001Mhm. Good evening everyone. Looks like we have a full house. Thank you all for being here. I call the March 17th 2025 regular meeting of the Union County Board of Commissioners to order. At this time I would like to recognize Commissioner Christina Helms for our invocation. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you to ask for mercy, grace, and your guidance so we can stand in your faith. Let every decision we make as a board be pleasing to you, Lord. Guide our thoughts, our words, and our actions to reflect all of your goodness and mercy. Let your love for us be our anchor and let the truth of your word guide our path. Let those who do not know you and those who have drifted away from you be brought back into your kingdom
002and your and their hearts be changed forever. In Jesus and holy In Jesus' holy and precious name, I pray. Amen. Everyone, please stand. For the pledge? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Before we move to informal comments, we don't have um very many people signed up um but I do want to make everyone aware that there have been two changes uh to the business agenda this evening. First, there's a request from staff to remove item 25-145, the employee compensation and benefits update from tonight's agenda. Unless there is an objection, we will remove this item from tonight's agenda. Second, the rezoning application associated with item 25-123, the conditional rezoning CZ 2024-007,
003Gold Branch was withdrawn earlier this afternoon by the applicant. Therefore, by operation of law, it has been removed from tonight's consideration by the board. That brings us to informal comments. Madam Clerk, has anyone signed up for informal comments? Okay. We will recognize the speakers signed up for informal comments. Each speaker must address the board from the lectern and begin their remarks by giving their name, saying whether they are residents of Union County, indicating the municipality within which they reside, if any. Each speaker will have 3 minutes to make remarks. A tone may sound at the conclusion of the remarks. A speaker may not yield his or her time to another speaker. Speakers may not discuss matters which are the subject of public hearings, and they must be courteous in their language and presentation. Restatements or
004repetitive comments by the same speaker, whether at the same or separate meetings, may be ruled out of order and terminated by the chair. Personal attacks will not be tolerated. Speakers may leave written comments and or supporting documents, if any, with the clerk to the board. The first person that we have signed up is Chad Emran. Good evening. I'm Chad Emran. I live in Weddington. Um I was actually going to speak about the conditional zoning for Gold Branch that's now been withdrawn. So, I have nothing further this evening. Thank you. The next person we have signed up is Doug Presley. Good evening. Thank you. Uh, my name is Doug Presley, Robert Douglas Presley. I live at 6308 Old Monroe Road in Indian Trail, right near Sun Valley. And very, very simply, I would like to implore
005the commission, please do not raise our property taxes by 60%. I'm about to retire, or I had planned to, and uh, this is going to work a tremendous hardship on people like myself. Uh, I'll soon be on a fixed income. I live in an old house on an old homestead, which I do not wish to leave. I know I'm told, "Just sell." But, I don't want to sell. I want to live in the old house I grew up in. And these much higher taxes are going to make that difficult for myself and others in the same boat with me. And I would imagine it's also going to make it hard on young people just trying to start out. I understand, of course, that uh, you must have revenue, that taxes will go up, but I
006implore you not to go up by that enormous amount that I've been reading about in the newspaper. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for being here. Are there any other speakers who have not signed up who wish to speak? I did sign up. I did sign up. Okay, we'll start with you. Um, just your name and where you live in 3 minutes. Sure. I do have the confirmation. Yeah. I thought you said we didn't have any on those. Okay, these are empty. Okay. These are public hearings. Right here. Okay, I got loaded up with hearing notices. They got me loaded up here. I'm sorry. Okay, informal Okay, that's not it. Um, we do have Are you Mr. Kemp? Yes. Okay, you are signed up. I'm so sorry. It's okay.
007I'm Rich Kempter. I'm a Union County resident. I live at 11:49 Curling Creek Drive in Wesley Chapel. I'm a part of the Heritage South community who has been in here multiple times Oh, yeah. reporting on the sewer odor. As you're aware, there's been a pilot program run by Union County water started last summer with some measurements that were taken prior to actually having a contractor implement the pilot program. Um, we we've been in great communication with John Schutack and the water group. I can't say enough about them. They've been wonderful. Um, as I understand it, today is the last day of the pilot program. It had been extended for about 10 days. Um, and we're also aware in the community that's there's some very technical, very professional kind of measurements going on right now. I'm
008here to report on a very untechnical and simple test, and that's called the smell test. Um, and I can tell you, uh, from my perspective, my family's perspective, since the pilot program started. The There has been virtually no odor. Um it it seems to me from that simplistic point of view, the pilot program is very successful. Um and we're hoping that uh now now that the program is going to cease today, that um within the next couple of weeks, the very technical measurements can be assessed and hopefully come back at the very beginning of April for your next meeting and recommend uh the continuing issue the continuation of that program. Uh so once again, I'm very thankful for this group. I'm thankful for Union County water. Okay. And we have Ms. Deanna Terry. Good evening.
009I'm Deanna Terry. I'm a resident of Union County and I live in Indian Trail. I'm the founder of Key Steps, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting foster youth transitioning out of care. I spent 5 years in the system before aging out 37 years ago. And still, I feel the lasting effects. I entered care a 4.0 student. I left homeless, pregnant, and without a diploma. It took until my mid-40s to climb out of poverty. My small business began to thrive in my 50s, allowing me to develop Key Steps. Let me be clear. I'm not a success story. It's a tragic story with a better outcome than most. My journey didn't have to be a constant battle to achieve self-sufficiency. In Union County, 41 former foster youth age 18 to 24 are known. Only 17 qualify for support
010through LINKS, which ends at 21. By 2026, that number is expected to be around 70. The numbers reflect those aging out at 18, excluding those who reunify as adolescents. National statistics are grim. 20% leave unhoused, 70% are parents before 21, 50% leave without a diploma, and less than 5% leave with a driver's license. We endure PTSD at twice the rate of war veterans. We experience higher rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide. The most tragic statistic, 55 foster youth go missing every single day in this country. No one has an Amber Alert, sees an Amber Alert. No one sees a flyer for these fosters. Key Step has already made a tangible impact in less than 6 months. Providing resources like a fully stocked pantry, job opportunities, tutors, even loving host homes for two youth who are
011about to be homeless. Pardon. One of your board members, Gary Sides, is a life coach for for one of our couples. With the right support, our foster youth don't just survive, they thrive. They can become engineers, business owners, nurses, and dare I say nonprofit leaders. Even reach for the stars like Sharon and Steve Jobs. But first, we must recognize we need adjustments to an outdated system that is failing them. A system that hasn't changed much in the 39 years since Title 4E was amended to provide independent living programs or 2008 to provide extended care up to 21. We don't even have an after-hours crisis line for youth in extended care. Listening to former fosters is one way to make the right adjustments. We also need to embrace and support organizations like Key Step who help
012fill the gaps as we can engage and involve the community in ways government is limited with. I'm here today to begin a dialogue with the county to ask for your support in helping these young adults achieve their full potential. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much for being here tonight. Are there any other speakers um that are not signed up to speak that do wish to speak tonight? Yes. Okay. Just um your name, where you're from. My name is Shantae Plowman. Uh I'm 7128 Howey Bottoms Road. Um well, I have two questions. Um is it the Colton or Kevin Presley that had um house development that has been withdrawn or I didn't That Okay. They withdrew their application. Okay. Um and the um the second thing is the um the taxes. Um which
013he's correct is about 60% on We have quite a few uh properties and I hope you take into consideration all the house and developments that have been built everywhere which I know is going to bring in a a a lot of money. So, with what we have, do you go down uh with the rates or is that what the tax amount will be? Um and I just hope that y'all take that in consideration that um that's a lot of money. It's a lot of money you're bringing in. That's it. We'll be going into the budget season um in the coming months. So, just you know, stick with us, watch online, or attend the meetings as we enter into the budget season. Okay. Thank you. for being here. Are Is there anyone else that would like
014to speak? Hearing none, we will now move to the next item on our agenda. The next four items on the agenda are all public hearings related to proposed road namings. Specifically, the following public hearings will be conducted at the same time. If you wish to speak on a particular item, please identify that item in your remarks, otherwise we will assume you're you are speaking to all the items collectively. The first one is item 25-126, public hearing for road naming for an unincorporated portion of segments C and E located between Tory Path and the existing Helms Road. Item 25-134, a public hearing for road naming for the unincorporated portion of segment D located between Waxhaw-Marvin Road and NC 75. Item 25-135, public hearing for road naming for unincorporated portion of segment F located between Waxhaw-Marvin Road
015and the CSX Railroad. And finally, item 25-137, public hearing for road naming for unincorporated portion of segment G located between segment C and the CSX Railroad. I now open each of these public hearings and recognize Bjorn Hansen, our senior planner for comments from the planning staff. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board, manager Matthews. This map will hopefully give a little more clarity for all the words and segments. This is a result of a successful grant that the NCDOT won for improving railroad access in the west side of Waxhaw. This was awarded several years ago. Some of the roads have already been built, such as this long one here, and that motivated us to work with the NCDOT and Waxhaw last fall to conduct a public comment period to solicit names for these roads.
