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Milton
Milton Grows Green Committee
Minutes March 6, 2008 [APPROVED]
a
Date: March 6, 2008, 6:30 - —9:15 p.m.
Place: City of Milton, Executive Conference Room
Housekeeping issues: The agenda for this meeting is attached. The minutes for the Feb. 28`h
meeting were accepted.
Next Meeting Date: Thursday, March 13 at noon, City of Milton, Executive Conference Room
Areas of discussion included:
• The UGA goes green --
* The Alumni magazine talked about all the things being implemented on campus.
o This could be a resource for ideas and information - need to decide what to collect, what
the baseline of information will be and help the City of Milton decide what is realistic
and practical to try to do.
o Cindy Eade passed out copies of the cover article. It also can be found on the web.
■ The A.R.C.:
o Eddie Moore is a board member (appointee for John Eaves) and on the communications
committee. Communications meetings are open. Anyone who's interested in attending
should contact Eddie.
n Water conservation is currently the A.R.C.'s primary focus. The A.R.C. is looking again
at the problem on March 16a` and is solution orientated — "Drought does not constitute a
disaster. The disaster is born in how you managed water resources before the drought."
o Is about to spend several hundred thousand dollars on putting these types of initiatives
out there to municipalities.
• With some planning, Milton's initiatives to growing green could fall right in line with
what the state will be doing on a large scale.
a Feedback from the A.R.C. meetings is important - we want to be sure we are in sync
with the state sustainable initiatives for leveraging grant applications — "would love to be
their guinea pig."
a Thus our efforts could bring a lot of focus to the city - want to be in sync with state
initiatives.
a Environmental education is also something the state wants local leaders to do. Two
things that should be central are education and sustainability — the need to educate out
kids and the need to take a long-term look at the effects of their actions.
Wilton Grows Green Committee Minutes March 6, 2008[Approved]
ALL. MILTON GRows GREEN DOCUMENTS ARE PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER wrrH AT LEAST 35% POST -CONSUMER CONTENT.
o Will the City of Milton have a water policy in time for the April 2e Spring Day? The
city is in the process of revisiting policies on water restrictions. We are waiting for an
update of Fulton County's policies.
o Mark Law also attends the A.R.C. meetings in his capacity as city staff. He comes to our
meetings as a citizen volunteer, for the record. A.R.C. meetings are full with standing
room only. The next meeting is March 12''. Julie is looking into whether or not she
should attend for continuity purposes.
■ GA Tech and Jon McPhail's comments:
o Jon McPhail's son is an architecture student at GA Tech where the architecture dept. is
also exploring protocols, ideas and plans for sustainable development.
o Ten years from now what will Milton look like? You can't hold back growth. It would
be like trying to hold back the ocean. But, we can responsibly manage the growth.
o This committee with its energy and interest in conservation can make suggestions in
channeling that development into appropriate areas, sustainable and productive areas
while keeping the good things that we have now by making room for them in the future.
• Two cities mentioned that have had success with "smart growth" development and look
a lot like we do were Lexington, KY and Albemarle County, VA (Charlottesville). Smart
growth was defined by growth appropriate for their specific areas that had supporting
infrastructure and where at least part of the rural character had been preserved.
• Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee (CPAC):
o There is in place a 16-member committee looking at updating the Fulton 2025 plan.
o Paul Hackman is a member of that committee and the planning commission as we] I as
ours - he felt that our committee should get together as much as it can — logo and
mission statement - to be put into the plan as soon as possible.
o While there will be some growth related initiatives, we need to insure that we don't
duplicate the Comprehensive Land -use Planing process but instead provide new ideas
and recommendations.
n Talked again about transfer development rights (TDRs) to preserve open spaces and
striking a balance between the inevitable growth and the need to conserve open space if
we want to remain looking as we do today - keeping the "old pig out of the parlor" with
stringent zoning requirements that responsibly manage growth.
o The CPAC is moving forward at a pretty good clip - we need to identify those areas
where we can integrate our ideas of Milton growing green into that plan — Milton Grows
Green needs to be familiar with the plan and offer "green" suggestions before the plan
goes to the state for a 40-day review process.
