HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes CC - 11/14/2012 - MINS 11 14 12 WS (Migrated from Optiview)l
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Work Session of the Milton City Council
Wednesday, November 14,2012 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 November 14,2012
at 6:00 PM, Mayor Lockwood presiding.
Councilmembers Present: Councilmember Matt Kunz, Councilmember Bill Lusk, and
Council member Lance Large.
Councilmembers Absent: Councilmember Karen Thurman, Councilmember Joe Longoria, and
Councilmember Burt Hewitt.
Mayor Lockwood:
• Work Sessions are an informal setting to update Council on business items.
• No votes will be taken during these sessions.
• There are five (5) 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.
Sudie Gordon, City Clerk, read Agenda Item #1.
1. Discussion on the Birmingham Road/Hopewell Road Intersection Improvements.
(Presented by Carter Lucas, Public Works Director)
Carter Lucas, Public Works Director:
• I would like to thank our consultants from Pond and Associates for all their work on this issue.
• This project began in May of this year.
• We have worked our way through a boundary and topo survey and have been developing some
concept alternatives for intersection improvements at this location.
• Tonight is a culmination of all of this progress.
• We have conducted an on-line survey to gather comments from the general public.
• We held a public information session earlier tonight.
• We have received around 85-90 comments from the on-line survey.
• We would like to present to you tonight our options and receive your feedback.
Work Session of the Milton City Council
Wednesday, November 14,2012 at 6:00 pm
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JMayor Lockwood:
• Why are we considering a roundabout?
Carter Lucas:
• Well, they have become the preferred alternative due to the following reasons:
• From a safety standpoint, traffic tends to be a lot slower in a roundabout and there are fewer
conflict points.
• A traditional intersection has about 32 conflict points where there is potential for an accident.
• Roundabouts only have about eight conflict points.
• Roundabouts are also easier on pedestrian movement.
• Pedestrians only have to cross traffic going in one direction.
• There are islands where pedestrians have safe havens to wait for traffic to calm before crossing.
• Traffic is more predictable.
• Roundabouts are more applicable to the green initiative due to cars not idling, stopping and
starting of traffic signals, and less maintenance of traffic lights with operators fixing broken
signals due to bad weather, etc.
• We wanted to define the purpose of the project.
• We try to tie all our projects back to the Transportation Master Plan that was approved in 2009.
• This project was the next on the list and identified as a problem traffic area.
• We looked at the accident history in this area and between 2008 and 2011 there were 26 J
accidents at this location.
• Since July of this year, we have had six accidents in which five of those included making a left
hand turn onto Hopewell from Birmingham Road.
• These accidents resulted in seven injuries.
• We ran simulations during the morning and afternoon peak hours at this location and it is evident
that there is tremendous traffic back-up.
• We ran simulations of the roundabout and the traffic signal as well.
• All ofthese simulations can be found on our website at www.miltonintersectionprojects.com.
• According to our online surveys, 59% are in favor of the roundabout and 37% are in favor of the
signal.
• Most of the online comments came from people who live on the north side of Milton and
frequently use the intersection.
• The roundabout right-of-way will require 28,000 square feet as opposed to the traffic signal
right-of-way of 6,850 square feet.
• There are eight properties involved in this project.
• One of those properties, the Hopewell House, belongs to the city.
• We would look to begin at $60,000 per acre for acquisition of right-of-way.
• We are looking at about $750,000 for a signal versus $950,000 for a roundabout because of the
additional work and land acquisition that would be involved.
• These are just initial costs that do not include long term maintenance, operational costs, power, J.
etc.
• We will light the approaches to either alternative.
• The traffic signal would take four to six months to construct.
• The roundabout would take six to nine months.
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Work Session of the Milton City Council
Wednesday, November 14,2012 at 6:00 pm
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Sudie Gordon, City Clerk, read Agenda Item #2.
2. Discussion of Milton Branding and Signage Project.
(Presented by Jason Wright, Communications Manager)
Jason Wright, Communications Director:
• This is the third presentation regarding our new logo study.
• The logo in front of you is a modification of a logo that was previously presented based on the
comments and suggestions that were made at the prior meeting.
• I made the horse smaller and used a combination of browns.
• I have also been working with the Milton Business Alliance to create a new logo for them as
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• I have coordinated our logo with their logo so they will look nice together.
• Our logo is brown and their logo is green.
Sudie Gordon, City Clerk, read Agenda Item #3.
3. Discussion on the Milton Sign Code for Birmingham Crossroads.
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(Presented by Councilmember Matt Kunz)
Councilmember Matt Kunz:
• Birmingham Crossroads is in my district.
• They have 30,000 square feet of unused space and part of the challenges that businesses in this
area are facing is that the sign code is restrictive and they are having a difficult time with
potential customers knowing where they are located.
• I have heard from eleven different businesses in this area.
• I have asked them what they need from us to help them promote this area.
• They will have a list of requests to us within the next month or so.
• We also need to address the use of neon signs in this area.
• Some of these businesses have a neon sign hanging in their window but it is turned off because
they are not allowed to use it.
