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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes CC - 02/17/2010 - 02-17-10 Reg. Mins (Migrated from Optiview) (2)Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 6:00 pm Page I of 13 so" 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 Regular Meeting of the Mayor and Council of the City of Milton was held on February 17, 2010 at 6:00 PM, Mayor Pro Tem Burt Hewitt presiding. INVOCATION City of Milton Firefighter Jason Baswell CALL TO ORDER Councilmember Burt Hewitt (Mayor Pro Tem) called the meeting to order. ROLL CALL Interim City Clerk Gordon called the roll and made general announcements. Council Members Present: Councilmember Karen Thurman, Councilmember Julie Zahner Bailey, Councilmember Bill Lusk, Councilmember Burt Hewitt, Councilmember Joe Longoria, Councilmember Alan Tart. Council Member Absent: Mayor Joe Lockwood was absent/excused. Councilmember Julie Zahner Bailey arrived at the meeting at 6:12 pm. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mayor Pro Tem Hewitt led the Pledge of Allegiance. APPROVAL OF MEETING AGENDA Approval of Meeting Agenda (Agenda Item No. 10-1049) Mayor Pro Tem Hewitt: • Do we have any changes to the Agenda or other items to be considered? Motion and Vote: Councilmember Thurman moved to approve Agenda Item 10-1049, Approval of Meeting Agenda. Councilmember Lusk seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously (5-0). (Councilmember Zahner Bailey was not present for the vote). PUBLIC COMMENT Mayor Pro Tem Hewitt read the rules for Public Comment. • Public comment is a time for citizens to share information with the Mayor and City Council and to provide input and opinions on any matter that is not scheduled for its own public hearing during today's meeting. • There is no discussion on items on the Consent Agenda or First Presentation from the public or from Council. 4091M • Each citizen who chooses to participate in public comment must complete a comment card and submit it to the City Clerk. am • Please remember this is not a time to engage the Mayor Pro Tem or members of the City Council in conversation. • When your name is called please step forward and speak into the microphone stating your name and address for the record. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 6:00 pm Page 2 of 13 • You will have five minutes for remarks. John Bratton, 440 Bethany Green Cove, Milton, GA President of and representing Bethany Green HOA. • I'm here tonight to give a shout -out to the Council and Staff. • We live right across the street from the King's Ridge School. There was an intersection there, Bethany Bend and Bethany Church Road, that was intended for no left turn right outside our development. There were a number of illegal turns being made by people coming out of King's Ridge. • We had petitioned to have a modification to that intersection put into effect. • I'm here tonight on behalf of the Bethany Green residents and neighbors along the road there to say thank you to a number of people: Julie Zahner Bailey, Alan Tart, Burt Hewitt, Chris Lagerbloom and the staff who responded admirably to our request. I would also like to thank Sgt. Adrienne Symanowski and the Milton Police Officers who had patrol people out even before the changes went into effect. We are very appreciative and thank you very much. CONSENT AGENDA Interim City Clerk Gordon read the Consent Agenda items: 1. Approval of the January 20, 2010 Regular Council Meeting Minutes. (Agenda Item No. 10-1050) (Sudie Gordon, Interim City Clerk) 2. Approval of Financial Statements for the Period Ending January 2010. (Agenda Item No. 10-1051) (Stacey Inglis, Finance Director) 3. Approval of a Contract for Survey of Cogburn Road Bridge Replacement for $5,740.00. (Agenda Item No. 10-1052) (Carter Lucas, Public Works Director) 4. Approval of a Contract with Georgia Tax and Regulatory Solutions, LLC. (Agenda Item No. 10-1053) (Chris Lagerbloom, City Manager) Motion and Vote: Councilmember Tart moved to approve the Consent Agenda as presented. Councilmember Longoria seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously 5-0. (Councilmember Zahner Bailey was not present for the vote). REPORTS AND PRESENTATIONS 1. Presentation by Milton Public Safety Fund. (Jan Fowler, Milton Public Safety Fund) Jan Fowler: • I am President of the Milton Public Safety Fund. On behalf of the Fund, we would like to present a check $2,370.00 to the City for the purchase of Nomex fire safety hoods for our ... firefighters. • This is a new item that the fire service had requested. It's an upgraded hood to give them added low protection. We're happy to be able to present that to them. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 6:00 pm Page 3 of 13 r Mayor Pro Tem Hewitt: • We'd like to come down and accept the check. Jason will take a photograph and I'll make some remarks afterwards. • Jan and Bob, please pass on to your group how much we appreciate the efforts for all you've done. I know you've been here a couple of times before doing this, and I look forward to seeing you again. 