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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes CC - 12/14/2015 - MINS 12 14 15 WS (Migrated from Optiview)Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 14 ,2015 at 6:00pm Page I of II 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 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. 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 four ( 4) 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 Laura Bentley, 2500 Bethany Church Road, Milton, Georgia 30004 I would like a quick comment in general regarding changes to AG-1 standards. In my opinion, our AG- 1 zoning is the crown jewel of our community. It is the basis for which Rob and I purchased our parcel of land. I ask that you carefully consider changes and modifications to AG-1. As a general example, I have nothing against assisted living , I happen to feel like it should be in commercial areas. It makes me a little bit nervous when we start looking at special use permits for assisted living in AG-1 areas. It is not something that I ever considered when I carefully read the zoning when we purchased our property. I know that tonight you will hear some information about that. The Planning Commission made some recommendations specifically what I remember is that it be owner operated with a one acre minimum. I ask that you uphold those recommendations because when I heard the discussion I really feel like they thought about all the different angles. I believe that they had a very good , long, and detailed discussion about it. Thank you. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December I4, 20I5 at 6:00pm Page 2 of II Agenda Item #1 was read. 1. Discussion ofRZlS-26-To Create a New Use Permit for Alternative Senior Housing (Sec. 64- 1844). (Kathleen Field , Community Development Director) Kathleen Field, Community Development Director Thank you , Mr. Mayor and members of the council. By way of background , staff has since the inception of the city in 2006 , received numerous inquiries regarding the use of single family homes to be used as personal care homes which we are calling alternative housing for seniors. Currently, the zoning ordinance does not permit this type of use within the city . Staff presented the idea of establishing a new use permit to allow alternative housing for seniors at the September 14 , 2015 council work session. At that time , the council directed staff to create a new use permit. Subsequent to that, staff drafted a permit and presented it to the Planning Commission at its November 18 , 2015 meeting . They reviewed the proposed draft and had the following comments in regard to it: 1) Sec. 64-1844.b.2.-Require the owner ofthe property to reside on the site. Although Staff originally recommended this standard , the City Attorney recommended that this not be included. 2) Sec. 64-1844.b.3. -Staff recommended a maximum of six residents be permitted. The Planning Commission recommended no more than 4 people. The City Attorney recommended more than four people based on the fact that four unrelated people can reside in a single family residence. 3) Sec. 64-1844.b.9. -Staff did not require a minimum lot size , but included the zoning districts with minimum lot size of 18 ,000 square feet (R-3A) as well as T-3 and T-4 in the Form Based Code. The Planning Commission recommended a minimum of three acres in size. It was the Planning Commission's recommendation , that if the property owner was not required to reside on the site, they would not be in support of this type of use because it became a commercial use in a residential or agricultural area. In addition, they believed that one acre was too small of a property for the use. You should have in front of you the new proposed ordinance in red lettering. It mentions the city attorney 's comments as well as the proposed comments from the Planning Commission. Mayor Lockwood I am under the impression that this would be more of a cozy horne environment for people who do not want to move into an institutional type environment. I don't think the intent was to make this a big commercial project in residential areas. It seems to be the intent was for just a few individuals to be taken care of in a horne environment. Councilmember Mohrig Does the wording that is included in this document prohibit assisted living? Do we know the legal definition between assisted and senior type housing? Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 14 ,2015 at 6:00pm Page 3 of II Kathleen Field According to the information we have here , we define personal services as that it includes, but is not limited to , individual assistance with or supervision of self-administered medication. That is a big issue. With assisted living, the staff assists with medication. With personal care homes, the individuals would self-administer their own medication without supervision from staff. That is one of the differentiating factors that the state uses to distinguish between assisted living and personal care. So , we are talking about a very low level assisted living circumstance. There would be assistance with transportation and daily care routines such as bathing , dressing , etc. Councilmember Lusk Kathy, will you please clarify the minimum lot size? What is the basis for three acres? Kathleen Field That was the Planning Commission's recommendation that it be three acres . We did our own evaluation, which I have included in the staff memo , which indicates what other communities are doing. We are recommending 18,000 square feet or larger. Most other communities such as, Alpharetta, Athens Clarke County , Cherokee, and Gwinnett, do not differentiate in terms of size of lot. They just allow it in various zoning districts. We chose the zoning districts we would allow this type of use in; however, we only chose the districts that allow structures to be 18 ,000 square feet or larger. The single family home lot has to be a minimum of 18 ,000 square feet. And, it is only allowed in the zoning districts that allow structures to be 18,000 square feet or more. Councilmember Longoria The title states, Housing for Seniors. Are we trying to differentiate the purpose of the establishment as being directed toward only people that are above a certain age? In my experience, a lot of these facilities are used for all ages . Are we looking at the age of the resident or are we just trying to make it a simpler concept? Kathleen Field The way it is written now, an individual must be 55 years old or older to live in one of these facilities. Councilmember Thurman Why was the recommendation made for the owner not to be required to live on the property? Kathleen Field The City Attorney recommended that language. Robyn MacDonald Paul Frickey stated that even a person who owns a house can rent it out. The house does not have to be owner occupied. It was inequitable that we would require somebody in this use to have to live on the premises. Councilmember Thurman If the owner is getting a use permit, we should make them live on the property. If they don't want to live there , then we don 't have to give them a use permit. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 14 , 20 15 at 6 :00 pm Page 4 of II City Attorney Jarrard The problem that you get into is that it is a bigger issue than that. It is a notion of putting a regulatory impairment on the ability to lease out or enter into any sort of an engagement on a property owner. If we want to go down that road , we will need to look at this again. If we want to make it mandatory , in other words , if a property owner secures one of these permits , then they can never lease or rent their home . However, that is a concern from a legal standpoint. Councilmember Thurman Are the people who will stay at one of these houses paying rent? Kathy Field Yes , we would assume that because we would require a business license. It will be run as a business. Councilmember Thurman Could the property owner rent to three unrelated people if they lived on the premises but four people if they did not live on the premises ? Robyn MacDonald When we refer to a family ; it is not necessarily to rent but a property owner could have four unrelated people live on the property . Kathy Field The definition is when a person is charged for a room then it is a rooming house. Four unrelated people could live in the house and meet the definition of a famil y. Mayor Lockwood I believe Councilmember Thurman is asking if we want to make it mandatory that the owner of the property live on the premises. Councilmember Lusk What determined the age stipulation? There is an existing property in Milton that was licensed under Fulton County before Milton became a city that is a group home . How would you differentiate the circumstance we are looking at referred to as senior housing and a group home ? Robyn MacDonald Are you referring to the property that is on New Providence? Councilmember Lusk Yes. Robyn MacDonald It is a home that is under a different use permit and for whatever reason , Fulton County did not include seniors but there is a specific use permit for that. There can only be 5-8 individuals at any one time and it is allowed anywhere , AG-1 through the smallest zoning district. Councilmember Lusk Why couldn 't you have seniors included in the category of group homes? Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 14 , 2015 at 6:00 pm Page 5 of II Robyn MacDonald We would have to amend that use permit to allow all people. Councilmember Lusk Would it be easier just to modify that chapter? Robyn MacDonald I don 't know if it would be consistent with all the regulatory issues that the state has for what would technically be personal care homes. We would have to look into it. Councilmember Lusk Is there an age stipulation in group homes? Robyn MacDonald We saw in other jurisdictions that it was typicall y about 55 years old. City Attorney Jarrard The Federal Law makes 55 years of age as the demarcation for senior age. Noel Carpenter, 15230 Highgrove Road, Milton, Georgia 30004 I am on the Planning Commission. The reason behind our decision to make these types of homes on a minimum of three acres is to keep them out of subdivisions due to parking limitations and conducting a commercial business with numerous people coming and going. With four people living in a home with visitors , etc. it can