We're gathered here tonight for a special called session of the Athens Clark County Mayor and Commission, which will be immediately followed by our agenda setting session.

Go ahead and begin with a roll call from our clerk.

Here.

Present.

Johnson.

Here.

Call Paper.

Here.

My Thornton.

Here.

Ham.

Here.

We have all.

All right.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I'll begin with our civility pledge from the Georgia Municipal Association.

This indicates that the way we govern ourselves is important as the positions we take, that our collective decisions will be better when differing views have had the opportunity to be fully vetted and considered.

All right.

So for folks who are joining us tonight, whether in the chamber or across the globe online, um, we are gonna have a couple opportunities for public input.

Uh we'll have one in front of our single item here uh on our special called session.

And then when we move to our agenda setting session, uh we'll have an opportunity for public input on the consent agenda.

We'll have an opportunity for public input on each of the eight planning and zoning items that we have, uh, and then we'll have an opportunity for public input on old and new business.

Uh each opportunity tonight is a three-minute opportunity for public input.

You see a light in front of the clerk.

It will turn green when you begin speaking, where you provide your name and place of residence.

It'll turn yellow when you have 30 seconds remaining, and then it will turn red when your three minutes has expired, and I'll thank you for your time with us tonight.

Uh so uh we we are here just for the special called session at the moment.

Is there anybody who would like to speak to that single item on the special called session, the College Square Pedestrian Plaza?

All right, uh just uh name and place of residence.

Uh my name is David Land, and I 226 Hill Street, Athens, Georgia.

Um I have the pleasure of serving as co-director of the Athens Downtown Development Authority, and on behalf of the Board of Directors of the Downtown Development Authority, we uh express our thanks to the mayor and the board of commissioners for entering into this partnership to construct what undoubtedly will be one of the mayor of public spaces in Georgia.

Uh this will be a heavily visited, heavily photographed, and produce a lot of memories for visitors and residents alike, and we appreciate your participation in this project.

Uh we've assembled a dream team of designers, planners, engineers, managers, legal help, uh to assist us in this project.

And uh we're here at answering questions you have, and we're excited to get moving.

It's getting towards the finish line.

And I'll leave you with a comment that's always struck me about downtown.

Uh the mayor of Durham, North Carolina once uh spoke about the importance of downtowns and he said a downtown describes a community like a living room with uh defines a home.

So we're building a great place for downtown and I play as a waste athletes deserves.

So thank you so much for your help.

Thank you, Mr.

Lynn.

Is there anyone else here to speak to our single item of new business on the special called session?

All right, seeing none.

Um this is uh item of new business, so we do need to consider under suspension of rules, can have a motion for suspension of rules, please.

So move.

All right, I've got a motion from Commissioner Thornton, second and second from Commissioner Hamby.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any posed.

All right.

Hearing none, motion carries.

All right.

I'll uh entertain a motion at this point if the Commissioner would like to place it on the floor.

So move.

Second.

All right.

I've got a motion from Commissioner Hamby.

And second from Commissioner Wright.

Uh Commissioner Hamby, any remarks?

Sure, just a couple.

I appreciate uh former Commissioner David Land again, I've been speaking about this.

This is a it's a big project for us.

It's a it's part of a uh T-splash project, but you know, the downtown above authority, along with your help is uh uh um making up the difference uh from the we only had about 500,000 in the in the uh T Splash budget for doing this.

It's actually a you know, as years have gone on, it's turned out to be a six million dollar project, but it's gonna be well worth it because uh like uh like uh director Lynn said, this is kind of the living room, you know.

So uh uh it's not like my living room, you know, my living room has a lot of beer bottles laying around, so so but I know sometimes this living room gets set as well.

Uh but uh at any rate, and uh member too at a one of our ADDA meetings.

Uh uh Director Led mentioned that um you know it's always whenever you're watching one of the football games, the Georgia football games on TV, they uh always take a shot of College Avenue in the arch.

And uh sure enough, this weekend there it was.

Uh so I was glad to glad to see that, and that's very good public relations for uh the university, but also for for our downtown as they as they see uh something improved next time they take a shot like that.

And I will say this on a side note, um Mayor, you know this too, and Alison, you know this as well that uh the Christmas elves are busy at work.

So they will be uh they're out uh putting up lights uh on college uh avenue uh up to City Hall and down Clayton Street.

So by um uh Wednesday of next week, you should uh have some Christ Christmas cheer to for all to hear.

So thank you.

We will take every bit of it.

Uh Commissioner Wright?

Um yeah, I um look forward to this uh continue partnership continuing and uh take changing what when did we vote?

2020 to close the the road to make it the square, and so now instead of walking up and down the um curbs, previous curbs and the uh previous markings for the lanes, it'll be bona fide um plaza.

And I think that it'll get a lot of coverage um when the football drones are here for game days and SEC Nations and everybody to enjoy um when we're in it.

Commissioner Fisher.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I look forward to this too.

Um do we have a um timeline for you know once we vote when we talk about trying to have all those completed, um do we have a timeline on the I think I think by November, December of next year?

Timeline in the uh gender report has us finished by the end of the summer.

Okay, that's yeah, quicker.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, and uh we we've experienced many a construction project, so uh I'm not gonna swear on a Bible or anything of the sort, but uh that's that's what's in the agenda report.

Uh Commissioner Myers.

Uh yeah, I I have a question and I am supportive of this.

But first, thank you very much, Commissioner Hambey, for the news on the lights, because I was looking for those.

So I'm not sure.

They're really called Christmas elves.

Yeah, okay.

Oh, right, okay.

Okay.

I'm excited about that.

Um I was just uh I was looking since we were looking at various financing of various projects.

Um I was looking at the uh you know where the revenue streams were, and it was talking about you know the increase in the on-street parking, and they would also talk about the the increasing the ADA's share of net downtown parking from 20 to 40 percent that that was in the budget, and I was just curious whether was that something that was in the mayor's budget?

It's been there for a couple years now.

It's been the c okay, because it's been there for a couple of years, because it implied that we just what it was my recommendation.

Okay, because it implied that was that a change this year from that chip.

From prior years, it used to be 20 percent.

At least three years now.

Oh, okay.

The the agenda report made me think that it was um that it just happened in this last one.

So parking management agreement was provided for that for this purpose, this project.

Okay.

All right.

Anyway, that's that helps me understand it.

But anyway, I'm I'm happy to hear see this happening and uh can't wait.

This project prior to this.

Prior to this, but it may be a misstatement.

That helps this project.

Yes, okay.

That helps project.

Yeah.

I'm good.

Commissioner Davenport.

Yeah, I may have missed this.

And um, thank y'all.

Uh one percent support this.

Remember years ago um during COVID when we had initially voted on this.

But if I missed this, then it's my bad.

But um it's a kind of pitch.

But um it's a kind of pitching back in and off of Commissioner Fisher's, but um, and if I miss it, just Dave will end just get up here and tell me we're not completely doing construction shutting down.

We're how's this thing to be done like you made it easy on us back in 2020 by closing at vehicular traffic at that time.

So unlike the Clayton Street project, we don't have to manage for vehicles, but we do have to manage for pedestrians, and our construction partner has guaranteed that they're gonna keep businesses open and uh pedestrian access to all the businesses.

So thank you.

All right, there's a motion from Commissioner Hambey and a second from Commissioner Wright.

Is there an ordinance on this attorney Drake?

I look I don't see any.

I didn't either.

All right.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right, hearing none, motion carries.

All right, could I uh get a motion to adjourn the special called session?

So move.

All right, got a motion from Commissioner Link, second from Commissioner Thornton.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All right.

Any opposed?

Hearing none, motion carries.

All right, we are gonna move right into our agenda setting session.

Um the consent agenda was previously approved uh for inclusion in this agenda.

Those are items one through seven.

The consent agenda at the voting meeting will be approved with a single vote.

Uh is there any member of the public who would like to speak to any of those consent agenda items one through seven?

All right, would any commissioner like to remove a consent agenda item for discussion?

Commissioner Link.

Number two, please.

Any others?

All right, so we'll move two to discussion.

All right, I'm gonna relocate now, and uh then we'll go ahead and hear our planning and zoning items from planning director Bruce Line.

You ain't gonna move something.

Mayor uh Bruce Lonnie's brought in a sleep.

Pillow, this uh sleeping bag is tea.

I'm sorry, I I want to remove seven.

Seven.

Yeah, for discussion.

My bad.

No worries.

That's not what's on my screen.

Yes.

Joe, hear the joke about two mayors going into a bar.

No, we lost sorry, sorry, Kelly.

Don't they only two?

No.

And one commissioner.

It's always when I get it set up.

We're being savvy this time.

So by way of preamble, um, we have eight items tonight that will be on the December uh meeting agenda for vote.

Six presentations.

Excuse me.

So um sometimes there's a collective groan when there's eight zoning items to present.

So found a way to get a couple coupons in so that we can have six presentations of the presentation at brevity.

There we go.

Alright, so first item is up on the screen, 2415 Jefferson Road.

Yes.

Come on.

There we go.

All right.

This is a plan development request.

All the items that I'm presenting tonight were heard at the November 6th Planning Commission meeting.

This item is a planned development to reimagine and redevelop the Homewood Hills shopping center.

The zoning there is commercial general, so if approved, this would be commercial general PD.

Future land use would not be changed.

It's general business now and would remain.

What's proposed is a binding plan for two apartment buildings that would have a total of 233 units, 382 beds total arranged across the 233 units.

Eight townhomes, 92,000 square feet of existing commercial would remain.

The breakdown of the residential would be as follows: 9% would be studio units, 15% would be one bedroom, 70% would be two bedroom, and then the townhomes represent 6% of the overall.

633 surface parking spaces are proposed as part of this development plan.

362 of those would be for the residential and 271 for the commercial.

And there is 29,000 square feet of plaza space, some of which is arranged in an amphitheater along the Homewood Drive frontage.

There's also an amenity area proposed for the residential buildings that does include a pool.

So just to get you familiar, if you're not already with the area, this is just north of the 10 loop interchange with Prince Avenue, where it shifts to Jefferson Road.

You have Homewood Hills subdivision that kind of starts just to the west, and then really more in place with this are the cottages at Homewood along Magnolia and Blossom Way that are to the west, and then there's rail bed to the south.

Future land use would remain the same as I noted, general business.

Zoning is CG, with CGPD being the end result that is being requested.

The surrounding zoning, it's a large parcel of commercial general.

There is no commercial general on other parcels other than the front corner, which is a service station.

Some photographs of the site, looking through kind of that axial drive that runs from Jefferson Road to the west and east in these two images.

This is a drive from Homewood into the shopping center at the western end.

And then the view on the right is Magnolia Blossom Way and the fence that is there to kind of break up the visuals between Magnolia Blossom and the back side of the existing shopping center.

This is the view from Homewood Drive.

Of note with this image is really the topographical drop.

It's a considerable amount lower inside the development site than it is at the roadbed for Homewood Drive.

And some other photographs of the existing commercial.

And the adjacent residential.

So we've got this here for comparison.

You'd see the broken up massing of the buildings to the west, the left side of the screen, where the residential would go in, and then everything to the right is that existing commercial and existing parking.

So this is where they started.

And after hearing comment from planning commission in the neighborhood and having a public meeting, at least one, I think there were several, uh, with the neighbors.

Um they revised it to this, which was a smaller footprint for the northernmost multifamily building.

Um, introducing those townhomes as a transitional portion of development coming from cottages at Homewood into the site.

Um you see the amphitheater use there along Homewood Drive to the north as open space.

This also punches up the landscaping that is proposed as part of this development, which also includes incorporating tree islands into the existing parking that would otherwise remain unchanged as part of this development.

And then you see a little bit of change on that northern edge where that I alysis clinic was originally built, and the thinking there is that that might shift to a residential, I mean uh a restaurant use.

And then this is the plan that would become binding as proposed as part of the PD.

Really modest changes from what you saw in that last image.

We have a little bit of a change to the driveway, an improvement to the driveway entrance that it's at the western end.

Um kind of works with the topo a little bit better, um, has a better sight line for bringing folks in.

Um addresses the pedestrian interconnection.

So there is no vehicle interconnection into cottages at homewood from this development, but there would be a pedestrian connection that comes along the alignment of Magnolia Blossom Way across and through the two buildings, the residential buildings that are proposed.

Um the largest changes that came with this third submittal.

The architecture that was submitted for the residential buildings shown above.

Um we'll talk about building 100 and building 200 here in a second with the recommended conditions.

But these are multi-story structures with a modest amount of commercial at the main.

Um that ground floor commercial would face more or less inward as proposed to the shopping center.

And here's building 200.

This is the building to the north, 100 is the building to the south.

And then these are the townhomes.

And where the townhomes are located, there's a good amount of cross slope.

That entry drive comes in just about a road grade and drops really quickly.

So some of the units will have fewer stairs than others just in responding to that grade.

And then here are some images to kind of help see how this might be built out.

Um the upper left-hand corner is looking from Homewood Drive into the site toward the west.

Uh, the other view to note would be just below that one on the left-hand side, which is where those townhomes are located.

Um, I think there'll be a little bit more topo there, so that unit that's closest to us in the screen image will probably be recessed a little bit, and then they would become proud out of the ground from there.

Uh the area on the right, both those views are in between buildings 100 and 200, which is intended to be activated space for pedestrians with cars as sort of a secondary thing.

Um, in theory, really for fire and emergency access, but also for residents and perhaps customers of the commercial uses.

There were six waivers requested with this plan development, started with a few more and got trimmed down to six.

From a staff evaluation standpoint, we weren't able to recommend approval of the waivers requested, largely because we weren't we weren't seeing the hardship, and with requested waivers one, two, and six.

Um it looked like you could find a way to get there, but the request itself wasn't quite hitting the mark for for staff to feel comfortable requesting the waiver.

I will say planning commission gave considerable discussion of this.

They did get comfortable with these requested waivers, and they found that a couple conditions might also help address their concerns.

So staff's analysis, and this is more than planning staff, this would be public utilities, public works, all of our other development review departments, had a handful of things to note.

Uh, sanitary sewer capacity right here is is hard.

Um, and so the design is anticipating an on-site storage facility that would deal with wet weather flow.

Um that is an acceptable approach from public utilities, but it is worth noting that that's how they would have to make this work.

Staff found that this is partially compatible with the 2023 companies.

It is certainly in-field development.

It is a property that that is deserving of attention and perhaps a new life.

Um, but it is introducing more of the same housing type that we've seen in other parts of town.

And at the end of this design, because it's not really redeveloping the entire site, we still have a pretty auto-centric development that doesn't really integrate the business district, which would be a reason to do a PD.

Um, it is compatible with future land use map, but not aligning exactly with zoning because of those waivers that they are requesting.

But planning commission in their review of this, they found that they could approve it, and they had three suggested conditions that helped work through their concerns.

First condition is that, and this was one that was proposed as part of staff's review, that the proposed area and location of where they have their conserved tree canopy down by the railroad, that would be binding.

We don't normally make canopy binding as part of PDs because we run into issues with site development where we may have to work it out.

In this case, we were suggesting making an exception and having that conserved canopy be binding because there's just not that much conserved canopy on the site.

Second condition from planning commission is that 75% of building 100, which is that southern building, the larger of the two residential buildings, as it faces into that new roadway.

75% of that frontage would be used for leasable commercial or commercial-like amenity spaces.

In other words, could not be used for residential units.

It would have to be activated in some kind of way.

And then the ground floor apartments in building 200, which is the northernmost building, where they face inward, actually, for all of those ground floor apartments, they would have to have a ground floor entry out to the street.

So we would get that animation of the space through tenants moving in and out.

It wouldn't just be through some interior corridor.

But that was planning commission's recommendation approval with those three conditions.

Thank you, Bruce.

I'll uh ask if any member of the public would like to speak to this side.

Just provide your agreement place ready.

Jack Murphy, 537 Spring Valley Road, Atlanta, Georgia through 318.

Good evening, everybody.

My name is Jack Murphy.

I'm the chief investment officer at Carter.

We're a 67-year-old development company based in Atlanta.

We specialize in mixed use and multifamily development, primarily around the Southeast, and we began working on the homewood village redevelopment in June of 2024.

After working with our civil engineers and architect, we produced a site plan that, despite a lot of the constraints on the site, achieved the following replacement of outdated retail with high quality apartments, improved walkability, safety, and connectivity, increased the tree canopy from 12% to 47%, and replaced hazardous failing stormwater outfalls with modernized working outfalls that would reduce runoff to the neighboring community.

All of this while having having a minimal impact to traffic according to a third-party traffic study performed by Atlas consultants, the projected increase of less than two seconds of travel time going in any direction during peak hours.

We submitted this plan to the city and hosted an open house at Chopperwood United Methodist.

After two more open house meetings, three planning commission hearings and numerous meetings with Commissioner Fisher staff, local residents.

We incorporated some community feedback and made the following improvements.

We converted the vehicular connection to the cottage at Homewood to be pedestrian and bike only.

So that would eliminate cut-through traffic through the neighborhood.

