Lake Watershed as Item 9.I. 7:13:23 PM Upon a motion by Commissioner Lowen, seconded by Commissioner Dancy, the Board moved to approve the Agenda as amended by a vote of 5-0. The motion was declared passed.. 5. COMMITTEE REPORTS (C~itical) 7:13:43 PM Commissioner Dancy informed the Board that the Triangle J Council of Governments had a new Executive Director, Kirby Bowers, who would begin work in April. She said she would be Chairing the 50th Anniversary of the TJCOG, which would be celebrated September 23. She said she believed the Manager and the Clerk had received a copy of the letter Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: l~7arch 9, 2009 Page 4 of 33 requesting some information on historical Hillsborough and how they fit into the idea of regionalism. Commissioner Dancy said the celebration would be held at the new Raleigh Convention Center, and requested that a budget item be added for consideration that the Town sponsor a table so that they could all be represented on that evening. Mayor Stevens asked was that a motion or just a suggestion at this time. Commissioner Dancy responded she was suggesting that the Board consider that request, although she did not yet know the cost. 7:15:26 PM Commissioner Lowen stated he did not have a committee report per se, but did want the Board to know he had taken the liberty of going to the one-day conference sponsored by Amtrak in Savannah along with the Planning Director. He said it had been very informative, they had gathered a lot of information, and had learned a lot. Commissioner Lowen said that Amtrak was really excited and looking forward to investing money into areas that wanted to add train stations and redevelop old, existing train stations. He said that Ms. Hauth would be malting a formal report to the Rail Station Task Force on Friday and he hoped to attend to provide his feedback as well. Commissioner Lowen stated there was money available, and had learned that there was actually one "spec" train station they could acquire almost free of charge which would save the Town a significant amount of money if they were interested. He stated they had learned from the person who had actually done the report that it had been determined that Hillsborough could support a rail station, so he and Ms. Hauth had made that contact to get the report to show that the Town could support a rail stop. 7:17:33 PM Mayor Stevens stated he continued to work with the Upper Neuse River Basin Association, and they were moving forward with the stakeholder process in terms of the nutrient management system at the Falls Lake watershed area. He said that Town Engineer/Utilities Director Kenny Keel had been involved in that and it was something they were bolting at in terms of malting sure that the Division of Water Quality that was malting up the Hiles provided them the opportunity to review the Hiles in regards to how they would impact the Town both in terms of what they were doing with development and how the Hiles might impact their wastewater treatment regarding discharge. Mayor Stevens said they wanted to make sure they had a process that would allow them to remain involved and that allowed for input. 6. REPORT FROM THE TOWN MANAGER 7:18:39 PM Mr. Peterson said they were facing a difficult budget situation and one of their major concerns was the possibility that what had happened in the past as far as the State's taping of funds from local revenues to the tune of a couple of million dollars to balance the State's budget might happen again. He said he had attended the Manager's conference last week, and most importantly the General Assembly did pass legislation which is now called State Collected Local Revenue which indicated those fiords were simply being collected by the State on behalf of the local governments and those fiords were not State-shared. Mr. Peterson said basically that meant the State could no longer seize those revenues, and the legislation said specifically that the Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: l~7arch 9, 2009 Page ~ of 33 Governor could not take those revenues to balance the State's budget. But, he said, of course the General Assembly could pass legislation to change that. Mr. Peterson said there were some warning signals they had gotten last week that indicated they needed to pay close attention the next few weeks, in that there may be some options coming in terms of local governments having been told they would have to "share the pain" with the State. He said it was very important that they keep their radar up and be very aggressive and diligent, noting they were having an exceptionally challenging budget year and did not need to have any of their fiords taken to balance the State's budget. Mr. Peterson said that no one knew what was going to happen with the federal stimulus package, but he had heard a comment this morning that they were pulling out the aid to states, which the Governor was already planning on using a billion dollars of stimulus package money to balance the State's budget. He said if that aid vaporized that heightened his concern that some of the local revenues might be seized. Mr. Peterson said the consensus of the people he had tallced to was that the Town would be impacted from the State, but they did not know in what way that would happen. He said they may well have some action taken that would affect the Town's revenues, but they did not know in what regard. Mr. Peterson said they needed to be diligent, and needed to be quick and responsive and loud with their concerns. 7:21:24 PM Commissioner Gering said as that developed, he wanted to demand some face time with their local legislative delegation to understand where they were with that and perhaps give them the opportunity to make a persuasive case if they were planning to support anything like that. Mr. Peterson stated it had been reported in a local newspaper that during a meeting with the Town of Carrboro, Speak Hackney who was also the Town's representative, had had a protracted conversation with the Carrboro Town Manager about that subject, and that Manager had said the State should stay away from local revenues. He said the Board might want to read that article, adding he believed they would find it interesting. Mr. Peterson said on another issue, yesterday one of his neighbors had visited his home to tallc with him. He said the neighbor ran a business in Town and someone from the Town had done business with him on behalf of the Town. Mr. Peterson said there was a mistake on reconciling the bill and the Town had been overcharged by a dollar, and the Town Finance Department had noticed the difference in the charge and the bill and had called the business to alert him that he owed the Town a dollar. Mr. Peterson said fortunately, the business owner, his neighbor, was good natured but said he did not want to spend money on a stamp or in writing a check, so he had given the dollar to him and he had delivered that dollar to the Finance Department. He said he had told the neighbor that the Town's Finance Department was very thorough, and the neighbor said he had been very impressed. 7. DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS 7:24:02 PM Commissioner Gering said to Ms. Hauth that they had tallced about the Riggsbee situation, and asked for information about the timeframe for resolving the issue with him. Ms. Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: l~7arch 9, 2009 Page 6 of 33 Hauth said the situation with the business on Allison Street with the vehicles being stored on the property that were not suppose to be there needed to come before the Town Board for direction to staff to go to court and enforce a previous action of which the time had expired. She said she expected to bring that to the Board very soon. 7:24:56 PM Commissioner Gering asked what the agenda held for the Febniary workshop. Mayor Stevens stated they had tallced about canceling that because they had scheduled the State of the Town address for that evening. Commissioner Hallman said he had wallced through Gold Park and was very impressed, and asked did they have a completion date. Ms. Hauth stated they were expecting completion by Febniary 23 if the weather held. 7:25:37 PM Commissioner Lowen said he wanted to say thank you to the Town Manager, Nicole Ard, the Police Chief and any staff that took part in getting the signs put up regarding the issue of dirt bikes at Fairview Park. He said the dirt bike problem had been somewhat alleviated. However, Commissioner Lowen said he had been in Beckett's Ridge the other day and he believed he heard people dirt biking through Waterstone, noting there was a lot of noise but he did not take the time to fiirther investigate that. He suggested they may want to send some officers to check that out. Mayor Stevens stated they would want to check the soccer fields to make sure no damage was occurring. Commissioner Lowen said that was where the noise was emanating from, noting he had come down the back way which was right behind the soccer fields, and that was where the noise was coming from. 7:26:41 PM Mayor Stevens said he saw notes being taken so believed it would be investigated very quicldy. Commissioner Dancy asked for clarification from the Chief regarding his report which indicated it was the 2009 Monthly report, but the totals appeared to be for 2008. She asked was that just for the end of the year. Chief Clarence Birkhead stated it was for the entire year 2008. 8. ITEMS FOR DECISION -CONSENT AGENDA A. Consider Approval of the Minutes of the January 12, 2009 Regular Board Meeting; and the January 12, 2009 Regular Meeting Closed Session B. Consider approving request from the Orange County Board of Education to pay 26% or $3,000 in late fees and forgive the balance for late payment of fees for the July and August water bills C. Consider approval of Amendment to Town Board's 2009 Meeting Schedule to include 2 additional Budget Workshops Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: l~7arch 9, 2009 Page 7 of 33 7:27:19 PM Upon a motion by Commissioner Lowen, seconded by Commissioner Gering, the Board moved to approve the Consent Agenda by a vote of 5-0. The motion was declared passed. 