21st meeting of the Greensboro city council I would like to confirm council members are in attendance obviously I am here Mayor protm Johnson present council member abuser presid council member high tower sorry present council member Hoffman I saw her earlier yeah too wonder if she got bumped off Mrs Hoffman Angie if you would let us know um perhaps she's had a technical difficulty um council member outling present council member thurm present and Dr Wells present okay so we have seven present at the moment we'll wait for Mrs up there's Mrs Hoffman if you could confirm your attendance yes sorry I lost my connection that's okay thank you I know the weather is is bad and the ground is wet so we'll do the best we can um so this evening we're going to start the city council meeting a little differently and we're going to have our city clerk Angela Lord swear in our newest um city council member Mr Hugh Holston Madam Clerk good evening and thank you Madame mayor Mr Holston do you have a Bible present and anyone that you'd like to join you for the saring in yes I do okay if you could place your left hand on the Bible and raise your right hand please and then repeat after me I Hugh Holston i h holon do solemnly and sincerely swear do ly and sincerely swear that I will support and maintain that I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws and the Constitution and laws of the state of North Carolina at the state of North Carolina not inconsistent therewith not inconsistent therewith and that I will Faithfully discharge and that I will Faithfully discharge the duties of my office the duties of my office as a member of the city council as a member of the city council of the city of Greensboro of the city of Greensboro according to the law according to the law and according to the best of my skill and ability and according to the best of my skill and ability so help me God so help me God congratulations sir and welcome council member Holston thank you Mr Holston and welcome to the Greensboro city council I'm sure it's everything you will expect it to be um we we do have a full agenda tonight so it's going to kind of be trial by fire I'm sorry that you had to do your swearing in in a virtual platform which is a first for the city of Greensboro um but I hope that when we get back into the council chambers that we will be able to give you a fitting welcome and also a goodbye to Michelle Kennedy for her years of service on the city council so we hope that we'll be able to do it in a little bit more for formal setting in a time soon to come absolutely thank you I don't know you have any quick comments or if you just want to get into the agenda uh I'll simply say thank you again to uh the council members for having the faith last Tuesday evening and I also thank you to again all of my friends and supporters who I've spoken with since last Tuesday and with that let's get to work great thank you Mr Holston um the council pre procedure for the conduct of tonight's meeting voting will be conducted by roll call vote verbally as Council considers consent public hearing and business items each member of council must vote unless there is a direct conflict all council members should remain muted and also everybody listening in should remain muted to minimize distracting background noises Council should request to speak by physically raising their hand to prevent multiple people speaking at one time Council will verbally make make a motion or a second we do allow and welcome speakers to address the city council Council respects the right for the public to speak about matters of concern that can be addressed by the council each speaker will be allotted three minutes comments that seem to be intended to incite unlawful Behavior will be deemed to be out of order Zoom participants are requested to mute their microphones until they are called upon to speak in order to be considered written comments must be submitted online through the city's website at www.greensboro-nc.gov zoning matters do allow for a 15minute presentation both for and against the rezoning there is also a five minute rebuttal all Zoom participants must remain muted when other have been identified to speak once an item has been completed the meeting host will remove the speakers for said item guests are encouraged to watch the remainder of the meeting via the Greensboro television network or through the city's website we do have a consent agenda for items C1 through C12 which are a grouping of agenda items that are voted on with one single vote to expedite what are believed to be routine and non-controversial items any council member May withdraw an item from the consent agenda due to a conflict of interest or for the purpose of voting no items removed from the consent agenda for discussion will be placed on the October city council business agenda this meeting does include closed captioning depending on the length of tonight's meeting we will take a short recess around 7:30 p.m. staff has requested Council to move the resolution from so I Madame clerk I believe we were just removing D2 which is the ordinance amending fiscal year 2021-22 general fund budget in the amount of 15,000 for an economic development appropriation for Prestige Empowerment Group we were still going to have the um the presentation for D1 is my understanding I mayor if I may the public hearing is required this is an unusual circumstance where public hearing is required because of the funding source uh so yeah there will still be the opportunity for public comment but we're asking you to remove the resolution in the ordinance portion because it's within my authority of approval yeah I just wanted to make sure because that's not what this says so can I have a motion to remove item D2 so move second that is moved um that is moved by mayor Pro CH and seconded by Mrs Hightower I Imes Mrs Johnson yes Mrs abater yes Mrs hiow yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes and Dr Wells yes and that passes 9 to zero um so we will move on to the consent agenda portion um do I have a motion move the consent agenda Madame mayor I I have I have a question on C1 and it's just a question um I if I may ask it um I didn't really know where to direct it my question the first time around so um I don't know is this time sensitive can we put it on our next agenda Mr city manager yeah I don't necessarily need it to put on the next agenda I can vote on it I just had a simple question i' I'd prefer if we went ahead and voted on the item yeah okay if it's a simple question go ahead um well I I just would like to know what we're goingon to do with our portion of the grant um our portion of the grant is uh I believe some thousand um and I last time we got the Grant I think the was going to use it for some racial Equity training I don't know if that occurred or not but uh I was uh wanting to know what he was going to do with this particular portion thank you for your question council person High ter and chief James is with us and chief I'm gonna let you speak to what we're doing this particular time yes so the Justice assistance grant approximately 34,000 will be used for the racial Equity training specifically the groundw training that we had talked about previously uh we have not necessarily earmarked that money uh for what it will be spent for um we traditionally have spent it uh as needed uh in fact we have money uh from previous years uh where the Jag Grant has been awarded so we don't have to spend it all uh within this particular uh fiscal year so it gives us an opportunity for instance if a Emergency Equipment need would come up it kind of gives us some additional funds uh that we could access in case we need to purchase something that wasn't necessarily planned for within our regular budget okay and it's an annual Grant correct we apply for it annually uh in combination with the Gilford County Sheriff's Office as well as High Point okay thank you yes ma'am okay so we do have a motion and a second um on the floor I am a yes Mrs Johnson yes Mrs abuza waiter yes Mrs hiow yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes and Dr Wells yes and that passes 9 to Zer we will now move on to the public hearing portion of our agenda this is the time and place for the public hearings we have received 71 comments received for the public hearing items these comments will be posted to the city's website tomorrow they have been forwarded to council for their consideration prior to this meeting there are 22 speakers signed up to participate in tonight's public hearings item number one is a public hearing to receive public comment on economic development Appropriations in the amount to 15,000 for Prestige Empowerment Group um I do know that Mr Blackman is on the phone um Mr Blackman did you want to comment on this item yes ma'am right if you would put your camera on and you have three minutes thank you for some reason it's not letting me put my camera on okay well just move along with your comments then okay um well I thank you all for there you go Jame you see me okay great I thank you all for this opportunity um Prestige Barber College has been providing hope and opportunity for women and men in Northeast Greensboro for nearly 10 years through the industry of Barbering we are Workforce Development uh people become entrepr our graduates become entrepreneurs the day that they graduate we uh also provide re-entry and second chances for people who have had criminal backgrounds we are also partners with our community we allow our facilities to be used for various community events and just in general we are a resource to Northeast Greensboro I like to yield the rest of my time for a couple of students to give their testimonies uh about what Prestige meant to them uh good evening my name is Denzel Reeves um Prestige has been everything to me has been a very positive influence to me it allowed me to become an entrepreneur it allowed me to be a positive influence to other people it allow me to just do something different in my life allow me to turn my life a complete 180 uh allow me to uh just did everything honestly just was everything to me I can't even put it in words just was very positive very positive how you doing my um my name is Rashad Taylor um as far as Prestige it's it's been a real humbling experience being here and like Dr Blackman said like um I had got into um some legal troubles and I had got locked up and when I when I got out I I applied for jobs I I did everything under the sun and just um he welcomed me with open arms and it just it like it really changed my life I had no other option so it was like I said it's been a real humbling experience I got like 200 hours left and like just from day one like we the whole n cutting hair how to carry yourself and dressing business wise B business minded and um it's like and being in the community and reaching out to other people and just doing positive stuff in the community for the Youth and the less fortunate like I said it's been a real hbling experience and um 30 seconds yeah so that's that's about it for me appreciate good evening my name is shant Jennings and I'm I'm a former student of prestige Barbera College um I encountered Prestige at a a pretty rough time in my life uh trying to uh I was looking near and far to find a school that would kind of facilitate and help me to um enter back in school and uh achieve my goal to become a licensed Barber uh so you know I spoke with Jean and um him and his staff time has expired thank you thank you for your comments um this was just a time and place for a public hearing this item doesn't require a vote at this point but we will we will follow up thank you so much thank you Jan for all you do for this community and just hearing those stories of how you inspire our future people can make mistakes but it is not permanent and that's what people need to know um when you do make a mistake it is not the end of life uh and I appreciate what you do thank you so much and I think I heard one of your speakers say that Prestige Barber College has been a hub of the community and it truly has been and for that we're appreciative because it is a place where the community meets and have a conversation um so thank you for all you do and thank you I've been at a couple of your graduations and it's really nice to see the transformational change when you're able to give somebody a skill and have them be an entrepreneur and someday be in charge of their own business absolutely I'd like to say that Prestige is a like a it is a community Hub with sponsoring and doing such such um so many good things I especially I'm impressed that they will do all of the the young men before school opens and certain days they just take them in and give them all uh haircuts so you you've always reached out to the community and we appreciate it je I'd like to also express my Kudos um to prestige um they've been a solid rock in in the community in North these screen for so thank you for all that you do and continue to do and Dr Dr Jan Blackman I just wanted to say you know uh mayor mentioned about entrepreneurs you know this is one thing that really gives people purpose in their lives is when they can go and open their own business and you give them the skills that they need and it's just it's a blessing to our community so thank you so much thank you thank you at this point we can move on to item number D3 D3 is a public hearing for an ordinance annexing territory into the corporate limits for property located at the Carol Avenue RightWay 1.6 acres for Keystone Group Inc and item D4 ordinance for public hearing for original zoning located at Carol Avenue rideway Keystone Group Inc and I don't believe I have any speakers on this item but if we could have a brief overview from Mr Kirkman that would be helpful thank you mayor Von the request here is to Annex and to establish original Zoning for right of way to uh do improvements to Carrol Avenue to basically bring it up to City standards in order that it can be maintained by the city the zoning in the area is CD R5 residential single family to the north county rs30 to the east which is also single family um South is a combination of County Pi public institutional and City R3 residential single family and West is a combination of CD R5 pi and County rs30 the subject property again is basically the Carol Avenue RightWay and touches a number of single family residential lots existing lots and the improvements of this will then allow for additional residential development there is a place of public excuse me of religious assembly located to the southeast of the request the area is designated as residential on the comprehensive plans future land use map and urban General on the future built form map staff has concluded the stoning does support the comprehension plans creating great places to expand Greensboro Citywide network of unique neighbor neighborhoods offering residents of all walks of life quality of housing choices and the building Community connections goal to maintain stable attractive and healthy places to live and raise families we are recommending approval of this R5 zoning request and the annexation both of these items were considered by the Planning and Zoning commission at their August 16th 2021 meeting and uh you were unanimously recommended for approval there were no speakers at that hearing I can answer any questions thank you um Mr Kirkman so item number D3 is the motion to adopt the ordinance if I could have a motion and a second so moved second second moved by Mr Holston seconded by Mrs Johnson I am a yes Mrs Johnson yes misser yes Mrs Hightower yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes and Dr Wells yes that passes 9 to zero item number um D4 will require a statement of consistency if I could have a motion in a second move the item second moved by Mrs thurm seconded by Mrs Hightower Mrs thurm the greensbor city council believes that its action to approve the original zoning request for the property described is Avenue right of way from County rs30 to City R5 to be consistent with the adopted gso 2040 comprehensive plan and considers the action taken to be reasonable in the public interest for the following reasons the request is consistent with the comprehensive PL future built form map and future land use map the proposed City R5 zoning District as condition permits uses which fit the context of surrounding area and limits negative impacts on the surrounding area number three the request is reasonable due to the size physical conditions and other attributes of the area it will benefit the property owner and surrounding community and approval is in the public interest thank you very much so we do have a motion and a second I am a yes Mrs Johnson yes Mrs abuser yes Mrs Hightower yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Hol yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes and Dr Wells yes that passes 9 to zero uh we will move on to items D5 and D6 uh we do not have a um any speaker signed up item number D5 is a public hearing for an ordinance annexing territory into the corporate limits for property located at 6124 bedstone Drive 30 Acres Garmin homes LLC and D6 an ordinance for a public hearing for original zoning located at 6124 bedstone Drive Garmin homes LLC Mr Kirkman if you want to give us a brief overview yes thank you mayor V again this property is 0 308 acres and the request is to go from County conditional zoning RS3 residential single family to City R3 the zoning to the north is a combination of County rs40 County ag City CD rm5 and City CD R5 so various residential zoning classifications Easter request is County rs40 and City CD rm5 South request is County CZ RS3 West request is combination of County CZ RS3 and City cd5 Residential single family the lot is currently being developed for a single family dwelling north south westquest are all single family dwellings EAS request are single family dwelling as well as vacant land this area is designated as residential on the feature land use map with Comprehensive plan and the uh as excuse me Urban General on the future built format staff has concluded this original design request does support the comprehensive plans creating great places goal to expand greensboro's Citywide network of unique neighborhoods offering residents of all walks of life a variety of quality housing choices and the building Community connections goal to maintain stable attractive and healthy places to live and raiseed families the proposed City AR3 zoning is intended to accommodate low density single family residential development of up to three dwelling UNS per acre and is L's uses that are similar to existing uses in the surrounding area staff is recommending approval of the request there were uh the case was considered at the August 16th Planning and Zoning commission meeting both annexation and Zone were recommended by the commission and there are no speakers related to the case answer any questions thank you can I have um a motion on D5 moved by Mrs Johnson seconded by Mrs Hightower yes um IES Mrs Johnson yes Mrs abuser yes Mrs Hightower yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes Dr Wells yes and that passes 9 to zero um item number D6 and I don't think that requires a statement of yes it does um the um the slide says D4 but it's really D6 um can I have a mo Motion in a second motion I have a motion for Mr Holston second and a second from Mrs abuza waiter Mr Holston could you read that into the record yes madame mayor the Greensboro city council believes that its action to approve the zoning request for the property described is 6124 bedstone drive from County CZ RS uh RS3 residential single family to City R3 residential single family 3 to be consistent with the adopted gso 2040 comprehensive plan and considers the action taken to be reasonable and the public interest for the following reasons the request is consistent with the comprehensive plan's future uh built form map and future land use map the proposed City R3 zoning District permits use which is in the context of surrounding area and limits negative impacts on the surrounding area the request is reasonable due due to the size physical physical physical conditions and other attributes of the area it will benefit the property owner and the surrounding community and approval is in the public interest hey I am a yes Mrs Johnson yes Mrs Abu waiter yes Mrs [Applause] hiow yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes and Dr Wells yes that passes N9 to Zer thank you we will now move on to item um D7 we do have some speakers on this item ordinance for public hearing for resoning located at 3721 South Elm Eugene Street and 11 Vivien Lane Tom Terell for viandra Patel on behalf of Robert Odell Payne Terry C Lee and Steph C Lee we do have three speakers in favor and three in opposition Mr Kirkman can you give us an overview I would be happy to thank you mayor V the request again this evening is for approximately 13.06 Acres property is located at the intersection of South Elm Eugene Street in Vivian Lane the request is from R3 residential single family and CD rm12 conditional District residential multif family to planned unit development north of the quest is a combination of R3 residential single family and CD rm12 conditional District residential multif family EAS of re Quest is zoned County ag south of re Quest is zoned cdch conditional District Commercial High West the request is zoned R5 residential single family the subject property does contain a single family dwelling as well as undeveloped Land north of the quest is a single family dwelling and multif family dwellings East and westquest are single family dwellings south of request is a shopping center and undeveloped land this property is designated currently as residential on the feature land use map for the comprehensive plan and as Urban General on the feature built form map at this point in time I'm going to read into the record there are a number of conditions that have been introduced by the applicant for consideration this evening so I'll read all of these into the record and then ask Council to accept those everything here in bold is is a new condition uh so the first section these are conditions that apply to the commercial portions of the development condition number one States uses in the commercial section shown as track one on the associated unified development plan shall be limited to a convenience store with fuel pumps and drive-through facility fueling stations designed for tractor trailers or similar heavy trucks are prohibited additionally no indoor Recreation uses principal or accessory are allowed by implication the following use uses shall be prohibited as indoor Recreation uses electronic Game Machines including but not limited to games of chance games of skill video games sweep Stakes electronic poker the simulation of gambling slot machines pinball Andor games whether player wins prizes or plays for amusement or entertainment and the person must be present to participate or play non-electronic games and board games including but not limited to pool darts foosball and similar games where the person must be present to participate or play the foregoing list does not include participation in the North Carolina Education Lottery condition two the building shall be a minimum 90% brick stone stucco and glass condition three canopy support poles shall be wrapped in Brick or stone veneer in condition four the canopies or fuel pumps shall be hip roof instead of flat there are additional conditions that now only apply to the multif family portions of the development uses are limited to a maximum 150 residential units condition two a minimum of 50% of exterior building materials shall be of stone or brick fer with fiber cement or Hardy Board accent lap or vertical sighting condition three building design shall include gablingen roofs and typical residential style grid windows with wooden shutters or other decorative accents and to help as far as orientation this is the associated un Mr Kirkman do we do we need to vote on those I know you said we needed to accept them yes we did I was just orienting folks to where the commercial portion was versus the multif family I apologize go ahead no thank you very much um just to be clear with everybody so the commercial portion of the development is only was considered tract one which is at the intersection of South El Eugene Street and Vivian Lane and the remaining portions of the development are where the multif family portions will be and those conditions apply and at this point I will stop and let the council consider those conditions do I have a motion to accept the conditions moved to accept the conditions second um moved by Mrs thurm seconded by Mr Bo waiter I am yes Mrs Johnson yes Mrs abuser yes Mrs Hightower uh so Mr a City attorney what if I vote no to accept the conditions not to accept the conditions of course that would be a negative vote on this part of the action if Council were to agree with you in general then the conditions wouldn't be included in the proposal then I'm a no um Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling to to Sharon's question and I'll address this perhaps later in the presentation I have questions relating to the condition but I'm