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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - CC - 09/21/2020Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 1 of 40 1 1 CALL TO ORDER Mayor Lockwood: Thank you, Jason. At this time, I’d like to call the regular meeting of the Milton City Council for Monday, September 21st, 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 cards to the city clerk to my right here as soon as possible. While the Milton rules allow a speaker to turn in their comment card up until the clerk calls the particular agenda item, once the agenda item is called, no more comment cards will be accepted. So, Tammy, if you will please call the roll and make general announcements. Tammy: Good evening, mayor and council. I’ll be happy to call roll for the September 21st, 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 that organization. Please review tonight’s agenda. And if you would like to make a comment, please bring your card to me now. A demonstration of any sort within the chamber is prohibited. Please refrain from any applause, cheering, booing, outbursts, 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. Tammy: Council member Peyton Jamison. Peyton: Here. Tammy: Council member Paul Moore. Paul: Here. Tammy: Council member Laura Bentley. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 2 of 40 2 2 Laura: Here. Tammy: Council member Carol Cookerly. Carol: Here. Tammy: Council member Joe Longoria. Joe: Here. Tammy: Council member Rick Mohrig. Rick: Here. Councilmembers Present: Ma yor Joe Lockwood, Councilmember Peyton Jamison, Councilmember Paul Moore, Councilmember Laura Bentley, Councilmember Carol Cookery, Councilmember Joe Longoria and Councilmember Rick Mohrig. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE (Led by Mayor Joe Lockwood) Tammy: Would everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance? Assembly: 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: Well, thank you everybody for being here tonight, those of you that are in our audience or online through Zoom. So, these are different times, but trying to make accommodations for everybody. All right, Tammy, if you will please sound the next item. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Tammy: The next item is approval of a meeting agenda, Agenda Item No. 20-257. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I’d like to add an executive session to discuss potential Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 3 of 40 3 3 litigation, personnel, and land acquisition. Is there anything else that council or staff would like to add or change on the agenda? Okay. I’ll open up for a motion. Joe: Mayor, I move that we approve the agenda as prepared with the addition of an executive session to discuss potential litigation, personnel, and land acquisition. Mayor Lockwood: Second? Paul: Second. Mayor Lockwood: Okay, I have a motion for approval as read from council member Longoria and a second from council member Moore. All in favor, please say, “Aye.” Council Members: Aye. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to approve the meeting agenda with the following changes: add an Executive Session to discuss land acquisition, personnel, and potential litigation. Councilmember Moore seconded the motion. The motion passed (7-0). PUBLIC COMMENT (None) Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous, Tammy. Okay. Do we have any public comment tonight – just general public comment? Tammy: I do not have any physical. Stacy, do you? No, sir, we do not. Mayor Lockwood: You said, “We do not”? Tammy: We do not. Thank you. Mayor Lockwood: No. Thank you. Okay. I’m gonna move on to the consent agenda. If the city clerk will please sound the items. CONSENT AGENDA Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 4 of 40 4 4 Tammy: The first item is approval of the August 10th, 2020 special called city council meeting minutes, agenda item No. 20-258. Our second item is approval of the financial statements and investment report for the period ending August 2020, agenda item No. 20-259. Next is the approval of a construction services agreement between the city of Milton and CMES, Inc. for construction of Hopewell Rd. at Thompson Rd. and Hopewell Rd. at Hamby Rd. roundabouts, agenda item No. 20-260. Our fourth item is the approval of a public works maintenance and operations services agreement with Tri Scapes, Inc. to provide maintenance of Milton’s public roadways and right-of-ways, agenda item No. 20-261. Our fifth item is approval of a construction services agreement between the city of Milton and Superior Fence Company for a fence at the new public safety complex, agenda item No. 20-262. Our next item is approval of a change order No. 1 to the agreement between the city of Milton and North Harris Computer’s Corp CityView to descope the Bluebeam Studio prime program and replace it with the New CityView electronic plans review module, which results in a decrease of the contact in the amount of $5,814.00, agenda item No. 20-263. Our seventh item is approval of an amendment No. 4 to a professional services agreement between the city of Milton and SAFEbuilt Georgia, LLC to extend the contract from September 30th, 2020 to November 30th, 2020, agenda item No. 20-264. Our eighth consent item is approval of a waste and recycle services agreement between the city of Milton and Republic Services, agenda item No. 20-265. And our final item is approval of an intergovernmental agreement between the city of Milton and the city of Alpharetta regarding shared municipal court clerk services, agenda item No. 20-266. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Do I have a motion on the consent agenda? Laura: Mayor, I’d like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda as read. Paul: Second. Mayor Lockwood: All right. I have a motion for approval from council member Bentley with a second from council member Moore. All in favor, please say, “Aye.” Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 5 of 40 5 5 Council Members: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. Okay, if we can move onto our reports and presentations, if our city clerk would please sound the first item. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to approve the Consent Agenda. Councilmember Moore seconded the motion. The motion passed (7-0). REPORTS AND PRESENTATIONS 1. Proclamation Recognizing Constitution Week Presented to the Daughters of the American Revolution - Patriots of Liberty Chapter and Martha Stewart Bulloch Chapter. (Presented by Mayor Joe Lockwood) Tammy: Our first item is proclamation recognizing Constitution Week presented to the Daughters of the American Revolution, Patriots of Liberty Chapter and Martha Stewart Bulloch Chapter. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. And as always, this is an honor. And thank to both chapters, the Martha Stewart Bulloch and the Patriots of Liberty, for being here, and for us, it’s an honor to do this proclamation. So, I’ll read, “Of a proclamation of Constitution Week 2020, Daughters of the American Revolution. Whereas the Constitution of the United States, the guardian of our liberties, is a product of reflection and choice, embodying the principles of limited government and a republic dedicated by rule of law, not by men. And whereas September 17th, 2020 marks the 233 anniversary of drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention. “And whereas it is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to this memorial anniversary and to the patriotic exercises that will commemorate the occasion. And whereas public law 915 guarantees the issue of a proclamation each year by the President of the United States of America, designating September 17th through September 23rd as Constitution Week. This Constitution Week, we, the city of Milton, urge all citizens to study the Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 6 of 40 6 6 Constitution and to express gratitude for the privilege of American citizenship and our republic functioning under the superb body of laws, the Constitution of the United States of America. “Now therefore, we, the mayor and the city council of the city of Milton proclaim the week of September 17th, 2020 through September 23rd of 2020 as Constitution Week in the city of Milton and ask our citizens to reaffirm the ideals the framers of the Constitution had in 1787.” And this is presented to both the Martha Stewart Bulloch chapter and the Patriots of Liberty chapter, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. And if we have representatives, and if they’ll step up, I’ll be glad to present these – obviously, we’d want to practice proper procedures of social distancing. We may wanna do a picture with everybody, but we’ll keep our distance, and so. [Side conversation] [00:10:24 – 00:12:47] Okay, moving on. Will the city clerk please sound the next item? 2. Milton’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan Public Participation Kick Off. (Parag Agrawal, Community Development Director) Tammy: The second item is Milton’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan public participation kickoff, Mr. Parag Agrawal. Parag: Mayor and the city council members, I’m Parag Agrawal, the city’s community development director. And today we are here in front of the city council to introduce the 2040 comprehensive planning process to the city council members. I also have with me Michele McIntosh-Ross, principal planner our department, Shubha Jangam, senior planner, Teresa Stickles, the conservation project manager. We are all practicing social distancing, so we are all over there. Michele does serve