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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes CC - 09/14/2015 - MINS 09 14 15 WS (Migrated from Optiview)-------------------------- Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14,2015 at 6 :00pm Page I of20 This summary is provided as a convenience and service to the public, media, and staff It is not the intent to transcribe proceedings verbatim. Any reproduction of this summary must include this notice. Public comments are noted and heard by Council, but not quoted. This document includes limited presentation by Council and invited speakers in summary form. This is an official record of the Milton City Council Meeting proceedings. Official Meetings are audio and video recorded. The Work Session of the Mayor and Council of the City of Milton was held on September 14,2015 at 6:00PM. Councilmembers Present: Councilmember Karen Thurman, Councilmember Bill Lusk, Councilmember Matt Kunz, Councilmember Burt Hewitt, Councilmember Joe Longoria and Councilmember Rick Mohrig (via telephone). Mayor Joe Lockwood presided over the meeting. • Work Sessions are an informal setting to update Council on business items. • No votes will be taken during these sessions. • There are five (5) items on our Agenda tonight. • Public comment is allowed that is germane to an Agenda Item . • If you wish to speak you are required to fill out a comment card and turn it into the City Clerk staff. • Public comment will be allowed for a total of 10 minutes per agenda item and no more than 2 minutes per person. • Public comment will be heard at the beginning of each Item. • Once the item is called, no other comment cards will be accepted. Agenda Item # 1 was read. 1. Presentation of The Hub Family Resource Center serving Milton, Johns Creek, Alpharetta and Roswell. (Remco Bromm et , The Hub Family Resource Ce nter) Remco Brommet, The Hub Family Resource Center Most of you know that I had the privilege of serving Johns Creek as their Citizen Advocate for four years. My job was to connect citizens in crisis with appropriate resources. The work ranged from people who had lost their house in a fire to parents whose child had committed suicide to senior citizens needing financial help to parents who are crying out for help because their child has been arrested numerous times for the possession of illegal drugs. The cry that I constantly heard was that people tell us to get help but we don't know what kind of help we need or where to get it. So, some grassroots mental wellness task forces started forming in Johns Creek and Milton. Conversations started about the need for a resource center; some sort of connecting point/central place for mental wellness resources. In June 2014, I put togeth~r a Development Team and we wrote a business plan. I showed it to a few seasoned business people to make sure it was sound. In the fall of 2014, we established a board and obtained our 501(c) status in February 2015. About that same time , a property owner in the North Work Session of the Milton City C ouncil Monday, September 14 ,2015 at 6 :00pm Page 2 of20 Fulton area graciousl y donated a building to us rent free for two years. So , we have been very bus y since then getting the building organized ; identifying sources of funding , service providers and profiling them. Our mission is threefold. First and foremost we want to be a place where residents of North Fulton and beyond can come and meet in a stigma free safe environment with resource specialists who will listen to them , access their needs , and help them map out a road to mental wellness and connect them to appropriate service providers who we have researched , vetted , and can trust in our community. In that respect , we want to be a resource to our local police , fire , municipal courts , hospital emergency rooms , as well as our schools. We want to be the one place that they can send people who need mental wellness resources. As you know, there is a growing crisis in our nation as far as mental wellness is concerned. Suicides , drug addiction , heroin overdoses , etc. all point to very similar issues . This is a great benefit to our public entities who first respond to a crisis. Our police departments have reacted very positively. There are several people from our hospital community who are on our board as well as a Fulton County School representative . The second part of our mission we hope to launch in January of 2016 is our Family Life University . This was the second most talked about need that we heard from the community. Many principals told us that we needed parent education in the community. So , we are going to go out in the communities and offer seminars , workshops , and classes for parents. We will discuss a range of subjects such as digital citizenship , cyber safety , knowing your medicine cabinet (75% of addiction to hard drugs begins in a caregiver 's medicine cabinet), parenting through addiction, mental health disorders , parenting basics and many other topics that will be useful for parents and families in North Fulton County. The third and final part of the mission is to provide support groups and networks. We want to pro vide parents who are dealing with difficult issues , such as having a child who is severely addicted to drugs , can talk to each other and learn from each other as well as provide encouragement. We have contacted the Fulton County District Attorney 's office and Solicitor 's office to bring to North Fulton more services and support for domestic violence victims . As of now, all of those services are downtown and we need those services in North Fulton as well. Our grand opening is this Wednesday, September 16 , 2015. Chairman John Eaves with Fulton County will perform the ribbon cutting and give a ke ynote speech. There will be numerous representatives from all over Fulton County in attendance. Thank you for your time and attention. I look forward to a wonderful relationship with the city. PUBLIC COMMENT Kathleen Johnson, 385 Taylor Glen Drive, Milton, Georgia 30004 I am on the Impact Fee committee. We met a few weeks ago and the committee reviewed the ordinance that you will hear tonight. The committee is in favor of the ordinance and the impact fees. Impact fees are about paying your fair share. The existing citizens of Milton are paying their fair share of Capital Improvements through their taxes. The Impact Fees are for new development , new houses , new businesses , etc. The new citizens will pay their fair share through these Impact Fees. We agree with the dollar amounts that are being presented and would like to see that the full amount that staff recommends is collected. Most of the cities and counties in the surrounding area already have Impact Fees . By adopting this ordinance , the city will be able to generate revenue for future improvements. In addition, the CSO will contain incentives regarding Impact Fees to encourage the development of conservation subdivisions. A credit can be given for conservation easements in conservation subdivisions. I recommend approval ofthe Impact Fee Ordinance. ------------------------------------------- Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14 , 2015 at 6 :00 pm Page 3 of20 David Ellis, 3795 Hedgecliff Court, Johns Creek, Georgia 30022 I am the executive vice president of the local group called The Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association which represents the housing and construction industry. I want to talk to you first about the Impact Fees themselves. Impact