voting to support them given the fact that it's the applicants application so with that I vote Yes Mrs thurm yes and Dr Wells yes those conditions pass 8 to one thank you Mr kirkin go ahead uh yes thank you mayor Von uh again the comprehensive plan designates the site currently as Urban General on the feature built form map residential on the feature land use map staff has determined this request is consistent with the comprehensive plans filling in our framework big idea to encourage higher density mixed use walkable infield development and the economic competitiveness big idea to build a prosperous resilient economy that creates Equitable opportunities to succeed the proposed PUD zoning designation as condition allows a mix of residential and non-residential uses in immediate proximity to other commercial and residential uses the request also provides an appropriate transition between heavier commercial uses located to the South along a MJ of thoroughfare and various residential uses and densities Lo at further north and west staff is recommending approval of the request this request Was Heard by the Planning and Zoning commission at their August 16th 2021 meeting the request was approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission on a vote of four to three and because there were less than six favorable votes the case automatically moved on to city council there was one speaker in favor and two speakers in opposition not can answer any questions at this time thank you Mr Kirkman we'll go on to those in favor we have three speakers signed up Mr Tom Terrell Mr Garrett Neil and Mr Chase Smith Mr Terell you like to start it off yes thank you madam mayor Tom Terrell 230 North Elm Street representing the applicant um M Mr NE Neil and Mr Smith or two of the engineers with this project I am keenly aware that there have been many questions and some concerns that have been raised starting around the time of the zoning commission hearing and I will try to respond to some of those and we've my comments in during this presentation next slide please uh it is important uh to note that this comes to you with a lot of support first being staff's recommendation and the zoning commission recommendation of course it's consistent with all of the land use policies this Council has adopted including the land use map uh and it is significant that this is designated Urban General next slide um I think it's important that to note that this is not a single family Corner uh it was suggested at the zoning commission that it should be just given to the city for a park um I think that's not going to happen but it is an ideal place it's an ideal location for a good transitional use including commercial and multif family go to the next slide and I'll show you why that makes sense this has been on the market for so long long that what used to be red in this sun has been faded to Pink and it's overgrown with weeds go to the next please it is it is in the orbit of a major Interstate interchange it's in the orbit of Lowe's and Home Dep sorry Lowe's and Walmart uh immediately to the south of this is commercial uh and it's also adjacent to a manufactured home park if you would go to the next slide it used to be a manufactured home park in itself uh next slide it's crying out for some type of reasonable development other than what it used to be you can still see the pads and meter boxes still there and the image to the right you can still see the roadways for the old uh former manufactured home partk next slide if you look to the north North this is I I'm sure there are larger trailer parks somewhere in Greensboro I don't know where they are but this uh is so large I could not even capture all of the trailers uh in this one uh image from GIS but uh this is one of the reasons that the property has been on the market a long time next slide please uh this is what those um manufactured homes look like these are um from the many of them from the 50s 60s it looks like by how they were built um but this is um an older style next slide uh if you go right to the South uh this is uh commercial high in in its zoning uh a lot of very intense um commercial development next Slide the next slide that you're going to see is of some power power lines if we can get that uh changed there we go this is across some unbuildable land to the South uh that is challenged in many ways next slide now um we have been asked uh in fact there were some questions asked about neighborhood Communications at the zoning commission and I wanted to make sure that you knew exactly how that took place most places in North Carolina do not require neighborhood communic ations those that do tend to say you have to communicate only with ad joining part A joining Property Owners High Point is 300 feet that's actually very high greensbor is among the highest anywhere at 600 feet so we sent a letter to everybody within 600 feet and there was 100% disclosure we sent them a photograph in that letter that showed a convenience store with gas pumps and a canopy we we used the term multif family so they was full disclosure to everybody nearby uh more than 20 people lived in the windmar subdivision across the street who were sent that letter I was asked why we did not send to people who lived in the Woodley subdivision and it's because the closest Home is a half mile away so they would not be it's four times the distance uh or more than four times of what the city would require and more than what would be reasonable next slide that letter gave everybody an opportunity to reach out to me I gave them my cell phone I gave them my email I only had two calls nobody was opposed to this from the people who did call and we had our neighborhood meeting on June 3 and nobody attended they had every chance next slide when it came time for the zoning commission hearing every person who lived within 600 feet got a letter from the city that letter told they had a right to participate at the zoning Commission meeting and not a single one of them uh were concerned and nobody who lived nearby uh was uh concerned about the the project at all the only citizen who spoke uh no Miss hiow was there as council member but the only citizen who spoke lived three quarters of a mile away since that time she and I have had some very respectful uh courteous and I think productive emails we had one virtual meeting and she has had a big impact on what this project would be I listened to her and based upon what I heard I tried to address that go to the next slide um you have just approved uh these conditions we did lower density uh three zoning commission members said zoning density was an issue we didn't have any indication as to how dense but we lowered it to 150 and then we adopted several very strict uh architectural standards to make sure that this looks like a high quality building that everybody could be uh uh proud in any Community uh in this city and if you look at these requirements it may not mean anything but if you go to the next slide please this will show you what uh those architectural standards would look like in fact these are the uh multif family structures Across The Interchange from this site and those standards were built upon these photographs that you see next slide uh as to the commercial you just to prove these I don't need to go into great detail but the idea here is that even though the site is too small for uh tractor Traders we've taken that off as a concern that was uh a neighbor I spoke to had a great concern about that and people hanging out uh we have now found out a way that we can legally restrict um all of those gaming machines things that would attract people to come in we've added other architectural features uh to make this look a lot more respectful of the residential uh next slide please this is what uh it would look like in fact the architectural standard were based upon this building that the applicant uh also owns in Greensboro next slide these photographs show you what uh it would look like if you had the support poles wrapped in stone it's uh it's it's a it is a classier presentation next slide uh you can go on to this is an old slide now uh you can go to the next one uh I think it's uh every now and then you you have somebody who speaks uh at a zoning commission hearing that um um says something from experience and insight and I can't get the photograph the images of all the people on the uh on this hearing off of part of the quote but I'll try to read it uh this area has grown a lot in 10 years uh I'm comfortable with multi family I'm comfortable with the gas station and I say this because we have approved much more intense uses in residential neighborhoods including the neighborhood near me and then he says things these things do fit and work well together of course that's Mr angle this reminds me a lot of shops at Friendly when it went uh became public so many people across the street thought it just did not fit they were opposed to that incursion and now we know when they put their homes on the market they list the shops at Friendly as an amenity to their neighborhood next slide now uh I want to talk about some of the things you're hearing and to make sure that the uh everything here is accurate um I haven't seen all the emails I'm sure that some of you have not seen all the emails coming in I have heard of some of these claims uh and one of them is that this is for portable housing uh I I cannot say enough no it is not uh that's not what uh this developer does you have to be within that development Niche to do that uh this is going to be and plan to be market rate housing at uh an interstate interchange next slide please um we've also heard uh that the multif family projects somehow end up being disproportionately in District one I didn't know if that was true or not but uh I called Miss Schwarz and I asked if they had any data well it turns out that the planning department actually did they they had looked into this and it was about a month or two old they updated it and I got a map this morning if you will go to the next slide this is a map this is a map of all of the multif family projects that have been approved in Greensboro in the last uh 13 or 14 months starting when the greensbor 2040 plan was adopted and if you look at this it actually looks like there are fewer multif family projects in district one which is in green in the Southeast than in other parts of Greensboro uh you do see along the bottom you do see uh multif family along in interstates that is where you have pressure for multif family because it connects people's living space with where they work uh and then the last uh couple of slides please um I I I have heard two or three times people say I did not disclose what this project was I cannot say enough that this has been fully disclosed from the very beginning including the letters to everybody who lives within 600 feet the traffic study probably said it seven or eight times as to what the uses were and the uses that they were anal izing uh the concept plan uh is probably in your packet it says sea store it shows a place for gas pumps and it shows the multifam buildings and of course we've been talking with staff and anybody about it it's never been concealed in any way the only thing that somebody could say is that since it was not limited it was appropriately called commercial in that corner and until we legally constricted it to something else it would probably be inappropriate to say um anything but it's limited to commercial but now we've restricted it to that use so it can't be anything but uh and then the last um I thank you for your time I'm sure there are some questions I know Mr outling just referenced uh a question that he might have regarding the conditions Madam mayor if I may I just want to let the um speakers in favor know they have about two and a half minutes left on their time thank you uh I will ask if Mr Neil or Mr Smith uh thinks that I missed anything that should be stated Chase Smith is with Ramy Kemp and Garrett Neils with Davis Martin Powell and I I defer my comments to Mr Terell thank you madam mayor we're glad to answer any questions which council members have Madame mayor this is H I have a question for Mr terot uh Mr Terell at a couple of slides back you showed the map they it secured from the city showing the numbers of properties that had been multif Family Properties built now you said that was from 18 months forward uh it if you want to go back to that it's from uh July of 2020 until essentially the present my understanding uh I didn't create the map I did not create the data but my understanding is that this is measured from when Greensboro 2040 uh was adopted and it's a look uh although a snapshot at a time in history but it shows whether or not Greensboro 2040 would have had any impact on where multif family went um and I think the the illustration here is pretty Stark uh that uh multif family has gone all over the city it looks to me I actually have not counted but less in District One than in other places you do you happen to also have that same information for say a fiveyear period or 10e period uh I do not I don't know if the staff has that uh or not but it certainly would take um I don't know how many hours it would take to pour through all of the approvals and the minutes and the records and then compare them to the maps but it would certainly be an undertaking okay thank you if I can clarify this is um Sue Schwarz this map is only approved zoning cases since the 20 gso 2040 was adopted the question was that we were a answering we were addressing was what is the impact are there have there been more cases since the 2040 plan was adopted so this doesn't take into account built already built projects or previously approved projects this just is a record of the zoning cases that have been approved either by the Planning and Zoning commission or city council thank you sir thank you sir Hugh go ahead if you finish I want to be next I am finished thank you um thank you sue um because you're right this map does not in fact represent the number of units that are in district one in this area that are existing and the speakers that will come up today and speak have counted the number that are actually in this area and there's well in exess of 30 some affordable and marketable market rate uh units uh in this particular area um so I I I don't want us to be uh uh you know by this map thinking that this map was created with pointing out that District one has less affordable housing units it was created as Miss Schwartz has said for that intent purpose uh and of course this map was thrown up here to at the last minute today as always conditions that come in an hour two hours prior to uh presentations um and so to not give people time to react or respond uh appropriately um so I I do not want any want to be um misled by the fact that this map in fact uh represents all of the units that are in district one and I have some additional comments but I would like to hear from the other speakers if we still have time during our presentation I would note that as you drive down um West Market street from the airport to the downtown you passed by apartment complexes to the left and to the right and that's districts five and four I believe so I I don't know if the people who have counted have done equal counts in other districts in order to compare but I think that would also be something that would be would be facts um worth mentioning madam can we hear from the speakers please um Mr outley sure and and and I'll ask my question although obviously Mr Terrell and the other speakers can address it at any time they deem appropriate Mr Terrell included in his presentation a point that was made by zoning commissioner angle which essentially in my summarization is the area has changed a lot the city is um more intensely zoned things elsewhere within the city what I'm thinking about and I would love both the applicant as well as those opposed to the application to you know provide their remarks and thoughts on it at the appropriate time is does that factor in favor or against approving the rezoning you know obviously this piece of property is adjacent to commercial property and often times for example on Friendly Avenue we're adding more commercial rather than residential I also note that uh I guess it's I'm directionally challenged but also in another direction of the property is Agricultural and so if there were a expanded commercial use or a different use of a different density you know query whether or not this would actually be the place for it as opposed to what the application has been submitted uh with the additional conditions so Mr Char I know Miss hiow wants to hear from those opposed to the application but when you get an opportunity if you could address that and obviously interested to hear um those in opposition share their remarks on that topic as well may I treat that as a question to me and answer it now believe it was a question okay not just greensbor all cities need infill cities need density if you're going to attract the type of growth and attract the type of vibrancy that you need in a city you have to have more density and not the 195 style one house per lot development that has predominated in many parts of Greensboro and elsewhere density in other words really can be good and it serves the broader Community what we have seen in greensbor what every community in this state really across the country sees is that we now have mixed juice mixed juice multif family with commercial mixed juice commercial all being put together creatively in and around and among residential in almost every circumstance those who were there just as residences came out to oppose it but there is a rhythm and once it's in and they see it by and large these projects become a a a a welcomed or accepted part of the fabric of the community people people don't like change we hear that any of you who have been through the zoning uh processes over the years you know that so in this case please Focus not on the entirety of district one but look at as we always do in a zoning case those properties and those people who live in the immediate area who have had they had their opportunity to come to the zoning commission they chose not to why because they all have lived with with commercial all around them I'm sure every one of them goes to Walmart goes to Lowe's goes over to the Verizon store and they did not see this so if you would please look and notice and recognize that this was not controversial uh from the beginning through the zoning commission with those who were right there and and just to be clear about the point that that I was Raising um the point that I rais doesn't necessarily touch on Mr Terell the points that that you just addressed you know my point isn't really one about density it's more about what's the appropriate use and the perhaps greater intensity of development on a major thoroughfare this being a five Lane Road that's much more akin to a Friendly Avenue and obviously you know if the rezoning is approved and the property is developed we can't go back in time to have you know a commercial use or a different use than the one that was approved in your application so I I appreciate your you're responding and look forward to the applicants kind of sharing their their thoughts including on that point Thank you so we we do have three people signed up to speak in opposition um Cecilia Shaw Cheryl mcgyver and Charles Brockton um I don't know if you have a predetermined um order in which you'd like to speak this is Cecilia can you hear me I can can you turn your camera on oh let's see where am I um okay that's great okay cool uh no and um mvon and city councilman my name is stea Shaw and I am a resident of the woodlee neighborhood and an active member of the southeast Greensboro Coalition my 57-year-old neighborhood sits between South M Eugene and the notorious randomman road we are smashed together from the north by interstate 40 commercial businesses and Northeast by the giant industrial Powerhouse UPS to the South lies Interstate 40 lots of wide open County lands and the ever shrinking green spaces where mult multi family apartment complexes are constantly being approved and going up the property at 111 Vivian Lane and South am Eugene Street could be one of those sites it's just down the street from my neighborhood a very crafty lawyer representing the developer who has purchased this property presented before the zoning Commission in August a request to have the already rm12 property be rezoned PUD his client would like to build a convenient store like the one that he has on random and Road and 168 Apartments now on 50 I guess a picture of the random of the mccornell road store was shown but no site plan was available at the time by objection as a resident who lives in the area is the Pud status and yeah of course the NeverEnding saturation of more AP apartments in our area well it seems that four members of the zoning commission saw no problem with this request and even with no sight plan they gave him the green light to move forward this developer would be granted the rights to be whatever he wants that should never happen in an area of single family homes who knew nothing about what he actually planned to build and it sits on a major Gateway into our city the residents and the communities of Southeast Greensboro must travel up and down this congested area to shop to eat walk and to get onto the Interstate the impact that our neighbors who live in the Windmere neighborhood just across the street would be drastic they already have great difficulty getting out of their development onto South am Eugene streets and amsley drive where Walmart has impacted them granting this developer the Unleashed status of a PUD property in an already congested area is unacceptable I along with the other members of our Coalition are requesting that you the members of the city council be willing to say no to a PUD rezoning and send this back to the zoning commission thank you thank you um Mr Mr Brockington from wind yes Mr Brockington would you like to speak next yes good evening uh city council uh my name is Charles Brockton I live at 102 old Trey Brook Drive and the gentleman stated that he sent uh request that you only send letters to so many people that existed maybe 300 ft or what have you there from but there are two over two about 200 homes in my community on this side of the road and it's very difficult to get out there now and then also what you have in that trailer park back on the other side is more than 200 trailers back there I worked at UPS for 36 years so I'm very familiar with the area location and the next thing is that Walmart has been built there and there's so many other stores there Walmart to me was seen to be is a very convenient store for the majority of the community in this area because it closes at 12:00 in the evening so that is plenty time for people to get things that they may may not need during that time so to build a convenience store with something of some type of the gentleman mentioned that there would be some type of U gaming for people to to play in the store but they have to be present well this is the kind of thing that you would not want to be in your community because that creates unsavory things and situation in our community so like I said there's about 200 homes in this community and I've spoken to quite a few matter of fact I've gotten 33 names and signatures signing in opposition that directly lives in this community but also that not giving the everybody in the community ample time to uh to read and understand what this is all about about then no one really knew that they wanted to build truck stop convenient mart and a 168 units of uh Apartments well there's nothing wrong with Apartments being built there or single living home so I'm not against people you know um people being able to move in and out of place as far as living there but other businesses create more problem than really what we need in this particular area area and a Truck Stop and you talking about 53f Footers trailers with trucks that's uh that that would be very difficult for people get in and off of South Street last year we had a gentleman that got killed right across um at 3706 because there's a lot of heels and curves which mean that it's hard to see up and it's also hard to see around so with that in mind all these fol I have on this lift I can send them to you if you need be and I will try to get some more Senor to in the near future about our opposition because we're not against progress you just want to make sure that progress is being placed in the right place for the right reason and at the right time for everyone involved thank you very much so so Madame may can I ask Mr Brockington a question yes Mr Brockington um you live with in the 600 feet area do you recall getting a letter uh inviting you to a meeting a community meeting or anything any such thing as that um anybody reaching out to you um other than the people who did reach out to you but uh uh and informed you of actually what was happening right in in your eyes uh so do you recall receiving any of any such correspondence I'm going to be honest I did receive a letter stating that you know you could meet at at a particular