HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - CC - 07/20/2020Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council
Monday, July 20, 2020 at 6:00 pm
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CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Lockwood: Thank you. I’d like to call the regular meeting of the Milton City
Council for Monday, July 20, 2020, to order. 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 card to the clerk as soon as possible while the Milton
rules allow a speaker to turn in their comment card up until t he
clerk calls the agenda item. Once the agenda item is called, no
more comment cards will be accepted. City Clerk, can you please
call roll and make general announcements?
City Clerk: Good evening, Mayor and council. I’ll be happy to call roll for the
July 20, 2020, regular meeting. I would like to remind those in
attendance to please silence all cell phones at this time. Those
attending the meeting who would like to make a public comment,
you are 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 comment. If you are representing an organization,
an affidavit is required stating you have the authority to speak on
behalf of the 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 the chambers is prohibited.
Please refrain from any applause, cheering, booing, outburst, or
dialogue with any person 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.
City Clerk: Councilmember Paul Moore.
CM Moore: Here.
City Clerk: Councilmember Laura Bentley.
CM Bentley: Here.
City Clerk: Councilmember Joe Longoria.
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Monday, July 20, 2020 at 6:00 pm
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CM Longoria: Here.
City Clerk: Councilmember Carol Cookerly and Councilmember Rick Mohrig
are joining us. Thank you, Carol. And Rick Mohrig?
CM Bentley: He’s trying to join in but he will be joining in.
City Clerk: Okay. And for the record, Councilmember Peyton Jamison is
absent. Would everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Councilmembers Present: Councilmember Laura Bentley, Mayor Joe
Lockwood, Councilmember Paul Moore and Councilmember Joe Longoria.
Councilmembers Calling In: Councilmembers Rick Mohrig and Carol
Cookerly.
Councilmember Absent: Councilmember Peyton Jamison.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE (Led by Mayor Joe Lockwood)
Mayor Lockwood: 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. Again, welcome to city
hall tonight. And we appreciate you being here in attendance to our
meeting. Tammy, I want to ask if you will sound the next item.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
City Clerk: The next item is the approval of the meeting agenda, Agenda Item
No. 20-187.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I would like to, if it’s okay with council, to move the
Agenda Item No. 20-190, the approval of a contract between the
city of Milton and Croft and Associates for the architectural design
for the Fire Station 42 from this consent agenda to new business.
I’d also like to add an executive session to discuss possible
litigation. Any other changes? If not, I’ll ask for a motion on the
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Monday, July 20, 2020 at 6:00 pm
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agenda.
CM Bentley: Mayor, I’d like to make a motion to approve the agenda as
amended.
CM Moore: Second.
Unnamed Male: Mr. Mayor, very quickly, just for the record as we’re beginning to
take your vote on that, just to advise that with respect to the
retirement agreement that is on the consent agenda, I have
provided updated copies of the most current version of that for the
record. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. That’s all.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Just to clarify, you’ve given the copies of the current one to
the councilmembers that are here tonight.
Unnamed Male: That’s correct.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I have a motion for approval as amended by Councilmember
Bentley and I believe Councilmember Moore was the second. So,
all in favor, please say aye.
Group: Aye.
Mayor Lockwood: Councilmember Cookerly, are you there?
CM Cookerly: I said aye.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. And is Councilmember Mohrig on yet?
City Clerk: He is and I think he’s trying to speak.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay.
City Clerk: I can’t tell.
Mayor Lockwood: All right. That’s unanimous for all of those that voted. Obviously,
Councilmember Jamison is not here and we’ll have to confirm with
Councilmember Mohrig. Do we have any general public comment
tonight?
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to approve the
meeting agenda with the following changes: Move the Agenda
Item No. 20-190, the approval of a contract between the city of
Milton and Croft and Associates for the architectural design for the
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Monday, July 20, 2020 at 6:00 pm
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Fire Station 42 from this consent agenda to new business and add
an Executive Session to discuss potential litigation .
Councilmember Moore seconded the motion. The motion passed
(6-0). Councilmember Jamison was absent from the meeting.
PUBLIC COMMENT
City Clerk: We do, Mayor.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Then, our next item is general public comment. Public
comment is a time for citizens to share information with the mayor
and city council and to provide input and opinions on any matter
that is not scheduled for its own public hearing during today’s
meeting. Each citizen who chooses to participate in public
comment must complete a comment card and submit it to the city
clerk prior to the agenda item being called. Please remember this is
not a time to engage the mayor or members of city council in
conversation. When your name is called, please come forward and
speak into the microphone stating your name and address for the
record.
You’ll have five minutes for remarks. The city encourages you
right now to review the agenda and if you wish to speak, bring
your comment cards to the clerk. Okay. If we can move on to the –
City Clerk: I’m sorry, Mr. Bill Madden.
Bill: Bill Madden, 740 Quarterpath Lane. So, my wife and I watched the
working session last week on the former Milton Country Club. It
was of particular interest to us because our property neighbors the
park. During the working session, the section of trail that comes
very close to our house was called Trail Section No. 5. I would like
to provide the council with some background information on this
section of trail. The concept plan for the park was approved by the
council during the August 29, 2019, meeting. As neighboring
homeowners, we participated actively in the public input sessions
and community surveys during the development phase of the plan.
The approved concept plan was called for Trail Section No. 5 to
run alongside and within an existing tree line. A portion of the
section trail would also be constructed a boardwalk because it
crossed areas of wetland. Personally, we were quite happy with
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this trail plan because the topography of the land and the existing
tree line provided a natural buffer to our property. We also thought
this plan would provide a nice shaded walking path, which
highlighted the natural beauty of the land to the public. During the
city council meeting of May 18, 2020, an engineering plan for the
trail was presented, which shows a significant change of plan for
the Trail Section No. 5.
The boardwalk was entirely eliminated and the trail path was
redirected away from the tree line to use a large portion of the
existing golf cart path. The path of the trail now comes very close
to our property. We believe it likely comes with 25 feet of our
property line, although we’re not 100% sure based on the quality
of the maps that are available to us. Additionally, the topography
of the land no longer provides us with a natural buffer. The trail is
now the same elevation as our backyard. We have many windows
on the back side of our house. And you can see directly into our
house from the path of the proposed trail.
We have both safety and privacy concerns with this path.
Immediately after this proposal on May 18, I sent the council an
email about our concerns with the new plan. I also later learned
that several of my neighbors also reached out to city council with
similar concerns. And as a result of this outreach, myself along
with neighbors from Quarterpath Lane met with Public Works
Director Robert Drewry and City Engineer Sarah Leaders on May
26 at the property. We had a very positive meeting where they
listened to our concerns and discussed several possible solutions.
These proposals were presented to the council during last week’s
working session. Unfortunately, I do not believe that you were
provided with all of the background that I’ve just provided to you
today. In the last week, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with
many of you. Several of you have even taken the opportunity to
come out and walk the property to get better acquainted. And I
really appreciate those that did. I’m asking for you to please
reconsider the alternative options for Trail Section No. 5 before
going out to bid on this project.
I really feel like there is a win/win solution that meets the overall
budget, provides good value for the taxpayers, and is still sensitive
to our concerns and those of our neighbors on Quarterpath Lane.
Thank you.
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Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Thank you. Do we have any more general public comments,
Tammy?
City Clerk: No, Mayor.
CONSENT AGENDA
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Then, we’ll move on to the next item, consent agenda.
City Clerk: Sure. The first item on the consent agenda is approval of the June
1, 2020, regular city council meeting minutes, Agenda Item No.
20-188. Second is the approval of the June 8, 2020, special called
city council meeting minutes, Agenda Item No. 20-189. Next, we
have the approval of a professional services agreement between the
city of Milton and Ross + Associates to amend the impact fee
ordinance and complete the capital improvements element 2020
annual update, Agenda Item No. 20-191. Next, is the approval of a
retirement agreement for Jim Cregge, Agenda Item No. 20-192.
Next, we have the approval of a construction services agreement
between the city of Milton and Complete Demolition Services,
LLC at the former Milton Country Club – Active Area, Agenda
Item No. 20-193. Our sixth item is the approval of an easement
agreement for drainage areas on 14875 Thompson Road, Agenda
Item No. 20-194. Our next item is the approval of a task order
between the city of Milton and BM&K, PC for Cogburn Road
sidewalk construction inspection, Agenda Item No. 20-195.
Our next item is the approval of a professional services agreement
between the city of Milton and Leadergov to provide
comprehensive management and leadership training for all staff,
Agenda Item No. 20-196. Our final item is an approval of a
professional services agreement between the city of Milton and
Voya Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company to provide
investment services and administration related to the city’s 401 and
457 plans, Agenda Item No. 20-197.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Do I have a motion on the consent agenda?
CM Longoria: Mayor, I move that we approve the consent agenda as read by the
city clerk.
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Monday, July 20, 2020 at 6:00 pm
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CM Bentley: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I have a motion for approval from Councilmember Longoria
with a second from Councilmember Bentley. All in favor, please
say aye.
Group: Aye.