create a traffic situation which would be more conducive to homes on larger parcels. In addition, we felt like if the owner lived on the property then it would be better maintained. Councilmember Lusk I'm not sure about the three acre limit. It seems arbitrary to me. City Manager Lagerbloom Ken , could we eliminate the minimum lot size? Would that be acceptable with a use permit? City Attorney Jarrard You can establish certain guidelines to work with in regard to issuing a use permit. Councilmember Hewitt How does this compare to a bed and breakfast? Robyn MacDonald A bed and breakfast does not have a minimum lot size and it is allowed in AG-1 , R6 , and TR. Also , the group home for 5-8 children does not have a minimum lot size either. City Manager Lagerbloom So , I believe I heard that you want us to create a list of criteria regarding owner living onsite or not , the lot size , maximum number of residents , and parking requirements. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 14 ,2015 at 6:00pm Page 6 of 11 Kathy Field Per state licensing requirements , please remember that the maximum number of residents allowed in these types of homes is six. If there are more than six individuals , then it moves to a different category with different state licensing requirements. Agenda Item #2 was read. 2. Discussion ofRZlS-27 -To Amend the Sign Ordinance (Chapter 64 , Article XVI). (Kathleen Field , Community Development Director) Kathleen Field, Community Development Director On June 18 , 2015 , the US Supreme Court issued their opinion on Reed v. Town of Gilbert , Arizona. From this case , the court of appears to be taking the position that any distinctions in the sign code that offer less favorable treatment based on the message of the sign may constitute a constitutional infirmity. Based on this conclusion , the attached text amendment corrects these infirmities in the current sign code. The amendments indicated in red represent the necessary changes to the city 's sign ordinance necessary to be consistent with the Supreme Court 's ruling . So , you have in front of you all the attorney 's recommended changes in red lettering. In addition , since the sign code was open to accommodate these changes per the Supreme Court , staff has included some minor changes and those are highlighted in yellow. The y are essentially clean-up changes ; however , there is one change I want to bring to your attention. On page four , the change refers to the definition of a window sign. We have deleted the portion of the definition that included any language within five feet of the interior of the window and stated that , "any signage visible from inside the structure and is reasonable discemable from the closest public or private road exterior of the structure , is considered a window sign." This is the issue that came up with Children 's Learning Ad venture in terms of the fact that our current code states that an interior sign needs to be five feet back from the window but we all know we can see it from the road. So , we have changed the language to refer to that type of sign as a window sign. If you can see it from the street , then it is a window sign. The other changes are cleanups but are certainly willing to discuss or answer questions on any of the yellow. Red items are for Ken to address. Mayor Lockwood OK. I will open up for any questions for Kath y or Ken. City Attorney Jarrard We have gone through this before with council in the context of the moratorium and I will tell you like I did back then. Milton has a very good sign code. We went through Milton 's code and looked at it from a standpoint of constitutional integrity and there was not a lot to change , which is a good thing. We only changed things that had any bit of a viewpoint that was non-neutral. Councilmember Kunz At what point would signage be threatening or terroristic ? City Attorney Jarrard Now you are talking about the distinction of constitutionally protected speech and unprotected speech. Of course you all have heard of yelling "fire " in a crowded theater is not protected speech because that speech puts others in jeopardy, so when does it become that speech? That is one of those that I am not Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 14 , 20 15 at 6:00 pm Page 7 of II sure I am in a position to sit here and read you off a list of categories and so often it is context based and where it is placed. We have seen speech delivered at a rally at Stone Mountain that in other venues might not be considered quite as threatening and inflammatory. I am not able to answer your question directly. I know what you are talking about. It is unprotected speech but we have to consider it on a case by case basis which I would do with the City Manager if an issue like that came up. Councilmember Lusk Since we adopted this almost nine years ago there has been quite a bit of discussion particularly from the businesses lJ.P at Birmingham Crossroads regarding sign size, location and number of signs. Not sure what we have in our files as far as Public Comments that address this issue but the general consensus from the businesses at Birmingham Crossroad is that the sign ordinance was