HomeMy WebLinkAboutC.054.93011_1475 (2)IREDELL COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
SPECIAL MEETING (4:00 P.M.) & BRIEFING (5:00 P.M.) MINUTES
APRIL 3, 2007
The Iredell County Board of Commissioners met in Special Session on Tuesday,
April 3, 2007, at 4:00 P.M., in the Iredell County Government Center (South Wing Conference
Room, 200 South Center Street, Statesville, NC. The special meeting was followed by the
regularly scheduled agenda briefing at 5 P.M.
Board Members Present
Chairman Marvin Norman
Vice Chairman Sara Haire Tice
Steve Johnson
Ken Robertson
Godfrey Williams
Staff present: County Manager Joel Mashburn, County Attorney Bill Pope, Deputy
County Manager Susan Blumenstein, Acting Planning Director Steve Warren, Planner William
Allison, Planner Ricky Hurley, and Clerk to the Board Jean Moore.
CALL TO ORDER by Chairman Norman
CONSIDERATION OF A PROPOSED RESIDENTIAL GROWTH
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ORDINANCE FOR THE BRAWLEY SCHOOL ROAD
(BSR) PENINSULA: Acting Planning Director Steve Warren presented a proposed "stand
alone" ordinance geared towards the establishment of a building permit system for the BSR
peninsula. He said much data had been collected to determine the number of vacant lots of
record, as well as the number of acres not platted. Warren said the ordinance would be repealed
when the roadway (BSR) was improved. He said BSR applications would be available at the
permit "window" and reviewed within ten days by the planners -- not the clerical staff. Warren
said next, at the end of the month, there would be a lottery to select applicants for the available
permits, and every 30 days thereafter, applicant numbers would be drawn based on the growth
rate. Warren said on average, eight or nine applications would be drawn per month, and this was
based on 100 permits available in a 12 -month period. He said that if an applicant withdrew, after
being selected, another draw would occur.
Action: The board chose a lottery method of drawing numbers out of a container along
with advertising the date/time that each lottery would occur.
Attorney Pope said the draft ordinance was evolving as additional facts were received.
He said there was an effort to separate what was anecdotal from empirical data. Pope said the
ordinance was based on "police power" and this was to help regulate the health and welfare of
the citizens, but there were limits on what could be imposed. He said (1) the board's exercise of
power could be of no more duration than necessary to solve the problem and (2) it had to be
reasonable, along with being reasonably calculated to solve the problem, and not arbitrary or
capricious. Mr. Pope said the ordinance would be eliminated when the roadway was improved,
plus no particular individual would be restrained from obtaining a permit for more than one year.
("If your name isn't drawn in 12 consecutive months, on the IP month you'll receive one.") He
said the cap, in that sense, would be more than 100. Pope said the ordinance was also tied to
something reasonable and rational. He said there wasn't a housing problem, rather it was a
traffic problem. Pope said, however, a reasonable method to regulate cars on the road could not
be found. He said to a great extent, the regulation of traffic had been pre-empted by the state and
federal government. Pope said it was factual to say the average house in the county generated
9.6 trips a day, and if this were a fact, a manageable rate of increase, was four percent or less.
He said the traffic count was known (25,000 cars a day on BSR), and using four percent, with 9.6
trips per household, it was easy to determine how many permits could be issued to limit growth
to the four percent. Pope said he initially thought 180 permits would be used, but most of the
consultants said anything beyond four percent was unmanageable. He said 100 permits were
then evaluated, and he felt this would be defensible. Mr. Pope said findings of fact had been
developed, but the commissioners would have to determine them after public hearing testimony
from the experts. He said that if the board proposed to adopt an ordinance, the testimony should
be heard and the findings verified. Pope said the facts had to compel a conclusion that