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LEWISVILLE — Talking about “staggered terms” has become a regular part of recent Lewisville Town Council meetings, and it doesn’t appear there is any end in sight.

In the last meeting of 2024, the council heard from resident Steve Thompson, who spoke against staggered terms in a public forum, before Dora Moore, the town clerk, presented a resolution of intent to consider amending the town’s charter to implement staggered terms.

In addition to outlining how this would happen, the resolution called for a public hearing to be held on Jan 9, 2025.

So in last Thursday night’s first council meeting of 2025, Town Manager Stacy Tolbert gave an overview, saying the public hearing was just to receive comments and that no action would be taken but adding that the council will consider an ordinance to amend the charter at the next meeting on Feb. 13, and if approved, it will only be effective upon a voter referendum in November 2025.

Tolbert then said, “I’d like to go through a few bullet points just to try to be informative for our residents. So during the November 2025 election, a voter referendum will be placed on the ballot regarding staggered terms. If the referendum passes, staggered terms will be effective at the regular municipal election to be held in 2027.

“Candidates for three council seats receiving the highest number of votes will be elected to a four-year term. Candidates for three council seats receiving the lowest number of votes will be elected to a two-year term. The mayoral seat will also be elected for a two-year term.

“At the regular municipal election to be held in 2029 and every four years after that, three candidate seats will be elected to serve four-year terms. In the event for the November 2025 election, if the referendum does not pass, all council seats, including the mayor’s seat, would remain at a two-year term as it is currently structured today.”

Fred Franklin, a former council member in Lewisville who served multiple terms, was the only speaker in the public hearing, calling this “one of the most important decisions that will be made in the history of our town – and that’s changing our charter and the way Lewisville elects its leaders. I’ve been following council action since this came up in October, and I’m still not convinced that going to four-year staggered terms will accomplish anything because I’m not sure what you’re wanting to accomplish.”

Franklin provided lots of facts and figures, changes in the method of voting regarding partisan elections and other information on state and local elections, including that Lewisville and Kernersville, both with six council members and a mayor, are the only two municipalities in Forsyth County that don’t currently have staggered terms.

“Currently, only Lewisville and Kernersville elect a whole body every two years,” Franklin said. “All the others have five-member boards with a mayor. What’s the right number of members if you want to implement staggered terms? Seven members or five members? It’s my understanding from a recent conversation with the mayor of Kernersville that they are not actively pursuing changing to a staggered-term format and staying with everybody every two years.”

Franklin said that it was his desire that the Lewisville council will look “long and hard about what you’re thinking about doing with this ordinance between now and the Feb. 13 meeting. It is my hope the town will stay with what we’ve got now and not go to staggered terms as currently proposed. If I had a vote in the matter, it would be a ‘no.’ ”

In the business portion of last Thursday night’s meeting, the council approved extending the vesting rights for the Great Wagon Road project involving Arden Townhomes.

That project, which was unanimously approved in February 2023, is located in the Downtown Overlay District, which includes residential, commercial and recreational uses. The town’s updated 2022 Comprehensive Plan designated this area as “Downtown” with the staff report stating that part of the intent of this area was to support multifamily and mixed-use development at appropriate scales.

Tolbert said that “their two-year vested period is about to expire. They have not had the availability to have obtained a building permit in order for that right to be extended due to the postponement of the Great Wagon Road. That is where their access falls.”

“Our vested rights always been two years but our ordinance allows it to go up to five years, but since that was not explicit in their original approval, we wanted to come back before council with this resolution just to reaffirm that they would not lose their vested right and could have up to that five years.”

Before approval, with some language updates, Mayor Mike Horn said: “Hopefully, we’ll have a road built. We’ve been saying that for 15 years, but we’ll see how it plays out.”