Regular Meeting

Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. call to order the April 30th meeting of the Kerry Town Council. At this time, I'm going to call on Council Member Lori Bush, who is virtual, and make sure she can hear us. Lori, are you there? Can you hear us?

Oh, no. One more time. Lori, are you there? Can We can check with the IT and

yeah, we'll check and see where where Lor's connection has gone wrong and make that happen. Um, at this time, I'll recognize Council Member Craig for our ceremonial opening.

Hello everyone. As we're wrapping up April, I just wanted to take a moment to recognize Autism Awareness Month. whether you know

it by the name of autism awareness, autism acceptance, um different organizations say that in different ways. Um it's just important to to know a little bit more about that. And it's kind of um helping to promote a greater understanding of neurodeiversity while shifting public perception from more of recognition toward actually being more inclusive. and about one in 31 children will be diagnosed with autism. So, I had not made a public posting about autism awareness as I usually do in April. I wanted to make sure that I mentioned that. I won't take too much time, but I also wanted to say that May will be historic preservation month and we are doing a proclamation for that tonight. So, I won't spend too much time on that, but there's just a lot of um exciting things going on. We should be excited about them year round, but taking special time tonight to recognize some of those. And everybody, if you could stand with us for the pledge.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. First order of business is to adopt an adopt an agenda. We have received a request for an AAPI Heritage Month proclamation to be added to tonight's meeting. And so therefore, I'd ask the council for a motion to adopt the amended agenda.

Motion to adopt.

Second.

Motion and a second. Discussion. All in favor, please say I.

I.

Any oppose? Motion carries unanimously. we move into recognitions, reports, and presentations. And our first presentation is the Child Abuse Prevention Month proclamation. And I'm going to turn it over to Council Member Corissa Kong Johnson and for her

to invite and meet honored guests tonight at the podium.

Thank you. Could I invite the team from Safe Child to come join me down here? Thank you so much for being here this evening. If you'd come join us, that'd be great. I've had the uh blessing and opportunity to get to know this team fairly well. introduced by another Kerry citizen um a couple of months ago was able to go tour the facility. So, I really appreciate you being here. Um, for those of you that are not aware, one of the things I've been doing over the last month is making sure that uh, folks, my colleagues as well as staff and quite a few other people understand that the the the role that the Safe Child team, which is is quite a large team that delivers a lot of services for children um, who are in a really vulnerable state, typically experiencing abuse or neglect. So, I just want to thank you for being here. I do have I know I usually just speak off the cuff, but I have prepared remarks because I wanted to make sure I got this right. Um because it is child abuse prevention month here on the last day, but it has been all month. Um and one of the things I wanted to point out is that um you might have seen some of the pinw wheels planted around Kerry. There's some over at the Western Wake Human Services building. We had a ceremony there and there's some at the downtown park as well. Uh we did that with Safe Child. sever several other groups that work to protect um children as well as our um police department was there in attendance. And what I I'm not going to bother with my remarks as you probably figured out very quickly. One of the reasons why um pinw wheels are used for child abuse awareness, well, child abuse prevention awareness

month is because they represent the way that childhood should be experienced, right? Carefree. And one of the important things about that pin wheel, you notice it's blue. Blue is the color of child abuse prevention month. It's it represents that thing we don't want to think about, those black and blue marks, but also that silver in those pin wheels when you see them. That silver, it represents the innocence and the potential in every single child. They're beautiful, innocent. So, I just wanted to point that out. So, maybe next year we'll have hundreds of people planting pin wheels in April. That would be absolutely wonderful. And I get choked up every year. I I will share an anecdote. Last year during my address for child abuse prevention month, I got choked up and somebody who's on the board at Safe Child said, "I know who to talk to." Um, so they invited me out for a tour and and really got me very familiar with the work that they do. And it was really instrumental because we have an opportunity here in Kerry to really support the work. And I I'd like to work with this team to challenge some of the other municipalities served by Safe Child to do the same and join Carrie. So I do have a proclamation here. I do want to read this. It's in thankfully very big font. Thank you Jenny. So we are designating April 2026 as child abuse prevention month here in Kerry, North Carolina. Whereas Kerry is a dedic is dedicated to enhancing child well-being by preventing child abuse and ensuring safe, stable and nurturing environments where every child can thrive. And whereas preventing child abuse is a shared community responsibility requiring strong partnerships among agencies and a collective commitment to safeguarding vulnerable children. And whereas we recognize and thank the dedicated professionals, educators, social workers, law enforcement, and community organizations who work every day in Kerry to protect children and support families. And whereas volunteers can support children who have experienced abuse by advocating for them

in court through the guardian edit program. And whereas we urge Kerry residents to contribute to creating healthy environments for children working towards a brighter future. And now therefore, I Carissa Johnson on behalf of the Kerry mayor and the entire council do hereby proclaim April 2026 child abuse prevention month in Kerry and north and encourage all residents to observe this month of awareness and action. Even though it's the last day, you still can do something to pitch in. Proclaim this 30th day of April 2026. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

And I do I want to introduce the executive director, Rebecca

Parades.

Paradus.

Paradus. Got it. She just told me how to say it. I'd like to invite her up to say a few words. Thank you.

Thank you.

Evening. I brought my glasses because I knew I would need them. Um, thank you so much. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight. My name is Rebecca Paredus and I serve as the executive director of Safe Child. I'm also a resident of the town of Kerry. I want to start by thanking this community for the child abuse prevention month ceremony that we recently had uh and took place in downtown Kerry and for the way that you continue to highlight and prioritize this work. It truly matters. Safe Child exists to protect children, support families, and pursue justice so that every child in our community has the opportunity to grow up safe and supported. Through our children's advocacy center, we coordinate a multidisciplinary response when abuse is suspected. This means a child shares their story once in a safe and child-friendly environment. While law enforcement, child protective services, medical professionals, and advocates work together, it reduces trauma,

strengthens cases, and most importantly centers the needs of the child. But our work doesn't stop at at just response. And I want to mention before I move to the next section that um in the year in in 2025 39 Kerry children came through our center and between um January and just the end of this month already we've seen 14 in just four months and those are residents of Kerry. Um, April is child abuse awareness or child abuse prevention month and is an important reminder that the the strongest communities are the ones that invest in prevention. At Safe Child, that means equipping families with tools and support before a crisis occurs and providing education that helps adults recognize, respond to, and prevent abuse. This is where partnership matters. The work that we do is only possible because of communities that choose to invest in the safety and well-being of children. Your support helps to ensure that children in this community have access to coordinated services that families are not na navigating crisis alone and prevention efforts reach further upstream. When we invest in children, we strengthen families. And when we strengthen families, we build a healthier, safer community for everyone. Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your consideration. Thank you. Our second presentation is for the AAPI Heritage Month proclamation and I'll turn it over to Council Member Serica Bonsel to invite and meet her honored guests tonight at the podium for the

presentation.

Thank you, Mayor. It is my honor and privilege to be standing here in front of you as the first Indian-American to be elected in town of Kerry and first Indian-American woman to be elected in Wake County. And today I stand here to read the proclamation for Abi Heritage Month which which is AsianAmerican Pacific Islander Heritage Month in Kerry. And it is also my honor to serve on this great board with another Asian a new council member my fellow colleague Bella Wong. If I can invite you to the podium to read this proclamation with me today. And if I can invite all the honorable guests from NC organization and move NCNC to come here and stand with me while we read this proclamation so that we can give this to you. Thank you. designating May 2026 as AsianAmerican and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in Kerry, North Carolina. Whereas Asian-Americans throughout the United States have ancestral ties to over 20 countries across East and Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent and the Pacific Islands, each with its own distinct history, culture, and language. And whereas Asian-Americans and Pacific

Islanders have made impactful contributions across numerous areas of society such as education, business, and science, playing a wider role in shaping Kerry and North Carolina's diverse and rich history. Thank you, Sica. Um whereas Carrie acknowledges the vital importance of promoting understanding, encouraging appreciation and increasing awareness of the rich and diverse cultures and history of AsianAmericans and Pacific Islanders among its citizens. Now therefore, I Vela Huang and Sera Vansel, Kerry Council members, on behalf of the Kerry Mayor and Council, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as AsianAmerican and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and encourage residents to celebrate the rich cultures, contributions, and traditions of the Asian-Americans and Pacific Islander community. Proclaim this 30th day of April, 2026. Would you like to say a few words? Good evening, mayor and council members. This proclamation recognizes our communities. But what what truly defines a community is how it shows up every day in small businesses this that stay open late in

families that value education and hard work in neighbors who quietly give back without asking for recognition. The Asian-American Pacific Islander stories are not always loud, but they are steady, consistent, and deeply rooted. This month is a reminder to look closer, to see the contributions that often go unnoticed, to hear voices that are not always first to speak, to include perspectives that make this town stronger. Kerry is growing and its strength strength will come from how well we understand each other and not just celebrate once a year. Thank you for seeing us and for continuing to build a community where everybody belongs. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Mayor of Mayor Town of Kerry, council members and all the wonderful community member from Kerry and I neighbor cities. It's my great honor and privilege tonight receiving a proclamation on behalf of Depal Center of North Carolina and we are so grateful to the town of Kerry and all the council member. Um I'm also proud to say uh as a AAPI member community because we are not here just the community we are actively in involved in the community service volunteer service like uh civic invest engagement uh youth empowerment senior citizen um um activities and others

activity working with the towns. So in the meantime we are sharing the culture promoting the culture AAPI culture and everyone get the opportunity to learn the new culture and new things. Uh that's why uh we have been working actively since last two decades. So thank you very much and I would like to thank good evening everyone. Um, my name is uh Shinlani. Um, I today I'm here to represent um MoveNC Foundation to receive this honor. So, thank you, Mr. Mayor and um and uh Sesa uh Sica Bonso and um Bella Juan and the entire council as well. Thank you very much. Uh it's a very uh privilege uh to be here to receive this honor. Um we are as a nonprofit organization move and see uh is committed to building um to building um strong communities uh in AsianAmericans uh and allies in North Carolina. And uh without going into much details um in celebration of AAPI um A&HPI heritage month uh next month uh we are organizing a uh AAPI um career fair um that'll be held in uh right here in Kerry uh senior center and for more information um and registration and please go to um movecfoundation.org org. Um, and please go check out and get registered. Thank you.

Before we do our next proclamation, I believe our mayor pro Tim is now on the line. I'm going to check and see if we can talk now. Miss Bush, are you there?

I am.

Yay. We hear you. Thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

Okay. Our third presentation is for ALS awareness month and I'll invite those from ALS United to meet me at the podium to receive this proclamation. Welcome. Thank you for being here. As all of us know, ALS is is devastating and to have a group ALS United to help fight this horrible disease is very, very important. At the least, it gives us hope and hope goes a long way. So, I want to thank you first of all for everything you're doing. And this month is ALS awareness month. And in honor of that or in recognition of that, I want to read a proclamation designating May 2026 as ALS awareness month in Kerry, North Carolina. Whereas ALS known by many as Lug Gerri's disease is a progressive fatal neurode degenerative disease in which a person's brain connecting connection with muscles slowly takes away their ability to walk, talk, eat and eventually breathe. And whereas thousands of new ALS cases are reported every year and estimates show that every 90 minutes someone is diagnosed with ALS and someone passes

away from ALS. And whereas clinical trials play a pivotal role in evaluating new treatments, enhancing quality of life, and fostering assistive technologies for those living with ALS. And whereas the ALS association is committed to accelerating the pace of discovery fueled by the hope that one day ALS will be a livable disease for everyone everywhere until a cure can be found. And whereas ALS month provides an opportunity to increase public awareness of the dire circumstances of people living with ALS, acknowledge the terrible impacts of this disease has on those individuals and their families and support research to eradicate this disease. Now therefore, I Harold Weinre Jr. on behalf of the entire Kerry Town Kerry Town Council do hereby proclaim May 2026 as ALS awareness month and I encourage everyone to join in supporting ALS research and standing in solidarity with those affected by this relentless disease proclaimed this 30th day of April 2026. Six. On behalf of ALS United North Carolina, thank you to the town of Kerry for this meaningful proclamation and for standing with the ALS community. ALS is a devastating disease that impacts not just individuals but entire families. Today's recognition helps shine a light on the disease that is often misunderstood and it reminds those living with ALS that they are not alone.

Here in Kerry and across North Carolina, we are proud to support families through access to care, equipment, and resources. And we are grateful for partners like Stall's medical and adaptive vans who improve mobility, independence, and quality of life for those we serve. To the families and individuals affected by ALS, we see you. We support you and we are fighting alongside you every day. And to everyone here, thank you for helping to raise awareness, for showing up, and for being part of the movement. Because truly together we can end ALS. Thank you. Our fourth proclamation is for Historic Preservation Month. I'll turn it over to Council Member Michelle Craig to invite and meet her honored guest tonight at the podium for the presentation. Does she have to go? Do you know Catherine's still here? So, as the mayor said, May is historic preservation month, and I am here with the chair of the Friends of Paige Walker, which is Car's Historical Society. The chair of the Historic Preservation Commission was with us earlier, but she had multiple commitments. Um, so she had to slip out. We're super excited that you could be here to represent those two groups. And I will read the proclamation now. Designating May 2026 as historic preservation month in Kerry, North Carolina. Whereas the imagine Kerry community plan recognizes the importance of preserving historic and cultural resources to maintain community character and help guide future growth. And whereas historic preservation in Kerry is an act of stewardship that connects past, present, and future,

ensuring that places of significance remain part of the community's shared experience as the town continues to grow. And whereas preservation supports economic vitality, heritage, tourism, and environmental sustainability by encouraging the reuse of existing buildings and maintaining the character that makes Kerry a distinctive and desirable community. And whereas the town of Kerry has established a historic preservation commission to advise on the identification and recognition of significant historic resources. And whereas throughout the month of May, we will be commemorating our community's heritage with a series of programs, tours, and exhibits. And whereas as the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this year's Preservation Month highlights places that reflect its promise that all people are created equal and the efforts to preserve them. Now therefore, I, Michelle Craig, Kerry Council member, on behalf of the Kerry Mayor and Council, do hereby proclaim the month of May 2026 as Historic Preservation Month in Kerry and encourage residents to recognize and celebrate its role in the community, proclaimed this 30th day of April, 2026. I'll present that to you. I did also want to let everyone know that they can look on the website to find out the events that will be coming up in May and also there will be a Carrie Matters episode that will be um that you can see online in the next week or so or within a few days maybe and we'll allow you if I know we probably didn't

totally unaware but

just just talk like Cararissa does

just on behalf of the friends I'd like to say thank you very much for this uh very nice proclamation and honor and appreciate the past future uh support from the town council and the mayor on historic preservation and Carrie. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Our fifth presentation is to recognize the culinary students from one of our sister cities in Latuk, France. And I'll turn it over once again to council member Craig to recognize the students and honored guests. So, it's an extra honor to present twice. I'll go ahead and have our honored guest come up while I'm um saying a little bit more. I am the council liaison for both historic preservation commission, the friends of Paige Walker, which we were just recognizing, and also Carrie Sister Cities. So, to have um so much recognition all in one night is is such an honor. So, we're having the students and chaperones come to the podium. The Kerry Sister Cities program promotes people-to-people diplomacy, the foundation of the sister city movement. We currently have five sister cities around the globe, including Leuk, France. Kerry and Leuk have been sister cities since 1991 and have shared a culinary arts student exchange program since 1992. And I know our our mayor has hosted for them um in previous years. Annually, this program fosters the development of culinary arts skills through hands-on educational and cultural experiences with Lich students visiting Kerry. Well, um, thank you so much for being here and we we met with them earlier today, so I'm probably being a little less formal than than typical. Um, we we hope you're enjoying your experiences here. Um, I know um I'm about to read the different um locations that you're working in, but we really appreciate so much. Um it's always exciting every year to have you come and visit with us and so we do hope you're enjoying your time

here. Um I understand this year the host institutions are Herands Maximleians Peck and Plume Tram and Draft Veno and TAP. We appreciate all the support that these organizations and the host families and Kerry sister city's French committee have provided to make this program a success. And I will also step away from my notes for a minute and just say that, you know, I've only been on council for about two and a half years, but my understanding is that it's only been recently that we've had enough wonderful, vibrant locations in Kerry to be able to host all of our our students. And in the past, they've had to go outside of Kerry. Is that is that true? So, it's really a big it's really a big deal that we have this many locations um where they can come and and learn here. It always blows my mind that students from France are coming to the United States to learn about these things because I always thought that I would want to go there instead. Um but it it really is an honor to have you here. Thank you so much. And

yes, come on up. Good evening every everyone. My name is Tibo. To start, I would like to thank you all for the warm welcome you gave us when we arrived in United States. We were welcomed by kind and warm earth families. Yeah. I want to tell you who we are and what we do. We all come from a college located in Luk Parl in north of France which is Lis and we are studying hospitality and culinary arts to become future chef or sier or receptionist for example and me I would like to become slay in future and to own my own gourmet restaurant.

This year we had to do two internships. The first one was this one in Kerry for one month at the MSET for me and we have second one to do in France during three months this summer. So this year we studied all the different aspects of these professions so that next year we can focus on the one we like the best and more we are studying to manage team and to become entrepreneurs in the future with classes of management, business management and finance classes. Finally, thank you for listening and welcoming us so warmly in Curry. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Alexander and I had the pleasure of staying at Brenda and Jerry Schaefer's lodge with uh my best friend Carl who is there. So for the last two weeks uh during our stay we had the privilege of meeting new people engage um learn and yeah basically in a very meaningful way from a very single uh from every single person we encountered from the vibrant at from the vibrant atmosphere of downtown Kerry to the scenic North Carolina countryside where we went fishing. We have been deeply impressed by the beauty of the state and the warmth of its citizens. Working at Maximillians alongside with Margie and her team has been a rich and fulfilling experience both professionally and personally. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who have who made these last two weeks so unforgettable. In particular, I want I wanted to thank Brenda and Jerry Schaefer, our wonderful host family for their incredible hospitality. Chef Margie and Suef cold for their im immense patience, dedication and kindness. Thank you all.

Good evening everyone. Today I would like to speak on behalf of all of us to express our sincere gratitude to everyone who made this incredible opportunity possible. our host families um the chamber of commerce, the sister Kerry city partnership, the great president Pamela, Ken and Ken and Karen and our teachers who gave their all to create an inforgettable experience. We are all deeply grateful for the time and effort you dedicated to organize this day and the many activities that allowed us to discover the beautiful city of Kerry. um like the police department visit uh the museum of science, Tanger Mall, the visit to downtown Kerry Park. We would also like to thank you in advance for the beach house weekend uh where we will all be gathered to enjoy the last moments of this wonderful trip. Personally, working uh with the staff at Drum and Duff and Venuantap has been one of the greatest experiences I ever had. um they were so welcoming and truly happy to have us as part of their team. Finally, I would especially like to thanks Susan Salomon um my host family for the warm welcome she gave us and for for her kindness throughout this day. Thank you all so much for making this journey so special and unforgettable. And if you ever get a chance to go to Lut, you got to check it out. It's a beautiful place. All right, we now move to the public speaks out portion of our meeting. We've included instructions for speaking at this forum

online and on the printed agenda. There were three opportunities to participate in public speaks out through written comments by calling in or by attending here in person tonight. And if you are here in person and would like to speak, I would ask that you please take a seat in the rows to my right that are now highlighted. Public speaks out speakers have up to three minutes each for their comments and may speak on any town related topic as long as it's not a public hearing. And that's to your advantage. You get more time at a public hearing. The threeminut time limit will be enforced. Not to be rude, but to be fair to all of our speakers. We have a timer on the podium. It'll start off with a green light. When the light turns yellow, that means you have 30 seconds remaining. When it starts flashing red, that's the moment I will interrupt you. Again, not trying to be rude, but trying to be fair to all of our speakers. I would ask that speakers be respectful in their comments and direct those comments to the entire council, not to an individual. I thank everyone in the audience tonight for understanding that this is a business meeting and I ask that you please respect that. Do not applaud, do not make remarks from your seats. Use props or anything else that may distract from this meeting. So now is the time for public speaks out. And first I want to call on the town clerk to read any written comments and call on any registered speakers.

We've received four written comments. These have been emailed to council prior to the meeting, provided to council upon arrival, and attached to the online agenda. Um, we have no registered speakers.

Okay. If you are here this evening and would like to speak at public speaks out, not a public hearing, but public speaks out, now is your opportunity. And

I would invite you forward. Good evening, uh, Mr. Mayor and members of the city council. I'm here with a safety issue that I want

your name, please.

I'm sorry. My name is Tom Staley. S T A L E Y.

