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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes CC - 11/10/2008 - MINS 11 10 08 WS (Migrated from Optiview)Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, November 10, 2008 at 6:00 pm Page 1 of 13 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 PON reproduction of this summary must include this notice. Public comments are noted and heard by Council, but not quoted. This document includes limited presentation by Council and invited speakers in summaryform. This is an official record of the Milton City Council Meeting proceedings. Oficial Meetings are audio recorded. im" The Work Session of the Mayor and Council of the City of Milton was held on November 10, 2008 at 6:00 PM, Mayor Joe Lockwood presiding. Council Members Present: Councilmember Karen Thurman, Councilmember Julie Zahner Bailey, Councilmember Bill Lusk, Councilmember Burt Hewitt, Councilmember Tina D'Aversa, Councilmember Alan Tart Mayor Lockwood • Work Sessions are a more informal way to update the Council on business items. • No votes will be taken. • Public comment is allowed that is germane to an agenda item. • If you wish to speak, you are required to fill out a public comment card and turn it into the City Clerk staff. • Public comment will be allowed for a total of ten minutes per agenda item and no more than two minutes per person. • Public comment will be heard at the beginning of each item. • Once the item is called no other public comment cards will be accepted. • There are five items on the published agenda. • Item number five; Discussion on the possible relationship with habitat for Humanity and sponsorship of a home to be built in the City of Milton will be postponed until December 8, 2008. City Clerk Marchiafava read agenda item # 1. Discussion on Recommendation on Parks and Recreation Committee. Parks and Recreation Director Brad Chambers • This is something Council had looked at in September as far as establishing a Parks and Recreation Board. • The board as originally drawn up in September was a Parks and Recreation commission or authority. • There are two types of boards/commissions that are allowed by the Georgia Code. • One is commission or authority and one is an advisory board. • The commission or authority is a much more powerful organization and allows hiring and firing authority by the authority itself. • They have some budget capability and autonomy and report directly to the Council, but only in an indirect way. • An advisory board is just what it says it is. • They do not have authority. • The chain of command for an advisory board would be the Council to the City Manager to the staff to the advisory board. • He looked at the pros and cons of both and recommends the City of Milton go with an advisory board as opposed to the commission and authority at this time. • That can be adjusted later if Council feels the need to do so. • From his experience and background, it made since to him to ease into it and start off with and advisory board. 60 Councilmember D'Aversa • Our intent was just to have an advisory board and not an authority. f Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, November 10, 2008, 6:00 PM Page 2 of 13 • Asked City Attorney Jarrard if he wanted to comment on the original resolution that Attorney Fricke wrote. ■.ri • Mr. Chambers' interpretation of the original resolution was that it was establishing an authority. City Attorney Jarrard • He does not think the original resolution went quite that far, but to the extent that we wanted to be very clear to the Council that what we were discussing is an advisory board; Mr. Chambers in working with our office has done a very effective job of doing that. • There is no ambiguity in doing this. Councilmember D'Aversa • She supports an advisory board to the extent that we do have a department. • She feels that eventually we will go down the path of developing the park land that we now have and acquiring new park land and various things we have approached doing in the interim without an advisory board or staff and department and if we are going to do that, having a citizen advisory group is very important. • She supports having the Council appoint someone from each district to be a part of that and having them report to out City Manager. Councilmember Thurman • Asked which of the three categories we are expecting this to fall into. City Attorney Jarrard • First of all, it is a board with seven members; one from each district so it seems to fall between one and two and more on the scale of category one. Nod Parks and Recreation Director Chambers • There were a couple of suggestions that the City Attorneys office had a problem with. • Maybe remove Parks and Recreation Department and put Parks and Recreation Program and some other generic changes throughout the document. Councilmember Zahner Bailey • Asked when they would see the Resolution on a formal agenda. City Clerk Marchiafava • Probably the December 1, 2008 agenda. Councilmember D'Aversa • She would support