016This one is open. This one, Tory Path, has been closed at the railroad. Um Helms Road will eventually be closed at the railroad, and this new road, which will be the bridge, the biggest part of the project, will cross over NC 75 and the railroad and connect in. And then a short section of Helms Road will remain. So, some of these are in Waxhaw, and most are in a combination, and we could have six public hearings, but Tory Path was recommended to remain uh Tory Path as it's currently named. So, that doesn't require a hearing. We've notified the residents that it's not subject to the public hearing. The remainder, this long section crossing over to Helms, was recommended to be named King Hagler uh in recognition of the Catawba Indian chief uh in the 1700s,
017I believe, who was a peacemaker between the uh settlers and the local natives. Then you have Helms Road, this short section be re- renamed um proposed to be renamed Ernest Way in recognition of one of the property owners as having um some property acquired for the road project. Helms Road would remain the same. It would connect over to NC 75, and then the short section of Helms Road would be renamed Sabinsky Way in recognition of a town of Waxhaw employee. So, those are the proposed names, the staff recommendations in cooperation with Waxhaw. You have a copy of the resolution from uh Waxhaw's action last month taking action on their portions. Hopefully, um our segments will line up with them in terms of in terms of naming, and then we would work with the uh post
018office and Google and uh the tax office and 911 to update all of our databases as well as the NCDOT um to name these roads. So, I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. Madam Clerk, has anyone signed up to speak at the public hearings for these matters? Okay. Seeing that we have no speakers signed up for public comments um on these hearings, is there anyone here tonight who wishes to speak on these road namings? We have one person in the audience. If you would please approach, you can um give us your name, your address, and the municipality you live in, and we'll give you 3 minutes. Hi, how are you? Good. My name is Jackie Zamora. I live on 4524 Helms Road. So, I understand like I really don't have a problem
019with any of the name changes except for the small section that is currently Helms that's going to change to um King Hagler. There's You guys are for this project, a bunch of homes are being um demolished or removed, but there's going to be a couple of homes and some businesses that are still on Helms that are not being removed. And I didn't know if we could keep the Helms where um just I mean keeping the Helms instead of New Hagler Road and maybe renaming where you guys are keeping Helms Road where nobody lives and no businesses are on, maybe swapping those since it would affect us and our addresses would all change. So, that's all. Did you by any chance um go to the Waxhaw meetings to share this concern or option? I did not
020cuz um I had received this in the mail and so that's why I came here. We're outside of the Waxhaw city limit. Okay. So, that's yeah. Well, thank thank you for being here to share that with us. And And just one more thing, one of my neighbors, she's an elderly woman. She's 75. She's lived there her whole life and I don't know, it seems kind of inconvenient for her to change her whole identity kind of at this point since it's not set in stone. So, anyway, thank you. Thank you. Bjorn, would you mind talking to us about um those changes and how it would affect affect that area? If I understood it correctly, were you referring to the section here in the middle? Um do you mind if Is it okay if I approach you
021for a minute? Okay. Can I use the mouse to just show where you're talking? Oh. Yeah, sure. So, if you see this pink section, Sabinski Way, um there's a few homes that are just at this this section right here. Like I live there. My neighbor who's elderly lives here. We have another neighbor here and there's a couple of businesses here and here. And we were just well, not we, but me, hoping to keep Helms Road on this green line and then maybe just renaming this purple line the King Hagler Road since like I said people still live here. But yeah. So I don't have on this map it doesn't show the municipal limits for the extent of it but certainly no matter what you'd want to keep the name of the road consistent along the
022road itself so it would involve changing the recommendation for the purple segment and realistically until we have some sort of intersection such as Sabinsky or all the way over to Tory Path to change King Hagler to Helms Road or potentially Old Helms Road something like that to um to to accommodate that. So I can't answer that right now. We'd certainly have to go back to Waxhaw um in terms of seeing what they thought about it as well. Do you have any questions or giving me some direction? I'm sure. Um I I think it's worth exploring Bjorn um because I mean there are residents that are going to be impacted with address changes. Um I mean I don't think that it really hurts us to you know reach out to Waxhaw and just see if they
023would be amenable to something like that and then once we get that information then you know obviously the board can deliberate but uh but certainly I would be interested to see if Waxhaw would be amenable to something like like a reversal of those road names um especially if it impacts you know multiple residents there. We'll do. Okay. Thank you very much. I now close each of the four public hearings. Next on the agenda is 25-125 recognition of Union County water staff. I want to recognize Christopher Clark our director of water and wastewater operations for this item. Good evening. Again, my name is Chris Clark. I'm the director of water and wastewater operations. And tonight, I have two uh well, I got two teams of people that I want to recognize. Uh first is uh Mr.
024Matt uh Hargitt, who works in our uh sewer field services division. Matt, want to come on up? And I also want to thank you all for allowing us to um really have these employees recognized really a job well done. It's something that we all can be proud of. Uh I know that I personally in operations uh I I just love this. And we we we really do have just fantastic people. And And Matt really does epitomize this. So, I'm going to read what's in your agenda packet. Um but uh just want to recognize Matt here. So, at the annual NC 1 Water Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, the NC 1 Water Association selected Matt Hargitt for the Three Musketeer Award. Matt Hargitt works as a utility field uh services supervisor in water and wastewater operations
025and has been working at Union County Water for 22 years. The Three Musketeer Award is designed designated to honor three individuals who have not only volunteered countless hours in their respective committees, but have also gone above and beyond in giving their time, resources, and support to the NC 1 Water staff. Matt Hargitt was given this honor by conducting himself as one who truly represents all for one and one for all for the association. In addition to this award, Matt was elected to a 2-year term on the Board of Trustees for NC 1 Water. Matt's dedication to the water and wastewater industry and its continued growth within North Carolina is made evident by this recognition and elective and election to serve as a trustee. Well done, Matt. Thank you, sir. Yeah. And that is Now, the
026second part of the employee recognition uh we have uh some competition teams who compete on a state and national level. We have four of them. And uh I will read off what it again here, but um just again once again we have the most of them are here. I think we're only missing two. Uh but they're all here and they they really have done Union County proud not just on a state stage, but really and on the national stage in multiple events. So, go ahead and read this. Um during the 2024 annual NC One Water Conference, Union County Water had four competition teams compete in four events: Operations Challenge, Hydrant Hysteria for both men and women, and water pipe tapping. The Operations Challenge competition comprises of five timed skilled events that range from cutting pipe