I'm at 1209 Kelty Court in Kerry, North Carolina. I'm here with a safety um um awareness that I wanted to bring before the city council. Uh I have brought it to the attention of the individuals working for the town of Kerry. Uh this has reference to the uh urban park. Uh, as you travel east um on Chadam, when you turn right into Urban Park, there's a a road that kind of sandwiches the park on both sides. Recently, I experienced uh several mothers with children, one with three children. Um, and children can be children, and mothers have a lot on their hands. There is a row of bushes between the road and the park and there are breaks in the bushes and the bushes are taller than the children. There are also uh maybe 4x4 or 5x4 um posts along through there. What I experienced and what I saw was when a mother was attending to one child, one ran between the bushes out onto the road. I think a simple colored rope or a rope of some type that could maybe break up the where the bushes are, but have maybe two areas where they could enter the urban park. If a child should get loose and a car should pass there, there's not enough time to stop. The child will be

run over. I can't imagine the loss of a family member that would lose a child. Secondly, the million-doll lawsuit that the town of Kerry would, I'm sure, have to incur, which would be minor to the loss of the child. So, I would like to ask the city council if they could uh perhaps um speak with the parks department and see if we could get some type of a colored I say colored because I think it'd be pretty to have a yellow or red um rope between the 4x4s with specific openings for the parents to take their children in and out of the park because there's probably seven or eight places children could run and mom can't be in three places at one time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Staley. Uh, good evening, mayor, members of council. Jason Baron with the Morning Star Law Group. I'm joining you this evening on behalf of MP South Hills. They are the owners of the vast majority of the property that would be subjected to the municipal service district that is on you all's consent agenda for this evening. For starters, want to say we look forward on behalf of MP South Hills to working with the town through that process. Uh that is a self-imposed real estate tax that ultimately we would be reinvested in making South Hills redevelopment something that we can all be proud proud of. In that regard, uh I I do want to share the owner's continued bullish outlook on what South Hills will become. Uh it was a wonderful process to go through with the town during that zoning process for multiple years. As you've probably heard in the news, there's some exciting things already in the works for what will be the future of South Hills. And so, just wanted to tell you all thank you again for working with us and we continue to look forward to working with you to make Southill something that we will all look back on and say, "Wow, I can't believe we all

got to be a part of that." Thank you. Thank you, Miss Baron. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Renee Miller and perhaps I'm rushing ahead a little bit this evening, but I have had the opportunity to attend four of the budget priority sessions conducted by the town staff over the last few months. I have been able to give feedback in two of those sessions and to observe two additional sessions. Three of the groups have included leaders both elected and volunteers. And the feedback from the group that included leaders ammeritus I found the most informative since many in that room have long influenced our town. The age groups varied but tended to be the more senior citizens of our community. Taking advantage of these opportunities has put me in a unique position to draw several conclusions. Citizens want to maintain the quality of life in Kerry in two primary areas. Community safety and maintaining our facilities and infrastructure came out important in the citizen groups. Service levels are also important within the groups I observed from my less former formal conversations. Affordability, especially in keeping taxes more level for people on fixed incomes, is also important even for those who are not senior citizens yet. As the staff enters the final stages of the budget development, budget development and you set the policy to guide that process, I ask that you consider this early feedback. I'll see

you all for the budget roll out at the council quarterly on May 14th. Thank you. Anyone else for public speaks out? Seeing no one, we'll move to our next item, which is the consent agenda. For the benefit of people watching our meeting via streaming, I'll take a moment to review the consent agenda items. Please keep in mind that one vote approves all of these items. On the consent agenda, we have appropriation of funds for purchase of property, 2026 opioid litigation settlements, petition for South Hills Municipal Service District, Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, Campo, Budget Amendment. Would council members like any of these items pull for discussion? If not, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Motion to approve.

Second. There's a motion and a second. Discussion. All in favor, please say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. We now move to public hearings. Same rules apply for public hearings that apply for public speaks out with one exception. Speakers now have five minutes each for their comments. Our first public hearing is 2026 2027 community development block grant or CDBG annual action plan funding recommendation list and citizen participation plan. Planning director Heather Wheelahan will introduce the item and council may take action. Miss Wheelan.

Thank you mayor and good evening mayor and council. I'm thrilled to be here tonight with you to introduce the draft 2026 2027 CDBG annual action plan. And I'm even more thrilled to be here tonight to introduce housing programs manager Mary Letterly. Mary has been with us for uh over five years now. First as an intern and then

full-time helping manage our housing programs. Mary's UNCC business degree, her heart for service, and passion for this work make her an incredible asset to us and our housing programs initiatives. Mary,

thank you, Heather. And good evening, Mayor and Council. Like my little stand here. I'm excited to present K's 2026 2027 annual action plan and CDBG citizen participation plan. Tonight is a public hearing and council may also take action on the draft plans. K's work in housing is rooted in the in the vision established in the imaginary community plan and the 2021 Kerry housing plan which you fully integrated into the 2024 update to Imagine Carry. Kerry envisions our housing as high quality and sustainable with diverse choices to meet our residents needs. Ultimately, we envision housing in Kerry to further the opportunity for all residents to enjoy the high quality of life our community has to offer. To support this vision, Kerry invests a blend of local and federal funds in a variety of housing initiatives. The draft plan for consider for consideration this year includes proposed allocations of Kerry general funds, federal community development block grant or CDBG funds, and federal community project funding, also known as congressional earmark funds. To receive CDBG funds, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD requires that communities establish a consolidated plan identifying housing and community development needs over the next 5 years. Within each of those five years, an annual action plan allocates funds to initiatives furthering established goals. Additionally, HUD requires that communities maintain a citizen participation plan to outline CDBG public engagement opportunities.

Last year, council adopted the 2025 2030 consolidated plan that set goals for how count for how CDBG funds will be used in those five years. And this year, for your consideration, we are bringing forward the 2026 2027 annual action plan to propose how this year's funding will fulfill those goals. and to propose minor updates to our citizen participation plan. I will share more details on both of those plans. But first, turning to process. This year, we opened funding applications in December. Applications were then scored by a panel based on alignment with Kerry housing goals and HUD national objectives. On March 3rd, we hosted an opportunity for public input at Herb Young Community Center. We then drafted this annual action plan identifying core objectives and award recommendations and proposed minor updates to the C to the citizen participation plan. The plans have been open for public comment for 30 days during which we received comments at the April 7th budget openhouse. As I said, tonight is a public hearing and you may take action to approve the draft plans. Once we have approved draft plans, staff will then submit them to HUD and if approved, we will move ahead with initiative implementation. Annually, we are required to submit our plans to HUD by May 15th, which is why you see them before Car's local budget is finalized in June. While developing these plans, we engaged the public in several ways. As I mentioned, we held an opportunity for public input, a new event that gathered over a dozen community members to provide input before the annual action plan was drafted. We also engaged residents at the April 7th budget openhouse. Additionally, we sent direct emails to stakeholders, shared the plans with local housing groups, and invited comments via social media posts, newspaper ads, and the email newsletter. this week in Carrie. Community members shared feedback during the recent public

speaks out sessions and finally a public hearing will follow this presentation. A full summary of all comments received will be included in the final annual action plan when submitted to HUD. As I mentioned, Car's citizen participation plan outlines how we fulfill federal public engagement requirements for CDBG activities. Our current participation plan approved in 2020 needed minor updates to clarify the timing of public hearings, public notices, and better explain the purposes of CDBG plans. The updated plan was available for public comment for 30 days and is included as an attachment to the staff report. If approved this evening, the new plan will be effective until Carrie desires or new federal requirements call for another update. We've discussed our community vision and required processes. Now, I'll share how the draft annual action plan seeks to fulfill K's housing goals. In Kerry, we engage in partnerships to work across the entire housing continuum in these four high impact strategy areas. New housing opportunities, housing rehabilitation and affordability preservation, housing stability and affordable living support, and nonprofit capacity building. When cultivating partners and evaluating funding rewards, we prioritize initiatives that align with these high impact areas. This year, we've received seven applications for a total of over $6 million. We are recommending awards for six of them totaling over $4.5 million for work across the entire housing continuum. These funds will create new affordable housing, rehabilitate existing housing, support people experiencing housing instability, and support our partner organizations carrying out this work. As we have said, partners partnerships are critical to the housing work we support in our community. And this year, we propose funding for these organizations initiatives in Kerry. We

don't operate a housing authority and we are not developers. So, we know we couldn't make the same impact without the expertise of these incredible partners. I also wanted to mention that our awards are multi-year, which means that we have five more partner organizations who received awards in previous fiscal years who will continue to further our housing goals in this next fiscal year. These uh five initiatives are not up for your consideration tonight, but we still wanted to highlight the great work that they're doing. For this year's awards, we first proposed $750,000 in gap financing for the redevelopment of the Greenwood Forest Baptist Church property to create a mixeduse development including 62 units of new affordable housing, a daycare and community program space. This project is a partnership between Greenwood Forest, DHIC, and the carrying place, also known as the can as the canopy at the Kim Timothy Ash car center. Additionally, Carrie has submitted an application for federal community project funding. If approved, an additional $1.5 million would go to support this project. We also propose $750,000 for Healthy Homes Carry, our home repair program, which helps income eligible homeowners make critical repairs and accessibility modifications. We manage healthy homes carry in partnership with preserving home formerly known as rebuilding together of the triangle. Third, the stable homes carry program which you established in 2024 with a proposed award of $600,000 in partnership with NeighborUp, formerly Dorcas Ministries. The program aims to keep residents in their homes and support them when relocation is necessary. This includes administration of the Oasis utility bill fund program and the Play It Forward program. Also re recommended is $145,86 for the Raleigh Area Land Trust to

purchase and rehabilitate one home in Kerry for affordable home ownership. Ralty uses the community land trust model and leverages additional funding sources. For White Oak Foundation, we've proposed $60,121 for emergency housing and food assistance along with senior programming. An additional award of $200,000 would support predevelopment soft costs for 60 units of affordable senior housing. Finally, staff has proposed $50,000 in nonprofit capacity support for partners furthering housing and community development goals, a core intent of the Kerry housing plan. This has produced more efficient and effective programs that have increased capacity to serve more Kerry residents annually. Awards may include scholarship support to the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits Management Institute, strategic planning and staff development, and training for faith-based development partners. We are excited to make these recommendations and grateful to these organizations for the work that they do to create housing and support Kerry residents. As I mentioned, we use a blend of funds. This initial draft awards package before you for consideration is composed of $747,211 in current year CDBG funds, $14,826 in prior unused CDBG funds recuperated from expired or complete projects, and almost $2.2 million in requested FY27 Kerry general funds. As mentioned earlier, if Car's community project funding application is approved, an additional $1.5 million will support the car center. This would total 4,542,872. Based on council and community feedback, staff has prepared another option for consideration. This option proposes an increase to the

general fund allocation by $757,128 for a total award package of $5.3 million. This represents an increase in what is currently in the department requested FY27 budget. In both options, the CDBG allocations are the same. ultimately to vote on the annual action plan tonight. Council in the community should be in alignment on how CDBG dollars are allocated in this plan. Providing a complete picture of all fund sources allocated to housing goals does strengthen the annual action plan. So, council could choose to add additional general funds tonight via this annual action plan or through the budget process over the coming months or at any time throughout the year. If council chooses to adopt option two, staff suggests additional allocations to these projects. To the car center development, an additional 552,249 would be recommended for a total of over $2.8 million. To White Oak Community Services, an additional $64,879 for a total of $125,000. and for senior housing, an additional $140,000 for a total of $340,000. This concludes my presentation and after the public hearing, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. Now is the time for the public hearing for 2026 2027 CDB annual action plan funding recommendation. And I'll call on the clerk to read any written comments and call on any registered speakers. We had no written comments and three registered speakers. The first inerson speaker is Mary Kint followed by Susan Kinsley Kinsey and Tim Lee.

Good evening. My name is Mary Kintz and I come to you representing the one wake strategy team especially the organizations in Kerry including St. Paul's Episcopal Church, my employer and my faith community. A few weeks ago, I reminded one wake members at an internal assembly that the O N and E in our name stands for something. Organizing neighbors for empowerment. If we want to see a different outcome in our c in our county, we have to work together to achieve it. We can't be passive and blame others if we stop paying attention. I am here tonight with members of One Wake from Kerry and across the county seated up there. The people of One Wake are committed to being the voice of neighbors who will not go away when it comes to a commitment to affordable housing. One Wake is in discussions with officials in Raleigh, Zebulun, and Garner, as well as with Dr. Taylor, the superintendent of Wake County schools, advocating for longterm investments in affordable housing to anyone who will let us speak. We are losing affordable ground. City and county planners are sounding alarms. Now is a critical moment to commit resources intentionally or we will lose ground that cannot be regained. If we are going to be more than sorry when residents are displaced because real estate remains a profitable investment, we have to rally as citizens to do something different. Car's development plan for affordability that increases funding, new housing opportunities, housing preservation, and housing stability support is wonderful. But remember, the need will outpace the funding if we do not maintain the budget

numbers that have gotten us this far. My fellow strategy team member, and she's here this evening, the doctor uh Reverend Dr. Rose Cornelius, the former development director of what is now NeighborUp, refers to the last five years in Kerry as a time of miracles. She and I have been here for decades and we recall a time when affordability and development were not on the same page in any carry document. I have to say the uh option two that has just been presented really really makes my heart jump. Um that is a move in the right direction. Uh that is why we are here. We remember when we pressed for a commitment of at least a penny per hundred dollars of tax revenue. That number looks a little more in that neighborhood. So, we're grateful to see that. Of course, that's the bottom limit for us. We recognize that we have incredibly talented staffers here, visible projects underway, and council members elected on pledges to support a support affordable housing. We are making great progress. Progress does have a price. It's no secret the building costs are rising rapidly. So that is the question we came here with. Why are we decreasing AAP funding in the budget? Why did we go from funding at $5 million in 2024 and then dropping to 3.04 million? I see now that that's again rising. I urge you to consider at least option two. We realize there are tough decisions to be made in everyone's budget. We will not advocate for the burden to be placed on young working people, single parents, health care workers caring for our aging population and countless others who

cannot afford to live and work in Kerry. This is not the time to exclude them from the budget. You have already invested so much especially in your staff and your community partners. Please do not backtrack. Thank you. Our next register speaker is Susan Kinsey. Good evening. My name is Susan Kinsey and I'm a member of the oneweight team from Macedonia United Methodist Church here in Kerry. I am one of those many one-weight voices of our neighbors who are focused on the commitment to affordable housing in Kerry and in Wake County. Like others tonight, I'm here to ask for your continued commitment to at least a penny for housing. And like the speaker before me, we're pleased to see some positive movement in that direction. But I also hope tonight that in some small way I can help you see some of the faces of those most impacted by the lack of affordable housing in this area. The first home my husband and I owned was in the Irongate subdivision in Kerry. We were two young working adults living in a modest but affordable home. We could walk into downtown Kerry in one direction and to the many wonderful diverse restaurants and shops near Chattam Estates in the other direction. Kerry has changed dramatically since then with a number of the homes we used to walk past now torn down and replaced by larger and more expensive homes, town homes, and condos. Like other areas in Wake County, Kerry has experienced significant growth and significant investments have been made, including making downtown Kerry a destination area with more upscale housing, a beautiful park, and multiple restaurants and pubs.

But young adults in our church, just like our teachers, first responders, and so many others, struggle to rent or buy a home nearby. So, they work here, but they can't afford to live here. The Wake County state of housing report describes it this way, and I quote, "Rising rents, limited affordable housing, and widening gaps in access have made it increasingly difficult for many residents to secure and maintain stable housing. At Macedonia, I'm both blessed and humbled to coordinate our church food pantry and to serve on our missions and community assistance teams. I've seen firsthand the challenges that both single adults and families face as they try to balance the rising cost of transportation, utilities, food, health care, child care, and other essentials with their critical need for decent, safe, and affordable housing. But I've also seen firsthand the rundown, poorly maintained homes in this area that some families are forced to rent when they have no other affordable options. The financial strain and stress is hurting children and families in our community. Our children deserve stability, a safe place to lay their heads at night, to not be uprooted every few months when their parents can no longer afford rent or utilities in the current place they're staying. For their parents to live and work in the same community so they can attend PTA and other school events like my husband and I did. You can help families have pride in where they live, work, and learn. So tonight, I ask you to reserve at least a

penny for housing and support an affordable housing bond next year. Thank you.

Our last register speaker is Tim Lee. Good evening, mayor, council members, town staff. My name is Tim Lee. I'm a 10-year resident in Kerry. I'm a member of Good Sheeperd United Church of Christ here in Kerry. And good sheeperd is an active member institution of One Wake. For more than eight years, One Wake has advocated for more affordable housing in Kerry and Raleigh. One Wake has mobilized thousands of residents across the county to win substantial commitments and investments in affordable housing. Car's housing fund has generated more than $21 million to date. Thank you. However, the approved budget in 2026 was $3.6 million in dedicated housing funding for key initiatives in that fiscal year. However, the 2026 2027 annual action plan recommended 2.19 million, but it looks like the number went up. Thank you. That's great. But many will say that's not enough funding. One way in a coalition of community and religious groups in Kerry are asking the town to reserve a penny for housing, a penny per dollar of property tax revenue for affordable housing and put affordable housing bond on the ballot next year. A penny from each dollar of the property tax revenue will equate to more than $5 million. Recently, Athena Thomasson Bliss, the associate pastor of Christ the King Lutheran Church in Kerry, stated at a

public meeting over in the park, "We need teachers, first responders, janitors, Richard's restaurant staff, medical personnel, and so many more to live here and where they work." I'll close with a personal story about the lack of affordable housing in Kerry. A few years ago, former council member Jennifer Robinson conducted a district a meeting in the fire kerry fire station 5 on how house road. I attended her meeting and we met some of the station's firemen. In her presence, I asked each one, "Do you live in Kerry?" "No, we can't afford to live in Kerry." Thank you. That's all the registered speakers.

If you are in the audience like to speak at this public hearing, now is your opportunity. And I'll invite the next speaker for Good evening. Charles Tina, pastor of White Oak Missionary Baptist Church, best church on this side of heaven. Also CEO of the White Oak Foundation. Come tonight with no sermon. come tonight with some good news to tell you thank you all that you've done for White Oak Foundation. Because of what you've done on June 10th, you will get the invitation. We will provide 30 town houses, affordable town houses for the town of Kerry. Thank you for what you have done. Now, I'm a little disappointed. Yeah, you can clap. You can clap. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I hate to say that, Mr. Mayor,

because we've been through so much. I've been in this church for 54 years. And we

been here 54 years.