that. • We would see the Resolution and everyone would also bring forward their appointee. • Asked the other Council Members if in these instances if they would prefer for the City to have a notice out that we are doing this and are looking for people that would be interested or would everyone rather go it on their own and find their own appointee and not have a public announcement. Mayor Lockwood • In his experience the problem with putting out the notice, there is only one position to fill and a lot of people that might want to fill it, so he felt there were lots of people aggravated. Councilmember Thurman • Asked if Public Works Director Drake was planning to bring forth the road or transportation committees at that time also. M" Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, November 10, 2008, 6:00 PM Page 3 of 13 • She needs to know how many people they need to appoint by when. Public Works Director Drake • We will be looking for appointees sometime in December. Councilmember Thurman • So we will need appointees for the parks, the transportation and the intersection improvement. • Asked if the transportation and intersection improvement would be just from the districts or citywide. City Attorney Jarrard • We could combine the two if we need to. Public Works Director Drake • The City could put a call out for people to volunteer and screen some applications and come back at a work sessions and discuss them. Councilmember Thurman • Asked if the roads and the intersections would have separate meetings. Public Works Director Drake • Yes. Councilmember Thurman • She would like the intersections that are primarily in one area to have people have the flexibility to do it outside of their district. • It may be hard to find someone to fill it if they do not go through it on a regular basis, if it is just those two intersections. Mayor Lockwood • That is an awkward one. Councilmember Zahner Bailey • We could see what we can come up with and we can always discuss it in the mean time. Councilmember Tart • Interestingly enough he has a traffic engineer that has asked for a position. Councilmember Lusk • In the 2008 budget, we appropriated funds to create a historic preservation ordinance and asked if that would require a committee or board to go along with it. Community Development Director Wakefield • It requires a commission. Councilmember Lusk 'Po" • He would like to see that ordinance move forward since we did appropriate funds for it a year ago. • We are bringing all of these other committees on board and it seems the historic preservation ordinance imm keeps taking a back seat. • We are losing historic structures on a frequent basis and he thinks we better strike while we still have those structures available to us and that require another appointee from each of our districts. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, November 10, 2008, 6:00 PM Page 4 of 13 City Clerk Marchiafava read agenda item #2. Discussion on LCI Applications Community Development Director Wakefield • We have an opportunity to submit applications to the Atlanta Regional Commission for LCI application. • It is a grant program to receive funding up to $100,000 with a 20% match to conduct a study that looks at mix use residential development and it focuses on design scale, connectivity, transportation linkages is a high priority and open space. • We are looking to apply in two areas: Highway 9, Deerfield Parkway and the Crabapple area. • The unique thing about the program is if you receive an LCI and complete the study based on the ARC standards; you are eligible for implementation funds so a lot of activities that you see a good portion of funding comes from their LCI. • The following is a Power Point Presentation given by Planner Michelle McIntosh: What is a Livable Centers Initiative? A Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) is the program sponsored by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) that promotes quality growth in the region by providing funds that create more opportunities for mobility and livability within existing employment areas. LCI grants are used to create activity centers that support the "smart growth" concept of live, work and play in the community. 10 Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, November 10, 2008, 6:00 PM Page 5 of 13 Hwy 9- MEMEMMM Windward P Deerfield Corridor LCI Crabapple Activity Center LCI Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, November 10, 2008, 6:00 PM Page 6 of 13 Schedule © A First Draft ready tonight 1a The Application Deadline is November 21, 2008 o The schedule for the development and the completion of the project will start from award notification in April 2009 and run through November 2009 for approval and transmittal to ARC in December 2009. Woodstock, GA CITY OFWOODSTK7CKi}ESI_G_N_ tASEDC0DE Woodstock, Georgia After the completion of AfM!r din <:aripkakxi ni ks I.C14u<A in j01.i1, the City d NW'ouduock and rhe W—k k N Tir n .._ the Ck:mk>frnxml thairy rMainM TSK N devnkq a desigrohmd cork, The kMa dgion H The de- �� Woodstock sign-hasrd•. Is ri Nrae<r rhe esiuirig hnw.rn` 4 m characanr hr enaunng d,ai infill develapnseiir amf ,_,,.