Transcript

Started getting quiet? 00:00:12
Mayors got the gamble. We better get quiet. 00:00:15
Just waiting for the word. Are we on? We live yet? 00:00:18
All right. We're missing one screen, just so you know, if you could pop that down. 00:00:24
All right. Welcome everybody, to the April 20th Watkinsville City Council meeting. I'm pleased to see that we have a quorum here 00:00:34
tonight. In fact, we have perfect attendance. And thank you all for being here tonight. Let's please stand for the Pledge of 00:00:38
Allegiance. 00:00:43
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. 00:00:50
And to the Republic for which it. 00:00:55
One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:58
All right. Once again, thank you all for being here. 00:01:10
Our meeting is being broadcast simultaneously and is available at the city website for anyone who chooses to walk along. 00:01:13
We have the meeting details, packet, and minutes are all organized so that you can follow along online if you choose to, and then 00:01:21
those recordings are made available to the public either the same night or the same day of our meetings so that the public can 00:01:26
follow along. 00:01:31
At this point, we do not allow online public input. Our guests will need to be here in person if they want to provide feedback, or 00:01:36
they'll need to do that in advance of the meeting. 00:01:40
The meetings agenda is posted one full week before the meeting to allow the public sufficient time to review. That along with the 00:01:46
meeting packet is posted on the Friday before the meeting and all that is shared online. We do have a less formal public input 00:01:52
policy here. Generally for the non legally required portions, Council at its discretion will allow the public to make comments 00:01:58
that is at the sole discretion of the council and is subject to some time limitations that the attorney will provide guidance on 00:02:04
if we need to do that. 00:02:10
There are some parts of the meeting typically where we where public input is required. 00:02:16
Or a public hearing is required and the attorney will advise when that occurs. 00:02:20
Our first matter that we have tonight is the approval of the March 23rd regular meeting minutes Council, if you've had a chance to 00:02:24
review those. 00:02:28
Minutes. I would love a motion. Or if there are any edits that need to be made, please let us know now. 00:02:32
All right, I'd love a motion if there's no corrections to the minutes. 00:02:45
I make a motion to approve the minutes. We have a motion. Do we have a second? 00:02:51
Second, any discussion seeing none all in favor, say aye. 00:02:56
Motion carries 5. 00:03:01
On the agenda, we do have one item we need to add to the agenda tonight. Please note that we do have three items under consent as 00:03:03
well. This is the time. If you want to pull one of those items for discussion, you need to go ahead and say that now. If you 00:03:09
don't, we will simply approve that. The one thing that we do need to add under new business is Laya Lane will need to approve some 00:03:15
budget to deal with that emergent situation on Layla Lane. So would ask that we would add an item 12 under new business for Whale 00:03:21
Lane so. 00:03:27
Now is the time to speak up if you want to pull anything off consent. Otherwise, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda 00:03:33
with the addition of Leo Lane under new business. 00:03:38
I make the motion to approve the agenda with the addition of Leo Lane as #12. 00:03:44
Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? 00:03:52
Hearing none all in favor, say ay. 00:03:57
Any opposed the same motion carries 50. 00:03:59
All right, Administration, I already mentioned public input that we are can be a little less formal on that. If you do have 00:04:04
something that you want to speak to, please raise your hand, let us know, and we will indicate whether we are comfortable with 00:04:11
that. If it is a formal moment for public input, public comment or a legally required public hearing will indicate as such. 00:04:17
During that part of the meeting, if you do comment the City Council at any point, please address the council, not one another. 00:04:25
When you do come to the microphone, if you come to speak, please indicate your address. We are missing a microphone share. And do 00:04:29
you think it's sitting there on the dye somewhere? 00:04:34
OK. So you certainly don't have to hold it like a preacher. You can just put it out there and speak to it. But do speak into the 00:04:39
microphone, give us your address and your name before you speak because the public cannot hear you if you just comment from the 00:04:45
audience. So we would ask that you come forward. So our online. 00:04:51
Observers can see you. So we're going to start off tonight with a proclamation, one that's near and dear to us, and that is 00:04:58
recognizing our very own Julie Klein on Municipal Clerks Week. So I'm going to read this. 00:05:06
And it goes like this. 00:05:15
Whereas the office of professional municipal clerk, a time honored and vital part of local government, exists throughout the world 00:05:18
and whereas the office of professional municipal clerk is the oldest among public servants. 00:05:23
And whereas the office of the professional Municipal clerk provides the professional link between the citizens, local governing 00:05:28
bodies and agencies. 00:05:32
Where it is most appropriate that we recognize the accomplishments of the Office of Professional Municipal Court. 00:06:05
Now, therefore, I, Brian Broderick, Mayor of Watkinsville, do hereby recognize the week of May. 00:06:11
Through May 7th as Professional Municipal Court Week and further extend on behalf of myself, the City Council and City staff, 00:06:15
sincere appreciation to our professional Municipal Clerk, Julie Angel Klein, and to all professional municipal clerks for the 00:06:20
vital services they perform and their exemplary dedication to the communities they represent on this 20th day of April 2022. 00:06:25
Julie. 00:06:30
That is all well and good, and that's some big fancy language, but to be a little bit more down to earth about it. 00:06:36
You have been a rock for this community. 00:06:42
Gosh, more than two decades at this point? 00:06:45
You're tireless. You're incredibly professional. You're an asset to this group. 00:06:48
There's not much that gets done in this town that you don't have a hand in and we are deeply appreciative. 00:06:55
So on behalf of the City Council, on behalf of the citizens of Watkinsville, thanks so much for all you do. 00:07:00
I don't have a speech because I'll cry. Thank you. Thank you all. 00:07:18
Speech. Maybe Julie's worst nightmare in this scenario. He also Yeah, we will not ask that of her. 00:07:26
Umm. 00:07:32
But thank you, Julie. We do deeply, deeply appreciate you. 00:07:33
All right. With that, we will move on to Financial Reports Manager Dickerson. We're going to let you run us through our financial 00:07:38
position and how we're doing on all the Splice and Arpas and other acronyms, please. 00:07:43
You should have a copy of the balance sheet as well as the. 00:07:51
Revenues and expenditures, we are tracking actually less on the expenditures, a little bit more on the revenues than where we 00:07:56
