Agenda 11-18-2025; 5-a - Application for Zoning Atlas Amendment – 1039-UT NC 86 N, Hillsborough, Hillsborough Township

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171 Approved 10.1.25 165 the town of Hillsborough with its many desirable amenities, actually not so far from where we sit 166 here today. I'm going to ask Rachel Cotter to come forward and talk with you about, about the 167 design. 168 169 Rachel Cotter: Good evening, Mr. Chair and board members. The concept for this design is based in beautiful 170 living that celebrates the local character and context, natural resources and context and culture of 171 rural Orange County. These qualities are represented throughout our proposed design. First,to 172 protect and celebrate the natural resources on site and regionally,we are clustering the proposed 173 lots and thus limiting disturbance of the site. Different from many residential developments,we 174 are not mass grading the site. We are maintaining stream and wetland buffers and preserving 175 these features themselves keeping habitat and corridors in place to the extent possible. We have 176 a total of 49 of the nearly 80 acres preserved as, or I'm sorry, proposed as tree protection areas. 177 In terms of the character and context of the site, it is honored by the inclusion of a sculptural art 178 piece and three experiential gardens in spirit of rural Orange County and southern charm. This is 179 some of our experiential garden,just simple precedent imagery that we really imagine these 180 capturing the native landscape of Orange County and serving as rooms throughout the 181 development, and then finally,the culture and lifestyle we imagine and have designed for is one 182 with a strong sense of community promoted through gathering spaces and trails meandering 183 through the site. Approximately 1.7 miles of natural surface trail allow this community to be active 184 where residents can connect with the natural beauty of the Orange County landscape and move 185 through a connected series of trails that lead them to these individual gardens, and I will turn it 186 back over to Beth to talk about the details of the zoning commitment. 187 188 Beth Trahos: I'll just touch briefly to reiterate what your staff has said that this is compliant with the Orange 189 County Hillsborough COCA plan which designates the site for mixed residential neighborhood, 190 and as Rachel said, preserves in the cluster of flexible development subdivision significant 191 amounts of natural area. In our conditions we have the commitment to our site plan, a minimum 192 lot size of 20,000 square feet,a commitment with regard to the experiential gardens,which are 193 shown on that concept plan and a requirement that each of the gardens have a plan designed by 194 a landscape architect at the time of final plat and that they contain seating opportunities such as a 195 bench or a hammock so that they will be attractive and usable amenities in the community. We 196 also have committed to native plant materials to supplement perimeter plantings in an effort to 197 maintain that local flora. We have committed to the trails that Rachel discussed. They will provide 198 access to the community gathering areas and each of the gardens. Nine thousand linear feet is 199 roughly 1.7 miles. We've also committed to having way-finding signs located along the trails to 200 guide walkers as they move throughout the community. We will have a mail kiosk with a weather 201 covering and recessed lighting. The designated community gathering space will include that 202 sculptural art piece that Rachel mentioned and seating opportunities all to be maintained by the 203 HOA. We made commitments with regards to the individual septic system size to serve at least 204 four bedrooms and a commitment that no home shall contain no more than four bedrooms, and 205 finally, an acknowledgment of the dark sky preservation lighting requirements in your UDO that we 206 will comply with as a part of this project. We are proposing individual septic systems on each lot. 207 We have taken time to do a soil and site evaluation, which I understand to be the modern perc test 208 to confirm that there is an opportunity to use these systems on each lot. We have then shown 209 how these systems would lay out on individual lots spread throughout the community, so you can 210 see on this overall the designated lots we have chosen for fit tests. We have included those fit 211 tests so that they can be reviewed in greater detail. We also propose a community well, and we 212 went to Orange County and requested a permit and received a permit to install a community well, 213 to confirm that there was sufficient water capacity here to serve the planned homes, and we hired 214 a consultant to do a study using three wells to determine whether there was sufficient water, and 215 the results showed that there was sufficient water, and Ward and David Barcal are both here to 216 talk with you in detail about the work that they have done. This was in response to questions we 217 had heard from neighbors who wanted to understand the impact of a community well on existing 218 wells. In addition to our community meeting,we reached out and had discussions with several 219 members of the community after that meeting, and we took action to add conditions based on