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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - CC - 03/02/2020Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 1 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 1 These minutes have been transcribed verbatim. Any reproduction of these minutes must include this notice. Public comments are noted and heard by Council. This document includes presentation by Council and invited speakers. 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 March 2, 2020 at 6:00 PM. 1) CALL TO ORDER Mayor Lockwood: I’d like to call the regular meeting of Milton City Council for March 2nd, 2020, to order. It seems strange still to say 2020. I remember when I was a little kid thinking one day it’s gonna be 2020. And I’m like – but that’s forever. That’s like 50 years from now. The city strongly recommends that you review tonight’s agenda carefully. And if you wish to speak on any item on the agenda, please bring your comment cards to the clerk as soon as possible. While the Milton rules allow a speaker to turn in their comment up until the clerk calls the agenda item, once the agenda item is called, no more comment cards can be accepted. So, if you do some have public comment, the cards are back there in the yellow, and our clerk is up here to my right. Again, I wanna welcome everybody here tonight. And, Sudie, if you would please call the next item – the approval of the agenda. 2) ROLL CALL Councilmembers Present: Councilmember Jamison, Councilmember Bentley, Mayor Joe Lockwood, Councilmember Cookerly, and Councilmember Mohrig. Councilmember Absent: Councilmembers Moore and Longoria Sudie: Good evening Mayor and Council. I’ll be happy to call roll for the March 2nd, 2020, regular meeting. I would like to remind those in attendance to please silence all cellphones at this time. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 2 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 2 Those attending the meeting who would like to make a public comment – you’re required to complete a public comment card prior to speaking on the item. Your comment card must be presented to the city clerk prior to the agenda item being called. All speakers please identify yourself by name, address, and organization before beginning your comments. If you are representing an organization, an affidavit is required stating that you have the authority to speak on behalf of that organization. Please review tonight’s agenda. And if you would like to make a comment, please bring your comment card to me now. Demonstration of any sort within this chamber is prohibited. Please refrain from any applause, cheering, booing, outbursts, or dialog with any persons speaking. Anyone in violation will be asked to leave. As I call roll this evening, please confirm your attendance. Mayor Joe Lockwood? Mayor Lockwood: Here. Sudie: Councilmember Peyton Jamison? CM Jamison: Here. Sudie: Councilmember Laura Bentley? CM Bentley: Here. Sudie: Councilmember Carol Cookerly? CM Cookerly: Here. Sudie Councilmember Rick Mohrig? CM Mohrig: Here. Sudie: For the record, Council members’ Joe Longoria and Paul Moore are absent. Would everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance? 3) PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE (Led by Mayor Joe Lockwood) Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 3 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 3 All: I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mayor Lockwood: Sudie, if you’d please now call the approval of the agenda. 4) APPROVAL OF MEETING AGENDA (Add or remove items from the agenda) (Agenda Item No. 20-058) Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to approve the Meeting Agenda with the following change: Defer Zoning Agenda Items #20-044, #20-045, #20- 046, #20-047, #20-048, #20-049, #20-050, #20-051, #20-052 to a future Council Meeting. Councilmember Cookerly seconded the motion. The motion passed (5-0). Council members Moore & Longoria were absent from the meeting. Sudie: Next item is approval of the meeting agenda, agenda item No. 20- 058. Mayor Lockwood: Staff would like to alter the agenda on the designing portion to remove items No. 2 through 10. Is that correct? Ken: That’s correct. Mayor Lockwood: So, do I have any others? If not, I’ll open up for motion. CM Bentley: Mayor, I’d like to make a motion to approve the agenda with the removal of items 2 though 10. CM Cookerly: Second. Mayor Lockwood: I have a motion by Councilmember Bentley with a second from Councilmember Cookerly with the changes as read into the record with the removal of zoning items No. 2 through 10. All in favor please say “aye.” Council Members: Aye. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 4 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 4 Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. Ken: Mr. Mayor, just for purposes of the record, just want to identify – those will be returning to the council – CM Bentley: Deferred. Ken: – by way of a subsequent legal ad that will be run. Mayor Lockwood: All right. Thank you. We’re just basically deferring them. Next item is general public comment. Do we have any general public comments? 5) PUBLIC COMMENT (General) Sudie: We do not have any general. Mayor Lockwood: Well, then we’ll move on and save everybody their time. If we can move onto the consent agenda. Sudie, if you will please read those items. 6) CONSENT AGENDA 1. Approval of the January 6, 2020 Regular City Council Meeting Minutes. (Agenda Item No. 20-059) (Sudie Gordon, City Clerk) 2. Approval of the January 22, 2020 Regular City Council Meeting Minutes. (Agenda Item No. 20-060) (Sudie Gordon, City Clerk) 3. Approval of the February 3, 2020 Regular City Council Meeting Minutes. (Agenda Item No. 20-061) (Sudie Gordon, City Clerk) Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 5 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 5 4. Approval of a Professional Services Agreement between the City of Milton and CPS HR Consulting for an Employee Engagement Survey. (Agenda Item No. 20-062) (Sam Trager, Human Resources Director) 5. Approval of a Professional Services Agreement between the City of Milton and All Termite and Pest Control, LLC (dba All Exterminating) to Provide Pest, Termite and Rodent Control Services. (Agenda Item No. 20-063) (Jim Cregge, Parks & Recreation Director) 6. Approval of a Construction Services Agreement between the City of Milton and American Property Restoration Inc. for the Demolition and General Property Cleanup of Debris Left by Homeowner of the Structure Located at 15270 Hopewell Road. (Agenda Item No. 20-064) (Robert Drewry, Public Works Director) Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley made a motion to approve the Consent Agenda Items No’s. 20-059, 20-060, 20-061, 20-062, 20-063, 20-064 and move Agenda Item No. 20-065 to New Business. Councilmember Cookerly seconded the motion. The motion passed (5-0). Council members Moore & Longoria were absent from the meeting. 7. Approval of Subdivision Plats and Revisions: Name of Development / Location Action Comments / # lots Total Acres Density 1. Louis Reynaud LL 184 16530 Hopewell Road Minor Plat Create 3 Lots 3.0 1 Lot / acre (Agenda Item No. 20-065) (Parag Agrawal, Community Development Director) Motion and Vote: Councilmember Mohrig made a motion to approve the Agenda Items No. 20-065. Councilmember Bentley seconded the motion. The motion passed (5-0). Councilmembers Moore & Longoria were absent from the meeting. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 6 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 6 Sudie: The first item is approval of the January 6th, 2020, regular city council meeting minutes, agenda item No. 20-059. Next is approval of the January 22nd, 2020, regular city council meeting minutes, agenda item No. 20-060. Next is approval of the February 3rd, 2020, regular city council meeting minutes, agenda item No. 20-061. Next is approval of a professional services agreement between the City of Milton and CPS HR Consulting for an employee engagement survey, agenda item No. 20-062. The fifth is approval of a professional services agreement between the City of Milton and All Termite and Pest Control, LLC, doing business as All Exterminating to provide pest, termite, and rodent control services, agenda item No. 20-063. Next approval of the construction services agreement between the City of Milton and American Property Restoration, Inc., for the demolition and general property cleanup of debris left by homeowner of the structure located at 15270 Hopewell Road, agenda item No. 20-064. Our seventh and final consent agenda item is approval of subdivision plats and revisions. This is by Louis Reynaud, land lot 184, 16530 Hopewell Road, minor plat, create three lots, 3.0 total acres, one lot per acre. This is agenda item No. 20-065. Mayor Lockwood: I’m gonna open up for a motion on the consent agenda. Councilmember Bentley? CM Bentley: Mayor, I’d like to ask if the council would allow us to discuss item No. 7, the subdivision of Hopewell, the minor plat subdivision – so, to remove it from the consent agenda for discussion. Mayor Lockwood: So, procedure-wise, we’d just make a motion to set agenda for the other items, and then we – Ken: Move to the – I guess that would be just the new business. Mayor Lockwood: Can we do it under the same motion – approve the agenda minus that and moving that item to new business? Ken: That would be perfectly in order too. But you all have already approved the agenda. Have you not? Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 7 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 7 CM Bentley: No. Mayor Lockwood: No, this is the consent agenda. CM Cookerly: Consent agenda. Mayor Lockwood: But you’re right. But you’re right. We’d have to change the agenda for that, don’t we? Ken: Correct. You just need to go ahead and make a motion now to move that to the new business item. And then, once that’s done, then go ahead and approve the consent agenda. CM Cookerly: I’ll second that when you do it. Mayor Lockwood: Go ahead. Make a motion if you want. CM Bentley: Mayor, I’d like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda and move item No. 7 to new business. Ken: That’s fine, Mr. Mayor. Mayor Lockwood: So, approving the consent agenda without item No. 7 and moving that to new business. CM Bentley: Do you want me to say it again? Mayor Lockwood: That’s good. And, Carol, you wanted to – CM Cookerly: And then I second that. I wanna second that. Mayor Lockwood: I have a motion from Councilmember Bentley and a second from Councilmember Cookerly to approve the consent agenda with all except item No. 7, which will be moved into new business. All in favor please say “aye.” Council Members: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. Let’s move on to reports and presentations. Sudie, if you’d please call the first item. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 8 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 8 7) REPORTS AND PRESENTATIONS 1. Recognition of Graduating CERT team. (Robert Edgar, Fire Chief) Sudie: The first item is recognition of graduating CERT team, Chief Robert Edgar. Chief Edgar: Good evening Mayor and Council. First starting in California with the LA Fire department in 1985, the Community Emergency Response Team or CERT has grown to a vital component of emergency response throughout the country. CERT is made up of local volunteers who assist in the community’s response to a disaster. Think of it as neighbor helping neighbor. According to FEMA, over 600,000 people have received CERT training since its inception in 1985. Tonight, we will introduce our third City of Milton CERT team, which brings our total number of certified citizens to 30. I would like to introduce Battalion Chief Richard Bushman, our team coordinator – Chief Bushman – and our instructors, Chris Say, Andrew Kennedy, and Jeff Jones. And I’m gonna allow Chris Say to say a few words. And then we will hand out the certificates. Chris: Just a few? Come on. The CERT team here in Milton is unique. You can look up CERT and see what FEMA has to say about it. But here in Milton, we’re blessed to have a lot of professionals who can share their experience and their knowledge with us to enhance our team. Basically, CERT here in Milton – when people ask me what is CERT, its education for the community for them to help us help them. And that’s what CERT is all about. I’ll read the names of the new members. If you will, come up here, please. Gloria Davincinci, Amy Donnelly, Sindak Gonison, Evelyn Harris. Always. Clint Jacob, Luanne Levin, Ashley Logan, Michelle Lopez, Jim and Lisa Laughner, Bill and Sally Stapler, and these are your new CERT team members. Female Speaker: One more. One more. Chris: What happened? Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 9 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 9 Male Speaker: I didn’t graduate? Chris: You’re not on the list. You passed. You’re not on my list. Male Speaker: But I’m on this list. Chris: All right. I’m embarrassed. Male Speaker: Don’t be embarrassed. Female Speaker: [Inaudible – crosstalk] [00:12:27]. Chris: Just to let you all know, one of the things that CERT does is share with the community. And as you’ve probably heard, there is a virus going around – something small that hit the media. One of our CERT members, Sindak, has already provided a community seminar. He works for the CDC. He has first-hand knowledge. So, he and his community represented CERT by having a seminar about the coronavirus, what to do, how serious it is, and everything. So, I appreciate that. You’re already doing what we’re planning to do. So, thank you. Mayor Lockwood: Do you want the council to stand up – just stand here? CM Cookerly: I want my neighbors in front of me. Thank you. You might hear gunshots in the morning. Photographer: I’m gonna have to back up. I’m sorry. CM Mohrig: Behave or don’t. Female Speaker: Or don’t. Mayor Lockwood: Is this ironic or not that our fire department gets a call right during the ceremony. Photographer: They’ll be good. Thank you. Mayor Lockwood: Can I say a couple of words? CM Cookerly: 7:00 straight up. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 10 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 10 Mayor Lockwood: Let me just say a couple words too. Guys, I wanna just thank you all. I always say this is kinda of a special moment. I always say that we’re so fortunate in Milton. Our city’s so great because of our citizens that volunteer and care enough to get involved and to help out. But this is kind of a double thing. I also always talk about our folks in uniform and our public safety and how special they are and how lucky we are. So, anyways, this kind of reaches both items. So, I just wanna thank you, and I appreciate everything you do. And anything we can do to support you, we’re there for you. So, thanks a lot. Male Speaker: Thank you. Mayor Lockwood: Sudie, if you would please, sound the presentation item. 2. Discussion of Former Milton Country Club Property Buffers. (Parag Agrawal, Community Development Director) Sudie: Next item is discussion of former Milton Country Club property buffers – Mr. Parag Agrawal. Parag: I just want to make sure we have the right presentation. Hi, I’m Parag Agrawal, the city’s Community Development Director. Today, I also have with me our Principal Planner, Michele McIntosh-Ross, and Conservation Project Manager, Teresa Stickels. Today, we are here in front of you to discuss the issue of property buffers at the former Milton Country Club property. The city has been approached by a couple of property owners who would like to enhance the buffers between their homes and the proposed public space. I know this issue came up when you were working on the city’s master plan, and there was also a lot of discussion at that time. But now since the city staff is working very diligently to open the park as soon as possible for the Milton residents to enjoy, we do want to get some feedback from the city council members. The goal of this presentation is not to get a final word from the city council. We have not discussed this with the community members, Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 11 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 11 but we do just want to get some feedback from the city council. So, in today’s presentation, I will be starting with the goals and objectives of this exercise, why are we here, what’s the goal of this process. Then, we’ll be talking about the recommendations of the former Milton Country Club master plan. As you know, the city council adopted the master plan in August of last year. There was a lot of discussion at that time. So, Michele will be talking about the recommendations that came out from the master plan about the buffer requirements. And then we also have some options in front of you. We have four options in front of you that will basically achieve the goals and objectives of this exercise. And Teresa will be talking to you about those options. And we also have one slide of an alysis – what are the positives and negatives of each option – again, some feedback, no vote. Starting with the goal – the goal as I mentioned – the goal is basically to enhance the natural buffer between the private property and the proposed public greenspace. The objectives are, 1.) To create a visual and a physical separation between the greenspace and the surrounding properties. Number second, as I just mentioned, the city council adopted the master plan in August of last year. So, we do want to implement the recommendations that came out of the former Milton Country Club master plan. Number third, enhance the City of Milton’s tree canopy. As you know, the City of Milton is working to update the city’s tree preservation ordinance. We want to enhance the city’s tree canopy. There is a goal of no net loss. So, in this case, we see this to greater [inaudible] [00:18:30] in which we can also enhance the tree canopy. And number fourth is the most important – is basically to conserve the greenspace. So, again, the master plan was adopted in 2019, and as Michele had just mentioned, thousands of people participated in the planning process. And Michele will just touch about – talk to you more about the recommendations that came out of the master plan for the buffer requirements. Michele: Thank you. So, hopefully, this is all familiar to you. We adopted this plan in August of 2019. And as you can see from these Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 12 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 12 pictures, these were not anomalies. This is how the community process went. We had lots of meetings, and lots of people showed up. It was a very robust community input process. Thousands of comments with surveys, dozens of community meetings, and we had hundreds of attendees. And with all of that input, we got a list of guiding principles from that session. So, some of the guiding principles that I’m gonna highlight pertains to the exercise we’re doing today. For the A, it was to promote safety and mitigate impacts to adjacent neighbors. So, two of them in that section – A1 was to define and/or screen residential properties. So, hence, we’re starting about discussions and possible plantings and so on. For A2, it was to limit the trails in direct proximity to the residential property. So, we want to have the trails as far enough away from private property as possible – also to create and restore nature throughout the passive preserve, as Parag mentioned with our tree canopy and so on. We would want to increase that in this area. C1 talks about incorporate native plantings to restore the natural habitat areas. So, planting trees and buffers, planting vegetative buffers would help with those. So, those are some highlights, and Teresa will continue. Teresa: Good evening, Mayor and Council. As Parag said, adjoining property owners have expressed an interest in greater buffers between their private property and what has been purchased by the city with greenspace bond funds for the purpose of land conservation. To address these concerns, we’ve come up with some options to present to you tonight. The first one – the exclusive right of entry for the purpose of planting and maintaining vegetative buffer. This option allows neighbors special rights to come onto specified city property to beatify and maintain some landscaping. The city could prepare landscape plans for the neighbors interested in this option or approve one for them to install. The second easement for the purpose of planting and maintaining a vegetative buffer – this would be very similar to the right of entry, except that this would be recorded on the deed. Any option where Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 13 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 13 the adjoining property owners create the vegetative buffers, which would be options one and two, would require city approval of the landscaping details. That’s mainly just to coordinate with the tree species list and also maybe take advantage of the arborist’s knowledge to add to the – The next option is implementing the buffer options in the master plan, which Michele had spoken about the master plan. The approved master plan discusses vegetative park perimeter options that include three types of vegetation buffers. The first was evergreen trees and shrubs. The second was shade trees, evergreen trees, and shrubs. And the third – you can probably see where I’m going with this – berms, shade trees, evergreen trees, and shrubs. The final option is a fee simple sale, and this would be a legal conveyance of city-owned greenspace property to the adjoining property owner. Legal has told us that this is allowed under OCGA 36-37-6, which allows the governing body of any municipal corporation to sell and convey parcels of narrow strips of land so shaped and so small as to be incapable of being independently used or zoned or such conveyances facilitate the enjoyment of the highest and best use of the abutting owners property without having to do an auction or sealed bid process. All adjoining homeowners shall be notified and shall have the opportunity to purchase said property under such terms and conditions as set out by the ordinance. So, there’s some important preconditions to the use of this state statue. And this is directly from Ken. So, this should sound familiar to you, Ken. The city would first have to adopt an ordinance with terms and conditions for selling property of this nature. Secondly, all adjoining property owners would need to be notified of the opportunity to purchase greenspace. Third, the city will have to identify parcels of narrow strips of land that are incapable of being independently developed adjoining each lot, which would require a survey. Fourth, these small subdivided parcels will have to be recorded as plats. And fifth, then there would be a contract, a sale, and a closing. So, in addition, it should be noted that this option requires the city to create substandard parcels or nonconforming lots that the city would not otherwise create. It is also important to note that the Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 14 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 14 money that comes from the sale would go back into the greenspace bond so that it would be made whole, which would require determining a price that would accomplish this. So, just a quick recap – in options one and two, the city would still own the land, but the adjoining property owner bears the cost of planting the vegetative buffer. In option three, the city still owns the land, but the city bears the cost for planting the vegetative buffer. In option four, the city no longer owns the property. And the adjoining property owners can do whatever they like with the property that is allowed by ordinance. So, now a brief analysis of the options: Right of entry – this option meets all the goals and objectives and is likely to be the easiest and the option that incurs the least cost to the city. There would likely be some sort of, I suppose, legal document that could be used to describe the parameters of the property that each property own er is allowed to – and this was Ken’s sort of idea. So, he could flesh it out if need be, but it would not be recorded with a deed. With an easement, this option meets all the goals and objectives in much the same way as the right of entry option, but each easement would require more cost and effort recording the easement instrument. Implementing the buffer options – this option meets all the goals and objectives. The approved master plan offered the three options that I mentioned earlier – the different trees and the berm. This has the advantage of already being part of the approved plan, which as Michele mentioned, came about after a long planning process with a great deal of public input. This option would require funding to be identified for this purpose, as it is not included in any of the phasing. And the right of entry and easement options could also utilize the planning examples from the approved master plan. The fee simple sale – during the discussion of trail location, some property owners requested that trails be cited as far away from private property as possible. So, this option has the disadvantage of making the trails closer to private property. Additionally, it reduces the amount of greenspace the city has conserved at this location. A benefit of this option is that property owners have the flexibility on what buffer if any they chose to create. Additionally, we have heard from two property owners that they would like to