should be at this point. So that's always good news. 00:08:01
If there any questions on that specific or not, I can take those now or later. 00:08:06
Have any questions about the balance sheet? 00:08:10
OK, SPLOST one report. So this is the 2009 SPLOST right now we have about 252,000 and some change in the in the account that money 00:08:13
is dedicated and designated and and appropriated for the sewer line, a project that is going through the industrial park. 00:08:21
Splash Two has ended as well at the 2015 there are funds in there for. 00:08:31
Hair shows part, Master plan, implement. 00:08:38
Specifically the 440,000 that is set aside for the playground that's going in as well as some other sort of landscape and whatnot 00:08:41
that's sort of being done. We also have Splash 3 monies that are being set aside for the Hair Shoals Park project out of SPLOST in 00:08:47
Spas 3. And then the other portion of this is the 904,000 and some change that will be added to the Splash One money for the sewer 00:08:53
line a project. 00:08:58
But both of these are not accepting any. There's no more money except for the interest we may get on those on those funds that are 00:09:04
in the bank. 00:09:07
This Bloss 3 project, this is our newest one, started last year in October. One I believe is our first. So I think yeah, it 00:09:11
started October 1. And so right now you have only spent a little bit more than $3000, but you have encumbered some funds. You've 00:09:19
encumbered monies for public safety personnel that was in last year's budget or in this current year's budget. 00:09:27
And you've also set aside some money for. 00:09:35
The fire truck, which I believe, we just think we just paid that check today. 00:09:39
For the I'm sorry, not for the fire truck, for the fire department, for Jaws of Life, a battery operated Jaws of Life unit. And 00:09:44
then it's not on here yet because we haven't spent any of the money yet, but we have encumbered $100,000 and I should have put it 00:09:49
on here for the recreational park and green space. 00:09:54
So that is on there as well or that is how these funds will be spent? 00:09:59
It's important to note that right now we're averaging about 71,000. 00:10:04
We typically when we budgeted for this project, we budgeted at 61,000 or about 62. So we're tracking about $10,000 more a month on 00:10:08
this which is obviously. 00:10:14
Good news. 00:10:19
Any questions on spots before I jump to American rescue? 00:10:21
And I know this is extremely small, but so the American rescue plan funds are the funds that were. 00:10:25
Approved. 00:10:31
The federal government in. 00:10:33
March or April of last year and distributed its city and they're going to be distributed in two tranches 1 tranche of. 00:10:35
$548,204.50 in July of this of this past year and another that same amount this this July. And these are funds that we'll talk. 00:10:40
Well, we're not going to talk about tonight too much, but I will tell you that on the consent agenda is a request that you 00:10:46
designate those funds for general government services. The final rule from the US Treasury was that those funds up to $10 million, 00:10:52
all governments can claim up to $10 million. If they got like I think Oconee County got 9 million, they can actually make a 00:10:58
designation to use a standard allowance. 00:11:04
Those funds for general government services, so you're no longer required to use them for sewer, water, broadband, essential pay 00:11:10
for employees where they want to, They encourage you to do that. But you have other government services that you may want to use 00:11:16
the funds for. And so although we have, we started out that way because that was the inner rule, the interim rule, the final rule 00:11:23
did not come into play until January of this year. So we had almost a full year of. 00:11:29
General government services and then you will have free rent on how you want to use those, so. 00:12:09
Any. 00:12:13
All right. Just a little bit of a follow up and I don't know if the mayor will want to try to address this now or not, but we do 00:12:16
have a schedule for the budget. 00:12:20
That's rolling out. Tonight will be the first public hearing on the budget. There is no budget to be seen yet, but if you have 00:12:24
input, the public has input on how they would like to see the government. 00:12:29
The funds in the upcoming fiscal year, that's the information that will be provided, that can be provided tonight to council. 00:12:34
The mayor and I will get together 1st of next week and go through his revisions and then we'll provide that to the council on May 00:12:40
2nd. 00:12:43
There are public hearings for the mileage rate and budget work sessions coming up in May. We may be moving. I guess I'll leave 00:12:47
that to the mayors request. The June meeting may move to the 14th, depending on y'all desire. And if so, we'll you know, we'll 00:12:53
publicize that. We'll have plenty of time to publicize that change, but. 00:12:58
But that's sort of what you're looking at. It's going to be fast and furious once we hit May 2nd and hopefully. 00:13:04
Be good opportunity to spend the. 00:13:09
To make this community even better. 00:13:13
Any questions? 00:13:15
Did you want to ask about the budget, about the about the date or anything yet? I think we'll nail that down. We'll nail that down 00:13:24
offline and see if we can. If we need to make that adjustment, we'll let everybody know in the next few days. 00:13:29
OK. 00:13:35
And move on, Yep. So business licenses, so we've had 39 business licenses in the month of March. 00:13:36
No alcohol licenses. 00:13:42
You probably see a lot of names, those that can read that small and got them in your packet, but and then we had on on economic 00:13:46
development building permits, we had 14 building permits for 9 projects. You'll see several that are over there in the in the wire 00:13:50
park. 00:13:55
Develop. 00:13:59
Any questions on any of that? 00:14:01
All right, seeing none, I will pass it on to that command. All right, Chief, think it's your turn. 00:14:05
What haven't you been up to is probably the better question, but we will, we'll go on from there, so. 00:14:12
Good evening, Mayor and Council. Always a pleasure to be here in front of you to talk about good things Watkinsville. 00:14:18
Umm. 00:14:25
I submitted a report last week. I was missing the front page data that I normally have to provide to you because a. 00:14:26
An update to my record management system caused a crash in the database and didn't get that fixed until today, but I did get a 00:14:33
copy of it done today. 00:14:37
And I submitted it to you at the dyess this evening if you have any questions over any of that or any of the traffic statistic 00:14:41
data that I have provided. 00:14:46
In the back. 00:14:51
Councilman Garrett, I appreciate those comments about the sign that's in. 00:14:53
On South Main, heading South. 00:14:57
Capturing the drivers, slowing down and your observance of that, that's good. 00:15:01
What? They're what they're meant. 00:15:07
Well, if you have no, no other questions and no other commentary. 00:15:09
Well, we had a little bit of fun over the weekend. 00:15:15
We had an Easter Bunny come in and hide 10,000 eggs. 00:15:20
And then that happened. 00:15:24