027and making taps, pump maintenance, laboratory processes and calculations to perform in a confined space personnel retrieval exercise. The Hydrant Hysteria team competition teams test their abilities not only to put together a different hydrant each year, but to maximize teamwork and communication to successfully and safely complete compete with a winning time. Our water tapping team also focus on collaboration, effective communication, and skill to be able to perform this water specific task in timed competition. Our teams performed well in the state level competition and brought home the following awards. The Operations Challenge got first in overall competition, first in the collections event, first in the safety event, first in the maintenance event, first in process control event, and second in the laboratory event. For Hydrant Hysteria, both the men and women won first place. And of course
028our water cut tap competition team also competed in first place. So, members, if you wouldn't mind please standing up when I mention your name. For the competition team, I have Brett Fischer. Hayden Hunter. Jonathan Jordan. Austin Medlin. And Jamie Hargit. For Hydrant Hysteria, you get Justin Huntley. Jimmy Gill, he's not here, but I want to mention his name. And their coach Jonathan Smith. For Hydrant Hysteria for the women's team, Michelle McCarver. Beth Belk. And of course Justin Huntley is their coach. And then finally for the water tap team, I have Richard Baker. He was with us earlier. Rick Marath. Matt Hargit, again. And Dominic And Dominic Hamilton. Congratulations to all of you FOR YOUR SUCCESS. AND THEY'VE GOT A LOT OF TROPHIES. AND THE HARDWARE. You want me to dust? See. Okay. Y'all come in
029as close as you can. All right, smiles. Lots of Smiles. It's a lot of people in the lobby. Okay, good. Thank you. Well, that was worth coming here tonight for. Um celebrating um our employees and um such incredible um work that they're doing and to place first, second, or um even in the top 10, you know, let alone being in first place um is absolutely amazing. So, go Union County. Next on our agenda is item 25-143. Service Award Recognition. I want to recognize Ms. Jennifer Davis, our Assistant Human Resources Director, for this item. Welcome. Good evening. Good evening. On Thursday, February 27th, we hosted our Q1 service awards ceremony to celebrate 38 employees who had met an anniversary milestone. Of those 38 employees, during the ceremony, we celebrated and recognized 11 5-year employees, 5 10-year
030employees, 1 15-year employee, 5 20-year employees, and 1 25-year employee. We are so grateful to be able to host these events for our employees and cherish the stories we hear behind each employee. I know I myself look forward to these quarterly events each year or each quarter. I will definitely make sure to invite each of you each time we have those. I know some of you have been able to attend those. So, our next one will be April 29th, and I will be sending that invite out to all of you so that you will hopefully will be able to make mark your calendars to be able to attend. We hope that you will enjoy a few key moments from the event from this short video. Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Q1
031service awards ceremony. I'm happy to have all of you here. Today, we are celebrating in four Good morning everyone and welcome to our Q1 service award ceremony. I'm happy to have all of you here. Today we are celebrating employees who are celebrating 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 25 years today. We thank you so much for all that you do for the county. What makes Union County so unique is that we're able to serve families. Um at the same time in the schools able to serve the different students that I come in counter with. I feel validated. I feel appreciated and I'm just very overwhelmed and very happy. Well, it's very nice to be um recognized. That Union County is very good at that and as a whole I can't tell you how pleased I
032am to be here as an employee because coming from the private sector and at the point I was in my career when most people are trying to push uh people with a lot of experience out the door, Union County has embraced someone like myself and given me a lot of opportunities to advance and I'm very thankful for that and it I would highly recommend anybody uh looking for a career to apply with Union County. So, thank you April for 10 years and I wouldn't be able to do my job without you. Union County has always allowed me to be myself. You can come in, it's a open arms family and everything that you do, there's always full support. I've never seen a negative part in my department or any other department that has made me
033not want to be in Union County. Union County is a special place to work um because I've seen they care about their people. Um it's changed a lot over the years like I said about the library, the county has too. But the bottom line is they've always put a lot of effort into caring for their people. Listening to what my supervisor had to say it made me almost cry which is funny cuz I don't cry at work. Um but it made me feel valued. It made me feel like, "Wow, I've I've maybe accomplished something." And uh it just made me feel proud. The bottom line is we're all we've always been dedicated to serving our public and that's why I love working there. Well, again, I will say thank you for everyone for coming out
034and celebrating and your your coworkers employees. I'd also like to thank our um chair of the Board of Commissioners Melissa Merrill. She's here. It's important and I appreciate she's taken time out of her day to come and hear you celebrate your coworkers. Uh she gets to put a name with a face I mean face with a name and and kind of understand what you do and the things that that that make you part of Union County. I love to hear all the stories and all the connections that you have. One individual talked about the bond and and I think that's important. This isn't just a place to work. It is a bond. We are we all have something in common. It's about service. It's what we do. And I really appreciate having all of you
035here and I hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you so much. I don't know where Jennifer went to, but oh, there you are. Okay. That was so much fun to attend. Um it was just it was absolutely wonderful to hear all the supervisors, you know, present and talk about the the employee that was getting 5, 10, 15, 20, and even 25 years. And I did learn so much. I enjoyed um learning about Jonathan. Apparently, he's a really good dancer. So, I'm going to remember that. And uh Gypsy was absolutely incredible to meet. So, if if anyone um on the board has not had a chance to attend one, I know Commissioner Helms has. I would just I It was the best way to start a day. And um and my Oz
036got to attend as well. And I think he enjoyed meeting everyone on our way into work. But um thank you so much for doing this for our employees. I think there's nothing more important than to let um people that are giving, you know, the best part of their lives and the biggest chunk of their day um to work here and represent this county. And it was absolutely wonderful to meet all of them first hand. So, I can't wait for the next one. Next on the agenda is item 25-147, um recognition by Crime Stoppers. I want to recognize one of the most incredible people I have ever met in Union County. Truly one of my favorite people, Mr. Reed Helms uh with Union County. He um is that our ambassador to Crime Stoppers. Um and I
037think he works 12 months a year to get to prepare for the Crime Stoppers barbecue. So, I'm going to turn it over to you, Mr. Helms, and he's all decked out for St. Patrick's Day, and we've seen the suspenders. You might want to turn around and show everyone else those those handsome suspenders. Floor's yours. Thank you uh for inviting us here tonight. Uh Chairman Ms. Merrell, Vice Mr. Helms, and Mr. Sides, Mr. Brian Matthews, Ms. Christina Helms, and Clancy Malcolm. Grew up with your dad and Ms. West. Don't forget Ms. West. She's a She's a Jew. But uh I've been involved in Crime Stoppers since July the 10th, 1981. Dr. Paul Helms started it. And over the years, the program has grown as a result as a result of everybody that puts input and sponsors.
