Board of Mayor & Commissioners

MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING PIPERTON BOARD OF MAYOR AND COMMISSIONERS November 17, 2020, 6:00 P.M. The Piperton Board of Mayor and Commissioners met in regular session on November 17, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall, with Board members: Mayor Henry Coats, Commissioner Preston Trotter, Commissioner Hugh Davis and Commissioner David Crislip. Vice-Mayor Mike Binkley was absent. City Manager Steve Steinbach, Building Official Tommie Johnson, Building Inspector Elizabeth Reed, Police Chief Phil Hendricks, Fire Chief Reed Bullock, City Planner Brett Morgan, City Engineer Harvey Matheny, Public Works Director Bill Kilp, City Judge Mark McDaniel and City Recorder Beverly Holloway were present. Vicki Hancock, William Meacham, Carolyn Rhea, John McCarty, Carson Hardwick, Officer Scruggs and et al were present in the audience. Finance Director Maria George was absent. Agenda item 1. Call to order, establish quorum Action taken: Mayor Henry Coats called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m., and established that a quorum was present. Agenda item 2. Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag Action taken: City Manager Steve Steinbach led in the opening Prayer and Mayor Coats led in the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag. Agenda item 3. Any changes to Agenda; Motion to adopt Agenda Action taken: There were changes to the Agenda with the addition of swearing in Mayor Henry Coats and Commissioner David Crislip as item #4 in recognition of the County Election Commission Certification late yesterday and that Mayor Coats will not be at the December meeting and the continuation of the Development Contract for 84 Lumber (item #6) at their request, Commissioner Preston Trotter moved to adopt the agenda with the change, seconded by Commissioner David Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. New Agenda item 4. Swearing in of the Mayor and Commissioner Crislip Action taken: Judge Mark McDaniel administered the Oath of Office to Mayor Henry Coats and Commissioner David Crislip. Agenda item 5. Any changes to the Minutes of the Regular Session of October 20, 2020 and the Minutes of the Special Called Session of October 27, 2020: Motion to adopt the Minutes of the Regular Session of October 20, 2020 and the Minutes of the Special Called Session of October 27, 2020 Action taken: There were no changes to the Minutes of the Regular Session of October 20, 2020 and the Minutes of the Special Called Session of October 27, 2020, Commissioner Trotter moved to approve the Minutes of the Regular Session of October 20, 2020 and the Minutes of the Special Called Session of October 27, 2020, seconded by Commissioner Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. 1 Agenda item 6. Review/approval of Financial Reports, Public Works Report, Building Inspector’s Report, Fireman’s Report and Police Report City Manager Steve Steinbach stated this is the fourth month of the fiscal year 2021, we are doing well across the Board, 40% revenues collected to date, sales tax continues to be strong, fund balances across the board are strong, expenditures are coming across the board fine and we have noted some increases in Public Works due to unexpected machinery repairs. Commissioner Trotter noted sales tax is looking good. Building Official Tommie Johnson stated during the month of October, issued 50 total permits, 7 permits for new single family dwellings, conducted 170 total inspections and handled 2 code compliance issues, and I would like to recognize a new inspector, Elizabeth Reed who has obtained all of the certifications (plumbing, mechanical, and building) to be a residential building inspector and she did it in record time as she just started in July, she is a fine asset for our department and glad to have her. Also I would like the Board to acknowledge the change that we had to make, back in August the Board approved the purchase of a vehicle and because of production issues at the factory we are unable to get that vehicle so we had to switch to a different vehicle that was in stock at a dealership, within budget and still under State contract and hoping to take delivery on Thursday. Public Works Director Bill Kilp commented we had the typical number of water, sewer, streets and drainage repairs which are identified in your monthly report for October and hit a high record of 284 utility locates, and Public Works has two new employees, Mrs. Kitty Rutledge and Mrs. Becky Wolf, Mrs. Rutledge is working at City Administration managing the financial receipt and record keeping for the utility billing system and Mrs. Wolf is working at the Public Works Administrative office processing purchase orders and assisting the Public Works staff with clerical and operational assignments, on projects there was a pretty major issue at the Ballard Road pump station, this is our main pumping station that flows sewer to Rossville-that was repaired and there was an incident at the Greenbrier Step System which has been repaired, in addition to that we have had our typical water, sewer, drainage maintenance that staff works on every day, the next project was the Lake Mist drainage project was completed