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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - CC - 02/22/2023Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 1 Page 1 of 27 CALL TO ORDER Mayor Pro Tern: City Clerk : Mayor Pro Tern: ROLL CALL City Clerk: I'd like to call the regular meeting of the Milton City Council for Monday , February 22 nd , 2023 to order. City strongly recommends that you review tonight's agenda carefully, and if you wish to speak on an y item -I'm sorry. We need to do the work . You're fine. You're doing just great. I'm sorry. Don't do this very often so bear with me. City strongly recommends that you review tonight's agenda carefull y, and if you wish to speak on any item on the agenda, then please bring your comment cards to the clerk as soon as possible. Although Milton rules allow a speaker to tum in their comment card up until the clerk calls the agenda item , once the agenda item is called, no more comment cards can be accepted. So , the clerk , would you please call the role ? Thank you , Mayor Pro Tern. And good evening , Mayor pro tern and council. I'll be happy to call roll for the February 22 nd , regular City Council 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. Your card must be presented to the City Clerk prior to the agenda item being called. Any comments received after the item has been called will not be accepted. All speakers will identify themselves 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 comment cards to me now. Demonstration of an y sort within the chamber is prohibited. Please refrain from any applause , cheering , booing , outburst , or dialogue with any person speaking. As I call roll this evening please confirm your attendance. Mayor pro tern Paul Moore . Mayor Pro Tern : Here. Regular Meeting of the Milto n City Counc il February 22 , 2023 2 Page 2 of 27 City Clerk: CM Verhoff: City Clerk : CM Jacobus: City Clerk: CM Mohrig: City Clerk: Council Member Andrea Verhoff. Here . Council Member Jan Jacobus . Here. And Council member Rick Mohrig. Here . And for the record , May or Peyton Jamison , Council members Carol Co okerly , and Juliet Johnson are absent tonight. Mayor: M a y o r Pe y t o n Ja m ison w a s a bsen t . Councilmembers Present: C ou ncilmem b e r Andrea Verhoff, Councilmember Paul Moore, Councilmember Jan Jacobus, and Councilmember Rick Mohrig . Councilmembers Absent: Co un c il mem b er Juliette Jo hnson, a nd Counc il mem b er Caro l Coo ke rly . PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE City Clerk: All: Would everyone please rise for the Ple dge of Allegiance ? I p ledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which he stands , one nation under God , indivis ible , with liberty and justice for all. APPROVAL OF MEETING AGENDA Mayor Pro Tern CM Verhoff: CM Jacobus: Mayor Pro Tern: All right, next is the approval of the meeting agenda. It's agenda item number 23-044. Is there a motion and a second? Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to approve the meeting agenda number 23-044. Second. Okay , so I have a mot ion from Council Member Verhoff and a second from Council Member Jacobus. Any discussion? All right , none. All in favor please signi fy by say ing aye. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 3 Page 3 of 27 Councilmembers: Aye. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Verhoff moved to approve the Meeting Agenda as read. Councilmember Jacobus seconded the motion . The motion passed (4-0). Mayor Jamison, Councilmember Johnson, and Councilmember Cookerly were absent from the meeting. Mayor Pro Tern: Opposed. Unanimous. Next is General Public comment. Tammy , do we have any general public - PUBLIC COMMENT City Clerk: Mayor Pro Tern: City Clerk: Mayor Pro Tern : Dan Pike: Mayor pro tern we do have public comment tonight. All right. I've got a section I need to read. The next item is general public comment. Public comment is a time for citizens to share information with the Mayor in pro tern and the city Council and to provide input and opinions on any matter that is not scheduled for its own public hearing during today's meeting . Each citizen who chooses to participate in public comment must complete a comment card and submit it to the City Clerk prior to the agenda item being called. Please remember that this is not a time to engage with the Mayor in pro tern or members City Council in conversation. When your name is called , please come forward and speak into the microphone stating your name and address for the record. You will have five minutes for remarks. The city encourages you to review the agenda and if you wish to speak to bring your comments card to the City Clerk at this time. Would you please call the first item? Thank you, Mayor pro tern , I would like to invite Mr . Dan Pike to the podium please. Mayor pro tern , our clock seems to be malfunctioning , so we are going to make sure that we keep track of the minutes up front. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Dan Pike . My address is 15415 [inaudible] [00:04:19] And I have handouts for everything I'm going to talk about that I've prov ided to the Council. I'm here supported by a large group of concerned residents in my community who are concerned that Milton's PTV ordinance is in conflict with our HOA covenants. I need to stress here upfront that this issue is not limited to our community. It affects all of Milton Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 4 Page 4 of 27 HOAs with similar restrictive covenants . Our covenants state , "No private golf carts will be permitted within our community anywhere ." And this restriction , for clarity , applies to both our un-gated and our gated sections , so both private roads and public roads. Unfortunately , our HOA board at our December annual meeting publicly stated that they would not enforce our no-carts covenant in view of Milton's PTV ordinance allowing carts on public streets. So , now we have several carts running around our neighborhood , on our un-gated community streets , including multiple sightings of young unlicensed minors driving carts with small children on board. Obviously a concern. In light of this , it's ironic that our community 's HOAs recently highlighted the existence of unsafe street conditions arising from high traffic volumes , unsafe speeds and a lot of nonresident traffic that we have because we're in a golf club community. And in fact , at a recent HOA meeting in our neighborhood , Chief Austin was quoted as saying that our neighborhood is a perfect storm of traffic problems. So , understandabl y many residents are concerned about cart use and about and our restriction against golf carts seems appropriate for that background. In last year's November 21 st council meeting , a segment related to new PTV ordinance amendments , councilman Mohrig initiated a discussion on if HOAs can regulate PTVs on un-gated public streets. Our City Attorney made the following statements and I'm paraphrasing. If the HOA covenants regulate or prohibit golf carts , then the co venants would control , and also stated that covenants and community can shut this down meaning shut down cart use. He also said that the rationale behind that statement is when you buy your house in the neighborhood , you're accepting that contractual prov ision covenant that says you can't do this , meaning drive carts on public streets. The city has been kind enough to share the case bots supporting these statements , and I've provided a summary of them to the clerk. It's this second page that you should all have in