• Logo Design and Tag Line:
n Several logo designs were floated around the table (See end of document for favored
choices)
4 Most of the committee liked the tag line "Grows Green" - there was some discussion
regarding the tag line for longevity purposes because "green" could be taken to mean
nai've, immature or uneducated; it was also felt that because so many places were getting
Milton Grows Green Committee Minutes March 6, 2008[Approved] p. 2
* "Milton Grows Green" will be both the committee name and our tag line — "it gets all the
pieces." Our purpose is conservation of water, land, recycling, sustainable and
responsible growth, and education - all for the grand purpose of longevity. It's
"branding" this committee in line with the city's mission.
* Two designs with that tag line were chosen as favorites with some modifications - Jake,
the horse, needs to be part of the design to tie in with Milton - Jake with and without the
path and without a leaf.
o Connection was made between "grows green" and plants growing green running counter
to the governor's water restrictions - need to be prepared for an answer to the watering
ban. For example: this committee could make suggestions for a water collection system
or rain barrels enabling the continued irrigation of plants in a more conservation -minded
way. If we found a corporate sponsor for matching funds for Milton only, cisterns could
get tax brakes — need to find creative ways around the lack of water.
o Suggested process forward might be to take the logo/tag line and mission statement to
the city council and see if they like it and will adopt it. This may not be necessary (?).
Could we go ahead and capture the logo as a trademark — need to ask legal?
Our mission statement needs to tie into the City of Milton's mission statement (below):
"Incorporated on Dec. 1, 2006, the City of Milton is a distinctive community that
embraces small-town life and heritage while preserving and enhancing the city's
rural character. The City of Milton is committed to maintaining a unique quality of
life while efficiently delivering essential services to residents and businesses in an
interactive community environment."
■ The mission statement is important; it should enable us to sell our initiatives — is still wide
open to suggestions.
• Optional operative key words included: "heritage, unique quality of life, empower, engage,
embrace, educate, inclusive, preserve, healthy, rural, small-town life, shape, sustainable." —
objections to "empowering and inclusive" as being left leaning.
+ Should be as concise as possible — eliminate any redundancy.
+ Need to make the connection between "green" planning and preserving Milton's natural
landscape, supportive of city initiatives such as in building standards and preservation of
rural character thus higher property values because Milton is not everywhere else.
• Melissa suggested - "Preserving Milton's unique rural character through the education and
engagement of the citizens for responsible sustainable growth."
a Three sentences from previous minutes:
To see our city as a sustainable sanctuary today; to make possible a rural landscape
for every tomorrow.
To educate, involve and encourage Milton citizens in creating a healthy and
sustainable rural environment.
Milton Grows Green Committee Minutes March 6, 2008[Approved] p. 3
■ Preserving Milton's special rural character while shaping sustainable growth.
0 It was decided that Melissa, Jon, and Francia would work outside the meeting to draft
possibilities along with a call for contributions from anyone else who wanted to offer
suggestions (new suggestions attached at the end of these notes).
Continued Discussion on Ad hoe Sub -committees:
• April 26th Spring Day/beyond:
o Cindy Eade was going to talk to a vender about different "trinkets" we might be able to
had out such as reusable grocery bags with our logo, Armstrong -type rubber bracelets
with logo, Fair Trade Bizarre items or items that use recycled materials in their
manufacture — no source for funding at present.
n Discussed whether or not to have afloat —no decision made.
o Sign up more volunteers to standing sub -committees.
n Involvement of school kids — Hopewell Middle School is secured.
o Names suggested for the day — Milton Environmental Fair, Milton Arbor Day, Milton
Springs Green — will be a "family -day" celebration and may be too limiting to just focus
on being "green" — should let other committee name the event.
o Could set up computer recycling at site at no charge separate from the bulky trash day,
line of cars in Roswell was horrendous — should have a separate entrance and exit just
for this.