We added a row of townhomes along the western edge of the property to transition the scale and increase a and introduce a four-cell component to the four-rent apartment component.

We reduced the size of the northern building by over 40%, shifting density to the townhomes as well as the southern apartment building, which also moved farther south to lessen visibility from the neighborhood.

And lastly, we added 4,000 square feet of ground floor retail space in the southern building, which we have programmed to be a coffee shop.

They would open up onto an 8,000 square foot patio.

And we added 2,000 square feet of retail space in the northern building, which we have programmed to be a yoga studio, which would be adjacent to the newly added 29,000 square foot amphitheater that has public access.

We do require the six waivers, as Bruce mentioned.

Four relate to legacy site conditions that cannot be addressed until a future phase when the existing retail leases expire.

One reduces the minimum parking count to match with the ULI shared parking guidance for the uses on our plan.

And the final one concerns the ground floor retail, which as Bruce mentioned, we reached a compromise on with planning commission reflected in conditions number two and three, which we're happy to comply with, and we're also happy to comply with uh condition number one.

So since our initial meetings, we've received over 40 signed petitions from neighborhood residents in support of the project and a recommendation of approval from the planning commission.

Uh many of our associates at Carter, including me have strong ties to Athens and the University of Georgia, and we know how underutilized this property is.

So we would be honored to help change that, and we're happy to answer any questions that you guys might have.

Thank you, Mr.

Murphy.

Thank you.

Would anyone else like to speak to this proposal?

Seeing none, we'll come to commission discussion and Commissioner Fisher's district, district five.

Thank you.

Appreciate it, Mayor.

And um, I want to thank um Carter and really want to thank the residents of Homewood Hills.

We had over eight meetings uh with the product that we started last year, and when they first brought this to me, and the cool out first hour that you know is just through the housing.

And sure maybe it wasn't, and we went back and forth with the residents there to add in those town houses so we can have some diversity of housing apartments, townhouse which will be for sale.

Um also there will be an HOA attached to that um townhouse um complex.

Um Lafarella has been there for a number of years, will continue to stay there.

Matter of fact, they're gonna give new space, bigger area to um operate, so there will be some restaurants there.

Um, the amphitheater is gonna be really nice, and really um my hope is that the people from um Homway Hills will use the amphiber, the outside space, the outdoor space, um, to really use there to really be sort of like a community gathering.

Um but I I do support this um project.

Um I think in the one I think one key is most of y'all may or may not know we um begin to medical school.

I think the timing for this particular um redevelopment is perfect.

Um the marathon school is within walking distance, and it's on the bus line, so I I think the um the tenants probably gonna be more military school type students and professional students, so uh and professional, possibly young professionals that will be living in this space, so uh again I support this project, and um I'm glad we had that time to really put something together that you know because you don't please everybody, but at least you know we um um talked to a number of people, and we just thought it was a good project, and I said I do support the project.

Thanks, Commissioner.

Any others?

Uh Commissioner Link.

Um yeah, I I don't doubt this um property is definitely ripe for redevelopment.

I spend quite a bit of time here.

I do a lot of my shopping at Dollar General.

Um and I you know I took a look at this, and and I'll admit I haven't watched any of the planning commission meetings or been to any of the public meeting, and my first thought was those townhomes seemed to be an afterthought, and it turns out they were.

I really would love to see more um V simple housing incorporated into this rather than just mid-rise apartments.

Um I'm I'm kind of heartened and that there aren't any folks from the community here uh in opposition to this.

So uh it seems like you know they've done their due diligence in reaching out to folks.

I'm a little concerned about the amphitheater as an amenity, it just seems to kind of be like a single use amenity.

Um I I kind of wish it was something that was a little more flexible, you know, or even just field and park space rather than a blank amphitheater, but I I understand the topography's rough.

Um it does give me a little pause that it was very much a split vote on the commission on the planning commission and that staff recommended denial.

Um I'm I'm definitely gonna go back and watch that meeting and then try and understand how the planning commission really felt about this, and and um if there were any public comments at that meeting, Commissioner Taylor?

Um, yeah, I would like to ask the developer in the um agenda report.

There was a statement made that you chose market rate rent because you didn't want undesirables living there.

Could you elaborate on who the undesirables are just so if they're watching, they know that's not who we want living there.

Uh I don't think that we ever said that.

It wasn't you who said it was a I think it was maybe somebody at the planning commission that maybe uh took something we said and misunderstood it or something.

Okay.

Um but we yeah that I certainly wouldn't have said undesirables because that's just not a word I use.

Oh okay.

That's outside my vocabulary.

Commissioner Wright?

It wasn't we're glad that we got that straightened out, aren't we?

We are okay.

All right.

Um so much for what we read.

Thanks for being here for us to ask.

Um Bruce, you want to give us a little highlight reel, or what was it the differences in these conditions versus the other conditions for staff's denial?

So um staff's review of this really focused on what what PDs are intended for.

And um our initial analysis of this was there was a path to approval that would be a special use, for example, to allow for the ground floor commercial, and really everything else that was being asked for would have worked by right in the CG zone, other than the ground floor um residential.

And so the applicant chose the PD route.

Okay.

Um the PD route is is typically something that's used to give relief when you're proposing a use that wasn't anticipated, or there's something unique that you're having to wrestle with that the code has no way of talking to.

And and the only way to get there is through a PD where you're looking at sort of the uniqueness of the site.

And I think that's where they leaned was the site's unique with the Georgia Power easement that runs through it and the existing leases that some of the tenants have that are that are long-term leases.

Um so from a staff standpoint, we were viewing those things.

We were looking at the more the physical and the development aspects, right?

And they were bringing to the table more of the business side of things that is really beyond our scope.

So that's where we had a difference of of review on this.

But I'll say in the three instances that the planning commission heard it, um the discussion was lengthy, thorough.

Um no stone was left on term, and and I think they gave it its due as far as consideration goes.

Gotcha.

So and I'm a big fan of the ground floor residential.

So the switch to that was uh more the interior facing because you didn't want people anyway, it was just well planned versus um the whole ground floor not being commercial.

Is that how it ended up?

That's how it ended up, and you know, one of the things I should have noted too, this this planned development is on the entire tract.

Yeah.

And really all that's being redeveloped is a portion of the track.

So one of the things that staff kind of came back with with our last analysis was perhaps run your calculations off of the part that you're redeveloping and not off the whole, and that way there's a chance for some residential capacity to be a part of a second phase of redevelopment when the day comes that those leases time out, or when the market catches up and it makes sense, you still have residential um capacity to put put back on that plan.

Um again, that was a separation that we had in our analysis of it versus what the applicant was asking for, and ultimately we're the planning commission layers.

So so some of the differences in approach or the chosen the PD versus special use was the phasing.

And I didn't see I didn't see in the packet, it didn't stand out to me what the phasing was.

Correct.

And so that that was another comment.

Um essentially all the areas that are along homewood drive to that dry aisle and then to the west, that's all phase one.

Okay.

Phase two, at some point in the future would be the redevelopment of the existing commercial that's going to be allowed to remain.

It is getting a facade treatment, so it's not that it's going to stay exactly as is, it is going to get some aesthetic attention.

Um, but the massing, those buildings themselves aren't aren't changing.

Um tenants may change possibly, but we were led to believe that those long-term tenant leases were gonna make that hard.

Um so in looking at that, we ended up with some segregated uses where PDs and our design standards and our comp plan push for integration of uses, so kind of moving the residential in and amongst the commercial in some form or fashion, and this really was just pulling it apart.

Okay, so if I go deeper into what the staff report is, am I gonna get a better appreciation of this phasing that you're saying?

I think so.

Okay.

And then um again, the ground floor was speaking of somebody who has been on crutches for 11 weeks recently, ground floor residential is a good thing.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

I'll probably I'll just reach out after I get a bit more time for if I need more understanding that got uh commissioners Myers Johnson, Culpepper Line up.

Yeah, um Yeah, I I did just listen to the the planning commission meeting, and they did go on, and I actually was expecting there to be more residents here because there were quite a few residents uh who at that meeting.

Um I'm understanding it better now as well, and that lease agreement.

I guess I'm looking at page 27 and 26 of the report here that shows me basically how some of the buildings I've are going away, but there's this lease restriction.

How long is that lease restriction for?

I mean, that's that's part of the thing.

Like, is it five years, ten years, fifty?

I mean, do we know anything about that?

It's on page.

Probably a good question for the applicant.

Yeah.

You want to ask the applicant to the other.

Yeah, let's ask the applicant.

So you've got a national brand.

Yes.

So I'm not sure exactly what exhibit you're looking at, but if it's the one that has some of the suites in red that are existing.

Yeah, it's it shows the whole existing site, and it has uh, you know, sort of a rectangles over this area that says lease restricted, the place where you're currently those tenants have control through there's different suites, they have different leases, but anywhere from through 2030 all the way through 2037, depending on the tenant and the specific suite.

And so, well, those are through their tenant options, so they do control it.

There's no way for us to kick them out unless they decide to leave on their own.

So that's why, you know, I don't know exactly what design's gonna look like in 2037, but we couldn't fully commit to a phase two aesthetic or what it's gonna look like until we understand exactly when those leases roll and when the phase two is gonna occur.

Yeah, okay, thank you.

That's helpful.

So that the and that little building in the front that's along Homewood Drive.

Is that is that is that going away, the one the what's the one?

No, so that's not that's what Commissioner Fisher was speaking about, that Lorea is gonna be moving.

Oh, it's going to move there.

Okay, okay.

I didn't I missed that move in there.

Thank you.

That's helpful.

So here with this, I mean, this isn't necessarily for you.

This is because the clinic commission spent a long time talking about how, you know, because it wasn't a PD for the whole site, that all the housing was going over here on the left, and when you got to this place where you can get to phase two, when it happens, you wouldn't be able to put any housing there because he will have used up all the housing allotted housing uh you know allowances, right?

Is that correct?

Uh other than making use of inclusionary zoning to to buy right, bring some units forward in that way, but all the units then would need to be inclusionary zoning satisfying units based on the current CG model.

Correct.

Right.

So if that changed, but someone could make it a argument to change it a little bit.

So now I understand better.

I wasn't looking at the picture when I was listening to the planning commission.

So basically you're taking half, well, those other far building and turning a third of the site into all the housing, and then have the the the you know, it'd be like if you're it could it could end up being beechwood where all of the housing is on one side.

I'm making this in this make-believe world, and you have this thriving shopping area on the the part that's least restricted theoretically, with those nice trees and the parking lot.

Okay, thank you.

Commissioner Johnson.

Thank you.

I have a several questions.

The first ones are for Director Mulani.

You mentioned that when you started your summary that I'm going to read what I wrote down here.

In some respects, it was hard to approve because some of the waivers did not, they just didn't see hardship.

What does that mean?

And who is this that who who is the they would be the waiver requests.

Those I could have said those instead of they, but those requests, three of them, one, two, and six, were ones that we thought with some adjustments to the plan could be justified.

Um, the waiver from required minimum 10% tree canopy to 4%.

Um ultimately we ended up with a condition of approval that did address that waiver.

Two, the waiver from the requirement that residential units must be on the second floor and above.

Um we were looking and ultimately the planning commission landed on a condition that treated those ground floor units that fronted onto the the new activated axial drive in between the 100 and 200 buildings.

They addressed it through their condition.

So that's the kind of thing we were looking for from the applicant, and it ultimately came out in the discussion.

And then six was the number of parking spaces required.

And this is where we were struggling with lease agreements and parking spaces not being available by terms of a lease agreement, but it appeared they were being counted as possible for residential uses.

So we were looking for a little more clarification on six regarding parking.

Um ultimately the planning commission wasn't concerned about that.

Items three, four, and five, those waivers we were really kind of struggling with.

Um the maximum block size of three acres is a standard that we use to try to break up projects and make their scale work be a little more pedestrian friendly to give you a why.

Yeah, I don't understand hardship.

We didn't see the hardship.

So I we didn't see how they couldn't do that.

That hardship is how they could complete it.

Correct.

How could the design not achieve that?

I was so unclear about that.

Yeah.

The next thing I want to ask you about, you made a comment about partially compatible with the 2023 comp plan and the very very next it wasn't it wasn't a sentence, it was a comma.

You stated then it was it is compatible with the 2023 comp plan.

Is it or is parts of it is part of the case?

So the difference between the future land use map, the comprehensive plan, and zoning.

So it is partially compatible with the comprehensive plan.

So aspects of it, and they were enumerated, so in fill development is compatible.

Um what's not compatible is the fact that we're we're seeing a a submittal that is the same site, same sort of housing type that we've seen in other developments.

The comprehensive plan is looking for variety of housing.

There it's it's calling for those to be thought through.

Um there are some townhomes proposed, so in all fairness, there is an aspect of this that introduced a new element and a new form of housing.

Again, partially compatible.

And then the auto-centric development, looking back at that site plan and thinking about how it's really segregated into a high-intensity residential use to the west, and then still kind of uh a commercial development that's relatively unchanged other than landscaping to the east.

Okay.

There was I did attend the very first planning commission meeting right after I walked over there from the budget meeting that we voted on that night.

And when I walked in, because I had other items on the agenda in District 6.

I the discussion for this particular development was had just started, and it was standing room only.

I stood on the wall for over over an hour, and there were about 30, 40 people there from this and this community and the surrounding communities.

And the one thing I remember them communicating so um strongly is that why do you have why does the development have to start on the site where the residential part is?

Why not fix up the Jefferson River Road side, do something with the Chevron, you know, space.

And I and I understand from the developer some of the challenges and the leases, and I get that part, but how did the could you could you share how did they those individuals that live around this space get to the place where they accept this?

Because I also thought more people would be here.

I I think that helped.

I think um the massing of the buildings was also altered so that building 100, I'm sorry, building 200, the northernmost one, the short side was now facing cottages at homewood rather than a long side.

So it looked it's a smaller looking building from the view of their neighborhood.

Um the the developer also had uh additional architectural information that they shared um that I think was received positively.

The townhomes certainly were received well, the landscaping was enhanced, and that pedestrian connection was reinforced.

So I think all of those things helped.

Thank you.

Commissioner Cole Pepper.

Um yeah, so looking at this, I think there's a lot of positives about it.

We've got a um shopping center that's been underutilized for several years, and there's several issues with it right now.

Um you've got I think 10% tree canopy right now and a failed stormwater um management system.

Um so you're increasing um you're getting less impervious um area, and then you're also increasing the tree canopy.

I guess the requirement's 40% and they're going to 47.

Yes, they're um, and then talking about you know having the commercial on one side and the residential on the other side, you can't put anything because they've got those buildings released out, so they can't touch them.

Um with you know, I'm all I agree with Commissioner Wright on the ground floor residential.

If you look at a lot of these uh mixed use developments that are come up around downtown, around downtown Athens and around all around Athens, all the stuff that's commercial on the bottom is vacant.

Or it keeps turning over and turning over.

And I think you know, allowing them to put residential down there.

I appreciate the developer making some concessions.

I mean, I I would have tried to get the whole thing residential because they're not gonna be able to lease that stuff out.

Um, but they you know they work with um the community and with staff to try to get it.

So I mean, I think it's a good good project.

Commissioner David.

Yes, this is uh Carter Engineering.

If you can come to the east side and work with me with Willow Woods, I've been centered, that'd be awesome.

Um so this is beautiful.

This is what we need to see more in our community where we use what we have unused space that we're redeveloping to more part-like walkable um residential space because this is great use of unused property in Asquar County.

It looks really good.

Um my question was for the plaza.

Okay, because we just got finished talking about the noise on this.

And there's residential right across the street next door.

Um and you know, there's gonna be, you know, when it's phase is getting built out, it's gonna be probably heavily used for like concerts and you know, event space.

Um is it potential to add fencing, like uh eight-foot fencing for just that plaza area?

Is it possible?

It is possible.

I I would just know there's I think about a 16-foot drop from the roadbed down into the site.

Yeah, so you probably wouldn't even see the fence if you built one along that back curve of the amphitheater.

Um, I think I think the applicant has stated previously that they're they're hoping that the sound would be dampened by kind of going into the slope.

Okay.

Um, but I understand your point.

I had another one, but if it comes back to me, but this looks um Yeah, this looks good.

Got uh Commissioner Fisher and Link.

Okay, yeah, yeah.

I just want to sort of close it out and echo, and I appreciate my colleagues um making comments.

But again, I think to Commissioner Cole Pepper's point, that um particular develop um parcel property it's been sitting for a number of years.

This is becoming the eyesword, actually, be honest with you.

And I appreciate the developer cars coming in and really try to um redevelop that project.

And again, and I appreciate you all going to the planning commission, but I'll say we had eight meetings with um people in that community.

Yeah, everybody didn't agree with the project.

Um I I haven't been a project, I haven't ever been abroad.

Anybody everybody agree, but it's the right thing to do.

I think it's gonna from a tax perspective is gonna generate more um taxes on property taxes within the with the townhouses.

So um, I think it's a really good project.

And as a matter of fact, I know it's a good project, and again, I just think that we weren't looking at trying to redevelop projects and and really try to get the neighbors involved.

