Joint Public Hearing

Hallelujah. All right, good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for the members for being here. We're going to go ahead and get started with our July joint public hearing starting with the adoption of the agenda. Any changes to tonight's agenda? Any questions from

all the agenda as jumping into our

Thank you, Mayor Day. Good evening, council. Good evening, alert members. Thank you for joining us. Uh, this item on tonight's agenda is ZMA7-24, which is the Hopkins Farm Plan Unit development. Similar to other joint public hearings, I'll be going over just background information, getting you guys familiar with the site, uh, then going over project timeline and steps taken to get to this point. We'll uh go over the the master plan and site characteristics, and then uh wrap up with some comprehensive plan uh consistency. So, to jump right in, uh, subject properties located at 8501 Pool Road. It's about as our furthest southeastern extent of our ETJ uh just north of Pool Road and uh east of Bethlehem Road. Uh subject property is about uh 50 acres in size. It's currently occupied with residential land uses and some agriculture. Looking at the zoning of the area, it's largely low density residential um on the uh east, west, and north. Uh that's all within town of Nightdale jurisdiction. On the

south side of Pool Road is uh uh Wake County's jurisdiction uh zoned R30. Uh but again generally it's low low density residential uh in in this area. So looking at the project profile, the name of project again is Hopkins Farm. The applicant is David Bergmark Bergmark with McAdams. Uh what's being proposed is a uh general residential medium density/g8 plan unit development uh developer and builders potentially LAR. Uh what we're looking at tonight is a proposal residential proposal of about 171 uh residential units made up of single family and town homes. And this density is under three and a half units an acre. So to get you excited about the the master plan itself, I'm just going to throw this on a screen uh just as you can think about this as we go through our typical process. Um but don't don't fear, we'll go into more detail about this as we uh progress. Um so been working with the applicant for about a year now. So back in uh July of 2024, uh we started this discussion and been working through our process. Uh so tonight it's a town council and LURB's joint public hearing. Um and we uh staff met all the public notice requirements to hold this hearing tonight. So back in July 2024, we we met with the applicant uh to discuss, you know, their goals of their project and then to discuss the town's goals. uh we went over the consistency related to the UDO comprehensive plan, comprehensive transportation plan among other adopted uh plans, shared comments and feedback uh to uh try to get this proposal a little bit more in line with with those uh doc documents. Um so moving forward, another concept plan was submitted with a little bit of change in in units. Uh the the roadway system largely stayed the same. Uh submitted another sketch plan. uh you see that uh it starts to get a little bit more developed with

with town homes down on the south side of the site and some detached uh housing to the north. And then um this biggest change in in April, you start seeing the formation of uh the north south collector road um that we'll discuss a little bit further. And then here is the current iteration that's included in uh the agenda packet. Um before before all that before the master plan was submitted the uh the applicant was required to hold a neighborhood meeting that was held virtually on March 27th. About 15 folks attended that meeting. Uh as you can see on the map most of the folks were uh notified in the uh the estates at Smith Crossing to the west there. Uh a lot of the discussion was around existing vegetation and buffering uh no noise impacts potential uh view sheds from those existing homes, potential roadway improvements to Greyhthorn Place which is one of the roads within the states at Smith Crossing. Discussions about public utilities impacts um to adjacent properties um and then construction traffic and then also construction timeline. Following that, the master plan was submitted and went before the development review committee for review um and comment on consistency or compliance with the UDO. Uh no action was taken by the development review committee as this is a reasonzoning which requires town council's final decision. Uh so through that meeting we talked about the general roadway design on and off streetet parking locations, storm water, uh green storm water infrastructure, also uh the status of the existing farm pond on the site, recreational open spaces, and then uh a tree survey that was submitted a little bit earlier in the process than typical. So here is again a colored version of the master plan. Uh the site is about 51 acres in size. uh which proposes 171 residential units with 102 single family detached homes and 69 town homes. What

you see here is a result of several uh site development allowances being requested. Um of course town council has to uh approve those uh site development allowances, but just keep keep that in mind here. We'll go over those in in greater detail in a moment. So look at the the actual uh proposed housing units. Uh what's being proposed is uh about 32 front-loaded detached uh single family homes with 60 foot which are 60 foot wide and then there are about 70 rear loaded single family detach units with minimum lot size of 34 feet and then about 69 rear loaded town homes with minimum lot size of uh 20 ft wide. of these town homes about 53 will be facing public streets. About 15 or 16 of them will be facing public open spaces uh towards pool road. Um all these units will have a a maximum of of three stories. And this development will be constructed in two phases. The first phase taking place between pool road and the uh the east west uh collector road. And then the second phase will be uh the rest of the lots and and open spaces to the north of that collector road. As the applicant development team were were looking and designing their site, of course, they were looking at the existing features uh that were present. Uh they had an environmental survey conducted that identified um some environmental features an existing stream towards towards the uh top right of the site um that you know will have restrictions on it that limit developable arrow area in that area. Also there are some wetlands present um towards the southeast of the site. So, just bring that up uh to mention that it was uh the the applicant looked looked at the existing site considering that this is a conservation subdivision um you know and and tried to to use that the existing um characteristics the