acquire Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 15 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 15 additional property. So, as Parag said – not expecting a vote or anything tonight – we just wanted to put this out there for you to think about. You’re welcome to do whatever you’d like to do, but we would like to offer our staff recommendations. In considering the goals and objectives, we recommend that the city either grant exclusive right of entry to adjoining property owners for the purpose of planting and maintaining a vegetation buffer or implement the buffer options from the approved FMCC master plan. The right of entry meets both the goals and objectives and should prove to be the least costly option. Implementation of the buffer option meets the goals and objectives, but as they are not included in the phases, it would require a funding source. Mayor Lockwood: Any questions? Laura. CM Bentley: Teresa, just real quick – Teresa: Sure. CM Bentley: – so, can you explain how selling the buffer will bring the trail closer to the private property. Can you give me an example? I don’t understand. Teresa: That’s yours. Michele is the one that realized this. Michele: So, when we started to do the analysis – so, we looked at the trails and the distance between the parcel lines. So, if property owners buy additional property, it’s gonna bring their property line closer to the trail. CM Bentley: Oh, okay. CM Cookerly: But the – I’m sorry. CM Bentley: No, that’s – CM Cookerly: But the buffer has to be – it has to be utilized as a buffer. You can’t put a volleyball net on that, right? Michele: Well, it depends on how it’s conveyed. If it’s a sale, then they o wn Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 16 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 16 it. If it’s an easement, then we have parameters on it. Ken: Well, if it’s a sale, obviously, they’d own the fee. We’d receive compensation for the property. And we’d have to put deed restrictions in it with respect to what you can do on the property. But, of course, the more deed restrictions in it, the more – or excuse me, the less they’re gonna wanna pay for it, as you might expect. CM Cookerly: Right. But I think the expectation would be – and certainly, from the people who have referenced. Ken: It’d be a buffer. CM Cookerly: The expectation is they want it to be a buffer. So, that kinda sounds interesting because that money would go back into the greenspace bond. It’s going to be dead space anyway, and we would like for it to be populated with landscape, right? Ken: I’ve got different thoughts on that. On the one hand, once somebody else owns it, of course, our ability to then compel the nature of the buffer is somewhat diminished because at that point they own it as opposed to either an easement or right of entry. It’s still our property, and we are ultimately in control of the integrity of that buffer. But your points not wrong. You’re spot on. It’s just a matter of where the priorities are of the city. That’s the bottom line. Mayor Lockwood: Obviously, each option has its different merits and net pros and cons, and every property is different too. I guess is it safe to say we could do any or all of these? We have the option to do that in different circumstances. Is that – I’d – Ken: Of course. Mayor Lockwood: – like to kind of leave that open so that – Ken: Of course. Mayor Lockwood: – because there may be some properties that are different than others. But obviously, it has to be a benefit for the city and the citizens and also a fair process and all that. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 17 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 17 CM Jamison: Mayor, for example, I think cleaner the better. So, I don’t think we should say, “Oh, one property can buy it, and the other one can’t.” I think we should just make one decision and just move on. That’s my two cents. Ken: And you get it. I understand, but this goes without saying. But basically, what you were provided was a continuum – a continuum of sort of the least invasive approach – the right of entry. That’s the one where the citizens would just have sort of a right to come on the property outside of normal park hours. Presumably, they would come in to maintain a buffer we otherwise had planted. It’s the least significant sort of property interest all the way to then fee, which is when they own it and everything in between. Mayor Lockwood: Laura. CM Bentley: And did you say that the exclusive right of entry was something that citizens had come to us and asked if that was – okay, this is something – Parag: They just asked for it. So, basically, we heard from two property owners, and both the two property owners were interested in buying the properties. The first option – basically, we were discussing it with our legal department, and we were talking about the easements and that sort of thing. And the legal department basically mentioned instead of having an easement, the first option could be this exclusive right of entry. CM Bentley: And on this exclusive right of entry, you can plant trees only? Parag: Yes, yes. Teresa: Only for vegetation. Parag: And again, as Teresa was saying, we can also work with our landscaper architects and our city arborists to basically make sure what type of plantings go in there to meet the recommendations of the master plan. Mayor Lockwood: Rick, I think you have it. CM Mohrig: On the last option with the sale, it sounds like you were trying to Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 18 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 18 put some parameters to flesh out where. So, it couldn’t be all adjoining properties could be for sale. Is that correct? Parag: So, again, as Teresa was saying, once you open this option, you have to give this option to all the neighboring property owners. And based on the state law, we do have a language in place, which came from the legal department that basically shows under which criteria you can sell them. CM Mohrig: Does that mean for that instance the whole subdivision – any properties along – all those – everyone would have – if we exercise that option, everybody would have a chance to purchase a parcel? Or are you gonna put a definition on what makes sense? Parag: I will ask – Ken: Let me try to answer that one. So, the mayor asked if we could do any or all of these options. And I stand by what I said. I think that we have the right to use any or all of them, although I’m persuaded at least optically by the notion that’s sort of in for a penny, in for a pound, we need to make it available for everybody if we’re gonna do it for one. But we do have the right to make use of this property however you as the policymakers believe we should. So, if you think a right of entry makes sense here and an easement makes sense here and perhaps even a subdivided parcel sale makes here, I do think legally you could do that. I don’t think we’re gonna get in trouble from a legal perspective. So, I’m offering up all the options at your disposal. You’ve heard from your capable staff. You all just need to sort of think now about what makes the most sense thinking about considerations like what you’re thinking about. Mayor Lockwood: Carol, did you have something? CM Cookerly: My last question is – does it have to be manicured? Or can people just let it sort of grow up au natural? Parag: So, our goal is that it should not be manicured. It will be a natural buffer. It’s not a golf course sort of a thing. It’s a natural buffer, more trees. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 19 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 19 CM Cookerly: Less of a headache for everybody. Parag: Yes, yeah. CM Bentley: That’s a good comment because I’m looking at the pictures wondering how much we can accomplish by having a buffer in which it’s not mowed and that the saplings can go ahead and come up that are native because I know we’ve continued to mow. And we’re not letting it become greenspace, right? Teresa: Well, is Robert still here? Did you want to actually address how we were shifting the mowing? That’s – I’m sorry. I was gonna say this, but you’re the one that’s – Robert: Good evening. Yeah, prior to my getting here last growing season, I think those fairways were mowed every 10 days. I know we’re gonna back off on that this next growing season, save obviously that money. But we do have to provide some mowing out there, but it’s certainly not gonna be at a level that we got now. It’s probably gonna be significantly less. We need to grow those to be pastures – or sorry, meadows. CM Bentley: Meadows, yeah. Teresa: And I think you were talking about mowing really on either side of the trails but allowing nature to work its magic for much of the rest of it. Robert: I’ll kind of emphasize that a little bit. The trail itself obviously we gotta keep it manicured and a lot more stringent mowing along the swath of the trail, but the fairways themselves – yeah, we’re gonna back off on the mowing. Mayor Lockwood: Laura, do you have a question? CM Bentley: I have one last question. I think offering the buffers – I think we talked about doing that. So, it seems like that’s the first thing we have to do. If we have to pass an ordinance and then offer that to everyone – and then I’m all for the exclusive right of entry too. So, I don’t know how – that’s a hybrid answer. Sorry. Mayor Lockwood: All right. So, I know you need – I don’t know how much tighter Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 20 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 20 direction staff would need. Steve, you got any. Steve: It’s a difficult question to answer. I realize that as we’re going through this. There are unique parcels there. We could open it up to fee simple to everybody. Chances are you’re probably only gonna get a handful of takers on that, and a lot of those takers probably have unique circumstances that is creating the desire to acquire that property. We could explore. I could get you more information on what opening it up to everybody looks like. And then we could easily offer it to some and then see how that shakes out and then offer the exclusive right for those that don’t take it possibly. Does that sound reasonable? Ken: It does. Steve: So, that could be an option to go. The only issue with once you convey certain properties fee simple over without any sort of restriction on it, you could just end up with some fences that jut out. And if you let the others just grow, you’d have fences in some areas and just not in others. But I don’t see any other ramifications besides that. Mayor Lockwood: But I guess what you were saying – Ken was saying we could have stipulations on that too. Ken: Let me offer up one option though on this because once you sell property, you’re never getting it back. What would be the council’s thought about maybe trying some of these in incremental approaches and seeing if we hit a sweet spot as far as maybe the right of entry or the easement. Even a recorded easement would still give property owners a significant amount of say on what goes on on that property. But once you sell it in fee, you’re done. You’re never getting that back, and I don’t want us to have buyer’s remorse or I guess seller’s remorse. CM Cookerly: What width are we talking about? Ken: Good questions. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 21 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 21 CM Cookerly: Fifty feet, 100 feet, 200 feet? Ken: That’s fair. Mayor Lockwood: It’s all case-by-case. Again, I just like the idea of having some flexibility. Go ahead. CM Jamison: No, I was kinda going on what Ken was saying. Let’s just start at the right of entry, and let’s just go from there. It’s cheap. It doesn’t cost the taxpayer as much money. And I think it still serves a purpose of creating the buffer. CM Cookerly: Yeah, I think we should be open-minded about options for different people. Mayor Lockwood: Well, again, I just think we’re getting the presentation tonight and all that, but I don’t know that we’re in a position to make a decision. Ken: Not really in a position to make a decision – that is true. Mayor Lockwood: I think everybody will probably wanna digest it too and think about it. Laura? CM Bentley: And if we do the right of entry – so, then we would have conditions that would release the city from dying trees and things. If people planted on the public property, are we held responsible for what they plant? Ken: Well, if it’s a right of entry, we could condition it however we choose to condition it, as much or as little. My vision though for right of entry would be – again, subject to the city or the city staff saying otherwise – the right of entry is the most tenuous form of sort of rights to get on the property. So, it would literally be managed, owned, planted by the city. We would be in control. The adjacent property would have the right to come in and maintain, maybe add additional beatification if they wanted to, and all that can be fleshed out in the agreement – every bit of that. Steve: So, the objective is for them to plant that area, not the city. Ken: Then we can make that a right in the right of entry as well, and that Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 22 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 22 would be the very tool that we use. Mayor Lockwood: Rick. CM Mohrig: Just one last question – I think, Teresa, you said with that option you would actually be involved with what type of plantings and location of the plantings. Michele: Arborist. Teresa: Well, our arborist and our landscape architect, not me – you wouldn’t want me to do it. CM Mohrig: Right, but specifically, [inaudible – crosstalk] [00:39:41] city arborist. Teresa: But, yes, the city could lend that expertise. And again, we’d probably want to approve any landscaping plan because we wouldn’t wanna see a whole bunch of Bradford pears planted down along the golf course. CM Mohrig: Good. Steve: Can I just ask one question, Mayor, to ken while he’s right next to me. Mayor Lockwood: Absolutely. Steve: So, if we were to go towards the exclusive right of entry, are we covered – do we have the same restrictions as if we were to deal with a fee simple and restrictions as they relate to how much area we could give? Could we possibly bestow more flexibility to the adjacent property owners under the exclusive right of entry as opposed to fee simple, which would have to be an unusable piece? Ken: Right. So, it’s a good question. So, the fee simple is to me the most legally precarious because once you start talking about a city or any government selling property, a lot more legal restrictions kick in. The right of entry – you have almost unlimited options, more varied, greater distances, less. They could even have to renew every year. It’s just a contract. And we can draft a contract however we need to draft a contract. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 23 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 23 Steve: That might be an interesting – just an interesting choice because with that more flexibility some of those neighboring homes might be able to gain access to more property. And if they were able to plant up those properties, they’ll be able to possibly create a larger buffer than if we were to convey the property fee simple, just a thought. Mayor Lockwood: Great. All right. Anything else? All right, thank you. Teresa: Thank you. 8) FIRST PRESENTATION (None) 9) PUBLIC HEARING (None) Mayor Lockwood: We don’t have any items under first presentation or public hearing. So, we’ll move into zoning. Sudie, if you’ll please read the zoning rules and sound the first item. 10) ZONING AGENDA 1. Consideration of ZM20-02/VC20-02 at 15260 Hopewell Road by Chris Sedgwick to revise conditions 2a, 3a, 3g and to request to delete conditions 3b and 3c [H (Historic) RZ12-15] to construct additional parking on the site. Concurrent variance to Sec. 64-2455 – To allow application for a Certificate of Appropriateness to be considered by the Design Review Board instead of the Historic Preservation Commission. (Agenda Item No. 20-043) (First Presentation at February 19, 2020 City Council Meeting) (Parag Agrawal, Community Development Director) Sudie: On the second regularly scheduled meeting of the month, the Mayor and City Council will consider a zoning agenda. These items include rezoning petitions, modifications of zoning, use permits, and associated concurrent variances in addition to ordinances, resolutions, and text amendments. I would like to acquaint you with the rules and procedures for the Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 24 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 24 zoning item. The applicant and all those speaking in support of an application will be allowed a total of 10 minutes to present the petition. Those called to speak will be taken in the order that the speaker cards were received by the city clerk department prior to the beginning of tonight’s meeting. If you are speaking on behalf of a group or organization, an affidavit must accompany your public comment card. Before beginning your comment, please identify yourself by name and address. We have one zoning item this evening. Consideration of ZM20- 02/VC20-02 at 15260 Hopewell Road by Chris Sedgwick to revise conditions 2a, 3a, 3g, and to request to delete conditions 3b and 3c H (historic) RZ12-15 to construct additional parking on the site. Concurrent variance to section 64-2455 – to allow application for a certificate of appropriateness to be considered by the Design Review Board instead of the Historic Preservation Commission, agenda item No. 20-043. First presentation was heard at the February 19th, 2020, city council meeting. Mr. Parag Agrawal. Parag: Hi. I’m Parag Agrawal, the city’s Community Development Director. Today, I also have with me our Zoning Manager, Robyn MacDonald. Robyn has served as the project manager for this case, and she is also the primary author of our staff report. Today, we are here to present you a zoning modification No. ZM20-02 along with the zoning modification application. We also have one concurrent variance. That is VC20-02. The property is located at 15260 Hopewell Road. As Sudie just mentioned, the applicant is requesting a zoning modification to construct a parking lot adjacent to existing general store and a concurrent variance regarding the review of the Historic Preservation Commission. Talking about the location – this is Hopewell Road. This is Thompson Road over here. The applicant of this property is Chris Sedgwick. And the subject zoning site is marked by this red outline. So, this parcel is split zoned. A part of this parcel is zoned as AG-1. The red part is zoned as historic called H zoning. There’s an existing structure on this site, and it’s currently unoccupied. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 25 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 25 As I mentioned, this parcel is split zoned. The red part, which is zoned as H, has 0.52 acres. It’s zoned as historic. That was approved by the city council in February of 2013. The structure on this property was designated as historic by the city on August 20th, 2012. Background – this property has a long background because it was designated as historic [inaudible] [00:45:23]. The structure was constructed on this property in 1950s as a general store with gas pumps. As you can see in this picture over here, it was known in the community as the Hardeman Country Store. The gas pumps, which you can see in the front of this picture, were removed in 2006. So, this is the site plan. There was a single-family home on the AG-1 part of this property. That was demolished. So, you can see the red footprint on this site plan. So, we have basically divided this slide into two parts. One is the prior to city’s incorporation. And the second – the things that took place after the city’s incorporation. As I mentioned before, the city was incorporated in 2006. The building was vacant. The owner at that time renovated the store, which included electrical, plumbing, septic, and flooring issues. The porch was also added before the incorporation. Talking about after incorporation – in March of 2007, the business owner applied for the business license. The city denied the business license. The property owner requested a rezoning from AG-1 to C-1 in 2007. And after some time, the owner withdrew that application. The City of Milton adopted the Historic Preservation Ordinance in 2010. The historic district was created and adopted by the city council in December of 2011. Owner applied to rezone the property from AG-1 to C-1 again in 2012 but again withdrew. And in January of 2012, they applied for rezoning to historic district. The structure was designated as historic by the city in August on August 20, 2012. So, currently – correct me, Robyn – there is only one parcel, which is zoned as historic. And there are two structures in the City of Milton, which are designated as historic structures. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 26 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 26 Robyn: Right. Parag: Owner applied to rezone from AG-1 to H to operate a general store in September of 2012. As a requirement of the historic district, the proposed historic use shall be limited to those historic structures identified under subject property and may not be expanded. The mayor and the city council approved the request in February of 2013 with very specific conditions that were put on this property. So, the request, which we have in front of us today, is to build additional parking and to basically reduce the buffer spaces, which you will be seeing on the site plan very soon. Along with this, the applicant is also requesting a concurrent variance. So, initially, the concurrent variance is to allow the application for certificate of appropriateness application to be considered for the Design Review Board in place of the Historic Preservation Commission. So, generally, the certificate of appropriateness applications are reviewed and heard by the Historic Preservation Commission, but they are requesting a hearing in front of the DRB. CZIM meeting – public participation process. A CZIM meeting took place on January 28th, 2020. Five community members attended this meeting. Overall, it was positive. Some good questions came up. The public wanted to get a better understanding of what was being proposed on the site. The applicant and the staff explained the issues and the process. Overall, it was a very positive meeting. Now, coming to the requests – do you want to take over from this? Robyn: So, there was a total of five requests for the zoning modifications. So, I’m just going to walk through them with you. And at the end, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask that. The first modification request would be to modify the site plan that was approved back in – well, it was 2013. And it was a revision of January 9th, 2013. So, this was the site plan that was approved by the city council. This is the revised site plan that the applicant is requesting to replace with the original site plan. And I’ll walk through different aspects of it with you. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 27 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 27 So, one of the requests is to add 23 additional parking spaces. Nineteen of those are located to the west of the building and south of Thompson Road, which – thank you to Shuba on our staff. She did an awesome job of making this a little bit more understandable. So, here are the 19 spaces that abut the AG-1 property that’s to the south. This is also under the same ownership but is zoned AG-1. There are four additional parking spaces right here that they’re wanting to do parallel against the property line. And then those proposed parking spaces will be required to be gravel or other pervious parking material, and the applicant is aware of this and is planning to go in that direction. As far as the recommendations, it is in the city’s and the community’s best interest to help ensure the viability and physical condition of one of only two designated historic buildings within the city. Although the applicant is requesting the deletion of the 10-foot landscape strip and 10-foot parking setback in order to construct additional gravel parking, the property zoned AG-1 to the south is owned by the same property owner and will be sold along with the 0.52-acre store site. The applicant is providing a 10-foot landscape strip along Thompson Road to provide partial screening to the proposed parking. Staff notes that the 20-foot drive aisle between the parking spaces and the landscape strip along Thompson Road will only accommodate a one-way drive aisle with a 90-degree parking configuration. So, they were looking at it as two-way. But based on our code, it would require it to be one way. The City of Milton will be constructing a new roundabout at the intersection of Hopewell and Thompson Roads that will be more aligned with the eastern leg of Thompson Road. The design of the roundabout will allow the easterly entrance/exit on Thompson Road to access the roundabout, and I’ll show you an exhibit in a second. Construction on roundabout is projected to begin in spring 2020. So, here we have – this is a construction drawing of the proposed roundabout. This is the property that’s before you right here. This is the H–zoned area, and this is AG-1. And they’re to be sold together. And as you can see, there’s a gap – this area. This white in between the road and the property would be the right of way of Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 28 