time but I don't know exactly where to meet and where uh we should have gone but also there are some other people that lives on the backside like this about seven different streets and all of those people com and trying to get out on to South amgia Street to get to work in the morning time is very difficult with traffic as it is now so with tractor trailers and what have you that will propose more traffic and more circumstances that would cause other incidents and things to occur and like uh sister Shaw said that between Roman Road and southam E Street that's a whole host of other little stores and there's a truck stop within less than three miles from where that proposed site is to be yes sir okay all right thank you um the last speaker we have signed up in opposition is Cheryl mcgyver hi can you guys hear me okay we can can you turn your camera on and Madame clerk how much time do they have left Madame mayor we have eight minutes and 48 seconds okay I'm trying to share my video but it says the host has stopped it um so I'll just go ahead and speak okay okay um I want to be clear I and this community oppose this resoning to p UD obviously I can tell that our emails have been shared uh to council from whom I don't know uh the we remain steadfast that the current zoning of rm12 is efficient and is a better fit for this land it's a better fit for the community we are dents we have food insecurities this area lacks the infrastructure to keep taking on more and more multif family housing in the name of gso 2040 this area was dense preg gso 2040 there are already over 30 multif family housing complexes within two miles and also a few that have been approved that are not even yet started building oh and nine convenience stores nine nine convenience stores rm12 is a better fit aesthetically and more environmentally protective of a creek that runs behind this property and this land is already predisposed to runoff I feel like the information that was was provided to the zoning Commissioners was incomplete and not fully accurate the attorney showed zoning of an overgrown lot which you guys saw and the edge of a rusted trailer that gave an impression that this area was some unkempt plot that has been for sale for eons and buted up against a God awful trailer park and dire need of saving yes there is a trailer park someone had to hunt and go in to see those trailers because the fact is if you don't live in this community or near this community you wouldn't even know the trailer park is there because it sits so far off the road what's even more concerning is during that meeting what council didn't show was that 200 plus community that Mr Brockton lives in that single family home Community was not shown uh the Planning and Zoning Commissioners uh based on uh their response had no idea that this was supposed to have a convenience store uh when they asked for a site plan there was none available um so again we're just asking that the resoning for the Zoning for rm12 is efficient um we don't think PUD is worthy of this particular piece of land um also the developer whose place of Resident is out of state is not even tied to the land and what I mean by that is the developer is looking to sell the lot that would be carved out for multif family housing to a different developer um so he's not even tied to the land he's not even a resident of of Greensboro as far as my research is shown I do not feel like this was done in full transparency it should be a resounding unanimous no it sends a clear message to the developers to actually engage the community and I don't know who says the community is only 600 feet uh if you're surrounded by commercials then is that still a community I'm not sure um this would also uh a resounding know will also send um uh transparency to the to the zoning Commissioners be sure you have complete and accurate information before giving your stamp of approval if what Mr Terrell is saying is that all that information was in their packet then that means that they did not read the packet because why would they not know that a convenience store was being proposed our communities in this area of Southeast Greensboro we're tired of having no input and what is being built on our communities we ask that you keep rm12 as is say no to this Pug's resoning request it is not the best use for this land aesthetically or environmentally again rm12 is sufficient and we feel like that PUD is too wide open for this particular plot it does not need to be a PUD and I'll yield back to to council would any of those who signed up in opposition do you have anything further you'd like to say at this point I just like to reiterate we're already dense we see the map of what's gso 2040 going forward and what's happened but what we don't see is we're already dense Council we really are we have all of these housing projects we have two or three that still have not started that has been approved already we have a Food Lion and a Walmart we don't need any more convenience we we need other things to support our community and infrastructure and I would like to also say that our area has the highest call volume when it comes to police and Services as well we we can't keep increasing that and putting that burden also on the city thank you thank you are there any question I'm sorry go ahead Charles BR I would like to say uh just vote no because uh like she just said we don't need anything else in this community we got enough convenient stores over here in this particular area and the traffic and so many death and then the police calls an EMS in this particular area so the betterle use for this property would be for something else other than just that thank you thank you are there any questions for the opponents yes I this is Sharon I have a question for Miss uh for Cheryl um Cheryl um one of the other things I heard the uh applicant uh say he felt like he talked to you and he made all these changes because of you um but and and I know you tried to engage the community and have him engage the community but it didn't go that way why was there not were you ever offered a community meeting with the community while it's why you may be outside of 600 feet you don't live outs outside of 600 fet that that's the trouble for me here today um that we want to box some people in and bought some people out so counil I I understand the 600 feet but but I think what we're trying to say is that we are a community we're established Community a lot of folks in our community are older they don't have the accesses that you would expect or have uh the tools that you think that they should have to be able to respond or or engage some of the things that are happening with that being said I I did speak with the attorney and I also even though we were going down the line on things that we opposed I still oppose the multif family housing that that did not change it does not change now you guys have a great program for uh down payment assistance uh for what I understand from talking I I think her name is Sheila that it's usually pretty full it's already zoned rm12 build some nice tow houses for home ownership let home ownership doesn't die if it was dead and people all always wanted to rent then why is your program full we have enough here and I think that's just where we're we're landed we have more than enough I'm glad that that map looks the way that it it looks that means that city of Greensboro is now spreading the wealth of multif family housing and um no there was no community meeting there was just a conversation with me I didn't have time to review these conditions they were they were last minute I'm on vacation now on trying to enjoy my anniversary but I'm opposing something um that is very passionate to me and I sent the email I hope city council drove by the lot you can see that it sits on a hill you can see that it's already predisposed to run off there's a creek that runs behind it and I think the best use for that property is what it zones what it what it's already zoned as PUD is not not not applicable at all okay thank you for that are there any other questions for the opponents I also that the fear for the Pud resoning will allow him he may say he's going to put just a convenience store there in the 168 Apartments but the Pud resoning will actually allow him to put other things there if if he wants commercial to put a commercial business there then request that part of that property be reson commercial for that very nice convenient store okay if the um if there are no further questions for the opponents or if they have no further comments we'll go to the rebuttal period and you'll each get five minutes we will start with the applicants um thank you there are a lot of facts there and misunderstandings and I think you're hearing a lot of emotion based upon misunderstandings I'll take them one at a time uh the first being that there was no site plan yes there was a site plan you can't go to a PUD without a site plan um and that um I'm not in charge of how that gets shown and who looks at it that the notion that a PUD is an open District where you can do anything is not accurate you have to have a unified development plan and you have to build according to that plan and in this case this property has been limited on the commercial side it cannot be in that one little small Corner anything but a convenient store with gas pumps with all the restrictions that um have been offered um on the issue of gaming I think I mean I don't think Mr Brockington does misunderstand there will not be gaming there will not be games there won't be uh video poker those conditions very specifically said there will not be it is prohibited it is removed we would just said you have to being present is a way to describe those types um of games um you heard claims that we were building a truck stop um Mr Smith is on this call and he can tell you this is not a site that accommodates a track to Traer in the first place but the gas pumps have well we have prohibited any type of pump um that would possibly be there to serve tractor Traders but this is why you get names on a petition against something it's because they are told this is going to be a truck stop they are told it will have gaming you would they're T it'll be 53 Footers in fact it will not be so um that's uh important to keep in mind strength infrastructure I don't know what that means but certainly this is a major thorough fair right here and the traffic study did not send up any alarms um as to any problems here um you were told that you can't see the trailers from Elm Eugene that is true but you can see them from this site and if you were on this site and if you were in multif family that's exactly what you would see so anybody looking at this uh would know that um I I really was surprised that Miss mcgyver talked about the applicant being from out of state and had no stake in the land Miss mver I learned we had it we had a very good uh conversation but I learned it's from Virginia so half the people in the city have moved here from somewhere or their parents have moved here I don't think that is fair I would also remind Council that hondage yet is not from Greensboro FedEx is not from Greensboro all of the companies coming in that we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars luring them to come in to increase jobs and tax base these companies and the people who are coming they are not from greensbor so that's really not fair uh uh in this case and I think the last thing that caught me this would be my last point is that the citizens of this community have and that was these were the exact words quote unquote No input the fact is there are many very strict conditions added to this um uh this application because Miss mver showed up we had a conversation I listened to her and you can see Miss mciver's foot of thumb prints all over this all of those conditions came out of conversations uh they are sincere conditions trying to address concerns we are pleased to do things that are reasonable all of those were reason one minute um and I thought if nothing else that was a tremendous amount of input and uh on behalf of the applicant I will say with confidence that's not it was not resented it was appreciated it was embraced and those conditions are freely offered thank you Mr Terrell and now five minutes for the opponents yes I'll I'll speak um I have lived at my home although I'm from Virginia I have lived in my home in the Woodley Community for 18 years so I want to make that very clear this is my community um also shame on the Commissioners if they had the site plan and not review it because a commissioner specifically asked for the site plan and I believe it was Mr Kirkman said there wasn't one um as far as the TR truck stop and and the uh misappropriation of information the picture that was given to uh each and every individual was a picture of the current mcconell Road gas station what would we take from that other than what it is it is in an industrial area it has gaming station it has a chicken place we already have three we have Bojangles we have uh Zach bees and we have smithfields it has a chicken drive-thru um what would we assume other than it would be the same thing and so I I think that uh the community was GA engaged too late in this the Commissioners are saying they didn't have information and and and attorney Terrell is saying they did I I think this needs to go back I think we need to re-engage and and I think we need to to find something uh you know that works for the for that plot of land and for the community uh Cecilia and Mr Brockton our yeld to you guys well I I I will agree that I watched that z uh zoning rezoning commission meeting that day when Mr Tero presented it he did not have a site plan or he did not present one and they requested it uh three of those Commissioners that are on that zoning Comm Mission did not have clarification as to what would happen and Mr Terell presented the store on the Cornell Road as a very nice convenient store well we've been out there Mr Terell it is directly across from a large Distribution Center Walmart cocacola Kelly tires and the closest is right inside the interstate the closest neighbors are maybe 600 feet away from it and very few of them are living in this area that is totally different from what windir the neighborhood across the street or those of us who live in Woodle or Woodle Lakes we have to travel South M Eugene Street to get to the few storage that we do have on this side of town I'm sorry the presentation from the zoning commission and yes we are more than 600 feet away but this is our neighborhood and we are trying desperately to preserve some of it and from what I have understood the trailer park or the trailer homes May in fact they're 95% Hispanic people who live in that trail of art that's there yes Mr barington can tell you that he delivered things to them I am just wondering how many of them would oppose this particular site that's there or is that trail park up for sale thank you uh um Mr Brockton Mr trell I some thing I'm sure I've misinformation but I will still say is that we're trying to save our neighborhood and like all the other stores that we do have here already we don't need duplication of other things to be more congested you speak of gas pump for the uh convenience store well then there's Murphy on the other side of the bridge that is you know and they have about 20 some pumps there as well so vote no to today thank you very much hey if there are no questions or comments we'll close the public hearing and go into Council comments Mo to close the public heing do I have a second second second um seconded by Dr Wells um motion by Mrs thurm I am a yes Mrs Johnson yes Mrs abuser yes Mrs hiow yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes and Dr Wells yes okay so the public hearing is now closed and we'll go into Council deliberations I I just want to make one quick observation and it's the conditions that we received at the beginning of today's hearing those were not at the C at the um zoning and planning meeting so you know the conditions have kind of changed what this looks like and I believe that's what Mr Terell was saying was impacted by his um conversations with the neighborhood and taking that pump out for um trucks would disallow any sort of a truck stop I believe is that true Mr Kirkman by not having the truck pumps and that they also conditioned out any gaming yes that is correct and so all of the conditions that were offered today really are now they become lost so to speak that if they were to sell the property um those conditions would still have to be met um in some ways I think a PUD is better than other zonings because it tries to make it more cohesive and it's under one it's under one zoning classification so if you change one condition then you've got to go back through the the whole process there have been a couple comments where they think it should be sent back to zoning we don't have the ability to send it back to zoning um but I believe that there have been input from the community since the zoning meeting to the council meeting U Mrs Hightower I see you have your hand up yes ma'am I do um first let me say that a singular conversation uh with one individual does not a community meeting make does not a neighborhood meeting make okay you knew when she brought the concerns forward that there were other people that had the same concerns and that's where there should have been a community meeting a neighborhood meeting and so let's not use M uh maer as a scapegoat for this uh for last minute uh conditions that Miss mver and or any other concerned resident have even had a chance to review and discuss that uh last condition came in at 313 p.m. 2 hours and 16 minutes before at 5:30 meeting um and so now people have to scramble to figure out does this impact me uh how does that make me feel yes there is emotion where people live people are emotional about it that's how they should be they should care about their neighborhood they should care about their neighbor and so when that changes that in affects them and they should be emotional so I'm not going to Discount their emotion what has happened from the beginning is they have been discounted I have been discounted as the representative of these individuals whether I like a project or not there has been no respect to have a conversation Beyond me talking with my neighbors I couldn't even give them intelligent answers on What the project look like what was being proposed okay how would it impact it so that right there says oh I disrespect your representative I don't give much respect to you and every one of us on this call every zoning we have been contacted by zoning attorneys and say let me tell you about this project you might not agree with it or you might not like it it probably don't impact you that was not done here and there and the individual knew that I was very concerned because I was at the zoning meeting I was on the zoning call I am found out from the zoning department that it was a convenient store that information was not disclosed I got it from the planet and zoning department who said oh it's supposed to be a convenience store there too so that's a concern for me would anybody on the west side of town be ass you don't live or said you don't live in the 600 feet area so no look at comb and corn wace back here a few months ago people from all over on Boulevard came for it all from all over B wace was not in the 600 feet area of con Boulevard where that Curry development was going but yet we we as all council members were invited to the site we were invited to have conversation with the developer and the attorney we invited to meetings if I'm not mistaken Mr Outland had a meeting himself so people just because they don't live in the 600 feet area which I understand the notification does not mean they are not impacted and should not have a say about how they live where they live and what it impacts them at the end of the day it is the quality of life that people are looking to experience within all of this so I think to just simply discount and disregard that is disrespect secondly when I look at this and you say well you didn't didn't get a 600 foot noes you didn't live in 600 well why are we putting zoning signs out on the property why is there a big red sign out there that say Z it's to get people's attention for people to ask the question what does that mean uh what is about to happen here so I I I think again it it's very concerning to me that it it it's being a very dismissive attitude around these indiv idual concerns and 15 minutes is not a lot of time to readjust when you hear about one uh little change that has come uh at two hours before a meeting this may have C before if you have sat down and had a zoom or a ver whatever meeting together with the neighborhood perhaps you could have arrived at this but it's not let me also say that in this area are you this is residential when you come past the light on South M Eugene and elsley you take a right it is all commercial yeah Walmart cracker barar Bojangles wendes Smithfield chicken and barbecue Verizon State Employee Credit Union Yes but when you take a left and you start down the he it is residential the character of that area is residential we don't need another convenience store I am so tired of us being reduced to convenience a simple convenience if you go to randomman Road there is PUD over there where the Exon plop themselves in front of the green press neighborhood and if you speak to the president of green Crest there's robberies there at night they were open 24 they're now going to closing at midnight there's trash all over the area in an area where there's homes literally with in spitting distance of the convenience store so to put a convenience store in this area that's a health desert food desert is not the proper use of this land they're not even proposing to put a medical office in this space we need medical offices yeah they put an Urgent Care over there recently they gave us an urgent care all we're entitled to is urgent medicine why can't we have a medical office where we can go with all the people that are being put into this area it's a food desert at Walmart a food line back when the pandemic first started neighbors were saying to me we have to go all the way to Elance Crossing to get food because the grocery stores are empty now so let's bring in something that lifts up the community enhances the community and add home ownership to this particular neighborhood I don't think it's too unfair to ask for that I do not there is nothing wrong with home ownership people want Town Homes people want single family homes and yes we can have mixed uses with a Apartments because people need some people don't want to buy they do want to rent and there's nothing wrong with that either but I think this community is simply saying let's help appreciate this space and this area by enhancing it more and adding more to it stop reducing us to a convenience stop reducing us to beer and wine and alcohol and cigarette and video sales stop doing that and enhance us more we're already reduced to a dollar because we got Dollar Tree Family Dollar Dollar General our values are already reduced to $1 let's appreciate this area these neighbors talk to me about how their property hasn't appreciated in 15 years let's change that 20 years I'm asking you all to reconsider that this is not the proper uh use in this area for this resoning thank you have a question Dr Wells the the people that were he said there were 150 trailers back there didn't anybody asked the people that lived in the trailer what they thought did anybody asked them what they thought about it I know you say you just do home own owners but if those people are back there looks like somebody should have said something to them Mr Terell did anybody say anything oh he can't talk to we he can't talk well you can ask me a question I think that would did you all saying thing to the folks at the trailer park uh no ma'am we don't have a mailing list for them there's no mailing list for there no mailing list when there's something this is this important and it's going to impact the neighbors then somebody should have footwalk or something to find out what do you all think about it now I I I am for INF field and I have been on this Council and whenever comes up and I say we have to change we have to do some things different we have to open our minds but when it comes to this I'm just as I guess just as adamant as I was when those people when we were trying to rebuild over here at the Renaissance Center and there was a group that wanted to come and they wanted to have convenience stores and all of that and and it was supposed to be in an economic boost it would have been but what kind of boost you think about it you have trailer you have convenience store you have lots of people potential for a ghetto it's potential we said and and I said to you all and I asked you a few months ago or few Council meetings ago if we're going to lift our citizens we have to be intentional about it we've got to be intentional if we want to raise the level of Pride the level of looks and in our part of the city and the parts that Sharon and I represent and a little bit of Tammy where we got all the crime