existing vegetation and uh propose their development around that. So, we'll get into that a little bit later, but just wanted to bring bring that up that they've been focusing on on the environmental features on this site. Um, on this graphic here, don't pay attention to the the circles with the numbers in it. Uh, what I like about this is it shows the lot layout as it superimposed on the existing conditions. So, you can see a large majority of the site um is citing these these lots and homes on the existing agricultural field fields that are already cleared. Um, and then by doing that, it it aims to preserve some of the existing uh trees and vegetation towards the northeast of the site. Um so so uh big points on here are they are trying to concentrate the development development in the areas that are um already cleared. About 12% of the site will be um preserved will be a preserved tree canopy. Uh in addition there will be a 20ft buffer on on the exterior of all sides where vegetation is supposed to remain. So in some about 43% of the total site is will be dedicated to some form of open space and and tree uh preserve tree canopy. Looking at open spaces, there's a variety here, active and passive. The uh applicant has demonstrated compliance with this. Um so what we have highlighted is the active open spaces. They're exceeding what's required and they're proposing an amenity center with with a pool. um some some playground a playground and some yard games. Um something unique here is a nine-hole disc golf course. Um and then a public greenway for the passive open spaces. We're looking, you know, well exceeding what's required by the UDO. Uh what's being proposed is is a pollinator garden. Um there definitely some preservation of natural resources with um some some passive open space amenities throughout

and then enhanced roadside landscaping and and hardcaping along Pool Road. So now we've we've talked about the master plan, where the homes will be, what they look like, uh what the open spaces will be. So um so now the the applicant has provided, you know, specific architectural uh standards that would apply to this development. Uh these are largely consistent with the architectural standards that that are brought before both town council and lurb. Um so we have it here have all the information provided in in the staff report but they are generally in line with with what we see with other um proposals. Um so we also have representative imagery of the of the elevations that could be built um based on on these standards. So, they're broken down by single family, detached, and then of course, um, town homes. Um, happy to answer any questions about those, but we won't go through all of those. Um, so now we know what they the houses will look like, and now I want to tell you how you get to those homes. Um, so looking at on foot, pretty much every road in there, they'll all be public. um except for you know most the alleys will be private but the public roads will have either five or six foot uh sidewalks on them and then um this line here shows uh where a 10-ft side path will be constructed on on um on the roadway on pool road on the north south collector as well as a uh a publicway trail throughout the site. Then if you're in your vehicle, what you would be looking at once this is developed um is the east west collector um to the west of the site is the estates at Smith Crossing where it's existing uh neighborhood with that uh Greyhthorn Place Road. This this development would extend that road um from the west to the east. Um what you're seeing on the right side of the

plan is an approved development called Haven at Griffith Meadows. So they're constructing also a portion of the same collector street, you know, just a little bit um east of this site. So um if this application were to be approved, um there would be just an another piece of this uh collector road constructed going north south. They the applicant has committed to building this to a collector street standard. Also, uh it's not identified in a comprehensive transportation plan, but considering the uh development potential in the area with vacant land to the north and and surrounding uh the the UDA war it warranted that uh this this road be constructed to the collector street uh standard. So, that's a commitment that the the applicant's willing to to do with this application. Then to zoom way out looking at uh the area we have on the far left is Bethlehem Road, far right is Smithfield Road, and then at the bottom is Pool Road. And what we're showing here is is how this collector street uh will piece together as development um occurs. So as you can see, the subject property is extending um from from the left side of the screen. Haven at Griffin Meadows will construct their portion. There's um some uh intervening parcels that are within uh Wake County's jurisdiction at the time. Um and then existing developments and then Parkside at West Lake would be the final lake to get over to Smithfield Road. The development uh conducted a transportation impact analysis uh that was conducted back in December 24 and January of 2025. uh and it uh studied the development uh and anticipated a buildout year about 2029 and grew the growth rate at at 3%. It also considered uh other developments in air in the area. Two of which were in in town Nightdale. One is Haven at Griffin Meadows, the other is Lynen Oaks. Uh both of those those

developments are um under review. You know, their construction drawings are under review. Um and then the uh the applicant also studied the uh city Raleigh development called Banks Channel. Um it's on the uh west side of uh Hodge Road. Um so they they studied that and you know looked at all those impacts in conjunction with u what's anticipated to be brought with this proposal. And uh when this staff report was published uh there were um three commitments that the uh the TIA uh recommended and the applicant was willing to install. But uh generally, you know, constructing the site access and making a stop controlled intersection at Pool Road and then constructing a uh an exclusive eastbound left turn lane uh into the site. part of the towns and DOT's review uh recommended that additional lanes uh were added uh specifically a westbound right turn lane into the site um from Pool Road and then an exclusive southbound right turn lane onto Pool Road from from Bethlehem. So those were recommendations uh as of earlier this week. The applicant updated their TIA and have included those recommendations. So now that aligns with uh what the town and and DOT uh saw appropriate for the site. Now moving into the site development allowances and UDO compliance. Uh a lot of these are are very very common to development. So it's it's nothing that you haven't seen before. It's a little bit unique just because you know every plane unit development you know is is unique. But uh just to to breeze through these front loaded loss must be at least 80 ft wide. Applicants proposing a minimum of 60 foot wide. Uh rear loaded lots must be six must be 30 feet wide. Uh applicants proposing rear loaded single family with a minimum of 34t wide. And then the town homes with 20 foot minimum lot widths. Driveway