I think we went about the right way.

We want that input, well, the good, bad or ugly, want that input.

I think we did that.

We took the time to meet with everybody.

We had like a number of meetings with that, and again, um can't please everybody, but when you got a project, I feel like it's that property sort of stress a little bit.

We try to uplift and and let me remind everybody because it's a PD, could just came in and did whatever they want to do and not really enhance the property at all.

So I just want to add that.

Uh haven't heard from Commissioner Thornton, and then we'll go to Commissioner Link and we'll wrap.

I know that this doesn't look exactly like the project that is further out on Jefferson.

Oak Grove.

Yeah, that is really a beautiful area.

I mean, I I can't even imagine those single homes that are to your left before you go in to and then you go to the apartment.

So it's very diverse, and I just I go to the dentist there now.

So that's the only reason.

But I was really shocked how beautiful what and I didn't hear any complaints.

I don't know how long that's even been there.

But I have no complaints.

How many years?

Uh maybe two now.

Really?

Okay, yeah.

Two years, yeah.

Okay.

I haven't heard no complaints, no, you know, it's and it's just beautiful.

So I I imagine that this is going to have that same kind of look.

Now I don't know about that amphitheater, but we'd be in LRC talking about the noise control, but but um, but I do think this is an excellent project, and this is the way we want to go.

And having community meetings eight times, I tell you, I know how that can wear you out.

And you just do the best to get the best information.

So it's it's I yeah, unless something really crazy happens, I could see me supporting it.

Commissioner Link.

Yeah, I mean, I I want to bring up the amphitheater again too.

Um, you know, we we definitely have like noise complaint issues, and I I don't know what kind of programming is gonna be associated with this, but I'd you know, I'd really rather see that space be more multi-functional, the kind of place where you could like let your kids run around or go throw a frisbee or whatever.

Um not just a kind of blank empty bowl that's only used a few times a year for a concert that might piss off the neighbors if it's too loud.

Well, but that was sort of one of requests though.

I mean that came out.

They're interesting.

And I think from I mean the topography is uh it's kind of a no-brainer for some.

Yeah, but but I let me say this.

I at least in my mind, I may be wrong.

I didn't picture so much of a so much of a concert type stuff to your point.

I'm thinking more people just gathering.

Yeah.

Just you know, just sort of hanging out.

Now it could lead to that, but uh in my mind, I didn't um see just big concerts going on and got bands and stuff.

Um I mean, I I wonder if the developer would be open to kind of reimagining that space a little bit to make it a little more multifunctional.

Yeah, yeah, who knows through.

Is he can he come up?

Well, I I don't know that we're gonna design on the floor.

I I think your suggestion is her.

Maybe Commissioner Fisher and I can talk about some food.

Well, I I I'll say and then we'll wrap.

Um I've seen this property and sort of all stages of its life from you know vibrant center anchored by Win Dixie to uh to one that's got a couple of great tenants, but definitely has gotten rough around the edges.

Uh I'm really happy about the notion that you could have not just medical students but medical professionals who are working in the Hawthorne and Prince corridors right there by their jobs or or by their higher education uh rather than five, ten or fifty miles away.

I know a lot of folks who work at the hospital who who are having to drive in from uh far Jackson County or Gwyneth, and so this would be uh uh an enormous opportunity.

And you know, on the question of the amphitheater, I really read that as a little bit more like the Spanish steps, yeah, uh, where you know folks are sort of hanging out and not so much where you're booking a band to play.

Um but anyhow, uh appreciate everybody's comments, and uh, we're gonna have Bruce move on to uh number nine.

McClung Roads.

All right, thank you.

So this is the first of one of our two first.

So this is two requests, one presentation for 115 McClung Road.

The applicant is asking for a rezone of the property, and then in conjunction, should the rezone be approved, they are then asking for a special use permit approval with a cut with a variance uh related to floor area ratio.

So we'll walk through this really quickly.

Um the ask is for a rezone of the existing parcel from commercial general and commercial rural, it's a split zone parcel, to employment office.

The special use application predicated on is is predicated on the approval of the rezone, and the reason why they want a special use application is to allow for self-storage as a use in the employment office zone, um, which was a text amendment that this body approved uh not that long ago.

Variance application then is part of the special use.

So rezone, if that's approved, then special use can be heard.

If the special use is considered, they're asking for variance to allow floor area ratio to go from 0.75 to 1.

So a one-to-one ratio of land area to building area is what they would like in order to accommodate the self-storage development.

There is no proposed change to the future land use map classification, which is general business.

So here's the property in McClung Road.

We've had this particular new stretch of roadway before you on a couple of occasions recently.

This is the next wave.

Um this development sits behind the existing commercial that fronts on highway 29.

Uh the property has a considerable amount of slope.

You can see here it's also kind of shallow and long.

The this property was originally a part of the development when first laid out, but it accommodated that detention pond that you see at the top as well, um, which is serving multiple properties and is required.

So this is trim down that area, and and the developer has been looking for a use since this development has evolved.

Future land use is general business would remain that.

And then this shows you the change.

We would have kind of a moment of employment office on this otherwise local street that connects to a major corridor.

Um this is the site plan that if the special use were to be approved, this would become binding.

Um there are a handful of notes on the left-hand side of this that may be worth coming back to um in a moment, but they are offering a climate-controlled self-storage proposal.

It's a multi-story building.

Um, I believe four stories with levels below grade, street grade, because it does drop away.

Um the challenges for the site that they found to be compelling for asking for the special use is that it's it's odd-shaped, it's has a severe grade change.

Um by their estimation and their market study, it is second-tier commercial land in this area.

Um, and it is kind of a remnant parcel, is what they've argued.

Um, in between some other things that had been master planned.

Uh the request then is for that rezone and the special use and the variants.

So here's the architecture that was submitted with the application.

Um I would draw your attention to the the view on the let's make sure I get the right one here.

To the east, so the upper right-hand corner, that's what you would see from McClung.

Um below that to the west, that would be the rear as you drop down into the site.

So that shows you the extreme nature of that that grade change um from front to back on the parcel.

Some images that were shared from uh I believe a site in Sugar Hill that the applicant submitted and and presented as part of the record at the planning commission.

This gives a little better sense of the architectural treatment, and this is something that they had indicated would be the architectural treatment that they would use, should this be approved.

Um this site also has that grade change.

So what you're seeing in the lower left-hand corner is the rear of the property where you could enter into a higher ceiling conditioned storage space, and then the upper levels that you're seeing in the upper left corner that would be visible from the roadway would be more typical ceiling heights and conditioned space.

So the analysis of the rezone, not the special use, but the rezone was found to be compatible with the comprehensive plan, uh compatible with the future land use map, zoning map and the ordinance planning commission recommended approval of the rezone.

Regarding the special use analysis.

There were questions about compatibility, and what the notes that you're seeing here are the ones from staff.

Planning commission in their deliberation kind of wrestled through these things, and they found that the special use could be approved, and their recommendation was for approval.

Um finding that what the applicant was explaining about the site in their market study was compelling.

And then the variance analysis, it is a single variance.

The variance would not be necessary if it remained CG because CG allows for more floor area ratio.

They can't do the storage in the CG zoning.

So they needed the change in zoning to do self-storage, but that put them in a category where they didn't have enough floor area ratio to make a competitive build of the self-storage.

So they're asking for that increase from 0.75 to 1.0.

Um the planning commission found that to be they found all five variance criteria to be met.

There's also special mention made of the extraordinary circumstances of the site.

Um and so they did recommend approval of the rezone, the special use, and the variance requested with the special use.

All right.

Is there any member of the public who'd like to speak to uh either component of uh this uh the submission for 115 McClung Road?

I see that.

Uh yeah, there's three minutes.

Thank you.

Um agent for the owner, Marshall Land Holdings, and we are also the property owner of the property behind it that was been previously rezoned by this body for a uh apartment development.

Part of the uh data that I just dropped off for everybody to see, we did submit a market study, and the market study was done last January.

The market study points out there's 15 self-storage facilities within a five-mile radius.

Climate control, there's only 150,000 square feet within a three-mile radius, and the travel distance for climate control is a three-mile radius of that 150,000 square feet, 90 percent of that is occupied.

One of the second things that I've passed out in that list is the 15 properties that are Marcus City identified as self-storage.

Twelve of the 15 are built in commercial zone properties, CG.

Our property is zone CG.

If we were allowed to build this use in CG, we wouldn't be asking for a zoning change, wouldn't be asking for a special use, so we wouldn't be asking for a variance to increase the FAR because the FAR is already allowed as 1.5 for a CG zone property.

I th I'm not gonna speculate on what you did, but I think the thought press on that was is we don't want to lose prime commercial land for self-storage and other buildable markets.

This is a great market, and the reason it's a great market is the third uh slide or the third handout that I have for you guys, is there are five um new residential developments that were not included as part of our uh market study, and none of those five were um utilizing any of the 150,000 square feet.

Within those five um part within those five uh uses that are around us within a half mile radius of the site, within a half mile radius of the site.

This body and planning development has already approved 1700 units, 3,500 beds.

So none of those 1,700 units and none of those 3,500 beds are accounted for in anybody else's uh self-storage unless they've gone outside those radiuses because those radiuses were already filled up.

Um other thing to point on our site is Hill Point, which is a prominent developer here in Athens that has two of those projects across the street.

They gave us a letter of support stating all the reasons that we stated on why this would be beneficial to the area.

So we see this as a is an ever-changing growing area.

I know that highway 29 corridor is very important to the to Athens and the city, as evidenced by everything that's out there.

We feel this is a great complementary use for this piece of property, which we inherited when we bought the rest of the land that has a 16-foot grade change on it that does not have another reasonable use that can afford to build a basement wall, fill in the site with 50,000 square feet of dirt, and then bring in a commercial use that would be affordable for anybody.

Thank you and be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much.

Is there anyone else here to speak to the submission tonight?

All right.

Um guess um did he pass out some she wants her hand something for later review.

Uh uh, it may help uh everybody to look at it.

Uh uh it may help uh everybody to look at it um Kelly but I do support this a hundred percent um I do think this gives me another reason why we need to look at our zoning um I think that having to actually have to come before us what this is the third time this is the third not for this piece but but he's been here before but where this property if you if you go um behind Wendy's on 29 it's the back street so it's not in the um shopping area because there's a street there and um so as far as traffic or um any other inconvenience you wouldn't this would not interfere in that district on 29 I have one two three I have at least four new developments multifam multifamily um residence I do we we it's not student oriented so but there's a need for this uh storage facility because of the growth in Athens I think this will generate our tax base um I don't know if Kelly remembers when a gentleman tried to sell us the local government a piece of that property and we didn't buy it but um I do think that if you go down north on 29 it's just booming right now and I do think that the time and energy that um Eric has spent on this and he took me out and we walked down the little slope so it doesn't interfere and it's behind the growth the the the restaurants there's a little street there.

So I do support it I suggest if there's you know I always tell you guys I try to do my homework ahead of time but if you want to go and look at what I'm talking about there's nothing else that can be built in that area unless you pile it up with dirt to level it out.

It's nothing else that can go there.

So that's my um thanks Commissioner Wright um yeah first I have a question in the report it talks about a rezone and the special use but the agenda only has one vote.

When it comes to us do we not have the two different votes you have two items on your agenda for this back to back.

Well if I would look down it's gonna be the other part of this so that means we're moving on to 11 right this was the two frame that was my promise and I was not paying attention back then that was so long ago okay thank you but Alison I'm glad you said that because that was the point that I think he was making about some changes that we've done if this had been traditional it would have been just one vote.

It would not have to go through a special commit and I am going to talk to Bob about this because I hate rezons period but I am going to talk to Bob about this because we our our job well staff's job and our job is try to bring in economic development opportunities but not at the expense of you know people not you know having problems doing business with us so I did promise um Mr.

Eric that I would be talking to um Bob but it's it's a good it's it's some extra work but we and we got to vote twice.

No I I get it it's the two agenda items I'm I'm I'm clear on it now we got the two votes happening simultaneous and then we'll just jump to 11.

I'm good.

Commissioner Myers yeah um can I listen to all this uh discussion uh with the the back and forth with the planning commission um and was remembering I think it was right when I joined the commission that we or right before that we put this made this uh special use request and I know it's inconvenient but if I remember we were that was about the time we were looking at a uh mini storage over there by Southeast Clark Park and there's a lot of mini storages there and um in this case it might be the perfect place but um I was just hearing something on the radio as well about how investors use uh storage areas as an easy investment for real estate because it's so easy to it's not it doesn't take a lot to put them on there and then when it comes to another time you can change them so I you know for various reasons I think there are good reasons for not making it as easy to put self storage units in place so I'm not sure I really want to go about changing that because we don't want the we we want that redevelopment that Commissioner Davenport was talking about over in that uh

So I you know, for various reasons, I think there are good reasons for not making it as easy to put self-storage units in place.

So I'm not sure I really want to go about changing that because we don't want the we we want that redevelopment that Commissioner Davenport was talking about over in that uh caddy corner to lose on the east side and not more storage development, but this one kind of makes sense from everything I've heard.

Yeah, and and everybody's memory is correct when we made the modification in our zoning code.

It was recognizing that most of our CG properties really do front on corridors.

Yeah, and what we didn't want was the self-storage right up on the corridor.

Uh this is something of a unique property, and so I certainly understand the applicant's interest in it.

Um and yet to Commissioner Meyer's point, the uh the numbers run on stealth storage.

Any uh anything else, Commissioner Davenport?

I'm just wondering.

Um get my computer always want to update when we're having a meeting.

Anyway, um so this is two acres, right?

Um could RM2 fit in two acres.

Can we shoot can we do inclusion every zone in for some housing?

For this air because it's there's some housing next door to it, and it's a housing in the back.

I'm just wondering.

Um, if even if the you know, not just I'm just thinking out loud with the inclusionary examining chart, does include CG as one of the allowable places where you get the density bonus if that kind of is what you're thinking about, but not EO.

But not EO.

Okay.

And the masking, I I guess at the right, the high side is 65 feet tall on the front end or maximum density.

What would be the the maximum height for an RM2, which is will be to the left and to the right?

For the RM2 are bringing what it would be more you get email.

Yeah, you sure?

Yeah, pop that uh.

Yeah, I'll I'll send that to you.

It would be less than what EO allows for.

So I'm just saying like I like you know, I'm not against this project, but we look at scale when you drive by you got a wendy, you know, Mojangles, which I stop at all the time.

Um and at um Riley's is it Riley's or yeah.

And um you have this high size, and then you're gonna have this storage facility sitting off in the back, it's gonna be higher than the restaurants, and it just I'm all about aesthetics and how things look when anyway.

I'm just trying to figure out what's the right sign.

I can answer two questions maybe then.

The RM zoning allows for RM1 is a 30-foot maximum height, RM2 is a 35, and RM3 is is 40.

So you have it gets taller as the zone gets more dense.

Um the proposal here, and that would be binding if approved is essentially a two-story front towards the road and a four-story back that takes into account the lot in the site.

Yeah, okay.

So what you see from the road is not going to be anywhere near what ER would allow for, or CG for that matter.

CG is a 65-foot floating height.

Right, thank you.

Anyone else?

Commissioner Burke.

So I do want to um what what you said we see from the road, that's the top of the building, not in that slope, right, Bruce.

From from the road, you'll see the short side of the building because it'll be a level roof all the way across to the back.

And because the site drops, you'll have about a four.

Yeah.

It is it, yeah.

I just want it to be that to make that clear.

And I personally do not like self-storages.

I think that um we should be building houses for folk.

Folk can live in some of these storage um places, they're so uncomfortable some of them.

But this isn't a it's in a good place, it's unique, and um, it's not on the front of a corner or on the main, like a main corner of a thoroughway.

It's back, so you don't have something awkward on a main street.

Commissioner Wright?

Um, I think that the storage unit necessity does help people in their housing transitions.

We have people who have to leave one lease, put their things in some a storage unit to pick up on their next lease.

Uh it's the kind of thing that the different um students, especially in the medical school, they have to leave a certain housing and go live somewhere else for a little bit, and also people who don't have a garage to fill.

I mean, most people there's not a vehicle in the garage, it's stuff.

And so the market for this and the climate controlled ones is there, and um, I think that this is a great use of this um terrain, unique terrain that's that's in this property, and um it looks like it's very secure, so it's definitely the what I would call 21st century storage versus the ones that are more problematic uh by our new Kroger um gas, you know, on the east side.

Do you know the ones I'm talking about where it's it looks like a bunch of garage doors?

Yeah, that's not the way that that is typically um advantageous anymore.

Uh this is quite the direction of it, and it's not outrageously large like some of the other ones that I've seen.

Um so I I look forward to supporting both nine and ten on the item.

All right, Bruce, you're gonna do us another two for 11 and 12.

Yes, sir.

Loving it.

All right.

So the next two requests, item 11 and 12, are 250 Little Street A208 and A303.

These are um two units in um uh similarly placed uh in the Cars Hill neighborhood.

The request is a special use in the RM2 zone for each of these condominium units, and it shouldn't say three, it's so let me let me point out.