hand . One case was a Cobb County lawsuit that successfully argued that covenants are a binding contractual obligation and upholding an HOA restriction on public streets. The homeowner on the losing side actually paid $21 ,000 in HOA fines and court costs. There was another winning case in Missouri that relied on the same argument and survived Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 5 Page 5 of 27 City Clerk: Dan Pike: Mayor Pro Tern: Dan Pike : Mayor Pro Tern: City Clerk: Jim Bisaha: appeal in Missouri. So , it provides a precedence. So , why am I here? For the support of my community. One minute. We're here to ask for the council's help exploring how we can assure the city's PTV ordinance doesn't interfere with our HOA golf cart restrictions that we all agree to when we bought our homes. HOA lawsuits are expensive and divisive. There's got to be a better way. So , we have two thoughts. One , can the council explore PTV ordinance amendments that protect the community HOA rights? And or can the council provide strong education to Milton HOAs regarding HOA's ability to enforce covenants related to public street restrictions? To the latter, Councilman Mohrig stated in that same November 22 nd meeting , it's important we educate and let everyone within the city know that if your HOA has said no to golf carts , then we need to make sure that that is actually a no . On the sheet, I've marked the video marks on the recording for that November meeting. That 's comment number one . Great. Thank you . Okay. Mayor pro tern , I'd like to next invite Mr. Jim Bisaha to the podium , please. Good evening , everybody. My name is Jim Bisaha. I live at 1040 Treyburn Run. And I'm speaking as an individual. And I'd like to voice my concerns tonight on PTVs in our community. Many of our subdivisions were established at least 15 years ago or longer. Our subdivisions are not set up for PTVs. We are not a city like Peachtree City that is a planned community for PTV s with fur golf carts. They have paths , we don't. I live in a subdivision where we have issues with speeding. We have traffic congestion , work trucks during the day. And we also have a thing I call cutting the comers. That's where people will make a turn and just slice off to take the shortest path. I see this every day because I walk in my neighborhood. Some of the things that I also did is I went through the document that was put Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 6 Page 6 of 27 Mayor Pro Tern: City Clerk : Jim Howard: forth by the ci ty of Milton that you guy s put together on PTV s. And some of the comments I have is as follows . I see that a permit is required for a PTV and it's good for five years. Wh y isn't there a requirement for it to be rene wed every year with updated insurance information ? Another thing is the liability limit I see is 2 5,000. I think it should be 100 ,000. If a new car is in an accident. 25 ,000 isn't a significant amount of money for a new car today. This wouldn't even co ver the cost of it. I was thinking maybe wording in the registration application must include all drivers must be licensed drivers . What happens in our community if somebody is driving one of these PTVs and they're a kid that's 13 or 14 years old ? We're seeing it in the subdivision that I live every day that's happening. So , I think that needs to be spelled out when the application is put forth for the registration . Another thing is what are the hours of operation for PTV s in the city of Milton ? Operations and subdivisions probabl y should be restricted to daylight hours only. What are the penalties for unlicensed minors operating a PTV? And who will be responsible for enforcing ? Has any thought been given to online courses for PTV rules and regulations prior to appl y ing for the registration ? If an HOB has covenants prohibiting PTBs , does the city ordinance take precedence over the HOB covenants ? I don't think it does , but there are some folks that think it does , so we would need clarification on that as well. And that's all I have , folks . Thank you for your time today. Thank you. Mayor pro tern , our final general public comment is from Mr. Jim Howard. I invite you to the podium. Thank you for the opportunity. My name is Jim Howard . I live at 420 Highlands Manor Fort in the White Column subdivision. My comments are very brief. I've had the unfortunate experience of witnessing an automobile and a golf cart meet in a community not too different than Whitecomb . It wasn 't a pretty sight. Both vehicles were traveling probably no more than five miles an hour . And nobody was wrong. Can you believe that? Two people in the golf cart were injured . One of them pretty badly injured . Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 7 Page 7 of 27 Mayor Pro Tern: CONSENT AGENDA City Clerk: Mayor Pro Tern: CM Mohrig: CM Jacobus : It's an accident waiting to happen. I have no problem with golf carts . I probably spend more time on a golf cart than anyone in this room. I'm retired . I play a lot of golf. The y 're not safe vehicles . I have a golf cart in another residence. They're not designed to meet safety criteria. When an automobile is built, it goes through enormous amount of testing. 30, 40 , 50 miles an hour . Crash tests. An instrument panel has to pass at 30 miles an hour. That's not very fast. Instrument panels usually fail at 35 miles an hour . Regardless the damage to the vehicle , there will be damage , someone in that collision . And I think that's a real bad outcome . Golf carts are nice on golf carts. They represent an easy way to get around . They have no place on city streets that are managed by city. I have no idea what the plan would be to enforce whatever the regulations are , golf carts , PTV s, whatever the definition there is. But I think this is an accident waiting to happen. Thank you. All right, close public comment and move on to the next item. The next item is moving on to the consent agenda. City Clerk, please sound the item . Mayor pro tern that first item is approval of the February 6th, 2023 regular City Council meeting minutes. It's agenda item number 23045. Item B is approval of a First Amendment to the intergovernmental agreement between the City of Milton and Fulton County Board of Education to continue to allow Milton recreation programming on the Hopeville Middle School fields and to amend the expiration date of the agreement to December the 3 Pt, 2023. It's agenda item number 23046. Our final item C is consideration of a Milton City Council approval to opt into Walmart Walgreens opioid class action settlement. Agenda item number 23047. Mayor pro tern? Thank you . Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda ? Mr. Mayor pro tern. I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda as read. Second. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 8 Page 8 of 27 Mayor Pro Tern: Council : I have a motion from Council Member Mohrig with a second from Council Member Jacobus. Any discussion? None. All right , all in favor signify by say ing aye. Aye. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Mohrig moved to approve the Consent Agenda as read. Councilmember Jacobus seconded the motion. The motion passed (4-0). Mayor Jamison, Councilmember Johnson, and Councilmember Cookerly were absent from the meeting. REPORTS AND PRESENTATIONS Mayor Pro Tern: City Clerk: Anita Jupin: Aaron Arnett: Any opposed? That's unanimous. Okay. Moving on to reports and presentations . Will the City Clerk please sound the first item ? Mayor pro tern , that first item is the presentation by Arnett Muldrow and Associates of brand objectives and project overview for community branding and place-making projects as guided by the 2040 Comprehensi ve Plan. Our economic engagement manager, Ms. Anita Jupin. Good evening , Mayor pro tern and council. Tonight I have the pleasure of introducing y ou to Aaron Arnett and Sean Turpac . They are with Arnett Muldrow and associates. We had a tremendous response from the RFP that we put out for our place- making and branding study as outlined in our comprehensive Plan . Arnett Muldrow and Associates stood out to us as a very strong partner to work alongside us as we strengthen and enhance the Milton brand. Today , we had the privilege of touring them around our beautiful city as a part of our discovery phase. And tonight they'd like to introduce themselves , talk a little bit more about our project overview , the why behind our place- making project , our specific objectives and deliverables , and what our next steps look like. So , without further ado , I will turn it over to Aaron . Thank you , Anita. And thank you , Mayor pro tern and Council. And if you'll give me one second here , I am going to start this presentation. All right. Do you all see that up on your screen yet? Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 9 Page 9 of 27 Mayor Pro Tern: Aaron Arnett: Not yet. It takes another second or two for us. Let me know when you see it. But basically , as we're sitting here waiting for it to load up , what I want to do is just give y ou a background on the project. I see it's there right now, go over some of the brand objectives , definitely talk about the project overview and the process , really dig in a little bit to the deliverables and then wrap up with some of the things that we've observed in our background review as well as what we've learned today, which we had such a great day to interview and engage some of the city staff. First thing , talk a little bit very quickly about my company , Arnett Muldrow. We're an urban planning firm. We're based up the road in Greenville , South Carolina. We 're a small firm. There are si x people that work for us , but we work all over the country . We do branding , which is what we 're doing here , but that was born out of our projects focused on community development, downtown planning , master planning , the whole nine yards. So , we're planners, but we also have marketing and graphic designer professionals that help us build these brand programs for the communities where we work. We 've done over 600 plans across the country , in 42 states and actually fi ve countries . We've done about 19 total projects in Georgia. Lots of LCI plans around this area that we have worked on. And I think that's important because that gives us a lot of context on your community as it maybe compares to some of the opportunities and challenges that some of the other towns around Atlanta have. So , of the projects we've done in Georgia, se ven of those actually are branding projects. So , that's a little bit of a quick background behind our firm. We'll talk about the project now. One of the things that y 'all will hear me say over and over again as we go through this project is a brand is not a logo. A brand is not just a logo. Certainly , that's how you see it visually the first time that you look at it. But it's much more than that. It's that market position. It's that graphic design element. It's that tagline about the place. It's what we call brand extension. But it's also those marketing tools that you build to help communicate who you are to the various targets. Once you have that, that's when that initial graphic , that initial logo becomes a brand . So , really one of our focus here is to connect the dots with those positive attributes and assets that you all have here in the Milton community . We want to make sure that we established a unified Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 10 Page 10 of 27 market position and message that resonates with the businesses that we're trying to recruit here into the community . That is something that where we can promote the assets we have here in Milton to those that live outside. But just as important as any of those , if not more important , is tools that we can use to communicate to people that live here in the city of Milton . And ultimately , what we're going to attempt to do here , what we will do is create a toolbo x for you all to be able to tell that story and communicate why Milton is such a great place to be. And I mentioned economic development. I think that is a priority here in this plan. This plan itself, this branding plan , was actually listed as a priority project in both the recent comprehensive plan as well as the recent strategic plan that you all have done , which is reall y helpful for us because that lay s out a lot of the community values , but also some specifics on some things that you need . A part of that is we reall y want this to be grounded in economic development. So , how is branding and marketing how does that connect to economic development? I think it's simple here , it's positioning Milton to receive economic investment , telling the story about why Milton is a great place for people to come in and invest and get a great return on their investment. By the same token, it's also promoting these great local businesses that you all have throughout the community. That's really important here. And that's really an important part of economic development. It's not just about bringing outside investment , but it's about promoting commerce in your community. And the other thing I think that is really important here in Milton is you all have crafted design standards and this identity that you all want to project throughout the community. And we want to make sure that we can gi ve you all tools to help communicate that this is Miltonesque. This is what we want from you all as an outside investor because this fits with who we are as a place . And I think there's a couple of pictures up here of the Birmingham Crossroads area , and you all have set the standard in that area about what we want to see . And that's part of what I'm talking about there. Next thing is overall community character , and that's going to build out of the community engagement that we're going to be having in this project and I'll talk about that in a second . But what are our overall values? What do we cherish about our community 's Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 11 Page 11 of 27 community and how can we roll that into an overarching market position and brand statement, but also that destination brand? And when I say destination brand , again , I'm not talking specifically about trying to get people to come and visit us. Yes , that's part of it , but it's really positioning the community as a place. A place that we enjoy , a place that residents want to be , whether it's an event in Crab Apple or whether it's going to some of our businesses that we have. So , that's the destination side of it. One of the big things about this project , and you all certainly know this because you've worked on those plans that's been identified in the original RFP that you sent out, is we've got Milton , Milton is a place , but we also have these great character districts throughout Milton. And I think you all have a total of eight , and there's three that we're really drilling down in this project. One is Crab Apple , the other is Birmingham Crossroads. And the other is the Highway Nine. Highway Nine corridor and Deerfield Area. So , we toured all of