lengths required to be 35 ft long. They're proposing uh 25 foot for front loaded and then uh 20 foot for all rear loaded product. then setbacks um they're all all specific to to the housing type um but are somewhat in alignment with the UDO requirements somewhat uh unique but all generally consistent with what uh has been approved in the past uh lots are also required to front public streets um in certain situations like at the southern portion of the site there will be uh 15 or 16 town homes that will front open space that um is separated ing those homes and and pool road. Um so this site development allowance would be required to allow for that um design to happen. Residential landscaping just speaks to foundation plantings. Uh they really spelled out how and where they're going to be um placing uh the foundation planting. So there's clear direction there. Uh residential clearing and grading. Uh the applicant is proposing to to or is requesting approval to mass grade you know every lot including the lots greater than than 60 ft and wide. Uh they have offered a condition that uh any lot within 100 ft of any stream buffer would not be masgraded. Um so that that will show up in a in a voluntary offered uh zoning condition. Um but just wanted to note that all the lots are proposed to be masqueraded. Moving into uh street classification and design. Uh you know all roads are required to meet chapter 10 and those those design elements. Street B the collector road running uh east west of the site will be designed as the main street. However, that riperian buffer that I've mentioned um that's an environmental feature. They're proposing to reduce the cross-section just to limit the impacts. Um so uh the road will still connect. There'll still be bike lanes, there'll be uh pedestrian,

there will still be sidewalks and everything. So, you know, full full facility will be constructed. It'll just be a little bit narrow narrower to uh limit impacts to the environment. Um, this one is is rather unique talking about minimum center line radius for for local streets. So, here uh in the site, the applicants proposing a pretty unique, you know, called a culde-sac. Um it's an area that will is proposed to have a pollinator garden with some educational signage and um some you know access to to the public greenway trail and everything. Um so they're just requesting to not be bound by this 150 foot uh radius for this small small area. Distribution of uses uh just you know proposing to deviate a little bit. Nothing significant or alarming. And then I think finally uh as you know uh the town's preference whenever we have a town road and a DOT road that those two collectors would uh align or or converge with a roundabout um as recommended by the TIA the the applicant is uh proposing just a stop controlled intersection. So that's a stop sign water allocation policy. This is, you know, largely consistent with with other proposals that we see. Uh just to call out the uh the 9-hole disc golf. That's a little unique. I don't I don't think we've seen that one in a private development proposed yet. Another one is just a a bio retention area for storm water um being proposed uh south of the amenity site. But other than that, uh the proposal complies with the water allocation policy. So the applicant is requesting this resoning to a with a base zoning district of GR8. It's a plan unit development. So in these situations, the standards of the GR8 district would have to be met unless alternative provisions are proposed. Those are the site development allowances that we just went over. Just as a general reminder, the

council can uh request but not require conditions to be placed on the development. Um, but I will note that the applicant has offered a handful of of conditions out the gate. So, we'll go over those here shortly. But before that, I'd just like to go over the comprehensive plan. Uh, as you're aware, council was required to adopt a consistency statement as to whether actions consistent with the comp plan and whether the action is reasonable in the public interest. So just to get into it, the uh intentional growth area map, you know, this is the the first map we look at and it it's really meant to establish the expectations and the of the level of change um and development intensity over the plan horizon. So out to 2035. Um so this site is located within the growth reserve area. you know, these areas are are generally on the outskirts of our of our limits and they're characterized by, you know, generally un unserved or underserved by infrastructure, you know, water, sewer, um police, fire, you know, your typical uh municipal um services. Uh and it also identifies that, you know, sometimes it would be expensive for for folks to to extend these services. So whenever uh elected officials are taking a look at proposals uh there this possibility that the playbook approach could be utilized um for this u this growth reserve area. However, the comp plan does, you know, caution decision makers as to, you know, making um or applying the playbook approach and, you know, really u making sure that the the recommendations of the comprehensive plan, the future of land use plan or future land use map are being uh met by the proposal if if the playbook approach were to be u utilized. Moving on to the urban small town framework map. Um this is this is a map that really just describes the u the desired characteristics of of any given area um of town. Um in this location

there's not a lot of of guidance there. So instead um it defers it to the future place type which is the conservation subdivision. Um and really this the future place type map is is really where where the rubber meets the road and starts to um guide developers on the preferred development pattern. Um and it provides the framework for the town to realize their vision uh in this plan. So you know the conservation neighborhood uh is is envisioned as a cluster development that aims to preserve and protect environmental features your existing trees you know anything out there that that has ecological value. Um and the idea of um clustering that development, it allows compact development to occur uh which can minimize costs on infrastructure um but while also maximizing larger swats of land that are um permanently conserved. Take it a step further, the comprehensive plan also identifies certain characteristics that proposals should achieve and um you know so like in sustainability should be looking at low impact design or you know green green storm water infrastructure. uh looking at ways to, you know, retain water on site, maybe through through rain gardens. Um taking advantage of um developing in areas that are, you know, already cleared. Um things with with open space, trying to get them to be interconnected. Uh you know, and then, you know, preserving 30 to 60% of the site is a is a big factor for the conservation subdivision. Um so I mentioned earlier that about 43% of the site will be um designated or dedicated in either open spaces that are programmed or um preserved tree areas. Um so I highlight this just there there's you know not only the future future place type map that we look at but there's also these other specific design characteristics that apply

