2018-12 December 6 2018 PBM
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Minutes of the
New Hanover County Planning Board
December 6, 2018
The New Hanover County Planning Board held a regular meeting on Thursday, December
6, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. in the André Mallette Training Facility of the New Hanover County
Government Center, Wilmington, NC to hold public hearings.
Planning Board Present: Staff Present:
Jordy Rawl, Chairman Wayne Clark, Planning & Land Use Director
Donna Girardot, Vice-Chairwoman Ken Vafier, Planning Manager
Paul Boney Brad Schuler, Current Planner
Ernest Olds Sharon Huffman, Deputy County Attorney
Jeffrey Petroff
Edward “Ted” Shipley, III
Planning Board Absent:
Allen Pope
Vice-Chairwoman Donna Girardot opened the meeting and welcomed the
audience to the public hearing.
Planning Manager Ken Vafier led the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Vice-Chairwoman Donna Girardot reviewed the procedures for the meeting.
Vice-Chairwoman Girardot announced that all persons wishing to speak during the
special use permit public hearing would need to be sworn in by Deputy County Attorney
Sharon Huffman.
Item 1: Special Use Permit Request (S18-05) – Request by Rhonda S. Williams on behalf
of the property owner, Delores Ann Flowers, for a special use permit to operate a child
care center within an existing single-family dwelling located at 4734 Gordon Road.
Current Planner Brad Schuler provided information pertaining to location, land
classification, access, level of service and zoning; showed maps, aerials, and photographs
of the property and the surrounding area; and presented the following staff report.
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Planner Schuler stated the applicant currently operates a family child care home,
a use by-right in the R-15 zoning district, which allows for a maximum of eight children to
be cared for at one time. This application proposes a child care center, which would allow
for up to twelve children within a single -family dwelling, for a net increase of four
children. Most of the area is zoned R-15, but closer to Interstate 40, there are some
commercial uses, for example, a gas station was recently developed. Some higher density
residential developments have also been recently approved and are currently under
construction. A single-family residential neighborhood is located just north of the
property, and south and east of the property is mostly undeveloped. The subject property
is five acres.
Planner Schuler reported that the zoning ordinance requires four parking spaces
for the use as reflected on the site plan. T wo parking spaces are required for the single
family dwelling and two parking spaces are required for the child-care center. There is
sufficient room for vehicles to turn around onsite so vehicle don’t have to back out onto
Gordon Road. The backyard is fenced in and contains playground equipment. If the special
use permit is approved, the applicant must obtain approval from the state and local
agencies prior to expanding. They would have to be licensed by the N.C. Department of
Health and Human Services and would also need approval from the New Hanover County
Environmental Health department and County Fire Services.
Planner Schuler stated the increase of four children at the facility would not have
a substantial traffic impact. At most, it would increase the number of peak hour trips
generated by less than ten trips. According to the ITE Trip Generation manual, the average
trips expected to be generated during the peak hours by the facility would be less than
twenty. As shown on the map, there are some other projects in the area that have
conducted traffic impact analyses. These projects are required to make improvements to
the adjacent portion of Gordon Road. Those improvements are summarized in the staff
report.
Planner Schuler stated the 2016 Comprehensive Plan classifies the subject
property as Urban Mixed Use. This is a place type that promotes a mixture of commercial
and residential uses at higher densities. The proposed child care center is generally
consistent with the Comprehensive Plan because it provides a service to the surrounding
neighborhoods.
Planner Schuler explained because this is a special use permit application, the
Planning Board must find that the application meets the following four conclusions. First,
the Board must find it will not materially endanger the public health or safety. The use
must be licensed by the State and must comply with many local standards. Second, the
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Board must find that it meets all of the requirements of the zoning ordinance. The
proposed site plan does meet all of the requirements of the zoning ordinance. Third, the
Board must find that the use will not substantially injure the value of the adjoining or
abutting property. There is an existing child care home already in operation on the
property and this application would only increase the number of children to be cared for
by four. Also, there would be no exterior changes made to the existing single-family
dwelling. Lastly, the Board must find that the application is consistent with the County’s
long range plan. Staff has suggested one condition that the applicant has agreed to: 1)
The child care center shall care for a maximum of twelve children at any one time.
Chairman Rawl inquired if planning board members had any questions for Planner
Schuler. Hearing none, Chairman Rawl opened the public hearing and recognized the
applicant.