and everything we need to be intentional about what we have in these neighborhoods if you put a convenience store there you know what kind of traffic they um bring in there's a Walmart and those stores down there stores that they could go to real stores but convenience stores the prices are high lots of sugar all of those things that are unhealthy for people are at the convenience store I'm asking you as council members to think think we would not want to do that to our citizens when they are saying we want to save our community we want to keep it a certain way I am not saying that I'm not in favor of gso 2040 because I believe in it and they're play we're going to have to infill we're going to have to change some of the way people think about having someone next to them that they didn't have before but when we see the potential of something being being harmful to a neighborhood I'm against it and I really hope that you all will think about it think about your own community and not just the money that we can get from the taxes and it's going to be an economic boost think about the families that will be impacted think about the 150 homes back there trailer homes that will be trotting to the to the convenience store getting food they don't need buying cigarettes and wine and then they get tanked up and then they start shooting each other so then that incre increases crime I I'm I'm I'm really really concerned about that and I hope you all will think before we vote on this well what's what's disturbing to me cie is that we want to compare having that to Friendly Shopping Center they're not creating a friendly shopping center over there friendly shopping center I I mean that's another slap in our faces we we do have to stay focused on on this resoning are there um other Council comments yes madame mayor I have a question for City staff yes Mr Holston yes regarding um this attractive land uh if prior to this request for for resoning what could be built on that attractive land so under the existing zoning um the uses are limited to single family dwellings mobile homes and accessory uses um it limits and it actually limits under the conditions to no more than 56 single family and mobile home units 56 combined it says 5 56 single family and mobile home units so yes I would think that would be a com combined use or yeah and okay and and and and that's kind of the rub that I have I'm looking at and and uh I was fortunate enough to be on the zoning commission when this case came through um and now hearing the case again and I want to thank Mr Terell for the updates uh because one of my concerns was uh the density I think uh councilman outling added intensity and then I'm going to take that and and make it more of the of the residential mix that I think both uh councilwoman High child and Wells have spoken to uh I have lived in this community this community I mean I can get to this this point probably in in a minute leaving my house uh it's it's not within the 600 foot uh distance but I still consider to be a part of my community uh Mr Terell show showed the map earlier of the of the 2040 uh the the sighting of the multif family uh locations that have gone up since I guess June July of 2020 in my 27 years I I can attest that there's a multitude of others that have gone up and my concern is the uh the residential mix and making sure that that that not one portion of our community whether it's East Greensboro southeast west or Northwest is is overly inundated with one or one thing or the other but but there's a good a good flavor in mix my concern is that the current zoning the CD rm12 which is uh Mr Kirkman I I'm going to guess that maybe in single family terms that maybe closest to what a five uh let me run the numbers here real quick yeah looks like the density would be a little over about four 4.3 units per acre so yeah r five would be a good equivalent right but but even even more importantly they would be single family dwellings and in a case with this zoning we're we're exchanging a single family dwelling for a multif family dwelling and again uh with my 27 years in this community um that mix uh continues to tilt but it continues to tilt in the in the wrong direction uh in my opinion excuse me uh and and given that uh I will not uh be able to support this case um I didn't support it on the zoning commission uh I kept kept my ears open uh I listen to a lot of uh conversation and discussion and then also tonight's conversation and uh at this point I am not in support of the request thank you madam mayor thank you um any comments from PE uh Mr boo waiter thank you Madame May um I can go on some of this and I really appreciate the community coming forward um I appreciate what Mr Terrell is done and and listening to the comments from my fellow colleagues um I I do want to point out though that according to what Mr Kirkman said when Mr Holston asked the question was that uh a trailer park could go back there um you know I don't know how many years it's been but I know it's been a lot of years that has been sitting there almost no value whatsoever to the tax base and ever since I got on counil all I've heard about is we need to grow East grow East grow Southeast grow this way way closer to the interstate where people can hop on the interstates and get to jobs whether it's Pinsky or perhaps the mega site we need housing in this area we need um we've even heard affordable hous housing yet this one is market rate housing which is a nice transition before people go and move into homes now personally I can speak to the fact that um I haven't quite often seen that many conditions on what a retail person can sell in their store um so I I commend them coming back with all of those conditions which we did approve um looking at the quality of the apartments and the quality of the gas station which is a convenience I agree but to me it's going to raise the property values in that area I do not see it lowering and there's also isn't there a four or five Lane Highway divider there before you get to the actual neighborhoods uh I do understand on the back side there are residents uh on that end but you know it's not a truck stop to me it's transitional all I've heard is please come and invest in East Greensboro Southeast Greensboro and on a personal note I'm going to say this I live probably within less than 2,000 feet from a Circle C it has you know I can look out my front door and see three-story apartments and they are nicely built as are these that are being planned to go into this area so knowing all of those things knowing how quickly someone can go jump on the highway knowing that there's an activity center right beside with all of the retail I I am in support of this I want to see nice developments in uh e East Greensboro and Southeast greens and I do believe that this is one and seeing the quality of the the store that's being built I'm sure that the owner will be taking care of that just as much as in any other section of town so um at this point I I am for this and I will support it Mrs Hoffman then Mrs Johnson Dr Wells Sharon um thank you mayor um know I have some of the same thoughts as Council um woman of boerer does and what's what's been disturbing to me for some time now is when I keep hearing that well we don't want any more affordable housing or we don't want any more rental housing you know in in our area um more than half of our population lives in rental housing today so so there is a there is a need for that and we have a need for housing at of all kinds and at all levels throughout our city um and it it's also a little disturbing to me if we denigrate um a c you know castigate a particular uh retail business in this case a quote convenience store and this happens to be um you know a 21st century model of one that's extremely attractive in how it will be built M and it was very clear that the zoning process worked between zoning and between our hearing uh this uh resoning request tonight in terms of the changes that were made and the important conditions that were that were made a part of this resoning tonight um so I believe that the developer certainly did listen to community input between the zoning Commission and and our hearing tonight um but um you know this seems again a I don't see any any really negatives to this particular development in this location um rental housing and a location where people are uh can easily um uh transition north and south to wherever they are going to their their jobs or their or their daily activity um an area that um you know is is fairly highly uh commercialized at this point anyway so uh so I'm I'm really going I'm going to support this project this evening uh I think it seems appropriate for the uh uh for the area and uh I I would certainly like to see this kind of model for quote convenience stores uh as we would continue to add those in appropriate areas uh in the future so thank you very much um Mayor protm Johnson very often we see things very differently um I have the greatest respect for Mr Terell um and uh I was ready to uh really support this but I'm not going to be able to because of several things I agree totally with um Dr Wells we know what it's like to have numerous numerous um stores uh that they described in an area we have problems we have big problems we have crime we have people that gather and sell drugs outside those stores I've seen it on Phillips Avenue over and over again if that were left out I might be able to to look at the changes and and I think the changes were late I agree with Sharon I think it would have been better for the neighbors to have understood the impact of those changes so right now I'm just not going to be able to support it thank you Mrs Johnson Dr Wells uh I I heard a couple of times of Mrs Boer and and Hoffman say that we always asking for something for East Greensboro yes we're asking for for Equity we're asking for Equity we don't want just anything we want to promote homeownership as African-Americans we know we've been redlined for years and years now we have a program and I think that's one of our Council goals is for housing we want people to own houses we have the program and I think Miss maava brought that up we have programed to help folk to buy houses now that he read the list of what would be if it you know were stayed the zoning that it is but I wonder what would what would be possible once is the zoning is changed it doesn't have to stay exactly the way that they're saying that those conditions are there if there is a convenience store but there's some other things that could be built there other than the multi uh family housing but I'm I'm saying we want the best and we we we say we want East greensbor we want things in southeast greensbor but we're not just asking to dump anything now the reason these folk are complaining is because they already have multif family housing if you come down I don't know the name of the but one on the right you go over the highway there's one over there on the left I mean there are plenty housing over um multif family housing and with all those stores why do you need a convenience store I just can't get over that I really can't and nobody has asked the folks in the back I guess cuz they don't speak Maybe maybe can't speak English very well but somebody should have asked them that's discounting them also even though they're not homeowners we want something we want the best what we really need is we need some health care that's what we need we need health care over our way we need more police so that we can have a some won't take them 25 minutes to get to a call th those are the kinds of things and those kinds of places where folks gather and sell drugs and drink uh liquor it just increases our crime and we don't even have enough police to take care of all of the things that are going on there's a a this can be the generator of more confusion than we we want I'm still and I if we had gone with those people that wanted to come over here to our shopping center we never would have gotten this quality Renaissance Center that we had convenience store you're going to raise the property value and all that now think about the people think about the people and think about what you would want next to you thank you Dr Wells Mrs side Tower um thank you um obviously you all know how I feel um but just because I put lipstick on a pig doesn't change it from being a pig and at the zoning commission meeting which was another insult was to say this will be a urban convenience store what is a urban convenience store and I believe one of of the Commissioners asked that question and the answer was well it'll have masonery on it uh and I guess certain brick but the bottom line is whatever it has on the outside is not what is going on on the inside and what's cased on the inside is unhealthy living we need better food choices bring us a Whole Foods bring us something bring us a fresh market we want to be able to take care of our families we suffer from diabetes we suffer from high blood pressure we suffer from high cholesterol why because we eat peanut butter crackers and chips we we take our food stamps and spend it on there there's if there's a banana in that store it cost a dollar so these are the things we're saying that cause the concerns of why we're expressing what we're expressing you know we have got to stop just saying we convenience um this land could do something great yes we want investment in Green East Greensboro absolutely and you know why because they already got it on the West side and a young lady said recently and I believe Mr Outland you were in that meeting and her comment was ask me what do I want in the East and she said I want the same thing that's in the west why you got to create something for me over here in the East all we're saying is equity as councilwoman well said Equity economic Justice is what we want I don't see any convenience store raising anybody's property value because I can assure assure you that there are going to be troubles within the confines of their now yes there's trouble at the grocery store it's trouble at the Walmart we absolutely know it is we're not stupid we know that but we have to be able to raise the standards of how we need to have our communities look and Thrive the other thing that concerns me Madame Mar and you said well is PUD and it couldn't change that's not correct if it's p today and somebody decides they don't want to keep that property and they decide to sell it yes the P follows it but it doesn't stop them from resoning again so I mean there's no protection PUD doesn't offer any kind matter of fact what I'm afraid of and Mr Kirkman correct me if I'm wrong but most anything can go in a PUD and that's what I read that you said sent me the other day and maybe I didn't read it right but when I asked you what could go in P you sent me the email in writing and what I read indicated to me that it's wide open field I think if there were some conditions around certain types of zoning where we got rm12 where we got rm15 that creates home ownership we're not saying that we're we want everybody we don't want people to have an apartment that is by no means the rhetoric but that's always what's being said to make us look like we just ain't thankful for what somebody gonna give us we want the same standards that are across town we're tired of being in flood zones Woodley in that area has issues with water and springs uh over in their area just like we have issues with springs and water in the east side of town um we all we want is a good quality of life to raise our children raise our homes all we're saying is in this instance this is not the best use of the land I think a good plan can come back perhaps and we and and then sat down with the neighbors sat down with the community we are planning to do an plan for this area and they've even looking at an overlay District because we got to start protecting our communities and they do it across town so we really have to stay focused on this resoning the issues on this land use well this is the land use this is what I'm talking about this is what I'm talking about this land use we we we're looking at an area plan it could be a better plan for this land there has to be and a commun store is not um Dr Wells and I have a comment if nobody else well yeah I want Mr Kirkman to to read what the Pu what could be placed there with that resoning so the the question that councilwoman heer asked me about was what were the allowed uses generally in the plan unit development district and so what I had sent her was that the Pud zoning allows all uses except for agricultural uses and uses that are only found in our light and heavy industrial zoning districts the condition this evening that was offered restricts the commercial uses only to that convenience store with the drive-through facility and then the multif family as noted earlier thank you um you know I know obviously there is a lot of passion on both both sides of this and this is a very difficult decision we we do need more housing and these are going to be market rate apartments and you know for illustrative purposes they looked very attractive but they are market rate you know I want to I want Council to recall that at our last business meeting we um we approved over 1,400 houses um in district one which will be um you know great for firsttime home buyers and that will be able to use that program with we have been approving a wide variety of housing usage um this year uh the housing market is very hot you might have seen that the business journals the national business journals said that Greensboro was the 21st hottest housing market in the country um but the the sad fact is that you know we we need to diversify our housing stock and these look like good market rate Apartments um and again again when you look at the fact that we had 1,400 um single family residential homes um you know that was a huge huge win for our last meeting Mr Kirkman I want to make sure I have that number right um for the large resoning for Mr Tran I believe yeah the the total amount of units are allowed was around 1,400 yes that's correct and that was between town homes and single family as right um Mrs thur um yeah a couple things number one there's been a lot of comments about these conditions being last minute um and I just want to say that when I spoke to um Mr Terell last week about this I asked about these conditions um and he was told he told me that at that time he was told that he couldn't put some of those conditions on such as the not having the gaming and not having the trucks um or the the tractor trailer Etc that they were willing to limit it last week but that he was told by Mr Kirkman M Schwarz that at that time that they didn't think they could I then reached out to Mr Watts to ask him you know further about the legality of being able to put those kinds of conditions in and it was just today that it was determined that we could further condition those things so I think you know based on my conversation with Mr Terell they were willing to do those K conditions before it just became apparent as of today that we could yes in fact they could put those conditions on so I just wanted to to kind of clarify why that appears to be last minute conditions and you know I just had that conversation with Mr Watts at lunchtime today so the follow-up conversation so probably why it was last minute um there have also been some conversations about um councilwoman high tower talked about wanting a um a fresh market a Whole Foods one of those type of places to come into that region well you know when those companies make a site selection they do it based on income levels and demographics of who's living in a particular market area um and that's how it's based until we can get housing in that general area that's full Market housing that is you know a creating a base for those stores those stores aren't going to come there so this is about diversifying that area and continuing to increase the income levels there so that hopefully one day stores those type stores will relocate there one day well we have to work towards it um you know at this point I'm going to support this I think it is taking that area in the right direction in terms of the income levels we have somebody made a comment about a convenience store um right in front of Walmart right across from Walmart you know on the street that I live on or the access Street to where I live we have two convenience stores right in front of Target and the target has groceries in it um and I still go to the convenience store sometimes to get to do the runin things that I don't want to go into the shopping center I think it's um I think this is a viable um model I think it works for this area and for that reason I'm going to support it thank you Mr outley thank you uh I think uh council members raised a number of good points that I largely agree with both those who appear to be inclined to vote against it as well as in favor of it among the appoints that I agree with are that we need to have more housing more infill development um but not withstanding that fact I think that this inclusion of only a convenience store in terms of the commercial component to me doesn't reflect the highest and best use of the land and I think about you know Friendly Avenue whether it be you know 30 years ago perhaps more recently you know would we want to condition commercial uses so restrictively that the only use could be a convenience store you know to miss high tower Miss wells's Point foreclosing the opportunity to have other commercial things or medical office or the like and so I certainly understand that you know the applicant was endeavoring to be responsive perhaps to what the applicant heard from the community and condition it down um as much as possible but I actually think that having only a venience store it's being a commercial use on a major Corridor beside other commercial uses um where there is already a great amount of existing development along that Corridor to me doesn't reflect the highest and best use but I certainly respect and understand the conclusions that other reached it's uh it's certainly a difficult call and appreciate everyone who kind of reached out on this topic as well as the work of Mr ter thank you okay do we have a motion I I make a motion that we deny the request second so we have a motion to deny um so let me just so that does that that um Mrs Hightower if you could read that statement of consistency hold on let me get it pulled up because I can't see that one hold on second let me go back my than Dad oh my God give me just a minute let me pull it up on my iPad well and who was the second I'm sorry who was the second on that I seconded it thank you ER it's on the screen I can't see it on the screen I have to pull it up on my iPad how about if we have Dr Wells read it Mrs hi Tower I I got it it's just has to take its time coming up that's what I don't like about this thing this icbe um now I got to find it esbe or whatever you call it it just it's not like it used to be when I pulled it up on the well how about if we have Dr Wells read it I found it oh hell I still ain't found it there it is I got it all right uh the zoning Amendment state by the city council on consistency with adopting comprehensive plan and reasonableness the Greensboro city council believes that its action to deny the zoning request for the property described is 3721 South am Eugene Street And1 bivian lane from R3 residential single family 3 and CD rm12 conditional District residential multifam 12 to PUD plan unit development me to be really should be inconsistent with the adopted gso 2040 comprehensive plan and considers the action taken to be reasonable in the public interest for the following reasons the request is inconsistent with the comprehensive plan future built form map and future land use map the proposed PUD zoning District as condition permits uses which do not lift the context of surrounding area and does not limit negative impacts on the surrounding area the request is not reasonable due to the size physical conditions and other attributes of the area it will be a detriment to the neighbors and surrounding community and denial is in the public interest he so um to vote Yes is to deny I um I am a no Mrs Johnson yes Mr boiter no Mrs hiow yes Mrs Hoffman no Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm sorry no um no and Dr Wells yes so that is denied on a vote of five to four and I want to thank everybody for a really thoughtful discussion and I look forward to what the overview looks like um we do it is now 7:45 um let's take a quick um let's take a quick break if we could be back at 7:55 uh because we still have a few items left that's right [Music] [Laughter] no I'm satisfied thank you [Music] byebye okay it is 7:55 if council's here and can turn on their cameras Sharon and Goldie are you guys back all all right it looks like we are all present and accounted for I guess I should just since we're still um virtual obviously I am here mayor protm present Mrs abuser present Mrs hiow present Mrs Hoffman present Mr Holston present Mr outling here Mrs thurm here and Dr Wells here all right so we all are all present and accounted for we I'm I'm not sure the gtn folks are running the meeting