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Plans submitted for multifamily apartment complex

By Jim Buice
For the Clemmons Courier

The Village of Clemmons Council approved a resolution directing the clerk to investigate a voluntary annexation petition for a development on Lewisville-Clemmons Road north of I-40 in Monday night’s meeting.

Representatives for the project — developer Chris Parr and property owner Gordon Hendrix — were in attendance at the meeting as the next step in the process for The Lake at Belmont, which is located at 1930 Lewisville-Clemmons Road on 38.371 acres.

Nasser Rahimzadeh, the Clemmons planner, said that plans were submitted earlier this summer for a possible multifamily apartment complex with the preliminary site plan showing 360 units on the property that has a gated entrance with a proposed rezoning to RM-12 (Multifamily) from RS-40 (Residential Single Family) and proposed annexation to the Village of Clemmons as most of the property is in the jurisdiction of Forsyth County.

“The development is outside of municipal limits,” Rahimzadeh said. “They are asking to annex in. I have both the potential developer here and the current property owner. Neither of them seem to have any issues with annexing into the Clemmons municipality and the prospective development moving forward under Clemmons development ordinances. We are just asking for a resolution to get it issued so we can go ahead and start the process. It is already on its route to Planning Board.”

That review will be next Tuesday at 6 p.m. during the monthly planning board meeting at Village Hall.

The annexation checklist included the legal description of the property to be annexed, a petition signed by all property owners, a surveyor’s map with the original seal showing boundaries, a copy of a tax map showing the property and a $50 filing fee.

Rahimizadeh noted this summer that that the project first came before the Technical Review Committee, where whatever recommendations could be made to the petitioner, before the petition to annex and then going to the Clemmons Planning Board and ultimately the Village Council.

The breakdown of apartments for the proposed development details 140 one-bedroom units, 184 two-bedroom units and 36 three-bedroom units on the horse farm with plans for the existing lake to remain. The privately-gated property also includes a barn and a house.

In other business in Monday night’s meeting, the council, after further review, voted to put Lasater Road back on the Capital Improvement Program list.

The council added four of five projects to the CIP list in September but chose not to include Lasater Road at the time but said that it still could be added later. Then in October, an update was provided that two other projects on Innisfail Lane and Innisfail Court, which are above Lasater, were being evaluated as a whole — not just the one residence at 7510 Lasater Road.

Wes Kimbrell, stormwater engineer, said that the most recent staff recommendation following more analysis was to add the project to the CIP list based on it not currently meeting NCDOT design standards.

Councilman Mike Rogers agreed, saying he thought it would be best “to let our stormwater engineer and those others that are professionals at this further analyze it and see where it may fall on the list. It may be very low on the list, but I think if we move in that direction, we’d be further ahead, and we’d be doing our citizen a service here.”

Councilwoman Michelle Barson said, “Once it’s on the CIP list, it kind of opens up our opportunity for exploring all the options.”

However, councilwoman Mary Cameron said she had “a problem with just doing something for one property, and I feel for the property owner, but it’s our job to use village money as wisely as we can and spread it out as much as we can and do as much as we can. So, I have trouble getting over that hurdle.”

Earlier in the meeting, Kenny French, who owns the house in question at 7510 Lasater Road that had significant flooding as a result of the Aug. 6 storm, said in public comments that he continues to clean up stormwater “as a weekly chore” and was there to ask the council to either vote on adding the project to the CIP list or just take it off.

The council approved the motion by Rogers to the add the project to the CIP list by a 4-1 margin with Cameron opposed.

In other highlights from Monday night’s meeting, the council:

• Approved a budget amendment that would reallocate salary funds from the administration department to the planning department in anticipation of senior administrative assistant Patty Fife’s pending retirement and the addition of the planning tech position. Village Manager Scott Buffkin said that the village had received a fair number of applications for the newly created position.

• Heard from Buffkin with an update on the U.S. 158 sidewalk project, stating that the village has begun making inquiries and offers to property owners for right-of-way and or construction easement allocation. Buffkin said that Clemmons had received cost estimates from Duke Energy and AT&T, the two utilities providers that will be forced to relocate their service lines, and that “like it seems like most everything else with this project, they came in quite a bit above what we had expected and had hoped they would be” but that the village was still moving forward with its plans.

• Approved Zoning Text Amendment to the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) to amend Chapter C, Article VII, Section 7 Stormwater Quantity Management — C-UDO-82 — after a public hearing where no one spoke. The text amendment strikes out the Stormwater Advisory Board and shifts it over to the Zoning Board of Adjustment as the watershed review board. The ZBOA is a quasi-judicial board and responsible for reviewing variances.

• Approved Resolution 2020-R-10 directing the manager to dispose of a 2005 Ford Explorer by private sale, stating the vehicle is completely undrivable and repairs would cost more than the vehicle is worth.

• Heard from Shannon Ford in the marketing/communications report that last Saturday’s Fall Medicine Drop was a huge success, collecting almost 50 pounds of pills with 73 participants. She said that a holiday pop-up market will be held on Sunday, Nov. 22, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. outside at the Jerry Long Family YMCA — where the Clemmons Farmers Market was held — and added that “there’s a great opportunity to shop for your Thanksgiving meal as well as to pick up some of those holiday gift items from our local vendors.”

• Heard from Lewisville’s Jeff Zenger, who is the representative-elect for N.C. House District 74, in public comments. He called his victory “extremely humbling” and wanted to thank those in Clemmons who supported him in the election. Zenger served eight years on the Lewisville Town Council.

• Went into closed session to discuss property acquisition.