Graham Planning

04/19/22

Author

Frank Conrad, AIA
June 02, 2022

You made it. Welcome to Ultraground - real estate information straight from the source.

We have on the docket today:

Estimated read time: 0:02:42
Original meeting time: 1:13:22

  • How to not wait 6-months to reapply after a City Council denial.

  • Changes to where you can put your signage and how big it can be.

  • A tiny parcel gets a zoning change that allows for a tiny bar.

  • SPU classification update.

The current code states you need to wait 6 months if you get a denial from the City Council for a standard rezoning. See the actual language below:

In case of a denial by the City Council for a requested change in zoning of a particular area, there shall be a six-month waiting period before another request may be presented for the same zone change of the same area.

Now, you don't have to. IF:

  1. You change the total area by 10%.

  2. Or the total parcel number is changed (if multiple parcels).

This came from a citizen-initiated request about the waiting period before reapplying for a rezoning following a denial by the city council. If there's something that you think isn't right, speak up. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Plus, it warmed our hearts to hear this from the chairman:

"I want us to be friendly. I want us to be an inviting and friendly town to build in and I want developers to come to graham to build and I don't want to throw up roadblocks that's going to prevent them. Time is money to a developer."

Dean Ward, Chairman
Wall Signs Title

Current code: if greater than 2-stories, wall signs can't go above the second story.

Now you can put your wall signs up to the 3rd floor.

Alamance Community College's new 3-story biotech building got this text amendment. See it below:

There was also a change to the code about signs for new multifamily development. (Mixed-use, multifamily, and major subdivisions).

Before your signs could only be 10 SF. That's just the letters and not the edges of the sign.

Now, your sign on your new apartment building can be 36 SF.

For reference:

Bits of Dust

I love this (tiny) bar

A 0.21 parcel of land was rezoned from light industrial to B-2 (General Business).

It's currently used for a wedding venue, but the B-2 zoning allows the possibility of using it for a bar. - Passed

Special Use Permits (SPUs): classify the uses that have no other place. Very unique or very intensive. The outcasts. Landfills, airports, junkyards, waste incinerators, you get it.

Basically, some things that were SPU were reclassified as By Right. And some things became SPUs that weren't previously.

But this quote from a commissioner really sums it up:

" ...I did try to get through this as thoroughly as I could and unfortunately kept falling asleep."

Billy Wooten

We laughed at this one. Thanks Billy.

Preview for the next meeting:

"Accessory dwellings are something I'm hearing from people at least twice a week. And we're needing some sort of resolution on that one."

Justin Snyder, Planning Director

As always, thank you for being a part of Ultraground.

-Frank