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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes CC - 12/08/2014 - MINS 12 08 14 WS (Migrated from Optiview)Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 8, 2014 at 6:00 pm Page I of 10 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 December 8,2014 at 6:00 PM, Councilmember Joe Longoria presiding as Mayor Pro-tern. Councilmembers Present: Councilmember Matt Kunz, Council member Bill Lusk, and Councilmember Burt Hewitt, Council member Joe Longoria and Councilmember Rick Mohrig. Mayor Joe Lockwood was absent. Council member Joe Longoria, Mayor Pro-tern: • Work Sessions are an informal setting to update Council on business items. • No votes will be taken drning 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. Consideration ofRZ14-16 -To Amend Chapter 64, Article XVII, Development Regulations. (Kathleen Field, Community Development Director) Kathleen Field, Community Development Director Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro-tern and members of the City Council. This item before us is a request from the Planning Commission when the Planning Commission was deliberating on changes to the Rrnal Milton Overlay, there were extensive discussions by the Commission regarding clear cutting within the City. They believe that situations had occurred that concerned the Commission: property owners had cut down trees with the intention of creating pastures, but had not used the property as intended. Therefore, Staff was directed to create a Clear Cutting Permit that would assist in controlling futrne removal of trees in certain situations. The proposed new Clear Cutting Permit is within the Development Standards of the Zoning Ordinance and would apply to certain properties zoned AG-I, R-I , R-2 and R-2A which do not have an approved Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 8, 2014 at 6:00 pm Page 2 of 10 Land Disturbance Permit. Included in your packet is a proposed Clear Cutting Ordinance. The City Arborist, the City Zoning Administrator and as well as myself are here to answer any questions you may have. Councilmember Kunz You said the property was not used as intended after they cut the trees, what was the property used for? Kathleen Field They used the property as a ball field in one certain instance. This ordinance really closes the loophole in terms of our Tree Ordinance requiring you to use the land for what you say you are going to use it for. For instance, the AG-l Zoning District does allow for timber harvesting. There is a difference between timber harvesting which is really land management and usually includes the back filling of trees as opposed to clear cutting which is just clear cutting the land. Clear cutting is allowed but to tum around after a year and want to develop the land, really obviates the whole tree ordinance set of requirements. This way it clearly states that if you are clear cutting, you carmot develop your land for five years. It really makes one think in terms of what one would want to use their land for in the future. Councilmember Thurman The whole purpose behind the clear cutting was for pasture land? Kathleen Field Exactly, clear cutting can be done and we have a clear process now, before it was really part of the tree harvesting initiative. This way it is very clear and designates what clear cutting is, what the application process is, what the exemptions are and requires you to maintain that pasture for certain amount of time before you can in tum develop it. Councilmember Lusk So this is the only provision then for harvesting timber? There is no provision in the AG-l zoning classification that allows for clear cutting? Kathleen Field Not currently. Right now we have a timber harvesting requirement but there is no separate delineation between timber harvesting and clear cutting. Councilmember Lusk In the AG-l zoning classification there was a provision for harvesting timber, is this code change an addition to an existing code? Mark Law, Environmental Engineer/Arborist Yes it is. Timber harvesting is still allowed. It has to be a bona fide timber harvesting with the replanting after they harvest. The clear cutting does not have to do any harvesting nor replanting. It is just clearing the property. Councilmember Lusk Are they separate codes sections? Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 8, 2014 at 6:00 pm Page 3 of 10 Mark Law I believe so. The timber harvesting does fall under the Tree Ordinance. The clear cutting will be under Zoning because Agricultural Use properties are exempt from the Tree Ordinance based on extensive talks with the Forestry Commission. This is why we moved clear cutting into Zoning and will be able to clearly enforce it. We are trying to circumvent this mass clearing for other intent. Council member Thurman I am really glad we are doing this. If people are clearing their land for pasture this allows them to do that. If not, and they are clearing their land for an alternative reason, this keeps them honest. Agenda Item #2 was read. 2. Consideration ofRZ14-17 -To Amend Section 64-1 Definitions. (Kathleen Field, Community Development Director) Kathleen Field, Community Development Director Mr. Mayor Pro-tern, there are two areas that require additions or modifications to the definitions. The first definition is "lot coverage". At the October 13 th Council Work Session, Council directed Staff to delete golf courses and bodies of water when calculating lot coverage. At the Planning Commission meeting on November 19,2014, the Planning Commission voiced their opposition to removing this