specifically to this place type that uh the developer should really strive to to uh comply with. Um so this is important step whenever staff's reviewing um plans for consistency. Um, and as part of the applicants uh, submittal package, they they noted that, you know, some of the features that they're they're emphasizing that would apply here are the green storm water infrastructure, pollinator gardens, pollinator supportive uh, landscaping, multimodal transportation options, some physical fitness supported design, and then maybe a potential for some communal uh, rain gardens at at open spaces. So, it doesn't stop there. There's also a conservation neighborhood focus area study uh that the applicant has been encouraged to to look at. Um so that all this information has been provided in in the staff report and in the agenda packet. But um you know these are are really good places for everyone to look u when when evaluating this proposal against the comprehensive plan place type transct. So conservation subdivisions falls within neighborhood uh category. Uh you guys have seen this for for quite some time, but it shows how uh town Nightdale could be developed from from open spaces to activity centers, you know, so rural to your urban small town. Looking at the roadway network plan, uh the project proposal is generally consistent with the comprehensive transportation plan and the UDO by constructing or proposing to construct these uh collector streets. It's generally consistent with the side path and greenway plan. Looking at the comprehensive parks and wreck plan, the sub since subject property is so far southeast um of of town um but still within the ETJ there. It's not within any of the service areas of existing um parks. Guiding principles is another important factor of the comprehensive plan. As

you're aware, there are eight guiding principles that uh all applicants and developers are encouraged to uh align with. Looking at this proposal, uh there's a potential uh with with what's uh shared right now that it could lend itself to the town placem home and neighborhood choices, environmental stewardship and sustainability, and then multimmodal transportation system. Affordable Nightdale, uh it's also an important plan that we have. um just not a lot of information has been provided in the submittal package. So, one of the recommendations is just to to have the applicant take a look at that plan, see um if there's ways for for the project to to align with that. The applicant also looked into the town's strategic plan um and identified three focus areas that connected inclusive, the sustainable and active and healthy and they felt that uh you know their proposal aligns with with these focus areas and uh furthers the goals of of that plan. Mentioned previously that uh some some uh conditions were offered. They relate to uh construction traffic not utilizing uh the existing Greythorn place. you know, where the the existing neighborhood uh sits today. Another one talks about bio retention, you know, green storm water infrastructure, committing to having at least one of the one of those facilities installed. Uh talking about pollinator gardens, educational signage, um enhanced roadside landscaping, buffering around the edges since they're not required. The applicant is committing to that today. uh talking about parking spaces or guest parking for on street parking and then they're also voluntarily offering those architectural conditions as a as a zoning condition. So with that that concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions uh council or lurb may have. After that the applicant and the development team are all here present and are prepared to address council and

the lurb. Following that we'll hear any um public comment. So with that, my recommendation is after receiving public comment, make a motion to close the joint public hearing and refer ZMA7-24 to the land use review board for review and recommendation.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Council questions.

Um I saw the uh noted public charging stations. Was there any of the holes for solar panels or electric?

Yeah. So, as I made I made that comment, we had a little bit of discussion. Uh my understanding is that the the applicant and developer are still talking through that whether that's a viable option, but maybe they would be able to provide a little bit more on that.

That buffer that along road is that that was a condition, but is that consistent with that area comp.

Yeah. So,

yeah. So, the the comp plan doesn't identify pool road as as a rural corridor or a mixeduse corridor or anything. But what we what we did here was, you know, the Haven at Griffin Meadow proposed enhanced roadside landscaping with additional landscape with additional tree shrubs and a split rail fence. Uh what, you know, I asked the the developer is, hey, can you continue that so we have even longer continuous streetscape that that is, you know, consistent with uh what will likely be built out there first. So when

Yeah. Yeah. So it's not shown on these colorful plans, but if you dig into the the the black and white plans, there will be a um a sidewalk running in front of those um units. Um you know, in

between kind you see the stop sign and then there'll be a sidewalk there. And then we're hoping that we can also get a sidewalk connection to the multi-use path that will be constructed on pool road. So you'll have multi-use path on pool road, enhanced landscape buffer, hopefully a sidewalk connection um to get into the neighborhood and then another sidewalk connection front of those town homes and your town homes.

Yes. So let's see. So the the the bulb of the Pshape is the internal actual greenway trail. So the the vertical and horizontal those are just side paths on on roadway infrastructure. But what goes through the site um kind of you know eastward or eastward and then up that's the public greenway trail. Originally proposed as a private uh they were willing to build dedicated public build it to our standards. What's the ultimate crosssection right here?

This is a fourlane U boulevard. So, uh I don't think I have a graphic of it, but two lanes each direction. So, this development would be, if approved, would be constructing there the northern half of that road. I really like that they agricultural space. I just wish they clear to allow some of those mature trees with those homes. to somehow

kind of transition to Smith.

Yeah. So, you know, I will say that they um I asked that they provide a true survey up like earlier. Usually, that's not until after resoning and and construction drawings. You know, considering this is a conservation subdivision, I thought it'd be beneficial to see what's out there actually surveyed and see if there's a way to, you know, design around that or, you know, have some selective clearing. So um you know I think the the final work you know with grading and really knowing you know which trees can remain which can't um will come as as more planning is done and more engineering but you know in in general um yeah I think they've they've done a good job but definitely hear hear what you're saying. So we'll we'll continue that conversation. Did you mention that I mentioned it to something?

