It Has Been A While...

It has been quite a while since I've posted. Almost a month in fact! I do apologize, but it has been a busy time. The July 4th Parade sponsored by the Jamestown Lion's Club was a great success. Despite the warm weather, a lot of residents came out to see the parade and visit with neighbors.



The Planning Department will be presenting two requests for rezoning at the Town Council meeting this evening. The first case involves a request to rezone the property at 411 E. Main St. from residential (R-15) to conditional use agriculture (CU-AG). The applicant wishes to create pasture lands for horses on this property and will clear a portion of the property in the coming months for that purpose.

The second request involves a portion of property located behind the Mendenhall Plantation. The entrance will be located immediately opposite of Kearns St. There will be a new public street built in this area to serve a 10 acre lot where the applicant desires to locate a nursing facility. This facility will be approximately 72,000 sq. ft. in size and will bring a number of new residents and jobs to Jamestown. This is a challenging site, and engineering design work will likely take some time to complete. I would expect this to be approximately a 2 year project to complete.

The Planning Department will also ask Council to set a public hearing date for the expansion of our ETJ (Extraterritorial Jurisdiction) for September 16, 2008. Notices will go out to property owners in this area on July 28th. The Town Manager will update Council on the status of the Downtown Business Study which was recently completed by Hilary Greenberg of Greenberg Development Services. We have received an initial draft and are reviewing the material at this time. Once we have received the final copy, I will have it posted to our website for easy viewing.

Our Tree Preservation Ordinance (which was a grant project through NCDFR)is almost done! Copies are available through the Planning Department and should be on the web before the end of this week. Check the 'News & Notices' Section. Also, keep your eyes posted on this section to see our new Sign Ordinance. The final draft of the Sign Ordinance is nearly complete and I think it is a very fair and balanced product, which was written by a gentleman with many years of experience in this area. I believe everyone will be able to work within its bounds and I look forward to seeing people's reactions!

I hope everyone is enjoying their summertime vacations and hopefully I'll have more opportunities to post in the near future.

~Matthew