as the project manager of this project. And Shubha Jangam will serve as the assistant project manager and will be assisting Michele on this very important comprehensive planning update. I will say that the city of Milton is at a very important moment in its history as we are starting the 2040 comprehensive planning process. The city’s comprehensive plan is a policy and a guiding document that imagines what our community should look like in the next 20 years and outlines a strategy that should be taken to Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 7 of 40 7 7 make this dream a reality. The comprehensive plan communicates community goals and objectives by providing a blueprint for the land use and development practices in the city of Milton. So, in sample ways, in simple terms, the way I explain to the community is basically, “If you leave the city of Milton today, and if you come back after 20 years, what our community should look like.” A comprehensive plan touches many topics such as housing, environment, transportation, but I think the most important aspect of Milton is how we can preserve and enhance the Milton’s character. As we know, the Milton has a long – I will not say “long” – but it has a proud and rich history of the comprehensive planning process. And the first comprehensive plan was adopted in 2011 and was updated in 2016. And many of the city council members today had been part of the comprehensive planning process in the last two comprehensive planning processes. Council member Moore have both part of the two CPAC committees. Council member Jamison was the chairperson of the 2016 CPAC committee. And council member Bentley was a very active resident in the last two comprehensive planning projects. So, the 2040 comprehensive plan will have been basically built upon the history of 2011 and 2016 comprehensive planning projects. So, the 2011/2016 comprehensive plan basically envisioned Crabapple as the city’s downtown. And today we see a lot of vertical construction happening. And in the next two years, the cit y of Milton will have a very active and a very vibrant downtown. That’s all because of the vision set by the two comprehensive plans. The location of the City Hall was discussed in the last two comprehensive plans. And it was discussed that Crabapple should be the location of the City Hall. And today we are meeting in the City Hall that’s located in the Crabapple area. For Crabapple and Deerfield, the two commercial districts, it was discussed that the traditional neighborhood development should be the main character of our Crabapple and Deerfield. And that is the reason why the city adopted the form-based codes for these two areas. The preservation of the agriculture character has always been the most important aspect of the two last comprehensive planning projects. And the idea of TDR basically came from the comprehensive plan. That’s the reason why the city of Milton adopted the TDR program. And the city of Milton has a very successful program in place that has conserved our 25 acres of green space properties Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 8 of 40 8 8 through the Greenspace program – through the TDR program. The 2016 Greenspace Bond that, basically, because of which we received $25 million to protect the greenspaces. In the last three or four years, the city of Milton has acquired more than 400 acres of land, equaling to about eight greenspace properties. Again, the concept came from the city’s comprehensive plans. The idea of the Impact Fee Ordinance was basically originated from the city’s comprehensive plan. And in the last two fiscal years, the city of Milton has collected around $1.8 million of impact fees that has gone towards the construction of the new public safety complex, new park spaces, and the new trail construction. So, after a series of these success stories, the thing is, “What next? What is the new big idea of the 2040 comprehensive plan?” We are already considered the best city to live in the state of Georgia. Could we become the best city to live in the entire country? Could we become the best city to live in the entire Southeast? So, in today’s presentation, we will be talking to you about the project team. We will be giving you our introduction about the project website. Michele will be talking to you about the city’s comprehensive plan, the requirements of the DC and ARC. And only Michele knows them. The history of the city’s comprehensive plan and the plan requirements of 2020 through 21. The project team – it’s a big project, so it has a big project team, which basically comprised of the staff members of [inaudible] [00:18:58] – me, Michele, Shubha, Teresa. Our communications and community outreach are a very important component of the city’s comprehensive plan. So, our communications director and our community outreach manager will be playing a very important role in drafting the city’s comprehensive plan. We will also be served by TSW. Again, most of us now knows TSW – Caleb. Caleb has worked on the two form-based codes and has worked for the city of Milton a lot in the last 10 years. CPAC – Milton is one of the few communities in the state of Georgia that basically talks about the constitution of CPAC in the city’s charter. So, that’s because of the city of Milton lays so much of stress, so much of focus, on the city’s comprehensive planning process. So, the constitution of the CPAC is part of the city’s charter. And we have 16 members on the CPAC. Nine members are basically seven members of the planning Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 9 of 40 9 9 commission. One member – the chair of PC and the chair of DRB – and the seven members were basically appointed by each member of the city council. The chair of CPAC is Ron Gilbert, who’s also the chair of the planning commission. Basically, I will say the CPAC is – they are the community experts. They are the community stakeholders that will basically guide and will give recommendations to the city council on the comprehensive planning project throughout the process. We also have two ex- officio members. Council member Laura Bentley and council member Paul Moore are part of the team. And they basically sit on the CPAC as the ex-officio members. Since we have such a big project team, we also have a steering committee. And we basically meet every Friday just to make sure that the project is on track and all the requirements of the CPAC and all the expectations of the community are being met by working on this comprehensive planning project. So, I will just introduce you to the project website. As I mentioned, we will be having a very robust community engagement process. We already have the project website up and running. The project website basically talks about what is the comprehensive plan. It basically gives the contact information. Then it talks about the process and schedules. It talks about the social pinpoints, the team. And the goal is all the CPAC meetings, all the community engagement meetings, everything will go on this website. All the online service and everything will be part of this project website. We are also planning to have an online engagement forum. And we have something called the "Ideas Wall." This is something new. Nowadays in planning projects, we have something called the "Instagram Moment." It's basically you have a wall in place, and anyone can basically put their ideas on that wall. But because of the pandemic going on, we will have something physically there, but we also have this Ideas Wall on our website. So, that will be basically be divided into various topics. If you want to give some ideas about transportation, sustainability, cultural resources, park or open spaces you can basically click this link and you can add any idea – whatever you have – as part of the Idea Wall. Michele, do you want to take this, "What is a comprehensive plan?" for the requirements? Thank you. Michele: All right, thank you. Greetings again. I know I was here a couple Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 10 of 40 10 10 weeks ago about the census reminder there. You'll get to the end on that. But first, let's talk about the comprehensive plan. Parag gave a great introduction to the comprehensive plan and what it is and what it means to the city of Milton. So, that was good. I'm just gonna get into some of the requirements per state law and guidance that we have in place in Georgia. So, just for instance, the comprehensive plan per the Department of Community Affairs who governs the comprehensive planning in Georgia, their definition for comprehensive plan means, "Any plan by a county or municipality covering such county or municipality proposed or prepared pursuant to the minimum standards and procedures of preparation of comprehensive plans." So, all they're trying to say is that, "If you follow our guidelines, then you have a comprehensive plan.” But of course, as Parag mentioned, it's much more than that. It's planning for 20 years. It's what you wanna see in Milton. It looks like economic and physical characteristics. I know in Milton; we definitely want to preserve the agriculture and equestrian characters. So, those are the things we look at and will fall into DCA guidelines as we move along. Okay. So, this is the Department of Community Affairs' – sorta their page. And here's a snapshot of the regulations – the minimum standards which we will meet and exceed, as usual. Here is the regional agencies. This is a map of Georgia, as you can see. And it's broken up into all these different regional agencies. The city of Milton is located in the Atlanta Regional Commission, which is on the Atlanta