It was, it was quite the challenge to be on the receiving end of those kids. 00:15:30
And holding them back. 00:15:36
So that was a good time. The rain, you know, the rain rained early that morning and it it stopped exactly like I had predicted it 00:15:39
to do. 00:15:43
Meteorologically. 00:15:48
9:00 and we were able to get the eggs out on the ground and get everybody up there. 00:15:50
And happy. 00:15:55
All right, the next event we have coming up is Cops and Bobbers May 7th, 2022. The registration was open for 2 1/2 days. It filled 00:15:58
up completely. It is closed. 00:16:03
May have to back up and reevaluate having another one. 00:16:10
Because it filled up so quickly, but that's the way it was for me in Saint Mary's I I had a bunch of larger pond there and I was 00:16:14
able to accommodate well over 300 kids. 00:16:19
Annually and that would fill out in about 2 1/2 days. Three days so. 00:16:24
We're holding holding true to that, that standard, but. 00:16:30
Everybody's excited about fishing with cops, so hey, I. 00:16:33
All right. 00:16:38
Chief, do you have all the local partners that you need for prizes and such for that, or are you still looking for local 00:16:39
businesses to support that event? 00:16:44
Make sure they get recognized and. 00:16:55
Acknowledgement on social media and I know we don't have room for more kids, but if if you have some, is there an opportunity for 00:16:58
anybody to volunteer to help or support you guys or do you have all the help that you need? There's always. 00:17:04
Always plenty to do out there. I have fishing measuring stations and and recording stations that have to be manned. I have some 00:17:10
cooking that needs to be done, you know, helping here and there. You know she'll have to show kids how to help cook worms stuff. 00:17:16
There's there's plenty of work to do, so anybody wants to volunteer, just reach out to me. I'd be happy to try to find something 00:17:24
to do for you. 00:17:27
Thank you. 00:17:31
All right. That it for you, chief. OK, all right. Unless we have any discussion that we need to have on the consent agenda, I'll 00:17:40
entertain a motion to approve. 00:17:45
I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. 00:17:55
2nd. 00:18:02
All right. We have a motion in a second. Any discussion hearing? None. All in favor? Say aye. 00:18:03
Any. 00:18:08
Motion carries 5 O. 00:18:10
All right. At this point, we have a public hearing. 00:18:13
And I believe this is on their first public hearing related to the budget, correct Manager Dickerson. 00:18:18
So the purpose of this hearing and manager Dickerson, feel free to to jump in if you want to add anything. 00:18:25
This is we don't have. 00:18:32
We have not finalized the budget draft, so members of the public or members of the council, if you want to share some input on 00:18:35
what you would want to see in the budget, what's important to you, what your priorities are, we want to hear about it and this is 00:18:39
the time. 00:18:43
For you to do that, the speakers, as I said earlier, if you come up, state your name, state your address. 00:18:47
You know, we don't want to have any attacks. I don't think we will in the budget, I hope. But we would not want to have personal 00:18:54
debate, argument attacks or irrelevant discussion. We want you to address the merits of the matter that's before us, and in this 00:18:59
case it is the FY23. 00:19:04
Budget. You should speak to Council, not to each. 00:19:09
And obviously we can't speak to litigation or personnel matters, so the podium is open if anyone cares to come forward. And if the 00:19:12
attorney is satisfied with my description of how to handle public comment, all right. 00:19:19
Does anyone care to come and offer any any feedback or suggestions? 00:19:26
For the FY23 city of Watkinsville. 00:19:31
Now we have some local property owners, business owners. 00:19:37
Young citizens. 00:19:40
Our fearless leader of Oconee County, Chairman Daniel, thank you for being. 00:19:42
What? 00:19:47
I. 00:19:50
All right. I'm not seeing any comments there at the podium. So we will consider that matter close. We'll bring it back behind the 00:19:52
Rail council. I know we've had planning meetings or other things at this point. 00:19:57
Do you have anything else that you want to share with the manager or maybe related to the budget? 00:20:02
All right. Well, I know you've all been very active already in that process and thank you for that. And we'll have two more 00:20:09
opportunities, correct? 00:20:12
Have those kind of conversations in our next meeting, obviously there'll be something to react to. 00:20:16
Three more. OK. All right. OK. So that is our budget. Now we'll move on to appearances. We do have a 10 minute time limit for 00:20:22
appearances per the guidance of the state zoning law. And tonight on the agenda we have Waters Walk, which is an age restricted 00:20:28
independent living retirement community at Durham and Water streets has been proposed. 00:20:35
Mr. Campbell, our city engineer, I think we're going to start with a report from you, please. 00:20:43
Thank you, Mayor. So hopefully you were familiar with this project. You've seen it about a year ago when it went through the 00:20:48
rezoning process, which is the development agreement that was worked out over a couple months time period if you will recall about 00:20:55
this time last year. So just to jog everyone's memory, the location of the project known as Waters Walk is on the southern side of 00:21:02
the intersection there of of Water St. and Durham St. The majority of the development is not. 00:21:09
On the western side, which kind of goes down to the Creek, but it is up near the the corner of those two Main St. frontages. 00:21:17
It's a combination of a multiple parcels. 00:21:24
If you can go to the next slide, so that's that's the view of the corner facing South, so whether you knew the names of the 00:21:28
streets or not and as you were traveling there in that area somewhat paralleling Main St. 00:21:35
That is, there's a number of existing structures on that parcel as well, which is part of this application for construction 00:21:42
documents Site improvement, Next slide. 00:21:46
Again, so, so there's three primary structures there. That is the structure of the only of the primary structures that has 00:21:53
frontage on Durham St. so that is 40 Durham St. And then the other two structures are along along Water St. 00:22:00
You. 00:22:08
So that's the structure that's on Water St. that's closest. 00:22:10
To Durham. If you if you think about the the backside, if you will, of Oconee State Bank property, if you're heading towards the 00:22:15
courthouse, this would be on your right. 00:22:19
And then that is the, the third structure that is part of this, this area that's being developed for the Waters Walk project. 00:22:24
Hopefully that provides some clarification on on what is there as you would see it today. So the the next slide shows that from a 00:22:30
a plan view that it was presented by the design professional. You can kind of see there the orientation on the right hand side of 00:22:36
the page that's Water St. 00:22:42
And then? 00:22:49
You can see those existing structures as it orients back. 00:22:50
Again on the left hand side of the page would be down gradient or towards this stream? 00:22:55
