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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes CC - 07/25/2016 - MINS 07 25 16 REG (Migrated from Optiview)Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, July 25, 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 1 of 9 1 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 Regular Meeting of the Mayor and Council of the City of Milton was held on July 25, 2016 at 6:00 PM, Mayor Joe Lockwood presiding. INVOCATION Remco Brommet, Chaplain for the City of Milton Police and Fire CALL TO ORDER Mayor Joe Lockwood called the meeting to order. ROLL CALL Councilmembers Present: Councilmember Thurman, Councilmember Kunz, Councilmember Hewitt, and Councilmember Mohrig. Councilmember Absent: Councilmember Lusk and Councilmember Longoria. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE APPROVAL OF MEETING AGENDA (Agenda Item No. 16-158) Motion and Vote: Councilmember Hewitt moved to approve the Meeting Agenda. Councilmember Thurman seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously (5-0). Councilmember Lusk and Councilmember Longoria were absent from the meeting. PUBLIC COMMENT L Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, July 25, 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 2 of 9 1 CONSENT AGENDA 1. Approval of the Financial Statements for the Period Ending June, 2016. (Agenda Item No. 16-159) (Bernadette Harvill, Finance Manager) 2. Approval of a Professional Services Agreement between the City of Milton and Ed Castro Landscape Inc. for Landscape Maintenance at Fire Stations 41& 43. (Agenda Item No. 16-160) (Carter Lucas, Assistant City Manager) Motion and Vote: Councilmember Thurman moved to approve the Consent Agenda. Councilmember Kunz seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously (5-0). Councilmember Lusk and Councilmember Longoria were absent from the meeting. REPORTS AND PRESENTATIONS 1. Presentation of Way Finding Signage. (Michele McIntosh -Ross, Principal Planner) 2. Presentation by Children's Charities, Inc. for an All Inclusive Play Project Park. (Jim Cregge, Parks & Recreation Director) 3. Presentation on Arts Council Formation. (Sarah LaDart, Economic Development Manager) FIRST PRESENTATION (None) PUBLIC HEARING ALCOHOL BEVERAGE APPLICATION 1. Consideration of the Issuance of an Alcohol Beverage License to Branch Kitchen Concepts — dba Indigo, Located at 12635 Crabapple Rd., Ste. 110-120, Milton, GA 30004. (Agenda Item No. 16-161) (Stacey Inglis, Assistant City Manager) 1 Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, July 25, 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 3 of 9 Motion and Vote: Councilmember Thurman moved to approve Agenda Item No. 16-161. Councilmember Kunz seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously (5-0). Councilmember Lusk and Councilmember Longoria were absent from the meeting. ZONING AGENDA Consideration of V16-003 — The Reserve at Providence, Providence Road, the Providence Group of Georgia Custom Homes, LLC Requested Variances (Section 4- 416.b and Section 64.1141.c.1). The reduction of the front setback from: 60 feet to 50 feet, lots 3, 19, 21, 23; 60 feet to 45 feet, lots 20, 30; 60 feet to 40 feet, lots 4, 9, 22; 60 feet to 30 feet, lots 5, 6, 7, 8. The increase in the allowed height from: 28 feet to 33 feet, lots 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 19, 20. (Agenda Item No. 16-131) (First Presentation at June 6, 2016 Regular City Council Meeting) (Deferred at June 20, 2016 Regular City Council Meeting) (Kathleen Field, Community Development Director) Kathleen Field, Community Development Director Thank you Mr. Mayor and members of the council. This is the presentation that I gave at the June 20, 2016 meeting. It would be my intent to briefly go through it just to bring this back to your attention. The first page is, of course, the lots in question. This shows the site plan with the lots outlined in red and the ones with the red asterisk are the ones that are specifically delineated for a height increase. The subject site is the Reserve at Providence subdivision located at the southwest intersection of Bethany Road and Providence Road. It contains 52.748 acres located in the Rural Milton Overlay. The 36 lot subdivision currently has 13 lots that have already been built on; 9 houses are currently occupied. This petition is before you due to a request for a variance that when a request for a variance from any zoning ordinance provision involves more than five lots or 10% of the lots in the subdivision; whichever is greater, must be heard by the Mayor and City Council. This petition involves 13 out of 36 lots. The applicant is requesting the following variances per section 4.416(b) and section 64-1141(c)(1). The reduction in lots are stated there and I do have a chart that I would like to present to you that would provide a little more clarity as well. You should have this chart in front of you. This change of setback was compromised between the developer and the residents of the area. This was determined after the June 20th council meeting. This shows the current request before you and you can see that all these lots; the crest has been minimized from the original one. In terms of standards of review, let me briefly touch on this. One says, relief if granted would not offend the spirit or intent of the ordinance. Staff's response is that the purpose and intent of the ordinance is to promote uniformity among lots in the AG -1 areas and to protect adjoining properties from unexpected development