TITLE: Title
Continuation of Discussion of Construction Management Plans for Development Projects
PURPOSE: Staff requests that the Board consider the information provided in follow up to direction from the Board at its June 11, 2013 meeting.
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DEPARTMENT: Planning Department
CONTACT INFORMATION: Marty Roupe, 918-7333
INFORMATION: At its June 11, 2013 meeting, the Board directed staff to prepare a draft Land Use Ordinance amendment and / or changes to the Town Code regarding the mitigation of construction projects. Previous materials and approved minutes from June 11 may be viewed at the following link:
The topics discussed and staff responses follow:
1) Manager involvement in approving construction management plans. The Board requested that the Manager be directly involved in the process and that the contents of such plans should meet his satisfaction before being approved. Consistent with this request, the attached draft ordinance (Attachment B) is written to require approval by the Administrator. As the term is used in the Land Use Ordinance (LUO), the Administrator may be the Manager or his designee;
2) Meetings and negotiations with nearby property owners and businesses. Staff further researched Chapel Hill's process and found that the meetings with nearby residents and business owners do sometimes occur, but not for every development project. The Town Attorney has included in the draft ordinance a requirement for such a meeting in Carrboro, for all land use permits, when deemed necessary by staff or the approving Board. The draft ordinance requires that the construction management plan be approved prior to construction beginning. The scope of the meeting and topics will be determined on a case by case basis, with the draft language requiring that matters such as the following be addressed: streets to be used or avoided by construction vehicles, and location(s) for staging of construction equipment;
3) Penalties for violations. Included in the draft ordinance is a provision stating that provisions of the construction management plan are enforceable in the same manner as other LUO provisions. The existing, related language includes civil penalties for violations in general and the ability to stop work on a construction project when necessary. The existing language allows staff to judge the seriousness of individual violations, if and when they occur, and accordingly determine appropriate actions in response including the assignment of civil penalties;
4) Applicability to residential projects too. The Board requested that any new ordinance language apply to both residential projects and commercial projects. The ordinance is written such that in can apply to any land use permit;
5) Styrofoam issue at 300 East Main. Staff has discussed what happened during construction of the hotel internally and with the developer. In short, the particles flying through the air downtown last winter resulted from rasping the Styrofoam EIFS (Exterior Insulation & Finish System) portions of the building. Rasping smoothes and shapes the surface of the material for a uniform and level end result. In this case, the rasping happened to occur on a windy day and much of the resulting debris escaped the site. After discussing with staff, the development team agreed to avoid rasping on particularly windy days.
EIFS is an increasingly popular material for commercial construction projects as an alternative to traditional stucco. It is staff's understanding that the product is popular because it is both more economical and is quite easy to apply and shape. It is possible, as well, that other materials may present similar issues. Staff suggests that construction management plans should identify any such materials, and that the plan will need to address debris, noise, and similar issues, and limit their construction schedule accordingly to minimize impacts.
FISCAL & STAFF IMPACT: No fiscal impact is associated with acceptance of this report.
RECOMMENDATION:r Staff requests that the Board adopt the attached resolution (Attachment A) accepting this report. If the Board so desires, then staff will bring back a request to set a public hearing agenda item on the draft ordinance for consideration at a subsequent meeting.