And then that is the proposed site plan. So that structure there is a multiple story structure, the footprint as it was 00:23:03
represented on the plans. 00:23:06
About 22,000 square feet, so it is not quite half an acre. 00:23:11
In footprint. So as you can imagine, that's a great deal of surface area. One of the points I want to bring up, if you do not 00:23:16
remember, is that the portion of the property that is closest to the courthouse is not being developed, so that will remain in its 00:23:23
current state with the exception of the improvements that are being shown. 00:23:30
Curb and gutter, sidewalk, those types of things along the the street frontage if you are not familiar or the plan in its original 00:23:37
state and the plan in its current state, the very thick. 00:23:43
Serpentine line somewhat front and center on that is would be a retaining wall, so the building will in some ways be. 00:23:49
The parking area that's behind the building will be at a higher elevation than the existing grade and then there is a retaining 00:23:58
wall that will transition down. 00:24:02
To the stormwater management facility that's somewhat on the left hand side of the page as you see it there. 00:24:06
Hopefully I've done a fair job of describing that. So this is, this is what we're, you know, talking about. Again, the the 00:24:13
property itself is much larger than the 3.2 acres being disturbed because the disturbance is being concentrated in that corridor, 00:24:18
if you will, along that main. 00:24:23
Corner where the street frontage is located and there's a stormwater management facility and retaining walls that are part of the 00:24:29
site development plans. So the plans were submitted in March, those plans were were reviewed, there were comments associated with 00:24:35
the site improvement plans. We actually had a meeting here in this room on April 1st and went over those comments. The design 00:24:41
professional applicant has responded to those. You should have seen that in your package. So the progress of the plans has been 00:24:47
great and. 00:24:52
Something that doesn't normally happen prior to this meeting is approval by the Georgia Storm Water, Soil and Water Conservation 00:24:59
Commission for disturbance over one acre. The city can approve that it has to go through the state and and typically that's a 00:25:04
pretty long process but that's approvals already occurred. So this this project already has state approval from an erosion control 00:25:09
standpoint. So that's. 00:25:14
That's a check mark there, so. 00:25:20
There is still some things that are outside. The city did approve wastewater allocation as part of the rezoning process a year 00:25:24
ago, but ultimately the the water and sewer are controlled by Oconee County Water Resources. So that is a separate item that would 00:25:29
be need to be a condition of approval and then as the process that you're familiar with the urban forest will not be part of the 00:25:35
reviewer discussion tonight. Should this project move forward that would likely be on the next month's agenda. Be happy to answer 00:25:40
any questions. 00:25:45
Council, it probably makes sense to go ahead and hear from the applicant and then we can kind of circle back on our question. So 00:26:00
gentlemen or gentlemen, if you want to come up and state your name and give us an overview, that would be great. Thank you, Mr. 00:26:04
Mayor. 00:26:09
My name is Scott Haynes. I work for Washington Engineering. I reside at 2081 Clock Filter Rd. 00:26:14
Here tonight with Mr. David Russell. He was the Director of Development for the Beverly J Searles Group. 00:26:19
Thank you, Mr. Campbell, for a really great presentation. I'm trying not to be too redundant, cover a lot of good stuff. 00:26:27
We're here tonight for the second part of what we started. 00:26:35
Last year. 00:26:38
Tonight here to ask for approval for the site Development Improvement Plans and also the associated demolition. 00:26:39
Permit that will be needed to develop this. 00:26:46
As mentioned, this is on the corner of Water and Durham St. on the South. 00:26:50
Western side. 00:26:53
It will be an age restricted community and it has taken advantage of the DCA. 00:26:54
Granting of 9% tax credits to be rewarded back in November. If you'll remember back to the rezone that was the critical piece for 00:27:00
this and. 00:27:04
Who were very excited to receive notification of that granting under those. 00:27:08
With those tax credits comes rules about the affordability and the breakdown of what has to be done with the. 00:27:14
Rents and things of that nature and. 00:27:20
Mr. Russell can speak to that a little more clearly if you'll have questions about. 00:27:23
This is an 8.7 approximately acre parcel right now. 00:27:28
As we talked about during the rezoning development agreement. 00:27:32
A large portion of that will be donated back to the city. I believe it's a year after. 00:27:36
To be used for hopefully the future connection of a trail system down there. It's primarily environmental area, floodplain and 00:27:42
such. This is just below the site, I think it totals around 6 acres. 00:27:47
There are currently 3 old houses, as were shown in the staff's presentation. 00:27:55
These will need to be removed some fashion or for this project to go forward. I know there may be some questions or discussion on 00:28:00
this topic. We're happy to talk about those. If there are, just know that those are always part of the plan to be somehow. 00:28:07
Removed from this property even you know as part of the zoning approval. 00:28:15
As far as the building goes, this really is the plan and the building itself are very close to what we showed you in the rezone 00:28:19
process. It's still a 3/4 split, three stories on the front of streets and four in the parking lot side. 00:28:25
Still an L, still showing the connections to the street, although we have eliminated a few because of grades and really large 00:28:31
massings of stairs, but still keeping a good bit of those direct connections that were part of the conversation during the rezone. 00:28:37
Sure. 00:28:47
The building is still a mixture of one and two-bedroom units. Unit count still remain the same and we still are providing the same 00:28:55
parking count as was provided was proposed during the rezone. It's 48 spaces. You'll remember we asked for reduction in parking 00:29:00
spaces. This is going to be. 00:29:05
Very non auto centric type development taking advantage of being downtown Watkinsville and the nature of the. 00:29:11
Folks that will be living here, So we feel that's that's still very appropriate. 00:29:17
Umm. 00:29:22
All in all, I'd really like to say very heartfelt thanks to staff. They've done a wonderful job to help shepherd us through this, 00:29:24
this project and giving us comments and we've done our best to address those. As Mr. Campbell mentioned, we have received the 00:29:30
storm water, excuse me, the soil residence sediment control approval from the state already. 00:29:35
We still have some submission to do to Oconee County for the water and sewer connections that should be forthcoming pretty soon. 00:29:42
Also, if approved tonight, we'd like to continue to move forward as quickly as possible, so we are prepared to submit our forest 00:29:50
