DEVELOPMENT PLAN REPORT

APPLICATION: 05-SB-015, Terrington Subdivision, Sketch Subdivision Plan Submittal

Summary: The plans propose 22 single-family lots averaging 57,340 square feet per lot. The minimum lot size would be 40,000 square feet. The property is zoned ResidentiaL-40 (R-40) and is currently outside Cary’s town limits. The plan also includes several requests for waivers that are discussed in detail in the following departmental sections of this report. The areas of special consideration include:

2. Waive the requirement for sidewalks within the subdivision and on Campbell Road;

3. Waive the connectivity requirement and the requirement for pedestrian paths connecting cul-de-sac ends;

4. Waive public water and sewer (R-40 zoning requirement) and allow an individual well and septic system on each lot;

5. Waive the requirement to dedicate a sewer pump site and to dedicate a sewer easement across the property;

6. Waive the inclusion of one-half of the roadway width frontage of Campbell Road in the impervious
calculations for the development;

8. Waive the requirement for the dedication of two greenway easements on the property.

LOCATION OF PROPERTY: The property is located west of Campbell Road, west of the intersection of Campbell Road and Rolling Oaks Lane and the intersection of Campbell Road and Country Forest Drive

TOWN OF CARY
CASE MANAGER:
Bob Benfield
Senior Planner
Phone: 469-4045
Email: bob.benfield@townofcary.org

Land Use Compliance: The Land Use Plan calls for low density residential development at 1 to 3 units per acre.
The plans propose 1.48 units per acre.

A. Staff recommends denial of the proposed Terrington Subdivision plan for the following reasons: (Item numbers correspond to individual waiver requests listed in the departmental sections of this Report.)

3. The plan does not meet connectivity requirements. (A 50’ public right-of-way stubbed to the northern property line is required but not provided in the current plan.)

5 The plan does not include the location and subsequent dedication of a sewer pump station site and sewer line easement as required by Cary’s Wastewater Collection System Master Plan.

7. The plan proposes to incorporate riparian buffer area into proposed lots. Riparian buffer area is required to remain as common area with no encroachment by proposed lots. While the ordinance allows for some minor encroachment the amount of encroachment proposed is significant and therefore, should not be allowed.

8. The plan does not include the location and dedication of public greenway easements as required by
Cary’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Departments Master Plan.

B. Staff supports the following waivers: (Item numbers correspond to individual waiver requests listed in the departmental sections of this Report.)

2. Waive the requirement for sidewalks to be placed within the subdivision and along Campbell Road

6. Waive the inclusion of one-half of the roadway width frontage of Campbell Road in the impervious calculations for the development.

The plan complies with all streetscape and perimeter buffer standards, and all Residential-40 District (R-40) dimensional requirements.

No Traffic Impact Study is required because the proposed subdivision would not generate more that 100 peak hour trips as defined by the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance.

1. The applicant has requested waiver from the requirement for widening Campbell Road

Cary’s Land Development Ordinance requires all new roadways and existing adjoining roadways to be improved and/or widened in accordance with Town Standards and specifications. The Town Council has the authority to approve a payment-in-lieu of roadway widening.

Given the limited amount of roadway frontage, staff recommends acceptance or a payment-in-lieu for the widening of Campbell Road

2. The applicant has requested a waiver from the requirement for sidewalks to be placed within the subdivision and along Campbell Road

Cary’s Land Development Ordinance requires the installation of sidewalks and pedestrian pathways within subdivisions where the Town Council or Planning and Zoning Board determines that the public safety and convenience warrant such installations in view of existing and expected pedestrian traffic.

Staff Recommendation:
Because the subdivision would only contain 22 lots and not have curb and gutter streets, staff recommends granting the request to eliminate sidewalks along Campbell Road and along proposed roadways within the subdivision.

3. The applicant has requested a waiver from Cary’s connectivity requirement and the requirement for pedestrian paths connecting cul-de-sac ends.

Cary’s Land Development Ordinance gives the Planning Director the authority to waive street connectivity requirements in which case, a pedestrian trail connecting cul-de-sacs together would be required. The Ordinance also gives the Planning Director the authority to waive required pedestrian connections.

Staff Recommendation:
Staff recommends that a 50’ public right-of-way be stubbed to the northern property line, so as not to prohibit a possible future street connection to the north should re-development occur. The recommendation is for right-of-way dedication only; staff is not requesting that the street stub be constructed at this time.

Furthermore, based on the low number of lots proposed (22 lots) the subdivision would have limited pedestrian impact. Staff recommends granting the request to eliminate sidewalks along interior roadways within the subdivision. (Sidewalks would continue to be required along Campbell Road and would be considered as a part of the recommended payment-in-lieu of installing roadway improvements.)

