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Founded 05-05-05

Five Hours—No Decision

Boone Board of Adjustment Adjourns Before Deliberating Templeton Case

Story by Kathleen McFadden

After spending five hours last Thursday night on procedural matters, the applicant’s case and public hearing testimony, the Boone Board of Adjustment adjourned the meeting before deciding whether to grant a special use permit for a medical office at 315 State Farm Road. The board will meet in special session to decide the case on Tuesday, May 1, at 5:30 p.m.

Before presenting the case, Templeton Properties attorney Tony di Santi requested that board member Denise Lockett recuse herself from the board. Di Santi submitted an affidavit in which Phil Templeton alleged that he heard Lockett state at the previous board meeting that it didn’t matter what kind of revisions came back on the proposal, she couldn’t vote for the plan. Di Santi pointed out that such bias was an impermissible conflict of interest. Lockett said she did not recall making any such comment. After lengthy discussion, the board voted to allow Lockett to hear the case.

In the second procedural matter, VFW Drive resident Joan McLaughlin presented a motion to intervene, explaining that she wanted the ability to ask questions of the applicant’s representatives. Staff at Development Services, she said, had told her that she could only present testimony at the board meeting and could not ask questions. The Board of Adjustment rules of procedure bar such questions, but Town Attorney Sam Furgiuele pointed out that the Unified Development Ordinance does allow participants to ask questions. The UDO trumps the board’s rules of procedure, so although the board voted in a split decision after lengthy discussion not to approve McLaughlin’s motion to intervene, Chair Rick Foster assured her that she would be allowed to fully participate and ask questions. McLaughlin’s sole question during the meeting was to ask di Santi to clarify the side of State Farm Road he said the Blue Skies facility was located.

After the procedural issues were resolved, di Santi and development consultant James West presented a new application to the board with substantial changes from the original plan submitted in January. At the January meeting, although the Boone Development Services Department considered the application complete, the Board of Adjustment voted that the application was incomplete because it lacked lighting and dumpster plans and had no clear resolution of an easement issue.

The property is the site of a former church and is zoned R-1 (residential). Hospitals, clinics and other medical (including mental health) treatment facilities in excess of 10,000 square feet are a permitted use in an R-1 district with a special use permit. The Board of Adjustment is the permitting authority for special use permits.

In the new plan submitted to the board, the square footage of the building is reduced to 10,010 square feet, 3,040 less than the building originally proposed, with a concomitant reduction of 20 parking spaces. The 67 proposed parking spaces conform to the requirements of the Boone Unified Development Ordinance, but di Santi said the applicant would, if permitted, further reduce the number of parking spaces to 51, thereby increasing green space and buffering. The plan also includes a new outdoor lighting plan, eliminates vehicular access to VFW Drive, requires no easement from VFW Drive property owners and provides screening for the trash receptacle area.

Di Santi and West presented numerous exhibits to the board, including photographs taken from several residences near the property to show the visual impact of the proposed project and photographs of properties along State Farm Road to show the largely commercial nature of development along the roadway.

Board members asked a number of questions about building height (24 feet, below the permitted maximum of 35 feet), trash pickup (trash will be deposited in wheeled trash receptacles with lids and GDS will pick up trash via the residential truck that already services the VFW Drive area) and the type of medical clinic (no decision has been made).

During the public hearing portion of the meeting, seven residents of the neighborhood raised concerns about the project, including the glow from outdoor lighting, excess trash and medical waste, rodents attracted by the waste, safety problems of the proposed turn lane, the type of medical clinic, decreased property values, lack of harmony with the neighborhood, visual and noise impact, buffers and traffic congestion.

Among those testifying was Boone mayor and neighborhood resident Loretta Clawson who asked the board to remember, “this is an R-1 neighborhood” and that the proposed facility would harm the residents “monetarily and physically.” Clawson also expressed her concern that permitting the medical facility would set a precedent. “I think we need to look at what we want our town to be like. If this business can encroach and then the next business encroaches more, I think our little neighborhoods will be gone,” she said.

In response to di Santi’s questioning, Clawson agreed that in January she stated that her opposition to the project would be affected if the building size were reduced and the parking access off VFW Drive were eliminated.

One concern raised by more than one speaker was the type of medical facility planned for the building. Neighborhood resident Ben Shumake commented, “Not all medical facilities are equal,” and asked the board, if possible, to restrict the types of use. “If it’s a dentist, the tenant will be great,” he said. “If a methadone treatment facility, it might have an effect.”

The Boone Town Council is expected to vote on a text amendment at their meeting on April 19 that would bar hospitals, clinics and medical facilities in excess of 10,000 square feet from R-1 districts. Currently, the Unified Development Ordinance prohibits similar facilities under 10,000 square feet in R-1 districts.

Both Furgiuele and di Santi said that the town’s passage of the amendment would have no bearing on the case in front of the Board of Adjustment. Board members are required to rule in accordance with regulations in place at the time the case is presented.