protection plan just as soon as we were able. 00:29:54
All in all. 00:29:59
It'll be a good plan, quite a bit of protection considering the limited amount of disturbance on this parcel overall. 00:30:00
Just thank you again for all of your work both back last year to help this project and tonight we look forward to your comments if 00:30:08
you have any questions, we're more than happy to answer those. Thank you. 00:30:13
All right. Thank you. Mr. Haynes. I think if you and Mr. Russell just want to come on up here, I imagine we'll have some questions 00:30:20
and that'll save. 00:30:23
Save you guys some up and down South. I'd suggest y'all come on up, Mr. Russell, Reintroduce yourself to this group and then 00:30:26
council. I'll let y'all. 00:30:30
Much. I'll start asking questions. 00:30:34
Good evening. It's good to see you all again. My name is David Russell. I live at 115 Braxton Way, Roswell, GA. 00:30:36
Director of Development for the Beverly J Charles. 00:30:42
All right, we have Mr. Haynes and Mr. Russell. 00:30:46
Well, thank you all. 00:30:49
I remember the very lengthy conversations and looking at plans. 00:30:52
When y'all were here before. 00:30:58
So you highlighted, Scott, some of the things that are staying the same. 00:31:01
What is different from what we were presented other than? And by that I mean big picture, not small engineering matters that will 00:31:05
go right over my head. 00:31:11
Sure. Well, this is really very, very similar to the zoning plan convention. If what we can start with is the elevation is up, 00:31:17
like I mentioned, there's a couple of, I think 2 on either side of the building. 00:31:22
Direct access points that were eliminated. 00:31:27
Is again primarily for grade. 00:31:31
Large sets of. 00:31:33
Umm. 00:31:35
He thought those were best kept to be internal. 00:31:36
There is. There was a slight reconfiguration of the parking lot. It's really in. 00:31:41
Just to work out with the engineering of the wall. 00:31:46
Relocation or location of a dumpster. 00:31:52
That'll be up near the building screen from the. 00:31:55
But All in all, I mean that's. 00:31:58
It's really very close to what you saw back in the zoning. 00:31:59
Pretty hard pressed to point out any large differences. 00:32:03
And Scott at that point, remind me, it looks like you've brought the facade of the building up to grade at the corner of. 00:32:08
Water in Durham, so there's not kind of you originally had it kind of sunk down, but is that an accurate assessment of the design 00:32:15
at this point? This section is not showing that in the in the top corner. It's still depressed, I think 3 feet to balance it out. 00:32:20
It's 3 feet in the ground on that corner side. 00:32:25
And it's. 00:32:31
Probably 7 or 8 on the on the. 00:32:33
That was a balancing act with the. 00:32:35
Constraints of the site exactly the same as we presented it during the zoning. We have not moved that this. This drawing does 00:32:39
represent it as being on the corner, but what's not showing is the actual section line up to the corner. 00:32:44
Which would be probably right through about the first third of those front doors. 00:32:52
So they'll have to step down, step down into a Plaza, a couple steps, but just three. You said 3 feet. 00:32:57
That's, that's correct. And where's the 78 feet, is that further down, is that further down Durham and water, is that what you're 00:33:04
referring to? 00:33:07
Falls away pretty sharply. The building will be out of the ground there and then, not as much but some on the. 00:33:13
OK. 00:33:22
So I don't know if this is the time that we. 00:33:25
We're talking about what's happening on the inside and the amenities. Are all of those still the same, the library and the, you 00:33:28
know, the different? 00:33:32
Facilities for the opposites, yes, everything we committed to in the in the agreements is in the in the plan. So we could have 00:33:36
actually we're ready to then two weeks off full architectural is ready to submit but reflect all of the all the amenities that we 00:33:42
promised in our development agreement. 00:33:48
Pretty much the. 00:33:57
Council. 00:34:02
Brett. 00:34:05
Just curious what's what's all approval is done, what do you think completion timeframe is? So that's really going to depend on 00:34:09
when we start, we're right now projecting. 00:34:14
Shovels in the ground and. 00:34:20
Let's call it July 1st and it's a 15 month construction month construction process approximately depending on. 00:34:23
Where we are with with. 00:34:30
Things so long enough you never know if you get a two-month rain delay or you know you're fine. So our goal is to be done in 15 00:34:33
months from July. Next question and this is a little selfish how how are y'all going to try to keep it where people from 00:34:39
Watkinsville and Oconee. So that's that's the same thing that we talked about all throughout the process. We will this this 00:34:45
building will. 00:34:50
Knock on wood, I may not be concerned. It'll lease up within a month of us. 00:34:57
And 90 high, high percentage of people who will find this building or local residents, our marketing is going to be a sign on the 00:35:02
construction site. It's going to be in these meetings. People have already come up and say how do we on this list And so we 00:35:07
started to take names. 00:35:13
And that's that's really what it's going to be, so. 00:35:18
Know about it. They might read about it in a clipping and be able to contact it might be someone's mom or grandmother that hey, 00:35:22
mom can come over and check this out. So those people might be out of community, but it'll primarily the the. 00:35:28
Circular Trust is pretty much here in Watkinsville. People. People here know about the building going. 00:35:36
So we can't, we can't control who this is, obviously. 00:35:41
As far as our marketing radius, it's it's walking. 00:35:46
So if I have heard from several citizens who are interested in getting on a list of waiting list or a list For more information. 00:35:49
Can they do that now or is there a? Do they need to watch your website? What do I need to share with them? 00:35:56
We're really going to start that process once construction starts. Once construction starts, we'll have a while we're marketing 00:36:07
our leasing sign up. 00:36:11
We'll have leasing staff ready to start taking numbers. So part of it is as Scott mentioned this. 00:36:16
It's income driven. So you have to qualify to get in and it's it's a, it's a portion of the people who qualify to get it have to 00:36:23
make a certain amount of money. So there's a way to qualify our residents. So that's. 00:36:28
Really kind of. We have a very professional leasing and marketing staff that's equipped to. 00:36:34
To qualify those as residents. 00:36:40
I what I will do. 00:36:43
And you can certainly have that. 00:36:45
My numbers support my cell phone number. 00:36:48
Be careful. 00:36:52
I would say that just wait. There's really no there. You're not going to be losing your place in line if you wait till the 00:36:54
construction starts and then the sign goes up. 00:36:58
There's a couple people who found a. 00:37:04
You're not gonna lose your place if you if you get. 00:37:08
OK. 00:37:11
Any other questions? 00:37:14