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 28 the city at this point in time. Based on these issues relating to preserving the historic designated building and applicant providing a sensible land plan to assist in the successful operation of a new general store, staff recommends that condition 2a be approved as requested by the applicant. So, we just dealt with that general site plan replacement. That was first item request. The second item is 3a – is to delete the 40-foot buffer, and I’ll show you that in this slide here. So, here in the orange-red, we have the 40-foot buffer area that was required under the 2013 approval. So, the applicant is requesting to delete it to allow the new parking to be constructed. And they are proposing to keep the 10-foot landscape strip that is adjoining it along Thompson Road. So, basically, based on the other issues I spoke about earlier on the first request, these issues related to preserving the historic designated building and the applicant providing a sensible land plan to assist in the successful operation of a new general store, staff recommends that condition 3a be approved as requested by the applicant. Onto request No. 3 – 3b is to delete the landscape strip. And you’re like – what landscape strip? Well, I’ll show you. Anyway, it’s all very convoluted, but here we go. The green is this landscape strip adjacent to the AG-1. They’re asking to delete it to provide four additional parking spaces. And again, staff recommends approval of this condition based on the points we brought up previously. Request No. 4 is to provide a 10-foot setback for parking adjacent to the residentially used property along the south property line. So, they wanna delete that because they need that setback for the cars for their parking. So, again, here in the diagram, it shows the 10- foot parking setback, which basically was a 10-foot landscape strip as well. And again, staff is recommending approval. But we’re adding a couple of conditions to this. Staff notes that it is necessary if this request is approved to install an equestrian four-board style fence at a maximum height of 5 feet adjacent to the south property lines in order to keep parking and other activities wholly within the H district. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 29 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 29 Secondly, in addition, wheel stops shall be installed in front of the newly created perpendicular parking spaces, and these improvement recommendations will be included in the conditions of zoning. So, based on these issues related to preserving the historic designated building, an applicant providing a sensible land plan to assist in the successful operation of a new general store, staff recommends condition 3c be approved, which is basically the deletion of that condition. The fifth and final zoning modification request is 3g. Basically, this is asking to replace the review of all improvements to the site, structure, and sign shall be reviewed and granted a certificate of appropriateness by the City of Milton Design Review Board instead of the Historic Preservation Commission. So, the applicant is requesting this change and the review of what typically would be required of the HPC to the Design Review Board. The reason for this request is that the HPC is no longer active and is not able to conduct the required review. Although the exterior of the building will not be altered, if approved, the site will be reconfigured to provide additional parking. And therefore, a certificate of appropriateness will be required prior to the construction of the additional parking. Based on the fact that the HPC is no longer active, the proposed changes will still need to be approved. Since the DRB’s purpose is consistent with HPC’s purpose to review the built environment, staff recommends that proposed modification be approved to require the DRB to review the certificate of appropriateness. And therefore, staff recommends approval of condition 3g, which is request No. 5. So, those are a bundle of modification requests. So, in the original zoning that was approved in 2013, there was a condition that we just spoke about. But in addition to that, the zoning ordinance requires a similar – it’s really the same thing. So, the applicant is requesting a concurrent variance to allow application for a certificate of appropriateness to be considered by the Design Review Board instead of the HPC. So, any time we look at variances or concurrent variances, there are four criteria to approve a variance. The first one is – relief, if Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 30 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 30 granted, would not offend the spirit or intent of this zoning ordinance. And as it applies to this situation, by allowing the DRB to consider a certificate of appropriateness instead of the HPC, it would not offend the spirit or intent of the zoning ordinance based on the fact that both bodies were established to review the compliance of this zoning ordinance as it relates to buildings and development plans as outlined in their respective codes. Secondly, there are such extraordinary and exceptional situations or conditions pertaining to the particular piece of property that the literal or strict application of the zoning ordinance would create an unnecessary hardship due to size, shape, or topography or other extraordinary and exceptional situations or conditions not caused by the variance applicant. In this consideration, staff states that since the creation of a historic preservation ordinance and HPC in 2010 and the approval of RZ12-15, the HPC is no longer a working commission. By allowing the DRB to review the certificate of appropriateness, the proposed changes to the site can be achieved. With the abandonment of the HPC, it has caused an exceptional situation not caused by the applicant. And thirdly, relief, if granted, would not cause a substantial detriment to the public good and surrounding properties and by allowing the DRB to review the certificate of appropriateness instead of the HPC would not cause a substantial detriment to the public good and surrounding properties. And lastly, by allowing the DRB to review the certificate of appropriateness instead of the HPC, the public safety, health, and welfare are secured and that substantial justice is done. And therefore, staff recommends approval conditional of VC20-02 by the applicant. Based on the evaluation of the requested zoning modifications, those five requests that we went over, and the concurrent variance, staff recommends approval conditional of requests one through five of ZM20-02 and VC20-02. Here are the recommended conditions if you all decide to vote on that; 2a is to replace the site plan with this revised site plan submitted on December 23rd, 2019. Condition 3d – to delete the Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 31 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 31 40-foot buffer, which has various dimensions along that property line, and that the 10-foot strip would remain along Thompson Road. To delete in its entirety condition 3e, which is the 10-foot landscape strip adjacent to portions of the south property line, and then 3f – to delete the 10-foot setback for parking. So, that condition would be totally delegated; 3g is to replace the review of the certificate of appropriateness by the Design Review Board in lieu of the HPC. And then, this is i; 3i is to allow application for certificate of appropriateness to be considered by the Design Review Board instead of the HPC, which relates to the concurrent variance VC20-02. And then these are the two additional conditions that I added based on the adjacent parking to the AG-1 is to install an equestrian four- board style fence at a maximum height of 5 feet adjacent to property zoned AG-1 along the south property lines of the subject site zoned H district. And lastly, k – to install wheel stops for all newly constructed perpendicular parking spaces adjacent to the same property line referenced above. So, that is our staff report. So, I’ll be happy to answer any questions before the applicant comes. Mayor Lockwood: Are there any questions before we get into public comment and hearing – obviously, you can ask questions at any point. But is there anything right now? CM Mohrig: I’ll hold. CM Bentley: I’ll wait. Mayor Lockwood: Thank you, Robyn. All right. I’ll open up to public comment. Sudie, do you have – I believe procedure we would go with the speaking in support. Sudie: I only have comments in support. So, the first – Mayor Lockwood: You can call the first. Sudie: The first individual is Chris Sedgwick. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 32 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 32 Chris: Good evening. My name’s Chris Sedgwick. I live in Milton at 13050 Bethany Road. And I’m excited to go ahead and get started on this project. This has been an interesting little site. Everybody pretty much is aware of the site. I was interested in it 15 years ago, and I know there’s a lot of interest in the site. It’s very restrictive use, and actually, the size of the site has been tricky to go ahead and try to go ahead make something work there. But I think ultimately, I wanna go ahead and be able renovate inside it and make it a neat place for people to come and visit. So, I have my partner here with me today, Josh Kim. And if you have any questions about what we’d like to do over there, we intend to do homemade doughnuts that are cooked to order, coffee, gelato, and have some local items there as well too. But it’s a small place. We’ll have 28 seats inside, and we’ll be producing everything on site. Mayor Lockwood: All right. Thank you, sir. And certainly, questions can be asked later, but right now, it won’t take up your public comment time. All right, Sudie, if you’d please call the next speaker. Sudie: Next speaker is Josh Kim. Josh: Mayor, Council, good evening. Thank you for your time. I just wanted to mention that – Mayor Lockwood: Mr. Kim, would you mind just stating your name and address just so it’s on the record? Josh: Thank you so much. Joshua Kim. I live on 2314 Commerce Street in Alpharetta. Chris introduced me to Milton, fell in love with the beautiful city you guys have here. And I think it’s a very, like you said, interesting project. I work with commercial real estate. We transact in 48 states all over the country. So, looking at this deal, it looks like the parking was restrictive, and I think if we can get the spots we need, we’ll do something very interesting. We’re focusing, as Chris mentioned, on homemade goods that are free of artificial flavors. And we really look forward to doing something good for the community in terms of school programs as well so actively engaging and being a part of it. So, I just wanted to say that. Thank you. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 33 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 33 Mayor Lockwood: Thank you, sir. Sudie, if you’d please call the next speaker. Sudie: That’s all we have. Mayor Lockwood: At this point then, I will close the public hearing with all the public speakers we’ve had and open up for questions or comments from council. Laura? CM Bentley: A couple of comments for staff. Thank you for the arrows, that was great. On the 10-foot landscape strip off of Thompson, so that’s where there’s nearby residences. I didn’t see a landscape plan. What do you envision for that? Robyn: It’s a matter of we have specific requirements in the zoning ordinance what a landscape strip would consist of. It’s basically trees with some shrubs intertwined with the street trees. And we do have a defined – what is required of what a landscape strip is. CM Bentley: And there’s no fence along that – on that side. Robyn: If they want to do a fence, they can if you want to make that a requirement. CM Bentley: I’m just trying to get a visual for what that’s gonna look like because that’s where the residences are that are in such close proximity to this. As they come in, I think that landscape – I’m all for it. I just wanna make sure that it’s a nice robust – but I know that there’s also line of sight issues as well, right? Robyn: Correct. CM Bentley: You have to be able to see the traffic. So, that was one of my questions. And just that buffer on the west-most side, is there – there’s a house right there. It’s currently for sale. So, that’s another area that I would just want to encourage some buffering with plantings. Also, the four-board fence would go behind the wheel stops on that. Robyn: Correct. Correct, yeah. Parag: As I just mentioned, this property is split zoned. So, again, you can see a line on the map, but you cannot see any line on the ground. