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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-23-2024 Regular394 Dunn City Council Regular Meeting Tuesday, July 23, 2024 6:30 p.m., Dunn Municipal Building Minutes PRESENT: Mayor William P. Elmore Jr., Mayor Pro Tem J. Wesley Sills, Council Members Raquel McNeil, April Gaulden, Billy N. Tart, Alan Hargis, and Dr. David L. Bradham. .Also present: City Manager Steven Neuschafer, Assistant City Manager Billy R. Godwin, Finance Director Cary McNallan, Chief of Police Cary Jackson, Parks and Recreation Director Brian McNeill, Human Resources Director Connie Jernigan, Public Works Director Dwayne Williams, Collections and Distribution Manager Billy Cottle, Water Plant Manager Ian Stroud, Wastewater Plant Manager Donrie Dukes, Administrative Support Specialist Amber Groves, City Attorney Tilghman Pope, and Deputy City Clerk Melissa Matti. CALL TO ORDER AND INVOCATION Mayor Elmore opened the meeting at 6:30 p.m. and Reverend Dennis Manuel gave the invocation. Afterwards, Council April Gaulden led in the Pledge of Allegiance. AGENDA ADJUSTMENT AND APPROVAL Motion by Council Member Tart and second by Council Member Gaulden to adopt the July 23, 2024 meeting agenda as presented. Motion unanimously approved. PRESENTATIONS BRIC Grant Award Update Samantha. Wullenwaber, Mid Carolina Regional Council of Governments presented an update of the BRIC Grant Award. A copy of the BRIC GrantAward Update is incorporated into these minutes as Attachment #1. PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD The Public Comment Period was opened by Mayor Elmore at 6:46 p.m.. Having no comments, the Public Comment period was closed. CONSENT ITEMS • Minutes of the June 11 and June 25, 2024 City Council Meetings. • Resolution - Assignment of Authorized Personnel for Banking Access. • Fee Schedule correction Motion by Council Member Bradham and second by Council Member Hargis to approve all consent items. Motion unanimously approved. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION AND/OR DECISION CZ-06-24 - Conditional Rezoning Application N. Powell Avenue City Attorney Tilghman Pope reminded the council that he has a conflict of interest as it relates to Item Number 7 and that'he is a shareholder in a company that is selling one of the parcels to the developer. Therefore, he cannot provide the council with any legal advice in relation to Item 7 and will be recusing himself and he said that he was going to sit and watch from the jury box. Mayor Elmore explained how the rezoning would work. He then opened the public hearing and called Samantha Wullenwaber back to the front. Mrs. Wullenwaber advised the council that the request before the city tonight is a Conditional Zoning case CZ-06- 24 on North Powell Ave. The applicant is Brickyard Management, and the owner is Solo Jackson Internal Utility Company. This item has gone before the Planning Board who recommended unanimous approval. It followed the code of ordinances for the neighborhood meeting, the newspaper ads, letters mailed, and all the .signs posted as required by the DOJ. The site is approximately 48 acres with only 42 acres being included on the front portion that you see there that is not shaded. that is part of the crop, which is part of the total project and the overall location, but it is not included in this rezoning because it is not needed at this time. As a reminder, the purpose of this conditional zoning is to establish the uses and the intensity and or density of a project and you can see the uses around it. This is located near the Belk Shopping Center. A majority of this property is surrounded by commercial and residential and some light industrial pieces. The proposed type of housing for the conditional zoning is up to 180 residential units with no more than 120 townhomes. Mrs: Wullenwaber said that she had requested that her planners add the condition that there be a minimum of 60 single family detached units. This has not passed yet, but we have to talk about what we would like to see, if it does pass or if is rejected. There are no standards in place of how far apart these homes are. So, what they're asking for is that the front be 20 feet from the right of way property line. 20 feet minimum on the rear, and on the sides, zero. That means if the two units joined together, there would be a zero -lot line and then they're saying that there will be a minimum of 10 feet between each building. So, if you have building A and building B. They're asking for 10 feet apart. It was agreed that the setback requirements would be 10 feet per property line, which would give 20 feet between the two buildings? That would be 20 feet between the two townhome buildings. Corner lots would be 15 feet from the side. The public hearing