That's right. That's right. You know, and wouldn't stop either. So, but but what I want you to understand is that we we now have a daycare, 10,000 square feet daycare. We now have these affordable houses. We now have a building that operates that we can service people who come and need help. That's because of you all. They're not standing in your lobby saying, "I need this." Because you got us, you got the nonprofits, not only my not not only White Oak, but you got all of them that say if you need anything, come to us because Kerry supports us and we're going to support the citizens of Kerry. I was a little disappointed tonight and I I I said I wasn't going going to do a sermon, but it it's coming on me right now. Uh uh I I I I want you to know that I was a little disappointed that the amount of money that you going to give us, but then you came back with a sucker. I lacked that. You came back and you said, "Let's look at doing more if you if you all approve it." Let me tell you, uh, on on on June 10th, we're going to dedicate cut rub ribbons for those house. And by the way, some car employees got the applications in to live over there, too. Just want you to know. Okay. Uh, but we plan starting at the end of this year to put together a a independent living center for seniors. And we going to need your help. I I'll be back next year, mayor. God be

with it. I'll be back next year because we know that there's a need for affordable housing in Kerry. Just want to say thank you. Do all you can. We're not going back, folks. We We can't go back. We We can't I saw the figures less than last year. That's just not right. We got to continue to move forward. Give more monies so we can have affordable housing in Kerry. Thank you for what you've done. I know you're going to do what's right. Oh, yes you will. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Pastor Tiner, it's my honor uh to follow you and comment and admission and vision tonight. Once this man said to me, "Take take a seat, Lauren. I've been here for 40 years." Good evening, uh, from Greenwood Forest Baptist Church, the future home of the Timothy Ashcar Center. I'm Reverend Lauren Hayes, the senior pastor of the church. I want to say thank you for all that the town of Kerry has done to make this community dream of affordable child care and affordable housing possible. We could not have gotten to where we are without your guidance and your support. I'm looking back on purpose because of all these staff people back here too. Uh this council is one of the most supportive of affordable housing progress in the triangle and we as a community are grateful for past, present, and future support. The car center is a partnership of Greenwood Forest, the Caring Place, DHIC, and the YMCA of the triangle. all of whom have been supported over the years by our city government. Thank you for supporting so many efforts with CDBG funding like helping the Caring Place acquire and maintain housing and Carrie for working homeless families with children. I speak uh on behalf of Leslie Coington tonight as well. She's not here to thank you in person, but we want you

to remember uh that that funding has seen 15 properties become homes for those families, navigating the transition from homelessness to housing and allow TCP to join with Greenwood Forest and co-developing the car center. I'm proud to be part of a community that is trying to make space for everyone, including those who are instrumental in making our town function, workers, teachers, firefighters, and public servants. Thank you again for all that you do, and our prayers are with you in this complicated budget cycle. We know you'll make the best decisions to help everyone thrive. And if you won't, I guess me and Pastor China will be back here next year. Thank you. Um, good evening, mayor, town council. So, I'm I'm Tim Fischer. I'm the project manager u for DHIC on this project. And I just wanted to take a moment and and tell you I've I've been doing this for almost a decade at this point. Not that long, but long enough to learn a few lessons. Um, and I can say unequivocally that one of the biggest lessons I've learned is the only way that we are going to solve this crisis is with partnerships like this, um, with decisions like this made in in rooms like this tonight. That is the only way that we are going to really make a dent in this issue. Um, and and I applaud the town, Heather and and Mary, the the entire staff, planning department have been instrumental in getting us to where we are now. Um, so now it's just a matter of that continued support to get us to where we need to be. So I wanted to thank you for everything you've done so far and everything that it sounds like you'll be doing in the future. So thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else for public I mean for this public hearing? I almost said public speaks up. Anyone else for this public hearing? Seeing no one, I'll close a public hearing and and I I'll make my comments

first and then I'll let my colleagues speak. Um, the situation Carrie is in was not an evil grand plan. It was a plan to create one of the most desirable places on Earth. A place where people want to live, work, and play and be the best it could possibly be in the nation. And we're pretty successful. Last year, we had 40 national recognitions. Well, what that does, that drives demand up. Everybody wants to be here. And if you know economics, when you create demand, you jack up the price. So that's where Kerry is. We created one of the most desirable places on Earth, and we're paying for it. It cost a lot of money to live here. So, how do we attack that? That's where we are today. How do we figure out how to attack this? I love the partnerships. I think that is the biggest bang for the buck. The White Oak Foundation, the Car Center, and others, they're fantastic. That's the way to go. That's the biggest bang for the buck in my opinion. But that supports the future residents. I am currently worried about the existing residents. the existing residents. It will not improve unless they move or unless we bring that demand down and make carry what is less than what it is today. And I'm not the guy to do that. I don't want to do that. Uh so when we are considering these options as a council, what's going through my head is option one will support our partnerships. Option two will meet a goal from this group that advocates for affordable housing. However, who pays for that? The existing residents do. It'll be more tax dollars.

That's what I struggle with because that affordable housing costs somebody somewhere and that's what we've been told by staff and we had this discussion it will cost more tax dollars uh to do more and that's where we are. So as we consider that that's what I'm thinking up here. So having said that I would love to hear what my colleagues say.

Do you want to go first?

Sure. Um I'm more than happy to to chime in here. Um, and I apologize. I'm I'm a little under the weather. I've got a migraine. So, I'm not my usual chipper self. Usually, this topic would get me pretty fired up. And I'm fired up in my head. I'm just having a little trouble expressing it. But what I wanted to share, um, I think anybody who paid any attention at all to any of the my two elections knows that affordable housing was the primary reason that I I ran for office. Um, I bought a a a condo in Kerry in 1999 for $73,000. I bought a single family home in the downtown core of Kerry in 2007 for $128,000. My story today is impossible. my story today not being something that somebody else who works really hard and and can achieve breaks my heart. So for that reason when I saw my downtown neighborhood gentrifying very quickly, I ran for office years sooner than I intended to because I wanted to try to be part of a potential solution. I believe this entire council has the will to be part of that potential solution right now. I really do. Um, and I want to address one week specifically. Don't get me wrong, I love all of our nonprofit partners. You're amazing and I'll show up to all your gaylas, but One Wake stuck a microphone in my

face twice and made me commit right to this penny funding. And when I speak to people who are members of One Wake and they say, "Hey, I know you're an ally. Sorry if we're being kind of strong." I always tell them the same thing. Please keep it up. keep the pressure up, not just here, but in the surrounding communities. It really does help get the conversation to not die down, and that's really what's paramount here. As long as people continue to pay attention, um, we're more likely to make more progress. So, I want to thank you for being bird dogs. One of my favorite expressions, just bird dogging us. Um, it's very hopeful and and you were the the primary thing that we all said when we saw the initial reasonable ask by staff because they're also trying not to cost burden the taxpayers here in Kerry. So, they brought us an ask for for housing funding. Um, but it, you know, we did all say, "Hey, we we we said a penny. Let's find that penny. Um, let's find good projects." We weren't going to just bring it up to a penny and and misuse funds, but we knew that there are projects here in Kerry that staff was able to suggest, you know, excellent ways to to get that to to the penny that we we committed to. So, I just want to thank you for for bird dogging us. It's very helpful.

Other comments? You want to go first?

I have a whole page worth of comments. It's just trying to figure out where to start and to to organize my thinking. First, I want to thank One Wakeake and all of the advocates in in Carrie and our partnerships back when roughly two and a half years ago, well actually three years ago when I started knocking doors. So, if you think about each time I knocked, it was about 5,500 knocks. 5,500. And every time the door opened, the conversation was surrounded was was about affordable housing. I

it wasn't on my radar, as you said. I wasn't thinking about running for office initially. I have been an advocate in many areas um as a as a teacher and have seen our children from my school that I've been at for 10 years now displaced um many moving out of Kerry because of lack of affordability. Um, and when the idea of running was presented to me or when the idea of needing additional affordable housing um, champions on the council, I said, "I will help you find someone." And, um, and then realized that I that I was the someone. So, that was that was why I ran for office. That was reason number one. And so looking at district B where I represent, the median household income in Kerry, the numbers obviously constantly change. I want to say is roughly $130,000 right now. District B or higher. Um, District B is $40,000 less than the average. And so we have million-dollar homes in the downtown area now to kind of balance out places getting emotional now places like Chattam Estates where we're about to lose 144 units of affordable housing. And so when Miss Kinsey spoke about um she spoke about housing stability and then you know she also spoke about or the the prior speaker about how we're making great progress We're we're losing so much. Um and and as the mayor was speaking, I took a little note, you know, that the affordable housing crisis is not unique to Kerry. We're a very desirable place to live, but this is this is a crisis everywhere. But what we have to be now

is proactive, not just reactive. with Chadam estates with u disabled homes program we're trying our best to help with future stability of those families by helping them to get on their feet as they are going to be displaced and as as a child who moved around so much and went to nine different schools between kindergarten and and my senior year housing stability is a very important thing. So, we need to to help with those things, but we also need to be proactive and thinking about what we can do. Um, because we're not going to add 144 units all at once. So, I think it'll probably be obvious how I'll be voting tonight, but I we can never do enough is my point. It'll never be enough, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try. Um because Carrie should continue to be a place for everyone. Transit is a wonderful thing that I love and talked so much at those doors also and I want us to invest in that. But transit is not an answer to getting people to Carrie. That people who most of the teachers that I work with, most of the staff I work with don't live in Kerry. And the people that take care of Carrie, as Reverend Tiner said, Carrie employees are applying for that housing. People who take care of Carrie should be taken care of also. And so I will do everything I can to have my vote um count for investing as much as we can. And I know that when we invest in invest a penny into affordable housing that we have to be careful because as I said our district has considerably lower household income overall. But I believe we can think about ways to

save in other areas. So I will also share a little bit about myself with everyone. Um, I'm an immigrant. Came to this country when I was 17 years old. Came here for my education, for better life. I chose to make this country my home. And I love this country. I love Kerry. And um I have been in situations where I had to walk miles and miles just to save $5. So every every dollar is important. And you know I I I come from that background that we save for future and we spend a little and make sure that you know we are planning further and I feel just with my upbringing and my values I feel like you know Kerry needs to be placed for all but we have to be very careful about how we spend our money today so that in next decade we we can plan things better for people who live here. And that's a very important concept. I responded to a um comment today on Next Door when somebody was very very upset, at least from the comment, it felt like that the town council doesn't care. Um I I hate um raising taxes, but I want town council to do more. And I actually made a comment that you know you cannot put both the both the things in same sentence. You know if there is a commitment for affordable housing from the council it has to come from somewhere. It has to come from our pockets who live in Kerry. And we all have to understand when we raise taxes, you know, the council is doing its best to

give the money to the to the organizations that hold merit like Vuk foundation. I want to give an example because they're in my district and they're doing an amazing job. Reverend Tiner actually invited me to meet him. and he walked me through every project and I could not believe the world that they have created in the in their backyard. It's so amazing. Um and the town homes while they were under construction, I have seen those things myself come up and that's uh a dream, an American dream for some family probably in Western Kerry which is the most expensive probably district in town of Kerry. So you know I feel like all of us together we are committed to affordable housing and that's why we saw the progress that we have had in past 3 years and I think all of us are torn in our hearts because we want to do the right thing but we also have to worry about what exists and how do we make sure that you know we are providing support to people who who maybe they may not may not be able to afford the tax increase in next wave. So what do we do? And it's a decision that we all have to make. I appreciate your advocacy. I appreciate you coming out because every time when we hear from residents, it really empowers us to make decisions that are going to hopefully benefit most of the residents in town of Kerry. So I feel like, you know, the commitment for White Oak Foundation is for very critical for me. And I also want to say something to um newer council members, Bella, Council Member Richard, sorry, it's a formal meeting. and Councilwoman Wong

on behalf of White Oak. Um, I want to say that, you know, last year when we really needed the money back, um, when we were trying to save every dollar, every every cent, um, our department of

housing and planning actually went back to White Oak Foundation and I see Reverend Tiner saying, "Yes." And they actually gave money back to the town in good faith and they said you guys are struggling right now so we will give you this money back with an expectation in next few years you're going to help us bring this funding back so that we can build the units that are promised and so the commitment that we are making today does not really meet that level that the money that was given back to us but we are trying our best Reverend Tiner I know this is not where we need to be but you know town of Kerry is right now at a turning point and you have been a great strategic partner for us so um we are trying to do our best here so I just wanted to give some like you know backtory

other comments yeah yeah yeah so brainy let me go first new council members and appreciate the staff because we have as uh this is our first year like only five months on the council. We've been learning affordable housing and all those information throwing to us we need to digest. It's like you give your kid a year's like lunches or there they need to um eat them all and like digest in a short time. But what I learned um from this process is really uh not thanks to all the uh nonprofit organizations who put effort in this uh affordable housing advocacy and I see our staff really make a difference because what we see before the number was much less and we were so support affordable housing so they make this happen a penny of u $100 on tax dollars.

So, uh, I'm a small business owner. When I see this, I'm thinking about the ecosystem of our town. It's not only the people, it's also the business. So, who are going to pick up pick up trash and who are going to be the teachers and police police officers and firefighters? Because in the long run, we don't want our residents to live in Kerry, but it's hard to find workforce in our community. So that would be a problem and I heard so many times that Carrie is so proactive. We made our investment in advance to prevent these difficulties for the future residents. So I see these affordable housing as investment we are investing in our future not only in the people but the life and services service qualities in Kerry. So um after hearing all of you guys um comments really made me feel uh it's a it's a I love this council because we all have different angles of seeing the same issue but all come together we make a decision together that the best benefit of our people here um so I appreciate uh the option two $5.3 million uh to invest in affordable housing I know that's not enough, but everything as we see the the roots is growing deeper and deeper and every year we investing a little bit more and we can see five years, 10 years future. My children could find a house when they are young professionals or someone's grandkids can still live in Kerry and the family can still do the reunion with within 10 miles. Thank you, Council Member Wong. Uh, I

want to begin by thanking the advocates in the room tonight as well. Your voices are invaluable. I am deeply appreciative of your passion. I'm admittedly a bleeding heart, so perhaps it's not hard for my heart to be with you, but uh my my heart is with our shared values. I I will say as a brand new council member though, I also am feeling the gravity of weighing competing priorities, many equally worthy priorities. Uh and so I I have a a few questions. Um, Mary, just as a a point of um shared understanding, understanding that the uh the CDBG funds require us by May 15th to at least decide tonight if we're going to take action to commit those funds. But these additional dollars that will come from general fund, we we could either commit option one tonight. If we were to commit option one, that does not prevent us in our budget conversations from still reaching 5.3 or or really for that matter any funding level as we continue our budget conversations. And that deadline is not coming until the end of June. Do I understand that correctly?

That is correct. Yes.

Okay. Um because I would ask my more tenured council members to genuinely help me tonight with a really difficult decision. you know, feeling the tension perhaps between my own idealism and pragmatism of how we do make these really tough choices with competing priorities. And I'm going to put you on the spot with your migraine, Council Member Cohen Johnson, because I've heard you speak so eloquently and articulate so well the tension between essentially not wanting to shift the burden of affordable housing to our costburdened housing residents

in the form of taxes. And so if I could

put you on the spot to have you share your thinking um

absolutely

in in how we reconcile those two.

Yeah. And and I think that's exactly the point that um Mayor Weinber was was making as well. So for me this is when when we're talking about competing priorities. Um, in my head it really is a little bit of a sort of a uh it's a game of what is the paramount priority, right? And when I think of humans just in general, doesn't matter what kind of human it is, everybody needs a safe, secure home. Everybody needs water. Everybody needs food. And you know, none of us need Hulu or Netflix, right? So it's that hierarchy of basic needs. Housing is so solidly in that space. Um also, you know, I've read a I've read a lot of books. Reading a lot of books, you know, will get you a lot more questions than answers a lot of times. But one of the things that I understand um across a lot of different challenges we see in society whether it's child abuse which I was just discussing earlier or or you know any of the other uh challenges that a lot of these nonprofits in the room um address secure housing usable housing safe housing is really really above almost everything else besides food and water. So I look at it in that in that way. So to me, I would be exceptionally comfortable cutting some services to shift that funding to affordable housing to avoid um increasing taxes as much as humanly possible. I only speak for myself. Nobody get mad at my colleagues. I only speak for myself in that. But um I'm very comfortable to be on the spot there because I think that's one of the things that you know um when you vote for someone like me who tends to well not speak very eloquently but I love the way you put that. I appreciate

that but who tends to just say exactly what I'm thinking. That truly is what I'm thinking. Um so I have been uh pestering staff to give me some ideas of what we can cut. There's going to be a lot of people that are unhappy if we make cuts too. So that it really is this sort of balancing act, so to speak. But I also feel um I I ran on this twice. Ran on affordable housing. Michelle did. A lot of us um talked about affordable housing very extensively in our campaigns and uh we were we were elected by not insignificant margins. So I think there's also I think we've been given given a an assignment by the resident. So that's that's how I rec reconcile it in my in my head. I don't really struggle with it if I'm being completely transparent about it. It's u this particular um decision to prioritize affordable housing I think is exactly why I was elected.

Thank you. I appreciate that. You know, as a new council member, I I take it uh the the responsibility very seriously for constituents to understand my thinking as we approach these difficult decisions. And so, you know, I I want to be entirely transparent. I'm leaning towards option one, which I know is disappointing folks in the room tonight. Uh because 4.5 is not enough money, but neither is 5.3. And so, I I this might come down to the wire for me and how we wind up voting if we take action. But I I want the folks in the room, people listening, all of the residents to know that is not an indication of the priority I think affordable housing has. It is more so that we have the opportunity to continue to have these tough budget conversations in totality uh up until June. And so for me, we can

begin here, which I would also encourage us to think of option one as a really strong investment in affordable housing, too. Uh or as well, uh I I think both of these options are an investment. Both of them are a start. um neither of them are going to address the need entirely. But as we continue our our budget conversations, I think there's other lenses you can use that are also ways of addressing affordability and carry and addressing community needs that are not uh only reflected in these dollars. Um we've talked a lot about public safety. uh you know at our retreat, community safety was our top priority and we know that our public safety departments, particularly our police department, is going to need an investment of additional resources. Uh and no, that might not be the conventional notion of affordability, but that's part of keeping vulnerable neighbors safe and keeping Carrie somewhere um that that we all want to live, keeping it the desirable community that the mayor talked about. Um, and so I'm just again weighing those competing priorities, which I I I know for some folks might telegraph values, and that's that's not my intent. Um, because I I feel values aligned with the impassion speakers we heard tonight. I think though, I might want to take the opportunity when we're looking at the dollars we invest to continue the conversation after this evening. Any other comments?

Mayor, may I

please

make a comment?

I am so sorry. I forgot you were there, Lori.

You came out of out of the air. Sorry.

I will say nobody's ever said that before.

So I wanted to make a a couple of comment and I truly appreciate the conversation that that is happening right now. I have a couple of things I just wanted to put out there for folks listening. Last year when we approved the CDBG consolidated plan, we recommended over $3.6 six million in funding for all of these amazing housing initiatives. The base funding recommendation right now is 3.042 million, which is 600,000 less than last year, which includes the mix of federal CBG uh CDBG funds. So, we're actually, if we don't add more, we're actually allocating less. Except we are, and I'm just doing factual, we we do have the $1.5 million federal congressional project funding for the car center, but that is may or may not happen. I'm hopeful that the grant is successful and that the amount would add to our to to the 3 million making it 4.5 million if if we go with option one. But that's not a guarantee. So from my perspective again as so many of us have said we are committed to affordable housing. We said we are committed to finding ways to get to a penny on the tax rate as a as a general number of the minimum amount we want to spend. What concerns me is that the base number is actually less this year than it was last year without the additional funding. And my personal commitment um as we increase budgets, as we increase our population, as the

challenges become even more, that weighs heavily on my part to make sure that I I understand the number's not guaranteed, but putting, you know, the money where our mouth is by basically saying that we we committed to this to the community. we will uh we will align with that. And the other comment I might make is that although tonight we're talking about line items and dollar amounts, what's really at stake are people's lives. Um I'm very moved by count by everyone's story and and especially moved by Council Member Con Johnson's story because it it aligns with my own story as the daughter of a single mother who grew up in subsidized housing. The issue is not abstract for me. It is my life story and I so touched that we give this real world experience because that reality hits me hard that today I w my my mother and I would not be able to afford to live in Kerry as the firefighters that the the gentleman spoke about. These are people who save our lives every day, who teach our children, who um serve us meals, who help us cross the street. I don't see numbers. I see families like mine getting the stability and the chance um that that we were given. So, I I believe investing in housing is not it's not a luxury. Um it is that Mazlo's hierarchy of needs that that council member K Johnson was talking about. a promise that a town like Kerry still has room for families or or as Reverend Lawrence said uh making space for people um to be a part of Kerry. Um and I also wanted to call out and sincerely thank our staff when they first brought

forward the the um staff report. You didn't just plug in our federal allocation and call it call it done. you built with this really thoughtful and ambitious strategy that really preserves existing homes, creates a new deeply affordable units, keeps people from falling into homelessness. You you've leveraged our partners. You've reached out to new partners and other funders. You know, that really took vision and persistence and a lot of I'm sure very quiet but but hard work. And and I also want to thank all the I I'm sorry I'm not there to be with you, but um I I want to thank everyone who came to speak tonight and throughout this entire process. Um the neighbors who shared painful personal stories, the advocates, the faith community. Um you really you you you had to sometimes rearrange work schedules or find child care or honestly push through the discomfort of talking about housing insecurity in public. So, so for me, I I am so thrilled that staff put in the option to they they responded to our um plea in the work session that hey, what would you do if you could have more money? What else could you create if you had more money? Who else could we could we help? and and honest honestly even at the scale of the penny the need and carry is much bigger than what we can do through our annual budget and I I hope that the folks who are in the room also come back when we want to do a housing bond um you you've asked us you pleaded with us you've emailed you spoken at hearings but don't let this be the last time celebrate um and help us do more as we um make these hard decisions and talk to your neighbors and help explain that, you know, when we allocate money, we're doing it for everyone. We're doing it for our entire

community. And I I really love that um Reverend Lauren said a community, we want to be a community that makes space for everyone. So, um I I'm very supportive of option two. I know I can't vote because I'm not in the room with you, but but I appreciate that the and I also appreciate Council Member Richard's question. Can't we just add it later? And I think that's a really good question, but when we align this CDBG discussion with our budget, we're giving our partners predictability, right? We're telling HUD that we plan on adding more. this is important to us, which hopefully also shows for that $1.5 million that we want that we're putting our own, you know, we're putting our own money in the pot, too. So, please help us get that 1.5 million because we're investing a lot. So, I if it were if it were me and I were there to vote, I I would say I'd like to commit to it upfront and thank you for the opportunity to weigh in.

Thank you. Anything else? Are we ready for a motion?

Can I add one thing? Sure.

Uh the way I support option two is I feel even it's not a huge difference but it's still like over 700,000 but if you invest like council member Kong Johnson she invested in her single family uh in 20 years ago.

Yep.