and the bi-annual State Sanitary Survey was completed and we received an overall 99%, the drive to the Waste Water Treatment Plant has been stabilized with roadside grading and gravel and that project is now complete. Mayor Coats commended Public Works on the Lake Mist drainage project. Commissioner Trotter congratulated Bill and the Public Works staff on the Sanitary Survey score. Fire Chief Reed Bullock stated during the month of October, as far as permits and inspections, average month with one highlight to that was doing the finals for Power and Tel and they have a very nice facility, have been speaking with them when they have their full complement of employees about doing some training for their emergency staff members, and there were 26 total calls (25 in the City) with half of the calls being medical calls in the City, October 21st was a busy day, we did assist with a house fire at Mt. Pleasant Road but prior to that there was a hazmat spill at AOC that allowed the release of material on to the bedrocks on the rail tracks but everything was contained within the site and there were never any hazards outside of the site and the site itself kept working for the most part except the one area that was isolated and the whole area was mitigated with AOC’s fire brigade and we were on standby there as well and Norfolk Southern came in 2 since it was on the railway and handled the rest of the cleanup, it took about 30 hours for them to complete but it all stayed in the facility. Mayor Coats inquired if AOC has started the drainage cleanout. Chief Bullock stated they have everything except one large tree that is over the size they could handle but everything else they have done. Police Chief Phil Hendricks stated during the month of October there were 48 dispatched calls, 6 incidents, 1 arrest report and 2 vehicle crashes, everything is still down for the year with crashes and commercial alarms inching up. Mayor Coats inquired if the two crashes were deer related. Chief Hendricks replied no sir. Action taken: Commissioner Hugh Davis moved to approve all reports, seconded by Commissioner Trotter. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 7. Development Contract – 84 Lumber Company Action taken: This item will be continued in December per Applicant’s request. Agenda item 8. Development Contract - Commercial Filter Maintenance City Engineer Harvey Matheny stated I want to present the development contract with Stage Investments, LLC, this is to develop the Commercial Filter site, this is about a 14 ½ acre site and the building is 125,082 square feet of a light manufacturing facility, it is along the west side of Willard Way and it backs up to the interstate, this was approved by the Planning Commission/DRC on August 11, 2020 and on page 21 of the agreement where the fees are summarized for water, sewer, inspections and other associated fees as well the $100,000.00 letter of credit surety requirement, I do want to present one revision for your consideration-after I prepared the fees for this agreement which included the sewer development fee of $ 18,100.00 that you see on page 21, it was brought to my attention or I was reminded of a discussion that dates back over 2 years ago with Mr. Buddy Wittichen (Developer of Wittichen Subdivision) and at that time and still to this day it is a big interest to the City to extend the sewer line along the interstate fence all the way up to the railroad right-of-way because eventually that’s go under the railroad and will service the Hwy 57 corridor so in our master sewer plan that sewer basin is intended to be served along the rear of this Commercial Filter property and that line needs to be a 12 inch sewer main as opposed to the standard 8 inch sewer main, so over 2 years ago we had discussion with Mr. Wittichen and he was interested in extending that sewer line and the City had an interest in the sewer line being extended so the agreement which was not ratified, we will bring that to you next month to ratified that for the remaining lot north of this development but essentially that agreement was for him to extend the sewer the equivalent cost of an 8 inch pipe and the City would pay the difference between an 8 inch pipe and 12 inch pipe so after being reminded of that discussion that was again over two years ago we would like that same consideration to be given to Commercial Filter so we had discussions with Mr. Stage and looking at pipe prices determined that the difference in an 8 inch pipe and a 12 inch pipe for sewer pipe is just under $10.00 a foot, so if you run the numbers based on the pipe from the pump station at Living Hope all the way to the railroad right-of-way is 1,009 feet and you do the math the reduction would be $10,029.46 so if that is approved, the sewer development fee for this project would be $ 8,070.54. Mayor Coats inquired Harvey, you are bringing that to us next month? 