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Are we good, Sharon? | 00:00:07 | |
All right, I want to welcome everybody to the April 17th meeting of the Watkinsville City Council. Grateful to see a good crowd | 00:00:11 | |
here tonight. We have several. | 00:00:17 | |
Items that will require some conversation. So I will. I'm going to move us pretty quickly through most of the agenda items and I | 00:00:23 | |
would ask those who have. | 00:00:26 | |
Administrative reports to do the same, please. And not not dawdle as we move forward. Given everything we've got going tonight, we | 00:00:31 | |
do have a quorum grateful that all of you are here. Tonight we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance, as we always do. Please | 00:00:36 | |
join me in the pledge. | 00:00:40 | |
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, | 00:00:46 | |
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. | 00:00:53 | |
Right, we have several. | 00:01:04 | |
Announcements to make at the top of the meeting #1. | 00:01:07 | |
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. Watkinsville is proud. | 00:01:11 | |
To recognize that and to support all the efforts in this community. | 00:01:16 | |
To to try to eradicate child abuse. And I do proclaim the month of April as Child Abuse Prevention Month in Watkinsville, GA. | 00:01:22 | |
And encourage all citizens to volunteer their talents and energies on behalf of children in our community. | 00:01:30 | |
To reduce child abuse and neglect and neglect significantly in the years to come. So we have a proclamation there and court | 00:01:35 | |
client. If you can get that to whoever needs a copy of said proclamation, that would be great. | 00:01:40 | |
We also have a proclamation. It is a Municipal Court. Week will come up before our next meeting. | 00:01:47 | |
And it just so happens Watkinsville has the best municipal clerk in the world. And Julie Fine. | 00:01:54 | |
Julie. | 00:02:03 | |
If we don't say it enough, you deserve our extreme gratitude. | 00:02:04 | |
As the city has evolved and changed. | 00:02:08 | |
25 How many years, 27 years. Julie has been a rock. She has been a smiling face. And not just a smiling face, but someone who gets | 00:02:12 | |
a tremendous amount done and keeps us organized, efficient and legal and all that we do. And Julie, we are grateful to you. So I | 00:02:20 | |
will read this proclamation and offer my thanks to you along with the rest of the council. | 00:02:28 | |
Whereas the office of professional Municipal clerk is a time honored and vital part of local government exists throughout the | 00:02:36 | |
world. | 00:02:39 | |
The Office of Professional Municipal Clerk is among the oldest public servants. The Office of the Professional Municipal Court | 00:02:43 | |
provides the professional link between citizens and the local governing bodies and agencies of government. | 00:02:48 | |
At other levels, whereas professional municipal clerks have pledged to be mindful of their neutrality and impartiality, rendering | 00:02:53 | |
equal service to all. | 00:02:57 | |
The Professional Municipal Court serves as the Information Center on functions of local government and community, whereas | 00:03:01 | |
professional Municipal courts continually strive to improve the administration of affairs of the Office of the Professional | 00:03:06 | |
Municipal Court through participation Education program seminars, workshops and the annual means of the state, provincial, county | 00:03:11 | |
and international Professional organizations. Now. Therefore, I, Brian Broderick, Mayor of Watkinsville, recognize the week of May | 00:03:15 | |
5th through May 11th. | 00:03:20 | |
2024 is professional Municipal Court this week and extend further appreciation to our professional Municipal Court. Julie Klein. | 00:03:25 | |
And to all professional municipal clerks for the vital services they perform and their exemplary dedication to the communities | 00:03:32 | |
they represent. Thank you, Julie. | 00:03:36 | |
Thank you all. I appreciate it. | 00:03:43 | |
Our next item up is we have. | 00:03:47 | |
Some poets in the room and I think James Mitchell and Kate Patterson are going to hand, are going to make that announcement. Is | 00:03:49 | |
that right? | 00:03:54 | |
OK, so we have Kate, who's our DDA director and our Oconee Library branch manager, James Mitchell. If you could come up to the | 00:03:59 | |
podium and make that announcement. Yes, I'm Kate, I'm the downtown development director and we partnered up with the County | 00:04:05 | |
Library. This is James. He's the manager of the library here and hosted a poetry competition. We had an adult category and a youth | 00:04:11 | |
category with quite a few entries. And tonight we would like to present certificates to our winners, Miss. Gwendolyn Peck and | 00:04:17 | |
Miss. | 00:04:24 | |
Amelia. Amelia Emerson. Yes, their poems actually that were selected to be the winners will be chalked on the sidewalk in downtown | 00:04:32 | |
Watkinsville later this month, so we're excited to see their poetry in writing downtown. | 00:04:40 | |
All right. Are they going to? | 00:04:49 | |
There you go. | 00:05:13 | |
Awesome. All right, ready. | 00:05:16 | |
Not to speak about briefly about these two, these two young women. | 00:05:27 | |
Amelia Emerson This is her second meeting in a row. For those of you who aren't participating, you should be. She helped launch | 00:05:33 | |
our April Litter pickup contest in Watkinsville. | 00:05:38 | |
So. | 00:05:43 | |
I saw about probably 12 or 14 high school age students out picking up litter on 3rd St. and South Main Street on Sunday. | 00:05:47 | |
So that's been wonderful to see. And Amelia, we appreciate your leadership and hope to have you back in May to announce our winner | 00:05:55 | |
then. Our other young lady is Miss Gwendolyn Peck, a long time friend of mine. | 00:06:01 | |
Wonderful teacher at Oconee County High School. | 00:06:09 | |
Probably wrote the most meaningful and thoughtful thing to me on my wedding day that I received and in terms of a note and a | 00:06:12 | |
wedding gift. And so I know you're a talented writer, also very talented coach, a state champion. | 00:06:18 | |
Coach and Coach Beck, we're grateful for you and grateful for your involvement with the library and that you still have that | 00:06:25 | |
writing talent. Can't wait to see it on the sidewalk. So thank you for being with us tonight. | 00:06:29 | |
All right, a few reminders for the public before we get into the meeting. We just talked about the litter pickup contest with the | 00:06:40 | |
only way out. We've got the grabbers Come by City Hall. We'll put you to work if you are interested in. | 00:06:45 | |
Interested in participating in that for first place? You'll get 100. Whoever picks up the most is going to get $100.00 gift | 00:06:52 | |
certificate to Athens running company 2nd Place. | 00:06:56 | |
$75.00 to Mama nings 3rd place $50.00 Gift certificate to scoops. | 00:07:01 | |
And the strangest litter find, whatever that is, gets a $50.00 gift card to bird and brass so. | 00:07:06 | |
Hopefully we have have a lot of people participating in that. Then we also have coming up this weekend, a very busy weekend in | 00:07:14 | |
Watkinsville, so the more litter we can get picked up before this weekend we have the Piedmont Garden Tour. | 00:07:20 | |
Which is coming to Watkinsville on Saturday, so if you see crowds of people. | 00:07:27 | |
Along S Main St. and around oh Calf. They are at participants in the Piedmont Garden Tour, so please drive carefully. We will have | 00:07:33 | |
people crossing S Main St. | 00:07:37 | |
So, so be very careful as you drive drive out there. | 00:07:43 | |
Excuse me? | 00:07:48 | |
OK, test, test. Any better? | 00:07:51 | |
That any better? OK. All right. Then we will also have the next day we'll have the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation Spring | 00:07:55 | |
Ramble that's in Athens, I think the 18th and no, the 19th and 20th. | 00:08:02 | |
And then the 21st in Oconee, so there are a lot of homes in Watkinsville on that tour. | 00:08:09 | |
I think including including Mayor Pro Tem Tucker's home and Councilman Garrett's home, so so it'll be a great opportunity to see | 00:08:14 | |
some of the historic homes in Watkinsville and we thank those owners for opening up their homes. | 00:08:21 | |
To the public, we'll have guests from around the state visiting on Sunday in Oconee County and seeing our historic homes, so we're | 00:08:28 | |
excited to have them and other structures. I heard that Wire Park has a guided tour that the Eagle Tavern will be open, so it's | 00:08:33 | |
going to be a great day if you enjoy history you won't want to miss. | 00:08:38 | |
The Ramble. Also see Sam Drennan out there. I think your home is on the tour. Anybody else? Oh, Susannah. Kathleen, you're home | 00:08:44 | |
too. OK, we've got all the sanctuary. | 00:08:48 | |
What's that? Yeah, so a lot of rambling going on. | 00:08:53 | |
Today is the last day. Today may be the last day to buy tickets. So when you leave here, if you want to do it, then sign up and | 00:08:58 | |
get your tickets. All right, we will move along to what's next. | 00:09:03 | |
So as I remind everyone at most meetings, these meetings are broadcast simultaneously online via the Suite 1 webcasting public | 00:09:09 | |
portal. Those who aren't able to attend the meeting can access that portal at the link on our website and they can follow along. | 00:09:14 | |
All the information is shared on those tabs. We do provide closed captioning for those meetings. If you want to watch live and | 00:09:20 | |
have closed captioning, you have to click the CC icon. | 00:09:26 | |
In the lower right corner of the video window, when the video from tonight's meeting is posted online, the closed captions will | 00:09:32 | |
automatically appear. You can also view a transcript. | 00:09:37 | |
There, as a reminder, the agenda is posted a week in advance and then the packet is posted as soon as possible prior to the | 00:09:41 | |
meeting so people can write in. | 00:09:45 | |
About what they have going on, we will have a couple public hearings tonight where public comment is required. We also have the | 00:09:50 | |
quarter ordinance which is under old business. I know a lot of you are here to talk about that. We will do public comment on that. | 00:09:56 | |
We have a few other items under appearances where we will probably will not have public comment as much as we'll just have a | 00:10:02 | |
briefing from those who are the applicants. So we can keep things moving tonight and get to what you guys want to hear about. | 00:10:08 | |
With that, I'll move on to meeting minutes. Council, you have the meeting for the the minutes for the March 20th meeting in front | 00:10:14 | |
of you and you've had them. Do we have a motion to approve or any comments on the minutes? | 00:10:20 | |
I make a motion to approve. | 00:10:26 | |
Do we have a second? | 00:10:30 | |
I'll say we have a second from Councilman Thomas. Any comments hearing? None. All in favor, Say aye. Motion carries 5. | 00:10:32 | |
We also had, if you were at the last meeting, we had a discussion around. | 00:10:40 | |
Some site modifications they want to make it Trove Mayor Pro Tem Tucker and I met with them during the eclipse. | 00:10:46 | |
So that was, that was, I think I'd have no black spots in my eyes. I'm proud to report. I don't think you're seeing everything OK | 00:10:52 | |
as much as I ever think. So anyway, it was a good excuse to be outside in a cool moment and we did include the minutes of those | 00:10:57 | |
meetings. We also advertised that meeting to the public. | 00:11:03 | |
And I posted those notes. So council, I would entertain a motion to approve those minutes. Please, I make a motion to approve the | 00:11:09 | |
minutes. | 00:11:13 | |
Second. Second All right. Any discussion all in favor, say aye. | 00:11:16 | |
Motion carries 5 O. | 00:11:22 | |
We'll move to the approval of the agenda. I have no adjustments to the agenda. Does anyone have any? | 00:11:24 | |
Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda. Motion to approve the agenda. Do we have a second? | 00:11:29 | |
All in favor, Say aye. | 00:11:36 | |
Motion carries 5. | 00:11:38 | |
All right, we are proud to welcome a new Lieutenant to our Police Department, and that's Robert Benton's. | 00:11:40 | |
Mr. Benton is a 20 year police veteran who most recently served as a Sergeant with the City of Thompson Police Department and has | 00:11:47 | |
served as a uniformed officer with increasing responsibility since 1998, first as an officer for the CAB. | 00:11:53 | |
From 1998 to 2022, then the city of Thompson, 2022 to 2024. | 00:12:00 | |
Officer Benton and his wife previously lived in Oconee County but now reside in the Warrenton area on a farm. | 00:12:05 | |
Officer Benton, welcome to Watkinsville. We're thrilled to have you here and I think Attorney Reitman is going to step up to | 00:12:11 | |
administer the oath of office if you want to stand as well. | 00:12:14 | |
Thank you. | 00:12:19 | |
Welcome, Sir, and I'm going to administer the official oath that you will raise your right hand, please, and repeat after me at | 00:12:29 | |
the end. You can say I do or I do, so help you, God, do you solemnly swear affirm that you will faithfully execute the office of | 00:12:35 | |
Police Lieutenant for the City of Watkinsville, and to the best of your ability, support and defend the Constitution of the United | 00:12:41 | |
States, the Constitution of Georgia, and the Charter. | 00:12:47 | |
Ordinances and Regulations of the City of Watkinsville and. | 00:12:54 | |
Without fear, favor, affection, reward, or expectation thereof. If you agree with that oath and say I do or I do, so help me out I | 00:13:31 | |
do. | 00:13:34 | |
Congratulations. | 00:13:38 | |
Make it 100% official and then I will. | 00:13:45 | |
Witness it. | 00:13:49 | |
I got the blue pan out for you. I figured that would be appropriate. | 00:13:52 | |
Again, congratulations. Thank you, Sir. | 00:14:00 | |
Thank you. | 00:14:10 | |
All right. We'll move on to administration and we'll kick off with the financial reports for a manager Dickerson. Thank you, | 00:14:37 | |
Mayor. | 00:14:40 | |
Everybody should have the balance sheet, their general revenues and the general fund expenses. We are on track, do not anticipate | 00:14:44 | |
any problems with that at this point. I will walk you through some of this. The other reports are special purpose local option | 00:14:51 | |
sales tax 3, which we began collecting revenues on in October of 21 and will continue through September 30th of 2027. Right now | 00:14:58 | |
we're showing if we continue at this rate, we will project to collect another half million dollars. | 00:15:04 | |
You'll see that we are about 5% up. We compare year to year. So we're about 5% over where we were last year, have a little bit | 00:15:44 | |
more than $1,000,000 in the bank. | 00:15:48 | |
On the cheese losses, our transportation special purpose local option sales tax. | 00:15:54 | |
That is specifically transportation projects. You'll see sidewalks, traffic efficiency improvements, and Rd. resurfacing monies | 00:15:58 | |
that have been set aside, right now, the only monies that we have. | 00:16:03 | |
Officially spent have been on the sidewalks that you see down New High Shoals Industrial Blvd. | 00:16:08 | |
Probably a couple little segments here there, but those are the two large ones. We've got another one coming hopefully on the | 00:16:15 | |
South Main side. | 00:16:18 | |
But there are monies that have been that are being proposed that have been encumbered and that's some of what we'll talk about | 00:16:22 | |
tonight as well there. Some of these monies may be used for the L, Meg or the local Rd. | 00:16:27 | |
Probably more, but we'll see. Right now we have a little bit more than $580,000. | 00:17:07 | |
In that account. | 00:17:12 | |
And then the American rescue plan. | 00:17:14 | |
Acts reports, These are the funds that the. | 00:17:16 | |
State Sorry, the United States Federal Government. | 00:17:19 | |
Gave to communities throughout the United States after COVID hit. | 00:17:22 | |
And those monies are supposed to be used for transformative projects I'm happy to report council did use. | 00:17:27 | |
A good chunk of it 710,000 to purchase the 100 acre Thomas Farm Preserve. | 00:17:32 | |
We still have about 9, a little bit more than $95,000 that needs to be appropriated and that decision will most likely come when | 00:17:37 | |
the council approves budget in June, because the requirement from the federal government is that those funds be appropriated. | 00:17:45 | |
Before December 31st of this year and then have to be spent by December 31st of 2026. | 00:17:53 | |
Any questions? | 00:17:59 | |
OK. I'll go on to the economic development report. So this is our business license, alcohol, licensing fees, you'll see, I know | 00:18:02 | |
nobody can read this in the audience, but it is online if you'd like to see. It took in a little bit more than $19,000 and that's | 00:18:08 | |
pretty typical. March 15th is our deadline. So we've got a few people we're still trying to bring in their. | 00:18:15 | |
There get their licenses approved, but. | 00:18:22 | |
I think we're on track, pretty close. So excise tax on alcohol and on our short term vacation rentals, hotel, motel tax, we're | 00:18:25 | |
tracking pretty well on those as well. | 00:18:30 | |
And then the building permits, we only had three permits for three projects this month, small projects. | 00:18:36 | |
I mean, I guess technically the one at wire parks, not small, but anyway mostly home type projects. Any questions on any of those? | 00:18:43 | |
OK. | 00:18:52 | |
All right. So we have had a busy month with the DDA. | 00:18:57 | |
We had. | 00:19:04 | |
Our sidewalk sale. Our first ever sidewalk sale, and it was the weekend before. | 00:19:06 | |
Easter, The weekend of Easter and. | 00:19:13 | |
The merchants in town, most everybody was thrilled. They want to see us do this on a regular basis. | 00:19:17 | |
And the only thing that we are going to tweak is to have we did a lot of social media. | 00:19:24 | |