Regional Agency for Planning. And so, we work with them a lot in terms of getting the comprehensive plan done and accepted through DCA. This is the Atlanta Regional Commission 10-county area, as you can see. And Milton is in the northern portion of Fulton County. Atlanta Regional Commission also has to do a comprehensive plan that they need to submit to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. And they just completed their 2040 comprehensive plan. And all the cities and counties within these 10-county areas for Atlanta Regional Commission, their plans need to be consistent. And we keep up with meetings, with coordination of land use, transportation and housing, etc. So, we'll be consistent there with their 2040 comprehensive plan. And then when we do our 2040 comprehensive plan, we'll be consistent there. This is the general process for comprehensive Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 11 of 40 11 11 planning. You start with the research. So, for instance, we're looking at the previous plans as well as demographic information and anything that has changed between 2016 and now. So, we're covering all that research right now. Then we're going to go into the visioning stage, which will include all the community meetings, the CPAC meetings, etc. We'll have input from CPAC, input from the community, to create this vision. And of course, it's all backed by the research and analysis that we did. Then moving on from that, we will have a draft plan that we create, which will be circulated throughout the community. We'll come to city council, do work sessions, whatnot. And the community will be able to give feedback on that draft plan. Once we accept that draft plan, meaning city of Milton and council, we'll transmit it to the Department of Community Affairs and ARC for them to check if we have followed the minimum standards of comprehensive planning. And then, if it passed [inaudible] [00:27:25] on that, we'll get it back. And then we're free to adopt it. We have deadlines. So far, our deadline is October of 2021. We have deadlines every five years to produce a comprehensive plan. And our last one was 2016. And now it's 2021. So, it's increments of five years to complete a comprehensive plan. And so far, we're on schedule. Okay, so, just a little history of our comprehensive planning. So, we've had two that we've done so far. We have the 2016 comprehensive plan update, which is smaller – easier read – compared to the one that we adopted in 2011, which is called the 2030 Comprehensive Plan that looked 20 years out from 2011. And it's a little bit thicker. It's a lot more detailed than here. The 2016 plan did build upon the -- sorry. Yeah, the 2016 plan did build upon the 2011 plan. And we do anticipate that this upcoming plan that we adopt in 2021 will build on the previous planning efforts. And the new plan horizon is till 2040. So, we'll have all our visioning geared towards looking into 2040 and what we want Milton to be till that date. Okay, as you know and Parag mentioned about the visioning so far in our comprehensive planning, we want a high quality of life – maintain that – create a strong sense of place, and respect our rural heritage, and just in general, to be the best place to call home. That's so many things that our citizens have been saying in their comments. Also, we're interested in protecting greenspace and creating more greenspace and conservation land. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 12 of 40 12 12 That's evident with the Greenspace Bond and other programs that we've put in place. The Equestrian Heritage – we are currently working on some equestrian- and rural-friendly zoning. All these things came about from project line items that came out of the previous comprehensive plans as Parag mentioned. This map is one of the staples of Georgia planning. It's called the Character Area Map. It's one of the things that the Georgia Department of Community Affairs – DCA – really wants communities to do this exercise to understand and figure out what the community character's about. So, in 2011, and it was reiterated in the 2016 plan, we have these eight-character areas that was distinguished from each other. And then we have the four future development areas, as you can see, that I circled. It's Deerfield, Crabapple, Arnold Mill, and Birmingham Crossroads. So, I have Crabapple with single asterisks – also Deerfield. Those areas were decided to be a future development area with non-residential allowed, more densely populated than the rest of Milton, and commercial and mixed uses and so on. Those areas went onto get form-based codes, masterplan, and then put a form-based code. Also, those two areas – Crabapple and Deerfield – was able to get Livable Centers Initiative funding, which is an ARC funding that you get to plan the community, and then it makes that area eligible for transportation funds. So, those two areas were able to get that and are eligible for transportation funds. Also, those two areas are receiving areas for our Transfer of Development Rights program. Our TDR program is embedded in our form-based codes. So, we use it to have density transferred from the agricultural areas into the areas that we defined as areas for future development. Arnold Mill and Birmingham Crossroads were identified as areas for master plans. So, we did a master plan for Arnold Mill. And Birmingham Crossroads already has a master plan. But we can decide if we want to continue to do an update to the Arnold Mill. So far, we are thinking we may do that in this process. We will hear from the community about moving forward with that and then if there is any interest in looking at Birmingham Crossroads. But those were just from the previous comprehensive plans. So, I just wanted to point that out. Okay, so, this is our future land use map that the city of Milton residents really like to have. It's a really stabilizing force in Milton. This shows the underlying land use throughout Milton and Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 13 of 40 13 13 what we project for the future. Just a little background of land use vs. zoning – so, the land use is a little bit more broad. So, for instance, you'll have a land use category of residential, maybe it's low density, which would include lots of different types. But then the zoning would be more specific. So, if you had a townhome residential zoning category, then it would go into residential land use, but it's just more specific. So, this map shows a prospective resident or its use in defense for zoning as well, that if somebody wanted to ask for, say, townhome residential, you'll look at the map and realize that most of Milton you can't do this. There's only designated areas in Milton that you would be able to put these townhomes residential zoning. So, this map is based off of the character area map. And so, it helps with defense of zoning. So, this is a very important map. And through this comprehensive plan process in Milton is really the only time that you can really make changes to this map. We talked about having other opportunities to do this in the previous comp. plan, but nobody thought that we should do it, that we should just have it be available at each of the comprehensive plan updates. Okay, so, this slide is a DCA slide that I swiped. But it shows really well what the components of the comprehensive plan should be. They're required elements on here. For instance, your community goals – that needs to be an exercise that the community goes through to figure out what the goals are. Also, the needs and opportunities. And then from those, you get a work program – a list of projects that you put on a list. And it's a work program with identified ownership of departments or roles so that in the five years in between we do these comprehensive plans, there's a work program to pursue projects. For instance, when Parag mentioned the TDR program or the impact fee, those were projects listed in that work program that we worked on and accomplished in between the comprehensive plans and were able to report on those in the next one. The required elements are the capital improvement element as well as economic development, land use, transportation, and housing for communities like Milton. Some of the optional elements are looking at targeted areas – which I just mentioned that we may look at Arnold Mill in this process – also education – well, we won't really because Fulton County handles that. We may look at greenspace. Recreation came up already as something that people Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 14 of 40 14 14 want to see. Intergovernmental coordination, waste management, infrastructure and facilities, community sustainability – that's one that we will probably look into and we have some questions on. But of course, a lot of these items, we would hear from the community as to something that we would want to pursue. So, those are just the optional elements. Okay, so, this is the Qualified Local Government status, which this is all tied to. The DCA requires that these plans are done and submitted on time in the schedule that they give us. And that way we maintain the Qualified Local Government status to be able to do what we do here at City Hall and anywhere else. There are programs – incentives – that the DCA puts to help people keep on schedule. So, they are funding programs that you'll be ineligible or disqualified from participating in if you don't have an adopted comprehensive plan that meets the minimum standards and is on time. The ones that I put in yellow are the ones that really pertain to us because we have three or more Georgia Department of Natural