that today . And then finally in the quality of life . Again , that's where we're communicating to people that are here and the residents that are here. We want to promote local events. We want to promote those businesses that you all currently have here. But it also might be some communities say we don't want to promote this and position ourselves as a place for new residents . You may or may not want to do that, but sometimes that part of us communicating quality of life in a place. So , project overview. So , that's what our goals are and our purpose is . Project overview, I won't go through all of this , but I can tell you right now in project initiation , as Anita mentioned , certainly , they have shared with us loads of background information that we're still working through , but that has been very helpful. We also spent today , really , this is our official kickoff, even though we've been here a couple of times before , spent a lot of time driving around. Part of that kickoff is going to be or that project initiation is we have a stakeholder group that we're going to be engaging throughout the process. And that's really that first level of community engagement to help give us a little bit of guidance as we go through . It will be a sounding board for us as we go through this process to say , "Okay , here's what themes are , here's what our ideas are. Are we on the right track? Here's our designs that we're coming up Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 12 Page 12 of 27 with. There'll be that initial filter before we kind of share it with the public and certainly you all. Now that being said, before any of that happens, most important part of that about this is community engagement. We do not have any preconceived notions intentionally at this time. I don't have any ideas for specific designs for yo u all. Maybe some strategic ideas here and there, which I'll talk about in observations , but we intentionally make sure we don't do anything creatively until we have an opportunity to talk with the community, because we know we can learn as much as we can from our background review about Milton, but it will never substitute for your all perceptions of the place. So , there's a number of different things we're going to be doing. We're going to have a number of stakeholder interviews, we're going to have one on ones , we're going to have some roundtable focus groups throughout this project. We're going to have a branding survey , an online survey. And we're going to make sure that when we build that that we're not recreating some of the similar discussions and questions that were made in the recent or asked in the recent comp plan for example. So , I know that's very important. But then also we're going to have some open public meetings to where we're sharing or listening first and then ultimately sharing the results of where we are at various draft stages in the final to get that community input. Once we have that direction , that's when we'll go into brand build out and that's when we'll start to really build these tools. And I think I've already mentioned this earlier in a slide, I got a little bit ahead of myself, but what those deliverables will be, it'll be that overarching market position. So , what's our story? What's our narrative? What's that elevator speech about Milton? The next thing is that graphic identity and that's the logo. That's where it starts from a graphic standpoint. The tagline is usually going to be a short succinct statement that connects to the values that are laid out in the overall brand statement market position. Then what we do is we call it brand extension, we take that stack style and the various elements of that initial graphic and we explode it and we start to take certain elements of that and build other brands . So , certainly , our character districts that we're talking about here is part of brand extension . Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 13 Page 13 of 27 Looking at the departments here within the city government will be part of brand extension. Looking at events that you all have here in the community , creating a unique but connected series of logos that are all part of that overarching brand. We will do a number of different marketing strategies and it might be everything from banners to brochure covers to thinking about some of your digital tools and showing you how yo u can incorporate your brand into those tools and social media. But one of the other things that's not listed here that's an important part of that is looking at Wayfinding. We're not doing a wayfinding plan here per se , where we're going to show every single location of a sign and all the content on those signs. But we are going to design two federal and state standards wayfinding signs that incorporate that brand identity and give yo u guidance on the next steps and how you can implement that throughout the community. So , that'll be directional signage, that'll be gateway signage , that'll be things like park signage , that'll be things like bannering as I mentioned before. So, those are the pieces of the larger puzzle in terms of deliverables. But one of the biggest things too is implementation. And this is the last couple of slides before I give you just a few background observations that we've seen. First, there's going to be a style guide. You actually already have a style guide for your current logo , which is going to be very helpful for us throughout this process . But that style guide is going to lay out all the details and the technical aspects of the brand itself when we get to that point. We're going to have a brand launch guide which is essentially kind of a when you get a new computer , yo u open up your computer and there's this manual over here , but there's also this quick start guide . That's basically what this is. It's those things that we do quickly and it's kind of that low-hanging fruit to really start implementing the brand. We'll do what we call a brand partner guide and that's a little bit of more technical side of things too, but it shows how our partners, whether it's a local business , whether it's an agency that we work with from time to time, can utili ze certain elements of the brand in their own market. And we'll do a detailed strategy board , which is the more detailed side of the brand launch guide that reall y lays out time frames and specific tasks as well as potential costs of the whole brand plan. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 14 Page 14 of 27 And then finally , what we will deliver to you all is a digital file library. There's going to be loads of different logos that come out of this. There's going to be loads of different extensions that come out of this. There's going to be a ton of different graphics as well as our photo library that we're going to be building throughout this. We're going to give all that to you and we're also going to sign the rights, the creative rights of all of that over to you all so there won't be any issue with royalties or anything like that. So , that's where we are. These are some of the tools I've just described from the style guide and the technical side of it. And then finally, this last slide is an example of what I say about a brand is not just a logo. This is Bedford , Virginia. It certainly starts with that graphic identity and that tagline that's in the upper left , but then it's extended to the town government , in their case , the town government seal , events , that's that brand extension as well as some of the graphic strategies from ads , brochure covers to collateral like water bottles and hats and those sorts of things . That's what we ultimately will end up with here. We've just started and I just want to give you a few observations that we have about your community based off of what we've seen in the background and our conversations with staff and our tour that we had today. I already mentioned this project is called for in a couple of your more recent plans. And I said that there's an economic development focus to that. But I would also venture to say that you all have been building a brand all along since you were founded , about 17 years ago. As I mentioned, we've done a lot of work around the greater Atlanta area, LCI plans and some other downtown-type plans , a couple of brand plans as well. One of the things that I've noticed as an outsider is you all are incredibly unique in the Atlanta Metro area. If we look at some of your peer communities that maybe exist not just on the north side of Atlanta, but all the ring communities around Atlanta area, there's some really nice and awesome places. Some of them are very similar. That's not the case with you all. You all are truly unique. And part of that is that identity that's been called out throughout your planning process that you all know here very well is you've got this really strong equestrian and rural character. Somebody mentioned today that we're rural , but we're not remote. How could you even imagine a place in urban Atlanta could still have that rural character and identity? And that's something I think Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 15 Page 15 of 27 that's unique. But I think you've also built a lot of equity in your existing equestrian identity with the horse , with the simple colors that you use , gold and black with your brand. There's been a lot of investment in that. I can tell y ou that we 're not going to go away from that equestrian identity here in the community because I think you all work reall y hard on that , and it's true. But you've also built that equity in some of the design of the architecture and the standards that you've done with your place-making exercises and plans throughout the community. So , I think that's something that's very important. Another thing that I didn't necessarily realize until we started this , particularly down in this area, but not just the Crab Apple area. Y 'all are young , you're 17 years old , but you're also incredibly historic here in this community. That's part of your story that people may not necessarily appreciate. Character areas , Crab Apple , it's your historic area. It's your downtown. You've got this very consistent high-end design here in the Crab Apple area. This is reall y your gathering place for Milton is Crab Apple. Birmingham Crossroads , that's where you really start to get that equestrian feel , I think, here in the community. As y ou go from Birmingham Crossroads throughout the rest of the community , that grows on you . So , that's something that's important. You've got great commercial or great assets , you 've got this reall y cool commercial node that shares that equestrian look and heritage to it with the design of those buildings. And then the other is the Deerfield area and Highway Nine. And that's different , right? That's different than these other two areas that we've just talked about. It's a district that's a little bit more in transition , right? It's under construction right now. There is a variety of uses . There's a variety of styles of architecture that you have through there. Your public safety facility there is amazing , by the way , what an incredible design that you have there. But also it's a place where you go in and out of Milton as you go through that corridor. So , we know that's a priority here at Deerfield and Highway Nine corridor area . But we know that our charge here is most likely what can we do now and what is the story now for that area and how can we give a platform where it can grow as its identity starts to evolve? And I'm really excited to hear that you all are doing an LCI study there right now and it's tracking generally along the same time Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 16 Page 16 of 27 Mayor Pro Tern : CM Mohrig: Aaron Arnett: frame as what we 're doing here. And that's going to be really helpful because that's really going to start to prescribe what that visual character happens to be in the community. So , that's going to be important for us to kind of figure out how to identify and provide those tools during those transition times and let it evol ve . And then finall y some of the priorities , I think, and I'v e mentioned all of these , but Deerfield is a priority. Tools for economic development is a priority. Wayfinding is a priority , but not just wayfinding and directing people to where they're going , but also signage that can promote your parks and your natural assets that might be internal signage , interpretive signage , that you might have within the destinations themselves. And then the community engagement. I know that's a priority in this project, it's a priority for us because as I mentioned before , we have to learn from you all what makes Milton such a great place before we can craft that brand and that message. So , I know we've got a lot to learn . We have just started in terms of boots on the ground. We 're absolutely on schedule with this project. We're going to be rolling into it more quickly. We're meeting with our staff committee in the morning to really nail down all the dates to make sure we keep on a schedule and on a time frame. But that's it. That's the overview of the project. And I'm happy to present this to you and introduce ourselves to you all , and would love to entertain an y questions that you all may have. Thank you. [Inaudible] [00:38:20] questions? Just a comment. I'm excited , especially as we look at y ou 've done a lot of talking about Highway Nine. How do we actually step up that whole area because it's got a lot of potential vested and work in other areas that's kind of in transition . But how do we make that actually , Miltonesque , how do we make that so that's reall y the entrance into the city . So , how do we actually make that standards on it ? So , looking forward to hearing more as you go forward . I think that area , obviously we'll be spending a lot of time on it. You mentioned Miltonesque and I mentioned that earlier today and I'm like , okay , that makes a lot of sense. This is what we really need to focus on. That's something that y ou all have been working on throughout the community , but you're working on really in the Deerfield area right now. So , I think that's important. That's Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 17 Page 17 of 27 CM Verhoff: Aaron Arnett: Mayor Pro Tern : Aaron Arnett: Mayor Pro Tern : Aaron Arnett: CM Verhoff: Mayor Pro Tern: City Clerk : Emily Groth: important for us to keep in mind as we're doing our work. It needs to be Miltonesque. Other questions or thoughts. Wonderful presentation. Thank you. My takeaway is , in remarkably little time , clearly, you've demonstrated your level of comprehension of what Milton is trying to be and what we look forward to being. If those messages are coming through loud and clear, some of those underpinnings that you've already grasped and presented back to us , good news is the bones are there. We just look forward to you helping us tell that story that I think is a great one , keeping Milton unique and different. Awesome. Well , I appreciate that. We appreciate that. We're super