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By Jim Buice

For the Clemmons Courier

Speeders, beware! Clemmons officials are discussing lowering the speed limits on some NCDOT well-traveled roads throughout the village.

Mike Gunnell’s manager’s report in Monday night’s council meeting included an item regarding NCDOT requesting a review of the following roads under consideration for a reduction of the speed limit from 45 mph to 35 mph:

• Kinnamon Road
• A portion of Harper Road (from U.S. 158 to the roundabout at Peace Haven Road)
• Middlebrook Drive
• Lewisville-Clemmons Road
• Idols Road (from Hampton Road to the county line)
• A portion of Hampton Road (from Idols Road to Keithgayle Drive)
• A portion of U.S. 158 (from Kinnamon Road to Muddy Creek)

“In years past, we had a section of Clemmons Road (U.S. 158) with a speed limit of 45 that was reduced to 35 in the village of Clemmons,” Gunnell said. “We haven’t talked to DOT, so they’ll have the final say. We may not want to reduce it all. Some of them are multiple lanes like Lewisville-Clemmons Road or U.S. 158. Certainly with multiple lanes, you may want to keep 45.

“What I’d suggest is that we present the ones we’d like to reduce to DOT and get their input or their decision, present our case and let them present whatever their findings are. I don’t know the exact answer to that yet.”

Planner Doug Moore said the timing of this might work nicely with the completion of the Safety Action Plan in June, and that would be available for the village and NCDOT to have more information.

Council member Michelle Barson mentioned specifics involving Harper Road as one that has changed quite a bit over the years and should have a 35 mph speed limit.

“It’s really changed with the two mini-traffic circles,” she said. “And we’ve got new sidewalks and crosswalks and lots of walkers.”

Council member Randy Wooden said that it would be good to “get the ball rolling and let the experts take a look and get back to us with recommendations.”

Also in Monday night’s meeting, the council approved a draft resolution expressing its opposition to changes to the local planning and zoning statutes now being considered by the N.C. General Assembly.

Attorney Al Benshoff said that the title of this agenda item is two bills — Senate Bill 688 and House Bill 765 — but this resolution talks about 14 bills that will reduce the village’s authority to wisely plan for future growth and development.

“I can’t possibly list all of the things that could be changed by these bills,” he said. “I will mention a few, but two of the worse things from my perspective are the bills greatly increase the provision for what the town might have to pay attorney fees when sued by the developer, but the grounds of liability for the town are unclear. 

“And the other one, there is a provision in one of the bills that would make the members of this board, Planning Board and Board of Adjustment personally liable if they made a decision that was not permitted by statute. And taken together reading all of these bills, I don’t know what’s permitted by statute anymore if they were to be adopted.”

Council member Mike Combest, who has always been a watchdog for these activities, called this “a five-alarm fire” for Clemmons and said he had a comment and a recommendation.

“There are a series of five bills that I’ve been looking at that are so bad and so harmful that if passed they will fundamentally threaten the existence of Clemmons as we know it,” he said.  “They are designed to remove the ability of this council and every council like us to make basic planning and land-use decisions required.

“I would recommend that we accept the resolution but regard it as essential but not sufficient and that we convene a special meeting of this council to deal with this subject alone so that we fully understand all the implications and can advise with the strategy and some tactics to counter it. And in accordance with our ordinance that we passed last February, charter our mayor to be our principal spokesman and hit the road and engage with other municipalities and towns around the state to generate a movement similar to what we did in 2023 to defeat those bills.”

Mayor Mike Rogers said: “We will set up a meeting here in the not too distant future with a 48-hour notice to further discuss this.”

In a business action item on the agenda, the council approved a Village Point Master Planning & Public Engagement agreement with Summit Design and Engineering Services to do the master planning for the parcels at Village Point Lake Drive with a price tag of $53,950.

“The proposal includes reaching out to get public participation and outreach as well as interaction with staff to work on an overall master plan for the site,” Gunnell said. 

In documentation from Summit, the company stated its excitement “to work with the village of Clemmons to solicit community input and imagine, design and program the property of 12.42 acres located along Village Point Lake Drive. This proposal is for assistance in determining the uses for the site that meet the short and long-term needs of the community.”

In other highlights from Monday night’s meeting, the council:

• Heard from planner Doug Moore that a Transportation Summit will be held next Thursday, April 24, from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Clemmons Branch Library including agencies coming from around the state, including NCDOT Division 9.
• Moore also said that the village’s request Monday night was to be able to apply for a $300,000 application for the 2025 Safe Streets for All demonstration grant that requires a 20 percent local match of $60,000, which was approved.
• Heard from Gunnell regarding a request in the previous meeting asking about a lack of restrictions involving excessive dog barking. “The staff did research and felt like using the Forsyth County noise ordinance will suffice,” he said. “So that’s what we asked our officers to use if we had any further complaints.”
• Voted unanimously to remove Jimmy Smith from the Planning Board and appoint Tim Rayhill, who was part of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, to fill that position; and also voted to accept the resignation of Tanya Skillman from the Planning Board.
• Approved the reclassification of two positions proposing to make both the events coordinator and a new position of marketing and communications specialist to Grade 18 — wanted to do this now rather than after the upcoming budget session in order to quickly post the marketing specialist position.
• Announced that a special budget workshop has been called for Monday, April 28, at 3 p.m. prior to the next council meeting that night at 6 p.m.
• Appointed Rogers to continue to serve as the N.C. League of Municipalities voting delegate for the 2025-26 Board of Directors.