Resources grants in-house already that we got for parks and rec. So, we wouldn't want our Qualified Local Government status to disqualify us from any of these. Also ARC funding with LTIs and some other things are linked to this. Okay, there are two items in the comprehensive plan that DCA keeps reminding local governments that are very important that they look for. When they receive comprehensive plans, they look to see if these things are there. So, this is their No. 1 – that they call the No. 1 importance for comprehensive planning. And they even said that this was the No. 1 reason for plan rejection was that if the report of accomplishments did not match the work program. So, we'll definitely make sure to keep an eye on this. So, our 2016 work program, we need to report on the accomplishments of those and make sure that it's accurate. So, that's important. And it's a good exercise because it helps the community realize what they put in that work program prior and what have we done so far. And if, "Are we abandoning that project, or should we reset it and continue with it?" So, it's a good exercise. Also, they say No. 2 important requirement here is the Public Participation program. So, DCA really wants to see that we had all kinds of community opportunities for community involvement and we just need to report on that. They call this their No. 2 most often reason for rejecting plans is when they don't see a report of the community Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 15 of 40 15 15 participation in folks' comprehensive plans, so. But we won't fail at any of these. Okay, so, these are the types of public meetings that we're suggesting that we do this time. So, we're looking at having some general public meetings where "Come one, come all," sort of a meetings. We're also planning to have specific educational sessions if anybody wanted to delve into economic development, per se, or maybe smart cities type projects as well as conservation. We'll get these topics as we speak to the community of what they want to delve into. We are also looking at having workshops throughout as well as pop-up meetings. And of course, Parag mentioned what we have a new website. At any time, residents can go to the website and give their comments and upload pictures and just let us know what they wanna see in the comprehensive plan. Okay, so, this is just an example of the web presence that we have. We have, as Parag mentioned, our communications department and community engagement, working on helping us with putting all of our meetings out there. And so, we're gonna have a lot of presence on the web and Facebook, social media, etc. with the comprehensive plan. So, this is our kickoff for the 2040 comprehensive plan. Oh, you wanna mention something? Parag: Yeah, I saw the date. I just want to give two updates to the city council members. We were planning to launch the kickoff community meeting for the community on September 24th – a virtual community meeting on September 24th – but last week, it was brought to our notice – brought to our attention – that our outreach email, which we send out to the community, there's a technical glitch in that, and not all of the community members are receiving our city emails that are going out. And we also wanted to do a broader outreach to the community. So, that's the reason why we have postponed our first September 24th community meeting. It will be at sometime in October. I do not have the date with me. But the September 24th virtual community meeting has been postponed because of the reasons for which I just mentioned. And the second CPAC meeting – we are planning to have it on October 15th. We are still trying to identify the venue. But the tentative date is now October 15th. Michele: Thank you. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 16 of 40 16 16 Parag: I saw the date of September 24th, so I just thought of mentioning it. Michele: Yeah, yeah. Okay, thanks, Parag. So, that's pretty much it. So, if you have any questions, you let me know. But this is our kickoff of our 2040 comprehensive plan process. We'll be working with this all the way next year according to schedule. Of course, you know, we'll wait and see. This is all different times. You know, we've always planned to have folks work together with maps and pen and paper and rolled up sleeves, so this is different. So, we'll just work with what we have. But just so you know, we're kicking the comprehensive plan off today. Any questions? Mayor Lockwood: I just wanna say thank you Michele and Parag and the rest of our staff. I know it's tough with these – I don't wanna say "new norms" – but again, not being able to get in a group and call a group and roll up your sleeves. I also wanna thank the CPAC members and thank council member Moore and Bentley for being involved in helping with the project, and, most important, all the citizens that'll be involved in the future. But again, this is one of the probably the most important things that the average citizen of Milton is concerned about and appreciates and wants us to do a good job. So, it's very important. And thank you all for all your time and effort. I know it's a lot of work, so. Michele: Yes, thank you so much. Mayor Lockwood: Anybody have questions? Okay. Michele: Any other questions? Well, you know, I have to put a slide about the census. We have 10 more day – 10 more days – 10 more days, you all. Okay, all right. That’s it. Mayor Lockwood: All right, thank you. All right, so, let’s move on to first presentation items. And if our city clerk will please sound the first presentation item. And before you do, I just wanna welcome your daughter here tonight, Solo. So, thank you for being here. Tammy: Thank you. Mayor Lockwood: I meant to say that earlier. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 17 of 40 17 17 FIRST PRESENTATION Tammy: Thank you. Our first item is consideration of an ordinance to amend chapter four, section 105, “Hours and days of sale of the alcoholic beverages of the code of the city of Milton,” agenda item No. 20-267, Miss Sarah LaDart. Mayor Lockwood: Announce first presentation. Tammy: Oh, I’m sorry – first presentation. Mayor Lockwood: Oh, yeah, it’s just first reading – first presentation. Tammy: Oh, first read. Sorry. Mayor Lockwood: No, all right. Okay. All right, so, do I have a motion on the first presentation? Rick: Mr. Mayor, I make a motion that we accept first presentation as read. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Do I have second? All right. I have a motion from council member Mohrig with a second from council member Longoria. All in favor, please say, “Aye.” Council Members: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. So, now we will move onto our public hearing. So, the city clerk will please sound that item. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Mohrig moved to approve the First Presentation items. Councilmember Longoria seconded the motion. The motion passed (7-0). PUBLIC HEARING Tammy: Consideration of an ordinance of the mayor and council of the city of Milton, Georgia to adopt the fiscal 2021 budget for each fund of the city of Milton, Georgia, appropriating the several items of revenue appropriations, prohibiting expenditures to exceed appropriations, and prohibiting expenditures to exceed actual funding available, agenda item No. 20-251, Miss Bernadette Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 18 of 40 18 18 Harvill. Bernadette: Good evening, mayor and council. Tonight, we will be having our final discussion regarding the FY 2021 proposed budget. Here before you, you have our calendar. We did discuss in detail the proposed budget at the August 10th work session and again, at the council meeting on September ninth. This evening, I’d just like to go over some of the highlights once again in this final public hearing. Before you, you’ll see our consolidated budget summary. Our FY 2021 budget consists of $41.9 million across a general fund, three special revenue funds, and six capital projects funds. Okay…okay. In our general fund you will notice that there is an overall request for $29,511,367.00 in revenues. This is an overall decrease of 3.3% from the FY 2020 amended budget. The main driver of this decrease is the interfund transfer from the revenue bond into the general fund in FY 2020 that will not recur in FY 2021. And below we have the expenditures in the amount of $31,603,756.00. Sorry, that was for FY 2020. I apologize. $31,140,044.00. This is a 0.6 variance year over year. And I’d like to just momentarily return to the discussion we h ad last meeting regarding the 2020’s adopted budget. The original adopted budget was that last number I just read, $31,603,756.00. And of that, $26,709,238.00 went towards operating expenses excluding interfund transfers out to capital. And tonight’s FY 2021 proposed operating budget, excluding those transfers, represents an eight percent decrease from that original adopted budget of FY 2020, yielding an overall savings of $2,146,276.00 between last year’s requested budget and this year’s requested budget. The requests herein include a budgeted use of surplus fund balance. And please note that the surplus funds can only be used for one-time expenses and will go towards funding the transfer to capital projects fund this year. Additionally, in this request, there’s an adjustment to salaries of three percent, which will total $250,626.00, and a transfer out of $1,650,026.00 to the revenue bond fund for debt service due on the series 2019 bonds. That in a summary, gives you the ending fund balance of $8.4 million, which is in line with our reserve policy. Moving on, I won’t go