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to approve the
Consent Agenda. Councilmember Bentley seconded the motion.
The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Jamison was absent
from the meeting.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Still no audio from Councilmember Mohrig, is that correct?
Okay.
City Clerk: It sounds like he’s trying but I don’t think his microphone is
working. I can see that he’s unmuted himself.
Mayor Lockwood: So, that’s unanimous.
City Clerk: Oh, he said aye.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. That’s unanimous. Next, we’ll move on to reports and
presentations.
City Clerk: Mayor, I’m sorry to interrupt. We had one comment that was
emailed and I believe he wanted it read into the record. Do we
have that email from Mr. Sawyer? I don’t have that email.
Mayor Lockwood: I’ve seen it. I saw the email.
City Clerk: I believe it was emailed out to all of the elected officials.
Mayor Lockwood: Yeah. And I’m not sure if that – I guess he would have wanted that
on general public comment.
City Clerk: I believe so. I think I have it here if you give me a moment. Do you
want me to read it into the record?
Mayor Lockwood: Yeah. If that’s all right, Ken.
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Mr. Jarrard: Appropriate.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay.
City Clerk: He says, “My name is Scott Sawyer and I reside at 787
Quarterpath Lane in Milton, Georgia. I viewed last week city
council work session meeting on the former Milton Country Club
trail plan and wanted to provide the following comments. The
boardwalk and trail adjacent to the large park pond as proposed by
the consultant Kenly Horn and adopted by the city council in
August 2019 is the best location for a trail and should be
constructed as proposed. The boardwalk and trail through the trees
and wetlands near the pond will provide walkers and hikers with a
unique opportunity to experience the park’s nature and ecosystem
up close and in person.
The trail will also provide shade for the hikers in an engaging way
to complete the loop around the pond. I believe the landscape
design has recommended this location for these reasons. If the
boardwalk cannot be constructed, the alternative to the trail
proposed by the neighbors is the next best option. This proposed
trail passes through the existing wetlands cart path and it runs
adjacent to the tree line to circle the pond. This trail is the second
best location for three reasons. 1.) The trail will preserve the large
meadow as it doesn’t cut across the open field to the other side of
the meadow.
2.) It will provide hikers with a new wider gravel walking trail
instead of a small, crumbling golf cart paths. 3.) The location
adjacent to the tree line keeps hikers away from the Quarterpath
Lane homes and ensures the privacy and security of park visitors
and the homeowners. The alternative one trail proposed by the city
is the least desirable trail due to the following reasons. 1.) The trail
is closer to Quarterpath Lane homes and will require significant
city and homeowner screening to provide privacy and security to
hikers and neighbors.
2.) A significant portion of the old narrow and broken golf cart
paths will be reused for this trail. 3.) While alternative one trail is
longer, it is only 0.2 miles longer than boardwalk and alternative 2
trails. Thank you for considering these comments. Our
understanding, as stated in last week’s work session, is that no
votes were taken by the council to change the park master plan and
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the meeting was designed for the city and community to explore
trail options. That’s it.
Mayor Lockwood: All right. Thank you. So, clerk, reports and presentations.
REPORTS AND PRESENTATIONS
City Clerk: Our first report and presentation is the oath of the office by Mayor
Lockwood to new firefighters Timothy Brown and Mary Glasgow.
Presented by Mayor Lockwood.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. And I want to, before we do this oath, I want to take an
opportunity to thank our Fire Department and those in uniform as
well as all of our public safety. But you guys really had to work
hard this weekend. We had three separate fires. And I appreciate
you guys being there. Fortunately, no one was hurt and you
protected lives and protected the adjacent property. So, thank you,
guys, for being there and keeping us safe.
Chief Edgar: Mayor, [inaudible] [00:17:06]. With that being said, we are
introducing two new fire fighters to the city of Milton Fire Rescue
Department. And after this weekend, it’s good to have some fresh,
young blood coming into the department because our folks were
wore out after this past weekend. And they did do a great job. All
of the agencies involved, our neighbors, our Police Department,
our Fire Department, our EMS service all did a great job. So,
appreciate everybody. This evening, I want to introduce two new
fire fighters, Timothy Brown.
He has spent five years in the Marine Corps. He was stationed at
King’s Bay after completing high school. He earned his good
conduct medal as well as a meritorious unit commendation.
Timothy is a third generation fire fighter. Since his departure from
the Marine Corps, he has completed fire school through Barry
University as well as his EMT. He’s very eager to join our
department and continue the legacy that his family has started in
the fire service. Additionally, I’d like to introduce Mary Glasgow.
Mary grew up in Bay County, Florida where she attended Gulf
Coast State College majoring in civil engineering. Mary is coming
to us from AMR Ambulance Service where she has worked as a
paramedic for three years. She has received her paramedic
certification through Faithful Guardian in 2019. Mary earned her
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EMT certifications through Grady EMS Academy in 2017. Mary
has a family background in firefighting. Her mother was a fire
fighter paramedic in Bay County, Florida. And she’s excited to
follow in her mother’s footsteps. And she’s interested in helping
people.
So, I’d like to introduce to you Tim Brown and Mary Glasgow.
And Mayor, we would be honored if you would give them the oath
of office.
Mayor Lockwood: [Inaudible] [00:19:12]. Those were different times. So, if you
would state your name and repeat after me. I, state your name,
swear and affirm that I am qualified to hold the position of fire
fighter to which I’m appointed. And for so long as I am employed
by the city of Milton, I do solemnly wear and affirm that I will
support and defend the Constitution of the United States of
America and the Constitution of the state of Georgia. And I will
faithfully and perform and discharge the duties of my position
conscientiously and without malice or partiality to the best of my
ability.
I further swear and affirm to obey, to adhere, to uphold and to
enforce the laws of the United States of America, the state of
Georgia, and the city of Milton at all times. I further swear and
affirm that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the city of Milton
and the officers appointed over me according to the law so help me
God.
[Timothy Brown and Mary Glasgow repeated the oath back to Mayor Lockwood]
Mayor Lockwood: And with that, I want to congratulate you and welcome you to the
city of Milton. We sincerely appreciate everything that you’ve
done to get here and everything that you’ll be doing to keep our
citizens and ourselves safe. So, thank you very much.
Timothy: Thank you, sir.
Chief Edgar: Would you mind signing this here. Mayor and council, Mary and
Tim are going to be pinned. Mary is going to be pinned by Chelsey
McDonald, her best friend and one of our fire fighter paramedics
and the 2019 Fire Fighter of the Year. And Tim is going to be
pinned by his dad and his wife. And Tim’s dad is a retired fire
fighter from South Florida.
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Unnamed Female: Now, let them take a picture of you. And if we can get one more
picture.
Mayor Lockwood: Again, a big thank you, thank you, sir, for being here with your
son. Big shout out to Mary and Timothy. Thank you and welcome
to Milton. Proud to have you. Okay, Tammy, if you’ll please call
the next item.
City Clerk: Our next item is the discussion of the architectural design for Fire
Station 42, Chief Edgar.
Chief Edgar: I didn’t get far, did I? Okay. Good evening again, Mayor, council.
What we’re talking tonight and what I’d like to discuss with you is
the Station 42 project. As you know, Station 42 is located on
Thompson Road. And it was built in the 1970s with Fulton County
as a volunteer station. And it has long exceeded his lifespan.
Fulton County had planned on rebuilding that station, replacing
and rebuilding in the ‘90s. That didn’t take place. And here we are
in 2020 and we still occupy that station with an engine company
and a rescue company, a minimum staffing of five people.
Sometimes, we have six there in a 3,700 square foot building. And
if you’ve been by that building, you can tell that it’s ready to go.
It’s ready to be replaced. Here’s the property lines for it. You can
see where the building sits. It’s on a very small plot. And it has the
AT&T tower or the cell tower to the rear of that. What our future
plan here is that Station 44 is scheduled to open in September of
2020. Station 42, once that station opens, Station 42 personnel and
apparatus, the rescue and the engine, would relocate to Station 44.
At that point, we would go ahead and decommission Station 42
and begin the tear down process and then, replace that.
The goal is to build a new state of the art 50 year building similar
to what we have done here with Station 44. And I’m very excited
about that building and the work that’s been done there. Bob
Buschemi has done an outstanding job. And for me to be able to
work with him on that project, what a learning experience it has
been for me. The design of the new building would be
approximately 7,000 square feet. It will be a two bay, single story
station. And it will house eight fire fighters. So, we’re planning for
growth in the future for that particular structure.
And the design of that will fit the characteristics and blend into that
residential community where that station sits today. The RFQ
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process went out for an architectural design firm. Bids were
submitted and Croft was selected by a committee of city staff as
well as fire fighter staff. We negotiated an agreement. And the
contract gave us two options. The first option was a lead option at
just over $213,000.00 for architectural design. And without a lead
certification, it was almost $176,000.00. So, it’s just less than a
$38,000.00 difference just for an architectural design for a lead
project versus a non-lead project.