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 34 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 34 So, a fence and the wheel stops will just make that differentiation between H zoning and AG-1 so that it does not spill onto AG-1. CM Bentley: Which I think is important because we wanna contain the parking on the historic site where the business is. Is there lighting planned? Robyn: Is there a what? Parag: Lighting. CM Bentley: Lighting? Robyn: Right now, we don’t have a lighting plan. But if they do choose to have any type of lighting, it would have to meet the night sky ordinance. CM Bentley: And then of course access from Bell Memorial to the Hardeman Store is planned in our roundabout, correct? Robyn: I’m not familiar enough to know the details of the plan, but that’s what I’ve heard that they are. CM Bentley: So, I would think that that would be real important to make sure that from Bell Memorial that we could get people safely across that roundabout. Mayor Lockwood: Anybody else? Rick and then Carol. CM Mohrig: Yeah, just to bridge off from what Laura said, I think when you look at the design of the roundabout – if there’s a way to do a crosswalk or something to safely get people across if we’re gonna allow pedestrian traffic, I think that would be important. Mayor Lockwood: There’s no pun intended on that comment either – just a bridge on what she said –okay. CM Mohrig: Both parcels are being sold together, correct? The H – historic – and the AG-1? Robyn: Right. It’s all one big package, yes. CM Mohrig: So, they’re going together. And there’s no longer – that house has been demolished that used to be to the south of the property. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 35 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 35 Robyn: Correct. CM Mohrig: Have we ever done zero lot line parking for any other structures abutting AG-1? Robyn: Typically, in form-based code, we don’t have any landscape strip if there happens to be parking adjacent to another property line. But as far as non-form-based code, we typically have a minimum 5- foot landscape strip. But that’s what they’re asking the variance for. But typically, its 5-foot against commercial or 10 feet depending on the intensity of the – that was the traditional zoning of – traditional C-1 – different parcels adjacent to each other, there would be at least a 5-foot landscape strip. CM Mohrig: I like what they’re doing. I like the concept. The only question I had is for the future. If that other parcel was sold, what does that do? I’m assuming the reason it’s a zero-lot line is because we’re treating this as an independent parcel and the AG-1 as an independent parcel, even though they’re gonna be owned by the same party. Robyn: Correct. Mayor Lockwood: Carol? CM Cookerly: Well, gentleman, first of all, congratulations. This sounds terrific. I’m not sure I’ve ever had any really natural food other than like Baby Ruth and Butterfinger, which I thought was pretty natural, but I look forward to it. I may not have understood what Laura was asking. I understand the landscape strip, but on the other side of the parking bumps or whatever you called it – Mayor Lockwood: Stops. CM Cookerly: – parking stops, thank you. Will there be landscaping on that other property to kind of break it up? Or is that just a vacant lot? I don’t have a visual on that. Mayor Lockwood: I think it’s a vacant lot now, correct? Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 36 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 36 Robyn: Yeah. We can’t require that the other parcel have landscaping because that’s not the parcel that’s in question at this point. You could ask the applicants, if they would be purchasing it, what they might have plans for on the AG-1 parcel. CM Cookerly: And that would be these applicants that I could ask that, right? Robyn: Yeah. Mayor Lockwood: And I guess the one comment I would say to that – typically, you wouldn’t want to make a decision that affects an existing property. CM Cookerly: Yeah. No, I just mean light landscaping just to – Mayor Lockwood: Yeah, but what I’m saying is on this one – if they sell the other parcel, it’s a known what’s there, and that parcel they could put the buffer or their landscape on too. CM Cookerly: For your consideration. Mayor Lockwood: So, but was there a question you wanted to ask? CM Cookerly: No, no, no. I needed clarification. But if we could do something on the other side or if you would, that might be nice, not a stipulation. Mayor Lockwood: Laura? CM Bentley: I have some questions for the applicant. Hey there. I was just interested in the hours of operation that you envision. Chris: We’re not completely sure about that. We believe it’d be probably eight in the morning until around five or six? CM Bentley: And any plans for outside music or a PA system or anything like that? Chris: Not at this time. CM Bentley: I had heard or maybe it was in the staff report that there might be plans for the AG-1 portion. Can you –? Chris: We don’t have any plans for it right now. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 37 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 37 CM Bentley: As far as the – you know the house that’s on the west most – that’s what I’m concerned about is when people come in. Would you consider some landscaping there? Chris: Sure, our parking kind of almost sits in the front yard, and it’s very close to that. And that property is vacant right now, but I don’t have a problem landscaping there. I did wanna make a comment too that when the roundabout goes in, it’s gonna actually move Thompson Road further anyway from us. So, even though we’re requesting a 10-foot buffer, most of that property is gonna go ahead and be further away than that. And it does create a greenspace, which I’ve been told by the city, it’ll kind of like the previous discussion you had – it’s gonna create a piece of property the city’s gonna have to maintain. And we may be interested in purchasing that so we can maintain it. We want it to look good. Right now, there’s a little culvert out in front. And there also is – I’ve seen the plan for the roundabout, there is a walkway because I know that a lot of people will probably wanna walk up from the park, but the city’s already figured that out, and they have a sidewalk planned to go ahead and get people across the road. CM Bentley: We definitely don’t want kids dodging across that roundabout. But I think that’s my biggest concern is as the cars come in on that west entrance, and that property is for sale. And I just wanna make sure that we don’t do anything that causes them some trouble. And you’ve all been good about just some landscaping there that would help buffer that a little bit. Chris: Yeah, I don’t have a problem with that. CM Bentley: Thank you. Mayor Lockwood: Anybody else? CM Jamison: Is it gonna be Krispy Kreme or Dunkin Donut style? Chris: They make great doughnuts, but no, something a little bit different. It’s a very small space, so we intend to do something very, very limited. We’ll have something classic, but we’re gonna do something that’s a little different too. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 38 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 38 CM Jamison: I think it’s gonna be a very – CM Cookerly: Hey, they said it was healthy. CM Jamison: – it’s gonna be a popular place, I believe. CM Cookerly: It’s gonna be healthy. Mayor Lockwood: I like doughnuts. CM Jamison: I think this is a great idea to kind of preserve one of our historic structures. So, I’m looking forward to it. Chris: Thank you. CM Cookerly: Thank you very much. Mayor Lockwood: All right. Well, I’ll open it up for a motion unless anybody has any other questions. CM Bentley: I just wanna ask Robyn – what’s the proper way to say plantings on the west? Because I don’t wanna leave it open-ended because he’s graciously – Robyn: I guess you might wanna – I do believe there’s already about a 10- foot strip that’s on that western piece. So, if you want it – CM Bentley: So, I didn’t see that. Is it – the strip is to be planted? Robyn: They called it a landscape strip in their – let’s see. CM Bentley: Yeah, if you can show it to me – Robyn: So, if you see this right here? Right here, it says landscape – they call it an island, but that’s about 10 feet there. But if you want additional, you’d have to ask for it and then – CM Bentley: No, I don’t want additional. I just didn’t understand what that was. And that’s to be planted. Robyn: Right. You could say something like provide a 10-foot landscape strip planted to be approved by the DRB or the city arborist. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 39 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 39 Because if I just say landscape strip, it’s not gonna be a lot. But I don’t wanna say to buffer standards because it’s not wide enough to make it up to buffer standards but something to beef it up. But if you wanted to ask for another body like the DRB or the city arborists to be involved, that would be fine. CM Bentley: So, if we wanted the DRB to weigh in on that, how would – Robyn: Right, to have approval by the DRB. Mayor Lockwood: The only – Robyn: We’ll have our arborist kind of come up with a plan before it goes to DRB. Mayor Lockwood: The only thing I would add to that or keep is mind is also with the [inaudible – crosstalk] [01:18:36] too – Robyn: The entrance. Mayor Lockwood: – to make sure there’s no blockage – traffic line of sight. CM Bentley: Yeah. Mayor Lockwood: We need to [inaudible – crosstalk] into that. Robyn: Although, if it is just entering on that western portion, hopefully that won’t impact it too bad on that western entrance. CM Bentley: Okay, let’s see. Mayor Lockwood: Did that give you clarification enough to – assume you’d like to make a motion. CM Bentley: Mayor, I would like to make a motion to approve agenda item ZM20-02/VC20-02 with staff’s recommended conditions with the addition of the western-most landscape strip to be approved by the DRB and public works. Mayor Lockwood: Yeah, I think that’d cover it just to make sure it’s safe. Robyn: So, I just wanna clarify so we know – so, the 10-foot landscape strip on the west property line be – I was writing. So, what was the Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 40 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 40 rest of it? CM Bentley: On the west property line per approval by the DRB. Mayor Lockwood: I think just to clarify – the planting strip is there. It’s just that we wanna have the DRB to approve it. CM Jamison: [Inaudible – crosstalk] [01:20:08] approve planting. CM Bentley: For the purpose of screening the residence that’s adjacent there. CM Mohrig: Second. Mayor Lockwood: So, just to clarify, Ken, do we need? CM Bentley: Say it again. Ken: I’d like it for the records just in case [inaudible] even with the second in place. Mayor Lockwood: If you’ll just repeat it while I make sure that – CM Bentley: So, on staff recommended conditions with the west-most landscape strip to be approved for screening purposes by the DRB and public works. CM Mohrig: Second. Ken: So, that was the acceptance of the recommendation from staff, the acceptance of the recommended conditions as well as the [inaudible – crosstalk]. CM Bentley: The addition. Mayor Lockwood: The planting strip is shown on the plan, part of it, but just to be approved by DRB and any engineering concerns. All right. I have a motion for approval as read by Councilmember Bentley, and I have a second from Councilmember Mohrig. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor please say “aye.” Council Members: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: Are there any opposed? That passes unanimously. I do wanna Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 41 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 41 make one comment. I think in 13 years, I don’t think we’ve ever had a zoning where I haven’t heard one negative comment, anything from a citizen. And tonight, we only had positive comments. So, again, I’ll give credit to the situation, the structure of the property, staff’s recommendations and their work, and the quality applicant. So, congratulations. All right. Let’s see. The rest of the zoning items we removed from the agenda. Correct City? CM Bentley: Correct. Mayor Lockwood: So, we will move onto – CM Bentley: Business. Mayor Lockwood: We don’t have any items under unfinished business. So, we’ll move onto new business. Sudie, if you’ll please call the first item. I know we added an item. Sudie: Right. Mayor Lockwood: Did we add that as the first item? Then if you’d read that. Sudie: Under approval of agenda, this item was moved by a motion of vote to new business – approval of subdivision plats and revisions, Louis Reynaud, land lot 184, 16530 Hopewell Road, minor plat, create three lots, 3.0 total acres, one lot per acre, agenda item No. 20-065, Mr. Parag Agrawal. CM Bentley: So, thank you so much for the support and tapping the brakes on this because I think it got the attention of a couple council members because of the square footage down to the penny on the 43,560-square foot three lots, which is all per code. And that’s fine, except when you talk to the BZA committee and the chair, they’re the ones that get some of the fallout when lots are subdivided to this degree of precision. And it’s my understanding that it got staff’s attention too, which appreciate you looking at it in more detail. And that when we asked – it came back that the homes have to be oriented just so, and they have to be this size. So, when things get that detailed, an unknowing buyer – if this property were to change hands – would Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 42 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 42 maybe not know that. And that’s why I just wanted to bring that to light as we get more and more pressure to subdivide to highest and best use, these things are gonna come forward, and I would not be at all inclined to allow any variances because this is self-imposed. Mayor Lockwood: Right. CM Bentley: But this will probably go to the BZA. So, we have our minor plat process, which is supposed to be flexible. But now we kinda see it being flexible for a use that is not the vision of council. So, those were my comments. And I was just gonna ask Ken if this parcel could be subdivided and conditioned to that site plan that was submitted that was so precise with the houses being exactly oriented this way and this size. Because if the parcel changes hands, we’ll have homeowners that might not be very happy. Just a suggestion. Mayor Lockwood: I think the point is – while they meet the letter of the law with it and it’s approved and they have the right to do that, you just wanna make them aware that we’re approving it per the letter of the law and that that site plan. If something changes, they may not be able to – if they can’t meet all those requirements, they may not have it very long. CM Bentley: They might not be able to fit a pool and – if we have – there’s just not gonna be room to build your standard Milton nice estate. So, I don’t know how to do that, but I think it’s worthy of discussing. And I appreciate that. Mayor Lockwood: Anybody else to comment – Rick? CM Mohrig: I’ve got, I guess, a comment along the same line. Any house that goes on these, if we approve this as minor plat and like Laura talked about with the orientation of the home, it still is gonna require the same from a septic field and all the other things. All those requirements are still gonna be – what I’d hate to see us do is then all of a sudden have a new homeowner or developer come forward with a whole list of variances saying, “Oh, well, now we have a hardship. We have to change. Otherwise, we can’t build to it.” That’s I think what you were getting at, and that’s my concern too. There’s no flexibility if there is any issue. I just wanna make sure Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 43 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 43 that we in fact would still hold to the standards that we r equire as far as building and septic fields, all the conditions, so that we don’t run into an issue of a lot of variances being requested. Because like Laura had said, this would be self-imposed hardship. This would not be – but a new homeowner may see it as a hardship on them. But for this body, I wouldn’t want to see us approving variances because we gave this approval for such close and tight standards to 1-acre minimum. Parag: A couple of things [inaudible] [01:27:36]. We had a good discussion with the applicant about the various issue, and they are aware that if they are looking for a variance, it will be a self- imposed hardship. And the staff will not be supporting any variances on this. CM Mohrig: Okay. Parag: Second thing – they already have an approved site plan for the septic tank from Fulton County. So, that septic issue, which you were mentioning, Councilmember Mohrig, they already have approval from Fulton County based on the – CM Mohrig: Soils. Parag: – site plan, which they have given to us. CM Cookerly: May I ask a question? Mayor Lockwood: Carol, yes. CM Cookerly: So, is your conversation about not asking for variances, is that in writing? Parag: No, it’s not in writing. Again, they can ask for anything. Except again, they can always request anything, right? It is the [inaudible] and the staff’s – CM Cookerly: No, I understand that. Parag: Yeah. Robyn: So, I just want to make a couple of little comments about – I don’t Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 44 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 44 know if people realize, but with pools, it’s a little bit more lax with our zoning ordinance. Pools and pool decks and equipment can be as close as 10 feet to the property line. And it does need to be either next to the side or behind the house. I can’t be in front of it. Also, just FYI, porches can encroach into the front and rear yards by 10 feet. So, that kind of gives a little bit of wiggle room for people designing their houses, especially if they want kind of the country farm Milton look with a nice deep porch. It does allow the porch to encroach by 10 feet in the front and the rear. So, I think that gives some flexibility also to the design. And here’s just – we have an example of footprints of houses that are fairly substantial on these three different lots and the setbacks that would be required for them. Also, we have on public roads – you can’t exceed 20% impervious. So, I’m just giving you a little bit of information. So, that would include the house. That would include the driveway. It would include any pool. I will say it’s not so much fitting a pool inside of the setbacks of that 10 feet and all the other issues. We have come into more issues with the impervious area exceeding 20% for public roads and then 25% for private roads. So, just FYIs. Not necessarily the location of a house or swimming pool, but sometimes they put in these really big driveways that just blow out the impervious area. And this is what we have to deal with every day in major subdivisions because most subdivisions – and I’m sure you’re aware of that – that they are literally 1 acre, 43,560 square feet. And it is something that we try to warn the developers and the builders that if your clients start adding all these different impervious surfaces that actually a lot of times that’s where they get hooked into trouble. So, just FYI. CM Cookerly: Thank you. Mayor Lockwood: Peyton. CM Jamison: I agree with Councilmember Bentley. That’s good. Mayor Lockwood: Thanks everybody. Good they’re kinda given fair warning. Ken: Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to address real quickly Councilmember Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 45 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 45 Bentley’s question about the configuration of the units on the parcel. But most of what I was gonna offer has been subsumed within Robyn’s and Parag’s comments. I appreciate the sophistication candidly of the way you all are approaching this. The reason I was gonna say no or recommend no was because I wanna keep our corridors clean. We’re in a subdivision process right now, and I don’t want us to blanch over into the building or the zoning issue. So, the conditions associated with subdivisions – that’s not really where we need to camp out. As Parag correctly said, anybody can come ask for a variance for anything. And that’s where the City of Milton just needs to exercise sort of the discipline within its codes to say “not gonna work here” because this was something that you chose to as opposed to – had foisted upon you. So, you all hit all these points. CM Bentley: Thank you so much for the conversation. I know the BZA appreciates it too. Mayor Lockwood: So, procedurally now, this item is up for us under new business. So, we’ll just take a motion. Ken: That is correct, Mr. Mayor. Mayor Lockwood: So, I’ll open up for a motion. CM Mohrig: Mr. Mayor, I make a motion that we approve agenda item No. 20- 065. CM Bentley: Second. Mayor Lockwood: I have a motion for approval from Councilmember Mohrig with a second from Councilmember Bentley. All in favor please say “aye.” Council Members: Aye. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley made a motion to approve ZM20- 02/VC20-02 with staff recommended conditions with the addition of the western most landscape strip to be approved for screening purposes by the Design Review Board. Councilmember Mohrig seconded the motion. The Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 46 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 46 motion passed 5-0. Council members Moore & Longoria were absent from the meeting. 12) NEW BUSINESS Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous, Sudie. Sudie, if you’d please call the next new business item. 1. Consideration of a Resolution Approving the 2020 Update for the Milton Local Emergency Operations Plan. RESOLUTION NO. 20-03-531 (Agenda Item No. 20-066) (Matt Marietta, Emergency Manager & Deputy Fire Chief) Sudie: The next item is consideration of a resolution approving the 2020 update for the Milton Local Emergency Operations Plan, agenda item No. 20-066, Mr. Matt Marietta. Matt: Good evening. What I bring before you tonight is an update for our emergency operations plan with a little bit of a brief overview of what that means. This will be the 2020 revision. The reason we have an emergency operations plan – first of all, City Code 18-24 requires a disaster plan. There’s also several plans required by FEMA and GEMA for reimbursement if we had a disaster, including the Fulton County multijurisdictional hazard mitigation plan and so on. Technically, we are subsumed under the Fulton County plan. But given that Fulton County has a million residents and we represent a unique piece of that county, it makes sense prudence-wise for Milton to have their own plan. The first addition of this was drafted in 2008 and approved by council. And then in 2010 an update was approved. The reason for that update is because we went from having a mostly outsourced government model to a mostly in-house government model. So, a lot of a language had to be rewritten. Both of those original plans were written based on the state and county model. And the ways those are drafted, they have something called emergency support functions. And those break down everything a government can do into little tiny pieces, including transportation, communications, public works and Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 47 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 47 engineering, firefighting, emergency management, mass care, housing and human services, resource support, public health, energy, so on. So, the purpose behind this is to try – that’s an awful broad approach for the City of Milton to take when we don’t have that many departments to break it down into that many small pieces. So, this update is trying to make it more applicable to our local jurisdiction than relying entirely on the model set up by the federal and county plan. So, in 2019, we began working on our revitalized emergency management program, which includes the Local Emergency Operations Plan, and that’s what that acronym LEOP means. Why do we need one? Well, since Milton’s been in existence, we’ve had three declared disasters, including floods in 2009, a snow and ice event in 2014, and hurricane Irma in 2017. And we applied for federal reimbursement on all three of those and received reimbursement in 2009 and 2017. The reason we didn’t in 2014 is the disaster declaration was for an ice event, which is how it impacted most of the state. And we got snow. So, since all of our damage was in snow, we were excluded from getting reimbursement for that. But that was just the way that the disaster declaration was written at the federal level, not at the local level. We also used this for other large-scale events, including Snowmageddon in 2014. We had an EF1 tornado that traveled seven and a half miles through the city in 2014. And in 2011, we had a multiday snow event that shut the city down. And then we have much smaller snow and ice events. We have annual severe weather issues and large community events. And a perfect example is the snow that we had recently and then the flooding that we had in December. Those don’t quite rise to the level of a disaster declaration, but it strains our resources to the point that we use the emergency operations plan mindset to start channeling our resources where they’re most needed. So, the goals of this 2020 update is a Milton-specific written plan as I mentioned earlier. The plan focuses more on the departments Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 48 