Fees are a very useful tool of government. Many of us would argue they allow you a way to fund infrastructure because although they are collected they cannot be typically bonded and used to leverage to do things quicker , you have to wait till you collect the money to spend it. Often times the value of the money deteriorates over time. Another thing I would like to mention is looking at Impact Fees in regard to single family homes. If one is going from $0 to almost $8,000 that is a dramatic increase on what would potentially happen in housing in Milton. Certainly Milton has been a very successful market for new home construction and we have seen some lovely homes and communities built here , but these homes and communities were designed not with the Impact Fees in mind. Some things to consider when you discuss the Impact Fees are a good lead time when the fees would kick in , a reduction in the fees or tier them over time. A real concern for areas like Milton is to the work force housing we have in Milton. To a working class person who wants to buy a home in this area $7,000 or $8,000 would have a tremendous impact on them. Another thing to consider is as you look at the Capital Improvement Plan, it is certainly an aggressive plan that calls on the city to maintain all of these improvements. One last thing I would like to mention about Impact Fees is they are typically collected when the permit is pulled but frankly I think it is more appropriate to pay when the CO is done . No new home owners can have an impact on your parks . A typical home of $750 ,000 in Milton takes about 6 -9 months to build and the homeowner would have to pay that fee upfront and does not get the benefit of that money until they move in . To me it is more appropriate to pay those fees once the CO has been made. Any way we can participate with the discussion, we would be glad to help. Chelsea Hagood, 751 Piedmont Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia 30308 I am with the Council for Quality Growth. I just have a couple of comments about the fees schedule also related to the residential properties. We noticed the ordinance was based on the consultant report, which specifically states that the numbers presented are intended to establish a ceiling, where the Impact Fees are calculated are more representative of the maximum allowable fees by state law, rather than a recommendation for what a reasonable fee could be if it were based on the development trends and the region . We wanted to ask you to consider that those numbers are actually more intended to be the ceiling rather than the recommendation. Additionally and echoing the last commenter, the Capital Improvements Plan has a lot of parks and trails planned . While the new growth demand is intended to calculate the Impact Fees , existing residents will also be using and benefitting from the parks without having paid Impact Fees themselves . We are concerned it may place a disproportionate cost burden for the parks and the infrastructure on the new residents. Almost $8,000 would be the highest Impact Fees in the North Fulton area and also the greater Atlanta Metro area. We would like to help you to consider reducing those park and rec fees to be more reasonable and support the new residence , as well as, the existing residence. Howard Carson, 3082 East Shadowlawn Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia 30305 Like a previous speaker, I really would like to make some comments after the presentation because a lot of the questions I am going to ask are things he might be able to help me understand. I too am on the Impact Fee committee. I am a strong supporter of Impact Fees. I always thought it was a reasonable and logical thing for our industry to begin to pay forward the improvements that we impact , particularly parks and rec. However , at our last Impact Fees meeting I happened to be the only person from our industry that was in attendance and when I saw the numbers that your consultant had presented my eyes bugged out. Going from zero to $7 ,700 per lot is a big number. Thankfully they are, according to that ordinance , levied at CO stage rather than building permit stage . I have not had time to fully go through Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14 , 2015 at 6:00 pm Page 4 of20 your parks and rec study that was approved a year or two ago, but I remember there was an expectation that City of Milton needed to spend $200M over the next 20 -25 years to bring yourselves up to this standard that was suggested in the study. That is a net present value of those expenditures. If you do simple math that study says you have 30 ,000 residents today (using round numbers) you are expected to go to 50,000 residents. That means 60% of that money of those expenditures has to be paid by the existing residents. New development can only be made to pay that incremental cost that they are impacting. If you think about that number, if the existing 30 ,000 residents over some 20 -25 year period, it will cost the average resident $4 ,000. Think about that tax increase. Are you all ready to levy that on your citizens? Again, new development can only be forced to pay for its incremental costs . If the existing residents do not pony up their 60% of it, you have to give the money back after six years. I support the imposition of Impact Fees. I think it is an important thing for us to do but I think you really need to take a step back and think about what really is needed in the City of Milton and make sure your residents know what tax increases they are going to have to pay to meet what you have imposed on them. Steve Check, 840 Nettlebrook Lane, Milton, Georgia 30004 I come with a little bit of a broad perspective of what is going on because I do live in the City of Milton. I was on the Design Review Board and also have done residential projects in the city as well. I bring numerous years of development and residential experience, Impact Fees , etc. We as builders in the development community look at Impact Fees as a sour subject but understand there are some positives that come from them as well. I haven't seen the consultant's report so I don't know what it involves. I would like to attend any committee meetings if they are open or I would like to be on the committee if possible. I live in the city and I have been involved and everyone knows my record of involvement with committees , so I do bring a perspective from every angle that needs to be looked at with this. If this is a closed committee , I can participate through public comment or what have you, but I do feel certain things need to be addressed. First , is there a projection on what this is going to be spent on? Secondly, how is that revenue going to be raised? The one thing I do want to caution about Impact Fees is it is not predictable. We can look back 10 years ago with the housing industry and see how Impact Fees were incredible. Government was impacting fees to builders at several different levels. When the downturn came there was a retraction of those fees because the government wanted to encourage and attract building again. So if there is a projection of revenue that is coming from Impact Fees , I certainly hope it is not a line that is growing upward because it definitely will vary. This industry is extremely cyclical. Whether we have an attractive community, which we do, it all depends on jobs, mortgages , rates , etc. The assumption that Impact Fees will be a consistent revenue source for the city is not a guarantee. Agenda Item #2 