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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes CC - 10/11/2007 - MINS 10 11 07 WS (Migrated from Optiview)Work Session of the Milton City Council Thursday, October 11, 2007, 5:30 PM Page 1 of 13 Disclaimer for minutes: This summary is provided as a convenience and service to the public, media, and staff. It is not the intent to transcribe proceedings verbatim. Any reproduction of this summary must include this notice. Public comments are noted and heard by Council, but not quoted. This document included limited presentation by Council and invited speakers in summary form. Official Meetings are recorded and available for review. Work Session of the Milton City Council was held Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 5:30 p.m., Mayor Joe Lockwood presiding. All Councilmembers were present. Mayor Lockwood ƒWork sessions are a more informal setting to update the Council on business items. ƒNo votes will be taken. ƒPublic comment is allowed if it is germane to an agenda item. ƒSpeakers are required to fill out a public comment card and turn it in to the City Clerk. ƒPublic comment will be allowed for a total of 10 minutes per agenda item, 2 minutes per person. Mayor Lockwood: •Called for City Clerk to call first agenda item. City Clerk Marchiafava: Agenda Item: Discussion and Presentation on Access Control Ordinance. Acting City Manager Chris Lagerbloom: •Ordinance that would allow law enforcement, fire department and ambulance service easy access into multi-family, residence or commercial gated areas in City of Milton. •Evaluated local and across country ordinances. •Did RFP for vendors. •Remote that uses mobile radio that already exists in vehicles. •Representative present tonight to give a demonstration on how product works. •City could fund it or could pass along cost to gate owner. •Not funded in 2008 budget at city level. •$1,000-$1,100 per gate. •Approximately 33-35 gates in Milton. •Could talk with citizens about this. •Would not be mandated. •Ordinance would be for multi-family, apartments, condos, large neighborhoods. •Could get law enforcement safety vehicles to citizens more quickly. •Public Safety recommendation is that this is good for citizens of Milton. John Harrison, Elite Access Control Company: •Talked about device called Click to Enter. •Mounts at entrance gate of every gated community. •Runs on radio frequencies. •100 feet from entry of property key mike on selected frequency and gates open. •No time delays for law enforcement, fire trucks or other emergency vehicles. •System designed and built by retired law enforcement people in California. Work Session of the Milton City Council Thursday, October 11, 2007, 5:30 PM Page 2 of 13 •Most major cities are adopting system. •Can open gates for a specified time period before it closes. •Explained difference in this system versus key system. •Frequencies are controlled by you. •Can change frequencies. •Showed video presentation. •There is no maintenance except to re-set the code if needed. •It is mounted up high so it is not subject to vandalism. •Mutual aid with other cities would also be programmed into the unit, so there is no delay in response for back- up. •Any replacement costs would be done at a reduced cost to the property owner. •Does City pay this cost or is it passed onto the community involved? This will need to be determined. Acting City Manager Lagerbloom: •Should take a month to discuss this with the citizens in order to communicate it prior to passing an ordinance. •At the November 8, 2007 Work Session we will bring feedback to Mayor and Council after meeting with the gated communities and demonstrating the device. •At that time, it will be determined if we should move forward. Mayor and Council discussion - Q & A with vendor representative. Mayor Lockwood: •Called for City Clerk to call next agenda item. City Clerk Marchiafava: Agenda Item: Discussion on Emergency 911 and Dispatching. Acting City Manager Lagerbloom: •Responding time is utmost importance. •We are looking at sharing our 911 Emergency and Dispatching with the City of Alpharetta. •Presently, all of the revenue for the 911 dispatching is going to Fulton County. •Sharing these services with Alpharetta would enable us to keep those costs in the City of Milton. •99% confident there would be some dollar savings to the City of Milton with increased efficiencies. •Launched a focus group with police and fire department and citizens for feasibility. Acting Public Safety Director Millican: •Gave a brief summary of the Emergency 911 and Dispatching possibility with the City of Alpharetta. •Alpharetta would provide 911 services to the City of Milton. •We have boundaries that are close to them and their emergency vehicles would be able to address our 911 calls faster than we can get to them now, such as the area of Windward Parkway. •We would place a piece of our fire apparatus at their Station 1 and that would make us within 4 minutes to the Windward area and increase the response time. •We would share