038And we got the most beautiful place around here to have a barbecue. And I meant to look that up, but I think we've been using the Ag Center for about 15 years. And we we Last year was our best year we ever had. We had them lined out the door. But as a result of all your help supporting this program and supporting us, we got a plaque here we would love to present to y'all tonight for all the help you've helped us in the past and hopefully in the future. And we have some of our board members and some of our associate members. And uh we got one here I He's hard to recognize. He's very active and helped us. I think his name is Eddie Capps. be careful. But I'd like to present this
039to y'all for and uh we're going to do another one. And we'd sure like for y'all to be right there to help us cuz we're going to need all the help we can get. Before we run off too quickly, um I would like to recognize our 2024 law enforcement officer Chris Byrum. of the year, Mr. Chris Byrum AND HIS FAMILY. YOU PROBABLY READ IT ONLY IN THE newspaper and maybe on your phone, but he's a school resource officer at Weddington High School. He just got out of school and knew what to do immediately. And in my opinion, from what I've read about it and was told about it, he saved a little boy's life down there. Chris Byrum. We select our board and our people selected him as officer of the year for something that
040went beyond the call of duty. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. THANK YOU. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SAY? THANK YOU ALL, SIR. THANK YOU, SIR. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE. We appreciate it. The next item for consideration of the agenda is the consent agenda. I'm sure. Yes. I'll make the motion that we adopt the consent agenda as published. Is there a So, we got the motion. Um any comments? Questions? Okay, all those in favor of the motion say I. I. I. Okay. This brings us to the business portion of the agenda. The first item on business is 25-167 2025 reappraisal status update. I will recognize Van Harrell, our tax administrator, for an update to the board concerning this item. Good evening, Madam Chair, Commissioners. Appreciate the opportunity to come here tonight and provide
041you with an update. It's been a busy couple of weeks, as you can imagine. Um but uh a lot of phone calls, a lot of conversations. Uh but that's what we're here for. Uh the management team asked me to come provide a uh recap of a couple of items and some new information and some updates and kind of where we're at in the process and talk about the appeals process as well. So, we'll get started. Just to recap here, you saw this in previous uh presentations. Why are we doing the reappraisal this year? Ultimately, this was a mandated reappraisal. Um the the county planned to do this initially in 2021 when they adopted the 4-year cycle. Um but we did get notice from the state in February of 2022 that we had to do a
042a reappraisal in 2025. So, that that ultimately led to this being a a uh triggered reappraisal process under 105-286. Um again, we do this. The purpose of this is to maintain a stable tax base for the county and municipalities across the board. Um cuz we're not just county. We we're within the municipalities. We handle all real property in Union County. And to make sure that things are appraised equitably in line with the market and everyone is valued appropriately according to to market values that have where the market shifted since the last reappraisal. The third thing here, and I haven't mentioned this in previous slides because on a 4-year cycle, you don't have a risk of this. But if you go beyond 4 years, you do. And this is avoiding equalization. There's a special class of
043property that's called public service property. It's really infrastructure stuff. Piedmont Natural Gas, railroads, uh Duke Energy, Union Power. Those properties and their their assets are valued at the state level. In a reappraisal period, if you go beyond 4 years, and your sales ratio drops below that 85%, equal action kicks in, which means they will cut about 25% of that tax base out, and we can't tax it. Um based on the last time that happened, it was just over a million dollars in revenue at our current tax rate with the value reduction that we had. So, you want to avoid that if at all possible. Another recap item, uh just kind of show the progress we've made to date. Um again, 114,000 parcels in the county now. Um the overall increase in value, and this is
044a gross increase. It does not account for any tax relief that needs to be applied or um deferred property values for some on land such as farmland. But the overall gross increase for the county was 60.05%. Of the 31 counties, we had a survey that we filled out a couple of weeks ago. 31 counties are doing reappraisal in in in North Carolina this year. 23 responded to the survey. Of those 23 counties that responded, the average increase countywide for every one of those counties was 61%. Some were higher, obviously, because you're looking at averages. I think I pointed out in a previous presentation, Cumberland went up as much as 88%. There were a number of peer counties that went up in the 70s. So, we're in line with the overall average, even factoring in some
045of the smaller counties that um have done the reappraisal for this year. Breaking that total number down into individual components, the residential valuation increase total, again, gross percentage increase is 63.45%. If you look at the individual um increases on individual properties countywide, that median number was just under 57% uh countywide. Commercial property total increase is and then your, of course, your exempt properties also have value, and those values went up as well, but it's irrelevant from a taxation standpoint. And then your land value if we we break the land component out just to kind of monitor that. And it's all based on sales, but that that valuation overall valuation went up 94%. Again, a heavy a large part of that is going to be deferred because of the PUV programs. So those So if if
046your market value on the notice you received, let's just as an example if it's $50,000 an acre at market value for farmland, you're only going to be taxed on about $255 an acre. So as as far as values, there's a significant reduction there in in the taxable value of that property because of the PUV program. One of the questions we've been getting is market value versus tax value or assessed value. And and I've even had some realtors call with market value never reflects it would it does for about 48 hours. So on January 1st of a reappraisal year, our job is to reflect the current market, the changes that have occurred in in the market since the last reappraisal for that time period. We have to bring the values up to that level. That is
047why you have a market value assessment. And and on your notices that were received, then the value indicated was your market value, not necessarily your taxable value. So if you're in the elderly program, that was not indicated on that notice because it's irrelevant from the standpoint of a market value change. 105283 is a uniform appraisal standard in the statutes that we operate under. It says states all property shall be appraised at its value in true or true value in money. And then it goes further on to define that word true value in money as meaning market value. So that is where the market value changes come from. We have to monitor that. And you've heard me mention in previous presentations about the 47,000 sales, that's where we get that data from. It's strictly a market-based
048transaction. Here's a graphical representation. This goes back to 1986 when I was in middle school. Roughly. But it shows you that the red line there is 100% of market. This shows you annually the year-end number of the sales ratio that we track, going all the way back 40 years. And you can see where the market stays constant at 100%, whether whether it's going up or down, we look at the market as 100%. You can see how the tax values have fluctuated throughout that time period with that one inversion typically it's going to be below 100%. You have the one inversion in 2008, 9, and 10 where you were above that. I thought this would help kind of explain visually and help people see where where the data comes from long-term in our office. Let me
049back up because I did want to point one thing out. The the highlighted colors there are so your your green boxes on these percentages are your reappraisal. You're missing one right here on this year's number. That's as of the new values going into effect on January 1st. The green is the is the percentages of market as of the reappraisal. The orange color, light orange color, is the year prior to the reappraisal. And then the yellow is the trigger year. So, I want to talk about that for a moment. So, you may wonder why why was wasn't there any yellow boxes back here on some of these percentages in prior years? That law went into effect July 1, 2009. And so that specifically for the Tier 1 counties in North Carolina based on population. If you're
050above 70,000 75,000 people, you're subject to that trigger mechanism in the statute based on where the sales ratio is either going to go too high or too low. And that's why in 2012 you started seeing these trigger points um for the mandatory reappraisal. Madam Chair. Yes. Yeah. Um Van, if I can just interject here a minute. So, I'm sure that you know your your staff has received questions about this. We've seen we've received some questions about this as well. You know, where a lot of folks are questioning, you know, why it is the county does reappraisals every 4 years as a policy when the state only requires 8 years. Um, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, but what we're seeing here on this graph, and I think this is kind of telling, is that
051there's two sides to that. So, obviously, we've got trigger points here. So, we've got this what the state mandates. We've got our county policy. But, what we're also seeing here is triggers. And correct me if I'm wrong, but the trigger mechanism as defined by general statute, I'm assuming, or state General statute, yes. Okay, is essentially 115% or 80 85% Five, thank you. And so and so I want to stress this that you know, we're seeing a lot of yellow on this graph. Um, and so again, to your point earlier, had we not had we not already had an assessor of reappraisal already planned, we would have been triggered in '25. Um, but I think that this goes to show you that you know, that the the cycle of every 4 years is intended to kind
052of even out, if you will, the the the market value or the the assessed tax value of the properties. Is that correct? That's correct. So, the idea is that the more frequent a reappraisal, the less of an impact on an increase. So, in 2021, after that reappraisal, cuz of the sticker shock at that point, it's 36%. Which pales in comparison to to where we're at this year. Um, I think the recommendation for counties our size is to do every 4 years. Um, the the we talked to the board and then they felt like at that time that was a a good way to mitigate such a large increase. None of us could have predicted where the market would have gone the last 4 years. There's no way we could have predicted that. That's not what
053we're in the business of doing. We do monitor it. Um and we're and we're monitoring it now um for sales that have occurred since January 1st. At Sherer and Clayton, I think it was last week um for sales that have occurred, we look at the sales ratio number. For all sales that have occurred since January 1st, our sales ratio has already dropped to 95%. So the the it's not going gangbusters like it did in 2021, so to speak, because by the end of January of that cycle, we had dropped 8% already. We're at 92% at the end of January. So we're here here in March and we're at 95. So the the price at sale price and that's the median number. There's some more, some less. Sale prices are still increasing in some areas, decreasing