concluded, but Mayor Elmore said that he would hear what someone had to ask. They asked, "Whatever happened to building homes for people who could afford them? There are a lot of people who can't 395 afford a $300,000 home. What are they going to do? They have no place to live. Mayor Elmore responded, " I think that's a problem throughout the nation, but that's not a part of what we are addressing here tonight. I thank you for your comment, but that's. nothing that we're addressing here tonight with all due respect, but what we're doing is the rezoning of this property. For this purpose and for the type of housing that they want to build. But thank you. OK, There was a lengthy discussion regarding setback requirements. Mrs. Wullenwaber said that there's been a lot of conversation about rental -houses, and she advised the council that she didn't think we as a board can tell you to get legal counsel, but I don't think we as a board can pass this subject to how many of these are for sale and how many are for rent. But she doesn't foresee somebody's going out there and buying a lot of them and turning them into rental property, but that's something that this board cannot vote on because we don't have any idea if somebody in here wants to buy a house and turn it into a rental house. I don't think we have the ability to do that. There's a case law that says we cannot do that. So, that cannot be a part of our conditions. But the setbacks can and the change in the minimum housing single family detached. Another part of the condition, which is not what we're voting on, but it is a part of the conditions with the city is that you will have to do a DOT Road assessment of what kind of transportation. That's not what we're voting on, but that is something that you guys will have to do. Sheriff Coates would like to have some conversation with you and the DOT as that takes place to be sure that that's done for the best for the residents because as I said a while ago. This is the conditional rezoning from R20 to the mixed -use district and it establishes uses, the numbers, the lot dimensional standards, the master plan, the bubble plan, things like that. Next, they do have to get a Special Use Permit for the townhomes. At that stage you have to get your TIA, DOT permits, stormwater permits, .environmental permits and everything from A-Z. There are additional steps after tonight. This is just for conditional zoning and then the next planning process.wise would be the Special Use Permit. Which comes before the City Council. The next step is if they choose to do the Special Use Permit next or they could do the Preliminary Plat and reserve some areas for townhouses later. But, as you've seen just recently with this Special Use Permit, there'll be an exact layout of exactly where the buildings go, exactly where the trash receptacles are, and all the turnarounds and all. sorts of details will be on that plan. So, that will be the final detail and layout for those townhouses. But the Preliminary Plat is also available to go to the next step as well. And that Special Use Permit process is quasi-judicial. So, it is run by legal counsel. Which means it is based -on evidence and those types of things. But the Preliminary Plat at the subdivision is just a legislative decision. Motion by Mayor Pro Tem Sills and second by Council Member Gaulden to approve the recommended conditions printed in our packet CZ-06-24 N Powell Ave. Conditional rezoning application to include the minimum of 60 single family detached homes as well as amending the setbacks for town -homes to be the side 10 feet. The other setbacks remaining as printed and the minimum setbacks for single family detached to the front 20, rear: 20; side: 10; and corner. 15 as printed. Motion passed 5 in Favor - 1 against (Bradham). A copy of the Ordinance (02024- 17) is incorporated into these minutes as Attachment #2. OA-02-24 Ordinance Amendment Gas Pump text amendment Samantha Wullenwaber advised that she was presenting this Ordinance Amendment on behalf of the Planning Director who is serving as City of Dunn's planning consultant right now on this is ordinance amendment OA-02-24 and it is about gas fueling stations and the complications. The City of Dunn is proposing an amendment to Section 516 E of the gas and fueling station of Article 5 in the UDO (Unified Development Ordinance) and there is one sentence that needs to be removed. It is dealing with the location of canopies and pump stations. As you can see, there is an example on this slide. For them to be located anywhere on the property currently is very limiting and she doesn't think that is very good for development. It's not very commonly seen in ordinances anyway. As a note, a gas refueling station is permitted with supplemental standards in only