9. ITEMS FOR DECISION -REGULAR AGENDA A. Consideration of an Order to close 839 square feet of public right-of--way currently located under the front porch of the existing structure at 153 West King Street 7:27:34 PM Ms. Hauth said a copy of the Order required by State law had been provided in the packet. She said if the Board wanted to move forward with the closing, there were two findings noted in the numbered paragraphs. Ms. Hauth said those findings stated that it appeared to the satisfaction of the Town Board that closing the portion of the right-of--way on West King Street was not contrary to the public interest, and that no individual owning property in the vicinity of the portions of the right-of--way to be closed would be deprived of a reasonable means of ingress or egress to their property. 7:28:23 PM Commissioner Gering said since it was the Town's right-of--way, had they discussed the issue of compensation? Ms. Hauth responded no, that in street closings she had processed they had never done so. Commissioner Gering said it served a very usefiil purpose to the Town now, as a member of the public had pointed out during the public hearing that it pre- dated the Colonial Inn. He said it would be some time before they would be able to provide a detour around it if it became private property. So, he said, he believed the Town should consider some compensation for the loss of that right-of--way. 7:29:31 PM Conunissioner Hallman stated he understood the point, but his concern was liability. He said the longer the Town was exposed to that, the more concern he had. He said he believed they needed to move expeditiously to take care of that liability. Commissioner Lloyd said the issue of liability concerned her as well, but she also worried about what the owner aught do to keep people from accessing it. She said she did not have any confidence in what might be put there. Commissioner Gering said the issue of liability was an important one, but that was also a very short-term issue and one they had already dealt with by closing it off. He said presumably after the repairs were made through the Prevention of Demolition by Neglect action, it would not be a liability. He said at least they had time to negotiate a compensation for it, and was not convinced it was not in the public interest to close it off. Commissioner Gering said he was not sure this was the right time to do it with what they had in place to detour around it. 7:30:59 PM Commissioner Lowen asked if there were any plans by the owner to enclose the porch would that have to go before the Historic District Commission for approval Ms. Hauth said any permanent enclosure would, but as the owner undertook renovation if he choose to put up some kind of temporary fencing then that would not need HDC approval, because that would be a part of any work he was doing to secure his site. She said there could be a period of time during a renovation that they would be looking at a fence or something similar but as a Febiuai-~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: l~7arch 9, 2009 Page 8 of 33 temporary installation. Ms. Hauth said any permanent installation would need HDC approval beforehand. Commissioner Lloyd asked had the owner indicated whether he would be doing any of the things he had been ordered to do. Ms. HaLrth said he said nothing other than when he received the order that he had no problems with it. Commissioner Gering said he was worried about the issue of liability. He said when he had tallced to the Town Attorney once before about the liability such as bricks falling into the right- of-way, his understanding then was that the Town was not actually liable for that. Commissioner Gering said whoever caused the situation would be liable. 7:32:29 PM Conunissioner Hallman stated the answer was that everyone would be liable. Commissioner Gering agreed it was a serious issue. Commissioner Hallman said unfortunately the Town Attorney was not present tonight, and he had a question about how you would exact from a piece of property that they had had continuous use of for an amount of time. He said he believed that was a part of the discussion although it could not be addressed tonight. Ms. Hauth said they could certainly research that and bring it back at the next meeting. She said no one was there when the road was dedicated so they did not know if there had or had not been a payment made or if there had been an exaction through some other process, or whether it was just that the road was there first. Ms. Hauth said the Town Attorney could perhaps provide some insight on the Town's possibilities for asking for compensation. 7:33:30 PM Commissioner Gering said then the Board did not have to take action now. Ms. Hauth said not necessarily. Commissioner Lowen said the public hearing had been closed, so there was no reason to take action if there were outstanding questions that needed legal advice. Ms. Hauth said that was correct. Mayor Stevens said then there were issues about liability, issues about compensation, and certainly issues of egress which was brought up at the public hearing. 7:34:03 PM Upon a motion by Commissioner Lowen, seconded by Commissioner Lloyd, the Board moved to table the item by a vote of 5-0. The motion was declared passed. B. Consideration of an ordinance to amend the Zoning Ordinance to create a special use permit process for event centers within the Central Commercial zoning district 7:34:44 PM Ms. Hauth said this item was on the October public hearing agenda and was scheduled for action in December, but the Board had asked that it be continued in part because the ordinance was directly related to a request from the owner of the former Colonial Inn to Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: l~7arch 9, 2009 Page 9 of 33 create a process that would allow him to do something there other than asingle-family dwelling. She said the Board had been uncomfortable malting a decision about that while the Prevention of Demolition by Neglect claim was ongoing. Ms. Hauth said it was the Town Attorney's recommendation to not let this linger too far out from the public hearing, so the direction was to bring it back now for action or to send it back to public hearing. 7:35:38 PM Commissioner Lloyd said then the Colonial Inn property was zoned residential. Ms. Hauth said that was correct. She said if the owner wanted to pursue that it would be necessary to file a rezoning request as well as a Special Use Permit request at the same time. Commissioner Lloyd said she believed that piece of property was going to be a sticky issue. Mayor Stevens stated the piece of property might be a sticky issue but believed they needed to bolt it in the light of whoever the owner might be. Ms. HaLrth said or, any parcel that either was or could be zoned Central Commercial Mayor Stevens said that was correct. 7:36:20 PM Commissioner Lloyd said her point was that this text amendment was not being done just for that piece of property, but for any piece of property zoned Central Commercial. Ms. Hauth said or for any piece of property that could successfully be rezoned to Central Commercial. She added that once the text amendment was added to the ordinance it was available to anyone. Commissioner Gering asked how many properties would be real candidates for that text amendment. He said he had understood that there were perhaps two that were reasonable candidates, including the former Colonial Inn. Ms. Hauth said there had to be an historic building on the property that could be renovated, and although it was unlikely almost any property already zoned Central Commercial could apply for that. She said it was unlikely someone would take a property, for instance the Mercantile Center, and try to convert it to an events center because it was specifically built as a commercial stricture and did not lend itself to use as an event center. But, she said, that being said, it had to be a dwelling that was in close proximity to the Central Commercial zone because one of the criteria for that zone was that it was in the heart of the downtown and where the buildings were attached or close thereto. Ms. Hauth said possibly there was a house on Nash Street near the small Central Commercial zone that could conceivably apply and you might could identify others, but the language was more broad than the Conditional Use Permit that was written ten years or so ago that allowed the Houser Law Firm to go in as a commercial business, because that specifically required adjacency to Central Commercial zoning whereas this required that you convince the Board to zone the property Central Commercial. She added that the Board had license to decide what was or was not appropriate to be zoned Central Commercial. 7:39:51 PM Mayor Stevens said the question then was if someone came forward requesting a Conditional Use for those hinds of uses, would the Board need to do that. Ms. Hauth said this was a Special Use Permit request that was tied to a rezoning request. She said the Conditional Use Permit request specified the allowance of commercial enterprises within the residential stricture; it did not rezone the stricture. Ms. HaLrth said it also required preservation easements, and it would be almost impossible to do an events center other than defining it as an events Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 10 of 33 center; it was really a combination of about three or four uses allowed otherwise. She said it would be very difficult to do that using a Conditional Use Permit process which was why they had written the proposed text amendment. Ms. Hauth said they were beginning to get a lot of requests for that combination of prepared food, lodging, and entertainment all at one location, and trying to cobble together those requirements through a different process was very difficult. 