054in others. So it's just averaging that out is is what it comes down to. But that is that is the the purpose behind a more frequent reappraisal. You've got some counties now that are moving to 2 years. Um which would be a challenge, but um it it's it's worth a discussion at some point potentially if we continue to see the market move like it does. Yeah. I I also want to um clarify um if I understood this correctly, the state says that it has to be done every 8 years, but because of the sale values, even if the board before us had not set it to happen every 4 years, it is my understanding that if we had not had that in place, we would have been mandated to do it anyway um because of
055the sale prices that have in our recent history. Correct. So so even if Union County did not have that 4-year um reval, and our last one was 2021, so um we were up we were due to have one. If we had not had that in place, we would have been mandated to do it anyway because of the sales history. That's correct. Okay. Thank you. received that notice in February of 2022. I've got it we've got it in our office. And we got a reminder in August of last year, "Hey, you're supposed to have a reval done January 1st. Make sure you get it done." Okay. So that's that in a nutshell is what they told us. I think that's very important for our constituents to know that the commissioners did not ask for this. Um
056it was a policy that was already put in place, and even if we had not followed through with it, it was going to be mandated by the state to happen. Yes, sir. And you got the letters. We got the letters. Thank you so much. Sure. So I want to touch on the appeals process. We we've gone over the five stages prior to this. Um the first once you file the appeal, it goes to an informal uh review process, and in other areas of the statute, it's referred to as the assessor's review. Uh then from there, if we can't settle that, um which is typically about 10% of our appeals, uh go beyond this stage, um it goes to the Board of Equalization Review. And at that point, most of them are handled um between the
057board and the taxpayer, or we work further with the taxpayer and come to an agreement um based on evidence they provide for their appeals. From the Board of Equalization Review, if you still don't agree with your value, you can go to the Property Tax Commission. That group is appointed by the governor and the General Assembly. It's a it's a bipartisan group um that that are political appointees. From a valuation standpoint, that's the end of the road. If there's a legal matter, um a procedural issue, then that can be appealed from the PTC to the Court of Appeals and on to the Supreme Court if if necessary. We've had I think we've had three cases that have gone to the court of appeals over the years since I've been here. I think we won two of
058them, lost one. So it's just it's just a matter of the of the issue at this this at hand. Here's a look at our appeals dashboard. So you've invested in technology and this is a timeline of from March 4th to today of the daily amount of appeals that were received through this appeal system. You We We peaked over the weekend. I guess people had more time at home. So they're they're submitting those appeals. But currently we are up to I think it's on the next slide. Currently we are up to as of last time today at just under 1,700 appeals. Which is about where we expected to be at this point. I'm surprised it's not a little higher to be honest with you. I think we were expecting between Wednesday the notices went out and
059the Sunday after that to be right around 1,000, 1,100. But it it was trailing behind that a little bit. This is a dashboard of the status of the appeals. Just kind of show you what we see on the admin side when our staff working these. You can see there's 1675 in progress. That means they have not changed the status of those. The reason more of those have not changed at this point is because staff is on the phones. We expanded our call center to include the entire appraisal staff. So we have 15 people answering the phones roughly all day long. There is a certain queue that are not part of the main call queue. But if you're calling about this, we've got 11 to to 13 people um that will be answering these questions. So
060we we fully staffed our phones. Appraisers are only in the field right now when when call volumes are down and we can spare one to to go out and otherwise they're working these appeals. So we'll see this number go through these various categories and so we can make sure things are progressing as they need to throughout the appeals window. How how How long do you expect um for people to hear back from your department about their appeal? That's going to be a case-by-case basis. Usually, once the call volume will slow down, they should hear some of them within a week or so from from the time we can we can actually get to work in those appeals cuz we're working in the order they're received. So, it's just it's just a matter of of workload
061and call volume at that point. And some of them are are tricky cuz I've been looking at the ones that are being filed. One thing that's that you've got to provide us as a taxpayer is evidence for your justification of your value. A lot of these appeals are coming in with nothing. They just they're I don't think it's right. I think the value's too high or I think it's too low. We actually have, believe it or not, we have had several appeals where the they've said the value's too low. It's not the norm, obviously, but but we are getting those appeals and a little bit unusual, but but we see them. And so, it goes both ways on this, but we work them as fast as we human as humanly possible with the staff that
062we have. Usually, I think thinking back to 2021, we had finished working all appeals and the board had adjudicated almost all of them by the end of June. So, starting April 14th, the BER will be in here 3 days a week, Monday and Wednesday mornings and Tuesday Thursday evenings. That way there's an evening option for people that may not be able to get off work. That's a 4:00 to 7:00 time frame, but we work with the taxpayers to schedule that. They get scheduling notifications from this appeal system as well. So, they have everything available. We we we work to make it as friendly as possible, as customer service friendly as possible. I'm sure. Um one of the question, Vanna, you may be going this way, so if I'm stealing your thunder, then by all means,
063just let me know. Um we've received some questions, too, from the the folks in Union County where they had questioned the the date of the notice of their reappraisal. Um in regards to the appeal process, can you speak to I believe that what we've seen is I think the letters were dated maybe February 28th, 27th, something like that. Most people received their notices in the mail on March 5th. And so I think that there's some confusion out there as to what the final day is for the general public to appeal their reappraisal. Um so can you shine some light on that for us? Yeah, absolutely. So as far as the date on the notice, um we pulled the final data file to send to the printer that Friday morning. Um they provided us proofs late
064Friday afternoon. So when they're generating the letters, they're doing the print date on that letter. Um as as of the date of the file was received for the notices. We spoke with the printer and they said, "Well, we really probably should have done the mail date." Um so I but just to be clear, that was late Friday. Then you had the weekend, they didn't print over the weekend, and they had to print on Monday and Tuesday and hit the mail on Wednesday. So it's really a timing issue, but that does not affect their appeal window. Um there's there's a statement in the notice and we're going to we're going to reword this next time and moving forward because we have a a smaller batch of annual notices that we send out for new construction or
065changes to property. And so we have to send those out annually. We'll have that fixed for next year. But the the last statement is the appeal should be received within 30 days of the notice. Um that is a request uh simply to get for more multiple reasons. One to allow us to work with the taxpayer uh prior to the hearing schedules coming into play cuz if we can settle it, then it's done and and the board doesn't have to to go there to to hear that additional case. Um the other reason is for tax base estimates for budget purposes. Um we the faster we work these appeals, the more stable of a tax base we know we've got for you guys and in the manager's office to develop the budget for the next operating year.
066Um, we have some preliminary estimates that we plugged in for appeal loss, tax relief. Uh, so we're working through all that, but the absolute deadline to file is the last day that the board is in session formally. And that will be May 28th. Uh, so you still have just under 90 days to appeal, um, which is not unusual, um, but the language in the letter to again circling back to that, it's the same, um, assessment notice that virtually every county in the state uses. Uh, from from a language. There may be variations, but there's a statement like that in everybody's notice cuz we have to have time to work those appeals and and to to work with the taxpayer on that. Yeah, and I I really appreciate that clarification because I know that uh, that
067some folks have have expressed their concern, you know, that perhaps the county's trying to shorten their window for appeal and uh, and I've tried to assure folks that that's not the case. And we're going to make sure that's clearer in the in the next notice that goes out next year. I would appreciate that. Thank you, Ben. Um, even after so that highlight the slot here, the informal review settlement period prior to April 14th, that's strictly an assessor review. If we can't settle that, then we'll schedule the hearing. Appeals that continue to come in after the 14th will still be reviewed. I want to make sure we make this clear. It's not going to go straight to the board. We will still review those in the office cuz the board's policy is they don't want to
068they don't want to hear an appeal that has not been reviewed because of if if if something that we could fix and send to them as a consent agenda item or staff recommendation is that what we call it for that board, uh, then they want us to do that. Um, so that all these appeals will still be will still be reviewed um, as they come in. Just to walk through briefly at a high level, um, how you can appeal. If you go to the county's website, you've got these blue areas here on the on the the circles here for each different area of the website. If you you're going to have If you're on the main page, you're going to have to scroll to the right one time. And you'll see this property search key
069right here. If you click on that, it would take you to the property portal, which we've highlighted in previous presentations. Here you can search by your name, address, parcel number, and we'll bring up your property record card. It looks something similar to this. Uh This one doesn't have it uh some of the coordinates of the map, but usually this map here will be highlighting your parcel. Um this happens just to be a common area of a neighborhood. I don't want to put anybody's private residence up here. This is a common area in one of the subdivisions in the in the in the county. And it will show you the valuation information. From here you can you can run your comparable sales report for your property, where you can see a highlight in yellow, it's the
