Planning
and Zoning Board Minutes
Thursday,
April 19, 2007
7:00 p.m.
The Blowing Rock Planning and Zoning Board
met on Thursday, April 19, 2007 for their regular scheduled meeting. Chairman
West called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Members present were Doug Drury,
Ada Webster, Ron Mace, Nelda Miller, Albert Yount, Sue Sweeting, Web Alexander
and Jim Steele. Staff members present were Planning Director Kevin Rothrock,
Town Engineer Doug Chapman and Administrative Assistant Sherrie Pitts.
Installment
of Board Members
Mr.
Doug Drury and Mr. Jim Steele were sworn in.
Mr. Yount made a motion to approve the
minutes as presented, seconded by Mr. Mace. All members were in favor of the motion.
CUP
# 2007-07 Riopel SFR Addition
Mr. Rothrock gave the staff report to the
board in reference to CUP # 2007-07. Appalachian Building Services is
requesting a Conditional Use Permit to construct a dining room addition to a
single-family residence at
Mr. Yount asked if the Town’s engineer had
checked the site. Mr. Chapman, Town engineer, commented that a site plan had
not been provided and that he had not been to the site.
Mr. Rothrock commented that there was not a
need for the Town’s engineer to review the plans since the change is minimal
and single-family homes are exempt from storm water regulation.
With no other questions of staff the floor was
opened to the Applicant
Mr.
Paul Convery of Appalachian Building Services explained the location and the
construction planned.
With no questions or comments of the
applicant the floor was opened to the public and closed with no comments.
Mr. Steele made a motion to accept the CUP as
provided, seconded by Mr. Drury. All members were in favor of the motion.
Mr. Rothrock gave the staff report to the
board. At the March meeting the Town Council made an extension to the wind
energy system moratorium until July 2007. The wind energy subcommittee met on
March 19th with Brent Summerville of the Western NC Renewable Energy
Initiative. The subcommittee discussed a draft ordinance and how it would be
effective in regulating, but not prohibiting, wind energy systems. A
highlighted draft ordinance was sent out in the Planning Board packets for
review and consideration.
Ms.
Sweeting asked if it was possible that a cell tower could be attached to a wind
energy device. Mr. Rothrock commented that if it is an antenna only, it could
be possible to be attached, but would have to go before Town Council for
approval.
Mr.
Steele questioned the responsibility of the removal of wind devices if the use
was discontinued or abandoned. Mr. Rothrock stated that responsibility is the
property owners’. If not removed, fines
would be $100 per day along with civil action.
Ms.
Webster was interested if any response was received from property owners in the
R-A district. Mr. Rothrock commented that he had not received anything from
property owners but Mr. Craig was in the audience and was a property owner in
that zoning district.
Mr. Yount stated that he had issues with only
allowing this in the R-A district when there could possibly be other large
tracts of land elsewhere in the town limits. Ms. Webster commented that she had
a problem with it only located on properties along the
Mr. Mace, as the ETJ representative, said
that this was a tourist-based community and people come to see the natural
beauty. He did not believe they would want to see windmills.
Mr. Drury made comments favoring green/wind
energy.
Mr. Steele commented on the draft ordinance
and that it does support wind energy favorably.
In future years the Town can change, ban or increase the ordinance
verbiage.
Mr. Alexander had comments in favor of the
ordinance presented.
With no other comments or questions the floor
was open to the public.
Ms. Karen Brown thanked the board for their
deliberation and made comments in favor of wind energy.
Mr. James Craig said he thought the ordinance
was a fair deal. He did not think the subject area should be enlarged or
changed.
Mr.
Drury made a motion to forward draft ordinance as presented. Ms. Sweeting
seconded the motion.
Mr.
Yount asked how the Parkway would be notified. Mr. Rothrock stated that when a
conditional use permit was submitted that process would send notification to
the Parkway office in
In favor of the motion; Jim Steele, Web
Alexander, Sue Sweeting, Jim West, Albert Yount, Nelda Miller and Doug Drury.