The original budget for it did not take into consideration a lead
project. The design will include the sustainable element similar to
what we’ve already done in Station 44. Most lead items are built
into a current building codes, which we’ve also been implementing
at the Station 44. And depending on the level of lead and what
elements, the cost can vary up to 20%. And that’s an overall
project cost. That’s not just architectural design. So, we estimate
the project would cost about $4 million. And then, with a 20%
increase on top of that, you can see that we’re about an
$800,000.00 estimate on that project.
Let me back up here. With that additional cost, the demolition of
that particular building, if Station 42 were to exist today, the
demolition also has to follow lead certification requirements such
as you have to separate the debris. Some has to go to the landfill.
Some has to go to recycling. So, that’s an additional cost on top of
that. If the decision is to move forward with the lead project, we
would have to add the funds to that project or cut something out of
the project in order to meet the budget.
We’ve made some great strides in fire fighter safety with
everything that we’ve done, everything you’ve supported us on,
including the Fire Fighter Cancer Initiative, the exhaust extractors
we put in the stations, the new station alerting, which it has the
volume control where it’s not startling the fire fighters. So, all of
those things have gone into the health and safety of the station.
And with the lead project, I’m afraid that something is going to
have to be cut out or we’re going to have to find additional
funding. And the last thing I would like to see is anything that
would jeopardize the fire fighters’ safety in the fire stations.
Some of the appliances that we’ve put into Station 44, we did not
go with commercial grade stuff. We went ahead with high
efficiency appliances that we can replace easily. We’ve bought all
of our appliances from our local stores, such as Lowes and Home
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Depot. They’ve supported us in this project. So, when those things
reach their life expectancy, we can easily just go to those stores
and purchase new items and not have to go to a commercial side of
that. The other thing is the technology that goes into the lead. And
trust me, I am speaking outside of my wheelhouse here on lead.
And I’ve got Bob Bischemi here who supported me on this and
helped me and educated me on this.
The technology that goes into these lead projects can cost us more
in maintenance years down the road. Right now, our staff takes
care of all our stations. We handle everything in our fire stations
now. And I’m afraid that if we go beyond that and get too
technical, we’re going to have to go to outside sources for
maintenance. Again, if you can see Station 44 and when you have
an opportunity to get in there, I think you’ll really be impressed. I
think you’ll see that we have done everything we can to build a
sustainable station and something that will meet the lead
requirements but not necessarily get the score card for it and have
that plaque on the wall.
So, I will leave it at that. If you have questions, I’d be more than
happy to answer them. If they’re lead directed questions, I would
ask that Bob come up and help me out with those. Thank you.
Mayor Lockwood: I’ll just make a comment in my experience and the buildings we’ve
done in the past, including city hall. You’re correct in the cost
differences if we were to have a “lead certified building”. So, all of
your points are valid. The reality is I’m in favor of building a
building that’s not lead certified but we can spend the money and
do the things right that, basically, you put a lot of the things in that
are included in a lead certified building but just not to the point
that you’re discussing. So, I’ll open it up. Any questions on that,
Paul?
CM Cookerly: This is Carol.
Mayor Lockwood: Yes, Carol. Go ahead.
CM Cookerly: I am indeed not a fan of the lead. And I think that there are enough
economies of scale and technology savvy to accomplish a number
of lead initiatives without the lead certifications and some of the
things that are kind of ridiculous. So, I’m in favor of proceeding
without the lead certification.
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Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Thank you, Carol. Paul.
CM Moore: Chief, are there any consequences for not being a lead certified
building? There’s no penalty. There’s no other governmental
agency overlooking us to say you have to have something or
there’s a cost associated with it.
Chief Edgar: I think that one might fall right outside my wheelhouse. I would
ask that Bob, maybe if you would help me with that particular
question. I am not familiar with the government guidelines.
CM Moore: I don’t think there are but I just want to make sure.
Mr. Buschemi: We did great as a city on certain categories. I forget if it’s the
Green City Initiative or which one it is where lead certification
gets us extra points. But it doesn’t preclude us from gaining the
recognition on that.
CM Moore: There’s no financial forfeiture or –
Mr. Buschemi: As long as we’re –
CM Moore: And Chief, the 44 is spectacular. And while I haven’t had a chance
to be inside, I’ve watched the process. And if that is a non-lead
certified building and that’s the outcome, I’m very much in favor
of that.
Mr. Buschemi: And we are with Milton Country Club where the clubhouse is
pursuing lead certification. So, that will help us on that Green
Communities scorecard.
Mayor Lockwood: Anybody else? Okay. All right. I think you have the direction.
Thanks. Tammy, if you’ll please call the next item.
City Clerk: Our third and final report and presentation item is discussion of
concept for Freemanville Road at Birmingham Road intersection
improvement. Mr. Robert Drewry. And, Mayor, we do have two
public comments for this item.
Mayor Lockwood: I’d almost rather take public comment first if we can on that. That
way, when Robert makes his presentation, maybe it can address
any of those items.
City Clerk: Thank you. I’d first like to call Ms. Tamara Didjurgis for the
reports and presentation for the roundabout.
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Ms. Didjurgis: Hi. I’m sorry. I thought he was going to do the presentation first. I
wanted to comment on what’s in the presentation.
Mayor Lockwood: Do you mind just name and address for the record?
Ms. Didjurgis: Tamara Didjurgis, 1425 Birmingham Road, sorry.
Mayor Lockwood: No, just for the record.
Ms. Didjurgis: I should know it by now. So, I did want to talk about the plan. I
know that this came up in January and it’s come up for the last
seven years. I want to thank you for taking it back to rework it
some more. And I do have a few concerns about it still. When you
guys see this, one is that the driveway on Freemanville, when you
look at the presentation on what’s proposed, you’ll see that the
merge lanes come out right at my driveway. And that’s going to
make it very difficult to make a left hand turn. And the solution
that was given to me was well, why don’t you go through the
roundabout.
Well, in the evenings, Birmingham Road is backed up from
Birmingham Highway sometimes all the way back to Hopewell
Road. So, that’s not really a viable solution. So, that is one
concern. And the other thing is that there are two lanes coming –
what you’ll see in the presentation. And it’s probably about 150-
ish feet. I don’t know, Robert, is that about how far it is? So,
basically, there are already speed issues on both Birmingham Road
and Freemanville. So, they’re going to be able to do a nice little
slingshot and be coming down. And then, they will pick up a lot of
speed right where the driveway comes out.
So, no matter what, that’s going to be a pretty big issue I would
think. And when I asked about is speed going to be addressed, the
answer was no that it’s a roundabout. There’s not going to be
anything there to address the speed approaching the roundabout.
Also, on northbound traffic on Freemanville backs up in the
evenings. And that goes all the way past that curve. So, probably
down about a half mile. So, trying to get out to even turn right or
left that will also be difficult because it’s going to be, essentially,
gridlocked, particularly, until the next intersection at Birmingham
Road and Birmingham Highway is addressed.
I think it could create a pretty good choke point right in front of my
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house. And so, I’m concerned about the access there. And
switching over to the driveway on Birmingham Road, this is the
driveway that I take my horse trailer in and out of as well as
receive deliveries of feed, hay, you name it. So, it’s large trailers
that have to come in and out of there. And the driveway there is, I
believe, about 100 feet from the – okay. It’s right around 100 feet.
And, again, cars are going to be coming around a blind corner.
That’s also a school bus stop. Cars pick up a lot of speed coming
around that corner with the stop sign.
I can’t imagine what that’s going to be coming around it. And then,
again, turning left out of there with a horse trailer, there are
medians there. And that’s going to be difficult going either way
both with the speed coming across there. Either direction is going
to be difficult. So, this is going to impact the ability to use my
property as it’s been used both by me, the prior owner, and going
way back probably at least 100 years. This is inverse
condemnation. I also wanted to find out what the plan is for the
trees and the shrubs because right now, I have trees and shrubs
planted all the way around that.
For one, for privacy because that intersection over the last 10 years
has gotten much louder. But also, it’s privacy. But also, it’s
privacy and then, the other thing is is to protect my fence because
people get in accidents at that intersection quite a lot. Some of
them are reported. Some of them are not reported because I’ve
come out and found my fence down before I started putting the
trees up there so that they can at least hit the trees and not my
fence because I don’t want my livestock to get out. Thankfully, my
horses haven’t been the ones that have gotten out. But I take a lot
of measures to make sure that happens.
There is also a drainage ditch along Freemanville Road. That is –
I’m concerned about flooding because that wasn’t taken into
account into the plan. And so, my house is located very close to the
intersection. I’d like to understand the noise buffers. The plan
that’s in the presentation that was sent out today is still using an
old plat map. And I’ve noticed that other owners had not
commented. A couple of them are incorrect. It doesn’t even list the
city of Milton as owning the property across the street from me.
I do need – so, on the driveways, I need some help with
understanding some more of that as well as buffering them like
putting, I don’t know what it’s called, an apron or whatever so that
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they’re protected a little bit. The other thing that I wanted to be
sure was addressed is the construction crews. In May of 2019, an
employee of a contractor hired by the city of Milton came onto my
property, trespassed, relieved himself on my property and then,
proceeded to chase me.
