The Roswell City Committee convened on January 13, 2026, presided over by City Administrator Randy Knighton, with the Mayor and City Council present. The meeting focused on initiating text amendments to the Unified Development Code regarding warehouse uses and data centers, approving contracts and budget amendments for water infrastructure improvements, and discussing the conversion of private utilities to public systems. All agenda items were reviewed and unanimously approved to move forward to the full Mayor and Council meetings.
All right. We will begin in just one minute. Just one minute. We will begin. All right. All right. Good. All right. Good evening and welcome everyone to the committee meetings for January 13th, 2026. The elected body present, Mayor Mary Robichot, Councilmember Christine Hall, Councilmember Alan Sells, Councilmember Aaron Brumley, Councilmember Christopher Zek, Councilmember Jennifer Philippi, Councilmember Sarah Beeson. I'm Randy Knighton, the city administrator, along with City Attorney David Davidson and the executive assistant to the council and deputy city clerk Michelle Miller. The purpose of committee meetings are for the city departments to convey information to the mayor and city council and discuss initiatives listed on the published agenda, as well as provide updates of vital information essential to the operation of city government. And by ordinance, the committee consists of the mayor, members of the city council, and the city administrator. And the ordinance mandates that the city administrators serve as the chair of committee meetings. This is a public meeting, but not a public hearing, and therefore, while we certainly welcome members of the public, we do not take public comments unless or questions during committee meetings unless specifically authorized. Public comments and questions are received at the regular city council meetings on the second and fourth Monday of each month and fifth Monday in open forum. We do encourage residents to engage our online platforms. And if you have questions or need information, we certainly encourage you to reach out to our staff. Also, the city's web service portal is a mechanism to report issues or concerns, and please visit Roswell365.com for a calendar of events and for our committee meetings. Uh this evening will be explained by the respective members of our staff and for those items that will ultimately need a formal approval by mayor and council. We'll ask this committee to motion and approve those items moving forward to a formal uh mayor and council meeting if they are so inclined. The first item on the uh meeting agenda is the approval of the committee meetings for December 9th, 2025. Motion to approve by Councilmember Beeson, second by council member Sells. Any further discussion, all in favor? All right, that passes unanimously. Thank you very much. As listed on the agenda, item number two, consideration of a text amendment to the unified development code, Article 9, use provisions, section 9.6.6, warehouse and distribution, and this is for initiation, uh, presented by Jeannie Payton, our planning and zoning director. Ms. Payton. Hi, good evening, Mayor and Council. Um, I have two text amendments to present to you. Um it looks like the first one that got put on the agenda is section 966. So these go alongside the moratorium discussion for data centers and help further refine um our code immediately to allow for clarification of what um interpretation of our code allows for. So the first section is 966 warehouse and distribution. Um you can see that we add the word physical to further define and reduce like ambiguity about what kind of goods we um define warehouse use for. Um we explicitly eliminate data and digital storage centers as a use that's allowed. And then while we're in here cleaning it up, we also suggested um refining trailer and box truck storage as temporary and um as a and not allowed as a primary standalone use. Um then we further uh define the use standards for industrial flex area for warehouse and distribution. So our industrial flex area is a less intense industrial area than our light industrial area. So this is where we don't want to see those heavy warehouse uses, and so we refine it by asking it to be a limitation of on direct vehicular access to a state highway and having a maximum size of 25,000 square feet. Any questions? Ms. Paige, if we would, can you explain just a little bit about the process for initiation and then as it relates to planning commission elseably mayor and council? Sure. So when we suggest a change to the code, we initiate it in this committee format, and that allows us to start the process. The next step would be planning commission. Planning commission votes recommendations, and then we bring those recommendations to you in the first reading. The first and second reading at Mayor and Council allow you to make any changes you want, kind of discuss them previous to suggest them, and then you have a second even opportunity before the adoption. And so it is required that we have those first and second readings. So text amendments always start with initiation, go via planning commission to gain some recommendations, additions to that text, and then end up at a first and second reading with mayor and council.