2. Presentation of Tree City USA Certificate of Recognition. (Lynn Tully, Community Development Director) Lynn Tully: • I'm pleased to announce that we have been recently recognized by the Tree City USA program as a national tree city. The National Arbor Day Foundation gives out this recognition in cooperation with the U.S. Forestry Service and the state foresters. • We are one of 3,400 communities across the nation to receive this recognition, as well as only 130 in Georgia. • I credit the majority of that work to the Tree Committee and to our own staffer, Mark Law, who was also very instrumental in getting this promoted for us. I would also like to point out that he's been selected to go to the Governor's office and watch while the Governor signs his Arbor Day proclamation tomorrow. • I'd like to present this to the Mayor Pro Tem. I also want Mark and any members of the Tree Committee OW -0 to come up. Mayor Pro Tem Hewitt: •"""' • I'd like to say to Mark to please pass on our thanks to the Tree Committee and thanks to you for all the efforts you've put forth for this. The preservation of trees in our community is important to all of us and I know you take that to heart. We'll now take a photograph. FIRST PRESENTATION (None) ZONING AGENDA (None) UNFINISHED BUSINESS (None) Approval of a Resolution to Attach a Section Called Supplemental Plans to the Partial Plan Update of the City of Milton 2008-2028 Comprehensive Plan. (Deferred on February 1, 20 10) (Agenda Item No. 10-1047) RESOLUTION NO. 10-02-141 (Lynn Tully, Community Development Director) Lynn Tully: • Recently the Council approved a Partial Plan Update to be submitted, which replaces the Focus Fulton 2025 Plan. It referenced, but did not specifically include the other supplemental plans that would typically follow along with that. ' • What we are introducing here is a Resolution which culls out each of those plans specifically. We'd like to note that it does not supplant any of the current overlay zoning districts or their guidelines. They are separate and are still contained within our zoning ordinance. • This does include the Crabapple Crossroads Plan, approved June 4, 2003; the Birmingham Crossroads Plan and Development Standards, approved March 3, 2004; Maintaining Rural Character in Northwest Fulton County, Georgia, plus appendices, a/k/a The Rural Preservation Ordinance, approved December 5, Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 6:00 pm Page 4 of 13 49MM 2001; the Milton Trails Plan, approved July, 2007; and the 2009 Milton Transportation Plan, approved December 21, 2009. • We would like to request your approval of this Resolution. Mayor Pro Tem Hewitt: • Does the Council have any questions for staff? Is there a motion and a second? Any discussion? Councilmember Zahner Bailey: I want to thank staff for making sure the attachments clearly reflected all that needed to be there. Thank you for that effort and attention to detail. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Tart moved to approve a Resolution to Attach a Section Called Supplemental Plans to the Partial Plan Update of the City of Milton 2008-2028 Comprehensive Plan. Councilmember Thurman seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously 6-0. NEW BUSINESS Interim City Clerk Gordon read Agenda Item 10-1054. 1. Approval of a Resolution Amending Resolution No. 08-12-63, A Resolution to Create a Citizen Advisory Committee for City of Milton Concept Plans for the Intersections of Birmingham at Providence and Arnold Mill at New Providence. (Agenda Item No. 10-1054) so"" RESOLUTION NO. 10-02-142 (Carter Lucas, Public Works Director) NOW Carter Lucas: • Mayor and City Council. The original Resolution that created the Citizen Advisory Committee that has been appointed to assist with the development of the concept plans for the Intersections of S.R. 140 and New Providence and the New Providence and 372 Intersection anticipated completion of that Committee in December of 2009. • Since we didn't get started until January of 2010, this amendment merely extends the date of completion either to the termination of their obligation under that original Resolution or to the end of the term of the appointing Council person, whichever may come first. Mayor Pro Tem Hewitt: • Does the Council have any questions for staff? Councilmember Tart: Can you provide us with an update on the status of those intersection improvements, the money that might be in issue and some other things as well. What is the projected timeline? Carter Lucas: • Funding is in place. The issues with the HPP (high priority project) funding have been resolved with GDOT and we are currently in the concept design phase. We've actually had one meeting with the CAC and meet with them on a monthly basis as we work our way through the concept. We'll have the on" February meeting tomorrow night. We'll have a meeting in March and April with that committee. • After that, I think we are anticipated to come before Council in May or June with the concept plan and then we'll be moving forward with environmental and right-of-way documents. • Overall, the project completion is currently scheduled for October 2013. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 6:00 pm Page 5 of 13 vow Councilmember Lusk: • Carter, can you go over the funding again to describe what's included in that funding? Is it just for conceptual plans or is it design development? Carter Lucas: • The funding that we have in place takes it all the way through construction. The current contract with the consultant takes us through the concept development stage. Once we get through that and have an approved concept plan, we'll contract for the actual construction documents and right-of-way documents. Councilmember Thurman: • Does it include the purchase of right-of-way land? Carter Lucas: • Yes. The concept phase will lay out how much right-of-way is required and will better define the overall schedule from an environmental and right-of-way acquisition standpoint too. Councilmember Lusk: • Will we proceed with right-of-way acquisition as soon as those plans are completed? Carter Lucas: • Yes Councilmember Zahner Bailey: "we • I'm assuming 2013 is an estimate for both intersections. Carter Lucas: • Yes; they're both running concurrently. Mayor Pro Tem Hewitt: • Is there a motion and a second? Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to approve a Resolution Amending Resolution No. 08-12- 63, A Resolution to Create a Citizen Advisory Committee for City of Milton Concept Plans for the Intersections of Birmingham at Providence and Arnold Mill at New Providence. Councilmember Thurman seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously 6-0. Mayor Pro Tem Hewitt: • Will the City Clerk call the next Item. Interim City Clerk Gordon read Agenda Item 10-1055. 2. A Resolution Amending Resolution No. 10-01-128, A Resolution Appointing Members to the City of Milton Board of Ethics Committee. (Agenda Item No. 10-1055) *� RESOLUTION NO. 10-02-143 (Sudie Gordon, Interim City Clerk) Interim City Clerk Gordon: • We have an At -Large appointment by Mayor Joe Lockwood. The appointee is Lisa Cauley. For District 4, Councilmember Hewitt is bringing forward appointee Karl Hasse. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 6:00 pm Page 6 of 13 *am Mayor Pro Tem Hewitt: • Mayor Lockwood has asked me to read something to introduce Lisa Cauley to us and I am just going to read it. • "Lisa and her husband Frank have 2 children and have been Milton residents for the last several years. She has also been very active as a volunteer working for the good of our community. I would like to thank her for her willingness to step up and help by serving on this board." • Do we want to do both of these together or separately? City Manager Lagerbloom: • I'd recommend that we do each one separately with their own motion. Mayor Pro Tem Hewitt: • Does the Council have any questions? Councilmember Thurman: • I have a question for the City Attorney. These members are being appointed and there's an ongoing case right now. Will you be training them on our Ethics Ordinance because I believe everybody else on the Board has already been trained, including on conflict of interest, when they might need to recuse themselves if they've had prior instances of personal support for a candidate? City Attorney Jarrard: "�^ • Once the members are appointed and on the Board, then certainly I would advise those members with respect to their obligations, both on the Ordinance and under our own Ethics Ordinance. +�rw Councilmember Thurman: • Will you be training both of them? City Attorney Jarrard: • The primary part of training with respect to the Ethics Ordinance itself would be to provide them a copy of the Ordinance and allow them to review it so they know exactly what is expected of them with respect to a hearing that is about to occur. Councilmember Lusk: • The Ordinance does not specifically address specific issues of ethics violations. City Attorney Jarrard: • The Ethics Ordinance contains both narrow and broad ethics considerations that apply to a myriad of situations. Of course we'll go over that as we do with all members. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Zahner Bailey moved to approve a Resolution Amending Resolution No. 10- 01-128, A Resolution Appointing Members to the City of Milton Board of Ethics Committee for Ms. Lisa Cauley. Councilmember Lusk seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously 6-0. Mayor Pro Tem Hewitt: •� • I'm pleased to announce Karl Hasse as my Ethics Board Committee Member appointment. Karl with his wife of 17 years Paula has lived in Double Creek with their 3 children. Karl is a Boston native but has a been in Georgia for around 16 years, the last 7 here in Milton. Karl had his own IT consulting firm and is currently employed as a senior program manager with AT&T. Karl worships with his family at St. Thomas Church and is active in PTA and many youth sports. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 6:00 pm Page 7 of 13 mom Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to approve a Resolution Amending Resolution No. 10-01- 128, A Resolution Appointing Members to the City of Milton Board of Ethics Committee for Mr. Karl Haase. Councilmember Thurman seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously 6-0. Mayor Pro Tem Hewitt: • If I could get you to step forward, we'll do the swearing in. • Raise your right hands and repeat after me: I do solemnly swear and affirm that I will faithfully perform the duties of the Ethics Board Committee Member of this City and that I will support and defend the Charter thereof, as well as the Constitution and the laws of the State of Georgia and of the United States of America. Lisa Cauley and Karl Hasse: • "I do