[CORRECTION – When this story was originally posted and in the February 7 print edition of The Times, we reported that two of the Foxtail Lane lots with unfinished foundations were involved in a bankruptcy. That was incorrect, an error introduced during editing. The text of the article has been stricken from the text below. The Times regrets the error.]
Time is up for Foxtail Lane developer Ron Jackson.
Last April, Foxfire Village notified Jackson by certified letter that he had six months to deal with three unfinished foundations on Foxtail Lane that he abandoned ten years ago. The October deadline has long since passed, with no apparent effort by Jackson to clean up the unsightly and hazardous construction site.
During the Foxfire Village Council's Thursday, January 30 Work Session, members agreed to levy fines on Jackson for the violation of the Zoning Ordinance, which could amount to as much as $500 per day.
Jackson, in July, offered to give the properties to the Village. But the Council declined that offer, because the properties have been used to secure a debt and two are involved in a bankruptcy.
During the January 30 Work Session, Councilwoman Leslie Frusco noted that one of the lots with an unfinished foundation has been sold.
“The person or entities took over the one foundation in the very back, which is the deepest one,” Frusco said. “[Village Attorney] Michael Brough is in contact with the new owners of this property to try and resolve this issue.”
A Bump in the road
Reynview Vista Road is a sandy lane with a Foxfire Village water line running down the middle. In order to protect water valves, the Village placed concrete slabs at two locations in the middle of the roadway.
During the Village Council's Tuesday, January 14 regular meeting, residents expressed concern that the slabs were a traffic hazard and were leading to the deterioration of the road.
By the time of the January 30 Work Session, several Council members had driven down the road to better assess the situation.
“It is not as dangerous as I thought,” Durham said. “But, clearly, there is an edge to it; and, if you ran over it with your car, it could create a problem.”
“Originally, those two concrete platforms were not there,” Erickson said. "[Former water superintendent, Dick] Christman came to me after lines were installed and said 'We are going to have a problem driving over this.' So, what I recommended — and I worked with someone to get — was concrete platforms around those, so even if they drive over them, it won’t do something to water line itself.”
Durham pointed out, “Most of our water lines run down along our easements [that is, alongside the paved portion of the road]. But this went right down the middle of the road.”
One of the possible complications of having the Village address the problem created by the slabs is that Reynview Vista Road is a private road, not a Village street. But Councilwoman Frusco suggested a way around that problem.
“We have easements from every property owner on one side of the road," Frusco said. "There are properties we couldn’t get an easement from on the other side of the road. We have recorded easements from all those. From that standpoint, if there is an issue that could affect our water lines, we can expend money to take care of our easements. That area is not a private road, it is an easement that was granted to the Village.”
“I agree with Leslie,” McCue said. “We have to fix it, if there is the possibility of damaging our water line.”
The Council agreed to research possible solutions to the problem presented by the concrete slabs and discuss those with property owners along the road before any work is done.
Frusco recommends fund dedicated to Wooodland Circle debt
The Village has been paying off its debt for the $1.9 million Woodland Circle Extension project using revenue from assessments levied on property owners along the street. Those assessments end in 2015, and the Circle's largest landowner surrendered his property to the Village rather than pay the $1.4 million he was assessed.
With the end of the assessment revenue stream in sight, Finance Office Frusco recommended during the January 30 Work Session that the Council establish a dedicated fund for debt service
“After a great deal of research and discussion with the State Treasurer’s Office," Frusco said, "what I am proposing is we establish a debt service fund. With that fund, we start a plan to put away money that is restricted for debt service. My proposal will be $100,000 of the current year’s budget and another $100,000 of next year's.”
The plan would allow the Village to cover three additional years of payments on the Woodland Circle loan after the assessments stop in 2015.
Plans for Woodland Circle Assessments went awry
In 2009, the Village of Foxfire Council approved paving a 7,500 foot extension from Eagle Drive to Woodland Circle and also provided fourteen property owners access to the Village Water System. Landowners on Woodland Circle would be assessed for the $1.9 million expense over a five year period.
Landowners along the newly-paved street were assessed using an equal rate per acre methodology — a formula that placed the majority of the burden — $1.4 million — on one landowner, John McKean.
McKean unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the Council to allocate costs using a different methodology. When that attempt failed, the Council was informed that McKean would not pay his share of the assessments. In lieu of payment, the Council agreed to accept the 160 acres along Woodland Circle in the place of a cash payment.
During the January 30 Work Session, Councilman Steve Durham asked, “When the decision was made to build Woodland Circle, how was it projected that we would pay for that project?”
