PROPOSED SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS

PLANNING & ZONING BOARD:

July 15, 2002

TOWN COUNCIL:

September 12, 2002

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The plan proposes a retail facility containing 120,000 square feet with three stories, a basement, associated parking, right-of-way dedication, roadway improvements and a sidewalk along east Chatham Street for the length of the property frontage. The property contains 7.94 acres. The building would house retail shops, offices and restaurants and would include areas of assembly that could be used for special events such as weddings. The building would have an architectural form resembling a castle. The number of parking spaces required is 535 based on the variety of uses within this facility (retail, office, restaurant and bar). The applicant is requesting the use of shared parking credit of 35% since nearly half of the uses (retail shops and offices) share a different parking peak than the other half (restaurant and bar). This reduces the requirement to 348 spaces, 43 spaces less than shown on the proposed site plan (305 spaces are shown on the plan). The applicant is also requesting a parking reduction by Council. Staff estimates a 12.4% reduction is needed to satisfy the parking ordinance unless a shared parking agreement can be secured with the adjoining soccer park. This site plan includes a pedestrian and vehicular access from south of Salem Castle to the adjoining soccer park where parking could be shared. The applicant advises that the State Capital Soccer Park has granted permission for up to 90 parking spaces to be used by Salem Castle and that a letter verifying the parking reservation would be available to staff prior to the upcoming Planning and Zoning Board meeting.

PARCEL INFORMATION

Parcel #

Realid #

Area

0774.18-22-8440
0774.18-22-6498
0774.14-22-6619
0774.17-22-4407
0774.13-22-4723

0067278
0220292
0027677
0200897
0288718

1.33
3.40
0.49
1.91
0.81

ZONING AND LAND USE PLAN COMPLIANCE

Overlay District: N/A

Land Use Compliance: The Land Use Plan calls for commercial development.

Excluding the following issues, the plan complies with all zoning requirements:

1. The plan indicates four flags and ten pennants would be mounted on the roof of the castle. Cary’s sign ordinance limits the total number of flags to three, and pennants and banners are not allowed.

Multiple flags and pennants are an architectural characteristic of the castle. Therefore, staff recommends allowing the castle to utilize the proposed four flags and ten pennants.

2. Design Guidelines:

• Cary's Design Guidelines require the building to be placed near East Chatham Street and that all parking excluding one double-loaded parking bay, be located to the side and/or behind the building. The proposed plan locates all parking between East Chatham Street and the building (all parking would be located in front of the building).

• Cary Design Guidelines also require that the building provide an architectural transition to adjoining buildings.

Staff is concerned about the proposed castle meeting the architecture requirements in our appearance ordinance. Presently, there is no dominant architecture form with the nearby properties to bring about compatibility. Given staff concerns with the appearance, we support the castle being located further away from East Chatham Street. Although this would place all the parking in front of the castle, staff feels that this placement would mitigate the architectural impacts of this building. In addition, staff has required an opaque screen of evergreen trees to screen the parking and the building from East Chatham Street. The applicant has proposed to placed the building further away from East Chatham Street to take advantage of the lower elevation and better topography. The applicant has also agreed with the Type A streetscape along East Chatham Street.

3. The southwestern 65' buffer should be supplemented to an opaque standard with required understory screening.

The applicant has agreed to plant an understory evergreen screen as required within the southwestern 65' buffer.

LANDSCAPE

Excluding the need for an understory evergreen screen in the southwestern 65' buffer, the plan complies with all landscape requirements and with staff recommendations. (The applicant has agreed to add the required under-story evergreen screen to the southwestern 65' buffer area.)

BUILDING ELEVATION

Building Height: Approx. 70' (Three-story with basement)

Building Size: 120,000 square feet

Building Materials: Tilt-up concrete panels and E.I.F.S.

Building Color: Natural stone color concrete panels and white E.I.F.S.

TRAFFIC

1. Traffic Study Results: The results of the traffic impact analysis are presented in the "Traffic Impact and Access Study" prepared by Wilbur Smith Associates March 2001. This study was part of 00-REZ-37 review.

The project proposal is to construct a unique type of entertainment complex to be known as Salem Castle. This proposal has a small trip change from the proposal studied in the rezoning.

ADT AM Peak PM Peak

Traffic Study trips(ITE) 3,630 Not Studied 313

Existing Proposal trips(ITE) 3,879 49 347

The ADT trips for the existing Salem Castle proposal assumes morning traffic flow to the high turnover restaurant in ITE trip generation tables. Since the restaurant will not be open in the morning, ADT volumes for Salem Castle will be less than ITE.

The traffic study remains valid.

Access to/from the site will be provided via E. Chatham Street, just west of Trinity Road.

The study area included the following four intersections:

E. Chatham Street at NE Maynard Road

E. Chatham Street at Trinity Road

NC 54 at NE Maynard Road

NC 54 at Trinity Road

Weekday PM (4:00-6:00pm) peak period traffic volume data was used in this analysis. The buildout of the site is expected in 2002.

NC 54 at its intersection with Maynard Road is expected to be improved to a four-lane divided cross-section by 2002. The traffic signal operation will also be improved.

Review of the intersection analysis indicates that the proposed project has a minor impact at study area intersections. Project traffic does not result in the degradation of service levels at any of the study area intersections. Based on this, no off-site roadway improvements are necessary to meet the Town’s APF Ordinance. See Table 6 below.

Staff Contact: Dick Moore, 462-3937, Email: dmoore@ci.cary.nc.us

ROADWAY DESIGN

The developer of Salem Castle is responsible for the road widening along the project frontage.

Staff Contact: Tammy Spivey, 462-3933, Email: tspivey@ci.cary.nc.us

UTILITIES

Water: The proposed development has access to TOC public water via the existing waterline on E. Chatham Street.

Sewer: Sewer service to the site will be provided via an existing sanitary sewer on the property.

Water and sewer design complies with TOC utility standards and policies in general.

Staff Contact: Shuyan Tian, 469-4381, Email: stian@ci.cary.nc.us

STORM WATER

As proposed, the project would impact 0.8 acres of riparian buffer with impervious surface. This impact would require a variance from the Town Council in accordance with Chapter 14.6.8. The applicant is planning to submit a variance application prior to the Planning and Zoning Board meeting; however, due to the late submittal, action on the site plan by Council will be delayed until the variance is scheduled for a public hearing. The variance is a separate item that will need to be acted upon by Council.

Staff Contact: Tom Horstman, 469-4347, Email: thorstma@ci.cary.nc.us

PROPERTY OWNER NOTIFICATION AND CONCERNS

Summary: Adjoining property owners were notified during staff's first review of the site plan. The notice provided adjoining property owners with an overview of the proposed plan. Staff received no inquiries from adjoining property owners regarding this development plan.