Transcript

Event transcript
Good evening everybody. Welcome to the March. 00:00:07
Watkinsville City Council meeting It's great to see a packed house here tonight. 00:00:09
And it's great to have a full council with us tonight. We do have some special guests from scouts here with us tonight. 00:00:14
And I'm going to ask them to stand and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Sam Seward, if you want to come. 00:00:20
Up here to the microphone. 00:00:25
Please, Sir. 00:00:26
Everyone, please place your hands over your heart and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. 00:00:35
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. 00:00:40
And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:45
Thank you, Sam. We're grateful to have the young men from Troop 7 here with us tonight. I have a special affinity for that troop. 00:01:01
That's where my son. 00:01:05
Got his eagle and and has a long and proud legacy. 00:01:09
Doctor Spikel and Mr. Seward, thank you guys as well for your leadership in the troop. It's great to have you here. 00:01:15
The city has a hearing loop system in the council chamber that's a wireless network for those with hearing aids. 00:01:20
Signals can be picked up by most of those hearing aids. The city also has loop receivers for those who still have some difficulty 00:01:26
hearing. 00:01:28
Anybody with questions can contact the ADA coordinator. 00:01:32
That's our city manager raising her hand over there. Sharon Dickerson. 00:01:35
And we will make reasonable accommodations. 00:01:38
This meeting is also being broadcast online. 00:01:40
Via the City Council information meeting information page on the city website, this also provides closed captioning. 00:01:43
To get that, click the CC icon in the lower right corner. When the video is posted, CC will automatically appear. 00:01:49
A transcript of the meeting is under the Transcript tab. 00:01:55
The current month's agenda is posted a week before the meeting to allow time to provide comments in writing to the clerk. 00:01:58
With that, we'll move on to the approval of the minutes. 00:02:03
We have the February 19th, 2025 regular meeting. 00:02:06
Council entertain, discussion or motion on those minutes, please. 00:02:10
I make a motion to approve. Do we have a second? Second. Any discussion? 00:02:14
Hearing none all in favor say aye, Any opposed? 00:02:18
All right, motion carries unanimously. 00:02:22
Next we'll look at the February 25th, 2025 retreat summary. I'll entertain a motion to discuss or approve. 00:02:24
Make a motion to approve. 00:02:33
Do we have a second? 00:02:35
A second all in favor say aye, aye aye. 00:02:36
Any opposed? 00:02:39
Motion carries unanimously. 00:02:41
We'll move to the approval of the agenda. I would request that we amend the agenda to add new business item number 21. That's a 00:02:43
request for appropriation. 00:02:47
Of up to $19,999 from spouse. 3 Rd. Streets and bridges. 00:02:52
To reestablish stormwater culverts in the White St. subdivision. 00:02:56
That will become item 21 Council if you're willing to add that item. 00:03:00
I I would entertain a motion there, or if you want to remove anything from consent, please indicate that now. 00:03:07
I make a motion to approve the agenda with added item 21. 00:03:14
We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? Second. Any discussion? 00:03:19
Hearing none, all in favor say aye aye. 00:03:23
Motion carries unanimously. 00:03:25
We'll move on to administration. We do have a little less formal public input process here. The Watkinsville City Council, members 00:03:27
of the public wishing to. 00:03:31
Address the mayor and council can do so at noted times on the agenda. 00:03:35
Or on request or at the discretion of the Council, comments shall be directly related to agenda items. 00:03:39
Speak from the podium, 4 minutes per person. Refrain from debate argument. Personal attacks are irrelevant discussion. 00:03:44
Address only the merits of the pending matter and address remarks directly to Council. 00:03:50
Council won't speak to potential litigation, attorney-client or personnel matters. 00:03:53
In a less legal way of saying that if you have something you want to say, raise your hand and we'll decide if we want to let you 00:03:58
talk so. 00:04:00
We're, like I said, generally we're able to operate pretty informally here and try to do that most of the time. 00:04:04
All right, with that, we'll move on to financial reports. This is Manager Dickerson's happy place, so I'll let her talk about 00:04:10
them. 00:04:13
Thank you, Mayor. Everyone should have received the balance sheet for the for the general fund. If you have any questions, let me 00:04:17
know. Revenues and expenditures or? 00:04:21
You know, moving along, we'll know a little bit more maybe next month, but I think we're doing OK. 00:04:25
On Sposs 3. 00:04:31
You may recall this I. 00:04:33
This started in October 21. It'll end in September of 27. 00:04:35
It is 8.63% of all sales tax collected in the county. 00:04:40
We did last month adjust that second blue column. You see that is the adjustment based on the revenue projections that the county 00:04:45
feels are are they're confident in and so it's a little bit more than what we had. 00:04:51
When we had our meeting last month, what we anticipated, it's about a 27% increase over what we thought what we had budgeted, not 00:04:57
what we thought that what we had budgeted for. So that's a significant amount. 00:05:02
We are averaging about $84,000 a month in revenues. 00:05:07
And and we are you'll see here an average of about 6% over last year increase. We have a balance of just a little under $850,000. 00:05:12
And just as a reminder, these are some of the projects that have been. 00:05:22
Completed using these funds. 00:05:25
We have 4 different buckets if you will, for projects and some projects are currently ongoing like Harris Shoals Park, Thomas 00:05:27
Farm, Some others have been completed. 00:05:32
On T's plus, that is our transportation. 00:05:39
Special purpose local option sales tax. 00:05:42
So specific to transportation items, we actually have 3 buckets and we'll talk about some of those projects in a minute. But we at 00:05:44
this point, we're still project, we're budgeting our revenues at 85% of what we think we will, we will get. 00:05:50
Haven't made any adjustments on that. That just began in April of 23. 00:05:56
Younger of a project to not know you know where we're at long term. With that it does end in March of 28 and it is at 7.77% of all 00:05:59
sales tax collected. 00:06:05
We're averaging about 8%. 00:06:10
Increase over last year, which was our last full. 00:06:12
Calendar year. 00:06:16
We have a little bit less than $935,000 in that account. 00:06:17
And these are some of the projects. Traffic efficiency is the only thing we haven't identified you haven't appropriated money to 00:06:22
yet. 00:06:25
But those are the other projects, the Simonton Bridge Rd. project that is currently underway. 00:06:29
And then resurfacing roads, which is a big piece of. 00:06:33
Of teeth lost. 00:06:36
And then I promised Mayor, this is the last time you'll have to see this. We will clear this out. This was our American Rescue 00:06:39
Plan. 00:06:42
Report we do have to continue to report I guess indefinitely to the federal government for these funds but. 00:06:45
The the interest that we made last month didn't clear and so we're going to clear it this month and closeout you won't see this 00:06:53
again since last time I can say case of Rosser out of this. 00:06:58
It did. We did have a lot of really good projects though. 00:07:03
Essential pay for our employees after COVID retention bonuses for our police officers, which became increasingly hard to. 00:07:06
Bring on board. 00:07:13
Hardin Hill resurfacing project, acquisition of Thomas Farm, we used a little bit more than $700,000 for that. 00:07:15
And then our public safety improvements, training, education, so. 00:07:22
It's been a good run. I'm glad that we're done with that. 00:07:26
And just for context, we have a lot of, we have scouts here. This is an that's an example of your money going to Washington and 00:07:29
actually coming back to you. That doesn't happen that often. 00:07:32
But that money went up there and then during Kovat, that money came back to the city and we were able to use that for some 00:07:36
transformational projects. 00:07:39
Also want to remind everybody, we are currently in the budget process. We. 00:07:44
Cancelled the work session that was planned for tonight. That would have been just. 00:07:49
Evaluate or look over the prioritization of the Strategic initiatives Council made during their retreat. 00:07:53
On February 25th there was number. 00:07:58
Desire to do that, so we are moving forward. 00:08:01
We also the mayor and also did just a real quick review of the capital budget did not feel a need to meet to talk about that. 00:08:04
Everything is going to pretty much stay the same. Not not any major change from what we've given you in the past. So that would 00:08:09
have been tonight. Have we needed it. 00:08:13
Obviously tonight you will have. 00:08:19
To agencies, to independent agencies. The O County Fire Department and OCAF will be here to present their budget. Request will be 00:08:21
not well, there will not be a vote on it. It will simply be to introduce that and put it into the process. 00:08:28
And then our first public hearing will be April 16th. And that will simply, that will not be a matter that will not be an 00:08:35
opportunity for the public to respond anything that will be an opportunity for the public to say, hey, while you're building your 00:08:40
budget, this is what I'd like to see. Please make sure X is included. 00:08:45
ETC. And we'll we'll fold that into our. 00:08:50
Into our budget, the mayor and I'll be working on it most of April and and then get it out to council the end of April, 1st of May 00:08:53
for bigger discussions in May and June. 00:08:57
We just amplify that for a minute. Again, we have folks here aren't normally here. That's the best opportunity. 00:09:01
Don't wait until June, you know, to come in and say, I wish this was in the budget if there's something that you're passionate 00:09:06
about in Watkinsville or that you're interested in. 00:09:10
Seeing us consider as part of the budgeting process. 00:09:13
Come to that meeting or e-mail the manager. e-mail me. 00:09:15
We're all ears. If there's something that you see that you think could be improved or something we should look at, we want to hear 00:09:19
about that earlier in the budget process rather than later. 00:09:23
Thank you, Mayor. 00:09:28
On the economic development side, we we have. 00:09:29
Past our deadline, I believe March 15th was a deadline for all business licenses. So she had a flurry of them come in. That's why 00:09:33
I sort of gave you an excerpt. You can't see everything clearly on the screen, but. 00:09:38
A little bit more than $15,000 came in. Some of that was split between alcohol licenses and insurance payments and business 00:09:44
licenses. 00:09:47
And I think the second notices have gone out. 00:09:52
For those who have not made the deadline so. 00:09:54
On the excise tax, this is the alcohol and the short term vacation rental, hotel, motel tax we are tracking right on or just a 00:09:58
little ahead of where I thought we would be based on our budget. 00:10:03
And then on building permits, we had 20 permits for 19 projects, the majority of which are the townhomes at Wire Park. 00:10:09
Any questions? 00:10:17
OK. All right, Christine. 00:10:21
Are you delivering the update? Yes. 00:10:23
OK, so on Monday night we had a season premiere of. 00:10:25
The TV show Viewfinders. It's a PBS show and. 00:10:32
And it is excellent, so if you have not checked it out, I highly recommend it. 00:10:36
But Jan, our DVA director, put this on. Chris Greer is one of the creators of this show and his. 00:10:43
Gallery is in downtown Watkinsville, and it's just one more. 00:10:52
Example of the incredible creativity that we have in this community. 00:10:58
We are really proud. 00:11:03
To have him and about 50 to 60 people came chops and hops. 00:11:05
Provided some goodies I. 00:11:10
It was at publica roasting. If you don't know about that great coffee where you can. 00:11:12
Pick up coffee for your home or for your business. 00:11:19
And it was just a really wonderful community event. 00:11:22
We also. 00:11:27
Had. 00:11:29
Our board meeting was today. 00:11:33
Just kind of normal stuff, but we are continuing the strategic planning process. We have formed a subcommittee. 00:11:36
And within the next month or so are going to be meeting with different vendors. 00:11:43
To look at the strategic plan. 00:11:47
So again, for all of you who are downtown. 00:11:50
Business owners downtown engaged that's an opportunity for you to also be involved in that process I'm. 00:11:53
See folks from Ashford nodding over there. I know y'all are about to make a big investment so we welcome Elle's engagement in 00:11:58
that. 00:12:01
Process as well. And then for those of you who haven't visited, the public coffee space is really a great example of reusing an 00:12:04
old historic building. It's the elders old. 00:12:09
Blacksmith shop and workshop and it's, it's really lovely what they've done in there. So stop in. 00:12:14
Troy sits there with the door wide open a lot of times while he's roasting and he loves to have visitors, so stop in and see him. 00:12:20
Thank you, Christine, for all you're doing. 00:12:25
Chief Allwood. 00:12:28
All right. Thank you for having me. Yeah. 00:12:34
So we'll start off with completed and scheduled training. Sergeant Way completed all three levels of his manager training, which 00:12:36
was 120 hours worth. A great job to Sergeant Way for completing that. 00:12:41
We completed Taser training, also researched. 00:12:48
On our Tasers and we special thanks to Mary Broderick and Councilman Thomas for their participation. 00:12:52
We Officer Chris completed Alert Level 1 active shooter training. 00:13:00
You know, this is something that every officer should have every year to to go into schools or anywhere there's mass shootings or 00:13:05
active shooters. 00:13:09
They do tweak it a little bit each year, so we're going to continue that and every officer will be. 00:13:12
Very well versed in that. 00:13:18
We we attended myself, Sergeant Wade and Officer England attended Governor's Initiative training over at Oconee County. They 00:13:19
offered that out to us, so that was great. 00:13:24
And just a reminder, Georgia Chiefs Conference is next. 00:13:29
Month they will have. 00:13:32
The legal updates on the House bills and stuff, so I'll be able to provide some good information with that when we get back. 00:13:34
The training room is complete. 00:13:41
Next door, we turn that storage room into a training room. The patrol room is actually complete. 00:13:44
A lot of lot of hard work and extra. 00:13:50
Painting and sanding and fixing and putting some floors down and stuff. So I do appreciate everybody's hard work and teamwork on 00:13:52
that. 00:13:56
We we got some feedback on the connect and create program, went through and called several folks today. 00:14:00
Checked on our officers and see how we're doing and how we can provide a better service for the community. 00:14:07
A lot of good feedback. 00:14:12
We ordered the water rescue equipment for the Thomas Farm Safety Plan. 00:14:14
Starting to get some of that stuff in the. 00:14:18
The UTV has been outfitted. 00:14:21
That's currently likes about two more lights to be done and and it will be complete so. 00:14:24
Under Patrols Unit 101. 00:14:31
Oh come on. I hope Brett is coming after this. 00:14:34
This is the volunteer by the mayor. 00:14:39
Mute it. 00:14:44
He didn't say anything bad. 00:14:45
My wife is still mad at me about that so. 00:14:58
Yeah, yeah. 00:15:02
Tasers are very effective tool very and an American testify to this once it's done it's done there's no more pain, there's no more 00:15:04
issues am I correct Hopefully maybe a little soreness from muscle tents but. 00:15:11
Yeah. 00:15:24
We're going to show Brett's next month. 00:15:25
He handles a lot better than I did, I have to say. 00:15:28
We did supply the officers with new laptops. All those are arrived hooked up, installed, replacing the. 00:15:34
13 year old. 00:15:41
Laptops that were. 00:15:43
In the patrol vehicles. 00:15:44
I mentioned about the car yet so 101 has been sold. 00:15:47
According to Gov deals that has been paid for already so we can. 00:15:51
Move forward with that. 00:15:54
Community events I. 00:15:55
University of Georgia is having their law enforcement day. I think there's four of us going to attend that. We get to go out and 00:15:58
watch the. 00:16:02
Bulldogs practice and they give us a little meal and get to hear Kirby Smart do some. 00:16:05
Some nice influencing speeches and. 00:16:10
Learn from that. 00:16:13
I joined a couple couple local teams at Oconee County. The the. 00:16:15
Sexual assault response team And then I didn't put it on there because I just found out this week. 00:16:19
The Child Fatality Review Board. 00:16:24
I'm going to that tomorrow to to get to help out with that. 00:16:27
We have our Easter egg hunt. 00:16:31
On April 19th. 00:16:34
Y'all come out and. 00:16:36
Had a lot of good special prizes, Might even see the Easter Bunny out there. 00:16:38
So there's our stats pretty much in line with January, February, March. 00:16:43
Looks pretty good. The arrests are continuing. 00:16:49
You know, around four or five each month. All those are driving with suspended license. The top one did have. 00:16:53
Some marijuana on them I. 00:16:59
The continued stats. 00:17:02
Again, pretty much in line and that's that's. 00:17:04
You know what, what I want you guys to see is is. 00:17:07
Increases or decreases or consistency? 00:17:09
When we put these up there so you know where we're at. 00:17:12
That is the old patrol room and the new patrol room after we were done so. 00:17:16
What we did was we have 5 workstations, so every officer has their own workstation and can can kind of personalize it and feel 00:17:20
more comfortable and at home and. 00:17:24
Get their work done because they also investigate and their own cases when they work them right now so. 00:17:29
Not a large space, but it actually worked out perfect. I think it it it turned out really well. 00:17:36
And I do appreciate everybody that work. 00:17:41
The left picture is our training room, used to be a storage room. 00:17:44
I we we bought a building outside and moved a lot of stuff outside so we can have this training room for roll call meetings and 00:17:47
training. 00:17:51
The middle picture is the UTV we purchased for our Thomas Farm Safety Plan. 00:17:55
So we can have a quick response to get 100 acres. 00:18:00
I've walked it and it makes me tired just walking it so I know I couldn't run from one end to the other. 00:18:04
And then our lobby, we finally come up with a design. So hopefully we'll start, we'll start using that as walking reports and that 00:18:10
people need to come in and sit and talk to us or whatever. But. 00:18:15
We thought we would. We would put a label and a brand on it. So we put our badge and. 00:18:20
And all. And then. 00:18:25
The Polte group. 00:18:27
Was nice enough to give us our largest donation year to date for our badges and benevolence and. 00:18:29
Really helped us out. That's that helped us purchase. 00:18:36
Some of the equipment we we currently needed for the Thomas safety plan. 00:18:39
Very thankful for them. 00:18:43
We do have a new website and Facebook page out, so we're going to get that out to everybody hopefully, and so you guys can see 00:18:46
what all the badges and benevolence is all about. 00:18:50
It's a it's a nonprofit law enforcement foundation that. 00:18:54
You can actually get tax credit if you want to donate to it, and then we can turn around, use that money and buy equipment, things 00:18:58
that the taxpayers don't have to pay for. 00:19:02
All right. Any questions for Chief? Any questions? 00:19:11
Thanks for all you're doing. 00:19:16
Chief, we appreciate you. I appreciate it. 00:19:18
All right, the consent agenda, we'll move on to that at this point for those of you who aren't familiar consent agenda or items 00:19:20
that. 00:19:23
Are on the agenda, but we've reviewed and don't feel like we need to discuss, so I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent 00:19:26
agenda. 00:19:30
I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. 00:19:33
Do we have a second? 00:19:36
2nd, we have a motion. We have a second. 00:19:37