7:41:22 PM Commissioner Hallman said then something like the old Hillsborough Plumbing site would not qualify, or the service station on Churton Street. Ms. Hauth said they would qualify; they were currently zoned Central Commercial. She said they would need to meet the criteria, file for a Special Use Permit, and then convince the Board that those locations were appropriate for an events center. Commissioner Gering said he did not see the demand they had for it as being a large demand. He said the motivation for the Board to undertake this was because Francis Henry had come before the Board and said he had ideas of what to do with his property, and the Board had been anxious to help any activity that would bring the Colonial Inn back to some usable state. Commissioner Gering said he was very reluctant to write new ordinances that were so narrowly crafted as this one for a purpose that seemed out of reach at the present time. He said it was perhaps a good idea if they had other people who had similar ideas, but right now he believed the intended purpose was too narrow and it was not realistic to pursue it. 7:43:02 PM Commissioner Hallman said he understood that Commissioner Gering looked at it as something being written for the Colonial Inn, but as was just said there were other properties such as the Hillsborough Plumbing site, the service station on Churton and other sites that were eligible. He said the Board had control through the Special Use Permit process and that ordinance change would give them another avenue for maintaining a viable downtown. Commissioner Hallman said it was not up to the Board to determine demand, but for people to come to the Board with an idea and then go through the process. He said he believed it was something that should be added to their list of possibilities that buildings in the downtown could benefit from. Commissioner Hallman said so, he did not see it as a narrowly crafted ordinance, but as another tool that property owners could benefit from. 7:44:00 PM Commissioner Lowen said he agreed with Commissioner Hallman, adding that although it did originally come to the Board with a specific property and purpose in mind he did believe it would open up some opportunities for others. He said they had been tallcing for a number of years that they did in fact need and would like to have an events center in Hillsborough, and it may open up an opportunity for someone to do that. Commissioner Lowen said that ultimately such a request would come to the Board as a Special Use Permit request, so the Board would then have the opportunity to decide if it was an appropriate fit. 7:44:45 PM Conunissioner Gering said he agreed with all of that, except he believed that if someone were to come to the Board with a realistic plan that they would likely look at that and say it really needed to be modified in some way to meet what they had in mind. He said they would then have to go through the process again, and he did not believe it would entice someone to come forward with an idea and believe there was a great degree of probability that it would satisfy their needs. Commissioner Gering said as they had done in the past when they had Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 11 of 33 crafted ordinances similar to this one, they had people come and tell the Board what would work for them, and they would go through the process with some confidence that it would bear fniit. He said he believed they were putting the "cart before the horse" in this case. 7:45:50 PM Mayor Stevens said his question would be if there would be any liabilities or unintended consequences, and what kinds of damage could they potentially expect should they add the text amendment to the ordinance. He said they would not anticipate a lot of harm coming from that and was not sure adding it would be problematic, but if they had some real concerns about harm then perhaps it was something they should not look at now. Commissioner Hallman stated that he did not see the point if someone would have to come and ask for modifications. He said it was straightforward, that if they thought their parcel would meet the criteria they would come forward with a Special Use Permit request. Commissioner Hallman said once that happened, then the Board would have a chance to do some modifications but that would not require amending the ordinance. He said the ordinance was fairly broad that they would be able to go through the Special Use Permit process, in which case the Board would then give assistance to them. Commissioner Hallman said he saw no need to rewrite it, since it was written broadly enough that anyone could come forward with an idea and go through the Special Use Permit process to see if it was something that was appropriate. 7:47:32 PM Commissioner Dancy said you could not anticipate another's need and you could not predict an original idea. She said they just needed something basic that would allow a process if someone wanted to pursue an idea and this would be the tool to do that. Commissioner Gering said that actually was his point. He said who could anticipate what someone might actually need in order to build a real events center with the proposed ordinance. Commissioner Gering said like a lot of their ordinances, it was the unanticipated consequences that they ended up regretting. Not through a lack of an ordinance in this case, he said, but maybe with an ordinance that brought them something they had not anticipated. Commissioner Gering said that just having a Special Use Pernut did not mean they had fLill discretion to approve or disapprove a project. Mayor Stevens agreed they had nm into that. Commissioner Gering said that was where he saw the problem. Commissioner Hallman said this provided them the ability to accept an idea, and having the ordinance did not say you have a right to do anything you want but only to bring forward an idea. Commissioner Gering said he believed it was more than that. 7:49:27 PM Motion made by Commissioner Hallman, seconded by Commissioner Lowen, to adopt the ordinance to amend the Zoning Ordinance to create special use permit process for event centers within the Central Commercial zoning district. Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 12 of 33 7:49:40 PM Commissioner Lloyd said she had thought that the proposed ordinance would keep the events center out of the residential areas, which could have happened with the Webb property. Mayor Stevens said his sense of that was that it would have to be something that was already zoned Central Commercial. Commissioner Lloyd said she knew that, so the proposed ordinance had given her some relief that they would not have to worry about it being in a residential area. But, she said, she understood Commissioner Gering's point. Mayor Stevens said his point was well taken, but ultimately they had to make a decision. 7:50:48 PM Commissioner Gering said it was not the case that this would just give someone the opportunity to come to the Board and the Board would have the chance to decide; it was more than that. He said it gave some legal weight to someone who came to the Board with an application for a Special Use Permit, and if there was something the Board did not like about it but it met the criteria, then they were in a legal bind if they decided they did not want it. Mayor Stevens asked if the commercial area in west Hillsborough was considered Central Commercial Ms. Hauth replied no, it was not, it was only the small piece that was located on the west side of Nash Street. Mr. Peterson asked about the Hillsborough House Inn. Ms. Hauth said it would be very difficult for the Board to approve that property and have it fit in with the intent section of the Central Commercial zoning district. Mayor Stevens, hearing no other comments, called for the vote. 7:52:35 PM The vote was 3-2, with Commissioner Lloyd and Commissioner Gering voting Nay. The motion was declared passed. C. Consideration of requested modifications to the approved SUP for the Little School 7:52:49 PM Ms. Hauth said there was a request from Principal Shannon Dixon on behalf of the Little School in the packet. She said the Board had approved the SUP for the Little School for constriction in Waterstone, and they were now requesting a number of modifications predominately for cost savings. Ms. Hauth said the packet included the numbered list of modifications, with four items noted that could be approved by staff without it coming to the Board. She said the remainder of the items was before the Board for consideration. Ms. Hauth said the fact that the items were there did not mean that staff had any concern about any of those items in particular. She noted the email exchange included in the packet that noted items they would want to see to make sure that the new stormwater pond met the requirements. Ms. Hauth said it was more a matter of a change in standard, the changing from pavement to gravel, the use of Chapel Hill gravel on a wallcway rather than concrete or some other material, Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 13 of 33 and a few other changes. She said it was enough of a change in materials and design to trigger some of the modification requests in the ordinance, so she had wanted to make sure the Board had the opportunity to see those. Ms. Hauth said it was the Board's option on whether to send those changes out for public hearing. 7:54:58 PM Christa Niven, representing the Little School, stated their requests were all budgetary in nature in order to cut costs. She detailed those requests as follows: • Remove asphalt paving in the driveway and parking area and substitute with gravel. This would also eliminate the need for curb and gutter. • Modify the concrete wallcs by using Chapel Hill gravel instead. • Eliminate the picket fencing in non-visible areas, and change to darker chain link. Also, eliminate the fence along the side road. • Change the bio-retention pond to a standard retention pond. That would eliminate some plantings and internal drainage strictures. • Delete the dormers on the buildings. • Eliminate the dLUnpster enclosure, since the dumpster area was hidden in between buildings in the loading area. • Modify external siding materials from Hardishake to board and batten. Ms. Niven provided photographs to the Board and explained what each picture represented. 7:59:43 PM Conunissioner Lower said he could not speak for the rest of the Board, but certainly thought that they had all supported the project. He said seeing the Little School succeed helped Waterstone to succeed and helped the Town to succeed. Commissioner Lowen said he did have concerns about the gravel in the long nm, noting that often gravel over time was not taken care of and got kicked out into asphalt areas of the streets, causing cars to slide on the loose gravel. Commissioner Lowen said that was not to say that the Little School would not take care of it, but they had indicated that if it were allowed they would consider the use of asphalt as the financial conditions improved. Ms. Niven stated they would not only consider it but planned to do just that. Commissioner Lowen said he believed that a striped asphalt drive and parking area was much more appealing to the School. Commissioner Lowen said the bio-retention pond and the other requests were not an issue for him. He added he very much wanted to see the Little School succeed, and wondered if there should be some condition added that the gravel would be replaced within some timeframe. Ms. Niven said they would comply with whatever the Board requested. 