patterns. Lots subject to the variances will be different from the existing homes; however, the approved variances will allow the homes in the subject lots to be custom fitted to the property. This will allow a finished product that is complimentary to the existing homes. It will allow us to provide 360 degree architectural review Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, July 25, 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 4 of 9 on these homes and it will also allow us to enforce the rural viewshed requirement. Since this subdivision was approved prior to the requirement of the rural viewshed, it was grandfathered in before that requirement and by allowing the variance, we will be able to put a condition on it. They honor the rural viewshed. In conclusion, we do approve these requests with conditions. If this petition is approved, staff recommends the following conditions: • The lots along Providence Road shall maintain the 60 foot rural viewshed, including the 40 foot undisturbed buffer. The design of these houses shall meet rural viewshed requirements. • On the lots subject to height variances, the soffit shall be set at the ceiling of the first floor, causing the second floor massing to be achieved through dormers. The vertical plane should be broken in order to reduce the height impact on the massing of the building. • The houses subject to the reduced front setback shall include 8 foot deep porches. • The design of all houses subject to variances shall be reviewed and approved by the City Architect prior to the issuance of a building permit. • The approval shall be per the revised site plan dated May 24, 2016. PUBLIC COMMENT Chris Willis, 11340 Lakefield Drive, Suite 250, Johns Creek, Georgia 30004 I represent the Providence Group of Georgia Custom Homes. The Reserve at Providence is located between Bethany and Freemanville Roads. Our community is 37 lots on approximately 53 acres which is zoned AG -1. We deferred last month. As Kathy mentioned, the community has nine homeowners. We worked really hard to gain a majority support of this submittal for the variance through many meetings, many compromises, etc. The request is for variance on the front setback for 13 lots and increasing the height restriction on 7 of those lots is charted for you to see. Five of the 13 lots are located across the frontage of Providence Road and the remaining lots on the plat are on the internal streets of the subdivision. Our reason for the setback relief is that eight of those lots have topography in excess of 50 feet and up to 90 feet. Two lots have a rear detention pond and four lots adjacent to these; we are really just trying to blend the setback to improve the streetscape. Tree coverage on those lots, especially across Providence Road, is really heavy; it starts at the right-of-way which is 18 feet off the curb. Our intent is to move the home closer to the street in order to improve the streetscape in both the front and the rear of the lot. The profile being shown here is probably a good understanding of how if you place these lots at 20, 30, or 60 feet and how far they slide down the hill and that horizontal blue line that you see is curb level. So, what we are really trying to do is to get them up architecturally so you can see some of the front elevation. We are trying to protect the view across Providence Road in addition to a screen buffer that we are encumbered by on the rear. Our current architecture in the picture shown here help builds straight by the highlighted horizontal line how much of the front view of the home would be below curb at the 60 foot setbacks. So, you are basically going to be looking at roof line or maybe a little below that. We believe setback relief, if granted, will benefit the actual purchaser of these homes. The community and the city as well as the existing residents have agreed to our plan and the eventual homeowner will have a much more manageable driveway and improved street appearance. The city will get an improved view from Providence Road in the way of 360 Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, July 25, 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 5 of 9 degree architecture as required by the rural viewshed that Kathy spoke of which is your ordinance in the overlay which currently does not apply to this neighborhood. This is a rear elevation of what was described as a condition which is bringing those roof lines down to that first floor plate level. These pictures represent some heavy topo lots in Milton. You can see probably four story of exposure and really large deck posts that are on a basement with cross bracing. This is an example of plain, flat architecture on the rear and parch foundations that are probably two stories tall. The rural viewshed and what we are trying to create across Providence Road, obviously our concession on this is to use the rural viewshed as the guideline with staff's support and help. Relief, if granted, would comply with the current guidelines in the overlay district which council has shown support of with the adoption of that ordinance. Tim Becker, 15625 Canterbury Chase, Milton, Georgia 30004 Tonight, I am speaking in opposition to these variances. Last night, I sent council a letter. Tonight, I will not cover most of the points in that letter, however, I do want to address the issue of the rural viewshed. I understand and respect the arguments for granting variances for lots 3 through 8, however, I am concerned that builders are going to use the viewshed argument to extort