Any discussion, hearing none, all in favor say aye. 00:19:40
Aye, all right. 00:19:44
We'll move on to our first public hearing. 00:19:45
And I'll let the manager and. 00:19:48
Attorney Reitman. 00:19:52
Talk us through this one and then we'll take. 00:19:53
We'll have a public hearing on this. 00:19:55
Sure, I'll get started. So this is simply the reason. 00:19:57
A piece of property that the city purchased for the Simonton Bridge Rd. 00:20:01
Pedestrian connector. 00:20:05
It is a little less than an acre. It is situated. 00:20:07
To the West, roughly West of the cemetery that you see right there on the right and then obviously to the to the West of the 00:20:10
Thomas farm. 00:20:14
Preserve it is a it was an important piece of property. It's going to help us bridge literally that that Creek. 00:20:18
And that is part of the phase two we'll be talking about here shortly. I'll show you a little bit of the picture. Phase one has 00:20:26
already been let and should be underway into this month, 1st of next month. 00:20:31
Phase 2 will be from the end of the bridge towards Rocket Field and then phase three is the actual bridge, pedestrian bridge and 00:20:37
both of those projects the RFP was released. 00:20:42
I think it's been a couple weeks ago now. 00:20:47
Losing track of time, but. 00:20:49
Those both phase two and phase three proposals are due back April the 4th. 00:20:51
But we thought it was important to go ahead and try to keep our zoning correct. We don't want to, you know, ever become anything 00:20:56
other than Parks and Recreation. So we're asking that you vote to. 00:21:01
To change it to PRC. 00:21:08
Mr. Reitman, anything to add? 00:21:11
I don't think so. I mean this is non controversial. It's essentially a housekeeping matter to ensure it is zoned as it will be 00:21:13
used. 00:21:17
Essentially, I expect in perpetuity, Mr. Mayor, if we want to call the public hearing at this time and solicit input. OK, Sharon, 00:21:21
if you can slide back to the picture. 00:21:25
Yeah, that's fine. Yeah. So that's the parcel if you look at it for the members of the public. 00:21:32
You're looking at Simonton Bridge Rd. The. 00:21:37
If you go back one more sharing that the parcel surrounded by blue. 00:21:39
And if you go forward, one more. 00:21:43
You can see what our plans are hopefully by the end of the year to have a 10 foot wide, 8 to 10 foot wide pedestrian pathway. 00:21:45
That'll be the start of the sidewalk down Simonton Bridge Rd. 00:21:51
With that, I'll open the public hearing again. The rules are what I stated before 4 minutes if you want to come forward. 00:21:54
Express any concerns about this reason. 00:22:01
All right. I'm not seeing anyone come forward. 00:22:06
Comment received in advance. 00:22:08
All right, hearing none, I'll close the public hearing. 00:22:10
With that, we'll need to move to voting to actually make that rezone. So Council, I'll entertain a motion to to. 00:22:13
Approve that rezone. 00:22:21
I make a motion that we approve this rezone. Do we have a second? 00:22:23
2nd. 00:22:28
We have a motion, we have a second. Do we want to discuss that? 00:22:30
Doesn't look like it. All right, All in favor, say aye. 00:22:32
Any opposed? 00:22:35
Motion carries 5 O Thank you. We'll move on to our next public hearing. This is a text amendment. 00:22:37
To amend Article 13 of the zoning ordinance. This will allow special events in the downtown and mixed-use office zoning districts 00:22:43
as a conditional use. 00:22:47
And in the corridor commercial zone as a permitted use. 00:22:51
And some additional amendments related to that. 00:22:55
I'm going to let Manager Dickerson and Attorney Reitman explain that and then we'll move forward with, I think, 2 applicants in 00:22:57
separate, separate votes. 00:23:02
So technically this first one will. 00:23:07
Most likely take care of that because it's a, it would be a permitted use. So the applicant may want to come forward, but we're 00:23:10
going to present their piece on this one and then on the next one will present the conditional use. All right. 00:23:15
So in the code we had we had created. 00:23:20
About a year, maybe a little bit more than a year ago. A special event. 00:23:24
Facility. 00:23:27
Definition that was specific to residential. We didn't have anything for non residential, which was kind of odd, but. 00:23:28
So in this, what we're doing here is we're actually. 00:23:35
Distinguishing between residential and non residential. 00:23:39
So we, as you see, we've added special event, facility, residential and then we've created a definition for special event. 00:23:42
Facility non residential. 00:23:48
We do have, I don't have them up here, but we do have some criteria that have to be met. 00:23:51
For when you have a special event facility, residential. 00:23:55
And we have also created those similar standards, not the same because they're different since you're in a commercial area versus 00:23:58
a residential area. 00:24:02
For the non residential. 00:24:06
But we've walked through those. Those are for the most part, you know, I don't think they're. 00:24:08
Too restrictive, but they're restrictive and enough that they'll have to come for council for unless they're in. 00:24:13
Corridor commercial, they have to come for council for conditional use. As the mayor said. We do have an applicant here tonight 00:24:18
who is. 00:24:21
If this this should pass will be up to talk about what they would like to. 00:24:24
To do in the. 00:24:29
In their MUO zoning so. 00:24:30
Any questions about? 00:24:32
OK, right. And I believe. 00:24:35
Mrs. Sullivan and Mr. Hansford, your project would be allowed. 00:24:39
If we just pass this correct because they're in is quarter commercial, is that correct? Yeah. And if you, I don't know if you want 00:24:43
to speak to it at all to share what you're doing, you have to go to the Mike Force if you want to talk about it. Maybe if you guys 00:24:48
could just tell us a little bit about y'all plans for yours then I know I think I see Mr. Watson back there. We'll give him the 00:24:53
opportunity when his comes before us for the. 00:24:58
For the conditional use request, so. 00:25:04
Both of these are exciting for Watkinsville. So y'all share? What's your plan? Yeah, so we're in the commercial corridor section, 00:25:06
so it would be a permitted mute. 00:25:10
Used if you guys approve it. 00:25:13
And I think we've talked to a lot of you guys about what we're trying to do, but maybe not all of you know, but we have an event 00:25:15
space of a new building that we're putting landscaping around even today we're working on that. 00:25:20
So we've built a new building where there was a burn building up before. It's about 8000 square feet. 00:25:25
We have Albright Electric that's leasing out the back 6000, but on the front space, I wanted something for the community and the 00:25:31
public to participate in. So it's about 2000 square feet. 00:25:36
She's seen it, so it's really cool if you go in there and look at it. But we have created it with the community to be able to do 00:25:42
like. 00:25:46
We shower stuff like that. So I mean it'll seat about 9090 people. 00:25:52
So we didn't have anything in the box as well. In fact, I turned 52 years ago and we didn't have a space. So I actually rented 00:25:56
something in Athens. So it would be nice to have something here in Watkinsville that people can do that here instead of having to 00:26:00
go into Clark County. 00:26:04
Great. 00:26:09
All right. 00:26:11
OK well y'all are welcome to have a seat. I think at this point we unless council you have any questions for them. 00:26:13
We have to have a Connie questions. 00:26:19
My concern is parking. Is there going to be enough parking for events like that? 00:26:22
I think there's parking requirements in the code. Is that accurate? 00:26:29
Yes, there are parking requirements in the code, so they would have to meet those, but for not for the 90 and I'd have to go back 00:26:34
and look, but it says, you know, you do have to have. 00:26:38
Adequate aisles and turn around all that. So those are the things that they'll have to meet, you know, whether it's permit or not, 00:26:43
they still have to meet the parking standards so. 00:26:46
So so so it's adequate parking shall be provided on site for the event or spaces shall be secured in an adjacent site with safe 00:26:50
passage provided by private security or other means so. 00:26:54
So I know you all have, I don't know how many spaces you all have at yours, that's probably less of an issue or? 00:26:58
That also are available to us using their spaces. Great. 00:27:04
Space between the food and properties OK. 00:27:07
Good question. 00:27:12
OK, other questions from Council. 00:27:14
Yep, go ahead. Yeah, so it says Kitchen must meet all applicable health codes and be approved in writing by the local health code 00:27:19
official. 00:27:22
Is that just even if they have like a little? 00:27:25
I mean, so any kind of kitchen. 00:27:29
I I just spent. 00:27:32
You don't have a kitchen, OK, so but if somebody has a caterer that comes in and they just plug in hot plates or whatever and you 00:27:33
have a fridge or something that wouldn't, they don't have to go through that. Yeah, my understanding is it has to be they're 00:27:39
actually preparing food on site if you're preparing for OK, because that, that isn't super clear, it looks like. 00:27:44
That if you have a kitchen like I'm thinking like. 00:27:51
The umm. 00:27:54
The city has a kitchen, like a break room kind of kitchen. 00:27:55
I think if it's ambivalent, it cuts some Joe, you say you say it better than I do. 00:28:01
Right. Any ambiguity does cut in favor of freeze Plus It does say and This is a good question, but must meet all applicable health 00:28:05
codes. 00:28:08
So only to the extent applicable indicator under a caterers license also would fall I believe under independent standards. So I 00:28:12
believe it's adequately addressed. 00:28:17
Thanks. Good question. 00:28:23
OK. We do have to have a public hearing since this is a text amendment to the zoning ordinance. So with that, I'll open up the 00:28:26
floor for public hearing. 00:28:29
Don't everybody jump up at once to talk about special event facilities. 00:28:35
I see no one coming forward. We'll close the public hearing. 00:28:39
Now we'll move to the vote to amend. 00:28:42
Article 13 of the zoning and zoning ordinances we've discussed. 00:28:45
Council entertain a motion. 00:28:50
Well, I make a motion that we approve the text amendment to amend Article 13. 00:28:52
All right, do we have a second? 00:28:57
I will second, all right. Can we have a clarification that that motion does include the related amendments to Article 4 00:28:59
definitions in Article 10 special event? 00:29:03
Absolutely. 00:29:08
All right. So the motion, Yep, Yep, Thank you. 00:29:10
Basically, the motion is what's printed on the. 00:29:14
Printed there and on the screen. OK, so any questions or comments from Council? 00:29:16
Hearing none all in favor say aye. 00:29:21
Any opposed? 00:29:24
Motion carries. 00:29:25
Now we'll move on to the public hearing. 00:29:27
The reason we're doing this is. 00:29:30
Wire Park is in a different zoning district. They're in the mixed-use office. 00:29:32
And the thinking there is this is a use that. 00:29:37
Would require what we call a conditional use, meaning. 00:29:40
It could have a more significant impact on the neighbors. 00:29:43
And so anybody who is in this mixed-use office zoning. 00:29:45
Will have to come before us to request this use. 00:29:49
And so that is why we. 00:29:52
And I'll let manager Dickerson, attorney Reitman add to that if they need to. Then after that, we'll have the Clint Watson come 00:29:54
forward and explain why our parks plans. 00:29:58
Thank you, Mayor. 00:30:02
So in order for a conditional use to be approved, they had to. 00:30:03
Actually state why, you know. 00:30:08
Make sure they met certain requirements and so some of the ones are listed up here. The property is located, as the mayor said, in 00:30:10
the next used office. 00:30:13
It's owned where there's other commercial uses that are similar. 00:30:17
That are operating. 00:30:20
Allowing this space for specific I'm sorry for special events will not caught be a cost burden to the city. 00:30:22
A cost will not be, I'm sorry, would not be net, would not be a cost to the city or burden of the city. The property is on the 00:30:29
second floor of water park development, which is above some of the restaurants and retail spaces there. They do not expect traffic 00:30:33
to be an issue. 00:30:37
They already have had a number of obviously outdoor vets and have. 00:30:42
Worked with our Police Department when necessary for those. 00:30:46
There's ingress and egress off Barnet Shoals as well as. 00:30:49
Through a Third Point of access on Norton Road. 00:30:53
There is sufficient ample parking on site. 00:30:56
They have agreed you know they'll comply with the noise ordinances, adhere to the conference Abuse plan by having similar 00:30:59
commercial uses provide they do have proper trash service. 00:31:05
And they do not think it will affect any adversely affect any historic buildings. In fact, this is a historic site. 00:31:11
There's no environmentally sensitive areas that will be affected as well, so those are their statements from their application. 00:31:18
And that those are the things you have to consider when you're looking at conditional use. 00:31:24
All right. With that, Mister Watson, is there anything you want to tell us about your facility and then we'll open up a public 00:31:29
here. 00:31:33
If you could state your name and address for the record, please yes. Clint Watson, 1491 Robin Hood. 00:31:40
Thanks for hearing us out on this. 00:31:46
So I wear several hats at Wire Park. I work for Gibbs Capital, which is the developer of the project. 00:31:49
And I'm also technically the the general manager of you know, wire part. We've got, you know, around 50 or so businesses that. 00:31:57
Call Wire Park their home. 00:32:07
And I get 2 two big requests. 00:32:09
Every you know, I deal with, I kind of take in all the questions and comments from the community. 00:32:13
And. 00:32:19
These two requests are. 00:32:20
You know far and above beyond any other request that the number one request is lost and found. Hey, my daughter lost her sweater. 00:32:23
My kid lost his shoe. I lost some jewelry, right? That's number one. I get, you know, daily we get that. 00:32:32
Almost daily we get requests for. 00:32:38
Event space. 00:32:42
So really what we're trying to do here is just meet a need that the community has and sounds like you guys are on the same page 00:32:43
with that so. 00:32:47
I think there's a shortage of events based special event space in Oconee in its and yeah, it's like you said. 00:32:52
Baby showers. 00:32:59
Wedding receptions. Business meetings. 00:33:01
Class reunions, birthday parties, you know, just there's a there's a various reasons why people want to rent space and. 00:33:04
And because of all of these requests we're getting. 00:33:11
We're saying, hey, let's, let's give the people what they want. So thanks for considering this. 00:33:14
Thank you, Mr. Watson. 00:33:20
Any questions from Council? 00:33:21
I mean, these are more just curiosity questions. So it's on the where exactly is it? 00:33:24
So the front, can you come? I'm sorry you got to go back up. We got people probably listening online. Thank you. 00:33:29
So on the on the very front corner, when you come in the main entrance, the front corner of the main. 00:33:37
Building. 00:33:43
It was a 10,000 square foot space. We we were kind of holding out for like a small grocery store. 00:33:45
That never came to fruition. So we we decided to build out kind of chop it up and build out 10 suites, 5 suites on the bottom. 00:33:51
Bottom floor Five more suites on the top floor. 00:34:00
So we've got 3 leases signed on those spaces. 00:34:04
Currently. 00:34:09
Looking to get. 00:34:10
Six more leases there. 00:34:11
And one of those 10 will be an 1800 square foot, so similar in size, 1800 square foot space. 00:34:13
That will be used for. If you guys approve that will be used for the the events. 00:34:19
Yeah, OK. 00:34:25
Any other questions? 00:34:28
All right. With that, we'll open a public hearing if anybody wants to comment on wire parks, conditional use request for a special 00:34:29
event facility. 00:34:33
Come forward. 00:34:37
Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing. With that, we'll move to a vote council. 00:34:39
Do I hear a motion? 00:34:43
On item 17 in front of you, the conditional use request for 1725 Electric Ave. 00:34:44
I make a motion to approve. 00:34:50
Do we have a second? 00:34:52
I'll second. 00:34:54
All right. We have a motion, we have a second. Any discussion? 00:34:55
Hearing none, all in favor say aye aye. Any opposed? 00:34:58
All right, motion carries. 00:35:02
Unanimously, we'll move on to appearances, 10 minute time limit overall for these appearances for the speakers, first, we'll have 00:35:05
the independent agency fiscal year July 2026 budget request. 00:35:11
I believe we have. 00:35:18
Chief accident here from the fire department if you want to. 00:35:20
Present your request, Sir. 00:35:23
Welcome as always. 00:35:25
As usual, I'll keep it within 10 minutes. I appreciate the opportunity, Mayor and Council so. 00:35:27
I appreciate the opportunity that the city allows us to. 00:35:35
Provide and ask for a budget and it's been very helpful over the past few years. This year we're again asking for 15,000. 00:35:39
Which is what we put in last year. 00:35:46
And we had the various breakdowns, travel, equipment, meals. 00:35:48
So what we're putting the money towards so. 00:35:52
See any questions. 00:35:56
Any special equipment this year? I know we bought like the Jaws of Life a few years ago. No, we we are really in good shape right 00:35:58
now. Yeah. 00:36:02
That's great to hear, because I hear it takes like five years to get a fire truck right now or something. So yeah, we've already 00:36:06
put in order so. 00:36:10
We have five years in advance. All right. Yeah, great. 00:36:15
Any other questions while we have the Chief here? 00:36:19
Chief, we're we're. Go ahead, Christine. 00:36:22
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, we're grateful for you, for you and your how efficient you guys are with taxpayer dollars. 00:36:24
So thank you. Thank you. 00:36:28
OK, I don't know that Paul Clark. Is anyone from OCAF here? 00:36:32
Oh, Lawrence, are you presenting the request? 00:36:36
All right. 00:36:40
Something else tonight? 00:36:41
OK, good night. 00:36:44
It is Paul Clark, right? Can we do that? My name is Lawrence Duke. I live at 13 Barney Shoals. 00:36:48
And I'm here to. 00:36:54
Continue our request for. 00:36:58
OK. 00:37:00
Because through the years we've gotten $5000 I believe. 00:37:01
It's been a big help. 00:37:05
We've been a big move to make the art board. 00:37:07
Better every year. This year we've gotten some 3D art boards. 00:37:10
Which is kind of a nice change to more like sculptures. So I've been working with. 00:37:13
Jan and Sharon and we're trying to. 00:37:17
Kind of clean up the ones in the frames so. 00:37:19
We can do that. That'd be great. Thanks. 00:37:22
OK. Any questions? 00:37:24
All right. 00:37:27
Thank you, Lawrence. 00:37:29
Just a reminder, some of you may leave before the Mayor's report. We do. We are accepting applications for our City Arts Committee 00:37:31
through March 31st, So. 00:37:35
We're looking for people to advise us on the placement of public art in the city. Would welcome. 00:37:40
You guys to spread the word for artists and folks you'll know to. 00:37:44
Apply for that. The application is on our website I think. 00:37:47
All right, no motion to vote on that. We'll move on to Ashford Memorial. 00:37:51
I think we will start with engineer Campbell. 00:37:56
To give us the update on that and then we'll move through. 00:37:59
Councilman Thomas, Manager Dickerson and then we'll have the applicant come forward and tell us about their project. 00:38:03
Thank you, Mayor. So I'll start with the site development plan request for Asheville Memorial Church. 00:38:09
Hopefully you know where the church is located. This would be on the adjacent property. 00:38:15
That it currently is just occupied by maybe just a few parking spaces, a playground, and just some. 00:38:20
Undeveloped area, if you will. So the total acreage of the parcel as presented is a little less than one acre. 00:38:27
A good portion of that will be disturbed. The zoning is South Main Street Senate corridor. 00:38:34