And he was a – it was later –
City Clerk: I’m sorry. We’ve exceeded the five minutes. I’m so sorry that was
what that was. Do you want to extend for the record?
Mayor Lockwood: I’ll give you a little more time to wrap it up.
Ms. Didjurgis: This is my last point. This person chased me. The city hired this
contractor who hired this employee and this employee had an
assault record. I have a minor child on the property. And I want to
be sure that appropriate supervision measures are taken. Thank you
for your consideration.
Mayor Lockwood: Thank you. And then, we had another public comment. Is that
correct, Tammy?
City Clerk: I do. Our next public comment is from Ms. Judy Birds.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. And just while we’re waiting, I know you mentioned the
presentation versus public comment. Sometimes, we’ll allow
public comment first so then that way, when it’s presented,
sometimes they can address some of the concerns.
Ms. Byrds: Judy Byrds, 1165 Brane Drive, Milton, Georgia. I live about a half
a mile from this intersection. I am very concerned that this
presentation was not included in the packet for tonight’s meeting.
Georgia has very clear sunshine laws to ensure that citizens have
access to information. And I believe that Milton should be
transparent in its dealings with its citizens. I travel through this
intersection many times each week at normal times so have kept a
vested interest in it as have many of my neighbors. This particular
topic had previous issues with how it was handled in front of
council and some of the processes.
So, I would have thought care would have been taken to get this
information to its citizens with the packet last Friday so I didn’t
have to spend two spins through 1,095 pages trying to find it. the
presentation link was published on Facebook around noon today
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after citizens requested to receive the information. I have only had
a short time to review the schematics but offer the following
points. We have very few small horse farms remaining in Milton
and care should be taken to preserve them.
I am pleased that the proposed design has shifted west and, I think,
shrank the size of the roundabout to remedy the nonconforming lot
that would have occurred in the interim design that was
mishandled by the city, in my opinion, the interim design. A horse
farm needs to be able to transport its horses. But new design needs
to ensure that a horse trailer can enter and exit the property, as well
as Tamara mentioned, feed trucks, etc. It’s a farm. The plan
indicates that the city will be grading along several property lines
plus increase the amount of impervious surfaces. A hydrology
study and drainage plan needs to be included in the next stages.
Care needs to be taken that homes, pastures, trees, and historic
structures are not damaged by the change in water flow. The
grading will clear several existing natural buffers on multiple lots.
The city will need to replace these buffers as part of the project,
hopefully, consistent with some of the discussion on the buffers for
the residents along the former Milton Country Club. And in
closing, the construction also has to be coordinated with the
Birmingham crossroads improvements. That discussion point was
made, I think, by me almost four, five, six years ago when this
topic first came up.
So, I think there is still a lot of work to be done. I think we still
have to make sure that citizens are allowed a chance to review
information prior to the meeting so that we can provide informed
input. Thank you.
Mayor Lockwood: Thank you. And that’s the final – are there any other public
comments? Okay.
City Clerk: Yes, for this item.
Mayor Lockwood: Ken, while we’re waiting here, would you mind just clarifying. I
know, typically, staff will publish anything on our agenda prior to
the meeting and whatnot. But on reports and presentations, a lot of
times, that’s to bring forward to the council kind of a first look and
to discuss. It’s, certainly, not anything we’re voting on. It will
come back later. Is there any other – do you have any comments on
that if we should be doing something different?
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Mr. Jarrard: I’ve listened to the speaker and, obviously, took note of that. I will
say, from a purely technical position, the Open Meetings Act
doesn’t even talk about the packet. The Open Meetings Act talks
about minutes and agendas and notices. There is some
governments in Georgia that don’t have a packet at all. The point is
to make sure that we advise citizens, give them reasonable notice
of what the government is going to talk about. Milton and a lot of
the metro jurisdictions go beyond that and make sure the citizens
have the same documentation that the council does. Reports and
presentations is different.
It’s tended to be more of an informal update. You don’t take
official action. You don’t vote after reports and presentations. So,
I, certainly, can see a difference between that and a bona fide
agenda item. I’m comfortable, from an Open Meetings Act
standpoint. And I will say, for the record, as well, I think Milton
does a pretty good job with respect to giving citizens the back up
for most agenda items.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. And I’d certainly understand the comments brought up and
whatnot. But, again, this is coming just to us now, too, so that we
can all kind of digest it and work forward through the future before
it comes before us officially that we would take a vote on it or
whatnot.
Mr. Drewry: Good evening, Mayor and council. I appreciate the time to make
this presentation. What I’m going to present to you is the
conceptual layout for the intersection of Freemanville and
Birmingham as has been discussed in the public comment. First, a
little bit of background just to kind of refresh your memories. This
intersection was discussed combined with the Providence and
Freemanville intersection back in 2014 where it was a combined
concept study and some survey work done back then. And I think
it was agreed, at that time, that a roundabout would be the most
appropriate use at this intersection.
In May of 2019, the city hired Wolverton to prepare a conceptual
design and the design work for this particular intersection. And in
January of this year, the council did award a task order to BM&K
for to oversee the design work and oversee the right of way
acquisition. And it was at that meeting that there was a lot of
discussion about revisiting the concept layout. So, because of that
meeting, we did enter a change order with Wolverton to look at
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that conceptual layout. And they did that. The change order was
approved in April of this year. So, the Wolverton Associates has
proposed a conceptual layout.
And we did invite their three affected property owners that we did
invite to meet one on one to go over the conceptual plan. And of
those three, only one responded. And, of course, that was Ms.
Degergis. And staff met her out there, staff and the consultant. And
she did provide a lot of comments and I’d venture to say probably
all of these comments were probably discussed at that meeting.
There are impacts to her property no doubt, impacts to all four of
those parcels. And I know in this conceptual plan stage, it is kind
of early to determine, particularly the drainage. That has not been
designed. We don’t know the grades of the approaching.
So, it’s too early to say what the drainage is going to look like until
they get into the design work. She did mention the speed. I don’t
know if that came up in the previous meeting with her on site. But
I do know that as typical with roundabouts, the approached speed
will be downsized to 25 when you approach in the roundabout and
as you exit the roundabout. Then, we were sent letters out advising
those three affected property owners that we would be meeting and
discussing this today. So, what you have in front of you is an
overlay. The shaded roundabout is the latest concept that was
presented. And then, the colored roundabout is what’s been
revised.
And it is a significant shift as much as practical to the west and
southwest a little bit as well. And we are utilizing as much as we
can of the city owned property. This particular layout does avoid
some of the significant utilities. We do have a telephone compound
down in the southeast side of Freemanville Road, as you are
familiar with. And relocating that would be just significant. And
then, in the northwest quadrant of currently undeveloped, we
understand there is a Fulton County water that ties into their tower.
So, when you lay out these designs, you do take into consideration
the engineering entry angles.
As you know, when you approach a roundabout, you do want some
variation in the angle to slow the traffic down. But you don’t want
too much of angle either because it becomes unsafe movement.
Also, taking into the consideration the approach and departure
speed, as I mentioned. I also just want to quickly reference the
northwest side. There is a large buffer of evergreens. And some of
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those will have to be removed. And I know when they meet with
that property owner, there will be discussions about either
reestablishing that buffer or compensating.
So, that is the comparison of the two layouts. And this is where we
landed on the current conceptual layout. What I really want you to
focus on is the curb lines and the asphalt. That’s the shaded area.
Of course, the medians as well. Of course, they’re just drawn in for
discussion purposes. But I really want you to focus on those
aspects. We know, as we get into design work, we’ll look at what
the acquisition looks like. Right now, it appears that there is going
to be right of way acquisition on two of the four parcels and
perhaps some easement or slope easements on the other two
parcels as well. So, it’s just too early to say.
So, I don’t really want you to focus on what the easements look
like because we don’t really know at this time until we get into the
design work. But that is the conceptual layout. And it is a nice
balance between engineering and the property that we have to deal
with. So, where do we go from here? The next steps would be,
assuming there are no design considerations to the conceptual
layout, we’ll advise Wolverton, our consultant to proceed with the
design work. And it may take four months, five months for them
to, actually, get something on paper that we can, actually, meet
with the residents, the owners and determine what kind of
easements or what kind of right of way has to be acquired.
And then, once that’s resolved, we are hopping we can be out and
have this out for construction sometime within the next 12 months.
So, that’s where we are with the conceptual. Again, this is just the
conceptual. We haven’t done any engineering design work yet
until we get into the, like I said, the grades and the drainage. So,
I’m available for any questions.
Mayor Lockwood: I’m going to open up questions. Anybody have any – Laura?
CM Bentley: Robert, could you go back to the overlay of the old and new?
Mr. Drewry: Let me see.
CM Bentley: I didn’t get all of that.
Mr. Drewry: Here it is.
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CM Bentley: Yes, thank you. So, as we shift that over, I’m just trying to get a
feel for accommodating on the city and property as far as how
many feet just to try to quantify that, which it’s city owned but it
still is in the citizens’ digest of things. So, I appreciate that we’ve
done that and accommodated some of the property owners. But do
we have a feel for how much has shifted onto the city property?