excited to work with you all. We look forward to it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Okay , can you sound the next item? Mayor pro tern , the next item is discussion of the green space planning strategy update. It's presented by our environmental program manager, Ms. Emily Groth. All right. Good evening , Mayor pro tern and Council. Tonight, I have for you a quick update about our green space planning strategy. Tonight , we'll go over a little history about our green space bond and our acquisition history. I'll touch on the current status of our green space properties as well as highlight our green , print the proposed name for a citywide green space plan, and under that , we'll talk about a proposed project plan and a timeline. So , just a little history. Back in 2016 , more than 80% of voters approved a $25 million bond to acquire conservation land for the purposes listed here that were also seen in the ballot language , and that is providing recreational trails , protecting natural areas and wildlife habitat, Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 18 Page 18 of 27 preserving agricultural land , protecting the water quality of ri vers and streams , providing parks and parks improvements. And so to manage this , just following a year after we established the Milton Green Space Ad visory Committee in 2017 , a year after that , the committee won an award from the Fulton County Citizens Commission on the Environment in 2018 , an environmental award that you see here to the right. But since then , we've spent about 20 million through eight purchases, totaling six properties and more than 400 acres . And right now, three properties are opened or partially opened. So , just for context , I've provided a map here of our current green spaces. It 's important to know that throughout this time , the Green Space Committee was working towards property acquisition in all regions of Milton. And that's kind of what you see here tonight. For the current status of these green space properties , we have some open , some partially open , and some still remain closed. We have Freemanville-Birmingham on the comer of those two roads . We have the first tier of Lucky Road. We have the first phase of the Milton City Park and Preserve . Some of the closed properties still are Hamby Road , which you see here on the bottom right , and Webb Road on the top right. Webb Road is a small , dense forest in the heart of Deerfield. Hamby is just north of Bell Park with some open space and some mixed vegetation. And we also have Cooper Sandy that contains Eads Lake and sits on the comer of Providence and Bethany. And down here on your bottom right is a picture of Eads Lake and native Azaleas at Cooper Sandy . So , tonight I just wanted to go over the strategic plan and where we are today. It comes from goal five to protect and enhance Milton's green spaces to maintain the natural beauty of the city for present and future generations. And so to do that , we proposed a plan to identify appropriate usage , management , and possible improvements on these green space properties that respect Milton's rural heritage and align with sustainable best practices. And some of these key elements that would come out of the plan would be any future improvements , appropriate use and special considerations for property , any environmental protection measures and a prioritization of properties and a plan implementation . So , with these key elements , we'll also have some key stakeholders , namely our City committees , the Green Space Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 19 Page 19 of 27 Mayor Pro Tern: Emily Groth: Moderator: Emily Groth : Mayor Pro Tern: City Clerk : Sara Leaders: Committee , Trails Committee , Equestrian Committee , Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, and Planning Commission. And with those committees , we'll have specific questions tailored to their specific expertise for property. Additionally , we'll engage the directly adjacent property neighbors for each of these properties. We'll propose meetings with staff and invites to specific public input sessions as well as the general public with open houses and property-specific sessions. And City Council will be vital in this as well with ongoing updates and guidance throughout the process . Our proposed timeline considering those elements and the stakeholders will be specific stakeholder engagement, namely the property neighbors. We 'll be forming some initial contact and extending invites with staff through April. We'll have some ongoing committee meetings . We'll open it up to the general public for those open houses and property-specific sessions. We'll have some draft recommendations back to you in the summer and then we hope for adoption in late summer and early fall. I'm open to any questions . Thanks, Emily . Any questions? Council? Looks like a good plan. Thank you. Thank you. We look forward to the outcome. That's some great stuff to work with and the community is looking forward to participating and looks like your plan offers plenty of opportunity for that. So , thank you . Thank you. Perfect. Thanks , Emily . All right , City Clerk, please sound the next item. That next item is discussion of right of way acquisition, process , and policy. Our public Works director Ms. Sara Leaders. All right, good evening . I got a presentation tonight to start discussing our right of way process and policy . And we've been working with legal on what components are part of that policy as well as the process. Really the purpose of the presentation tonight and creating this policy and process is to really formalize how we Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 20 Page 20 of 27 do right of way acquisition . And since right of way acquisition involves council action , it 's recommended that we consider a policy that's been adopted by resolution. The outcomes of this policy and process , the primary one is to streamline and make our process as transparent as possible. It'll allow us to obtain an y necessary signatures related to purchase agreements , how we approve the funding for those right of way purchases , and any relevant closing documents . It's also going to allow us to accelerate the process to closing to get through negotiations and to closing on right of way for projects as quickly as possible , to limi t the need for executive sessions related to public works , land acquisition , and to reduce the number of individual agenda items that come before. The components that we 'll be discussing related to the policy are , first , fair market value , what that means and what those limits are , administrative negotiating , and then the part of the process that involves council action. So , there's going to be some process slides that show those points of interaction. First of all, fair market value determination. So , state law requires formal appraisals for all acquisitions , regardless of value , unless the agenc y has an adopted policy that allows for something less than a formal appraisal. So , what we've looked at first and what we've used in the past is Georgia DOT's recommendations for determining value. And they start the process with a detailed cost estimate. Those are based on comparable cells. So , if the value of a parcel is less than 15 ,000 and there's no complex issues with it , no damages , no major impacts to fencing or landscaping , then they would recommend using the cost estimate to negotiate from. If it's over 15 ,000 or there's anything complex about it , they recommend getting an