Let me go back.

This started out as three that the applicant came through with in the floor of the meeting following discussion with planning commission.

The applicant asked to withdraw their request for B306, and that was voted on by the planning commission and granted.

So it is just A208 and A303.

Um so the request is to convert two individual condominium units to commercial short-term rental 208-303.

Occupancy proposed at each is no more than four individuals each because each of these units is a one-bedroom unit.

Here's an aerial view of the site.

As I noted, this is on the Cars Hill neighborhood.

Um it is adjacent to the uh Coney Hill Cemetery to the south.

Um future land use across all is mixed density residential.

Um the zoning on the property is RM2, as is most of Cars Hill, although the cemetery is less dense at RMO.

Uh and then coming back to this aerial view, it does kind of give us a chance to see a little bit better, a little more frequent, I mean a little more recent view, proximity to the river.

Um, this is kind of nestled into Cars Hill.

It doesn't have direct frontage on any um large right-of-way, um, heavy heavily trafficked corridors, um, but does have access to the greenway, which gets you to campus.

So here's A208's location, and then the courtyard view of the same second floor unit, and then A303, third floor unit outside courtyard view.

Staff's analysis is similar to what we've been able to provide on similar requests.

So incompatible with the 2023 comprehensive plan due to its removal of housing from the market.

Um compatible with future land use zoning and the ordinance, but it doesn't meet the special use criteria, and those STR ordinance purpose statements are in conflict.

And so we've been consistent with that analysis.

Planning commission, after considerable discussion again and talking through the particulars with the applicant, found that it didn't contradict those STR ordinance purpose statements.

Um they were looking specifically at the design history of the complex, and I can tell you what they meant by that in just a minute.

Um, the one bedroom unit format, so this was not in their estimation the type of short-term rental that was going to have a high occupancy and create perhaps a problem for the other tenants.

Um it's a more modest use in their estimation.

And that the location was the type of location that was probably anticipated when this ordinance was first developed.

The design history of the complex.

So this is not a new build.

This is uh a property that has gone through some cycles, life cycles, and the current ownership group, as the applicant conveyed in in their testimony, noted that the short-term rental opportunity that came into this building made possible the restoration of the complex overall and and brought up the quality and was it allowed for um some deferred maintenance to be addressed.

And so that's that was found to be compelling by the planning commission.

And so they are recommending approval of both requests for both units.

All right.

Is there anyone else here to speak a little sweet?

Good evening.

Um hello, I'm Wendy Crassell, and uh live at 190 Hickory Point Drive, Athens.

And um, this is these are just two units that uh we have that that they are in a building that is in this complex that was originally designed as an alumni building.

So it was essentially designed for short-term use.

In fact, the bylaws of the association um indicate that you cannot rent it for a periods longer than seven days.

Um and so we have been operating this as a short-term rental previously.

Uh we did try to go through the licensing, but then of course that doesn't turn into a thing here in Athens.

So we're trying to go this route now.

Um anyway, it it has we we've had lots of um positive recommendation uh reviews over time, you know, hundreds of them really.

Um and it's uh it doesn't interfere with the neighborhood because it was designed to be this way.

This building was designed for this purpose.

So it's it's not it's not full all the time.

That it's it's perceived as a kind of an alumni building and people that are there kind of short term anyway.

And so um the short-term uh rentals do provide something for guests that are coming to Athens that sometimes hotels don't provide, like you know, if you have a kitchen, that helps out if you've got small kids or dietary restrictions.

So there should be some way to accommodate that.

And again, because they are one bedroom, they're very small, so it's not likely to be a party scene.

You know, it's just one bedroom, one bath that we're talking about.

So um I I hope you will agree with the at the previous commission and approve.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms.

Crazzle.

Is there anyone else here to speak of this tonight?

All right, through the magic of map making in Atlanta.

This is now a district eight.

That's that's right.

Um and I went over and visited this area yesterday um and saw that actually, if we go back to that picture where that I that uh apartment is, um I back to the map, little map there, yeah, just where I was right, right in that corner, there's actually a path.

I didn't I didn't go down it yesterday, but you can see how quick it is to get down to the greenway.

Um and I listened to this discussion with the commission as uh the planning commission as well, and and sort of come around to their thinking of this as well.

This is I do have a question for the applicant, just and it may be in here, but just to make sure I understand this historically was for alumni.

I mean, right, but now it's anyone, and the other thing I noticed is that you all you all talked about the HOA and how the long-term uh the people who are who are renting um like you all are very involved in the HOA and keeping the building up and such.

Um and then I went in there and I noticed that all of these are like they're all owned by different people all over the place.

So, in terms of the development being sold, they the developer, whoever came in because you were mentioned that at the planning meeting, whoever like would have to buy them all, right?

There um but but people rent them to I would imagine it looked like there was a student going in there who I tried to speak with, but I think his ears were filled with earbuds um who was going in there.

So right now there are, I would assume that there are students and others living in that building.

The three buildings from right to left, those three are not alumni building, and the bylaws differentiate between those buildings and the quote alumni building.

Um so those were intended to be more overoccupied or long-term leasing.

The even now long-term leases are prohibited in this building.

Yeah, thank you, Bruce.

Yes, term meeting over seven days.

So this building is set up.

Is the original short-term rental building at Athens?

Okay, as it right.

However, there's only two legal non-conforming strs in this building, according to the information I got.

But maybe they are being leased.

But but anyway, that's fine.

That that's we don't have to worry about that right now.

But that makes sense to me.

Several of them are owned by alumni who use it themselves for games.

True.

That's a good idea.

Okay.

And so I I'm going to be supportive of this, but I do want to clarify something.

That's all I have for that for you.

Here.

There.

Thank you.

So but um I do want to clarify something because we have the other text amendment we're looking at.

This is legal non-conforming.

So even in this case, if we pass the next text amendment, and someone, one of those alumni couldn't even apply for this because it would be not a permitted use at all.

Is that correct?

If we pass the next one.

If the text amendment that we're gonna talk about in a minute were to pass as written, a new application would follow those rules, you know, after adoption.

But between now and then, request.

Right.

So it's not gonna be not this is those new rules would make it passed, it wouldn't be immediately.

It wouldn't be like it couldn't be all of them because we if that one passes, we wouldn't have tons of applications.

That was just me.

I mean, I understand where we are right now.

Okay.

But we're also looking at this other thing in 10 minutes.

So you know, I'm just trying to get the two items together.

The the text amendment that would make it a non-allowed use in an RM zone, that text amendment.

But right now, it would even even when we pass that, it still is in that category of non-conforming, which is uh in flux uh category.

For this particular property owner, because they've made application, right?

They're working with the rules that are on the books.

Right, right.

Um I'll ask I'll ask the other question when we get to the other one.

I'm I'm I'm good with this here.

It makes sense here, and I appreciate how the uh owners have also taken one of the other.

They had three applications to begin with and removed one, so that one will still be available for rent long term.

Anyone else?

All right, we're gonna move on to uh item 13.

Okay.

How much time is this?

I know.

Three more, three more.

All right.

So item 13 involves three properties on Hull Road.

This is a rezone request.

The request is to rezone from commercial rural to commercial general.

Um future land use out there would not change.

General business accommodates both zoning categories.

The purpose is to rezone for an unspecified commercial use, although the applicant has suggested that it could likely be a combination of restaurant and retail.

Um this site is adjacent to another site to the west, southwest of these three parcels that had a similar request not that long ago, and it um is coming to you with a condition of approval proposed that is similar to that piece as well.

But here you see it's on the north side of Hull Road, um, formerly residential property.

Um as that intersection continues to grow and change and be built out, there's increased interest in development potential adjacent to the new mixed density residential that you have to the north and the growing uh business interests coming from the west.

So this would be the future land use remaining unchanged, and this would show what the zoning would look like if approved.

This is a straight rezoned request, but this is a depiction of the property.

And staff's analysis found that it was compatible with the comprehensive plan, compatible with future land use map, zoning map, and ordinance.

Um development in this area has changed considerably since sewer expansion has been brought to the intersection, and the request fits those patterns.

Uh the adjacent parcels along Hull Road are similar in use and similar in circumstance.

So there was a recommendation for approval with the condition, planning commission agreed with that condition, and that is that land disturbance permits shall not be issued without a viable sanitary sewer connection per the standards of the utilities department, public utilities.

That is the wording that they gave us with the adjacent parcel to the West.

There is a way to engineer that connection.

But what public utilities is just making it clear that that connection needs to be there before any kind of land disturbance can be permitted.

All right.

Thanks, Bruce.

Anyone here to speak to this submission?

Hey, good evening.

Um my name is Frank Pittman with Pittman and Grader Engineering at 1050 Barber Creek Drive in Watkinsville.

Um I'll try to be quick.

As Bruce mentioned, this is three existing parcels, total about an acre and a half.

The current zoning is CR, and as you all know, CR was really that way for a long time in areas that didn't have sewer.

There is sewer out there now.

The the property right next door was rezoned earlier this year to CG, just the same.

This kind of backs up to that tally crossing property and and is adjacent to what would eventually be that future connection to Tally Crossing.

Has had some discussion with a potential restaurant that would like to come out there, which would be very good for all the residential that was talked about earlier that is in the area.

They do have water and sewer capacity.

What that really means is sewer doesn't front the property.

Staff has recommended approval.

The existing zoning does not meet you meet the future land use map, so that that this actually would bring that into compliance with that.

Planning is recommended approval, and so is uh planning commission and would would hope you guys would would consider the same thing.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Pittman.

Is there anyone else here to speak to this too?

All right, seeing none, this is in Magic District 9.

I guess I have a question.

When did we um install the sewer in that area?

How long ago?

I mean it it has been extended by developers and accepted by Athens Clark County.

Oh so it's it hasn't been the county actually extending the sewer mains, it's been developers doing it to our specifications, and then we accept that infrastructure as part of the development.

And that's been that's been ongoing ever since in in large degree ever since the Kroger development.

It's really been moving fairly quickly as far as extending sewer and water into that area.

Okay.

I uh this one I'm going to think about because I'm getting different messages.

Nothing bad, Mr.

Pittman, nothing bad.

Just going to do my homework.

Um, but let me get with you on that one, okay?

And you might remember Commissioner Thornton.

Um that that parcel just to the west, closer to Kroger, kind of had a very similar request for public utility.

And I'm and I'm I'm dealing with another situation that does not have SOAR in that area.

Well, that's what they told me.

So maybe it's just a connect thing, but let me it sounds okay right now.

Anyone else?

All right.

If everybody's ready, we get to return to the favorite.

Oh no, we're not quite there yet.

No, not quite now.

Smithoni Road first.

I was teeing up everybody's favor, but we've got one more 255 Smithonia Road.

So this is item 14.

Um, this is a unique request.

We don't often see requests that involve property that straddles Athens Park County and the city of Winterville, but this one does.

So this is a rezone request for 255 Smithonia Road.

Um the parcel is a 71-acre parcel that you'll see in just a second, and the applicant is asking to only rezone that portion that is in Athens Clark County on the northern end.

Um there's currently AR zoning on this with a condition.

That condition reverts back to a very old conditional use permit regarding development of a mobile home on the property.

Um that dates back to prior to unification.

Um the future land use would remain rural with this request.

Um the 30 acres that they are interested in is what's being listed by the property owner for sale.

The owner is looking to subdivide this property, but not but has not done that yet.

Um, and the 30 acres on the northern end with what what would be changed to commercial rural for the purpose of uh building a church.

So this shows you the property.

This extends just to the north of the jurisdictional boundary of of Winterville.

Um the development that you're seeing on the bottom edge of this property in the 41 acres that's not part of the ask, that's where you see the structures that exist.

Um there's one modest structure on the lower edge of the 30 acres that's outlined in blue, but that area in blue is what the church is interested in purchasing and rezoning.

Okay.

Here you can see the future land use shows it as rural.

And this depicts what the rezone would look like if approved.

So you'd have a moment of commercial rural zoning in this area off of Charlie Bolton Road that is currently addressed off of Smithonia, but it would be accessed.

The church property would be accessed off of Charlie Bolton Road.

And then this is the plat that's in review right now.

This has not been recorded at this time, but this shows you the four parcels that the property owner is considering.

Tracks one and two equal that 41 acres that have some or all of uh their acreage in Winterville.

That's not part of this discussion.

The northern two, tracks three and four are staff's analysis is that this request is compatible with the comprehensive plan.

Um the requested use is in line with with several objectives in the comprehensive plan.

Um compatible with future land use map, zoning map and ordinance.

It is a departure for from the surrounding zoning classifications, but it is still consistent with the rural character.

Um so staff's recommendation was for approval.

Uh Planning Commission recommendation, after a good bit of comment and a good bit of discussion, um they were able to recommend approval but with three conditions.

First, that the approved use shall be limited to a church function only.

Um that was largely in response to some concerns that were raised about what other uses commercial rural zoning might allow for by right.

Second condition, the lighting standards for the AR zone shall be applied to the subject area of the rezone.

Um lighting levels for commercial rural where they exist in other places are things like lumber yards off of Highway 29 or some of the commercial nodes that we have down at South Millage.

Um lighting levels are higher for commercial rural zoning.

So the planning commission suggested and recommended that the AR lighting levels, which are very modest, be a condition of approval, and that the lot coverage for the subject area of the rezone.

So again, we're talking about a 71-acre parcel, so they're trying to focus this condition on a 30-acre piece that doesn't exist as a parcel yet.

So that subject area of the rezone, they're uh suggesting a condition of capping the lot coverage at 20%.

AR allows for 10%, CR allows for, I believe, 30, 35.

Um, in discussion with the applicant, the applicant felt confident that 20% would be sufficient for the needs of the church.

Um so this was a condition that was proffered by the planning commission and ultimately recommended for approval.

Thanks, Bruce.

Is there anyone else here to speak to this submission tonight?

Good evening.

Hi.

I'm Kristen Owens at uh 760 Charlie Bolton Road.

So basically, this property butts up right to my property.

And I was not against the idea of a church being there when it was told to me it was gonna be a rural church.

But the more I looked into the connections church and the other churches that they have made.

I don't know if y'all have gotten them yet or not.

I made a packet for everybody with pictures.

And um there's no site plan for it, but the idea of what they're calling a church is a rural church, is nothing like they have done anywhere else.

They have put a church.

It is basically a community center for people who are outside of the Winterville area to that basically they're gonna come in and disrupt everything around them for a bunch of people who don't even live in Athens Park County.

And um if you see the pictures that I put up there, you can get an idea of what the church looks like, and it is it looks like a warehouse.

A huge warehouse, it's 28,000 square feet, they're asking for.

And with their parking lot, that's up to four and a half acres of coverage.

That is more if you look at the picture up there at the top, uh, with uh right above the blue line.

That's my pasture with my horses.

And that is like six acres.

So they're asking for almost that amount to be covered with church and parking lot.

So I am asking either that they come down on the size that they want quite a bit or did not come in there at all.

And um hopefully the pack of explaining anything else.

Thank you, Mr.

Thank you.

Anyone else here to speak to the submission?

No, no, nothing.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Um, my name's Chase Esh, 330 Research Drive.

Um, I'm with Armor Trot Mithani Thurman representing the uh church who's our client.

Um I want to appreciate the uh the fervor at the uh planning, uh the staff level and also the commission level uh working through some of these uh issues that were presented and the conditions I think represent the primary concerns very well.

And um we are acceptable to those conditions.

I think it does a good job of getting the church a little bit more wiggle room in a zoning that they can do their church functions by right.

Uh the the 20% uh coverage is something that is not anticipated at the beginning, but gives wiggle room if if the church is to grow and and phase um out over time, that could be um necessary.

The uh the other concern with lighting standards, um it is significantly reduced.

We look at intensities, you know, your foot candles at entries and signs and things like that, which um again we we can work with um to to get that designed in with our photometric plan, which will all be reviewed by staff when when time comes.

Um the other thing that was brought up uh substantially was this project.

Uh this parcel is in kind of the the green belt of Athens, you know, the trees, we we love our trees, and um I'm uh Clark County resident myself.

Um, and so the rezone and from AR to CR would actually require canopy coverage to be maintained.

Uh the AR is zero zero, which is you know zero conserved, zero um total, whereas uh CR has uh minimum uh conserved and minimum totals uh at uh excuse me here.

Let me make sure I get it right.

It's um CR is 60% total canopy with 30% uh conserved.

So that would have to be maintained through this project.

So it is a 20% coverage, but at least 60% would have to be trees.

Um really kind of keeping with that green green um green belt tree area.

So I thank you for your time, and I'm here for any questions or concerns from here.

Thank you, Mr.

Ashley.

Anyone else here tonight to speak to the Smithoni Road proposal?

Good evening.

Good evening.

Hi, my name is Annie Cheatham, and I live at 801 Charlie Bolton Road.

I own the property on the other side of this.

And I assume most of you have been out to Winterville in the last few years.

Isn't big or fancy, but it has a lot of character.

It has a farmer's market now, the Firefly Trail, and quaint areas at the depot.

Aside from homes, there are very few buildings that are over one story.