was read. 2. Discussion of Impact Fee Ordinance, Fee Schedule and Capital Improvement Element. (Kathleen Fi eld, Community Developm ent Director) Kathleen Field, Community Development Director We are here for the last part of the process as we look toward the consideration of the establishment of an Impact Fee ordinance. Part one of this process was the review of the methodology report which established the level of services. Part two was the review and transmittal , which recently happened with the Capital Improvement Element , CIE and you recently voted to transmit that document to DCS and the ARC. I am pleased to announce that document has been approved by those bodies so you will be Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14 , 20 15 at 6:00 pm Page 5 of20 approving that CIE document at the next meeting. The third part of this process is to review and consider a proposed Impact Fee ordinance which includes the fees. Bill Ross is here to give you a presentation on the proposed draft Impact Fee ordinance. Bill Ross, Ross Associates I have no horse in this race, I am the veterinarian . I am here to answer your questions , tell you what the facts are and leave it to you to make the decision on what you want to do. There are two questions that I need your guidance on in order to finalize the Impact Fee ordinance. One of them is whether or not you want to include any exemptions in the ordinance? The draft you have in front of you does contain exemptions which it does not have to if you do not want them. The second question is what do you want to set the fee at? My job was to figure out the maximum which is not a recommendation to you . The CIE has been submitted and has been approved by the state and region. The CIE does not have fees in it , just has projects that are proposed to meet your future needs. We are in the process of creating the ordinance , as well as working on the staff administrative procedures and computer program for fees and assessment. The ordinance contains many things but it all comes from state law. It has been reviewed by an attorney and changes were made per his request. Changes are also represented in the draft before you from the Advisory Committee. The Methodology Report sets those maximum Impact Fees. The Impact Fee program includes park and recreation , fire protection, law enforcement and road improvements. For each facility category there is a service area, level of service , project cost estimates and impact fee calculations. Exemption Policy The Georgia Development Impact Fee Act provides that the City 's "Impact Fee ordinance may exempt all or part of particular development projects from development impact fees if: 1) Such projects are determined to create extraordinary economic development and employment growth or affordable housing ; 2) The public policy which supports the exemption is contained in the city's comprehensive plan; and 3) The exempt development project's proportionate share of the system improvement is funded through a revenue source other than development impact fees." The CIE that is coming back to you for approval includes an exemption policy . The reason for that is because the state says you can adopt exemptions relative to the public benefit of extraordinary employment and economic opportunities or for affordable housing. No one in the state of Georgia has ever adopted an exemption for affordable housing so I focused on the economic development part of it. The paragraph is there to merely enable , you do not have to do it. If you wanted to adopt some exemptions you needed this statement in the CIE. The policy that is in the CIE gets more specific and is focused on extraordinary employment and economic development as seen here: The City of Milton recognizes that certain office , retail trade , religious institutional and private educational development projects provide extraordinary benefit in support of the economic and employment advancement of the City and the city's citizens over and above the access to jobs, goods , and services that such uses offer in general. To encourage such development projects , the Mayor and City Council may consider granting a reduction in the impact fee for such a development project upon the determination and relative to the extent that the business or project represents extraordinary economic development and employment growth of public benefit to the City , in accordance with exemption criteria as adopted herein. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14 ,2015 at 6:00pm Page 6 of20 It is also recognized that the cost of system improvements otherwise foregone through exemption of any impact fee must be funded through revenue sources other than impact fees. Any exemption you grant the city will leave a gap and therefore will need to be made up in the Impact Fee plan. That is probably why not many jurisdictions have adopted exemptions. The criterion that is in the ordinance draft now has been taken from a number of jurisdictions that have similar economic goals and objectives. The criteria to evaluate a particular application: • Tax -exempt religious institutions are in here for 100% reduction That generated a lot of discussion at the Advisory Committee meeting because some felt they were already tax exempt so why are we giving them a break on Impact Fees . Others felt we do need to give them a break on Impact Fees because they are important to the community. The final outcome was to let Council make that decision. • Businesses include: o Offices o Retail trade establishments o Accredited private schools Business use evaluation considers: • Exemption proportional to the degree of extraordinary economic development and employment growth of public benefit to the City. • Applies to a new business or expansion of an existing business. • Preferred types of businesses : o National/Regional corporate offices o Research and development o Private Schools that are accredited • Capital investment in land and buildings • Economic impact of the total annual amount off o Newwages o Purchases , and o Other expenditures • Job creation: o Total new jobs o Number of jobs exceeding average wage in Milton o Number of managerial , professional or senior executive positions Coun cilm ember K u nz Bill , how tedious will it be to update this program? Bill Ross Every year you have to do a CIE update to the state and that is where you can make updates and changes. If you want something completely new and different you would have to go back and amend the whole program. Councilm e mb er K unz For example, let's say we did not include exemptions to start but decided we needed them down the road, would that be something that involved just an annual addition? Bill Ro ss No , that would require an amendment to the ordinance. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14 ,2015 at 6:00pm Page 7 of20 Credits Fee reductions in compensation for reducing demand for public facilities. • Credit for developer contribution. Develop builds a portion of an Impact Fee eligible road improvement, for instance instead of paying the fee for the road , they can get a credit against their Impact Fee for that. You can only grant the credit to the extinct of the Impact Fee but everything over the developer can carry forward . They can carry a credit with them and apply that credit to another project in the city or they can even assign that credit to someone else if they choose . The city gets the road improved and that is money the city does not have to spend and the developer gets a credit against their Impact Fee . • Credit for residential estate lot sizes. Dedication for a conservation easement reduces city 's need to purchase easements elsewhere and a credit for the easement is given. Take the three acre estate lot , the city is only going to collect the Impact Fee from the one lot versus three lots as they would have before. They also will have forgone the need to provide a level of service for the other two lots and will only need to provide service for the one lot. What the two houses would have paid in Impact Fees is a savings to the city and therefore the city can grant that as a credit to the Impact Fee of the one lot/house . Right now the maximum that would be paid for the parks and rec fee is $6 ,215. The credit for the two houses that are not there is $2 ,884 so when you add everything else in, it brings the parks and rec fee down to $4 ,756. • No city repayment to the impact fee fund The Methodology Report has the maximum fees calculated. The amount of money you will need to spend over the next 20 years to realize everything that is proposed in the parks and rec plan and the conservation plan would run nearly $200M. $1OOM out of the $200M is not Impact Fee eligible, the remainder $1OOM would need to be obtained by bonds , property taxes , etc. This other $1OOM is what it is going to cost to bring the parks and rec system up to the level of service for the people who are residents of Milton right now. New development would pay their share ($104M) for those improvements but they are given a credit (taxes they have begun to pay) which brings the net Impact Fee program cost down to around $60M. Fee Schedule At the maximum Impact Fee rate: • Average sales price of a new single-family home in Milton is $669 ,457. The Impact fee would add about 1.1% to the total sales price . • Nonresidential costs vary considerably. Assuming construction costs of $220 per square foot... o For a supermarket, the Impact Fee cost would be about 1.35% of the total o For an office building , 0. 7% o For a quality restaurant , 1.8% o For a fast food restaurant , up to 4.9% o For a convenience market with gas pumps , 3.9% (Fast food restaurants and convenience markets generate a lot of traffic that is why their fees end up being higher.) • Fees less than the maximum can be adopted , but "proportionality" must be maintained: o All of the fees for a particular public facility category can be reduced by the same percentage o The percentage can vary from one public facility category to another o The percentages can vary from 1 00% to 0% Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14 , 20 15 at 6 :00 pm Page 8 of20 Coming Up ... Impact Fee Program Adoption : • City Council Work Session: September 14 • First Reading : September 21 • Second Reading/ Adoption : October 5 -------------------------- We also have a spreadsheet to allow us to play with the numbers . The spreadsheet will show you what the result would be if you reduced Impact Fees in one category. This is an interactive spreadsheet and we can plug in any percentages you want on any category and receiving then what the fees would be based on those changes. Councilmember Lusk Is this intending to be all inclusive with the different types of construction in the city? Your attachment A ... Bill Ross That is the maximum fee that could be charged in all of those land use categories. Somebody may come along with a land use that is not on the list so the ordinance has a process in which Kathleen Field can make a decision of what category to attach it to and come to some agreement what the fee ought to be. There is also an appeals process called an Individual Assessment , where a person actually gives the city information that they are different than the others because of XYZ , so the fee could be based on that as well. In all of those cases , the decision is being made what the use actually owes by using the same methodology as all the other categories , to come up with the fee. Councilmember Lusk I am making reference to a couple of projects in the city at this time , the Senior Living or Assisted Living . I do not see that on your Fee Schedule here. Maybe that is one of your special cases you might address as far as what actual impact the y have. Is this the type of exercise you would go through in addressing a specific use like this? Bill Ross Yes , and those types of uses were left off on purpose. Assisted living , retirement community, nursing care , etc . all of these uses need to be looked at one by one. The main resource at looking at them one by one is in the Traffic Manual that the Institute of Transportation Engineers use and those numbers went into a lot of our calculations. The user and the city need to come to an agreement what a fair fee would be. Should I leave these exemption policies in your ordinance , take them out or change them? Councilmember Hewitt It sounds like it is good to have the polic y in there even if there are not any exemptions allowing you to add if ever needed . If that is the case , I think we should leave them in there. Councilmember Thurman I agree. Councilmember Longoria Leave the policy in there but don 't have any specific called out exemptions and let us decide what needs to be in there and what does not. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14 , 20 15 at 6 :00 pm Page 9 of20 Bill Ross I am going to turn it back over to Kathleen Field , who I believe has a recommendation for you. Kathleen Field I am prepared to make a recommendation to you in terms of the percentages, Mr. Mayor or would you rather to discuss it first? Staff is prepared to let you know what our thinking is. Mayor Lockwood Does anyone have anything beforehand before we hear staff's recommendations? Councilmember Kunz It sounds like we are committing ourselves to spend a certain amount of dollars and the real question is , what method are we going to be paying for those , whether we do it through Impact Fees or as a city do it on our own pocket. But it doesn 't sound like the upfront number is flexible at all , is that number flexible or is there any give on those front end numbers? Bill Ross You adopted a Parks and Recreation plan along with a Conservation Plan and said this is what we want to implement. We are going to achieve certain level of service in this community that would bring quality parks/rec facilities and activities to the city. You could say that is a commitment you have made. For example, if you leave the level of services in place while reducing the Impact Fee for parks and rec then you have shifted the responsibility from new growth over to the taxpayers. The taxpayers are already paying $1OOM out of the $200M to begin with and then this would be adding on to that. If you take the opportunity to go back and review the parks and rec plan then maybe a $200M plan is a little too much to bite off then the city really thought when the plan was being developed. If you want to reduce the fee you should also look at modifying the level of service . Councilmember Kunz Let me understand this. If there is an economic condition that occurs which would not allow the city to maintain this plan , then would the state impose that the city will have to spend this amount of money that was promised? What is the enforcement mechanism to require us to do this regardless of certain circumstances? Bill Ross If I understand your question, the money you collect in Impact Fees can only be spent on the types of facilities for which it was collected. Councilmember Kunz I just want to make sure we are not locking ourselves into spending "X" amount and not. .... Councilmember Longoria I understand what Matt 's concern is. You want to makes sure we are not committing to spending a certain amount of money in development of services , right? We as a council cannot engage a future council , in terms of any kind of commitment, to spend money that is not already in a budget somewhere. Ken Jarrard, City Attorney That is correct. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14 ,2015 at 6:00pm Page 10of20 Councilmember Longoria To Matt's point if something were to change to cause us to back down from some level of service that we thought we were going to be able to provide , as lon g as we are not spending the money on something other than what it was originally intended , we do not have to worry about coming up with some crazy plan to spend $200M if there is no way for us to raise that kind of money . Bill Ross You have a plan already adopted. Councilmember Kunz Where is the accountability? Bill Ross Someone is going to ask where is my park? Where is my ball field? Councilmember Hewitt You mentioned you would have to give the money back after six years if it has not been spent, right? Bill Ross You will be encumbering your money every year to specific projects. You do this on the annual report. You will show what you collected , what you spent, how much you have in the bank and what projects you have encumbered it for. You have to adopt this after the state reviews it; therefore , this becomes your commitment. As you go into the future you are going to be moving from estimated costs to real costs and you can make adjustments in the annual report as you go along . Councilmember Thurman So you really need a plan that keeps you on track , adjusting the plan as you go along based on what your collections are and what actually costs are. Bill Ross Correct. Kathleen Field The major sticking point with this analysis is the large amount that was allocated under parks and rec , $200M. We are going to be updating the Comprehensive Plan this year and as part of that update , we could relook at the Park and Recreation Plan to see if indeed the $200M level of service is as viable as we think it is. In the interim, we could look at a reduction in the park and rec to 50% for the year and then for next year when we update our CIE , we could come back in terms of what we found for the updated Parks and Rec Plan in terms of what that level of service and the cost would be. Mayor Lockwood You are recommending reducing the Park and Rec portion in half. Anybody have any comments on that? Councilmember Thurman That would put us comparable to Roswell and Alpharetta 's new proposed amounts, correct? Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14 , 20 15 at 6 :00 pm Page II of20 Kathleen Field Pretty close . Also don 't forget when these Impact Fees were put into place by these other municipalities. Ours will be 2015 , while some of those you are looking at are much older and you really need to look at when they were established. Councilmember Lusk Alpharetta is considering raising theirs, is that true? Kathleen Field Yes and no. Bill is their consultant. Bill Ross Alpharetta has a very expansive Parks and Rec plan. They are looking at addressing it. I talked to the planners over there today and I will meet with the council on the 21 st. The main message I have received from my meetings is that the fees have been too low and can we figure how to make them higher. Right now , Alpharetta's maximum fee for a single family house is under $6 ,700 with most of that going towards parks and recreation. Councilmember Thurman That is their current fee? Bill Ross Their current fee was adopted more than 20 years ago. If you apply simple inflation to it , it would be double that today , but it is still not up to the level we are talking about on the new Methodology Report . They are very old fees and Alpharetta recognizes that. Their Parks and Rec Plan is not as expensive as yours and they have a much higher fee for roads, no fee for Fire Department, some for 911 and the Police Department. With the Fire , they have all the trucks and stations they need , just need to replace 'some but you cannot use Impact Fees for replacing , you can only buy new things to increase the level of service. Their fee piece by piece is considerably different than yours but the total number is well up near $7 ,000 category. Mayor Lockwood What direction do you need , Kathy , from us ? Kathleen Field We already got the direction about exemptions , earlier from you, about leaving the language as is and addressing case by case as they came in. We just need the level of the fees from you all at this point. Mayor Lockwood Do you need a general direction on the fees tonight? I know you said 50% on parks and rec. Are there strong feelings /directions at this point that we can give staff or do you all want to wait and address the actual fees themselves ? Councilmember Kunz I am alright with waiting on it. Councilmember Longoria I agree . Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14 ,2015 at 6 :00pm Page 12 of20 Councilmember Thurman We do not know what Alpharetta is going to do at this point , either. Mayor Lockwood If it is alright with Council , I know there were three or so public comments who wanted to speak after presentation. If you want to add something, please do so. Steve Check, 840 N ettlebrook Lane, Milton, Georgia 30004 I am coming in a little late to what is going on here so I am a little off and a bit uniformed but better today. I appreciate the presentation by Bill. I think this is moving at the speed of light and if there is a ratification for Impact Fees just based on what other municipalities are doing that may be an easy decision for you to take , but I think these projections of costs are staggering over 20 years. I live here and do business here, so I look at how that all impacts not only future business but residents. Basically what I got out of what the person on the committee said earlier is this is not going to impact residents as far as taxes go. If the committee that was assigned to do this has still got some questions and the September 21 st is the date you vote on this , it is a little too quick for me. Kathleen Johnson, 385 Taylor Glen Drive, Milton, Georgia 30004 I am on the Impact Fee Committee. I just spoke to the consultant to address your concerns . He has been working on this for a year. I have been on the committee from the first meeting in March 2015 and have attended every committee since then. It has been six months we have been working on this. I know the council has heard this several times. I am sorry the previous speaker does not know about it and is learning about it now. So , it has been going on for awhile , so it is not happening at lighting speed as the previous speaker said. I think you might want to put this off tonight since you have just heard about the parks and rec and it is the big discussion point. That way you will be able to evaluate what it will mean if the parks and rec fee is reduced. If you do reduce the parks and fee rate , you are going against the parks and rec plan that has been approved . If you choose to redo the plan and reduce it and alter the fee then that is a course you can take, but that is going to then reduce the amount of parks and rec land and recreation that you give to your current citizens , in favor of reducing the costs to developers and citizens that are not here yet. It is between your citizens now