BY DEBBIE PAGE
The Troutman Planning and Zoning Board is considering standardizing its conditional zoning expectations to address continuing growth and traffic concerns in the area.
The creation of a standard list of conditions for this type of zoning case will help avoid repetitious discussion of the same conditions on each project.
Town Planner Andrew Ventresca and his staff, at the suggestion of the board, began compiling a list of the board’s frequently requested requirements for conditional residential projects to better inform developers of the town’s expectations.
As he presented it for feedback during the board’s November meeting, Ventresca said, “We can use this as guiding document for future cases.”
Ventresca will provide the approved list to developers with potential conditional rezoning cases so they will know what the planning board is looking for and bake those into proposals to save meeting time and make expectations clear up front.
The list will help developers to prepare explanations if an expected condition does not fit their project and to also have opportunity to discuss and get answers from all parties involved about a particular board preference.
The draft list included the following conditions:
♦ All homes shall have driveways providing off-street parking for two vehicles.
♦ All single-family homes and townhomes shall have two-car garages.
♦ Exterior materials shall be durable and residential in character. Exterior wall materials shall be wood siding, wood shingles, brick, stone, stucco, fiber- cement/cementitious siding, or similar materials. Vinyl shall only be used on trim and soffit.
♦ Crawl space or raised slab required or if on slab, it shall have a minimum four course exposed brick masonry veneer skirt (of standard brick size), stone, parging, or other similar materials extending up the face of the slab on all sides.
♦ Front building elevations shall be dispersed throughout the neighborhood. The same front building elevation is not allowed on adjacent property. Right- and left-hand versions shall be considered the same exterior building elevation.
♦ Accessory structures shall be similar in appearance and color to the principal structure.
♦ All power and utility lines shall be buried underground.
♦ Multiple materials must be used on the same facade.
♦ Shutters shall be required on all windows.
♦ Require pool, clubhouse, cabana, and kiosk to be built by the construction of the 100th home.
♦ Require a maximum two-story primary building height – non-finished attic and finished attic living area allowable above two stories within the roof structure; walk-out basement also allowed.
♦ Perimeter lots and highly visible lots – with respect to a lot where either (A) the rear yards are highly visible from public streets/highways (within the neighborhood or surrounding the neighborhood), or (B) the lot abuts a common area, the rear facing façade shall be adorned with the decorative materials and architectural elements shown on the front facade.
♦ Buffer: Minimum 25-foot wide buffer around entirety of property (shown on concept map).
♦ All improvements listed in the TIA shall be completed per the timeframe listed in TIA (subject to NCDOT approval).
In their discussion of the proposed list, planning board members suggested requiring multiple materials on the facade. They also want to require shutters on windows.
Members also favored TIA improvements beginning at 33 percent of a project’s completion or after the first 100 homes are constructed in larger projects.
They also indicated a preference for a 50-foot undisturbed buffer around residential developments, if possible, on a proposed project.
Board Chair Randy Farmer wanted additional indented street parking in front of homes since typically not enough parking exists, especially for larger homes. Board member Brent Tedder recommended requiring a percentage of indented, on-street parking spaces.
Farmer also suggested requiring houses with four or more bedrooms to have a larger setback and longer driveway to accommodate more cars.
Ventresca said the inadequate 20-foot front setback and 20-foot driveway for a home with two parents with two teen drivers often causes parking to occur on streets.
Darryl Hall noted that some HOAs ban street parking after midnight and that fire truck access and safety concerns can also arise.
HOAs want enforcement to stop street parking, but the police really cannot ticket cars without a Town Council ordinance.
“I think requiring providing on street parking is a good thing,” said Ventresca.
With many neighborhood houses close together, on-street parking can block driveways. Ventresca said conditions prevent this in some developments, but there is no town ordinance prohibiting parking across from a driveway except on the Highway 21/Main street corridor.
The board also suggested for a satellite parking area for vehicles such as RVs and large business vehicles for residents who are self-employed.
The board also wanted to ask for berms when circumstances will not allow undisturbed setbacks.
Board members also suggested requesting right-of-ways to plan for future expansion of Highway 21 and other major roads in the community.
The board also asked that developers provide at least the draft mitigations of the project’s traffic impact analysis (TIA) before coming before the Planning and Zoning Board because lacking that information will likely impact the board’s decision.
Ventresca noted that if NCDOT changes are made to the TIA mitigations draft, their changes were usually stricter after the agency’s congestion management looks at the plan, making it unlikely that mitigations will be reduced.
He gave the example of a proposed Quik Trip at Exit 42 across from the northbound 77 exit onto Highway 21. When NCDOT would not allow four-way access to the site, the developer pulled the project.
Hall expressed concern about some projects, like those around the Houston Road area, piggybacking on previous TIAs and not being truly updated for traffic impacts.
Ventresca said with the Houston Road industrial project, NCDOT did not want the TIA mitigations completed at the Houston-Highway 21 intersection because they would interfere with the Houston/Flower House Loop realignment.
With the refusal of the mitigations, NCDOT took no money from developers toward the realignment project, which was already funded.
That circumstance is why Troutman recently added the “payment in lieu of” completion of mitigations text amendment to its Unified Development Ordinance so that Troutman can require the developer to contribute money for use on other improvement projects.
Board member Tonya Barlett also commented that Kimley-Horn will be looking at all development projects holistically now so Hall’s concerns should be addressed in the future.
Ventresca agreed, saying the process is set up now to take a project to Kimley-Horn, which projects the cost of TIA. The invoice is then given to the developer. A project will not move forward until the developer pays the TIA cost.
“I anticipate the TIA process being a lot smoother now,” he said.
Bartlett also asked about the possibility of requiring only gas fireplaces rather than wood burning since houses in some developments are so close that neighbors have issues with smoke.
Ventresca said that some prefer wood-burning fireplaces to provide heat during power outages. He said that this is issue is likely addressed in residential building codes as to whether wood-burning fireplaces are allowed.
After taking the board members’ feedback, Ventresca will update the list for final consideration at the board’s December meeting. He indicated that the list will be a living document to which items can be added or deleted.
OTHER BUSINESS
In the only business of the meeting, the board unanimously approved a rezoning request for nearly an acre at 203 Timber Lake Drive in the Falls Cove-Parkwood subdivision so that the single-family home can access town water service.
This rezoning case will go before the Town Council for a final decision on December 12.
NEXT MEETING
The next Planning and Zoning Board meeting is moving to December 16 at 6 p.m. due to the Christmas holiday.