costs at this station because our firemen would also be housed there. Work Session of the Milton City Council Thursday, October 11, 2007, 5:30 PM Page 3 of 13 Alpharetta Public Safety Director Gary George: •Alpharetta has a system that tracks all emergency vehicles anywhere in the city at any time. They could share this system with the City of Milton. •We would need to have one additional dispatch person per shift to implement this process. •Automatic aid means one dispatch center dispatches all the fire apparatus. •Will improve city's ISO rating because quicker response. •The shared costs at the station 1 would be for fuel and water, but the City of Milton personnel would have bunk space and kitchen space. •Discussion about 7 Minutes to Excellence Program. Acting City Manager Lagerbloom: •Is really a win-win situation for both cities. •Looking to Mayor and Council for approval to move forward. •There were a few comments from Mayor and Council, but they all agreed that this is something we need to do. •Permission was granted to move forward. •Would be bringing updates in the next couple of weeks. Mayor Lockwood: •City of Milton would be proud to partner up with Alpharetta for customer service of the citizens. Councilmember Julie Zahner Bailey: •Question about timing and additional cost. Acting City Manager Lagerbloom: •To move forward need to do a few things. •Work with City Attorney to reduce concepts to paper. •Enabling us to collect our own revenues and approach phone companies. •Transition depends on length of time the phone companies need. City Attorney Scott: •Would need to give Fulton County 30 days notice to suspend the 911 service. Mayor Lockwood: •Called for City Clerk to call next agenda item. City Clerk Marchiafava: Agenda Item: Amendment to the Zoning Ordinance to delete use permits related to the telecommunications ordinance. Community Development Director Tom Wilson: •Presented last month at first reading a telecommunication ordinance. •Combination of model ordinances from the FCC. •Some from Roswell's telecommunications ordinance. •Combined all current standards in Zoning Resolution govern and regulate towers and antennas. •Will come to Council next Thursday for approval. •Ordinance tonight eliminates the portion of Zoning Ordinance now incorporated Work Session of the Milton City Council Thursday, October 11, 2007, 5:30 PM Page 4 of 13 into the larger telecommunications ordinance. •Have cleaned up administrative and use permit sections. •Trying to avoid having duplicate ordinances. Councilmember Julie Zahner-Bailey: •Concern about removing public participation as it relates to telecommunication towers. •Asked City Attorney to legally review this issue. •Could regulate distance between cell towers. •Strong legal language to direct cell tower companies. City Attorney Scott: •Pros and cons of leaving telecom and zoning as opposed to taking it out. •Only thing that would be missed is the Planning Commission. •Still would need council review. •If still desire Planning Commission insight can make it go to Planning and leave it as a separate ordinance. •If need to make alternations to the telecommunications ordinance would not require the advertising and public hearing. •Could possibly make a chapter of the zoning ordinance. •Need more specific regulation for cell towers. •Code location. Councilmember Julie Zahner Bailey: •Public has a right to public hearing and to understand that. •Do not want to grant this body or future body authority to place cell towers on public land without public participation. Community Development Director Tom Wilson: •Benefit of telecommunication ordinance was to allow communication towers that met strict regulations to have a speedy review by skipping Planning Commission. •Proof for need of cell towers has to be provided by a telecommunications engineer. •Cost for engineer is paid for by the applicant. City Attorney Scott: •Federal law preempts what we can do regarding cell towers to a great extent. •Can require that they prove there are no code locations feasible for any site that would require them to build a new tower. •Need that local control and that is what ordinance does. •Need to be able to provide necessary wireless services to citizens. •If they are turned down, they appeal and they almost always win. •I will look at ordinance again before it comes back to you. •Need to make certain that they really need the tower. •Making them co-location wherever possible instead of building new towers. •Must provide statistics to us to evaluate. Discussion with Council, Staff and City Attorney about telecommunications engineers. Work Session of the Milton City Council Thursday, October 11, 2007, 5:30 PM Page 5 of 13 Mayor Lockwood: •Called for City Clerk to call next agenda item. City Clerk Marchiafava: Agenda Item: Amendment to Zoning Ordinance to require tree survey at time of Zoning. Community Development Director Tom Wilson: •Talked previous about having a tree survey. •Asked Mark Law to speak about what information you would like provided. •Have always had this