8-6-25 Planning Board Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Approved 9.3.25 111 tonight. We've also worked very closely with your staff, and you can see how many of us there 112 are. We have called on your staff many times to ask them for clarification or to help us 113 understand the process or a particular provision of your code or your Comprehensive Plan, and 114 they have been thorough and helpful, kind and patient with us, and so we are very grateful for 115 your planning staff and want you to know the good folks that work for you, so thank you. What we 116 propose is to build 43 single-family homes on a 61-acre piece of property owned by the Rigsbee 117 family on Highway 54 in White Cross. It's very near the Fiesta Grill which I suspect most of you 118 know where that is. It is a very delicious place to eat dinner, and if you haven't been, I certainly 119 recommend it, and is something people are familiar with on this stretch of the roadway. And the 120 Rigsbee family is here tonight sitting in the front row. This property has been in the Rigsbee 121 family for many generations, and Mrs. Rigsbee has decided that selling this property now is best 122 for her family. She intends to keep a portion of the property, the exiting farmhouse along 54 123 where her daughter lives, and they have kept up with us and been involved with us carefully 124 because they, too, are future neighbors of this project, and they have told us that they were 125 pleased with what we have proposed, so know that we have been held to account by the Rigsbee 126 family. As you heard from your staff, the property is currently zoned R1, and we propose to zone 127 it Residential-Conditional District, which, in your Comprehensive Plan, is one of the districts that's 128 appropriate, given the land use recommendations here. It also allows us to put forward this very 129 specific development plan as well as written conditions, so you know for sure what we're going to 130 build. The Comprehensive Plan designates this as rural residential with a rural community activity 131 node, and these homes are appropriate within that Comprehensive Plan designation. Our goal in 132 designing this site was to provide much-needed housing while maintaining the appearance of a 133 rural area and the historic character of White Cross which we've heard quite a lot about from the 134 Rigsbee family. These concepts are supported by your Comprehensive Plan, and there's a lot of 135 detailed analysis in your staff report. A couple of things to draw your attention to;the historic 136 farmhouse which is visible from Highway 54 will remain, so that existing appearance will continue, 137 and you can see the lots are set back from the road and clustered at the center of the site, so 138 open space can be preserved along the perimeter to provide a transition and to protect the 139 environmentally sensitive areas, and it's a pretty significant portion of the site. It's 41.1 percent of 140 the total site, a little more than 25 acres, and I would point out that only 43 homes are proposed 141 on the slightly over 61 acres which is less than the roughly one unit per acre the exiting R1 density 142 would support. I would like to ask Laura Haywood to come forward and give you a little bit more 143 detail about Forestar's vision for this property, and then I'll continue to share with you my thoughts. 144 Laura. 145 146 Laura Haywood: Thank you, Beth. Hi, my name is Laura Haywood, and I'm the entitlements manager at Forestar 147 Real Estate Group. I am also the project manager for the Rigsbee Project and have been the one 148 closely working with Carol Rigsbee and her family. I am also a Chapel Hill resident, so I do live in 149 Orange County as well. I do want to thank you personally on behalf of myself,the team, and the 150 staff at large for being here tonight and allowing us the opportunity to present our project to you. 151 There are many aspects of this project that are very special. We have worked hard to identify 152 what is special about this piece of property and how we can preserve the feel for the surrounding 153 area, to preserve the natural environment, and I just would like to take a moment to go through 154 some of the site plan and the aspects just to become a little familiar. I'm assuming if I walk away 155 from them microphone, it's not going to pick me up. 156 157 Beth Trahos: Well,you want me to point? 158 159 Laura Haywood: All right. Thank you, Beth. First off,we'll start at the front of the community. We currently have a 160 well that is drilled and established to support the community. We also have a well house that we 161 have been working side by side with Peter Sandbeck. 162 163 Chris Johnston: If I could get the location of the well,that'd be really helpful. 164