100% of the contiguous properties are developed as single family homes. The Council decided that lot sizes smaller than 40,000 square feet are inappropriate for this area of Swift Creek, when they denied the rezoning request on the subject property. The surrounding developed residential lots are not large enough to be subdivided, with the exception of one or two parcels that would at most add a maximum of one or two additional lots to the neighborhoods surrounding this proposed subdivision. Therefore providing a road stub to these developed properties is inappropriate and only increases impervious area within the watershed unnecessarily.

Because the proposed subdivision includes only 22 lots fronting on two cul-de-sacs, Applicant believes it is in appropriate to provide pedestrian paths linking the ends of the cul-de-sacs. The project does not link to any other neighborhood or Town facilities with pedestrian paths. Since the subdivision is proposed to have no common area any required pedestrian paths would have to be contained in easements on the private lots. Applicant believes easements encouraging public access through the back yards of private lots increases safety and vandalism concerns and should be discouraged.

4. The applicant has requested a waiver from the requirement requiring public water and sewer connections (an R-40 zoning requirement) in order to allow a private well and septic system on each lot.

Cary’s Land Development Ordinance requires new subdivisions within the R-40 district to connect to public water and sanitary sewer facilities unless exceptions are granted by the Town Council. If the amount of impervious surface area is more than 12% the subdivision is required to connect to municipal water and sewer services. If the impervious surface area is less than 12% the Town Council could grant a modification to Section 8.1.5(H)(4) and allow private well and septic systems on each lot as opposed to municipal water and sewer services.

Staff Recommendation:
Given the rural nature of the area and limited number of large lots proposed, Staff
recommends not requiring the subdivision to connect to town water and sewer lines.

5. The applicant has requested a waiver from the requirement to dedicate a sewer pump site and to dedicate a sewer easement across the property.

Cary’s Land Development Ordinance requires water and sewer lines to be installed per Town policies and the Town Standard Specifications and Details Manual. The pump station and the sewer interceptor line to the pump station are in Cary’s adopted Wastewater Collection System Master Plan which is a component of Cary’s Comprehensive Growth Plan. The location of the pump station shown in the Master plan is necessary to provide required sewer services to all properties within the surrounding area of Cary’s ETJ. An amendment to the Wastewater Master Plan would be required in order to eliminate this requirement.

As indicated below, the applicant suggests relocating the pump station and sewer line easement further, north. However, this action would make it difficult for other properties within the area to access municipal sewer in the future.

Staff Recommendation:
The applicant is required to dedicate land (fee-simple for public use) for a sewer pump station and to dedicate a public sewer easement across the property. (The actual installation of a sewer line or the installation of a sewer pumping station is not required at this time.)

Applicant requests that the Council direct the staff to amend the Town’s Wastewater Master Plan to move the pump station and gravity sewer three parcels to the north of the subject property. Over 100 neighboring property owners have delivered signed petitions to the Town supporting this request. This is an overwhelming majority of the properties that would have been served by the lift station, if it was built on the subject property, rather than on the property two parcels to the north. These property owners understand that moving the pump station north, greatly reduces the possibility that their properties could ever be served by municipal sewer in the future.

6. The applicant has requested a waiver from the requirement whereby inclusion of one-half of the roadway width frontage of Campbell Road must be included in the impervious calculations for the development. (This would allow the plan to stay at 12% or under impervious surface area, which is the preferred Low Density alternative in the Swift Creek Plan.)

Cary’s Land Development Ordinance requires projects that have impervious surface areas that exceed 12% in the Swift Creek Watershed to utilize Stormwater Best Management Practices (BMP). If this project remains below 12% impervious then there will not be a need for BMP’s for water quality treatment or a Home Owners Association to maintain them. The Ordinance also grants the Town Council the authority to modify the standards to eliminate surrounding roadways, where using perimeter or adjacent roadways in the impervious surface calculations causes a development to exceed the allowed impervious surface percentage. It is important to note that at time of subdivision construction plan submittal a nitrogen plan will be required. The nitrogen plan will require the submittal of nitrogen production calculations and Peak attenuation data for the 1 year 24-hour storm. All indications are that there will be a need for a stormwater BMP to attenuate the 1 year 24 hour storm which will then require a HOA to maintain this structure.

Staff supports allowing one-half of Campbell Road roadway frontage to be eliminated from the impervious surface area calculation. The amount of roadway widening area is small and considered a minor impervious surface area impact,

Cary’s Land Development Ordinance does not allow individual lots within a subdivision to be platted into stream (riparian) buffers unless: 1) there are limited buffer impacts; 2) there is no other reason for a HOA; and 3) the buffer is placed in a permanent conservation easement dedicated to the Town.

Several of the proposed lots represent substantial encroachment into riparian buffer area. It is staff’s opinion that this section of the LDO was established to allow minor riparian buffer encroachments, or encroachment into riparian buffer area by a small percentage of the total number of lots proposed. The subdivision, as proposed, would allow more than 50% of the lots to encroach into riparian buffer area covering approximately 25% of the total subdivision area. Therefore, staff does not recommend approval of this waiver. (The applicant has indicated that there is no other need for the creation of a Homeowners Association however, all indications are, and the applicant is aware, that a Homeowners Association will be required to maintain the Stormwater Best Management Practice that will be required relative to the Neuse River Rules requirements of the 1 year 24-hours storm attenuation requirements.)