information and now will be providing to you in the future. Staff Mark Law (City Arborist): •Referenced aerial photo handouts. •Have to look at density. •Provides visual description. •Subject locations •Field visit and walking site. •Locate specimen trees. •Locate state waters and give brief site description and additional comments. •Regarding specimen trees will take visual photo and give narrative of trees. •Capabilities to have photos automatically located by GPS. •Full tree service not necessary. •Can be too cumbersome to see. •Aerial photo does much better job. Council discussion on saving trees. Staff Mark Law (City Arborist): •Depending on land disturbance from development around trees. •There are specimen size trees and also specimen trees. •Looking at incentives for developers to save trees. Community Development Director Tom Wilson: •Can give developer credit at a higher value if leave tree. •Lesser value if remove it and also have to pay tree recompense. Councilmember Tina D'Aversa: •Perhaps some type of incentive program. •Add to ordinance. •Adopt a tree for recognition for saving. •Has to be a stigma with removing trees. •Unique opportunity for Milton to be different. Councilmember Julie Zahner Bailey: •Supports having tree information in advance of a rezoning. •How to reconcile work done by City Attorney vs. site plan that Work Session of the Milton City Council Thursday, October 11, 2007, 5:30 PM Page 6 of 13 may or may not reconcile to trees that are identified. •Set standard on what applicant would be required to do. •Wants to see site plan from applicant to show what they have done to mitigate. •Perhaps density would not be approved unless certain amount of tree save. •What to set expectations for Milton. •Tree ordinance currently does not go far enough. Community Development Director Tom Wilson: •He has been instructing in recent cases they need to spend time trying to save the trees and bring evidence to city council meeting with them. •Determining what is sufficient evidence to show tree save. •Two site plans? •If you do not satisfy City Council in showing what has been done to save trees, it will take an extra 30 days to get it through. •Could add to process a trip to the Design Review Board before going to the Planning Commission and before going to council. •Give this a few months to work and make a determination after that. Community Development Director Tom Wilson: •Asked Arborist Mark Law if city required they expend energy to save trees or is recompense only motivator to save trees. Staff Mark Law (City Arborist): •Currently recompense is only motivator. •Trees can take up to seven years to show signs of damage from development. Mayor Lockwood: •Clear city wants to do everything possible to save trees. •Want developers to work that in before presenting. Councilmember Neal O'Brien: •Possibly city should have a grading standard. •Asked Arborist to simplify for Council whether tree is grade A or in bad shape. Staff Mark Law (City Arborist): •Can add criteria to tree survey. •Get an overall grade on tree. Councilmember Rick Mohrig: •Discussing primarily commercial construction. •Residential subdivisions will be going into low density areas as well. •Need to try to save key trees at entrances and on properties, need to do so. Five Minute Break: Mayor Lockwood: •Called a 5 minute break. •Called for City Clerk to call next agenda item. Work Session of the Milton City Council Thursday, October 11, 2007, 5:30 PM Page 7 of 13 City Clerk Marchiafava: Agenda Item: Discussion on the current Tree Preservation Ordinance. Acting City Manager Chris Lagerbloom: •Not get too involved with the tiny details. •If funded, where would like us to get with ordinance. •Perhaps individually take your comments and wishes. Community Development Director Tom Wilson: •Have allotted $10,000 for this effort. •Not enough to hire outside consultant to rewrite entire Tree Preservation Ordinance. •Would like to host a couple of meeting with public input. •Evaluate everything and make determination if Staff can do this inside the current Fulton County Tree Preservation Ordinance. •May need to ask for additional money for consultant if we cannot handle this. Councilmember Rick Mohrig: •Compare Alpharetta and Roswell and look at the good plans from their plan. Councilmember Tina D'Aversa: •Outwardly visible participation in tree preservation. •Have stricter ordinance on clear-cutting. •Start to rebuild areas that have already been affected in community. •Highway 9 corridor. •Committee of volunteer citizens to gather their thoughts. Councilmember Neal O'Brien: •Guidance and help in identifying best ways for Milton to get acknowledged or recognized for our trees. •Perhaps focus on intersection areas. •May need some experts to guide us. •Companies that do business in Milton be encouraged to plant a tree. •Identify any funding sources. •Partnering. Councilmember Bill Lusk: •Other jurisdictions also have tree ordinances. •Look at areas that are comparable to what we have in Milton. •Can use as a template and tweak it. •Some cities