portion of the definition based on the City's overall direction toward preserving the rural character of the City and encouraging the conservation of land. The Planning Commission unanimously voted to remove the proposed deletion of golf courses, water bodies, and streets. The second area is clear cutting definitions. Within the definition of "clear cutting", Staff deleted the statement that clear cutting is subject to the same requirements as timber harvesting. Also, there is a new definition of a "clear cutting permit". The Planning Commission was in support of these two changes regarding clear cutting. Councilmember Longoria They want to add the deletion back in? Kathleen Field They want to add the deletion back in. They want to keep it as is. This pertains to lot coverage. It is a little confusing because we have combined both these issues into one text amendment. This one is dealing with the lot coverage. We had this discussion when we were having problems in The Manor. Councilmember Thurman If these are not deleted then will any of the future homes in The Manor comply? Kathleen Field Perhaps, the lot gets shrunken and therefore the percent of lot coverage also gets shrunken. The Planning Commission felt we should preserve as much open space as possible and to combine this into the lots they felt was going in the reverse direction. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday , December 8, 2014 at 6:00 pm Page 4 of 10 Councilmember Kunz This is the first time that we have voted for something and the Planning Commission brought it back to us, is that normal? Kathleen Field At the October 13,2014 meeting, you asked ,Staff to prepare a text amendment to reflect changes that are so noted here. We then brought it to the Planning Commission as part of the text amendment review, where they get to weigh in and they did not support it. Councilmember Thurman So basically they did not support what we asked you to do? Kathleen Field That is correct. Councilmember Thurman Did they understand that if this is not deleted that none of the lots in The Manor will comply? Robyn MacDonald, Principal Planner We have only had two or three lots that have been a problem and two have been resolved on their own, so it is not the majority . Kathleen Field But we cannot speak to the ones in the future. Councilmember Kunz Do we have an estimate on the number of lots that may come up in the future? Kathleen Field Not at this point. Chris Lagerbloom, City Manager Largely it is determined by house size as well. You could fit a smaller house on the property and it meets the 20%. Where we run into a conflict is when we apply this strict interpretation standard for the lot and then put a house of size on it that meets the protective covenant from the neighborhood. Councilmember Thurman I can see if it was streets but I do not see them having any problems with the bodies of water or the golf course part of it. Kathleen Field I think they felt that if the property was only three quarters of the size because you had deleted the golf course or the body of water, that you should live within the three quarters of the size in terms of what you are building. As the City Manager said, there are covenants from the HOA that are working against that. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 8, 2014 at 6:00 pm Page 5 of 10 Councilmember Hewitt The definition of a lot is what is inside of the four or more property pens, correct? I think if it is within your property pens they should be able to count it as their lot. Councilmember Kunz I would be comfortable telling the Planning Commission that we agree to disagree. Chris Lagerbloom That is what we are looking for here tonight. We have not voted on this yet so if you want us to bring something forward next week, this would be the forum to figure out if something different should come or if you wanted this to continue on this course. We appreciate the feedback. Councilmember Longoria I have not heard anything compelling us to change our mind. Chris Lagerbloom We will leave it as is for purposes of tonight and bring it back next week. Kathleen Field The council was in agreement to keep RZ 14-17 as they had previously recommended it to be written. They were not in favor of the Planning Commission 's recommendations. Agenda Item #3 was read. 3. Discussion of Revisions to Chapter 4, Alcoholic Beverages. (Stacey Inglis, Assistant City Manager) Stacey Inglis, Assistant City Manager This is a complete overhaul of the Chapter 4-Alcoholic Beverages. We have been talking about making these changes for quite a while. I will review some of the highlights of the changes; however, legal has not had a chance to completely review all of the changes. Section 4-102 -This pertains to when a new business is being established and the owner wants to know if they can obtain an alcohol license. I am adding a provision in this section that allows a new business six (6) months from the time that they obtain an alcohol license to put it to use. Currently , we only allow three (3) months. We have had new businesses come before us that have struggled to get their facility opened in time, so this allows them a little extra time, being kinder to our businesses that want to come into The City of Milton. Section 4-123 -This pertains to how we handle violations. Currently, violations are handled by a license review board (the city council) and appeals can be made to the city council. It did not make sense that the council makes a decision then appeals are handled by the council as well. So , I am changing the rule to say that violations have to come