Essentially, this rezone is asking to put a boxy warehouse type structure with a large parking lot covering six acres within a thrown stone's throw of Winterville city limits.

At the planning and zoning meeting, it was said that Winterville didn't have any objections to a church, but I don't think anyone understood the type of building that would cover this lot.

There's a difference between a county church out in a cow field and what I believe this church wants to build on this land.

Charlie Bolton is one of the few rural corridors left in Athens Clark County.

There are no street lights, no sidewalks, and no commercial activity, only farmland and large lot homes.

Look at the satellite image.

People choose to build and live out here because it offers peace, dark skies, and beautiful land.

Under the current zoning, the land can support low density residential use, which fits the area and preserves the rural environment.

There's no compelling reason to introduce a CR zoning into this core as corridor, especially on a parcel this large.

This is not a minor adjustment.

This is a request to rezone 30-acre tract to something commercial.

That is not in the spirit of the green belt.

Though the through the satellite and the connection website, we can see the other style buildings that these campuses have.

You guys have some photos from one of our other neighbors.

Large box-shaped buildings that don't reflect rural architecture or the character of Winterville.

The Connection Church in Statesboro looks more like Crossroads Church on Lexington Highway across from Walmart than it does for Winterville First Methodist.

And we don't know what this one will look like.

There's no draft or preliminary design for the site.

Finally, the zoning conditions do not remove one of our core concerns that once you rezone a 30-acre lot, the precedent is set.

That's how green belt corridors are lost, not all at once, but through one large exception that opens the door for the next.

Every remaining large acre tract will have an incentive to seek a similar rezone when it comes time to sell because they're gonna see that patch of pink on the aisle now.

Now it's all commercial it'll be all one, it's all green right now, but once you put that pink in there, somebody's gonna say, look, I can ask for that exception in that area.

They've got a 30-acre exception.

I want to be out there too.

So, like many of my neighbors, I've invested my home in the green belt, believing that the zoning would protect the rural character of the area.

For these reasons, I respect you to uphold the existing zoning and deny this request.

Take a detour out to Winterville this week, drive down Charlie Bolton.

You're gonna drive through trees and nothing else.

You're not gonna see a place for a big boxy church.

Thank you, Mr.

Cheatham.

Is there anyone else here to speak to this tonight?

Good evening.

My name is Mary Ann Cheatham.

I live at 775 Charlie Bolton Road, and with my daughter and her husband.

We own the property directly across from 30 acre tract.

That's my house up in the left hand.

We purchased our property almost 20 years ago, shortly after the green belt was initiated.

It's a perfect example of the success of the Green Belt.

My son-in-law is Roger Hilton, who is a professor of engineering at UGA.

He couldn't be here because of class, and he raised some concerns that he wanted me to share.

His first concern, environmental runoff.

Charlie Bolton Road crosses Bachega Creek, Sulfur Springs Branch, past the lower end of this property.

In 2009, 2016, 23 and 24, the water crested the road.

Each of these events corresponded to a 500-year flood event, each with rainfall totals approaching over five inches.

After the catastrophic flood in 23, the culvert had to be rebuilt, taking over six months.

During this time the road was impassable.

In 24 storm, the water crested the culvert again, causing more damage that required repairs.

A road crossing downstream on Melton Road was also destroyed in the 2023 flood.

Adding additional impervious surface in the small watershed will only exacerbate the flooding potential and the potential for catastrophic road failure and property damage.

This plan projects an additional six acres of impervious surface to be added to the watershed.

The five inches of rain that fell in each of these flood events would would have generated an additional 109,000 cubic feet of water reaching the small creek.

All right.

Second concern, environmental groundwater.

Rain falling on the planned six acres of impervious surface no longer replenishes the local aquifer that supplies many residents along Charlie Bolton with well water.

An average of 52 inches of rainfalls in Winterville each year.

The six acres of impervious surface means that over one million cubic feet of water no longer make it through the soil aquifer.

We depend on this groundwater.

Not only will rain not fill the aquifer, but it will also not fill the streams connected to the property in question.

Water will bypass the headwaters and the soil infiltration.

If water does not make it to the west side, if it does make it to the west side of Charlie Bolton, it will likely be carrying pollutants from the parking lot, including fuel and oil.

Here's third concern, rural character.

The church cited the rural character of the site and surrounding area as a selling point.

I would argue that the rural character degrades after the structure is complete.

What remains will derive from the neighboring properties.

This structure takes the rural character from us while giving none.

Thank you, Ms.

Cheetham.

Appreciate it.

Three minutes is expired.

All right.

Excuse me?

Your three minutes is up.

Oh, I'm sorry.

That was the end.

Anyone else here tonight to speak to Smithoni Road?

Seeing none, we'll come for discussion and Commissioner Taylor, this in District Three.

Um, yeah.

Um, so thank you for the residents that came out and spoke out to the resident that I met earlier today.

Thank you for the packet of information that you delivered.

A lot of us, I think I'm the only one that got the packet that you delivered today.

When I sat down, there was already a packet, so my colleagues only have the one.

Um so right now it at this particular moment I don't really have a comment.

Um I'm grateful that you guys all came and spoke out about um this issue as well as for the developer wanting to be in Winterville.

Um so yeah, I I'll be reaching out to you to speak more.

Um also walk in the area as well.

radio packet so my colleagues only have the one um so right now at this particular moment I don't really have a a comment um I'm grateful um that you guys all came and spoke out about um there's the issue as well is for the developer wanting to be in Winterville um so yeah I I'll be reaching out to you to speak more um also walk in the area as well other input on this commissioner myers yeah um I read this and and like our first neighborhood speaker out there I first thought it was uh a rural church a small rural church um not a problem but when I see this as a mega church with a gigantic parking lot that's a big problem this is in the green zone this is and I you know I know it's not a popular thing in this uh city hall here but I am one of those bike riders that rides out on that road I'm very familiar with that area this would drastically change this now some people might say hey you you supported that firehouse this is a much much much larger structure uh and not an emergency response item um and that's vital for the community so it's to me it's it's it's a very different situation here um and so it's this is this is just that that picture and I did do a little research here for the church um in other places this to look to me looks like Athens Church which is a great Christmas service that I went to but it's um that isn't that is not what I'm seeing in the rural areas when I go past the church on Morton Road and other places that sort of fit in with the rural character this looks more like a place that I would see on highway 29 or in a repurposed mall area and so I you know I'll look into it more but it's my my gut reaction is not positive for this space Commissioner Davenport yeah thank you Commissioner Myers I love my churches but um I love my green spaces as well is great place for sanctuary animals people relaxation and one of the comments stated it it it is true I've seen it my eight years been here once you change a zone the neighboring property is going to change too and you just don't want to disrupt the characteristic of Winterville in that area because we want to preserve that um the statics uh you know like what I commentary said people do move out to this area because they want that quality of life and excuse me I support that anyone else all right now we get to the uh holiday gift that we've all been waiting for the short term rental ordinance all right so this last item is the text amendment um in your packets you received uh a memo that summarized what this is doing and that's what I'm gonna present largely I'm happy to get into the wording of the actual amendment that also was in the packet if you wish but I was just going to present the summary um the really two aspects of what we're talking about here uh there's there's two features um the short-term rental ordinance when we when we met as a group um we kind of broke the issue into two things in the short term uh we were going to bring to you a text amendment that dealt with the special use requirement for commercial short term rentals in the process of working through some language on that we also recognize that our current definition of home occupation short term rental needed some work um so we have that as part of this proposal I will note that the text amendments related to the sunsetting period for the legal non-conforming short short term rentals that is going to be held and that discussion is going to come later um what was anticipated that that discussion would be done during consideration of a possible uh licensing approach for short term rentals uh and that there might be some some connectivity between those two topics and so that those things are in development the the licensing approach is is in development and would be scheduled for a later date so what you have before you tonight is just those two things a change a refinement in the short term rental home occupation definition um largely to clarify in fact entirely to clarify that home occupations of all sorts that are allowable can happen in individual dwelling units in a multifamily development what does that mean with different part means each apartment can have a short can have a home occupation and so this we had a kind of a disconnect in the wording that was making it inconsistent this brings consistency to that uh regulation uh the second part deals with special use permit requirements and coming out of the work session uh the directive we heard was to revisit that and um slot those commercial short term rentals the ones that are only used commercially there is no owner occupant there is no long-term tenant in those uh that variety of short term rental to make them either permitted or not permitted and so the proposal that you have is that permitted outright in our employment office zone commercial short term rentals um everything in yellow on the screen is unchanged from current code so I just want to point that out so that's how it's written today um permitted with limitation so in our institutional zone they're allowed right now with the limitation that essentially that short term

And so the proposal that you have is that permitted outright in our employment office zone, commercial short-term rentals.

Um everything in yellow on the screen is unchanged from current code.

So I just want to point that out.

So that's how it's written today.

Um permitted with limitation.

So in our institutional zone, they're allowed right now with the limitation that essentially that short-term, that commercial short-term rental use has to be related to the institution operating on the site.

So if the hospital were to have a commercial short-term rental for out-of-town visitors, it would be associated with the hospital's institutional um zoning.

The AR zoning.

Now, this is seeing a change.

Um right now we have AR zoning as a special use.

Um, and what's being proposed, and and actually, this body has approved one commercial short-term rental as a special use.

That was the very first one that came before you out off of Highway 29, uh, just north of Athens Christian.

But in the AR zone, what's proposed is that they would not be permitted in the in the AR neighborhoods, and we talked about this last meeting with some of our standards.

The AR neighborhoods are those platted subdivisions in the AR zone.

So Shoal Creek Farms, um, bar H estates, those those are AR neighborhoods.

Commercial short-term rentals would not be permitted.

The home occupation version would be, but not the commercial form.

And then the AR zone, you could do them as long as you are outside of an AR neighborhood.

That's the proposal.

Um in all of the C zones, they would be permitted, and the there's a limitation in there essentially about how they would operate, which is one accommodation per dwelling unit.

Um, that's how the code is written today.

You can have commercial short-term rentals in our five commercial zones.

Where they are not permitted, all of the RS variations, the single family residential, commercial short-term rentals are not allowed today, and that is not changing.

Um in our industrial zone, not allowed today, it's not changing.

However, what is changing is RM1, RM2, RM3, and our light industrial, our EI zone, those are all today's special use approval requirements for commercial short-term rentals, and what's proposed is to have those not be permitted for commercial short-term rental.

But going back to what I said before, the home occupation opportunity is still available for commercial short-term rental in the RM zones.

So owner occupant, long-term resident, they could come through the process administratively and get approval.

So that's in summary what's in front of you, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Uh let me make sure I open up for public comment.

All right, here crickets will come for discussion.

Okay, Commissioner Culpepper.

Link.

So in multifamily, it's permitted.

As a home occupation.

As a home, but not as a commercial.

Correct.

That's the proposal.

Now it is permitted today, but as a special use, and that's what you heard earlier this evening.

So it's not commercial is not permitted in multifamily then.

On this one.

Presently, commercial short-term rentals in this proposal would not be permitted.

Okay.

Commissioner Link.

Um, yeah, so the in the RS zones, it it's still permitted as a home occupation.

If you live in the property, you can rent a room out, correct?

Or a basement apartment or something.

Okay.

One question about dwelling.

Um when I say a single family dwelling, that would be the home, or would that be the yeah, that'll be the home, correct?

So definition for dwelling.

For a home occupation version of short-term rental, the the property owner has to pick.

Or are they gonna do it in the in the main house?

Or if they have an accessory, if they have a guest house that was built according to code and everything's fine, they can operate there, but that means they can't operate in the main house.

They have to pick where that one unit where that one short-term rental listing is gonna be.

Okay, so confusion for me.

Um go to the nine five to permitted uses.

So single family uh single family dwellings is permitted.

Accessory dwelling units is L4.

It's probably the L4.

So in the AR zone, you can have an accessory dwelling unit, like a fully independent house essentially, but you have to have the L4 says you have to have double the acreage.

So the minimum lot size in AR is 10 acres.

The way our code is written today, to have an accessory dwelling unit, you need to have a minimum of 20 acres to do it.

So what it's saying that it that if it's not that is it's still permitted, no, not permanent.

Um special use.

So there would be no special the way this is proposed, there would be no special use.

Okay, and the only way you could do a commercial, so so let me start with home occupation short-term rental.

That's allowed.

Okay that would be allowed.

For the commercial short-term rental, the only way that you can do it is in AR, but not in an AR neighborhood, so not in a platted subdivision.

What we wanted to do is treat those neighborhoods the same on the same footing that we treat our RS neighborhoods in town.

Treat them the same.

Yeah, okay.

Is anybody else confused about the the P's and N's and the fours and the fives and if it's just me then?

Code's definitely complex.

Okay.

But thank you.

Okay.

Yeah, that helps.

Commissioner Fisher.

Yeah.

Um Bruce, help me understand.

I'm like, Commissioner Davenport.

Now I'm a little bit confused about item number one.

What was it?

Revised the short-term, short rental home occupation.

And then you got an individual dwelling and multi-family development.

So are you saying that there's a multi-development project?

Somebody can do short-term rental.

As a home occupation, meaning they still live there.

They are the tenant.

You know, if it's condo, then they are the condo owner.

Okay.

But if it's let's say it's a tenant.

Okay.

And you have uh uh a 14-unit apartment complex, you know, just off a millage somewhere.

Okay.

Um every one of those tenants and all 14 of those units are eligible to come get a home occupation permit to have their online business or to have a barber chair or to be a consultant.

Um and so what we were doing is saying, okay, we need to put this on equal footing because that was the model we were using to kind of help navigate um to keep us safe and how we were regulating these.

And so if we're saying that they are a home occupation, then all 14 units have the opportunity to do it as a home occupation use.

And so if you had somebody in there leasing it and they decided to step away for three days over a particular weekend of the year and lease it out, they have the right to do it as long as they've done the proper paperwork with the county and they've got everything else with our finance department squared away, it's it's done administratively and it's fine.

Oh Commissioner Taylor, and then I'll get my response.

Um probably not the same thing, but like the accessory dwellings that's on Art Street and Ruth Street.

Okay, those are not AR zone, right?

These are those are not multifamily, those are single family.

Some of them are.

It's a mix.

There are some that are zoned RM, if I'm thinking of the right spot.

Some are zoned RM, but then some of them are zoned RS with this text amendment.

The RS and the RM would be treated exactly the same.

You could do it, you could do a short-term rental as a home occupation.

You could not do it as a commercial short-term rental.

Okay.

So somebody's got to be.

Right.

I just want to make sure, honey, because they on R Street, but we thank you so much, Bruce.

Got uh Carol then John.

So again, I think it's really important to say what you just said is that we're just making it consistent.

And yeah, we have two kinds, the home occupation and the commercial.

Right.

And the ones in our in places where people are living that are RM or RS, you can only do the home occupation.

So whether or not I want to in my house go away for three days, I can get the right follow do that, or I could take one of my rooms and do that occasionally, put a good lock on there or whatever else.

So we're just being consistent in different kinds of neighborhoods.

In the ones that already existing, the the grandfathered ones, that's a whole other thing.

Whether or not we go with the registration, we don't go with that, we find some other way, those are all not going to be affected by what we're doing tonight unless we somehow make a way.

I mean, they have to be addressed differently.

That's gonna be a separate discussion.

That's gonna be a whole separate discussion.

That's correct.

So uh John and Alison.

She answered my question.

Yeah.

Um Bruce, can you go back to the slide that had all the zoning?

The the one that commission Okay.

So I just want to say, Commissioner Davenport, um, after our work session, where we had that great chart and all the glossary definitions for the upcoming future land use categories.

I had asked Bruce to put it in his list of things to do to give us definitions for each one of these.

Is that what you were saying would be helpful?

Because I thought it would be a good idea.

So the zoning on the standard.

Any of these.

Also, the glossary for the these, because I also don't know the density that goes with these, so not to confuse the two, but it you know, you have to be a little bit humble to admit you need more studying and uh nicely defined or you can just send me the link on where the definitions are pretty much.

So sure.

Thanks.

No knowledge of R S R and the fools and the same.

Just in general.

I can take my weekend off and figure it out.

But everybody's zoning one on one.

Commissioner Hamby.

Yeah, I just have a quick comment.

And I think at the end of the day, we probably ought to have, I mean, maybe not tonight, but a discussion about um and this will may come during the licensing part or whatever.

But um, whether or not short-term rentals are actually home occupations, because I think you can make an argument that short-term rentals are actually hotels or bed and breakfasts and not really a home occupation.

So just kind of look at it from that perspective as well.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Y'all want to take a 10-minute break?

All right, we've got about a dozen items when we return, and we're gonna hit them hard.

Thanks, everybody.

Everybody, welcome back.

Good to have you here.

We are gonna go ahead and take care of old and new business.

Uh and given that the commissioner has moved a couple of items to discussion, those are items two, seven, and sixteen through twenty-five.

So would any member of the public like to speak to any of those items tonight?

Two seven or sixteen through twenty-five.

This moment is yours.

Certainly we can put GOC on consent.