And again, the existing use there, but the proposed use is for a fellowship hall that will actually be a multi level building that 00:38:40
property. 00:38:44
Transitions great as it moves away from maybe a higher point there, but. 00:38:49
Down Harden Hill Rd. as I would call it towards the Creek. And so this this building won't just be A1 level flat building. 00:38:54
Hopefully that's. 00:38:57
Clear as we kind of go through there so location. 00:39:01
Just in within the heart there of downtown Watkinsville. 00:39:05
And then? 00:39:08
Continue to go through. Here's a few shots. 00:39:09
Water St. intersects at. 00:39:11
Hardin Hill Rd. approximately where this. 00:39:13
Site location is. 00:39:16
So you can kind of see this is all along the. 00:39:18
What I would call the eastern side of the property. Maybe the southeastern side of the property. There is an existing wooden 00:39:21
fence, but this is looking. 00:39:23
Really towards Main Street, if that gives you an idea of the existing conditions there. 00:39:26
This is the southern driveway that is on Harden Hill Rd. 00:39:32
So that access point. 00:39:36
In general terms, would remain. 00:39:38
And provide access to the lower portion of the property and traverse through it as based on the plans of designer. 00:39:41
Has presented. 00:39:48
And so here the plans in general terms for the top of the page. 00:39:50
There is the location of the existing church and then the the darker Gray that's essentially in the middle. There you can see the 00:39:54
proposed fellowship hall building. 00:39:58
Where there's only a few parking spaces now along that existing private access drive. 00:40:03
Between the existing sanctuary and this. 00:40:08
Partial this area. 00:40:11
That will be expanded to add additional parking. 00:40:12
And then one of the other things I want to point out as part of the plans that were submitted by the designer, they did include 00:40:15
stormwater management. Now that's not in a traditional pond because. 00:40:20
Quite frankly, there's not room for that, but there is underground stormwater piping, underground stormwater management as part of 00:40:25
this plan that would meet the city code. 00:40:29
So again, just a project overview there. 00:40:35
A2 level fellowship hall. 00:40:37
And the. 00:40:41
Projects want to utilize existing access points there. 00:40:42
And it includes additional impervious area. That additional impervious area is being managed by the proposed. 00:40:46
Stormwater management system. 00:40:53
We did get detailed site plans just. 00:40:54
You know, shortly before your last council meeting here in February. 00:40:57
And had a chance to go through those and really work with the designer. 00:41:01
The majority of the comments from that initial plan review were addressed. 00:41:05
Just a couple of. 00:41:09
Remaining items that. 00:41:10
I would you know, they could be conditions tonight and it's. 00:41:12
Been a great conversation but it's a stormwater discharge location. 00:41:16
And then I put rubbish instead of waste, because we're talking about trash, right? 00:41:19
There's not room on this site for a. 00:41:24
Dumpster Corral. They're really not room on the site for a trash truck to. 00:41:27
Come in and get stuck and not be able to turn around. So just want to make sure that the church has some sort of operational plan 00:41:31
with how trash service would occur on this site. 00:41:36
And I know for urban forest approval and wastewater approval is also some of the things that will be discussed as part of this 00:41:41
application tonight, but I'm happy to answer. 00:41:46
Any questions you can see? 00:41:51
This is a reference. 00:41:52
Building plans are not part of the agenda items tonight, but I think it's important for you to kind of see the visual of a new 00:41:54
proposed building here that is for the Fellowship hall. A lot of similar architectural features, but you can also see that the two 00:42:00
level nature that that we discussed as part of the application to. 00:42:06
Kind of take in that. 00:42:13
Typographic change on the site. 00:42:14
All right, continue on the Urban Forest as as part of every site development plan. 00:42:21
Urban forest is is required. 00:42:27
In order to meet the guidelines and keep green areas inside of the City of Watkinsville. So specifically when we tear down trees, 00:42:30
we want to plant new trees basically, and we don't want a asphalt parking lot for the City of Watkinsville. 00:42:36
So under, under with with the trees that you currently have in the bushes there you do meet the current site density plan. 00:42:43
However, there are some specific recommendations. 00:42:51
That we have one is perimeter print. 00:42:57
Planting that, you'll have to you'll have to do in order to. 00:43:00
Be approved. 00:43:04
And that's along the Southeastern. 00:43:05
Side as mentioned as well, I I believe Toby has gotten with y'all about about these plans so this shouldn't be a surprise. 00:43:08
So that's one of them. We do recommend on the. 00:43:17
More northern side a tree, A couple of extra trees. 00:43:21
In the. 00:43:25
Let's see in the shared driveway adjacent to the property. 00:43:27
I'm sorry, let's see, where is it in the island closest to the crosswalk? I think that's also been shared. We all. 00:43:31
That and then just a recommendation. Not a requirement, but a recommendation. 00:43:37
Is some smaller garden areas, you know, some more green space. 00:43:42
Trying to trying to keep some additional green on the property. So those those are the three the committee did meet. 00:43:47
And and we do recommend approval to the board with with those conditions. 00:43:54
Thank you, Councilman Thomas. 00:43:59
Manager Dickerson, do you have anything further? 00:44:02
So on the wastewater, everyone may recall that city does not own or operate the wastewater system. The county does. 00:44:04
We amended that agreement with the county a few years back and they allocated us before the expansion of the facility. We've got 00:44:11
100,000 gallons that we can use and that's what we're working on right now. 00:44:16
When the expansion takes place, hopefully the end of this year, the city will see another 100,000 gallons. In the meantime, we are 00:44:22
down to our last three or 4000 gallons. The. 00:44:28
Fellowship of the Athena. I'm sorry, the Ashford Memorial Church thought that they were going to need estimated about 3600 gallons 00:44:34
a day. 00:44:38
We submit our processes to submit to the county because they do own and operate the facility and they have to review the requests 00:44:42
based on their policy. They came back and said that the church only needs 500 gallons per day. 00:44:48
So that's good. That means we won't go into the negative. We'll still have a few 1000 gallons left. 00:44:54
And so I've got a note off to the side. What's showing up there? You won't be able to see it 'cause I didn't change it yet. We'll 00:44:59
wait till the approval. If there's approval, we'll wait to update that. 00:45:04
But we are just so councils aware we are down to our last couple 1000 gallons of. 00:45:09
Of wastewater. Not all of it is currently being activated, but it has been encumbered under your approval with projects that are 00:45:14
either in. 00:45:18
You know under construction are about to be under construction. 00:45:22
All right, with that, we will invite the applicant to come forward and address Council. 00:45:29
My name is Patrick Lucas, address is 1185 Porter Creek Dr. Watkinsville. 00:45:44
Thank you for letting me speak with you tonight, Mayor and City Council members, on behalf of Asheville Memorial Methodist Church. 00:45:50
And thanks for the introduction of the project, that saved me a lot of a lot of description. 00:45:57
I'm currently serving as Co chair of this building project committee along with Chris Say and before that I was President of the 00:46:03
Board of Directors. 00:46:06
And I just want to kind of just give you a little bit of background of what we're proposing to build and why we're proposing it 00:46:10
and what our need is. 00:46:13
And then I'm going to turn the mic over to the architects who can really give me any answers to your questions. So thank you for 00:46:17
them being here. 00:46:21
So most of you are familiar with our church is the the white wooden church in downtown Watkinsville. 00:46:25
And this church was built in 1893. And just this week I saw. 00:46:30
A picture in our historical book called Beacon on the Hill of Watkinsville. 00:46:35
That side of downtown in 1896 and it was a pasture. 00:46:40
With Ashford Manor in Ashford Church, that was it. 00:46:43
And so I mentioned that picture just to point out that. 00:46:46
Church has always and still has a very, very. 00:46:50
Strong sense of stewardship about a historical building in Watkinsville. Everything we do. 00:46:54
Goes through a great deal of deliberation, discussion. 00:47:01
We recoded the silver roof when it was showing rust. We have recently repainted the church. 00:47:04
We have built an 88 accessible exit on the back that you can't tell is not part of the original structure. 00:47:09
And the project we want to propose here today carries that same theme. 00:47:16
Of being a quality building, historically appropriate and in a showpiece to downtown Watkinsville, to be an asset rather than a 00:47:21
detractor. 00:47:26
Just to tell you where we are now, we've been blessed for over a century. 00:47:31
As a church and we've been especially blessed over the past several years. 00:47:36
With our. 00:47:40
Recent pastor Robert Green and just really healthy growth in our church. 00:47:41
Our membership. 00:47:47
Has significantly increased. 00:47:48
Over the past five years. 00:47:51
And even before we had this increase in membership, we were already out. 00:47:53
Sized for our facilities. 00:47:58
So just to give you an idea of what we currently use for our fellowship hall. 00:47:59
If you're familiar with the church in the 1930s, they realize they needed a fellowship hall. 00:48:03
So the men of the church got underneath the church with buckets and then mules and scrapes and dugout a fellowship hall underneath 00:48:08
the church. 00:48:12
And that's what still serves at our fellowship hall today. And that's around 1500 square feet. 00:48:16
Is what it's our current fellowship space, so. 00:48:25
So what are we proposing to build? We're proposing to build. 00:48:28
Approximately 1200 three 154 square feet, two-story building that you would enter on ground level from the front. 00:48:31
The property slopes you would enter from the lower level in the back. 00:48:38
The top level would contain a large fellowship hall, which we greatly need, a boardroom, a larger kitchen, which we greatly need. 00:48:41
The bottom floor would contain. 00:48:48
Classrooms for Sunday school and emissions space, so those are all greatly needed spaces. 00:48:51
And so. 00:48:58
That is what we're proposing. 00:49:00
And I hope you can see from the designs that we're really trying to keep it historically accurate and appropriate for the church. 00:49:02
And I hope I can express to you the the need we have for this project. 00:49:08
And also being very conscious of the green space and the landscaping. 00:49:12
We're using a local architect farm, we're using a local builder and we're using a local bank. So we think all those things are 00:49:17
important to the economic help of the community. 00:49:21
I'm happy to answer any general questions you have, but if you have specific questions about our plans, I'm going to turn those 00:49:26
questions over. 00:49:30
To Arm and Trout, Methane and Thurman here with us tonight. 00:49:34
Why don't we have? 00:49:38
The representatives from Arm and Trout come forward and then Patrick, Doctor Lucas, if you could remain up there, then we can 00:49:39
address questions to both. 00:49:43
Good evening. I'm Brett Thurman with a armored thing. Thurman. 00:49:51
I always like to address myself as I'm just an engineer over there. 00:49:54
So we've been working with the church for a long time on this. 00:49:59
We believe we have a really tremendously. 00:50:02
Great plan that fits into the site. 00:50:04
And I don't want to believe our belabor. 00:50:07
A lot of the stuff I just want to address a couple of issues. 00:50:09
With regards to the comments that have. 00:50:12
Have staff and others have. 00:50:15
And council members have. 00:50:18
Discuss. 00:50:20
Currently SO. 00:50:22
With regards to the. 00:50:24
Wastewater capacity allocation. 00:50:27
We do an evaluation a certain way. It deals with essentially peak demand. 00:50:30
And the county looks at it from the standpoint of what have they seen historically. And so that's why the distant the. 00:50:36
The amount of value. 00:50:42
Between those, between what we said and what they say we really need. 00:50:43
Is so far apart. 00:50:47
Frankly, I would probably believe we are closer to in the 7:50. 00:50:49
To 1000 range but I don't know for sure but. 00:50:53
But we we drove our. 00:50:55
Calculation based on the peak demand that would be required by the fixtures at all times. 00:50:57
OK. So that's why that drove that number way up? 00:51:02
With the. 00:51:05
With the urban forest plan, we we had received and had been working with Toby and had some conversations about that. 00:51:10
We have put together a. 00:51:16
Plan that puts. 00:51:19
In place the perimeter plantings that you were looking for and I've got copies of what we did here, but I put this on a sheet. So 00:51:22
this is the site plan. 00:51:26
And we have in color all the. 00:51:31
Trees where we put in because it. 00:51:34
It's hard to read these plans and know. 00:51:35
You know what's what? So I tried to put it up in green and we'll share those with you or leave those so you can look at them 00:51:38
tonight. Could you just start that around? Yeah. 00:51:41
OK. 00:51:47
So there are two plans, one is the one is the perimeter planting plan. You can see we've done. 00:51:49
I think a great job of putting a number of trees back on the side as well as some shrubs. 00:51:55
I then I also put together a. 00:52:02
Another plan. 00:52:05
Which shows we had a rendering of the building which is shown in black and white on the picture here. 00:52:07
But I took the date, the information from the plan and put it in perspective. 00:52:13
In front of the building. 00:52:19
So so in this this thing I think to. 00:52:20
The two things I want to emphasize are that. 00:52:25
The 3D perspective that we have up at the top shows how we're laying the bank back. Everybody knows Hardin Hills got this really 00:52:28
steep bank. We're laying that back. 00:52:32
To soften that edge. 00:52:37
Along the along the road. 00:52:39
And on top of that then? 00:52:41
I've got the lower. 00:52:43
Drawing are the lower view, there is the exterior elevation on the Northside which is the hardened hillside. 00:52:45
And that shows you the trees. 00:52:52
And the. 00:52:54
And the shrubs that we're putting in. 00:52:55
To to soften that whole look along Harden Hill. And I think we, I think we've done a great job there. But you can tell me 00:52:58
otherwise if you so desire so. 00:53:03
And then I don't think I have anything else to say on the site plan other than we would agree with anything that Mark's asking us 00:53:09
to do. We are, we're more than happy to. 00:53:14
To comply. 00:53:18
All right. We've heard from Mr. Thurmond, Doctor Lucas. We have applicants. Have anybody else who want to speak? 00:53:22
We're grateful for y'all bringing so many people. Mr. Thurman, if you want to stay up here in case we have technical questions, 00:53:29
that'd be great. I'm sure we'll have some. This is. 00:53:32
This is a. 00:53:37
Really great, really attractive project for downtown Watkinsville, but. 00:53:38
Sometimes the. 00:53:42
The more details you bring, the more questions we have, so I'll let Council offer their questions. 00:53:44
OK, I think I'm asking the obvious, but this is a completely separate building from the church with the parking lot in between. 00:53:50
Yes. OK, yes. 00:53:54
And it is very beautiful. And your church is. 00:53:59
Very beautiful, so thank you for honoring. 00:54:03
That architecture. 00:54:06
That credit goes to the church. 00:54:09
For making sure we did that. 00:54:11
Other questions or comments? 00:54:14
What was the square foot? 00:54:16
Square footage of building. 00:54:18
12,000. 00:54:20
Let's both doors combine. 00:54:23
Yeah. 00:54:27
Mayor, I actually want to mention something I believe Julie and they may know to the church their garbage is picked up I think in 00:54:37
the roll carts right part of our downtown. So what? What we Yeah. 00:54:43
What we typically do is if there's additional, so because the way the city handles the garbage, if there's over what we normally 00:54:49
would provide, which probably is I don't we need to look into it. We may ask you to actually provide, you know, have an extra, you 00:54:54
know, have the additional service paid for. 00:55:00
Through the through our contractor, so we had something with one of the businesses downtown had an exorbitant amount of waste. 00:55:06
On a regular basis because of what they do and I think we had to roll carts or something assigned to them and we told them they 00:55:13
had to take they would have to go and provide the additional. So we can talk about that. I don't think it's anything it's gonna 00:55:18
break the the bank or anything tonight, but we just need to talk about process for that. So my so my wife always tells me I always 00:55:23
forget something and I did, which is to talk about the trash. OK, so but real quick though, we are you going to continue to use 00:55:28
roll carts? 00:55:33
They keep a number of them behind the church right now for the churches, for the church. 00:55:38
Use and then we'll add some. 00:55:43
At the back of the property on the, on the on the. 00:55:46
Western end down low. 00:55:49
We've got an area that has HVAC equipment in it and we built a little wall around that to shield that. 00:55:51
From the people who are on that drive. 00:55:57
You won't see it from the road. 00:55:59
And then we're going to have some roll carts in front of app so they'll be able to to exit the bottom floor and and fill up the 00:56:00
roll carts and bring them out for when collection day is. 00:56:05
While we wait. 00:56:16
In case Council has other questions I just I really want to offer. 00:56:17
Compliments. I think it's. 00:56:20
It's, you know, I never would have imagined somebody would come up with a fellowship hall is, you know that. 00:56:22
That could really honor your existing structure in such a great way. So my compliments to everybody at the church who's. 00:56:27
I'm sure this has been a long time coming. Things like this don't have but. 00:56:33
It is really. 00:56:36
I think it's going to be a wonderful addition to downtown Watkinsville, and it warms my heart that. 00:56:38
The church is in a position and has such membership that it needs this can can afford to do it so. 00:56:42
I hope we can help you move this forward quickly and get it done. 00:56:48
My only question would be, are there power lines on that side of the road and will you? 00:56:51
Keep those. Will you relocate them? Are they on the other side? 00:56:55
Can't remember Chase. Chase Dash is a civil engineer and he's going to know the particular to that. 00:56:58
I'm Chase, that should be my address. 00:57:05
Sure, we get 545 Caldwell Circle. There are power lines that used to serve the old houses that were there previously. 00:57:07
So we plan to keep the power line and do a new transformer. 00:57:15
By the. 00:57:19
I guess would be the southwest corner of the building. 00:57:21
So will you still have the lines? One of the things that's always frustrating to me about the church is how beautiful the church 00:57:23
is. And when you paint it, you don't have to have power lines in it. But when you take pictures, you're stuck with them. Are you 00:57:28
guys going to have lines in front of this beautiful building or y'all going to bury them as part of the So the public lines will 00:57:32
have to remain with a long hardened hill. There's a couple old service lines that run across the parcel that'll that'll be 00:57:37
abandoned, taken down all right. 00:57:42
Thank you. 00:57:47
Do you have any members with Georgia Power? 00:57:49
Maybe talk to Nathan Bartlett about that. Sure, sure. Would be nice if they could be. If they could be underground for a little 00:57:52
stretch there, this building could really shine without that interruption. 00:57:57
Any other questions? 00:58:02
Jeff, I see you pouring over it. Are you good? 00:58:04
I'm good. I'm impressed. 00:58:07
I'm looking forward to seeing it. 00:58:09
What's the timeline the proposed timeline to get this built? 00:58:13
