Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes CC - 04/18/2016 - MINS 04 18 16 WS (Migrated from Optiview)Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, April 18, 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 1 of 14 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 April 18, 2016 at 6:00 PM. Councilmembers Present: Councilmember Karen Thurman, Councilmember Matt Kunz, Councilmember Bill Lusk and Councilmember Rick Mohrig. Councilmembers Absent: Councilmember Burt Hewitt, Councilmember Joe Longoria 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 three (3) 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. PUBLIC COMMENT Jack Lindon, 14810 E. Bluff Road, Milton, Georgia 30004 I wanted to make a quick comment about a subdivision going in on Bethany Bend across from Cambridge High School. That subdivision is 27 /28 homes on a very small piece of property . I was watching them clear the land for that and I was initially pleased a couple of very large trees , including a huge oak that was 37 inch diameter, were still standing after the clearing along Bethany Bend . I go by the next day and all the trees are gone including the three large trees along Bethany Bend. I found out the total number of specimen tree s that were removed from that property were four large trees from the side of the street opposite the high school and additional six very large trees on the same side of the high school where the tennis courts are located and where they are putting in a sewer line for this development. I found the total compensation for those trees was $100 ,000 which will be recompensed to the city to install new trees somewhere in the city. I was really disappointed to see this happen. It got me thinking that since we are doing all this work on conservation and trying to keep Milton rural , that the tree ordinance needs some serious rework. I have spent a lot of time looking at the tree ordinance back last year when we working on the Conservation Subdivision plan . I was puzzled because the tree ordinance really seemed to be in Work Ses s io n of the Milto n City Council Monday, April 18 , 2016 at 6:00 pm P age 2 of 14 bad shape. I was particularly looking at the definition of a buffer zone and found there were four different definitions for that within the ordinance. I think that needs some work. What I would suggest is that when we work on this tree ordinance , we stop allowing clear cutting in these subdivisions. Anyone you talk to in the city, whether they are for Conservation Subdivisions or not , everyone hates to see developers go in and denude an area for a development. It seems to me if they can spend $100 ,000 plus to the city for new trees to be installed for existing trees that were cut down , they could figure out a way to reconfigure the land , lots and possibly make some the homes smaller so we can keep some of those beautiful , massive trees. Mayor Lockwood I would like our arborist to look into that development to see what was approved with the trees and give us a recap on it to make sure if something happened that shouldn't have. Steve Krokoff, Interim City Manager Absolutely. Agenda Item #1 was read. 1. Proclamation Recognizing Patriot 's Day. (Pr ese nted by Councilmember Bill Lus k) Agenda Item #2 was read. 2 . Discussion of Parks & Recreation Policies. (Jim Cr egge , Parks & R ecr eation Direc tor) Jim Cregge, Parks & Recreation Director A year ago the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB) went through a significant restructure with a change in leadership and the addition of 3 new members. I would like to discuss some of the major issues in PRAB and get your feedback: BeU Memorial Park Stacked stone walls will be conv erted into: 1) Champions Wall (on right side) -League Recreation Champions from previous season will be represented on this wall. This would stay up throughout the year or until the next recreation season completes. This will not be a permanent display of honor and will change with each completed season. 2) Wall of Fame (on left side) -Dedicated to any Milton athlete who achieves athletic success beyond the high school level. Also including coaches , volunteer administrators and others who efforts are deserving. This would be a permanent structure. We would encourage people to make submissions to PRAB who will make the determination that a person , group or entity is worthy of permanent admission of Wall of Fame. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, April 18 , 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 3 of 14 Councilmember Mohrig For the Wall of Fame are you looking at people who actually grew up here? Because we do have many professional athletes that move into the area that did not grow up in Milton, would they be candidates for the wall? Jim Cregge The intent is to honor someone who has come up through the programs here. Councilmember Mohrig That was what I was hoping your intentions were. Councilmember Kunz How are you going to do the applications? Are you going to accept as they are presented or only accept maybe two applicant per year. .. how will you handle this? Jim Cregge We have not come up with guidelines yet. We really do not know what we will be receiving from the community when we announce this. Hopefully, we will get quite a few initially then we can evolve it to an annual or semi-annual type of event. Councilmember Kunz I think it is good you are having a vot ing process by the Parks & Rec Advisory Board that makes selections, but I also think there should be a limit to the number of selections every year. If they do not make it one year then they could reapply the following year. Jim Cregge That is a detail we can work out for sure. Councilmember Kunz I can see this being annually and even a ceremony to make it more special for this prestigious wall. I think the criteria should be strong and number of selections be consistent. Mayor Lockwood I would agree to all that was said but I would say with the number it may fluctuate each year because of how many applicants you get. Councilmember Kunz Well you can always accept less than the designated maximum. Councilmember Thurman Is this a situation where the Parks & Rec Advisory Board would actually be making a recommendation to the City Council and we would have the ultimate approval of it or would they be the ultimate approval? I wasn't sure the Advisory Board was allowed to make those kind of decisions on a permanent structure . I am sure we would agree however with any recommendations the board made . Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, April 18 , 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 4 of 14 Jim Cregge That is something we are looking for feedback on from the council. Is this something we want to empower the Parks & Rec Advisory Board to run with or is it something you all would want to come before you for a final selection? Mayor Lockwood That is up to the council. It certainly could be a formality because council does agree with Parks and Rec Board recommendations usually. You may just want to present it to the council and let them vote on it. I am open to suggestions . Councilmember Thurman It seems like it would carry more weight if it was voted on by the council. I can't see us not voting to approve someone the board recommending. If they are going to make decisions like this and they are just an advisory board then I think we need to make some changes there. Mayor Lockwood We could make it a much bigger deal for the athletes by making it where council has to vote on it. Jim Cregge Thank you for all the input on the wall. The next topic I would like to bring up is: • Vaping and Tobacco use in the parks: We already have an ordinance about smoking in the parks .. Section 34-22 (n) states: "It shall be unlawful for anyone to smoke in the park." We do have situations now of people using tobacco in different ways (chewing and dipping tobacco), as well as, people vap ing. Vaping does present the image of smoking even though it may or may not be with tobacco. The Parks & Rec Advisory Board feels very strongly that vaping should not be allowed and it gives the wrong message to the children, as well as the other uses of tobacco products. The PRAB recommends an ordinance change to include all tobacco products and vaping. Councilmember Thurman I agree. Mayor Lockwood Obviously smoking, that is prohibited but as far as chewing and dipping, is that a problem at the parks now? Jim Cregge People are doing that now so it is a problem. Councilmember Mohrig I hear it is becoming a bigger issue with kids in high school, especially baseball players , even though it is illegal if under 18. I think making this statement that we do not allow vaping or use of tobacco products in anyway would send a good message , especially for the youth. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, April 18 , 2016 at 6 :00 pm Page 5of14 Councilmember Kunz I agree but how do we enforce this? Jim Cregge I think if we put the message out there through our board , community leaders , organizations we use (TriScapes, Optech), partners (Milton Steelers, Hopewell Baseball, Eagles Stix, North Georgia Rec), and all recreational coaches that this is not allowed. I think it would have enough impact and be very successful. Councilmember Mohrig So are you envisioning a sign like the "No Smoking" signs we already have stating the rules of the park? Jim Cregge Actually we have a kiosk at the entry walls of the park that states all the ordinances of the park and we would just simply update that sign not allowing any use of tobacco products and vaping. Moving on to the next topic. • Securing the Fields: We have a professional service that prepares the fields. The artificial field is not quite as a big issue as the baseball fields. The artificial turf fields are being swept once a week and checked for debris every day. The baseball fields require daily maintenance in terms of being dragged, lining and costs associated with all of that. We think if a field has been prepared for activities that evening or the next morning, we would like to close the field and display signs to not enter. We are not opposed to casual play on the fields but just not after the field has been prepared for an upcoming event. Mayor Lockwood Makes good sense to me. Councilmember Lusk Who is in charge of enforcing that? Jim Cregge Again , we are not at the point where we have a part-time staff at the field but perhaps one day we will. In the meantime, we do what we can without being disrespectful to the public. We have tried it for the past couple of weeks to see the feedback we got from the citizens. We did have a couple of citizens make the comment that their taxes pay for this park and you cannot tell me what I can and can't do here. If we are going to start doing this on a regular basis , we wanted you to be aware in case citizens call you and you can explain what we are trying to do at the park. Mayor Lockwood I think by stating this , it sets the expectations and lets people know the rules and procedures even if we do not have personnel out at the parks to enforce it 24 hours a day. