Pinehurst council appoints historic preservation chair, approves ADU

PINEHURST – The Village of Pinehurst Council’s meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 14, addressed a variety of property and budgetary matters.

The session began with the appointment of Richard Vincent as chairperson of the Historic Preservation Commission. Village Manager Jeff Sanborn said, “With John Taylor’s election to Council, we have a need to replace him as the chairperson of the Historic Preservation Commission. Richard Vincent has a vast amount of experience on our HPC and he is endorsed by John Taylor and we think he is the person best suited to fill that position from the candidates that are available.”

The council then conducted a public hearing about a special use permit for an accessory dwelling at 455 St. Andrews Drive. Property owner Carol Lewis explained, “We never really considered the fact that we downsized to a house that was too small for our family. Now we have realized that. We purchased our house in 2017. We love the house, we have fantastic neighbors, we love the convenience to the club and the Village, but all of a sudden, our house is too small. … Along with a home in Pinehurst should really come with a warning that Pinehurst is a very desirable place for family and friends to want to visit. Our plan for this carriage house is just to have an extra bedroom for family and friends to visit and to stay with us. We don’t have any intention or desire to rent it out ever at any point. It’s just for family and friends to be able to come and stay with us.” The council approved the request.

The meeting also included the approval of the updated Stormwater Management and Master Plan. Public Services and Engineering Director Mike Apke noted, “We’ve been working on a Stormwater Management and Master Plan with McGill Associates, the consultant the Village hired. This has been an ongoing process for quite some time now. We might be going on two years working on this thing. … Like with other plans, adoption doesn’t make any immediate changes to our rules or regulations, it just simply gives staff some guidance to use the report to move forward on how we’re going to manage stormwater in the future.”

Additionally, a resolution establishing a fee for reviewing and inspecting large-scale new underground utility installations was passed. Assistant Village Manager Jeff Batton remarked, “It’s kind of a new situation that we really haven’t encountered before in talking about large-scale, Village-wide implementation of underground utilities or facilities. Most of the time we deal with small sections or extensions of existing situations. We’ve made this applicable for those applying for an encroachment agreement of more than one mile, because we issue a ton of them that are in hundreds of feet. We didn’t want to place all of these and track all of this information for small scale operators, we’re looking at really big operations here.”

The council also approved an amendment to the FY23 audit contract, adding $8,779 in additional fees, as explained by Financial Services Director Dana Van Nostrand.

The next Village of Pinehurst Council meeting is scheduled for Nov. 28.