over in detail any of the variances or other requests as we went over them twice. I’ll just move on to our initiative section, unless you have any other questions, you’d like me to stop and answer. Here before you, you see our maintenance and operating Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 19 of 40 19 19 initiatives. Included in these initiatives is $200,000.00 we have set aside to address year one initiatives that come out of the new strategic planning process. There’s a request to staff Station 44 at the end of the fiscal year. And public works has requested funding for a pilot street sweeping program for areas in the side with curb and gutter. And they’re also looking to obtain a backhoe and dump truck. And in this section, we have the related maintenance and insurance costs for these purchases, should you approve them later in the capital section. The department has done a cost benefit analysis showing the break even in year seven and four respectively, for bringing those pieces of equipment in-house as opposed to continuing to rent them. And at the bottom here, you'll see community developments requests. They've identified savings by bringing the soil and erosion control manager in house. And they're also looking to reclassify the planning technician to planner one, enabling the staff to handle more projects in house and further reducing expenses related to consultants. The total request for M&O initiatives is $422,606.00. And that was included in the numbers we discussed in the general fund summary. Moving on now to the capital initiatives. Again, the special revenue funds we talked about last time in detail, but I'll be happy to go back and answer any questions should you have them, as well as any of the detailed discussion about the capital projects that are ongoing. But here before you, you have the capital initiatives request. And you have there the backhoe and the dump truck, totaling at $238,000.00, again break even in year four and seven. And the truck for the soil and erosion control manager, should you approve that, bringing them in house. The capital initiatives at $273,485.00. Those are the highlights of the new requests. Again, I'll be happy to answer any questions regarding the document or any other numbers you've seen in the other presentations. Mayor Lockwood: Any questions regarding that? Bernadette: Thank you. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Do we have any public comment on this? Tammy: We do not. Mayor Lockwood: So, we’ll technically close the hearing. Okay. All right. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 20 of 40 20 20 Bernadette: Thank you. ZONING AGENDA (None) Mayor Lockwood: Thank you, Bernadette. There are no items under zoning agenda, so we’ll move onto unfinished business. If the city clerk will please sound the first item. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Tammy: Consideration of an ordinance of the mayor and council of the city of Milton, Georgia to adopt amendments to the fiscal year 2020 budget for each fund of the city of Milton, Georgia, amending the amount shown in each budget as expenditures, amending the several items of revenue anticipations, prohibiting expenditures to exceed appropriations, and prohibiting expenditures to exceed actual funding available, agenda item No. 20-250, Miss Bernadette Harvill. Bernadette: Good evening again. I’m just gonna share my screen. I have before you the FY 2020 amendment packet. We’re going a little bit out of order, so we’ll go backwards a little bit here. Again, we did discuss this in brief at the August 10th work session and in depth at the hearing on the September ninth. And I will go through very briefly for you the same highlights. And again, if you have any questions, please feel free to stop me, and I’ll be happy to go into anymore detail. You will see here that the summary shown that revenue anticipations are increasing by $1.9 million. This is an overall increase of $545,857.00 from the original adopted budget. There’s been a decrease of $132,739.00 to related expenditures. And this is an overall decrease of $640,003.00 when taking out transfers into capital into consideration. Again, as you can see that we’ve had some savings through our expenditures this year from vacancies and salaried positions as well as cost savings in general and also deferred project cost savings. At the end of the year we’ll have a projected fund balance of $10 million, which is in line with our required reserve policy. And that does include the use of fund balance that we discussed for FY 2021. We’ll move on now to our special revenue funds. Sorry, this thing won’t go away. There we Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 21 of 40 21 21 go. I do apologize. I’m having a little bit of technical difficulty here this evening. So, moving onto our special revenue funds, you’ll see a request in the special events fund. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, many of our beloved events had to be canceled or postponed. And we have released the funds related to those events in order to fund FY 2021’s events, hoping that we’ll be able to get back together with the community in the future here soon. In the confiscated assets fund, you will see the recognition of some revenues received through our federal program as well as some expenses related to that, that are in line with the confiscated assets program. So, this is just recognition of that. Moving onto to our capital projects fund. The main revenue increase in this fund is related to the $393,336.00 interfund transfer in from the general fund. That is going towards some of the projects we discussed last time including the passive acres improvements at former Milton Country Club as well as the creation of the new site improvements account for any of the passive parks that we have purchased that may not have any kind of current master planning. I’m not sure what’s going on with that screen. So, we went over all of the expense changes. As you know, we have had some projects savings. Those project funds have been released and have gone towards either capital projects or been released back into the general fund. Here before you, you have the Greenspace Bond fund. Here we have a request to update the requests related to property tax collections as well as interest revenue anticipations. As you know, interest rates have been down, and we’re just recognizing the anticipated revenue changes due to that across all the funds. At the bottom you’ll see the expenditures. We’re doing a true-up of the land conservation account. Some of those funds needed to go towards debt services. That’s just recognizing that those funds are due to debt service as opposed to land purchase. And again, we had the fiscal agents' fees for the year that we just need to set up the expenditure line item for. In the TSPLOST fund, 100% of all revenues related to TSPLOST must go towards the projects that were outlined and approved with the referendum. So, you're addressing a true-up here of allocating some of the funding towards the Birmingham Middle Bridge project, as that was coming in higher than they originally anticipated. In the capital Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 22 of 40 22 22 grant fund, we are recognizing revenues for a grant that the fire department has received and the corresponding expenditures for that for the exhaust systems in Station 41 and 43. We also have the HPP funds, the project at Birmingham/Providence was completed. And the cost related to our 20% share for construction came in under what it was anticipated by the state. So, we received some money back for that. That money's going directly back into the general fund, who originally funded the city's portion of that project. And lastly, we have here the revenue bond fund before you. Again, those interest revenues coming in less than anticipated – a correction for that – as well as a correction to move the money for the Public Safety Complex alerting system for all the stations into its own separate line item as opposed to bundling it up with the Public Safety Complex. And the last item we are moving is that interfund transfer we spoke about, $520,868.00 going back to the general fund to reimburse for expenses that were made – bond- related expenses made before the bonds were issued. So, at the end of the day, that brings back to that $10 million general fund, fund balance. And all the other funds are in balance as well. So, I'll be happy to answer any questions. And this is the proposed second amendment for FY 2020. Mayor Lockwood: Do you have any questions for Bernadette? Okay. we didn’t have any public comment on this either, do we? Tammy: No, your mayor. Mayor Lockwood: All right. And again, thank you and all your staff and all our staff, from Steve on down, so. Bernadette: Appreciate it. Mayor Lockwood: Lots of hard work and the council and everybody involved. Okay, at this point, I think that it’s up for a motion. Ask for a motion for approval or – Laura: Mayor, I’d like to make a motion to approve agenda item No. 20- 251. Mayor Lockwood: Okay, I’ve got a motion from council member Bentley, with a Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 23 of 40 23 23 second, I believe it was council member Cookerly. It was almost a tie, but I think it was Cook – Carol: I think it was a tie. Mayor Lockwood: All right, well, you were close. You were closer to her. All in favor, please say, “Aye.” Council Members: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: Any opposed? That’s unanimous. Thank you again, Bernadette. Bernadette: Thank you. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to approve Agenda Item No. 20-251. Councilmember Cookerly seconded the motion. The motion passed (7-0). Mayor Lockwood: Okay. If our city clerk please sound the next item. Tammy: Mayor Lockwood, if I could interrupt point of order. Mayor Lockwood: Absolutely. Tammy: Council member Jamison has just let me know that he has had a family emergency. I just wanna make sure that you’ve noted his – Mayor Lockwood: Yeah, yeah. He had to take his son to the hospital, so he’s had to leave. He thinks he’ll be okay, but all right. So, city clerk, please sound the next item. Tammy: Ken, can I ask you a question on that vote that was just done just because we have a follow up? They approved agenda item 251. We’re about to read 251, so it might need to be reread as 250 because that’s the duplicate. Mayor Lockwood: Yeah, actually, I think it was 250, wasn’t it? Tammy: Mm-hmm. Mayor Lockwood: It should’ve been. Is that correct? Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 24 of 40 24 24 Ken: I’m fine with that. Tammy: Okay. Mayor Lockwood: I think you said “251.” Laura: I did. Ken: Oh, you did? Mayor Lockwood: Yeah. Laura: I’m sorry. Ken: Yeah, it’s 250. Mayor Lockwood: Okay, so let’s just – Carol if you’ll resend your second. Well, I can since we’ve already voted on it. Do we just need to take a motion and vote to cancel that action and – Ken: If you wanna redo it, just a motion to reconsider and then just take the action again, would be all right. Mayor Lockwood: I’ll ask for a motion to reconsider that last motion. Joe: Motion. Rick: Second. Mayor Lockwood: Okay, I have a motion from council member Longoria, a second from council member Mohrig. All in favor, please say, “Aye.” Council Members: Aye. Motion To Reconsider: Councilmember Longoria made a motion to reconsider the Approval of Agenda Item No. 220-251. Councilmember Mohrig seconded the motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Jamison was absent from the meeting. Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. So, now I’ll ask for a motion on the 250 agenda item – No. 250 agenda item. Council member Bentley, do you wanna – Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 25 of 40 25 25 Laura: Mayor, I’d like to make a motion to approve agenda item No. 20- 250. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Do I have a sec – Carol: Second. Mayor Lockwood: All right, I have a motion for approval from council member Bentley with a second from council member Cookerly. All in favor, please say, “Aye.” Council Members: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to approve Agenda Item No. 20-250. Councilmember Cookerly seconded the motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Jamison was absent from the meeting. Joe: Ken, does the motion reconsider and nullify the previous vote or does that just open it up again for discussion and overturning? Ken: It nullifies the previous action. Joe: Okay, thanks. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. All right, if our city clerk will please call the next item. Tammy: It’s the consideration of an ordinance of the mayor and council of the city of Milton, GA to adopt the fiscal 2021 budget for each fund of the cit y of Milton, GA, appropriating the several items of revenue appropriations, prohibiting expenditures to exceed appropriations, and prohibiting to exceed actual funding available, agenda item No. 20-251, Miss Bernadette Harvill. Bernadette: Good evening, again. We just went over the public hearing, so I won’t go over it again. Just wanted to say, I’m very excited about this year’s budget book. We’ve [inaudible] [01:01:28] some enhanced items of information for our community regarding our revenue bonds and acronym dictionary to kinda give you some Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 26 of 40 26 26 hints to all the little letters we have throughout the book and some interim goals and objectives for our departments. So, I’m really excited about it, so I hope everyone takes an opportunity to read through that. And like I said, everything’s in line. Nothing has changed since the last discussion or the one we had this evening. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. And again, do we have any public comment? I don’t believe we did from somebody. Tammy: No, we do not. Mayor Lockwood: Okay, so, we don’t have a public here. We’ll close that if – any question on that. And I’ll open up for a motion. Rick: Yes, mayor, I will make a motion that we approve agenda item No. 20-251. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. Do I have a second? Paul: Second. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I have a motion from council member Mohrig for approval, and a second from council member Moore. All in favor, please say, “Aye.” Council Members: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: Any opposed? That’s unanimous. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Mohrig moved to approve Agenda Item No. 20-251. Councilmember Moore seconded the motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Peyton was absent from the meeting. Bernadette: Well, thank you very much. Mayor Lockwood: Thank you again, Bernadette. Okay, will the city clerk please sound the next item? Tammy: The third item is consideration of an ordinance to amend chapter four, section 138 – promotion and sales of alcoholic beverages of Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 27 of 40 27 27 the code of the city of Milton, agenda item No. 20-252, Miss Sarah LaDart. Sarah: Good evening, mayor and council. Can you guys see the slide that shows it? Rick: Now we can. Sarah: Okay, there it goes. Thank you. The amendment in front of you this evening is a slight revision for clarification purposes on the promotion and sales section of chapter four, which is our alcohol ordinance for flights of beer, wine, and liquor. The current version only allows for flights of beer at brew pubs. The proposed version adds wine and liquor flights and also opens up the opportunity to any licensed consumption on premises establishment to serve flights, not just the brew pubs. A point of clarification in this – we are not increasing the volume of alcohol that can be given to a single person at any single time. So, for example, right now you could walk over to Olde Blind Dog and order two one-ounce liquor shots, I guess. With this amendment, instead of two one-ounces, you can get four half- ounces. So, it still equals two ounces. So, we’re not increasing the volume, just clarifying this ‘cause it was brought to our attention. Any questions or comments? Mayor Lockwood: Any questions on this item for Sarah? Okay. I’ll open that up for a motion. Joe: Mayor, I move that we approve agenda item No. 20-252. Paul: Second. Mayor Lockwood: Did anybody in the audience notice how it took a little longer to get a motion? Nobody wants to be the first one to do a motion on beer. Carol: No, I just didn’t understand. I was like, “What?” Mayor Lockwood: Motion by council member Longoria and the second by council member Moore. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, please say, “Aye.” Council Members: Aye. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 28 of 40 28 28 Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to approve Agenda Item No. 20-252. Councilmember Moore seconded the motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Peyton was absent from the meeting. Tammy: Thank you. Mayor Lockwood: Thank you. Thanks, Sarah. Sarah: Thank you. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. If the city clerk will please sound the final unfinished business item. Tammy: The final item is consideration of an ordinance to amend chapter two, article six, division four, section 2-390, transfer of disposition of assets, notice of the code of the city of Milton, agenda item No. 20-253, Mr. Robert Drewry. Robert: Mr. Mayor, members of the council, if you don’t mind, I’ll take this one very quickly, and I’ll point out for the record that this is actually related to your next agenda item, which is new business No. 1. So, as the city is aware and the council’s aware, that in the normal environment, city governments, county governments, all local governments have to dispose of property in particular ways, typically by either public auction or sealed bids. That’s the normal way. It’s a city asset. An asset of the taxpayers has to be some sort of a formal process. However, the law does make some accommodation for situations where there are remnants or slivers of parcels that really have no economic value to anybody except probably the individuals that own property next to it. And what that allows is for us to enter into a private negotiation and sale to dispose of those remnants or small or what’s called “unusually shaped parcels” that have no independent value except to be merged with a larger parcel next to it. Because, candidly, I think the law anticipates that by the time we go through a public auction and sale, no one will try to buy it because it’s not worth anything except to the owner of the parcel Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 29 of 40 29 29 next to it. The statute, however, that gives cities the right to do these sort of private transactions of these small or unusually shaped parcels of property anticipates that we will have actually adopted a local ordinance sort of implementing that power. That’s what I’m asking you to do right now. I’m asking you to adopt the ordinance that basically says, “The city of Milton will take advantage of the statutory law that allows us to do a private negotiation of small or unusually shaped parcels of property that have no independent value other than being consumed