8:01:36 PM Mr. Peterson said that if you made a connection to a State road, you could have gravel but the first 20 feet had to be either concrete or asphalt. He said to have that apron would address Conunissioner Lowen's concern about gravel being kicked back out into the road. Ms. Hauth said if the Board desired to specify an apron on the driveway from College Park that would be an alternative that the Board could require. 8:02:33 PM Ms. Niven said that they were completely willing to have a plan in place, and thanked the Board for being incredibly supportive, adding they were gratefiil for that. Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: l~7arch 9, 2009 Page 14 of 33 Commissioner Lowen said it was his opinion that they had noone who had offered negative comments at the public hearing in regards to the Little School locating in Waterstone. Ms. HaLrth said there had been one neighbor with concerns but that neighbor had signed a private agreement with the Little School to address his concerns. She said her only concern with the bio-retention area was that adjoining neighbor who was impacted by the buffer, and she wanted to make sure that he was okay with that change since the Little School was granted a reduced buffer adjacent to the neighbor's property. 8:03:30 PM Ms. Niven said they had gotten a copy of the agreement from their lawyer and it never mentioned either the retention pond or the bio-retention, it just tallced about his shield. She said the neighbor's concern was light not encroach onto their property, and because that property was wooded, dark and beautifiil they were very much willing to agree with that and comply. Commissioner Lowen said he had brought that up because he did not believe that justified having to reopen the public hearing. He said the changes were mostly cosmetic and were within the Board's purview to approve, and he believed they were ready to begin their project. Ms. Niven said that was correct, that if they could cut those items and get the budget under control, they were ready to go forward. Commissioner Lowen said he believed it would behoove the Town for the Board to help the Little School to move forward. 8:04:15 PM Commissioner Gering said he agreed, and he wanted to see them succeed. He wondered about the dLUnpster enclosure. Ms. Hauth said based on where that was located on the site and some landscaping, she believed they would be able to handle that issue. Commissioner Gering said then that issue was more for staff approval Ms. Hauth agreed. Commissioner Gering said aside from the parking area, were there any other items that could be deferred and done later as fiords were available. Ms. Niven said they very much wanted to improve and maintain their property, so as they had need they would definitely be bringing things further along. Commissioner Gering said he believed it would work for the Board if they could identify items with a timeframe added that would require implementation by a time certain, or the Little School would have to come back to the Board. Ms. Niven said they would definitely want to eliminate the shakes and use the board and batten, and that they be allowed to do a standard retention pond. Ms. Hauth said she believed the only one they could actually change back would be the internal Chapel Hill stone to concrete. 8:06:07 PM Mayor Stevens said that was not really public spaces in terms of Waterstone, but was internal to the property. Ms. Niven said they actually preferred the gravel because if the children fell it would hurt them less than concrete. Commissioner Gering commented that certainly persuaded him. Commissioner Hallman said he presumed that if the requirements for curb and gutter changed that the stormwater requirements would change. He asked would they still meet the Phase II Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 1 ~ of 33 stormwater requirements. Ms. HaLrth said she had asked that the Little School provide documentation to that effect so that it could be verified by the County that the requirements would be met. Commissioner Hallman said he actually lilted the gravel because it gave you filtration and less nmoff and it could easily be paved over. He said he would like to know that the stormwater requirements were being met, but he had no problem with the rest of the requests. Ms. Niven said that was definitely an ongoing conversation, and their engineers knew they had to design the pond to meet the Phase II requirements. Commissioner Hallman said the Board had held a firm line, noting others had asked for exceptions but had been refiised. 8:07:55 PM Mayor Stevens said regarding the chain link fence, he wondered how that would affect the neighbors. Ms. Niven stated that the Pollards would certainly not be able to see it because their agreement included the installation of a forest between their property and the Little School so that they could not see one another. Ms. Hauth said the parking into the site separated the stricture from any of the surrounding properties, and the fence only enclosed the outside edges of the building so that when the children were outside they were inside the fence. So, she said, the fence was all interior of the parking and not adjacent to any of the adjoining property owners. Ms. HaLrth said anyone not on the site would not see the fence. Ms. Niven said the only exception would be from the road, where they would leave the picket fence. Ms. Hauth reminded the Board that the dormers were all interior and faced the courtyard, so that change would not affect the appearance of the building from the street. 8:09:12 PM Mayor Stevens said then he was hearing that the only issue was whether the Board would require some kind of paving in the fiiture. Commissioner Lower said he believed Mr. Peterson's suggestion of including an asphalt apron was a good solution to stopping the gravel being kicked out onto the road. He said he believed if it became a problem that the Little School would address it accordingly. Commissioner Darcy offered her total support as well. Conunissioner Lowen asked if Ms. Hauth could make sure the requirement for the apron was included. Ms. Hauth said they would make sure that the parking spaces were marked with concrete wheel stops and as the Board directed, if there was a timeframe for which it had to be paved that could be written in as well. Or, she said, they could just note that the Little School was allowed to do gravel for a time period and if they came back and paved it, as long as they provided the stormwater information they would not need to come back to the Board, unless the Board required that. There was general agreement from the Board. 8:10:38 PM Upon a motion by Commissioner Gering, seconded by Commissioner Lowen, the Board moved to approve the requested modifications to the approved SUP for the Little School listed as numbers 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 11 in the materials provided with the packet, and that items 1, 2, 8, 9, and 10 were designated for staff approval, by a vote of 5-0. The motion was declared passed.. Febiuai-~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 16 of 33 D. Consider a request for stairs at the Town Cemetery 8:11:32 PM Assistant Town Manager Nicole Ard said that this was meant to be an information item, in that they were starting to work with Jones Concrete for the installation of steps and handrails. She said that Public Works Supervisor Ken Hines had gone out today to identify a location for the steps so that all visitors could access it and not just benefit the family who had made the request. Ms. Ard said there were stairs already in the cemetery, and as the cemetery filled the Town would likely receive similar requests for additional stairs. 8:12:22 PM Commissioner Lowen said he had visited the cemetery on Friday to see the location of the proposed steps, adding he understood this was an information item and the worked was already planned and likely could not be stopped at this point unless the Board voted to do so. He asked if Ms. Ard felt that that area absolutely needed to have the steps. Ms. Ard responded that obviously Ms. Wagner needed assistance in getting to the gravesite, and the family had requested that the steps be placed in front of the Wagner gravesite. However, she said, Mr. Hines had suggested installing the steps in the middle of the sloping bank so that all visitors could make use of it instead of it being closest to the Wagner gravesite. Ms. Ard said it was a situation where she could not say that Ms. Wagner could not get down the slope, but they could make that accommodation. She said the cost of $2,350 would make sure that the area was accessible to all visitors, noting that since stairs were present in another section it did not seem quite fair not to provide them in others. 8:13:41 PM Commissioner Lowen asked would they also place handrails on the existing steps. Ms. Ard said they had not had that request. Commissioner Hallman agreed with Commissioner Lowen, that his first concern was that they were spending that much money for one individual. But, he said, they could recraft it for the public so that it was understood it was to serve the entire conununity. Ms. Ard said that was why they had moved the location so that it was obvious it was not just to serve one family. Commissioner Hallman said his concern was that this should have been placed on their budget savings list, and should have been on the Board's agenda during budget discussions. 8:14:41 PM Mayor Stevens said looking forward at projects like this, he believed that was the kind of thing that could be put on a longer-range plan, and also to make sure that they had the ability when it was appropriate for the Town to accept donations or private fiords to do such projects, perhaps as apublic-private partnership. Commissioner Hallman suggested someone could donate a step and have their name on it. Mayor Stevens said part of their response to such requests could possible be to place it in their long range plan and by all means look for private funds or donations. He said that might be the way they should begin to think about doing those types of things. Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: l~7arch 9, 2009 Page 17 of 33 8:15:31 PM Commissioner Lowen said for in-Town residents, as they began to tallt about ways to save money and not increase taxes, the Town could say if you want steps at the cemetery, for instance, to help the Town pay for that. He said it did appear that they were putting in steps because one person made the request, and whether they were ailing or not they did not want to send the message that just because you asked for it the Town would provide it. Ms. Ard said for them it was a matter of malting the facility accessible for everyone. E. Consider a change to simplify the non-profit funding request system in preparing the FY10 Budget 8:16:52 PM Mayor Stevens said in tallting with the Town Manager, he had decided to suggest as an idea only a change to simplify the non-profit funding request process. He said the Town donated a little over $30,000 to non-profits, and non-profits were a very important part of the community. Mayor Stevens said in the spirit of malting it simpler for everyone, his idea could tape a couple of forms. He said they could do things as usual, or, they could go forward and say if the non-profits were providing the same services as last year then they would not require the non-profits to create all the packets and come to the Board to make presentations. Mayor Stevens said he believed it would send a powerful message to the community that they were going to make it simple and provide what was provided last year, assuming that they send the Town some hind of documentation. Mayor Stevens said as an alternative to that, the Town might be bolting at budget cuts themselves and he would not want to send out a message to non-profits that the Town would guarantee the same amount as last year. Mayor Stevens said an alternative would be that if they were not going to consider any increases, then they would consider certain amounts assuming that documentation was provided that they were providing the same services as last year, and that the Town would not consider any new applications. 8:19:11 PM Commissioner Dancy said she was in total agreement with that, and she believed they should be bolting at going green and not producing all of that paperwork. She said perhaps they should consider sending the information out via email that if something had changed with the non-profit that they communicate electronically with the Town without coming before Board. Commissioner Dancy said she believed they should communicate that the Town would be willing to provide some support, but not necessarily the same amount as last year. 8:20:18 PM Commissioner Gering agreed he lilted the idea as well, and said a slight addition to that would be that if any of the Board had concerns about the job anon-profit was doing then they would still have time to ask that additional information be provided before they approved the final amounts on individual cases. Mayor Stevens said it was his suggestion that they not even ask the non-profits to provide those packets this year and that they ask only for documentation of the services provided. Commissioner Gering said if for any reason they had any concerns, then they could ask for additional information. Mayor Stevens agreed. Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 18 of 33 8:21:01 PM Commissioner Lowen said personally he lilted the idea, but did not think they should include that they were in some way guaranteeing the same amount that had been provided last year. He said if they as a local government as well as households and businesses had to "tighten their belts," it made sense that the non-profit agencies should tighten their belts as well. Commissioner Lowen said they needed to craft a letter that stated the Town would consider some level of funding, but would not guarantee the same funding as last year. He said compared to what the non-profits received from the County and others, what the Town provided was only a very small part of what they received. Commissioner Dancy said she was sure they would likely receive requests from new non-profits, but believed the Town should set out exactly what they were going to do so there was no confiision, and that the fiords go to the biggest needs. 8:22:57 PM Mayor Stevens said he was hearing a consensus of adopting the idea of sending a letter to the non-profits that the Town would not consider new applications, and that the non- profits needed to send a letter letting the Town know that they were providing the same services. He said the letter should also indicate that the Town did not need to receive an entire package as in the past, and that they would consider continuation of funding at some level but that the non- profits should put their fimdraising efforts elsewhere. 8:23:35 PM Commissioner Hallman said he had one concern about them exercising their fiduciary duty. He wondered if they could come up with a list of five or six questions, with instnictions that the non-profit could use one to two pages to answer them, just so that they had some fiduciary oversight or at least a paper trail to show that the questions were answered. 8:23:58 PM Commissioner Gering said he liked that idea, adding he believed they should ask what the request was, because it was possible it could be less than what was received last year, although unlikely. He said they needed for the non-profits to spell out what their request was with some information about what services were provided and to how many residents. 8:24:30 PM Commissioner Dancy said it could be in the form of a questionnaire formulated by staff, and could actually be just one page. She reiterated it should be emailed so they could save postage and paper. Mayor Stevens said could that be done so that the applications were administratively reviewed, or that they could say they were operating within the parameters as they had previously. He said he would want to state that the Town would not be considering new requests, and that the non- profits were required to provide documentation that their services had not materially changed. Commissioner Lloyd said she did not remember if they had provided the Red Cross with fiords last year, and if not there was no point in sending them a letter. Mayor Stevens agreed that if the Town did not provide finding to an organization last year then there was no sense in sending them a letter this year. Mr. Peterson said he believed staff could do that, noting they could develop aone-page form and put together a cover letter. He said they could also ask the due diligence question of whether the non-profit had an annual audit Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 19 of 33 performed and if so ask had they receive an unqualified opinion, were there any material changes in their operations or finances over the last year, and the number of residents they had served. Mr. Peterson said if anyone had any other ideas to please email him and let him know so it could be included on the form. 8:26:24 PM Mayor Stevens said he believed Mr. Peterson had captured what the Board wanted, and as long as they had documentation from the non-profits then the Board did not need to receive those packets of information provided in the past. F. Discuss preparations for the February 24t'`, 6:00 PM State of the Town Address at the New Senior Center 8:26:43 PM Mayor Stevens stated he was pleased that they were able to secure the new Senior Center, which was a fabulous place. He said they did try to identify a place for Monday night but were not able to do so, which was why they had moved it to Tuesday the 24th at the Senior Center to acconunodate schedules. Mayor Stevens said he understood that Commissioner Dancy would be unable to attend, but believed everyone else would be attending. Mayor Stevens suggested that they do similar to what they did last year, which was to introduce each Commissioner and give them two to three minutes to say a few words, and then he would follow up with the State of the Town address. He said at that time, staff would be asked to provide updates on various projects such as the rail station and perhaps the Strategic Plan and various other projects. Mayor Stevens suggested that perhaps some posters could be placed around the room to provide information on selected projects, such as parks. 8:28:28 PM Commissioner Gering said they had tallced at the retreat about explaining to citizens about how their tax money was being spent. He said he presumed it would be a part of the address that they were in tough times, and to have something that people could see and quicldy comprehend what it was they were dealing with in terms of total amounts and proportions of how it was spent. Commissioner Gering said he understood it was short notice. 8:28:54 PM Mayor Stevens said that would certainly be a part of the address. He asked the Manager if that was something that staff could do on short notice. Mr. Peterson said he would give it some thought as to what could potentially be provided that would fit into the context of the message. He said thinking out loud, everyone knew it was going to be bad, but people did not know how bad until you had some context. Mr. Peterson said he would have to give some thought to what they could show people that would be helpfiil other than the standard. He said at this point, his thought was the most effective message the Town could convey was that they had been working on it since August and were working aggressively towards a goal of no tax or rate increases this year. Mr. Peterson said this was likely a multiple year problem so it would be important for citizens to be involved in the process. He said they did not want to shut out the opportunity for good feedback from citizens, so they should encourage them to pay attention and participate in the budget process. Mr. Peterson reiterated this would be a multi-year problem and they would likely have the same issues to face next budget year. He said if a citizen's task force were formed it would take Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 20 of 33 months to bring them up to speed and to understand how local governments worked, just as it has with the Water Sewer Advisory Board. Mr. Peterson said if the Board felt something like that would be helpfiil that would be fine, but he believed they needed to get the budget behind