three of your zoning districts. So, it's not even permitted outright. It is permitted with supplemental standards and the mixed -use district, C-3 and C-4 districts. So again, the ordinance amendment is to remove the language that requires the gas canopies to be located in the side or rear yard of the principal building. She offered to take any questions from the board. This is consistent with all of your plans and policies. She was asked what is the reasoning for being where it is now? She responded that -it's oversight. At some point, she believed it may have been an oversight. That would be her opinion. A lot of times that happens when codes are 300-400 pages long. As you go down 421 and see some of the gas stations, really all the gas stations, the canopies and the pumps are out towards the road and the building is back behind the pumps, the ordinance written now is more of an Urban style where they want to see the building up front and closer to the road and minimize the impact of the canopies. But, most of our development is along high traffic volume corridors and therefore we don't -really have sidewalks and walking trails and things right along our major corridors. So, that's really the difference between what this was probably written for originally. But it doesn't translate very well to the. City of Dunn. Mayor Elmore closed the public hearing. Motion by Council Member Hargis and second by Council Member Bradham to approve. Motion unanimously approved. A copy of the Ordinance (02024-18) is incorporated into these minutes as Attachment #3. Demolition 614 East Vance Street Mayor Elmore opened a public. hearing on this matter, and ask for John Gaines' report. John Gaines, Code Administrator for the City of Dunn came to discuss a demolition at 614 E Vance Street. Council was advised that they have before them a memorandum and also an ordinance authorizing demolition. This is for a house located at 614 E Vance St. and. this case has been open since March 21 of 2023. John explained that when he first got here, there was about 38 houses that were added to the list, and this is one of them. We've gone through all the process. We've had the hearing with the property owner. All of the proper notices have been issued. Hearing notice was issued. We held a hearing. The owner did not show up, but he signed for his paperwork. He was issued a finding of • 4D 396 fact, an order which required him to either repair or demolish the house within a period of time and that period of time ended. May 19, 2019. The tax value of this structure, as you'll see in findings and conclusions, the building value according to the county tax records is $7,995. As you can see in the picture; the owner has come in and done some demolition. Prior to us getting involved in it, the roof line was dropped approximately 12 inches. He's done some construction. You can see in the lower left-hand corner where for some reason he's put in concrete beams and posts and so forth, I guess to kind of hold the house up. The house has been gutted. The structure basically is being held in place by this framework he put in. The structure does not appear to be salvageable. The owner was given an opportunity to get his permits and renovate it if he chose to or to demolish it. He has done neither. So, we come to you .tonight asking . for approval of the demolition ordinance which is the third and 4th page of this package that you were given. I think -it explains itself by the photos. Mayor Elmore closed the public hearing. Motion by Council Member McNeil and second by Council Member Sills to proceed with the demolition of the structure located at 614 E Vance St. PIN# 1516-86-6905. Motion unanimously approved. A copy of the Ordinance (02024-19) is incorporated into these minutes as Attachment #4. Updated Purchasing Policy Finance Director McNallan explained that this agenda item is related to our purchasing policy and before he gave the details, he thanked his staff Alex Abling, our Contract Administrator. He did a lot of work on this policy, so we appreciate that. The policy that we have in place now was last drafted in July of 2017. So, the policy is about 7 years old, which is not ancient for a policy but he felt it needed some revisions. Some of the key components of it. We're expanding or increasing the limit on required purchase orders that need to be signed off by the City Manager and himself. The current threshold is $500. We're proposing that be moved up to $1,200 and part of that is just the value of a dollar these days. It just doesn't buy as much for $500 so we've also put more details in the policy as far as procedures. It matches our new Tyler accounting software. Also, back in 2017 we didn't have that system and then there's an appendix in there related to bidding