I do have a few. One of the things that was mentioned to me was that we're making the sidewalks wide enough so that vehicles or 00:37:16
ambulances could use those that more quickly access the site on the front we're going to do. 00:37:22
Greater density, type of concrete or do some other things to ensure that should we have vehicles on those sidewalks, it's not, 00:37:29
they're not going to get broken up or anything. 00:37:33
I think that that was one of the comments that we received from fire that we were just a little bit curious about. What is the 00:37:41
sidewalks, they are 6 foot sidewalks I believe on the on the image there. 00:37:45
You know, I don't see an issue. 00:37:52
It's probably a little more base is what, right some fiber mesh. So we can certainly look at that in the front. Are you suggesting 00:37:55
that at some point if golf carts are allowed, people are going to use golf carts? No. Like you know I think what was mentioned and 00:38:01
it was something about emergency vehicles and access perhaps to the front of the site. We given the size of the parking lot in the 00:38:07
back that I just want to be sure if you were creating that opportunity that we had. 00:38:13
You know that we had the right density of concrete or greater base to make. 00:38:21
Should that happen or should there be a moving truck or something that's accessing from the front that they? 00:38:25
Crush the sidewalk. 00:38:29
You know, then the city is, I'm assuming, the sidewalks. 00:38:31
Will they be deeded to the city or will you guys take care of the right of way and we are dedicating additional right away to? 00:38:34
Right. As far as emergency vehicles in the front, I mean the projects really set up to access those types? 00:38:42
Equipment Infrastructure from the RE. 00:38:50
Where they're successful ways and ramps and things. 00:38:52
So, I mean, we're happy to. 00:38:56
Discuss with the. 00:38:58
Let's put four in the sidewalk spec. I don't think that's if you just talked with the engineer about that. We don't need to solve 00:39:00
the problem tonight, but I think that would be good. I just want to be sure if we're going to be in charge of maintaining those 00:39:03
sidewalks. 00:39:06
You know, we if there's an idea from the emergency services that they may be pulling a wheel up on those that we aren't dealing 00:39:10
with crack sidewalks later on, sure. 00:39:14
Can you remind me on the green spaces at approximately 5 acres coming back to the city, is that what your plan is? So then deed 00:39:22
that back to the city? 00:39:27
OK. It's between 5:00 and 6:00 acres. 00:39:32
All right. And then Scott, was the parcel closest to the courthouse part of the rezone or was did that remain detached residential 00:39:36
or that? 00:39:39
Umm. 00:39:44
It was not part of the rezone we excluded. 00:39:45
For the discussion we had back then desire to leave that to potentially still allow for some commercial on that street or office 00:39:49
that's right, because it's downtown or mixed-use office there, right. OK. But what we have done is. 00:39:55
I mean in addition to providing improvements for sidewalks and curves along that stretch to that's how you connect to courthouse 00:40:01
in downtown corridor. So it's important that we added and provided that you've also stubbed out a connection for storm water and 00:40:08
looked at sizing the pond for this development for whatever might come for that future. 00:40:14
Because the parcel is limited. 00:40:21
More options to develop in the future and. 00:40:24
Ready. 00:40:28
Connection. 00:40:29
OK. 00:40:32
All right, Council, any other questions? 00:40:35
All right, well, it looks like we need a motion for. 00:40:41
To approve the site improvement construction documents and then the associated demolition permits for the older structures, which 00:40:44
I believe are going to be offered to move before they're demolished, correct? 00:40:49
Someone wants to move those structures that's that's correct. So there's there's there's three structures that will be potentially 00:40:54
moved or demolished. 00:40:58
And we have the, we have the sellers here and they've grown up on the property, so lots of sentimental value and. 00:41:03
There there are special places to people in the audience. 00:41:10
From the The decision to move them will be whether there's a market for someone who wants to come with them. There's asbestos in 00:41:13
the building. Some of the buildings literally can't like 1 cinder block. 00:41:18
Can't be moved, so we will. 00:41:24
We'll take care of it to move them if there's a market, if there's some some value in doing that. 00:41:27
OK. All right. What's that, Jeff? 00:41:34
Is there a timeline for how long they'd be available? Do we know that yet? So we would potentially. 00:41:37
Making that call. 00:41:46
August 1st. Ish. Midsummer. 00:41:48
Right. What we will do. So there's there's we've already started reaching out. There's a local. So I've reached out to a person I 00:41:52
know in Atlanta whether if there's you know, some market to do those, there's a local person that we have reached out to that 00:41:57
specializes in moving houses. It's not. 00:42:03
It's not that you can't go Google that person. There's a very small world that is doing that. So we've we've started that process 00:42:09
and trying to find that guy. The other constraints are where the Billings can be moved. Is the asbestos too much of an issue and 00:42:13
then is. 00:42:18
Physically room to move those houses down that little. 00:42:24
So those are the types of things we need to figure out, OK? 00:42:28
Just thinking about that, you coming down Water St. that's a pretty big dip into Experiment Station. I hate service. 00:42:32
Long void truck. 00:42:40
Yeah, yeah. All right. We'll let y'all work that, work that detail out with staff and. 00:42:51
The appropriate amount of advertisement for all that. All right, so we've got that's what we're looking for though is a motion to 00:42:57
approve the site improvement, construction documents and the demolition permit. 00:43:01
We can just do that together, Joe. Sharon, is that fine? OK. 00:43:06
So moved. 00:43:12
Do we have? 00:43:14
All right. Any further comments? Conversation here? None. All in favor, say aye. 00:43:17
Any opposed motion carries 5. 00:43:22
All right. Thank you. 00:43:26
All right. We have under old business. We had tabled a matter related to 41 Barnet Shoals Rd. a demolition permit. Manager 00:43:29
Dickerson, if you could provide us with an update on that? 00:43:34
Sure. 00:43:39
So the applicant has requested to maybe handle this a little differently. There were some suggestions at the last council meeting 00:43:41
and they've decided to now pursue an administrative option which is trying to give away the home, have the house moved? 00:43:48
Obviously they understand that the council would prefer the house be moved and stay within the city limits but there's no way to 00:43:57
you know, require that and I do believe they have advertised there is a sign up on the property. I don't know if it made if it 00:44:03
makes paper will be in tomorrow's paper, I would imagine and we gave them, I think. 00:44:08
Joe, do you remember how many days we owe? 90 days, 90 days? So we'll have an update. 00:44:15
Somebody may have to. 00:44:20