restrictive and had a very negative impact on their survival in the area. If we are going to open this up at this point and time, I would like to get some more community input from the commercial businesses at Birmingham Crossroads and possibly other commercial corridors we have about town. I think it deserves an open discussion. Councilmember Thurman The sign ordinance , as I understand it, is for the city wide is more general and then we have specific ordinances that are part of overlays that can be more restricting than our general sign ordinance, is that correct? Kathleen Field Correct. Councilmember Thurman So -Birmingham Crossroads is actually Birmingham overlay which is more restrictive and limits the amount of signage they can have. We also have Crabapple. Kathleen Field Yes , Crabapple is the exact same way. Councilmember Thurman So if we are going to open those up we are going to have to open up the overlay itself rather than the entire sign ordinance , correct? Kathleen Field Robin , can you speak to that? Is it in the sign ordinance or the overlay? Robyn MacDonald In Fulton County the signs are embedded in the overlay but when we redid the sign ordinance nine years ago , we took them out of the overlays and embedded them into the sign ordinance. As you read through the sign ordinance there will be sections for Birmingham Crossroads, Deerfield form base code and the Crabapple form base code. It does make a difference for those areas. Councilmember Thurman So we can go ahead and adopt the recommended changes here? Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 14 , 2015 at 6 :00pm Pa ge 8 of II Robyn MacDonald Yes. Councilmember Thurman And then go specifically look at some of those other areas which I agree need looking at. Robyn MacDonald We do want to do some reorganization to the ordinance but we felt like we needed to progress with these changes based on the Supreme Court. We will be happy to relook at it again for more specific changes ifyou would like us to. City Attorney Jarrard You will see a lot of duplicate language that was changed such as graduation banners , etc. Councilmember Mohrig We have heard from a number of businesses in the Birmingham Crossroads area. A number of them have closed. Councilmember Kunz I agree. The businesses in the Birmingham Crossroads area are down at this time and we need to do whatever we can to help that area. City Manager Lagerbloom I have captured from this discussion that it is the council 's desire to bring this item back for discussion. Mayor Lockwood Yes . That is correct. Agenda Item #3 was read. 3. Discussion of City of Milton 's Strategic Plan 2016 -2021. (Chris Lagerbloom , City Manager) Chris Lagerbloom, City Manager As you may recall , we had a staff retreat several months ago and we took the information from that meeting and put it together into a Strategic Plan. This would be a living document that would begin on January 1, 2016 and end on December 31 , 2021. I am not expecting you to go through all 22 pages tonight. However , you will see on page one there is a vision and mission statement. In addition , there are core values that are different than what we have today. All of this information came out of the retreat that was held. There are five different goals and each goal has objectives and capital projects . You will also see timelines that stretch over a fi ve year period . We built this plan with next year in mind so that we can give the community a score card to let them know our progress. I would like for you to spend a few minutes reviewing this plan and let me know if you have any questions. This will be presented at our next council meeting for adoption. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 14 ,2015 at 6:00pm Page 9 of II Agenda Item #4 was read. 4. StaffReports Department Updates 1. Police 2. Public Works 3. Parks and Recreation 4. Community Development 5. Economic Development Steve Krokoff, Police Chief We participated in "Shop with a Cop " and it was a great experience. 101 children participated with their families. We had an arrest for a drug related homicide on December 4th. It involved the lethal injection of heroin and the failure to render aid. This is the second one of these types of incidents in the city this year. We are going to speed up the implementation of a program to educate the public. House Bill 965 which is commonly known as the Georgia 911 Medical Amnesty Law which provides limited immunity in most minor cases of possession. We want to make sure that people know that the first thing a person needs to do is call for help. We also want to educate people on how to use the drug that can save people during an overdose. We had a field save which involved both the Police and Fire Department. It was a great outcome and wonderful to see both departments working together. We identified several individuals who had tough times this year and with the help of StoneCreek Church we met with each of these individuals and gave them gifts and other types of assistance to help them get through the holiday season. Carter Lucas, Assistant City Manager State Route 372 in the Crabapple area , our Northwest Connector project was awarded to