Advertising, but to have some more signs around town, so there's actually physical signs and those have already been ordered and | 00:19:30 | |
taken care of because we have a very efficient DDA director. So we are all ready to go for the next one. | 00:19:37 | |
OK, so I am personally incredibly excited about this. I will not be cooking next week because there are seven different | 00:19:45 | |
restaurants in our downtown that are doing 7 different burgers. | 00:19:51 | |
Next week. And it's a competition and it's also a fundraiser and so. | 00:19:58 | |
I encourage all of you to visit at least one of these, but I think we should maybe have a little separate side contest for anybody | 00:20:05 | |
who does all 7. | 00:20:09 | |
So we haven't discussed that, but I'm I'm going to try. I will be eating a lot of smoothies and broccoli for lunch if this is my | 00:20:16 | |
dinner. But so. | 00:20:20 | |
I know a lot of work has gone into organizing this. | 00:20:26 | |
And it's a great way to support our downtown and our local restaurants. | 00:20:29 | |
And then also we have been talking about this barbecue and Bake Off. It had been scheduled for May 3rd, however. | 00:20:35 | |
For a lot of different reasons. | 00:20:45 | |
It is rescheduled to August 3rd and everybody, every mom in the town is breathing a sigh of relief because May is insanely busy so | 00:20:49 | |
this will be a great way to kick off our before school starts. So mark your calendar for August 3rd if you had it on May 3rd. Go | 00:20:56 | |
ahead and do one of the other many many, many many things that are happening that day and so. And also if you are, this is more | 00:21:03 | |
time for you to figure out that you can enter this at that your BBQ is worth it or your baked goods are worth it. This again is a | 00:21:10 | |
fundraiser and. | 00:21:18 | |
The DVA is doing this in partnership with the Oconee Visitors Bureau Center. | 00:21:25 | |
Yeah. So and it's supporting Bethlehem, which is really important. So that's it for the DDA. | 00:21:33 | |
Thank you, Chief. Gale. | 00:21:42 | |
Good evening. | 00:21:45 | |
To those types of incidences, criminal investigations, what are the proper ways to investigate? | 00:22:24 | |
Calls and and stuff that we're going on to make sure it the case will make it all the way through the court. | 00:22:32 | |
Setting. | 00:22:39 | |
Moving on our police vehicles, we did get a notification that the Ford Motor had some recall on a Bolt, so we're having to | 00:22:41 | |
schedule our vehicles. | 00:22:46 | |
It is there they have told us there is no safety. | 00:22:51 | |
Issues and I said these are emergency vehicles, are they OK? They have ensured that we can do this in a scheduled protocol, but | 00:22:55 | |
that is going on right now. So it will take a few weeks to get all of our cars updated through this recall. | 00:23:03 | |
We also have cops and bobbers coming up. I was talking to the gentleman that that really helps us with this and and it sounds like | 00:23:14 | |
we're a full house already with reservations for this program. So it's going to be very exciting and we're in conversations with | 00:23:20 | |
some. | 00:23:27 | |
Some instructors to teach a self-defense class that's been asked by citizens. So more to come dates, scheduling, making sure | 00:23:33 | |
spaces are available. Safety protocols are met. But so that's what we're working on and we're just we're in a really good spot | 00:23:42 | |
right now and I'm not on wood and I, I, I just want to welcome you know Lieutenant Benton to. | 00:23:51 | |
Watkinsville, which he lived here for a long minute, so he's very familiar and that that was another part of the fitting piece. | 00:24:00 | |
So that's really what we have. Chief, you want to talk about the storm? OK. And you said we did. | 00:24:08 | |
The the storms that came through what, a week and a half ago? I. | 00:24:16 | |
There was a a tree that came down in downtown and it fell. There was property damage. So officers responded, city officials | 00:24:22 | |
responded, and we all work together very well. We, you know, we were making sure that the roadways were safe for passing and we | 00:24:29 | |
actually shut down the roadway for a short period so that there was no interference while the road was being cleaned up. | 00:24:36 | |
And thankfully, there were no injuries reported. | 00:24:45 | |
All right. Questions for Chief Gale. | 00:24:51 | |
All right. Thank you, Chief. | 00:24:54 | |
All right. Consent agenda I think we're just. | 00:24:58 | |
We're just surplus in a police motorcycle, so can I entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda? I make a motion to approve | 00:25:02 | |
the consent agenda. We have a second. | 00:25:07 | |
Second, any discussion. | 00:25:12 | |
Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. All right, Motion carries. | 00:25:14 | |
We're going to move into public hearings. Some of these are. | 00:25:18 | |
At least one of these is a kind of a minor. | 00:25:23 | |
Zoning matter than the other will be about the budget. We do have to follow a little bit of a process where we do a hearing and we | 00:25:26 | |
do a vote on the zoning matter, so bear with me as we go through that. | 00:25:30 | |
We have to follow the law here and that means that. | 00:25:34 | |
You know, if you want to come forward, there's 4 minutes per person. | 00:25:38 | |
If you want to discuss any of these items, refrain from debate, argument or personal attacks, address your comments directly to | 00:25:41 | |
the Council and discuss the merits of the pending matter. | 00:25:45 | |
And address remarks directly to council. Council won't speak to potential litigation, attorney-client or personnel matters. So in | 00:25:50 | |
that these are the rules that we'll also use on any other matter tonight when we have. | 00:25:55 | |
When we have, I know that technically the corridor ordinance is under old business, but we're going to treat that like a hearing. | 00:26:01 | |
So you all remember that you'll have 4 minutes if you want to make comments and you'll need to address the council, not the crowd, | 00:26:05 | |
for that. | 00:26:08 | |
But this one is about Trove, and really all it is is kind of a zoning cleanup matter. | 00:26:13 | |
Where they had dedicated some green space to the city as part of that transaction and we want to be sure that that that those | 00:26:18 | |
parcels. | 00:26:22 | |
Are rezoned from detached residential to parks, recreation and conservation because they do have a conservation easement on those. | 00:26:26 | |
And that's the parcel you see directly across from Colin Perry Elementary. | 00:26:32 | |
A parcel back towards a. | 00:26:38 | |
The pond off of Morrison St. and then a parcel also across. | 00:26:40 | |
Morrison St. by the Creek down there, so that'll all be permanent green space. | 00:26:44 | |
So at this point, I'm going to open the public hearing. If anybody wants to come forward and speak to that, they're welcome to. | 00:26:48 | |
Hearing none, I'm going to close that public hearing council. At this point, I'll entertain a vote on rezoning the parcels listed | 00:26:57 | |
in your packet from detached residential to Parks, recreation, and conservation. | 00:27:04 | |
I make that motion. | 00:27:12 | |
Do we have a second? | 00:27:14 | |
Have a second from Councilman Thomas any discussion. | 00:27:16 | |
Hearing none, all in favor, say aye, aye. | 00:27:21 | |
Motion carries 5 O. | 00:27:25 | |
We have. | 00:27:26 | |
Looks like. | 00:27:28 | |
Let's say 1012 new acres of permanent green space in Watkinsville. So this is, this is good, so. | 00:27:32 | |
Public hearing on the budget. So this is that time of year where we start talking about budget. We'll actually have a budget, a | 00:27:39 | |
budget for your review, for the public review, I think at our next council meeting. But tonight is the moment, if you have | 00:27:46 | |
something that you just is on your mind that you'd love to see the city budget for. | 00:27:52 | |
For the city to do or a request for the budget, not having seen the budget but just something that you've always thought, why | 00:27:59 | |
don't you do X or Y? This is your opportunity to come speak to council before that budget is fully developed and presented to | 00:28:03 | |
council. So if anybody would like to come forward. | 00:28:08 | |
And and offer suggestions for the budget for fiscal year. | 00:28:13 | |
25 Now is your Mama. | 00:28:18 | |
Yes, ma'am. Come on, you gotta say no. Yeah. So this is your first time? This is my first time. Name and address. | 00:28:24 | |
37 S Main and I wasn't really planning on doing this, but it just occurred to me. So I have a question. You said if you know why | 00:28:32 | |
haven't you, I'm going to ask. | 00:28:35 | |
In that big intersection. | 00:28:40 | |
Of Greensboro Highway and South Main and Varnish Hills. There is kind of a triangle that's paved in there that looks slightly | 00:28:43 | |
different. | 00:28:47 | |
Can we plant anything in there? | 00:28:53 | |
That's a great question. We will ask G dot about that and that's their road and they control that and. | 00:28:55 | |
Good question. That would be really nice. Yeah. And and we'll say if if we are able to, then we will budget for that. So that'll | 00:29:02 | |
be a budget comment. So thank you. | 00:29:05 | |
Mrs. Drennan, great comment. Any other thoughts on budget? Suggestions, ideas? | 00:29:10 | |
All right. Well, we will have, as you can see up there, we have a pretty exhaustive process on budget. | 00:29:15 | |
We'll have public hearings, public hearings. | 00:29:20 | |
Galore over the next few months and you guys are welcome to join us for any of those and give us your input once you've seen the | 00:29:24 | |
budget. | 00:29:27 | |
Which we anticipate posting at some point in May for public review. | 00:29:30 | |
Thank you all. close that public hearing. | 00:29:36 | |
And we'll move on. And we have two appearances tonight. The first one is on behalf of Mr. Johnny Lay, and I think it'll be a | 00:29:38 | |
consulting. And Abe, are you presenting this matter tonight? OK, if you want to step forward. | 00:29:46 | |
And step up there. We're going to have a report from engineer Campbell first. | 00:29:54 | |
And then we will hear from the manager about wastewater capacity. | 00:29:59 | |
And then we'll have you come forward a, but that's OK. So thank you Mayor. So the the first item would be the residential | 00:30:03 | |
subdivision plat. The address is 110 N Main St. It's owned by Johnny Lay, the lay family on several parcels that are around this | 00:30:09 | |
area. It is zoned attached residential. It's a little bit less than an acre, but the the request is to subdivide an existing | 00:30:15 | |
partial into two residential tracks. So if we can go to the next slide again and give you an idea. This is on the east side of | 00:30:21 | |
North Main Street, it's north of Thrasher. | 00:30:27 | |
South of White Street, ext. | 00:30:33 | |
Next slide. So this is the, the site plan that's been submitted as part of that subdivision, so the existing track. | 00:30:37 | |
Has a structure on the northern portion of the track and then it is an undeveloped portion where there is a proposed track to be | 00:30:44 | |
there that would be a little less than half an acre. That's where you see a future home driveway shown. There is an existing | 00:30:52 | |
structure on that track. There's a couple of kind of garage storage buildings. Access based on what the applicant has submitted | 00:30:59 | |
would be via the existing driveway that's there on North Main Street. You can kind of see the relationship. | 00:31:06 | |
Of this parcel as it relates to to Thrasher Drive. | 00:31:13 | |
Here's a few pictures from the right way. Again here. This is approximately a picture from the corner of A N Main St. and | 00:31:18 | |
Thrasher. Looking back you can see kind of what's in the foreground. Some of those trees would not be part of the subject parcel, | 00:31:24 | |
but it's more the green open space. The existing structure that reference it's on the northern portion of that parcel is the the | 00:31:29 | |
two-story brick building you see kind of in the center of that picture. | 00:31:34 | |
There's another picture from. | 00:31:41 | |
From the existing driveway that I referenced there, then this kind of looks back in the opposite direction again on North Main | 00:31:43 | |
Street, but looking back and see some of the existing structures there that are at the rear. But that's the to give you an idea of | 00:31:48 | |
where the subject area is. | 00:31:52 | |
Is on sewer. It doesn't have a septic system. If it did, this subdivision couldn't happen, but but that's not the case. It's not a | 00:32:32 | |
septic drain field where the proposed subdivision is, but there's not enough room for a new structure. | 00:32:38 | |
And a septic drain field, so hopefully that makes sense to everyone. The submitted plan does include a sidewalk along that portion | 00:32:44 | |
of the section on North Main Street that is a G dot right of way, so any sidewalk per meeting would have to go through through G | 00:32:49 | |
dot. | 00:32:54 | |
Be happy to answer any questions you might have. | 00:33:01 | |
All right. Manager Dickerson, do you want to give us the update on the wastewater capacity there? Sure. So we've reached out to | 00:33:04 | |
Oconee County since they own and operate the wastewater treatment center, they said the capacity would be 260 gallons a day. I | 00:33:10 | |
know it's really hard to see on there. In fact, I can't read it from there. But right now, well, our balance available is the | 00:33:17 | |
allocation that's been approved. There's they'll be, if you approve this, they'll be a little less than 6593 gallons. | 00:33:24 | |
If a breeze. | 00:33:31 | |
But there's no plans imminent to build the structure. No there's not. Will you know if this is approved with the wastewater will | 00:33:33 | |
issue the the letter and then after six months if there's no development, the the wastewater capacity will expire and that that | 00:33:39 | |
individual have to come back before this council to ask for future wastewater. All right. | 00:33:44 | |
All right. A. Would you like to add? | 00:33:51 | |
Any additional information? | 00:33:54 | |
Good evening, Mayor. Members of the council, Good to see you all. My name is Abu Hamdan. The address, 2410 Hog Mountain Rd. Suite | 00:33:57 | |
103, Watkinsville. Thank you for allowing us to be here. I think Mr. Cameron had a. | 00:34:04 | |
Covered the process pretty well. I think what what you need to hear beyond what he has provided this This is a family land. | 00:34:12 | |
Mr. Lay and his family has owned this property for many, many generations. So the reason for this division is really to to bring | 00:34:21 | |
his grandson closer back home, so his son will have the lot on the upper section of that flat if you wish to look at that. So the | 00:34:28 | |
grandson will be actually would be using or getting that lot that would be subdivided. Mr. Ray understands that sewer capacity is | 00:34:36 | |
available for six months. | 00:34:44 | |
And enhance, if that's not developed or some plans have been developed to be submitted to the city, you know we'll have to. He'll | 00:34:52 | |
have to ask for that capacity at the time of development. But this might not be the biggest project the city is seeing. But it is | 00:34:58 | |
very important to Mr. Lay. It is a big project for him. | 00:35:04 | |
We do hope that you see a positive approach to this because it does mean a lot for him and we appreciate your support on that. Be | 00:35:11 | |
glad to answer any questions to Mayor. | 00:35:15 | |
Thank you. Why don't you just stay up there? Council may have some questions and I did not recognize. Always like to recognize | 00:35:22 | |
formal. | 00:35:25 | |
Former council members who were here. So Mr. Lay, again, it's always great to see you and glad. Glad to have you back with us | 00:35:28 | |
here, all right. | 00:35:32 | |
OK, Council, questions for Mr. Abe. I always get your last name wrong, so I'm just going to say the last question. I don't have a | 00:35:36 | |
question for him, but I do have some thoughts on this. Do you want to wait and see? | 00:35:41 | |
Questions. | 00:35:46 | |
Questions for Abe and then we will hear Christine's thoughts. I have AI have one question. The sidewalk is proposed the. | 00:35:48 | |
It's going to be subdivided, but the driveways on another lot is the sidewalk proposed for to go across those two lots. | 00:35:56 | |
I think I can't see it really. I'm getting up in age so I was not really great. | 00:36:04 | |
Well, there's already a side we'll leave on shows. | 00:36:09 | |
Johnny's house is below, thresher below. | 00:36:14 | |
That was part of what I was wondering. Does the current sidewalk go to Thrasher or the Bunny hop Thrasher? It does go to Thrasher. | 00:36:18 | |
Yeah, so, so we will put it across the whole front. So all three lots, the two lots what we have right now, but I know there is a. | 00:36:27 | |
What we want to call it the spreadsheet or the check points that we initial. | 00:36:39 | |
And that has been turned into the city, so we understand that will have to continue down to thrash. | 00:36:44 | |
With that process. | 00:36:51 | |
So you, because of the overlay district and the fact that y'all are not in it, you understand that you would need to put the | 00:36:54 | |
sidewalk from looking at this picture at the top of track one all the way down the Thrasher. | 00:36:59 | |
Yes, ma'am. So the the. | 00:37:07 | |
I believe that that has been initial and sent into the city and we understand that's what has to happen. | 00:37:11 | |
But we understand that hashtag. | 00:37:19 | |
Hopefully that answers your question. | 00:37:23 | |
Any other comments, Christine? I mean, that was my main one. That the other one is really a question for our attorney. | 00:37:27 | |
If we do approve this and then if we do later this evening, approve the order. | 00:37:35 | |
Ordinance. | 00:37:42 | |
Will this automatically be subject to that or do we need to make it contingent on that possibility because it's coming before in | 00:37:44 | |