and what you are going to make them pay or developers and future citizens and what Impact Fees they may have to pay. It is either going to be on your citizens now by having them pay more because Impact Fees are lower on new development or giving them less parks and rec. Howard Carson, 3082 East Shadowlawn Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia 30305 While yes this committee has met for a long time , we were just shown these numbers two weeks ago. We all knew you were considering the Impact Fee ordinance . Again I am a supporter, but at the last two meetings , I was the only one from my industry that was there. So this is catching a lot of people very blind. It is a huge number. Even when we saw the number, we certainly in the last two weeks have not had the time to go back into your parks and rec study and fully comprehend what all these means. It is new information and to what Mr. Check said , "Having this proceed at rapid fire pace", I think is too much. It does take some time to understand it. You are making a commitment to spend this money and the legal effect of that, I do not know but if you are taking it from us , the existing tax payers are going to have to meet that $140M balance. That is a whole lot of money. Maybe that is a reasonable level of service , I don 't know. I do not live in the City of Milton , so this is the job you all have to decide for the city. I think it is reasonable to take a little time out and let us figure out what all these numbers mean. Make sure your residents understand the impact on them . Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14 , 2015 at 6 :00 pm Page 13 of20 Noel Carpenter, 15230 Highgrove Road, Milton, Georgia 30004 I was also on the Impact Fee Committee last year with the other members that have spoken tonight. I have just a couple of comments. This is the initial report we started reviewing back in March 2015. Although we have been working to move the ball forward , the consultant was able to compute a general feedback at the very beginning of March, a fee of $7 ,700. We have been zeroing in on this same target since the beginning and these numbers have not changed because they were developed from the plan. Before the consultant could start working on what we needed to do and how it needed to be done in governance, he had to utilize where we are now , where we plan to go , what are the costs going to be in order to do that and what will be the impacts on our community based on the new people. Although there are a lot of numbers here, this is simple math and is a simple spreadsheet. It starts at the beginning and tells a story and you end up at a number (fee). Essentially , if we discount the fee for someone, someone else is going to pay the fee unless we cut service. It is that simple. We are headed to this level of service and it is going to have to be paid for at the amount of $250M , so somebody is going to be out of pocket for that money. And the question is whether everyone pays equally, including the new people , or whether we discount that fee to incentivize new growth or we reduce services. It is that simple. My only general comment is I believe the movement is about conservation, we have been talking about that for two years as well , and I believe if we do feel that this is going to impact growth , isn't that what you are trying to do in the first place? You are trying to slow growth. On the other side of that coin, if you are slowing growth then it is going to make property values for existing citizens higher, it is going to make it harder to move in here , supply for new homes will drop and your costs are going to go up. There should be more profits on the table for these new homes. That's the pattern here. This is not new. It is simple math. I know you can do it and I am on your team. Councilmember Thurman I don't know if we can use this as a method to slow growth. We need to make sure we have the parks and the other infrastructures in place to handle the growth when it comes , is that correct? It scares me a little bit that we are using this as a method to slow growth . Bill Ross I am unaware of any community that has adopted an Impact Fee that resulted in slowing growth . Simultaneously, City Councils and Board of Commissions think about what is a level of a fee that would be acceptable and not slow growth. I think adding 1% to the average cost of a single family house would be doable, but that is just me thinking personally. Most likely a new house and land are priced at a gross profit of25%, so it is hard for me to see that the industry could not absorb a 1% increase. At one meeting , we talked a lot about how builders do add-ons and one person said I can pay for that fee with the add-ons of the chandeliers. So , it is debatable in many ways as to whether the maximum fee would slow growth or not. The maximum fee would help you realize the goals you have set for the quality of this community. As was just said , pick your poison, do you want to lower your standards to get the fee down to something that is acceptable to the new folks or do you want to shift the burden to your taxpayers who will have to pay more in the property taxes for bonds , etc. to pay for more than their fair share. It is pretty simple math . Ken Jarrard, City Attorney Councilmember Thurman , I do agree with you. I think the public policy is not written to be used as a growth prevention tool. I think it is meant to be a means to allocate the costs of the development and growth to those the law allows to allocate cost to as opposed to property tax. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14,2015 at 6:00pm Page 14 of20 Councilmember Longoria I think the point was that all things being equal , if the fees in Milton are higher than the fees someplace else and the developer is not hiding those fees, then they are passing it directly on to the consumer and an economic impact would be felt. Our public policy in terms of what an Impact Fee is, what it represents and how it is going to be used can have side effects. So we need to be aware of those side effects and we need to plan on that potential. Councilmember Lusk The nagging thought that keeps coming back to me is based on living within our means. I know we have established a level of service for our parks and recreation as part of this review process but going forward I would like to revisit that discussion to see if it is achievable and still be able to live within our means without incurring a lot more debt than we can feasibly assume. I think I am cautious because of living through harder times, so I think revisiting our commitment to provide that level of service is a good thing. Mayor Lockwood Anyone else? I think we have given Kathy and Bill enough for right now. Again, to all who spoke publically, you are welcome to keep in touch with us and send your comments, emails, etc. to us as we move forward. Agenda Item #3 was read. 3. Discussion of City of Milton Budget -Revenue and Expenditures Capital Improvement Project Prioritization (FY 2016) and Amended Budget (FY 2015). (Stacey inglis, Assistant City Manager) Stacey Inglis, Assistant City Manager Chris has called in so he can answer any questions you may have if I am not able to. You have already heard everything about the FY16 budget so let 's talk about that first before we talk about the Fund Balance. Are there any questions you may have since you have had a chance to review the budget? Councilmember Thurman Stacey, I had asked Chris for a schedule that showed year to year the budget broken down between what is really operating budget and which line items are our capital improvements because I believe they are two totally different things. Do you have that? Stacey Inglis I do have something like that. I'm not sure if it shows you exactly what you were asking for but I can certainly pass this out. Councilmember Thurman I do not have a problem with increasing the budget in the capital improvement area but operating expenses are a completely different story. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14 , 2015 at 6:00 pm Page 15 of20 Stacey Inglis So , what you see is that I looked at amended budget for FY14 and FY15 and compared the dollars and variance percentages year to year. On the next page , you will see FY15 and proposed FY16 and the variances from year to year. I also tried to separate the general operating budget versus operating transfers out to the capital projects. Does this capture what you were looking for? Councilmember Thurman Yes , but I think we need to look at the detail of the larger increases if we have any. It looks like the largest increase percentage wise was in the Mayor and Council budget. Stacey Inglis That is due to the M&O Initiative for the $200 ,000 for the Greenprint and GEO Bond Process. Councilmember Thurman And , that goes in the Mayor and Council budget? To me , that is more of a capital project more than an operating expense. When I think of operating expenses , I think of reoccurring expenses . To me , that is more of a capital one-time type cost than an operating expenditure. Stacey Inglis I will make that adjustment and bring it forward to you on September 21 st. Councilmember Lusk I have several questions both in the M&O and the CIP. I would like to meet with you regarding those items. Stacey Inglis Okay , I am available at your convenience. Councilmember Thurman Like I said, I don 't mind if expenses are increasing in the Capital Improvement Budget because that means we may have excess from prior years that we are able to spend . Stacey Inglis And , that is what I tried to show where it says Fund Balance Reserve -one time; Capital Project Contribution. I tried to pull that out of the number so you will see in the FY15 we had almost $4 .3 million going toward the City Hall project that we pulled out of the Fund Balance number. So , I did try to separate that from the Operating Transfer going over into the Capital Projects Fund. Councilmember Thurman I know one of the things that increased the greatest was Parks and Recreation and a good portion of it was due to park mowing and litter pick up for the new park so we now have that responsibility. How does that work with our agreement with Hopewell Youth Baseball Association who , in the past , has had some of that responsibility? How does that work with them now? Stacey Inglis Jim Cregge will have to answer that question. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14 , 20 15 at 6 :00 pm Page 16 of20 Carter Lucas -·---------- We will have to take over that responsibility at this point. Councilmember Thurman I know that is an additional cost to us and a decreasing cost to them. Does that affect our agreement with them now that they do not have to spend that money? Jim Cregge We have now gotten our program providers all on a similar schedule in which there is a 30% commission on registration that each of the program providers are paying to us. So , Hopewell Baseball is now paying a 30% commission . Councilmember Thurman And , where is that in the revenue budget? Stacey Inglis It is located under activity commissions for HY A. It is on the second page of the revenues. There is a $75 ,000 line item there for revenues. Previously , it was $1 ,500 . It is located under Charges for Services. Councilmember Thurman Bill , maybe you and I can both sit down with Stacey because I have some other questions too. That would be the best use of our time tonight. Stacey Inglis Sure , we can schedule a time later. Councilmember Lusk In the City Clerk Department, the anticipated election costs are still in the budget. Stacey Inglis At the time, whenever I put the budget together, we did not know if there would be an election or not. So , I can certainly reduce those fees. I believe Fulton County will only reimburse us for the costs that they have not already incurred. I don't know what those costs would be at this point, I'm sure it is pretty low especially based on what we did two years ago with the election costs. I think the costs were around $1,000 or $2 ,000 so we have already paid them around $52 ,000. We will receive a refund sometime in February 2016. Would you now like to talk about the Fund Balance and what we can do with those funds or would you like to discuss that on Monday? Are you okay with what we proposed to you last Wednesday? Just to reiterate , we are looking at $5.2 million surplus plus the $250 ,000 that we can add to revenues due to property taxes and the $97,000 that we have left over from revenues over expenditures for FY16. So , that is approximately $5 ,450 ,000. So , I suggested that $1.5 million would go to the City Hall project to align funding with the design development estimates. $2 million to fund the acquisition of future park land , $200 ,000 for sidewalks, $200 ,000 for dam repair and maintenance . We are also projecting $1 ,647 ,000 for Providence Park improvements , the northwest connector intersection project and anything else that you feel would be worthy of that money. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14 ,2015 at 6 :00pm Page 17 of20 City Manager Lagerbloom We will be happy to meet with any of you who may have questions. If we could meet sooner rather than later then we can keep the adoption of the budget on the September 21 st Agenda and not have to re- advertise for a later date. Councilmember Lusk I am available this week. Stacey Inglis I am too. We can coordinate a time to meet. Agenda Item #4 was read. 4. Discussion RZ15-15 -To Amend the Rural Viewshed within the Rural Milton Overlay for Single Family Type Uses . [Sec . 64-114(a)]. (Kathleen Fi eld, Co mmunity Developm ent Dir ector) PUBLIC COMMENT (read into the record by Sudie Gordon, City Clerk) Scott Reece, 13685 Highway 9, Milton, Georgia 30004 Mr. Mayor and Members of Council , I am unable to attend tonight's meeting, but I am very concerned with changes to the rural viewshed. Please consider that these changes will only affect those of us who still own large tracts of land. Previously developed properties will not be affected. Any taking of setback along main road should be offset with reduction on subdivision street. How does this affect future houses fronting existing streets . Septic field line should be allowed in buffer, otherwise , lot size must increase to compensate for lost usable area. This is a taking of our property without compensation. Please consider all ramifications before changing a system that has created the best quality of life in the state. Thank you. Kathleen Field, Community Development Director We are proposing that when this item comes before you next week that it is withdrawn. And , that is because we have advertised it so some action is required. We are asking that it be withdrawn simply because essentially the proposed changes as written are deficient in that when we started this process it was really aimed at increasing the rural viewshed. But, subsequent to that, we have had many conversations about enhancing the AG-1 and the other single family zoning districts so, accordingly, we have advertised now and we are opening up all of the single family zoning districts. So , items such as the rural viewshed , changes to the entry way driveways , allowed pastoral uses in a rural viewshed, all of those items that we have discussed as part of that enhanced AG-1 we will be discussing and bringing forward to you after the CZIM and the Planning Commission will come to you as a workshop. So , there are more things besides what is just included in this existing change to the rural viewshed. So , we would like to essentially withdraw that and start again with the additions that we are going to propose for all the single family zoning districts which I think will better meet your discussion requirements in terms of enhancing those single family zoning districts . Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14 , 20 15 at 6 :00 pm Page 18 of20 Agenda Item #5 was read. 5. Discussion of Alternative Housing for Seniors in the AG-1 District. (Kathleen Fi eld, Co mmunity Developm ent Director) PUBLIC COMMENT Donna Hobgood, 13039 Freemanville Road, Milton, Georgia 30004 I would like to ask for alternative housing for senior citizens in the AG-1 zoning district. At the present time , I don't believe you have an ordinance for senior citizens other than institutionalized living such as the Benton House which is more like a school environment instead of a home environment. Our house is about 14,000 square feet and is located on almost two acres of land. We were considering running a business out of our home. I have been told that the AG-1 includes Bed and Breakfast facilities and we had talked about pursuing a Bed and Breakfast. However , after talking with our neighbors and what we would like to provide in Milton is alternative housing for senior citizens. So, if you had a loved one that wanted to be in more of a family environment then they could stay in Milton instead of having to go to Alpharetta. I would like to invite you to look at Mayfield Oaks which is located next to the old library in Alpharetta on Mayfield Road. It used to be Churchill Manor and I have visited it several times. It has new owners , Helen and Jim Voyle , and they said they would be more than happy to talk to the Milton City Council and offer to show them their facility. It is a lovely facility. I listened to you talk tonight about the money that is being spent on our Parks and Recreation , etc. but I think the city needs to look at what is happening with our older citizens. You are all invited to my house to look at the accommodations. My husband wanted me to let you know that we would have a high-end facility. We would greatly appreciate your consideration to create an ordinance for a senior citizen living facility in the AG-1 district. Kathleen Field, Community Development Director We have had several inquiries for alternative housing for seniors in the AG-1 and some of the other single family zoning districts. We conducted an analysis of what we have and what other communities have . You have been given a handout outlining our analysis in addition to some Community Health Definitions. We used the definitions from the state community health division regarding what a personal care home is which is essentially a home for two or more unrelated people with non-medical assistance. There is also a definition for assisted living community and a nursing home both of which are more of an institutional medical type of facility. By using those definitions , we looked at what the city allows in terms of these uses . The first page of the handout, under Assisted Living Facility, we do not allow permits in the AG-1 or single family residential districts. We do allow them in the more intense overlay zones in Deerfield and Crabapple. In the Personal Care Home we do not allow permits in the AG-1 or any other single family residential districts but we do allow them in the Deerfield and Crabapple areas. It is also the same situation with the Nursing Home category. However, we do allow Group Residences for five to eight children permitted in AG-1 and single family residential districts with a use permit but it only is specific to children; it does not include adults or seniors. We also allow an Adult Day Care which is categorized as unrelated adults in a single family residence but only during the day; there is no overnight accommodations . On page two of the handout, you can see what other jurisdictions allow and how it relates to Personal Care Homes. They are allowed in most communities; Alpharetta , Athens/Clarke County , Cherokee County and Gwinnett County . However, they are not allowed in Cobb County or Roswell. We have had a request for someone to use their existing residence. We have also had interest in someone who would like to build additional buildings on his land and not Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14 , 2015 at 6:00 pm Page 19 of20 just use his personal residence to convert to a Personal Care Home. So, there are many different ways to look at this. We wanted to bring this information forward to you in order to receive your feedback. We would like to know if you would like for us to pursue this request. Mayor Lockwood I certainly favor looking into this. It would be nice to have options for people; not just a typical institution. Councilmember Kunz I agree and with regards to how it looks I would recommend someone between Alpharetta and Cherokee's maximum number of residences , between 4 and 6 at the most. In certain circumstances, it may depend on the size of the property. Councilmember Lusk Kathy , there is one classification of a Group Residence for Children. Could we not just add another classification for an Adult Group Home? Kathy Field Well , we do not have an Adult Group Home classification. Councilmember Thurman What happens when those children become adults? Kathy Field There is certainly a loophole in our ordinance that needs to be addressed. Mayor Lockwood Kathy , what would be the typical process and timeline to create an ordinance like this? Robyn MacDonald We would have to create another additional text. We would look at it as a use permit; to create a new use permit. It would be about a three and a half month process to create the ordinances we would need to implement this. Whoever would like to pursue it would go through the use permit process which would take another three and a half months for the actual implementation of someone getting the use permit. Kathy Field So , it would take about seven months if we started now for someone to actually get a permit in hand and be able to move forward with the implementation of a Personal Care Home. Councilmember Thurman I think we need to move forward as quickly as we can. I think we need to think outside the box and not just do what all the other jurisdictions have done. I think we need to do everything we need to do to help some of these people who have lived in the community all their lives and now they might not be able to live by themselves. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, September 14 , 2015 at 6:00 pm Page 20 of20 Mayor Lockwood I would like for the staff to create an ordinance that they deem appropriate, however, I would like for council and any citizens who have ideas to come forward and share their thoughts with staff. Councilmember Thurman I think it would be good if you could coordinate a community meeting at the Senior Services Center to get their input on what they think would be best for the community. Date Approved: October 5, 2015 Sudie AM Gordon, Joe Lockwood, ¥';?