Yeah. this 128,000 like we invest in like the 700,000 could be in 10 years could add a zero like if you invest in next year it just like you invest in your like uh retirement b um the investment account invest early you get much more in the future so that's why I would love to try our best to invest more even it's 2026 now, but still not

too late to invest.

Agreed.

So, we ready for a motion?

I'll also say one more thing.

Um to to address what council member Richards was saying, I recall sitting here in previous years being just absolutely terrified might be strong, but that's what it felt like thinking, okay, I need to make a public commitment right now to something. And we haven't fully decided the budget. I remember even though I was fully committed to affordable housing, thinking that's a really scary thing because we haven't worked it all out yet. But there's something really weird in my brain that happens when I plan plan everything has to be perfect and all of a sudden I say whatever and go with my heart. And so that's that's how I kind of got through it in previous years. But I know as a council member, I've already made mistakes and I know that there will be times while I will continue to make mistakes. And something like this could could end up being a mistake. But I also know that if a mistake like if if it were a mistake and it and it was something that kept me from being reelected, then I would just find a new way to help people, I would sit out here with one wink possibly and and advocate in a different way. But that

shirt and get my t-shirt. Yeah. Um but um but it's years of thinking it through. So I understand what it's like to sit there and um I I really appreciate your your question. Also

I'd love to make a motion.

I'd like to make a motion to approve option two uh 5.3 million in funding to the annual action plan and citizen participant participation plan. And so I move that we adopt the resolution attached to this motion approving the citizen participation plan and the 2026 2027 annual action plan with a total of $5.3 million in awards as presented by staff so well tonight.

Second.

There's a motion and a second for discussion. I would like to explain how I'm going to vote. I'm going to not support this and that's because one we have a huge backlog in public safety. So to cut would cut levels of service. And two, this is going to add to your tax rate. And I can't look a senior citizen in the face and say, I'm going to add to your tax rate to support future citizens when they can't afford to stay in their own house. Uh so those things weigh heavily on me. And so I think Britney is exactly right. We're talking about CDBG funds tonight. We're not talking about policy. We can do policy anytime. We're talking about CDBG funds. And if so, if we did option one and did the CDBG funds, we can set our policy to 1 cents, two cents, whatever you want to set it, do a bond, anything we want to do as we move forward. But that's not the question before us tonight. We have a deadline May 15th. We got to decide what to do with CDBG funds. And then you add on top of that the great projects, and I'll emphasize great projects we have. It's just giving more money to them. So, we're not getting more housing. We're just providing more support to those great projects, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but that's what the extra tax dollars are going to go for. So, I have a real difficult time supporting the proposal.

So, continuing the discussion, just to point out one thing. making this decision does not have to raise our tax rate. It would mean cuts in an area, but and maybe it was just the way I was interpreting it, but it it doesn't have to be cuts and raising taxes. Um the tax rate will not be

as low as it was last year. I I don't see that. I mean, we could choose for it to be, but I don't see that being that way, but it doesn't have to be affordable housing that raises the tax rate. We we can continue those discussions and figure out other ways to keep a tax rate within an area that's agreed upon.

And I have to agree with that and uh Mayor Proam Bush mentioned this and mayor not saying that you're not right. You're absolutely right in saying that you know the burden kind of shifts if we increase the tax or if we decide to increase the tax because of this reason on the people who are on fixed income or otherwise like you know low income but um you know mayor prom mentioned this earlier that we you know with K's budget I mean we can find efficiencies and that's exactly uh councilwoman Craig you mentioned By allocating 700K plus more on this does not mean that we have to take away money from public safety. Public safety remains um the top priority for this council as we all decided in our quarterly but there are other areas for improvement and I hope that you know we can find those areas where we can take those that funding back from to to fill the gap and it doesn't have to be an increase in tax.

Agreed. We'll bring you some options whichever route you take. Excellent. Our staff are magicians. They all can.

We ready for a vote? All in favor of the motion, please. Option two, please say I.

I. I.

Those opposed. No.

Motion carries. 51. Thank you.

Thank you, council. Our sec our second public hearing is 25 rez

12 Trenton Road residential resing planning manager Arum Pucket will introduce this item break

okay I've been asked for five minute break we will return at 8:31 I can

Hey everybody, I'm That's a Heat. Heat.

Okay. All right. council meeting at this time and we are at the second reszoning

that's 25 rez 12 Trenton Road residential resoning planning manager Aaron Pucket will introduce the item council will not take action on this resoning tonight it will be referred to our planning and zoning board for their review and recommendation and will return to us at a future date. Miss Pucket

request to reszone approximately 21.7 acres located at 101 Rosco Trail. The site is located on Trenton Road east of the SAS campus and south of I40 and carries border with the city of Raleigh. There are several detached dwellings to the south and residential subdivisions in Raleigh to the north. The parcel is currently owned by the state of North Carolina and there is an existing telecommunications tower and temporary offices on the site. Car's GIS indicates a stream buffer in the southern portion of the site. Field determination of such features is

required at time of development plan review. Car's parks, recreation, and cultural resources master plan indicates a future streetside trail along the west side of Trenton Road, which is the opposite side from this site. Trenton Road is a three-lane thoroughfare on K's future roadway widths map, and any applicable right-of-way dedication and frontage improvements would be required at time of development plan. The site is currently zoned office and institutional or OI and the applicant proposes to reszone the site to residential multifamily conditional use or RMFCU. The applicant has also offered several zoning conditions. These include a maximum of 175 dwellings or approximately 8.1 units per acre with uses limited to multif family dwellings and town houses. No additional minimums or maximums are proposed for either housing type. A number of building requirements are offered to ensure some smaller form buildings even if the site develops entirely as multif family. This is a maximum three-story building height, a maximum of 12 units for all multif family buildings. Locating the majority of units and buildings with a maximum of five units with the units side by side. So these could be true town houses or townhouse style multif family. and ensuring balconies, porches or patios for at least half of all units. Also providing a minimum of nine electric vehicle charging spaces with at least four publicly accessible. The development will also include at least 10,000 square feet of outdoor community gathering area and this is double the LDO requirement. At least 15% of the site will remain undisturbed open space. The LDO requires 20% of the site to be an open space, but this condition condition further ensures a substantial portion of that required space will also remain undisturbed.

5% of units will be available to households at 80% of the area median income or AMI for a period of 30 years. These could be either multif family or townhouse units, but it is not specified by the condition. A number of transportation improvements are offered, including site access improvements, which are typically required at time of development plan. Some minor safety upgrades at the Trenton Road and Trinity Road intersection, and construction of a 12-oot wide streetside trail along the site frontage, which is an increase to the sidewalk that would be required today. A preliminary analysis against the imaginary community plan finds that policies in the live, work, enrich, shape, and move chapters apply. The proposed resoning could contribute to housing choice by the provision of multif family dwellings and/or town houses. However, the proposal does not guarantee a mix of housing types. It is possible the site could be solely developed with multif family units, for example. Similarly, the LIV chapter supports the greatest mix of housing types in mixeduse centers, including employment mixeduse campuses. The proposal could more strongly meet this policy if a commitment to a minimum minimum number of town houses was offered. The proposal does also offer at least 5% of the units affordable at 80% AMI for a period of 30 years. As currently proposed, there's no certainty as to whether affordable units will be multif family or town houses, but this may modestly address the policy related to affordable housing. Provision of multif family units or town houses can also help address the needs of car's workforce as noted in the work chapter. Commitments to open space may help speak to the preservation of the natural environment and tree canopy, while a modest commitment to nine EV charging spaces minimally addresses the sustainable energy policy of the enriched chapter. Regarding the shape chapter, the proposal adds residential uses to an employment mixeduse campus that is

largely comprised of employment uses within the SAS campus today and would redevelop an underutilized stateowned property. The use does appear to create a reasonable use transition to nearby office uses, but does also propose locating residential uses along the highway. In evaluating the move chapter policies, I want to note some differences between what we typically see in a traffic study and a new section that was included in this study. The LDO requires that intersections within 1 half mile of the site are studied specifically for vehicular impacts. In this case, one mile was studied as the project was originally scoped for a much higher density. This is the first of several forthcoming projects you will see where the traffic study included multimodal improvements within the study area. While not specifically required by the LDO today, this voluntary inclusion ensures move policies can be fully evaluated. In the context of this project, the multimmoal analysis is especially important given the lack of multimodal facilities and connectivity in this area, especially on the south side of I40. The multimodal and safety recommendations of the traffic study, included improvements at the intersection of Trinity Road and Trenton Road, which is a triangular alignment consisting of four unsalized intersections. Recommendations included making signage more visible by trimming vegetation, replacing signs, and installing reflective curve chevrons. This intersection would also benefit from additional street lighting, and ultimately from a redesign of the intersection, such as with a roundabout. The applicant has not committed to the redesign or installation of off-site lighting, but has committed to minor improvements related to signage and the reflective curve chevrons. The intersection of Trinity Road and Brandy Wine Road is recommended for a lighting and sight distance study, but this has not been offered. The traffic study further recommends a

12- foot wide shared use path or streetside trail along the site frontage, an increase to the 5 foot wide sidewalk, otherwise required by the LDO, but consistent with forthcoming guidance from the bike plan and the move chapter updates. There is an existing shared use path on the north side of I40 and a future streetside trail plan for the west side of Trenton Road on the south side of I40. The study recommends additional signage and striping with appropriate transitions across the I40 bridge to help close an existing gap in the multimodal network at this location. The traffic study also recommends a crosswalk at SAS Campus Drive with an appropriate pedestrian crossing warning device, such as a rectangular rapid flashing beacon or RRFB, to facilitate access to the shared use path and to allow multimmodal access between the proposed residential development and nearby employment uses. The applicant has offered construction of the shared use path along their frontage, but not to the recommended extension of a connection to the north with appropriate signage and pavement markings. Similarly, they've offered a crosswalk, but have not specifically committed to an RRFB or a similar device. Cumulatively, the proposed multimodal and safety improvements modestly address related move policies, particularly the shared use path improvement along the site frontage and the associated crosswalk. Although a stronger commitment to connecting the trail to nearby facilities along with a clear commitment to an RRFB or similar device to better ensure pedestrian safety would more clearly meet these policies. Multif family units are supported in employment mixeduse campuses on K's future growth framework map with town houses supported as an incidental use. Additional considerations include ample landscape and green space, a well-connected street and pedestrian network and the in the integration of residential uses into the campus. The

provision of gathering space and undisturbed open space can help address some of these items. While the proposal does not specifically site residential uses in a location that integrates them into the larger campus or fully facilitates walkable connections. A neighborhood meeting was held in September of last year and 120 members of the public attended. Questions and comments included concerns with traffic, particularly with increased event traffic from the Lenovo Center and safety concerns at the Triangular Trinity Road Trenton Road intersection. Additional concerns were expressed regarding the use and density, potential drainage impacts, and impacts during construction of the site. Staff has continued to receive calls and emails following the neighborhood meeting from both Kerry and Raleigh residents, most of which have simply been questions about the timing of the public hearing and the resoning process, but some have expressed similar concerns about the use and the traffic and safety impacts of the development. Staff mailed notification of the public hearing to property owners within 800 ft of the site which exceeds the states and carries LDO requirements and signs were posted on the subject property. This concludes my presentation. Brian Blair is here to provide the applicant's comments and following the hearing I'm available for questions.

Thank you, Miss Pocket. Good evening, mayor and council. Uh for those who do not know me, I'm Ryan Blair with Heritage. We are a Raleigh based development firm. Uh this will be our third project in Kerry. Many of you may know me from Alston Yards, our project in West Kerry that we are gracious for you and staff and we hope to start that imminently after getting permits and finalizing the remaining items with Carrie. Um, and I saw Safe Child here today, which was wonderful to see their success. We actually helped them develop their Safe Child advocacy center as the developer uh back in 20120. Uh, that

started with Kristen Duranja. Phenomenal facility, state-of-the-art, helping the uh this the entire Wake County community um with child abuse. So, uh we do not only do private development, we also do a lot of um charitable uh related items. Our goal here is simple and it's to deliver housing in an area of need uh in the form of town homes and lowdensity flats. Low density can be questioned by citizens but when I say low density it follows Car's comprehensive plan. The true definition of four units per level, three levels max. We have this product in a a development in Charleston, South Carolina which is very unique to Kerry where we put one-bedroom units on the corners. It allows a family, young family with a baby, young couple or an older couple to have windows on two sides, not being a bowling alley in the center of a multif family development. So, it's very unique as a product type that creates an affordable but more lower density product uh for the citizens um that we think is needed. And this fits squarely in the missing middle definition of the housing experts for attached housing in a little bit more dense format than a traditional subdivision. Um that the research shows helps with affordability and natural affordability without us asking for uh donations andor contributions to to the cause. So we met with all of the neighbors uh multiple times. Um first it started with SAS. We had multiple meetings with their representatives as well as the owner of SAS, answered a variety of questions. Uh we hosted a neighborhood meeting. We've answered various emails from the citizens and our neighbors in Raleigh generously hosted us at their house and we had multiple meetings with them as well. Uh some of them are here today opposing the resoning, but I actually got a hug from one of them. I think we all respect one another. So, uh it's good to see

everybody here. And when we initially proposed this resoning, we proposed 350 multif family units in a traditional apartment style development. After that, that is when we met with all of the neighbors. There was one common theme from the neighbors, which was they are concerned about traffic. So we said, okay, let's take a step back. We've reduced our application by 50%. Down to 175 units. The land value is still the cost is still the same. and the improvements are still the same and we're trying to fill a gap of delivering housing at a cost that is feasible for people to attain while also looking at the traffic uh impacts to the neighborhood. Um the second thing that we did was we changed the product type to be more consistent and transitional with the neighborhood. So we went to a more town home style product that could be for sale or for rent in lie of a three-story typical garden style apartment complex that generally has 30 to 36 units per building at a minimum. Um and then the third thing that we did we were requested it was requested by us to meet with the city of Raleigh. I have a great relationship with Paul Callum, the head of transportation uh through some projects that we've done together in the past and there was a conflict between uh across the bridge the Raleigh street could not be conditions could not be generated by the Kerry citizens and they wanted us to work together. So we reached out to the the transportation department and within 3 days we had a call all hands- on deck call. The Raleigh Transportation Department is not able to offer any of the improvements that were requested. Those included uh raised pedestrian crossings and a variety of uh pedestrian related safety features due to the classification of the road and it not meeting their ordinance. Um and and so we attempted to do so. That is not allowed. They further

pointed out that NC DOT controls this road, which as you saw in some of our conditions, we did not offer the RFB flashing beacon because NC DOT controls the the road in front of us and they will not allow that. If they do allow that, then we would put that in. Um, and lastly, in terms of traffic, the current zoning of this site is OI. So, it allows office use today at a density much greater than what we are proposing. It also allows multif family residences over retail. Both of those do not work in this current environment. We have developed award-winning offices in Raleigh Durham and the office market as many of you know has a tremendous amount of vacancy and it is very challenging to develop. Secondly, in terms of retail, the SAS drive, the SAS campus drive, excuse me, street is a private street. There is no interchange off of Wade Avenue and retail would not be feasible in this area. So, we'd be developing shell retail space that would likely never get leased that would effectively just add extra cost to the renters and/or owners of the units. So what we've done is we've tried to create a more transitional development with town homes, flats that transition to the neighborhood at a lower density and meet the comprehensive plan uh within this mixeduse um employment mixeduse campus. There's 2 million square feet of office and one hotel within this campus. There is no mixeduse at the moment. This would fulfill a walkable destination for the SAS employees to walk to work. Um, thank you for your time. I have Kevin Dean from Kimley Horn here if you guys have any transportation questions as well as some of our team from Heritage. Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, so now it's time for the public hearing and I'll call on the clerk to read any written comments. Call on any

registered speakers.

Yes, we had um eight written comments and 10 registered speakers. Um, the written comments were emailed to council prior to the meeting, provided to council upon arrival, and attached to the online agenda for accessibility. Our first um registered speaker is Dan McWarthur. Mr. Mayor, council members, my name is Dan Mcuarter. Uh I live in the Medfield neighborhood which doesn't appear on the maps or the charts or anywhere uh south of the uh proposed development at just two houses in uh the intersection of Trinity and Trenton and Arrington which is often left out in the discussions. Traffic safety should be a major concern when the members of the committee consider the 25 REZ12 zone reszoning. According to data from the North Carolina State University Institute for Transportation Research and Education, their 2018 Triangle uh Household Travel Survey, as well as the United States Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics report on average weekday household person trips in the in this census track, also from 2017. Triangle households average between five and eight automobile trips per day depending on the household size. Considering each of these trips is two-way, 175 additional households at a conservative estimate of five trips per day adds over 1,500 automobiles on the Trenton uh road each day. As the shortest route to carry North Carolina State University, central and south Raleigh

440 and 40 is through this already dangerous confluence of Trenton, Trinity, and Arrington. The traffic impact there would be significant. The recently increased number of households along Trinity Road on the Raleigh side of Wade Park, Trinity Brownstones, Trinity Ridge Apartments, the park at Trinity have already increased the traffic through the intersection that I'm speaking of. They have also increased cutth through traffic between Trinity Road and Rei Creek Road in the Kerry in Carry through the Medfield neighborhood. As noted in figure ES-1 of the Trenton Road multifamily development traffic analysis referred to earlier of September 12th, 2025. I quote, "Design options should be explored to improve the unconventional system of four intersections based on traffic operations, safety, multimodal transportation, traffic calming, and long planning considerations until improvements are made to the unconventional system of the four intersections at Trenton, Trinity, and Arrington, locally known as the triangle of death. because of the frequent accidents in that area. We ask for a moratorum on any development along the Trenton Road corridor. Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next register our next registered speaker is Marg Perini.

Good evening, mayor, council members. Thank you for being here tonight and hearing us. Um, my name is Mark Paternney. I live on Roller Mill Court back up to Trenton Road up in Raleigh. I and many neighbors and users of the Rey

Creek Trenton Road corridor oppose the resoning as currently prop, excuse me, proposed. We believe 175 residential units for this site are too many based on the limited road connectivity and the impacts on traffic safety and congestion. We do not believe the traffic analysis report conducted for this application accurately or adequately describes the impacts of this and other planned and proposed developments in the area. You've had a description of Rosco Trail uh development proposal where it's located. Uh Trenton and Rei Creek Roads, as you know, is a single two-lane roadway from Trinity Road in Kerry up to Edwards Mill Road in Raleigh. North of I40, Reedi Creek Roads and Trenton Road are residential with 22 private driveways and six residential communities intersecting the road. It has a 25 mile per hour limit. South of I40, Trenton Road is primarily open roadway bordered by three residences. the large private SAS campus, NC State University Research Farm, and it has a 35 mile per hour speed limit. We believe there's an unadressed inherent conflict between K's plans for Trenton Road as a threelane thoroughare with its 35 mileph limit and Raleigh's two-lane residential roadway with the 25 mile per hour limit. Reading the Torah remains quite unclear how the impacts of the various approved and proposed developments are factored into the levels of service and we don't trust the levels of service that have been described. It appears that the Lenovo Center expansion though mentioned did not impact the analysis. Perhaps that's due to the LDO's exclusion of special events. We feel this is increasingly inappropriate considering the size and scope of the expansion of the Lenovo Center and the combined impacts of that center, Carter Finley

Stadium, and the Wake Med Soccer Park. The TAR estimates that 175 residential units will generate 1,329 vehicle trips per day. That's a low estimate, as you've already heard. North Carolina Department of Transportation indicates that Trenton Road currently carries an average of,300 vehicle trips per day. Therefore, this one development on 21 acres is going to double the traffic on Trenton Road. And this development only connects to Trenton Road. There is not a second public road providing access. Traffic volumes on Trinity and Chapel Hill roads are already approaching preandemic levels. The TAR fails to mention the development plans previously approved but not yet completed. So, it's quite unclear if their traffic impacts are considered. Due to the timing of the projects, the TAR ignores traffic increases that will be associated with improvements to Trinity Road at the East Chadam Street Railroad crossing. It also fails to mention Raleigh's new development under construction at Corporate Center Drive and Trinity Road for 225 apartments. Medfield, as you've heard, is a large older neighborhood of single family homes, which extends from Trinity Road to Rita Creek Road and provides easy access to I40 at Harrison Avenue. The streets don't have sidewalks. Its residents range from new families with children to older legacy owners. The TAR examines the impacts of traffic on various Medfield intersections with Trinity Road, but never examines the issue of pass through traffic, which is going to increase as traffic on Trinity and Chapel Hill Road increases. The intersection of Brandy Wine Road and Trinity Road is of long-standing concern. You heard there was a recommendation for a light study, but it's also projected to fail in the level of service levels in the evening rush hour. There are no plans to address this.