the, I think it is in the map. | 00:37:50 | |
So does it matter that this is coming earlier in the meeting before that it's going to be subject to it if that lot pre | 00:37:56 | |
subdivision is shown the entirety of it? | 00:38:01 | |
Would be subject to it again if it's shown on the map. So it doesn't matter if we pass? I wouldn't know. OK, thank you. | 00:38:07 | |
Any other questions? | 00:38:15 | |
All right. I'll entertain a motion regarding the. | 00:38:18 | |
The subdivision plant and wastewater capacity allocation request. | 00:38:21 | |
For 110 N. | 00:38:26 | |
So I make a motion. | 00:38:29 | |
Contingent. | 00:38:32 | |
The G dot approval two of the three sidewalks and if if G dot, I know we don't have a lot of control of G dot. | 00:38:34 | |
So OK, this is going to be a long motion. Hold on, let me. | 00:38:41 | |
'Cause for a second question, we if G dot won't allow the sidewalk is there. We've talked about this before, but is there a way | 00:38:46 | |
then for that? | 00:38:51 | |
Because, you know, we. | 00:38:56 | |
I want it to be equal and fair and the the overlay district is there for a reason for sewer capacity and all that. Would there be | 00:38:58 | |
any kind of mechanism or anything we could say that if for some reason G dot didn't? | 00:39:04 | |
Approve the sidewalk. | 00:39:11 | |
That that equivalent square feet of sidewalk could be put elsewhere. Does that even make sense that I'm asking? I mean, it makes | 00:39:13 | |
sense, but I don't think we have a legal mechanism to not presently. | 00:39:17 | |
Even if it can't throw it in and. | 00:39:23 | |
OK, thought I would ask. | 00:39:28 | |
So I do make a motion to approve A. | 00:39:33 | |
With the sidewalk being across all three parcels. Good. | 00:39:36 | |
All right, Motion is the recommendation is a motion to approve, inclusive of the sidewalk on all three parcels, Should that | 00:39:41 | |
property be developed? Do we have a second? | 00:39:45 | |
2nd We have a second for Mr. Campbell. Any further discussion? | 00:39:49 | |
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? | 00:39:54 | |
Motion carries 5 O Mr. Way. | 00:39:58 | |
Thank you always great to have you all in. | 00:40:02 | |
All right. We have up next under appearances, an update on the pipe plant project, so Chad Keller and his team. | 00:40:05 | |
Will come forward and present a concept plan on this site. We will not be voting on this tonight. | 00:40:14 | |
We do anticipate a potential vote on a rezone in May, but tonight this is we did this with. | 00:40:20 | |
Trove. We did this with Wire Park where we had the developer. Rather than having it all happen at one meeting, we encourage the | 00:40:27 | |
developers to come in earlier so the community can begin to hear about the project. | 00:40:31 | |
And react to it. We do not anticipate significant public comment on this tonight. Chad will share his information. You can reach | 00:40:36 | |
out to Chad. We can do additional meetings. Chad may do additional meetings, but we probably won't. | 00:40:43 | |
Do we may, if you have technical questions, we may tackle those. But in terms of do I like it, do I don't that we're not going to | 00:40:49 | |
get into that on this tonight. We're going to let Chad present it and we'll react to it. So Chad let you take it from here. | 00:40:53 | |
Welcome. Thanks, Council. | 00:40:57 | |
My name is Chad Keller. I grew up in Oconee, lived here my whole life. Went off to school for a little while in college, came | 00:41:03 | |
back. | 00:41:06 | |
And own a landscape company here and done some done some development in Watkinsville. | 00:41:10 | |
My mom lives in Christian Lake, so I'm very dear to Watkinsville and very close. | 00:41:17 | |
Kind of noticing the the pipe plant project a couple years ago and and after we got done with stereo, we thought that would be a | 00:41:23 | |
pretty cool project, that kind of a legacy project and my vision for that project was just. | 00:41:30 | |
Develop something that adds already some rich legacy to Watkinsville, revitalizing the most important piece of property and | 00:41:38 | |
offering something new that brings value to the residents and the community. And so thanks for having me and and let me come talk | 00:41:43 | |
about this project and and and love to go forward. | 00:41:49 | |
So the location is just South of the the trail train tracks. | 00:41:56 | |
On Hwy. 15. | 00:42:02 | |
And the current zoning character maps is Corridor Commercial. | 00:42:05 | |
And that's a that's a floodplain. It just shows the floodplains where it's it's outside of the floodplain. | 00:42:11 | |
And existing conditions as far as grade topography and stuff like that. | 00:42:18 | |
And this is a conceptual master plan, so this project will entail a. | 00:42:23 | |
A mixed-use of commercial, residential, some office space and probably one of the main things that I'm most excited about is the | 00:42:30 | |
fact that it's going to bring back a grocery store to the city of Watkinsville. We've been communicating and talking with a local | 00:42:38 | |
resident that is about to retire that is in the grocery store business and he is pitching something that will very be similar to | 00:42:46 | |
the striplands and it's going to be called a Coney made. | 00:42:54 | |
It's going to offer local, local food, local products, a nice meat counter, just a breakfast spot, cafeteria or a little lunch | 00:43:03 | |
spot and just kind of a place where people can go so they don't have to drive all the way back to Butler's Crossing. So really, | 00:43:12 | |
super excited about that. Another component of this project is the retail and it's got a large green lawn and. | 00:43:21 | |
I centered the development around 3 pillars and it was community connection. | 00:43:32 | |
And collaboration. And so bringing the community together in a development like this where you can take the kids out, grab some | 00:43:37 | |
food, grab, grab dinner, maybe do some shopping at some local retail stores was huge. And the connection piece giving that this is | 00:43:44 | |
so central, located the downtown Watkinsville and making sure that it was connected with sidewalks, walkability and just kind of | 00:43:52 | |
give the city more residents, more shops and more restaurants was super exciting. | 00:43:59 | |
One thing that it does border is the the rail line and and hopefully we can encourage our governments to pursue this rail line and | 00:44:07 | |
hopefully one day be connected to to the University of Georgia. It's 8.5 miles from this site to Sanford Stadium and how cool | 00:44:16 | |
would it be if you could just go jump on this thing and 8.5 miles later be it be at a Georgia football game so in collaboration. | 00:44:24 | |
We want this thing to be a place where people can come together, live, work and play and then attend for the developments project | 00:44:33 | |
to be something where we welcome ideas to create something that is best for Watkinsville. So here are some images that we that | 00:44:38 | |
we're kind of mirroring. One thing I want this thing to look like is an old historic mill that we've redeveloped and so that's | 00:44:44 | |
kind of the look we're going for. | 00:44:49 | |
Here's some more inspirational pictures that we'll be using in design. | 00:44:56 | |
Here's some elevations. Up top is the grocery store and if you look down below, I don't think you can quite see. But it's the | 00:45:02 | |
buildings that are running along Hwy. 15 and we've got some more inspiration pictures to to show you on this. | 00:45:09 | |
Here's a view. If you're standing across 15 looking at the main building of the development, To the left will be off. Is the | 00:45:17 | |
grocery store, Kind of. | 00:45:22 | |
Some old. | 00:45:27 | |
Brick some and kind of going for the old mill, restored old mill look and it'll be retail and commercial along the bottom. | 00:45:29 | |
And the next one, and this is kind of inside the development on the backside of Building 5 and 600. | 00:45:38 | |
So thank you Sheriff, for for showing those one thing about want to go back to the grocery store Coney made? | 00:45:45 | |
No worries, Cody Made is going to be offering. | 00:45:52 | |
Products, local products and a meat counter, which is most important to me at least. | 00:45:54 | |
Something similar to shiplands. So folks in the South end of the county don't have to drive all the way across the county to get. | 00:46:01 | |
When he came to me about this, he gave me a pitch deck that he has as local brands. | 00:46:07 | |
A homemade assortment of biscuits in the morning. | 00:46:13 | |
Oconee Coffee he's going to be selling. | 00:46:18 | |
And then these are some inspiration pictures of what the store is going to look like. | 00:46:22 | |
So a couple other things we've decided to go. | 00:46:28 | |
Decided to do so. We have partnered with some local partners, some nonprofit groups. One thing that we're missing in Oconee County | 00:46:34 | |
and Watkinsville is some workforce housing. And so we have worked with the city of Watkinsville are going to be working with the | 00:46:40 | |
city of Watkinsville to provide a percentage of some of our residents to try to help that problem. We're also going to be working | 00:46:47 | |
with some nonprofits, Lydia's place and. | 00:46:54 | |
One great thing about that is working with them. There are residents can can walk to work and can work at the grocery store. | 00:47:02 | |
The missing middle the workforce, the firefighters, the teachers offering a solution to a problem. So we can have residents in | 00:47:11 | |
Oconee County that work here can actually live here. And so that's one thing that we're trying to to address. | 00:47:18 | |
Watkinsville is one of the most beloved communities in Georgia and experienced a good bit of growth and some more. Specifically, | 00:47:27 | |
there's a need for housing that fits the price point of which is known as the missing metal to help public service like first | 00:47:32 | |
responders and teaching, as well as middle class families in Oconee. | 00:47:37 | |
Another issue, another thing we're going to do is we are working with a local nonprofit. | 00:47:42 | |
The Historical Society and we will be donating A2 acre parcel on the other side of the tracks which faces Main Street, working | 00:47:48 | |
with them to relocate. Probably one of the oldest. | 00:47:55 | |
Historic houses that is in the county and saving it from getting demolished. If y'all familiar with Oconee on the Highway 53, it's | 00:48:04 | |
a it's a house called the Dooley House and we're working with a guy to come in that has a lot of experience with working. | 00:48:11 | |
With historical houses. And so we're proud to say that this project will enable us to to do that save a house and to put a | 00:48:20 | |
historic house back on the only empty lot that that's right there on Main Street. | 00:48:26 | |
And the last thing is I am lifelong resident of Oconee County and the lovest community. My dream is to be able to create something | 00:48:34 | |
that can leave a legacy for the community and be a benefit. As you know, I work closely with the city on the building with Steer | 00:48:39 | |
Ridge, Watkinsville First apartment Complex. | 00:48:44 | |
And in this pipe project represents roughly a huge investment into the city and would love to get some feedback. Thanks for | 00:48:49 | |
allowing me to come up and talk about it. I am going to be available for the next month. If anybody reaches out, we will have a | 00:48:57 | |
landing page and I will provide that as well. So any questions or any comments you can go on that my contact information will be | 00:49:05 | |
on there as well. Love to meet and discuss this with any of the residents, any of anybody that would love to talk about it. | 00:49:13 | |
And so just wanted to be available for that and. | 00:49:22 | |
Well, the only bad thing that we have addressed that we know that it's going to be probably an issue is, is the talk of traffic. | 00:49:26 | |
So just. | 00:49:29 | |
Let everyone know that we have. | 00:49:34 | |
Hired Travis Pruitt and associates to do a traffic study and and this project will will work with the two egress points that we | 00:49:37 | |
have and hopefully once we obtain. | 00:49:43 | |
The rail line will have the third Internet exit out the back, which will help. So anybody has any questions I'd love to answer | 00:49:52 | |
them and thank you for your time. | 00:49:56 | |
All right, Council. And it's a lot to process, but. | 00:50:01 | |
Questions for Mr. Keller. | 00:50:05 | |
Nobody wants to go first. And then there you go. I have questions, So yeah. | 00:50:16 | |
I don't have any questions. I just have a comment, you know, so I think I've been talking about the the workforce housing for. | 00:50:20 | |
As long as I've been on council and I greatly appreciate the fact that you're trying to put some houses in there for. | 00:50:28 | |
Our workers are, you know, it's. | 00:50:35 | |
It's a shame that we have. I mean it's it's a great problem to have, but it's a shame that, you know, the median house in Oconee | 00:50:38 | |
County is, you know, $600,000 and you know, the average person, heck, I couldn't afford the median house in Oconee County and I've | 00:50:43 | |
lived here my whole life. So I'm, I'm thankful that you're trying to circumvent that that issue that we have. | 00:50:49 | |
Chad, can you talk a little bit more about how that would actually work? Because I know. | 00:50:56 | |
When we talked earlier conceptually about this, it was a percentage of your. | 00:51:01 | |
Apartments, right. That you were going to do that way. Is that kind of what you're is that what you're thinking? Yeah, that's what | 00:51:07 | |
we're thinking. You know honestly this is this will be my first development with a restrainer on on on you know what we can charge | 00:51:14 | |
and stuff like that. So what we are envisioning my attorney and I is to come with a percentage of the total development and. | 00:51:21 | |
And I think the way they calculate it is it's a percentage of the median average income of a 5 or 10 mile radius. | 00:51:29 | |
And keep those keep the housing to where it's affordable for for the middle class and that's kind of one thing that we're prying | 00:51:36 | |
ourselves on going to be working with Lydia's place and those will actually be a donation to to their her nonprofit and and we | 00:51:44 | |
haven't set what the final total numbers of of those units will be but working with her to help out and. | 00:51:51 | |
With her nonprofit and then to help with the issue of the workforce. | 00:51:59 | |
And then what about the breakdown of the different housing types, like it looks like you have a mix of? | 00:52:07 | |
Some single family homes and how all that be taken care of? I do. So there's 203 apartments, there's 24 attached townhomes and | 00:52:12 | |
then there's six detached cottages, the 30. | 00:52:20 | |
Residents in the back will be for sale. They will not be for rent. We will keep everything. The first five buildings, the top | 00:52:28 | |
right corner will be will be kept together. | 00:52:33 | |
Just do want to mention though that the whole project will be maintained by one HOA. | 00:52:40 | |
And so those condos, once they sell, they'll pay money into an HOA that will maintain the whole. That way we can keep the | 00:52:46 | |
aesthetics and the appearance up of the of the whole site. | 00:52:51 | |
The office complex will will also be back. That's a one other thing I wanted to mention is. | 00:52:57 | |
We are willing and would love to present an option to the city. If you guys were interested in ever relocating City Hall, we think | 00:53:04 | |
that'd be a great place for it if we're growing and we need some room. | 00:53:11 | |
So one option that we would love to do is give you guys the first router refusal if that was any interest to coming in to where | 00:53:19 | |
that that 10,000 square feet office is. So that's another another thing that we'd love to to do. We've seen some other | 00:53:25 | |
developments around the around this area that has partnered with the municipalities and did this with the with the City Hall into | 00:53:31 | |
a new development and it's worked really well and I think it'd be a great addition to this and I think it'd benefit the city and | 00:53:37 | |
and all the residents as well. | 00:53:43 | |
Chad, can you talk a little bit about the level of quality like our what kind of finishes are there going to be, what is your plan | 00:53:51 | |
for that? Yes ma'am. So we are going to do four sides brick, it'll be predominantly brick over 80% the only. | 00:53:58 | |
Areas that won't be breaking right where the breezeway or. | 00:54:06 | |
Pavilions and the balconies and stuff where they tie in. So those areas will be a Hardiplank finish. So I'd say at least 80% | 00:54:09 | |
brick, an old tumble brick to kind of make it look. | 00:54:15 | |
Like a mill. An old mill. | 00:54:20 | |
Probably still cloud or. | 00:54:24 | |
Not still clad, but like a little clad windows, bronze little cloud windows. Similar to the picture on the inside we'll have solid | 00:54:27 | |
surface countertops, tile backsplashes, towels on the floor, probably a laminated or LVP floor which which is not carpet. Sort of | 00:54:34 | |
a little bit higher end finishes and we did it with stereo, but nine feet sailings so. | 00:54:42 | |
Similar to the finishes that we did, there will be will be what we do with here as well. | 00:54:50 | |
We've, you know, one of the. | 00:55:07 | |
Things that we've. | 00:55:11 | |
Looked at would be the potential I know. | 00:55:13 | |
The rail. I don't think the rail line would allow a crossing at this point, just given its situation, but. | 00:55:15 | |
I know we have. | 00:55:21 | |
Concerns about South Main traffic speeds and things like that. How would? | 00:55:23 | |
How would you see that if you were able to cross the railroad tracks back there? How would you see that intersection working, and | 00:55:29 | |
how would you see that impacting S Main St. | 00:55:33 | |
I think it would slow traffic down. Have an intersection coming in to to Main Street. I don't see you. | 00:55:38 | |