before the council for a hearing then the Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday , December 8, 2014 at 6 :00 pm Page 6 of 10 punishments you have to choose from are listed . I am also making the penalty for the sale of alcohol to underage persons stricter. I am doubling the fine from $250 to $500. Section 4-168 -This pertains to temporary special event permits. Currently , our special event permits to serve alcohol are only issued for non-profit or charitable organizations. I am adding that currently licensed , consumption on the premises, establishments are able to obtain a special event permit as well. They do not have to attach themselves to a non-profit or charitable organization to obtain this permit. Section 4-222 -This pertains to specialty gift shops. This is a newly added section. We currently do not have any specialty gift shops that allow alcohol to go in their gift baskets . This allows these businesses to add alcohol to a gift basket. Section 4-254 -Currentl y, we have a limit of 1,500 barrels that can be manufactured within a given year. The state allows 5,000 barrels and a lot of our sister cities allow 5 ,000 barrels. So , I am changing this to allow 5,000 barrels to be manufactured per year instead of 1,500. A barrel is defined as 31 gallons. Section 4-317 -This pertains to alcoholic beverage caterers. We currently do not have any provisions that allow for alcoholic beverage caterers. If you obtain a special event permit and you are a caterer, then you can obtain a caterers license along with your consumption on the premises license that will allow you to serve at a special event within the city . Division 7 pertains to publicly owned facilities. The city has the Hopewell House and public parks. Do you want to allow alcohol to be served in our public parks? The council agreed to allow alcohol to be served in parks with a special event permit. Stacey will work with Ken to craft appropriate language to allow this usage. The next section pertains to farm wineries. We currently do not have a section on this because we do not have any farm wineries in Milton, however, if a farm winery is established in Milton in the future then we will have provisions for alcohol. Section 4-532 -This section pertains to special provisions and exceptions within the Crabapple District in regards to open containers. We looked at the Crabapple Form Based Code and recognized that T4 and T4 Open and T5 Transect Zones should be able to have an open container excluding the parcels on the front to include Green Road and Arnold Mill Road. Glass containers are prohibited and must be purchased from a licensed business . This mainly pertains to special events where alcohol is allowed. Section 4-557 -This pertains to distance requirements. For consumption on premises only, I am proposing that the distance requirements be changed to within 20 yards of a church , school building, educational building, school grounds or college campus. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 8, 20 J 4 at 6:00 pm Page7oflO Agenda Item #4 was read. 4. Discussion Regarding City of Milton Naming Policy (Public Parks, Buildings and Facilities). (Chris Lagerbloom, City Manager) Chris LagerbJoom, City Manager This is a first attempt at bringing some consistency and unity in how we choose names for the places we are building. Currently, we have parks and buildings under construction, however, we do not have a policy regarding how these facilities can be named. This is a veri straight-forward policy. It details the different opportunities for naming. The name could pertain to the location, commemorate a historic event, recognize a person that is important to Milton, or use the name of a person or corporation that has made a substantial donation of property or funds. If a structure is named after a business or a person, the investment in the facility has to be at least 51 %. This allows the city council to accept or reject an offer as well as modify names in the future that have been previously approved. Since we are quickly approaching opening several new facilities in the city, I would appreciate your feedback regarding the naming of these places. Councilmember Longoria I like the approach but I would be real confident that you all could come up with a set of figures and normalize it by saying these are aIlllualized figures so that somebody who wants to sponsor this can get an idea of what it really is going to cost them on an aIlllual basis. I think the challenge is going to be how long we can allow someone to own the name without putting it up for potential rebid. I would suggest having a shorter time period initially until we start figuring out what the real value is and allow things to become competitive after that. Councilmember Lusk Suppose we did name the pavilion at Bell Memorial the Verizon Pavilion and after three years Verizon is bought up by Sprint, how do you make that transition? Chris Lagerbloom That is the spirit this was contemplated in. Rather than aIlllualizing some kind of investment over a certain period of time, this was designed to make that investment up front eliminating this happening. I think we were putting the 51 % out there if someone wanted to pay tribute to an individual (grandparent, mother, etc.), there would be some type of dollar figure that would go along with doing that. Councilmember Longoria Maybe I misunderstood, you are talking about naming it permanently? Chris Lagerbloom That was what was contemplated by what was brought forward. What you are talking about is a corporate sponsorship. Let me do a little bit more work on the sponsorship aspect. We thought it might be a ripe opportunity for a place like the Senior Center to actually have it named after somebody. We have seen examples of that in other areas. People like that and they know what their investment is. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 8, 2014 at 6:00 pm Pag e 8 of 10 Councilmember Mohrig You look at the naming rights more when you are talking about the park buildings, etc., but for example the school Manning Oaks you looked at the Manning Family and the oak trees in the area and came up with that name . Do we have any suggestions for the names of the two other facilities? Chris Lagerbloom There has not been anything for sure at this point. I have heard several names: The Pavilion at Crabapple, Crabapple Pavilion. I think I understand your feedback on the policy. What would you all say about Hopewell House as far as name goes, do you want to just leave it with that? Councilmember Hewitt A lot of historical homes are named after some of the notable people that resided there. I would err more to the historical side on that particular house . Councilmember Lusk I agree with you. Alpharetta has a number of historical homes and are named after their previous owner's name. Chris Lagerbloom Are there any known previous owners of the Hopewell House? Councilmember Thurman It used to always be referred to as the Stagecoach Inn. That was the name of the community before. Chris Lagerbloom We have captured as much history on that place and I have scanned all the documents because some are quite old. I can go back and look at the history as well as call Norman Broadwell of Milton. I will bring back a couple of recommendations that deal with the historical nature of the house and be able to point to historically , how we came up with the name. With respect to naming the Broadwell Pavilion, I have heard: Crabapple Pavilion, Broadwell Pavilion and The Park at Broadwell. Do you have anything that jumps out for you with those names? We originally went with Crabapple Pavilion partially because it replaced the Crabapple Community Center so it was natural to continue with the word Crabapple in it. Councilmember Thurman I like the name Broadwell but I do not have real strong feelings either way . Chris Lagerbloom If I was to bring forward the name Broadwell Pavilion would anyone object to that? Councilmember Kunz I would like to know what the thoughts are from the Crabapple Community Association with that one. Chris Lagerbloom I can reach out to CCA and see what their thoughts are . I will put a little more work into this policy and capture the sponsorship aspect of how we would move forward allowing people to know the true all in costs. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 8, 2014 at 6:00 pm Page 9 of 10 Agenda Item #S was read. 5. Discussion of Possible Charter Amendment Regarding Lease, Use and Management of City­ owned Property. (Ken Jarrard, City Attorney) Ken Jarrard, City Attorney I would like to read the following from the city's charter: "The City of Milton has the power to exercise all powers now or in the future authorized to be exercised by other city goverrunents from municipal goverrunents under other laws of the state of Georgia. And, no listing of a particular power in this charter shall be held to be exclusive of others nor restrictive of general words and phrases granting powers but shall be held to be in addition to such other powers unless expressly prohibited to cities under the constitution of the state of Georgia." I have made a recommendation to the City Manager that we bring a potential charter amendment to you, under the power of home rule, to add language to two sections of the charter (Section 1.1.12 and Section 6.32). Under the issue of Municipal Property Ownership, I would like to add language that states that the city has the authority to acquire, dispose of, lease, enter into a contract for valuable consideration for the use, operation, or management of and hold in trust. Obviously the point being I wanted it set forth with specificity that the City of Milton has the express not just the implicit power within that terribly broad language but the express authoring to enter into leases as well as management contracts. Councilmember Lusk Isn't this covered in our Building Authority bylaws? Ken Jarrard It may be covered there but I would respectfully ask that it be put into your charter as well, sense it is your foundation governing document. It requires us to put a legal ad in the paper and then you have to ratify it at two back-to-back meetings. CouDcilmember Thurman Is there any downside to doing this? Ken Jarrard No. I can answer for myself, legally, there is only an upside. Chris Lagerbloom I can tell you Council the reason why this was brought up . A couple of months ago, you gave Staff direction to see if there was an opportunity to use our property on Highway 9 in a different way between now and when we build on it in 2017. One thing that was contemplated was leasing it for a different purpose. This charter modification will allow us to bring the lease forward and allow that project to occur. One other thing I would like to bring to your attention is a Special Event being held tomorrow night. If you want to come out tomorrow night and join us at 5:30 for an inforrnallighting of our City'S Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 8, 2014 at 6:00 pm Page 10 of 10 Christmas tree, we would welcome you all. Also the "Shop with the Cop" is occurring immediately after the lighting of the Christmas tree at 6:00. Date Approved: January 5, 2015 Clerk