BERMUDA RUN – A proposed 72-lot development for the final phase of Kinderton Village will receive consideration before the technical review committee this week.

Town Manager Lee Rollins informed the council about the meeting in last Tuesday night’s Bermuda Run Town Council meeting.

“They are single-family homes and have heard they will be marketed like Eastwood Homes in what I call the back side of Kinderton Village,” said Rollins, who added he understood the homes would be priced around $200,000.

“Trent Adams is the developer. It’s a positive speaking to the residential industry coming back a little bit. Once that, assuming approval, is done, then that’s pretty close to full buildout for Kinderton Village.”

Residential real estate was a primary topic of conversation during the meeting when proposed text amendments were brought before the council to remove the single-family and two-family design standards to comply with N.C. Session Law passed in June 2015.

Staff recommended approval of the proposed text amendments, and the Planning Board concurred. However, the Planning Board found that the amendments were not fully consistent with the town’s Comprehensive Plan but were still recommended for approval in order to comply with state law.

The council reluctantly voted to move forward after councilman John Guglielmi originally asked about deferring taking action.

“I think this is the dumbest thing they’ve ever did trying to tell us how to design our town,” he said. “What do they know in Raleigh what is good for Mocksville, what’s good for Bermuda Run or any other community? Is it all going to look like Levittown – cookie cutter after cookie cutter right next to each other.”

Rollins said that this was triggered by the real estate industry, was already a state law and he wasn’t sure how the town could bypass it.

“HOAs and restrictive covenants in subdivisions take care of those issues,” Rollins said, “but there are areas of our town and areas of other towns in which there are no HOAs, so we all need to prepare if an ah-ha happens with new construction, they’re going to call Raleigh.”

Planner Erin Burris said that she was already abiding by it.

“It’s the state law,” she said. Burris added that she didn’t expect any issues with the pending development.

“Fortunately for you all, and this won’t always be the case, the developer of that – I had spoken with him about the recent development with the state law – and he would like to continue standards that are in place for the rest of the portion to be developed,” she said.

As part of the consideration for the text amendments, a public hearing was held, but no one spoke.

•

The town also approved other action for proposed text amendments intended to update temporary sign regulations to comply with a recently established U.S. Supreme Court case. This will change how temporary signs are regulated and how sign provisions are enforced by every local government. A public hearing was also held, but no one spoke.

During the council comments portion of the meeting, the mayor and members of the council again voiced their strong opposition to the possible change of Davie County’s allocation method to sales tax distribution.

Councilwoman Shirley Cagle said that residents of Bermuda Run need to know the consequences of a change to the ad valorem method where the county would benefit significantly and the municipalities would be dealt a severe financial blow.

“They need to realize how this affects them not just this year but in future years,” Cagle said. “It changes the whole financial picture of Bermuda Run. Services we’ve able to provide now could go away, and it would be the result of the sales tax distribution.

Mayor Ken Rethmeier provided some numbers of the impact of a change from the current per capita method, which has been in place for more than 40 years.

“Ninety-one percent of our current budget goes for core town services when we rely on better than two-thirds of the funding coming from sales tax, which is now going to be cut by 54 percent, and that leaves us with looking toward cutting town services by $124,000,” he said. “We have to continue to protect ourselves and be proactive. From my own perspective, I thought the values of our commissioners were better than that, and I am very disappointed that they have chosen to do what they have. There is a better way.”

•

Councilman Ken Bateman added his displeasure regarding how the county commissioners have communicated on the sales tax distribution matter.

“I know several people have sent emails to the commissioners and people who have spoken in the last two meetings in opposition,” he said. “I do have an excellent source that I will not reveal that said at least one commissioner purposely does not open his Davie County emails. Consequently, questions of this commissioner that were asked to answer were never received. That is just extremely disappointing that those people will not answer their constituencies.”

•

In other business, the council agreed to renew its contract with Blakley Landscape Service to maintain the common areas, including the entrances and postal kiosk areas, in Kinderton Village for $950 a month, which represents a 3 percent increase from last year.