One thing we did, we didn't want to do a straight corridor cut through and and have this be something where people just shot | 00:55:47 | |
through like they they do on some other roads are cut through. So I think you would get some of the traffic on the overflow | 00:55:52 | |
traffic out the back. | 00:55:57 | |
But I think they're going out and taking a left that that tie in would be, you know? | 00:56:04 | |
The same size as a public Rd. coming in and and whatever we needed to do to assist on making sure that the sight lines, visibility | 00:56:12 | |
and all that stuff will be a will be done by our engineers to to make sure that's as safe as possible. Another thing connection | 00:56:18 | |
wise, we're planning on connecting the sidewalks to con ferry extension. | 00:56:25 | |
And we're also going to extend our, the utilities, the sewer to the Cone Fair extension. The houses that the Septotex are failing, | 00:56:32 | |
we're going to run the sewer lines to them so they can time to sewer just because they don't have any other option at this point. | 00:56:38 | |
And so anything we can do to help out other parcels or other projects and with surrounding neighbors and be good neighbors and | 00:56:44 | |
that's what we're willing to do. | 00:56:51 | |
And we all. | 00:57:00 | |
We also have talked about, you know. | 00:57:02 | |
We all hope that the rail line may someday be a rail trail, but if it's not, how would you get people to downtown, get people to | 00:57:04 | |
wire park and things like that? So we are proposing that anywhere the city doesn't have connectivity from sidewalks from downtown | 00:57:10 | |
to our development or for water park for that matter. | 00:57:16 | |
That we are proposing to to install or help with the infrastructure to get sidewalks. | 00:57:24 | |
You can get out and you know, take your kids to to water park, walk there, walk to our development. | 00:58:00 | |
And and kind of enjoy the rail line once it gets developed jump on the rail line, ride your bike up and down it. So that's kind of | 00:58:06 | |
the vision that I feel like we could go to and I and I really think it's it's possible with the with the growth that we've had in | 00:58:10 | |
the city. | 00:58:14 | |
Well, I also appreciate the the workforce housing component that that in my profession I just see the struggle. | 00:58:25 | |
So thank you for that and and I will say just. | 00:58:33 | |
It seems to me like you truly do care about our community and want to. | 00:58:39 | |
Help make this, you know, fill in gaps grocery store things that we're looking for. So thank you for that. And that's another | 00:58:44 | |
thing too. We, we talked a little bit, Christine, about this, but wanted to kind of bring it to the public's attention as the | 00:58:51 | |
retail price. You know, I, I truly feel like we are running our models with 0 retail income. | 00:58:58 | |
And so one reason why we had to get the density that we're asking for was to make up for that. | 00:59:05 | |
And so hopefully moving forward we can we can go and establish an affordable retail solution to local retailers and and that that | 00:59:13 | |
really hit home when you said that to me and and I think that'd be a cool component to this is shop local, you know local | 00:59:20 | |
eateries, local retail places and so I think that'd be a pretty cool thing to put here. | 00:59:26 | |
Any other questions from council? | 00:59:41 | |
Just a few thoughts on process. You know obviously I'm assuming you're open to development agreement that would we'd have to go, | 00:59:46 | |
we'd have to begin to go through that process. | 00:59:50 | |
Similar to what we've done on other significant projects in Watkinsville, we'll have to. | 00:59:56 | |
You know, appreciate the thought about City Hall. We'll have to take a look at that. I think we'd be fiscally irresponsible not to | 01:00:00 | |
look at that if there's if there's an opportunity for us to. I'm assuming you're talking to us about, you know. | 01:00:05 | |
A low cost option there. So I think we'd have to look at that and see if that makes sense. This building was built in 1977, I | 01:00:12 | |
think. So it's got some, it's got some. | 01:00:17 | |
Years on it and it doesn't get any easier to take care of it sometimes so. | 01:00:23 | |
We'll have to look at that. You know, ultimately I think this, this is up to council, but I. | 01:00:27 | |
You know something will happen on the site and. | 01:00:33 | |
I think there's a lot of things that. | 01:00:37 | |
Could be important for Watkinsville's future that we've talked about, that are priorities. We've talked about the need maybe to | 01:00:41 | |
have City Hall be a little bit more central. | 01:00:44 | |
To Watkinsville, we've talked about desperately about the need for a grocery store. It's probably the number one thing that's most | 01:00:47 | |
requested. | 01:00:50 | |
In our research is where can I go to get groceries? | 01:00:53 | |
How can I do that? You know the idea that the percentage of this could be for? | 01:00:57 | |
Allow our teachers and EMT's and firefighters to be able to live here, have some appeal as long as there's some guardrails on | 01:01:02 | |
that. I think that's really important to us, I mean. | 01:01:05 | |
The best practices show those being distributed, not consolidated in one area. I don't think anybody wants to crack the door open. | 01:01:09 | |
To some of the other dense housing types of projects that we've seen. So I think that's going to be well. | 01:01:17 | |
Thought out. | 01:01:24 | |
You know and then ultimately we are going to have to think about traffic, you know, potentially a traffic circle that might help | 01:01:26 | |
move things around at 15. I know that requires G dot approval. | 01:01:30 | |
But really thinking through how how that could potentially work there? | 01:01:34 | |
We know that in the years ahead we're likely to have hopefully a truck bypass around Watkinsville that will remove a lot of that | 01:01:38 | |
traffic and we're working hard to try to advance that. | 01:01:42 | |
Which I think makes this. | 01:01:47 | |
Ultimately, much more potentially viable, but. | 01:01:49 | |
We've got a month to think about this. You've got a month to engage with your neighbors. A lot of them are here tonight. | 01:01:52 | |
I don't know if you're comfortable sharing your phone number or how you want to do that. I know you've got a website coming, but | 01:01:57 | |
if you've got an e-mail or phone number that you can. | 01:02:00 | |
Put out there so we have it. I think that would be helpful to them in case they want to get in touch with you, and I'd encourage | 01:02:04 | |
you to. | 01:02:07 | |
Seek them out and and go spend some time with them and listen and if we need to help facilitate that, we can. Thanks. Thank you | 01:02:10 | |
for your time. | 01:02:14 | |
OK. All right. And we will, we're not going to do public comment on that, but if anybody wants to hang around and comment on it, | 01:02:20 | |
we will have public comments later, but. | 01:02:25 | |
We are going to go ahead and move on through the agenda. So thank you. Thank you Mr. Keller for coming for that. | 01:02:30 | |
Let's see where are we? We have. | 01:02:38 | |
The corridor we're under old business. So next we go to the corridor ordinances, the quarter standards. | 01:02:41 | |
We spent a lot of time on this last month and we had the officially required public hearing on this last month, but I think it's | 01:02:48 | |
important to kind of restate what the big idea is here. | 01:02:52 | |
As I know, we have people who are passionate about it. The big idea here is to create an opportunity. | 01:02:57 | |
On our key residential quarters to make sure that future development in homes. | 01:03:04 | |
Are similar to the historic nature of what so many of them are today. | 01:03:09 | |
So that's what we're hoping to accomplish with this ordinance. | 01:03:14 | |
Nobody ever said it was easy in terms of how you can do that. What we realized as we went through this is that we don't have very | 01:03:18 | |
specific residential building standards. | 01:03:22 | |
In Watkinsville, because most of the things we anticipated, we're going to be in subdivisions and we're going to be in projects | 01:03:27 | |
where builders were coming through. The other thing I remembered and those of you have been coming to council meetings for a long | 01:03:31 | |
time as we used to approve every single building permit when they came in. So every permit used to come to council a few years | 01:03:35 | |
ago. | 01:03:39 | |
We quit doing that for administrative purposes, which I think is fine. But what we realized is it can get to be a little bit of | 01:03:44 | |
the wild, Wild West on some of our infill quarters, you know, So think about Simonton Bridge where we've recently had two infill | 01:03:48 | |
lots permitted. | 01:03:52 | |
New high schools. We've had six lots permitted and could probably have another six lots on that road. | 01:03:57 | |
Probably not too much more space on Column Ferry that's that's been built out over the past few years, unless some of the larger | 01:04:03 | |
property owners wanted to do something different with their property. | 01:04:08 | |
North Main, there's a lot of infill opportunities there as well. So the idea is how do we? | 01:04:13 | |
Essentially, create an opportunity for a conversation with a builder. | 01:04:18 | |
And establish some standards around what the community wants to see and how they want to see things built there and what that | 01:04:23 | |
should look like. Because what we've seen in a lot of other communities across the South is. | 01:04:28 | |
Homes that either come in that are built poorly or aren't built to great community standards, or homes that are just massive and | 01:04:34 | |
are totally out of scale with what may happen. | 01:04:39 | |
In the community. So the intent behind I'd put a lot of work into this and some other council members did to. The intent was to | 01:04:44 | |
try to create an opportunity to have conversations with builders so we could work together with them and make sure that that | 01:04:49 | |
designs reflect the history and heritage of our community and what we want to be in the future. | 01:04:55 | |
So that was the intent. | 01:05:01 | |
Where we are in the process is we had a long public hearing about this last month. We also then tabled that we also lifted A | 01:05:03 | |
moratorium that had been put in on New High Shoals Rd. | 01:05:08 | |
Specifically, what's also happened is the main ordinance has not changed much, but we also. | 01:05:13 | |
Delivered specific design standards and those have been posted for public review. | 01:05:20 | |
And we also posted the maps that actually outlined the parcels that were affected. | 01:05:26 | |
There were some minor changes I think made to those maps. We realized that if you're already in the downtown zone. | 01:05:31 | |
You can't build a detached residential unit there. So I think Sharon, I think we discussed anything that's in. | 01:05:37 | |
A zone that just doesn't allow a detached residential to be built, those would be pulled out of those maps already. The other | 01:05:43 | |
thing that's important to note is we have passed a historic preservation ordinance. So if the historic preservation ordinance and | 01:05:48 | |
the quarter ordinance conflict, the historic preservation ordinance would prevail in that matter. | 01:05:54 | |
That ordinance has a lot of work left to do that'll be going on this summer. So that's really not in a position to enforce | 01:06:01 | |
significantly at this point, but that is work is ongoing on the historic preservation ordinance. | 01:06:06 | |
So with that council, if any of you want to share anything as a preamble, that's fine. I think then we need to leave time to hear | 01:06:12 | |
from the public. | 01:06:15 | |
Then we can wrap up with any additional comments that we have and take a vote if we get to that tonight, if anyone makes a motion. | 01:06:19 | |
So at this point. | 01:06:26 | |
Feel free to fill in what I missed. I've been traveling a lot in the past few days and likely forgot something or add in any | 01:06:28 | |
perspective you have that would benefit our audience before we get going. | 01:06:33 | |
So I know some of y'all were here last month. Thank you guys for coming back and we have new people here as well as we talked | 01:06:39 | |
about this. | 01:06:43 | |
And there is always that balance between. | 01:06:48 | |
How much do you want? | 01:06:53 | |
Regulations, how much do you want free property rights? You know, we're always weighing that. That is just part of being an | 01:06:57 | |
American, part of of of just the balance that we have. And so we have worked really hard on this to try to keep. | 01:07:06 | |
As much personal freedom for people. | 01:07:15 | |
And one side of that bed that I do want to bring up is that. | 01:07:19 | |
Yes, everybody's individual rights and freedom is very important, but it, in my opinion and a big reason why I sit here, is as | 01:07:24 | |
humans, as citizens. | 01:07:30 | |
It is part of our job to think about other people as well and to think about other people's rights and their needs. And so to me | 01:07:37 | |
this is bringing a balance to that. There's a lot of freedom, there's a lot of flexibility. This is not draconian that is | 01:07:43 | |
dictating everything at all, but. | 01:07:50 | |
We are looking to the future and. | 01:07:58 | |
So far I would say the vast majority, if not all of the building that's happened in Watkinsville has been done by local people. | 01:08:02 | |
That is not always going to be the case. | 01:08:11 | |
We are making this. Everyone in this room is making this a more and more desirable community. We have excellent schools. We are | 01:08:14 | |
working on a transportation plan that's going to give connectivity. We have green space. We have a lot of things that is making | 01:08:20 | |
this more and more desirable and there is going to come a day where. | 01:08:26 | |
Developers from other areas that don't care a hill of beans about anybody who already lives here and already owns property are | 01:08:33 | |
going to potentially come in. | 01:08:38 | |
And do whatever they need to do to make the most money and not necessarily care about the rights of the people who have settled | 01:08:44 | |
and lived and worked in this community to make it what it is. And so this is not not allowing people to buy and develop property | 01:08:51 | |
at all. It's just saying there needs to be some standards we don't want. I don't know who put this picture up here, but did Doug | 01:08:58 | |
do this? | 01:09:05 | |
And I don't know if you all can see this, I'm happy to pass it around. But here is an example of something that's happened if this | 01:09:13 | |
is from what Doug mentioned last time in Nashville. | 01:09:17 | |
Where it's totally out of character and out of place. | 01:09:23 | |
So one of the things that I really like about this is it gives a percentage of scale homes can't be. | 01:09:27 | |
15% small, more than 15% smaller or larger. | 01:09:34 | |
Then the biggest or smallest home on that corridor, it just gives continuity. Again, this is not dictating everything, It's not | 01:09:39 | |
saying we are going to have these cookie cutter things. This is just giving protection to all of the people who have already | 01:09:45 | |
purchased property here in Watkinsville for those who are coming in the future, so. | 01:09:51 | |
Yes. | 01:09:59 | |
All right. Anybody else want to share anything as a preamble? What I would say is, if you share it as your preamble, let's not | 01:10:03 | |
share it as your closing statement. | 01:10:06 | |
Let's say it once, and unless we have something new to offer, and I'd say that goes for folks, the audience too. If if somebody's | 01:10:11 | |
already stood up and said what you want to say in your 4 minutes, just get up and say Ditto, right? And I support such and such a | 01:10:15 | |
person's comments. | 01:10:19 | |
So we can keep things moving. So anything anybody else wants to share is a kickoff. | 01:10:24 | |
All right, hearing none, I'm going to let the open up here and four minutes per person. | 01:10:30 | |
Mr. Reitman, you keep my timer and come on up and speak if you feel that. | 01:10:35 | |
Good evening, this is my first time in front of you. | 01:10:44 | |
State your name and address. Start with that, getting there 4 minutes. My name is Sam Drennan. I live at 37 S Main St. the Old | 01:10:48 | |
Doctor Ward House. | 01:10:53 | |
I had the great fortune of being raised in a family home in Charleston, WV, which was built in 1902. | 01:11:00 | |
It was built to the guides of my great grandmother, Emma Boyd Cox. We lived in that house for over 20 years. | 01:11:07 | |
And the single most important lesson I learned during that time was one of stewardship, not only of the property and of the land, | 01:11:12 | |
but of the community in which we lived and in which we worked. | 01:11:18 | |
And where we built long friendships. | 01:11:23 | |
Maintaining that property was hard work and it was expensive, but simply that was the deal. | 01:11:26 | |
During the BID 1990s, I attended the University of Colorado in Boulder and watched the community create immense building | 01:11:32 | |
restrictions on its homeowners that resulted in a curtailing of maintenance and improvements. And now tiny two-bedroom 1 bath | 01:11:37 | |
homes are selling for over 1,000,000 bucks, well over what a working family can afford. | 01:11:42 | |
On the other side of the spectrum, I lived in Austin, TX during the 90s and 2000s. It's not unlike Nashville right now. | 01:11:49 | |
Where the preservation of culture and historical values were superseded by the bottom line of developers. | 01:11:55 | |
The result was that Austin lost its way, and what used to be keep Austin weird became unrecognizable as hundreds of antebellum | 01:12:02 | |
homes. | 01:12:06 | |
Historical structures and cultural sites were redeveloped without concern. | 01:12:11 | |
For their historical contacts or sense of community. | 01:12:15 | |