variances from council. So, if council does grant variances for lots 3 through 8, council should extract its pound of flesh from the developer. Most of the increased profits associated with granting these variances should go to the city in the form of concessions such as liberal plantings in the viewshed. Furthermore, council needs to use its pulpit to scold this developer for his incompetence. Providence Homes needs to understand that the rule of law will be upheld in Milton. This is not the wild west. Lastly, I want to point out that the builder is here because of AG -1 standards that get a bad rap from some councilmembers. AG -1 standards, while needing improvement, can work to restrain development but only if such standards are enforced. It is a contradiction to criticize AG -1 on the one hand and generously grant the variances and rezonings on the other hand. So, tonight, please support our AG -1 standards and deny most, if not all, of the requested variances. Thank you. Warren Jolly, 11340 Lakefield Drive, Johns Creek, Georgia 30097 I am the President of the Providence Group. We do a lot of zonings throughout Atlanta. We have twenty different communities going on. We are not fly through the night developers. When we bought this property it was already zoned AG -1 but most properties we rezone we have to reengineer it before we even buy it. That is what we are used to doing. We have been long time residents and developers in Crabapple. We developed Crabapple Chase and we just fmished Crabapple Station during the downturn. We just finished some houses in Crabapple Crossroads. We are very familiar with the city's ordinances. I don't think we made a mistake. Things happen during development. We can certainly build every home out there but our intention is to build the most quality development we can build and get the most money for the home that we can sell it for. I think that it benefits everyone in the community. Most of these lots are internal to the neighborhood and we have received consent from the neighbors. We would appreciate your support. All we trying to do is build the best quality home on the best lot which will benefit everyone in the long run. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, July 25, 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 6 of 9 Councilmember Thurman I understand wanting to make the development as pleasing as possible. I have seen houses built down in holes and they are not very appealing; however, I cannot support a variance from 60 feet to 30 feet because that totally changes the whole look of a neighborhood. I have actually looked at the property and have some thoughts about how it could work. Mayor Lockwood Is it feasible to build on these lots the way they are? Kathy Field Yes, with a lot of retaining walls. Mayor Lockwood I am looking for a win-win in this situation. Something will be built but it will not benefit the builder, the homeowner, or the neighbors but if we can help the viewshed and the look of the neighborhood then I am open to this request for a variance. Councilmember Hewitt I am torn. I understand the lots 3-8 to some extent which would benefit everybody. I also understand the need to hold up what we find dear to our hearts in this area and not grant variances. I agree with Karen that 30 feet is way too much but I am probably only interested in supporting the lots that back up to Providence Road. Councilmember Thurman Let me tell you what I have gone through and actually looking at each of the properties. Lot number 3; 50 feet; there is not that much difference between 50 and 60 feet. So, lot number 3 is fine. Lot number 4 needs to be 45 feet; not 40. Lots 5, 6, 7 and 8 all need to be 40; not 30. Lot number 9 needs to be 45. Lot number 19; 50 feet. Lot number 20; 45 feet. Lot number 21; 50 feet. Lot number 22; 45 feet. Lot number 23; 50 feet. Lot number 30; 50 feet. You don't want one house sitting real close to the road and another house sitting way far back from the road right next to each other. I am trying to think about how it would look. I think I have the lots on the corners correct; I'm not positive, but I think I know which lot numbers they are. I can go down to 40 feet along Providence if we can keep the rural viewshed but I cannot go to 30 feet; there is too big of a difference in the way the neighborhood looks between a 60 foot and a 30 foot setback. Councilmember Hewitt Kathy, did I understand that the recommended conditions on these varied lots that the city architect would have the final say? Kathy Field Yes, that is part of the recommended conditions. Mayor Lockwood Kathy, based on staff's recommendations, does that blend in with this chart for a compromise? 1 1 Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, July 25, 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 7 of 9 Kathy Field Yes, it recognizes the new numbers. Councilmember Mohrig Kathy, the suggestions that Karen said, and I share the same concern about the percentage of total lots that they are asking variances for but I know you can run into things when you do developments. That is why we want to do the review because in the past we have had variances made and passed off by different boards versus us. My main concern is along Providence Road and if we did increase lots 4 through 7; respectively, does that still preserve the rural viewshed? Kathy Field Yes, the lots along Providence is where there is the rural viewshed requirement. Councilmember Mohrig If there was any compromise on the setbacks on those lots to get it more in