It it's agreed upon. It's actually in the in the condition there. Sorry, I'm just going back and forth, but it's it's one of the conditions that it would be substantially similar um to to what Haven's doing. Uh, any questions from our alert members?

You meant I know you can hear me, but I want folks behind me to hear. Um, you mentioned that there was two lanes in each direction with a divided median on Pool Road. Will there be a dedicated left turn lane if you are eastbound on Pool Road?

Yes. So, yes, I can show you a graphic here. So, that was one of the recommendations of the TIA. Too many slides. So, yeah. So, you'll see that that uh yellow turn lane. So that would be if you're you're heading east turning in sight, that would be a dedicated left turn lane. And then going the opposite direction, that'll be a dedicated right turn lane to get into the site.

Um I just wanted to clarify you had said that all the the buffer the buffers between this development and uh Smith Estates that is a 20 foot. Is that correct? That's what's proposed. So,

okay.

Based on the adjacent zoning districts, the UDO doesn't require a buffer, but staff always recommends at least a 20 foot. They've committed to that. It's in in a a condition proposed condition. So, they're proposing, you know, at least 20 foot buffer on all sides. So, not just to the east of this uh states.

Okay. Thank you. And um one other question, the parks service area that does that's only the town parks. Is that correct? That doesn't include the future like Myra Park. is correct.

Okay. It would do you know off the top of your head if this would be within that 2 and a half mile service?

I don't know off top of my head find out.

Can you tell me what the minimum driveway length would be

for

for the single family homes?

For the single family it' be 25 ft. For the for the front loaded be 25 ft. And then for all rear load, it' be 20 feet.

Thank you.

Generally in line with what been improved recently.

I had a question for the guiding excuse

me for the guiding principles. Uh

did it show that it was not inclusive? It didn't. Yeah. Can you tell me can you explain why it's not inclusive in Liverable Town? What makes it not qualify for that?

Yeah. You just give me one second, please. See if I have it here. I did not have it up here. So that you know the inclusive liberal town it's speaking to you know making sure that you know it's a welcoming place. Um but I don't have a good answer for you right now. So if that's all right I would follow up with you or get you that answer. Thank you. Any additional questions, comments before we

this time I'll turn it over to the applicant to speak.

Good evening, mayor, members of council. My name is David Bergmark. I'm a planner with McAdams here on behalf of LAR to discuss this Hopkins farm planning unit development. U I have other members of McAdams with me as well and me and representatives of LAR if there's any questions that might be better directed to them. I want to thank uh staff for the very thorough presentation. There might be a few things I skip over in this. Uh I think everyone's familiar with where we are. Uh Gideon went over the project highlights, but just to remind everybody, this GR8 planned unit development 171 units mostly rear loaded. There's just a little over 30 front-loaded units on there uh with just

uh under three and a half dwellians per acre total being proposed. In terms of our open space, that's been a key element of this site from the beginning. Uh with over 40% of the site as some form of open space with about 4 acres of active, about 10 acres of passive, and then another seven acres of what I'll term common open areas that don't necessarily fit into one of your other two categories. Uh our amenities uh within a place within these open spaces include a pool and bath house, playground, yard games, disc golf that's on the eastern side of the site that you saw, um traditional park spaces, the public greenway that Gideon uh pointed out, as well as uh pollinator gardens. I think Gideon gave a pretty comprehensive overview of of the site, but I did want to just say that from the beginning, we did want to establish um a range of housing options, whether that be what we see as more often starter homes in terms of the town homes, then your smaller rear loaded single family homes in yellow, and then you could graduate up to your the larger front-loaded homes in in orange. uh the town homes we concentrate a little bit more on pool road just because that's kind of your main art road cutting through but there was a request by the town to kind of uh extend that a little bit more not have it quite as concentrated. So we we pulled some of those further up north towards our east west collector road. Uh Gideon also spoke about the the collector roads, the the east west one that's shown on the comprehensive plan and as well as the north south one coming from our site drive. Uh that's not shown on the plan, but it was a request of the town just forward looking at what that area to the further north might be. Uh and something that we agreed upon. Um and upon that, uh we know Nitto loves roundabouts, so we put a roundabout at the intersection of those two collector roads as well with the extension of of Greythorn Place. Uh you can also just see uh our two open space amenities, our main two open space amenities on this site with the main main one with our pool and clubhouse at that southeast corner of that roundabout with the A designation on the screen. Uh