The proposed quarter ordinance, in my opinion, attempts to find the middle ground between these extremes. The intent seems to be | 01:12:20 | |
to balance our rights as individual homeowners with the stewardship that comes with living in this community. | 01:12:26 | |
My wife and I moved to Watkinsville for this home. | 01:12:33 | |
And we care for this community. We love the houses heritage and its history, and in spite of the drafty windows and the plumbing | 01:12:36 | |
solutions that span centuries. | 01:12:40 | |
We're also here because of friendships, because of Dave and Mario convinced us that this was a perfect community for us and they | 01:12:46 | |
knew that the old Doctor Ward House. | 01:12:51 | |
Was going to be treated to loving stewardship. | 01:12:55 | |
Since 2020, we put our time and treasure to make our home special. | 01:12:58 | |
We do so because we want to be proud of it, but also because I want my community. | 01:13:02 | |
Like Alice and Ann and Chuck and Jeff and Brian? | 01:13:06 | |
And even Bob, to be proud of our efforts to make this community thrive. | 01:13:11 | |
We want to be good stewards and that means living up to an expectation that we all live in this community together and strive to | 01:13:16 | |
make it wonderful. | 01:13:19 | |
What these entry corridors provide is a process to maintain the quote harmony and consistency in our community. | 01:13:24 | |
It provides some security when Jeff and Alice and Chuck, Bryan and Sam are not the buyers or the developers. | 01:13:31 | |
I've seen Austin and I know what no holds barred capitalism means. That is the epitome of it's my dirt and I'll do with it what I | 01:13:37 | |
want. | 01:13:41 | |
The result of that is that we lose the ability to preserve our historical, cultural and aesthetic values, the very identity we | 01:13:45 | |
hold dear in this town. | 01:13:50 | |
In summary, I support the proposed corridor ordinance. I feel it is a compromise between maintaining the Watkinsville we want to | 01:13:55 | |
see thrive and the rights of individual property owners. | 01:13:59 | |
That is how a community. | 01:14:04 | |
We work as stewards, not just for ourselves, but the entire community of Watkinsville. | 01:14:06 | |
Thank you. | 01:14:11 | |
Thank you, Mr. Drennan. | 01:14:17 | |
Who wants to come next? | 01:14:19 | |
Kathleen Mcquiston, 13, S Barnett shows, and I support everything that he said. | 01:14:28 | |
All right, Next up. | 01:14:36 | |
Welcome back, Mr. Elder. Thank you all. | 01:14:42 | |
Matt Elder. | 01:14:45 | |
Oliver Bridge Rd. On. | 01:14:47 | |
Several tracks in the city. I think we need to get this. | 01:14:49 | |
Historical preservation stuff done. | 01:14:54 | |
I think we've got our cart before our horse. | 01:14:56 | |
On this one. Let's get that done and see what the. | 01:14:59 | |
Ramifications of it is, and we can always pass something to get it done. | 01:15:02 | |
At A at a later date. | 01:15:07 | |
I think this one. | 01:15:09 | |
The way it's designed and written a. | 01:15:11 | |
You know if your neighbor doesn't like the style or whatever. | 01:15:15 | |
Of the half that you're doing, it says you know your neighbor can have input on it. | 01:15:19 | |
And I might not like Brian's house, or I might not like Chuck's house. And then I'm. | 01:15:23 | |
Put my input in here and if it happens and y'all pass it then. | 01:15:29 | |
Well, I'm mad forever at my neighbor. | 01:15:35 | |
Where if we had a set of rules ABCDE. | 01:15:37 | |
Then that's what developers could do. | 01:15:40 | |
That's what neighbors would know could be built. | 01:15:43 | |
And I'm for a hard and fast set of rules. | 01:15:46 | |
Thank you, Mr. Elder. | 01:15:52 | |
All right. | 01:15:55 | |
Next up, Yes, Sir. | 01:15:59 | |
Welcome back, Mr. Carson. | 01:16:01 | |
Shane Carson, 1121 Timber Ridge Rd. | 01:16:04 | |
I'm against it. | 01:16:08 | |
I think like I said before and y'all heard it before. | 01:16:09 | |
It's happened organically. | 01:16:13 | |
People have taken care of the houses and built what fits in our area. We are not Nashville. | 01:16:15 | |
We're not Austin. We're not at Atlanta for Watkinsville. | 01:16:21 | |
I mean if you look at the just if nothing else, the population of Watkinsville versus these other areas that everybody's talking | 01:16:26 | |
about that this has happened. | 01:16:30 | |
That's apples to oranges. | 01:16:35 | |
Let's stay apples to apples here so we can do this. | 01:16:37 | |
The ordinance way it's written right now is left up. There's there's a lot of interpretations because they're just guidelines. | 01:16:42 | |
So what I may think fits the character of the neighborhood, you might not. | 01:16:48 | |
And as being a minor of the City Council, that's totally left up to you and interpretations with these guidelines. They're not. | 01:16:53 | |
And I can't believe I'm even saying if you're going to do it, make it specific. | 01:17:01 | |
Because somebody is going to look for a way to work around it. | 01:17:05 | |
So I think or this may be a great idea, but not the way it's written not. | 01:17:10 | |
Let's iron this thing out, to which, and I know it's always a living document, things are going to change, but let's narrow down | 01:17:16 | |
this scope a little bit so it's not left up to interpretation. | 01:17:21 | |
I mean, because like I said, it may be your mortal enemy that's building a house down here on North Main. | 01:17:27 | |
But you know, again, as as a mayor, you have that ultimate vote to, if it's not spelled out perfectly clear in the in the rules | 01:17:34 | |
and the ordinance. | 01:17:39 | |
And we're not there yet. | 01:17:45 | |
I think so. As of right now, I'm against this until. | 01:17:46 | |
Iron it out and get a little bit more detail, a little more definition to it. | 01:17:51 | |
Thank you, Mr. Carson. | 01:17:55 | |
Next up. | 01:18:02 | |
Matt Oliver I live at 185 Calvin Ferry Road, right next to. | 01:18:10 | |
Colin Ferry School. | 01:18:15 | |
Directly across the Trove subdivision. | 01:18:18 | |
You know, as a landowner that would be directly affected by this. | 01:18:22 | |
I do want rational development and I do want rational. | 01:18:27 | |
Construction where I reside. | 01:18:32 | |
But when I read this ordinance, I feel strongly it's it's too early to vote on this issue. | 01:18:35 | |
Several words come to mind. | 01:18:41 | |
After reading the ordinance of. | 01:18:44 | |
I feel like it's it's vague. | 01:18:46 | |
I feel like it's been rushed. I feel like it's been unadvertised and I feel like it's. | 01:18:49 | |
Redundant and I'd like to go over those a little bit. When I say vague, I think the current. | 01:18:54 | |
Verbiage is not specific enough. | 01:19:01 | |
To be voted on. | 01:19:04 | |
I'm a land surveyor I deal with. | 01:19:07 | |
Different municipalities, different codes. | 01:19:10 | |
And I can tell you from my experience when things were vague. | 01:19:13 | |
The Authority always is a back in the governing body. | 01:19:18 | |
Which is the mayor and council, which I have no problem with right now. | 01:19:22 | |
But what I mean by that? | 01:19:27 | |
As as we move forward and elected positions change. | 01:19:33 | |
You know, I don't know what everyone's politics beliefs are going to be. | 01:19:37 | |
I do agree with Shane and with Mr. Elder that we need a specific code to go by. | 01:19:42 | |
That way it's a fair. | 01:19:50 | |
Playing field for everyone's. | 01:19:54 | |
I just like I say there's no problems now. I don't plan to do anything with my property. I love where I'm at. I love this | 01:19:58 | |
community. | 01:20:01 | |
I've been here since 2019. | 01:20:04 | |
I also took a little issue with. | 01:20:08 | |
The Vintage Houses of Oconee reference. | 01:20:11 | |
When I read the ordinance. | 01:20:15 | |
I didn't see any. | 01:20:18 | |
I didn't see where where I could find the book to see what we're referencing. I don't know what we're looking at here, The talk | 01:20:20 | |
was saying with my neighbors about that. | 01:20:24 | |
They don't. They've never heard of it, you know. | 01:20:28 | |
And didn't know where to find it. It's not on the website that I could find. | 01:20:31 | |
I feel like. | 01:20:35 | |
You know, if we're going to reference that, then maybe that needs to be shown. | 01:20:37 | |
In the ordinance, you know, so we can actually. | 01:20:42 | |
Know what we're looking at, what we're up against, Subspech. | 01:20:45 | |
Unadvertised, I mentioned that I believe that the land owners. | 01:20:50 | |
That are going to be affected by this ordinance should be notified by mail and e-mail. | 01:20:56 | |
And I really believe there should be signs posted along these corridors. | 01:21:02 | |
I read somewhere in the ordinance if it was passed that. | 01:21:07 | |
You know land owners would need to post a sign for approximately 45 days. | 01:21:11 | |
Before potential construction or review. | 01:21:18 | |
And I think the city should adhere to that standard. I feel like they should put some signs out telling the citizens that could be | 01:21:23 | |
affected what exactly changes are going to be. | 01:21:29 | |
Occur with the land. | 01:21:35 | |
Before that was taken. | 01:21:38 | |
I mentioned rushed. | 01:21:42 | |
I'm going to tell you, I don't normally come to these kind of things. | 01:21:45 | |
That's just not me. I'm not a political guy. Really. I. | 01:21:49 | |
And I I just wanted to say that, you know, but I feel like I am pretty active in the community through my business and through my | 01:21:52 | |
family, you know, through sports, my wife's. | 01:21:57 | |
Work at Oconee High School for many years before she went to UGA. | 01:22:03 | |
And I've just recently heard of this and. | 01:22:07 | |
Again, that's partly my fault. Maybe, but I talked with many of my neighbors about this. | 01:22:11 | |
And they're the same position, so anyway. | 01:22:17 | |
I guess my time is up, but. | 01:22:23 | |
I'm not in support of it right now. I do support smart growth and you know, rational construction and rational. | 01:22:27 | |
But I just read out this code right now is not where it needs to be to be voted on. | 01:22:35 | |
Thank you, Thank you, Mr. Ulmer. | 01:22:40 | |
And I think it's a fairpoint about the vintage houses. I mean we'd have to, we'll have to scan that and make that available to | 01:22:43 | |
everybody. It it's not the east. Unfortunately we don't have a great architectural reference book for Oak County, for Watkinsville | 01:22:48 | |
County County, it's about the closest we can come. But yeah, we. | 01:22:52 | |
We would need to make that available online. We can do that. | 01:22:57 | |
All right, who's next? | 01:23:01 | |
Hi, I'm Doug Crowe, 143 New High Shoals Rd. My wife Julie and I have lived in that home since 2005. And yeah, I'm the one that. | 01:23:09 | |
Passed out those photos and if anyone else wants to see this. | 01:23:18 | |
I'll just put another one in your lap, so. | 01:23:25 | |
I'd like to. | 01:23:32 | |
Address the Council tonight to express my support for the corridor concept detailed in the most recent communication that many of | 01:23:33 | |
us received. | 01:23:37 | |
And I'd like to provide a little rationale for my support. | 01:23:41 | |
I support this concept because I've seen first hand what a lack of oversight and appropriate regulation can lead to. | 01:23:45 | |
In a very similar setting. And Brett, you were right, it it's Tennessee. It's not, you know, it's not Watkinsville. I get it. This | 01:23:52 | |
is my sister in Laws home on the right hand side of this photograph. | 01:23:57 | |
When she bought this home, she wasn't thinking that this would ever happen to her, but. | 01:24:05 | |
It's located on a typical corridor leading directly into downtown Nashville 12 S. | 01:24:10 | |
Right across from Severe Park and. | 01:24:16 | |
You know, this is a stretch of 12 S that is in the process, for lack of a better term, of being invaded by enormous homes that are | 01:24:18 | |
completely. | 01:24:24 | |
Inconsistent with all the beautiful older homes that are in that area. | 01:24:29 | |
This was not a rundown. | 01:24:35 | |
Area at all. It's not like this is gentrification that needed to happen. | 01:24:38 | |
Several years ago, the first shoe fell when a developer purchased a home that was for sale and then stored installed an enormous | 01:24:43 | |
home and was built right to the lot lines and. | 01:24:48 | |
All the existing homeowners despise that home. | 01:24:53 | |
And in subsequent years, this has become a trend in that area. | 01:24:56 | |
Once it happens, it's almost impossible to stop and it's a. It really looks like a one way St. and. | 01:25:00 | |
Although someone just said that, you know, we're not Austin, we're not Nashville, we're Watkinsville. This could happen here in | 01:25:06 | |
Watkinsville. There is no logical reason to assume that somehow we are special. | 01:25:13 | |
From a more practical standpoint, my sister-in-law had offers on this home a number of years ago. | 01:25:21 | |
For I won't reveal the number specifically, but I will say that she just sold this home about a month and a half ago, and she sold | 01:25:29 | |
it for about $500,000 less than what she could have gotten a couple years ago. | 01:25:35 | |
The arrival of that enormous home, and I'm sorry I should be addressing you, the arrival of that enormous home. | 01:25:43 | |
Definitely impacted negatively. | 01:25:49 | |
Her stake in her. | 01:25:52 | |
Without a doubt. | 01:25:56 | |
It's possible that you could view this as we are giving up some property ownership rights, I get that. | 01:26:02 | |
In reading through what has been distributed, we are going to be required to maintain our homes to a certain standard and I guess | 01:26:09 | |
all I would say to that is I have every intention of maintaining my home. | 01:26:14 | |
And the only thing that I am really concerned about is if other people don't, that they may negatively affect my property values. | 01:26:21 | |
So I view perhaps having a couple of rules about, well, you know, your house has to look this way or that it really doesn't bother | 01:26:27 | |
me because I have every intention of keeping my nice old home nice. | 01:26:34 | |
I really don't think we need to make this into a property rights issue. | 01:26:45 | |
Quite frankly, rather, I think this is an opportunity for our city to put some protections in place to prevent construction of | 01:26:48 | |
homes like we're seeing in Nashville and Austin and other places. | 01:26:53 | |
That we could easily see here in Watkinsville. And you know, really all this is doing is laying out some simple rules. In addition | 01:26:59 | |
to preventing all these large homes from showing up is putting out some simple rules. | 01:27:05 | |
To ensure that the homes in the corridor are maintained and we don't lose property value. So that's my two cents. Thank you, Mr. | 01:27:12 | |
Crow. | 01:27:16 | |
Will allow golf clapping. That's fine. It's more raucous than that. We'll we'll shut it down, all right. | 01:27:25 | |
Would anybody else like to speak? | 01:27:32 | |
Alice. | 01:27:33 | |
My name is Alice Woodruff and I live at 35 S Main St. and have done so for the last 30 years. We don't have to go to Nashville. We | 01:27:42 | |
don't have to go anywhere other than 30 miles down the road South and look at Madison. | 01:27:48 | |
I don't know what their rules for development were when all those little brick houses went in with all the antebellums, but | 01:27:55 | |
there's certainly no consistency or visual. | 01:28:01 | |
Pleasure in seeing the main drag right through Washington. Excuse me, Madison. | 01:28:07 | |
And I think that could easily happen here. It doesn't have to be great big houses, it could be little. | 01:28:13 | |
Little little bitty houses too. There's nothing wrong with small there's there's a good place where. | 01:28:20 | |
Thank you. Thank you. | 01:28:27 | |
Would anybody else like to come forward? | 01:28:33 | |
All right, I'm going to close the. | 01:28:39 | |
Hearing we did hear from. We also heard from Laura Mitchell. | 01:28:42 | |
Via e-mail, Laura does live on New High Shoals Rd. | 01:28:45 | |
What's that? And she said. | 01:28:52 | |
Or she owns property on New High Shoals Rd. She said she cannot attend tonight's meeting. | 01:28:54 | |
If this ordinance is not approved, there will be an increase in non compliant development within the city limits. The housing | 01:28:58 | |
standards, specifically the ones that are not mentioned in the ordinance, will change the character of several neighborhoods. | 01:29:03 | |
New home should be consistent in square footage with current homes and ordinance should be approved to maintain single family | 01:29:08 | |
density. | 01:29:11 | |
And maintain traffic outflow to the main streets listed as part of the quarters. | 01:29:14 | |
Obviously this is my opinion and thoughts as a homeowner on New High Shoals Rd. | 01:29:18 | |
And Mr. Omer spoke. Yeah, we did receive yours, Matt. Thank you for that. | 01:29:22 | |
OK, we'll bring it back behind the rail at this point for conversation. I also got an e-mail and I think all council did from Dana | 01:29:27 | |
Blair, who was unable to attend. She was here last month and she was just expressing her support of the ordinance as well. | 01:29:35 | |
All right. | 01:29:45 | |
OK, council, back to you guys. So we'll have a little conversation if anybody wants to make a motion. | 01:29:48 | |
We'll go from there. So I'll tell you what, why don't we get a motion out and then we can have a conversation. | 01:29:54 | |
I make a motion to approve. | 01:30:01 | |
All right, we have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? | 01:30:03 | |
2nd we have a motion. | 01:30:08 | |
Standards, yes. Standards. Maps. | 01:30:12 | |
I've got really dangerous separate if you could, oh. | 01:30:16 | |
What do we have to do that orbits itself 1st? And then the standards, Yeah, I mean, the ordinance, it's incorporated into the | 01:30:21 | |
ordinance. It's all incorporated into the ordinance. I mean, it's. | 01:30:25 | |
Approved as a whole. So the motions around the ordinance, OK, so we have a motion in a second now it's right for conversation. | 01:30:31 | |
Council, I know we'll have some conversation on this one, so. | 01:30:39 | |