yet um oh I'm waiting for at least EV to get back up here I'm not sure if they're running downstairs or not yes they still have it showing as in recess I will reach out to them I'm sorry for the delay okay it's my understanding that everything's good at this point I got her soon as she started so ma'am Mike needs to wait for us yes ma'am you can move forward okay thank you very much we will now move on to item number d8 which is an ordinance for public hearing for resoning located at 6009 Lucy Lane Amazon Builders Management Properties LLC um we do have um I believe one speaker in favor of this item Mr Kirkman if you could give us an overview yes thank you mayy Von again the request is for 1.42 Acres the request is from R3 residential single family to CD rm18 conditional District residential multif family north and south of the quest are zoned R3 residential single family east of the quest is R3 and R5 residential single family the subject property currently contains single family dwellings Northeast south and west of the quest are also single family dwellings this property is designated as both residential and commercial on the future land use map of the comprehensive plan and as Urban General on the future built form map this is the condition that was submitted by the applicant and advertised as part of this request staff has concluded that the request does support the comprehensive plans creating great places gold to expand Greensboro Citywide network of unique neighborhoods offering residents of all walks of life a variety of quality housing choices and the building Community connections goal to maintain stable attractive and healthy places to live and raise amilies the proposed CD rm18 District as condition allows land uses that are compatible with the variety of residential uses in the surrounding area and expand housing choices in close proximity to a major thoroughfare staff is recommending approval of the request the Planning and Zoning commission reviewed this request at their August 16th meeting and the request was approved on a five to one vote since there was less than six affirmative votes the case automatically moved on to city council for further consideration there was one speaker in favor and one speaker in opposition at that meeting I can answer any questions thank you very much we um I believe uh Madam clerk we just have one speaker in favor yes ma'am Madam mayor okay um and that is Aaron zelve if you could pronounce your name for me uh yes ma'am good evening Mr Mayor Mrs mayor uh the last name is pronounced zelve thank you if you would go ahead you've got 15 minutes I'm trying to get my video started here okay can everybody hear me okay yes great um good evening and thank you guys for your service and uh giving us the time to talk to you this evening we uh we feel like this is an excellent site for a small community of tow houses within the neighborhood and there are several similar sites in and around the area um they're also surrounded by single family houses um a few of those are Oaks of Guilford Town Homes there are a couple hundred yards from our site um they are located off at Guilford College Road at 313 open College Road uh the Madison Oaks Town Homes there are Guilford colony town homes at the intersection of Lindley Road and friendley Avenue at the other end of Lenley Road there's Morgan Ashley Terraces to the north of our site at the intersection of Lindley Road and West friendley Avenue and Turlington town homes that is at the intersection of friendley Avenue and friendway drive the um the proposed site is within walking distance of Guilford Middle School and is close by to Western Guilford High School the uh we're also close to retail restaurants and shopping for uh for potential homeowners to enjoy the Topography of the land is relatively flat and stormrunner runoff won't be having a negative effect on any of the neighboring properties we uh we participated in a sketch plan review with the city's technical Review Committee and they provided us um and our Engineers with valuable information uh about tree conservation Landscaping requirements and storm water management just to name a few um I think Mr Kirk man has a copy of the sketch plan for you for an illustrative rendition for you guys can we pull that up trying to pull that right now hold on just one sec no problem I I can talk a little bit in the meantime the plan you're getting R to see is three buildings um on the property two of them on the plan are comprised of five town homes and the other one has four in it as it stands right now can we zoom in on that a little bit Madame mayor for confirmation I have pause the time thank you okay that's great so um yeah the uh the only thing we are considering doing is possibly shrinking the width of these Town Homes to create a more congruent look from the streetscape and have three buildings of five units um each town home is going to have a garage on it and a PVE driveway attaching it for for parking considerations we uh we would like to name the town home Community Lucy Meadows and our our plan is to have an HOA a home others Association to uh you know help control ground maintenance and uh and take care of the ground surrounding the um as I said a moment ago you know we're going to have sidewalks as required by the city's development ordinance and um we uh we did meet with uh one of the neighboring property owners and discussed our plans most of the concerns we received back from the community were about the the traffic impacts that this might create on Lindley Road we were not required to do a TIA a traffic impact um study with this and we felt like you know Guilford College Road was a major thoroughfare right there next to the property so we left it at that in summary our plan fits well into the Greensboro you know 20 240 comprehensive plan and uh I I did skip a step there I'm sorry thank you Mr Kirk for showing a rendition of the town home properties um can you pull up there was a couple of things there so that's like the first floor are you able to get to the elevation Pages the front of them there you go thank you so that's kind of a concept of what we were thinking about for the property the twocc car garages might in turn become onecar garages especially in the middle units we're trying to create a little bit more of an opportunity for a front porch for folks where where they'll be entering their homes or guests would be coming over and uh that's about it in summary our pan fits well into the comprehensive plan and uh we think this provides affordable housing options for folks in the community and it's a great uh infill development you know on an unused parcel of land uh we still have a long way to go in our planning stages for the community and we welcome any and all feedback are there any questions um any questions from Council thank you Mr zelt fine Aaron is fine yeah thankk you it's a dooy the S is silent it's it's just not as bad as it looks thank you thank you um so if you have no further comments and I don't believe there's anybody in opposition correct Madam clerk that is correct okay um we could close the public hearing move to close the public hearing second that was moved by Mrs thurm seconded by Mrs boiter um IE yes Mrs Johnson yes Mr boiter yes Mrs Hightower yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thur yes and Dr Wells yes and that passes 9 to zero um if we don't have any questions we can entertain a [Music] motion move the item moved moved by Mrs thurm seconded by Dr Wells Mrs thurm could you read the statement I'm sorry your volume is off I know sorry the greensbor city council believes that its action to approve the zoning request for the property described as 609 Lucy Lane from R3 to cdm1 18 to be consistent with the adopted gso 2040 comprehensive plan and considers the action taken to be reasonable and in the public interest for the following reasons the request is consistent with the comprehensive PL future built form map and F future land use map the proposed cdrm 18 conditional District residential multifam 18 zoning District as condition permits uses which fit the context of surrounding area and limits negative impacts on the surrounding area number three the request is reasonable due to the size physical conditions and other attributes of the area it will benefit the property owner and surrounding community and approval is in the public interest thank thank you um I am a yes Mrs Johnson yes Mrs abuser yes Mrs Hightower yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes and Dr Wells yes and that passes nine to zero thank you um we will now move on to item D9 which is an ordinance for public public hearing for resoning located at 5307 5307 near 5313 and 5317 West Friendly Avenue and 724 MIRS Chapel Road Grand dot Development LLC on behalf of Barbara and Matthew Osborne Vicky and Robert Cannon and John LX we do have speakers both for and against Mr Kirkman yes thank you mayor V again the properties are located at the intersection of me's Chapel Road and West friendley Avenue approximately 3.7 Acres total the request is from R3 residential single family to CDO conditional district office zoning north of the request is a combination of R3 residential single family and CDO conditional district office east and south of the quest is zoned R3 residential single family west of the request is z both rm12 residential multif family and CD rm18 residential multif family the subject properties currently contain several single family dwellings north of the quest are combination of offices and single family dwellings east and south earthquest are single family dwellings westquest are multif family dwellings in a city water tower the property is currently designated as residential on the future land use map of the comprehensive plan and as Urban General on the futurebuilt format the conditions were submitted by the applicant I need to read several into the record for Council to approve uh starting with condition number three hours of operation shall be limited to node later than 11: PM except any such restriction on hours of operation shall not include those specific overnight accommodations permitted pursuant to condition two and any required activities associated therewith condition four Building height shall be limited to up to 43 feet excluding architectural design features roof type equipment example HVAC equipment and the like and any other nonstructural components example screening materials condition five no drive-thru use shall be permitted except for any such drive-thru use associated with a built-in Pharmacy that may operate out of the property's principal structure in condition six any new vegetation within required buffer areas will be of Evergreen material um do we need a motion to accept those conditions we do okay can I have a motion in a second please so second okay so um I believe that was moved by Mr Holston and seconded by Mrs Hoffman um Imes mayor proem yes misser yes Mrs hiow yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes and Dr Wells yes okay those conditions are accepted thank you uh staff has concluded that the proposed CDO zoning dist is consistent with the comprehensive plans filling in our framework big idea to encourage higher density mixed use walkable infield development and the growing economic competitiveness big idea to build a prosperous resilient economy that creates Equitable opportunities to succeed the proposed CDO zoning designation as condition allows a mix of office and Professional Service uses generally compati with adjacent residential uses and in close proximity to other office uses staff would note care should be taken with respect to building orientation materials height and visual buffers to ensure appropriate transitions to lower density residential uses on adjacent properties staff is recommending approval of the request this item was heard by the Planning and Zoning commission at their August 16th meeting and the resoning request was approved um and was subsequently appealed to city council there was one speaker in favor of the request and four speakers in opposition not going to answer any questions thank you um we will move on to our applicant there are a number of speakers Robert Cannon lton Crow John LX Chase Smith kellway Howard Emily Brewer and Mark Isaacson I assume Mr isaacson's gonna start us off yes good evening Madame mayor members of council I want to confirm you all can hear and see me well yes sir okay great thank you um it's Mark isacson 804 Green Valley Road Greensboro NC um thank you all for the opportunity to present this this project to council uh Mike read into the uh record the conditions and if you want to flip to that screen for for just a minute Mike please I'll go over those briefly um I think Council will take note that uh these conditions are very specific and they're specific for a reason uh Mr LX is probably proposing to to develop this property for use by a large medical care provider in our community uh they have determine that this site meets all of their criteria so these conditions have been specifically uh worked out with that medical care provider uh and so that's why you see several references to uh medical office use and and so forth the last condition that you'll see about the vegetation is a result of uh two neighborhood meetings that we had with folks in the area as well as comments we heard at the zoning commission Planning and Zoning commission meeting last month so the site is uh has a number of hardwood trees on it we intend to preserve as many as possible uh but to the extent that we will have gaps the uh concept here is that we will be required to introduce new vegetation in those buffer areas that will make this s Evergreen screen and uh that's the result of hearing some concerns from ad joining uh folks that uh that wanted to make sure the buffer areas were effective um so that's a the summary of the conditions and sort of how we got here U next screen Mike please this is U an aerial photograph and the the subject property is shown in the yellow star indicated there at the corner as you know of Friendly Avenue in Ms Chapel Road that's a signalized intersection um it's sort of I call it wedged into that intersection that corner um I I wanted Council to take note that a cross Friendly Avenue is almost a mirror of what's going on here that is there are medical offices Dental there's a family practice um so forth and so on on the north side of friendley and on the back there are single family homes uh that to join or AB but those medical office and other office buildings and so to to me it's a mirror of what's happening or what's proposed to happen here in addition uh as you'll see there's a sort of a a white dot there that is a it's property owned by the city of Greensboro it's a large or tall U water tower there are multif Family Apartments further west and then you get into a mix of retail excuse me retail and office and you work your way down toward uh Quaker Village shopping center on the north of course you work your way down toward uh Guilford College's campus um this property has been here and has had single family residences on it for for many many decades um our our uh point in making this application is that it is just no longer suitable for low density single family residential uh Friendly Avenue we did have a traffic study and there's a traffic Transportation engineer from Remy Kemp's office on the line with us as well as our civil engineer from uh the stimo group uh that have worked on the site plans um we would just submit to council that the the notion that this is uh viable at this point for single family residential uh has been passed by with the widening of friendly venue the widening of mir's Chapel Road introducing a signal there um and just the uh pattern of development that has occurred along this major thoroughfare and so I wanted Council to get a notion for what what's in the area and the sort of mirror concept that I mentioned um next slide please Mike this is uh for illustrative purposes our site plan you can see the location of the proposed medical office building two stories um there would be one full access point at the northeast corner of the property uh and then um onto friendly and then on the west you'll see that there's a right in right out uh access movement on mir's Chapel Road so uh that is per review by G do uh and we have specifically followed U their their guidelines on this in addition you'll see the uh property to the South Umar that is a u a a home for adults and children as I understand it uh it is not being used for single family residential and in fact up and down mir's Chapel you'll see a mix of uses uh that are no longer single family but may be characterized as home occupation for example a hair stylist or uh a dog spa or you know dog sitting service that kind of thing so this area has changed quite a bit over the last few years um and we would submit that this is a very good transitional use uh that has uh that that's been proposed by a medical office uh medical care provider U next slide please Mike this is uh again for illustrative purposes is a rendering of what the building would look like there is obviously a drop off and pickup uh Lane for the property U and then this will be I would submit a first class medical office building uh the overall purpose here is to consolidate several uh varied medical practices into one building and uh to use a well-worn phrase uh One-Stop shopping U for medical care and medical services and so uh that's the goal of the medical care provider here is to make this as efficient and effective for delivery of medical care uh to citizens in you know in this larger area of Greensboro um there there have been a number of consolidations of medical practices and just the way that Medical Care is delivered has changed dramatically in the last few years and interestingly enough one of the big barriers to delivering efficient and effective Medical Care to patients has been Transportation uh this this property has a Transit a bus stop very close spy uh located at the intersection of two uh thoroughfares that uh we think is suitable for for this kind of use at this exact location at this corner um next slide please Mike uh one of the concerns we heard at the zoning commission meeting last month was about the quote scale of the building in relation to the area and so we asked the architect for this medical care provider to prepare given U actual photographs aerial photographs give us a notion or sense of scale of what this building how it would fit into the area and so this is an illustrative rendering of the way the building would be situated the way that it uh would fit into the area uh and there's actually one more slide uh at this at this page Mike it shows a little bit different angle with the city's water tower there and the apartments um and then a view looking East on Friendly Avenue so wanted to give Council a a a concept A visual about the way that the building would fit in these of course uh would be trees at maturity but we intend to keep as many trees as possible and plant new vegetation that will act as a screen and of course this health care provider is committed not only to delivering first class Health Care to Citizens but to having a a a welome welcoming environment for its patients who uh visit uh this property and so we we hope that and expect that this will be a very good neighbor so to speak in the area along friendly in M Chapel uh next slide please one of the uh points that that we heard at some meetings was well um is this is this a common practice or is this a wellestablished pattern and I would submit to council as you may appre appreciate over the years that this is a wellestablished pattern or practice of having office uses very near or budding residential and the first example of that is if you'll go to the next slide uh on the VF Corporation Headquarters you'll see that uh this is a large office complex but it is directly adjoining uh some I'd say uh higher value homes in new Irving Park and is direct directly across the street from uh higher end town homes and so it's an example I think of and this property has been here well over 20 years those values have not been adversely affected I would submit and U I would say that that has been a good fit in this area and for the city next slide please Mike this is uh just around the corner from the subject property Dolly Madison Road and if you'll go to the aerial photograph you'll see that there are off es along doly Madison Road and off of uh that road a budding or very nearby residential and you'll see that U dentist dental office and then offices across the street U and then uh single family and other residential uh very nearby uh next slide please Mike uh this is in Brassfield I would submit one of the higher end or higher value uh areas of the city um and and next slide you'll see that there are a variety of offices that are directly adjoining or across the street from single family residential again um and so the point of all of this is to illustrate that and there's one more slide for British Woods Mike if you'll flip through that um just to illustrate that this is a very wellestablished development pattern in our city it's been uh embraced over decades about how office has been a great transitional use near single family and other residential in our city no diminution of value or detrimental effect on values and in fact has been well accepted um let's see our last slide is a um the copy of the notice we sent out to uh property owners in the area uh we actually exceeded the 600 foot radius we did our own research we invited uh we we first had a smaller meeting with folks in the immediate area U and we met at Trinity Church and we discussed we showed the site plan we discussed the proposal and we asked for input uh we then had a larger uh neighborhood meeting at at the same church um as you can see on the in the note there in August early August I think about 27 28 folks attended uh there were it lasted about an hour we explained the project we had the illustration on easel uh large representations and we uh discussed it we received questions uh we understood that there were concerns and we have tried to address those as as many reasonable concerns as possible uh with those conditions and with other Communications um I would say the concern that we just are not able to address is I just don't want it here I I want it to stay the same or we want it to be residential and I would just submit that we when we have a disagreement about that I understand that reasonable people can differ uh we we think we've been agreeable in our disagreements uh but you know when we have these kinds of issues come up I believe uh we look to the comprehensive plan and we look to precedent to determine what's reasonable what is the right thing to do when we have a contentious resoning that comes before Council uh this has our pattern in conclusion I would say that U this uh proposed pro project is located uh along a major thoroughfare that it's uh designed to achieve one of the main goals of the comprehensive plan that is to make this uh a walkable mixed use development the property sits at a signalized intersection along one of the most heavily traveled thoroughfares and within a designated mixed use Corridor there's high density multif family there's heavy commercial to the West the proposed resoning for the medical office building mirrors what is a cross Friendly Avenue to the north um the these are the purposes of identifying these major corridors these activity centers to have these transitional uses that have been so well established and well received in our city over the years and so with that um we stand ready to answer any questions our Engineers are here here Mr Lomax is on the line with us U uh there are other owners on the line to address any questions that uh Council may have thank you thank you um if there are no questions for Mr Isaacson um we'll move on to our opponents um we have I just have one question okay did the traffic study indicate any new changes or anything because it's already I think turn lanes and all kinds of stuff like that but was there any suggestions or any impact I would invite our transportation engineer to address any specifics but certainly the right in right out movement on mir's Chapel Road was a requirement based on the transportation study that that is designed to avoid uh an excess of queuing up on MIRS Chapel Road and so we have that limitation on Mir Chapel Road which we think will work very well very efficiently thank thank you um we will move to our opponents we have William mcneel candida yosaki I'm sorry if I pronounced it incorrectly Max Carter kimbley Burke Ned Brian Rosemary McGee and Carol Salon I'm not sure what order you would like to speak I hope you pre-arranged something for a total of 15 minutes our neighborhood did so I am first okay thank you uh let's see what is it saying just start your video oh you get to see me okay thank you good evening my name is candida yoshikai and I live with my family across the street from can you hear me yes okay I live across the street from the kimry hallworth home on Friendly Avenue and I'm here tonight to make one last appeal to the city government to deny the