No major action was taken at Tuesday’s Jacksonville City Council meeting, but discussions included everything from downtown development to ordinance changes.
However, the council took some steps, first approving several items as part of the meeting’s consent agenda.
The City of Jacksonville has been actively sending personnel and supplies to Western North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helen, and assistance continues.
North Carolina General Law allows cities to donate personal property deemed surplus, obsolete, or unused to another government agency. Coincidentally, the city of Jacksonville currently has a surplus of 2017 Gulf Stream campers and 2018 Keystone campers.
The camper was originally donated to Jacksonville Fire and Emergency Services during the construction of Fire Station No. 4 and was scheduled to be put up for bid on GovDeals.
However, the City Council has now given Jacksonville City Manager Josh Ray the authority to transfer ownership of the camper to Buncombe County’s Fairview Fire Department and serve the department’s needs.
Another item approved as part of Tuesday’s consent agenda was a Type II site plan submitted by SunCap Property Group for a proposed 67,650-square-foot parcel service facility.
The project is proposed on a 12.9-acre parcel of land in the Corridor Commercial District at 145 New Frontier Way in Jacksonville. Staff had already approved a Type I site plan for a vehicle storage facility that would support the proposed facility.
After approval of the consent agenda, multiple public hearings were held at Tuesday’s meeting, one of which remained open until a future date.
City staff initiated an application to amend the text of the Uniform Development Ordinance, proposing changes to Article 4.3, “Standards for Use of Accessories” and Article 5.12, “Signs.”
Jacksonville Director of Planning and Inspection Ryan King said the proposed changes are the result of meetings staff has had with multiple business owners along Marine and Lejeune boulevards over the past year.
King explained that businesses along the road have acquired land over time, resulting in smaller frontages. Many businesses would like to have an outdoor display or sales area, but the 100-foot setback requirement prevents them from doing so.
Proposed ordinance amendments would provide retailers with outdoor display space and allow small temporary signs to be used in place of or in conjunction with feather flags, the only signs currently allowed. It is also permitted to do so.
Additionally, several other items are included in the proposed amendments, including adding start dates for holiday displays and lights, and extending start and end dates for political campaign signs.
There was a lot of discussion among legislators about making this type of ordinance change during the election, and there was also concern about distinguishing between businesses and residences when talking about holiday lights and displays.
No one spoke at the public hearing, but the council ultimately held the hearing until its Nov. 19 meeting to pass the election and for Dr. King and his staff to conduct additional research on the situation in other communities. It was decided to keep the meeting open. Handling problems.
The public hearing remained open, but there were two items approved for public hearing Tuesday.
Tidewater & Associates recommends amending Article 5, Section 5.2 of the Jacksonville UDO to more clearly define buffer yard requirements between lots zoned Downtown Business and Downtown Residential. I have submitted a request to propose.
Rose Family Properties then filed a request to change the zoning of a parcel of land located at 3155 New Bern Highway in Jacksonville. The 2.63-acre site is zoned Residential Multifamily – Low Density, and the applicant requested a rezoning to Corridor Commercial.
Both hearings were closed and the resolutions were approved by Congress.
CITY DEVELOPMENT Most of Tuesday’s meeting, led by Jacksonville Transportation Services Director Anthony Prinz, focused first on new concepts for funding traffic lights in the city.
As development occurs along Jacksonville’s major highways, the need for new traffic lights often arises. However, Prinz explained that the increased traffic that often necessitates the installation of new traffic lights is the cumulative result of multiple adjacent projects.
When this occurs, it is often difficult to identify or decide which developer or property owner will lead the signal design and construction process, resulting in implementation delays and negative traffic flow. Possibly.
“Normally traffic lights are placed on corners, and there are usually four corners, which means there are multiple property owners,” Prinz explains, adding, “Who is going to be the mastermind? Is that so?” he added.
The concept presented by Prinz would allow the city and a private developer to enter into an agreement that would allow Jacksonville Transit Services to take the lead in managing signal design and construction and receive reimbursement from the developer upon completion. .
Prinz said the cost of a new traffic light is not cheap, and the most recent estimate the city received for one was well over $300,000.
“The objective here would be to reach an agreement where we can share the burden,” Prinz said. “There are a lot of people doing the simple work, so we decided to spread the cost across everyone instead of having it borne by one developer or property owner.”
The concept also allows the city to take a leadership role, forming partnerships with developers and providing expertise, in-kind labor and materials.
Prinz said he has even already received verbal commitments from several property owners who might be interested.
Another discussion item presented by Prinz concerned downtown development. According to the agenda document, interviews with community stakeholders were conducted in July on the topic of downtown redevelopment.
This was made possible with support from International Economic Development Council (IEDC) staff through a grant program provided by the U.S. Economic Development Administration.
The process was intended to culminate in a final report from the IEDC team containing recommendations and priorities for moving forward with downtown redevelopment, both the Prinz document and the agenda document explained.
However, Prinz said the city has not yet received this report or heard any input from the IEDC team, and that officials have not yet received any input from the IEDC team because it has taken up so much time on the development and redevelopment of downtown. He said he felt it was necessary to make a series of recommendations regarding the
Recommendations made by staff include appointing a downtown advocate, considering a downtown advisory committee, continuing to improve the streetscape, investing in recreation and park assets and hosting events downtown, Prinz said. , and creating new outdoor amenities such as public art.
“I think it’s good. It’s taken us 40 years to get to this discussion, but we’re trying to change the glacier or steer the iceberg,” said City Councilwoman Cindy Edwards. .
“It’s not going to happen right away, but we’re finally at a point where we’re starting to see some momentum and some very encouraging things are starting to happen on the ground.”
The next Jacksonville City Council meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 6 at 5:30 p.m.