070appeals button. And if you go to that, immediately it's going to take you to this screen, and you can again get to all these areas, and you'll click on file your appeal. Once you do that, it's going to walk you step-by-step through the appeals process. There's There's required information that has to be entered at every stage of this, and as you enter that information, you'll click start appeal. It would take you to this screen so you can enter your ownership information, your parcel. It should be If If you know the parcel, it should populate automatically. And then from there it will allow you to run your comparable sales report, and you can upload that for our staff to review. Right now that's the piece that's missing in a lot of these is we're not getting
071the documentation for what the value adjustments people are asking for. Uh some of them have provided third-party appraisals, which is fine. They can upload any documentation um they need to to through this portal, and it will come to our to our appraisal staff. And going back to that previous workflow chart, when you There's another screen that actually shows you every every appeal is assigned to, and we know who's responsible for working those at any given point in time. That's really all I've got. I'll take any more questions that the board has. All right, thank you. May I may I share? Just a real quick comment. First of all, Van, thank you. I I appreciate the update and I think that it's good that you know, we do our best to try to keep everyone informed
072because there there has been a lot of concern, obviously. And I we even heard from I think one gentleman tonight where he was expressing concern about a 60% tax increase. One thing that I want to make clear to everyone and feel free to chime in here, but but the assessed value is not your tax bill. Correct. And so the onus becomes on this board to set the county tax rate. And so obviously what we're going to do is we're going to you know, work with our staff here. We're going to look at the assessed values and we're going to look at tax rates and we do that through the budget process. One thing also that I would like to stress is is that this board only sets the county tax rate. That you know, if
073folks live in municipalities, for example, that there's going to be a municipal board that would through their budget process develop their own tax rate. And so you know, again, I want to make that clear because I think there's been a lot of confusion you know, when you start seeing your your notices in the mail. A lot of folks don't understand that that is an assessed value, but that's not necessarily your tax bill. Those are two separate things. Absolutely. And one one thing we've stressed at every presentation I've done. I'm headed to another one here as soon as I finish up with y'all. This is this does not mean a tax increase of this of an equivalent percentage. We there are every jurisdiction has their own. I had a conversation during a presentation last week where
074it was insinuated that um this was nothing but a money grab. They want to know how much money the county was going to get. And I said that's not the case at all. I said how you interpret this is council. And I said how you interpret that for your jurisdiction is up to you. The I can tell you historically the county has always dropped their tax rate during a reappraisal year. Um but I said you've got to make that call for you, your constituents, and your budget needs. So but that's not a county issue. And uh so I've made that clear everywhere everywhere we have been. So. Um and I appreciate you highlighting that cuz I was going to I don't think he's I think he's going now but I was going to point that
075out for the gentleman that was here earlier. Just reiterate this is the county bill doesn't does not mean you're going to go up 60% so. All right, thank you. Thank you very much. Next on the agenda is item 25-124 conditional rezoning CZ-2024-006 New Salem. I will recognize BRN Hanson, our senior planner, concerning this item. Evening, Madam Chair, members of the board. I'm sure Matthews. This is a action request for a rezoning that had a public hearing 2 weeks ago. So I'll be brief in reminding you of the details of it. This is a request by the um Stevens family to rezone about 2 and 1/2 acres in Polk Mountain part of Union County to put in mini storage. Uh site plan looks like this. Polk Mountain uh stores across the street. This would be two
076rows of mini storage. It looks like three but that's the gravel parking lot. It's on the corner of Sugar and Wine and um New Salem. And um this is the existing condition so on the stores and the existing vacant lot across the street. No one spoke against the public hearing 2 weeks ago. Staff recommends approval. Planning board recommends approval. And I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. The applicant is here as well to answer any questions as well. I'd like to make a motion that we approve the conditional rezoning for CZ-2024-006 New Salem. Any comments or questions? All those in favor of the motion say I. I. I. Thank you. Madam Chair. Yes. Um could uh Commissioner Helms or someone uh add also the statement of reasonableness and consistency that also needs to
077be handled as well. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, sir. Uh the adoption of the ordinance ordinance approval revision of the official zoning map of Union County, North Carolina and adopt the consistency reasonable statements for approval. Okay. And I guess we'll vote on it again. All those in favor of the consistency consistency say I. I. I. Thank you very Thank you. Thank you. Next is item 25-071 rural land use plan update. I will again recognize Neil Hanson for this item. Good evening again. This will be a short presentation by me, a longer presentation by our committee chairman. When you're done. Uh I'll be done in a few seconds, Mr. Chairman. So this is the the rural land use plan that you authorized last spring. We received a grant through the North Carolina Wildlife Commission to help
078pay for outside technical assistance. Uh we do have a representative, Ms. Lisa Davis, from the North Carolina Wildlife Commission who will present a few slides after Alan regarding the overview of the program and and what you can expect coming out of it. But, um, Alan serves as the chair of the eight-member board that you appointed last fall and, um, he's going to give an update of the work to date. That's it. That's it. Okay. Good evening, commissioners. Good evening. Uh, Manager Matthews, and certainly Ms. West. It, uh, that was a lot of my presentation, I want you to know. But, it's my privilege to bring you an update from this steering committee that you appointed. Uh, and the steering committee is Let's see if I can do it all in one breath. Green Growth Rural
079Land Use Planning Steering Committee. Did I get it? Close enough? It's long. Y'all named it. Thank you. It, uh, This is a map of the land use that was adopted by this commission. And this is update that I wanted to bring to you from the steering committee that we agreed to do on a periodic basis. Uh, The role of the steering committee is to research options, solicit feedback, and then make recommendations to the land land use board and to you folks. The role of the land use board is, from our perspective, is to listen and make recommendations back to us, provide feedback back to us the same as you as commissioners. We uh will appreciate, certainly, any feedback that you give to us because this is important as we move forward. Got this timeline on
080here for a purpose, and that is folks, we're on schedule. A little unusual sometimes. This is March of '25. We started the work last October. And our objective is to work ourselves out of a job. This committee that you appointed is broad spectrum representing lots of the sectors of the county, lots of the from the areas, geographically, but also from the different aspects of the county. And uh so we've we're at this this March stage now. And as you go down, straight down to the middle, you see that there's a a uh presentation, an update which this is March. And here we are. So we are on schedule. And we will take and by the next uh year from now everything works the way we anticipate it we will have worked ourselves out of the
081job. And we will have made we hope quality recommendations to you as a commission and uh look forward to to doing this. We did a vision statement. We completed this and then we had a comment period during the month of January. We posted this vision statement and across the county. Uh we also had it in newsletters, county newsletter. They had it in the Union County employee newsletter. Committee members uh and staff distributed postcards in various and sundry arenas, Sunday school classes, whatever. Uh in businesses in Union County, in rural areas of the county. We had at least 210 responses. 86% of the responses live and work in rural areas of the county. 60% have lived here for more than 20 years and 43% are more than 60 years old. The feedback from this, what do
082you like about the vision statement? Agriculture is number one. Rural character, number two. Environment, number three. And then absolutely nothing was number four. So how wonderful. Uh but you take agriculture, rural character, and environment and quite honestly, you can put all those in the same bucket. What do you not like about the vision statement? Overly vague. Well, that's the just the natural course of a vision statement is to be overly vague. The concern over flexibility land uses. And then the skepticism that it'll be followed through. And a need for more environmental emphasis. What concerns you the most about the rural parts today? Number one, development. Surprise, surprise. Two, the lack of infrastructure. Three, the loss of environmental features, and four, the loss of farmland. And quite honestly, I I was surprised when I saw the
083lack of infrastructure. Uh and with number one, development, and number two, the lack of infrastructure. Because I'm a lifelong resident of Union County, and I know if you get water and sewer, it's not long before development follows. That's a reality. So, surprised me when I concerned when I saw that development was the number one, but the lack of infrastructure, and I'm calling water and sewer infrastructure. By the same token, roads is certainly deemed infrastructure by lots of people. And there are probably other things that people are calling infrastructure. What do you want to see preserved in rural Union County? Farmland. By far, number one. Natural habitat, and rural cultural. Again, you can put all three of those comments, all three of those references in that same bucket. Is Union County described in the vision statement
084a good outcome? 58% said yes, and 23% say somewhat yes, so you got 81 uh that are saying, "Yeah, it's it is a viable outcome they'd like to see." 8% said, "Uh it's like okay either way." And 11% said, "No." What is a vision statement? I'm not going to go through this. All of you know what a vision statement is. Uh the last thing can be daring. A vision statement can be daring, distinct, and even disagreeable. This is the vision statement. In the rural areas of Union County, we cherish a way of life where farms and protected open spaces define our community. As stewards of the land, we treasure the balance between living close to nature and preserving our agricultural heritage. Expanses of productive farmland remind us daily of where our food comes from and
085by adding options for property owners, lowering density, and enhancing environmental protection requirements, we preserve our natural resources and encourage public appreciation while ensuring agriculture thrives. This approach will sustain our rural character and provide a vibrant future for generations to come. This is about the 20th 11th uh iteration of the vision statement that this steering committee has approved, but this is the one that we're working with. Potential strategies as we move forward. These are potential strategies, certainly not s- certainly not all-inclusive, but again, looking for feedback. Expanding areas considered rural in the land use map. Increasing or reducing the number of commercial nodes. Enhancing buffering along streams and water bodies. Prioritizing land set aside in major subdivisions. Adding conditions to allow commercial uses on residential land without rezoning. Expanding rural home occupation categories. Recommending new lot