application under consideration in reference to the materials that I submitted to you everyone we know has been a gas at the scale and location of this proposal it's not comparable to a one plat business because it's four plats more than doubling the number of properties directly impacted by its presence 12,000 square fet at 5314 West Avenue West Friendly is not a mirror to 40,000 square ft zoned R3 home businesses are also not a mirror what would mirror across the street is a one plot office we think contrary to the developer that this is completely out of character for a residential neighbored to insert an office site as big as Quaker Village shopping center right here on our residential block it would consume 25% of our street and neighborhood for two long blocks west of Mir Chapel businesses are one or two plats to say that this site fits the general area is to ignore that our BL is residential and that the transition of small business to larger as you go west is well established as occurring west of Foxwood and MIRS Chapel the condition of up to 43 feet tall must indicate more than the two-story building promised by the developers at informational meetings that must have been dashed along with the suggestion of an 8 to five operating hours which is now as you know 11m to include overnight and pharmacy drive-thru as needed 179 parking spaces is more than Walmart has but would be right in our residential neighborhood you see from the rendering of their building the slides showing other medical offices around town have big buffers we're not talking about being right up against something everything Mark showed had much broader spaces in all of those slides with a site this big we're bound to suffer commercial creep on settling our long-term plans to live here and up upending the stability of our neighborhood and surrounding area meanwhile our entire neighborhood would experience an office essentially commercial quality of life while we live in an our three zoned neighborhood it's it's important to recognize too that 40 homeowners in our neighborhood also have property rights and the property rights of three Property Owners cannot legally degrade the rights of more than 10 times that number of owners none of us want this it's not that we don't want progress this is not right for our our neighborhood and this particular site we're looking to you our elected representatives to protect our investments and our quality of life in our own homes since only only the feasibility of the plan was was within the bounds of consideration for planning committee and Zoning Commissioners not the wisdom of it we're looking of to you to act on our behalf and as stewards of Greensboro that you are to progress in a way that does make it a PL great place to live that wouldn't happen if if you approve this real progress would not support commercially Paving over three acres of land up against R3 properties when R3 status has much more string anent limits to land use than o office zoning precisely to provide a quality of life for residential owners the development the developers have abundantly demonstrated in our opinion their lack of consideration for the area homeowners and City history through their proposals and conditions that are supposed to appease us but which cause greater and greater concern this area will not be a great place to live if this application is granted my neighbors will discuss discuss the new negative impacts that this overs scaled and ill-placed site would impose upon all of us and a loss for Greensboro that could never be recovered we implore you to decisively deny this application to protect from destruction our quality of residential life and so that the developer is required to reassess thank you for your consideration and all your work thank you thank you candida um I'm Kim Burke and I live at 718 MIRS Chapel Road which is just downhill from um this proposal um the gso 2040 comprehensive plan includes quote Greensboro advances environmental stewardship taking care of our natural resources and the natural systems that support all living things end quote the developers said they plan to destroy the existing Woods to put in BIO cells underground as a water catchment system taking out the existing deciduous mature trees and all of the vegetation from almost four acres of land and building a massive building with impervious Paving is going to create a substantial problem with groundwater the developers haven't addressed issue but instead refer back to runoff rather than groundwater groundwater is not addressed with catchment systems the wellestablished trees are integral part of the water absor absorption in this area the 25- foot buffer even with a few evergreen trees or shrubs will not mitigate this issue runoff water even with a catchment system is bound to be significant some of our neighbors already have literal streams that form in their backyards when it rains there's also no mention of any of the toxins or pollutants that will wash into our yards from the environment in the parking lot healthy treat tree canopies there's a huge um already existing tree canopy um are the most efficient inexpensive in most natural system to reduce heat and climate change they provide oxygen and help to detoxify the air resulting in healthier people who don't need to go to the medical centers there's also a direct correlation between heat generated from Urban heat island effect and lower socioeconomic status the destru ction of the wooded area and mature trees causing loss of habitate and driving animals out of the area and onto the roads in the area is antithetical to this Mission these Woods provide a sound buffer from the traffic noise unfriendly which worsens with every day the noise and other pollution from this huge structure will have a negative environmental impact that includes us both the developers and several City Council Members refer ref to this as inevitable progress there's no need to develop existing residential neighborhoods particularly when every person in the neighborhood opposes with the exception of the developers and their attorney there are large numbers of empty properties in already commercial zones that are sitting empty and decaying as we speak in fact Mr Isaacson showed some of those in his pictures one only has to look at Market Street Dolly Madison Friendly Avenue and more to find numerous defunct properties many of which were once medical facilities that now sit empty we fail to see how this project is progressed and we ask you to vote against it thank you thank you and Max Carter is next if he's on this on on the call yes there's an old Quaker aphorism that by small degrees of compromise we soon approach a point where we are indistinguishable from that which we oppose what we opposed in the Heritage Community of new gard and Guilford College is becoming another overdeveloped nonresidential area indistinguishable from areas of overdeveloped parts of other cities people moved to Greensboro because of our livability our walkability the fact we're not Charlotte or Atlanta or New York City in the last year several properties in this Guilford College harage Community brochure that the City Planning Department put together have disappeared character defining structures like the kimry Hayworth building that will be lost if this happens what is the line what is the line city council and Zoning is willing to cross before we become indistinguishable from non-heritage communities when we lose all of our character defining characteristics each time we raise this objection the developers say we will make slight adjustments they make slight adjustments some trees here a little flourish there and we still lose the character defining structures what is the line before the Heritage Community that we all treasure here becomes nothing less than simply another overdeveloped area of the city please vote no thank you yeah I'm uh bill mcneel I am I live at 1014 Gretchen Lane in Greensboro and I'm the co- Clerk of the New Garden Guilford College Community Alliance We Stand firmly aligned with the neighbors in this case we uh would like you to consider the big idea that has been overlooked and that is to create great places and within that big idea in the comprehensive plan it speaks about promoting the historic fabric of the city and cultivating local community support for historic preservation approving this zoning would be do nothing to preserve and promote the historic fabric of the city in fact it would erode and not cultivate Community Support for historic preservation and I'll seed the rest of my time to neighbor Ned Brian who's going to finish up and I'll may speak during the rebuttal period hi folks uh my name is Ned Brian my wife and I live at 5301 West Friendly uh we own two Lots at the corner of West Friendly in Canon Road we're on the same side of the street as the proposed resoning and office building if this proposed resoning change were to be approved our house will be one of two homes left standing on our side of friendly between mir's chapel and Canon as three fifths of the residents gone on our block we purchased our home in 1998 from the original owners and have been very happy here for the last 23 years we have deep Community ties in Greensboro we find this a wonderful community in which to live and prosper the developer and his attorney claimed that the character of our neighborhood has changed I say that is has is really has not I live here they don't the three families that own the four properties in qu in question had left their properties remain vacant in the hopes of prevailing with this resoning they have made no effort to sell their Residential Properties on the residential Market claiming without substantiation that no one would be interested even though these homes are located in a desirable and safe part of town close to ample amenities and an excellent and sought-after school districts this request is simply for their potential enrichment not because of some underlying need for more commercial office space MIRS chapel and Foxwood have been the dividing line on East and Westbound friendly separating commercial and residential for many years I worry that if we were to let commercial zoning jump across that perceived barrier where will it stop what's to stop others on our street from petitioning to change the zoning of their properties how could they be denied once the Precedence has been set for the zoning change the size of this proposed project is staggering to us 3 and a half acres 40,000 square ft of building 180 parking places in contrast my middle my middle class home is 2,000 square feet uh the proposed office building is approximately 20 SI 20 times the size of my house and approxim 40 43 feet in height this does not fit into any residential neighborhood certainly not ours from my peaceful backyard I will have a direct view into the windows of this massive proposed structure unfortunately for me they'll have a direct view into my windows as well would anyone want that some would say this is progress of some sort or an improvement to the existing Community I say this building is for the sake of building I know the city council is motivated by Economic Development I understand that I agree that we need growth and decent paying jobs to remain a viable Community we all do but there are certainly other ways to promote growth than by destroying residential neighborhoods and decent middle class housing this project is not a job Creator it's a job relocator Mr isacson clearly said that earlier if allowed to pass this would be the Cornerstone for allowing commercial encroachment East on Friendly Avenue who would be next maybe the churches or the habad to the east of us Mr Lomax and his partners are contractors and developers by profession they do not own residential property they don't want to own residential property they are also not interested in selling residential property only building new buildings and changing zoning to enrich themselves at the potential others while I realize this change is sometimes inevitable I would respectfully ask that you deny this oversized request 30 seconds and help un help the surrounding neighborhoods preserve the residential Integrity of our neighborhood and all of the neighborhoods in Greensboro thank you thank you um are there any questions or why don't we do our rebuttal first Mr Isaacson yes thank you Madame mayor um I would just offer for council's consideration that U this is a very specific uh project uh this is not someone just uh proposing a general office use or an office building this is at the request of a specific medical provider who desires to provide First Class Medical Services uh to patients that can easily access this property in the area I would say that uh I I appreciate all the comments uh we have talked with these folks and and it's we respect their opinions uh and their feelings about this uh I would ask Council to balance that with some of the factors that we have already mentioned factors that are contained in your uh staff report in the comprehensive plan uh there there will be privacy by its very nature in a medical professional office U that that should that should be fairly uh obvious I would think um the Hallmarks of change happened uh when Friendly Avenue and MIRS Chapel Road were widened when development started to come out that way uh this was obviously way out in the county at one point but Friendly Avenue has changed over the years this is a I I think a logical uh proposal that makes a lot of sense and especially given the times that we're in and the need for convenient efficient and effective Medical Care um I think Mr LX wanted to close up uh close our part of this out by telling you a little bit about the background how much time is left you have three minutes and 10 seconds okay thank you John are you able to I am trying to start video here we go and you'll need to give your name and address please the host has me stopped on video start my video okay hi I'm John Lomax I live at 2 212 South Elm Street in Greensboro downtown Greensboro uh I grew up on the corner of friendly uh 5317 friendly Mir Chapel this was my mom's house um she raised four sons and or five Sons including me and one daughter um Laura um when we were kids uh Friendly Avenue is a country two-lane road our yard was out to the yellow line and uh it was a nice place to live and U Mir Chapel was also a two-lane road and um U over the years the city and state encroached on our property and uh made it a quite different place to live our driveway is right on the street and and uh we used to have to um ask permission from the motorist to back out of our driveway it was one space to the street so we've seen a lot of changes on Friendly Avenue over the years uh medical office being built around our property apartment complexes being built around our property and of course living next to a 100 foot water tower was uh what we always experienced all our Liv so we didn't know any different um I think this is a good use for the property medical office it's a low impact use we at one time had a um small grocer that wanted to be on the site and we brought that to the community community objected to that um one of the things I heard was we wanted something less impactful and so we brought this medical office user as a potential uh user of the property and uh we thought it would be much better received I heard earlier today our or a few minutes ago someone um compare our site to quicker Village shopping center the same size and and we have more parking spaces quer Village shopping center is 10 acres and has over 350 spaces so I I don't understand that correlation at all um so that's really all I have to say unless anybody has questions for me thank you John unless there are any questions I'll wrap up I I think that um you know I would hope the council would consider that this proposed use um is squarely supported by the by the comprehensive plan squarely supported by several other precedential uh projects in and around Greensboro in all areas uh there have been no commercial creep no diminution in values uh I think that it's been those have been well received um I would U uh respectfully disagree that this is uh deteriorating the Heritage Community we very much respect what the folks with Heritage have accomplished and uh however I would say that the change is inevitable as we've discussed we think this is a very reasonable proposed use uh and will be a good transitional use for the area we appreciate your consideration thank you now there is a five minute rebuttal for the opponents I don't know who you would like to speak yeah i' I'd like to speak uh first and then Others May um like to speak to Mr Aon point that this is a reasonable transitional extension of offices East along Friendly Avenue uh I like offices I I like the picture that that's been shown um but in our view offices belong in this activity center that is one of the few activity centers in the city in the Greensboro 2040 comprehensive plan we've recently asked the planning director to initiate a master planning uh process for the activity center that among other things would Define The Logical boundaries for where offices belong we would intend that offices should not extend East along friendway Avenue to the east of nears Chapel Road but belong in the activity center and C max Carter you know where this medical facility belongs I think the previous rezoning Deni establishes where this medical facility belongs there are several medical facilities nearby there was a resoning request for building one an historic property just a few months ago that's only a mile away the attorney's argument about precedent is exactly to my point building on previous precedence of losing character defining structures and sites in the Heritage Community establishes presedent for more destruction this will establish yet another precedent and you build precedent upon precedent and back to the aphorism by small degrees of compromise we soon approach a point where we are indistinguishable from that which we oppose Madame clerk how much time is left 2 minutes and 52 seconds thank you can I speak yes I just want to address a couple of comments of Mr isacson uh we're very happy that the medical provider wants to bring Medical Care to us we just don't think that this site is the place to do it a couple of blocks to the West in a com in the activity center that's where it belongs um to Mr low Max's um uh description that Quaker Village shopping center is 10 acres that could be but I think Mr LX you're referring also to the inclusion of Wallmart the map that I sent to all of the city council members shows the site your site imposed on Quaker Village and it consuming it so I just want to say that the other thing about the idea that our area is changing um the expansion of friendly and mir's Chapel which really hurt Mr lomax's family uh but could be remedied by pulling back the the house uh into the property for sure um you know that was 30 years ago or or so the property across the street 5314 uh the 12,000 square feet U office across from your house John um that's been there for since the 80s I mean we're not talking about change that's been happening rapidly around us we've had residences here mine is from 1912 okay so we want to keep the kimry we know you the council cannot stop Mr Canon from speak from doing whatever he wants but if you deny the application that they're making he won't demolish his house that's all I want to say thank you thank you any the other opponents in the time remaining may I speak this is Carol salmon there's one minute remaining mayor okay I have a p i have a PowerPoint ready to go but I'll um abbreviate to the best uh that I can I okay start my video and am I can I just uh uh space through this okay um I'm going to go very quickly next slide next slide next slide next slide next slide next next next next next next next next and this is I think one that has not been brought up before um I'm Carol salmon I'm speaking actually on behalf of my mother who lives at 720 Canon Road and has owned that property since 1974 um is the school system's Western extent and there's no apparent attempt to sell properties as currently zoned R3 and that seems puzzling it seems that families with school aged children would be interested and preserving uh family homes in the Morehead Kaiser Grimsley school school progression would benefit greensboro's youth so in conclusion I would like to say there is no clear compelling reason to reone rather there are clear compelling reasons not to reone exped okay thank you um are there any questions of the applicants or the opponents Mr abuser yes question for the applicant um Mr ISAC and I I was trying to look on a map and and and get my bearings um but I noticed across friendly there seems to be um some dental offices or something is that correct yes there's a in the slide that I showed at the beginning there's a mix of office uses across Friendly Avenue and they are AB buding U residential to the north single family residential along Foxwood and and also I'm sorry those have been there for many many years uh those office uses I I would submit have not uh had an adverse impact they're very marketable those values have been maintained um and those properties have coexisted for many years and I would suggest that it's evidence that as Miss Miss yoshikai indicated that the commercial creep is not inevitable that um these uses can coexist well together as we've seen in this immediate area and in the other areas of the city that I demonstrated and I also notice just to joining the property um is the um a floral shop yes I understand that some of the uses up and down MIRS Chapel are Zone single family but they're not true single family uses at this point right have not been for many years yeah I've seen a few that have some uh kind of business signs out front signs correct that's right yes yes that's what I was referring to thank you so much Madam Maya I have a question for the applicant Mr Holston yes uh Mr Isaacson I you can go back to your slide showing the illustrative drawing and yeah that one there tell me a little bit about the buffering you have and the other residences the um yeah the vegetative buffer around the edges of the property as I mentioned this is a fairly heavily wooded property we intend to preserve as many of those trees as possible um to the extent that we're not able to preserve existing trees uh our condition requires that we supplement those areas with what's called an a vegetative Evergreen screen and that's in the the condition that we added as a result of meetings with folks in the area and the comments that we heard at the zoning commission Planning and Zoning commission meeting last month so it'll be a very healthy tree buffer and of course uh we had another slide that showed what they would look like at maturity that was prepared by our architect with input from our landscape architect do you have that with you right now can I see I think it is Mike U maybe a few slides further yeah the uh scale there it is okay oh that one okay okay yes yeah the the purpose here is to have as welcoming a Medical Care office as possible because people are coming here in a time of need uh they're they're obviously anxious and so this is a medical care provider that's experienced with this uh I wouldn't be surprised if we have a couple of little garden areas for people to sit and uh think about what's going on with them or their loved ones so forth so um this is allowing uh ample room for buffers for the uh nearby residential uh again the property to the immediately to the South is not is zoned residential but it's not truly being used for residential that is a home for adults and children now okay thank you any other questions for the applicant Mr isacson I I have a quick question I I believe you said that the proposed building was 40,000 square feet uh the maximum that's correct so I just did a quick Google search on Quaker Village and there was a listing for Quaker Village excluding the Walmart area but including um the Boston Market and that's 86,4 129 square feet that's you mean the total square footage of all of Quaker Village excluding Walmart yes um so there was a there was a comment before about Walmart but the Quaker Village area including the Boston's market is 86429 according to a listing that I pulled up I believe that's correct I haven't gotten the exact square footage but Mr LX just gave you a comparison as well I I just don't think that's a valid comparable here and plus that's full retail this is an all correct no the the comment was made that they were the same size right I think that's a a valid distinction um if there are no further questions we can close the public hearing and do Council deliberations well I I did want to ask Mr Isaacson about um I saw an email earlier here today from the historic preservation um that had some concern around a property um and I know Mr Carter was on about obviously the G college area um luckily nobody's buried on this area thank God but um Can can you talk to me about how is that going to be impacted by this I would U uh we have Mr Canon who's the owner of that property and who did place that on the National Historic register in the 90s he's on the line with