are known for their specific trees. •Perhaps get some press from the National Arborist Society. •Group called Trees Atlanta. •Recognize Arbor Day in April or May. Work Session of the Milton City Council Thursday, October 11, 2007, 5:30 PM Page 8 of 13 Councilmember Julie Zahner Bailey: •This was one of our top legacy projects. •Look at specimen trees as well as percentage of tree coverage. •Requiring tree save as part of site plan process. •Look at other ordinances but not limit ourselves to Fulton or SE region. •Also look at national standards for tree ordinances. •Perhaps even internationally. •Need to look at commercial and residential buffers. •Best practices for tree ordinance and maintenance. •Require some type of tree health program. •Encourage length of time in term of recompense - certain caliper size. •Timbering permits issue. •Tree banks. Councilmember Karen Thurman: •Need to save what we can. •Plant where it is needed. •Have a program to promote trees. •Proclamation for Arbor Day. •Make it a big event. •Form of a Crabapple Tree. •Strengthen number of trees in parking lots. •Planted in fashion to give good chance to survive. •Pacers volunteer group to form committee •Impervious surface parking lots with trees. •Incorporate business community from beginning. Mayor Lockwood: •Concurred with Councilmembers suggestions. •Some flexibility on either a residential or commercial where specimen tree coverage, perhaps incentive to keep trees. •Perhaps allowing for shifting of a buffer if allows to keep existing trees. City Clerk Marchiafava: Agenda Item: Discussion on the Historic Preservation Ordinance Interim City Manager Chris Lagerbloom: •Community Development Director Tom Wilson will be talking about the Historic Preservation Community Development Director Tom Wilson •Allotted money in new budget for a Historic Preservation Ordinance. •Asking for Council direction in what you would like accomplished. •In middle of writing an RFP. Work Session of the Milton City Council Thursday, October 11, 2007, 5:30 PM Page 9 of 13 Councilmember Karen Thurman: •Mayor and I along with our committee have done some work on this. •Special zoning. •Special incentives to maintain historic structures. •Not just houses, but historic wells and the like. •Relocation policy for historic structures that have to be moved. Councilmember Julie Zahner Bailey: •Demolitions reviewed by the Design Review Board. •Need incentives. •Perhaps tax credit. •Depends on where structure is located. •Need to be creative. •Fulton County data survey. •Adopt-a-spot, adopt a tree. •Volunteer committees help to identify historic spots. •Standard that meets national standards. •Percentage of structure that can be saved regarding grants to help save. •Try to keep in original locations. •Privately held and public properties. Councilmember Bill Lusk: •Sent to Lisa Maggart a list of historic structures or features. •Interested in long time in The Crossroads, Arnold Mill, Crabapple, Birmingham, Hopewell, Pleasant Hill. •Historic part of it ties in closely with review of the new Comprehensive Land Use Plan. •Establish historic districts. •Designations with historic markers. •Sooner we move on these the better. •Setting up incentives need to be studied carefully. Councilmember Neal O'Brien: •Like to see us identify historic areas. •Crossroads concept. •Pockets in community that are gathering points. •Preserve oral histories and roots. Councilmember Tina D'Aversa: •Talking with folks about community feel in Milton. •Spots-to-go places. •Citizens want places to hang out. •Historic areas may be good designations for this. •Perhaps create a pocket park at a historic site like the one at Cogburn. •We have opportunity to achieve this. •May be able to form and use committees. •Acknowledged Travis Allen who is on other committees and very knowledgeable about historic matters. Work Session of the Milton City Council Thursday, October 11, 2007, 5:30 PM Page 10 of 13 Councilmember Rick Mohrig: •Asked if there was a Milton Historical Society. •Perhaps encourage a Historical Society. •Preserve and record oral history. •Historical markers. •People in history. •Relocate structures if need to if people want to develop their property. •Creating a sense of place in Milton. •Knowing where we came from. Mayor Lockwood: •Use of markers to identify historic structures so people will take notice. •Add some economic viability to preserving a house or a building. •Have flexibility perhaps to allow some special use to preserve structure. Community Development Director Tom Wilson: •Some of this is historic preservation ordinance. •Some of historic preservation society. •We will sort through those and try to give you both. Mayor Lockwood: •Called for public comment. City Clerk Marchiafava: •Called Travis Allen. Travis Allen, 13095 Region Trace, Milton, GA. •All of you have touch on some important things tonight. •Have to be careful when buildings are restored. •Two words that are vague in definition - "restored" and "altered." •Example: Painting is altered. •Certain cities have