Go ahead. | 01:30:44 | |
All Right, so just like last month I wrote down my these are pre recorded notes that I had before we get here, so. | 01:30:46 | |
I simply do not believe that the city should be involved in the direct planning of houses being built. | 01:30:55 | |
Additionally, don't think that the city should be telling existing homeowners. | 01:31:00 | |
How to rebuild the front porches or the types of building materials that they should be used. These standards go as far as | 01:31:05 | |
suggesting preferred windows and doors and shingles that homeowners should be. | 01:31:10 | |
Using at their house, and I personally believe this is a gross example of government overreach. I do however believe the city | 01:31:16 | |
through the code compliance. | 01:31:20 | |
Should enforce building standards. If we are so concerned with the types of future homes being built, maybe we should be concerned | 01:31:25 | |
with all the future homes and not just the visible ones that as we drive in. Therefore I suggest that we place all these. | 01:31:32 | |
Proposed standards. | 01:31:40 | |
Once they get a little bit. | 01:31:43 | |
Refined within the existing code. | 01:31:45 | |
So you have all heard from several people this evening? | 01:31:48 | |
About the the standards and there's a whole lot of shoulds and encourages and very few showers. In fact I think I only highlighted | 01:31:52 | |
2 showers in this whole thing. | 01:31:56 | |
So are these standards just recommendations? Are they requirements? Because there's a big difference in a should you should do | 01:32:01 | |
something versus you must or shall do something. So there I mean I I circled about 17 encourages or shoulds and I think there's | 01:32:07 | |
two showers. | 01:32:12 | |
This whole thing. So in my mind, this, this is just saying, hey, we think you ought to do this and then we'll we'll decide once it | 01:32:18 | |
gets back here behind the rail. | 01:32:23 | |
What what our opinion is not so there's no clearly defined. | 01:32:27 | |
Showers in here. So I am. | 01:32:32 | |
Very much opposed to this, this ordinance passing the way it is. | 01:32:37 | |
Thank you, Mr. Thomas. | 01:32:44 | |
Who wants to speak next? | 01:32:48 | |
I just want to add to the comment about the vagueness or and but just what you were talking to and I understand that I my | 01:32:54 | |
profession, I'm a realtor and I help people buy homes and. | 01:33:00 | |
A lot of times you have a very short amount of time to make a decision about something, and so I do understand that. | 01:33:08 | |
However. | 01:33:15 | |
The the showers and the come before the council. That's for new building things that that's for new builds and I also. | 01:33:16 | |
Sorry, my brain is a little fuzzy tonight. I also tell my clients who are thinking about doing a new build. | 01:33:27 | |
That they need to plan on a minimum of six months before there's ever going to be a shovel in the ground. There is a there is a | 01:33:35 | |
process no matter where it is. No, nobody is going to buy a lot and start building on it in a few weeks. That just does not happen | 01:33:41 | |
right now. There's too many engineering things there's there's no matter where you are buying or building there are permits that | 01:33:47 | |
have to be gotten and so. | 01:33:53 | |
This process is meant to not slow things down. | 01:34:02 | |
But it is to make sure that there are some guidelines and the reason why it is. | 01:34:07 | |
As some people have said, vague is because. | 01:34:14 | |
We aren't wanting to give super clear. It has to be this. It has to be that we have different characters if you drive down these | 01:34:18 | |
or these. | 01:34:23 | |
I'm sorry, she has unplugged her headphones. | 01:34:29 | |
I didn't even know there was a little person back there. That's pretty impressive, so. | 01:34:41 | |
So. | 01:34:47 | |
It is, as some people have said, vague. It's not. | 01:34:50 | |
Vague it is. | 01:34:54 | |
Giving freedom so that homes can match what's in their corridors. | 01:34:56 | |
And that is the intention behind this. So I just wanted to make that point because we are wanting to get that freedom of | 01:35:03 | |
flexibility. | 01:35:07 | |
Thank you, Christine. | 01:35:14 | |
Anybody else like to weigh in? | 01:35:16 | |
I just think it helps on new builds and that's what this is addressing that that for when builders build, they're going to build. | 01:35:22 | |
Definitely for profit, Definitely. | 01:35:30 | |
But you're also going to take into hand into account enhancing the community and that's what this bill does. | 01:35:33 | |
IS focuses on building property for profit that will enhance the community. Without it, you're building. | 01:35:39 | |
But you don't care. You could grab a stock House plan and pop it down. | 01:35:47 | |
Whereas we choose to live in the city, it's different than buying a house in the country where you can do what you want. | 01:35:51 | |
Just like you buy a house in the neighborhood similar same way in the city. So basically for me, my bottom line is it's having | 01:35:57 | |
builders build to enhance our community that we all live in and. | 01:36:04 | |
In the long run, I think those houses are going to be more valuable. | 01:36:11 | |
Then something that's built. | 01:36:14 | |
Not to enhance the community or fit into the community. | 01:36:16 | |
That's my bottom line. | 01:36:20 | |
Anyone else? | 01:36:25 | |
OK. All right. I'll just chime in. | 01:36:29 | |
I do support this. I think it's. | 01:36:34 | |
I think it's important that we have. | 01:36:36 | |
Have standards in a community that's going to grow over the next few years. I think Christine's example is a powerful one, you | 01:36:41 | |
know, and it's pressure we're going to see in the county, sadly for good or I'll a lot of. | 01:36:45 | |
Local home builders aren't around anymore, the folks who built a lot of the homes that we're in, and we do have an increasing | 01:36:51 | |
number of national and regional builders taking an interest in our community. | 01:36:56 | |
And they have less of an interest of coming in. | 01:37:02 | |
You know, they haven't known us. They don't know any of us. They kind of just come in and. | 01:37:04 | |
Do what they do and and they've got they've got private equity behind them and they've got a set of house plans they like and | 01:37:09 | |
that's the way they like to build and. | 01:37:14 | |
They don't build with the community in mind. They build, build. | 01:37:20 | |
To a set of rules, and I do think these standards were created to give opportunity to folks who. | 01:37:23 | |
Want to build and want to create create. | 01:37:30 | |
Infill opportunities that are in line with the homes we've seen, you know, if you drive down Simonton Bridge Rd. | 01:37:33 | |
Right now, and you drive between the cemetery and downtown, anybody who hadn't lived here for longer than 10 years, you probably | 01:37:39 | |
have trouble picking out which of those houses was built in the last 15 years and which of them has been there. | 01:37:45 | |
For 50 years and I think ultimately. | 01:37:52 | |
That's what we want to do. There's other quarters in town where it's painfully obvious, you know how that's happened and and why | 01:37:55 | |
that's happened. | 01:37:59 | |
So I think it's about establishing a set of standards that are flexible enough that allow people to take care of their homes. | 01:38:02 | |
To make decisions. | 01:38:09 | |
And not be we Look, believe me, we looked at some standards that were super specific. | 01:38:11 | |
Spent a lot of time on those and and I even talked to some builders and they're like I really wouldn't want it to be that way. | 01:38:17 | |
They wanted to have that flexibility in terms of what they could do. So we did pressure test this, You know, we've looked at it. | 01:38:23 | |
And we've had multiple public meetings on this at least three months in a row. It's been on the front of the newspaper. | 01:38:32 | |
You know, so we've talked about it a long time. | 01:38:38 | |
So I hope we'll consider putting these protections in place for our. | 01:38:41 | |
Entry quarters and Brett, if we don't do that, then you know we may consider putting it in place for everything that's built in | 01:38:45 | |
Watkinsville. That's not a bad idea. | 01:38:48 | |
So, so we'll see. So with that, I'll quit talking unless anybody else has anything they want to say, I'm going to call the | 01:38:54 | |
question. | 01:38:56 | |
All right. I'll clarify the motion. I think the motion was to prove the corridor ordinance including standards and math. Thank | 01:39:01 | |
you. So that's, that's the motion we have. We have a motion from Mayor Pro Tem Tucker. We have a second from Councilman Campbell. | 01:39:08 | |
We'll do. We'll do a voice vote. Mayor Pro Tem before. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I just want to make sure there were some. | 01:39:17 | |
So voice vote, Mayor Pro Tem. | 01:39:55 | |
Yes, Councilman Campbell. | 01:39:58 | |
Councilwoman Massey, Yes, Councilman Garrett and Councilman Thomas, OK Motion carries 4/1. | 01:40:02 | |
All right. We will move on. | 01:40:11 | |
To. | 01:40:15 | |
New business We have two Urban Forest Board appointments to expire. | 01:40:16 | |
2026 Councilman Thomas Yeah, sure. The Urban Force Board would like to recommend that we keep on the current two that are going to | 01:40:22 | |
expire, Bill Hunt and Harris Lowry for the next term or until properly released. | 01:40:29 | |
OK, Council, Do we have, is that a form of a motion coming from the committee? Yes. Yeah. OK. | 01:40:37 | |
Councillor, we have a second. | 01:40:46 | |
All right, all in favor. Say aye. Aye. Motion carries 5 O. | 01:40:50 | |
Sharon, I think we have some paving updates. Yes, we do. All right. | 01:40:55 | |
Give a little background. So we're going to ask you tonight just to approve the selection of the contractor for both the ELMIG, | 01:41:01 | |
the local Maintenance Improvement Grant for School St. and Simonton Way and the Fiscal Year 24 local Rd. assistance. | 01:41:07 | |
Program grant, which is the supplement that was approved with the governor's amendment of the. | 01:41:15 | |
State budget and that would include Niagara Drive and Jackson St. digital history. I'm sorry. So the specific request is that the | 01:41:19 | |
ELMIG project to pave school St. and Simonton Way. | 01:41:26 | |
It is estimated at $79,000. We're going to ask that you appropriate 43, the 43,000 and some change from ELMIG funding, 19,000 from | 01:41:35 | |
the city's required match that is currently in the SPICE budget, which was previously designated by the council. | 01:41:42 | |
From the spouse budget and an additional $18,000 from T SPLOST, the road resurfacing portion of that teaspoon which is a | 01:41:50 | |
requirement to have in the teaspoon as well as approving Smith and Company, the contractor for the LRA application for all of | 01:41:58 | |
Niagara Drive and all of Jackson St. and we'll I'll talk a little bit more about that. So history we did several years ago | 01:42:05 | |
complete a pavement maintenance management sorry management program had a company come through. | 01:42:13 | |
Piggybacked on the county and have them evaluate all of our roads. | 01:42:21 | |
To let us know the condition of those roads. We now have a list so we don't have to city manager and I don't. I'm a city engineer | 01:42:25 | |
and I don't have to. | 01:42:28 | |
Just look at the roads and determine whether or not we think it looks bad or not. We actually have an official evaluation and we | 01:42:33 | |
have a list and you all have access to that list and we're working down that list. | 01:42:37 | |
In June, G dot notified us that our application would would be 43,592 and some change Council approved submitting an application | 01:42:43 | |
based on that funding and the other funding I mentioned a few minutes ago we submitted that in January G dot approved our LMEG | 01:42:51 | |
application and so we released a request for proposal for those two roads and got the got the responses back in March In in the | 01:42:59 | |
interim the state, the governor and legislature amended the budget for the state and gave us an extra. | 01:43:07 | |
Gave us some extra money. | 01:43:16 | |
And so when we got the proposals back, you'll see we got Smith and Company, Garrett Paving and all about asphalt. Just a note, | 01:43:17 | |
Chuck Garrett, our council member is not. | 01:43:21 | |
In any way affiliated with Garrett Paving. But Smith and company came in the lowest, most responsive. Again, it's a proposal, not | 01:43:26 | |
a bid. So we evaluated those. City Engineer and I evaluate those. | 01:43:32 | |
And at the March 20th meeting, the council allowed us to go ahead and negotiate with the lowest. | 01:43:40 | |
The lowest price proposal, not the lowest, the best price proposal to go ahead and negotiate for these additional roads so that we | 01:43:48 | |
wouldn't have to go back out and ask for proposals and that saved us a little bit of time. So on April 11th, we received a price | 01:43:54 | |
proposal from Smith and Company who was responsive on the 1st and they gave us pricing for half of Niagara Drive between Southland | 01:44:00 | |
and Concord, the entire stretch of Niagara Drive, half of Jackson Street from Dooley to South Main and all of Jackson Street so | 01:44:05 | |
that we could evaluate. | 01:44:11 | |
You know what type of economies of scale we could get from doing all those? | 01:44:18 | |
Just as a reference, so the TS BOSS Fund is required to dedicate 30% of the funding toward Rd. resurfacing and rehabilitation, and | 01:44:23 | |
our current proposed 2022 splash appropriations show that we would need another $86,000. That was what we assumed when we | 01:44:30 | |
submitted the application to the state. If we do, if, if the Council goes with what we're recommending night, the difference | 01:44:38 | |
between what we had already asked Council for and. | 01:44:45 | |
Council had approved is about $45,000 out of tea spots. | 01:44:53 | |
To point out we did have the RFP was advertised in the County Enterprise provided directly to All About Asphalt, ASA, Paving, | 01:44:57 | |
Atlanta Paving, CW, Matthews Contracting Company, Garrett Paving and Smith and Company. | 01:45:03 | |
So we again we are asking our recommendation would be to continue forward with the school St. the section between court and main | 01:45:09 | |
Simonson way which is the cul-de-sac, the first cul-de-sac on the left after you enter into Simonton subdivision and the all of | 01:45:15 | |
Niagara Drive and all of Jackson St. You do have another option on there but this is our recommendation that you go ahead and do | 01:45:22 | |
that and the funding is is listed there. It's a lot of reading but anyway that's what we're at but that's what we're recommending | 01:45:28 | |
so. | 01:45:34 | |
Any questions? | 01:45:40 | |
Questions. | 01:45:43 | |
All right, motion. And don't feel like you have to encapsulate that. Maybe you would say motion to approve if you support this. | 01:45:45 | |
Maybe a Motion to to approve what? | 01:45:50 | |
City management is recommending. | 01:45:57 | |
I'll make a motion. We approve. | 01:46:00 | |
I guess this line item a that city management is. | 01:46:02 | |
Andy that city management is. | 01:46:05 | |
Requesting. | 01:46:09 | |
And I do want to note that I am glad that we're paving all of the roads and not just a portion of the road. | 01:46:10 | |
Agreed. All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? | 01:46:17 | |
All right. We have a motion in a second, just a comment before we vote. You know, this is really possible because of the T spot | 01:46:20 | |
funds and I think that's important to note if if we didn't have those funds, we would. | 01:46:26 | |
We would not be able to repay hardly anything. I mean, these are small stretches of road and you see how much they cost, I mean. | 01:46:32 | |
You're talking, you know, less than 1/10 of a mile. In some cases, you know, 1/4 of a mile and it's, it's. | 01:46:38 | |
You know, almost $50,000 and for a little city with a $3 million budget and it's really hard to keep up with. So we're grateful to | 01:46:44 | |
all of you who raised your who voted for that. It's making a big difference in Watkinsville and our ability to. | 01:46:49 | |
Maintain these streets and still be able to deliver police and garbage and pick up your trash, pick up your leaf and limb and. | 01:46:55 | |
Offer police because we couldn't have done all that without this. So we have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. | 01:47:01 | |
Aye. Any opposed? | 01:47:07 | |
Motion carries 5 O. | 01:47:09 | |
Similar to what we mentioned to Mr. Keller, even if a developer sells its property, the agreement they make with the city travels | 01:47:43 | |
with them and that protects us from what they may do. | 01:47:47 | |
All right, we're to public comments. I don't know if we need a motion to table that, though. Do we need a motion to table? OK, | 01:47:52 | |
motion to table, please. | 01:47:56 | |
Second. Second. All right, all in favor. Say aye. Motion is carries, it's tabled. | 01:48:01 | |
Public comment if anybody would like to come forward. | 01:48:07 | |
4 minutes per person. | 01:48:12 | |
Don't everybody come at once. I'm going to call it. | 01:48:15 | |
No public comment. Grateful to all of you who are still here. A couple items all run through. I'm excited to share that we are a. | 01:48:17 | |
Finalist for the All American City Award. | 01:48:24 | |
We are one of 20 communities across the country. We are far and away the smallest. I think the next smallest is. | 01:48:28 | |
12,000 people. So this is a big deal for Watkinsville. We'll be talking about our work with ESP, Thomas Farm Preserve, Rocket | 01:48:36 | |
Field and overall community building. | 01:48:42 | |
We are trying to figure out how many people we can afford to take to Denver and how we would do that, as I pointed out to the | 01:48:49 | |
manager. | 01:48:53 | |
An event like this is a rounding error for a big city. For us, this is a big deal to figure out how we can do this. So we're | 01:48:57 | |