Baldwin Construction by GDOT . The Birmingham Hopewell Roundabout is stalled at the present time. Utility relocation is our issue right now. We are trying to get Comcast off of the existing poles and relocated to the new poles that Sawnee has established. We are doing everything we can to get this situation resolved . All the bids that we received for the Webb Road at Deerfield turn lane improvements were over budget. We have decided to re-evaluate the project and either re-scope it or include it in one of our larger bids to try to get the cost down. Now , the project will be extended to the next calendar year. The Mayfield Road streetscapes project is in order and we are waiting on GDOT to give us a notice to proceed on our driveway easement acquisitions then we can get it out to bid. We are hoping to collaborate with the City of Alpharetta in order to get a lot of sidewalk improvements done. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 14 ,2015 at 6 :00pm Page 10 of 11 Jim Cregge, Parks and Recreation Director We have hired a new employee , Tom McKleveen , who previously worked for the city as an unpaid intern during the summer of 2010. He is a local and currently lives in Canton. He has spent the past five years working for the City of Alpharetta as a Recreation Supervisor. He has already taken on some projects and is a fast and eager learner. We are very excited that he has joined us. We have been dealing with a roof leak at the Thomas Byrd , Sr. house. The Friday after Thanksgiving , we conducted a leak test and discovered the sources of the leak , however , there is some damage inside the facility. We have filed an insurance claim that will be approximatel y $11 ,000. We have fixed the leak and want to get the rest of the damage repaired. The repairs will be done without any disruption to services at the center. Our basketball program is doing great and we have about 135 participants. We will be looking for gym space as we continue to grow. We hosted the first ever Merry Laxmass girl 's lacrosse tournament at Bell Memorial Park which consisted of over 800 competitors from five states and over 75 teams. There were at least 2,000 people in the park during this tournament. It was a wonderful event. We tried to have a boy 's Merry Laxrnass lacrosse tournament but there was not enough interest. Kathy Field, Community Development We are about to start our five year update to our 2030 Comprehensive Plarr. _.our first meeting of the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee (CPAC) will be held on December 16 ~ 2015. We have a rezoning request to rezone from T5 Limited to A (Medium Density) Apartments for the existing 356 unit apartment development known as the North Park Apartments. This is a requirement of their refinancing . We have some text amendments dealing with the use permit for the alternative housing for seniors as well as amendments to the sign ordinance. In addition , we have a whole series of text amendments dealing with the increase to the rural viewshed and changing the design of the entryway for subdivisions . These are currentl y being reviewed by the Planning Commission. They held their first workshop to discuss these items on December 10 , 2015. They will have another meeting on January 27 , 2016 to discuss these amendments and will vote on them on February 24 , 2016 . They will be brought to the Council on March 21 , 2016. Also , we will be moving through a process to amend the Deerfield Form Based Code which is essentially a minor correction to the code. This will go through the rezoning process and the Council will see it on February 1st and 1 ih , 2016. Mayor Lockwood Needless to say , it is very difficult to get fourteen cities to agree on something. However, we will have to bring something to Council very soon regarding T-SPLOST in order to get direction. The options are zero , half a penny , three-fourths of a penny, or a penny of additional tax to go toward transportation. It is interesting because MARTA would like the money but we have some cities that are not in favor of any of the money going to MART A. I'm not sure of the exact requirements , but everyone has to agree on something. Some cities have even created a resolution against something they haven't even seen yet. As I get more information, I will let you know. City Manager Lagerbloom I will put together a question and answer sheet for the Council to explain a little bit of what is going on and where the City of Milton will fit in. Eventually , we will have to decide if we want to be a part of a planning process that would identify transportation projects of regional importance. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, December 14 ,2015 at 6:00pm Page II of II Mayor Lockwood The general consensus is to divide the money on a population basis. In one case scenario with collecting one penny, the City of Milton would get about $48 million. Some cities, however, are only thinking about funding projects within their own city; not on a regional basis. My opinion is that the funding needs to be regional because it will help everyone if we all work together to make traffic flow better. Date Approved: January 20, 2016 Clerk