Well, we're anxious to get approved and move, move forward. We've just I think that the. 00:58:16
The budgeting all been completed. 00:58:22
And the. 00:58:24
The raising the money has been completed and so they're trying to move forward as quickly as possible so we won't break ground as 00:58:26
soon as we can get a permit. So it's. 00:58:31
It's a minute. 00:58:36
Any other questions? 00:58:40
Does this require a public? 00:58:42
Hearing uh. 00:58:44
Of any sort. 00:58:45
All right, anybody from the public have a thought on this? 00:58:46
Yes, Sir. 00:58:52
Dan Richards, Inquiring minds, I heard. 00:58:59
Maybe you say underground storm water retention. 00:59:03
Yes, Sir. 00:59:07
What's the maintenance plan for that? 00:59:08
You'll have one, I guess is better. It's a proprietary system. It's it's a storm tech system. It's the most common underground 00:59:12
storm water management facility that that has regular inspection and maintenance intervals. It's it's privately owned, it's 00:59:18
privately maintained. The city is just responsible for adding that into their queue, for lack of a better term for for inspection 00:59:23
and if maintenance is required in the property owners notified. 00:59:29
Yeah, good luck. 00:59:35
We had a kitchen question earlier and then you, I think you referenced there's a kitchen in this. 00:59:37
We have a grease trap in the building as well. 00:59:42
For set kitchen? Or is that a nominal kitchen? 00:59:46
It's basically a. 00:59:49
Yeah, so the kitchen is basically a prep kitchen with warmers. 00:59:51
I mean, you know how. 00:59:57
Churches operate mostly covered dish suppers, right? So we do not have any plans for major food preparation. So we're designing 00:59:58
our kitchen to be. 01:00:02
Basically more of a prep kitchen. 01:00:07
Thank you. 01:00:12
All right. With that, I'll entertain a motion. 01:00:15
I make a motion to approve. 01:00:19
Do we have a second? 01:00:21
Second, all right. 01:00:22
Jeff wins that one. Any discussion? 01:00:24
All right, all in favor, say aye, aye. 01:00:27
Any opposed? 01:00:30
All right, Ashford. 01:00:31
And what do they need to do next? Is this, are they back before us or is that a? 01:00:33
And it'll it'll be administrative side. Yep. OK, so y'all are. 01:00:36
Cleared, cleared to go. 01:00:40
Yep, Yep. Well, we're not going to be long from here on out, so if you do want to stay, you're welcome to. We have one other item. 01:00:45
An appearance, and that is umm. 01:00:52
Athens GA rentals with a demolition permit Engineer Campbell. If you could offer your report. 01:00:55
Thank you, Mayor. 01:01:00
So again, the address is 51 Thrasher Drive. This is a demolition permit. 01:01:01
The area of the parcel, it's a little less than half of an acre and then the the zoning of the parcel is detached residential. So 01:01:07
the proposed request. 01:01:11
Is a dimension of existing residents and an accessory structure there. So to give you an idea of where it's located along Thrasher 01:01:16
Drive, I would say that's. 01:01:20
Closer to the rocket field end of Thrasher Drive, maybe, then to the North Main Street into Thrasher Drive, first lot after the 01:01:26
con bluff on the left. 01:01:30
Thank you and. 01:01:34
And so again, here's some pictures of the property. It looks like it's recently been surveyed or stayed there because you can see 01:01:36
some pink flagging the existing. 01:01:40
Structure of the accessory structure is actually the closest structure in that picture you can. There's another picture, it gives 01:01:45
a little bit better of idea of what that looks like from Thrasher Drive. 01:01:49
You can go to the next slide. Thank you. And then the. 01:01:56
The applicants indicated who the contractor would be for performing that demolition. 01:01:59
The tax assessors indicated that some. 01:02:05
Ages on some of that. 01:02:07
Structures that are. 01:02:09
Constructed there. I don't have any verification on that. Again, it's just a point of reference. 01:02:10
And the other thing is applicant must provide documentation regarding mitigation for asbestos or lead paint just based on the age 01:02:13
of those structures prior to removal demolition. That's a standard requirement from a demolition permit standpoint. 01:02:20
And even though it's not. 01:02:28
Disturbing an acre because it can't, because it's, you know. 01:02:30
You still need to make sure you do best management practices with. Last thing we want to see is. 01:02:33
A demolition that would include tracking mud onto Thrasher Drive or impacting other properties with sedimentation so best 01:02:37
management practice are still required as part of any demolition permit. 01:02:43
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. 01:02:50
Mr. Was like Mr. Burns? Yeah. Jason Burns. State your name and address and tell us a little bit more about your project. Yeah. 01:02:53
Jason Bernstein, 160 Temporary Rd. 01:02:57
What happens? 01:03:01
Just acquired this. 01:03:04
House really acquired a lot and there's this little shack on it and it might would win the award for the ugliest house in 01:03:06
Watkinsville, but. 01:03:10
Realize I need to. 01:03:16
Have the. 01:03:18
Asbestos check done prior to coming to this, but it's already in motion and within a few days I should have the results for that. 01:03:19
Through branch contracting and. 01:03:28
And then we could move forward to clear. Still not clear on plan. 01:03:31
Aloha. 01:03:36
OK. That's on the planning stages. 01:03:38
OK. Well, thank you. So we'll just condition this upon the asbestos? 01:03:41
Some sort of asbestos report being provided to the. That's correct. And again, the main reason for that is, is the last thing the 01:03:47
city wants is somebody not going through the process for that. With the age of a building, If the building was built in 1995, it 01:03:51
wouldn't have to go through that, right? But with the age of it, you don't want to get in a situation where you have a contractor 01:03:56
that's out there and encounters an unknown. 01:04:00
You know, recognize environmental. 01:04:05
A threat or assessment there. So you want to have that where you know you don't know if there is. 01:04:08
Asbestos containing materials or there is lead based paint. Then the demolition contractor will know how to handle that 01:04:13
accordingly. 01:04:16
OK, OK. 01:04:20
All right. 01:04:21
We've heard the report from the manager and the applicants details. Can I have a motion from council? 01:04:23
So when? When? Oh can I? Oh yeah. Question, certainly. 01:04:30
So when you acquired it, does anyone live on this property? Has it been lived in for? 01:04:33
The folks I bought it from, it had been his mom's house and she passed away a few years earlier. And. 01:04:38
They were just ready to sell it. 01:04:44
So it's just. 01:04:46
You would say it's not habitable. It's I mean, it's hard to tell from this. 01:04:48
It looks like some animals make up. That's one of the better pictures. 01:04:54
Whoever took that? 01:04:58
Good photographer. 01:05:00
Additional questions. 01:05:05
What are you going to build there? 01:05:07
So the question for those who couldn't do it was what are you going to build it sound like? Mr. Bernstein said he wasn't certain 01:05:11
what he was. I'm not positive. You know, it's we thought for a moment we might continue the. 01:05:16
Sort of attached residential thing, that pecan breath. 01:05:22
Has going on, but that doesn't. I don't know if I want to go through that effort. So really just to. 01:05:27
It's an interesting location because. 01:05:33
You know you'd like to put. 01:05:35
You've got some rentals close by, so you're a little limited on. 01:05:37
What I think you could get away with, but I'm hoping a nice little charming cottage, you know, to kind of fit in with the 01:05:42
neighborhood and. 01:05:45
For a young family. 01:05:50
Well, we're about to have the Mulberry connector, so they'll be able to walk to the new park. So that's going to, that's one of 01:05:51
the pluses that's going to, I think about it for my wife and I for future use, but. 01:05:56
Right, OK. 01:06:01
Other questions? 01:06:04
OK, hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. 01:06:06
I'll make a motion to approve the demolition permit. 01:06:11
For fashion drop 51,000. 01:06:16
We have a second. 01:06:19
2nd. 01:06:20
Any discussion? 01:06:21
All in favor say aye. Any opposed? 01:06:23
Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Bernstein. Yes, Sir, Thank you much. 01:06:25
OK. We have no old business under new business. We do have the item that we added, that's item 21. 01:06:29
Request for Appropriation of $19,999 from Splash 3. 01:06:35
For stormwater culverts and the White St. subdivision. 01:06:41
Manager Dickerson, if you want to offer a report. 01:06:44
One of the. 01:06:47
Projects on SPLOST is stormwater improvements throughout the community and we have one of the oldest, perhaps the oldest 01:06:49
subdivision in the city, White St. subdivision. I believe it. I don't probably have all the streets, but I know Bunny hop. Oh 01:06:54
yeah, I do White Street Ext White St. Bunny Hop, White Lane and and part of Thrasher from North Main to White. Those are areas 01:07:00
that had culverts and over the years. 01:07:06
Have filled in with silt or you know, whatever and. 01:07:12
In order to allow the water to flow without having issues for the people who live there or having issues that hitting the road, we 01:07:16
are recommending that we go in and actually. 01:07:21
Dig out those culverts. Reestablish the culverts so the water could flow properly through. 01:07:26
We've got a couple estimates and so that's why I put that amount will be underneath that amount, but we're asking that you go 01:07:31
ahead and appropriate those funds. 01:07:34
We do have and this is really tiny, I'm sorry but. 01:07:38
The stormwater improvement. 01:07:42
Project that's been listed on this is just an excerpt from yours from spouse three or projects list. 01:07:45
There was 361,000 budgeted for it. We have spent money to. 01:07:50
Do the Water St. drainage pipe upgrade as well as some work on Jackson Street and this would be another project like I said. 01:07:55
For up to $19,999 and hopefully we could get that underway within the next few weeks if it's approved. 01:08:02
All right, we've heard the report from the manager. Any questions from council? 01:08:09
All right, hearing none, I will entertain a motion. 01:08:16
So Kathleen's question for those who are there is what culverts? I think it's basically is it all the culverts on those roads or 01:08:22
all of them who need work on those? Yeah. So basically most people have pipes underneath their driveways and those between each 01:08:27
driveway it's filled in. So they're not really culvert. I mean we're trying to reestablish culverts there were that were there. So 01:08:32
the water that goes underneath their driveways can actually. 01:08:37
So the pipes are basically full, the ditches are filled in over the what, 50 years since white Subdivision. So, and we'll probably 01:08:43
be doing more of this, yes, throughout the city on a more regular basis in the years ahead. Yeah, our public works crew has gone 01:08:48
out and evaluated all the culverts within the city limits. 01:08:53
And we have a prioritization schedule and this is the one at the very top of the list. But this, this is not going to include. 01:08:59
Taking out driveways and doing it's just on either side of absolutely. 01:09:06
And clearing out the pipes underneath perhaps so which you know, this is when in a large storm event, this is what creates some of 01:09:10
the challenges when it doesn't run down there, runs over the driveway, runs down the road, you know, doesn't system doesn't work 01:09:14
as it's supposed to. 01:09:18
Come up, welcome to come forward. 01:09:22
You don't mind? Go to the mic please. Thank you. 01:09:24
You don't want me to have to repeat everything that you say. 01:09:27
No, it isn't. This is the second section. 01:09:35
Kathleen. 01:09:38
And it shows Rd. So I own property at the corner of White Lane. Are we on the property at corner of? 01:09:40
White Lane and White St. 01:09:46
And there's a ditch that runs along the front of my house. 01:09:48
And it's filled in over the years. It's. 01:09:51
Sort of near the top of the hill. Will that include? 01:09:55
Deepening that ditch so that water doesn't overflow into my onto my property. 01:09:59
Tell me again where it is on White Lane at the corner of. 01:10:05
White Lane and White St. 01:10:08
On the north corner, yeah. So it's in the area. I'd have to look at the map and we can go back and look. I mean, we'll certainly 01:10:11
address if there's some issues there. We'll try to address at the same time we're doing the other work. 01:10:16
Just to be clear, digging out ditches as part of the work where it's necessary, that's literally what the work is. So it's not 01:10:23
just a culverts, it's any other kind of storm water management. 01:10:29
Within, right. Yeah. I mean within reason, yeah, Yeah. 01:10:35
I gotta be careful 'cause I don't know outside. 01:10:38
I don't know $19,000 to take care of all those. But but yeah, the intent is to is to basically start with that subdivision because 01:10:41
it is older and it's got some issues and try to address it and then move to the next one on the list, sort of like we do with our 01:10:47
roads. You know, we have a priority list and we're trying to work through it. So OK, absolutely. Thank you. 01:10:53
Thank you. Good questions. For our younger guests, if you can't have it pictured yet, what storm water is? That's when it rains 01:10:59
and we get a heavy rain and it all comes down. 01:11:03
And you don't really think about it, but where does all the water go? And what it does is if the water doesn't go into the ditches 01:11:07
and the pipes where it's supposed to, it creates real problems. It can create ponds and flooding and roads and other things like 01:11:11
that, so. 01:11:14
This is what I was telling the scouts before the meeting. There's some really boring stuff that. 01:11:18
We just sort of have to take care of and this is one of those things that that if you don't, you end up having really expensive 01:11:22
problems down the road. 01:11:25
All right, so we've heard the report. We've heard from the public. 01:11:28
I think we still need a motion on this, correct? 01:11:33
I make a motion to approve. All right. Do we have a second? 01:11:35
I'll second before Jeff. 01:11:39
All right, Brett, is the second any further discussion? 01:11:40
Hearing none, all in favor say aye aye. Any opposed? 01:11:44
All right, that's the end of new business. Next up is public comments. This is the opportunity for the public to come forward and 01:11:48
speak to council about any item they want. 4 minutes that the most speak from the podium. 01:11:53
If anybody has anything they want to say, now is the time. 01:12:00
Kathleen gets 2 minutes and 30 seconds. She comes back. 01:12:05
All right. Looks like no one has public comments tonight. We'll move quickly to the mayor's report. 01:12:09
Scouts were getting to the end here. We had our council retreat on. 01:12:15
February 25th. 01:12:19
Grateful for all of you for the active participation in that council determined what its priorities are for the. 01:12:21
Years ahead and staff is building a budget based on those priorities. 01:12:26
We also got an update on and we're educated about how hearing loops work and you see the signs here and I've got a clear 01:12:31
understanding of that. We're grateful for that presentation. 01:12:35
Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem Tucker for representing us at the Oconee County 50th Birthday Bash. That was a. 01:12:40
Wildly successful event at the William Daniel House. 01:12:46
We're still accepting applications for our public Art committee. 01:12:51
Through March 31st. Please contact Robin Tardy at City Hall for a copy of that. 01:12:54
We're also accepting applications for Friends of Thomas Farm Preserve. That's a group that will help us. 01:12:59
Take care of that park scouts again. That's the same pond that I showed y'all the old picture of. 01:13:04
In the room, that's what it looks like now, the wonderful space that continues to get a lot of great use. 01:13:08
Work is underway at the Giordani Green. We're upgrading the electrical and the water on that side of the Creek. 01:13:14
And we're waiting on our permit from the Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission. We anticipate that. 01:13:21
This month so we can move forward with the landscaping work in earnest. 01:13:26
Thomas Farm Preserve phase one improvements continue. The pavilion is done. 01:13:30
The restroom construction is underway. Septic tank work is underway. 01:13:35
We'll get a new roof. Parking lots have been improved and striped. 01:13:38
So work will continue using the funds we appropriated last month. 01:13:43
We. 01:13:48
Released the RFP's for phase two and phase three and had contractor meetings last week. 01:13:49
For phase two and phase three of the Simonton Bridge connector, we discussed that earlier, but that is the 8 to 10 foot path that 01:13:54
will connect. 01:13:57
Thomas Farm Preserve to downtown. We hope to have that done by the end of the year. 01:14:01
And Mulberry Street was paved in the past month. If you haven't been down there, that looks really great, and I think the 01:14:07
residents are. 01:14:10
Really pleased with how that's turned out. 01:14:13
Council reports Councilman Garrett. 01:14:16
Nothing really to report on, just a comment on Water St. I've had some people asking. 01:14:22
When Umm. 01:14:28
That was going to be cleaned up a little bit more. 01:14:29
I know we've inquired about that. That said, Waters walk and. 01:14:32
Kind of the messy messiness in the red there. I know they're putting in the curb and gutter and sidewalks now. Yeah. I mean, you 01:14:36
know, while it's under construction and they've got big heavy equipment there, you know, there's no, no sense in doing all that. I 01:14:40
mean, it will be part of the project. They have to, you know, they do. We did take. 01:14:45
Pictures and whatnot, and you know they'll have to return everything. 01:14:50
To its original. 01:14:54
You know, order, I think they said they were going to open in October. I think August or October is what I think it was. So still 01:14:55
got a few more months to. 01:15:00
To get going, but. 01:15:04
Yeah, I mean. 01:15:06
It's our instruction site. I agree other than Latco. 01:15:08
Mr. Campbell said earlier about housekeeping. 01:15:13
On the other street, you know, tracking mud out in the road and stuff. I mean, it's been. 01:15:17
Pretty pretty rough RAM through there. 01:15:22
Compared to what it should be. 01:15:25
We did talk to them about Durham St. 01:15:27
I know we reached out to him last month, I think, and they said that they're going to probably take care of the parking lot area, 01:15:31
that their wall is disrupted. 01:15:34
And I think we talked to him about the mud, tracking the mud in and out of the road there too and made them aware they need to do 01:15:38
a better job there based on feedback from those tenants. But. 01:15:42
We certainly follow follow up and remind them. 01:15:46
I'll do. 01:15:49
Yep, OK. 01:15:53
Councilwoman Massey. 01:15:55
Have nothing to report, OK. 01:15:56
Councilman Thomas, just happy to be here, all right? 01:15:59
Mayor Pro Tem. 01:16:02
I just want to again. 01:16:05
Mentioned the art committee that the mayor's mentioned twice and. 01:16:08
It is also, it's not just for artists. We actually want just normal citizens to apply to this. So I just want that to be clear. We 01:16:11
love our artists, but we also think that where our ports are, what they look like, just different things that we want just regular 01:16:17
old folks. 01:16:22
To have input in that. So don't think Oh my gosh, I'm not an artist, I can't apply. Please apply. 01:16:28
All right, Councilman Campbell. 01:16:34
Nothing to report. 01:16:36
OK. We will take a 5 minute recess and then we'll move into executive session. Do we need to go ahead and make that motion now? 01:16:37
Discretion. 01:16:45
Let's make a motion Move to executive session to discuss potential acquisition of real estate. I make a motion to move to 01:16:47
executive session to discuss potential acquisition of real estate. 01:16:52
Do we have a 2nd, 2nd? 01:16:57
All in favor, say aye. All right, All right. Will be returned at 7:51. 01:16:59
You can go Mark. 01:17:05
Are we ready? 01:17:07
Can I make a motion to adjourn? 01:17:09
And there's one person. All right, I make a motion to adjourn. 01:17:12
Second, all in favor say aye aye. 01:17:15