Rhonda Williams, the applicant and owner of Precious Gems, stated her address is
4734 Gordon Road. Ms. Williams stated she operates an existing day carat that location
called “Rhonda’s Precious Gems.” The purpose of the application is to increase the
number of children cared for at her facility from eight children to twelve children and she
is here to request the planning board approve a special use permit for that purpose.
Ms. Williams provided an overview of the requirements to operate a child care
facility mandated by the State of North Carolina in regard to child development early
education. Noting she is an existing child care provider, Ms. Williams reported that she
meets those requirements. She stated that she has an Associate degree with a N.C. Early
Childhood Education credential. She also meets all of the additional requirements to
operate a day care family home or center, including medical requirements and a criminal
background check. In regard to other state and county requirements, she reported that
she has already started the process and has provided a copy of the fire inspection permit
for the planning board record. She stated she is also in the process of obtaining a building
inspection permit and sanitation inspection permit. Williams stated she has also
completed a required two-day class to obtain a pre-licensing certificate. She noted that
the six-foot high fence on her property exceeds the four feet height requirement . Ms.
Williams stated that each child must have 25 square feet of space inside and 75 square
feet of space on the outside. She stated she has almost an acre of property outside so she
can accommodate at least four more children onsite. Ms. Williams provided photos of her
property, noting the adequate parking accommodations, the outside play area, and the
inside child care facility spaces, which occupy two rooms. She stated that being able to
expand from eight children to twelve children would help a lot of families . She is currently
unable to accommodate families with multiple children full-time. She has a family of three
that split their time at her facility and also has another family that she had to refer to her
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coworker because she is only allowed to have eight children. If she is able to expand from
eight to twelve children, it won’t be so difficult for parents that have multiple children.
Ms. Williams stated there is a need out there and noted that a lot of daycare centers have
been closing due to certain rules and regulations that are being implemented every year.
They don’t want to go that extra mile, but she is willing to do that. She noted she has been
told that her location on Gordon Road is very convenient as she is near the I -40 exit for
parents traveling from other counties to work. Ms. Williams reported that she had
provided a letter of support from one of the parents utilizing her facility who was unable
to attend the public hearing. She stated she is ready to increase the number of children
at her facility if her application to allow the extra four children is approved. Ms. Williams
stated she agreed with the findings of fact and proposed condition as presented by Mr.
Schuler. She believes the facility would be an asset to the surrounding neighborhood. She
added that she is licensed as a four-star child care center, and as of today, has been
awarded an accreditation as a trainer for recordkeeping by the State of North Carolina.
Chairman Rawl congratulated Ms. Williams on ear ning that recent accreditation
and stated appreciation for her thorough presentation.
Vice-Chairwoman Donna Girardot stated Ms. Williams had provided an excellent
PowerPoint presentation and complimented her for not only taking privately funded
children, but also accepting children supported by the Department of Social Services. She
noted that not many child care centers do that.
Board Member Ernest Olds inquired about the ages of the children served by Ms.
Williams’ child care center and the hours of operation. Ms. Williams stated that her facility
serves children from birth to twelve years old. She stated that her child care cent er
operates all hours of the day and night. She explained that she has parents that work for
the hospital, whose shifts are thirteen hours so she provides childcare eight to twelve
hours a day, seven days a week.
Hearing no other questions from board members for Ms. Williams, Chairman Rawl
recognized speakers in support of the proposal.
William Mike stated he has been a resident at 4730 Gordon Road for 43 years. He
said that it has been a welcome site to see Ms. Williams in the neighborhood compared
to what used to be in the neighborhood. She is a delight to the neighborhood, is energetic,
and will step out on a limb. He noted that he and his wife enjoy hearing the children at
play. Mr. Mike stated that he is in support of Ms. Rhonda Williams adding add itional
children at her child care center.
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Anson Harris stated he lives at 117 Hargrove Drive and fully supports what Ms.
Williams is doing there. He stated that the effect on traffic is negligible, noting that traffic
on Gordon Road is bad already. Mr. Harris stated that Ms. Williams is doing a great service
for the community and he is definitely in support of her special use permit request.
Shanna Harris of 117 Hargrove Drive stated she supports Ms. Williams’ application
and noted she is a director at a local daycare center down the street. She stated a lot of
people need child care, many are on waiting lists, and not everybody takes DSS vouchers
like Ms. Williams does. Ms. Harris commented that Ms. Williams has been operating there
for some time and they are in full support of what she is doing.
