HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes CC - 04/16/2012 - MIN 04 16 12 WS (Migrated from Optiview)Work Session of the Milton City Council
Monday, April 16, 2012 at 6:00 pm
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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 and video recorded.
The Work Session of the Mayor and Council of the City of Milton was held on April 16, 2012 at
6:00 PM, Mayor Lockwood presiding.
Council Members Present: Councilmember Karen Thurman, Councilmember Matt Kunz,
Councilmember Bill Lusk, Councilmember Burt Hewitt, Councilmember Joe Longoria and
Councilmember Lance Large.
Mayor Lockwood:
• Work Sessions are an informal setting to update Council on business items.
• No votes will be taken during these sessions.
• There are four (4) items 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. Patriots Day Proclamation Presented to the Sons of the American Revolution.
(Presented by Councilmember Bill Lusk)
City Clerk Gordon read Agenda Item #2.
2. Discussion of City of Milton Population Act Changes.
(Presented by Ken Jarrard, Esq., Jarrard dr Davis)
• In 2010, we had a census which is conducted on the city level as well as the county level.
• There are a handful of enactments in Georgia law that are triggered based upon census data.
• These are referred to as population statutes which you have in front of you.
• Unless the law provides otherwise, census data does not become applicable to a jurisdiction until
two years after results are published.
• A lot of these statutes will become effective on July 1, 2012.
• So, I have prepared a document indicating what some of the changes will be.
• This is just for your information.
• I just thought you might be interested in some of the things that are now going to be applicable to
Milton.
Work Session of the Milton City Council
Monday, April 16, 2012 at 6:00 pm
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• According to the 2010 census, the population for Milton was 32,661 with a Fulton County
population of 920,581.
• You can see multiple statutes that pertain to Milton.
• Some of the highlights of this document are:
o Our municipal court has been given additional authority to handle nuisance issues.
o The city may now authorize the sale of alcoholic beverages by the drink from 11:50 pm
on Saturdays until 3:00 am on Sundays.
o Milton can also regulate the retail sale of alcohol by the package on Sundays which we
have already taken advantage of through a referendum.
o There is now a minimum requirement that we adopt the fire safety standards.
o We are in the process of negotiating service delivery with Fulton County.
o Charter changes will now be handled at the General Assembly level.
• Again, this is just an update to changes that will take place due to the census count.
• If you have any questions, please let me know.
City Clerk Gordon read Agenda Item #3.
3. Discussion of Ordinance to Amend Article XVIII of Chapter 64 of the City Code —
Historic Preservation Commission.
(Presented by Kathleen Field, Community Development Director)
Kathleen Field, Community Development Director:
• The proposed ordinance that you have in front of you was amended by you on October 17, 2011.
• It was then sent to the State Department of Natural Resources for their final review.
• It came back with additional comments.
• Most of those comments related to the inconsistency with the existing Georgia Enabling
Legislation.
• The state wants consistency.
• Staff then took these comments and had the city attorney review those comments.
• We put those comments into a recommended document and it is in your packet tonight.
• We brought that document to the Planning Commission.
• The Planning Commission held two meetings on March 27th and April 10th to make
recommended changes to the ordinance.
• They made several changes and we designated the changes as either minor changes or major
changes. Minor changes dealt with typos, grammatical errors, etc. which are shown in grey on
your document.
• In addition, the yellow shows changes made by the state and red indicates the changes made by
the city attorney.
• The Planning Commission also made major changes which really speak to the duties and
responsibilities of the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC).
• In summary, all of their comments with the exception of one, really dealt with the relationship of
the HPC and their duties and responsibilities as it relates to the City Council.
• They felt that the draft they had, even though it reflected the state enabling legislation, really
called for the City Council to cert your powers.
Work Session of the Milton City Council
Monday, April 16, 2012 at 6:00 pm
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• So, they changed several areas in the document from allowing the HPC to have those
responsibilities to instead giving them to the Mayor and City Council.
• We took the major changes and put them into a separate document and that is also in your packet
which is called "Final PC Issues".
• So, you have two documents in front of you for discussion; one is the document with the minor
changes and the other consists of the major changes.
Karen Thurman, Councilmember:
• Do we go back to the state again with these changes?
Kathleen Field:
• If you feel like you are in agreement with the Planning Commission's major changes, yes we
would have to go back to the state because it makes our ordinance inconsistent again with the
state enabling legislation.
Councilmember Thurman:
• We do not know whether or not the state would accept those changes because we keep going
back and forth. Can we just put them together and make them work it out?