Regarding that unconvent conventional intersection, you've already already heard from staff that there are recommendations for improvements which the applicant so far has declined to uh address. The TAR projects that 90% of the traffic is going to go south from this development. I don't believe that that is true. It ignores the fact that the closest employment centers are to the north. There's bandwidth, UNCC Rex Hospital, Blue Ridge Corridor, NC Department of Health and Human Services, and many others all within 3.5 miles of this site. Again, the TAR did not address any impacts north of the site. We don't believe the TAR provides an accurate view of the impact that these units would have on traffic and traffic safety in the area. Our daily driving experience,

I'm sorry, I have to interrupt you. Your time is expired. If you have additional comments you would like to

I will leave them with the clerk.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Laura Ford.

Thank you mayor. Thank you council people. My name's uh Laura Ford. I live in upper left right hand corner of that lovely map up there. Uh I my across the street I have um Shank Forest, beautiful research forest for NC State and I have the wonderful opportunity to drive this road every day and it's bottleneck and it's a nightmare. So, I'm going to speak for everybody that wrote is filled out 350 residents in the area signed. Uh, the undersigned are owners of detached single family residences either adjacent to or in close proximity to the proposed development of Rosco Trail andor users of the Trenton Road Reed Creek Road Quartrer. We are opposed to the current proposal by HCAP presented to the town of Kerry to reszone the property uh for conditional use and multif family for 175 dwelling

units. We understand that this property will be sold to by the state of North Carolina and developed at some point. We oppose the current proposal for HCAP for the following reasons. Traffic and safety concerns as have already been addressed. The current intersection at Trinity Road very dangerous with uh it's graded as uh D one level above I'm sorry the traffic the current intersection at Trinity Road in Trenton Road it's graded as D one level above failing it might not safely handle the increase in traffic. The amount of traffic diverging through Medfield subdivision has been mentioned. Trenton Road is the only road to ingress and egress all traffic from the development. A complex this large usually requires two different roads. Trenton Road and Rey Creek Road in Raleigh designated as sensitive area residential streets with greenway function as a single corridor between Trinity and Edwards Mill roads. So traffic and safety on the rally side of I40 is going to be impacted. Pedestrian access to Umstead Park, a selling feature, is going to require pedestrians to cross a very dangerous bridge with no way to walk without walking in the lane of traffic. Adjacent areas are unique. They contain numerous natural lands such as William B. Unmstead Park and are heavily used by recreationalists. We have environmental concerns regarding Richmond Lake Dam. It's designated by the USDA as a high hazard due to downstream development and slit silt accumulation in the lake. More silt accumulation will exacerbate the risk of over topping the dam and of structural failure. project is at the outer limits of car's interfaces with the city of Raleigh utilities and it's also interfacing with the um DO's uh inherent issues as a result and there are going to be issues with waste water and require dumping we as the residents

that signed this petition we are asking that you reconsider this uh this for develop development altogether thank you

thank you

our next speaker is Philip um Saffrit. Good evening, um, mayor and council members. My name is Philip Safford. I live in, um, Trinity Farm subdivision, which is right off Trenton Road on the north side of Interstate 40. Uh the proposed resoning 25REZ12 is located on what many of the local residents refer to as the Rey Creek Trenton corridor. If you look on the map that um you have, it's the red dashed line is um the Carter. For the residents along this Carter, there are only two ways in or out. The first intersection is the one that's been talked about at uh Trinity and Trenton and Kerry. The other is the Rey Creek Edwards Mill intersection. Other than that, there's no way to get out of this area other than go to one of those two um

intersections. So, as you probably know, this that Carter includes both Kerry and Raleigh. And so the the use of that area is intermixed. The um Trenton both Trenton and Rey Creek roads on the Raleigh side of the Carter have only two lanes are designed as a sensitive area roadway and mo uh most of that length is 25 miles hour. Rei Creek even has a built-in uh paved undulating median to try to slow traffic in that area.

The um the Carter is a unique heavily wooded recreational area uh and contains William B. Umstead State Park, Carl Allen Shrink Memorial Forest and the NCSU Equin Farm. It is very popular with both cyclists and pedestrians. Um while there are greenway paths on both Reed Creek and Trenton Road, uh many of the cyclists still ride in the road, creating a safety issue and causing um frustrated drivers to try to pass them on a double yellow line. As was previously previously mentioned, um there areund 190 existing single family homes along this carter. This if built out this development would nearly double the residential traffic by creating another 175. So it's a massive change in one development. Um, I speak in opposition to this reszoning as proposed in that it is not consistent with the existing single family neighborhoods and natural environments

and it's not compatible with the existing infrastructure. I'd like to finish by complimenting the Kerry Town Council and your amazing staff for the way you've guided recent changes in downtown Kerry. You are managing to grow without losing what makes Kerry special. I believe this Carter is also a special part of Kerry. Um there is a place and time for this type of highdensity development but I don't believe this is it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next register speaker is Jean Spooner. Uh Dr. Jean Spooner. I'm chair of the Mstead Coalition. I speak to you today as the official friends group for Williamstead State Park. We are dedicated to preserving the natural integrity of William Bumpstead State Park and the Richland corridor and its surrounding space uh um open space, excuse me. And um some of our uh I know that there's folks in the audience that had to leave early, but if I could just ask those who are opposed to stand, I would it would be um so they can they came all this way and thank you. Um this is an amazing sensitive area track. It's forested and its adjacent neighbors are um Shank Carl Carl Allwin Shank Memorial Forest uh just downstream on Richland Creek um and Richland Lake is William Bumpset State Park um and low density residential from the city of Raleigh. This is the next spot. So the adjacent folks are protected by by some other other um resources and we would ask

these to be too. Um the umps state park is register is listed under the national register of historic places in large part because of its forest landscape that was created. And we have a link to your pagewalker hotel. It's the same family that is the page that's the company mill, the page mill in the park. Just thought I'd throw that out since it's historic month. This site is currently mostly forested and 10 of the acres are flood plone soils almost 50%. And they drain to Richland Creek through Shank Forest, Richland Lake, a flood control structure which is under grave concern now by NRCS in Wake County for its life longevity due to sediment um erosion control and its hazard high hazard dam needing repair and William Bumpsid State Park. So we have a lot of a lot of environmental things to issue here. We would ask that the council not approve the zoning until the petitioner adds conditional uses that include protection of the of the environmental sensitive area and the drainage including specifically what Raleigh does in the adjacent land which is to limit the impervious to 30% 45 if they have um extra uh storm water controls and provide um preservation of tree corridors along the water water resources draining and the turbidity measurements during construction. All of these were dismissed when we asked for them for the developer. I don't think they should be dismissed. If you turn to your page three, the attachment one, you will see the site is right here and you can see half of this site is floodpoint soils all draining. Um and

the upper part of the site has is drains more than five acres and and the lower part of the site drains more than 25 acres in Raleigh's adjacent um MO it you that would have required because it drains to William Bumpstead State Park preservation of the force along the drainage corridors. We ask that you ask or the developer propose that that happen in order for you to propose this. The second one is just shows the drainage um as it goes into William Bumps State Park. The next two uh graphics are the Raleigh Metrop Park overlay districts all along William Bumpsid State Park with specific low density and imperous limits. Now, I know you're not Raleigh. You're better than Raleigh, but but I still added the Raleigh code because these are your adjacent neighbors with their with their protection to the specific corridor with the specific drainage concerns to William Bumpstead State Park. Um, and I highlighted the and and the recommendations I would ask the petitioner to to include his conditions are right from these protections that we have worked so hard for for William Bumps Park in the open space. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Our next um speaker is Steve Grimson. Good evening everyone. Uh my name is Steve Gryom and our family owns the land parcel adjacent to the south side of the subject property. I've lived here on Trenton Road since 1979. This was prior to the time that I40 uh was built along that section. I40 was completed in the mid 80s and at that time the area south and west of I40 fell under carry ETG which we are today

ETJ excuse me and my parcel in the subject land is now zoned office and institutional as you've heard from others Trenton Road is a two-lane road used by many pedestrians and cyclists to access the state park and shank forest trails the proposed multi family development would almost double the number of residential units and traffic in this carter. And for this reason, I'm opposed to the reszoning. Multifamily zoning is out of character for this area, which is mostly predominantly single family homes all along Trenton Road and Trinity Road west of I40 and south all the way to Chapel Hill Road. zoning in this entire carter is predominantly R40, R20 and O and I. Uh the more appropriate zoning for the subject property I think would be single family zoning or retain the O andi and I'm neutral between those two but not the high density multifamily as proposed. About 20 years ago, that's a long time. There was a request by Beaser Homes to reszone the approximate 12 acres that our family owns to multifamily housing. After the initial public hearing, the request was withdrawn primarily due to environmental issues which Dr. Spooner talked about and traffic safety concerns. The increased traffic from the number of residential units would have further stressed an inadequate Trenton Road infrastructure. Trenton Road is still the same two-lane road today with no dedicated pedestrian or cyclist path on the south end. And at that time years ago, the SAS campus drives accessing Trenton were not even in place. Most of the neighborhoods to the north of Trenton were not yet built and the

entertainment venues and residential units on the Raleigh side of I40 were not as extensive. Yes, this denial of multifamily reszoning was years ago. But what has really changed about the road infrastructure to address safety concerns to pedestrians or cyclists? If anything, it's more stress on the system now. Others have talked about the dangerous intersection at Trinity and Trenton. I want to bring up an incident. Four weeks ago, I came across uh an accident that had happened moments before. Cyclist preparing to make a left turn to access uh Trinity. Uh was rearended by a car which broke the bike in half, throwing the cyclist into the windshield, shattering. Eventually, she rolled from the hood of the car onto the pavement. So, she was knocked unconscious and her face was uh quite scarred up. Fortunately, there were no uh broken bones, but this is just the recent accident I came across. Like my neighbors, I've witnessed many near misses and accidents. And I think this is what you happen uh what you have when you have increasing traffic along a two-lane road with no dedicated pathway for pedestrians and cyclists trying to access the park areas. And I think additional traffic from the proposed development will only increase the risk. And uh because of these safety risks and that the development as multif family is totally out of character with the area, I'm opposed to this resoning request. Uh thank you for listening to the concerns from our neighborhood. I encourage those of you who haven't already uh visited this area to to come out and look at it. But uh just watch out for the cyclists and the wildlife when you're doing it. But thank you very much.

Our next register speaker is Charles Row

and good evening. My name is Charles Row and for the uh for 40 years I and my wife have resided at 6410 Arrington Road. Um that's in of course as you've heard in the Medfield neighborhood within Kerry's ETJ. And previously I lived uh in uh central Kerry. I was reminded by the earlier discussions our home uh that we bought in the mid 1970s with a quarter acres and three bedrooms. A lovely home in downtown Kerry cost me $34,000. uh the Arrington and and the other uh residents of neighborhoods adjacent to Trinity Road u as you've heard before will be adversely affected by the proposed doubling of the number of residential n uh units on Trenton Road. uh our street and and Trinity uh road residents. It's already dangerous uh as you've heard about the uh the triangular intersection with Trenton Road, Arrington and and Trinity and currently uh exceed their traffic volume capacity uh accentuated in the morning uh and late afternoon surges of vehicular traffic and additionally the uh special events at the Lenovo Center and the state fairgrounds. So, it's already challenging for residents all along Trinity Road to access that busy roadway. uh and this traffic situation will be magnified as you've heard uh uh by this proposed development but also uh when the SAS corporate campus office buildings return uh to full occupancy uh since the pandemic and turn to uh

remote offsite work for most SAS employees the incoming and outcome outgoing vehicular traffic by the SAS workforce on Trenton and Trinity Road has dramatically decreased. The aerial photo that you saw earlier showed thousands of empty parking spaces and in and what was what you were able to see uh in the SAS campus. uh uh but the traffic volume entering into and essing from that corporate campus onto Trenton Road will likely increase greatly in the future and a substantial uh number of vehicles going into and exiting from Trenton Road turn into our Medfield neighborhood particularly Arrington Brandy Wine and Electra roads uh where dozens really hundreds of other of families reside. Um, I think this resoning decision begs for your broader perspective and deeper consideration in context with comprehensive planning for this entire norththeast sector of Kerry. And I suggest that you not approve this zoning reszoning uh request at at this premature time and appeal to you, the town council, and and your professional staff not to treat this resoning request as an isolated decision, but instead in context with needed comprehensive planning for the larger area of Northeast Kerry and maybe a slightly different perspective, it's probable, I think, that the current owners of the SAS Corporation will relatively soon be determining the future ownership and uses of the nearly dozen now largely unoccupied office

buildings on its corporate campus. Additionally, the future uses for the nearly thousand acres of land stretching between I40 and near Harrison Avenue with its forest lands, its meadows, its ponds on that existing corporate campus and on both sides of Trenton Road uh will be cited desited either potentially for constructing more intensive commercial and residential development or better yet, in my opinion, for public acquisition for a possible combination of a municipal park, a bond park two, uh a future public school complex, uh other public needs and assets. We're not making any more land. Uh and and this is this is this sizable remaining track of undeveloped land within K's jurisdiction is K's golden opportunity. Mr.

Ro, I'm sorry I had to interrupt.

So please plan uh accordingly and comprehensively.

Thank you.

Our next register speaker is Chris Juan. Mr. Mayor and council members. Um before I get started in my prepared remarks, which are relatively short, I'd like you to have a perspective on someone living north of I40 and the way in which the community that we live in has developed. Very fortunately uh in the Raleigh area of this part adjacent to Umstead Park there are limitations on the type of development that can occur and it is largely single family

residences. There's been a variety of developments over the years. I moved into my home um in 1990 in the second of the developments that were then on the north side, all well within a short distance of this proposed development. And when I was living there, Mr. Gryom has been his family's been there for 82 years. Um, I experienced a dirt road, a 65 mile per hour speed limit on Trenton Road and an unlimited limit as far as I could tell in our neighborhoods. But the nicest thing about the way in which our neighborhoods were developed, the first two was that um they had um a a way of building homes at that time that preserve the tree canopy. The developer sold a lot. The buyer would take the responsibility of removing those trees they wanted removed. Why does this matter? It matters because the implications of the new way in which you develop a piece of property, which in my experience, even on our side, has been to eliminate the tree canopy and turn it into a developable area without any limitation. It's an efficient way to go about doing that. So, what we're going to experience and what I'm going to focus on is the fact that this is a multifamily development. Jean Spooner has already talked about how the soil is affected and I think that's important, but you

need to know that there's a creek that goes through this property. Okay. Now, my prepared remarks. My name is Chris Wine. I've had the privilege of living in the Westridge subdivision for 36 years. Westridge is located across US I40 from the proposed development. Our home is located on the upper portion of Richland Lake, the backwaters if you want to say, where the creek comes into the lake. When we moved into that, it was probably 10 acres of water. It was probably 4 feet deep. Not because of development to Holl and Kerry, but upstream of the lake. Sedimentation has occurred since that time and it's now probably three acres of open water 6 in deep. Okay. Richland Lake was created when a series of 10 dams were built by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a division of the United States Department of Agriculture in order to protect Crabtree Valley Mall and other downstream developments from flooding in the 1970s. You're very familiar with this. Crabtree Lake is a part of that same development. The dam was intended to serve this function for 70 to 100 years. It has lasted now for 47 years. Because Richland Lake has experienced unexpected siltation or sedimentation

due to upstream development, the NRCS has determined that the dam which created Richland Lake is a quote high danger dam requiring remediation, possibly dredging or raising the lake level so that the life of the dam can be extended for another 70 to 100 years. Maybe that means 40 years.

I'm sorry, but I have to interrupt you. Your time is expired. I would love to read your comments if you could leave them with

I will make it available to the I'd like to. My point is keep the silt on site.

Thank you.

Our next registered speaker is Eric Hunt. Good evening. Uh, as mentioned, my name is Eric Hunt. Uh, I'm a resident of Kerry. I'm a resident of the Trinity Grove neighborhood up closer to Chapel Hill Road. Um, a little bit about me. I'm an attorney. Um, and when asked if I could come say some words, I said, "Well, I can't I can't turn down a good advocacy, a good fight." And had so many good advocates uh from our community heard here tonight. So I I do love and appreciate that. But you may also be wondering why am I speaking on this since I live almost two two and a half miles away from this development. And I think what I wanted to use with my time today, a lot of the commenters have talked about some of the technical natures and some of the technical issues on the tar. Um but I wanted to pick up on something one of the commenters said about the holistic view of this region. And I just want to say a few kind of words about this. So this site sits on an island. It is far from everything. The way to get out to Raleigh is on Edwards Mill or you can go down to Trinity Road, go all the way to the Lenova Center or you can come down all the way Chapa Hill Road in Trinity if you don't cut through the Medfield

neighborhood. Um, and so these are the access points. And so when we look at this not just as a development, not just as the one mile, not just even as the two miles, but as the area of Northeast Kerry, I would strongly encourage the town to take a look at what is the plan. Ask yourselves what is the plan? And I would propose and and put to you that, you know, all of the excellent work of the staff being done over the past decades aside, um this may be a time to re-evaluate and look and see whether the actual development plans for this region match what is the current status and what is forthcoming. the Lenovo Center, the uh massive development in uh the UNC and the Rex Hospital area, DHHS, um Wake Soccer Park, all of these things. We really encourage you to look and I I submitted written comments. Uh but I I I do think a couple of things to note here. It is true there is no pedestrian infrastructure here. So, we're talking about a place where the planned greenway that is in the master plan sits on SAS land, which has apparently there I'm I'm not aware of any imminent plans to develop the uh streetside trail between Trinity Road and I40 on our side. Now, if you look and compare that to what Raleigh has done on their side, I think that should raise some questions about how we're planning to address Trenton Road in the long term. Uh the Trinity uh Trenton connector has been talked about at length and again I will say just echoing some of the comments that the town staff has made. This is not something that exceeds. This is something where the developer has really met minimums has done marginal improvements committed to things like reflectors and not like redevelopment of

an intersection. And I understand that the burdens of this development are going to fall on more than one party and it's not appropriate for any particular devel developer to redesign the roads of an entire area. But the reality is is that if you want hundreds thousands of more units to exist in Northeast Kerry, the entire corridor is going to eventually need infrastructure redevelopment. And so the question would be how holistically how will that be achieved? I also would like just to think about some of the blind spots and this is alluded to in the tar and I don't want to get into the technical parts but think just think about your experiences and people who drive through east carry around rush hour think about your experiences um is it still the case that special events don't have impacts on our rush hour traffic I remember in October of 2025 when it took me three hours to get home due to the Chris Brown concert uh many many events not not every event but many events intersect. And so there's a layering of both the, you know, you've got low performing intersections on top of event traffic, on top of commuters, on top of return to home. And so are just question are these factors really being addressed in the assumptions that have been made over the past 5 to 10 years in the traffic studies. I would also um I would I guess I would say that I would encourage the town to take a look at what the conditions that the that this developer has actually made on traffic and in my written comments I have a a cutout of the recommendations page from the TAR. If you look at it and you count how many things they've committed to versus what was recommended, two or three out of a dozen, the Chapel Hill Trinity Road intersection, which is in the tar as an impacted intersection, isn't even there's not a single thing addressed. There's two separate uh areas in that. So, for that reason, I would

ask that you discuss that with the you know, with the developer and I'm sorry your time's expired. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hunt.

Our last register speaker is Mary Nations. What was that name again?

Mary Nations.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

That was our last register.