further south in the site uh is our open space amenity B. Uh that's where we'd have more uh playground yard games uh kind of flex lawn space. Um and it would be entirely encircled by homes within this. So great accessibility, great visibility for those lots. uh great benefit to those residents. Um and then the disc golf of course kind of in the northeast corner utilizing that uh open space area. So looking to both conserve land but also provide a means of residents to enjoy it and kind of be exposed to it at the same time while limiting any any kind of disturbance on it. Uh Gideon mentioned we did the TIA he covered the three main improvements, but just for everybody's benefit again, this would include both a dedicated left and right turn lane into our site drive um as stated as well as an a dedicated southbound uh right turn lane coming off of Bethlehem Road. During that neighborhood meeting, one of the items that did get some discussion was about traffic and just concerns of anybody going from this new development into uh to the west on the existing Greythorn Place. Uh so putting in place that traffic circle to us was a big benefit to them, not only to for the town's benefit of facilitating those two collective road movements, but also just forcing anybody who's going westbound into that existing subdivision to have to slow down as they go around that traffic circle. So, this slide was really meant to highlight our different uh buffers, our our pedestrian amenities. Um, I feel like Gideon really covered our our different pedestrian amenities, but suffice to say between the multi-purpose paths, the public greenway, the on street bicycle lane uh along our east west collector that would also continue into the haven at Griffith Meadows to the east. Uh, I think this would be a very walkable uh very uh bicycle friendly development with with lots of options for people to safely get around interconnecting the different uh amenities and green spaces within the

development. Um, Gideon went over the buffers, but just for your benefit, the essentially here the in blue would be our type our 20 foot type uh B buffers. The area in green I'm highlighting just because these are areas that we're going to be preserving a lot of existing canopy, a lot of existing land there. So even if on the plan it says 20 foot buffer, in reality you're going to have more vegetation there just naturally from what's being preserved. So I just kind of wanted to point that out in in that green area. Uh and then the enhanced streetyard buffer uh shown in yellow along pool road itself. getting kind of stole my thunder on this one, but I do think this is really a big element of this project was looking at from the get-go, how does the layout, how do you from the start uh form the layout, thinking about what uh where the existing vegetation is, thinking about how can you concentrate development to really avoid uh those areas to to allow for a lot of preservation within a conservation neighborhood. uh since we are under that designation. Um that was a really a a formative uh part of this from the from the beginning uh while at the same time accounting for that east west collector accounting for that north south collector that was desired uh to to connect through. Uh so we're kind of proud of this. We're afraid we might have set a a dangerous precedent for ourselves moving forward, but I think it's an important element for this conservation neighborhood. Um Gideon mentioned we have over 40% open space over six acres of uh tree preservation that would be provided as we go further along into uh construction drawings. You know um we would have more detailed information in terms of areas that might be uh disturbed and probably could give more detailed beyond the tree survey that we kind of voluntarily did early as well. Um, other elements that we feel like is really aligned with the conservation neighborhood uh theme is the enhanced roadsides landscaping. That bio retention cell that's at the southern side of our main amenity um just south of our pool would be where

our bio retention cell would be. We are looking at there's an old farm pond um that's pretty shallow, not really a at least in my opinion a feature you want to necessarily uh try to preserve and protect. And we looked at that and said that to that to to us this was more of a of a risk in than anything else. And farm ponds, you know, they're not natural formations. They're basically man coming in and interfering with nature. So, uh in the theme of conservation neighborhood, uh we are proposing to remove that dam, let that area kind of reestablish naturally as it will. Uh whether that is wetlands or uh or wooded areas, we'll have to wait and see. Um, and then last but not least, we do have the pollinator gardens. Both a formal one at the end of uh what I've referred to as a culd alternative to a to a culde-sac um at that eastern edge as well as a less formal one in in terms of having pollinator friendly species planted within that pollinator garden. So these slides uh staff has not seen these until I sent this presentation, but I really pushed my team to provide me some visuals of the open space areas that they were developing. Um so on the left side of the screen, you see where these are located on the site on and on the right the the conceptual drawing of what we're envisioning for that amenity space. So this is our main uh pool and bath house uh uh area along the intersection of our two collector roads. Uh just note it's turned kind of to the side uh just for visual purposes here. This slide shows the open space amenity B further south on the site where we'd have our our playground. We'd have yard games, trails, kind of a informal soccer area and flex lawn space. And here's a visual of that. Again, what I refer to as as the codal loop. It's really only serving as a turnaround for like four lots. Um, but we wanted to kind of highlight this and make make use of it more. Uh, so we're providing a formal pollinator garden within this space. And one of the items that we were putting on our water allocation was for public art. So we wanted to kind of extend that pollinator theme and draw on

that and have uh kind of a a beehive hexagonal type pattern to the crosswalks leading to and from uh this pollinator garden. And then extend looking at potentially even extending that into where we'd have a gateway or a trellis. we might incorporate that that kind of uh hexagonal beehive type pattern into that uh entry feature as well. So in summary, um we really see Hopkins Farm as being a conservation focused design as it should be with over 40% open space with really concentrated development, large contiguous areas of of tree being tree preservation and the incorporation of elements such as green storm water infrastructure. Uh we think we've created a really high highly interconnected development with the two collector roads, with the multi-purpose path, uh with the bike lanes, with the public greenway, as well as that roundabout that both helps the town kind of achieve its its vision from a transportation standpoint and provides more assurance and safety for the existing neighbors to the west. And finally, we believe we succeeded in offering a real variety of residential offerings in a neighborhood that people would feel welcome in to the to that extent. Um, and in our mind, neighborhood amenities that really go above and beyond what you would normally see for a development that has less than 200 units. Uh, so we hope that you'll support this request and we're available for any questions you may have.

Thank you. Will you consider prewiring?