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Transcript

Event transcript
Good evening everybody. Welcome to the March. 00:00:07
Watkinsville City Council meeting It's great to see a packed house here tonight. 00:00:09
And it's great to have a full council with us tonight. We do have some special guests from scouts here with us tonight. 00:00:14
And I'm going to ask them to stand and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Sam Seward, if you want to come. 00:00:20
Up here to the microphone. 00:00:25
Please, Sir. 00:00:26
Everyone, please place your hands over your heart and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. 00:00:35
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. 00:00:40
And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:45
Thank you, Sam. We're grateful to have the young men from Troop 7 here with us tonight. I have a special affinity for that troop. 00:01:01
That's where my son. 00:01:05
Got his eagle and and has a long and proud legacy. 00:01:09
Doctor Spikel and Mr. Seward, thank you guys as well for your leadership in the troop. It's great to have you here. 00:01:15
The city has a hearing loop system in the council chamber that's a wireless network for those with hearing aids. 00:01:20
Signals can be picked up by most of those hearing aids. The city also has loop receivers for those who still have some difficulty 00:01:26
hearing. 00:01:28
Anybody with questions can contact the ADA coordinator. 00:01:32
That's our city manager raising her hand over there. Sharon Dickerson. 00:01:35
And we will make reasonable accommodations. 00:01:38
This meeting is also being broadcast online. 00:01:40
Via the City Council information meeting information page on the city website, this also provides closed captioning. 00:01:43
To get that, click the CC icon in the lower right corner. When the video is posted, CC will automatically appear. 00:01:49
A transcript of the meeting is under the Transcript tab. 00:01:55
The current month's agenda is posted a week before the meeting to allow time to provide comments in writing to the clerk. 00:01:58
With that, we'll move on to the approval of the minutes. 00:02:03
We have the February 19th, 2025 regular meeting. 00:02:06
Council entertain, discussion or motion on those minutes, please. 00:02:10
I make a motion to approve. Do we have a second? Second. Any discussion? 00:02:14
Hearing none all in favor say aye, Any opposed? 00:02:18
All right, motion carries unanimously. 00:02:22
Next we'll look at the February 25th, 2025 retreat summary. I'll entertain a motion to discuss or approve. 00:02:24
Make a motion to approve. 00:02:33
Do we have a second? 00:02:35
A second all in favor say aye, aye aye. 00:02:36
Any opposed? 00:02:39
Motion carries unanimously. 00:02:41
We'll move to the approval of the agenda. I would request that we amend the agenda to add new business item number 21. That's a 00:02:43
request for appropriation. 00:02:47
Of up to $19,999 from spouse. 3 Rd. Streets and bridges. 00:02:52
To reestablish stormwater culverts in the White St. subdivision. 00:02:56
That will become item 21 Council if you're willing to add that item. 00:03:00
I I would entertain a motion there, or if you want to remove anything from consent, please indicate that now. 00:03:07
I make a motion to approve the agenda with added item 21. 00:03:14
We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? Second. Any discussion? 00:03:19
Hearing none, all in favor say aye aye. 00:03:23
Motion carries unanimously. 00:03:25
We'll move on to administration. We do have a little less formal public input process here. The Watkinsville City Council, members 00:03:27
of the public wishing to. 00:03:31
Address the mayor and council can do so at noted times on the agenda. 00:03:35
Or on request or at the discretion of the Council, comments shall be directly related to agenda items. 00:03:39
Speak from the podium, 4 minutes per person. Refrain from debate argument. Personal attacks are irrelevant discussion. 00:03:44
Address only the merits of the pending matter and address remarks directly to Council. 00:03:50
Council won't speak to potential litigation, attorney-client or personnel matters. 00:03:53
In a less legal way of saying that if you have something you want to say, raise your hand and we'll decide if we want to let you 00:03:58
talk so. 00:04:00
We're, like I said, generally we're able to operate pretty informally here and try to do that most of the time. 00:04:04
All right, with that, we'll move on to financial reports. This is Manager Dickerson's happy place, so I'll let her talk about 00:04:10
them. 00:04:13
Thank you, Mayor. Everyone should have received the balance sheet for the for the general fund. If you have any questions, let me 00:04:17
know. Revenues and expenditures or? 00:04:21
You know, moving along, we'll know a little bit more maybe next month, but I think we're doing OK. 00:04:25
On Sposs 3. 00:04:31
You may recall this I. 00:04:33
This started in October 21. It'll end in September of 27. 00:04:35
It is 8.63% of all sales tax collected in the county. 00:04:40
We did last month adjust that second blue column. You see that is the adjustment based on the revenue projections that the county 00:04:45
feels are are they're confident in and so it's a little bit more than what we had. 00:04:51
When we had our meeting last month, what we anticipated, it's about a 27% increase over what we thought what we had budgeted, not 00:04:57
what we thought that what we had budgeted for. So that's a significant amount. 00:05:02
We are averaging about $84,000 a month in revenues. 00:05:07
And and we are you'll see here an average of about 6% over last year increase. We have a balance of just a little under $850,000. 00:05:12
And just as a reminder, these are some of the projects that have been. 00:05:22
Completed using these funds. 00:05:25
We have 4 different buckets if you will, for projects and some projects are currently ongoing like Harris Shoals Park, Thomas 00:05:27
Farm, Some others have been completed. 00:05:32
On T's plus, that is our transportation. 00:05:39
Special purpose local option sales tax. 00:05:42
So specific to transportation items, we actually have 3 buckets and we'll talk about some of those projects in a minute. But we at 00:05:44
this point, we're still project, we're budgeting our revenues at 85% of what we think we will, we will get. 00:05:50
Haven't made any adjustments on that. That just began in April of 23. 00:05:56
Younger of a project to not know you know where we're at long term. With that it does end in March of 28 and it is at 7.77% of all 00:05:59
sales tax collected. 00:06:05
We're averaging about 8%. 00:06:10
Increase over last year, which was our last full. 00:06:12
Calendar year. 00:06:16
We have a little bit less than $935,000 in that account. 00:06:17
And these are some of the projects. Traffic efficiency is the only thing we haven't identified you haven't appropriated money to 00:06:22
yet. 00:06:25
But those are the other projects, the Simonton Bridge Rd. project that is currently underway. 00:06:29
And then resurfacing roads, which is a big piece of. 00:06:33
Of teeth lost. 00:06:36
And then I promised Mayor, this is the last time you'll have to see this. We will clear this out. This was our American Rescue 00:06:39
Plan. 00:06:42
Report we do have to continue to report I guess indefinitely to the federal government for these funds but. 00:06:45
The the interest that we made last month didn't clear and so we're going to clear it this month and closeout you won't see this 00:06:53
again since last time I can say case of Rosser out of this. 00:06:58
It did. We did have a lot of really good projects though. 00:07:03
Essential pay for our employees after COVID retention bonuses for our police officers, which became increasingly hard to. 00:07:06
Bring on board. 00:07:13
Hardin Hill resurfacing project, acquisition of Thomas Farm, we used a little bit more than $700,000 for that. 00:07:15
And then our public safety improvements, training, education, so. 00:07:22
It's been a good run. I'm glad that we're done with that. 00:07:26
And just for context, we have a lot of, we have scouts here. This is an that's an example of your money going to Washington and 00:07:29
actually coming back to you. That doesn't happen that often. 00:07:32
But that money went up there and then during Kovat, that money came back to the city and we were able to use that for some 00:07:36
transformational projects. 00:07:39
Also want to remind everybody, we are currently in the budget process. We. 00:07:44
Cancelled the work session that was planned for tonight. That would have been just. 00:07:49
Evaluate or look over the prioritization of the Strategic initiatives Council made during their retreat. 00:07:53
On February 25th there was number. 00:07:58
Desire to do that, so we are moving forward. 00:08:01
We also the mayor and also did just a real quick review of the capital budget did not feel a need to meet to talk about that. 00:08:04
Everything is going to pretty much stay the same. Not not any major change from what we've given you in the past. So that would 00:08:09
have been tonight. Have we needed it. 00:08:13
Obviously tonight you will have. 00:08:19
To agencies, to independent agencies. The O County Fire Department and OCAF will be here to present their budget. Request will be 00:08:21
not well, there will not be a vote on it. It will simply be to introduce that and put it into the process. 00:08:28
And then our first public hearing will be April 16th. And that will simply, that will not be a matter that will not be an 00:08:35
opportunity for the public to respond anything that will be an opportunity for the public to say, hey, while you're building your 00:08:40
budget, this is what I'd like to see. Please make sure X is included. 00:08:45
ETC. And we'll we'll fold that into our. 00:08:50
Into our budget, the mayor and I'll be working on it most of April and and then get it out to council the end of April, 1st of May 00:08:53
for bigger discussions in May and June. 00:08:57
We just amplify that for a minute. Again, we have folks here aren't normally here. That's the best opportunity. 00:09:01
Don't wait until June, you know, to come in and say, I wish this was in the budget if there's something that you're passionate 00:09:06
about in Watkinsville or that you're interested in. 00:09:10
Seeing us consider as part of the budgeting process. 00:09:13
Come to that meeting or e-mail the manager. e-mail me. 00:09:15
We're all ears. If there's something that you see that you think could be improved or something we should look at, we want to hear 00:09:19
about that earlier in the budget process rather than later. 00:09:23
Thank you, Mayor. 00:09:28
On the economic development side, we we have. 00:09:29
Past our deadline, I believe March 15th was a deadline for all business licenses. So she had a flurry of them come in. That's why 00:09:33
I sort of gave you an excerpt. You can't see everything clearly on the screen, but. 00:09:38
A little bit more than $15,000 came in. Some of that was split between alcohol licenses and insurance payments and business 00:09:44
licenses. 00:09:47
And I think the second notices have gone out. 00:09:52
For those who have not made the deadline so. 00:09:54
On the excise tax, this is the alcohol and the short term vacation rental, hotel, motel tax we are tracking right on or just a 00:09:58
little ahead of where I thought we would be based on our budget. 00:10:03
And then on building permits, we had 20 permits for 19 projects, the majority of which are the townhomes at Wire Park. 00:10:09
Any questions? 00:10:17
OK. All right, Christine. 00:10:21
Are you delivering the update? Yes. 00:10:23
OK, so on Monday night we had a season premiere of. 00:10:25
The TV show Viewfinders. It's a PBS show and. 00:10:32
And it is excellent, so if you have not checked it out, I highly recommend it. 00:10:36
But Jan, our DVA director, put this on. Chris Greer is one of the creators of this show and his. 00:10:43
Gallery is in downtown Watkinsville, and it's just one more. 00:10:52
Example of the incredible creativity that we have in this community. 00:10:58
We are really proud. 00:11:03
To have him and about 50 to 60 people came chops and hops. 00:11:05
Provided some goodies I. 00:11:10
It was at publica roasting. If you don't know about that great coffee where you can. 00:11:12
Pick up coffee for your home or for your business. 00:11:19
And it was just a really wonderful community event. 00:11:22
We also. 00:11:27
Had. 00:11:29
Our board meeting was today. 00:11:33
Just kind of normal stuff, but we are continuing the strategic planning process. We have formed a subcommittee. 00:11:36
And within the next month or so are going to be meeting with different vendors. 00:11:43
To look at the strategic plan. 00:11:47
So again, for all of you who are downtown. 00:11:50
Business owners downtown engaged that's an opportunity for you to also be involved in that process I'm. 00:11:53
See folks from Ashford nodding over there. I know y'all are about to make a big investment so we welcome Elle's engagement in 00:11:58
that. 00:12:01
Process as well. And then for those of you who haven't visited, the public coffee space is really a great example of reusing an 00:12:04
old historic building. It's the elders old. 00:12:09
Blacksmith shop and workshop and it's, it's really lovely what they've done in there. So stop in. 00:12:14
Troy sits there with the door wide open a lot of times while he's roasting and he loves to have visitors, so stop in and see him. 00:12:20
Thank you, Christine, for all you're doing. 00:12:25
Chief Allwood. 00:12:28
All right. Thank you for having me. Yeah. 00:12:34
So we'll start off with completed and scheduled training. Sergeant Way completed all three levels of his manager training, which 00:12:36
was 120 hours worth. A great job to Sergeant Way for completing that. 00:12:41
We completed Taser training, also researched. 00:12:48
On our Tasers and we special thanks to Mary Broderick and Councilman Thomas for their participation. 00:12:52
We Officer Chris completed Alert Level 1 active shooter training. 00:13:00
You know, this is something that every officer should have every year to to go into schools or anywhere there's mass shootings or 00:13:05
active shooters. 00:13:09
They do tweak it a little bit each year, so we're going to continue that and every officer will be. 00:13:12
Very well versed in that. 00:13:18
We we attended myself, Sergeant Wade and Officer England attended Governor's Initiative training over at Oconee County. They 00:13:19
offered that out to us, so that was great. 00:13:24
And just a reminder, Georgia Chiefs Conference is next. 00:13:29
Month they will have. 00:13:32
The legal updates on the House bills and stuff, so I'll be able to provide some good information with that when we get back. 00:13:34
The training room is complete. 00:13:41
Next door, we turn that storage room into a training room. The patrol room is actually complete. 00:13:44
A lot of lot of hard work and extra. 00:13:50
Painting and sanding and fixing and putting some floors down and stuff. So I do appreciate everybody's hard work and teamwork on 00:13:52
that. 00:13:56
We we got some feedback on the connect and create program, went through and called several folks today. 00:14:00
Checked on our officers and see how we're doing and how we can provide a better service for the community. 00:14:07
A lot of good feedback. 00:14:12
We ordered the water rescue equipment for the Thomas Farm Safety Plan. 00:14:14
Starting to get some of that stuff in the. 00:14:18
The UTV has been outfitted. 00:14:21
That's currently likes about two more lights to be done and and it will be complete so. 00:14:24
Under Patrols Unit 101. 00:14:31
Oh come on. I hope Brett is coming after this. 00:14:34
This is the volunteer by the mayor. 00:14:39
Mute it. 00:14:44
He didn't say anything bad. 00:14:45
My wife is still mad at me about that so. 00:14:58
Yeah, yeah. 00:15:02
Tasers are very effective tool very and an American testify to this once it's done it's done there's no more pain, there's no more 00:15:04
issues am I correct Hopefully maybe a little soreness from muscle tents but. 00:15:11
Yeah. 00:15:24
We're going to show Brett's next month. 00:15:25
He handles a lot better than I did, I have to say. 00:15:28
We did supply the officers with new laptops. All those are arrived hooked up, installed, replacing the. 00:15:34
13 year old. 00:15:41
Laptops that were. 00:15:43
In the patrol vehicles. 00:15:44
I mentioned about the car yet so 101 has been sold. 00:15:47
According to Gov deals that has been paid for already so we can. 00:15:51
Move forward with that. 00:15:54
Community events I. 00:15:55
University of Georgia is having their law enforcement day. I think there's four of us going to attend that. We get to go out and 00:15:58
watch the. 00:16:02
Bulldogs practice and they give us a little meal and get to hear Kirby Smart do some. 00:16:05
Some nice influencing speeches and. 00:16:10
Learn from that. 00:16:13
I joined a couple couple local teams at Oconee County. The the. 00:16:15
Sexual assault response team And then I didn't put it on there because I just found out this week. 00:16:19
The Child Fatality Review Board. 00:16:24
I'm going to that tomorrow to to get to help out with that. 00:16:27
We have our Easter egg hunt. 00:16:31
On April 19th. 00:16:34
Y'all come out and. 00:16:36
Had a lot of good special prizes, Might even see the Easter Bunny out there. 00:16:38
So there's our stats pretty much in line with January, February, March. 00:16:43
Looks pretty good. The arrests are continuing. 00:16:49
You know, around four or five each month. All those are driving with suspended license. The top one did have. 00:16:53
Some marijuana on them I. 00:16:59
The continued stats. 00:17:02
Again, pretty much in line and that's that's. 00:17:04
You know what, what I want you guys to see is is. 00:17:07
Increases or decreases or consistency? 00:17:09
When we put these up there so you know where we're at. 00:17:12
That is the old patrol room and the new patrol room after we were done so. 00:17:16
What we did was we have 5 workstations, so every officer has their own workstation and can can kind of personalize it and feel 00:17:20
more comfortable and at home and. 00:17:24
Get their work done because they also investigate and their own cases when they work them right now so. 00:17:29
Not a large space, but it actually worked out perfect. I think it it it turned out really well. 00:17:36
And I do appreciate everybody that work. 00:17:41
The left picture is our training room, used to be a storage room. 00:17:44
I we we bought a building outside and moved a lot of stuff outside so we can have this training room for roll call meetings and 00:17:47
training. 00:17:51
The middle picture is the UTV we purchased for our Thomas Farm Safety Plan. 00:17:55
So we can have a quick response to get 100 acres. 00:18:00
I've walked it and it makes me tired just walking it so I know I couldn't run from one end to the other. 00:18:04
And then our lobby, we finally come up with a design. So hopefully we'll start, we'll start using that as walking reports and that 00:18:10
people need to come in and sit and talk to us or whatever. But. 00:18:15
We thought we would. We would put a label and a brand on it. So we put our badge and. 00:18:20
And all. And then. 00:18:25
The Polte group. 00:18:27
Was nice enough to give us our largest donation year to date for our badges and benevolence and. 00:18:29
Really helped us out. That's that helped us purchase. 00:18:36
Some of the equipment we we currently needed for the Thomas safety plan. 00:18:39
Very thankful for them. 00:18:43
We do have a new website and Facebook page out, so we're going to get that out to everybody hopefully, and so you guys can see 00:18:46
what all the badges and benevolence is all about. 00:18:50
It's a it's a nonprofit law enforcement foundation that. 00:18:54
You can actually get tax credit if you want to donate to it, and then we can turn around, use that money and buy equipment, things 00:18:58
that the taxpayers don't have to pay for. 00:19:02
All right. Any questions for Chief? Any questions? 00:19:11
Thanks for all you're doing. 00:19:16
Chief, we appreciate you. I appreciate it. 00:19:18
All right, the consent agenda, we'll move on to that at this point for those of you who aren't familiar consent agenda or items 00:19:20
that. 00:19:23
Are on the agenda, but we've reviewed and don't feel like we need to discuss, so I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent 00:19:26
agenda. 00:19:30
I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. 00:19:33
Do we have a second? 00:19:36
2nd, we have a motion. We have a second. 00:19:37
