No Bookmarks Exist.
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
Link
Start video at
Social
Embed
* you need to log in to manage your favorites
My Favorites List
You haven't added any favorites yet. Click the "Add Favorite" button on any media page, and they'll show up here.
* use Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on Mac) to search in document
Unable to preview the file.
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
scroll up