Tree Ordinance Update & Pruning at Town Hall

"Before"



"After"

Good morning, folks. We are wrapping up our tree ordinance and will hopefully have it ready for a public hearing at the July Town Council meeting. If you'd like to see a copy of the draft document, please let me know and I can email you a PDF of it. I will be meeting with our consultant this afternoon to decide which graphics to insert and just where they will go. I believe most people would rather see decent graphics instead of reading the actual text...so we will try hard to get some images in there that are self-explanatory.

Speaking of images, I want to share a couple of pictures with you of the pruning job that Davey Tree performed on a couple of oak trees here at Town Hall. The work was completed on Friday, May 23rd. As you can see in the "Before" and "After" shots, there isn't a LOT of visible difference. However, if you were to actually walk up and inspect the tree, quite a bit of material was removed. This is how a pruning job SHOULD look. Your trees should NOT look like this:



Tree "Topping" is actually VERY harmful to the tree and is NOT the correct method of pruning! The Town of Jamestown highly recommends that you seek the services of an ISA (International Society of Arboriculture) Certified Arborist. If you have questions or would like more information, I urge you to contact me at 336.454.1138 or mjohnson@jamestown-nc.gov for more information. I would be happy to discuss your trees with you, as I am also a Certified Arborist. While the Town does not perform tree work or make diagnosis of trees, I would be happy to point you towards those companies which employ Certified Arborists.

Have a great afternoon!

~Matthew (ISA Certified Arborist #MA-3153A)

Sailing Away...

I've been away from posting for a few days, but I hope to get back into the swing of things soon. Part of the reason is that I've been taking a sailing class after work, which leaves little time to post. But, that is over now...and I'm getting back on the right tack. Ha ha. The course is sponsored by the the City of Greensboro Parks & Recreation Dept and Lake Townsend Yacht Club (http://www.laketownsendyachtclub.com/Includes/homeport.asp). I would encourage anyone interested in sailing to check out the course. The instructors are great and I'd recommend it for persons of any age!

Well, we do have some news to report that relates to Planning! The Town recently learned that it was the recipient of a grant award from NCDOT's Bicycle & Pedestrian Planning Division for $24,000! This grant is an 80/20-style grant, where the Town will be responsible for matching the award with 20%...or $6,000 in this case. We will be using these funds to create a Pedestrian Master Plan, which will discuss the state of our current pedestrian facilities and make recommendations for new facilities. Our goal is to have a prioritized list of needs, and to then begin to tackle those needs in a logical fashion. We will coordinate efforts with our Development Ordinance Rewrite folks, our Downtown Study folks, and our citizens to ensure we come out with a plan that complements our other planning efforts! Stay tuned for more info, or feel free to call me at 336-454-1138!

~Matthew

New Ordinance Kick-off & Rezonings

Ok...it has been about a week since I was able to last post an update...which is terrible. I hope to get back on track, but have been extremely busy with a number of items which needed attention. Town staff have been working diligently to get our new Development Ordinance project up and running. The consultant which was hired to assist in this endeavor, GreenPlan/Chenevert Architects of Asheville, met with Town staff, local business owners, Town Council members, P&Z Board members, and landowners on April 11th. In this meeting, the consultants' goal was to listen to the citizens concerns about development and to get first-hand knowledge of the Town by touring the area.


Following this meeting, the consultant provided the Town with a diagnostic report which included their initial reactions and ideas. To summarize their comments, they provided us with four categories: Locations of Concern; Issues of Concern; Ideas; and Desired Components.

Locations of Concern included: Downtown or the "Town Core", GTCC, Jamestown Bypass area, Oakdale area, Large vacant properties near town, Gateway Corridors (Main St., Guilford Rd., Guilford College Rd, Scientific, Oakdale), and "Barriers" such as the Deep River and the Railroad tracks.


Issues of Concern included: Signage, Loopholes, Enforcement, Property maintenance/minimum housing standards, Aesthetics, community participation, festivals and events, respecting our history.


Ideas included: Redevelop Food Lion Center as "urban village" (think Friendly Shopping Center on a SMALLER scale), Oakdale Road (mill area) conservation district, Proactive regulations, Historic district.


Desired Components included: "Green" Building Code, livability, bike paths/greenways, historic features, flexibility, strong design focus, destination streetscaping (Town Core), and Overlay districts.


If you have ANY questions about these items, please feel free to call me. The consultant will be back in Jamestown on May 23rd to meet with business owners (11am-12:30pm), large property owners (9am-10:30am), and our Advisory Committee to discuss some of the "nuts and bolts" of the new Ordinance. Martha Wolfe, Town Clerk, will be sending invitations to specific persons, but anyone is welcome to attend. The following is an excerpt from the "invitation" from GreenPlan:


At the meeting, GreenPlan-Chenevert Architects will give a brief presentation about the community’s goals that came out of the Land Development Plan process. We will then explain various zoning and development tools that Jamestown can use to achieve these goals. The majority of the meeting will be used to get your feedback regarding the development regulation ideas that we presented. GreenPlan-Chenevert Architects will have specific questions (many of which include signage) for you and we will also have time to talk freely.

We hope you will be able to attend the meeting on May 23, 2008 11:00AM -12:30PM at the Jamestown Town Hall.

Please RSVP by calling Matthew Johnson, Town Planner, at 454-1138.




SO....please let us know if you can join us!




NEXT TOPIC: Rezoning request at 5299 Mackay Rd.

We have received a rezoning request for a property located near the intersection of Mackay Rd. and Guilford College Rd. This property was rezoned from Agriculture (AG) to CU-R-12 PUD (Residential, with a special use permit to allow 'townhomes') in 2006. The initial developer has decided not to build on this site and the current owner would like develop this property on their own. However, this particular developer builds a number of 'high-end' condominium properties in the Triad and would like to petition the Town for a new special use permit which would allow condominiums.

The Town has worked very closely with this developer and I believe we will be seeing a much nicer project than was originally designed for this site. The new rezoning would allow condominiums, but we have limited the height to a maximum of two stories, and restricted the construction materials to 80% brick. Additionally, we have requested sidewalks to be installed on this property along Mackay Rd. Instead of the more typical condo projects (ex- Lennox Square), this project will look more akin to 'townhomes'. This developer has completed a similar project in Greensboro, and here are a couple of pictures that I snapped to demonstrate:






The P&Z Board will consider this request at their meeting on Monday, May 12th, at 6:30pm here at Town Hall. If you have questions regarding this rezoning, please feel free to contact me at 336.454.1138.

-Matthew