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Planning Board Meeting

Chatham County · Planning Board
Tuesday, May 6, 2025 at 6:30 pm · Old Agriculture Building, 65 E. Chatham Street Pittsboro, North Carolina 27312

Regular meeting Zoning text amendmentEthics and transparencyLand conversion and large developmentComprehensive planEnvironment and sustainabilityHistoric preservationHousing and affordabilityRezoningState legislative agendaSubdivision and site plans

Agenda document Minutes Meeting page Watch Meeting recap

What was decided

  1. Approved VApproval of Minutes - April 1, 2025 Approved 10-0
  2. Approved X.2Text amendments to the Ordinance Establishing the Planning Board Approved 10-0

Read from the agenda's recorded outcomes. Where the board published minutes, those are the record — this is a pointer to them.

What's on this agenda

Chatham County's Planning Board recommended Berrybrook Crossing on 6 May 2025, a conservation subdivision of 188 lots on 232 acres off US 15-501 and Mt. Gilead Church Road. It also took a rezoning of 18.81 acres at 680 Pea Ridge Road from residential to general use regional business, adopted its own rules and procedures, and voted on text amendments to the ordinance that establishes it.

The contested item was the one on consent: pushing the Unified Development Ordinance's effective date from 1 July to 31 December 2025, because Senate Bill 382 stripped the county's downzoning authority.

Summarized from the published agenda. Read the agenda itself before acting on it.

Meeting recap

What happened, drawn from the records published after the meeting. Minutes

Berrybrook Crossing was recommended 10-0. The plan sets aside 41.5 percent of the site as conservation space against a 40 percent requirement, with another 23.4 percent preserved, and the developer let the state's Natural Heritage Program walk the site before the layout was drawn. Members asked about septic tanks, the water line under the creek, and the price of the townhomes; the engineer put them at perhaps $500,000 and said nothing more affordable was planned here.

The Pea Ridge Road rezoning passed 8-2, with Chiosso and Smith opposed, after a consistency statement 9-1 finding it consistent with Plan Moncure by allowing growth in an employment center area. Chiosso's objection was that rezoning a parcel with no end user and no plan is not good practice.

The board adopted its rules and procedures 10-0 and the ordinance text amendments 10-0, both after the county attorney's review.

The development ordinance's effective date split the board. One member argued the board should not be asked to consent to something that state law now forbids, and that it belongs to staff, the attorney or the commissioners. The vice chair answered that recommending an effective date in December is not doing anything illegal, and the law may change by then. A motion to end debate passed 8-2. The recommendation itself, with a consistency statement finding the request supports all ten goals of Plan Chatham, carried 5-4 with Andrews abstaining, the chair, Lyons, Mayer and Chiosso opposed. The commissioners came back in October for another year's delay.

How the votes went

Berrybrook Crossing recommended 10-0. The Pea Ridge Road rezoning 8-2, Chiosso and Smith opposed, consistency statement 9-1. The Planning Board Rules and Procedures adopted 10-0 and the ordinance text amendments 10-0. The development ordinance effective date recommended 5-4, the chair, Lyons, Mayer and Chiosso opposed, Andrews abstaining; the motion to end debate first carried 8-2. The April minutes 10-0.

From the published minutes.

Speaking at this meeting

Chatham County's own rules for public comment — check them before you rely on anything here.

Agenda items (9)

Procedural · 3Ordinance · 2Discussion item · 2Minutes approval · 1Staff or committee report · 1
  1. IV Approval of Agenda
    Procedural
  2. V Approval of Minutes - April 1, 2025
    Minutes approval
    Approved 10-0
  3. VI Public Input Session
    Procedural
    Nobody signed up to speak
  4. VII.1 Amend the Unified Development Ordinance effective date from July 1 to December 31, 2025
    Ordinance Comprehensive planState legislative agendaZoning text amendment
    A planning department request forced by Senate Bill 382, which removed local downzoning authority and blocked the implementation work.
    Recommended 5-4 with a consistency statement; the chair, Lyons, Mayer and Chiosso opposed, Andrews abstaining
  5. VIII.1 First Plat: Berrybrook Crossing at Strowd Farm conservation subdivision, 188 lots on 232 acres
    Discussion item Environment and sustainabilityHousing and affordabilityLand conversion and large developmentSubdivision and site plans
    First plat review requested by Clay Matthews for Fuller Land & Development, off US 15-501 and Mt. Gilead Church Road, preserving 41.5 percent as conservation space against a 40 percent requirement.
    Recommended for approval 10-0
  6. IX.1 Rezoning: 680 Pea Ridge Rd, 18.81 acres, R-1 to General Use Regional Business
    Discussion item Land conversion and large developmentRezoning
    A legislative rezoning requested by TIP Gateway LLC in Cape Fear Township, with no end user identified and no immediate plans for the property.
    Recommended for approval 8-2, Chiosso and Smith opposed; consistency statement 9-1
    • 680 Pea Ridge Rd · no matching parcel on file
  7. X.1 Adopt the Planning Board Rules and Procedures Document
    Procedural Ethics and transparency
    Adopted 10-0
  8. X.2 Text amendments to the Ordinance Establishing the Planning Board
    Ordinance Ethics and transparencyZoning text amendment
    Amendments drafted by a working group and reviewed by the county attorney, forwarded to the commissioners.
    Approved 10-0
  9. XII Planning Director's Reports
    Staff or committee report Historic preservationZoning text amendment
    Implementing the development ordinance under Senate Bill 382, neighboring jurisdiction updates, and an introduction to the historic survey project.

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