Kathleen Field:
• We haven't asked for them to do that but I guess nothing is impossible.
Councilmember Thurman:
• ` I would hate to go back to the state again because this has already been to them three or four
times.
Kathleen Field:
• Twice.
Councilmember Thurman:
• Didn't we get input from the state several times before it actually went to the state?
Kathleen Field:
• Yes.
Councilmember Thurman:
• They have looked at four or five different versions of this and I just wonder how many times we
go back to them before they say no.
Ken Jarrard, City Attorney:
• I think this is the closest version we have of being consistent with the state ordinance.
• That is one of the things we wanted to impress upon you.
• I attended the last Planning Commission meeting and that was one of our concerns that we did
not want to have another ordinance that we adopt that does not meet their requirements.
• It is my understanding that the council wants this to be approved by the state as well so that we
receive certain grant funding and financial incentives as a result of this.
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Monday, April 16, 2012 at 6:00 pm
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• The Planning Commission felt that it was less important that we get recognition by the state than
Milton be true to Milton.
• Ultimately, you are the elected officials of Milton and what you want is what staff needs to
prepare.
• It you want an ordinance that is consistent with the state and approved by the state that will
ensure us grant funding and is the most defensible in a courtroom, then I think we are very close
to being there.
• Some of the differences were in some of the powers of the HPC and those were tweaked a small
amount.
• The enabling legislation would suggest that the HPC can acquire, own, and maintain property.
• Well, the Planning Commission said, "Really, when is that going to happen?" When is the HPC
going to acquire property and utilize grant funding and receive loans and gifts?
• Therefore, as we discussed at the meeting, that is the difference between what the ordinance
states and in practicality what occurs.
• There are plenty of organizations that can do a lot more things in enabling legislation than they
really do because they do not have a budget or staff or any of the other things they need to do
those things.
• But, that doesn't mean that they don't have the power to do it, they just don't do it.
• The Planning Commission is more concerned with the law of unintended consequences.
• It you create an entity that has those powers, don't be surprised when they use them.
• The other thing I would like to mention is that one of the concerns that they had was in respect to
the variance power in the ordinance.
• If there was one thing that resonated to me very clearly from the Planning Commission was that
they were concerned with the ordinance prepared by staff giving the HPC unilateral variance
power.
• They felt that was an unprecedented game -changer in the history of Milton giving this entity that
type of authority.
• Although, they have accepted a version to come forward to you that gives the HCP that power,
they wanted you to understand that they were not recommending this.
• The recommendation was that the HCP not have that power and that power be yours.
• If the state looked at the statue, if we ultimately adopt the ordinance, and said, "You took away
that power from the HPC." What would that mean? Will that be enough for them to say, "Well,
your ordinance doesn't comply, therefore, we are not going to certify you."
• I do not know the answer to that question.
Councilmember Thurman:
• Has the state seen any of these? It sounds like the Planning Commission made some very good
changes to the ordinance.
Kathleen Field:
• When we sent the last draft, you could see clearly that the pattern was to make our ordinance
consistent with the state enabling legislation.
• With this new third draft, if we send it back to the state, if they are true to form as they were with
draft two, they would make the changes to bring it to consistency with the enabling legislation
which would then reverse what the Planning Commission recommended at their meeting.
• Again, I am speaking from patterns that have occurred in the past.
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• I really do not know for certain.
Councilmember Thurman:
• So, our alternative is to go with what the state is recommending even though it may not be
exactly what we want. Or go with what the Planning Commission has recommended knowing
that the state may not accept those changes.
Kathleen Field:
• That is correct.
City Attorney Jarrard:
• That is a good synopsis.
Burt Hewitt, Councilmember:
• Ken, you said that you thought we were close to an ordinance that would make everyone happy.
We have two in front of us. Which one are you referring to?
City Attorney Jarrard:
• The one I was thinking of was the one where everything had been adopted and put in and
incorporated except for those one or two changes that they were really hard and fast on such as
the duties and powers of the HPC and the red -line through the variance provision in the back.
Kathleen Field:
• What I did, Ken, is that I took those out which really dealt with the responsibilities of the HPC
and put them into a separate draft which is here this evening and shows up in grey changes on it.
• All the other changes were put into an alternative document including the minor changes as well.
• Those changes that refer to the duties of the HPC and reverts them back to the Mayor and City
Council, I identified in a separate document because I thought those might have an impact in
terms of review by the state and whether or not the ordinance would be accepted or not.