us if you want to ask him any specific questions but the the overall or the summary is that he did that he proposed that on the National Historic register uh for one specific purpose and that was to block the use of federal or state funding for the uh for the the establishment of what was then known as painter Boulevard now the outer loop and that was a successful move that that outer loop is now as you know much further west uh out uh you know out out Friendly Avenue and so that strategy worked very effectively and it actually I think protected this entire area from even more significant change um but that was the purpose of it I think if you look closely at uh the letter from preservation Greensboro it it it's not I think truly an opposition it's a letter that points out some of the factors to consider but there is absolutely no prohibition or restriction on uh what could happen with that property at this point U you just can't use any federal funds to acquire it okay I think that answers my question um I guess I'm just trying to see if if is's gonna if that's going to be impacted at all or that would be as he said still standing right beside your building well it may Mr Lomax is looking into the relocation he has mentioned this at the neighborhood meetings he is looking into relocating that property that building to another parcel uh either next door or very nearby um so he's very much into and values historic preservation and to the extent that it needs to be relocated he is committed to looking into that okay um okay thank you all right if can I have a motion to close the public hearing if there are no further questions of the applicants or the opponents so moved second moved by Mr Holston seconded by Miss abuser I am a yes mayor proam yes misser yes Mrs Hightower yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes and Dr Wells yes and that passes 9 to zero um now um Council comments or motion motion to approve uh the resigning request or second so we do have a motion in a second I did see Mrs thurms hand go up quickly um I'd like to speak May okay um Mrs Hoffman thank you well I'm sorry Tammy weren't you going first yeah I was okay fine um you know this has been a very very difficult resoning question for me um you know I to some extent we look at uh Mr LX looking at this property few years ago residents saying oh no we don't want a grocery store there and we'd rather have you know a medical building or a something of that nature um and here they're proposing a medical building just what what you know was specified by some of the Neighbors on the other hand for me I see this section of friendly as a natural progression um we go from where Quaker Village is retail and then we move down to multistory office and then we move down a little bit further and then there single story condo offices and a little further closer in we then have multi-story apartment buildings with the water tower um then we have m's chapel and then these properties for me it's a more of a natural progression for this to move to uh apartments or condos or something of that nature rather than going back to the multi-story business um I have looked at this I can't tell you how much time I've spent out at that site as I spoke with Mr isacon last week about this project again um that I was very very torn on this project some's going something's going to change on this lot um I don't think it's reasonable for single family houses long term the houses that are there are in great disrepair and are vacant um you know something's going to change the relocation of the Historical house would be great um but the reality is it's historical in its appearance and because it's been here a long time but we don't necessarily know who the architect is or it doesn't have any tie to um the original history of Guilford College and and all that Quaker area um so I'm very very I'm very very torn on this project I spend a lot of time looking at it um but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to come down on the side of not supporting this project all right thank you Mrs thurm um Mrs Hoffman thank you very much mayor um change is inevitable and change is constant and those were the words of Benjamin Disraeli the Prime Minister of England gosh more than a century ago so here we are a century plus later and uh certainly that that remains true and but I will submit that change is hard it's difficult um so this evening you know we find ourselves in a similar place to where we've where we've been in other sort of transitional areas in the city um where it's an infill development project and in this case it's at the intersection of uh two four lane qus which not that long ago were two lane but when as the city grew and developed and and these Carters became four lane as opposed to two you know over time that changes some of the character uh of the uh of the of the of the dwellings along those corridors and um you know not only is this at that intersection of two major cars but it's surrounded by and has been surrounded by for quite some time um multif family uh other other office U projects and Facilities there's institutional um they in their institutional um buildings there uh there's commercial there's retail um there multif family as I as I said so um you know this is truly an area that's changing it reminds me you know in terms of talking about the houses I reminds me very much of um the houses onf friendly that were um a part of the Hobs friendly uh resoning six years ago in 2015 the um the homes are of a similar period from the century n you know 1920s and so so we heard some of this the same um the feel same feelings about those too but but I think what what the market is telling us is that as these changes have taken place and as we converted two lane streets into four lane streets in order to handle uh the amount of growth and traffic that we have in the city um some of some of the residential perhaps well not perhaps but but comes becomes less desirable than it had been at an at an earlier period of time so I think that that's what we what we find here now I live at the corner of friendly and Holden and across the street from me is an office building that has been there for what about 20 years since the since the early 1990s I think it's on just under an acre and a half it's on 1.48 Acres the building itself is almost 24,000 square feet it's uh 23524 so in reality if I compare that that size property to the 3.7 acres here and a $40,000 for 40,000 foot building the property across the street from me which um just you know it's it's nobody pays attention to it anymore it is there it's a part of the neighborhood um but actually that is you know slightly large larger scale and more density there than the property that we're talking about here um so you know normally um medical facilities are are are not usually met with significant opposition uh when they are being integrated into um residential and a combination of these other uses and uh and in this case we're talking about a medical provider uh who's obviously done their due diligence they've done their market research they have specifically said this location meets all the requirements that we have to provide um the level of medical care that is needed in this city and and they've said this is this is this is a facility that's going to serve us for the next 25 years the next 50 years and so as a council I think that we have to we have to recognize uh the the importance of that need as well so um you know I I understand and really respect the uh the concern concerns expressed by um by our citizens and by residents of this community um you know I I know these streets well uh I've I've I've campaigned up and down these streets uh you know during my uh during my time on um city council so and I always appreciate our citizens who Advocate on behalf of their their neighborhood um and I've had some I've had some lovely conversations with uh with with several of uh the people who've spoken to us tonight and whove who've communicated with us over the last several weeks um and I hope I'll have an opportunity to talk with them again but um you know at the end of the day I I really have to come down this evening and support of of this resoning and and what I sincerely hope that in the next two to five years uh that there will be unanimous consent on the part of of of this neighborhood that this was actually that this was a good decision uh that the Council made tonight so thank you very much I appreciate the opportunity to to talk to you tonight thank you Mrs Hoffman um I too lived in that neighborhood I lived off of Jefferson Road and Jefferson Gardens for 10 years so I am extremely familiar with this area um the area immediately surrounding it and the area across the street and I do see it in keeping um of what is there and I do think it will be a better use than those houses that have fallen into disrepair um I remember the painter Boulevard um fight very well that was actually one of the first things that I got involved in when when I um moved here to to Greensboro so um this is kind of like a flashback for me and we are fortunate that it went out um towards the airport so we are we are Lu or it really would have changed the character um but I do think that this is a good use for the property we don't come by these uh decisions easily you know as I've said time and time again it's these infill projects that are going to give us the the most heartburn and you know I am glad that the developers reached out and worked with the neighborhood as much they as much as they could um but you know this is the second resoning um that has been brought forth for that piece of property and I do think that it is in keeping um with that immediate area so I will be supporting the project Mr Boer thank you madam mayor um a lot of good things have been said on both sides reasons why people do not approve this but knowing that the uh when when a grocery store was proposed there before and it was turned down uh neighborhood was real upset and Mrs thur mentioned that they said they'd like something more like an office building or a medical building well here it is but now we're back to not wanting this either so um knowing that there are medical facilities across the street you've got the water tower you've got um Apartments further down the road Ro uh you've got uh pretty much uh some commercial going up friendly as well so um one of the big things that that made me want to support this was the fact that if you go down mir's Chapel Road um there are affordable housing units there are a lot of Apartments uh you've got on the other side of friendly uh you've got major living facilities so uh some of this to me uh promotes what we are trying to do in our city and make services for Community uh more walkability so that people could walk or could uh get the bus in in a very short ride you know and I know that yes we need this in the east as well I'm hoping this spur some um momentum to get things like that done so I am supporting this and I I do heartfelt thank everyone who has advocated for the other side but I really really think that this is going to be a good fit for that tract of land we know that um those homes are not habitable and that something really needs to be done so I appreciate um Mr Isaac and Mr LX for coming forward with this plan and yes I will support it um any other comments well so what I will say um Mary Kay kind of just summed it up uh yeah we we need this in the East um you know we keep talking about um we grown out on the west side we grown out on the west side we're grown out on the north side but we keep finding spaces to put stuff um I I help this developer and and Mr iserson have heard us earlier tonight in another case um where we live in a health desert uh where we don't have adequate health care and I served on a Southeast task force a few years ago where we identifi that there was no Healthcare in the 2746 zip code uh and that was 2005 and this is 2021 hadn't moved the needle whole lot uh so hopefully uh this will spur some conversation and some interest and some development because it is open on the east side but it has to be responsibly done with community in mind and the needs that are uh Miss on the east side so um I'm I'm going to support the project uh in this instance because I work on Dolly Madison Road so I I know what it's like out there I I'm I'm in the 445 block uh so I know what it's out uh like out there as well um so I I can't see apartment sitting on that corner it it would be too congested I believe so I'm thank you Mr Mr outling thank you mayor you know I I likewise support the application although as others have said appreciate Mr mcneel Mr Carter and others kind of expressing the nature of their concerns and I can really empathize with many of them as council members and some others know I live feet away from a major major you know thoroughfare even much larger than Friendly Avenue I'm in a an old residential home so I understand the concerns about um the idea of commercial property going deeper and deeper into neighborhoods however you know the job of the council when making land use decisions is to identify the highest and best use and for me notwithstanding you know those concerns which I think are understandable and well placed when you look at the facts here to me it leads to a conclusion that the application should be supported um those facts include that this particular property is at the intersection of two significant thoroughfares and so when you're identifying places where you want to have non-residential activities it's places like the intersections at of two major thoroughfares uh additionally as have been noted by several council members along Friendly Avenue and then this general area there are other uses that are almost identical or substantively identical such that you know having this use in this location is consistent with the existing nature of that area and it's noteworthy that its placement on the thoroughfare which I'll note is signalized and there's access to public transportation which also you know factors in favor of approving the application is significant to note that it is on the thoroughfare as opposed to within the interior of an actual neighborhood um so for those reasons and others you know again I appreciate the comments that neighborhood members have made but I will support the application thank you are there any other comments Mrs Johnson I just wanted to reiterate um the fact that district one and two need medical facilities especially district one and if if in your NE negotiations and speaking with people Mr isacon Mr LX we would appreciate any help we could get because health is a major problem in these areas just thank you for that thank you um we do have a motion from Mr buer and I believe it was seconded by Dr Wells if there are no further comments um I'll take the vote oh we need a I'm sorry um Mr boiter if you could read the statement of consistency yes thank you mayor the Greensboro city council believed that its action to approve the zoning request for the properties described as 5307 5307 near 5313 and 5317 West Friendly Avenue and 724 MIRS Chapel Road from our 3 residential single family 3 to CDO conditional district office to be consistent with the adopted gso 2040 comprehensive plan and considers the action taken to be reasonable and in the public interest for the following reasons the request is consistent with the comprehensive plan's future built form map and future land use map the proposed CDO zoning District as conditioned limits negative impacts on the surrounding area and permits uses which also fit the context of the surrounding area the request is reasonable due to the size physical conditions and other attributes of the area it will benefit the property owner and surrounding community and approval is in the public interest thank you um I am Mrs Johnson yes Mr Boer yes Mrs hiow yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm no Dr Wells yes and that passes 8 to one thank you um thank you we now move on to the general business portion of our agenda item e 1 is a resolution approving contract 2018-59 a with bar Construction Company Inc for $ 1,48 for phase two improvements at Spencer love Tennis complex move the item Cham did you have a question I was just gonna second it okay so moved by Mrs Hoffman seconded by Mrs thurm um if there are no questions um I am I do have a question Madame mayor um as I'm reading through the item and of course my concern is always mwbe and they did not meet the goals um they had a goal of eight and 11 and they only achieved 5.8 and 8.9 um and this apparently is phase two uh can somebody speak to me what happened in phase one I know that Nasha McCrae is she she is I don't know if we have phase one available but Nasha if you can speak to it great uh good evening um M Mr manager and uh councel um to my understanding the um phase one didn't meet the goals that were established um although the percentages uh for the goals um have not been met um it has been determined by the mwbe office that uh the good faith effort upon the review was actually met um the bidder was required to earn a minimum of 50 GF points and the uh uh proposal was awarded 135 you and council person hiow this same company is on the next item and I believe they were able to achieve their goals on that one yeah they were able to achieve the goal I saw that one but I'm concerned they didn't meet the goal here and um we we we need which I was gonna bring up earlier to have a work session around this again because I I this good faith effort is really too easy uh it's a pass and it's easy to say I met they met the good faith after when they don't meet the go and um I think this has been troubling for quite some time didn't just start so we need to really revisit that good faith effort piece got got it uh we do have a work session upcoming work session that we intend to bring that to you okay great thank you so much thank you so we do have a motion in a second on this item I am a yes Mrs Johnson yes Mr Boer yes Miss M Hightower no Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes and Dr Wells yes that passes 8 to one I do have a quick question um Mr city manager I'm not sure um if there's an answer today I think the original Hope was that we would get 12 courts and um this phase we're getting six courts when are the next six courts programmed in uh we have planned for an additional six courts but as you'll recall there was a private fundraising effort to do a public private um relationship was move forward with the additional courts this is what we were able to fund uh currently that fundraising effort has not uh yielded enough funding at this point for us to move forward with the additional six courts I will say that this is six that we're building now in addition to what already exists there which does give us a very competitive Advantage when it comes to competing for tournaments and play uh but that additional six courts eventually will be helpful as well thank you I appreciate that um item number E2 is a resolution approving contract 2017-07 with bar Construction Company Inc for 1, 9,800 for Phase 2 improvements at peeler Community Park move the item second the item for p yes mooved by Dr Wells seconded by misso waiter Mrs thur did you have a question nope okay so that has been moved and seconded um I yes Mrs Johnson absolutely Mr boater yes Mrs Hightower only for you Dr Wells they just crested the gold by 9595 but think it's coming to PE Center though I know I know I'm a yes Mrs hi tower that is a yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes and Dr Wells yes yes and that passes 9 to zero and I believe both of those projects came out of our Parks and Recreation Bond money um so it's nice to move forward with both of those projects item E3 is a resolution for establishing the cultural Affairs commission um move the item second it has been moved and seconded um I yes Mrs Johnson yes Mr Boer yes Mrs Hightower uh I I'm gonna vote Yes but I hope Miss Hoffman uh takes in that conversation she and I had because there is not a black female on this Con commission and I would like to see that um so you are yes for this for for now yeah Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes Dr Wells yes and that passes N9 to zero um let's see um item number E4 is a resolution to approve the water bills and notices service contract number 2021 D 10923 in the amount of $1,656 th000 with c SG systems move the item I have a question and I can't find where it is I don't know if it's this one or the next one there is an Outsourcing somewhere in one of these items and I can't remember where it is because that this is different um do we Chris do we know is it's it's not this one is it that I'll tell you what if it's okay with Council I'd love to have Mike borers respond give him an opportunity to respond because I'm sure he's familiar yeah it's hard to figure these things out now since we changed this Mike got all dressed up and he's ready to go well I see him did good evening Madame mayor and members of council and council member hi Tower uh yes this this one with CSG systems they are it is outsourced they are located down in Florida but we did submit a request for proposals we got four responses uh we are currently using them they have provided good service to us uh of those four responses uh none of them were uh mwbe in North Carolina so but this is outsourced down to Florida we we compi uh compile all of our bills we electronically send it down to them they can go ahead and put all the uh the uh envelopes and the bills together and inserts that we have and then we get we get them sent back to our customers okay so it's no telephone calling pretty much is just stuff in envelopes well I I don't mean to make light of it but you know what I mean correct absolutely so yeah if we package it all together send it down to them they do all the processing at their facility and then be able to send it back to us so we can get it mailed correct oh okay thank you thank you for that explanation you're welcome I I just want to say I'm disappointed we couldn't find anybody in North Carolina to do it but I understand that it was bid and those those are where the bids came in um we'll keep trying thank you um we do have a motion I Believe by Mrs thurm and it was seconded by Miss abuser I believe um I am a yes mayor protm yes um Mr Boer yes Mrs Hightower yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes and Dr Wells yes that passes N9 to zero um so we have E5 and E6 E5 is a resolution approving contract 2020-01 15a in the amount of 10, 940,000 $245 and 73 cents with the Harper Corporation General Contractors as the construction manager at risk semar for the Townson Water Treatment Plant major electrical improvements and item number E6 which is an ordinance in the amount of 10,940 246 amending the Water Resources Capital Improvement Revenue bond fund project to establish funding for the Townson Water Treatment available treatment plant major electrical improvements construction manager at risk cmar contract we do have um people available uh for questions if there are any uh well I have one obviously I always have mwbe questions um I'm I'm kind of curious to know um I didn't realize this project was a c Mar project um have we already determined the DMP price on this project can you speak to me on that Chris yeah I'm actually gonna call on Kim soel and Mike Borchers to speak to that because this appears to be another phase of it uh correct this is the preconstruction phase Services council member hi Tower the guaranteed maximum price once if the council approves this this and Awards this contract that's what they will be tasked to do Harper and their team will put together a guaranteed maximum price with working with the mwbe office for all of the construction packages and then that will come back to city council for your approval probably towards the uh end of summer fall of next year so and I and I do have um um Miss Kate Doon holder she is the project manager uh construction manager with Harper um she's on available with some of the other team members if you have any other questions as far as the mwbe portion of this this uh project right do you know how many packages there are because I only see four listed here are there more than four and I'm going to defer to to miss holder uh that's to be determined partially uh we don't right now we don't know this is all just to get us to GMP and to break up those packages but is Miss holder online yes can you hear me yes yes perfect hey everyone it's really nice to be uh in front of you guys we had done a semar over at TZ uh plant as well before so this is a little bit familiar for us um to answer your question right now um I guess to kind of give you a road map of where we'll be going with this project is right now like Mike said this for preconstruction services so right now we're about 30% into design with arcadis and so we've been looking over the drawings and we provide feedback and um value engineering constructability we work as a team with uh Greensboro water resources department um and so what we do is we help them um kind of roll through the final project development and then as they're doing that um as we get closer