trying to trying to figure out how to get people there. | 01:49:01 | |
Whether we have budget dollars from careful management that allow us to do it or whether we're going to have to work with some | 01:49:06 | |
partners to try to find our way out there, but we're excited about that. We're planning for that and working to put our best foot | 01:49:10 | |
forward in June in Denver. | 01:49:14 | |
If we move on, I was Chief GAIL and I were both at Courtney, Reverend Courtney E. | 01:49:20 | |
D Brian's. | 01:49:27 | |
Installation at Bethel on Sunday. My my cheeks hurt from smiling so much at that. Y'all. That was just a wonderful service. | 01:49:30 | |
The church was rocking if you. If you'd have driven by during that, you probably would have seen it shaking on the outside. | 01:49:39 | |
Reverend Brian, we welcome him to Watkinsville and deleting one of our longest tenured institutions at Bethel Baptist, we're | 01:49:45 | |
grateful that he's he's there. | 01:49:49 | |
Farmers Market is open at Hair Shoals every Saturday 9:00 AM to 1:00 PMI. Think we've navigated the paving and the improvements at | 01:49:55 | |
Hair Shoals. | 01:49:58 | |
It's a cool vibe down there. Y'all if you don't go down there. I know some of us miss having it on downtown, but it's actually a | 01:50:02 | |
fun vibe. And what they tell me is they just really enjoy seeing all the different families and people who are coming into hair | 01:50:07 | |
Shoals and going to the playground of possibilities on Saturdays. Many more families, many more children. | 01:50:12 | |
So try to get there if you can. | 01:50:18 | |
They want to grow it. | 01:50:20 | |
We will be doing the paving assurance that earlier Thursday and Friday. | 01:50:21 | |
At the park, a lot of that work is underway, but this ought to tighten it all up. I guess we'll pave it Thursday, Friday. They'll | 01:50:26 | |
have to come back and restripe later. Is that right, Sharon? | 01:50:30 | |
But we're really excited about adding additional parking spaces to hair Shoals. This is the first phase to really beginning some | 01:50:35 | |
of the other additional improvements that were on our master plan that. | 01:50:40 | |
SPG did for us, so we're excited to see that happen. | 01:50:44 | |
We have a mother of a rock star here, up here with us. Faith Tucker, congratulations on being a Georgia scholar. | 01:50:48 | |
She's in good company there. I don't know Miss Hollower, but I do know Mary Webb, who also has an amazing story, cancer survivor. | 01:50:56 | |
Talented musician and a wonderful young lady, but we are very proud of Faith and everything she's doing. Christine and all your | 01:51:03 | |
children of course, but I feel like Faith is just always popping up and doing remarkable things. So congratulations to Fate. | 01:51:09 | |
This guy had a birthday. | 01:51:16 | |
Next year is the big one, so we'll leave it at that for now, but thank you. It was a good day. | 01:51:20 | |
Before. | 01:51:28 | |
Before we move on, yesterday, I spent my birthday through an accident of scheduling, but probably providential with my dad and my | 01:51:29 | |
brother. My dad's best friend and college roommate served 33 years in the military, and he was interred with honors at Arlington. | 01:51:37 | |
National Cemetery yesterday and it's a birthday I'll never forget and it had nothing to do with me, but had everything to do with | 01:51:46 | |
this man's service to our country. | 01:51:50 | |
And the opportunity to see not just him saluted, but to see 450,000. | 01:51:54 | |
Markers of people who have made tremendous sacrifices to our country and it just really made me reflect on. | 01:52:00 | |
It's it's easy to be negative about America right now, but it is so easy when you go to Washington, you see those sacrifices and | 01:52:07 | |
understand what those men and women have done for our country. | 01:52:12 | |
To take a moment and gain a little perspective and understand this is still. | 01:52:16 | |
The greatest country in the world with the most opportunity for all of us and. | 01:52:21 | |
There's nowhere else I'd rather be. So anyway, it was it was a great birthday. With that, we will go post one Chuck Garrett. | 01:52:26 | |
Let's see. I wouldn't. | 01:52:34 | |
Remind everybody to remind your family and friends that they're traveling from downtown to Publix and on that side of town to be | 01:52:36 | |
extra careful with the road construction because. | 01:52:42 | |
I was told. | 01:52:49 | |
Fall of 25 is when they help to be finished. | 01:52:51 | |
So we got all. | 01:52:54 | |
Another year of it. | 01:52:56 | |
And that's if the weather is good. | 01:52:59 | |
All of 25. | 01:53:02 | |
Hang in there, team, all right? I. | 01:53:05 | |
Councilman Massey. Nothing to report, all right? | 01:53:08 | |
Councilman Thomas. Nothing for me, All right? Councilwoman Tucker. Murder Pro Tem Tucker. Excuse me. | 01:53:13 | |
Just Sharon mentioned it, but we have some beautiful sculptures coming in in the next month that'll be very exciting. | 01:53:19 | |
So be looking for those and walk the the great path between the playground and possibilities down to Harris Shoals. So | 01:53:28 | |
improvements are continuing. | 01:53:32 | |
And Councilman. | 01:53:37 | |
Under economic development, we had a local Watkinsville business. This is a fantastic contest that's put on each year by | 01:53:40 | |
University of Georgia and the Department of Agriculture. And Paul Paul Coister of New Creation Soda entered his patches. | 01:53:49 | |
Peach soda into it and he was not only the beverage category winner, he was the overall grand champion out of all products that | 01:53:59 | |
were submitted. And the nice thing about his so the one. | 01:54:05 | |
The name from the sign that's on the Peach stand, Eatonton area. And so that's that's one homage. The other one is he doesn't use | 01:54:11 | |
Peach flavoring. He uses Peaches from Pearson Farms in Georgia. | 01:54:18 | |
So, and that's also why the soil is not available year round. | 01:54:26 | |
So we were trying to get some more on our store and he's like you got to wait till mid-May when the Peaches are ready. So he he's | 01:54:30 | |
run out of all the Peaches from last season. So anyway it's a great story that a local business created this product and and one | 01:54:36 | |
that that's a big honor to win that especially the overall champion. | 01:54:42 | |
There's somebody else who makes some local ice cream. That's that way too, right? You can't get Peach ice cream in the winter at | 01:54:49 | |
Farm 441, can you? | 01:54:52 | |
All right. I don't think we need an executive session unless anybody is aware of that. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to | 01:55:00 | |
adjourn. I make a motion to adjourn. | 01:55:04 | |
Second all I ever say. Aye, Aye. | 01:55:09 |
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Are we good, Sharon? | 00:00:07 | |
All right, I want to welcome everybody to the April 17th meeting of the Watkinsville City Council. Grateful to see a good crowd | 00:00:11 | |
here tonight. We have several. | 00:00:17 | |
Items that will require some conversation. So I will. I'm going to move us pretty quickly through most of the agenda items and I | 00:00:23 | |
would ask those who have. | 00:00:26 | |
Administrative reports to do the same, please. And not not dawdle as we move forward. Given everything we've got going tonight, we | 00:00:31 | |
do have a quorum grateful that all of you are here. Tonight we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance, as we always do. Please | 00:00:36 | |
join me in the pledge. | 00:00:40 | |
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, | 00:00:46 | |
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. | 00:00:53 | |
Right, we have several. | 00:01:04 | |
Announcements to make at the top of the meeting #1. | 00:01:07 | |
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. Watkinsville is proud. | 00:01:11 | |
To recognize that and to support all the efforts in this community. | 00:01:16 | |
To to try to eradicate child abuse. And I do proclaim the month of April as Child Abuse Prevention Month in Watkinsville, GA. | 00:01:22 | |
And encourage all citizens to volunteer their talents and energies on behalf of children in our community. | 00:01:30 | |
To reduce child abuse and neglect and neglect significantly in the years to come. So we have a proclamation there and court | 00:01:35 | |
client. If you can get that to whoever needs a copy of said proclamation, that would be great. | 00:01:40 | |
We also have a proclamation. It is a Municipal Court. Week will come up before our next meeting. | 00:01:47 | |
And it just so happens Watkinsville has the best municipal clerk in the world. And Julie Fine. | 00:01:54 | |
Julie. | 00:02:03 | |
If we don't say it enough, you deserve our extreme gratitude. | 00:02:04 | |
As the city has evolved and changed. | 00:02:08 | |
25 How many years, 27 years. Julie has been a rock. She has been a smiling face. And not just a smiling face, but someone who gets | 00:02:12 | |
a tremendous amount done and keeps us organized, efficient and legal and all that we do. And Julie, we are grateful to you. So I | 00:02:20 | |
will read this proclamation and offer my thanks to you along with the rest of the council. | 00:02:28 | |
Whereas the office of professional Municipal clerk is a time honored and vital part of local government exists throughout the | 00:02:36 | |
world. | 00:02:39 | |
The Office of Professional Municipal Clerk is among the oldest public servants. The Office of the Professional Municipal Court | 00:02:43 | |
provides the professional link between citizens and the local governing bodies and agencies of government. | 00:02:48 | |
At other levels, whereas professional municipal clerks have pledged to be mindful of their neutrality and impartiality, rendering | 00:02:53 | |
equal service to all. | 00:02:57 | |
The Professional Municipal Court serves as the Information Center on functions of local government and community, whereas | 00:03:01 | |
professional Municipal courts continually strive to improve the administration of affairs of the Office of the Professional | 00:03:06 | |
Municipal Court through participation Education program seminars, workshops and the annual means of the state, provincial, county | 00:03:11 | |
and international Professional organizations. Now. Therefore, I, Brian Broderick, Mayor of Watkinsville, recognize the week of May | 00:03:15 | |
5th through May 11th. | 00:03:20 | |
2024 is professional Municipal Court this week and extend further appreciation to our professional Municipal Court. Julie Klein. | 00:03:25 | |
And to all professional municipal clerks for the vital services they perform and their exemplary dedication to the communities | 00:03:32 | |
they represent. Thank you, Julie. | 00:03:36 | |
Thank you all. I appreciate it. | 00:03:43 | |
Our next item up is we have. | 00:03:47 | |
Some poets in the room and I think James Mitchell and Kate Patterson are going to hand, are going to make that announcement. Is | 00:03:49 | |
that right? | 00:03:54 | |
OK, so we have Kate, who's our DDA director and our Oconee Library branch manager, James Mitchell. If you could come up to the | 00:03:59 | |
podium and make that announcement. Yes, I'm Kate, I'm the downtown development director and we partnered up with the County | 00:04:05 | |
Library. This is James. He's the manager of the library here and hosted a poetry competition. We had an adult category and a youth | 00:04:11 | |
category with quite a few entries. And tonight we would like to present certificates to our winners, Miss. Gwendolyn Peck and | 00:04:17 | |
Miss. | 00:04:24 | |
Amelia. Amelia Emerson. Yes, their poems actually that were selected to be the winners will be chalked on the sidewalk in downtown | 00:04:32 | |
Watkinsville later this month, so we're excited to see their poetry in writing downtown. | 00:04:40 | |
All right. Are they going to? | 00:04:49 | |
There you go. | 00:05:13 | |
Awesome. All right, ready. | 00:05:16 | |
Not to speak about briefly about these two, these two young women. | 00:05:27 | |
Amelia Emerson This is her second meeting in a row. For those of you who aren't participating, you should be. She helped launch | 00:05:33 | |
our April Litter pickup contest in Watkinsville. | 00:05:38 | |
So. | 00:05:43 | |
I saw about probably 12 or 14 high school age students out picking up litter on 3rd St. and South Main Street on Sunday. | 00:05:47 | |
So that's been wonderful to see. And Amelia, we appreciate your leadership and hope to have you back in May to announce our winner | 00:05:55 | |
then. Our other young lady is Miss Gwendolyn Peck, a long time friend of mine. | 00:06:01 | |
Wonderful teacher at Oconee County High School. | 00:06:09 | |
Probably wrote the most meaningful and thoughtful thing to me on my wedding day that I received and in terms of a note and a | 00:06:12 | |
wedding gift. And so I know you're a talented writer, also very talented coach, a state champion. | 00:06:18 | |
Coach and Coach Beck, we're grateful for you and grateful for your involvement with the library and that you still have that | 00:06:25 | |
writing talent. Can't wait to see it on the sidewalk. So thank you for being with us tonight. | 00:06:29 | |
All right, a few reminders for the public before we get into the meeting. We just talked about the litter pickup contest with the | 00:06:40 | |
only way out. We've got the grabbers Come by City Hall. We'll put you to work if you are interested in. | 00:06:45 | |
Interested in participating in that for first place? You'll get 100. Whoever picks up the most is going to get $100.00 gift | 00:06:52 | |
certificate to Athens running company 2nd Place. | 00:06:56 | |
$75.00 to Mama nings 3rd place $50.00 Gift certificate to scoops. | 00:07:01 | |
And the strangest litter find, whatever that is, gets a $50.00 gift card to bird and brass so. | 00:07:06 | |
Hopefully we have have a lot of people participating in that. Then we also have coming up this weekend, a very busy weekend in | 00:07:14 | |
Watkinsville, so the more litter we can get picked up before this weekend we have the Piedmont Garden Tour. | 00:07:20 | |
Which is coming to Watkinsville on Saturday, so if you see crowds of people. | 00:07:27 | |
Along S Main St. and around oh Calf. They are at participants in the Piedmont Garden Tour, so please drive carefully. We will have | 00:07:33 | |
people crossing S Main St. | 00:07:37 | |
So, so be very careful as you drive drive out there. | 00:07:43 | |
Excuse me? | 00:07:48 | |
OK, test, test. Any better? | 00:07:51 | |
That any better? OK. All right. Then we will also have the next day we'll have the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation Spring | 00:07:55 | |
Ramble that's in Athens, I think the 18th and no, the 19th and 20th. | 00:08:02 | |
And then the 21st in Oconee, so there are a lot of homes in Watkinsville on that tour. | 00:08:09 | |
I think including including Mayor Pro Tem Tucker's home and Councilman Garrett's home, so so it'll be a great opportunity to see | 00:08:14 | |
some of the historic homes in Watkinsville and we thank those owners for opening up their homes. | 00:08:21 | |
To the public, we'll have guests from around the state visiting on Sunday in Oconee County and seeing our historic homes, so we're | 00:08:28 | |
excited to have them and other structures. I heard that Wire Park has a guided tour that the Eagle Tavern will be open, so it's | 00:08:33 | |
going to be a great day if you enjoy history you won't want to miss. | 00:08:38 | |
The Ramble. Also see Sam Drennan out there. I think your home is on the tour. Anybody else? Oh, Susannah. Kathleen, you're home | 00:08:44 | |
too. OK, we've got all the sanctuary. | 00:08:48 | |
What's that? Yeah, so a lot of rambling going on. | 00:08:53 | |
Today is the last day. Today may be the last day to buy tickets. So when you leave here, if you want to do it, then sign up and | 00:08:58 | |
get your tickets. All right, we will move along to what's next. | 00:09:03 | |
So as I remind everyone at most meetings, these meetings are broadcast simultaneously online via the Suite 1 webcasting public | 00:09:09 | |
portal. Those who aren't able to attend the meeting can access that portal at the link on our website and they can follow along. | 00:09:14 | |
All the information is shared on those tabs. We do provide closed captioning for those meetings. If you want to watch live and | 00:09:20 | |
have closed captioning, you have to click the CC icon. | 00:09:26 | |
In the lower right corner of the video window, when the video from tonight's meeting is posted online, the closed captions will | 00:09:32 | |
automatically appear. You can also view a transcript. | 00:09:37 | |
There, as a reminder, the agenda is posted a week in advance and then the packet is posted as soon as possible prior to the | 00:09:41 | |
meeting so people can write in. | 00:09:45 | |
About what they have going on, we will have a couple public hearings tonight where public comment is required. We also have the | 00:09:50 | |
quarter ordinance which is under old business. I know a lot of you are here to talk about that. We will do public comment on that. | 00:09:56 | |
We have a few other items under appearances where we will probably will not have public comment as much as we'll just have a | 00:10:02 | |
briefing from those who are the applicants. So we can keep things moving tonight and get to what you guys want to hear about. | 00:10:08 | |
With that, I'll move on to meeting minutes. Council, you have the meeting for the the minutes for the March 20th meeting in front | 00:10:14 | |
of you and you've had them. Do we have a motion to approve or any comments on the minutes? | 00:10:20 | |
I make a motion to approve. | 00:10:26 | |
Do we have a second? | 00:10:30 | |
I'll say we have a second from Councilman Thomas. Any comments hearing? None. All in favor, Say aye. Motion carries 5. | 00:10:32 | |
We also had, if you were at the last meeting, we had a discussion around. | 00:10:40 | |
Some site modifications they want to make it Trove Mayor Pro Tem Tucker and I met with them during the eclipse. | 00:10:46 | |