Mr. Drewry: No, we really don’t. It is significant. It’s, obviously, the largest
portion that’s going to be on the city owned property, particularly
the acquisition. And I was informed this afternoon that because
this is green space, they will have to be reimbursed. Whatever that
fair market value is would be reimbursed into the green space fund.
CM Bentley: Okay. So, we’ll buy it back and then, reimburse ourselves. Okay.
That’s fair. My other comment is the northwest property, the
evergreens that are there so that shifts and that impacts.
Mr. Drewry: It does.
CM Bentley: I know that they may not have come tonight but that’s a horse farm
as I recall as well. So, we’ve got two important farms on that
corner and a nice estate. So, my comment is I appreciate the
adjustment and think we’re trying to minimize the impact as best
we can. And it will be interesting as we move into the design stage.
I had a couple of comments. People wanted to make sure, since it’s
in a very rural area that it’s going to be designed for horse trailers
to easily maneuver. Is that good assumption?
Mr. Drewry: Yes. Those radius will have to be accommodated for sure. I don’t
know what they’re going to be designed at distance wise. But I
know we’ll put the templates on them for that.
CM Bentley: Okay. Because people – there are many, many farms in that area
but they need to be able to safely get around without going through
the middle of it with big rigs.
Mr. Drewry: Thank you.
CM Bentley: Thank you.
Mayor Lockwood: Anybody else? Paul?
CM Moore: Thanks, Joe. Just in keeping with Laura’s comment, Robert, I’m
assuming, as we’re assessing for the length and issues presented by
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horse trailers to really give that same consideration to a Publix
truck or a Kroger truck or a moving van going through that.
Mr. Drewry: That’s correct.
CM Moore: It’s probably too early to have an answer to this but is the design –
can it be likened to anything else that we’ve seen in terms of how
the roundabout itself would be treated? Would it be anything like –
like, for example, the one at Providence and 372. And it’s a
significantly larger roundabout than this. So, the hard surface that
allows the larger vehicles to process through there is probably
smaller. And you compare that to the new roundabout at
Freemanville and Providence, it’s significantly smaller. There’s
more hard surface.
So, the trailers, actually, go up onto the hard surface. Do you
imagine it being more like the Freemanville example that’s out
there today?
Mr. Drewry: I haven’t put any overlays on it as far as the other two that you
mentioned. But I do suspect it’s probably likened to the
Freemanville/Providence. That is a mountable curve and that is
designed for trailers and trucks to mount that curve in the center
island. And it’s a perfectly acceptable one to be honest with you.
CM Moore: And in that design that we’ve experienced at Freemanville, I want
to address some of the concerns that were brought up this evening
about traffic speeds in a roundabout. Our typical traffic posting is
25 miles an hour in all of our roundabouts. Is that correct?
Mr. Drewry: I believe that’s for all of them, yes, sir. I don’t know about the 372.
I’m not sure about that one.
CM Moore: Are we aware of any traffic violations or are citations being issued
for excessive speed in our roundabouts?
Mr. Drewry: I’m sorry, I don’t know. I’m sorry.
CM Moore: Okay. But at 25 miles an hour and the smaller of those is, actually,
probably conducive to a lower speed. The smaller the roundabout,
you really have to be more careful because the cars that are coming
through have less distance to travel before you’re upon one
another. I would hope that that consideration would address some
of the traffic speed issues. I guess my last question is, as we’ve
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experienced the roundabout introductions in all of the different
locations we’ve had, every one of those, when they were prior to
their introduction, had traffic backup issues. And in your
assessment of the introduction of those, are we experiencing any
backups at any of those at this point?
Now, I know, in this case in particular, there is an anomaly in the
fact that just down the road, we have got Birmingham. And
Birmingham is going to be addressed in the future. But at the other
ones that we experienced relief from the backups.
Mr. Drewry: Evidence out here in Mayfield and Heritage. That’s going to be –
once school gets back in session, too, I think you’ll see some
significant improvements there as well.
CM Moore: Yeah. Okay. So, it sounds like most of the concerns can be
addressed. And those that have not been addressed will be
addressed during the engineering phases.
Mr. Drewry: That’s correct.
CM Moore: Great. Thanks, Robert.
Mayor Lockwood: Anybody else? That one is hard to follow. He’s very thorough. I’ll
just make a comment. Basically, if you look at the overlay of the
two, it has certainly been adjusted measurably for existing property
owners. In fact, almost to the detriment of the public with the city
and the public property. So, and I think that’s a good point, too, to
realize, as we were discussing, this is a concept that’s not written
in stone. Moving forward, as you’re saying, it’s got to be
engineered. So, we don’t know what drainage. We don’t know
what exact dimensions and driveways are.
And there will also be meetings with the property owners and
whatnot working together with them and, basically, a lot of that
stuff is for the experts to work out along with the property owners
and whatnot as you engineer and get more details. Correct?
Mr. Drewry: That’s correct. That’s an excellent point because bringing these
comments up now is the right time, not do it after we get into
design.
Mayor Lockwood: Right. So, that they can be aware of the – and things may have to
change. It may not be exactly like this. And, at some point, this
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will come back for approval but it will be down the road a ways.
Mr. Drewry: Yes. It will come back to the council as a bid.
Mayor Lockwood: But there will be time for, obviously, if you’ve got engineering
going then, they’re also going to meet with effective property
owners and, hopefully, alleviate most of the concerns.
Mr. Drewry: That’s the idea. Yes, sir.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Anything else? Rick or Carol, do you have any comments?
CM Cookerly: I do not. Thank you.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Drewry: Thank you very much.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. If our city clerk can please sound the first presentation
items.
FIRST PRESENTATION
City Clerk: Our first item is consideration of U20-10/VC20-01 located at
12900 Arnold Mill Rod by Ebenezer United Methodist Church to
request a use permit (Sec. 64-1804) to construct a 23,000 square
foot activity center on the existing church property, approximately
5,088 square feet for a total of 28,088 square feet on 6.61 acres. To
request a two part concurrent variance to 1.) allow parking in front
of a building (Sec. 64-1143); and 2.) to reduce required parking.
Agenda Item No. 20-198.
Our second and final first presentation item is consideration of
ZM20-03 located at 13210 Bethany Road zoned R-2 single family
residential by Big Sky Stables LLC, Chris Hively requesting to
modify Condition 2 of RZ72-222 to reduce the front building
setback from 150 feet to 100 feet from Bethany Road to conform
to existing setbacks in this particular area of Bethany Road.
Agenda Item No. 20-199.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Thank you. Do I have a motion on these first presentation
items for approval?
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CM Bentley: Mayor, I’d like to make a motion to approve the first presentation
as read.
CM Moore: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I have a motion from Councilmember Bentley for approval
with a second from Councilmember Moore. All in favor, please
say aye.
Group: Aye.
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to approve the
First Presentation items. Councilmember Moore seconded the
motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Jamison was
absent from the meeting.
PUBLIC HEARING
ALCOHOL BEVERAGE LICENSE APPLICATION
Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. Okay. We’ll move on to our public hearing. So,
if you’ll please call the next item.
City Clerk: The first item is consideration of the issuance of an alcohol
beverage license to Rougaroux, Inc., dba Cans Taqueria, 12635
Crabapple Road, Suite 320, Milton, Georgia 30004, Agenda Item
No. 20-200.
Ms. Harvill: Good evening, Mayor and council. This evening you have before
you an alcohol beverage license application for Cans Taqueria.
This is a simple change of ownership. They’re applying for a wine,
malt beverage, and distilled spirits consumption on premises.
They’re in compliance with all of the regulations. And staff
recommends approval.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Are there any questions on that?
CM Moore: Are they operating today? Is there a temporary permit for them to
be pouring?
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Ms. Harvill: Yes. We have a temporary application process. And I believe they
are on one at this time.
Mayor Lockwood: Great. Thank you. Okay. Do we have any public comment on –
City Clerk: Not on this item, sir.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I’ll close the public hearing on this. Are there any other
questions? If not, I’ll open up for a motion on this item.
CM Longoria: Mayor, I move that we approve Agenda Item No. 20-200.
CM Moore: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I have a motion for approval from Councilmember Longoria
with a second from Councilmember Moore. All in favor, please
say aye.
Group: Aye.
Mayor Lockwood: Any opposed? That’s unanimous.
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to approve the
Agenda Item No. 20-200. Councilmember Moore seconded the
motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Jamison was
absent from the meeting.
Ms. Harvill: Thank you very much.
ZONING AGENDA (None)
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Mayor Lockwood: Thank you. Okay. We don’t have any items under our zoning
agenda so we’ll move on to unfinished business. Tammy, if you’ll
please read the item.
City Clerk: The first item is consideration of an ordinance to amend the Milton
tree canopy conservation ordinance to provide a time extension on
the ability to use the density based tree conservation ordinance or
the canopy-based tree conservation ordinance in the City Code,
Agenda Item No. 20-183. Mr. Parag Agrawal.