appraisal. And two other points to note related to these values is that even if we approve moving forward with the cost estimate , a property owner can still request that we get an appraisal , and no property can be condemned without an appraisal. We're recommending again to follow the standards that Georgia Department of Transportation uses and set those limits at the 15 ,000 for when we would automaticall y get an appraisal. The ne xt topic is administrative negotiating . So , this is the room that our acquisition team would have beyond the fair market value to settle a parcel if the owner comes back with the counteroffer. We're not recommending having specifics of this negotiating room in our policy . We want that still to be part of an executive session Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 21 Page 21 of 27 discussion where considerations are given to how we've handled those in the past, what the starting val ue of the parcel might be , what Georgia DOT uses for their thresholds , and also considering cost of what litigation could cost if we aren't able to settle. We're recommending that this be an executive session item that's discussed with council and that we reaffirm what our policy and limits are maybe every y ear, every two years . It might run with the election cycle for council that when new council members come in , that we reaffirm that maybe at the beginning of each year. That negotiating room , it would be what would be added to the fair market value to be able to , and if we're presented with a counteroffer to consider. And we are proposing that be calculated per parcel, but not presented on a parcel-by-parcel basis , it would be presented as a lump sum in what we're going to be calling a blanket Right of Way acquisition agreement, which I'll talk more about on the next slide . The next two slides get into the process component of right of Way acquisition. On these next two slides , the blue boxes are going to be staff or negotiating team items along the process. Green are items where we're proposing it comes before council. And then on the next slide you'll see some red boxes and that represents where the process basically ends related to that path. It'll make more sense when I get to the next slide. But first, the right of way plans will be finalized by our designer. Then we will start preparing titles , find out the ownership and work on that cost estimate that I talked about on the Fair market value slide . So, that's just looking at comparable sales , the areas of land needed and coming up with the cost estimate. Then we'll go to the fair market value step which is going to be based on what we just talked about for if we use the cost estimate or if we move forward with an appraisal. And then the last step is to determine what we're calling the acquisition budget. That's going to be Fair Market Value plus the negotiating room. And all of that is going to be summed up in what we like to present as a new business item. And we're going to call it the blanket right of Way Acquisition Agreement. So , it'll have that total dollar figure for the project. So , let me get into these points . Acquisition plan and budget for the entire project about what comprises that with the appraisals plus the negotiating room. And then it's going to be a lump sum total. So , that would come before you before we Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 22 Page 22 of 27 accept or sign any offers. We're recommending it be a new business item so we can also show the final , well, it'll be at the end of the preliminary plans is when we get this right of way layout. So , it is our chance to show the project before it moves into right of way to get an y further public comment or council input on the project. So , it's really that final review before we move into purchasing the land needed for the project. Okay , so I'm going to walk through a couple of scenarios here with this layout and how the process could work. So , this is the acquisition phase , I just went through the pre-acquisition. After that new business item that will set up the project budget and for right of way and authori ze accepting offers. And we start with the fair market value offer if you all can see the arrow on the screen . So , if that offer is accepted we move to closing and the process ends. That happens occasionally . Sometimes we move into negotiations and we get counteroffers . So , the next box is if we get a counteroffer to consider. If that counteroffer we're going to look back to our table that we developed to create that blanket agreement. And if the value for that parcels portion of the agreement is less than what we've allowed for , we accept it and close no further council action needed. If it 's more then we take it to an executive session where it's considered. If it's approved in executive session then it does need to become a consent agenda item which would come before you. And if that's approved , it's accepted and closed . If in executive session another number is reached so the counteroffer isn't approved , but another final offer is , we can go back to the property owner with that final offer and then if the y accept again it's on consent agenda that's approved , we accept and close. If the owner does not accept our final offer, we move towards the condemnation process. There would be a council item for condemnation resolution on the agenda and that allows us to take title to the property but it doesn't end the negotiations . So , if the city attorney files a condemnation with the court , land 1s acquired , we get to this last red box, but negotiations continue. So , it circles back to the beginning of counteroffers and the executive session discussion. So , that's kind of a walkthrough of what we're recommending the process be written to represent. So , this is just a summary of all those items I discussed that would be part of this policy and what we're recommending. We are asking Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 23 Page 23 of 27 Mayor Pro Tern: Mayor Pro Tern: Mayor Pro Tern: CM Verhoff: Mayor Pro Tern: Sara Leaders: for any feedback. If you 'd like to see anything handled differently , if you'd like to see more presentations in executive session before it goes on the consent or the new business item for the blanket agreement , we could consider that. But what I presented is what we're recommending . We have looked at a few other jurisdictions and how they handle right of way acquisition and council considerations of those. This is what we're recommending for a policy . And so tonight we 'd like any feedback. I'll go back to that slide if I want to discuss anything in more detail. Based on what we hear tonight we will formulate this into a policy and present it by resolution at a future council meeting. And then assuming we go the route of blanket acquisition agreements , you'd be seeing those in the future for plans for public works projects . And that is the presentation. I know it's a lot of information. I'm just trying to get this formalized and in a written adopted document that we can use across the board on public works projects. Happy to answer any questions. Well , thanks , Sarah. If there 's any further - Questions No , but that was really thorough. I think the flow of the approval process and acquisition process made sense. I think that works for us. Are there other cities in our surrounding area that we can cite as examples of this process working that we can use as a template , or are we pioneering something new because it meets more of our own in