If you would like to speak at this public hearing, now's your opportunity. Even if you didn't sign up, Hello, my name is Ron Hamner and I live in the corridor and I'm going to keep it quick because you've heard enough reasons to realize this is the wrong development for the area. But a couple different things. Uh first off, uh I'd like to ask a question for the developer. Uh originally I believe you guys quoted as saying uh at the Trinity and Trinity intersection you will agree to all the signage and visibility charges recommended in the tar. Uh one of those things was of to address the skew of that intersection. It's terrible. It was recommended to be red to be changed to a 90 degree skew and I think uh that was conveniently left out of any uh mention of their improvements. So, I was curious as to what they were going to do about that. Um, second all I see this thing which says 5% of units are affordable at 80% of the AMI. Affordable is usually referred to terms of 60% or below of the AMI. At 80% of AMI and carry, that's $110,000. Is that really affordable? Can you can can you actually advertise that as being affordable? I don't think you can. Um, the 12-oot shared use path. It's a road to nowhere. It's great, but it goes nowhere. It deadends at a bridge that as a 10,000mi a year cyclist, I don't like

to ride over. And that bridge is even on the review to be to be inspected in the next 10 years. It's narrow. It has no protection for any cyclist or walker. It's always covered in trash. and they expect people to walk across that to get to the advertised benefits of being near the park. So, I don't think that's exactly true as a benefit of the area. But anyway, um you've heard enough tonight to to know it's not the right development. These are great developers, by the way. They are a local developer, and if you were to actually reszone to something that was appropriate for the area, I would welcome them. They are a great builder. They build a great product, but this is the wrong product. Um, finally, back to the uh the traffic study. One thing that wasn't mentioned was the amount of speeding that was recorded to the point now where even more officers are patrolling the area due to the higher levels of speed going through the corridor. And if you double the amount of cars in the area with a single development, it's only going to get worse. And uh to all my Medfield people, I'm sorry because I'm one of those people. The only access to the triangle through this new development is going to be 40 west. And no one's going to drive all the way out to Kerry Park, uh, excuse me, to uh, 54 to get there. You're going to cut through Medfield to get on at Harrison because the difference between getting on exit 290 and 287 is up to 30 minutes. So, every single person is going to be going through Medfield and it's already tight in there. Street parking, it's going to cause problems. So, Mr. Mayor, you said something earlier tonight. You said you didn't want to see if I can get it right. You didn't want to take into consideration of the future residents at the expense of those that already live here. I hope you stay true to that with this one. Thank you. I am Philip Kitten and uh I live at uh

Roller Mill Court on the Raleigh side. Mayor and Council, thank you. To me, this is not a housing issue. I support housing and I have adult children that, you know, they talk about u the housing crisis. So, to me, it's less about that and it's really about public safety. I live just across 40. I'm out on this uh road on Trenton Road every single day. I'm I run out there. I walk our dogs. I'm out there with all the neighbors, many of whom you've heard from. There are moms pushing strollers. There are elderly people out there. Speeding is a huge issue. And I sometimes wave at the drivers who are cutting through. I mean, some may live in a neighborhood, but a lot seem to be they sort of barrel over I40 where it's 35, so they're they're probably already going 50. And then they hit the 25. Gez, it's so well marked. There are so many signs. Got orange flags. People fly over that. For a while, there was a survey that the police did where they put out one of those little radar signs and it was kind of amazing. like people actually kind of slowed down when they saw that they were hitting, you know, 40 or 50. And when the police did the survey, they shared the results of that with us. Not surprisingly, uh the 25 mph limit, I mean, yeah, some people drive five over, whatever. The average is way above that. And one uh driver was clocked at going 70. So, you know, my wife and I, we joke like, you know, put some speed bumps out there. We heard that, you know, apparently that's been discussed. It's such a simple solution. Don't have a problem with the housing, but it is unsafe already. So, if you're going to

double the traffic, you're going to make it doubly um unsafe. It's a miracle, frankly, nobody's uh been killed. I mean, when I'm running, I ran this morning along that path. cars. Um I I'll be on the greenway and cars actually veer away a little bit, you know, so they don't hit you with mirrors or or whatever. Just to wrap up, um I moved here from Atlanta. Atlanta is famous for its lack of planning. With all due respect to anybody from Atlanta, you know that the kind of the theory down there seems to be drop a development in on any little chunk of land, worry about the traffic and the infrastructure. Later, when we came up here and moved, we spent a lot of time driving around Kerry. My wife and I were astounded at how great the infrastructure was, the the setup of the roads, the greenways, and all of that. What's being proposed here is really in contradiction to that amazing planning, and I hope that you'll defer this or deny it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else speak at this public hearing? Okay, we'll close this public hearing. I'm gonna invite Aaron back. Uh, first I want to say that I worked at SAS for 29 years and that back entrance is very familiar to me as well as the Trenton Trinity triangle which is very dangerous. Also, I can say Raleigh did a very good job with traffic calming because going out of SAS taking a left and you have to take the right and it is 25 miles an hour. I don't know how people do 70 m hour on that road. I couldn't even do 30. Uh, but it was very discouraging to go that way. And that was designed that way by the traffic engineers in Raleigh to keep you from cutting through to go where you wanted to go. I forgot where I'd want to go, but uh, but it was interesting uh to

hear all the information from people that lived there when I experienced it for many, many years. Um, I do have questions. Want to make sure that it is currently zoned O and I.

That's all right. And uh let's see. Oh, are there any NC do traffic plans to improve Trinity and Trenton?

I don't believe there's anything explicitly in the timeline. I believe the that specific intersection Trinity and Trenton is on a list for future study, but I don't believe there's a timeline associated.

So, I'm going to speak without data, so bear with me. I'm part of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization Executive Board. We decide how to spend state and federal dollars on roads. They have a 10-year plan, which means a road might get built in 15 years. So, if it's not on the plan, there's not a lot of improvements coming unless it jumps to the front of the line. Uh so, that is very concerning to me. Um, now I want to make my remarks. Uh, final remarks before I turn over my colleagues from some of the things I I heard just to make sure everybody is clear. Uh, I've heard reconsider the development. Please know this isn't our plan. This isn't our development. It is currently zoned O and I. I heard a lot of people say turn this down. If this is turned down, they can build office without any council approval. they can go ahead and build and that can make it much worse. Just so you know that and and I'll get to why that's important in a little bit. And then the moratorum on development, all our authority comes from the legislature and we don't have authority to put a moratorum on any type of development. So I want to make sure that's clear. The fact that they could build office without any council approval

begs me to ask all parties even though you seem miles apart please continue to work together because if it's denied and they go okay I'll sell or somebody else picks up the option and office becomes in favor again which doesn't look like it now but you wouldn't have thought five years ago it' go out of f well 10 years ago it go out a favor. Keep that in mind. So, it's in everybody's best interest to continue to work with each other. And I know that's a long shot. Uh, at least it sounds like it to me. There's a lot of ground to make up to come close together, but I still think it's important for everybody to continue to work together. And I want you to understand the process. This is very early in the process. So after tonight's public hearing, it will go to an advisory board called the planning and zoning board and they will see if it meets our plan, our Kerry community plan. You have a plan and you have a zoning. Both of those have to match before you can develop. And so right now they do match for office. So if anything changes, those things have to change. Anyway, the planning and zoning board is going to decide, hey, does that meet the plan and the intention, the carry community plan, which there's lots of chapters which the staff talked about. After they make a recommendation, not a decision, not a binding decision, but a recommendation, it will come back to council and we will make a decision that's months away. So, there's plenty of time to talk and plenty of time to work together and hopefully come closer at least. uh because again if this goes down then you're stuck with office and who knows where that's going. Uh so those are the things that are going through my mind. Uh, one other thing for the developer, the uh, a 5% AMI uh, the speaker was exactly right. The average medium income in Kerry is 135,000 and it's increasing by

26% a year income is. So that number is going up rapidly. And so 80% of AMI really doesn't touch affordable housing. I would ra I rather have 5% at 80% AMI. I'd rather have one or 2% at 50% AMI. That would mean a lot to me. That's just my personal opinion. And if you're here for earlier votes, my opinion on affordable housing is at the bottom of the totem pole. So, I'll turn it over to my colleagues for their remarks.

I think it's Michelle's district.

Michelle,

it is my district. Um, I did meet with some residents yesterday. Um, and one of the things that I was saying as we were walking out was I don't have I didn't have too many questions right now because so many times when this comes back to us it looks very different for the same reason that you were saying um, Mayor Weinre that working together that in in the beginning it's this is what we want and we don't want this and the more they can work together, the better it is for everyone. And so, um, I I mean, I did want to point out that, um, residents that we met with yesterday did speak highly of the applicant. So, um, he was being fair in his remarks earlier, but so it's important to note that so many times the residents and and I'm not speaking for everyone, just the ones that I talked with yesterday. So many times residents say they won't meet with us and they're not hearing what we're saying. And so I think this has a lot of potential for, you know, for whatever goes forward being something that can be positive for Carrie. I do, some of the

notes that I did take were concerns about um pedestrians and cyclists, but that is absolutely been on my mind so much lately anyway. And I have questions that I will bring I've been bringing to staff, but I want to dive deeper and understand more about the I didn't circle that one, the um the rectangular rapid flashing beacon. And I will I want to understand better what DOT's requirements are because I find it coming up over and over and over again and I I've recently been told that DOT won't approve one in a certain area, but I need to figure out what other options are. So we'll keep bringing those questions and but I but I want to know if is it a possibility I know we can't change DOT but it is a possibility that you know it's helpful to better understand for all of us to better understand what those requirements are and we can't change those requirements but we can certainly advocate um as people who make policy for our community if something's not working then it may be that we need to advocate for some kind of change and this might not be an appropriate time for change but I don't know that yet because I don't understand it into that level. So those are just some of the the high level notes that I took is just making sure that we're keeping those things in mind and definitely it's very interesting that 20 I mean like I know why they went to 25 miles per hour but it's there seems to be problematic in areas out there and I know that's that's Ry's area I believe

but I that it's just an interesting area and the idea of looking at the area holistically I think is a good one.

Other comments.

I think um I have to agree that you know first of all thank you so much for coming out um today and to share how you feel about this development every time you bring forward your you know what what is it like to be in that living in that area with a new development coming and how does that impact your life is very helpful for us because we don't live there and you know we don't know what your day-to-day life looks like so anything that you shared today is very valuable for us and hopefully for the applicant. I really love how the mutual respect was there and you know um I'd agree with Councilwoman Craig. Not every applicant is very willing to meet the residents but you know I see a great rapport here which probably could be instrumental in coming up with a plan that works for everyone. For us we want residents to win. We want applicants to win and we want Kerry to win. One of the things that I have observed in my district probably applies everywhere um are the infrastructure challenges with all the projects that come along and then Kerry becomes responsible to address those challenges. I think I agree that you know we have to think holistically about those things and how do we address those uh challenges proactively. We should look at that for every project and this could be one of those. Um but thank you so much for coming out again and you know um I've heard issues related to traffic density um transition issues. I agree with the mayor that you know um this is um an office use. So the only um thing that the council probably will be approving is whether we agree that it could be residential use at this point.

That's where I am.

Other thoughts? I'll echo Council Member Bonsal's gratitude that you came out tonight uh because your unique perspective in your neighborhood is so valuable and you've stayed with us through what is proving to be a late evening on a full agenda. So, thank you for your patience. Uh I think what the mayor pointed out is always really important that it's easy to focus on uh what council could be approving without thinking about what could be built uh if the request is denied. and uh my colleagues have said similar sentiments. I think it is usually in every party's best interest to reach that compromise. Um because I think we have the ability as as council to shape this into something that could be much more desirable than if the uh application is denied. And uh what could be built there today could be built. You I've already admitted tonight that I'm a bleeding heart. Anybody who knows me knows that that heart bleeds in particularly for our tree canopy, our wildlife habitat, our green spaces. And this body recently was fairly skeptical of another proposal near Jordan Lake out of recognition that building near some of our most sensitive environmental areas um requires additional scrutiny. And I think this proximity to Umstead Park probably requires that level of extra scrutiny as well. I appreciate Dr. Spooner being with us tonight and her advocacy for uh our our green spaces and and this area in particular. And so if I had a message for the applicant, it would be paying particular attention to those environmental concerns and strengthening that part of the proposal as much as possible.

I second that. Is that it?

No, I I have as as per usual I have questions actually.

Um and I'm you probably can clarify these for me and Miss Pucket. Um Medfield and the the surrounding developments are these um roads with no curb and gutter and probably a little bit narrower.

I would have to double check that. I know as you go south down Trenton, there are some neighborhoods that are within our jurisdiction. Some are still in our ETJ. So I would need to verify which do and don't have

I I'm assuming no carbon gutter and I'm assuming they're not terribly wide and then we're creating cut through traffic. That gives me pause. The other thing that I'd like verification or or some kind of information about is this road really rated a D

the the road quality

the years the level of service

for the uh traffic or the intersection.

Yeah, I'm talking what I heard was that Trenton Road has a low quality rating and it was specifically said of D. Maybe I misunderstood and it was the intercession.

Yeah, it'd be an intersection.

Okay.

They're talking about

not the roadity. Okay. Thank you.

The traffic study looks specifically at intersections. So, that's where those ratings come from.

Okay. I wanted to make I wanted to make certain it wasn't you know that that the road was falling to pieces and that that's where Okay. Thank you. Um also does our storm water controls reduce nitrogen and phosphorus?

I would have to double check on that

if somebody could find that out for me. That's something I feel as though I should know but I don't.

I believe nitrogen is addressed during development plan review but I would have to check on the details of that. I know we have gradea A excellent storm water um requirements, but I don't know specifically if it if they're required to reduce um runoff like nitrogen, phosphorus, and

I'd also like to know specifically how turbidity is addressed. Um what the requirements are for turbidity. And and while I'm at it, while I'm giving staff homework, if someone could teach me how to properly use the topography layer on our maps, I'm here. here. I was here trying to look at it and failing miserably. Um, so I'm going to request a little bit of tutoring there cuz bless my heart, I tried. Um, and I had one other question. Are any of these roads that are in this immediate vicinity, let's say within a half mile or any of them town and carry roads?

So Trenton is a state road. Anything of course across to the north is going to be outside of our jurisdiction. So most of what you see in the immediate vicinity is going to be state roads

off of Trinity. There are neighborhoods that

some of those could be carry and again some of those are completely within our jurisdiction. Some are not. It's a it's a sort of mish mash of

That's my next question. So if it's a

not DOT road in a Kerry ETJ, is that a private road or is that a town of Kerry?

It could be a private road. Probably DOT.

Probably not for a detached neighborhood. It would probably be a DOT road. That does not help. Okay.

Are they town of Kerry maintained roads? No. No. In the

No, it depends on which one you're asking about, but a lot of the the roads in the immediate vicinity. No, they're NC DOT.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I'm just trying to make sure I understood how that works in the in the ETJ, too, because that is um

You're asking all good questions.

Well, I've always got questions.

We are learning, too. Giving me a lot of homework. this one.

Sorry, that was not my intention. Why does the TAR assume a significant number of trips will be south and not north?

I would have to get more input from our transportation staff, but that's something I our traffic study is done by a third party consultant. It's done by traffic engineers. They're looking at all of that. I'm assuming that's looking

at the traffic flow. Maybe the could include the fact that the road to the north is 25 miles per hour and quite suous. I

okay that's

I see Russ is

Russ you've got some familiarities sharing we have some members of our transportation staff um here tonight who can signage for

and the applicant also has engineers here too right

yes

yeah that's what I heard

someone's waving yes

good evening council and mayor uh Priyatam I'm in the transportation department um I with a couple of my teammates reviewed this that was completed by uh one of our on call consultants ments. Uh to answer your question, you know, majority of the times the distribution is based on existing traffic patterns and in which direction majority of the traffic is flowing whether there is an interstate and when there are ramps the uh most of the traffic is distributed that way and uh in this particular case 10% was assigned to the north and that 10% was assuming that these people are traveling to a a job site or traveling to an employment location and there also there's also an employment location across the street. Um, even if you increase that 10 to 20%. U, uh, it's not going to be that much different in terms of the levels of service.

Okay, that's helpful. Thank you.

So, so being an employee at SAS for many years, if I took a left and went through Raleigh roads, it was a nightmare because those roads are so narrow

and the speed limits

where you can just haul it

up to Trinity, hang a left, and just fly down the road and get there quicker.

Get on top of the road.

Maybe he was going 75 miles. I wasn't doing 75, but

not that the mayor was speeding. He was not

35 miles an hour.

34.

Who could we believe you, Mayor?

That's very helpful as well. Thank you. And I just I want to uh I'm very interested. First of all, the hearing um positive things when we met, Council Member Craig and I met with several

residents yesterday. So, a special thank you to Steve, uh, Jeanie, and Sarah for for sharing your first of all topographical knowledge, which is why I'm sitting here trying to make sure I really understand it, but also just, you know, your first person, you know, sitting down for an hour and explaining to us was really helpful. Um, but hearing them say that the applicant's been responsive and meeting and talking, um, I that's just really nice to hear. So, I it's I've heard a lot of really good things about this applicant. So, I wanted to just share my thanks for there. And I'm really interested in this one-bedroom corner

um

with two windows because I'm trying to do the um geometry in my head and I can't. So, I'm very interested, really truly uh very interested in what that product looks like and how it works. Um so, I'm all ears if anybody's willing to do a little bit more coaching. Um and then finally, um thank you for your work with I can't remember where they went. uh your work with safe child. I feel like this meeting has come full circle for me. So it's strange but lovely and that's all I got.

Other comments.

So again,

don't forget me.

Oh, Lori, please.

I have a couple of questions. Um and mostly just adding on to um Council Member Con Johnson's questions and and also Council Member Richards. Um, I can't remember the last time we had a resoning that fronts a highway since Fenton, I think. And so some of my concerns really talk about and and both other council members did an amazing job talking about it, how when you have that much impervious service on the I40 right away. I'm curious if staff or if we have any modeling or analysis that looks at the combined storm water impact of the highway

associated with this new development or or on the same receiving streams. Um because I I don't remember us

really talking about this at at any time before. Um, so I I I guess my question would be could could staff or the applicant it and it doesn't have to be now, but maybe at some future point explain the postdevelopment runoff volumes and the pollutant loads, how it might compare to what's going on today when you lose all of that natural filtration from the current forest that's there. And so I'm wondering if our minimum storm water requirements will actually protect the downstream creeks and the Reed Creek Lake. In in other words, we've in other places we've had great applicants and and it sounds like this is one where they've added storm water vaults or they've added additional measures or um best management practices to to help and protect the downstream. And that would be very interesting if if staff and and the applicant can get together. Um the the only other question I would have is assuming I was looking at the future I think it was the future land use map. It I think the site currently shows employment mixedus campus. Am I getting that right?

That's correct.

That's

So what is an employment mixeduse campus? Is that an O and I is that office and institutional? So office and institutional zoning can fit very well within an employment mixeduse campus. Um those areas do also support multif family residential and can support some other incidental residential uses like town houses. This would be similar to discussions that were had recently like in the Weston area also an employment mixeduse campus about sort of infill or

redevelopment projects starting to supply some some rooftops that complement the um employment uses. So the comp plan does actually explicitly speak to some residential in those areas as a complimentary use to employment related uses like office.

Okay. So this would this reszoning would actually fit that the current future land use map.

Yes, both the existing and the proposed zoning do appear to be generally consistent with the future growth framework.

Got it. Okay. And the only other question I would have is I would love it if the applicant could understand and look at considering again the large amount of impervious surface and the fact that it it's right next to the I40 rightway should there be you know and this is if the application and resoning moves forward I would be interested in the buffer between the residential and the exit ramp. It looks quite close. So I'd be worried if there's analysis done on the noise or the air quality for future residents and what the design commitments might be. Buffers, walls, right? What we don't want to make it bad for a future resident and we wouldn't want to make the worsening of noise and light impacts worse as well. So that those are my comments and I appreciate again just to pile on the applicant and all of the amazing residents who came out to speak. Um thank you for your engagement citizen and resident engagement always matters.

Yeah, there is. We're looking at the map again in the in the residents when we met with them yesterday. I think they explained it to me and I don't that that what looks like a a ramp. It's not an exit ramp that was explained to me. That is where Wade

Avenue splits off of 40. Correct.

Okay. And that does quite literally serve as a boundary to this property.

Yes.

It's a road a road boundary. Correct.

Yeah, it is.

Yeah. Yeah. And that can that is concerning

and council member Bush doesn't even have the benefit of this map they made for us. So,

okay.

Anything else?

So, I'm sorry. Uh, we can take your comments later. So, so where we are um is we're we have finished public hearing and we will go this process will go to the the planning and zoning board for their review and recommendation. I would recommend that the developer reach out to the residents and set up a meeting. Um they're very responsible guys. I've met them, worked with them before. uh I think they would probably be open to that but is it is a responsibility of the developers and the residents to get together. However, our liaison Aaron Pucket can help you with any of that. She can give you contact information. She works with the developer. She can give you the latest information. Uh she is the person to ask questions to. She will know the latest and greatest before we know it. Uh, so that is this lady right here is the one to talk to. Um, so thank you for being here. This is a multi-month process. You've got plenty of time. Uh, work the process and see if you can get all your questions answered. See if we can come to some compromise of some way. And if you don't, that's okay, too. But at least we tried. So, thank you all for being here. And thank you, Miss Pucket.

Thank you. So, we will now move to our third public hearing. Act 41, amendment to the

Chattam Kerry Joint Land Use Plan. Rachel Smith will introduce this item and council will not take action. It will be referred to the planning and zoning board and return to council at a future date.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Act 41 is a comprehensive plan amendment. The applicant requests to amend the Chattam Kerry joint land use plan for approximately 6.51 acres of property addressed 955 Ernest Jones Road in Chattam County. The property is 4/10en of a mile west of the Wake County line between the Bryson Nature Preserve and the American Tobacco Trail. Nearby is the Diavolo Golf Disc Golf Course and the Kerry Hidden Creek, Montville, and Welden Ridge neighborhoods. While the property is presently outside of K's corporate limits and extr territorial jurisdiction, the plan amendment was filed to facilitate a request to develop the property and connect to Kerry utilities via annexation and the establishment of Kerry zoning. The joint plan was adopted in 2012 and incorporated into the 2017 imagine carry community plan. It covers approximately 18,000 acres and is intended to guide future land use, development, and public infrastructure. To protect water quality, the plant calls for very low density development around Jordan Lake with a gradual transition in density from west to east. It includes a land use plan map as shown here and plan amendments and reszonings in the planning area are governed by an interlocal agreement. Only approved zoning determines what may be developed on a property. However, the joint plan provides guidance on appropriate land uses and densities and resoning requests are evaluated for consistency.