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Mr. Agrawal: Mayor and city council members, today I’m in front of you to
present you the amendment to the tree conservation ordinance that
will allow the time extension on the ability to use either the density
based tree conservation ordinance or the canopy based tree
conservation ordinance. The staff is requesting that the time should
be extended from July 31, 2020 to November 30, 2020. So, we are
requesting an extension of four months. As you know, the staff is
working to update the tree conservation ordinance and we are on
the final stretches. We gave a presentation to the city council on
June 15, 2020. And this item will again be in front of the city
council on August 3.
So, this extension will give us additional four months. And we are
hoping that the city council will approve the new tree conservation
ordinance in the month of August. And then, in the next two
months, it will give us some time for public outreach and education
to the Milton residents.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Any questions or comments on that? Do we have any public
comment?
City Clerk: No, sir.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. We’ll open up for a motion. Paul?
CM Moore: I’d just like to revisit, Parag, a conversation that we’ve had last
Friday. There were a couple of remaining open issues that I had
asked last time we met about this for a deferral to have a chance to
discuss it and come back to this meeting with recommendations.
And I appreciate the fact that you are giving this careful
consideration. There are still three open items that I think a number
of council and maybe even the mayor have had follow up meetings
and discussions with you on. And I walked out of the meeting the
other day with the impression that there was maybe more
consensus than there actually might be.
So, I had a chance to follow up with some of the other
councilmembers in one on one conversation. And it sounds like
maybe there’s more discussion that needs to be had on those in at
least two out of the three. If you think about the first one that we
talked about, not necessarily in the order that we talked about
them, but the three items, the first of those is the consideration of
the tree caliper size. And there was some discussion about there
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being a compromise from one side to another. It doesn’t sound like
there is as much consensus as there might have been. So, I look
forward to further discussion on that one.
I’m concerned that the under story trees are not going to be
protected like we thought they would be.
Mr. Agrawal: Okay.
CM Moore: And personal experience is just working in my yard this weekend
and realizing as I was looking at some of my dogwoods that my
house is 20 years old. And so, those trees were planted about the
same time of the construction of my home. And I’m concerned that
some of those are only in the 8 to 10 inch range now. And as part
of an under story, the way the discussion we had the other day
went, it was about the fact that they wouldn’t really be considered
as a part of the canopy, which I, certainly, understand from the
measurement standpoint.
I’m just so afraid that, as we look at future development that trees
like that that bring beauty and value to a homestead aren’t as
protected as we might have thought they were. So, I’d like to give
some additional consideration to that. The second, which is an easy
one, which was we’re looking for some consideration to the sizes
of lots and the ability to incentivize larger lots, it appears there is
consensus on that. We’ve moved in the right direction on that one.
The third is the timeline to review the tree canopy. We talked
about two different numbers in particular. Not to exceed three
years from one measurement to the next and the other one settling
at five years.
And, again, I walked out of the meeting thinking that there was
stronger consensus that what I’ve since discovered in my own
follow up conversations to make sure that I could be on the same
page and support the councilmembers who had had other meetings
with you guys. And I just discovered there doesn’t appear to be the
same consensus that we thought there might be. So, I would just
encourage some additional discussion on that item as well. I’m
concerned, in particular, Parag, that as we look at the extraordinary
things that are happening in our world today, we know that two
things appear to be – one thing but two examples as to how it’s
happening.
There appears to be some urban flight going on. I think that makes
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sense that people who are stacked on top of each other in a higher
concentration of residents are just choosing to step away from that
for a more rural setting. And the second part of that is with the
civil unrest that’s happening around our country today. There is a
lot of that happening and we don’t know when that will come to an
end. So, I think people are choosing to leave the city. There’s a lot
of pressure for those folks to find places out here.
And the example that I would give for that is on a social media
post recently, there was a realtor that said that she had five
immediate, ready buyers who were looking to purchase in the
Milton area and our school system at $1.3 to $1.8 million. And
that’s extraordinary to have five buyers in that price range.
Although I don’t have proof of this particular comment that I’m
about to make, it appears that that would be probably an urban
higher cost residence that’s being sold that gives them the available
cash to come out here and look. So, I think there is going to be
some development pressure that will come from urban flight, not
knowing what that’s going to look like.
I’m just concerned that if we do look at a five year review versus a
not to exceed three years, at least give some consideration to
maybe the first time or the second time being the three year range.
We see if there is any difference between those. We know that
some of our past measurements have not produced extraordinary
change. If that trend is proven to be the continued trend, I would
have no problem to move to five years after a time or two in the
three year measurement range. So, I just offer that for additional
consideration.
Mr. Agrawal: You gave very good feedback, very good feedback.
CM Moore: You’re welcome.
Mayor Lockwood: And I would just say, obviously, Councilmember Moore, too, feel
free to discuss with staff and council. And this comes back the 3rd?
CM Longoria: August 3.
Mayor Lockwood: Certainly, be prepared to discuss that before we vote on it.
CM Moore: Thanks, Joe.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. If there are no other comments, I’ll open for a motion.
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CM Bentley: Mayor, I’d like to make a motion to approve Agenda Item No. 20-
183.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Do I have a second?
CM Longoria: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: I have a motion for approval from Councilmember Bentley with a
second from Councilmember Longoria. All in favor, please say
aye.
Group: Aye.
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to approve the
Agenda Item No. 20-183. Councilmember Longoria seconded the
motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Jamison was
absent from the meeting.
Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous, Tammy. So, if you would please read the next
item.
City Clerk: Our second item is a consideration to adopt a revised Milton tree
canopy conservation ordinance and tree conservation manual. Staff
is recommending this item to be deferred until August 3, 2020.
Agenda Item No. 20-157. Mr. Parag Agrawal.
Mr. Agrawal: Mayor and city councilmembers, on June 15, 2020, the staff made
a presentation to the city council on the date of the tree
conservation ordinance. After the presentation, the city council
made a motion that this item should be deferred to July 20, 2020.
So, the staff is incorporating the feedback, which we received from
the city council. We also met a couple of city councilmembers.
And as Councilmember Moore mentioned, there is some more
work to do. We have also given this tree conservation ordinance
update to the City Attorney’s Office and they are also currently
reviewing it.
And we will be requesting that the city council should, again, be
deciding if it should be deferred to August 3 city council agenda.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Any questions on that? Any public comment?
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City Clerk: Not on this one, no, sir.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Can I have a motion on this item?
CM Moore: Mayor, I move that we approve Agenda Item 20-157.
CM Bentley: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: All right. I have a motion from Councilmember Moore, second
from Councilmember Bentley. All in favor, please say aye.
Group: Aye.
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Moore moved to approve the
Agenda Item No. 20-157. Councilmember Bentley seconded the
motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Jamison was
absent from the meeting.
Mayor Lockwood: And that’s unanimous. Thank you, Parag. Tammy, if you’d please
read the final unfinished business item.
City Clerk: Our final item is consideration of an ordinance to amend Chapter 4
Section 85 Farm Wineries of the Alcoholic Beverages of the Code
of the city of Milton, Georgia, Agenda Item No. 20-182. Ms. Sarah
LaDart. This item does have two public comments.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Again, if it’s okay with the council, I’ll ask for public
comment first. And that way –
City Clerk: Okay. Our first comment will be from Pamela Jackson.
Ms. Jackson: Pamela Jackson, 2105 Bethany Way. I was really hoping Sarah
would go first because I don’t know what I’m here to talk about,
again, and you all already know that. So, I’m here. I guess my
understanding is that what you’re voting on today is just the
foreign wine being added to and then, the beer and spirits are being
dealt with later. Okay. Well, my only comment is I’m here. It’s
real important to me. And, hopefully, I’ll get some clarification
when Sarah speaks. Thank you.
City Clerk: Thank you. Our next public comment is going to be from Ms. Judy
Birds.
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Mayor Lockwood: Okay.
Ms. Birds:
Mayor Lockwood: And I will say this. Again, I was trying to be helpful by allowing
the public comment first. If either the public co mment folks that
have made public comment after the presentation, if they feel
strongly about it, I’ll ask the council if they’ll allow them to speak
again if it’s all right with Ken.
Ms. Birds: Thank you. Judy Birds, 1165 Brane Drive, Milton, Georgia. And
I’m so pleased we are getting Section 4 rewritten of the code. I
think we are almost there. At the last Zoom meeting, I tried to say
there’s still one thing you need to fix. If everyone would at 4-138,
Subsection 2, there is a reference there to an individual can only be
served two drinks at a time unless, of course, it’s a sampling of
beer. Usually, wine flights are three wines, small samples. So, if
you could please while you’re fixing 4 today also fix 4-138
Subsection 2 to add the word after beer “or wine” so we can have
wine flights in Milton. Thank you.
Mayor Lockwood: Thank you. Okay. That’s all the public comments you had, right,
Tammy?
City Clerk: Yes, Mayor.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Hold on one second, Sarah.