Any discussion, hearing none, all in favor say aye. 00:19:40
Aye, all right. 00:19:44
We'll move on to our first public hearing. 00:19:45
And I'll let the manager and. 00:19:48
Attorney Reitman. 00:19:52
Talk us through this one and then we'll take. 00:19:53
We'll have a public hearing on this. 00:19:55
Sure, I'll get started. So this is simply the reason. 00:19:57
A piece of property that the city purchased for the Simonton Bridge Rd. 00:20:01
Pedestrian connector. 00:20:05
It is a little less than an acre. It is situated. 00:20:07
To the West, roughly West of the cemetery that you see right there on the right and then obviously to the to the West of the 00:20:10
Thomas farm. 00:20:14
Preserve it is a it was an important piece of property. It's going to help us bridge literally that that Creek. 00:20:18
And that is part of the phase two we'll be talking about here shortly. I'll show you a little bit of the picture. Phase one has 00:20:26
already been let and should be underway into this month, 1st of next month. 00:20:31
Phase 2 will be from the end of the bridge towards Rocket Field and then phase three is the actual bridge, pedestrian bridge and 00:20:37
both of those projects the RFP was released. 00:20:42
I think it's been a couple weeks ago now. 00:20:47
Losing track of time, but. 00:20:49
Those both phase two and phase three proposals are due back April the 4th. 00:20:51
But we thought it was important to go ahead and try to keep our zoning correct. We don't want to, you know, ever become anything 00:20:56
other than Parks and Recreation. So we're asking that you vote to. 00:21:01
To change it to PRC. 00:21:08
Mr. Reitman, anything to add? 00:21:11
I don't think so. I mean this is non controversial. It's essentially a housekeeping matter to ensure it is zoned as it will be 00:21:13
used. 00:21:17
Essentially, I expect in perpetuity, Mr. Mayor, if we want to call the public hearing at this time and solicit input. OK, Sharon, 00:21:21
if you can slide back to the picture. 00:21:25
Yeah, that's fine. Yeah. So that's the parcel if you look at it for the members of the public. 00:21:32
You're looking at Simonton Bridge Rd. The. 00:21:37
If you go back one more sharing that the parcel surrounded by blue. 00:21:39
And if you go forward, one more. 00:21:43
You can see what our plans are hopefully by the end of the year to have a 10 foot wide, 8 to 10 foot wide pedestrian pathway. 00:21:45
That'll be the start of the sidewalk down Simonton Bridge Rd. 00:21:51
With that, I'll open the public hearing again. The rules are what I stated before 4 minutes if you want to come forward. 00:21:54
Express any concerns about this reason. 00:22:01
All right. I'm not seeing anyone come forward. 00:22:06
Comment received in advance. 00:22:08
All right, hearing none, I'll close the public hearing. 00:22:10
With that, we'll need to move to voting to actually make that rezone. So Council, I'll entertain a motion to to. 00:22:13
Approve that rezone. 00:22:21
I make a motion that we approve this rezone. Do we have a second? 00:22:23
2nd. 00:22:28
We have a motion, we have a second. Do we want to discuss that? 00:22:30
Doesn't look like it. All right, All in favor, say aye. 00:22:32
Any opposed? 00:22:35
Motion carries 5 O Thank you. We'll move on to our next public hearing. This is a text amendment. 00:22:37
To amend Article 13 of the zoning ordinance. This will allow special events in the downtown and mixed-use office zoning districts 00:22:43
as a conditional use. 00:22:47
And in the corridor commercial zone as a permitted use. 00:22:51
And some additional amendments related to that. 00:22:55
I'm going to let Manager Dickerson and Attorney Reitman explain that and then we'll move forward with, I think, 2 applicants in 00:22:57
separate, separate votes. 00:23:02
So technically this first one will. 00:23:07
Most likely take care of that because it's a, it would be a permitted use. So the applicant may want to come forward, but we're 00:23:10
going to present their piece on this one and then on the next one will present the conditional use. All right. 00:23:15
So in the code we had we had created. 00:23:20
About a year, maybe a little bit more than a year ago. A special event. 00:23:24
Facility. 00:23:27
Definition that was specific to residential. We didn't have anything for non residential, which was kind of odd, but. 00:23:28
So in this, what we're doing here is we're actually. 00:23:35
Distinguishing between residential and non residential. 00:23:39
So we, as you see, we've added special event, facility, residential and then we've created a definition for special event. 00:23:42
Facility non residential. 00:23:48
We do have, I don't have them up here, but we do have some criteria that have to be met. 00:23:51
For when you have a special event facility, residential. 00:23:55
And we have also created those similar standards, not the same because they're different since you're in a commercial area versus 00:23:58
a residential area. 00:24:02
For the non residential. 00:24:06
But we've walked through those. Those are for the most part, you know, I don't think they're. 00:24:08
Too restrictive, but they're restrictive and enough that they'll have to come for council for unless they're in. 00:24:13
Corridor commercial, they have to come for council for conditional use. As the mayor said. We do have an applicant here tonight 00:24:18
who is. 00:24:21
If this this should pass will be up to talk about what they would like to. 00:24:24
To do in the. 00:24:29
In their MUO zoning so. 00:24:30
Any questions about? 00:24:32
OK, right. And I believe. 00:24:35
Mrs. Sullivan and Mr. Hansford, your project would be allowed. 00:24:39
If we just pass this correct because they're in is quarter commercial, is that correct? Yeah. And if you, I don't know if you want 00:24:43
to speak to it at all to share what you're doing, you have to go to the Mike Force if you want to talk about it. Maybe if you guys 00:24:48
could just tell us a little bit about y'all plans for yours then I know I think I see Mr. Watson back there. We'll give him the 00:24:53
opportunity when his comes before us for the. 00:24:58
For the conditional use request, so. 00:25:04
Both of these are exciting for Watkinsville. So y'all share? What's your plan? Yeah, so we're in the commercial corridor section, 00:25:06
so it would be a permitted mute. 00:25:10
Used if you guys approve it. 00:25:13
And I think we've talked to a lot of you guys about what we're trying to do, but maybe not all of you know, but we have an event 00:25:15
space of a new building that we're putting landscaping around even today we're working on that. 00:25:20
So we've built a new building where there was a burn building up before. It's about 8000 square feet. 00:25:25
We have Albright Electric that's leasing out the back 6000, but on the front space, I wanted something for the community and the 00:25:31
public to participate in. So it's about 2000 square feet. 00:25:36
She's seen it, so it's really cool if you go in there and look at it. But we have created it with the community to be able to do 00:25:42
like. 00:25:46
We shower stuff like that. So I mean it'll seat about 9090 people. 00:25:52
So we didn't have anything in the box as well. In fact, I turned 52 years ago and we didn't have a space. So I actually rented 00:25:56
something in Athens. So it would be nice to have something here in Watkinsville that people can do that here instead of having to 00:26:00
go into Clark County. 00:26:04
Great. 00:26:09
All right. 00:26:11
OK well y'all are welcome to have a seat. I think at this point we unless council you have any questions for them. 00:26:13
We have to have a Connie questions. 00:26:19
My concern is parking. Is there going to be enough parking for events like that? 00:26:22
I think there's parking requirements in the code. Is that accurate? 00:26:29
Yes, there are parking requirements in the code, so they would have to meet those, but for not for the 90 and I'd have to go back 00:26:34
and look, but it says, you know, you do have to have. 00:26:38
Adequate aisles and turn around all that. So those are the things that they'll have to meet, you know, whether it's permit or not, 00:26:43
they still have to meet the parking standards so. 00:26:46
So so so it's adequate parking shall be provided on site for the event or spaces shall be secured in an adjacent site with safe 00:26:50
passage provided by private security or other means so. 00:26:54
So I know you all have, I don't know how many spaces you all have at yours, that's probably less of an issue or? 00:26:58
That also are available to us using their spaces. Great. 00:27:04
Space between the food and properties OK. 00:27:07
Good question. 00:27:12
OK, other questions from Council. 00:27:14
Yep, go ahead. Yeah, so it says Kitchen must meet all applicable health codes and be approved in writing by the local health code 00:27:19
official. 00:27:22
Is that just even if they have like a little? 00:27:25
I mean, so any kind of kitchen. 00:27:29
I I just spent. 00:27:32
You don't have a kitchen, OK, so but if somebody has a caterer that comes in and they just plug in hot plates or whatever and you 00:27:33
have a fridge or something that wouldn't, they don't have to go through that. Yeah, my understanding is it has to be they're 00:27:39
actually preparing food on site if you're preparing for OK, because that, that isn't super clear, it looks like. 00:27:44
That if you have a kitchen like I'm thinking like. 00:27:51
The umm. 00:27:54
The city has a kitchen, like a break room kind of kitchen. 00:27:55
I think if it's ambivalent, it cuts some Joe, you say you say it better than I do. 00:28:01
Right. Any ambiguity does cut in favor of freeze Plus It does say and This is a good question, but must meet all applicable health 00:28:05
codes. 00:28:08
So only to the extent applicable indicator under a caterers license also would fall I believe under independent standards. So I 00:28:12
believe it's adequately addressed. 00:28:17
Thanks. Good question. 00:28:23
OK. We do have to have a public hearing since this is a text amendment to the zoning ordinance. So with that, I'll open up the 00:28:26
floor for public hearing. 00:28:29
Don't everybody jump up at once to talk about special event facilities. 00:28:35
I see no one coming forward. We'll close the public hearing. 00:28:39
Now we'll move to the vote to amend. 00:28:42
Article 13 of the zoning and zoning ordinances we've discussed. 00:28:45
Council entertain a motion. 00:28:50
Well, I make a motion that we approve the text amendment to amend Article 13. 00:28:52
All right, do we have a second? 00:28:57
I will second, all right. Can we have a clarification that that motion does include the related amendments to Article 4 00:28:59
definitions in Article 10 special event? 00:29:03
Absolutely. 00:29:08
All right. So the motion, Yep, Yep, Thank you. 00:29:10
Basically, the motion is what's printed on the. 00:29:14
Printed there and on the screen. OK, so any questions or comments from Council? 00:29:16
Hearing none all in favor say aye. 00:29:21
Any opposed? 00:29:24
Motion carries. 00:29:25
Now we'll move on to the public hearing. 00:29:27
The reason we're doing this is. 00:29:30
Wire Park is in a different zoning district. They're in the mixed-use office. 00:29:32
And the thinking there is this is a use that. 00:29:37
Would require what we call a conditional use, meaning. 00:29:40
It could have a more significant impact on the neighbors. 00:29:43
And so anybody who is in this mixed-use office zoning. 00:29:45
Will have to come before us to request this use. 00:29:49
And so that is why we. 00:29:52
And I'll let manager Dickerson, attorney Reitman add to that if they need to. Then after that, we'll have the Clint Watson come 00:29:54
forward and explain why our parks plans. 00:29:58
Thank you, Mayor. 00:30:02
So in order for a conditional use to be approved, they had to. 00:30:03
Actually state why, you know. 00:30:08
Make sure they met certain requirements and so some of the ones are listed up here. The property is located, as the mayor said, in 00:30:10
the next used office. 00:30:13
It's owned where there's other commercial uses that are similar. 00:30:17
That are operating. 00:30:20
Allowing this space for specific I'm sorry for special events will not caught be a cost burden to the city. 00:30:22
A cost will not be, I'm sorry, would not be net, would not be a cost to the city or burden of the city. The property is on the 00:30:29
second floor of water park development, which is above some of the restaurants and retail spaces there. They do not expect traffic 00:30:33
to be an issue. 00:30:37
They already have had a number of obviously outdoor vets and have. 00:30:42
Worked with our Police Department when necessary for those. 00:30:46
There's ingress and egress off Barnet Shoals as well as. 00:30:49
Through a Third Point of access on Norton Road. 00:30:53
There is sufficient ample parking on site. 00:30:56
They have agreed you know they'll comply with the noise ordinances, adhere to the conference Abuse plan by having similar 00:30:59
commercial uses provide they do have proper trash service. 00:31:05
And they do not think it will affect any adversely affect any historic buildings. In fact, this is a historic site. 00:31:11
There's no environmentally sensitive areas that will be affected as well, so those are their statements from their application. 00:31:18
And that those are the things you have to consider when you're looking at conditional use. 00:31:24
All right. With that, Mister Watson, is there anything you want to tell us about your facility and then we'll open up a public 00:31:29
here. 00:31:33
If you could state your name and address for the record, please yes. Clint Watson, 1491 Robin Hood. 00:31:40
Thanks for hearing us out on this. 00:31:46
So I wear several hats at Wire Park. I work for Gibbs Capital, which is the developer of the project. 00:31:49
And I'm also technically the the general manager of you know, wire part. We've got, you know, around 50 or so businesses that. 00:31:57
Call Wire Park their home. 00:32:07
And I get 2 two big requests. 00:32:09
Every you know, I deal with, I kind of take in all the questions and comments from the community. 00:32:13
And. 00:32:19
These two requests are. 00:32:20
You know far and above beyond any other request that the number one request is lost and found. Hey, my daughter lost her sweater. 00:32:23
My kid lost his shoe. I lost some jewelry, right? That's number one. I get, you know, daily we get that. 00:32:32
Almost daily we get requests for. 00:32:38
Event space. 00:32:42
So really what we're trying to do here is just meet a need that the community has and sounds like you guys are on the same page 00:32:43
with that so. 00:32:47
I think there's a shortage of events based special event space in Oconee in its and yeah, it's like you said. 00:32:52
Baby showers. 00:32:59
Wedding receptions. Business meetings. 00:33:01
Class reunions, birthday parties, you know, just there's a there's a various reasons why people want to rent space and. 00:33:04
And because of all of these requests we're getting. 00:33:11
We're saying, hey, let's, let's give the people what they want. So thanks for considering this. 00:33:14
Thank you, Mr. Watson. 00:33:20
Any questions from Council? 00:33:21
I mean, these are more just curiosity questions. So it's on the where exactly is it? 00:33:24
So the front, can you come? I'm sorry you got to go back up. We got people probably listening online. Thank you. 00:33:29
So on the on the very front corner, when you come in the main entrance, the front corner of the main. 00:33:37
Building. 00:33:43
It was a 10,000 square foot space. We we were kind of holding out for like a small grocery store. 00:33:45
That never came to fruition. So we we decided to build out kind of chop it up and build out 10 suites, 5 suites on the bottom. 00:33:51
Bottom floor Five more suites on the top floor. 00:34:00
So we've got 3 leases signed on those spaces. 00:34:04
Currently. 00:34:09
Looking to get. 00:34:10
Six more leases there. 00:34:11
And one of those 10 will be an 1800 square foot, so similar in size, 1800 square foot space. 00:34:13
That will be used for. If you guys approve that will be used for the the events. 00:34:19
Yeah, OK. 00:34:25
Any other questions? 00:34:28
All right. With that, we'll open a public hearing if anybody wants to comment on wire parks, conditional use request for a special 00:34:29
event facility. 00:34:33
Come forward. 00:34:37
Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing. With that, we'll move to a vote council. 00:34:39
Do I hear a motion? 00:34:43
On item 17 in front of you, the conditional use request for 1725 Electric Ave. 00:34:44
I make a motion to approve. 00:34:50
Do we have a second? 00:34:52
I'll second. 00:34:54
All right. We have a motion, we have a second. Any discussion? 00:34:55
Hearing none, all in favor say aye aye. Any opposed? 00:34:58
All right, motion carries. 00:35:02
Unanimously, we'll move on to appearances, 10 minute time limit overall for these appearances for the speakers, first, we'll have 00:35:05
the independent agency fiscal year July 2026 budget request. 00:35:11
I believe we have. 00:35:18
Chief accident here from the fire department if you want to. 00:35:20
Present your request, Sir. 00:35:23
Welcome as always. 00:35:25
As usual, I'll keep it within 10 minutes. I appreciate the opportunity, Mayor and Council so. 00:35:27
I appreciate the opportunity that the city allows us to. 00:35:35
Provide and ask for a budget and it's been very helpful over the past few years. This year we're again asking for 15,000. 00:35:39
Which is what we put in last year. 00:35:46
And we had the various breakdowns, travel, equipment, meals. 00:35:48
So what we're putting the money towards so. 00:35:52
See any questions. 00:35:56
Any special equipment this year? I know we bought like the Jaws of Life a few years ago. No, we we are really in good shape right 00:35:58
now. Yeah. 00:36:02
That's great to hear, because I hear it takes like five years to get a fire truck right now or something. So yeah, we've already 00:36:06
put in order so. 00:36:10
We have five years in advance. All right. Yeah, great. 00:36:15
Any other questions while we have the Chief here? 00:36:19
Chief, we're we're. Go ahead, Christine. 00:36:22
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, we're grateful for you, for you and your how efficient you guys are with taxpayer dollars. 00:36:24
So thank you. Thank you. 00:36:28
OK, I don't know that Paul Clark. Is anyone from OCAF here? 00:36:32
Oh, Lawrence, are you presenting the request? 00:36:36
All right. 00:36:40
Something else tonight? 00:36:41
OK, good night. 00:36:44
It is Paul Clark, right? Can we do that? My name is Lawrence Duke. I live at 13 Barney Shoals. 00:36:48
And I'm here to. 00:36:54
Continue our request for. 00:36:58
OK. 00:37:00
Because through the years we've gotten $5000 I believe. 00:37:01
It's been a big help. 00:37:05
We've been a big move to make the art board. 00:37:07
Better every year. This year we've gotten some 3D art boards. 00:37:10
Which is kind of a nice change to more like sculptures. So I've been working with. 00:37:13
Jan and Sharon and we're trying to. 00:37:17
Kind of clean up the ones in the frames so. 00:37:19
We can do that. That'd be great. Thanks. 00:37:22
OK. Any questions? 00:37:24
All right. 00:37:27
Thank you, Lawrence. 00:37:29
Just a reminder, some of you may leave before the Mayor's report. We do. We are accepting applications for our City Arts Committee 00:37:31
through March 31st, So. 00:37:35
We're looking for people to advise us on the placement of public art in the city. Would welcome. 00:37:40
You guys to spread the word for artists and folks you'll know to. 00:37:44
Apply for that. The application is on our website I think. 00:37:47
All right, no motion to vote on that. We'll move on to Ashford Memorial. 00:37:51
I think we will start with engineer Campbell. 00:37:56
To give us the update on that and then we'll move through. 00:37:59
Councilman Thomas, Manager Dickerson and then we'll have the applicant come forward and tell us about their project. 00:38:03
Thank you, Mayor. So I'll start with the site development plan request for Asheville Memorial Church. 00:38:09
Hopefully you know where the church is located. This would be on the adjacent property. 00:38:15
That it currently is just occupied by maybe just a few parking spaces, a playground, and just some. 00:38:20
Undeveloped area, if you will. So the total acreage of the parcel as presented is a little less than one acre. 00:38:27
A good portion of that will be disturbed. The zoning is South Main Street Senate corridor. 00:38:34