Yeah. But we gave them 90 days. So we'll know we'll have a status update in 90 days. We essentially give giving them six months, 00:44:24
but we'll know I think within 90 days whether or not this. 00:44:31
Going to happen or not, So we'll provide a status that to y'all. The July meeting is the plan, if not before. 00:44:37
All right. 00:44:45
Council, any questions on? 00:44:48
OK. Then we will move to our new business item which is Lael Lane. 00:44:50
Even though it says none, we know that we had an emergent issue with the pipe on Oil Lane. 00:44:55
We are meeting about that tomorrow with the county Chairman Daniel. I want to thank you for your team being willing to. 00:45:00
Lean in and make your expertise available to us. We're going to talk about materials and some different things tomorrow and see if 00:45:08
we. 00:45:12
Make sure that we're aligned. This is somewhat of an emergency situation. So we're very hopeful that you guys will be able to help 00:45:16
on that pretty quick. John, I know you'll have a full schedule, but we are a little concerned about that road, so, so but. 00:45:23
Mr. Campbell and Mrs. Dickerson and everything, Councilman Garrett and Councilman Thomas, everybody who helped out in that 00:45:32
situation, we got. 00:45:35
A. 00:45:40
You know, we got some really crazy pricing on that right out of the gate and decided we work hard to drive that pricing down. 00:45:41
What I'd ask you to do tonight would be to approve up to $50,000 for those improvements. We don't anticipate it being that much, 00:45:48
but I don't want to have to come back to this group. I'd like to authorize the manager. 00:45:54
Up to $50,000 to take care of that. I think the county estimate sharing round numbers came in at. 00:46:01
35. 00:46:09
That doesn't include asphalt repaving. So we're going to have to do some repaving tomorrow. We'll talk about the, you know whether 00:46:12
it's possible. We also sourced some other pipes, whether it's potentially possible for you to them to use some of that at a lower. 00:46:19
Although Mr. Weathers indicated he's kind of got away, he wants to do it and I understand that, so we'll so we'll work through 00:46:28
that tomorrow. 00:46:32
But I would ask you all if you would be able to authorize up to 50 it would be a split of probably our remaining L make funds. 00:46:36
Sadly and are and then some splash three money most likely is how we would find that but I'd request that you guys approve up to 00:46:42
$50,000 authorized for. 00:46:48
For the emergency repairs on the way, Elaine, if possible. 00:46:55
I make a motion that we will prove up to $50,000 for the necessary repairs. 00:47:00
I'll second. 00:47:06
Any further discussion all in favor. 00:47:07
Any. 00:47:12
Now we have our regular public comment period. We're down to just three. If anyone wants to come forward, the same rules apply. 00:47:16
Come forward, state your name and make any public comment that you have for the City Council. 00:47:21
And were any comments received prior to the meeting via e-mail? 00:47:31
We had none. OK, I'm going to close the public comments. We'll move on to the mayor's report. I'll be short and sweet. Wanted to 00:47:35
mention that we continue to get some great reviews for what's happening in Watkinsville, Georgia. Trend did a brief write up on 00:47:41
Wire Park and what's happening at Wire Park. That was nice to see. 00:47:47
Miracle League Project is in probably, I'd say rounding third base, maybe on its way home. 00:47:53
They poured concrete last Friday out there. I think there's a 28 day cure period before they can lay down the turf. On top of 00:48:01
that, they're making great progress on the landscaping. I think that's close to being wrapped up. It looks beautiful out there now 00:48:07
and then. They were working on the turf on the playground today as well. Manager Dickerson has communicated with ESP to get all 00:48:12
the warranties and details on the playground equipment so that we can set aside. 00:48:18
Appropriate funds for maintenance and repair over. 00:48:24
As well. So I would think you know at some point in May or early June, we'll be having a celebration out there, but I don't think 00:48:28
ESP has finalized a date for that yet. So stay tuned for more. 00:48:32
I'm sure we'll be invited to that. And then the last thing I want to call out and Christine may or may not have more to say on 00:48:37
this, we're seeing, as you would expect, continued pressure on our historic assets in Watkinsville we have. 00:48:44
You know, homes being advertised to be moved, we're starting to see demolition permits again. 00:48:51
We're going to need to take a fresh look at historic preservation and historic preservation ordinances. We've done that before. We 00:48:57
decided at that point they were a little bit wonky and. 00:49:01
And they are wonky. But the government, the law is very specific in terms of how you can govern historic preservation. But. 00:49:07
Christine and I are taking a look at that and we'll probably come back to you guys with some thoughts and recommendations in the 00:49:13
next few months on what we may need to do to ensure that. 00:49:17
Limited supply of historic buildings and structures are preserved. 00:49:21
Preserved in Watkinsville are given every opportunity to be preserved as we move forward. 00:49:26
Down the road. So not a lot of specifics there, but just stay tuned for more and if you have thoughts on that, we're all yours on. 00:49:31
You know your perspective on that. That's all I have. 00:49:37
Actually, we have one more thing, chief. 00:49:42
Y'all gonna have to help me because we had we had an exciting thing. Y'all ready. 00:49:46
The mayor is a birthday boy. The birthday brother is the birthday boy all day long. 00:49:52
Everybody gets embarrassed, though. OK, All right. Special Watkinsville birthday song? Feel deeply honored. 00:50:02
Yeah, yeah. 00:50:09
OK, All right. Can't do it like everybody else can. 00:50:12
Thank you all. You know, 47 and feeling fine. All right. Councilmember Garrett will turn it over to you. What you got, Sir? 00:50:16
All right, Chuck's keeping it brief. Councilwoman Massey. What? 00:50:25
Keeping it brief as well, Councilman Thomas, I just want to thank. 00:50:29
Chief and the Police Department you know for that outstanding presentation with the with the. 00:50:33
Easter I know there was not as many kids this year as last year, but I think they had just as much fun. 00:50:41
And the weather was perfect. So I thank you for continuing to be a light in the community and and making sure that the kids and 00:50:49
the citizens realize that the Police Department and the city of Wattsville is a great place to live. 00:50:56
Councilwoman Tuck. 00:51:06
So we're continuing to make progress on Harris Hills Park, it's not quite as. 00:51:07
Quick as probably everyone would like, but continuing to meet, continuing to try to get quotes, which is a little challenging in 00:51:13
these times. 00:51:17
We are continuing on and. 00:51:23
Do you want to talk about Madison? 00:51:26
And we are continuing. 00:51:30
To look at other surrounding communities and what they're doing with their downtown development authorities and Main Street 00:51:34
programs. And Jeff and I went to Madison in the past month and met with them, a wealth of knowledge. And so we are excited to 00:51:40