I will I will I will urge and I'll bring this back up um to Lenar. I know that they were looking into this what the cost would be. I know there were some concerns about how many people would utilize it versus not. I think there's also a trade-off of if if they think they could sell it, if they think if they think there would be a demand for it, you're also then increasing the house price and so it's like afford affordability versus extra elements. Um,

but we'll continue to have that discussion. Definitely an area where solarization rate cars market.

I appreciate that. I think just from a sort of engineer standpoint existing vegetation certainly require some clearing of trees. So I just guess all you know the existing pond trees within the pond. Obviously if there might be a way to um sort of reconfigure that I would almost encourage the SCM to be where the existing pond is maybe construct wetland but maybe you know even a more linear or something that just doesn't take as much existing something a little bit different certainly that it's not of just a square hole So, you know, just think about think about that ways to really amenize that would be my comment for now.

Thank you.

I do like that um the pollinator garden crosswalk stuff. I think he might be doing himself a disservice putting it in a way that maybe no one ever sees it. Um sort of set aside. Um I want to reiterate uh the fingerprint clearing um in some of those wooded areas. Um we always get the request to masquerade everything. Um but

we we created that for a reason and trying to um in the conservation neighborhood we we want to take that extra time for conservation. Um so I know you're you doing well going into the trees less but um I would hesitate to do mass up there. Um, and I wonder if you had any thoughts on I I haven't heard what the meeting with the neighborhood was like as far as is it a good transition between the neighborhoods um,

the roadway transition itself or the neighborhood transition

between neighborhoods as the neighborhoods could be.

Yeah. Uh, I don't want to necessarily speak on behalf of the neighbors. uh entirely. But I mean there was I mean there was discussions about about mainly about buffers. So I think there was a sensitivity to where we have our western side backing up to them. What would be provided? Um there is a lot of existing vegetation there. It it it stops just a little bit short as it goes south. It doesn't quite go all the way to Pool Road, but most of that western side has existing trees. So they'd really have the benefit of of there being existing vegetation, not just new plantings. Um the focus was a little bit more on um on traffic than there was about character of the neighborhood concerns being being expressed. Uh I think as long as they had a buffer in place that they felt more comfortable about that and just wanted to make sure they weren't being negatively impacted. So that's how the condition about u restricting construction traffic and not using that existing road. The the roundabout placement came in. Uh there was discussions about um speed limits and I confirmed with Gideon that even though these are collector roads that there was no problem posting those at 25 miles per hour to make sure people aren't going too fast. So I feel like that's generally um addressed neighbor concerns, but if anybody's listening and I'm wrong, please reach out to me

from our alerts. Uh, I have a question. I think I have two questions. I believe Gideon showed a slide of the plans with stop signs, and I just wanted to ask where all the stop signs in the neighborhood are going to be. So, uh I don't know if I have anything on my slides that that shows that, but I mean, uh let's see what's the best one to So, these are not stop sign. I don't know. I'm I'm not sure which slide you're referring to at his this this the numbers on this are part of the town's connectivity index, but but uh I can get you a copy. I mean, in in in general, whenever you have one road teen into another, except for the roundabout, you're going to have a you're going to have a stop sign at that place. you're going to have a barricade at the end where that road um is stubbing to the northern border. That wouldn't be a stop sign, but there would be a temporary barricade until that road continued. Um the the what I refer to as the cold loop wouldn't have a stop sign because essentially it would have a a motion around it. But um I can I can make sure you get that material.

I Okay. Well, on his slide, I just I think I just saw two. So, I was curious to know if there was going to be if there was going to be more stops.

Yes. Uh I think what he was pointing out is there's some language in the the town's UDO that speaks to um roundabouts when collectors intersect thorough affairs. And so he was looking at he was pointing out that we were having we had a stop condition. We had a stop sign where our entry drive is connecting to to Pool Road. Uh so we have a roundabout but just not not at that location. But I think that's part of the reason why he was calling out specific stop signs. Um, and then I guess I wanted to get some clarity around the parking the guest parking spaces. Is that what we're seeing on each side like where there's um I can see the parking I think I saw maybe on the agenda like a hundred parking spaces. Would that maybe I'm I'm

we have Yeah, we we're having uh we had as a zoning condition a minimum of a 100 guest parking spaces that are being provided in a number of different areas along our north south collector road. There's guest parking um all the way up that I mean there's there's kind of bulbouts for street trees so they're not all just consecutive line but there's guest parking going up that main north south road um that's one big source we have along our open space area um on the right side let me go to the slide that has a number so along open space number B there's guest parking built into the sides of that amenity for both guest parking and for just act uh people that may be using it uh to to access the the open space while they're visiting We do have some off streetet um parking areas along some of the alleys as well. So you'll see a a few pockets of that along that western side. Um there was some concerns from staff over uh the proximity of that to the collector road. So we kind of pulled it back a little bit so that you're not going to be turning into the alley and then immediately trying to turn into a parking space. But you'll see some there as well as um on the eastern edge of the of the town homes. You'll you see an off- streetet parking one kind of aligned with uh with uh street A there. That that street name may have changed by the way, but aligned with that. So, a combination of on street and off streetet. And there's a pocket of it up um on that little island in the middle of those alleys um towards the north within the middle of that yellow block of single family uh detached homes as well. No others. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

At this time, we will open the floor for public comment. Just as a reminder, please be sure to have signed in on the speaker sheet located at the entry table. Comments are limited to 3 minutes. Uh, we do have a timer that

will indicate that the time has expired. Large groups are asked to designate a spokesperson. When at the podium, please be sure to state your name and address for the record. And lastly, public comment is an opportunity to share information with the town council and the land use re board. This is not a time for discussion, but rather an opportunity for the council and our alert members to take comments under consideration. Respectful communication is expected and appreciated. So at this time, if anyone would like to speak on this item, you may come forward.