086size requirements. Redefining lots of record to provide flexibility for future splitting of lots. Expanding conservation efforts to purchase easements. And evaluating private engineered and permitted permitted septic fields. Questions. Any questions? Commissioner Helms. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um so, Mr. Malcolm, first of all, thank you. I appreciate you being here to um to share this information with us. Um I've got uh just a couple of comments here. Um first of all, from your presentation there, the top concern from the public is development. And I I don't think that that's any surprise to any of us or anybody out here in the audience. Um it certainly is something that we deal with every single day. And depending on no matter which side of the fence that you fall on development. But um But one thing that I
087liked is um in your 2011th uh variation of the vision statement, uh one comment really stuck out to me and that that is it says stewards of the land. Yes. And I appreciate that. Um uh you know, many of us were raised around farming and um you know, one thing that my grandfather taught me was is that education and land are the two most valuable things that you can have in this life. And he would say that education is valuable because once it's acquired it can't be taken away. And then land is most is is also one of the most valuable things because well, land, there's only so much of it. And with land you can do so many things like feed your family. Um, one thing that I wanted to give you feedback on,
088if you can go back to the strategies uh slide real quick. So, um uh strategies. Dude, I I went past it really Yes, sir. There we go. Okay. Yeah, so uh so a couple of points stuck out to me. Um, and maybe this is some questions, but I'd like some more information on this. Maybe we can discuss this further when you guys come back in September. Um, but the one about adding conditions to allow commercial uses on residential uh property. Um, yeah, I'd like to I'd like to see more I'd like to see how this looks. You know, are we talking about home businesses here? You know, what's the scope of of what the recommendation would be? Uh the second bullet point, increasing reducing the number of commercial nodes. Um, you know, I I think
089that increasing commercial is something that's of utmost concern to this board because we need to diversify our ratio between residential and commercial in our tax base. And then last thing um is uh the evaluate private engineered and permitted uh septic fields. Um, that's a particular concern of mine. Um, you know, we've uh we're seeing more and more, you know, alternate waste water systems and um and I think that um, you know, some of this obviously is out of our hands because the state has determined that some of these are are acceptable. Um, but I'd like I'm very interested to see what your committee comes back with because to your point, you know, when you have infrastructure, you're making undevelopable land developable. And that's exactly what we're doing here with these private engineered and permitted uh
090septic fields, in my opinion. So, um I'm very interested to see, you know, what you guys come back with, um because this is something that's very pertinent to what we do up here. So, thank you, sir. Oh, and thank you, sir, because uh all those are are very relative, very pertinent. Uh we've uh as a committee, uh number one, the the rezoning aspect was uh for work-at-home small businesses, maybe a landscaper type thing that it they've got now they started out as individual, and maybe now they have one, two, three employees, but still working out of their home. That type thing. How how do How do we address that? How How How do we make a recommendation, if you will, for you folks to address it? Um that's that was where that was coming from.
091The last thing the pri- the uh this committee, this steering committee, uh very much concerned about the private engineering statute, uh because of the concerns about going forward. Uh understand understanding the elements of it, uh and I say the elements of why, from a timeline, why it is, uh and maybe it's uh as safe as as anything, but the concern from the committee standpoint is where's the county's liability in the in perpetuity, if you will. There's There's a point in the future that there's maybe a probability of there being a challenge with it and who's who's going to manage that challenge? And uh in the past it's always been the county. So uh appreciate it and certainly and any other feedback we welcome. Uh Commissioner Balcom. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um I'd like to reiterate
092what Commissioner Helms is talking about with the evaluating private engineered and permanent septic or permitted septic fields. I've I've always paid attention to land and we've seen lots perk within the last 15 years that should never perk. I mean, when I built my house the county was aggravate you know. They they made me move my house on the hill, you know. Which was a good thing. I'm happy there. But they were aggravated at the time. Um and now I see houses around me on on land that is inferior to that land they wouldn't let me build on. I've I've joked with Commissioner Helms and said you can perk a mud puddle now. Um and that may be a little bit of a reach, but I have seen a dump pond perk. So this really need
093to be looked at because this this is going to set up some problems. I I know one gentleman that that built a house and he said, "I think I can get it to perk." First of all, the house was in his mother-in-law's backyard, so that was the first mistake. But I said I said, "No. No, this this this this isn't a perkable lot. It's in a hole." He said, "No, I can get it to perk." Sure enough it perked. With an within 6 months, he spent $18,000 trying to get water out from under his crawl space. They the the private engineer, whoever done this, did the boy no favors. So, this really needs to be looked at. That's all I got. A- and and if I may, I I don't want to be the one
094saying this is all bad because I happen to serve on a on a board in at NC State and a soil scientist also on that board and he is a an engineer that this is part of his business. And he assures me that what he and they do is as good as or better than what any county would do far as what what they design. Now, do I doubt him? No, I'm not doubting what he says. But, it's just like everything else. There's different levels of and different calibers of I'll stop. work Any any other questions or comments from anyone? No. Thank you very much for One one other thing. We welcome any of you at any time attending our meetings. We would appreciate it. And uh and again, we're here to serve to serve
095you folks, but to serve the citizens of this county. Mhm. And uh it's all volunteer, but uh I'm I can tell you everyone on this committee is passionate about what is what we do. So, thank you. Yes. Brogdon, if you could let us know when those happen so we can put it on our calendar. Well, it'll be next Tuesday. It's the third Tuesday, fourth Tuesday of every month at 11:30. Oh. And we meet in your board room. Thank you. If you need an address, we'll give that to you. I'm sorry, what time did you say? 11:30. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. So, now we have a a presentation from Alyssa Davis about the the program that we're working through and um some examples of where this has been done elsewhere in the state
096that give you some ideas of of outcomes that um hopefully we can at least emulate cuz they're pretty impressive. All right, thank you all so much for having me this evening. Um my name's Alyssa Davis. I work for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. Um I am one of their two wildlife and fisheries conservation planners, so I cover the southern half of the state, mountains to coast. Um essentially my job is to coordinate and administer the Green Growth Toolbox program and the Partners for Green Growth program, which is a cost-share program that you guys have been awarded and we're very excited to work with Union County. Um I could talk for a couple of days about how much I like my job and the things and the reason I find it important important, excuse me.
097But I promise to keep this pretty short. Um so, essentially the Green Growth Toolbox program is a non-regulatory technical assistance program for integrating priority wildlife habitat conservation in local government land use and transportation planning. Long story short, I work with planners to help them prioritize conservation along with their regular planning activities including ordinances, talk about incentives for developers to include more conservation into their site plans, and so on. This is not This program's not intended to uh stop development. It's intended to direct development in a way that it's not overcoming any of our priority wildlife habitats. So, think your rivers, think your wetlands, um our Piedmont prairies that are disappearing pretty quickly. So, the intention is just help identify those areas and um include them for conservation. So far, we've been in the last 10
098years I should Well, excuse me, 2010. Since 2010, we've been included in 68 land use transportation plans and ordinances across the state, and that's only the number that actually reach out and work with us directly. Everything we do is free, and everything we have is available online. So, we have multiple counties and municipalities that actually utilize our recommendations without really having to come to us. It's just there for them. So, one of these counties um Harnett County. This is actually their new land use plan that is currently going through final comments to be placed in front of their board of commissioners. Um they uh have set aside important conservation areas that are currently protected, and the medium green that you see there um right in this kind of area and so on are agriculture preservation
099overlays. Okay, so they've made it a point to include those as agriculture conservation overlays because agriculture also helps with conservation as well. So, they've included these agriculture conservation overlays along our important river corridors, and um have tried to consolidate development into um, more infill areas and areas that are expected to require a lot more development based on the amount of pressure Harnett County is getting from Raleigh and Wake County. We've worked with Chatham County the longest. This is another one that we find um, does a fantastic job with some of their land use plans. This is um, so we uh, Chatham County has included a constant their um, protected lands areas and a conservation overlay for including habitat connectivity so that animals can move back and forth across habitats um, as well as a agriculture
100protection overlay as well. So, another county that's trying really hard for agriculture protection. Um, now Union County and Pender County uh, received the partnership green growth program or cost share program at the same time. So, this is essentially uh, what you Pender County is working on. They've started around the same time Union County has and they've identified a uh, area for greatest potential for connecting habitats and they're including that with already current protected areas. And um, so they're including this this is their general plan for what will happen. This is essentially going to be a preferred development guide. So, essentially any developers that want to come in can contact the county, receive that preferred development guide and they can help be directed more into clustered areas. I am always available if you have any questions.