No one from the public spoke in opposition to the special use permit application.
All persons given the opportunity to speak, Chairman Rawl closed the public
hearing and opened the planning board discussion period.
Chairman Rawl stated it was a welcome sight to see a well prepared applicant
before the planning board. He noted all of the kind words said by the speak ers and
commented that it seems Ms. Williams does a tremendous job and is a great asset to the
community. He thanked Ms. Williams for her preparation and for what she does for the
community.
Vice-Chairwoman Girardot agreed with Ms. Harris that we are in short supply of
daycare centers in this community. More and more women are having to work so we have
two-income families. She stated Ms. Williams’ facility is serving a need and it would be
her pleasure to make a motion on the special use permit.
MOTION: Vice-Chairwoman Girardot made a MOTION, SECONDED by Board Member
Paul Boney, to recommend approval as the Board finds that this application for a special
use permit meets the four required conclusions based on the findings of fact included in
the staff summary and with the condition as recommended by staff:
Condition:
1. The child care center shall care for a maximum of twelve children at any one
time.
The Planning Board voted unanimously (6-0) to recommend approval of Special
Use Permit S18-05.
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Adoption of the 2019 Planning Board Agenda Review and Regular Meeting Schedule
MOTION: Board Member Ernest Olds made a MOTION, SECONDED by Board Member
Paul Boney, to adopt the 2019 Planning Board Agenda Review and Regular Meeting
Schedule. The Planning Board voted unanimously (6-0) to adopt the 2019 Planning Board
meeting schedule.
Other Items of Business
In response to an inquiry by Vice-Chairwoman Girardot, Director Clark confirmed
that Planning Board meetings will continue to be held in the André Mallette Training
Center in the New Hanover County Government Center until the repairs are complete at
the New Hanover County Historic Courthouse.
Board Member Paul Boney expressed his appreciation to staff for the professional
way items come to the board and for the thought that goes behind each of their
recommendations. Board Member Olds concurred and Chairman Rawl added that he felt
all of the board members would agree.
Vice-Chairwoman Girardot asked Director Clark to provide a brief update on the
County’s Unified Development Ordinance process.
Director Clark stated that Vice-Chairwoman Girardot and he had met with many
organizations and individuals to present the UDO process. He stated his appreciation for
Ms. Girardot, who has given up hours of her time to ensure the process goes well and the
presentations become stronger. In those presentations, he strives to help people
understand what a Unified Development ordinance (UDO) is. Director Clark explained the
County has seven ordinances that range from forty to fifty years old to two or three years
old and is trying to reformat them all into one book. Even if the County didn’t update
those ordinances, it would take several months to do it correctly. The presentation helps
people understand the amount of work that is going into the process. He presented a
slide showing the table of contents of a complete UDO when it is done. Director Clark
stated with the consultant’s work now being done by staff, they thought it would be
appropriate to put information on the table in phases instead of finishing it all before
presenting it. Staff will reformat the entire UDO document to the new format. He
reported that the sections of the code reviewed by the planning board in August 2018 are
being reformatted and will be ready to move forward to the planning board at their April
2019 regular meeting. The City of Wilmington is moving forward with their full code and
will likely release it to the public for the first time in February 2019; it will then be vetted
through multiple meetings for approximately a year. Staff would like to see what is in the
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city’s code. If there is anything staff can adapt into phase one, it will provide time to insert
it. Director Clark noted that the City calls their document the land development code, and
has called it that for 15-20 years. He stated we have been asked to make the documents
somewhat consistent, and can call it the UDO project because that’s how the state
statutes refer to these documents; however, it may end up being the land development
code for consistency so that anybody looking for it, in the city or county, will be looking
for the same named document.
Director Clark stated staff looks forward to bringing the UDO to the planning board
in April. Staff believes they will participate with the City in their process of taking that
forward and bring the next stages forward as soon as possible. He and Vice-Chairwoman
Girardot have been meeting with and talking to people to get an understanding of the
most important things to bring forward, with the knowledge that it will take a while. Staff
doesn’t need to spend four months on where the setback information is in section three
if it isn’t bothering anyone. In reviewing the zoning districts last summer, staff heard that
one of the biggest problems is that the re aren’t enough zoning districts in the county to
allow the comprehensive plan’s vision to occur. Applicants come forward with conditional
zoning districts for commercial because the B-2 district with its range of 90 uses scares
everyone. Director Clark stated if the county can get a new commercial district in place,
put some multifamily districts on the table, and provide clearer options, processes and
procedures, a conditional zoning district won’t always be needed. There have been
discussions about looking at the land on the county zoning map to de termine where the
new zoning districts should apply, and then approaching landowners that may have an
interest in proactively rezoning the land to the new zoning districts so they can bring them
forward in groups. It would be a more thoughtful, larger process, rather than spending
the next twenty years having three or four public hearings over individual reactionary
decisions for changes in zoning.
