Agenda - 02-04-2025; 5-a - Applications for Zoning Atlas Amendment, Comprehensive Plan Amendments, & UDO Text Amendments to Realize “Fiddlehead Corner”, a Master Plan Development – Conditional District

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317 conditional zoning to "...allow for a mixing of commercial and residential uses, a mixing of housing types, and creates a more pedestrian friendly development pattern', and to consider whether the Rural Neighborhood Activity Node (RNAN) is accomplishing the land use goal established for it in 2008 by the adopted comprehensive plan. The development proposes to incorporate non-residential uses and concentrate residential density on its site, optimizing their land use impact rather than consuming 40,000 square feet of land per home, as would be allowed by right in this area. The increased density will "[p]romote clustering of residential development and dedication of large areas of undisturbed land for low- impact recreational use by residents and for wildlife habitat... contiguous to neighboring tracts of undisturbed land' (Objective NA-13). The effect of this clustering will allow for more people to reside on a smaller area of land while ensuring that the footprint of this development will not negatively impact the environment by the effective treatment of stormwater to prevent degradation of nearby waterways and the use of robust landscaping to mitigate the urban heat island effect. Focusing density in this manner is an effective approach to reducing carbon footprints of individuals that also enables growth to meet market demands, rather than accommodating it through a potentially degradative conventional single-family subdivision approach. Similarly, the street network has been designed to accommodate all modes, including transit, to minimize reliance on automobiles for transportation (Objective ED-2.3). Fiddlehead Corner is proposing to preserve the majority of the forests on the property, with the intent of separating the development site from the neighboring properties, with the exception of Mr. Thomas Cheeks, who sold them the land and wishes to integrate his farm operations into their community. The development's layout is intentionally designed to orient this mixed use community so that it "...preserves and enhances the existing character of the County, its townships, and rural crossroads communities," incorporating this development into the RNAN and buffering it from the agricultural areas to the south (Planning Principle 8). Fiddlehead Corner conserves more open space and land than other, more conventional development approaches would be able to, within the regulations of the county's UDO, and providing "...adequate and appropriate open space suitable for active/low-impact recreation" (Objective PR-4.1). Even a flexible conservation cluster single-family subdivision approved on this property would require greater loss of forestland while realizing fewer residential lots/homes. As such, all waterways on the property have robust riparian buffers, the open spaces — including the two Resource Protection Areas onsite — are permanently protected from development and contiguous, allowing for greater ecological habitat protection, and the surrounding farmlands, including VAD, will not be directly impacted by this use, as it will be separated by this open space protection and intentional sustainable design. Placed in the Haw River Unprotected Watershed, the development prioritizes the "...protection and management of the County's water resources," including the potential impacts to downstream users (Planning Principle 6). Similarly, the