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 48 in the city and assigning them responsibilities rather than on that cookie-cutter federal version that has 14 different emergency support functions. So, the goal was to create a concise and usable document for police and fire but also for nonemergency personnel. So, when pubic works and community development and economic development and these other city departments get involved, it’s something that is not put in public safety speak. You don’t have to be used to dealing with police and fire terminology all the time to be able to understand it. The other part of this is to engage various city departments in the plan development process. In the past, it’s largely been Matt sitting in his office writing the plan and then bringing it forth for approval. And this one was a much more inclusive process. The entire city was engaged in it, and I think we’re gonna have a better document as a result of that. And then also to build a foundation to have a more robust emergency management program and hopefully a more resilient city. The new plan consists of a base plan that goes through and looks at the hazards that we face in Milton. It defines basic roles and expectations of levels of government and so on. Annex A provides the emergency operations center guidelines. So, it tells how we set up an EOC and what the different roles are in it. Annex B talks about public warning systems, including code red and the tornado sirens. Annex C looks at crisis communications. The annex D is the department responsibilities, which has replaced the emergency support functions from the previous iterations of the plan. And then also a legislative annex, which is the city code that applies to this plan. It also directs further planning for a support department policy. So, finance and IT aren’t mentioned in this plan directly, but they’re a critical part of those other departments being able to do their job. So, we’re gonna be involving them. Also a Continuity of Operations Plan, which looks at how we continue to operate on a skeleton crew or if city hall burned down or something along those lines. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 49 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 49 A training plan to make sure everybody in the city that has a role has the proper training needed. And then also a Point of Distribution plan for distributing medications or potentially emergency supplies if typical logistical chains get broken down. After this plan is approved – if you approve it tonight, the next steps will be to use this to assess and increase the training levels for public safety but also for the other departments as well, to complete a COOP plan update – again, that’s Continuity of Operations Plan – and to conduct periodic tabletops, drills, and exercises, much like the active shooter exercise that we had. We also had a tabletop exercise with senior staff a couple months ago to try to engage them in this process. And we’ll use that to assess the readiness of our program, identify any weaknesses, and then prepare staff for response to low- frequency high-risk events – things that we don’t do very often but could potentially have a huge impact on the city if we don’t handle it properly – and also bring to light additional needs. And that’s it. I’d be happy to answer any questions you have about this. Mayor Lockwood: Do you guys have questions for Matt on this. It’s interesting. And thank you for everything you guys did. It’s a lot of stuff that the average person doesn’t think about or see to just not only keep us safe but make sure funding and meeting all of the rules and requirements – so, thank you, sir. If there’s no questions, I’ll open up for a motion. CM Bentley: Mayor, I’d like to make a motion to approve the resolution approving the 2020 update for the Milton Local Emergency Operations plan. CM Cookerly: Second. Mayor Lockwood: I have a motion for approval from Councilmember Bentley with a second from Councilmember Cookerly. All in favor please say “aye.” Council Members: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. Matt: Thank you. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 50 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 50 Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley made a motion to approve Agenda Item No. 20-066. Councilmember Cookerly seconded the motion. The motion passed 5-0. Council members Moore & Longoria were absent from the meeting. Mayor Lockwood: Thank you, sir. All right, Sudie, if you’d please call the next new business item. 2. Consideration of a Professional Services Agreement between the City of Milton and CPL Architects, Engineers, Landscape Architect and Surveyor, D.P.C. (P.C.) for Crabapple Streetscape Planning and Design. (Agenda Item No. 20-067) (Robert Drewry, Public Works Director) Sudie: The next item is consideration of a professional services agreement between the City of Milton and CPL architects, engineers, landscape architect and surveyor, DPC (PC) for Crabapple streetscape planning and design, agenda item No 20-067, Mr. Robert Drewry. Robert: Good evening Mayor and Council. It didn’t take me long to realize that this particular project is very sensitive and a very high-profile project, which is why it’s a separate item on the agenda as opposed to being on consent. This project started out as an in-house project, in-house design work, and staff concurrently decided that we needed to reach out to seek outside professional services. First and foremost, it’s imperative this finished product not only incorporates the Crabapple vision but also creates a safe environment for vehicles and pedestrians. I wanna make sure that’s clear. But the consultant’s main objective and initial objective would be to involve the Crabapple stakeholders. There are multiple tasks underneath this proposed agreement, including up to eight stakeholder meetings with the local owners who own Crabapple and four coordination meetings with city staff, including community development and public works and four Georgia DOT coordination meetings. So, there’s a lot involved in Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 51 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 51 the planning and development of this concept plan ultimately producing a concept for the Georgia DOT encroachment permit. So, it’s gonna be a lot of involvement. There will be multiple meetings, and we wanna make sure this consultant takes a lead on that. Any questions? Mayor Lockwood: Questions for Robert on this? CM Jamison: I got one quick one. Mayor Lockwood: Go ahead, Peyton. CM Jamison: What’s the timeframe on this, Robert? Robert: Well, we wanna bring the consultant on as quickly as possible. The long pole in the tent if I can use that phrase is the DOT approval. That tends to drag on for months. So, putting a fine timetable on it is kinda difficult. But I think we can complete our work no doubt probably by the midsummer, something like that. Mayor Lockwood: Thanks. Anybody else? All right. We’ll open up for a motion. CM Jamison: Mayor, I’ll make a motion to approve agenda item No. 20-067. CM Mohrig: Second. Mayor Lockwood: I have a motion for approval from Councilmember Jamison with a second from Councilmember Mohrig. All in favor please say “aye.” Council Members: Aye. Robert: Thank you. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Jamison made a motion to approve Agenda Item No. 20-067. Councilmember Mohrig seconded the motion. The motion passed 5-0. Council members Moore & Longoria were absent from the meeting. Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous, Sudie. Thank you, Robert. All right, Sudie, if you’ll please sound the final new business item. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 52 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 52 3. Consideration of a Resolution of the City of Milton Opposing House Bill 523, Restricting Local Governments From Prohibiting Short Term Rentals in Residential Districts. RESOLUTION NO. 20-03-532 (Agenda Item No. 20-068) (Ken Jarrard, City Attorney) Sudie: Final item this evening – consideration of a resolution of the City of Milton opposing House Bill 523 restricting local governments from prohibiting short-term rentals in residential districts. This is agenda item No. 20-068. I do have one public comment that they have requested me to read into the record. Do you want to hear that now? Mayor Lockwood: I like that. Sudie: This is from Gary Jablonski at 2680 Grassview Drive, Milton, Georgia, 30004. And he states, “I am in support of this resolution. I strongly recommend that each council member read and comprehend every word of the resolution. It is extremely important. Your vote today could set precedent for future votes and actions regarding House Bill 523.” Mr. Ken Jarrard. Ken: Mr. Mayor and Members of the Council, as you know we’re in the middle of the legislative session downtown. And we have taken up for consideration House Bill 523. It is part of – there’s actually a handful of bills right now that are pending in front of the General Assembly that express an intention by the General Assembly to preempt local governments on areas that I believe have historically been exclusively maintained and controlled by local governments not only in the context of short-term rentals but also with respect to architectural design as well. In fact, I just issued an opinion yesterday to another government where I felt like there were some constitutional issues with the suggested preemption of the architectural design standards as well. With respect to this though, this is short-term rental. To me, this is fairly clear this is problematic constitutionally. As the council’s aware, the Georgia Constitution actually vests the power of zoning in cities and counties. It is not vested in the General Assembly. And when I say that, it’s important because that means that the Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 53 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 53 zoning power is not a conferred power by the General Assembly. It’s a conferred power by the people of the State of Georgia. They have decided in their enlightened wisdom that cities and counties are best equipped to make land use decisions with respect to uses. The reason that’s important is because short-term rental, however it may be presented, is a use within a zoning district. I can use my home to live in it. I can use my home to short-term rent it, or I could use my home for a grocery store. Or I could use my home for a restaurant, or I could use my home for all variety of reasons. And it still looks like a home, but it’s got a different use than a residential dwelling. And I believe that that ability to regulate uses in zones is uniquely zoning. And the ability of the General Assembly to take that power away from us to be able to decide what zones can be used for what purposes is significant. And therefore, under the notion that we need to remain vigilant to maintain the powers that have been given to us by the people, this resolution would basically say to the local delegation – of the City of Milton’s local delegation to the General Assembly – to say to fight this bill and hopefully defeat it. The City of Milton is concerned about it. The City of Milton believes it is constitutionally dubious, and the City of Milton believes that the zoning power needs to reside at the local level. And if you adopt this resolution and upon execution by the mayor, I would give it to the city manager who would then presumably give it to the members of our local delegation. Mr. Mayor, that’s my presentation. Mayor Lockwood: Are there questions for Ken on that? CM Bentley: Just a comment. Mayor Lockwood: Okay, Laura. CM Bentley: I just want to thank Mr. Jarrard for putting that together, and I know we want to get that down to the gentlemen as soon as possible. So, thank you very much. Ken: My pleasure. Mayor Lockwood: Anything else? All right. Carol. I’ll open up for motion. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 54 of 54 ______________________________________________________________________________________ 54 CM Cookerly: Mr. Mayor, I’d like to make a motion that we approve agenda item. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Cookerly made a motion to approve Agenda Item No. 20-068. Councilmember Mohrig seconded the motion. The motion passed 5-0. Council members Moore & Longoria were absent from the meeting. 15) ADJOURNMENT (Agenda Item No. 20-069) Motion and Vote: Councilmember Mohrig moved to adjourn the Regular Meeting at 7:58 p.m. Councilmember Jamison seconded the motion. The motion passed (5-0). Council members Moore & Longoria were absent from the meeting. Date Approved: April 15, 2020 __________________________________ _____________________________ Sudie AM Gordon, City Clerk Joe Lockwood, Mayor