3  Mr. Matheny stated basically the agreement that was discussed with Mr. Wittichen was to it run across all 3 lots, Commercial Filter Maintenance is going to run it across 2 of those lots as part of their development but their contractor is going to go ahead and extend it up to the railroad right-of-way in agreement they have with Mr. Wittichen so it will be extended all the way up with this project but a portion of that is being paid by Mr. Wittichen through Commercial Filter. Mayor Coats stated the 12 inch will get us all we need especially on the north side. Mr. Matheny stated that is correct, well the north side begins to fall off in a different sewer basin but it will serve everything we need along that 57 corridor. Commissioner Hugh Davis stated they are getting a credit? Mr. Matheny stated basically we are reducing his sewer fee from the $18,100.00 down to $8,070.54 if you agree with this amendment. Commissioner Trotter stated I remember the conversation we had with Mr. Wittichen and it was a good idea at the time and I think it is still at good idea. Action taken: Commissioner Trotter moved to approve the development contract with the sewer development reduction credit of $10,029.46 as recommended by the City Engineer, seconded by Commissioner Davis. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 9. Recess – hold Public Hearing concerning Ordinance No. 331-20, amending the Official Zoning Map of the City of Piperton by rezoning from R-C (Rural Conservation) to R-C/CD-O (Conservation Design Overlay) zoning a total of 192.19 acres of property (Map 185 Parcel 001.00 and a portion of Map 182 Parcel 001.00) known as Piperton Hills Phase 1 CD-O Action taken: Commissioner Trotter moved to recess to hold the Public Hearing, seconded by Commissioner Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Mr. Morgan stated if you recall from last month we went through the staff report on first reading, this application is by Piperton Hills Phase 1 LLC to rezone this 192.19 acres, this property is about 1900 feet west of Parnell Road, in review of this application staff felt it appropriate that a residential CD-O made sense based on the other developments within the area, on page 2 of the staff report, the applicant has submitted the required documents for Master Development Plan review, this includes but is not necessarily limited to: 1) Existing Conditions Map, 2) Master Plan, and 3) Project Text and Outline Plan, these were reviewed and updated prior to coming to this Board, but with a CD-O another document is required-the Common Open Space Improvement and Maintenance Plan which they also provided, the developer will be responsible for the open space improvements and maintenance until 50% of the lots are built out at which point the Homeowners Association will be created and all lot owners will be charged approximately $800.00 per year to help maintain the open space and once the development is fully build out which is 252 lots they will reaccess and then assign the fee for the maintenance at that time, total construction cost of landscaping which will be done in phases is $399,400.00 and then the annual maintenance cost of that is $175,000.00. Commissioner Crislip inquired if it is not filling in soon enough, how will that impact the rest of the development. Mr. Morgan stated the open space is built as each phase is built for that phase and so until 50% is done it is on the developer. 4  Mr. McCarty stated the plan of it is by phase so the developer would maintain that common open space area per phase until 50% of the homeowners in that phase were there. Mayor Coats stated it is by phase not total. Mr. McCarty stated correct. Mr. Morgan stated that makes sense, and on page 2 of the staff report, there is approximately 32% of open space which is 61.18 acres that will be developed and maintained with the CD-O. Mayor Coats stated so ten years goes by and this is almost full and you start getting erosion around the creek is that going to be on the homeowners? Mr. McCarty stated as of right now the plat for each phase hadn’t been approved through Harvey and your Board on whether the public/private drainage easement for the large creek but it is my expectation that the creeks would have to be under the HOA except anywhere that Harvey deems that the City would want the maintenance ability and responsibility in those drainage channels. Mayor Coats stated he doesn’t want to the City responsible for all of this. Mr. Morgan stated as each phase comes in the development agreement can be written with conditions put on the development as needed, the lot sizes vary from 15,000 sf to 55.000 sf in size and it is getting a CD-O therefore it allows for flexibility of design elements and bulk requirements in exchange for the conservation of open space and what they have provided is not inconsistent with anything that we have approved with any other CD-O within the City as far as setbacks are concerned. Commissioner Crislip inquired so there is a creek established, is there some kind of warranty to the HOA. Mr. McCarty stated in the creeks that are all in the common open space there are several ways to look at it; 1) the two large creeks in this development are actually controlled by TDEC and all the connections to them as far as any construction improvements- headwalls, etc- those would be installed and approved through the review of Harvey and Public Works inspection process and then the warranty would run through the 1 year with the development and as we discussed earlier the HOA would take over the common open space once 50% of the lots were built