City Attorney Jarrard:
• What are we calling the one with just minor changes? How is that referred to on the actual
document?
Kathleen Field:
• That is identified with grey changes and they are in the document titled, "Staff Recommended
HPC Ordinance".
Matt Kunz, Councilmember:
• How much grant money are we talking about as far as this goes with the state? What is it
specifically going to be used for? Does this mean additional money that we will be receiving or
will it be money that will be taken away?
Kathleen Field:
• It is a future identification of grant money. We don't know at this point.
City Attorney Jarrard:
Work Session of the Milton City Council
Monday, April 16, 2012 at 6:00 pm
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• I think that if perhaps there are any joint projects or any joint initiatives that the city wanted to
pursue in conjunction with the state pursuant to Historic Preservation, it would be something that
would arise in the future.
• We may not know now what those opportunities would be but until we have been approved by
them we are not eligible.
Joe Longoria, Councilmember:
• Ken, regarding the language that was in question. I was at the meeting and understand what the
Planning Commission's concerns were in regard to City Council yielding some of its decision
making and authority to the HCP. Do we have examples where similar ordinances exist or
similar powers exist outside the City Council. Do we have any examples of that with, for
instance, the BZA or anything else?
City Attorney Jarrard:
• Yes, that is the most obvious one, the Board of Zoning Appeals.
• I think they were viewing it, more that, this is not quite an entity as elevated as that one.
• It is more of a minor committee and that is not meant to be in any way diminutive of the HPC,
but I think it was just a concern about the spreading of that significant ordinance -based power
too thinly across various committees and if there would be some unfortunate precedence set by
that.
• Is this the first of many of that sort of delegation of power we may see?
• I remember during the meeting that some of the members were fairly passionate about that.
Councilmember Longoria:
• I wanted to give that some serious consideration. I would agree that you do not want to just pass
an ordinance like that or in this case, give the HPC powers that were not intended just because
we didn't read the documents as closely as we should have.
• Are there other remedies to this or is it just black and white?
• Is there a way to make this a little more grey such as make this based on the action that is before
the HPC so that there are some things they can rule on and some things that they can't?
City Attorney Jarrard:
• That is a great question because it relates to Councilmember Thurman's question in that we are
playing a little bit of a game of chicken here.
• How close to the state mandated ordinance can we be with them passing upon it but us otherwise
vindicating the City of Milton's interest in being true to ourselves?
• For instance, could we add an automatic appellate right to the Milton City Council if the variance
is denied or if a third party wanted to appeal a variance and sav that it shouldn't have been
granted?
• `' Would that be something that would keep it ultimately in your regulatory purview but then the
state would say, "Well, it is 80% complete; therefore, we are fine with it."
• I don't know the answer, but that could perhaps be something we could explore with them before
we adopt this.
Bill Lusk, Councilmember:
• If we accept the ordinance as it has come to us through staff in its final draft, without making our
ordinance contrary to the state enabling legislation, could we in another ordinance in another
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Monday, April 16, 2012 at 6:00 pm
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power of City Council have the ability to create an appellate situation without altering the actual
Historic Preservation Ordinance itself?
City Attorney Jarrard:
• I understand what you are asking and that is if we can adopt a separate regulatory construct that
might be cross-referenced in the HCP ordinance but would give one or both of those options.
• However, I would rather see it spelled out fairly clearly in the HCP ordinance for ease of citizens
to use.
Councilmember Lusk:
• Another point they mentioned is buying property, it seems to me one way they would get funded
is through grants. Another way would be through our budget process through City Council. In
that sense, we would have control over what money they are spending and where they are
spending it. Would you agree with that?
Kathleen Field:
• Yes.
Councilmember Lusk:
• My final comment is that we have been working on this for five years and have spent $10,000 -
120,000 in legal fees on this one particular ordinance and, in the meantime, we have lost several
properties and we are going to continue to lose these historic properties if we don't enact some
legislation to deal with this process.
• I would personally recommend that we accept the marked up version that staff has come up with
and move forward with this.
• I think the scope and realm of the historic districts and historic properties is very discrete.
• I think that if you look at it there are three very distinct historic districts.
• There are some isolated historic properties but their purview is going to be very restrictive and
limited in what you will have to deal with.
• As this process moves along, and it is not going to move along very swiftly either, I would not be
overly concerned that they are going to go out there and spend millions of dollars and create
some unnecessary hardship on property owners creating onerous conditions on these historic
districts.
• We have shown in the past with the residents of this city, in particular, in Crabapple that we can
work together and we need to work together to preserve these historic properties.