requirements for historically underutilized businesses and then minority and women owned businesses as well. We encourage all of our departments to always include our hub, which is the historically underlying underutilized businesses. To encourage all purchases to follow that guideline. As far as construction projects go, the state has requirements in their policy.that they have a goal of 10% of their contracts be HB businesses. Any projects that we have that are state or federal funded have that requirement as well. The current policy doesn't address that. I'm including appendix to address that. We also have a more detailed list of items that don't require a requisition, such as travel and memberships and things like that. Basically I'm asking the board to adopt this policy. The goal is to at least get those bid notices out to those businesses. There's a website on the state website that you can go out if you're a HEB business, you can go out and register. So we can have a list of who we need to send these bids to. We're still managing the public dollars right, so we -still want to award the contracts to that lowest company, which isn't always the best. But there's other factors 0 when we award a bid. But if all businesses are equal that are bidding, we still are required to offer it to the lowest bidder. But the goal is to at least notify these businesses so they can at least participate. Motion by Council Member Gaulden and second by Council Member Hargis to approve the attached purchasing policy. Motion unanimously approved. A copy of the Purchasing Policy is incorporated into these minutes as attachment #5. Administrative Reports City Manager Neuschafer Finance Director McNallan provided the following financial report for the period ending June 30, 2024: • Finance Director McNallan provided the following financial report for the period ending June 30, 2024: • The City has $11.5 million compared to $9.5 last year. The main difference is just the timing on some of the big construction projects, and reimbursements of the grants. • Property Taxes collected for May are $66,856 compared to $71,000 last year. Total to -date $5.7 and our budget was $5.5. • Sales Tax receipts were $294,000. for April, $37,000 more than same period last year • Building permit fees for June were 28,000 and today we have collected $274,000, which was 171% of our budget. We're well over our budget. • We've included in the report the two charts on revenues, expenditures, nothing, nothing that jumps out that needs to be reported. Reports were also received as follows: Planning and Inspections Report, Public Works Report, Public Utilities Report, Parks and Recreation Report and Police Report. Manager Neuschafer asked Parks and Recreation Director Brian McNeill to give a summary of the tournament that just finished. From June 29th through July 3rd, The City. of Dunn hosted the AA Stage State tournament for both Division One and Division 28U baseball. We hosted a total of 24 teams for those two tournaments and overall, the tournament went really well. This tournament was the first major tournament that we hosted at Tart Park since we renovated that park and next year, we're hosting the World Series for that same age group. So, this tournament was really going to give us a good lesson learned. Things that we are looking forward to going into next year. Overall, we had a good turnout for the tournament. We had a lot more for this younger age group than we did for any of our other ages like 9- and 10-year-olds and 12- and 13-year-olds, but. But on average we had around 2,500 visitors at the park. That's not including the players and coaches. We had 2,500 visitors for the first few days until some teams started getting eliminated and then we had to work through some weather. Between my staff and the booster club offering their assistance along with 1st responders like the Police Department as well as EMS we were able to showcase a very good tournament. We got a lot of positive feedback from the visitors at our parks, and we did receive some feedback that will help us and better position us for putting on a better time and going into the World Series next year. Announcements/Information 397 Mayor Elmore announced the Council will go into closed session to discuss matters relating to the location or expansion of business in the area served by this body. Motion by Council Member Bradham and second by Council Member Tart to go into closed session at 9:02 p.m. to discuss matters relating to the location or expansion of business in the area served by this body. No decisions were made, and Closed Session adjourned at 10:15 p.m. Attest: Melissa R. Matti, CMC, NCCMC, CZO Deputy City Clerk B�9A9 ®go® � William P. Elmore Jr. rITY o fi®�®® Mayor a° m P0 e 8 " m a q9ZA a L • 0-