And again, the existing use there, but the proposed use is for a fellowship hall that will actually be a multi level building that 00:38:40
property. 00:38:44
Transitions great as it moves away from maybe a higher point there, but. 00:38:49
Down Harden Hill Rd. as I would call it towards the Creek. And so this this building won't just be A1 level flat building. 00:38:54
Hopefully that's. 00:38:57
Clear as we kind of go through there so location. 00:39:01
Just in within the heart there of downtown Watkinsville. 00:39:05
And then? 00:39:08
Continue to go through. Here's a few shots. 00:39:09
Water St. intersects at. 00:39:11
Hardin Hill Rd. approximately where this. 00:39:13
Site location is. 00:39:16
So you can kind of see this is all along the. 00:39:18
What I would call the eastern side of the property. Maybe the southeastern side of the property. There is an existing wooden 00:39:21
fence, but this is looking. 00:39:23
Really towards Main Street, if that gives you an idea of the existing conditions there. 00:39:26
This is the southern driveway that is on Harden Hill Rd. 00:39:32
So that access point. 00:39:36
In general terms, would remain. 00:39:38
And provide access to the lower portion of the property and traverse through it as based on the plans of designer. 00:39:41
Has presented. 00:39:48
And so here the plans in general terms for the top of the page. 00:39:50
There is the location of the existing church and then the the darker Gray that's essentially in the middle. There you can see the 00:39:54
proposed fellowship hall building. 00:39:58
Where there's only a few parking spaces now along that existing private access drive. 00:40:03
Between the existing sanctuary and this. 00:40:08
Partial this area. 00:40:11
That will be expanded to add additional parking. 00:40:12
And then one of the other things I want to point out as part of the plans that were submitted by the designer, they did include 00:40:15
stormwater management. Now that's not in a traditional pond because. 00:40:20
Quite frankly, there's not room for that, but there is underground stormwater piping, underground stormwater management as part of 00:40:25
this plan that would meet the city code. 00:40:29
So again, just a project overview there. 00:40:35
A2 level fellowship hall. 00:40:37
And the. 00:40:41
Projects want to utilize existing access points there. 00:40:42
And it includes additional impervious area. That additional impervious area is being managed by the proposed. 00:40:46
Stormwater management system. 00:40:53
We did get detailed site plans just. 00:40:54
You know, shortly before your last council meeting here in February. 00:40:57
And had a chance to go through those and really work with the designer. 00:41:01
The majority of the comments from that initial plan review were addressed. 00:41:05
Just a couple of. 00:41:09
Remaining items that. 00:41:10
I would you know, they could be conditions tonight and it's. 00:41:12
Been a great conversation but it's a stormwater discharge location. 00:41:16
And then I put rubbish instead of waste, because we're talking about trash, right? 00:41:19
There's not room on this site for a. 00:41:24
Dumpster Corral. They're really not room on the site for a trash truck to. 00:41:27
Come in and get stuck and not be able to turn around. So just want to make sure that the church has some sort of operational plan 00:41:31
with how trash service would occur on this site. 00:41:36
And I know for urban forest approval and wastewater approval is also some of the things that will be discussed as part of this 00:41:41
application tonight, but I'm happy to answer. 00:41:46
Any questions you can see? 00:41:51
This is a reference. 00:41:52
Building plans are not part of the agenda items tonight, but I think it's important for you to kind of see the visual of a new 00:41:54
proposed building here that is for the Fellowship hall. A lot of similar architectural features, but you can also see that the two 00:42:00
level nature that that we discussed as part of the application to. 00:42:06
Kind of take in that. 00:42:13
Typographic change on the site. 00:42:14
All right, continue on the Urban Forest as as part of every site development plan. 00:42:21
Urban forest is is required. 00:42:27
In order to meet the guidelines and keep green areas inside of the City of Watkinsville. So specifically when we tear down trees, 00:42:30
we want to plant new trees basically, and we don't want a asphalt parking lot for the City of Watkinsville. 00:42:36
So under, under with with the trees that you currently have in the bushes there you do meet the current site density plan. 00:42:43
However, there are some specific recommendations. 00:42:51
That we have one is perimeter print. 00:42:57
Planting that, you'll have to you'll have to do in order to. 00:43:00
Be approved. 00:43:04
And that's along the Southeastern. 00:43:05
Side as mentioned as well, I I believe Toby has gotten with y'all about about these plans so this shouldn't be a surprise. 00:43:08
So that's one of them. We do recommend on the. 00:43:17
More northern side a tree, A couple of extra trees. 00:43:21
In the. 00:43:25
Let's see in the shared driveway adjacent to the property. 00:43:27
I'm sorry, let's see, where is it in the island closest to the crosswalk? I think that's also been shared. We all. 00:43:31
That and then just a recommendation. Not a requirement, but a recommendation. 00:43:37
Is some smaller garden areas, you know, some more green space. 00:43:42
Trying to trying to keep some additional green on the property. So those those are the three the committee did meet. 00:43:47
And and we do recommend approval to the board with with those conditions. 00:43:54
Thank you, Councilman Thomas. 00:43:59
Manager Dickerson, do you have anything further? 00:44:02
So on the wastewater, everyone may recall that city does not own or operate the wastewater system. The county does. 00:44:04
We amended that agreement with the county a few years back and they allocated us before the expansion of the facility. We've got 00:44:11
100,000 gallons that we can use and that's what we're working on right now. 00:44:16
When the expansion takes place, hopefully the end of this year, the city will see another 100,000 gallons. In the meantime, we are 00:44:22
down to our last three or 4000 gallons. The. 00:44:28
Fellowship of the Athena. I'm sorry, the Ashford Memorial Church thought that they were going to need estimated about 3600 gallons 00:44:34
a day. 00:44:38
We submit our processes to submit to the county because they do own and operate the facility and they have to review the requests 00:44:42
based on their policy. They came back and said that the church only needs 500 gallons per day. 00:44:48
So that's good. That means we won't go into the negative. We'll still have a few 1000 gallons left. 00:44:54
And so I've got a note off to the side. What's showing up there? You won't be able to see it 'cause I didn't change it yet. We'll 00:44:59
wait till the approval. If there's approval, we'll wait to update that. 00:45:04
But we are just so councils aware we are down to our last couple 1000 gallons of. 00:45:09
Of wastewater. Not all of it is currently being activated, but it has been encumbered under your approval with projects that are 00:45:14
either in. 00:45:18
You know under construction are about to be under construction. 00:45:22
All right, with that, we will invite the applicant to come forward and address Council. 00:45:29
My name is Patrick Lucas, address is 1185 Porter Creek Dr. Watkinsville. 00:45:44
Thank you for letting me speak with you tonight, Mayor and City Council members, on behalf of Asheville Memorial Methodist Church. 00:45:50
And thanks for the introduction of the project, that saved me a lot of a lot of description. 00:45:57
I'm currently serving as Co chair of this building project committee along with Chris Say and before that I was President of the 00:46:03
Board of Directors. 00:46:06
And I just want to kind of just give you a little bit of background of what we're proposing to build and why we're proposing it 00:46:10
and what our need is. 00:46:13
And then I'm going to turn the mic over to the architects who can really give me any answers to your questions. So thank you for 00:46:17
them being here. 00:46:21
So most of you are familiar with our church is the the white wooden church in downtown Watkinsville. 00:46:25
And this church was built in 1893. And just this week I saw. 00:46:30
A picture in our historical book called Beacon on the Hill of Watkinsville. 00:46:35
That side of downtown in 1896 and it was a pasture. 00:46:40
With Ashford Manor in Ashford Church, that was it. 00:46:43
And so I mentioned that picture just to point out that. 00:46:46
Church has always and still has a very, very. 00:46:50
Strong sense of stewardship about a historical building in Watkinsville. Everything we do. 00:46:54
Goes through a great deal of deliberation, discussion. 00:47:01
We recoded the silver roof when it was showing rust. We have recently repainted the church. 00:47:04
We have built an 88 accessible exit on the back that you can't tell is not part of the original structure. 00:47:09
And the project we want to propose here today carries that same theme. 00:47:16
Of being a quality building, historically appropriate and in a showpiece to downtown Watkinsville, to be an asset rather than a 00:47:21
detractor. 00:47:26
Just to tell you where we are now, we've been blessed for over a century. 00:47:31
As a church and we've been especially blessed over the past several years. 00:47:36
With our. 00:47:40
Recent pastor Robert Green and just really healthy growth in our church. 00:47:41
Our membership. 00:47:47
Has significantly increased. 00:47:48
Over the past five years. 00:47:51
And even before we had this increase in membership, we were already out. 00:47:53
Sized for our facilities. 00:47:58
So just to give you an idea of what we currently use for our fellowship hall. 00:47:59
If you're familiar with the church in the 1930s, they realize they needed a fellowship hall. 00:48:03
So the men of the church got underneath the church with buckets and then mules and scrapes and dugout a fellowship hall underneath 00:48:08
the church. 00:48:12
And that's what still serves at our fellowship hall today. And that's around 1500 square feet. 00:48:16
Is what it's our current fellowship space, so. 00:48:25
So what are we proposing to build? We're proposing to build. 00:48:28
Approximately 1200 three 154 square feet, two-story building that you would enter on ground level from the front. 00:48:31
The property slopes you would enter from the lower level in the back. 00:48:38
The top level would contain a large fellowship hall, which we greatly need, a boardroom, a larger kitchen, which we greatly need. 00:48:41
The bottom floor would contain. 00:48:48
Classrooms for Sunday school and emissions space, so those are all greatly needed spaces. 00:48:51
And so. 00:48:58
That is what we're proposing. 00:49:00
And I hope you can see from the designs that we're really trying to keep it historically accurate and appropriate for the church. 00:49:02
And I hope I can express to you the the need we have for this project. 00:49:08
And also being very conscious of the green space and the landscaping. 00:49:12
We're using a local architect farm, we're using a local builder and we're using a local bank. So we think all those things are 00:49:17
important to the economic help of the community. 00:49:21
I'm happy to answer any general questions you have, but if you have specific questions about our plans, I'm going to turn those 00:49:26
questions over. 00:49:30
To Arm and Trout, Methane and Thurman here with us tonight. 00:49:34
Why don't we have? 00:49:38
The representatives from Arm and Trout come forward and then Patrick, Doctor Lucas, if you could remain up there, then we can 00:49:39
address questions to both. 00:49:43
Good evening. I'm Brett Thurman with a armored thing. Thurman. 00:49:51
I always like to address myself as I'm just an engineer over there. 00:49:54
So we've been working with the church for a long time on this. 00:49:59
We believe we have a really tremendously. 00:50:02
Great plan that fits into the site. 00:50:04
And I don't want to believe our belabor. 00:50:07
A lot of the stuff I just want to address a couple of issues. 00:50:09
With regards to the comments that have. 00:50:12
Have staff and others have. 00:50:15
And council members have. 00:50:18
Discuss. 00:50:20
Currently SO. 00:50:22
With regards to the. 00:50:24
Wastewater capacity allocation. 00:50:27
We do an evaluation a certain way. It deals with essentially peak demand. 00:50:30
And the county looks at it from the standpoint of what have they seen historically. And so that's why the distant the. 00:50:36
The amount of value. 00:50:42
Between those, between what we said and what they say we really need. 00:50:43
Is so far apart. 00:50:47
Frankly, I would probably believe we are closer to in the 7:50. 00:50:49
To 1000 range but I don't know for sure but. 00:50:53
But we we drove our. 00:50:55
Calculation based on the peak demand that would be required by the fixtures at all times. 00:50:57
OK. So that's why that drove that number way up? 00:51:02
With the. 00:51:05
With the urban forest plan, we we had received and had been working with Toby and had some conversations about that. 00:51:10
We have put together a. 00:51:16
Plan that puts. 00:51:19
In place the perimeter plantings that you were looking for and I've got copies of what we did here, but I put this on a sheet. So 00:51:22
this is the site plan. 00:51:26
And we have in color all the. 00:51:31
Trees where we put in because it. 00:51:34
It's hard to read these plans and know. 00:51:35
You know what's what? So I tried to put it up in green and we'll share those with you or leave those so you can look at them 00:51:38
tonight. Could you just start that around? Yeah. 00:51:41
OK. 00:51:47
So there are two plans, one is the one is the perimeter planting plan. You can see we've done. 00:51:49
I think a great job of putting a number of trees back on the side as well as some shrubs. 00:51:55
I then I also put together a. 00:52:02
Another plan. 00:52:05
Which shows we had a rendering of the building which is shown in black and white on the picture here. 00:52:07
But I took the date, the information from the plan and put it in perspective. 00:52:13
In front of the building. 00:52:19
So so in this this thing I think to. 00:52:20
The two things I want to emphasize are that. 00:52:25
The 3D perspective that we have up at the top shows how we're laying the bank back. Everybody knows Hardin Hills got this really 00:52:28
steep bank. We're laying that back. 00:52:32
To soften that edge. 00:52:37
Along the along the road. 00:52:39
And on top of that then? 00:52:41
I've got the lower. 00:52:43
Drawing are the lower view, there is the exterior elevation on the Northside which is the hardened hillside. 00:52:45
And that shows you the trees. 00:52:52
And the. 00:52:54
And the shrubs that we're putting in. 00:52:55
To to soften that whole look along Harden Hill. And I think we, I think we've done a great job there. But you can tell me 00:52:58
otherwise if you so desire so. 00:53:03
And then I don't think I have anything else to say on the site plan other than we would agree with anything that Mark's asking us 00:53:09
to do. We are, we're more than happy to. 00:53:14
To comply. 00:53:18
All right. We've heard from Mr. Thurmond, Doctor Lucas. We have applicants. Have anybody else who want to speak? 00:53:22
We're grateful for y'all bringing so many people. Mr. Thurman, if you want to stay up here in case we have technical questions, 00:53:29
that'd be great. I'm sure we'll have some. This is. 00:53:32
This is a. 00:53:37
Really great, really attractive project for downtown Watkinsville, but. 00:53:38
Sometimes the. 00:53:42
The more details you bring, the more questions we have, so I'll let Council offer their questions. 00:53:44
OK, I think I'm asking the obvious, but this is a completely separate building from the church with the parking lot in between. 00:53:50
Yes. OK, yes. 00:53:54
And it is very beautiful. And your church is. 00:53:59
Very beautiful, so thank you for honoring. 00:54:03
That architecture. 00:54:06
That credit goes to the church. 00:54:09
For making sure we did that. 00:54:11
Other questions or comments? 00:54:14
What was the square foot? 00:54:16
Square footage of building. 00:54:18
12,000. 00:54:20
Let's both doors combine. 00:54:23
Yeah. 00:54:27
Mayor, I actually want to mention something I believe Julie and they may know to the church their garbage is picked up I think in 00:54:37
the roll carts right part of our downtown. So what? What we Yeah. 00:54:43
What we typically do is if there's additional, so because the way the city handles the garbage, if there's over what we normally 00:54:49
would provide, which probably is I don't we need to look into it. We may ask you to actually provide, you know, have an extra, you 00:54:54
know, have the additional service paid for. 00:55:00
Through the through our contractor, so we had something with one of the businesses downtown had an exorbitant amount of waste. 00:55:06
On a regular basis because of what they do and I think we had to roll carts or something assigned to them and we told them they 00:55:13
had to take they would have to go and provide the additional. So we can talk about that. I don't think it's anything it's gonna 00:55:18
break the the bank or anything tonight, but we just need to talk about process for that. So my so my wife always tells me I always 00:55:23
forget something and I did, which is to talk about the trash. OK, so but real quick though, we are you going to continue to use 00:55:28
roll carts? 00:55:33
They keep a number of them behind the church right now for the churches, for the church. 00:55:38
Use and then we'll add some. 00:55:43
At the back of the property on the, on the on the. 00:55:46
Western end down low. 00:55:49
We've got an area that has HVAC equipment in it and we built a little wall around that to shield that. 00:55:51
From the people who are on that drive. 00:55:57
You won't see it from the road. 00:55:59
And then we're going to have some roll carts in front of app so they'll be able to to exit the bottom floor and and fill up the 00:56:00
roll carts and bring them out for when collection day is. 00:56:05
While we wait. 00:56:16
In case Council has other questions I just I really want to offer. 00:56:17
Compliments. I think it's. 00:56:20
It's, you know, I never would have imagined somebody would come up with a fellowship hall is, you know that. 00:56:22
That could really honor your existing structure in such a great way. So my compliments to everybody at the church who's. 00:56:27
I'm sure this has been a long time coming. Things like this don't have but. 00:56:33
It is really. 00:56:36
I think it's going to be a wonderful addition to downtown Watkinsville, and it warms my heart that. 00:56:38
The church is in a position and has such membership that it needs this can can afford to do it so. 00:56:42
I hope we can help you move this forward quickly and get it done. 00:56:48
My only question would be, are there power lines on that side of the road and will you? 00:56:51
Keep those. Will you relocate them? Are they on the other side? 00:56:55
Can't remember Chase. Chase Dash is a civil engineer and he's going to know the particular to that. 00:56:58
I'm Chase, that should be my address. 00:57:05
Sure, we get 545 Caldwell Circle. There are power lines that used to serve the old houses that were there previously. 00:57:07
So we plan to keep the power line and do a new transformer. 00:57:15
By the. 00:57:19
I guess would be the southwest corner of the building. 00:57:21
So will you still have the lines? One of the things that's always frustrating to me about the church is how beautiful the church 00:57:23
is. And when you paint it, you don't have to have power lines in it. But when you take pictures, you're stuck with them. Are you 00:57:28
guys going to have lines in front of this beautiful building or y'all going to bury them as part of the So the public lines will 00:57:32
have to remain with a long hardened hill. There's a couple old service lines that run across the parcel that'll that'll be 00:57:37
abandoned, taken down all right. 00:57:42
Thank you. 00:57:47
Do you have any members with Georgia Power? 00:57:49
Maybe talk to Nathan Bartlett about that. Sure, sure. Would be nice if they could be. If they could be underground for a little 00:57:52
stretch there, this building could really shine without that interruption. 00:57:57
Any other questions? 00:58:02
Jeff, I see you pouring over it. Are you good? 00:58:04
I'm good. I'm impressed. 00:58:07
I'm looking forward to seeing it. 00:58:09