Milton? We did look at a slide here with a couple of examples. We did look at Roswell and Forsyth County and talked with Ken's office about how acquisitions work in Forsyth County , and they have a substantially lot more acquisitions than we do . And there were some components of the way they handle that we liked. And then there were some others that felt like we have such a small amount of acquisitions that just going to executive session for counteroffers was the most effective route for the number that we Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 24 Page 24 of 27 Ken Jarrard: Mayor Pro Tern: Sara Leaders: FIRST PRESENTATION Mayor Pro Tern: City Clerk: Mayor Pro Tern: see . And Roswell , Rob is familiar with their use of a blanket agreement and that's worked well for them in the past. So , that's what we looked at in neighboring areas . This process that Sara just went over , I would say it's a little more time-consuming , but I also think that it places on the council the role of the negotiations . I think why it's volume , size because of the volume of takes they're doing that. We have a bi-party system where , based upon certain thresholds over fair market value , the three people , my office that collaterally moved the needle on acquisition subject to additional ratification by the board. But our agreement is final. That's great, it helps facilitate a lot of closings in an expedited way , but the board only has a backdoor look after the fact as opposed to a prospective look to make sure that worked well. But I don't think the volume here - I think we're on the right track. I look forward to further discussions about it when you get into the nitty-gritty , one of the things I'll be interested in talking about is when you look at the percentages that are granted to staff to work with , how do we look at some examples of that , and where the efficiencies come in and look forward to making it a more streamlined process. Thanks , Sarah. Great work. All right. Thank you . All right , moving on to first presentations. Will the City clerk please sound those items ? That item is consideration of U 220 four located at 3000 Heritage Walk , Suite 301 within the T-five transact zone of the Crab Apple , form-based code by Something Weddings and Events LLC , to request a use permit for assembly hall indoor auditorium, not to exceed 150 attendees within 4000 sqft on the third floor of the building. Agenda item number 23048 . Item B is consideration of an ordinance amending section 1626 B of the city code regarding the qualifying period for regular elections to conform to state law. This agenda item number 23049. Mayor pro tern. Thank you. Is there a motion and a second? Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 25 Page 25 of 27 CM Mohrig: CM Verhoff: Mayor Pro Tern: Council: I'll make a motion that we approve the first presentation items as read . Second. Okay. I have a motion from Council Member Mohrig and a second from Council Member Verhoff. Any discussion? There are none. All those in favor , signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Mohrig moved to approve the First Presentation items as read. Councilmember Verhoff seconded the motion. The motion passed (4-0). Mayor Jamison , Councilmember Johnson, and Councilmember Cookerly were absent from the meeting. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Mayor Pro Tern: City Clerk: Ken Jarrard: Opposed ? [Inaudible] [01:01:32] Thank you. There are no public hearing items this evening and no zoning agenda items . Moving to unfinished business , will the city clerk please sound the first item ? Mayor pro tern , that item is consideration of an ordinance of the city of Milton modifying section 16-4 of the code of the city of Milton, Georgia , to clarify who may appoint superintendents , agenda item number 2304 , I'm sorry , 039 . Our city attorney, Mr. Ken Jarrard. Mayor pro tern , members , the council this is very quick. I think this is a housekeeping issue in the context of looking at all of the issues involving elections in Milton. We have obviously triaged a lot of our codes and have found a couple of issues that need clarification to make sure they are consistent with state law. And one of them is that in fact , you just approved the first presentation on it that will come back. This is even more nominal than that. Our current ordinance , section 16.4 , provides that the city manager appoints the municipal superintendent of elections. Well , that's not exactly how state law reads . Actually , state law contemplates that the city governing authority , you appoint the su perintendent. So , this is an ordinance that would Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 26 Page 26 of 27 Mayor Pro Tern: City Clerk: Mayor Pro Tern: CM Jacobus: Mayor Pro Tern: CM Verhoff: Mayor Pro Tern: Council : change our code to make it consistent with state law. Again , Housekeeping , but necessary . Mr. Mayor pro tern. Thanks , Ken. Is there any public comment? There are none , sir. Any council discussion? Is there a motion to accept? Mayor pro tern , I'd like to make a motion that we approve agenda item number 23-039 . Is there a second. Second. I have a motion from Council Member Jacobus with a second from council member Verhoff. An y additional discussion? Hearing none , all those in favor signi fy by sayin g aye . Aye. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Jacobus moved to approve the Agenda Item No. 23-039. Councilmember Verhoff seconded the motion . The motion passed (4-0). Mayor Jamison , Councilmember Johnson, and Councilmember Cookerly were absent from the meeting. Mayor Pro Tern : CM Mohrig: Mayor Pro Tern : Any opposed? It carries unanimously. There are no new business items. So , we're now moving to may or and council reports. Anybody have anything to comment on this evening? No. I'll just add one comment. I had the pleasure of a European business trip last week , but unfortunately , it took me away from the State of the City address. So , I had a chance to watch it since then. I would just comment that I was very proud of our city and the work that we have done. I thought the mayor did an excellent job of commenting on the terrific work by our city leadership and by our city staff. And of course , the greatest accommodation of all going to our Milton community , our citizens who I feel participate at a very high level and it's very rewarding that we as a city can celebrate that. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council February 22, 2023 27 Page 27 of 27 ADJOURNMENT City Clerk: Mayor Pro Tern: CMMohrig: CM Jacobus : Mayor Pro Tern: Council: Mayor Pro Tern: And then when we hear presentations like this evening calling out some of the things that we've been working on for 17 years to become the city that we are, you've got somebody taking away a first impression that's hitting the mark on those things. I take no greater pride than the status of the city being declared as strong by the mayor last week. And what a tremendous evening it appeared to have been. I'm sorry that I missed it. But thank you. There's no executive session this evening, so I guess we are ready. We'll take a motion to adjourn. We need a motion to adjourn. Moved. Second. Fine, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Mohrig moved to adjourn the Regular Meeting at 7: 19pm. Council member Jacobus seconded the motion. The motion passed (4-0). Mayor Jamison, Councilmember Johnson, and Councilmember Cookerly were absent from the meeting. Mayor Pro Tern: We 're adjourned . Thank yo u. Date Approved: March 6, 2023