0 Same day as the Bulky Trash Day at Roswell with Milton participating.
• Development of city designations/grants is being worked on by Melissa, Melinda, Cindy and
Kathi Cook, just elected chair of planning commission design review board for Alpharetta,
who wanted to be included here and has a wealth of ideas. Eddie Moore also a resource here.
Continue to define Standing Sub -committees and identify assignees:
• Water quality and water conservation, energy conservation, air quality (Jack Lindon, Cindy
Eade, Eddie Moore and Marc Arrington) FYI - we are in the Coosa River Basin, which
empties into Lake Altoona; we have different soil types and topography and have had some
impaired water ways, storm water run off is a huge issue for us. A lot of stuff is out there
produced by GA Tech just need to access it.
• Land -use, open space, conservation land, Trees, TDRs (Mark Law (volunteer), Jack Lindon,
Melissa Estes, Jon McPhail and Paul Hackman)
• Solid waste and recycling (Charlie Slade with CWS one of the solid waste haulers, Dan
Drake (volunteer), Don Cunniff, Marc Arrington)
• Communications and community education — development of materials that educate
(Francis Lindon Melissa Estes, Ion McPhail and Eddie Moore)
After the decision is made on the mission statement, this committee needs to further focus and
prioritize just what the committee's goals will be. There are gazil lion things out there. We need to
prioritize the list to what is appropriate and practical for Milton to accomplish within a reasonable
timeframe.
Milton Grows Green Committee Minutes March 6, 2008[Approved] p. 4
Milton ^Piw
Milton
Glows Green
New suggestions for a mission statement from e-mail exchanges and an outside work session:
The Milton Grows Green Committee's mission is:
1. To research and promote the adoption of practical initiatives by Milton and its citizens
which would advance the preservation of its rural character and health of its natural
resources.
2. To preserve Milton's rural character thru educating and engaging its citizens in responsible
and sustainable growth.
3. To stimulate widespread community involvement in preserving Milton's small-town quality
of life and the sustainability of its natural resources.
4. To stimulate widespread involvement in responsible and sustainable growth initiatives thru
community education and engagement.
5. To preserve Milton's small-town quality and rural character by stimulating (encouraging)
widespread involvement in responsible and sustainable growth.
6. To stimulate community involvement in responsible and sustainable growth initiatives thru
education and engagement.
7. To encourage community participation in guiding/shaping Milton's sustainable and
responsible growth initiatives thru education and communication.
8. To encourage community participation in shaping appropriate growth initiatives for
sustaining Milton's rural landscape thru education and communication.
9. To educate and encourage community participation in shaping growth initiatives appropriate
for sustaining Milton's rural landscape.
10. To educate and engage Milton's citizens in shaping a sustainable environment, to protect its
rural landscape and to advance a healthy quality of life.
11. Mission: To support Milton's mission of preserving our rural character and landscape by
stimulating community involvement to advance a healthy quality of life by guiding and
shaping sustainable green -environment principles including water conservation, recycling,
green design standards and more through proactive education, communication and planning
initiatives.
Milton Grows Green Committee Minutes March 6, 2008[Approvedi] p. 5
12. The Milton Grows Green Committee strives to improve the quality of life and to maintain
the cleanliness and beauty of the City of Milton. By working together with City officials, we
want to balance economic prosperity and the preservation of our neighborhoods and natural
resources and minimize our impact on the environment. Through the education of our
community, we believe we can conserve resources and make sound environmental decisions
in all aspects of life in Milton. By safeguarding the environment for future generations, we
will become a city leader in the green movement in Georgia.
Minutes APPROVED by the Governing Board this 12`h day of June 2009.
ATTEST:
Jon B. McPhail, Co -Chair
Francis Lindon, Secretary
Milton Grows Green Committee Minutes March 6, 2008[Approved] p. 6