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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes CC - 01/05/2011 - 01-05-11 S.C. Mins (Migrated from Optiview)Special Called Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, April 11, 2011 at 5:00 pm Pagel of 3 Nowm „r, 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 includes limited presentation by Council and invited speakers in summary form. This is an official record of the Milton City Council Meeting proceedings. Official Meetings are audio recorded. The Special Called Work Session of the Mayor and Council of the City of Milton was held on April 11, 2011 at 5:00 PM, Mayor Lockwood presiding. Council Members Present: Councilmember Karen Thurman, Councilmember Zahner Bailey, Councilmember Bill Lusk, Councilmember Joe Longoria, and Councilmember Tart. Councilmember Hewitt was absent/excused from the meeting. Mayor Lockwood: • Work Sessions are an informal setting to update Council on business items. • No votes will be taken during these sessions. • There is one (1) item on our Agenda tonight. • Public comment is allowed that is germane to an Agenda Item. • If you wish to speak you are required to fill out a comment card and turn it into the City Clerk staff. • Public comment will be allowed for a total of 10 minutes per agenda item and no more than 2 minutes per person. • Public comment will be heard at the beginning of each Item. • Once the item is called, no other comment cards will be accepted. City Clerk Gordon read Agenda Item #1. 1. Final Presentation by Lew Oliver, Inc., Whole Town Solutions to Identify the Long -Term Planning Needs of the Crabapple Crossroads Community and the City of Milton's Future City Center. (Presented by Lew Oliver, Whole Town Solutions) Lew Oliver: • This is the final presentation of the Crabapple Crossroads Community planning. • We had a full week of stakeholder meetings from the business community, churches, schools, citizens groups, neighborhood groups, special groups, and people that were advocates for the elderly. • We went out in the field and looked at existing conditions and areal maps. • It will take about a generation for these plans to be fully implemented. • A lot of the pro traffic people in the City came out in the form of blogs. won • I looked at Google Maps and you can see the traffic problems live. • There are some traffic problems at the Crabapple intersection and a great deal of traffic problems i ftw at Arnold Mill and Crabapple Road. • If you pan over towards Gwinnett County the largest problem areas are ones with 4+ lanes. • If you build more roads you will fill them and cause congestion. • The square in Dahlonega is a good example of something we were drawn to. Special Called Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, April 11, 2011 at 5:00 pm Page 2 of 3 • Between Roswell and Alpharetta there are some major problem areas due to widened lanes. .. • Our subject area is about 533 acres, the Crabapple node. • The node is about %2 miles across which is the size is about 2 neighborhoods. • You can get people to walk into town centers if you locate them about 1250ft from the Town Center Maximum to their front door. • There are several neighborhoods that could form in this area. • We came up with a solution with the input from many groups to help with traffic. • The solution was the addition of two roundabouts. • The roundabouts would provide traffic calming around the edges and would facilitate free flow of traffic from Charlotte North. • These roundabouts would enable traffic to come off of 372 and backload the three schools. • It is a problem because it backs up traffic by the schools. • Our biggest issues are left hand turns and queuing traffics. • Peachtree City has a great example of a green street system where it allows bikes, pedestrians, and even golf carts. • We met with City of Roswell transportation who was interested in tying to the Green Street System in the Southwest area going towards Arnold Mill. • We also met with Alpharetta who was interested in tying in as well. • We met with the two of the principals of the public schools excluding the middle school principal and the high school principal volunteered to take up parking spaces to put in golf cart spaces if the green street system happens. • Golf carts are a great solution to pollution and parking. +�+ • The landscaping that we have currently in Crabapple is wonderful but we have narrow sidewalks. • I think that parallel parking would be a great addition to Crabapple Road. • There are a lot of historic buildings in Crabapple, some of which are in great shape and others in poor shape. • I would like your comments and feedback on my presentation. Mayor Lockwood: • I am excited about the plan and I think it looks great. • How in the past have you seen a project like this funded and what steps are next? • Chris, what is the process we go through next? Lew Oliver: • There are grants for getting infrastructure improvements. • There have been some ideas that have come to us including if you're serious about saving the countryside and possibly transferring development out of the country into a city zone, such as Crabapple, we were thinking of ways to take advantage of that process. • You can do a lateral transfer, meaning one unit to one unit. • Usually you have to give incentives to give up land or to transfer it. • You can find ratios on the transfers. Special Called Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, April 11, 2011 at 5:00 pm Page 3 of 3 City Manager Lagerbloom: • The next step for us, we will bring this plan forward in the May work session. • The reason to do that is for all of you to have a good back and forth dialog and discussion. • If you're going to adopt this vision for Crabapple, we will need to do something that officially resolves that it is the direction we are going in. • If we do that, staff and our planning department would need to find out what parts of the crossroads plan might need to be opened up and modified. • Some things in the plan aren't possible right now, but some are. • 1 am looking for a yes or a no on if you all think we are going in the right direction. • I have heard many positive comments on this plan. Lew Oliver: • I am a new urbanist and I enjoy density in areas. • We need a very sensible build out for this city to pull it to its full potential. • 140 acres would be for the three school systems. • The planning code advocates for a building density of about two units per acre. • If we take the schools out it leaves us with 393 acres. • At two units per acre, that leaves us at 786 units. • We counted the units that are on the ground now, which are 147 units. • There are 505 proposed new units, which includes the units that have already been graded and allotted for the developments primarily in the Northwest side and some on the Southwest side. • This will give is 652 total units existing in proposed new which is under the two acres per limit on the land not taken up by the school. • There are seven buildings shown for senior housing that can be two stories tall and can contain 20 units per building for 140 units. • If we count those as housing, we are over our limit by 6 units. • If we don't count them as housing at all, we are well under our limit. • We did not calculate any new commercial retail buildings. *Questions from audience were inaudible. Councilmember Zahner Bailey: • Between now and May, I think we need to be careful when we look at the calculations for the residential density. We need to understand what is being proposed. After no further discussion, the Work Session adjourned at 6:15 p.m. Date Approved: May 2, 2011. Sudie AM Gordon, ity Clerk Joe Lockwood, yor