The site is designated very low density residential which allows up to one detached dwelling unit per acre and the applicant proposes the low density residential designation which allows up to two dwelling units per acre and a broader range of housing types. For this 6.51 acre site, the amendment is minimal. Development of the site could go from six to 13 dwelling units. A net impact of seven and additional housing types such as duplexes, patio homes, and town houses may be possible subject to zoning approval. Dwelling unit counts are rounded down to the nearest whole number or nearest whole house and density is calculated on a gross acreage basis. The surrounding area includes very low density residential, lowdensity residential, and parks, open space, and golf course designations. Transitions between designations mostly follow identifiable features such as roads, streams, and open space. As shown in yellow, the 21.49 acre annexation and resoning assemblage includes the amendment site and the parcel north of it. The applicant is seeking initial carry zoning of residential 12 conditional use with the watershed protection overlay district for the Jordan Lake subdist allow 27 detached dwellings which is a density of 1.26 dwellings per acre. While the applicant was re was advised the resoning could be conditioned so as not to exceed the maximum density for each land use area. They chose the plan amendment route. The reasonzoning is on hold and will require separate review and approval by the Kerry Town Council should the amendment be approved. Kerry and Cadam County staff are

coordinating to follow the amendment process per the interlocal agreement. The applicant submitted a resoning request to carry in January which was found not conforming with the plan due to the proposed density being too high for the very low density residential parcel. Plan amendment applications were then filed with both jurisdictions in March and the Chattam County Board of Commissioners held their public hearing last week with no speakers other than the applicant and only limited technical questions. The commissioners then forwarded the request to their planning and zoning board for a recommendation. It's a similar process. Following your public hearing this evening, you may forward the request to Car's planning and zoning board before it returns to you for a final action. And procedurally, Chattam County must act on the amendment before Carrie can make its final determination. The LDO provides criteria by which comprehensive plan amendments are evaluated. In summary, does the amendment address changes in projections or assumptions? Identify new issues, opportunities or needs, address shifts in policy direction, or identify potential errors or emissions in the plan. In this case, the request is driven by a desire for additional development density. From staff's preliminary analysis, there may be some limited support for consideration based upon the criteria. The site is in an area with a mix of land use designations and amenities like the American Tobacco Trail and Parkland, some of which has been added since plan adoption. Portions of the larger resoning site are already designated lowdensity residential and Ernest Jones Road could function as a logical transition between designations.

At the same time, the joint land use plan emphasizes preservation of rural character. So, the request should be weighed against the overall vision. This concludes my presentation. The applicant's representative, Ashley Honeyut Gerzes, is available and following the public hearing, I'm available to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. Is the applicant going to speak or he's just available or she's just available? Sorry.

Yes, please. It's been a long evening. Um, but I did want to give a an overview of this request as well. Um, good evening mayor and council members. My name is Ashley Honeyut Trazzos with Parker Poe, uh, 301 Fable Street in Raleigh. I'm here to discuss what is a minor amendment to the Chadam carry joint lane use map um, uh, plan for the uh, property located at 955 Ernest Jones Road. It's not a resoning. Um but uh we are we are here really as as Rachel explained um to um to be able to uh for the resoning request that she described to be able to move forward. Um and this process is required under this uh interlocal agreement um between Kerry and Chattam County. So again, the the request before you tonight is to amend the joint land use plan future land use map to reclassify parcel um uh 955 Ernest Jones Road, which is 6.5 acres from very low density residential, which recommends one unit per acre, to low density residential, which recommends two units per acre. Um it is located directly adjacent to the Kerry town limits east of the rural buffer boundary, that you black and yellow uh boundary, and it now has access to public water and sewer utilities. Um it would bring the parcel into alignment with the adjacent parcel to the north um which is already designated for lowdensity residential on the future land use map. Both parcels are under the

same ownership. Um and they function now and they and they function as a single site. So this ensures that a consistent land use designation across the property. Um both parcels would have the same recommended maximum density of up to two units an acre. And as Rachel explained, that doesn't mean that that would it would actually be developed uh with two units an acre. Um but um ultimately those specific density and development regulations would be decided as a part of the resoning process through the town. Um, so again, Rachel gave that great overview of the Kerry Cadam carry joint lane use plan and the history. And I'll just say that I'm not aware of any relevant history uh for this particular property and why it and a handful of other properties just on the north side of Ernest Jones were given that very low density residential designation while everything around them was designated as low density residential when that plan was adopted in 2012. Um, and I I know Council Member Bush has spoken about um at that time in the early 2000s when it was being adopted, many owners um had the opportunity to express what they wanted it to be designated and it was different owners at the time. So, they might have had different visions for what um the future of their property would be. Um but um there there are in any event there are several key changes since 2012 when the joint land use plan was adopted that support changing uh the land use designation for the 6 and 1/2acre parcel. Um again, first the it's under the common ownership with the larger 14acre parcel to the north allowing for coordinated planning. Um second uh the town of Kerry has acquired a large 130 acre parcel immediately to the west of the site for a future park. Uh that was not anticipated when the joint land use plan was adopted and it makes sense to have a few more Kerry residents um next to that park between the American Tobacco Trail um to enjoy that amenity. And third, uh, municipal water, um, and sewer, both, uh, utilities have now been extended to this area, making development of a few more homes on the property and carries corporate limit, uh, limits possible and appropriate today. Um, and again, Rachel went over the the resoning request that we have

filed. Um, it it's R12CU, cap of 27 um, homes with an overall density of approximately 1.26 units an acre. uh well below the maximum two units per acre of overall um recommended density by that low low density designation but slightly exceeds the one unit per acre recommended under the current very low density designation. Um and under the interlocal agreement, there are strict recom uh requirements that resonings be consistent with the property boundary lines um in the joint land use plan map, which is why this amendment is needed to allow Carrie to move forward with that resoning. Um and and the conditional reasoning request also includes several important commitments based on town of Kerry policies which um you've seen on other cases in this area including um lot sizes not including riparian buffers, increased community gathering space and construction of a segment of the Montil Greenway um that will provide a link between the American Tobacco Trail um into the future town of Kerry Park to the west um providing a meaningful public benefit to residents who live in this area. Um so as a result the the amendment is necessary to bring the land use plan into alignment with the proposed development to allow the site to be planned comprehensively. Um it also enables a more thoughtful layout for this small subdivision. um concentrating the the lots on the southern portion of the site closer to Ernest Jones Road and away from the more environmentally sensitive areas to the north next to the public parkland and the the greenway connection which would be on the northern part where you know the trees and the um preserve space is and also there's a a buffer that's required a wide buffer that's required next to the American Tobacco Trail. So, the internal street has to kind of um jog to the the west and you can see by the shape of the the property like it has to kind of curve like this. So, it we did talk to staff and Rachel mentioned, you know, if we were to have one unit per acre where this lot this line was and could there be partial lots

in that area, it it just got very complicated very quickly. And so um we decided to pursue the um this minor amendment to the the joint land use u plan map. Um so you know ultimately changing the designation of this approximately 6 and a half acre parcel to low density residential um only increases the maximum recommended density by a handful of homes. It's not a drastic change from the current designation. Um and it does not even really increase the amount of lowdensity residential development in the Chattam Kerry joint land use plan area because we now know um that the very large uh parcel next to this site which is designated for lowdensity residential um is owned by now owned by the town and um will be used for for park use. Um so that's this will not you know develop as low density residential. Um so it this request reflects current conditions, aligns with surrounding land uses and recommended densities and supports well planned development um with added community benefits um which is proposed to connect to Kerry utilities um and come into Kerry corporate limits um and thank you all again for your time and consideration and I'm here to answer any questions.

Thank you. So now it's time for the public hearing for act 41 amendment to Chattam Chattam Kerry joint land use plan. I'll call on the clerk for any written comments or registered speakers.

No written comments. No registered speakers.

If you are here in the audience and would like to speak at this public hearing, now's your opportunity. Anyone to speak at this public hearing? Seeing no one, I'll close the public hearing and first call on Mayor Pro Tim Bush so I won't forget.

Thank you. Um I appreciate that. Um, and I also very much appreciate the applicant for remembering my comments with regards to the last one. Why are people making changes to the various Chattam County um, joint land use? Um, I appreciate the fact that

the previous owner may not be or the current owner may not be the previous owner when this originally came up. Um my I don't have any comments except to understand a little bit more perhaps from staff on the process considering it has to go through various reviews and does it go through multiple planning and zoning or how does that do how does that work when it's a comprehensive um amendment rather than a reszoning?

So the interlocal agreement that was jointly adopted by the county and by Kerry specifies the process. it lays it out very well. Um, so the first step is that determination of of either consistency or not consistent. Um, which happened at the staff level. Um, we've had great communication and I I thank the county for that. Um, the next step is that the reasonzoning is essentially put on pause um to allow for the amendment process and this is very prescribed in the interlocal agreement. Um, so the first step is to um have the public hearing at both the town and the county. The second step will follow our natural processes for legislative items. So it's planning and zoning board and then final decision. Um I will note and I mentioned this in my presentation that the interlocal agreement specifies that the county must make the decision on the amendment first and both bodies have to approve the amendment or the resoning basically goes back to square one. And so the reasoning request does have to be consistent with the with the comprehensive plan.

Great. And from a um knowledge of the surrounding community, did we follow the 800 ft rule and and let them know or we only do that with resonings?

That is required for resonings, not comprehensive plan amendments.

So would h were signs put up? I I'm I'm surprised that nobody showed up or maybe I'm not to speak at the public hearing. How were

people notified of this potential change?

I think the um mayor prom Bush um I met with the applicant um before this meeting and I think there were residents that showed up to the meeting. There was some confusion between the notification that was sent by the county and so people were very concerned about what the process is and you know how it is going to work between Kerry and um county and I think they were when they uh attended the meeting they kind of got the clarity on the process and um I think right now we are at a point where everybody understands that you know first uh Chadam is going to approve this um amendment and then it comes to Gary for hearing. Is that correct, Ashley?

Oh,

I can speak a little bit to that. Yeah. So, so Chadam County did send out notices. The folks in Monville are aware. I've spoken to some of them. A few of them came out to the um hearing in Chattam County that we had actually last week. Um, so we appeared before the Chattam County Board of Commissioners last week and they didn't speak in opposition, but we had conversations after and I let them know they would be notified of the neighborhood meeting once the the resoning would uh move forward and um we could have more engagement with them then.

Okay. So I I didn't catch Thank you so much. I I didn't catch that there were obviously this is our meeting but we didn't have anyone show up at our meeting but folks did show up at the Chattam County one and so from here after this amendment it would go to the planning and zoning board. Is that correct?

Correct.

Okay. All right. Thank you for that.

Then my question is drilling down a little bit more in that. Do you know the timing of the Chattam County Planning and Zoning Board or Planning Board? Does that happen before it goes to our planning board? I'm just curious because our planning board might get

information. I don't know.

So, Chattam County generally sticks to a fairly prescribed schedule. They are anticipating to have the planning board hear this at their May 5th meeting.

Oh, wow. That'll be before ours,

correct? Okay, that's all I had. Any other questions?

I just want to say that I met with the um representative before this meeting and they were very clear. We walked through every single item and um looks like you know the the plan is being discussed with the residents and at some point I hope they they reach out to us if they have any questions or concerns. Okay, this will

I want to make I just want to make one quick com I'm not trying to make this meeting longer. I swear.

Um I have no inherent issue with this piece of land um being it seems like continuity makes a little bit of sense here. What I do want to go on record saying is I do not believe that the lowdensity residential should go as far west as it does. as my colleague, Council Member Richards pointed out earlier, it is, you know, the the inlets or outlets, I don't know what exactly the the right word is for it, but it's just too close to the lake. Um, where that where the LDR is, um, two units per acre that near the lake just doesn't feel like smart planning. And I believe we meet the criteria for changing the LDO if I have some colleagues that agree with me. Um I do believe there's changes in visions, values, and and policies perhaps. Um and I and I, you know, changes in projections or assumptions. I don't know exactly what the the definition of that is there, but um yeah, it just it gives me heartburn. Every time I see those those fingers coming off of the lake and the idea of

having two units per acre developed all around those just seems like not a decision I'd like to point back and say I made that decision. So you're saying that um is this too close for that kind of

not this parcel in particular but the the so the lake being here with the fingers and this is all um

low density not very low it should be very low density and I feel like we we've we've got got it wrong there

and when the plan was done I am sure the Chattam County commissioners at the time would have agreed with you

really

I don't know what they think today I don't know what that board's like so

I'd love to have just a

I'm not trying to be honest. I'm not trying to make this meeting take forever, but you might want to just contact them and see what they have to say. See what they think about that.

They actually requested for a meeting.

We just have to kind of

That'd be wonderful. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Sorry to take your time with that. Um, so this will go to our planning and zoning board probably in a month or so uh before it comes back to us at a future date. Thank you.

Thank you. We now go to our fourth public hearing consideration rightaway closing West Chattam Street Assistant Planning Director Rob Wilson. Haven't seen Mr. Wilson in a while. We'll introduce the hearing. Mr. Wilson.

Uh good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh the Ashworth Family Limited Partnership has requested that the council close a portion of rightway associated with West Cadam Street. The developer, Chattam Street Commercial, is redeveloping Ashworth Village, as shown here, an L-shaped 0.9acre property with frontage on West Chatam Street and South Academy Street. The redevelopment site does not include the former Ashworth drugstore at the corner of Chattam and Academy or the two adjacent retail spaces at 107 and 111 West Cadam Street. The proposed development plan for the site is currently under review by car's development review committee.

As shown in this aerial photograph aerial photograph, the site's west Chattam Street frontage has an irregular rightway boundary. The developer is requesting closure of approximately 163 square feet of rightway along the site's West Chatam Street frontage, as shown here in red. As part of the proposed development plan, the developer is also proposing to dedicate about 95 square ft of rightway as shown in blue. The proposed area for closure when combined with the proposed area for dedication in the development plan would produce a consistently straight rightway boundary line that would run from this site's northeastern corner westward and align with the rightway boundary line in front of the adjacent property to the west at 127 West Chattam Street. This exhibit shows the rightway area proposed for closure and the rightway area proposed for dedication as an overlay on the proposed development plan which includes a three-story building with two stories of residential, that' be 22 units located over ground floor retail spaces and covered parking. Staff believes that this sliver of rightaway is no longer needed and eliminating it will benefit the public interest by achieving a more uniform boundary that will allow a continuous treecape to be constructed by the developer. No adjacent owners will be deprived of access as a result of this action. Staff has followed state law for this process by calling this public hearing, providing notice of this hearing on Car's website and in the newspaper, mailing notice to adjacent owners, and placing signs along the road rightway. Pending public comment, staff recommends that after the public hearing, the council authorize the mayor to execute the street closing order and direct staff to record the order at the Wake County Register of Deeds. This concludes staff's presentation. and I'm happy to answer any questions that you have.

Thank you, Mr. Wilson. So, now's the public hearing for consideration of rightway closing on West Cadam Street.

And I'll call on the clerk for any written comments or calling on re any registered speakers.

No written comments, no registered speakers.

If you're in the audience and would like to speak at this public hearing, I would invite you forward at this time. Seeing no one, I'll close the public hearing and ask Mayor Pro Tim Bush if she has comments on this. Uh, no questions or comments. Thank you.

Uh, anyone else with questions or comments? Or are you ready for a motion?

Don't be shy.

Michelle, do you want to go?

You can go.

So, we're just making a motion to close the right of way.

A motion to adopt the street closing order for West Chadam Street.

Motion to adopt the street closing order. at Ashford Village on West Chadam Street. Okay.

Is there a second?

I'll second it.

Discussion. All in favor, please say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Mr. Wilson.

We now move to our next fifth and sixth public hearings. We're going to hold those together. These items were for 26A2 Woodfield W and Woodfield Walnut and 5.6 consideration of rightaway closing at Jones Franklin Road. Oh, it's going to be Mr. Wilson again will introduce the item and council may take action. I'm sorry I dismissed you. All right, that's why I stayed. Uh, good evening again. Um, this is a request for annexation of an approximately 8.2 2 acre site at 2804, 2808, and 2818 Macedonia Road and a concurrent request for the closure of a portion of the Jones Franklin rightway adjacent to the site. The site's located at the intersection of Macedonia and Jones Franklin roads in eastern Kerry and was reszoned mixeduse

district with Swift Creek Wershed Protection Overlay District in 2024. A development plan for 330 multif family residential units and structured parking is currently under review. The Jones Franklin rightaway on the site's eastern frontage has an irregular boundary as shown here. The developer requests closure of this approximately 5200 square ft area of rightway as shown here in red hatching. This portion of the rideway was not used to construct Jones Franklin Road. Thus, it is unimproved. All but one parcel included in the development plan needs to be annexed prior to the development plan approval and to connect to Kerry utilities. Carrie is co-licant on the annexation request as approximately half of the rightway area to be closed as shown here in blue is outside of our corporate boundary. Altogether the annexation site totals 8.19 acres. All town services are anticipated to be available to serve the site and you may take action on the annexation following the public hearing. In terms of the rightway closure, it will benefit the public interest by eliminating unused rightway and by allowing the adjacent development to achieve a more uniform and attractive streetscape that will not deprive anyone of reasonable access. Staff has followed state law by calling this public hearing, providing notice of this hearing on K's website and in the newspaper, mailing notice to adjacent owners, and placing signs along the road right ofway. Staff recommends holding the public hearing on both the annexation and right-of-way closure, then voting on the annexation followed by the right-of-way closure, which includes authorizing the mayor to execute the street closing order and directing staff to record the order at the Wake County Register of Deeds. This concludes staff's presentation. I'm happy to answer any

questions that you have.

Thank you, Mr. Wilson. So, now's the public hearing for two items. the annexation Woodfield Walnut and the consideration of rightway closing Jones Franklin Road. And I'll call on the clerk for any written comments or call on any registered speakers.

No written comments and no registered speakers.

If you're in the audience and would like to speak at this public hearing, I would invite you forward at this time. Anyone to speak at this public hearing? Seeing no one, I'll close the public hearing and call on Mayor Pro Tim Bush for any comments or questions. No comments or questions?

Oh, I'll open it up to our council members. Any comments or questions? If we're ready for a motion, we're going to take the annexation first.

I am move that we approve the annexation petition for 26- A-2.

There's a motion. Is there a second?

Second.

Second. Discussion. All in favor, please say I.

Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. And now the rightway closing.

I make a motion to close uh right away on Jones Franklin Road.

Okay, there's a motion. Is there a second?

Second.

There's motion and second discussion. All in favor, please say I.

I.

Any oppose? Motion carries unanimously. And now we move to

I'm sorry. Thank you. I'll leave that out.

Faster.

Thank you, Mr. Wilson. Now that he's done, they're turning the lights off.

We now move to our last public hearing. Uh, bike plan act 37, imagine carry community plan engage move chapter updates and act 38 land development ordinance amendments, transportation director Cassie Schumacher, Georgeopoulos will introduce the item. Council will not take action on this amendment. It will go to our planning and zoning board. Miss Shoemcker Georgeopoulos. That's hard to say at this time of night.