Please tell me.

And again, just uh provide your name and place of residence, and you have three minutes.

Good evening.

Good evening, everybody.

My name is Tanisha Brooks.

I live at 131 Wembrook Terrace in Winterville, Georgia.

Um I am the preservation impact director at Historic Athens, and in the preservation impact division, we house both the equitable housing program as well as the hands-on historic Athens program.

Um I am here to speak to agenda item number 17 because I apply for 140,000 dollars of the opera recapture funds in order to increase impact of the EHP program since the funds will run out next December.

I do understand that there is a need for affordable housing in Athens, but I also believe that the services that we provide meet a more pressing need and gives an immediate outcome.

Um if the residents that we serve are displaced due to repair so they cannot afford, it will only add to the current housing problem that we currently have.

The phone's request that will allow us to continue to prevent displacement, preserve the current housing stock, and also align affordable housing with historic preservation.

So today I ask that you all not allocate the full amount of the recapture to one organization, but split the funds in a way that is equitable and inclusive to all of Athens.

Thank you.

And again, those are items two, seven, and sixteen through twenty-five.

All right.

So with uh the judicial and rem process, because it's a judicially ordered tax sale, uh it allows us we still put it up on the courthouse steps, there's still a bidding process, um, and the purchaser then can take over the property fully after 60 days.

There's only a 60-day period where the previous owner can appeal that decision.

So once that expires, that can move on.

So with the land bank, uh what they've been doing in Macon Bib and Augusta Richmond is uh when they have properties that the land bank is interested in, many times they will put those through the judicial and rem process to allow the land bank to take over and start doing what they do with these properties much sooner.

So the reason we haven't used it previously is because in each county the governing body does need to authorize the use of that process, and that has never been requested by my office in the past.

That makes it clear.

Um consent.

Thank you.

Commissioner Johnson had a question as well.

Which one is that?

Two.

Well, I'm not I I don't agree with the process or the the premise of it.

I think it was made clear from the attorney when he said he disagreed with the use of the land bank authority, and I also did homework, and I said the land bank authority does not work in Athens.

The land bank authority was established by Georgia State statute for areas of blight.

Onesie and Tuesda houses does not fit that definition.

And I knew this would happen.

And I referenced an actual presentation that was conducted during the GOC meeting when one came in, a visitor who uses a land bank authority in that particular community, their their community where it works because they have blighted areas.

And he spoke highly of how you can use it.

He spoke exactly of what you're describing.

He said this would happen.

And the folks said, no, no, no, not we won't do that.

But this is not we don't I don't want to mislead the definition or people.

This is not how you use the land bank authority for onesie and twosy houses.

It's for tracks of areas.

That's I mean the the other part, the 60 days versus 365.

I mean, I would like to see somebody that's fallen on hard times and they lose their house because of unpaid taxes, get the opportunity, and if it's a longer opportunity, I would like to see that person have that opportunity, you know, to get their home back.

That's where I stand.

So to speak to that, um, the land bank is only one possible use for this process.

The primary reason I'm requesting this is to give another tool for my delinquent tax collection division when needed.

Primarily for my office's use would be for when we have properties that come up where the title is is clouded, where um we have potential for litigation uh by a property owner after the tax sale happens.

These are the types of things where we may go to a superior court judge and ask them to review it and rule that yes, this title can be cleared, or that yes, this meets the definition of what needs to go up for tax sale.

Whether or not the land bank decides to use or requests that we do these on properties that they are interested in, that is something completely apart from my office.

The only involvement that we have with the land bank is to let them know which properties are available for tax sale and to let us know which ones they may be interested in bidding on.

May I ask a follow-up?

Sure.

You mentioned earlier about um shoot, I just forgot.

It was it was not about the land bank, it was about how your office uses the property.

So when you have clouded deeds.

How does one know where to send a tax bill to?

So it's not necessarily we we have property records on who the current owner is, but whenever we're going to a tax sale, we do a full title search on that property so that we know exactly the chain of ownership all the way through.

And most of the time, there's a very clear definition through each owner and subsequent purchaser on down the line.

So there's very clear understanding of every bit of the chain.

So we do I have a couple um in my office now that the title comes up, there's a couple of things that weren't necessarily done right.

Often it happens when there is a multi-generational family where it passes from one, you know, the original owner passes away, there's still family that lives in the house, the title never, the deed never gets changed to the um appropriate heir.

Sure, sure.

That may go on for a generation or two, and then by the time it comes up where we're having an issue collecting the taxes.

Now the title is a little clouded.

So to establish.

So that's where I primarily would like to have this tool available to us for when those things come up.

We also end up sometimes having um properties come up where we put it up from tax sale multiple times and we get no bids.

Um this gives us another tool for clearing those properties out, and that's where the land bank may or may not come in again.

My involvement is just to let them know what properties are available.

Sure.

And let them know so they can bid.

Um, but having this available would help us to make sure that we've got everything really lined up.

So if we are selling a property, we know everything is correct.

And so it's really on those handful of properties that come up that don't meet that definition.

The vast majority of people, when we have properties that come up on a tax sale list, we have a list that we put together, notices go out, and when people start getting the letter of like, hey, we've asked nicely, you know, and let you know several times, and we're finally at this point, and this is after multiple years of non-payment on taxes and ignoring all these warnings.

And so a lot of times, most of the time, what happens they pay before the tax sale day.

And and that is really just my job is to make sure that we're collecting the taxes that are due and dispersing it to the various governing authorities.

So this gives us another tool.

Um thank you.

I appreciate your answers.

Commissioner Thornton.

The fact that you're looking for another tool that means that you're you're having some problems.

How many um foreclosures approximately um go to the um city hall steps a month?

About.

Um I wouldn't say we're having a problem.

It's just we have some of a like I said, it's a small percentage of properties that may have an issue with the title or potential for something that really should have a further review by a judge.

Uh I'll give you an example for the December tax sale that's scheduled on December 2nd.

We originally had a list of about 75 properties.

Uh last time I checked on Monday, it was uh down to about 40.

And honestly, by the time we get to a tax sale, the the other three tax sales that we've held this year, we have had of I think it was four on the first one, only one last month.

Um, and the summer one, it was about seven out of sixty to seventy properties.

We've been working through a backlog of of delinquencies.

Um it wasn't a large number when I took office.

Um I ran a report my first day in, uh, not including 2024, because at the time that was still the current tax year, but everything from 2023 back was about 5.1 million dollars.

Um my folks have been working on clearing that backlog.

We're down to about 1.1 million.

Are you finding your buyers um more of developers or um business people?

Um it is it it tends to be individuals.

We do have uh a couple of companies that are fairly regular.

Um, and sometimes they are people who want to purchase the property, uh, renovate it and resell it.

But again, they have that full year that they wait on those.

Um, and then sometimes it is somebody just looking for a good deal on a property that they can make their own.

And every time we do if we end up disposing of a property at tax sale, it ends up returning it to the tax rolls and then generating the tax revenue that is designed to um to help support the budget.

So thank you.

You're welcome.

Everyone okay with this background consent.

This is good with me.

Well, for discussion.

All right, uh moving on to item number seven, and Commissioner Taylor, yes, for this one to be removed.

Yes.

So I remember the presentation of fruit a few months ago that we received from Hollis and the other guy.

But the the extension, um, and just for background.

So the extension would be from the quarry, right?

From the quarry to you would uh the the connection that you see mapped out is between the quarry and the water treatment facility off Barber Street.

Right.

So I remember at the time, and I'm gonna be honest, I forgot my laptop.

I'm I lost it.

We like I thought we were just there for the executive session.

Okay.

So I do remember there during the presentation that there being like almost a billion dollar price tag for this extension.

And the reason why I wanted to take it off is because I I wanted to speak to um what I said at the um the original presentation.

Um the damages that is done within district three.

Um and I know that we sat and they said that they had nothing to do with it, but honey plea.

Yes, I did.

Um I'm not against it, but before we move forward with putting a billion dollar price tag on this extension, which will um it is a community benefit.

We should first rectify the community benefit of the community that has to taken the blunt of um what the quarry has done, i.e.

home repairs, a lot of structures um in district three have been shaken because of the blasting.

Um and I think that there are ways that we'll we can um come to the table um and justify that as well as do this extension.

Um because I don't want us to go through a thr a drought, but I also don't want district three to be left out when we know um that a lot of these um structure is from the quarry, is what I'm trying to say.

The quarry messed up people's houses, and before we put a billion dollar tag on extending this water line, we need to make sure we help the residents of district three.

So whatever that looks like, um I'm for it.

I'm for that first before we decide to put taxpayer dollars into this moving forward.

So that's all I had to say about it.

Uh Commissioner Johnson.

I also remember the conversation.

It was right after um our county manager um arrived, and it was not only Commissioner Taylor, myself, I believe Commissioner Thornton and Commissioner Hambee, and and maybe some others if I'm leaving it out, leaving it out.

But I actually made the comment that um when the de director was speaking, you want us to approve something that you want, but we you won't do something for these people or and he intimates it that he had nothing to do with it or he didn't know anything about it.

And I've gone to enough town hall meetings to know that there's there everyone has knowledge of the quarry and the situation and those individuals.

And the simple question was could we please have a list of the individuals who filed a claim for property repair?

We asked for a list of the individuals who um have been contacted and where they are in their process.

I haven't received a list.

I don't know if anyone else has, but conceptually I would report this.

I I would support this, but I would actually not support it until that is addressed.

You can't give someone else something they want if they're not going to if they're not willing to meet you and help someone else.

I mean, I I get the big picture.

I do understand what I'm saying.

But this organization, this group, this neighborhood, district three, they've been asking for for help and assistance.

I mean, until you see somebody's floor come apart and that's how they live every single day, this is just not a one-off, you know there's there's no defense to let's approve this, because this would be better for the greater good when we have a whole district uh or uh individuals within two and a half miles that are suffering.

Manager Cowell or attorney Drake, do we have a list of claimants related to quarry activity?

We don't have a list of complaints.

I don't think there was there was a they've been trying to complete.

There were there were definitely indications that there had been claims filed.

Um I don't think any anyone's ever seen that list.

I also know that the indication from the quarry company was that all of those claims, if there had been claims, there were no substantiated claims.

I think they even said that at the town hall meeting um with that.

So that's where it stands right now.

Right now, as far as I know, there are no active claims with the quarry company, and the quarry company and their insurer have not um indicated any um any action to proceed.

In other words, no basis to the claims is what they've what they've asserted is my recollection um associated with and what I think it's really I mean for us what we're trying to do, and you all know this because we've had these discussions before is there is both a an active quarry operation which ha is operating under a current lease.

At some point that lease may need to be renewed again if that's desire to proceed forward.

There is also, of course, the reason that the uh that we bought the quarry, which was to build this alternative water source, the design process is probably three to four years, and that's what we're trying to do is get that design process initiated.

Um the two issues the quarry operator, if there are issues associated with it, are in our minds independent from being able to begin this uh this design work.

So that's why the item is is in front of you.

Honestly, if the desire ultimately is don't proceed with design until the quarry operator addresses this issue, you're really placing this larger public investment at the mercy, frankly, of this other party, which we are not we can we can't mandate that the quarry operator actually address issues associated with with claims, but we certainly I mean this project can be set aside, it just I don't know how this project ever moves forward if we're dependent on a third party addressing um issues that uh are out there.

But at this point, I'm not aware of any active claims, and certainly I think the indication from the previous claims are that there aren't any.

Um they have not substantiated those claims.

So uh Commissioner Thornton.

Yeah, I do now everything's coming back to me, and I do remember um when this came when Hollis was here.

I want to, you know, if we cannot, we I think this commission has to take step up.

If the quarry doesn't want to um do us right, we need to have a um a resolution or something and make these people whole.

That's what this government needs to do.

Um I have seen so much money that has gone.

I know Judd is going to give me the gratuitous law, but but you're gonna give it to me.

But I do think that we need to make that effort.

If somebody wants to challenge us, I am not going to support this moving forward and looking like I'm ignoring another bunch of people, a group of people who've been asking for that.

I'm just not, I'm not.

If this means this project and we don't build the water supply, nobody get no water.

The quarry folk, the regular, nobody get no water.

But we need to figure out a resolution to make these people whole, whatever that looks like, and then we talk about um this concept plan.

I'm just not gonna do it.

Commissioner Link.

Yeah, um, when is the lease with the quarry company up?

Uh I'll have to get you the specific.

It's still a couple of years away from it, but I'll get the specific.

Because I know that this project was designed so that there could be a lease renewal and allow them to continue operating a section of the quarry while it fills up to provide that water source.

That might give us an opportunity and some leverage to um get these folks home when it comes time to renew that lease.

If there is an interest, and there's an there's an advantage of for them also in extending the lease.

If there is an interest in extending the lease at that time, certainly there are other conversations I think that makes sense with that with that lease arrangement, separate and apart from what what's being talked about here, that there is an opportunity associated with if they want to extend the lease, and if we want to extend the lease as it goes forward.

Again, and you know what we'll probably do if the desire is not to proceed with this design, we'll just set that aside.

Just understand that we set it aside, we're setting aside the eventual design of the reservoir, which is intended to address, begin addressing the drought piece.

We could address these issues potentially through through the easement extension or some other mechanism.

Again, right now the allegations are that the quarry operator has caused damage, not ACC Government.

I think that's important that we say that because you're I mean we're we're sort of saying ACC Gov needs to address this issue, but the issue that's been asserted by the residents is that the quarry operator has caused problems.

Right.

Um, well, I'm gonna get around everybody.

Uh and and you know, notably, you know, ACC Gov was not the owner of the property for many decades when the quarry was operating.

So uh Commissioner Johnson uh Myers and Thorne.

Okay, that's uh I'm a big fan of telling the whole story and that part of the story.

Athus Clark County owns the quarry.

We we bought the quarry, we bought we assume the responsibility.

There have been people who have actually been paying for damage for over 20 years.

One woman has worked two jobs her entire adult life to pay for damage because she was told that she was the only one to only come and find out that there were others.

And then uh about two years ago, a group formed, and then they were it was a collective group of all shared terrible experiences.

So I I I want to mention this for the record, so everybody hears this.

The insurance commissioner is is interested in this in in this scenario, this situation.

The insurance commissioner is working with this group.

If Athens Clark County, the owner or the group or the the quarry, the people that are on site does not want to return a phone call, because this is what's happening.

I understand how this works.

You don't return phone calls, you wait them out, you hold them out, you you discourage people, and then they go away.

And then they be quiet.

And then they just stop complaining, and then they move.

That is what's happened.

That's what's happened happened for at least one individual for 27 years.

It is not stopped to say let's do this first and then we'll help them.

That's a false promise.

I'm not I mean, I'm only one vote.

I won't support this this until there is a plan in action.

When everyone someone else wants a plan in action for an example, the core project, how fast did we turn that that thing into an action plan of 551 pages and ready to vote on it three weeks?

We did that because somebody wanted it very badly.

This is that important, it's more important.

Yeah, um I think it actually is important to have the the sort of an update.

I just did a search of the in my outlook for quarry, and I there's an email that we have from back from July 29th.

Um I knew that I attended the East Athens inner East Athens, but that was not in a that was not like everyone wasn't there and didn't hear all those things, and that was we invited everybody invited us all.

No, I know, but it wasn't an official county, you know, it's not in our county record as something is there.

You you know, you can't pull that up.

Uh we can't pull that up, but perhaps we could have an update of the information that's been gathered since that email was written at the end of July, um, and then makes reference because you're reminding me of the the state official who said they were would follow up with complaints and just to find out a little bit about what the update is.

Um, and this by the way, this memo does it was very easy to find the least anticipated the lease ends on December 31st, 2030.

Um it's right there in this.

But I I think it would be good to have an update on this so that we all have the same information or as much information that we're sharing here about what the situation is, and so that we can make decisions going forward.

And I guess just for clarification on how best to approach that update um because as was mentioned, the uh the Inner East Athens um group was the one that convened the meeting, which I was in attendance at that meeting.

Um the state regulator attended and was the main presenter with it.

So I certainly would feel more comfortable that those parties provide the update versus I mean it wasn't our meeting, we were in attendance at that meeting.

Now there were a number of other items that had nothing to do with the quarry, right?

That we actually did follow up on and stuff.

Um but since we since it is even though we didn't, you know, it's not it's our quarry now, so I think it would make sense to call that state inspector up and say, hey, what's your up to date from you all?

Um maybe we can get something.

I mean, I I think he'd even, I mean, he'd he'd present to you all even and stuff.

So he had a a slide deck at that meeting.

Right, right.

That would be good to share and and an update.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I'm it's not my turn.

Yeah, no, I'm just talking about Commissioner Thornton.

Um I thought he was going to be.

I thought he was going to come in there and he was just as wishy-washy and never left anything concrete.

He really didn't.

Now, one thing we can do to show that we're at least paying attention is uh get with Inner East Athens and get a list of everybody that has made a claim just for our record.

We don't need um the state to tell us that uh because we know the state really don't care, but we should care.

So the least we can do is get that lease, uh get that list, see what we're working with, and then put some of this together.