line with a setback to the way things look, if we increase that, can we still preserve the rural viewshed requirement? Mayor Lockwood The applicant is requesting 30 feet, Councilmember Thurman is suggesting 40 feet, would that still preserve the viewshed? Kathy Field I would have to really look at that and perhaps we can get a response from the builder in terms of that setback if that would have any adverse impact. Chris Willis One of the components of this is that the tree coverage starts at the right of way at the front of the lot so if you go back 5, 10, or 15 feet, it is just more clearing. So, if you look at how the tree coverage starts at the right of way on the lots; that is what exposes us to Providence Road. Unfortunately, it takes away what the people in the neighborhood wanted to see. They wanted to see front elevation. They did not want to see driveways that went straight down and very steep. The neighborhood currently has homes with 40 foot setbacks already. Councilmember Hewitt This is just a bad time to be coming to us for a variance. We all understand. Specifically, the lots that back up to Providence Road that people will see; we want to do the best we can for that view to have minimal disruption. We also do not want to set a precedent that we will just approve anything. Mayor Lockwood There are several dynamics going on. One is approving variances and whether or not it sets a precedent. Milton is looking for quality development not quantity. Of course, we can say that we will not grant variances but then who gets hurt; the developer, the community, the neighbors, and Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, July 25, 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 8 of 9 the public. If there is a compromise that we can come up with it would be ideal. If we grant the variances, maybe there could be land that could be added to the viewshed to make it better. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Thurman moved to defer Agenda Item No. 16-131 until the Regularly Scheduled City Council Meeting on August 15, 2016. Councilmember Kunz seconded the motion. The motion passed (3-2). Mayor Lockwood and Councilmember Hewitt were opposed. Councilmember Lusk and Councilmember Longoria were absent from the meeting. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Consideration of an Ordinance of the City Council to Authorize Fulton County to Conduct an Election (Bond Referendum). ORDINANCE NO. 16-07-279 (Agenda Item No. 16-161) (First Presentation at July 11, 2016 Regular City Council Meeting) (Ken Jarrard, City Attorney) Larry Ramsey, City Attorney This is to authorize Fulton County to conduct the bond referendum on the Nov. 8h election. The final list of the cost of this item to be included on the Nov. 8t' ballot has been provided to you by Fulton County. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Mohrig moved to approve Agenda Item No. 16-161. Councilmember Hewitt seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously (5-0). Councilmember Lusk and Councilmember Longoria were absent from the meeting. NEW BUSINESS (None) MAYOR AND COUNCIL REPORTS Councilmember Kunz Charlie Fisher, a Milton resident, came to the city with the idea of obtaining an artifact from the World Trade Center. He is from New York and had friends that were in the twin towers on 9/11. He is involved in Tuesday's Children which is a group of individuals who were affected by 9/11. L Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, July 25, 2016 at 6:00 pm Page 9 of 9 STAFF REPORTS Kathy Field, Community Development Three of the initiatives in our Strategic Plan relate to a signage program as well as a street topper program and a program for historic landmarks. In addition, also in the strategic plan is to develop a master plan for downtown Crabapple. We have already had focus group meetings and will have a three day event which will be open to the public for input. Another initiative is to update the Tree Ordinance and we have prepared an RFQ for a professional consultant to work with us to complete this initiative. We also have plans to review the code of ordinances for design enhancements that protect our rural character. We have a joint work session planned with the Planning Commission and City Council on August 8h. We are also working on asking the public to consider a bond issue. Lastly, we are updating the Comprehensive Plan with greenspace needs. David Frizzell, Information Technology One of our initiatives is moving into the future with the internet and the need for increased bandwidth. Everything in today's world is done via the internet so we need to be prepared. We are looking at getting WiFi in all of our active parks. In addition, 5G is rapidly approaching so cell towers will need to be smaller and closer together. We will have to work closely with AT&T, Sprint and Verizon to accommodate our citizens in the future. Another initiative is our records management system. We inherited our records management system from CH2MHi11 and there are now several companies that offer much more enhanced capabilities. VC3 will manage the technology side of this initiative and we will handle the information side. ADJOURNMENT (Agenda Item No. 16-162) Motion and Vote: Councilmember Thurman moved to adjourn the Regular Meeting at 8:15 p.m. Councilmember Kunz seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously (5-0). Councilmember Lusk and Councilmember Longoria were absent from the meeting. Date Approved: November 7, 2016 Sudie AM Gordon, City Olerk Joe Lockwood, yor