Well, my watch told me I should go to

bed in the within the next 20 minutes, so maybe we I'll find my voice again here. Um, well, good evening, mayor and council members. Tonight I'm here to introduce the updates to the engage and move chapters of the imagine carry community plan along with amendments to the land development ordinance related to the parks recreation and cultural resources system plan and the carry bike plan. And just a reminder, we reviewed both of these plans during your work session on Tuesday night. So tonight I'm really going to focus on the amendments portion. The process for completing these amendments is to uphold the public hearing which we're doing tonight. Following the public hearing, the council may recommend the amendments to the planning and zoning board for review and the planning and zoning board may recommend it back to council for final action and adoption. We anticipate going to planning and zoning and coming back to council this summer. Um through this act amendment process, council will be asked to take action on the ferry bike plan on act 37 and act 38, but you are not being asked to take action tonight. So we'll kick off with act 37, the comprehensive plan amendment, which is being driven by the the system plan and the carry bike plan and incorporating them into the move and engaged chapters of the imagine carry plan. The imagine carry community plan is was adopted in 2017 and updated in 2024 and it is car's comprehensive plan created by the community. The visions and policies within the the plan remained applicable today and are used in all aspects of car's decision-making. During the 24 update, staff reported that additional plan planning initiatives were underway and other chapters would be amended as new plans and initiatives were developed, including the engage and move chapters with the system plan and the bike plan. The engaged chapter update incorporates the new system plan approved by council in December of 2024 and primary changes

are to the body of the chapter which include which continues to acknowledge K's nationally recognized parks, recreation and cultural resources department as well as K's extensive parks and greenway system and our cultural opportunities and recreational programs. There are also minor text amendments made to other portions of the chapter and the PRCR goals adopted in 2017 will be replaced by the six guiding principles of the approved 2024 system plan which Paul reviewed with you on Tuesday. So the primary changes to the move chapter are focused on the bike element of the chapter and updating the thoroughfare and collector street corridor profiles to incorporate the bike plan and the new national guidance. Additional updates include adding council's adopted adoption of vision zero and integrating safe system principles into the existing move policies. We are also amending the three maps within the move within the move chapter, including the plan roadway widths map to change Kildair Farm Road from a five-lane thoroughfare to a four-lane median divided thoroughfare from Triion Road to Cornwall Road. This change keeps the corridor consistent and enables complete streets implementation and future corridor redevelopment. Updating updates to the planned bike and pedestrian map include recommendations from the bike plan and the system plan such as updating bikeways types along identified corridors and updating the greenway system and then updates to the plan transit routes map is are to incorporate changes to go carry in the regional transit system since 2017. The move chapter includes eight policies. The only changes being proposed to the policy to the policies are the policy intent which is to align the current text with vision zero and the carry bike plan specifically adding guidance to give pedestrians, bicyclists, and non-motorists priority within the transportation network.

These plans and amendments were built off of several years of community engagement and feedback. Both the bike plan and the system plan processes included multiple opportunities for public input. Over the course of the planning process, thousands of participants participated through surveys, open houses, workshops, and at festivals. And a final step in the engagement process was to hold an openhouse meeting for both plans, which was done in March of last year. And the PRCR system plan and the carry bike plan along with the text amendments for engage and move were posted in November of 2025 for comment and remained open through February of this year. Community feedback heard during the review was overall support for the engage and move chapter amendments with particular interest in improving comfort, safety, and connectivity and expanding transportation choices. Comments also noted the desired for more detailed implementation guidance, noting that the pace of implementation and availability of funding will be key factors in the plan success. We presented the system plan and the bike plan at at your Tuesday work session with a discussion focusing on the fact that these plans are inspirational and establish a vision for the future. The implementation will be reviewed with future capital requests and they're not committing you to funding if you adopt them discuss. We also discussed changes to the corridor profiles or the cross-sections and talked generally around about clarifications to the plans in the process and then also that staff updated you that we've been talking with the development community throughout the planning process on these plan changes. So now moving on to act 38. The key purpose of act 38 is to amend the land development ordinance um to update car's development regulations to ensure initiatives from the bike plan and the system plan are fully implementable and enforceable. Act 38 has three major items. Item A includes technical updates to the plan

names and references throughout the LDO. Item B includes updating technical requirements for implementation, including increasing easement widths and clarification that greenways and bikeways are permitted within required buffers, similar to sidewalks and streetside trails. This item also increases bike parking requirements and requires parking for uses that do not have parking requirements today. Additional changes include new bike related terminology, establishing a bike design standard section, integrating references to the bike plan and the move chapter, and including the bike plan among docu among documents guiding development plans. Item C includes updates to processes and definitions to ensure consistency with other plan imple implementation revisions. Changes include clarification of parkland dedication requirements, related processes, and provisions for greenways and public mobility easements. Criteria for evaluating comprehensive plan amendments are outlined in the land development ordinance and are based on whether they address changes in projections, new issues, opportunities or needs, shifts in policy directions or potential errors in the plan. And then similarly to the compreh comprehensive plan amendment, land development ordinance amendments are also evaluated based on criteria outlined in the LDO, including addressing changing conditions, aligning with the comprehensive plan, protecting health and safety, and avoiding environmental impacts. This concludes my overview of Act 37 and Act 38. Following the public hearing, Paul and I are available for questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Now it's time for the public hearing for act 37 and act 38 changes. And I'll call on the clerk to read any written comments or call on any registered speakers.

We had one written comment and that's been provided to you prior to the meeting upon arrival and also attached to the online agenda. Um our first we had two registered

speakers. Our first inerson speaker is Dustin Colt, followed by Sarah Martin. Who really hung in there?

Could you move to your left, please? Thank you.

Hi, my name is Dustin Cotay. Uh and I'm speaking on behalf of the citizen f focus group that I spent the last two plus years uh working through about 17 meetings with staff to provide feedback on the carry bike plan. Uh we are parents. We're greenway users. Some of us are fitness cyclingers, some of us are not. And uh we strongly recommend approving this plan. The bike plan solves problems of equitable connection, ensuring consistent funding for bike and pedestrian programs, and helps transportation in our town scale in a fiscally sound way. So, let's talk about equitable connection. So, equitable connection means different things to different people and that's what equity is about, right? So, instead of listing out stakeholder groups, I want to share a personal story. So, I have four kids. They age from 2 to 14 and I live sort of at the end of Kerry Parkway um near Crossroads. When we want to go to the park or we want to do something that's not interacting on phones or screens um I hear this a lot from grandparents. Get off the phones, get outside. Um we can't go take a bike ride to the park. we can't do that kind of thing because as we've heard a lot today, traffic is a problem. Um, so what we have to do is drive to our nearest Greenway connection which is 2 miles away at Maradoral Park, park there, and hopefully we've had room to put all the bikes in the car so that we can take a bike ride from Marauro Park to McDonald Woods Park and back.

nice bike ride, but not really a point to it other than the bike ride. Um, so there's no community building there. We don't see anybody on our path. We don't stop at a shop and get an ice cream. We go for some exercise. Um, not as satisfying as you want it to be. So, my personal hope is that we get to the point where when my 2-year-old becomes a teenager, he can go and ride his bike to the school or to the basketball court or somewhere besides me taking him somewhere so that he can ride a bike in the woods and then we can go home. So, that's kind of like the vision that I was seeing out of this bike plan. It also includes some measures that I didn't understand at the beginning but now I kind of halfway understand. So there are you know municipal budgets I don't know all of that but I know that without a dedicated funding pool it is difficult to do bike and pedestrian projects and so having this bike plan enacted seems to include something called payments in loo which helps provide that kind of funding. So I think that that's you know it's nice to have the grand vision but there is some operational details that I think help out. Um and that's kind of the nuts and bolts of how this thing gets achieved. the kind of last um point that I want to make and sorry on my microphone I'm not really figuring this out but um I've heard from town council members about how infill development is kind of how K's going to grow going forward despite a couple of little annexing annexing things probably it's going to be infill development and we heard in a line of people about infill development and traffic being a problem um for about an hour there which if you remember that um bikes help that we support bikes there's maybe you know less cars on the road

bikes are smaller we find places to park them so the bike plan makes a lot of sense we heard a lot of positive things about people going to spring days and seeing a bike valet and they're like wow I don't have to deal with all these cars parked in the middle of Bond Park I can just ride my bike and come back and leave on my bike and I don't have to Um, so it's a lot more convenient. It's a better like improvement to living in Carrie and it seems to be not that expensive to implement. So that sounds like a win all the way around. Um, we did hear like I think that staff mentioned 1,400 online comments. We saw people at lazy days at spring days. Um, and I got to see a lot of that. So that was really neat about the focus group. And so I appreciate getting the opportunity to take that uh that time to to meet with staff and understand the plan. And I think anybody who spends the time with the plan, we'll see. It's a win all the way around. So thanks.

Thank you for sitting here over four hours to speak.

Hope you had fun,

Miss Martin. Good evening friends. Um, my name is Sarah Martin. I'm a 34 almost 35 year resident of the town of Kerry and it is the absolute best place to live in the entire universe. No question in my mind about that. I currently chair the town's uh parks, recreation, and cultural resources advisory board, a position that I held a number of years ago as well. Uh so this is my second goround on the PRCR advisory board. Um very committed to our PRCR uh work and I thank you for the investment that you've made in our parks throughout and and cultural resources uh

throughout the town. Thank you. Tonight, I rise not only to uh get an opportunity to move my legs after sitting there for a while, but also to support both the bike plan and the act 37 chapter updates and the act 38 LDO amendments that were spoken about by staff. Our advisory board has worked with staff on the bike plan and the PRCR system plan. We spent hours with Cassie um or even Cassie adjacent uh as she sent us information to read and and get back to her. Uh we read various drafts of the plan. We listened to presentations about them. Uh we discussed them as a board. We attended public meetings, completed surveys, and just generally made sure that citizen input was recognized. And I can say without any question in my mind that citizen input has been a tremendous part of all of the work in both the PRCR system plan and the bike plan. I will mention that in addition to my role with K's PRCR advisory board for the past four years. I've served on the Wake County Open Space and Parks Advisory Committee. And I have found that K's commitment to the imagine Kerry plan is a tremendous asset in discussion with the county and with other municipalities when it comes to talking about how we interrelate and how we can work together to make things happen regionally. And so I strongly appreciate both the work of the council and the town staff in ensuring that the public is fairly represented and engaged in these visionary plans and in the documents that you've been provided with. And I encourage you to proactively move

forward with the staff recommendation on the agenda tonight and when it comes back to you in the future to move forward with incorporating them into the imaginary plan. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Martin. And again, thanks for staying so late.

Four hours. You braved it.

If you are here in the audience would like to speak at this public hearing, now is your opportunity. We're we're running out of people in the audience, but just check it. All right, we'll close the public hearing. I'll call on Mayor Pro Tim Bush. I know she's got to have something to say about the bike plan.

I do. I do. Well, first I'd like to thank uh Dustin as well and the entire transportation working group. Um, this amazing group of people have been working not only on mobility, transportation, they've looked at transit, they've looked and spent a amazing amount of time and effort on the bike plan and also being honestly ambassadors for it and getting other people to weigh in whether it was on the online version or within the meetings. um that generally I was not able to go because I have another board and commission at the exact same time. But the over 1300 survey responses and the f focus groups was was really great. I what I really like and want to commend staff on is bringing both of these to us at the same time because not only it is bike carry or or the bike plan important, but biking is not just a fun activity and a recreation, but it also is part of the unique way that our residents uh travel. I there are many folks near me who only have a bike or their prime they might have one car and their primary mode of transportation is working downtown and they go back and forth to work on their bike. So, I love

the idea of bringing these to us together at the same time so that the PRC CR plan that emphasizes our greenways and our on street bikeways and the I think it was 200 plus mile network serving schools and parks and jobs. We think about these holistically. Um, so what I especially like and would love to see as we move forward is that the PRCR plan contains dozens of greenway actions. And Dustin also mentioned it as well, whether it was like connectivity or amenity standards or or you know, a place to go to. I think Dustin said pause places or public art. Um there's there are a lot of things that can be done to make our greenways more enticing for our residents and more fun. I think you know there were there's talk about bike share, bike rental, inventory, bike parking, you know that sort of thing or even branding our greenways for tourism. There are so many things that we might be able to do with the passage of this bike plan that I think it's important that we look at those. I'd love to see the I think there were there are a ton of implementation ideas on those plans. It would be great if staff at some point could or maybe the PRCR or even the transportation working group could prioritize some threeyear quick build early wins list. That would be interesting because there are so many great ideas that it's a little hard to think of where to start. So, um I I love what they did. I love how they both work together. Um and I would also I I would also weigh into the fact that the PRCR plan identifies multiple times in the document and it's

been mentioned a couple times equity, aging in place, and accessibility as core needs. And so I would love to see a metric moving forward about, you know, um, give us three metrics like the number of affordable housing units that are within a short walk of new facilities or um, all ages or all ability access to go carry. Something that at the end of the day we would be able to say, "Yeah, here are the things that we accomplished and here's how we did it." So really kudos to staff and and all of the residents who made both of these plans um so much better together than they are on their own. I'll just make a quick comment promise two minutes guys just two more minutes um being the leazison for um BRCR board I just want to thank the staff the advisory board our chair um they're doing a tremendous job in uh keeping uh our priorities set and right based on what the realities are in uh in the town today. So I just want to thank you. I know it's hard work. Thanks. Other questions, comments?

I I would just like to I would like to also see a list of the quick wins or lower cost things we can move forward on. Council member Bush makes a good point, you know, with our competing priorities when it comes to funding. sometimes because of the if there's so much to do and that the pot of money isn't so big. Um it would be nice to to get something done sooner rather than later. I'd be very interested interested in that but also I'd like to know what the number one number two number three is. like what are the most important things that would make the biggest impact because you I hear all the time from people um

particularly who are passionate about biking. I think we all do. Does everybody get you know an inbox full of emails from action sports folks and particular folks that bike? Um, I think there's probably some nice combination there, but I know that's what the plan is, but quite literally what is the fastest win and what is the most important and then just focus there. So, and then staff, you take care of all this kind of stuff, but tell us how much money we need to go find is I guess what I'm asking. Um much like Lori said it better than I than I am right now. But um what I what I have trouble with with a lot of these plans when I read them is understanding what the funding required really is. Right. It is it a half a million dollars or two gazillion dollars? I don't know. Right. So that's that's the more than two gazillion. Okay. Well, that's that's the uh challenge for me. So that list with with costs attached would help me um contextualize what I read. I read most of the bike plan and all of the PRCR plan and I will get through the rest of the bike plan but it would be helpful.

Others I might need more than two minutes.

Okay.

Thanks to this uh um topic in our agenda. So I just checked the carry bike plan and I take a little bit look at the current situation about existing greenways and bike lanes and I have to say that um Russ if you can take a look at here. I have to say something for district C residents because we have so unconnected greenways and so few bike lanes in district C. I think Dustin also lives in district C. So that's uh I have to uh ask our staff to give us some more details why Eastern Kerry has so much uh like lag

compared to Western Kerry. Um that's while I was running for last year I was like district C needs a fair share of amenities and at that time I was uh talking about this a lot but I didn't know how much less we have. So mayor you also live in district C. Did you know that?

Oh yeah.

Oh very well.

Been there a long time.

Yeah. Glad to see this and glad to feel this and I hope I can get more details later. Thank you.

Other questions or comments?

I just have 10 short questions. No, I'm kidding, Cassie. We're going to get you to bed.

It's 11:01. Her her watch is

We're going to try to make her watch happy.

You know what? I will just say real quick, thank you so much to our resident volunteers. Appreciate their dedication and service. Same. Anything else? Okay, this is going to the planning and zoning board for their review and recommendation. We'll come back to us at future date.

Okay,

thank you. We now move to discussion items. Our one and only discussion item, allocate funding for major events fund for TST Carry Cup Parks, Recreation, Cultural Resources. Director John Collins will present the item and council may take action. Good evening. Uh

almost morning.

Almost morning. It's time for my second dinner. John

breakfast.

Breakfast. Yeah. Good evening, mayor and council. Uh I will do my best micro machines uh impression if you remember that from the 90s to talk fast. But I am pleased uh to be here tonight to present uh on the revenue recognition and expense distribution associated with a grant from the North Carolina Department of Commerce to support TST and the Cary Cup for the next four years. First, a brief overview of the events. TST or the soccer tournament is a seven

versus seven smallsided adult soccer tournament and festival with a distinctive winner take all prize structure. It operates under a unique set of rules that set it apart from traditional soccer events. Most significantly is target score time that ensures every game is completed on a on a game-winning goal. The prize is significant, a million dollars, winner take all, which drives elite level competition and national and international attention. Carrie has hosted TST for the past three consecutive years. The event draws an international audience of both players and fans, and we've secured a 4-year contract to keep TST in Carrie through 2029. A significant commitment for Carrie, our region, and the state. The Carry Cup. As we worked with the team at TST and were considering ways to secure the event for future years, we saw an opportunity to engage our youth soccer community in a meaningful way. We have a strong uh history with the NCAA College Cup and have worked with our local clubs to support an incredible atmosphere for that and fan base for that event over the past decade. Building on that experience, we chose to be the host organization for a youth tournament that complemented TST. Our goal was to bring as many local clubs and partners to the table as possible. This role of convenor and host is a role that Carrie as local government is uniquely positioned to do very well. We hosted the Kerry Cup for the first time last year and by all accounts it was a significant success. 130 teams primarily local but with a national and even international reach participated utilizing the 7v7 rules and format of TST including target score time. Players and coaches received tickets to TST and our goal of bringing folks to the table was accomplished. Every local club and many additional partners including businesses, municipalities

uh and organizations such as the Carolina Hurricanes all engaged and supported the event. The growth over that time uh and the growth we expect this year is presented in this chart. Uh and I will highlight just a couple of pieces from that. Uh first and foremost, the women's tournament uh inception and growth uh an equal $1 million prize. The economic impact growth from uh 1.67 million in year 1 to approximately 15 million last year and attendance growth from 15,000 to over 50,000. a few factors uh that that really allowed u Carrie to secure TST as the home uh for the next four years. Uh a few factors really drove that agreement and I would be remiss but I have to start with uh our Wake Park uh fit facilities and staff support. The location is ideal with surrounding fields around a stadium in one place. The grass playing surface is truly worldclass. We have a lot of former very high level professional athletes. Um, and this is a really a dealmaker for them. Uh, and then our larger team, everyone from Kerry Police Department to public works to IT to marketing to finance to our team in PRCR support this event at a very robust level. Uh, and organizers see that as a significant value. Pulling from a national and international audience, our geographic location, airport, local amenities, restaurants, hotels, all play a positive role in making Kerry a destination. Successful execution and engagement associated with the carry cup. Uh and then finally, support from the North Carolina Department of Commerce via a multi-year grant. This final bullet was truly a deal maker. uh it put us over the edge uh to resecure TST and delivers a significant benefit for both Kerry as well as TST. Working with the Department of Commerce, we were awarded a $6.8 million grant uh

over the next four years to keep TST here in North Carolina. The grant will reimburse costs associated for the event that are spent in North Carolina with North Carolina companies and organizations up to $1 million for TST and up to $472,000 for Carrie. The following years, um the eligible amounts do increase to help us cover escalation of costs. Our recommendation uh is that you uh recognize the reimbursement grant in the revenues of $1,472,000 and then allocate the distribution to TST of their qualifying expenses of up to $1 million. Couple of key dates. Uh wake uh TST will take place May 27th through June 1st at Wake Med and the Kerry Cup that weekend uh May 30th and 31st in both Kerry Apex and Holly Springs uh different sports fields and complexes. And then to return to our recommendation I'm available for any questions.

Mr. Collins, thank you. This this makes me very cap happy. I

I knew your assistant.

Oh yeah. So yeah. Um would you like $1.4 $4 million. Yes, please. And this uh is such an economic driver and it's so much fun. And if you haven't been and seen this, I don't care if you like soccer or not, you've got to see this. But you didn't mention the home run derby. I want to hear more about that. Are they really going to hit home runs with soccer balls?

They are going to hit home runs

with a bat or their foot or what?

With their foot. So, still soccer. Uh so, they'll they'll have a a pitcher that will kick them the soccer ball. Uh, I believe they may pull that person from the crowd or it may be a star pitching uh to another person. So, yeah, it should be it should be a lot of fun. They have a lot of uh they do twists every year. Um, and it's a really really interesting uh it's it's going to be a great event.

It's always a great event. Anyway,

you know where I lie on this one.

They're going to give us money and it's a great event. So,

your enthusiasm is pulpable. I can feel it. I Yeah, he's just like so happy

at 11 or 9 p.m.

I think we should move forward with the motion.

Who? You.

Okay.

Yeah.

Um I move forward with the motion to reimburse the grant and revenues of 1.472

thousand million

million

1.4 million.

No, 1.472.

My brain is not working right now. I need second dinner. Say that. $1.472 million.

Is Is there a second?

Second.

I have a question. Do we need to

Can we get a second first?

I mean,

and then ask question.

Do we need to put

or you need a clarification?

A clarification.

Okay.

You can The motion we need to add the reallocation.

The motion could be to adopt staff's recommendation.

There you go. Okay.

Is that your motion?

Yes, that's my motion to adopt staff.

Is there a second to adopt the staff's recommendation?

Second. We got Are we getting back to

All right. Getting punched.

Discussion pretty much.

All in favor, please say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you so much. Look forward to going.

John always bring very happy.

I like I like the way me like this. Get money and and have fun. So, okay.

Go to bed.

Uh that concludes our uh agenda for the evening and I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. A motion to adjurnn.

There's a motion and a second.

Second.

Who was the first?

Carissa.

Discussion. All in favor, please say I.

I.

Opposed. Motion carries and we are adjourned. Thank you. Thank you, Lori.

Oh,

thank you. Good night everyone.

Thank you. Have a good one.

Bye.