° LCI in 2002, adjarem miw <levek>(aronn ny>pim and enKi— rhehistmiccharocr tha ae,. -- the City was Thrcnigh rhe paten, Ttii4' facilhanxl a slaving able to ,,—i— us gukl he dessrkpmiim d kkvair.rJcdrk;'il hivak: ixdklinp. and axxlucfM developa a phaugrapMc survey of hniarcall}' ugnd'icam —:411 resklenual =,nx nns �� design -based Th. —k uas Mot. lin tni&I(p5. � - ;, zoning code for which the 3 LCI Study f 3 provided the foundation. v iY kl p� +w „ wy��« i��, n4 at`+w-[Ye+. Q ci.T1A11N 1lp «mt h imp MT Ow+.. W Siiravn T G" Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, November 10, 2008, 6:00 PM Page 7 of 13 Suwanee, GA Residential The City of Suwanee received LCI assistance for its Old Town Center and Park. Examples: Serenbe in Chattahoochee Hills LCI Community Development Director Wakefield • The two resolutions authorizing staff to transmit the applications will come before Council on November 17, 2008. b" Councilmember Zahner Bailey • Asked if on the LCI in Crabapple would a lot of this LCI leverage what was already created. • Asked if this would be more focused on trying to get those implementation dollars. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, November 10, 2008, 6:00 PM Page 8 of 13 Community Development Director Wakefield r.rl • It would be a combination. • We will have to look at development opportunities so we will have to look at density but it will focus on the appropriate density, the appropriate design and the appropriate scale and the appropriate connectivity. • It will give us significant dollars to conduct a new study with a new marketing study, looking at new development opportunities, and the ways that we develop now. • If we are successful it will lead to implementation dollars to address many of the transportation problems. Councilmember Zahner Bailey • Asked if it automatically presumed certain density levels. Community Development Directory Wakefield • It does not presume. Councilmember Zahner Bailey • Knowing that the CPAC effort is also under way and we have some of those economic models that are still being created, asked if all of those come into play with whatever analysis will occur. Community Development Director Wakefield • Yes, one of the sections of the LCI application is a reference and acknowledgement of all of the existing studies that are past and are under way. Councilmember Thurman • The additional work that was done with CPAC with that fifteen thousand dollar grant we had for Crabapple; asked if all that would be incorporated into this. Community Development Director Wakefield • Yes, in Crabapple we would not be reinventing the wheel. Councilmember Zahner Bailey • Asked if they would also envision things such as transfer development rights be looked at or evaluated. Community Development Director Wakefield • Yes. Planner McIntosh • In the draft there is a scope of work and it can be edited. • It is just a draft. Community Development Director Wakefield • It has to be finalized next week. Councilmember Zahner Bailey • Asked if the LCI funds allow for us to out source those design guidelines. • If we were to develop some zoning based guidelines for Crabapple, as an example, asked if the implementation dollars and/or the study dollars allow us to contract with someone who was proficient in this area or would those funds be just for internal use. Community Development Director Wakefield • Yes, they could be used to outsource. ii■ Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, November 10, 2008, 6:00 PM Page 9 of 13 • We are being aggressive by applying for two; she is not aware of them awarding two, but she usually has a plan B if something goes wrong and feels certain they will be studying both areas this upcoming year. City Clerk Marchiafava read agenda item #3. Review of uriority items resulting from the October 16, 2008 Town Hall Meeting focusine on the State Route 9 areas. Councilmember D'Aversa • We are interested in feedback and confirming some of the things that were discussed at the meeting. • Most of the things were e-mailed by Councilmember Tart outlining the list of items and the priorities that were placed on them by the citizens that attended the meeting. • Most of the items are things that staff can report on that can be provided back to citizens. • The next agenda item is one that was discussed that was not so much a priority other than it was a topic that was of great interest to several people in the audience so we separated that for Stacey Inglis to discuss as the next agenda item. • The high priority items were to establish designing standards committee for Highway 9 and it went in conjunction with Community Development Director Wakefield determining that a LCI grant opportunity would be appropriate for the Highway 9 area. • We would like the rest of Council's thoughts on going forward with the committee. • She is mindful of the discussion earlier in the evening about having