Ms. LaDart: Thank you, Dennis. Good evening, Mayor and council. On both
the June 1 and June 15 council meetings, I was given direction to
go back and look at Chapter 4, Section 85, which is the farm
winery section of our code to allow, not only Georgia wines but
wines from anywhere. I think the word that has been used is
foreign but we didn’t want to go, after speaking with the attorney
and then, have to define what foreign means. So, she came up – it’s
in front of council right now. This wording, which is in wine’s
producership from outside of the state. So, that means in America,
in France, she can sell whatever she wants.
The second thing that we addressed, council asked that we go and
look at the use permit process. And we’ve started looking into that.
That’s a much longer process than just changing Chapter 4. But
this last sentence that the attorney added is “Other sales of alcohol
may be permitted by state law and city ordinance”. In the event
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that council chooses to adopt a use permit in the future that would
allow this, we don’t have to touch this section again. And if you
choose not to adopt that, this is fine here as well. So, it works
either way with what council decides in the future.
So, tonight, this is to make all wine available at farm wineries.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Are there any questions or comments on that? Paul.
CM Moore: Sir, I’d just like to clarify that last part again. So, if we accept the
tag on the last language with the – can you read that to me again,
please?
Ms. LaDart: Other sales of alcohol may be as permitted by state law and city
ordinances.
CM Moore: So, that would include spirits?
Ms. LaDart: So, if we create a use permit that allows that, yes.
CM Moore: And so, to clarify, this is not saying open ended you can serve
spirits.
Ms. LaDart: No, it’s not.
CM Moore: You’d have to go through the permit.
Ms. LaDart: Yes, right.
CM Moore: But it opens it up to consideration of spirits under Chapter 4.
Ms. LaDart: Right. So, should when we go in – sorry, it makes sense in my
head, nobody else’s. So, in Chapter 64, if we add a use permit for
farm wineries that they can sell beer and liquor, with this sentence,
they can do it under Chapter 4 as well.
CM Moore: Does that preempt then, the requirement we’ve had historically for
if you’re going to have spirits or we’ve had a requirement for food
sales? Does that preclude that then?
Ms. LaDart: That would be what I believe we’re going to attempt to come in
front of council at next month’s work session. That will be one of
the things that we consider as part of the use permit process when
we list out the things that a farm winery would have to do. That’s
something that we will discuss.
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CM Moore: So, the farm winery by – pardon me. I’m just – this clarity is really
going to be important, I think, at some point. So, a farm winery, by
definition, can include the sale by this change wine, beer, and
spirits.
Ms. LaDart: No.
CM Moore: That has to come with the permitting process.
Ms. LaDart: A special use permit, yes. That’s not created yet.
CM Moore: Yeah. I’m good then. Thank you.
Ms. LaDart: Okay.
Mayor Lockwood: Anybody else? Based on the public comment, the flights and the –
do you have any comments on that?
Ms. LaDart: I discussed that with the attorney and she didn’t see that as a
concern. I will clarify that with the attorney and get back with Ms.
Birds about that.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Ken?
Mr. Jarrard: Well, I don’t think there’s any problem with it at all. It just can’t be
done tonight. It can’t be done as part of this modification.
Mayor Lockwood: It can or cannot?
Mr. Jarrard: It cannot. That would be introducing a whole different verbiage
that no one is – so, I get the idea that can be done maybe the next
round of revisions but just not this evening.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. All right. Any other comments? Carol or Rick?
CM Cookerly: No, I’m good. Thank you.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I’ll open up for – and just to clarify, both people that spoke
in public comment, are you okay with –
Ms. Jackson: I’m still just confused.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I’m sure we can –
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Ms. LaDart: We can check, yes.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I’ll open up for a motion.
CM Bentley: Mayor, I’d like to make a motion to approve Agenda Item No. 20-
182.
CM Longoria: Okay. I have a motion for approval from Councilmember Bentley
with a second from Councilmember Longoria. Any discussion?
Hearing none, all in favor, please say aye.
Group: Aye.
Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous.
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to approve the
Agenda Item No. 20-182. Councilmember Longoria seconded the
motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Jamison was
absent from the meeting.
Ms. LaDart: Thank you.
Mayor Lockwood: All right. Thank you. Okay. We’ll move on to unfinished business.
Tammy, if you’ll please sound the first item.
CM Longoria: Do you mean new business?
Mayor Lockwood: I’m sorry. Did I say unfinished?
City Clerk: This is new business.
Mayor Lockwood: I’m sorry.
NEW BUSINESS
City Clerk: That’s okay. Consideration of an amended emergency ordinance of
the Mayor and council of the city of Milton, Georgia under Section
3.18 of the Charter of the city of Milton, Georgia to provide for the
operation of the city of Milton, Georgia during the public
emergency known as the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 Global
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Pandemic to become effective upon adoption by the council to
supersede the existing emergency ordinance to adopt the city’s
reopen plan and for other purposes, Agenda Item No. 20-201. Mr.
Ken Jarrard.
Mr. Jarrard: Mr. Mayor and members of the council, I won’t be approaching
you this evening but I do want to go over this very quickly with
you. As you know, since about mid-March when the world
changed, as Councilmember Moore was discussing, we have been
adopting variations on emergency ordinance that can be provided
by the rules of the city of Milton and your charter sitting in place
certain powers. Many of those powers, however, were either
unexercised or have been superseded in totality by the governor
who, as you know, has taken a fairly strong position that the
governor’s rule is going to be the rule in the state of Georgia.
Nonetheless, basically, the primary thing that our ordinance has
done has been to try and lessen the burden of this on small
business and to provide some of our businesses some relief with
respect to when penalties and taxes, etc., are required. As you are
also aware, the statewide declaration of emergency has, in fact,
been extended. I believe, right now, it extends until August 11 is
the current iteration. We have attempted to match our ordinance
with the statewide declaration for a variety of reasons but mainly,
for the purpose of assisting these businesses that need a little bit of
relief.
As such, we are asking the council to go ahead and renew the
emergency ordinance. This would, in fact, actually be retroactive.
The actual date that this one expired would have been July 12. So,
it will be retroactive and it says that in the ordinance to make sure
it covers that gap. It will expire at 11:59 p.m. on August 11 unless,
of course, it is extended again, which is probably likely. The
reason these are done in 30 day increments is because that’s what
your rules require is they be done in 30 day increments.
This will continue to allow the to go malt beverages and wine
alcohol with restaurants for consumption and all of the various
things that you put in place, additional temporary signage for
restaurants and retail, the deferring of payment of certain alcohol
excise taxes and occupation taxes, etc. All of those, again,
attempting just to help small business. Mr. Mayor, it’s my
recommendation that council, in fact, adopt this emergency
ordinance to extend until August 11 the emergency declaration
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under your charter.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Are there any questions or comments for Ken on this?
Laura?
CM Bentley: Just a comment. And, obviously, I support extending the
emergency order. Just as a point of continuing in this environment,
I’m wondering if we have any flexibility under this emergency
order to adjust our meeting requirements. I know that we can’t dial
in if we are within the city. And I understand the reason for that.
But as we move into winter and people worried about I don’t know
if I have a cold or if I have Covid-19, but we could all – that
situation could recur. And I’m just wondering if we have any
flexibility there to make that adjustment so that we can be extra
vigilant with staying away if we need to but also being able to
participate.
Mr. Jarrard: Right. It’s a great question, Councilmember Bentley. So, with
respect to the protocols for having an open meeting, regrettably,
that’s set by state law, which we can’t waive. We took advantage
with some enthusiasm for a file doing teleconference meetings.
And you recall that it would be on a computer screen. No one was
physically assembled. The law does allow that and we took
advantage of it. And that’s in situations of declared emergency.
But, of course, we also then had a reopening plan that this council
has already adopted.
And that reopening plan, one of the things it did was to go back to
real in person meetings. If the council wants to revisit the notion of
doing some additional teleconferencing or streaming meetings that
are live – the law doesn’t do a really good job of a hybrid
approach. You’re either in person or there’s an emergency session
that you’re remote. Doing a mix of that is not really something the
law tolerates, at this point. We have individuals that are
teleconferencing today but they’re teleconferencing using one of
their two for the year.
Does everybody understand what they’re doing? They’re doing
something different. You’re talking about a situation where you
could teleconference but be at home in the jurisdiction. Because
right now to teleconference in the way that I think Councilmember
Cookerly or Councilmember Mohrig are doing, it either has to be
based on health or it has to be because you’re out of the
jurisdiction. And those are available any time. Forget about Covid.
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That’s available any time.
I do know that I had some interaction, I believe, Councilmember
Mohrig may have achieved this, there may be an interest for the
general assembly in looking at this when they reconvene to
providing governments even more flexibility on how they can
meet. I do have one government right now that does its regular
meetings live but does its work sessions by complete
teleconference. So, they do not physically assemble for their work
sessions. Again, trying to lesson the need for physical interaction,
in person interaction, but understanding the two regular meetings
or where your public hearings occur, etc., and the citizens can
come up and talk to you directly.