Both Mayor George Erickson and Councilwoman Leslie Frusco answered, “Through assessments.” Erickson and Frusco had firsthand knowledge as they were both Council members in 2009.
Durham continued: “It was just the McKean thing that has thrown this kind of upside down?”
“We had three meetings with the McKeans," Erickson recalled, "and at no time during those discussions, because we knew he had the majority fronting, did he say 'I am not going to pay my assessments.'”
Land for sale . . . or solar farming
If the Village could sell the 160 acres it obtained from McKean, it could pay off the Woodland Circle debt more quickly.
In an attempt to better market the acreage, the Village sent out three letters to developers. One letter proposed that the land would be suitable for an assisted living facility, while the others suggested various schemes for equestrian or residential development.
The Council is also researching whether or not the land is suitable for a solar farm. During the January 30 Work Session, Erickson noted that he had received information the same day from Innovative Solar Systems.
Plenty of sun to go around
Moore County resident and landowner David Wilson, who resides in the Village’s Extraterritorial Zoning Jurisdiction [ETJ], has requested that the Council consider rezoning his acreage so that he would be permitted to lease forty of his three hundred acres for a commercial solar farm. The Planning and Zoning Board has since been researching the issue.
“Mr. Wilson came in and gave us a presentation on his property,” Councilman Mick McCue said.
“It, quite frankly, looks pretty good," McCue continued. "These panels are only about forty inches high. There would be a chain length fence around it. It would hook up into the [electric] line on Hoffman Road. It is a level three electric line and is sufficient for him to do it. It does not make noise.”
“[Planning & Zoning Board ] Chair Mary Gilroy has been in touch and talked about the possibility of solar farms and whether we could use all of the Woodland Circle property for this kind of thing," McCue continued. "The question is: how far we are from that property to the [three phase electric] line?”
“Some of those technicalities, I don’t think we know yet," Frusco said. "Obviously, the first action we have to think about is that the current zoning is not adequate."
Frusco posed other questions for the Council to ponder: “Do we want solar farms, and what districts do we want that in? Whether you want it as special or conditional use permit?”
Durham also encouraged the Council to also think long term.
“I am open to this and want to consider it," he said. "But we have to make sure what we decide today won’t come back to haunt us in twenty years.”
The Council decided that their questions should be directed to the Planning and Zoning Board for research — and from there to the Village attorney.
“Everybody shoot to me their specific concerns for P&Z to address in detail as they are working through this use,” McCue said.
Ordinance enforcement
Code enforcement — and the creation of specific ordinances that target perceived problems in the Village — have been much on the mind of the Foxfire Village Council in recent months.
During the January 30 Work Session, the question turned to ordinance enforcement.
“What is the ordinance compliance protocol?" Councilman Durham asked. "How are we going to handle when we see some clear violation of an ordinance, and how are we going to move forward and hold people accountable? I see them all over, and don’t know what to do.”
"We have worked really hard about updating our ordinances," he continued. "A lot of the work that we have done has focused on that. We need to take another step forward. How are we going to enforce them?”
After several minutes of discussion, the Council agreed that enforcement would be best handled by the Village’s Police Department. Friendly verbal reminders of ordinances or notices of violations would be made by police officers, who would then document and report those contacts to the Village Clerk, who would followed up with a letter.
“The documentation would go to [Village Clerk] Lisa [Kivett], so that there is written documentation that there was contact,” Frusco suggested. “The next step or procedure should be an official letter from the Village. I think we need to start doing this. There is nobody better than our public safety personnel.”
Thinking long term about water
Foxfire's water system is running smoothly and meeting demand, but Councilman Durham reminded his fellow Council members during the January 30 Work Session that the long term plan for the system remains unclear.
“It was in our Long Range Plan to keep water front and center,” Durham said. “We read more and more about fracking in Moore County, that it will become a reality in a couple of years, and we can’t put this off forever. At some point we will need to make a decision. The best time to do that is when things are going well. We need to have this conversation and talk about how we are going to continue to manage our water system. We need to think about and go back and revisit some of our options.”
The Council spent considerable energy last year exploring a possible merger of the Foxfire Village system with Moore County's water system.
Erickson reassured the Council, “The way we went through that whole discussion [with the County] is that the same funding source comes around on an annual basis. I also know they have not completed negotiations with Harnett County." The County is in the process of securing a state loan to finance upgrades and extensions to the water system in order to support piping in additional water from Harnett County.