Good evening. Uh Rudolph Morton, 1729 Fontills Lane. Um, and some of our concerns are they talked about there being a barrier of vegetation and trees, but there's part of Font Hills that is open to there not being any barriers to separate what's being built over there. Uh so we would like to be able to see something that would give us a barrier of separating the neighborhood from our backyards where we would have them directly in our backyard um instead of it just being open. Now also um we heard no conversation about Fontills Lane. Uh there's a opening at the end of Font Hills Lane on the opposite end that goes around where the pond is. down that uh opens up that we we see as they would be opening that up that we would be having traffic to

come in from Font Hills Lane all the way around to um

Greythorn U is where it would be at. And then the opening coming from Great Thornne into the new opening. What about the traffic congestion? There's no four-lane highways on Bethlehem Road. There's still two lanes which you're looking at traffic being backed up through the subdivision u of trying to get out in the morning or get in in the evening. the congestion would is just going to be so great that um you're not going to see people being able to get there in a timely manner. So that's a a a great concern um and the value that it will take on on the estates of Smith coming in there with that type of traffic coming in uh to the subdivision that is existing now. there's a great big difference in the type of quality of home that's in our uh subdivision now opposed to what is being built. So, we would like to be able to see some separation so that when they look at the communities, people can distinguish the two communities from the one that's being built from a starter home um community to one that's an established upper um echelon community. Uh that some homes are in the million dollars uh there. And now you're talking about homes being in the three 400,000 at the most from what I understand them proposing. So we'd like to see some discussion uh take place about that uh redirecting the traffic uh for Font Hills and um

Great Thorn. Great thorn. I never so I mean I I would hope that that's something that the council uh would take into consideration and the planning board um and also the other end of Fontills Lane that has not been talked about. Um, and there was discussion in the last meeting of the neighborhood wanting to be able to have some barrier to separate the neighborhoods and not just have it open as they have it planned out now. Um, I think that you're looking at an exposure of about seven houses that have absolutely zero barrier um coming from the other. We appreciate your comments. We are always um so if you have more comments that you would like to share, you can send in written comments at any point in time as well.

Okay.

Um so we appreciate you sharing these comments captured and heard these comments.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you so much for being here this evening. Is there anyone else here tonight who wishes to speak on this item? If so, you may come forward at this time. Right. If not, then I will bring it back to council for any last questions, comments. So uh sort of I guess posted on that that last u I was also thinking about that room knowing that you know with those interior loaded um lots on there the you know roadway sort of that close to somebody's backyard I think certainly could be a

buffer and one thing in particular I would note is um alley street C and that utility alley as folks turned into that. You know, certainly their headlights would be shining um directly into somebody's backyard. So certainly that that definitely needs to be um screened very well so that those headlights don't create a nuisance for those those neighbors. Um so I think you know certainly micate those impacts. The the other thing the u I would note is the the front loaded lots. I think one reason we go to the rear loaded a lot. Um it really mitigates sort of the street feel gives a sense of place. Um certain pedestrian feel. So I will be looking uh to mitigate those impacts with you know much larger porches. Um some architectural features on the garage doors. Um you have those opportunities when when they're mirrored products. Again sort of giving more of a pedestrian feel. So um some of those are some style of course or glazing or something like that. I think it's appropriate to mitigate some of those tradeoffs there. Um and one big thing that wasn't discussed is there's it looks like there's about six single wide number homes out here um on the existing site, maybe two double wide something, but it looks like there's existing folks that live there. Uh so I certainly think as you dive into the affordable night plan uh we don't want to move people from affordable housing you know um out and so I would I would certainly be looking for them to be put in at least the same position that they're in um you know I just have a sort of a minimum time frame for them to get out but I think it's certainly something to work with staff staff on try to figure out what that would look like because what I saw existing site that I'm reading out there. I assume they're

reading because they're not individually. Um, and then I have my other comments that I already made. That's all I have. Any additional

could I need Gideon to just clarify the northern boundary of the proposal of which streets we're connecting to?

Yeah, we'll get back to this Ariel. So, the it'll be the connection at Pool Road at the site access that'll go due north to the edge of the uh red property boundary. there'll be a stub there and then the east west collector will go from Greyhthorn Place eastward stub to future of Haven. So there's no no proposal not with this application to connect there's that northern loop of Font Hills um that is there's a parcel that's not as part of this application. So this applicant is not proposing a connection to Font Hills um at all. Any motion?

I'll move to post joint public hearing review May 724 to land east review board for review and recommendation.

Second. All in favor? I

opposed. Majority approves. Motion carries.

That concludes our joint public hearings for the evening. So at this time, I have a motion to second.

All in favor?

I.

Any opposed? Majority approves. Motion carries. Thank you so much for joining

us. Thank you for sharing your comments. Uh thank you to our L members for uh joining us this evening. Have a good rest of your evening. over the