What's the timeline the proposed timeline to get this built? 00:58:13
Well, we're anxious to get approved and move, move forward. We've just I think that the. 00:58:16
The budgeting all been completed. 00:58:22
And the. 00:58:24
The raising the money has been completed and so they're trying to move forward as quickly as possible so we won't break ground as 00:58:26
soon as we can get a permit. So it's. 00:58:31
It's a minute. 00:58:36
Any other questions? 00:58:40
Does this require a public? 00:58:42
Hearing uh. 00:58:44
Of any sort. 00:58:45
All right, anybody from the public have a thought on this? 00:58:46
Yes, Sir. 00:58:52
Dan Richards, Inquiring minds, I heard. 00:58:59
Maybe you say underground storm water retention. 00:59:03
Yes, Sir. 00:59:07
What's the maintenance plan for that? 00:59:08
You'll have one, I guess is better. It's a proprietary system. It's it's a storm tech system. It's the most common underground 00:59:12
storm water management facility that that has regular inspection and maintenance intervals. It's it's privately owned, it's 00:59:18
privately maintained. The city is just responsible for adding that into their queue, for lack of a better term for for inspection 00:59:23
and if maintenance is required in the property owners notified. 00:59:29
Yeah, good luck. 00:59:35
We had a kitchen question earlier and then you, I think you referenced there's a kitchen in this. 00:59:37
We have a grease trap in the building as well. 00:59:42
For set kitchen? Or is that a nominal kitchen? 00:59:46
It's basically a. 00:59:49
Yeah, so the kitchen is basically a prep kitchen with warmers. 00:59:51
I mean, you know how. 00:59:57
Churches operate mostly covered dish suppers, right? So we do not have any plans for major food preparation. So we're designing 00:59:58
our kitchen to be. 01:00:02
Basically more of a prep kitchen. 01:00:07
Thank you. 01:00:12
All right. With that, I'll entertain a motion. 01:00:15
I make a motion to approve. 01:00:19
Do we have a second? 01:00:21
Second, all right. 01:00:22
Jeff wins that one. Any discussion? 01:00:24
All right, all in favor, say aye, aye. 01:00:27
Any opposed? 01:00:30
All right, Ashford. 01:00:31
And what do they need to do next? Is this, are they back before us or is that a? 01:00:33
And it'll it'll be administrative side. Yep. OK, so y'all are. 01:00:36
Cleared, cleared to go. 01:00:40
Yep, Yep. Well, we're not going to be long from here on out, so if you do want to stay, you're welcome to. We have one other item. 01:00:45
An appearance, and that is umm. 01:00:52
Athens GA rentals with a demolition permit Engineer Campbell. If you could offer your report. 01:00:55
Thank you, Mayor. 01:01:00
So again, the address is 51 Thrasher Drive. This is a demolition permit. 01:01:01
The area of the parcel, it's a little less than half of an acre and then the the zoning of the parcel is detached residential. So 01:01:07
the proposed request. 01:01:11
Is a dimension of existing residents and an accessory structure there. So to give you an idea of where it's located along Thrasher 01:01:16
Drive, I would say that's. 01:01:20
Closer to the rocket field end of Thrasher Drive, maybe, then to the North Main Street into Thrasher Drive, first lot after the 01:01:26
con bluff on the left. 01:01:30
Thank you and. 01:01:34
And so again, here's some pictures of the property. It looks like it's recently been surveyed or stayed there because you can see 01:01:36
some pink flagging the existing. 01:01:40
Structure of the accessory structure is actually the closest structure in that picture you can. There's another picture, it gives 01:01:45
a little bit better of idea of what that looks like from Thrasher Drive. 01:01:49
You can go to the next slide. Thank you. And then the. 01:01:56
The applicants indicated who the contractor would be for performing that demolition. 01:01:59
The tax assessors indicated that some. 01:02:05
Ages on some of that. 01:02:07
Structures that are. 01:02:09
Constructed there. I don't have any verification on that. Again, it's just a point of reference. 01:02:10
And the other thing is applicant must provide documentation regarding mitigation for asbestos or lead paint just based on the age 01:02:13
of those structures prior to removal demolition. That's a standard requirement from a demolition permit standpoint. 01:02:20
And even though it's not. 01:02:28
Disturbing an acre because it can't, because it's, you know. 01:02:30
You still need to make sure you do best management practices with. Last thing we want to see is. 01:02:33
A demolition that would include tracking mud onto Thrasher Drive or impacting other properties with sedimentation so best 01:02:37
management practice are still required as part of any demolition permit. 01:02:43
Thank you, Mr. Campbell. 01:02:50
Mr. Was like Mr. Burns? Yeah. Jason Burns. State your name and address and tell us a little bit more about your project. Yeah. 01:02:53
Jason Bernstein, 160 Temporary Rd. 01:02:57
What happens? 01:03:01
Just acquired this. 01:03:04
House really acquired a lot and there's this little shack on it and it might would win the award for the ugliest house in 01:03:06
Watkinsville, but. 01:03:10
Realize I need to. 01:03:16
Have the. 01:03:18
Asbestos check done prior to coming to this, but it's already in motion and within a few days I should have the results for that. 01:03:19
Through branch contracting and. 01:03:28
And then we could move forward to clear. Still not clear on plan. 01:03:31
Aloha. 01:03:36
OK. That's on the planning stages. 01:03:38
OK. Well, thank you. So we'll just condition this upon the asbestos? 01:03:41
Some sort of asbestos report being provided to the. That's correct. And again, the main reason for that is, is the last thing the 01:03:47
city wants is somebody not going through the process for that. With the age of a building, If the building was built in 1995, it 01:03:51
wouldn't have to go through that, right? But with the age of it, you don't want to get in a situation where you have a contractor 01:03:56
that's out there and encounters an unknown. 01:04:00
You know, recognize environmental. 01:04:05
A threat or assessment there. So you want to have that where you know you don't know if there is. 01:04:08
Asbestos containing materials or there is lead based paint. Then the demolition contractor will know how to handle that 01:04:13
accordingly. 01:04:16
OK, OK. 01:04:20
All right. 01:04:21
We've heard the report from the manager and the applicants details. Can I have a motion from council? 01:04:23
So when? When? Oh can I? Oh yeah. Question, certainly. 01:04:30
So when you acquired it, does anyone live on this property? Has it been lived in for? 01:04:33
The folks I bought it from, it had been his mom's house and she passed away a few years earlier. And. 01:04:38
They were just ready to sell it. 01:04:44
So it's just. 01:04:46
You would say it's not habitable. It's I mean, it's hard to tell from this. 01:04:48
It looks like some animals make up. That's one of the better pictures. 01:04:54
Whoever took that? 01:04:58
Good photographer. 01:05:00
Additional questions. 01:05:05
What are you going to build there? 01:05:07
So the question for those who couldn't do it was what are you going to build it sound like? Mr. Bernstein said he wasn't certain 01:05:11
what he was. I'm not positive. You know, it's we thought for a moment we might continue the. 01:05:16
Sort of attached residential thing, that pecan breath. 01:05:22
Has going on, but that doesn't. I don't know if I want to go through that effort. So really just to. 01:05:27
It's an interesting location because. 01:05:33
You know you'd like to put. 01:05:35
You've got some rentals close by, so you're a little limited on. 01:05:37
What I think you could get away with, but I'm hoping a nice little charming cottage, you know, to kind of fit in with the 01:05:42
neighborhood and. 01:05:45
For a young family. 01:05:50
Well, we're about to have the Mulberry connector, so they'll be able to walk to the new park. So that's going to, that's one of 01:05:51
the pluses that's going to, I think about it for my wife and I for future use, but. 01:05:56
Right, OK. 01:06:01
Other questions? 01:06:04
OK, hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. 01:06:06
I'll make a motion to approve the demolition permit. 01:06:11
For fashion drop 51,000. 01:06:16
We have a second. 01:06:19
2nd. 01:06:20
Any discussion? 01:06:21
All in favor say aye. Any opposed? 01:06:23
Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Bernstein. Yes, Sir, Thank you much. 01:06:25
OK. We have no old business under new business. We do have the item that we added, that's item 21. 01:06:29
Request for Appropriation of $19,999 from Splash 3. 01:06:35
For stormwater culverts and the White St. subdivision. 01:06:41
Manager Dickerson, if you want to offer a report. 01:06:44
One of the. 01:06:47
Projects on SPLOST is stormwater improvements throughout the community and we have one of the oldest, perhaps the oldest 01:06:49
subdivision in the city, White St. subdivision. I believe it. I don't probably have all the streets, but I know Bunny hop. Oh 01:06:54
yeah, I do White Street Ext White St. Bunny Hop, White Lane and and part of Thrasher from North Main to White. Those are areas 01:07:00
that had culverts and over the years. 01:07:06
Have filled in with silt or you know, whatever and. 01:07:12
In order to allow the water to flow without having issues for the people who live there or having issues that hitting the road, we 01:07:16
are recommending that we go in and actually. 01:07:21
Dig out those culverts. Reestablish the culverts so the water could flow properly through. 01:07:26
We've got a couple estimates and so that's why I put that amount will be underneath that amount, but we're asking that you go 01:07:31
ahead and appropriate those funds. 01:07:34
We do have and this is really tiny, I'm sorry but. 01:07:38
The stormwater improvement. 01:07:42
Project that's been listed on this is just an excerpt from yours from spouse three or projects list. 01:07:45
There was 361,000 budgeted for it. We have spent money to. 01:07:50
Do the Water St. drainage pipe upgrade as well as some work on Jackson Street and this would be another project like I said. 01:07:55
For up to $19,999 and hopefully we could get that underway within the next few weeks if it's approved. 01:08:02
All right, we've heard the report from the manager. Any questions from council? 01:08:09
All right, hearing none, I will entertain a motion. 01:08:16
So Kathleen's question for those who are there is what culverts? I think it's basically is it all the culverts on those roads or 01:08:22
all of them who need work on those? Yeah. So basically most people have pipes underneath their driveways and those between each 01:08:27
driveway it's filled in. So they're not really culvert. I mean we're trying to reestablish culverts there were that were there. So 01:08:32
the water that goes underneath their driveways can actually. 01:08:37
So the pipes are basically full, the ditches are filled in over the what, 50 years since white Subdivision. So, and we'll probably 01:08:43
be doing more of this, yes, throughout the city on a more regular basis in the years ahead. Yeah, our public works crew has gone 01:08:48
out and evaluated all the culverts within the city limits. 01:08:53
And we have a prioritization schedule and this is the one at the very top of the list. But this, this is not going to include. 01:08:59
Taking out driveways and doing it's just on either side of absolutely. 01:09:06
And clearing out the pipes underneath perhaps so which you know, this is when in a large storm event, this is what creates some of 01:09:10
the challenges when it doesn't run down there, runs over the driveway, runs down the road, you know, doesn't system doesn't work 01:09:14
as it's supposed to. 01:09:18
Come up, welcome to come forward. 01:09:22
You don't mind? Go to the mic please. Thank you. 01:09:24
You don't want me to have to repeat everything that you say. 01:09:27
No, it isn't. This is the second section. 01:09:35
Kathleen. 01:09:38
And it shows Rd. So I own property at the corner of White Lane. Are we on the property at corner of? 01:09:40
White Lane and White St. 01:09:46
And there's a ditch that runs along the front of my house. 01:09:48
And it's filled in over the years. It's. 01:09:51
Sort of near the top of the hill. Will that include? 01:09:55
Deepening that ditch so that water doesn't overflow into my onto my property. 01:09:59
Tell me again where it is on White Lane at the corner of. 01:10:05
White Lane and White St. 01:10:08
On the north corner, yeah. So it's in the area. I'd have to look at the map and we can go back and look. I mean, we'll certainly 01:10:11
address if there's some issues there. We'll try to address at the same time we're doing the other work. 01:10:16
Just to be clear, digging out ditches as part of the work where it's necessary, that's literally what the work is. So it's not 01:10:23
just a culverts, it's any other kind of storm water management. 01:10:29
Within, right. Yeah. I mean within reason, yeah, Yeah. 01:10:35
I gotta be careful 'cause I don't know outside. 01:10:38
I don't know $19,000 to take care of all those. But but yeah, the intent is to is to basically start with that subdivision because 01:10:41
it is older and it's got some issues and try to address it and then move to the next one on the list, sort of like we do with our 01:10:47
roads. You know, we have a priority list and we're trying to work through it. So OK, absolutely. Thank you. 01:10:53
Thank you. Good questions. For our younger guests, if you can't have it pictured yet, what storm water is? That's when it rains 01:10:59
and we get a heavy rain and it all comes down. 01:11:03
And you don't really think about it, but where does all the water go? And what it does is if the water doesn't go into the ditches 01:11:07
and the pipes where it's supposed to, it creates real problems. It can create ponds and flooding and roads and other things like 01:11:11
that, so. 01:11:14
This is what I was telling the scouts before the meeting. There's some really boring stuff that. 01:11:18
We just sort of have to take care of and this is one of those things that that if you don't, you end up having really expensive 01:11:22
problems down the road. 01:11:25
All right, so we've heard the report. We've heard from the public. 01:11:28
I think we still need a motion on this, correct? 01:11:33
I make a motion to approve. All right. Do we have a second? 01:11:35
I'll second before Jeff. 01:11:39
All right, Brett, is the second any further discussion? 01:11:40
Hearing none, all in favor say aye aye. Any opposed? 01:11:44
All right, that's the end of new business. Next up is public comments. This is the opportunity for the public to come forward and 01:11:48
speak to council about any item they want. 4 minutes that the most speak from the podium. 01:11:53
If anybody has anything they want to say, now is the time. 01:12:00
Kathleen gets 2 minutes and 30 seconds. She comes back. 01:12:05
All right. Looks like no one has public comments tonight. We'll move quickly to the mayor's report. 01:12:09
Scouts were getting to the end here. We had our council retreat on. 01:12:15
February 25th. 01:12:19
Grateful for all of you for the active participation in that council determined what its priorities are for the. 01:12:21
Years ahead and staff is building a budget based on those priorities. 01:12:26
We also got an update on and we're educated about how hearing loops work and you see the signs here and I've got a clear 01:12:31
understanding of that. We're grateful for that presentation. 01:12:35
Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem Tucker for representing us at the Oconee County 50th Birthday Bash. That was a. 01:12:40
Wildly successful event at the William Daniel House. 01:12:46
We're still accepting applications for our public Art committee. 01:12:51
Through March 31st. Please contact Robin Tardy at City Hall for a copy of that. 01:12:54
We're also accepting applications for Friends of Thomas Farm Preserve. That's a group that will help us. 01:12:59
Take care of that park scouts again. That's the same pond that I showed y'all the old picture of. 01:13:04
In the room, that's what it looks like now, the wonderful space that continues to get a lot of great use. 01:13:08
Work is underway at the Giordani Green. We're upgrading the electrical and the water on that side of the Creek. 01:13:14
And we're waiting on our permit from the Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission. We anticipate that. 01:13:21
This month so we can move forward with the landscaping work in earnest. 01:13:26
Thomas Farm Preserve phase one improvements continue. The pavilion is done. 01:13:30
The restroom construction is underway. Septic tank work is underway. 01:13:35
We'll get a new roof. Parking lots have been improved and striped. 01:13:38
So work will continue using the funds we appropriated last month. 01:13:43
We. 01:13:48
Released the RFP's for phase two and phase three and had contractor meetings last week. 01:13:49
For phase two and phase three of the Simonton Bridge connector, we discussed that earlier, but that is the 8 to 10 foot path that 01:13:54
will connect. 01:13:57
Thomas Farm Preserve to downtown. We hope to have that done by the end of the year. 01:14:01
And Mulberry Street was paved in the past month. If you haven't been down there, that looks really great, and I think the 01:14:07
residents are. 01:14:10
Really pleased with how that's turned out. 01:14:13
Council reports Councilman Garrett. 01:14:16
Nothing really to report on, just a comment on Water St. I've had some people asking. 01:14:22
When Umm. 01:14:28
That was going to be cleaned up a little bit more. 01:14:29
I know we've inquired about that. That said, Waters walk and. 01:14:32
Kind of the messy messiness in the red there. I know they're putting in the curb and gutter and sidewalks now. Yeah. I mean, you 01:14:36
know, while it's under construction and they've got big heavy equipment there, you know, there's no, no sense in doing all that. I 01:14:40
mean, it will be part of the project. They have to, you know, they do. We did take. 01:14:45
Pictures and whatnot, and you know they'll have to return everything. 01:14:50
To its original. 01:14:54
You know, order, I think they said they were going to open in October. I think August or October is what I think it was. So still 01:14:55
got a few more months to. 01:15:00
To get going, but. 01:15:04
Yeah, I mean. 01:15:06
It's our instruction site. I agree other than Latco. 01:15:08
Mr. Campbell said earlier about housekeeping. 01:15:13
On the other street, you know, tracking mud out in the road and stuff. I mean, it's been. 01:15:17
Pretty pretty rough RAM through there. 01:15:22
Compared to what it should be. 01:15:25
We did talk to them about Durham St. 01:15:27
I know we reached out to him last month, I think, and they said that they're going to probably take care of the parking lot area, 01:15:31
that their wall is disrupted. 01:15:34
And I think we talked to him about the mud, tracking the mud in and out of the road there too and made them aware they need to do 01:15:38
a better job there based on feedback from those tenants. But. 01:15:42
We certainly follow follow up and remind them. 01:15:46
I'll do. 01:15:49
Yep, OK. 01:15:53
Councilwoman Massey. 01:15:55
Have nothing to report, OK. 01:15:56
Councilman Thomas, just happy to be here, all right? 01:15:59
Mayor Pro Tem. 01:16:02
I just want to again. 01:16:05
Mentioned the art committee that the mayor's mentioned twice and. 01:16:08
It is also, it's not just for artists. We actually want just normal citizens to apply to this. So I just want that to be clear. We 01:16:11
love our artists, but we also think that where our ports are, what they look like, just different things that we want just regular 01:16:17
old folks. 01:16:22
To have input in that. So don't think Oh my gosh, I'm not an artist, I can't apply. Please apply. 01:16:28
All right, Councilman Campbell. 01:16:34
Nothing to report. 01:16:36
OK. We will take a 5 minute recess and then we'll move into executive session. Do we need to go ahead and make that motion now? 01:16:37
Discretion. 01:16:45
Let's make a motion Move to executive session to discuss potential acquisition of real estate. I make a motion to move to 01:16:47
executive session to discuss potential acquisition of real estate. 01:16:52
Do we have a 2nd, 2nd? 01:16:57
All in favor, say aye. All right, All right. Will be returned at 7:51. 01:16:59
You can go Mark. 01:17:05
Are we ready? 01:17:07
Can I make a motion to adjourn? 01:17:09
And there's one person. All right, I make a motion to adjourn. 01:17:12
Second, all in favor say aye aye. 01:17:15