Against the motion were Ron Mace and
Magazine and Newspaper Stands
Mr. Rothrock gave the staff report to the
board in reference to the regulation of newspaper and magazine racks. The
Planning Board received in their packets two draft ordinances for review. One
ordinance regulates the placement of newsracks on public sidewalks in downtown.
The draft language would be placed in Chapter 7 of the Town Code. The second
ordinance would be included in Article XVIII (B) – Commercial Design of the
Land Use Ordinance to regulate placement of newsracks on private property in
the downtown. Both ordinances require the units to be manufactured black or
painted black and maintained by the owner. At this time only one location was
found suitable for placement on the public sidewalk. That location is along the
building wall between Wachovia and Vincent Properties where several newsracks
exist now. Other locations may be available in the future and can be evaluated
for compliance. Mr. Rothrock recommended that any ordinance provide a grace
period of several months to retrofit any existing units to the new standards
and for noncompliant units to be removed.
The Board discussed locations and unified
colors of racks. Mr. Steele stated that a reasonable time frame for compliance
should be set. With no other comments or questions the floor was open to the
public.
Mr. Brad Gross of The Real Estate Book
commented that he would like to read the draft ordinance. He was under the
assumption from prior meetings that there would be three or four locations for
the news/magazine racks. Mr. Gross
stated that to cut the business district down to one location would seriously
hurt circulation. Commenting on the color change he said it would take time for
organizational approval and manufacture of the colored boxes.
Mr. Drury asked how feasible it would be to
place magazines inside shops. Mr. Gross advised that they do use some shops,
but most boxes are filled at night when most shops are closed. Plus most of the
shops are small and would not want to use up their sales space with magazines.
Ms.
Karen Brown, of the Homes and Land book, spoke and agreed with Mr. Gross. She
was concerned with the painting of the racks and reduction in numbers of racks.
Ms. Brown asked the board to look into more options for rack placement.
Mr.
Rothrock commented that this only applies to the downtown district.
The Board discussed locations, priority
slots, colors and possibly lotteries for slots.
Mr. Gross explained the lotteries for
newspaper slots in large cities.
Chairman West stated that there should be
clear intentions, allow people to see the draft ordinance and comment on it, or
send it back to subcommittee.
Mr. Rothrock advised the Board if they were
not confident with the draft they could allow comment or send it back to
subcommittee.
Mr. Drury commented that he had no problem
with the verbiage of the draft ordinance.
Chairman West talked about the number of
racks available and the type of priority that would be used to fill the spaces.
Mr. Alexander mentioned that a reasonable
amount of time, at least six months, should be given to allow all venders to
meet the design standard requirements.
Mr. Steele stated that all the required
design standards; location, size and color should be met in the six month
required time. All boxes that are not in the correct public locations must be
removed immediately.
Mr. Steele made a motion to approve for study
for one month and to hear comments from interested parties and to return to
Planning Board next month. Mr. Yount seconded the motion.
Mr. Alexander requested to continue looking
for other possible public locations to install racks. All members voted in
favor of the motion.
Landscape Ordinance Revisions
Mr. Rothrock stated that after several
meetings of the tree ordinance subcommittee and other interested citizens, the
draft of the tree and landscape ordinance in the Planning Board packet has been
through multiple revisions. Hopefully this version of the draft ordinance is
ready for review and approval with minor modifications. Mr. Mace pointed out
inconsistency with 302.09 and 316.01.
With no other questions or comments the floor
was open to the public.
Ms. Virginia Jones, representing BRAAC,
advised she had some concern about policing of trees and how trees are taken
down before it is noticed. BRAAC will take and initiative to help educate the
public. There was some discussion with the board about fines. Mr. Rothrock
advised he would get clarification on penalties and fines from the
With no other questions or comments the floor
was closed.
Mr. Alexander made a motion to approve the
landscape ordinance with the changes in 302.09 and 316.01 to make them
correspond. 316-F add pruning, E-5 omit # 9. Mr. Yount seconded the motion. All members voted in favor.
Ms. Sweeting made a motion to adjourn. Mr.
Yount seconded the motion. All
members were in favor of the motion.
With
no further business the Planning Board adjourned at 9:40 PM.
______________________________
______________________________
Jim
West, Chairman Sherrie
Pitts, Administrative Assistant