• Some businesses are hanging flags in front of their store fronts to advertise to the public that they I
are open. I
• Neither of these actions are aesthetically appealing so we need to re-Iook at our sign ordinance
for this area. r
• The Milton Business Alliance is having a difficult time suggesting to potential businesses that I
they should move into this area.
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Work Session of the Milton City Council
Wednesday, November 14,2012 at 6:00 pm
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Sudie Gordon, City Clerk, read Agenda Item #4. J
4. Discussion Regarding Revisions to the Regulation of Solid Waste Collection Services
Ordinance.
(Presented by Cindy Eade, Sustain ability Coordinator)
Cindy Eade, Sustainability Coordinator:
• I started working with Matt Marietta about a year ago to look at our solid waste ordinance.
• Milton Grows Green decided to review our policies and make sure we were as "green" as
possible.
• We need to renew our solid waste policy.
• We haven't really had a good system in place to make sure that all waste haulers had a fair
chance to get business and be treated equally.
• We also wanted to make sure that every business in this area that is hauling is in compliance with
our policies and procedures.
• I wanted to give you an opportunity tonight to ask any questions you may have before we read
the new ordinance at our next regularly scheduled meeting.
• When reviewing our solid waste ordinance, we discovered that there was a duplication of
information regarding fees so we are looking at deleting section 46-3 and referring everything
regarding fees to section 46-70 which is on page 13 which is more specific about how we charge
our infrastructure maintenance fee.
• In talking to some of the haulers, many of them did not know that the infrastructure maintenance J
fee was supposed to be paid on commercial hauling as well as residential hauling.
• The reason for this is because these vehicles are some of the heaviest vehicles we have on our
roads.
• At capacity, some ofthese vehicles can weigh 70,000 pounds which can cause a lot of wear and
tear on our roads.
• The infrastructure maintenance fee has to be paid whether a solid waste company is a
commercial hauler or residential hauler.
• We receive payment from our haulers on November 15 th for the third quarter.
• I worked with our Finance Department to see if we could put in some type of late fee to help
with the processing of trying to track down business who are late on their payment.
• In addition, our Compliance Officers have no way of knowing which haulers are authorized to be
in Milton.
• So, we thOUght we would issue a decal once a year once we have received all the required
information from an approved hauler.
• This decal idea has worked well for John's Creek.
Sudie Gordon, City Clerk, read Agenda Item #4.
5. Disculsdsio~ll0frfTwo ProbPoseld Planning Studies: 1) State Route 9 North of Bethany Bend; 2) J
Arno Ml om Cra app e to County Line
(Presented by Kathleen Field, Community Development Director)
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Work Session of the Milton City Council
Wednesday, November 14,2012 at 6:00 pm
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Kathy Field, Community Development Director:
• There are two proposed planning studies; State Route 9 North of Bethany Bend and Arnold Mill
from Crabapple to County Line.
• We are going forward with the Form Based Code for the whole area.
• However, it was brought to our attention that we left off the area north of Bethany Bend on
Route 9 that goes up to Forsyth County.
• That is a sensitive area and there has been no planning for it such as rezoning for the Form Based
Code.
• We felt that was a valid concern so we would like some guidance from you to allow us to
proceed with conducting a planning study for this area.
• We would review this with the Planning Commission and the public.
• We could do this study in-house without having to hire a consultant.
• We could work on this during January and February of2013.
• Once we have an approved plan for this area, we can then rezone this area and use the Form
Based Code.
• We are referring to this area as Route 9 North.
• We believe this is an important area and want to make sure it is included in our plans.
• We would like to know if you want us to conduct an in-house study of this area so we can bring
it into the fold.
• We will conduct an extensive survey of homeowners, HOA's, business owners, and key
stakeholders to include as many people as we can to receive input.
• Moving on to the Arnold Mill corridor; you should all have a map in front of you ofthis area.
• We had thought about creating a masterplan for the Arnold Mill area.
• We asked Roswell if they would be willing to partner with us to create a masterplan of this area
since this area dips into several parts of Roswell.
• They were not interested in our proposal because they felt that what they had was adequate but
they would act as a stakeholder in our study to protect their interest in the project.
• After talking to ARC, we felt like this corridor would not be as competitive for the LCI money as
some of the other proposals that would be forthcoming from the region.
• I approached ARC with a proposal for the land use division to conduct a week long community
study to create a masterplan.
• The total cost of the plan would be $5,000 which would include lunch, space for a week for them
to meet and have stakeholder meetings, space for two community meetings, and a professional
illustrator.
• They would use their staff and our staff would provide all of the background information and any
arrangements they needed.
• Once this plan is reviewed and approved we could then implement it into the form based code.
• I just need to know if you would support this iniLiative.
PUBLIC COMMENTS (None) l
Work Session of the Milton City Council
Wednesday, November 14,2012 at 6:00 pm
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After no further discussion, the Work Session adjourned at 7:47 p.m. J
Date Approved: November 19, 2012.
ordon, CIty Clerk Sudie AM
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