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By Jim Buice

For the Clemmons Courier

CLEMMONS — For the third straight meeting, there was a full house at village hall Monday night for another potential housing development, but after a lengthy public hearing, followed by rebuttals and a discussion by the Clemmons Village Council, it was decided to have a continuance involving a 77-unit project on nearly 14 acres on Old Glory Road.

First, there was an overview on the project from planner Doug Moore for a Zoning Map Amendment for Nova Triad Partners for real property owned by William Anthony Smith et al. from RS-15 (Residential, Single-Family) to RM-8-S (Residential, Multifamily — Special) for property located at 2590 Old Glory Road, approximately 1,000 feet west of the intersection of Old Glory Road and Lewisville-Clemmons Road.

However, after hearing from the proponents representing Nova Triad Homes, a local home builder, and then a steady stream of opponents expressing concerns over stormwater, traffic and more, the council weighed in after a final comment in the rebuttals by Polly Reavis of the 6600 block of Springfield Drive.

“There is lots of focus on stormwater runoff, but traffic through Lewisville-Clemmons Road is horrendous, and we’re just going to be adding to that,” Reavis said. “And I just feel until this construction phase with new traffic patterns and McDonald’s possibly being moved, that needs to take priority first before any decisions affecting this property are made.”

Michelle Barson was the first council member to speak, and she played off the comments made by Reavis on staying ahead of safety issues and “until Lewisville-Clemmons Road has the improvements necessary, I think it would be extremely irresponsible to allow this development at this time.

“I also don’t think it is consistent with our vision for the future of Clemmons. That area is supposed to be transitional from Meadowbrook. This is not transition. This is a leap. I think where it’s at, RS-15, is very reasonable. I would even be willing to rezone it a little bit more densely than that but not to RS-8.”

Mike Combest said he “thinks I am echoing” Barson’s concern but that he would recommend as a precondition for considering approval that the village petition NCDOT for a traffic light warrant at Old Glory Road and pursue that “so we can address a very serious traffic issue.”

Bradley Taylor pointed out he would like to know more about the timeline for Lewisville-Clemmons Road improvements after learning that it has been pushed from 2027 to 2029.

Then Andy Dreyfus, representing Nova Triad Homes and the Hidden Oaks subdivision project, said he heard the concerns around traffic and trying to delay, and added, “We would be open to a continuance if the board feels better about that to get more information from NCDOT, especially on medians and why they’re not put in place on Lewisville-Clemmons in front of Old Glory. If the council members need more time to study the TIA (traffic impact analysis) in-depth (it’s 127 pages), we’re open to a continuance until July 14.”

Combest ultimately made the motion with Taylor making the second for a continuance, and it passed by a 4-1 margin with Barson opposed.

The Planning Board had earlier made a recommendation for a denial, but the staff found it compliant with the Comprehensive Plan and also with the Unified Development Ordinance.

Moore said that the property is all wooded and made up of three parcels with the plan calling for 77 twinhomes.

Dreyfus described the community as “very nice houses in the middle of Clemmons with a master on the main level, patios, open floor plans, three bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, nice features, not an apartment substitution, and this product will be for sale” with prices projected to be $425,000 to $450,000.

In another business item on Monday night’s business portion of the meeting, the council approved the proposed budget for fiscal year 2025-26 at nearly $13 million for the General Fund and $1,843,880 for the Stormwater Enterprise Fund. The property tax rate is calculated at 15 cents per $100 valuation, and the stormwater utility fund is reflected at $90 per year.

However, the council did approve requested final revisions on the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office budget and the staffing for that, including an Option C “to build capacity and morale in the future with our deputies,” according to Amy Flyte, assistant manager, “by keeping the two investigators that we currently have and still adding two deputies.”

That brought the total annual cost of $2,839,514 for the village’s contract with the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office.

Barson said she thought going from the earlier Option A to Option C “was a good compromise between points that (Bradley) Taylor and (Mike) Combest made and I had made. I think this makes a ton of sense for Clemmons.”

Sammy Joyner, who is the captain of the Community Services Division, was on hand for the meeting and offered his take on how Clemmons, which will have 18 deputies, including the two investigators, is doing with its resources compared to other communities.

“Using the per-capita model, the typical average is two-and-a-half officers per 1,000 residents,” said Joyner, who used a number of over 22,000-plus residents, “so you guys need 44 deputies.”

“When adding other factors, such as the workload analysis, vacation time and training time, the number drops to 37 deputies.

“I don’t have to tell you that you have exceptional deputies out here in Clemmons. And traditionally your lieutenants and sergeants should be administrators, but your guys also run calls. That’s the way you are able to keep up with call volume.”

Joyner added that Kernersville is probably the most comparable municipality to Clemmons in terms of size and call volume in the county, but that it had 71 sworn officers, six investigators and a narcotics investigator.

During the public hearing prior to the approval of the budget, resident Allen Daniel questioned the constant rising of fund balance over the years and Lynn Lile-Kuhl raised concerns over the amount of spending in multiple areas.

Barson responded that “prices are going up everywhere with everything” and as far as fund balance, “I can only speak for myself, but I feel strongly about having a strong fund balance and as a safety net for when things don’t go as planned.”

Later during council comments, Combest said he wanted to address comments made earlier about the budget: “Our tax revenue is approximately one-third of an average town our size throughout our state.”

He added that Clemmons has a tax rate of 15 cents compared to Kernersville at 58 cents, King at 47 cents and Rural Hall at 34 cents, and that it goes on and on.

“We get a tremendous amount of very high quality governmental support for every dollar that we collect and spend,” Combest said. “And it’s unsurpassed in the state.”

In another business action item, the council approved the final development plan for Village Point Area Lot 6, which calls for 1,665 feet on the two floors that will house the Sheriff’s Office deputies and some staff on the second floor with storage and public bathrooms on the lower floor.

However, regarding the contract bids, Gunnell said there were six qualified bids with HM Kern Corp. being the low bid, “but based on the bids and based on our estimates, we feel that it is prudent that we put the project back out for bid.”

The council voted to reject all bids for the project with the wish to go back out and rebid, and by consensus, the board also voted to name the new building the Village Point Operations Center.

Also in the meeting, the council made several appointments to the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Adjustment:

Planning Board: Katelyn Hiatt, Erin Rheinschild 

Zoning Board of Adjustment: Michael Blankenship, Brad Kropp, James Averill (alternate)

Also, it was announced that Steve Gearren, who is the village’s public works director, was named the recipient of the Robert S. Hobson Leadership Service Work by the N.C. Chapter of the American Public Works Association.