So that was, that was, I think I'd have no black spots in my eyes. I'm proud to report. I don't think you're seeing everything OK | 00:10:52 | |
as much as I ever think. So anyway, it was a good excuse to be outside in a cool moment and we did include the minutes of those | 00:10:57 | |
meetings. We also advertised that meeting to the public. | 00:11:03 | |
And I posted those notes. So council, I would entertain a motion to approve those minutes. Please, I make a motion to approve the | 00:11:09 | |
minutes. | 00:11:13 | |
Second. Second All right. Any discussion all in favor, say aye. | 00:11:16 | |
Motion carries 5 O. | 00:11:22 | |
We'll move to the approval of the agenda. I have no adjustments to the agenda. Does anyone have any? | 00:11:24 | |
Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda. Motion to approve the agenda. Do we have a second? | 00:11:29 | |
All in favor, Say aye. | 00:11:36 | |
Motion carries 5. | 00:11:38 | |
All right, we are proud to welcome a new Lieutenant to our Police Department, and that's Robert Benton's. | 00:11:40 | |
Mr. Benton is a 20 year police veteran who most recently served as a Sergeant with the City of Thompson Police Department and has | 00:11:47 | |
served as a uniformed officer with increasing responsibility since 1998, first as an officer for the CAB. | 00:11:53 | |
From 1998 to 2022, then the city of Thompson, 2022 to 2024. | 00:12:00 | |
Officer Benton and his wife previously lived in Oconee County but now reside in the Warrenton area on a farm. | 00:12:05 | |
Officer Benton, welcome to Watkinsville. We're thrilled to have you here and I think Attorney Reitman is going to step up to | 00:12:11 | |
administer the oath of office if you want to stand as well. | 00:12:14 | |
Thank you. | 00:12:19 | |
Welcome, Sir, and I'm going to administer the official oath that you will raise your right hand, please, and repeat after me at | 00:12:29 | |
the end. You can say I do or I do, so help you, God, do you solemnly swear affirm that you will faithfully execute the office of | 00:12:35 | |
Police Lieutenant for the City of Watkinsville, and to the best of your ability, support and defend the Constitution of the United | 00:12:41 | |
States, the Constitution of Georgia, and the Charter. | 00:12:47 | |
Ordinances and Regulations of the City of Watkinsville and. | 00:12:54 | |
Without fear, favor, affection, reward, or expectation thereof. If you agree with that oath and say I do or I do, so help me out I | 00:13:31 | |
do. | 00:13:34 | |
Congratulations. | 00:13:38 | |
Make it 100% official and then I will. | 00:13:45 | |
Witness it. | 00:13:49 | |
I got the blue pan out for you. I figured that would be appropriate. | 00:13:52 | |
Again, congratulations. Thank you, Sir. | 00:14:00 | |
Thank you. | 00:14:10 | |
All right. We'll move on to administration and we'll kick off with the financial reports for a manager Dickerson. Thank you, | 00:14:37 | |
Mayor. | 00:14:40 | |
Everybody should have the balance sheet, their general revenues and the general fund expenses. We are on track, do not anticipate | 00:14:44 | |
any problems with that at this point. I will walk you through some of this. The other reports are special purpose local option | 00:14:51 | |
sales tax 3, which we began collecting revenues on in October of 21 and will continue through September 30th of 2027. Right now | 00:14:58 | |
we're showing if we continue at this rate, we will project to collect another half million dollars. | 00:15:04 | |
You'll see that we are about 5% up. We compare year to year. So we're about 5% over where we were last year, have a little bit | 00:15:44 | |
more than $1,000,000 in the bank. | 00:15:48 | |
On the cheese losses, our transportation special purpose local option sales tax. | 00:15:54 | |
That is specifically transportation projects. You'll see sidewalks, traffic efficiency improvements, and Rd. resurfacing monies | 00:15:58 | |
that have been set aside, right now, the only monies that we have. | 00:16:03 | |
Officially spent have been on the sidewalks that you see down New High Shoals Industrial Blvd. | 00:16:08 | |
Probably a couple little segments here there, but those are the two large ones. We've got another one coming hopefully on the | 00:16:15 | |
South Main side. | 00:16:18 | |
But there are monies that have been that are being proposed that have been encumbered and that's some of what we'll talk about | 00:16:22 | |
tonight as well there. Some of these monies may be used for the L, Meg or the local Rd. | 00:16:27 | |
Probably more, but we'll see. Right now we have a little bit more than $580,000. | 00:17:07 | |
In that account. | 00:17:12 | |
And then the American rescue plan. | 00:17:14 | |
Acts reports, These are the funds that the. | 00:17:16 | |
State Sorry, the United States Federal Government. | 00:17:19 | |
Gave to communities throughout the United States after COVID hit. | 00:17:22 | |
And those monies are supposed to be used for transformative projects I'm happy to report council did use. | 00:17:27 | |
A good chunk of it 710,000 to purchase the 100 acre Thomas Farm Preserve. | 00:17:32 | |
We still have about 9, a little bit more than $95,000 that needs to be appropriated and that decision will most likely come when | 00:17:37 | |
the council approves budget in June, because the requirement from the federal government is that those funds be appropriated. | 00:17:45 | |
Before December 31st of this year and then have to be spent by December 31st of 2026. | 00:17:53 | |
Any questions? | 00:17:59 | |
OK. I'll go on to the economic development report. So this is our business license, alcohol, licensing fees, you'll see, I know | 00:18:02 | |
nobody can read this in the audience, but it is online if you'd like to see. It took in a little bit more than $19,000 and that's | 00:18:08 | |
pretty typical. March 15th is our deadline. So we've got a few people we're still trying to bring in their. | 00:18:15 | |
There get their licenses approved, but. | 00:18:22 | |
I think we're on track, pretty close. So excise tax on alcohol and on our short term vacation rentals, hotel, motel tax, we're | 00:18:25 | |
tracking pretty well on those as well. | 00:18:30 | |
And then the building permits, we only had three permits for three projects this month, small projects. | 00:18:36 | |
I mean, I guess technically the one at wire parks, not small, but anyway mostly home type projects. Any questions on any of those? | 00:18:43 | |
OK. | 00:18:52 | |
All right. So we have had a busy month with the DDA. | 00:18:57 | |
We had. | 00:19:04 | |
Our sidewalk sale. Our first ever sidewalk sale, and it was the weekend before. | 00:19:06 | |
Easter, The weekend of Easter and. | 00:19:13 | |
The merchants in town, most everybody was thrilled. They want to see us do this on a regular basis. | 00:19:17 | |
And the only thing that we are going to tweak is to have we did a lot of social media. | 00:19:24 | |
Advertising, but to have some more signs around town, so there's actually physical signs and those have already been ordered and | 00:19:30 | |
taken care of because we have a very efficient DDA director. So we are all ready to go for the next one. | 00:19:37 | |
OK, so I am personally incredibly excited about this. I will not be cooking next week because there are seven different | 00:19:45 | |
restaurants in our downtown that are doing 7 different burgers. | 00:19:51 | |
Next week. And it's a competition and it's also a fundraiser and so. | 00:19:58 | |
I encourage all of you to visit at least one of these, but I think we should maybe have a little separate side contest for anybody | 00:20:05 | |
who does all 7. | 00:20:09 | |
So we haven't discussed that, but I'm I'm going to try. I will be eating a lot of smoothies and broccoli for lunch if this is my | 00:20:16 | |
dinner. But so. | 00:20:20 | |
I know a lot of work has gone into organizing this. | 00:20:26 | |
And it's a great way to support our downtown and our local restaurants. | 00:20:29 | |
And then also we have been talking about this barbecue and Bake Off. It had been scheduled for May 3rd, however. | 00:20:35 | |
For a lot of different reasons. | 00:20:45 | |
It is rescheduled to August 3rd and everybody, every mom in the town is breathing a sigh of relief because May is insanely busy so | 00:20:49 | |
this will be a great way to kick off our before school starts. So mark your calendar for August 3rd if you had it on May 3rd. Go | 00:20:56 | |
ahead and do one of the other many many, many many things that are happening that day and so. And also if you are, this is more | 00:21:03 | |
time for you to figure out that you can enter this at that your BBQ is worth it or your baked goods are worth it. This again is a | 00:21:10 | |
fundraiser and. | 00:21:18 | |
The DVA is doing this in partnership with the Oconee Visitors Bureau Center. | 00:21:25 | |
Yeah. So and it's supporting Bethlehem, which is really important. So that's it for the DDA. | 00:21:33 | |
Thank you, Chief. Gale. | 00:21:42 | |
Good evening. | 00:21:45 | |
To those types of incidences, criminal investigations, what are the proper ways to investigate? | 00:22:24 | |
Calls and and stuff that we're going on to make sure it the case will make it all the way through the court. | 00:22:32 | |
Setting. | 00:22:39 | |
Moving on our police vehicles, we did get a notification that the Ford Motor had some recall on a Bolt, so we're having to | 00:22:41 | |
schedule our vehicles. | 00:22:46 | |
It is there they have told us there is no safety. | 00:22:51 | |
Issues and I said these are emergency vehicles, are they OK? They have ensured that we can do this in a scheduled protocol, but | 00:22:55 | |
that is going on right now. So it will take a few weeks to get all of our cars updated through this recall. | 00:23:03 | |
We also have cops and bobbers coming up. I was talking to the gentleman that that really helps us with this and and it sounds like | 00:23:14 | |
we're a full house already with reservations for this program. So it's going to be very exciting and we're in conversations with | 00:23:20 | |
some. | 00:23:27 | |
Some instructors to teach a self-defense class that's been asked by citizens. So more to come dates, scheduling, making sure | 00:23:33 | |
spaces are available. Safety protocols are met. But so that's what we're working on and we're just we're in a really good spot | 00:23:42 | |
right now and I'm not on wood and I, I, I just want to welcome you know Lieutenant Benton to. | 00:23:51 | |
Watkinsville, which he lived here for a long minute, so he's very familiar and that that was another part of the fitting piece. | 00:24:00 | |
So that's really what we have. Chief, you want to talk about the storm? OK. And you said we did. | 00:24:08 | |
The the storms that came through what, a week and a half ago? I. | 00:24:16 | |
There was a a tree that came down in downtown and it fell. There was property damage. So officers responded, city officials | 00:24:22 | |
responded, and we all work together very well. We, you know, we were making sure that the roadways were safe for passing and we | 00:24:29 | |
actually shut down the roadway for a short period so that there was no interference while the road was being cleaned up. | 00:24:36 | |
And thankfully, there were no injuries reported. | 00:24:45 | |
All right. Questions for Chief Gale. | 00:24:51 | |
All right. Thank you, Chief. | 00:24:54 | |
All right. Consent agenda I think we're just. | 00:24:58 | |
We're just surplus in a police motorcycle, so can I entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda? I make a motion to approve | 00:25:02 | |
the consent agenda. We have a second. | 00:25:07 | |
Second, any discussion. | 00:25:12 | |
Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. All right, Motion carries. | 00:25:14 | |
We're going to move into public hearings. Some of these are. | 00:25:18 | |
At least one of these is a kind of a minor. | 00:25:23 | |
Zoning matter than the other will be about the budget. We do have to follow a little bit of a process where we do a hearing and we | 00:25:26 | |
do a vote on the zoning matter, so bear with me as we go through that. | 00:25:30 | |
We have to follow the law here and that means that. | 00:25:34 | |
You know, if you want to come forward, there's 4 minutes per person. | 00:25:38 | |
If you want to discuss any of these items, refrain from debate, argument or personal attacks, address your comments directly to | 00:25:41 | |
the Council and discuss the merits of the pending matter. | 00:25:45 | |
And address remarks directly to council. Council won't speak to potential litigation, attorney-client or personnel matters. So in | 00:25:50 | |
that these are the rules that we'll also use on any other matter tonight when we have. | 00:25:55 | |
When we have, I know that technically the corridor ordinance is under old business, but we're going to treat that like a hearing. | 00:26:01 | |
So you all remember that you'll have 4 minutes if you want to make comments and you'll need to address the council, not the crowd, | 00:26:05 | |
for that. | 00:26:08 | |
But this one is about Trove, and really all it is is kind of a zoning cleanup matter. | 00:26:13 | |
Where they had dedicated some green space to the city as part of that transaction and we want to be sure that that that those | 00:26:18 | |
parcels. | 00:26:22 | |
Are rezoned from detached residential to parks, recreation and conservation because they do have a conservation easement on those. | 00:26:26 | |
And that's the parcel you see directly across from Colin Perry Elementary. | 00:26:32 | |
A parcel back towards a. | 00:26:38 | |
The pond off of Morrison St. and then a parcel also across. | 00:26:40 | |
Morrison St. by the Creek down there, so that'll all be permanent green space. | 00:26:44 | |
So at this point, I'm going to open the public hearing. If anybody wants to come forward and speak to that, they're welcome to. | 00:26:48 | |
Hearing none, I'm going to close that public hearing council. At this point, I'll entertain a vote on rezoning the parcels listed | 00:26:57 | |
in your packet from detached residential to Parks, recreation, and conservation. | 00:27:04 | |
I make that motion. | 00:27:12 | |
Do we have a second? | 00:27:14 | |
Have a second from Councilman Thomas any discussion. | 00:27:16 | |
Hearing none, all in favor, say aye, aye. | 00:27:21 | |
Motion carries 5 O. | 00:27:25 | |
We have. | 00:27:26 | |
Looks like. | 00:27:28 | |
Let's say 1012 new acres of permanent green space in Watkinsville. So this is, this is good, so. | 00:27:32 | |
Public hearing on the budget. So this is that time of year where we start talking about budget. We'll actually have a budget, a | 00:27:39 | |
budget for your review, for the public review, I think at our next council meeting. But tonight is the moment, if you have | 00:27:46 | |
something that you just is on your mind that you'd love to see the city budget for. | 00:27:52 | |
For the city to do or a request for the budget, not having seen the budget but just something that you've always thought, why | 00:27:59 | |
don't you do X or Y? This is your opportunity to come speak to council before that budget is fully developed and presented to | 00:28:03 | |
council. So if anybody would like to come forward. | 00:28:08 | |
And and offer suggestions for the budget for fiscal year. | 00:28:13 | |
25 Now is your Mama. | 00:28:18 | |
Yes, ma'am. Come on, you gotta say no. Yeah. So this is your first time? This is my first time. Name and address. | 00:28:24 | |
37 S Main and I wasn't really planning on doing this, but it just occurred to me. So I have a question. You said if you know why | 00:28:32 | |
haven't you, I'm going to ask. | 00:28:35 | |
In that big intersection. | 00:28:40 | |
Of Greensboro Highway and South Main and Varnish Hills. There is kind of a triangle that's paved in there that looks slightly | 00:28:43 | |
different. | 00:28:47 | |
Can we plant anything in there? | 00:28:53 | |
That's a great question. We will ask G dot about that and that's their road and they control that and. | 00:28:55 | |
Good question. That would be really nice. Yeah. And and we'll say if if we are able to, then we will budget for that. So that'll | 00:29:02 | |
be a budget comment. So thank you. | 00:29:05 | |
Mrs. Drennan, great comment. Any other thoughts on budget? Suggestions, ideas? | 00:29:10 | |
All right. Well, we will have, as you can see up there, we have a pretty exhaustive process on budget. | 00:29:15 | |
We'll have public hearings, public hearings. | 00:29:20 | |
Galore over the next few months and you guys are welcome to join us for any of those and give us your input once you've seen the | 00:29:24 | |
budget. | 00:29:27 | |
Which we anticipate posting at some point in May for public review. | 00:29:30 | |
Thank you all. close that public hearing. | 00:29:36 | |
And we'll move on. And we have two appearances tonight. The first one is on behalf of Mr. Johnny Lay, and I think it'll be a | 00:29:38 | |
consulting. And Abe, are you presenting this matter tonight? OK, if you want to step forward. | 00:29:46 | |
And step up there. We're going to have a report from engineer Campbell first. | 00:29:54 | |
And then we will hear from the manager about wastewater capacity. | 00:29:59 | |
And then we'll have you come forward a, but that's OK. So thank you Mayor. So the the first item would be the residential | 00:30:03 | |
subdivision plat. The address is 110 N Main St. It's owned by Johnny Lay, the lay family on several parcels that are around this | 00:30:09 | |
area. It is zoned attached residential. It's a little bit less than an acre, but the the request is to subdivide an existing | 00:30:15 | |
partial into two residential tracks. So if we can go to the next slide again and give you an idea. This is on the east side of | 00:30:21 | |
North Main Street, it's north of Thrasher. | 00:30:27 | |
South of White Street, ext. | 00:30:33 | |
Next slide. So this is the, the site plan that's been submitted as part of that subdivision, so the existing track. | 00:30:37 | |
Has a structure on the northern portion of the track and then it is an undeveloped portion where there is a proposed track to be | 00:30:44 | |
there that would be a little less than half an acre. That's where you see a future home driveway shown. There is an existing | 00:30:52 | |