October 26, 1999 - 7:00 PM - County Board of Commissioners Meeting Minutes (Special)

10 653 October 26 , 1999 Special Called Meeting The Johnston County Board of Commissioners met in Special Session , Tuesday , October 26 , 1999 , at 7 00 pm in the Commissioners ' Room , Johnston County Courthouse Annex , Smithfield , North Carolina , with the following members Present James H Langdon , Jr , Chairman , Cookie Pope , Vice - Chairman , Jerry F Wood , DDS , Eleanor N Creech , Thomas M Moore , Wade M Stewart and Allen L Mims , Jr , Absent None Also Present Rick Hester , County Manager , Joyce H Ennis , Clerk to the Board , and Mark Payne , County Attorney The Chairman called the meeting to order and announced this meeting is for the Board to consider the proposed Growth Management Ordinance , the full title of which is " Growth Management Residential Development Allocation System Ordinance " 1 Proposed Growth Management Residential Development Allocation System Ordinance Chairman Langdon went over the changes in the new draft of the proposed ordinance and stated the consensus of the Board was for a monthly allocation formula rather than the " first come , first served " method of permitting The system would go into affect January 1 , 2000 with the set number of units at 2057 , to be increased by no more than 56 the following year The permits would be allocated monthly , and unused allotments in one month will roll over to the next month ; however , there will be no roll over of unused permits from year to year A one time allotment would be awarded for an owner of a legal , buildable , single family lot provided the lot owner will occupy the structure that is to be built Fees for the administration of this ordinance would be set by the Board of Commissioners He called on the Planning staff to illustrate the way the process of allocation would work Planning Director , Cal Genereux , illustrated how his office would determine the allocations for permits The yearly total of 2057 permits divided by 12 sets the monthly allocation at 171 permits the remaining 5 would be added to the January allocation Staff would take applications for a set period of time , then the number of applications would be divided into the monthly allocation to determine a percentage for the formula to be used Permits for individual developers would then be determined by multiplying the number they requested times the percentage in the formula He showed examples of this and pointed out the higher the number of applications , the greater the impact on the individual developer's request for the month Motion to adopt the ordinance Following discussion , Commissioner Allen L Mims , Jr stated he would have liked to support the " first come , first served " method of allocation since this was preferred by the developers ; however , after looking at the matter further he believes it would be better to use the formula allocation This can , of course , be reconsidered at a future time He moved the Board adopt the ordinance as currently presented Commissioner Cookie Pope seconded the motion Discussion Commissioner Eleanor N Creech again voiced her concerns and stated , in her opinion , this ordinance is misleading to the people and is not what the County needs to solve the problems with revenues Commissioner Thomas M Moore agreed and stated , in his opinion , it will not do the job it is supposed to do since it does not control growth in the municipalities He referenced a number of apartments under construction in the Clayton area and noted children from these structures will be entering the schools system He stressed it is his belief that the Board should not interfere with free enterprise Vote Page654 Ayes James H Langdon , Jr , Jerry F Wood , Cookie Pope , Allen L Mims , Jr , and Wade M Stewart Nays Eleanor N Creech and Thomas M Moore The Board discussed the time frames for accepting applications and the administrative fee that would be charged at the time applications are submitted It was established that staff would begin st accepting applications prior to January 1 for the month of January Commissioner Allen L Mims , Jr moved the Board approve a fee of 5 per application , to be collected at the time the application is submitted Commissioner Wade M Stewart seconded the motion Chairman Langdon stated he did not feel it would be fair to charge a 5 fee in addition to the 40 fee the developers already pay at the time they get their permits He suggested if the 5 charge is made at the time of application , the land use permit fee be reduced by that amount Following further discussion , the Board felt they should consider this further before making a decision Commissioner Allen L Mims , Jr withdrew his motion , Commissioner Wade M Stewart withdrew his second Commissioner Allen L Mims , Jr asked the Board to consider a date for a workshop on the development ordinance Since some of the Board members did not have their calendars handy , the Board decided to set a date for this workshop at their Monday meeting There being no further business , Commissioner Thomas M Moore moved the Board adjourn Commissioner Eleanor N Creech seconded the motion , which carried by unanimous vote _______________________________________ James H Langdon , Jr , Chairman _____________________________ Joyce H Ennis , ClerkPage