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, April 18 , 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 6of14 Councilmember Kunz I am a little hesitant about this because I would like to know to what degree is messing up the field. What is the standard the field needs to remain in for an upcoming game? Jim Cregge The issue here is more on the baseball fields not artificial turf fields. It is the dirt and lines to the bases. There is specialized equipment to smooth out the dirt to give it a crisp clean appearance and special equipment to line the fields. When people arrive for the game the field looks well prepared for the game. We would like to avoid the situation where after the field has been prepared people are coming on the fields , messing them up and the work has to be redone to get them ready for a game . Councilmember Kunz How late in the day are we preparing our fields for a game that is going to be played the next day? Jim Cregge Typically on a weekday, the fields are being prepared late morning or early afternoon for a game that night. We also will prepare them on Friday night for early Saturday games and Saturday morning for later Saturday morning or afternoon games. Councilmember Kunz The closer it can be to the actual game I think the better. Carter Lucas, Assistant City Manager Weather also plays apart in this . Fields needs to be closed if they are too wet so they do not get damaged. Jim Cregge That is another issue we have had. The fields have been too wet to play on but people still want on them and put large holes in the fields which makes the preparation of the fields much harder. Carter Lucas And the fields could be closed for days depending on how much rain we have. Councilmember Lusk My greater concern, Jim is on the artificial surfaces and protecting them from vandalism. I have heard horror stories about these fields being vandalized costing big bucks. Do we have closed circuit video to ensure the field s safety? Jim Cregge No. Councilmember Lusk Has that been discussed? Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, April 18 , 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 7of14 Jim Cregge We haven't had a need to do so in terms of vandalism. We have a close relationship with the Milton Police Department that patrols the area. We also have talked about closing down the parking lot to help prevent any wrongdoing. We have installed bollards to prevent cars going onto the fields and trails. Councilmember Mohrig What time do we lock up the park or do we do that with at our parks ? Jim Cregge As of now , we do not lock up the parks but we are discussing it currently. We have the mechanism to do so now with the gates we have in place and I see us doing it very soon. So the PRAB recommends a policy of posting fields as closed that have been prepared for organized play or are unfit for usage due to weather conditions. In addition to posting a 'Field Closed' sign the fields , the PRAB recommends locking the field gates. Next topic: • Drone Usage: We have been watching the impact drones have had on parks and communities around us. We have read about several documented situations that were high profile where drones had crashed in parks , etc. We also understand how useful drones can be. We have recommended that the city establishes a policy, rather than an ordinance, that drones are not permitted at parks with active fields (Bell Memorial Park), but approved at passive parks, such as Broadwell Pavilion, Birmingham Park, Providence Park. Councilmember Thurman Is it possible to put in there that they would be allowed with a special permit? You may have a major tournament where they may need a drone for their publicity for example . Jim Cregge I am not opposed to that. Mayor Lockwood I think that is a good idea. Jim Cregge • Advertising and Team Banners: We did get some requests from organizations that want to promote their activities. The organization pays a fee to team banners to list the players and their sponsors. There are some communities they do not allow any banners as well as some communities that puts regulations on the banners. The PRAB recommending that we consider the approval of banners on fencing, bleachers and on portable tents on the day of the event only. I have included some pictures of banners on fences and at other parks. What would you all like to do in regards to banners ? Work Sess ion of th e M i lton City Counci l M ond ay, April 18, 2 0 16 at 6:00 pm P age 8 of14 Councilmember Thurman I do not have a problem with the use of banners on the day of the event. Mayor Lockwood That brings up the question about banners for the duration of the season and people would pay money in order to do so , or are we just talking about a banner to advertise ? What is typical? I know in the past, businesses would pay $300-$400 for a banner at the facility and they expected it to be there for the season. Jim Cregge The PRAB recommended they would be comfortable with a banner only during the day of the event. I certainly can expand it to say for the weekend of the event and then require the banners to be removed within 24 hours of the event ending. In my opinion, I do not want to see Bell Park filled up with banners that go across the field and stay there a long period of time. We have spent $1 OM on this beautiful park and want to keep it very ta s teful. Banners over time start to deteriorate and look bad. There are people who will tell you in a traditional baseball park that banners are part of that community. I understand that but I think we have more than a baseball park at Bell Memorial. We have trails , playgrounds , etc. and I want to keep the nature side instead of the commercial side. Mayor Lockwood At the high school , the y put it up before a game and take it down after game is complete. Councilmember Kunz Does AYFA take their banners down at the end of games on Saturday in the fall ? Jim Cregge No banners are allowed Wills Park and Webb Bridge both in Alpharetta . At North Park, only banners that support A YF A are allo w ed to be displayed the day of the event. Sometimes the banners remain up the following Monday but that is an issue with managing with the organization more so. For the most part Alpharetta has been successful with these rules at their parks . Councilmember Kunz I would agree with Karen and Joe that we do not want the banners up there all the time . We do need to allow them to help the organizations raise money and advertise. I would like the PRAB to decide on the placement of the signs on the fences or allowable zones at the park. Councilmember Thurman Overall size restrictions too. Councilmember Kunz I would like to restrict the height so when people look from the outside of the park, I want them to be able to see the kids playing. I do not want s igns blocking the view of kid s playing. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, April 18 , 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 9of14 Jim Cregge The most popular place to display these banners is the back of the dugouts, which does not interfere with the view. Other places are in the outfield or hanging them off the bleachers. Councilmember Lusk This all seems to me that we need a full time patrol or monitor manager to handle this. What are your thoughts on that? Jim Cregge I can see one day we are going to need some more help running the park but this is our first year running Bell Memorial. We are doing a lot of learning as we are going along and would like to maximize the relationships we have with current organizations to help manage the park at this time. If staff and elected officials think we need to come up with a better solution then we will look at that then. Councilmember Mohrig I think we have the PRAB come up with a general guidelines of how to handle the banners for now. Jim Cregge Nice thing about doing this as a policy rather than an ordinance is a policy can be changed fairly easy, if need be. So the policy will include zones where banners can be placed , size restrictions and specification on how banners can be mounted. • Low Speed Vehicles/Hover Boards: The city already has an ordinance against motor vehicles in all parks. It shall be unlawful for a person to drive, operate or park a motor vehicle, mini bike or motorcycle within any city park except when designated use. Parks and Rec Board (PRAB) made recommendation we make no changes at this time. There is a general belief that hover boards are a vehicle and have a notorious safety record of being dangerous. We are hoping hover boards are going to be a fad so we do not want to change anything at this time to accommodate them. • Field/Facility to Rent Policy: Council requested the PRAB to re-visit this policy late in 2015.The city already has a policy regarding the rental of fields and facilities. That policy states: "A request for a program or athletic sport already offered by the city or its partners, will not be considered." After much consideration the PRAB still maintains that if we establish a partnership with one of our program providers it is not good busines s practice to bring in others that would compete against them. The PRAB recommends no change in this policy. Councilmember Kunz Are we trying to bring people in or are we just allowing people to rent the field space when need be? Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, April 18 , 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 10of14 Jim Cregge We are certainly not trying to bring people in. This is in the rental policy. This is for people who want to come in and start some programming identical to what we already have being offered by our program providers currently. Councilmember Mohrig This is more with competing vendors versus if someone wanted to come in our system and do a unique sport, like the Cricket Tournament? Jim Cregge Yes, for example, we don 't have a Cricket program but we would welcome it with open arms. We already have a recreational baseball league and an established tier of six age groups of advanced level travel baseball. Typically, what occurs is a Dad who has a child that did not make the travel team will recruit a group of kids and they will come to us as Milton residents and want to rent the field space and run our own travel program. One of the advantages of working with our partners is that they have been vetted, verify that the coaches are safe to be with children, that they have insurance , we have some measure of control over their program, etc. If someone just rents a field , they can by-pass that whole process. We would have no way of verifying who is working with the kids, if they have insurance, etc. It is all about keeping the children safe and it is working. They are our partners; that is why we call them partners. Councilmember Kunz I don't feel good about that. If someone comes in and wants to rent a baseball field , what is the distinguishing factor of us being able to approve or deny that? Jim Cregge For a "one off' activity, our polic y gives me that latitude to approve a special situation. For a "one off' situation, we can certainly accommodate that but what we are trying to prevent is the person who is trying to circumvent the rules that we have established. Councilmember Thurman I agree. If it is something that a person wants to do on a regular basis then it is the perception that it is a city sponsored program . And, if the coaches have not been vetted by the city then we could end up with some liability. It makes sense if it is a "one off' but if it is an on-going program , then it needs to go through our proper procedures. Jim Cregge We work very hard to make our fields as available as we can for organized activities as well as for rentals to residents and non-residents for special situations. Councilmember Kunz My thoughts on this