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Council approves New York Place preliminary development plan with impervious‑surface limits and prohibited‑use list
Summary
The council approved PD‑07‑24 (New York Place), a preliminary development plan proposing 40 residential units and 9,100 sq ft of commercial space, adding conditions to ensure impervious surface stays at or below 70% (or uses approved permeable measures) and restricting several high‑traffic uses.
The Southern Pines Town Council voted to approve the preliminary development plan for New York Place (PD‑07‑24), a mixed‑use project that would add about 40 condominium units above roughly 9,100 square feet of retail and commercial space along West New York Avenue and South Bennett.
Planning staff told the council that two substantive concerns had been addressed in negotiations with the applicant: a list of prohibited uses to reduce the risk of future high‑traffic commercial tenants and an impervious‑surface condition requiring the site to be 70% or less impervious or to use permeable pavement or similar technologies approved by the town engineer.
Nick Robinson, attorney for the applicant Grosvenor Land LLC, said the applicant agreed to the staff conditions and the added language on loading and unloading, which the applicant committed to route primarily to West New York Avenue and to comply with town standards. The applicant presented engineers and designers who testified that the PDP complies with the Unified Development Ordinance's PDP criteria and that traffic volumes in the TDA would be acceptable for the proposed uses.
Neil Salman, chief design officer for the applicant, testified the PDP meets the four approval criteria under the UDO and answered questions about erosion control and grading. “Water will always go downhill… but we will alleviate that as best we can by… having drainage on‑site,” Salman said while explaining standard erosion‑control measures and catchment features the project will include.
Traffic consultant Erin/Aaron Gouvea presented an updated traffic design analysis using the Institute of Transportation Engineers trip‑generation methodology and recent local counts, concluding no adverse transportation impacts are expected with the proposed mix and scale of uses. Staff and the applicant agreed to condition the PDP so that if tenant mix later moved materially above the predicted trip generation, the town engineer may require a trip‑generation memorandum at site‑plan review.
A neighbor objected to his party status in the quasi‑judicial hearing and was allowed to provide public comment but not to participate as a litigant; the council explained standing rules under North Carolina law. After deliberation, the council adopted staff findings and approved the PDP with the amended conditions.
The approved PDP incorporates: an explicit list of prohibited high‑traffic uses, a stormwater/impervious surface requirement with town engineer approval of mitigating measures, and language routing loading/unloading to West New York Avenue rather than the higher‑traffic Bennett corridor. Staff will enforce impervious and stormwater compliance at site plan and certificate‑of‑occupancy stages.