• Hopefully, we will create a historic district which will enhance the value and appearance of our
city and, hopefully, that is where our city center will ultimately end up.
Councilmember Thurman:
• Is there a way to speak to someone at the state to find out whether or not they would consider
any of these minor changes and we could go ahead and have them made rather than having to go
1
through their long review process which we know will take another six months or so?
Kathleen Field:
• It is a thirty day process.
• They do have attorneys on staff.
• One of the reasons it takes thirty days is that they want a hard copy and a digital copy.
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Monday, April 16, 2012 at 6:00 pm
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• We have to mail them a hard copy, as well as, email a digital copy and then they have thirty .days
to review it which includes the staff and legal assistance.
• They are very short-staffed so I'm not sure we could get it in less than thirty days.
Councilmember Thurman:
• What if we passed staff's recommendation which, I believe, that between staff and state we
could come to an agreement on one and then look at the other changes to see if we could get the
state to agree to them and adopt those as changes to the ordinance after the fact so at least we
would have something in place. Would that work?
Kathleen Field:
• Absolutely.
City Attorney Jarrard:
• That's a great idea. Go ahead and get something adopted, get it in place, then approve a
recommended modification and send that to them in written form but it is not an ordinance.
Councilmember Thurman:
• We can let them look over and see if they will agree with some of those, that way we can get the
ordinance passed and in place then we can make it the way we want it to look. The Planning
Commission has some very good points that we would like to have if we can get the state to
agree to them.
City Clerk Gordon read Agenda Item #4.
4. Discussion of the Draft Highway 9/GA 400 Livable Center Initiative (LCI) Plan.
(Presented by Kathleen Field, Community Development Director and Michele McIntosh -
Ross, City Planner)
Michele McIntosh -Ross, City Planner:
• We have been working on the LCI plan since August 2011.
• We have been gathering data and meeting with staff and stakeholders.
• We hosted four public workshops and exercises.
• We presented the draft to the City Council at a joint work session on March 12, 2012.
• That was your first hearing of it.
• We presented it again at the Planning Commission meeting on March 27, 2012.
• The draft document was available online April 5, 2012.
• We went to another Planning Commission meeting on April 10, 2012 where we received a
favorable recommendation to take to council with a few changes which we have tonight.
• We also met on April 12, 2012 with ARC, GDOT, MARTA, etc. in which we received
additional information from them.
• They loved the plan so we are moving forward.
• Tonight, we just wanted to come forward and have an additional public forum to present the
draft plan in order to ensure you are comfortable with the plan.
• So, next week when we ask you to adopt this resolution everyone will feel comfortable with the
draft documents.
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• Tonight is our last presentation with the consultants so please let us know if you have any
comments or questions.
• I will now turn the presentation over to Eric Bosman who will give you an overview of the draft
plan.
Eric Bosman:
• I am just going to hit a few highlights of the plan tonight.
• The first 96 pages of the plan are the hour that we spent last month going through all of the
existing conditions, etc.
• After the first 96 pages, the plan discusses some of the issues you asked about such as,
architectural, site design, and landscape standards.
• In addition, opportunities for development rights are at the end of part two of the concept plan
beginning on page 97.
• The entire third part is the action plan where it spells out the five-year action plan.
• That includes the table on page 113 which we are passing out an updated copy of that to you
now.
• This chart is fundamental to the document.
• Hopefully, you will use this chart throughout the next five years anytime you to go ARC to ask
for additional funds, their cooperation or assistance.
• They will refer to a version of this chart which will show what you have accomplished and what
the projects and initiatives were outlined as part of the plan that may require funding, etc.
• They will look for projects on this list to see if what you are requesting is consistent with this list
and if you have fulfilled any of the opportunities listed.
• That is why a lot of the projects listed at the top of the page in grey are projects that you are
working on or have funded.
• It is also the reason that at the bottom where it states "Other Local Initiatives" there are a series
of follow-ups, efforts, studies, ideas, etc.
• This chart is important and it will be an update to page 113 in the document.
Councilmember Thurman:
• Will this document help us go after some matching funds?
Eric Bosman:
• Hopefully, it will map out the game plan moving forward.
• Also, every time you send in an application to ARC, they will ask for a table of accomplishments
which will be based to some degree on that table.
• It is the instruction plan going forward.
After no further discussion, the Work Session adjourned at 6:44 p.m.
Date Approved: May 7, 2012.
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Sudie AM Gordon, ty Clerk
Joe Lockwood, Mayor