out but in part of that development agreement for phases it could specify any maintenance requirements or responsibilities of that. Mr. Morgan stated typically the developer is part of the association unit it is fully handed over. Mr. Steinbach stated as each phase comes through we will take a closer look. Mr. Morgan stated through phases 1 through 4 there will be a construction access that goes from Keough out to Parnell, part of the responsibility of the developer will be to insure that Keough Road can maintain the construction traffic that is going out Parnell and there may be some issues with some minor things on Parnell as well to take care of. Mayor Coats stated John, I assume you are going to leave part of Keough gravel until a certain amount of time due to trucks going through there. Mr. McCarty stated correct, the idea is to have everything from the little median at the entrance where the subdivision ties into Keough back to the west, the most beautiful operating entrance to a subdivision for marketing and development purposes then the connection back to Parnell we will start at that construction access up through where you see the cul-de-sac bend in the street at the northeast corner. 5  Mr. Morgan stated there are also engineering and utility comments and Harvey can address those if the Board has a question in that regard and on August 11th the Planning Commission voted to approve this application for rezoning to the CD-O and to recommend it to this Board for approval. Commissioner Davis stated back to Keough Drive, that is the other end is there going to be a break in between that and you know it dead-ends now, is that a part of your plan? Mr. McCarty stated correct, this connection will actually cross through Russell Creek and the box culvert that has been built and sitting for years, then it connects where the dead-end is where the gate is, the old Keough went due south and it has been abandoned so it will come across and join the box culvert and come here and connect to the existing Keough Drive offering a more appropriate curve for that level of the street. Commissioner Davis inquired that is in your active plan now? Mr. McCarty stated correct, so when we turn in our construction documents for phase 1 it will have to include that extension of Keough and the coordination of all of the things that become a part of that as a process. Mr. Matheny stated if there are geometric modifications at that point where it ties in that will be part of the phase 1 plans. Mr. McCarty stated correct. Mr. Matheny stated in that right-of-way that Crown Vista dedicated for that geometric adjustment. Mr. McCarty stated we are in the design process of that right now, will be polishing it the next month and then hopefully submitting by the end of the year. Mr. Matheny stated in your outline plan conditions-under drainage, item F-it says all proposed buildings added shall be 18 inches above the base flood elevation-the areas around this drainage way are in what is called Zone A (a FEMA designation for an area that has not been studied in detail) and in those areas our flood plan ordinance states this as well that areas that are effected by Zone A Designation finished floor elevations supposed to be 3 feet above the highest adjacent ground, this should be re-worded to say all purposed buildings pads shall be placed above the flood elevation as required by the City’s floodplain ordinance and I did speak with John before the meeting and he was aware that needs to be 3 feet. Action taken: Commissioner Davis moved to reconvene the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Trotter. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 10. Second Reading, Ordinance No. 331-20, amending the Official Zoning Map of the City of Piperton by rezoning from R-C (Rural Conservation) to R-C/CD-O (Conservation Design Overlay) zoning a total of 192.19 acres of property (Map 185 Parcel 001.00 and a portion of Map 182 Parcel 001.00) known as Piperton Hills Phase 1 CD-O Action taken: Commissioner Trotter moved to approve Ordinance No. 331-20 with the change in F under drainage on second reading, seconded by Commissioner Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 11. Recess-hold Public Hearing concerning Ordinance No. 332-20, amending the Official Zoning Map of the City of Piperton by rezoning from R-C (Rural Conservation) to B-2/PD-O (Minor Planned Commercial/Planned Development Overlay) 6 zoning a total of 21.4 acres of property (being a portion of Map 165 Parcel 022.00) known as Yancey Commercial PD-O Action taken: Commissioner Davis moved to recess the meeting to hold public hearing, seconded by Commissioner Trotter. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Mr. Morgan stated this is the Yancey PD-O, it is approximately 21.4 acres that is being taken out of a bigger parcel that is actually bisected by Hwy 57 at the east end of the City that tract of land is 129.4 acres and will require subdivision prior to PD-O recordation, the Yancey’s made application to the Planning Commission for review and at that same Planning Commission did vote unanimously to approve this application and to recommend it to the Board for consideration, the applicant did provide grounds for justification for rezoning and item 1 states the amendment is in agreement with the general plan for the area, 5 acres is on the south side and the remainder is on the north of Hwy 57 and this is transitional on the north side and mixed use planned development on the south side and because of those land uses and our zoning ordinance, development in those areas for non- residential development and on page 2 under C in your staff report are descriptions of these uses: 1) Transitional-“Provides for non-residential uses (except Industrial) within the context of an approved Planned Development only” and 2) Mixed-Use-“Proposals for mixed-use land use not incorporating a residential element may be considered within the context of an approved Planned Development only” and so for this reason the applicant could not come in with straight zoning but had to come in with a PD-O that has B-2, O, and M-1 as the underlying zoning district on this property, the Outline Plan Text was provided in the staff report and as I mentioned in the previous meeting in red are suggestions or requirements in some cases for the Outline Plan Text and in the actual ordinance that you have these changes or additions have been modified or updated in the Outline Plan Text and basically most of these revisions are common revisions, the key revisions that we made were things the Planning Commission did require because of wanting to have a look at how all of this looked in development because this is a gateway and makes the appropriate presentation. Mr. Steinbach inquired how are you reconciling the prohibition of industrial uses within the land use plan with the Outline Plan? Mr. Morgan stated they have specific things in the Outline Plan that are allowed and everything else is prohibited and there is very little in there that would be considered industrial, I added that just to make sure that would be covered and discussed it with them for a certain use that was pending, it does say except industrial uses in that transitional area, and the Planning Commission as the DRC wanted to make sure all of the development was pulled off the highway and so there is about a 300 foot buffer before any structure could go in and if they can’t do 300 feet they have to show how they are going to make it look like the Planning Commission wants it to look, it was very thought through and they just didn’t want anything to be able to go up there and look like a strip commercial center, and the Planning Commission did approve this on August 11th at their meeting, there is specific language in the Outline Plan concerning improvements to Hwy 57 as are needed in that regard and for the appropriate buffers along the exteriors of the development. Mr. Matheny stated standard improvements will be in play in terms of the roadway improvements and that sort of thing but relative to water and sewer we know we do not have public water or sewer for this location at this time so under utilities it does say that a 7 master sewer and water utility plan will be submitted with the first final site plan so at that time there needs to be some thought given to how they intend to provide utilities to this development whether some combination of septic initially with a plan for future centralized sewer connection when it is available and the same thing with water, we need additional information for what is proposed that we can bring to you for consideration. Mayor Coats inquired we are looking into the cost on that right? Mr. Matheny responded we are looking into the cost to get water and sewer to that area. Mr. McCarty stated we think it is a good development and it provides the opportunity for us to have the next level of conversation with some end users and we know what the Board is going to expect in the product that they are looking to come in and this helps to define it, from the water and sewer-we will fill that out as we come to it, if the users can operate like Dollar General on septic and well and it’s not an issue we may do one or two of those, it is hard to run all of those utilities to the site just for the speculative one or two people that may show up but working with the City I am sure we will have it resolved as it build out. Action taken: Commissioner Trotter moved to reconvene the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 12. Second Reading, Ordinance No. 332-20, amending the Official Zoning Map of the City of Piperton by rezoning from R-C (Rural Conservation) to B-2/PD-O (Minor Planned Commercial/Planned Development Overlay) zoning a total of 21.4 acres of property (being a portion of Map 165 Parcel 022.00) known as Yancey Commercial PD-O Action taken: Commissioner Trotter moved to approve Ordinance No. 332-20 on second reading, seconded by Commissioner Davis. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 13. Any other old/new business, questions or matters from the audience There was none. Agenda item 14. Adjournment Action taken: Commissioner Crislip made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Trotter. The Motion received all affirmative votes and the meeting was adjourned at 6:56 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Beverly Holloway, City Recorder Approved: _________________________________date:______________________ 8