solemnly swear and affirm that I will faithfully perform the duties of the Ethics Board Committee Member of this City and that I will support and defend the Charter thereof, as well as the Constitution and the laws of the State of Georgia and of the United States of America." MAYOR AND COUNCIL REPORTS (None) STAFF REPORTS City Manager Lagerbloom: low"• I want to touch on a couple of things before we move into the published one we have that Carter is bringing forward from the workshop of last week. ,r.N • This is one of those things I turned over to Linda and it seems like she got it done in a day, when it seemed like it took me 3 months. We were officially and finally accepted and approved into the volunteer program at Give a Day, Get a Day with Walt Disney World. That came through this afternoon. If you search that site we won't pop up until tomorrow. • You'll see an image on our web site that deals with the census. I sent in the initial paperwork today to register the City of Milton as a partner for the 2010 census and hope that that brings some information our way quicker. There will be more information as we get closer, but we've already started to create a web presence trying to get the word out as it relates to the census. There's a tab now at the top of the page that will direct people to the right information if they want to learn about the census that's happening shortly. • Councilmember Longoria, we have looked into some of the issues you asked about yesterday with respect to the business that is transferring locations in the City of Milton. I reached out to Mr. Gray today but I haven't received a phone call back. Staff has worked on it today and I think we'll have a solution that encourages his continued operation in the City of Milton. There are a lot of things we found in the Ordinance today that are transferrable, which is nice. • I have two staff members here tonight to give brief updates and more or less distribute some information for you to take with you and digest. Then we'll bring these forward at a workshop for further discussion. • I have had Council members ask some questions about the status of Milton's defined benefit. The Human Resources Director is here and has a substantial bit of information that he's been working on over the last several months and a status update that we'll send with you tonight. • I've had a request for some documented numbers as to how we have arrived at the savings that we've publicly stated in our transition away from the C112M Hill contract and we'll provide that information to A.s. you tonight by departments that you can actually see in the line item a summary of each department's budget — where those savings are anticipated to be and how we arrived at that number. • We can talk about these 2 things tonight but I think it's better if you take the work that we've put together, read it and ask us questions when I bring it forward at a workshop in March. • I've had several Council members ask, as well as talk with the Mayor, about trying to schedule some type of a Council retreat. We're ready to do that. As you'll remember from the last one, the hardest part of the Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 6:00 pm Page 8 of 13 whole thing was picking two days. We spent almost a month picking 2 days, but we need to start that process now. Not only does our time have to match up but also the facilitator that we want to conduct the retreat. The way we did this before was we picked a couple of dates and sent it out and tried to generate consensus. I think we got lucky that we finally did get everybody together. The guidance I'm looking for tonight is whether a 2 -day retreat during the week works better. What I believe we decided before was that we picked one weekday and one weekend day, which seemed to not disrupt everybody's work week or weekend entirely, but was kind of a cross -sampling of the two. The third option would to try to do a Saturday and Sunday. The other option would be to consolidate it into a day. I think a 2 day seems to work best to get something accomplished — either Friday -Saturday or Sunday -Monday. I'm just trying to generate some consensus on availability. Mayor Pro Tem Hewitt: • For me personally a weekday and weekend day seem to work best. I agree that the overnight gives us a chance to bond as well. Councilmember Zahner Bailey: • How soon are we looking to do it? City Manager Lagerbloom: • We're probably into April or May. Part of that is not only picking the day but securing an agenda with a facilitator that is meaningful. • Once we get some options on facilitators I'll also get that to you by e-mail. *� • Let me let Stacey and Sam do what they came to do. Sam can give you a quick snapshot on what he's put together on the pension program and Stacey a quick snapshot on the package you'll see from her. Then abM we'll move on to Carter's published Agenda Item. HR Director, Sam Trager: • I have been looking at the state of pension numbers for the defined benefit plans the City offers our employees. I think we're in pretty good shape right now. This is something we probably need to look at on a regular basis, so I'll hand this out and come back during a work session in March or April to go over it in more detail. Councilmember Tart: • Have you given any thought