SOUTHERN PINES — The Southern Pines Town Council met Tuesday, February 14, with multiple property hearings on the agenda.
The first action item was an architectural review for the Fort Bragg Federal Credit Union on Brucewood Road, in which the applicant had made a few deviation requests for the property.
“The first item is the access location,” said Bob Koontz of Koontz Jones Design. “The ordinance talks about entrance locations being at the front of the building, but in this case, we’ve oriented the building to fit on the site and to be as unobtrusive as possible, and orienting the entrance area towards the parking lot is the way we’ve done this. The second item is the amount of actual brick. We are including a lot of stone on the building as well, and looking at the overall masonry, on several of the elevations, we’re at 90% of the material is either brick or stone. This won’t be concrete; it’s actual, real stone.”
However, the final approval was continued into the council’s next work session due to concerns over the final color of the roof of the building. So in order for a paint sample of the color of the roofing material to be provided, the decision was pushed back.
The council then continued a request from last month’s meeting for a special use permit for Southern Pines Country Club. At the meeting, the council established 11 additional conditions for acceptance of the special use request.
Those conditions include a planted buffer of no less than 25 feet along the project boundary, an additional 10 feet of planted buffer, any needed improvements or extensions of infrastructure shall be made at the cost of the developer, that the emergency access point will be designed using grass pavers with an adequate base to meet the requirements of the Fire Department and that the access point will be gated and used only for emergency vehicles, that construction traffic will be prohibited from using Ridge Street and instead will use Country Club Circle, that signage shall be compliant with the UDO, that any fire pits or entertainment areas associated with the cottages will be located on the golf course side of the cottages, that individual rooms within the cottages be limited to an occupancy of two adults, that there will be some variance in the architecture of the cottages, that a shuttle will be provided and that security will be provided for the property.
Following the deliberation, the council approved the special use permit request with the conditions by a final vote of 3-1, with council member Ann Petersen the lone nay and council member Bill Pate recused.
“I feel like when applicants bring in a reasonable application and are willing to negotiate or find a compromise, I feel like we try really hard to make a compromise that can make the neighbors happy,” said council member Taylor Clement. “You all have, before you even came to us, increased setbacks, the buffer, you moved the fire pits, the shuttle, and security. Beyond that, I searched through the complaints and looked for a way you all could change that would make the neighbors happy, and the only thing that I can see that would appease the neighbors is for there not to be a successful golf course there because a successful golf course is going to draw traffic and it’s going to draw people, and it will create noise, and I do think it’s important to protect that golf course as an asset to our town.”
The council also approved a $726,000 amendment to the FY 22/23 Budget in order to purchase vehicles for yard debris collection services.
A quasi-judicial hearing for Mid-South 2-lot subdivision was scheduled to take place at the meeting, but the representation for the applicant requested for a continuance to March 14.
The Southern Pines Town Council will next meet March 14.