them first. He said they had plenty of time to include the community and engage them in different ways. Mr. Peterson said as an example of what might be considered, they may have to decide whether to have bnish pick-up cut from every week to three times a month, or else they may be looking at cutting a police officer position. Commissioner Lloyd said that was a bad analogy and asked the Manager not to use that example in the future. Mr. Peterson responded that was the Board's call to make, not his, but that citizens needed to understand that was what it might come down to. Mr. Peterson said he had spent all night Saturday night working on the budget, and had spent a couple of hours going through the Police Department's budget to see how close they were to the goal he had set, which he had not told the departments yet. He said he had looked at that budget as well as each of the departments with that goal in mind, and with most departments he had cut their service level back to what their budgets were several years ago. Mr. Peterson said after doing that he had looked at the bottom number, and he was still $500,000 short of balancing the budget without using Fund Balance. He said he did not want to scare people or to overreact, but he was trying to put into context how difficult it was going to be. 8:34:39 PM Commissioner Gering said he wanted to withdraw his suggestion to use storyboards. Commissioner Lloyd said you could not remove an employee in one department to make up for something in another department. Mr. Peterson said he had simply used that as an example, and apologized. 8:35:14 PM Mayor Stevens said whatever staff could put together would be helpfiil, such as information on the park, potential rail service, and the like. Ms. Hauth said they already had boards for some of those and could provide them for that evening. Commissioner Lowen said it was his understanding that all the department heads would be present in case there were questions or the Board or citizens needed confirmation on something. Mr. Peterson said he believed they had all attended in the past, and would mention it to them to make sure they would be present. 8:36:42 PM Mayor Stevens said they had press releases out and would likely do more to encourage people to come out and take advantage of the opportunity meet the Commissioners and staff and to hear what was happening in the Town. He said he wanted as many people as possible to hear about the successes of the Town and what they were working on. Commissioner Gering asked when the address would really start. He asked did people arrive at six and they started at 6:15, or what? Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 21 of 33 Mayor Stevens said he believed they should have all the boards up by 5:30 or so and start shortly after 6:00. Town Clerk Donna Armbrister stated they would not have access to the room until 5:00 to set it up for the address. Mayor Stevens said then perhaps they should plan to get started about 6:15 with the actual program. Commissioner Lowen said the more the public saw how their money was being spent, the better. He said it was kind of difficult when the newspaper said their tax collection rate was pretty high, and people thought if all the taxes were being paid then why was there a shortage and where was the money going. Commissioner Lowen said if they could see Gold Park and could see Riverwallc then they would know those were the things they had wanted and the Town was trying to give them what they had asked for. He said the cost of doing business was not cheap. 8:38:34 PM Commissioner Dancy said a pie chart similar to what had been provided to the Board which showed how much was going to each department would be helpful. Mayor Stevens said they had used themes in the past such as the Year of Constriction and the Year of Openings, and since they were still doing constriction and still opening some things including parks, he thought the theme he would work with this year would be the Year of Infrastnicture. He said that would include parks, the infrastnicture of their ordinances in terms of the rewrite, how they were looking at the budget, how they were going about business, water and sewer lines and how they were looking long term at a fire station, Elizabeth Brady Road, transportation, a rail station, and just about anything else. Mayor Stevens said they had some really big issues that were not only fiduciary but were infrastnicture issues. Commissioner Dancy said estimating what those would cost would be informative. Mayor Stevens said he welcomed suggestions, comments and ideas. He asked the Town Clerk if there were any other issues regarding the building they needed to know about. Ms. Armbrister said not that she was aware of. G. Consider agenda items for the joint County-Town Board meeting on February 19th 8:40:34 PM Commissioner Hallman suggested that they start with issues that were successes such as the Farmer's Market and participation in the Strategic Growth Plan. Mayor Stevens said that staff had put together a list and believed they were wallcing into this with a sense of offering "thank you's" and for the meeting to be more informational, although there were issues they likely needed to discuss. He said one would be Fairview. Ms. Hauth said they needed some direction on the idea of who was going to own and maintain that property. Mayor Stevens said he had tallced with County Commissioner Valerie Atwater about that, and the Boards could discuss that. Mr. Peterson said in a surprise statement about a year ago County Manager Laura Blaclallon had said they wanted to give the Town Fairview Park, although it had never been discussed. He said she had seemed to think that was a good idea and had delegated that to her staff, which was Lori Taft. Mr. Peterson said they knew they would have to pay something as far as the maintenance cost, and the County had asked for $150,000 last year and Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 22 of 33 the Town had put $30,000 into the budget. He said it doesn't look like they spent that this year, so the County had drafted a Memorandum of Understanding for the Town's consideration and they had met with Ms. Ard and Ms. Hauth. Mr. Peterson said what the County was asking for was for them to split the maintenance costs fifty/fifty for the first five years and then completely give the Town the park after that. He said he did not know how much of that was staff driven or how much was Board driven, but it had been fnistrating for him. Mr. Peterson said he believed it was now time to get direction from the Board. He said he understood why the County wanted to do that, but it was a conunitment they had made 20 years ago, and he felt they were looking to get out cheap and dump it in the Town's lap. Mr. Peterson said his preference would be that if they were going to agree to maintenance for a period of time that it should not exceed a certain dollar amount and the County did not seem to have a grip on what that dollar amount would be. He said if the Town said they would take it off the County's hands, then he would like to say they would do that but only if the County paid for all the maintenance for, say, five years before it reverted to the Town. Otherwise, he said, he believed they would be letting the County off too easy. 8:44:56 PM Ms. Hauth said she believed Mr. Peterson had provided a good summary. She said the County had come at it from the standpoint that it was obviously in the Town's best interest to take over the park, and the one thing the County was willing to commit to was to constrict Phase II but they would not put a timeframe on it. Ms. Hauth said once the County gave it to the Town she believed it would be very difficult to convince them to build out the rest of the park. Mayor Stevens agreed he believed it was very much staff driven, and he was thinking something like that would be more in the 10 to 15 year range before a transfer would take place. He said they should make that point as a Board and try to convince the County Board to agree. Commissioner Hallman said that had come up in discussions and Conunissioner Lower had pointed out to them that Ms. Blaclanon had made a presentation saying that 80% of the people who used the parks had a 27278 zip code. He said the Commissioner Lowen had pointed out that the 27278 zip code was a huge area and was the central zip code for the County. Commissioner Hallman said he did not see the Town ever taking the park over without some cost-sharing. 8:46:18 PM Commissioner Gering said if they were going to have that discussion, then build it, maintain it, and let us see how it worked and how much it costs, and then they'll tallc about a transfer. Commissioner Lowen said over a period of time they could also see how many people were using it from within Hillsborough and from without. He said they all realized that every resident whether in Town or out of Town, if they lived in Orange County then they all paid the same tax rate. Commissioner Lowen said there was no cost-sharing agreement for the parks that were built in Chapel Hill or Cedar Grove or anywhere else, so it was tnily a "dumping" situation. He said the County had been promising this park for more than 20 years, and now they expected the Town to eat the cost. Commissioner Lowen said the County was more in a position from a park Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 23 of 33 standpoint to handle parks than the Town, noting the County had staff and had parks and recreation people. He said to say to the Town to take the park and handle it would throw them into a "tizzy" because they were not equipped to do that. 8:47:26 PM Mayor Stevens said that if they were unified in what they were saying then he believed the County Board needed to hear that message and to hear it in terms of their long term plan. Commissioner Dancy said they should remind the County Board that there had been two park bonds in the County, so citizens of Hillsborough were paying their share. Commissioner Lowen agreed, noting it was not fair for them to expect the Town to eat the costs. 