so many committees that we are asking to appoint people to; however, there was tremendous support for this committee from just the people that were here. Councilmember Thurman • Would like to be able to appoint someone for the design committee from outside her district. • She would ask also that it not have to be someone who was a resident, but maybe a resident or a business owner in the area. Community Development Director Wakefield • One of the requirements for LCI is to have a stakeholder committee. • Often times there are two committees, stakeholders and a steering committee, so when you think about your membership to this committee it could be used as part of the LCI, if we are successful. Councilmember D'Aversa • That is what she meant by an advisory board or committee and how we had reached out to Orkin Associates and David Chatham because of their major stakehold in the area. • She agrees with earlier comments about having to many committees and not having enough people to have enough interest to come to the meetings and be dedicated to it and it would be nice to have a committee that could go forward and they see themselves building on and getting to the LCI process. Councilmember Tart • To touch on some of the other items, a lot of them are dependent on design standards which fit into the LCI and the design standards committee. • One item that rose to the top was establishing a community wide neighborhood watch program. • He has been talking with Public Safety Director Lagerbloom about this and he plans to go forward this year. hrw • That received twelve votes. 0 The other things that rose to the top are questions for staff as far as rezoning. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, November 10, 2008, 6:00 PM Page 10 of 13 • Highway 9 is going to be widened some time in the future and the citizens were concerned as far as set backs along Highway 9, whether landscaping and that type of thing; whether we are accounting for that now so when it is widened, it will not take out every bit of landscaping and improvements. • Smart signalization was mentioned. • Some of the other issues were City staff issues and not things we need to take action on as a Council. • The citizens were pretty much unanimous about wanting to have more town hall meetings. Councilmember Zahner Bailey • She has been a big proponent for reaching out and tapping a particular resource or two for design standards and she thinks there are some people out there that may have particular abilities and she would love to see the City of Milton have some discussions with Lou Oliver, whether it is for Highway 9 or for Crabapple. • Some of us have experience with him. • He has done a lot of work historically for unincorporated Fulton. • He has done some amazing things in Roswell and other parts of the state and because he lives locally, he understands historic preservation. • She believes that having someone with the expertise of him would benefit our City. Mayor Lockwood • Thinks that is a great idea and he would support it also. City Clerk Marchiafava read agenda item #4. Discussion on CPI frozen. Finance Director Stacey Inglis • Asked to bring this item so Council could discuss whether or not to extend the CPI present exemptions to the citizens of Milton. • CPI is Consumer Price Index and was a part of Senate Bill 610 which was passed in 2004. • It states that if there is a reassessment that increases the property value on homestead property, the taxable value for county taxes, excluding the taxes that assessed for bond indebtedness cannot increase any higher than the Consumer Price Index or 3% for any given year. • The difference between the re -assessed value and the CPI frozen value shows up as an exemption on the tax bill. • This only applies to Fulton County taxes. • It does not apply to the City of Milton taxes, state taxes or school taxes. • Prior to the incorporation of the City, the line item on the tax bill that was called SSD Milton; it did apply to that line item because it was essentially a Fulton County tax. • After incorporation it was decided we did not include that in our Homestead Exemption offerings to the citizens. • We have four different offerings and it was not a part of one of those. • By extending the CPI frozen exemption to the citizens; in 2007 we would have realized a $265,000 decrease in our revenues and in 2008 roughly $200,000 decrease in the revenues. • It is up to Mayor and Council whether or not they would like to extend this exemption, but please keep in mind she is not entirely sure if Fulton County can provide us with this information. • It would take a lot of work on their part because she thinks what they give us is a straight tax digest. • They have a lot of programs and formulas that figure out what this exemption is on their side. • We may even have to ask Fulton County to bill the taxes for us. lid Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, November 10, 2008, 6:00 PM Page 11 of 13 Mayor Lockwood • Will open this for questions. • We have a double edged