within a larger tract next door.” So, if the council will see fit to approve this agenda item, that will set the stage, and you’ll actually get to see it nicely put into place for the next agenda item when we actually utilize this power. Mr. Mayor. Mayor Lockwood: Is there any questions on that? And again, for the general public that’s listening in, that’s any time the city has an asset, which is really the taxpayers’ asset – let’s just say the city had an acre parcel that had some value and wanted to get rid of that property and sell it, obviously we need to put it out and get the highest and best price – the yield – for our taxpayers. But in this particular case, or what Ken’s talking about, let’s say the city owned a five- foot strip next to Mr. Jones’ house, well, there’d be no value. No one else would wanna go buy a five-foot strip next to somebody else’s house except for Mr. Jones would be the only one that would have value to, so. Anyways, so, I’ll open up that for a motion. Paul: Joe, just a quick question. Mayor Lockwood: Absolutely. Paul: So, is this the first time we’ve ever had to address this in terms of a city asset of this kind where it’s a real estate – Robert: It is. Mayor Lockwood: I don’t remember. Robert: We haven’t talked about it a lot, but if we’re gonna do it, the direction I gave my attorneys was if Milton was actually gonna Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 30 of 40 30 30 take advantage of this, we needed to go ahead and adopt the implementing ordinance. So, that’s what we’re gonna do. Mayor Lockwood: Yeah, I’m not aware of – usually it would be a bid for the p – Paul: Well, I can’t think of any either. I would think there may have been other assets in the past where may have been city vehicles or a fire engine or something like that, that may have been transferred, that would’ve been probably addressed in this. But this is particular to real estate? Robert: It’s particular to real property, exactly. Paul: Great. Thank you. Mayor Lockwood: ‘Cause in that, something like that, there is a value that could be for several people, so obviously an opportunity to get more money for the city taxpayers. Paul: Thanks. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. So, I’ll open up for a motion. Laura: Mayor, I’d like to make a motion to approve agenda item No. 20- 253. Rick: I second. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I have a motion from council member Bentley, and I believe it sounded like council member Mohrig made the first second on this. So, I have a motion and a second. All in favor, please say, “Aye.” Council Members: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. Okay, if we could move on to our new business item. If our clerk will please sound that item. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to approve Agenda Item No. 20-253. Councilmember Moore seconded the motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Peyton was absent from the meeting. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 31 of 40 31 31 NEW BUSINESS Tammy: It’s the consideration of a resolution authorizing disposition of fee simple to abutting property owners Robert K. and Melissa R. Yarbrough on Hopewell Rd. at Thompson Rd., agenda item No. 20-268, Mr. Robert Drewry. Robert: Good evening, mayor, council. I’m gonna turn it over to Miss Sara Leaders, and she’ll give you the presentation. Sara: Good evening. So, now that we have an ordinance in place to provide for this disposition, we’ve got an item tonight related to that. Let’s see here. So, the location of this property that was purchased – the entire parcel was purchased – is 15270 Hopewell Rd. The pictures on your left show the house that existed before. And then the current state of that frontage of the property is located at the intersection of Hopewell Rd. and Thompson Rd. as shown on the map on the right. Next slide. Again, as part of the intersection improvement – Hopewell at Thompson – this was identified as parcel No. 5 on the project. And again, you can see the project footprint with the parcel outlined. We had a full appraisal done on the parcel. It was 1.02 acres. The highest and best use determined by that appraisal was residential with the existing structure, not providing any value to the overall parcel. And that parcel was acquired by condemnation. There’s been two action items before you. The first one was from August fifth, 2019, authorizing to proceed with condemnation at the appraised value. And then again on August third of this year, a settlement with that property owner for $185,000.00. Next slide. Mayor Lockwood: And Sara, can I just make a statement for the public? Sara: Yep. Mayor Lockwood: Whenever the word “condemnation” is used, and of the few times the city has taken that action, that’s not the same as condemnation and coming in and taking someone’s property. Basically, that’s if we can’t come to terms with a property that needs to be purchased, and the owner’s willing to sell it, but you just cannot come to terms on the fair price. They maybe get an appraisal. The city maybe get an appraisal, whatnot, but it’s holding up a road project or whatever. The city can elect to condemn that property to at least Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 32 of 40 32 32 start the process, but that doesn’t mean we’re gonna leave that particular property owner high and dry hang. And we’re gonna still work through and settle with them at some point to a reasonable and fair decision. So, I just wanna kinda throw that out for clarification. Sara: And after that parcel was fully appraised, as we were negotiating with the adjacent property owner, they expressed an interest in purchasing the remnant that would be left from the road impacts to that parcel. So, we laid out what we called “parcel 5R.” So, we designated right of way along the edge of the new aligned road. It created a .442 acre tract. And we had it appraised to determine the value. There was at least one comparable sell that was less than an acre. It was likely a combination or a split, similar to that, so it provided a basis for determining that appraised value. And the appraiser agreed that the remnant did not create – under zoning – create a situation where a house could be built and accommodate septic based on the zoning. So, that was the highest and best use determined by the appraisal was to be assembled with another tract. And we have the appraised amount for that remnant parcel. And next slide. So, this is the only adjacent parcel to that remnant, 5R. It’s parcel No. 7. We do have right-of-way we’re acquiring from that parcel for the project as well to start realigning the road as it approaches the roundabout. The acquisition area is .116 acres. And the next slide, if we toggle between the two, you’ll see how that area near the roundabout shifted between the proposed and the previous slide. So, again, the green area is the – on the previous slide – shows the current property line. And again, we had this parcel appraised for the value that we’re acquiring in right-of-way and then the impacts to that site. So, then the proposed for parcel seven, they’ve again requested to purchase parcel 5R. This shows what that tract would look like combined with parcel 5R. And we would need to proceed with a minor subdivision plot to formerly split parcel five and to combine it with parcel seven. This was just the overall project if we need to look at where the right-of-way for the project exists and then in relation to that parcel 5R. So, if there’s any questions. Mayor Lockwood: Any questions on that? Paul. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 33 of 40 33 33 Paul: Sara, what does the new combined lot size turn into for lot No. 7? Sara: So, it’s about 9.4. Paul: 9.4 acres? Sara: ‘Cause we’re taking .1 and they’re adding .44. Paul: And at this point, it’s a single-family residence on that total acreage? Sara: Yes. Paul: Is there any likelihood that they’re gonna plan to subdivide it? Have you had any conversation about that? Sara: No, I don’t. They have not expressed any interest in that. Mayor Lockwood: But I think, and if I’m following where you’re at, that with the city acquiring right-of-way and then adding this, it’s not gonna bump that piece of property up to where it’s adding an additional lot – Paul: Right. Mayor Lockwood: …if they were to sell the lot. Paul: It wasn’t like it suddenly – Mayor Lockwood: Yeah, made them a magic number to where then they could develop two extra lots or an extra lot. Paul: Exactly. Yep, that’s where I was going with it. Mayor Lockwood: So, yeah. And again, just to clarify, the price offered for this and the reason the value is so low is that piece of property, by itself, could not be used to put a home or usable or whatever. So, with our current zoning and being right there on the roundabout and probably no access and all that. So, it, as Sara has said, it’s highest and best use is just to combine it with the existing property owner, so. Okay? Any questions on that? Do we have any public comment on that? Tammy: No. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 34 of 40 34 34 Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I’ll open that up for a motion. Carol: I’ll make a motion. Mr. Mayor, I make a motion that we approve agenda item No. 20-268. Laura: Second. Mayor Lockwood: Okay, I have a motion from council member Cookerly and a second from council member Bentley. All in favor, please say, “Aye.” Council Members: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: That’s unanimous. Okay, if we can move on to our next new business item. If our city clerk would please announce that item. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Cookerly moved to approve Agenda Item No. 20-268. Councilmember Bentley seconded the motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Peyton was absent from the meeting. Tammy: It’s the consideration of subdivision plats and revision, the location is 2031 Heritage Walk, Land Lot No. 1135. It’s a final plat. It’s three townhomes. The total acres is .78. And 3.8 lots per acre is the density. Miss Tracie Wilds. Tracie: Good evening, mayor and council. Tonight, I will be presenting for consideration the final plat for the Braeburn Townhome phase four development. First, it’s located at 2031 Heritage Walk, which is just right across the street. There’s three townhomes that currently are under construction. The total acres is .78. And with the three units, we have 3.78 lots per acre. Next slide. Again, this is located on Heritage Walk across the street. Next slide. And the next slide. This is the site plan for the Braeburn Townhomes. A few things to highlight – the current zoning is T4 open. There are existing three townhomes that are under construction right now, but there will be an additional six townhomes to be constructed. The units will be sold as condominiums. And it does have a 20- foot access utility easement on the property. Next slide. This plan has been reviewed by our department, and we do feel that it meets all of our requirements and codes. Are there any questions? Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 35 of 40 35 35 Mayor Lockwood: Any questions on that? Okay. And I’ll open up for a motion. Laura: Mayor, I’d like to make a motion to approve agenda item No. 20- 269. Joe: Second. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. I have a motion for approval from council member Bentley with a second from council member Longoria. All in favor, please say, “Aye.” Council Members: Aye. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Bentley moved to approve Agenda Item No. 20-269. Councilmember Longoria seconded the motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Peyton was absent from the meeting. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. That’s unanimous. Thank you, Tracie. All right, is there anything the council wants to report on? Anybody have anything? If not, we’ll move onto community development. STAFF REPORTS Department Updates 1. Community Development Parag: Mayor and the city council members, just presenting some highlights from the department. Next slide. Here you are. Some numbers – the good thing is, the number of permits have not gone down because of this COVID situation. The total number of permit applications that were reviewed by our department last month were 114. Again, that was up from last month, that were 102. Since I started collecting this data, the numbers have only gone up. We used to around 80 to 90 number of permit applications reviewed. Now it’s 114. The number of building permits issued were 136. The number of building permit inspections conducted were 460. The number of tree removal permits are also going up. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 36 of 40 36 36 We generally used to issue around 35, 40 tree removal permits. Since the last couple of months, maybe it’s the summer season or the fall season, the number of tree removal permits that were issued last month were 54. The project updates – capital improvement element which the city council approved, I think a couple of weeks back, it has been submitted to ARC and DC for their review. Census update – as you know Michele is very passionate about the census response rate. The good thing is the 2020 census response rate is more than the census response rate from 2010. We are at 73% right now. In 2010 the response rate was 72.2%. Our goal that has been given to us by the city manager is to have the highest response rate at least in the Fulton County. So, right now, Johns Creek and Alpharetta and Roswell also, I think, are some of the few communities that are ahead of us. But our goal is to take them. We want to be No. 1 in Fulton County. The Tree Conservation Ordinance – the city council adopted the new Tree Conservation Ordinance in August. After that we have scheduled two workshops for our Milton residents. One workshop is on September 30th. That's at 5:00 p.m. That's geared towards the Milton residents. The second workshop for the Tree Conservation Ordinance is on October 14th at lunch time. And that's basically geared towards the developers and for the tree removal companies. Both of these workshops will be Zoomed, will be on Facebook Live. We can always record them and will be made available on the city's website. Some of the board meeting updates – the BZA – the meeting on September 15th – the main item on the agenda was the Ruff House property. That item got deferred and now it will be heard by the BZA in October. So, the BZA had their bylaws changed and now the community development director can grant them the deferrals based on the requests of the applicants. The planning commission meeting is on September 23rd. That's this Wednesday. And we have a few text amendments on the agenda – no rezonings or especial use permit applications is in the works right now. The design of your board meeting is on October 6th. Right now, we have three variances. I'm sure as we move closer to October 6th, we will have more items on the DRB agenda. That's pretty much it from me. Any questions? Mayor Lockwood: Any questions? Paul? Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 37 of 40 37 37 Paul: Parag, can you go back to your first slide on the number of permits and other things that have been issued in that 30-day window? Parag: Mm-hmm. Paul: Is it a 30-day window, or is it a 60-day window? Parag: A 30-day. Paul: A 30-day window. Parag: Up here, it is October – August 14th to September 15th, so I basically present a monthly report. So, I just present the monthly numbers. Paul: Yeah, thank you. On the building permit inspections, is that done all by us or is that done by – Parag: By us. Paul: It is. Parag: By [inaudible] [01:24:10]. So, again, [inaudible] contractor. It ’s done by city of Milton, yes. Paul: Done by city of Milton, but it’s done by a contractor on behalf of the city? Parag: Contractor, yes, sir. Yes. Paul: And do they have multiple inspectors that go out to those sites? Parag: They have two inspectors right now. So, they have one main inspector, and then our chief building official, Gary. He also conducts inspections. Paul: Okay. I was just doing the math on the number that we’ve accomplished. And 460 in a 20-day business day month seems like a lot. And I wanted to make sure that we’re giving the appropriated amount of time in conducting a thorough review when we do that. And if it’s done by multiple inspectors, I can appreciate that number. If it’s done by one, then that seems like a lot. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 38 of 40 38 38 Parag: The main number which [inaudible] [01:24:55] always amazes me is this line of conduct inspections – 342. So, again, there it’s a state law. So, whenever there’s a renewal you have to do conduct inspections. Every site has to be inspected after every 15 days. So, it’s the state law. Paul: Is that done by a third-party contractor as well? Parag: Yes, sir, yeah. Paul: And multiple inspectors? Parag: All one inspector. Paul: Okay. Yeah, again, that’s a lot. Parag: Yeah. Paul: Okay. Thank you. Parag: Mm-hmm. Mayor Lockwood: Anybody else? Okay. Thank you, Parag. Parag: Thank you. Mayor Lockwood: Okay. So, by motion and approval we added an executive session to discuss potential litigation, land acquisition, and personnel. Do I have a motion to enter into executive session? Joe: So, moved. Rick: Second. Mayor Lockwood: Okay, I have a motion from council member Longoria, with a second from council member Mohrig. All in favor, please say, “Aye.” Council Members: Aye. EXECUTIVE SESSION Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 39 of 40 39 39 Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to adjourn into Executive Session to discuss potential litigation, personnel and land acquisition. Councilmember Mohrig seconded the motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Jamison was absent from the meeting. RECONVENE Mayor Lockwood: Okay, we’ll move into executive session. [Audio cuts out] [01:26:02 – 01:26:06] I have a motion to reconvene. Joe: Reconvene. Tammy: Wait, simmer down. We need this. Hold on. Mayor Lockwood: Okay, I think we’re on. I have a motion to reconvene from Joe. Do I have a second? Laura: Second. Mayor Lockwood: I have a motion and a second to reconvene. All in favor, please say, “Aye.” Council Members: Aye. Mayor Lockwood: All right. That’s unanimous. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to reconvene back into the regular council meeting. Councilmember Bentley seconded the motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Jamison was absent from the meeting. ADJOURNMENT Paul: Motion to adjourn. Mayor Lockwood: Adjourn. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, September 21, 2020 at 6:00 pm Page 40 of 40 40 40 Carol: Second. Mayor Lockwood: A motion and a second to adjourn. All in favor, please say, “Aye.” Council Members: Aye. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Moore moved to adjourn the city council meeting at 7:27 pm. Councilmember Cookerly seconded the motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Jamison was absent from the meeting. Laura: Bye, thank you. Joe: Thank you all. Date Approved: November 2, 2020 __________________________________ _____________________________ Sudie AM Gordon, City Clerk Joe Lockwood, Mayor