So, they’ve sort of done that approach. Something you all could
consider as well. So, Councilmember Bentley, I think it’s a great
issue and it’s something that Covid has, certainly, brought to light
is maybe it needs some more refinement. This is sort of been new
to all of us. This year has been charting new ground on almost
every parliamentary or procedural thing I’ve ever seen since I’ve
been practicing. And maybe the general assembly will give us
some more flexibility in 2021.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Anybody else? All right. I’ll open up for a motion.
CM Moore: Mr. Mayor, I move that we adopt Agenda Item 20-201 as
presented.
CM Longoria: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I have a motion from Councilmember Moore with a second
from Councilmember Longoria for approval. All in favor, please
say aye.
Group: Aye.
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Moore moved to approve the
Agenda Item No. 20-201. Councilmember Longoria seconded the
motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Jamison was
absent from the meeting.
Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. Okay. And Tammy, if you would please sound
the final new business item.
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City Clerk: Our final new business item is approval of a contract between the
city of Milton and Croft and Associates PC for architectural design
services for Fire Station No. 42, Agenda Item No. 20-190. Chief
Edgar.
Chief Edgar: Mayor, council, before you tonight are two contract options for
design services for Fire Station 42 from Croft and Associates.
Those two options are a lead certified building or a non-lead
certified building. The two contract options have a price tag of
$213,600.00 for a lead certified design or a non-lead certified
design and the price tag of $175,900.00. And I’ll be happy to
answer any questions that you may have.
Mayor Lockwood: Are there any questions for the chief on this? We discussed it.
Okay. So, I’ll open up for a motion.
CM Longoria: So, are you looking to provide direction because it sounded like
there was an option in the discussion?
Mayor Lockwood: I think the direction is do you want to motion on either lead or non-
lead.
Chief Edgar: Yeah. If you make a decision on which contract. They gave us two
options. They gave us two contract options. One for the lead and
one for the non-lead.
CM Longoria: Okay. So, we can just – all right. Mayor, I make a motion that we
approve Agenda Item No. 20-201 choosing the option for a non-
lead certified building.
CM Moore: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: I’ve got a motion for approval of the agenda item with a non-lead
contract, for lack of better words. I have a motion for
Councilmember Longoria and a second from Councilmember
Moore on that. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye.
Group: Aye.
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to approve a
contract between the city of Milton and Croft and Associates PC
for architectural design services for Fire Station No. 42, Agenda
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Item No. 20-190. Councilmember Moore seconded the motion. The
motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Jamison was absent from
the meeting.
Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. Thank you, Chief. We will move on to reports.
I was going to go ahead and we had some public comment earlier
on our Milton Country Club and the trails, specifically Area No. 5
or Trail No. 5. Based on some council input and questions and
citizens’ comments, I know myself and probably some others have
made personal visits out to the trail system and whatnot, I see some
validity to some of the discussion. So, just an FYI, I met with
Robert Drewry and talked about relooking at some options
between there. I think it’s Trail 1 and 3 or 3 and 5 or 1 and 3 or
whatever.
But it is in that section that he’s going to have Sarah, when she
gets back, look at some of the engineering and see if there is some
movement that makes sense is a win/win for the trail system and
dollars as well as any affected citizens there. So, just, again, he
didn’t have any specific answers but they, certainly, are going to
look at it and talk to the engineer and see what they can do. And,
obviously, we’d bring that back to council to take a look at it. And
another thing I just want to note tonight, we approved a retirement
package for Jim Cregge.
And I had a nice conversation with Jim the other day but just to
publicly thank him and I did. I know we can do something later. I
know it’s a tough time. We couldn’t really have a going away
party kind of thing or retirement party. But just, again, thanked him
for the heart and soul he put in. He’s been here for quite a while
and made a big impact on Milton and our parks programs and
whatnot. So, we, certainly, wish him well in his retirement. And
other than that, is there any other council report before we move to
staff reports? Okay. We’ll move to staff reports. Parag?
Department Updates
1. Community Development
Mr. Agrawal: Mayor and city councilmembers, I just want to present a summary
today’s projects going on in the department. Again, last month was
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a very busy month for the department in terms of the permit
activity. Fortunately, we are not seeing any dip in the number of
building permit applications received by the department because of
this Covid-19. Last month, the department reviewed around 70
permit applications. This is up by more than 10 to15% from last
month. The total number of building permits issued were around
220. The building permit inspections were around 515. Line
development inspections were around 357.
The number of trades and work permits almost remain the same.
Last month, it was around 45. This month, it’s around 47. Some of
the project updates. The department had a very successful
[inaudible] [01:38:21] promoting workshop on June 23. It was
attended by almost 24 participants who were seated in a very
socially distanced way. For equestrian rural zoning update project,
we had a very good presentation in front of the Equestrian
Committee on July 15 last week. And we got some very good
feedback from the members. And based on the feedback, we will
be updating our equestrian update project.
On August 5, we have a virtual septic tank workshop in
collaboration with the city of Alpharetta and the city of Rossville.
The master planned project, we had a very good presentation in
front of the city council a few weeks back. And he will, again, be
presenting this in front of the city council on August 17 for a final
vote and adoption. And as I mentioned previously, the tree
conservation ordinance will be in front of the city council on
August 3. Some of the other meetings. Tomorrow, that’s on July
21, we have a BZA meeting. There are two items on the agenda.
Nothing very controversial, pretty straight forward.
On July 22, we have a Planning Commission meeting. And the
Planning Commission meeting, we have the fireworks [inaudible]
[01:39:46] amendment on the agenda and one preliminary plat.
The Design Review Board meeting is on August 4. And the first
CPAC meeting for the launch of the comprehensive plan is
scheduled for the week of August 10. The date has not be finalized
yet but it will be the week of August 10. That’s pretty much it for
me. Any questions?
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Any questions for Parag? Laura?
CM Bentley: Question on the DRB. Thank you for that addition to your report.
Are we caught up on the DRB on demos?
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Mr. Agrawal: Yes.
CM Bentley: I know there was a backlog but it was because of Covid. But so,
we’re caught up?
Mr. Agrawal: We are caught up. So, again, in July, the DRB met after three or
four months. So, there were four demos on the agenda. The DRB
did approve two demos. And these two remaining demos, the
applicants did not show up. And those items were deferred for the
August 4 DRB meeting.
CM Bentley: Okay. All right. That’s good. Thank you.
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Paul?
CM Moore: Parag, on your first slide, you were talking about the number of
permits issues for building and some of the other measures that
you make on this one. What’s with the impact of Covid, how has
that affected the staff load? Are we current? Are we experiencing
any delays? What’s the status of the timeline for somebody
processing a request for a permit?
Mr. Agrawal: Yes. So, there was a backlog in the months of February and March.
But now, we are caught up. The timelines are, basically, the first
review, generally, goes out within 10 business days. And the
second review goes out between seven to eight business days.
There are some applications that require some special attention.
Like today, also, on the agenda, there was one drainage easement
on the consent items, right. So, that drainage easement was one of
the planned reviews that we were conducting. So, if some specific
issue comes up like today, it came up for the Village easement and
it has to wait for the city council meeting then, there might be
some delay for some specific case.
But, generally, there is some reason why those applications are
being held up. But to answer your question, Councilmember
Moore, we are caught up. We are still having – we have to
quarantine our drawings for 24 hours. So, again, people just drop
off all of the drawings in the front lobby. And then, we quarantine
those drawings for 24 hours but still, we are caught up.
CM Moore: Great. Thank you.
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Mayor Lockwood: Any other questions? Thank you, Parag.
Mr. Agrawal: Thank you.
Department Updates
2. Finance
Mayor Lockwood: Our next is finance. So, Bernadette. Okay. Any questions for
Bernadette? All right. Thank you. Okay. At this point, we added to
the agenda an executive session to discuss litigation. So, I’ll open
up for a motion and a second to move into executive session for
that purpose.
CM Longoria: So moved.
CM Bentley: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: I have a motion from Councilmember Longoria, second from
Councilmember Bentley. All in favor, please say aye.
Group: Aye.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to adjourn into
Executive Session. Councilmember Bentley seconded the motion.
The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Jamison was absent
from the meeting.
RECONVENE
Mayor Lockwood: Okay. That’s unanimous. [Audio interference] for
Councilmember Bentley to reconvene. All in favor, please say aye.
Group: Aye.
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to adjourn into
Executive Session. Councilmember Moore seconded the motion.
The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Jamison was absent
from the meeting.
Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council
Monday, July 20, 2020 at 6:00 pm
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ADJOURNMENT
Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. And then, I ask do we have a motion to adjourn.
CM Bentley: Motion to adjourn.
CM Longoria: Second.
Mayor Lockwood: I have a motion and a second to adjourn. All in favor, please say
aye.
Group: Aye. That’s unanimous, too.
Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to adjourn the
meeting at 7:46 pm. Councilmember Moore seconded the
motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Jamison was
absent from the meeting.
Date Approved: August 17, 2020
__________________________________ _____________________________
Sudie AM Gordon, City Clerk Joe Lockwood, Mayor