But to move forward with a and I get I get the deadline, I understand that, and I don't want to mess the deadline up either.

But to move forward and pretend that we don't hear these folk, that is just inhumane to me.

So we gotta be a little bit more passionate than the state folk, and then we can look at what can we do.

We may have to step out the box a little bit with that gratuitous clause, but um we need to at least make the effort um to show that we are hearing and we're concerned.

So let's get the list, let's um uh Mr.

Bob, um meet with the Inner East Athens folk too.

Um we just gotta we we can we still could do this, but we need to make sure we got something that we're going to address inner East Athens with.

Commissioner Taylor.

Yeah, um so during the meeting, um God.

Staff was also there, so TPW was also there.

Um, and there was a note taker.

So we should have that information, right, Judge?

Yes, yeah, we should have that that information, everything that was spoken, um, as well as the slides that they presented, which was also the same um presentation that they gave at um East Friendship at the Inner East Athens meeting.

Also, inner East Athens as well as like residents as far as Shady Brooks has impact from quarry blasting.

Um residents as far as um Cherokee Road past the um God Beaver Dam Road also have reported um damage from the quarry, and so I do think um from conversation that me and Jud had while debriefing from that meeting that there may be an avenue to take that will help, you know.

Um we don't we want to be strategic um when we do this because there has been a number of residents that have been rightfully impacted.

Um but I think that there's also a way to go about this that'll be um what am I trying to say that'll get better results than I would say um I lost my train of thought, but yeah, because if I may just to clarify so what Commissioner Taylor is referring to is prior to the town hall meeting that was held, there was actually a staff level meeting that had folks from public utilities with the state regulator.

I know the city, the the attorney's office attended as well as representatives and the manager's office, so we can certainly aggregate those notes, and it's the same slide presentation that was given at the um town hall meeting.

Mr.

Potato was at that room as well, yes, yes.

So we can we can aggregate those notes, provide that to you all as well as attempt to identify because I really want it sounds like focusing on actual claims that have been submitted, um, because there have been a lot of allegations made, obviously, across a large swath, but absent having people all stand at the podium and share that with you, it really would focus in on what claims have been filed with that.

So we can certainly find out and and that and that I've got Commissioner Lincoln, and then I'll go back to you.

Yeah, um, have these folks secured an unaffiliated third party.

I know we had the the pro bono legal organization help the folks at Pittard Road, like I feel like there really needs to be an unaffiliated third party to work with them and and figure out what the claim is.

I think at the town hall meeting, they inferred that they were seeking that at that time.

I don't know if they had secured that yet.

I think um I I don't think it worked out for for the same group that worked for Pittard Road, might be another group, but the Pittard Road, the um the mayor represented.

I don't think that worked out.

I'm not sure.

I don't know if there was a connection there at all.

The formal analysis would be different, yeah.

Um right, if you're talking about groundwater infiltration versus sort of an engineering analysis of structural deficiencies, yeah.

Because the quarry does have like this thing that if it's in the corner and if it's this way or this way that the quarry had nothing to do with it, which I told the the engineer that that's their analysis, but I just don't think that analysis is accurate that you need an X in the corner for it to be um damaged from the quarry.

Not a structural I you know I'm going to up, you know, I'm gonna go one step further about um the quarry.

Um when you mentioned Pittard Road, and then now we have a data center, and then the quarry.

All of that is on the same stretch of the community, and it's impacting the same people of color, and there is a direct correlation.

Now I know we can't do anything about that data center now, and I know that I've spoken to Bob and he says staff is looking into, and I appreciate that.

But it just seems like the water issue is on that stretch of highway.

I mean, you wouldn't put one, you wouldn't even think about one without, but I think about it all because the the data center in the Pitt Road is right there in my district, and then you go down what is it even two miles, three miles, you come to the court.

All of those are water issues, all of those are environmental issues, in my opinion.

So I do think that we don't need to take this lightly when we're talking about um the quarry, and we just cannot move on without saying we we we we tried something, we did something we uh we're gonna leave this on discussion.

Yes, all right.

Um to item 16.

This is the GOC report.

Um I know that uh given the uh uh emergence of Christine Howard in the Clerk of Commission's chair, we wanted to make sure that there was a full opportunity to uh kind of view the processes that were described in the report.

Um I know I feel like I've asked you 20 times, Commissioner Davenport, to uh bring the policy.

Um Christine loves it.

She says she's going to I'm just kidding.

Um Christine will send out notes on the um the GLC's recommendation, and then we'll move forward from there.

Yeah.

Anything else?

Did we want to address the TAD issue?

Okay.

GOC, I know we um it was part I guess I was that the men, but I guess I missed a piece about the TAD, and you know, we want to maybe we talk about maybe putting those tags together, having one TAD.

And I what I like to do if I'm in order, is pull that out, pull the TAD issue out, and then also have some more discussion among my colleagues, see what route we want to take.

Do we want to do that or leave the TAD as they are?

And it would be the uh opportunity for the commission at the voting meeting to say, you know, let's leave status quo with the TADs and except the other changes.

Okay.

So that'll be a motion.

And and yes, not now.

And I want I I definitely want to talk to Commissioner Davenport about that same thing before the meeting.

So I'm with you.

Okay.

Okay.

Tuition reports.

Okay.

Yeah, um, I had a couple of comments here, but I first I appreciate that the GOC incorporated many of the the changes I suggested back in September or whenever that was.

Um and now I went and did it, and I don't know if anyone else wants to look at it, but is there a copy of the like because when I was looking at the back manual, I didn't quite realize that a lot of this had already been in place.

So I pulled up the two and looked at it.

Do we have a a strike-through copy that shows where things could that be shared with the commission to see?

Because I don't want to give you all credit for the wonderful things that were in there that were already in there.

Um, but if it's there and easy to share, it might be helpful for people to know what's new versus what was old.

I think we got an email during one of the GLC meetings.

Okay.

But I do, yeah, there's it was an ex those there are all those documents, right?

You know, I know they're I that's okay.

That's fine.

I don't need it there.

I'll look at it.

And in terms of the TAD and the commission districts, too, when we come to that, another thing to look at when I was looking at that was that it the suggestion is that there be like uh an oversight TAD committee, right, with someone from each like commissioner.

But a lot of those TADS have two or three commissioners represented in them.

So that's a detail that needs to be addressed in there as well.

Um I also wanted to say that there are two big changes in the section about the candidates, which I appreciate, like the interview that we can now uh bla blah blah blah candidates who cannot attend an interview but will have an all can go to an alternate, we can still look at those people if they can't do it, and then that when if we don't have a quorum, we can do things virtually.

So that's good too.

So thank you for that.

Um disapprove it.

I just approve it.

Well, no, I mean I just wanted to these are things that I just thought saw, and they um and the other thing, the last thing is that I'm gonna approve it, but the last thing was if there is in the annual reports, does each back it says each back should repair an annual report as outlined in their enabling an ordinance, so that means if it doesn't have one in the enabling ordinance, they don't need to do it.

So that means if it doesn't have one in the enabling ordinance, they don't need to do it.

They have to do it.

Okay.

So they should do one.

Yes.

Okay, so that that wasn't quite clear, but I would also love down the road too, if those annual reports could be like associated with the um where the you know online for the public to see, like with the you know, where it has the you go to the page for the for the back, and that they would be there just to have that information accessible.

So um those are just some things.

Well I know Miss Christine's looking at this, she'll catch it, but there's state law that governs when you can meet uh virtually.

Yeah.

Okay.

Got it.

Attorney will cover that.

Commissioner Johnson.

Yes, I was curious why the the descriptions for the BACs um aren't included.

I noticed that they were struck through and removed.

Um and if I was advertising the BAC, you um the BAC vacancies on like my website and encouraging residents in district six to apply, uh I mean they're gonna have to call me, they're gonna have to try to navigate our ACC website to find something, and it's and and that's not really clear or easy.

Um but how do we expect our folks to know what they mean, what what they're applying for, or even if they're interested.

So my first question.

My second question is if with the conflict of interest form, I'm a fan of that, but if there's a conflict of interest that is recognized, then what?

What's what happens after?

What is there a process for?

Is that you know what I mean?

Like if there's more than um blank individuals on blank boards, which is not which is a violation of the ordinance.

They've completed the form, but then what?

Yeah, so we do so it's lengthy.

So the first question, um, let me go back.

So the first why are the descriptions missing?

So, yeah, so GOC broke it up because we figured that BAC is gonna be this very lengthy long conversation.

So we got the application process, um, then we have just a BAC manual, like how people get on board.

Um so the website, how people apply, that's gonna be uh iteration.

Because we we decided to break it up because we were spending like 12, nine months on this thing.

So we're like, we're just gonna break it up.

Um so it's up to this commission discretion to quantify, qualify what would be um the word you said.

I'm sorry, it's getting late for conflict.

Conflict of interest.

But yeah, it's in the BACs where like um if there is a conflict of interest, like um you don't live in assets or something that you are automatically disqualified.

But when it comes to selecting that person, um they'll be up to discretion of the commission.

Hopefully that makes sense.

Discretion of the commission to uh ignore the conflict of interest.

No, to identify the conflict of interest is what I understand you to be expressing.

That's correct.

Well, yeah, that's what I got too.

I that's what I'm saying.

It I it doesn't sound like it means much then if you're just identifying that that that is a conflict.

I mean, I think the issue for the ordinance is to say, you know, for example, if we only if I'm gonna make this up, only one person can serve on three boards.

I'm just making this up right, and we have one person that serves on seven boards, and but they file they filed the appropriate conflict of interest forms.

So are we saying that thank you for letting us know that that you serve on seven instead of the three that is outlined in our own ordinance?

Is that what we're saying?

So conflict of interest, you will be removed.

Yeah, so like if you have a conflict of interest, the new BAC, you'll be automatically removed.

You can't be on the okay.

Oh, you're removed from the old.

If you're applying for a new, there you go.

Yeah.

I thank you.

I appreciate that.

No worries.

And and then to to the question of descriptions of the individual um boards authorities and commissions, is it the intent of GOC that there will be a supplemental document that'll provide some narrative about the functionality of each one?

Yeah, it's on the clerks.

They're light.

So our thinking was I raise my hand, I'm sorry.

But our thinking was if they are like, if their missions are like, then we should be able to combine them because they do light work.

Um for example.

Um there were a couple that that are mentioned for sort of collapsing into one.

I I guess I was I'm looking at the document that's in the agenda packet, and and it lists them, but it doesn't have a narrative description of them in the package.

It doesn't have any information about like the terms.

Eventually amend the guidelines so that you've got a little description of each one.

We can we can add that, but I don't think it was mainly I get it, I get what y'all was saying, but um we were just wanted to list all the BACs that are out there, which one we can go by and which one that we were um addressing the issue of when it comes to training when it comes to stifles and stuff like that.

Um the next iteration of this process we can more define those entities, if that makes sense.

I think it is just helpful when kind of people have a one-stop shop and they see, you know, here's what the airport authority does, range of powers, you know, here's what the planning commission does and so forth.

So it's on the clerks.

Uh yeah.

That'd be good to have it in the BAC.

I mean, I don't think people going to to apply for a BAC though to go to the clerk's website.

Could staff just quickly copy and paste that sucker and put it on there.

Well, then Commissioner Wright.

Well, so when we went through this before, um it was also a matter of, you know, if we're doing that document and then you're putting the members' name and their expiration date, um, you know, it would also need a little bit more clarification on is it just the major duties and responsibilities in the term.

The type of question we typically get in an interview, because the depth of stuff that's on the website under the clerk's department is uh took a long time to get on there and it's extensive.

Um, and we worked hard to get it on there year-round versus only when the interviews were gonna be underway.

So that's always there to read, and you guys are saying that a snapshot of that detail should be included in the BAC handbook.

Is that is that what you're kind of hearing?

Yeah, it was and so because and I just um and certainly that's something that I think could be done administratively, it's not necessarily.

When you guys go to phase two.

Yeah, we'll talk about that later.

We'll get down that road.

Not on consent, what I'm hearing.

Commissioner Johnson.

Well, and keeping in the spirit of a regular resident, I wouldn't I would not know.

Um my commissioner just thought about me, she called me up and asked if I would consider serving on a board.

Where can I learn more about it?

I'm gonna have to answer questions.

I'm gonna have to, you know, get the information for them.

A regular resident, if we just think about not us, not staff, but people that we serve, don't know that this information is on the clerk's website.

It's not this it's not intuitive yet.

It might it might be one day, but not two-day.

And so I just think if there's a BAC, because we have a BAC page, why not all the BAC information be on the BAC page?

Let me just I think what we talked about is one thing we're trying to get uh Miss Christine opportunity.

That's why we said we paused it, because we want to make sure she had the input.

I think and what all things that we're saying, I think she's probably gonna incorporate those things.

But I think we need to give her time, get those things from a website perspective.

If a regular resident can go on, it should be easy to find.

I think she will work on those things, but we had paused initially with the um handbook and make sure that you know we can get it on the website where people in the community can easily find it and go to it and apply for these BACs.

So I think we need to be give her the opportunity to work this through.

All right, moving on to 17.

Uh 17 is reallocation of recaptured ARPA funds for affordable housing.

Uh not on consumer.

Can you put it on this?

Uh Commissioner Taylor.

Yeah.

No, I don't think no.

Um, yeah, so I don't have my laptop, but I do know what this agenda item is referring to.

And I do agree that homes for Habitat does great work.

I know that they are moved, they are behind because of infrastructure.

Um holdups.

Um, but I also know that historic Athens, the preservation um side that they have, they've done great work within this area with the weatherization as well as the rehabs on houses.

And one thing that I I have come to realize preserving the housing stock that we have with residents, preferably, or specializing in some of our elderly um community members.

Um I would also advocate that instead of giving homes for habitat the entire pot, that we would um look to splitting that pot with historic Athens for their weatherization program.

They really appreciate the work that Hands on Athens does.

Um riding by to see that sign in their yards, you know, it made me feel like I'm doing something as a representative.

So I hope all my colleagues would, you know, kind of jump on board.

No shade to sponsor, because he probably gonna test me like yeah, but I agree.

Um we should maximize this opportunity to make sure we get the full totality.

Uh Commissioner Lincoln, Commissioner Fisher.

Yeah, um, can someone fill us in on how much we have in our affordable housing fund right now?

Um and and if we email it.

If you look in the last agenda item uh in this packet, you'll see some reference to it.

Okay.

So just uh if you're looking at it.

And I mean, have we established any process moving forward to start allocating some of that money?

Because we didn't know.

I think we're gonna talk about that in a few minutes.

Okay, because um, you know, but this is really just about ARPA recapture.

Okay, well, and we do have opportunity to get more money in that fund.

So there's there's money we need to get out there.

Commissioner Fisher.

Yeah, thank you.

And and uh to follow up on on that too.

I think I appreciate what staff do, but I think it would be helpful before you know we put out the RFP, but I think it would be helpful, hey, okay, we got a pilot money, we're gonna do an RFP, and to let us sort of know because um when we look at this and we see, okay, you had this much money, you have five, um, I think we have five nonprofits that apply for those funds, and then one organization got all money and out, you know, look at our history, we have always tried to divvy that money up among the non-profit um um community.

Now I do want um, and Bob and I had this conversation yesterday, because I was a little bit confused, and I'm I'm just gonna talk about this a little bit.

When we got this money back, it came back through the economic gestures and they were doing a CNA program.

And initially we were told that any funds that was taken back, those funds will have to be used for that particular program, CNA funds.

So, and where I'm going with this is because the regs have changed a little bit, and we use the money for housing, probably wouldn't have been it would have been a good idea to inform the commission.

Hey, we got some money back, but we're gonna use it for housing or for something else, for whatever.

So I think it'll be helpful if we stay in the loop a little bit more when we start talking about these funds to move um Commissioner Link's point, know how much money we got.

And I know we're gonna be recapturing some other funds as we move forward and we could hopefully use those funds for other areas.

But I think it's just helpful to us to have that information so we'll know and be mindful, and I don't want to say we was caught off guard, but I just thought I thought was it was sort of odd that one organization got all the money.

And we should we we should need, you know, we got some nonprofits doing some um yeah's work when it comes to housing.

Well, not we build a new house to Commissioner Taylor's point, Habitat does a great job.

And I'm glad they're in the community doing what they're doing.

But then rehabbing homes and helping people stay in their home is just as important.

So we need to make sure that um we take a look at how we funding folks where those monies are going.

And if I if I may, just for um so that we know kind of moving forward for for clarity's sake, so a couple things.

Um, yes, there were six nonprofits that had responded to the RFP that all six are eligible under the guidance that's been provided.

The guidance is actually included in the uh gender report.

So when you see it in there, that's based actually on a correspondence that you all received from the attorney's office some some months ago.

These are existing affordable housing contracts.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I just wanted to make sure the piece that's going to do that if it's an existing one.

So these are what I was talking about, though we got the money.

I'm sorry, Bob.

I didn't mean to all I was gonna say was the the piece that and this is the piece I need kind of clarity on because um we did talk with with you all about the money coming, the money's coming back, it's gonna be in this amount, we're gonna go through an RFP process.