taken a historic structure and moved it. •Have to sometimes consider the trees that may be involved with the historic structures. •Need to have identifying markers for these structures. •Example: The Mansell House in Alpharetta. •Because structure is old does not necessarily mean it is historic. •There are old cemeteries in area that people do not know about. •You need to get cooperation from the churches. •We have one of the oldest primitive Baptist churches in the southeast on Birmingham Road. •There are plenty of resources. •There are already established historic preservation societies in the area. •The Hembree Farm house in Roswell was donated. •The Ruckers, the Broadwells, the Dinsmores are still in the area. •Can be used to enhance the community. •There is a good group of committee citizens that want to help preserve the Work Session of the Milton City Council Thursday, October 11, 2007, 5:30 PM Page 11 of 13 structures and the trees. •Have to think about what you want to define as "historic." •There is a list of those considered "historic." •Some are landmarks like "The Big Chicken." •Need to reach out to the community and to the older folks that have been here for a while. Mayor Lockwood: •Called for next agenda item. City Clerk Marchiafava: Agenda Item LARP Update. Interim City Manager Chris Lagerbloom: •Had discussion with Mayor on break. •Deferred this agenda item until next meeting on November 8th. •No urgency on this tonight. •Discussion about water main break on Highway 9. •Businesses and residences between Webb Road and Windward Parkway are without water until midnight. Mayor Lockwood: •Call for next agenda item. City Clerk Marchiafava: Agenda Item Discussion on the State Level Four Watering Ban and the City of Milton’s role. Community Development Director Tom Wilson: •Proposing that we create our own City of Milton Ordinance that is consistent with the State Ordinances for water conservation. •Would give us the ability to enforce those ordinances. •Currently have to rely on Fulton County to enforce. •Citizens expect this of us. •Presented Council the first draft of the Ordinance. •With Council permission will finish and bring it back at the first meeting in November. Councilmember Karen Thurman: •Something to encourage people to conserve water. •Not just policing them. •Tips for conserving inside and outside water. •Provide some education. Community Development Director Tom Wilson: •Something to go along with this, but not part of this ordinance. Work Session of the Milton City Council Thursday, October 11, 2007, 5:30 PM Page 12 of 13 Councilmember Julie Zahner Bailey: •Perhaps use Lisa Maggart and do an outreach to the schools. •Young people know what it is to conserve. •Encourage young to engage the city in coming up with way to conserve. •Another way to get information out to the community and involve youth. Councilmember Bill Lusk: •Sent letter to Dr. Denmark addressing the issue of increasing awareness of water conversation in the Fulton County School curriculum. •Question about dollar amounts associated with violations. •Forsyth County on 4th and subsequent violations calls for disconnect of water meter. Community Development Director Tom Wilson •Code enforcement officer does not issue fines. •Fines are levied by the judge. •Judges determine what penalty would be. •We have choice of specifying this or leave up to the judge. City Arborist Mark Law: •We cannot disconnect the water. •Fulton County would do that. •We are required by EPD to enforce the watering band ordinance. •Cannot enforce watering that is being withdrawn from lakes. •Can withdraw up to 100,000 gallons a day. •State monitors that. Community Development Director Tom Wilson: •Asked City Attorney Mark Scott if he had anything to say about adding dollar amount of penalty into Ordinance. City Attorney Mark Scott: •I believe some of our ordinances do have those penalties. •Not sure about 1st, 2nd or 3rd violations, but they do have fines set forth for various violations. •Compare to some of the other ordinances in the code. Interim City Manager Chris Lagerbloom: •Could have something in there to show this would be city ordinance violation. •Would fall under penalty code that exists for all city ordinance violations. Councilmember Bill Lusk: •Would like to move quickly on this. •One of the most serious issues we have in north Georgia. •Rather have something on the books before the fact than after the fact. Interim City Manager Chris Lagerbloom: Work Session of the Milton City Council Thursday, October 1 1,2007, 5:30 PM Page 13 of 13 If this is critical and important and we could have prepared before a week hmtoday, we would be willing to bring it if you would allow us to add it to the meeting. Community Development Director Tom Wilson: * I will try to do that. If T have it we can add it. Mayor Joe Loc kwood Asked if there were any other questions or comments and there were none. After no further business, the meeting adjourned the Work Session at 8:36 PM. Date Approved: November 1,2007 ~banetteR.March iafava, City Clerk i %- /'