8:48:02 PM Commissioner Lloyd said with the first and second Community Development grants the County had received, the County had promised the federal government in accepting those grants that they would fix the park for northern Fairview, and all they had ever received from that first grant was a picnic table and a bench. She said the County needed to be reminded of that. Ms. Ard said another issue was annexation of the land, and to keep in mind that they understood that there were limited fiords and the Town's ability to actually help them operate it. She said another issue they had brought forth was the issue of Town Police coverage or Sheriff s Department coverage, which needed to be addressed. Mayor Stevens said a way to start the discussion was on a positive note by saying thanks, that they had worked well together on that particular project, and then lay out where the Town stood on the other issue. Mr. Peterson said the Town could still offer doing the annexation and taking the police coverage which the Town had offered to do some time ago but the County had not wanted to do that for some unknown reason. He said the Town could still offer to provide water service as well. 8:50:01 PM Mayor Stevens said another issue was the Interlocal Agreement. Conunissioner Hallman said that since both Boards had not had the opportunity to review it and react to it, it would just be a presentation of the information, and he believed that there would be a request that both parties consider some follow-up or of keeping the group intact. He said that should take between 10 and 15 minutes. Mayor Stevens noted other issues on the list included Elizabeth Brady Road and the rail station, which would be an information item. Commissioner Hallman said that it had been mentioned to be vigilant about any legislative action that might take any local revenues, so that should be added to the list. Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 24 of 33 Ms. Hauth said regarding the rail station, that report was ready and unless they wanted to direct them to do something more then they would take the next couple of steps in terms of what the report was suppose to say. She said it was more a Town project that the County had been invited along on and did not require any action on the County's part. Mayor Stevens said the next issue on the list was transportation priorities. Ms. Hauth said that Commissioner Hallman had requested that if they went the route of having to hire someone to do some of the research that they request some cost-sharing for that. Mayor Stevens said he believed there would be some openness to that. 8:52:09 PM Mayor Stevens said next on the list was the Waterstone development, and some of the issue with Waterstone may be how that fit into a larger economic development picture for the County. Commissioner Gering said that would be a good segue into the issue of the waste transfer station. Commissioner Hallman said another issue was participation with TTA regarding the bus route. Mayor Stevens said next on the list was the Collins property, and asked was that just an update. Mr. Peterson responded yes, and said he hoped to get a map that could be provided to the County Board so that they could see where the property was located. He said he had gotten word from HYA about some suggested changes to their contract, most of which seemed reasonable but he had not had the time to devote to it just yet. Mr. Peterson said they would continue to cooperate with HYA and HYA would continue to use the fields. He said there was the possibility of a train stop on that property, but other than that they were leaving the property as is for the time being. Commissioner Hallman asked could they get an update on the plans for the old Wal-Mart property, as well as a timetable. Mr. Peterson said he would send an email to Greg Wilder. 8:54:02 PM Mayor Stevens said next on the list was an update on the Solid Waste Transfer Station. He said as the County was planning to go forward with site 54, the Town still had issues about routing tricks and trying to determine how the garbage would be coordinated through the municipalities. Mayor Stevens said there was a request that they continue to work with the municipalities on that, and he had said they were glad to tallc about any issues. So, he said, he believed that would mostly be an update, but there were some issues primarily with going forward with the sites they had chosen, although they were still looking at alternatives. He said that was yet another place where they needed to remain vigilant and continue dialogue. Commissioner Gering asked when it would be appropriate to bring up the issue of modifying their EDD to prevent fimctions such as that in an economic development district, adding it was "just wrong." Ms. Hauth said during the next phase of the Strategic Growth, when they knew more about land use. Commissioner Gering reiterated that it was just wrong, and it had been the start of all of their woes. 8:55:38 PM Mayor Stevens agreed with Ms. Hauth that that would be the better time to bring that issue up for discussion. Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 2~ of 33 Commissioner Gering said there was a related issue, which was that he had asked the question weren't they going to tallc with a couple of the County Commissioners about the prospect of annexing the properties that the County owned on Valley Forge Road, especially if they were going to consider selling it at some point. He said it would be nice to have it in the Town limits before it was sold, and he saw no down side for the County in doing that. Commissioner Gering said that might go along with the general discussion about what they were doing with old the Wal-Mart property. He said there was that property on Valley Forge that they may not have a use for and could be sold, and if they were going to do that then the Town really should annex it before that took place. Mayor Stevens said combining those items as a discussion of County properties may be appropriate. Commissioner Hallman said it would also be nice to know what the County's plans were for the County buildings on the "dark" side of Churton Street, noting there were nullors that they were going to release some of those buildings back into the public market. 8:57:03 PM Mayor Stevens said they would combine some of those issues about the Wal- Mart, Valley Forge, and Churton Street. Commissioner Lowen said if they could get clear answers from the County it would give the Town a good idea of the impacts, and if there were properties that might be released to the public then that would put those buildings back into the tax base. He said it would help the Town a lot to have some idea of what the impacts of that aught be. Commissioner Gering said it would also be nice if the County gave their staff direction to pursue at the very least the annexation issue. 8:58:28 PM Mayor Stevens said the last item on the list was the Heritage Center, and he had tallced with Commissioner Atwater about that. He said that came up as a part of the budget because the Town made a voluntary contribution to the library of $5,000. Mayor Stevens said knowing that they were potentially looking at cuts and that was one they would potentially continue or not, one suggestion was that if they were going to continue that contribution then they would certainly entertain the notion that the money continue to help preserve the Heritage Center, which he knew some citizens were very interested in doing particularly as an economic development effort. He said if they continued to budget that money, then they should say that the Heritage Center was where they wanted to money to go. Commissioner Gering said he did not know what the right strategy might be, but his feeling was that the County was looking to cut services and that message was being made very clear to their staff. He said it seemed that they had no plans for the Heritage Center and it was costing them, so it may be one of the first things they try to find a way to cut unless the Town had some way to persuade them otherwise. Febiuai-~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 26 of 33 8:59:55 PM Mayor Stevens said one of their strategies could be that the Town would continue the contribution to the library, but that was where they wanted it to go. Commissioner Lloyd said the Friends of the Library had a program where contributors could purchase bricks to be placed on the sidewallc leading up to the library. She said she assumed that those buying bricks were citizens of Hillsborough. Mayor Stevens asked how that related to the discussion. Commissioner Lloyd said that those purchasing the bricks were helping to pay for the library. She said she was not suggesting the Town purchase bricks, but was saying the citizens of Hillsborough were supporting the library. Mayor Stevens asked what the Board wanted to do in regards to the Heritage Center. Commissioner Gering said he wanted to try to find a way to convince the County Commissioners to build the Heritage Center. 9:02:01 PM Commissioner Hallman said in better times he would say give them the money and make them earmark it and keep in on the books towards the Heritage Center. But, he said, in these times that was money that could be used elsewhere. Commissioner Lloyd said her point was that in the library there was suppose to be a room dedicated to Hillsborough and containing Hillsborough items, noting the fiords for that room had been donated by Rebecca Wall. 9:03:05 PM Mayor Stevens said essentially then the Town would like to see the Heritage Center continue. Commissioner Hallman said they would have to look at it in context of the budget. Commissioner Gering agreed. Commissioner Lloyd said there was something for Hillsborough in that library already, noting that fiords had been left in Rebecca Wall's estate but the County had never used it. She said she would continue to monitor that and let the Board know if there was any change. 9:03:54 PM Mayor Stevens said he believed they had covered all the issues. Commissioner Hallman said it sounded like a very full agenda. He said it would be nice to go into that meeting saying they had action items and they had never gotten any feedback from the County and Town would like to know if they were doing anything about the Town's requests. He said he would like to ask for a timetable for a response to some of the issues. 9:04:40 PM Mayor Stevens said for each item they may want to say that they wanted to get back to whatever the issue was at a time certain for a response. Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 27 of 33 H. Consider an Amendment to Chapter 4, Personnel, Section 4-57 of the Town Code to increase the number of years required for new employees to be eligible for retiree health benefits 9:05:07 PM Finance Director Greg Siler said that before the Board was an opportunity to take action on one of the many ideas proposed by staff to reduce overhead for the Town in coming years. He said this was the first and hopefiilly the last revision needed to lessen the Town's costs in regards to retirees' health care coverage. Mr. Sher said it was not clear what savings would be realized from this change, but there would be an actuarial study performed in 2009 to make that determination. He said whatever the savings, because this was for new employees it would be many years before they realized any savings from the changes. Mr. Peterson said when he had tallced to staff about these changes he had said he was fine with extending it out to 25 or 30 years. He said he believed the Police Chief had a few comments he would like to make. 9:07:01 PM Police Chief Clarence Birkhead said his concern would be the length of time a law enforcement officer would have to work. He said there had been legislation proposed for a number of years to reduce that age because of liability on the street or in the field for 25 or 30 year employees because the risk continued to rise as they aged. Chief Birkhead said the median age today for their workforce was between 31 and 32, and that would likely be the trend based on their applicant pool. He said that really locked them in for a very long time if they wanted to reap the benefit. Chief Birkhead said one point was they would have a very old police force at some point in time, and the second point was that this change would hurt them as far as recniitment and retention. 9:08:30 PM Mr. Peterson said as far as this issue goes, if the counting standards had been changed then it had to be shown on their books. He said Durham County a couple of years ago had changed their policy to 30 years and others around the State were doing the same type of adjusting to reduce their liability in the fiiture. Mr. Peterson said what you do and how you do it was the question. He said he believed that 20 years was certainly liberal and generous, noting the Town was now paying over $700 a month for each retiree for health insurance. Mr. Siler said the Chief had some valid concerns, and he did think, however, that every municipality was having to take a look at what they were offering, and the Chief s findings today may not reflect what those findings might be five years from now. He said the Town was simply seeking to be proactive. 9:09:31 PM Chief Birkhead said he would like to the see numbers and what was really being proposed across the State, and compare the Town to some peer agencies to see where they were before the Board mad a decision. Mr. Siler pointed out that a change was not a final change, noting that the Board could reverse direction in the fiiture or there may be a need to become even stricter with the benefit. Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 28 of 33 9:10:06 PM Commissioner Hallman asked how soon they would see on the balance sheet side an effect of the change. Mr. Siler said at best that was a guess, noting that at present they had 100 employees that were already committed to the plan that was in place, and the change would only affect new employees. So, he said, it would be a number of years before they realized any savings. Commissioner Lowen said he certainly understood and appreciated the Chief's concerns; however, the longer they wait the longer it would take to realize the savings. He said he knew that other municipalities and states, such as New Jersey, were tightening their belts and malting similar changes because it was a huge expense. Mr. Siler agreed. Commissioner Lowen said if they found in the study that it would really cause problems with recniiting and retaining officers, then the Board could look at that, but for now he was in favor of the change. Mr. Siler reminded the Board that they did have the power to change the policy in fiiture. Ms. Hauth called attention to the fact that the ordinance and the cover sheet did not match, in that there was an error in the language in the ordinance. She said the timeframe for regular employees was noted as less than the timeframe for law enforcement, so it had been reversed. Ms. Hauth said the upper portion of the paragraph had the information correct, but the current standard stated in the middle of the paragraph in bold letters was reversed for regular employees and law enforcement employees. 9:13:40 PM Mr. Siler noted Ms. HaLrth was correct, and apologized for the error. He noted the ordinance would be corrected. Upon a motion by Conunissioner Lowen, seconded by Commissioner Dancy, the Board moved to approve the Amendment to Chapter 4, Personnel, Section 4-57 of the Town Code to increase the number of years required for new employees to be eligible for retiree health benefits, as amended, by a vote of 5-0. The motion was declared passed. L Added Item: Jordan Lake Watershed 9:14:52 PM Commissioner Hallman said he did not ltnow if they had enough information on this and did not ltnow what the timeline was. He said that Durham and Chapel Hill were both concerned about a developer's assessment of the normal pool boundary around Jordan Lake and the Division of Water Quality's approval of that developer's assessment of the boundary. Conunissioner Hallman said some of the municipalities wanted an independent boundary drawn, and as citizens of the larger community he had figured they could reach out and participate by joining the other municipalities but was not sure if they could do anything about that tonight. Commissioner Dancy said he was tallting about doing something as a Board in general, like crafting a letter or something of that sort. Commissioner Hallman responded that was the idea. Ms. Hauth said she only knew what had been contained in the email the Mayor had shared with her, and if she was interpreting it correctly it did not sound like it was very unusual for the way those regulations generally worked. She said their watershed boundary generally said that the information they had in their Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: l~7arch 9, 2009 Page 29 of 33 GIS was okay, but it was less technical than an individual property line boundary. Ms. Hauth said if a property owner could prove to the Town that his information was more accurate than what was in the GIS then they would accept his information. So, she said, it was likely that they had set the pool elevation at "X", the developer had had someone go out and do a topographic boundary on his property of where that specific elevation was, that that was more specific than topographic information that was done from aerial photographs, and the State accepted it. Ms. Hauth said that was not to say that the Town should not comment on that and look into it to make sure it was right, but that was what she was deriving simply from reading the email. She said it was not an uncommon practice, but that did not mean they should not look into it. 9:17:19 PM Mayor Stevens said it sounded like they could not take action as a Board tonight, but he would certainly like to look into it. 10. CLOSED SESSION A. Closed Session as authorized by North Carolina General Statute Section 143-318.11 (6) regarding a Personnel Matter 9:17:45 PM Upon a motion by Commissioner Gering, seconded by Commissioner Lowen, the Board moved to go into Closed Session to discuss a Personnel Matter as aLrthorized by North Carolina General Statute Section 143-318.11(6) by a vote of 5-0. The motion was declared passed.. 11. ADJOURN Upon returning to Open Session and upon a motion by Commssioner Lloyd, seconded by Commissioner Dancy, the Board moved to adjourn the meeting at 9:26 p.m. by a vote of 5-0. The m„oti~on was declared passed. ~~~~'~ Respectfulh~ submitted, Donna F. ~imbrister, 1~71~7C Town Clerl. Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular Meeting Approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 30 of 33 'f'awn Banr~'s 5tatesnent tsar 1~3,Oe Gina Stet, 160A-3~3 The Town of 1-Ii11s horough Town F3oard has received and reviewed the application csf staff to amend the Town of fiillsborough honing Ordinance as follows (insert general description of proposed amendment): to create special use permit process for event centers within the Central Commercial zoning district The I-Iillsborough Town Board lies deterrnrned that the proposed action is consistent with the Town of Idillsboraugh's comprehensive plan, and the Town Baard9s proposed action on the amendment is reasonable and in the public interest for the following reasons}: The event center use is a combination of uses generally permitted in downtown areas and is not inconsistent with the f,and Use flan, Strategy IVtap, or Vision 2010.- Adopted by the Town of 1-lillsborough Board of Commissioners thi: day of ; _, 200 Town <,i k _ _ Febauaa-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 31 of 33 f}~ 9.~ AN C3~I~IN~lOI~~ E1~IEl~L4TNC' IE ZCDI~III~G ~ II~IANC;~ 4.53.4.x 4.53.4.x.1 In ° ° _ a} A b) d} pr 6 ~- 8 e~ if cc ~ , ~~ ~~ _~ ll~ 7 1~ ITS 4,53.4.r Star f®a, a j. T1 e l3~ G~ Cl~ eyy~ 'i a ~~ es ..9, 4.53, d 4.54, the falflcavas`~~ ., a~vlx~l; eae _ _-it tax din taperatlra; ; ~ license c cst be ~~, e~lde~~:~ ~B ~x: ~ Et~e ea~a lie ~ntal~ed. x ~ ~ 1~ S Ct eS ®I` rae e~T1S CtI~T'i ES requaxed, a sc ,ptias~ ut ttce nat e and extent o f the alteratlrs~as csr new c s ng the es raf evexats, f _ xency, a ;ndance y pIaa;s ~sr use a~f c ~ `:s aaa fsax u ; .__~ea Essa 's ~l . - ~; ~ site d t r~ affslte a ~d ~e~:~n ~.s °acsd car tnaterzals, ~nE/z ~~~ ~ra~cae lcaadang Space .fie ~ ,fl _ (~ ~BIdVeY'~d'.~. E ~~VCd~7kdlll~bt scifc s day used in .:' ~~ ;pare applleatieara fear od ust ssc _sy a s e e the ex t .the appllc t xcel . ~ wed fcr the special use. c,€sntai ~ of a13Y9lflCa$YCFfl2, $T1CaY¢,' th. ®-.' --- t_ --- ~€ - _-,, 17e t._ _d _-- t_-- Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 32 of 33 G209-9,1~ ~~ ®utdoor areas pl reed to be used. in e event center are Located d screened in such a er as to gratect neighboring uses from tight, Heise, d loss of L- r . ArnrisEer, "I`ov~rn ~terk Febiuai-~~ 9, 2009 Regular l~7eeting approved: b4arch 9, 2009 Page 33 of 33 _ _ , 7 '~ C ~6 1 I ~ _ ._ -- _ 147y0e ~ € ~ t ~pft~lffza ~~ . age v _ _. ~i e. S~~~c~~ 2. .` < "a~sy ~`~s t~rc~ir~ance . _e . _ ~ . _ a. ~~ f ~~c~~~s~ 3. I`is ~n~~ e~fec ~ iap~i~n. ~~