Director Clark stated, in conclusion, that phase one of the UDO process is ready to
go forward in April, other than putting it in the ordinance format. Phase two will come in
as soon as possible after that depending on how much quality we can get from the city.
Vice-Chairwoman Girardot stated she would like to thank the staff, which has been
working so hard on the UDO without the assistance of the consultant. It’s been tough,
but staff has done an excellent job.
Board Member Ernest Olds inquired when Mr. Clark thought both groups, city and
county, would be completely done with their UDO projects.
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Director Clark stated the city’s ordinance hasn’t been released so he is sure there
will be a lot of scrutiny when it is released. He estimated the county’s UDO process would
be complete in 2020 depending on how much is changed. There are a number of things
staff is working on that will make the code easier to work with. Staff is trying to make sure
they receive input from the people that actually work with the codes to reduce frustration
and confusion. The goal is to get all of the real meaningful content fixed in a year, in 2019,
and then keep moving forward and plugging along on where information is put to make
it easier to find. The meaningful content would include, for example, side setback
multipliers, roof height requirements, etc. Director Clark stated he thought the UDO
would be substantially complete in 2019.
In response to Board Member Olds inquiry regarding when a client might be able
to take advantage of the new UDO code, Director Clark stated that if the planning board
recommends approval of the zoning districts in April and the county commissioners adopt
them in May, they would be immediately available for use. He explained the intent on
those is to start working with people between now and then. Once the new zoning
districts are adopted, staff could follow-up with people that want to rezone their
property. He noted there is the possibility that there could be a cluster of rezonings based
on the new districts on the planning board’s June agenda. Th ey would still be using the
same sign code, landscaping code, and parking code, but would have the new zoning
districts and list of uses to work from. Director Clark asked board members to refer people
to him that may be aware of items in the code that aren’t easy to follow so staff can
ensure important things are addressed in the new code.
Board Member Jeffrey Petroff inquired if staff would be doing the remainder of
the UDO project in-house and not hiring a consultant at all.
Planning & Land Use Director Clark explained that the consultants who responded
to the RFP were unwilling to work on a project with a fifty-year old zoning code without
a two-year timeframe to do it. Based on meetings and conversations held, he didn’t think
anyone wanted to essentially start the time clock over on the project. Director Clark said
the County could hire consultants for special parts of the Unified Development Ordinance.
Funding is available and it would save our community a lot of money that we’re not paying
a full consultant. The County could get assistance from consultants on the mixed-use
districts, stormwater regulations, and certain technical aspects of the ordinance to
expedite getting it done efficiently. Director Clark will be reaching out to consultants in
January to find out if they would agree to be competitive if the County puts out an RFP
for four sections of the code. If that happens, it could speed up the process.
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Board Member Petroff said he would be concerned that current staff was taking
on too much and could get bogged down.
Director Clark agreed that was always a risk.
Chairman Rawl inquired if staff had reached out to other planning and zoning
offices in similar municipalities or counties that may be able to complement the work staff
had put in with some framework that has already been instituted into code.
Director Clark explained that current planning staff had researched codes
completed during the last couple of years by the companies the county looked to hire.
Those code documents are public record so staff was able to obtain them from the
websites of those North Carolina cities and counties. Some of those counties mirror New
Hanover County. Code can also be borrowed from Georgia and South Carolina.
Chairman Rawl asked about the next date anticip ated for a workshop on the
Unified Development Ordinance or for a hearing on it as a regularly scheduled item of
business.
Director Clark stated if something substantive comes out of the city code, a
workshop will be scheduled before that information is put before the board for a vote. If
the city’s code doesn’t result in anything majorly different from the August 2018
workshop, the planning board will consider phase one of the ordinance, fully formatted,
at their April 2019 meeting.
With no other items of business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:40 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Jackie Williams-Rowland
Administrative Support Specialist
Please note that the above minutes are not a verbatim record of the New Hanover County
Planning Board meeting.