are a little different than others. I am going to be the devil's advocate with situations that may occur. My only concern is that if anyone who is a taxpayer wants to rent our field space, then they should be allowed to do so. However, I don 't agree with someone renting Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, April 18 , 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 11 of 14 field space for six months out for a league program but if someone wants to put three games together and if they want to sponsor a team , our viewpoint on whatever type of team someone may be putting together; we have to be careful about determining intent for field space. If we are deciding a person's intent, when all the person is doing is renting field space, whether he is competing with another organization or not, he is still a resident renting field space in which he has every right to. I have a problem with us deciding that someone can't rent field space because of the perception of intent. I think we need to better manage the process of renting field space; not by intent but by time , for example , you could put in place a rule that states you can't rent field space for more than a month at a time or 60/45 days out. Those are just some ideas. You could possibly limit field rentals to 2 or 3 times per year. Mayor Lo ckw oo d Jim , perhaps you could go back to the board and come up with some so lutions. C ouncil memb er M ohrig I would like to see some information regarding how much our fields are being rented by individuals versus teams. In addition, I would like to see statistics regarding field use, time of use, by whom, etc. Jim Cregge We are looking into a software tool which was initially purchased for online scheduling but can also show field reservations so that the public can easily know if a field is available or not. We are formally requesting a modification to the fee structure of the non-resident rate . The fee that is in effect right now is that if you are not a Milton or Alpharetta resident, there is a 50 % increase of the registration fee. In addition, the commission structure as it is currently written states that the Parks and Recreation Director has the discretion to charge no less than 10 % of the registration fee as a commission and no more than 30 %. The Parks and Recreation Board listened to a very compelling presentation from an organization last week and it prompted us to take a look at some modifications to non -resident fees. One idea that we had was to stay at the full 50% increase of the registration fee for non-residents which would be $180 but then have a maximum amount of $90 for the non-resident fee . We have several programs that the fee would be over the $90 amount so this could potentially help the situation by putting a $90 maximum on all programs. Mayor Lockw ood Jim , could you please explore this option further by researching other cities in our area then give us a comparative study so we can make a decision. Work Se ssion of the Milton City Council Monday, April 18 , 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 12of14 Agenda Item #3 was read. 3. Discussion on Proposed Revision to Impact Fee Ordinance. (Michele Mcintosh-Ross , Principal Planner) PUBLIC COMMENT Jack Lindon, 14810 East Bluff Road, Milton, Georgia 30004 (Mr. Lindon was not at th e me eting but he wanted th e following r ea d into the record) We are asking the citizens of Milton to pass a $25 million Green Space Bond. It will be hard to argue that the citizens should pay more taxes and at the same time give developers a break on their impact fees. In my view, all new developments should pay the full impact of their new developments as was determined by the Impact Fee Advisory Committee . Michele Mcintosh-Ross, Principal Planner When we adopted the Impact Fee Ordinance, there was a fee schedule attached to the ordinance. At that time , all of the proposed fees were approved to be implemented at 100 %, however, the Parks and Recreation Fees were implemented at 50 %. Per your request , we are here tonight to revisit this decision. I have prepared some options for you which are presented on the handout you have been given. On October 6, 2015 the Mayor and City Council adopted an impact fee ordinance with an attached fee schedule for each of the public facility categories. The fee schedu le that was adopted discounted the fee that was calculated for the Parks and Recreation category to 50 %. It was noted that in six months the Mayor and City Council wou ld discuss possible revisions to the fee schedule. Below shows three fee schedule options. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, April 18 , 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 13of14 1 . 503, 1 003, 1 003, 1003 Parks & Fire Law Recreation Protection Enforcement Roads L 3.107 .55 543.57 94 .86 678 .36 2. 75 3, 1003 , 100 3 , 10 03 Parks & Recreation 4 ,661 .33 Fire Protection 543 .57 Law Enforcement 94 .86 Roads 678 .36 3. 1003, 1003, 1003, 1003 Parks & Recreation 6 .215.10 I Fire Protect ion 543 .57 Law Enforcement 94 .86 Roads 678.36 Subtotal $ 4 ,424.34 Subtotal $ 5,946.74 Subtotal $ 7,531 .89 Adminis- tration (3%) 132.73 Adminis- tration (3%) 178.40 Adminis- tration (3 %) 225.96 TOTAL IMPACT FEE $ 4 ,557.07 TOTAL IMPACT FEE $ 6,125.14 TOTAL IMPACT FEE $ 7 ,757 .85 If you decide to make changes to the fee schedule, we will place the amended ordinance on the agenda to follow the procedure of first and second presentations. M a y or Lockw ood Counci l agrees that we should proceed with this ordinance change . Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, April 18 , 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 14 of 14 Date Approved: May 2 , 2016 Sudie AM Gordon, City Clerk