to say 90% design that's when we'll work with the mwbe office um to do all of the um package split for the construction piece of it right now the way that we've built our team for the pre-construction services portion is we we actually brought in uh a number of different partners and proteses to help us with the preconstruction services um they'll they'll help us with a lot of Outreach um as so we have two partners and and I believe that they're both on this evening it's uh CC Lamberth at C2 construction and Kelvin curry with um all systems restored and then we have two partners or two proteges sorry um that we're working with and that would be Joe Wilson at asj and John Green at jcg um so right now for preconstruction services about 20 3% of um the preconstruction portion um not including the uh pre purchase equipment costs that are that are within that 10 million um but 23% of the preconstruction services does go to uh those Partners uh which are all mwbe okay great um the yeah Sears typically allow more inclusion uh even though I've had some contractors tell me they don't like C Mars um but I I I personally like them because it gives more opportunity to um smaller mwbe and I also noticed there was an entt piece to this students you were going to be doing a um I guess student protog is that something new for mwb is that something that you all created so that's something that we created um we do a lot of co-ops um we really like to grow our people from within at Harper um so a big piece of that is having co-ops um from local colleges come in and that way they start getting their experience early on while they're still in school um and then hopefully once they graduate they choose to stick with us and uh keep moving up through the company so as part of this we already have one um Co-op from A&T uh on staff helping and then we also have um our project team is not familiar with a recent anent grad um Bryant baringer so uh we kind of doubled up when when we did the co-op fair over there uh they have so many great students that we couldn't stick with one that's true they do that's that's that's an ideal partnership um I like we were just at ENT this morning so thank you for that uh clarification explanation um so I look forward to seeing more um as you move through the project yep it'll we'll we'll bring a change order back to Council next fall or late summer next fall with the GMP and all the work packages and we're hopeful we're gonna get very high participation I'm I'm I'm I'm hoping you will too thank you Mike and thank you young lady I appreciate the explanation thank you absolutely I do need a motion on E5 I move item second towns Dr Wells seconded by Sharon hiow and Dr Wells you said that was in your District yeah towns and yep um so I am a yes mayor proam yes Mr buiter yes Mrs hi Tower uh yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes Dr Wells yes and that passes 9 to zero now I need a motion for E6 which um is the budget ordinance move the item moved by Dr Wells second second seconded by Mrs Hightower um Imes mayor proem yes misser yes Mrs Hightower yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr olon yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes and Dr Wells yes and that passes 9 to Zer um we now move on to item E7 which is an ordinance in the amount of 2,75 th000 establishing funding for the fiscal year 2021 FTA CAC operations assistance grant move the item second that is moved by misser seconded by Mrs thurm I am a yes mayor protm yes Mr boiter yes yes Mrs Hightower yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes Dr Wells yes and that passes N9 to zero item number E8 is an ordinance in the amount of $260,000 establishing funding for Tu do- 00002 helping obtain prosperity for everyone Grant move the item moved by Mrs thurm do I have a second second second by Mr Holston um I am a yes mayor protm yes Mr boiter yes Mrs Hightower yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes Dr Wells yes and that passes 9 to Z Item number E9 is a resolution authorizing contract between the Greensboro Police Department and axon Enterprise 4,851 125 move the item second so is moved by Miss abater seconded by Dr Wells any questions this is for the license plate readers right this the license plate readers body camera body body body War cameras okay chief is there anything you'd like to add uh yes only it's uh the body one camera contract for the next 5 years that will include the body cameras as well as the incar cameras and also the technology that records our interviews and our criminal investigation division as well as the associated cloud storage that stores the videos and Associated upgrades of equipment as it advances over the next five years thank you thank you Chief how long can you keep that I'm sorry how long can you keep that uh footage is with acad storage we can keep footage as long as we need it so if it's attached to a criminal case or an IIA investigation we can keep it indefinitely uh if it's not attached to a particular case uh we keep it approximately 90 days uh which is in in accordance with state law I do think that we we changed the um the informed video video consent that we were going to keep those for a minimum of 3 years even if it wasn't um a criminal investigation in case somebody came back with a complaint yes that's correct okay that's what I was getting ready to ask to Mayor um I thought thought we'd extended that all right thank you so um if there are no further questions I am a um we did have a motion in a second on that correct was and the second was Mr Holston everybody wants to Second it um Dr Wells um I am a yes mayor protm yes Miss waiter yes Mrs hiow yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes and Dr Wells yes that passes 9 to0 item number 10 um and 11 item number 10 is a resolution approving and authorizing the sale and issuance of taxable limited obligation refunding bonds and the execution and delivery of a fifth supplemental trust agreement and related documents in connection with the refinancing of various improvements to the city's Coliseum Complex and number E11 an ordinance in the amount of 49 million amending fiscal year 2122 hotel motel occupancy tax fund the second so moved by Mrs Hoffman seconded by Mrs thurm and this is for item number E10 um I am a yes mayor proam I move the item um I'm a yes yes um me and Miss Hoffman moved it together cuz I moved as well okay um duly noted um Miss abater yes Mrs Hightower yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mrs Holston May sorry I apologize been too long too long Mr yes um Mr outley yes I'm glad I'm not the only person uh who has experienced that Minor error so you welcome to the club and uh Mrs thurm yes and Dr Wells yes I'm not sure that passes n is z I'm not sure what's worse doing that or calling Mrs hiow Mrs Hoffman so definitely the ladder definitely the lad I think it's I I just apologize universally so thank you um we move on to item number um which is E1 move the item second moved by Mr Holston seconded by Mrs thurm I am yes mayor proam yes Mrs abuser yes Mrs Hightower yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes Dr Wells yes and that passes 9 to zero item number 11 no 12 item number 12 I apologize ordinance to revise chapter 26 of the M Municipal Code related to outdoor dining Provisions um move the item second Mo moved by Mrs Hoffman seconded by Mrs thurm and I just want to say it will be good to have a long-term policy in place for outdoor dining um Imes mayor protm absolutely Miss AB waiter yes Mrs High toow yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outley yes Mrs thurm yes Dr Wells yes and that passes 9 to zero thank you very much um item e13 is a resolution requesting Guilford County to approx to appropriate 14 million to the Windsor Chavis noo Park complex project this is just um second moved by Mrs Hightower seconded by Dr Wells and this is a request that we have spoken um to the uh to county commissioner chair skip Alon and he requested that we put and writing which is what we've done he um you know we are also looking at a a larger Broadband project possibly and as you all are aware that the county is going out to five different communities throughout Guilford County to get their input too we just wanted to make sure that we put our ask in writing for their consideration so it was moved by Dr Wells seconded by Mrs Hightower I am protm yes Mr Boer yes Mrs hiow yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes and Dr Wells yes and that passes nine to zero um that is the end of our official agenda um if we could do boards and commissions quickly um mayor Pro Tim do you have any not at this time thank you Mr waiter no thank you Mrs Hightower yes I have one tonight um I would like to appoint Frankie Jones to the vacancy I have on the zoning commission second um so that is a motion and a second um I am yes Mrs Johnson yes indeed uh Mrs buer yes um Mrs Hightower yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes Dr Wells yes and that passes N9 to zero thank you um any others Mrs Hightower No not tonight I I will have some next first of month okay uh sticking on boards and commissions Mrs Hoffman I have none thank you Mr Holston I have none um Mr outling done this evening thank you Mrs thurm no Dr Wells no Madam mayor okay I do have one um I would like to appoint um Christina Singleton to the minimum housing board to um to replace Andrew Young and I did have a very good conversation with Mr Young this afternoon and we certainly appreciate his service to minimum housing so as seconded by Mrs thurm I am a yes mayor proem yes Miss waiter yes Mrs hiow yes Mrs Hoffman yes Mr Holston yes Mr outling yes Mrs thurm yes Dr Wells yes and that passes N9 to zero um that is the only appointment I have if we've got brief comments um mayor proam no I'm tired good night everybody um back here misser just very briefly I wanted to thank um my colleagues on Council we had the press conference today for the Crim Stoppers rewards being raised to $5,000 up to $5,000 for tips and of course that U goes along with gun Stoppers as well so want to thank my colleagues on Council the chief the Crim Stoppers board um Crim Stoppers staff and everyone involved in that because this is going to be something that I really believe if we can get the word out that the tips are truly truly Anonymous then I really think people will be calling in more and more in order to help us solve all those homicides that are unsolved and uh many of the aggravated assaults uh that need to be taken care of and they can also report crimes or activity that they see on there so uh if everyone will help me get the word out um I know we can make a difference and again thank you chief for supporting that and thank you to our staff as well for um helping us move that along so everyone was very pleased and it was a really good press conference today so thank you all thank you Mr boo waiter did I read somewhere that you said there were like 46 it's been 46 years and nobody's ever been compromised it's uh Crim Stoppers Greensboro Gord county has been uh 40 years and in 40 years no one has ever ever been identified as a tipster uh so so you know that that says a lot right there there have been over 40,000 tips come in it's kind of odd that it's 40 years 40,000 tips but but it's true um and very quickly that one of the highest profile um murder incidents we've had recently I'm not sure it got on the press release but the MC Moore the the gentleman the suspect who K who killed the young lady in Charlotte and the young gentleman here that was a Crim Stoppers tip wow so uh you know I think getting worded out how much it helps can really help us reduce crime and get some of these uh murders solved so thank you all thank you um Mrs hi Tower um yes Madam mayor um um well is Ivon still hanging with us I'm right here all right well hang with me just a few minutes here I got I got got to talk about I'm sorry um well first I heard Chris say we are going to have a work session on mwbe because I do have uh some concerns with some things there um and so i' I'd like to talk more about that uh also and um so I'm looking forward to having Griffin and strong address some of those issues um secondly I wanted to ask the City attorney um and I talked about this a little bit today Mr Alan and a couple other board members um watched the minimum Housing Commission meeting um and it was quite disturbing in in some ways that um it it seems I think our com uh commission members have kind of uh gotten off track a little bit about what their purpose is and um M Mr City attorney can can you speak to that on how we talked about that and and you know so we understand the role and when we talk to our appointees and people we appoint too as well and I know you all do some training but there were some things I saw that um that concerned me uh doing that last minimum housing me as you know I have shared uh similar concerns with the council regarding uh the action that was taken by the body that that organiz that is a um quasa judicial entity not a policy or Advisory Board and so their portfolio and responsibility is fairly narrow they are responsible and have the uh right to step into the shoes of a compliance officer and that's really set by uh by Charter uh provision so it's not something that Council speaks can speak to directly um and the charter also allocates the policy decisions there to staff so the department is determined that uh the minimum uh Financial penalty that someone can incur even though they they might have a larger penalty that they can reduce by doing repairs there's a five it can't be reduced below $500 and the the committee actually reduced it to zero after contemplating just delaying it uh clearly kind of a jury nullification type of situation um it's important that they do their role because all of the people in that department uh work to you know do these inspections and determine when there are violations and if they're not going to be enforced at the end uh the word is going to go out the death the case and their work will go for not and you will see ultimately the housing stock that people have to rent in Greensboro Decay so uh we want to be uh I think it's important for them to play there their role um is and to understand that they are not policy makers so it's it's comparable to be in a judge in certain sense uh you have a limited portfolio limited responsibility not a a broad one to sort of comment about things generally and take actions that aren't within your scope we have a SC a scheduled um uh training session on Thursday this week where we're going to try to um help them understand their role and make sure that they uh function appropriately But ultimately uh these are you all's appointees okay thank you yeah I I don't you know um I know it's only a volunteer position um and uh but at the same time I don't want us to wind up putting the city in Jeopardy and I do want us you know it is minimum Housing Commission so sometimes we only get minimum repair but we at least want to be able to get the minimum repair um so that the house remains safe decent and healthy for the individual who's living in it homeowner or tenant either one um and so I understand their passions uh around certain things and I respect them because I have passions too so I I don't discount them um but I think we have to recognize when the rules are out there and they're set we have to abide by so uh hopefully that will be cleared up in the training um this coming week um and then I want to congratulate North Carolina entt uh research Farm the caves uh Department agricultural Department uh had their ribbon cutting today uh at 3136 mcconell road for the new Pavilion uh they have a pavilion for students agriculture students uh it's a learning they have a meeting room they will be open to the community uh for a community to be able to come in and and meet and interact um with our agricultural students beautiful facility um I think well over three four million I think it was uh according to Mr Perkin 42% mwbe they strive to achieve that from a black architect to a black contractor uh those are very important elements uh here in our community and then next they will be building a Creamery which I told them should have been first we wanted some ice cream but they chose to build the Pavilion which I think was a great idea we but uh the pavil the creary is next and then finally I want to touch on a subject that's going to make everybody upset make everybody nervous but listen this has become an issue I hear it on a regular every day I've seen the emails come in on it uh I go to community meetings and that's one of the first questions they ask me what are we GNA do about the panhandling how are we going to get panhandling under control um I would like Mr City attorney for us to review our current policy to see where we can tweak it where we can get some enforcement in line better and compare with our some of our peer cities what of our peer cities are doing um I think what has happened also is that there has been an integration of homelessness and panhandling and quite frankly I don't believe panhandlers are homeless there may be a few out there that need our help and we can reach out and give them the resources they need um but some of this is very concerning when I see a lady standing on the side of the road and she got four children standing out there with her and these kids are not in school uh and then she told me she was from another County when I questioned her about why the children were not in Virtual School uh she said well I'm from another County and I said ma'am it's 12 o00 school's still going and then she didn't have an answer so that's kind of concerning to me um and so I think we need to really revisit uh the pan handling issue perhaps even wind up with a pan handling task force maybe uh that includes some stakeholders uh if you will that we need to uh maybe look at uh some tile regulations how we can handle that so uh Mr City attorney I would like for you to look into that uh and then have a work let start to have a work session and a discussion around that thank you Sharon I think you made a really good point that not all panhandlers are homeless and that we've got two different issues going on we certainly need to um support our homeless population and make sure that they have Services um but the the pan handling really is rampant and areas throughout our entire Community um you know trashes being left behind actually in some cases Furniture is being left behind as they go back the next day so um I would certainly agree with you that we need to look at this and we also need to look at it from both perspectives you what homeless Services can we provide and um what can we do about the panhandling and and actually you know we do have panhandling uh res regulations on the books which say you can't panhandle from medians and I believe um coming off the highways and that's continuing to happen but I will say on behalf of our police force I think um you know through the last time that we had this discussion they came away with a little bit of a mixed message on what was to be enforced and what wasn't to be enforced so you know I think we owe it to our city employees and the community at large to really let them know where we stand on this right absolutely and um you know we're we're not looking to really uh maybe throw people in a jail cell but I certain absolutely not that they need to adhere to the guidelines if I can live by the laws they can live by the laws there's nothing wrong with that I do it every day um you know uh so uh and the concerns keep growing the gentleman who called me that was in the track the trait said he's scared to turn the corner because he don't want to hit the wheel uh who's sitting in the media uh and the guy who's sitting in the chair chilling all day long I mean that that's just dangerous at 421 and 29 I I I'm so fearful of track the trailers gonna come down that hill and swerve one day and it's just not going to look well so uh this has become a public safety concern uh as well and I I I think we we we need to get some clarity around how we can administer this policy so thank you for thank you Mrs Hoffman I don't have anything mayor thank you Mr Holston yes I I I do want to say thank you to each of you uh my fellow council members for the warm welcome for uh taking my phone calls and also to the city staff for uh the great assistance in the onboarding process I'm looking forward to working with you and uh I'm excited to be here thank you thank you Mr outling no further comments this evening thank you thank you Mrs thurm um yeah just a couple comments this past weekend was a super busy weekend um I want to thank the Rosa foundation for their vente vente program it was a great program um you know I really enjoyed being out there and the music and the festivities unfortunately there were so many events on Saturday today that I couldn't stay long also wanted to shout out to all the women of the chaos Women's Basketball team um Greensboro was Women's Basketball team they played their final game on Saturday and had a big win um but you know it was surprising to me I went to their first their preseason game and their last game and the growth of attendance um was really heartwarming and the number of little girls that were so excited to see the girls out playing basketball and you could tell they were it really meant something to them to have those Role Models um to work towards that and and I think chaos is going to be a great um support for our our community and then the national day of dance which was a wonderful event in laau park on Saturday um so those were were three items I wanted to mention I also feel like we need to have a discussion among Council um and Mr Brown from the Coliseum about masks and vaccine requirements and what are we going to do um you know I saw pictures of the concert Saturday night and and I don't know how many thousands of kids were there all close together with no masks on they all had masks going in um it's very hard to enforce I'm not sure what the right answer is but I think we need to have a discussion about it as a council thank you um and Mr uh Mr city manager I don't know if you've got a comment on that or if we can get the you know feedback really from the from the health department and from the Coliseum uh you know I I do know that we have a regulation that you're supposed to wear masks in City buildings and you know the Coliseum and Tanger they're both City buildings and the um you know Guilford County has a masking ordinance so if we could get some feedback on how that dovetails together we'll provide you an update you're you're correct about all those things and there's actually a few more things that we're doing but we'll be happy to provide an update thank you Mrs Thurman anything else that's all I had for tonight thank you um Dr Wells uh I attended the um Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame last night they inducted uh 10 new members in the in the class of 2021 that was really exciting hear all the stories of of how they became athletes and when they when they first and I think most of them started as little children it was just in them that they enjoyed it but I want to invite all of you to the district 2 town hall that will be on September 30th and uh at 6:30 and it's going to be virtual so you will have to um all the the citizens that want to attend will have to uh email Council Town Hall at greensboro-nc.gov Council Town Hall at greensboro-nc.gov and uh we will be looking at some of the things that I think folks are interested in knowing about the redistricting and the upcoming election and why you know we're having it that way so that's all I have to say for tonight mayam thank you um and I have I have nothing this evening Miss thurm did you say you had one other thing I do I just want to thank the folks over at Gilford Metro 911 the mayor and I had our opportunity to go for that training this week um and really appreciate um even more so the the dedication and the SK unbelievable skill associated with that role um and that job and how critical it is for each one of us and how they serve every person in our community I was so impressed with the staff there their ability to multitask I know they put us through the paces of the test where you had to listen to one thing and type something else and then it would interrupt you and it's just unbelievable what these eight people are able to do and the dedication that they have to supporting the community so just a giant shout out and thank you to the folks Metro 911 thank you it was a lot of fun I know that most of us have been through it and that um you know Melanie would certainly like the rest of council who hasn't had the opportunity um and Mr Holston we'll have to get you connected up because I think you would enjoy it if you um if you have a few hours to go over sign me up yeah absolutely um so I I have nothing this evening Mr city manager do you have anything no thank you um Mr City attorney um no thank you okay so um can I have a motion to adjourn so move moved by um Mrs thurm seconded by Mr Boer and what is that Mr City attorney um without objection yes without objection all right bye have a good night