101Um, this is my contact information. Thank you so much. Does anyone have any questions, comments? Thank you for being here today. Thank you so much. And thank you for the work you're doing in this Thank you. Next on our agenda is item 25-144, appointments to the boards and committees. There are four boards with vacancies for consideration this evening. These vacancies have been have been advertised in accordance with the board's rules and procedures. Applications have been received and information regarding the vacant positions may be found in the background provided for this item. The first board with a vacancy is the Home and Community Care Block Grant Advisory Committee. An application has been received to fill one of the vacancies on this committee. I will now entertain a motion for nominations. Madam Chair. Yes. I'll make the
102motion that we appoint uh Dale Louder to the Home and Community Block Grant Advisory Committee. Okay. Any questions, comments? All those in favor of the motion, say I. I. I. The second board with a vacancy for consideration this evening is the Library Board of Trustees. There is one vacancy on the board for the Weddington representative and an application for this position has been received. I will entertain a motion for the nomination for this open position. Madam Chair. Um I'll make the motion that we appoint Peter Kovacs to the Library Board of Trustees. Any comments, questions? All those in favor of the motion, say I. I. I. The third board with a vacancy for consideration this evening is the Historic Preservation Commission. There are two vacancies on this board. Three applications have been received for the
103two vacancies. I will entertain a motion for the nominations. Madam Chair. Yes. I'll make the motion that we appoint Crystal Gilliard as well as John Mullen um to serve on the Historic Preservation Commission. Okay. Any questions? Comments? All those in favor of the motion say I. I. I. Thank you. Finally, there are two vacancies on the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council. The two vacant positions are for the County Commissioner appointee position and a position for a person under the age of 21. We have received one application for each vacant position. I will entertain motions for the nominations to these positions. Madam Chair. Yes. I'll make the motion that we appoint Daniel Haley um to the as the County Commissioner appointee as well as Ethan X. Davis as the person under 21 to the Juvenile Crime Prevention
104Council. Any comments or questions? All those in favor of the motion say I. I. I. That brings us to the end of our meeting and I will recognize our County Manager, Brian Matthews. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I actually do have a couple of things I'd like to um bring bring to the board's attention. First off, um March 7th was National Employee Appreciation Day. At Union County, we we do an employee appreciation month where we try to recognize our employees and certainly try to provide them with uh something just just to say thank you for all the work that they do. So, I did want to give a shout-out to that and our staff has worked very hard to put that together. I also want to thank our tax administrator Van Harrell for coming and
105speaking earlier today to talk about the the reappraisal and the process and the appeals. I think that's important. Um, and and I want to stress that this board, and I know Commissioner um, Helms said this, uh, this board will be considering a tax rate as part of your budget. The reappraisal is not the tax rate. And I can say, uh, in all, uh, honesty that there will be a lower tax rate. But it may yield a different tax that people have to pay. So, that's that's confusing in that the rate is 58.5 uh, cents now. I promise you it will not be 58.5 cents at the end of this. It will be lower than that. What the actual rate will be will be determined by your budget, by the revenues needed, by the bonds that
106we must pay back for some of the projects that we've approved. But I can promise you it will be lower than 58.5 cents. So, I just wanted to make that clear. Thank you very much for those comments. Um, that brings us to Commissioner comments and I'm going to start, um, with Commissioner Sadds. No comments. Commissioner Helms. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, so, first of all, uh, Brian, thank you for, uh, for bringing those points up. Uh, thank you to Van for being here to provide the, uh, update on the appraisal. I I think that there's a lot of confusion. There's a lot of confusion out there in the in the, uh, in the county in the public, you know, about what we're dealing with here. Um, and I think that the more information that we
107can share with folks than the better off we're going to be. So, thank you for that. Thank you, Mr. Balcom, for your presentation. I'm looking forward to seeing what your committee comes back with. Um and thank you to all those that that came here tonight and spoke. You know, we certainly appreciate input from the public. Um you know, this is this is your county and and we look forward to hearing from from the folks that are willing to come up here and speak. So, um I I do want to touch on one thing very quickly, and that is um you know, one of the items that we had planned to talk about tonight uh was withdrawn as such as Chair Merrell had mentioned. Um and I know that there's there's several folks that probably came
108here to speak tonight. And so, I apologize that you did not get that opportunity to to really address your concerns. Um with that withdrawal, obviously, um you know, it counts as essentially a no vote. Um uh the applicant cannot bring that back for 12 months. What I will say is is that I would encourage folks to also reach out to your state delegation. Um as it stands now, there has been a Senate bill that's been filed, a Senate bill 219, that's been filed by Senator Todd Johnson, um which includes modifications to Satellite annexation to Marvin and also Stallings. So, I would encourage anyone that has concerns over that project, please reach out to your state folks. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I do want to um make one clarification. We did allow people to speak
109tonight, and one person um did stand before us and um and and had the opportunity to speak. So, um you know, if you if you showed up tonight, you were given an an opportunity to speak if you wanted to. That was not removed. Um I just want to thank um Alan Balcom for being here and for the tireless work that you do for land preservation and um I think it's still important for everyone to know that Union County is number 13 in the nation uh for loss of uh farmland. And um and I think that weighs heavy on all of us. So, thank you uh for bringing, you know, your life's work um to help advise this committee and and lead this lead this. So, thank you very much for being here um tonight. Um
110I will now turn it over to Commissioner Christina Helms. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um I'd like to congratulate the Union County Water staff for their very impressive wins, including all their belts. Congratulations um to y'all. Um I'd also like to ride on the coattails of um Commissioner Helms and Commissioner Merrill um in regards to the land use board. Um Mr. Balcom, you know that this is something that's very near and dear to my heart. My husband puts in a lot of hours um on the farm and I put in a few, too. Not not as many as he does, but um and like Ms. Merrill said, uh to be 13th in the nation is not a proud statistic. Um I I hope we drop in that aspect. Um so, I do want to thank the
111land use board very much for their diligent work to protect Union County and to protect our farmland. So, thank y'all very, very much. Mr. Balcom, Thank you, Madam Chair. Um being that the Goat Branch development item was pulled, I just feel incumbent to say that I heard from numerous people from the Mill Grove 218 Fairview community who were opposed to this project. And I was pre- prepared to vote for denial of the Gold Branch development. And I hope there isn't an effort to circumvent the will of the people by the legislature or by any other body. I believe that these decisions should be as close to the people who are who are affected as possible. And other than that, I'd like to tell everybody I hope you have a good night. Madam I Yes. May
112I just make another I apologize. Um it it is um with a heavy heart that I do want to announce that that one of our employees lost his son recently. Luke Fawcett's son passed away. He's 13 year old. Um he had a heart disease. Had a heart transplant. It unfortunately did fail. He did pass away recently. So I did want to make the you know our condolences, sympathy for the family and our thoughts and prayers. But I did want to make that comment. And I I apologize I missed that earlier. Thank you. Thank you Brian for um for saying that. And our thoughts and prayers will absolutely be um with that family. Um losing a child would um it is very very tough. So we will we will um try to support that family any
113way we can. So thank you for bringing that to our attention and remembering him. That brings us to the end. Um I will make a motion to adjourn. All those in favor say I. I. Good night everyone. Good night. Mhm.