If the riparian buffer areas are required to be contained within a common area, owned by a homeowner’s association, then approximately 9.6 acres of the project’s 32 acres would be contained in the common area. This would leave only 22 acres for the building lots and streets and therefore the lots would not be 40,000 square feet in size. A zone change would then be required to R20 as some of the 22 lots would need to be as small as 20,000 square feet. Council has already indicated that they did not support 20,000 square foot lots for this property, when they denied the zone change request that included a provision for a minimum lot size of 20,000 square feet. Applicant is asking Council for the same fair treatment and consideration that staff and the Council is extending to similar property owners in the Southeast Area Plan, where a Town initiated change to the Southeast Area Plan allows properties such as ours, which have approximately 30% of the site impacted by buffer areas, to cluster their building lots and achieve a density of 1.0 dwelling units per acre. Council indicated that clustering is not appropriate for our property, when they denied our re-zoning request. Therefore our request to allow the buffers to be contained within the private building lots is necessary to meet the 40,000 square foot lot size that the community and the Council have indicated is preferred on this property. With approval of this request our 22 lots will yield a density of only 0.69 unites per acre, which is far below the density allowed by the Southeast Area Plan amendment on similar property designated Very Low Density. Our property is designated LDR on the Southeast Area Plan, which indicates an even higher density.

8. The applicant has requested a waiver from the requirement for the dedication of two greenway easements on the property.

Cary’s Land Development Ordinance requires the dedication of land for public greenway development at locations recommended by Cary's Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Departments Master Plan. The Ordinance also requires the greenway strip to be a minimum of 30’ wide, but not to exceed 50’ wide, and to be dedicated to the Town. An amendment to Cary's Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Departments Master Plan would be required in order to eliminate public greenways from this property.

The proposed greenway that would parallel Campbell Road follows a prominent tributary/buffer that flows south into Swift Creek. As such, it is not an insignificant greenway. To the north it would provide pedestrian access to the Town's future TryonRoad Park as well as to Crossroads. To the west, it would be linked (via Cary Parkway) with the Speight Branch Greenway, which would link with the trail proposed through Lochmere, Ritter Park, Hemlock Bluffs, Swift Creek Greenway, etc. To the south, which is outside the Town's jurisdiction, it could provide access to the Swift Creek which in turn would provide access to Lake Wheeler. Raleigh is in the process of completing a special area plan and we have recommended they amend their plan with additional trails that will provide access to Lake Wheeler

Applicant requests that the Council direct staff to amend the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Master Plan to eliminate these sections of public greenway easements from the subject property. Applicant believes these greenways are inappropriate, since they do not link to any other greenway or public recreation facility. As “dead ends” they would not provide the public use and enjoyment that would ever justify their construction cost. In addition applicant believes that providing a greenway trail that starts on Campbell Road, which has no sidewalks or parking, is inappropriate and dangerous. Applicant believes that the appropriate southern termination point of the greenway leading south from the Swift Creek Shopping Center is at the future extension of Cary Parkway, which will have sidewalks and bike lanes. 100% of the contiguous property owners and over 100 total neighboring property owners have delivered signed petitions to the Town supporting this request.

Schools: The school information is being provided for your review; however, the Wake County Board of Education controls capital projects for school capacities.

School Information
	Enrollment	Permanent Seat Capacity	Average Percent Occupied	Projected Number of Additional Students
Elementary	16.886	17,002	99.32%	4
Middle	7,937	8,365	94.88%	2
High	8,438	8,578	98.37%	3
Total	33,261	33,945		9
Assigned Schools
Swift Creek Elementary	414	531	77.97^	4
Dillard Middle	1,047	1,023	102.35%	2
Athens High	1,760	1,792	98%	3
Total (all assigned schools)	3,221	3,346		9

    Current Enrollment and Building Capacity is based on the 20^th day of the school
                 year for 2003 as supplied by the Wake County Public School System. School
                assignment will be determined at the time of development.

                             The Projected Number of Additional Students is only a rough approximation. The
                            actual number of students will vary depending on several variables, such as dwelling
                             unit type, number of bedrooms, dwelling size, and other factors.

The purpose of a rezoning is to evaluate the appropriateness of this land use for these parcels of land. Specific development requirements related to the technical aspects of land development, such as access, storm water management, road improvements, utility line placement, road connectivity and landscape plantings, are not considered during the rezoning process. However, all of these development issues must be addressed for compliance with existing requirements spelled out in the Land Development Ordinance (LDO) when the site or subdivision plan is submitted. All such requirements can be found at http:vic.townofcary.org.

PARCEL & OWNER INFORMATION