to surveying the employees on their satisfaction with the plans? HR Director, Sam Trager: • At this point we have not done that, but it's certainly something we could incorporate if you want. We could put a survey instrument out pretty quickly to them. Finance Director, Stacey Inglis: • I was asked to put together some support for the numbers that we have provided to the public as far as the savings that we should realize in the transition away from CH2M Hill. We should see a savings of at least $1.3 million in the first year. I say first year because there are a lot of one-time costs such as vehicles, IT equipment, software. We also had 3 months of payments that we had to pay to CH2M Hill in the first year. We are anticipating another $1 million in second -year savings without having those additional one-time costs. I have some support for you to digest. too City Manager Lagerbloom: • One more thing I want to talk about tonight is a community choice technical assistance grant opportunity that we have. Lynn has some different options of what we might want to apply to this particular grant for. It's not a money grant; it provides technical assistance. Lynn will describe what this opportunity is and Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 6:00 pm Page 9 of 13 some of the concepts that the staff has come up with as options of what we might apply for. We'll go „. through those and then see if anyone else has any ideas that they might want us to look into before we make application. Lynn Tully: • This is an ARC quality growth implementation program. It's a technical assistance program. It aims to address issues of quality growth. Any priorities that we would put forth for this grant would have to relate to some of these quality growth initiatives. • In light of that, staff has come up with 4 potential ideas for this program. We would like to get from you an indication of whether or not you think they are appropriate or if you can put them in a priority order, to help us in narrowing it down so we can get this put together to have a Resolution for you to approve on March 1 st in support of it. • Idea 1 — sign ordinance provision and recommendations. Have them look over our sign ordinance and make some recommendations. • Idea 2 — a detailed in-depth land use study and master planning for the Hwy. 9 corridor. We know that this will come up as an issue at some point that we need to address. This might be an opportunity for us to get a little extra labor. • Idea 3 — to recommend an economic development program or some guidance policies to target filling vacant space. This is an issue that is becoming more and more apparent. Even the North Fulton Chamber of Commerce is trying to come up with some ways to address this. Hopefully if we put that forward we could find a way to package these policies such that we can make them specific for Milton and the types of businesses that Milton is looking for. • Idea 4 — preparing a tax assessment audit to examine and highlight properties which are coded or assessed improperly by Fulton County. As we look in the tax records, there are things that appear to be coded incorrectly and could be assessed incorrectly. Mayor Pro Tem Hewitt: • There are two that jump out to me. I think all of them have merit. The Hwy. 9 master plan and economic development for me would be No. 1. I know we've had some citizens inquire recently about the economic development aspect and we're always looking at the Hwy. 9 corridor. The sign ordinance is something I think we need to review, but we might be able to do this internally. The assessment audit would probably be No. 3 on my list. Councilmember Zahner Bailey: • I would agree. Councilmember Tart: • I agree. Councilmember Lusk: • I think the sign ordinance is an integral part of the economic development issue and has a large bearing on encouraging more commercial development in the City. So I don't think we want to diminish the importance of reviewing the sign ordinance. Councilmember Longoria: •m” • Do we have an idea of how out of sync our current tax rolls are with what should be reality? That's one of those things that's return on investment; how much time do you put in versus how much you get back. am If we're within 1%, a lot of work isn't going to yield too much. If it's a 10 or 15% thing, that could be significant. Is there a way to do a sanity check on our tax rolls. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 6:00 pm Page 10 of 13 OWN City Manager Lagerbloom: • There is with respect to some local municipalities in other counties that have done some revenue enhancement type programs. I did spend a couple of hours today looking at some revenue enhancement opportunities, not only just with respect to tax rolls. I don't have an answer for you tonight but it will be a priority coming out of my office very soon. It's been out of whack in other cities with big enough dollars that I think we need to do something about it. Mayor Pro Tem Hewitt: • Ms. Tully, with your resources, how would you prioritize these? Lynn Tully: • Based on the goals of the program and past projects that they've awarded, I think they'd be intrigued by the economic development program since it's a little different but on target with their profile directives. Councilmember Thurman: • Would