sword. • We do not want to raise taxes on our citizens. • The City does not have any excess revenue either. Mark Hanley, 14415 Eighteenth Parkway, Milton Georgia • He thinks that one of the guiding philosophies that created the city was transparency for this type of thing. • Tax increases should be voted on by Council and the citizens. • He thinks that was written in the Charter. • One way of looking at is we would have a $250,000 reduction in revenues but he thinks we have a $250,000 windfall; he thinks it would be exactly the opposite. • He thinks it is the right thing to do. • You could send a strong message to the citizens of Milton that we are not going to operate our City like that. • This is the kind of thing we rebelled against when we were in Fulton. Mayor Lockwood • Part of what we are about is transparency of government. • This was an issue that fell between the cracks and in starting up a new city, it was not anticipated. Councilmember D'Aversa • When we first became a city is when this first came before us and she is not sure we had all the facts to make the decision based on it being recommended to us that it was a tax increase. 6W • Our look at it was that it was not a tax increase. • We evaluated other cities and what they were doing. • The City of Alpharetta does not have the CPI frozen. • Johns Creek did not do it. • From what she recalls when they reviewed it originally, we did not look at it as a tax increase. • We were not looking to go against what we had professed to the community as being no tax increases. Councilmember Thurman • She needs to know whether or not it is even an option. • If it is not information that we can get from Fulton County and if it would cause us to rely on them to do all of our billing which would reduce our tax revenue because we would be paying them to do our billing; she needs to know the total impact it would have on us and our citizens. Finance Manager Inglis • She has been trying to get answers from Fulton County on it. • She talked to her contact at Fulton County and was told they would talk to the IT Department to find out if it was even possible. Councilmember Thurman • Thinks they will give the information if they have it, but she does not know that they even know. PM Finance Manager Inglis bw 0 She also thinks that is the case. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, November 10, 2008, 6:00 PM Page 12 of 13 Mayor Lockwood • If we decided to make a change later with more information, we could do it moving forward in future+ years. • We all hope that the economy and revenues are up and the City would be in a better position to take a big hit like that. Finance Manger Inglis • While you are making the decision, we have to keep in mind the HTRG grant, and there are a lot of other things we have to keep in mind that go along with property taxes. • The values are not increasing right now, so it is a lot to make a decision on. Councilmember Thurman • It is her understanding that some cities do not give their residents that grant when they realized it was not going to be funded. • We chose to give them the credit not knowing whether or not we would be reimbursed from the state. Councilmember Lusk • Asked when they have to make the decision on this item. Finance Manager Inglis • Probably February. • The county has to have some time to get their information together, so it may even be late winter to get the information and make a decision. • Fulton County usually gets their digest approved in June. Mayor Lockwood • Asked staff to research it a little more and report back to Council in early January. Finance Manager Inglis • If you are to make a decision for the 2009 tax year, they will have to cut some programs because it affects the 2009 budget. • Council could wait until the next fiscal year if they wanted. Mayor Lockwood • That would probably be his suggestion. • One thing they talked about in being a City and what was promised; there are so many more improvements. • He thinks the right thing to do in being transparent is to explore this and see what our options are and make the decision going forward. Councilmember Zahner Bailey • As part of the evaluation if Finance Manager Inglis could help us to know what the value of what we have included in terms of benefit through the homestead. Finance Manager Inglis • In 2007, about $265,000 this would have affected. • The amount of citizens this would affect was a lot smaller than who receives the HTRG credit. • The HTRG credit is around $259,000, so it is roughly the same but spread out differently. "'� Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, November 10, 2008, 6:00 PM Page 13 of 13 Councilmember Thurman • She also thinks we offer some additional exemptions that Fulton County does not offer, especially for elderly and lower income. Finance Manager Inglis • That is correct. • They do not have a complete exemption like we do. After no further comments the meeting adjourned at 7:05 p.m. Date Approved: December 1, 2008 jJette R. Marchia ava, City Clerk Joe Lock wo01P ayor 7W