So all that was discussed, the piece that was not was okay.

We received those those RFPs.

Here's the evaluation criteria that we use.

To your point, we anticipate that after the January deadline, there'll be other dollars that will be recaptured.

We will probably need to work with you all to say, okay, so what are the expectations that when we get those dollar months?

We know what the rules are that's been shared.

We kind of have laid out a process with it.

If at the end of the day, it's gonna actually be not staff recommendations of how these funds should be allocated, but that we actually bring it here for your determination.

We'll need to talk about how that works.

So that that's the piece that we'll probably if that's the direction that you're wanting that it's kind of like hey, staff, you get to a point, but then bring it here, um, and you guys are gonna have to kind of figure that piece out.

We'll need to talk more about that, because we will be um certain receiving additional funds after January.

Okay.

I've got Commissioners Thornton Johnson and Myers.

And I you know, I guess my my question is a little bit more objective.

Um on May the 4th, uh, and it's in your in your purpose number 13.

Um East Athens and the land trust came before us for us to um approve that we would not recapture their unspent money.

My question is this is what I was asking, Sarah, so you don't have to.

Um at that time, did Habitat spend all the of their money at this point?

Okay.

Um yeah, at that point and at the March 4th meeting, they were on track with expenditures at that point.

They had met their 50 percent by their 25 percent by then.

Okay.

Now and while you're there, um I know there's a lot going back and forth about um an open records request.

I'm not gonna be naive and pretend I don't know.

Can we get a full uh accounting of all of Habitat's money?

We should have you should have a record of that, right?

All of Habitats money that ACD has granted to them.

And uh don't you also I'm aware of the open records requests.

No, no, no, I'm asking you about the um uh I'm not talking about the open records.

Okay.

I'm talking about all the funds that uh habitat has received from other sources for Micus Creek specifically, yes, we can put that together.

Yeah, I would like to see what those numbers look like.

Um, and my my and my third thought is if um Bob, if you're s really sure that we're gonna get monies back, get some more money clawed back in January.

Why won't we just wait until January and put all the money together to get a better picture instead of trying to allocate it out dipping?

And you and you could.

This was just uh all of these dollars obviously have a clock ticking on them.

These were dollars that actually we call them re reclaimed, but really these were folks who came to us and said we're not gonna be able to spend these dollars, so it was simply because they were available and applied.

Um and I and I would say, and you actually referenced one of those instances where it is possible that in after January when we see folks that are in effect eligible for recapture, you all may choose not to do so.

Um you may decide that they've got a plan to go ahead and finish it up and move forward, but definitely on the last updates that we sent to you all, there are definitely a number of folks that have fallen behind the performance measures, so we do expect that piece.

But but yes, you could certainly take these dollars and simply hold them and roll them into the discussion, just to understand it squeezes that timeline tighter.

It's squeezed now.

I would rather for you to um recap it like tomorrow.

Whoever is behind tomorrow, um commissioner, you remember what we did.

We set up a calendar.

I remember that calendar.

And if you and if there's already signs, you don't have to wait until the ball drop.

If there is already signs that people are not going to meet those deadlines, we need to start planning now and not wait until January.

That's that's we certainly are doing, we're doing that right now, getting ready for those.

That's why you all are being provided kind of those updates along the way so you can kind of see who they are.

But yeah.

And my last point when um Commissioner Fitch Fisher talked about the misinformation of what is funded.

What I was told um, it wasn't CNA, it was the category.

Yeah, yeah.

It was uh it no, because it's under the homeless category.

C and A that that was under the homeless pot of money.

And the other money was from workforce.

They were both EJC, but it wasn't CNA's, it was the it it fell under homeless.

That's typical.

Yeah, and if you look at in the agenda report, if you look at pay, it's page five, I don't know what it is in the overall packet.

Item number four, a b and c those are based off of the memo that the attorney's office provided previously that really identify the categories that that would guide any future use of reclaimed dollars.

So Commissioner Johnson and Commissioner Myers.

Um really quickly I want to ask what uh comment, a question about the last thing you said, Bob.

Page five, page four, number five.

Is that a hard and fast?

Is that is that stuck in like stone, or is that could that is that just what's in the agenda for tonight?

Or category B.

That is those categories or the fixed categories for the Treasury guidance.

Okay, thank you.

So I've wanted to say tonight that I'm not a fan of any one entity ever getting all the money.

I think there's clear evidence of why I think there were um, I believe Commissioner Fisher, Taylor, uh Thornton, maybe not Thornton, but but I I know Myers, for a very good reason supported the Boys and Girls Club, and there was and it was on the agenda before I joined in April, I believe it was April, uh May and June, and eventually subsequently they did receive an award for uh 2.9 million dollars in which they were supposed to provide a 1.4 million dollars and spread it out through two other um organizations, smaller organizations with the purpose of building them up, strengthening them up, helping them out, giving them a giving them opportunities, expanding their opportunities.

And um well, we already know what the challenges that we have with the boys and girls club are currently.

But the second thing that a lot of people do not know is that a lot of those um churches who had those youth camps, a lot of other groups, a lot many groups that receive money year after year after year after year.

Once the boys and girls club got the entire pot, those organizations and churches stopped getting money.

Only a handful got money versus that norm, I'm not gonna say the normal list because you all because everyone has to apply, but it became increasingly difficult for the same people who figured out how to prepare their paperwork correctly and turn in their outcomes data to then get an award to all of a sudden the money has gone to one entity and then they do the exact same thing, no change, probably got better with time, and then they get did not get a response, an answer or recall a phone call or follow up with, and I've worked with four of the four of the agencies as a private contractor.

I do I I do know that the same commissioners that supported also had a very challenging time getting outcomes data.

And that and that's not on them, it's just I would not ever support providing any funding, all one pot of funding to one entity, regardless of who it was.

I just want to say that for the record.

Commissioner Myers.

Yeah, um, just for the record as well, before I get to my main point, I think on that boys and girls club allocation, it was a unanimous support vote.

Um that was back in June of two and a half, three years ago.

I don't know.

Anyway, um back to this item.

Um I did want to point out a couple of things, because this is there's a lot, and this is the last item I I was able to look at really closely, but I think you know that that uh the regulations that we had for uh re-obligating the unspent ARPA funds and such did include one option was to have it for the same exact kind of thing item, but another option was to move it to another ARPA thing.

And that's what we we voted on that as a group uh a year ago.

Um, because I know someone was at in the community was asking me about that last night as well, and that just came up here.

Um the other thing is is that one on these, you know, we might disagree with it, but on this uh the eligible expenses that HCD used for giving points, one of them was to demonstrate existing cost overruns.

Um and the habitat project has overruns, and perhaps you all can talk to those overruns, because I know there's I I'd like to understand that, as well as having the full budget of the Micah's Creek, because this is all of this money only adds up to a little bit of that project.

If we could get all of that project for two million dollars, we'd be we'd have a really good deal.

So if you could talk to those all overruns, and then the last thing, my concern with giving this money up at this point is that one the priorities were to deal with cost overruns so that a project could be completed.

Um the other projects, Historic Athens has done great work with the rehab, um, but they and the council of aging uh which they also received exactly the same, you know, scoring on this rubric of 83.7, they do that rehab as well.

And the Athens Land Trust, the the young urban buildings builders were you know two points below it 81.25.

So we have three organizations that do that good rehab work, which I think is really important.

Um but they were actually able to fulfill what they're supposed to do, where the habitat project seems to be uh, you know, have problems, which I hope will will be addressed here.

So if the if the manager or someone could address that um scope of work also because there's this whole other thing which no one's brought up, which you can help me explain as well, is changing the number of houses, like instead of doing five and five, doing five and then putting the money on the infrastructure.

Uh, I think that was kind of the plan.

Um so if you could address that, what's happening there, and I'm assuming when you're addressing that, if you could clarify Mike is Creek as a whole, the scope isn't changing, it's just the scope for the this ARPA money that's changing.

Is that correct?

Correct.

Um the Micah's crossing right now is um trying to address increased costs associated with infrastructure um in that development.

They're actually going through a process right now to actually phase the project instead of it being all at one time.

Um I think we have shared with, I know we've shared with you all also that there are SPLOSS dollars that are designated for affordable housing, which we will similarly be pushing out at RFP.

And I would fully expect that Habitat under Micah's Crossing would compete for for those uh dollars for that reason because it's it's really infrastructure increased infrastructure costs in Micah's Crossing, which is what's driving a lot of the need for additional funds going into that project and a lot of some of the the adjustments that you've made.

But we can we can certainly provide you with more information regarding Micah's crossing as far as what that gap is currently.

We can we can definitely do that.

Can't do that right now, but we can definitely do that.

I do think if again, as we go forward and thinking thinking forward to when we look at other reclaimed funds that are coming in after that January, the way we handled this previously was we came and asked for your guidance on which of the strategies, which of the three eligible strategies that we have, um should we use, and then and the decision was use the strategy one, I think it was, and and then you specified affordable housing.

So what we'll need as we approach January, it's kind of getting ready for um additional dollars coming in.

We're gonna need some guidance from you all then, because we took it from there.

Staff developed those rubric, issued the RFP, and then evaluated those and made this recommendation.

If again that's not the approach that you want to take after you've made that first decision, it's gonna go toward affordable housing, it's gonna go toward whatever those things.

If you're going to want to apply, either approve what the rubric is and or make the selections of who's gonna get what funding, we'll need to know that well in advance because we'll have to incorporate that in the process going forward.

So it's just something to think about as we go into those other inevitable um recapturing.

Uh Commissioner Link.

Yes, just quickly, I want to clarify.

Um, this is 27 uh 273,000 of ARPA funding that's coming back to us that needs to be spent by the end of next year by an affordable housing entity that already has gotten ARPA funding that has a shuttle ready project that can finish spending it by the end of next year.

Yes.

In the meantime, we have 6.4 million dollars in our affordable housing fund that has no deadline.

So there is that money sitting there to get these other entities sustainable beyond that ARPA deadline.

Um we have the potential to add eight million more dollars to that fund if the core project passes.

All right, we will uh continue discussion of this first Tuesday December.

All right, uh item 18 should not be uh the uh challenge.

Would anybody like to ensure that the Super Bowl survey let's do it?

Patrons of establishments will be able to purchase a beverage on the Sunday of Super Bowl.

Let's do it.

It's been a favorite.

18 on consent.

Please, yes, please.

Wait, what is 18?

1518 is on consent.

All right, uh moving on to 19.

Uh 19 is the Barber Street pedestrian and cycle improvements.

I have a couple questions.

I'll email those to staff.

Thank you.

Uh Commissioner Wake.

Yeah, I'm I'm gonna ask Manager Cowell to walk that last leg from Boulevard to Prince Avenue with me in the next week or so.

Um she asked me about that beforehand.

Yeah, we just bringing in on the um because I I feel like we're getting we're we're getting this kind of one size fits all approach when I really feel like we need a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B and a little bit of column C.

It's a very diverse, it's only about a what, a third of a mile or so, but it's a really diverse section of historic neighborhood street.

And you know, we need to make it safe to cycle, but we also need to maintain that lovely shaded character and make sure we're not blasting through the front yards.

I know from what I understand, what's really messing this up is Georgia Power will not allow us to move the utility poles into a verge.

Um so if we expand the verge, we can't move the utility poles into a new verge.

Um so yeah, um I'm I'm I'm hoping we can come up with a creative solution to you pulling a issue.

Um I don't I don't know.

Bob and I are gonna have a chat.

I certainly be glad to do that.

Commissioner Thornton, just a second.

I I'd be certainly glad to be part of that.

Long time uh advocate for these projects generally and this project particularly, and I think it's important to recognize that you know we don't have all the funds that we would like really for any version of at least a couple of segments of this.

And so what what I would encourage the commission to do is recognize that at least from ONETA Street to where you have the three-way intersection at Chase and Newton Bridge, we've got the opportunity to create some connectivity and quality that does not exist now.

And so the staff recommendation is really to focus on that kind of three-leg intersection.

Recognizing, of course, there's gonna have to be some different treatment as we approach Prince Avenue where there would have to be other property acquisitions.

So just let's think about that in the big picture of this conversation.

So Commissioner Thornton.

And I'm totally in agreement with you.

I I pro mayor, I really am.

Um Commissioner Link, this is a 218 project.

And the reasons are the 218 project is because we keep going back and forth, back and forth.

And I hope when you take that walk that you will be ready to vote this, or we can move on because nothing's going to be and you know what's so interesting?

Your district gets everything.

So I I have no, you know, let's walk with Bob, but please come back ready to move this.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Anything else on this?

Uh it's that there's lots of complex schematics in there, so I I know it's difficult to look at.

Um, but but certainly I think if uh you do want to visit the site with staff, they can really demonstrate to you the treatment that they're recommending to move ahead with actually engineering and putting on the ground, which which I appreciate dearly.

Um is uh uh another pedestrian bicycle project, Jefferson River Road.

Any input on this one?

Please put that on the staff.

Which one?

Well, Commissioner Johnson's vote.

Everybody okay with consent on 20?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I I do have a question, but I can wait for the for the um voting meeting.

That was river.

And if you kind of deliver that to staff now, they get that to you.

Okay.

We'll do.

Thanks.

All right.

Uh let's 21, 22, 23 or so.

Um supplement updates.

Anything on the probate court?

These are 30 grand in aggregate, so 21.

Any consent.

Consent there okay.

All right.

21 is consent.

I did have a question for 2012, 23.

Didn't we vote on this when our 26 budget that we're gonna have?

So while we consent in so what one of the things that happens with some of these positions is that some of them are on a calendar year funding cycle, and so we don't know the exact amount until later on, so we have to get specific.

Uh 21, 22, 23.

Am I hearing consent for all three of those?

All right.

Yeah.

Uh 24 is the uh mental health recovery facility, uh, the waiver of the water and wastewater connection fees.

I'm consenting.

I know we've gotten a request for kind of entire waiver rather than the 30 percent.

Is it ready for the agenda report?

Is everything ready in it?

Oh, yeah.

Good to go.

I would like to keep it off dissent because I'm I have some questions.

Take it off.

All right.

All right.

Hold on, hold on, hold on.

Commissioner Fisher.

So initially they were asking those for a one percent waiver, right?

So now it's down to 30.

30 is the policy for affordable housing projects.

Okay.

Yeah that's we we can leave it all yeah I need to find out what staff is going to tell us then not consent.

Not consent yeah yeah it'll it'll remain on discussion here all right and then uh 25 is staff's analysis of the relocation of the two homes from 110 Puritan Lane and 1060 Macon Highway.

You know I guess my thought is why that location when there was there's a um where we went um down at um white house yeah there are there are some issues with the Whitehall location and we'll get those to you because we looked at that at that site as well so we'll we'll get those to you that this was just this location was just easier to to be able to locate them on but we'll we'll get the details for you.

Okay then we'll leave it yeah location hasn't been really the the bigger issue the bigger issue is actually finding a partner to actually take over the rehabilitation any any other questions about the staff report I want to make a comment but I I do just want to know if and I have not had an opportunity to thoroughly read this staff report but this is five hundred and thirty six thousand dollars we were just talking about that is that enough and I might say it in the staff report but is that enough is that would cover like if we have 536000 we're gonna be able to move those houses and people be able to move in them what it would do is it would move them and it would mitigate all of the known environmental issues so lead would be removed asbestos would be removed any of the pests um that would be there removed no that's why I said that the next step in it would be we would still need a partner to actually rehabilitate the units to be to be livable and so there likely would be additional contribution to funds to be able to make that happen.

And is that in the report the dollar amount no because we don't have a partner yet nor do we know the dollar amounts for that there's sort of a guesstimate of something like another half million dollars to rehab the two thousand so it would be a million dollars to for two houses ballpark.

Okay it's a lot of money you know what's crazy the order that we did was or we approved the moving of it before we knew how much it costs a couple of months ago we have you were just indicating I apologize I thought we we discussed it that's right and I'm you know and I'm going to always go back to this it everybody's kind of and and for our new commissioners that um are new when I think about how much money we paid for that tall at downtown 318 and we still pay for the maintenance and it doesn't house nobody so I that's that's that's where I stand at and we need to make that sacrifice if we can do something.

But okay take it off consent what uh what I would recommend if commissioners are interested in moving forward with a viable affordable housing project um that could house more people than just in two thousand square foot homes we do have an affordable housing trust fund we do own some very viable property that we've talked about lately on Hancock Avenue and Harris Street for the Health Department we could probably construct much more space there than the relocation and rehabilitation of these homes would cost for the same dollar amount so so what I would recommend is if we're interested in this thematic area that we pursue a project like that with our affordable housing trust fund likely in connection with uh ultimately a partner like the housing authority because we can expend public funds with a public entity um so that that's that's a real viable path if you're interested in getting some folks housed um commissioner davenport isn't our remote white house over there uh yes it's a large property so you could have uh several things there's consent for uh discussion discussion we all motion to adjourn second all right we've got a motion to adjourn a second all in favor please say aye aye any opposed all right here