that actually look through our Ordinances to see what parts may not be business friendly and may need to be adjusted, or is it just going to tell us how to attract business to the area, which is what the Chamber does. Lynn Tully: • I think it depends on how we craft the scope of it. vr-. Councilmember Zahner Bailey: • Where do we have the best opportunity to actually get the grant? It would seem that economic development could go hand-in-hand with the land use for Hwy. 9. My only hesitation on the sign ordinance is, that's something that we can review internally because an outside entity may not be as familiar with how we arrived at our sign ordinance. • Hopefully as we prioritize we're not saying one is more important than another, just which may give us the greatest opportunity to receive the grant. They're all good ideas; staff obviously put some thought into what is best to pursue. City Manager Lagerbloom: • I think I'd like to pull the revenue one off the list. I think there's a better way to do it. Follow-up Discussion on Recommended Changes to the Traffic Calming Ordinance. (Agenda Item No. 10-1056) (Presented by Carter Lucas, Public Works Director) Carter Lucas: • Following our discussion in January about changes to the Traffic Calming Ordinance, I wanted to come back around to a couple of components of that which I think were outstanding and needed a little more discussion. • Speed eligibility criteria, study area, petition percentages and provisions from the HOA for some �.•�• questions that I had taken from that last meeting that I don't think have been fully answered. • The speed eligibility criteria was the one that we had discussed. Under the current Ordinance, you have to have an 85 percentile speed 35 miles an hour or greater above posted speed limit. The consultant that we had hired to review this had some back with a recommendation modifying that to 3 miles per hour. We really felt that was too low to see any effective measures work on a speed like that. We looked at Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 6:00 pm Page 11 of 13 .... Woodstock and they had a 30% or greater above the speed limit. Going back through our data, that put us into a speed of 4-5 miles per hour. We also thought that was too low. • Our discussion had been that 6-7 miles per hour would be an acceptable range. Looking at that data, we set a 50% over the speed limit. If 50% or more vehicles were traveling over the speed limit, it would qualify under our program. We could either set that as an 85b speed of 6-7 miles per hour or use the 50% of vehicles over the speed limit. My preference is to utilize the 50% of vehicles over the speed limit because it's simpler and easier to comprehend. We have 5 subdivisions that would meet that criteria. • The next question we had was the definition of the study area. When we look at the percentages of who would have to file the petition, the study area defines the lots that would have to be considered under the petition application. The Woodstock Ordinance uses two criteria: lots with driveways connecting to the affected street and lots on intersecting streets with no other outlet. Marietta's study area is defined as any lot that's likely to traverse the traffic calming measure. Paulding County used the entire platted subdivision. Sandy Springs left it wide open that the study area would be determined by Public Works. • We were looking more towards making the determination like Marietta. Under our current proposal, 75% of the lots within the study area would have to be in favor of the traffic calming measures in order to move forward through the application process. Mayor Pro Tem Hewitt: • It looks like we have two things to come up with in this segment: one what the percentage is and two what the study area is. Which study area definition did we use? Carter Lucas: °p-" • The Marietta version. • Then we had some questions about the HOA and their participation. Under the current provisions, we Name have had some discussion about whether or not if an HOA wanted to pay for the entire traffic calming program for their subdivision but they didn't meet the eligibility criteria, whether or not that would be acceptable. Since our thresholds are very low, our opinion would be that it would not be acceptable. • Next is whether or not a HOA could sign in place of an approved percentage of homeowners. My opinion would be that since we're using tax dollars to do the traffic calming installations, that we would want everyone to have their opinion heard as to whether or not they're installed in the subdivision rather than turning that authority over to the HOA. There's no real guidance on that. The current code is written to allow the HOA to speak on behalf of the homeowners. Councilmember Longoria: • I just want to understand the process. We are petitioned by a neighborhood, we go out to do a study, we find out that 15% of people passing through this neighborhood are doing speeds in excess of 50% of the posted speed limit. If the cut-off is the 85th percentile, and the 85th percentile has to be a certain number of miles above the posted speed limit, we are documenting that there are speeders. Then we're putting up additional criteria to say whether or not we're going to address that problem? Carter Lucas: • Through active traffic calming measures, you would have to meet certain criteria. I think the question is, to what degree is there an issue? There would be certain passive calming measures that may assist those subdivisions that don't qualify for the full program. wpm Councilmember Longoria: • How does this work in an open road situation? Carter Lucas: • It wouldn't because those speeds are generally above 35 miles per hour. This Ordinance addresses speeds of 25 and 30 miles per hour, which are considered more the local residential subdivision type streets. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 6:00 pm Page 12 of 13 Now Councilmember Zahner Bailey: • To make sure I'm clear, we need a policy and how we allocate dollars that are collected through taxes? Regarding HOA's, I think it's important that folks that live in a subdivision have a voice. If 50% of the cars were in excess of the speed by 6-7 miles per hour, was that the standard that you were recommending? Carter Lucas: • Actually, it's if 50% are above the speed limit, period. Most jurisdictions go by an 85`x' percentile speed, but most people don't know what that is. Looking at the data we have, we feel 6-7 miles per hour over would get us into a range where some of these traffic calming measures would be effective and this didn't create a program that was so large that we couldn't fund it. Councilmember Zahner Bailey: How do we manage the study process? Carter Lucas: • We'd typically count over a 1 -week period. When there is an application, we go through the different criteria to see if it qualifies for the study. It would be done on a first come, first serve basis. We'll try to walk the applicant through the initial application process so they understand what they're getting into and the time frames associated with it. At this point I think it's a manageable process. +■-■ Councilmember Lusk: • Going back to your survey, is this certified data? Carter Lucas: • I think we would recount these. Generally data is valid for a 6 -month period and we're outside of that. This information was collected in probably February of last year. The list could certainly change based on new data. Councilmember Tart: • Are there any examples of communities around the country that have used traffic calming settings, especially communities like us? Carter Lucas: • The examples that I've seen where they use traffic calming measures on roads, the conditions are somewhat different. I haven't seen one similar to ours, but they are probably out there and we can take a look. Councilmember Thurman: • I think this is a great first step, but I do want to see us look beyond this because, where lives have been lost is not as much in the neighborhoods as on the open roads. I do believe we have to address that. Councilmember Lusk: • Chris, did we purchase 2 portable speed trailers last year? "no City Manager Lagerbloom: a • What we purchased was speed signs that are transportable, but it takes a big truck and 4 people to move them. We found more permanent locations for the signs where they are effective (Summit Hills Elementary on Providence Road). Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 6:00 pm Page 13 of 13 now Councilmember Lusk: • Are they eligible to be purchased through grants? City Manager Lagerbloom: • Occasionally. It's typically in a public safety grant. Councilmember Longoria: • Carter, I would ask that you really consider the whole approval process of this thing as either let the HOA make the decision for its community or define 75% a little better. If you feel compelled to change the process that we have now, I would drop it to a majority and take into account the people who participate in the vote versus all the affected homeowners. Councilmember Zahner Bailey: • I'm trying to understand the cost impact. Carter Lucas: • That will be up to the applicant. It'll be a 50-50 split with the City. Councilmember Tart: • With regard to the recommendations for the policy, I think it's important to mention that just because a neighborhood is approved for this, it doesn't mean the City will have money to pay the 50%. I think it's important to point out to our citizens that, just because you're approved, the taxpayer money may not be used by the City because we may not have that money. to" • Also, even though we're not voting tonight it seems like we have a majority who are in favor of the 75% petition requirement. In light of the size of most of our neighbors, I think 2/3 would be more than reasonable. • It's probably not practical to consider traffic calming measures in open road neighborhoods anyway. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't do something. • In terms of money saved from transitioning from CH2M Hill, I think we can all agree that money needs to be prioritized in terms of health, safety, welfare and quality of life of our citizens. I would assume we are going to look at that at our retreat to figure out the priority of using that money. EXECUTIVE SESSION (None) ADJOURNMENT (Agenda Item No. 10-1058) Motion and Vote: Councilmember Thurman moved to adjourn the Regular meeting at 7:27 p.m. Councilmember Lusk seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously 6-0. Date Approved: March 15, 2010. rrw � Sudie AM Gordon, Ynterim City lerk Burt Hewitt, Mayor Pro Tem