continue. 00:51:45
Gathering information. 00:51:52
How it can benefit the city of Watkinsville. So more on that soon. 00:51:54
All right, Councilman Camp. 00:52:01
Yeah, we had a good meeting with Madison and I think we mentioned. 00:52:05
Before, but Christine is going to the. 00:52:09
The meeting end of June in Savannah. For that I will not be able to make it, but I did sign up to take the DDA online. 00:52:12
Course, so I'll start doing that to learn a little bit more. But yeah, medicine was eye opening. 00:52:21
And they made it clear that we can lean on them. 00:52:29
For the questions we have as to what to do, then another bit of. 00:52:33
Another announcement. I guess we have another state champion. 00:52:39
In middle school and not only in the 3200 and not only A state champion but also state record holder now and. 00:52:45
So Aaron Roderick is continues. 00:52:54
In track and field across country, so congratulations. 00:52:58
I know the one day early birthday present, but it's a wonderful birthday present. 00:53:02
Thank you, Jeff. I'm proud of Aaron. He's worked hard. 00:53:06
Anyway. 00:53:10
Did the work and he thankfully was rewarded for it. So thank you. 00:53:11
All right. I think that may be all that we have. I do want to thank, I forgot to mention one thing about the Chief. The new sign I 00:53:16
think is a great asset. I think it was wonderful in terms of advertising the Easter egg hunt and then to be able to deploy that to 00:53:22
different locations as you have on Hardin Hill and other spaces to remind people about speeds and to have the flexibility to drop 00:53:27
that trailer is really nice and to have some. 00:53:32
Clever messages on it to get people's attention. I think it's also nice. So that's a. 00:53:38
That's been a nice addition. May want to look at figuring out how we can find a few more of those overtime. So glad to have them. 00:53:42
Anything else for the good of the order. 00:53:47
Then we're going to have a brief executive session. I'll we'll do a, let's do a let's, we'll do that motion to go in and then 00:53:52
we'll do a quick two or three minute recess in case anyone needs to say goodbye to anybody or. 00:53:58
Hit the restroom real quick and we'll come back, but I will entertain a motion to go into executive. 00:54:05
For threatened and pending litigation. 00:54:09
I make a motion to go into executive session. Excuse me, not pending potential, but yeah, threatened and potential. We have a 00:54:12
motion. Do we have a second? 00:54:15
All right. We have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All right. We will come back at 7:20. 00:54:19
We have started reporting this. I make a motion to. 00:54:27
Do we have a second all in favor? Say aye. 00:54:33
Meetings. 00:54:37
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Transcript

Started getting quiet? 00:00:12
Mayors got the gamble. We better get quiet. 00:00:15
Just waiting for the word. Are we on? We live yet? 00:00:18
All right. We're missing one screen, just so you know, if you could pop that down. 00:00:24
All right. Welcome everybody, to the April 20th Watkinsville City Council meeting. I'm pleased to see that we have a quorum here 00:00:34
tonight. In fact, we have perfect attendance. And thank you all for being here tonight. Let's please stand for the Pledge of 00:00:38
Allegiance. 00:00:43
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. 00:00:50
And to the Republic for which it. 00:00:55
One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:58
All right. Once again, thank you all for being here. 00:01:10
Our meeting is being broadcast simultaneously and is available at the city website for anyone who chooses to walk along. 00:01:13
We have the meeting details, packet, and minutes are all organized so that you can follow along online if you choose to, and then 00:01:21
those recordings are made available to the public either the same night or the same day of our meetings so that the public can 00:01:26
follow along. 00:01:31
At this point, we do not allow online public input. Our guests will need to be here in person if they want to provide feedback, or 00:01:36
they'll need to do that in advance of the meeting. 00:01:40
The meetings agenda is posted one full week before the meeting to allow the public sufficient time to review. That along with the 00:01:46
meeting packet is posted on the Friday before the meeting and all that is shared online. We do have a less formal public input 00:01:52
policy here. Generally for the non legally required portions, Council at its discretion will allow the public to make comments 00:01:58
that is at the sole discretion of the council and is subject to some time limitations that the attorney will provide guidance on 00:02:04
if we need to do that. 00:02:10
There are some parts of the meeting typically where we where public input is required. 00:02:16
Or a public hearing is required and the attorney will advise when that occurs. 00:02:20
Our first matter that we have tonight is the approval of the March 23rd regular meeting minutes Council, if you've had a chance to 00:02:24
review those. 00:02:28
Minutes. I would love a motion. Or if there are any edits that need to be made, please let us know now. 00:02:32
All right, I'd love a motion if there's no corrections to the minutes. 00:02:45
I make a motion to approve the minutes. We have a motion. Do we have a second? 00:02:51
Second, any discussion seeing none all in favor, say aye. 00:02:56
Motion carries 5. 00:03:01
On the agenda, we do have one item we need to add to the agenda tonight. Please note that we do have three items under consent as 00:03:03
well. This is the time. If you want to pull one of those items for discussion, you need to go ahead and say that now. If you 00:03:09
don't, we will simply approve that. The one thing that we do need to add under new business is Laya Lane will need to approve some 00:03:15
budget to deal with that emergent situation on Layla Lane. So would ask that we would add an item 12 under new business for Whale 00:03:21
Lane so. 00:03:27
Now is the time to speak up if you want to pull anything off consent. Otherwise, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda 00:03:33
with the addition of Leo Lane under new business. 00:03:38
I make the motion to approve the agenda with the addition of Leo Lane as #12. 00:03:44
Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? 00:03:52
Hearing none all in favor, say ay. 00:03:57
Any opposed the same motion carries 50. 00:03:59
All right, Administration, I already mentioned public input that we are can be a little less formal on that. If you do have 00:04:04
something that you want to speak to, please raise your hand, let us know, and we will indicate whether we are comfortable with 00:04:11
that. If it is a formal moment for public input, public comment or a legally required public hearing will indicate as such. 00:04:17
During that part of the meeting, if you do comment the City Council at any point, please address the council, not one another. 00:04:25
When you do come to the microphone, if you come to speak, please indicate your address. We are missing a microphone share. And do 00:04:29
you think it's sitting there on the dye somewhere? 00:04:34
OK. So you certainly don't have to hold it like a preacher. You can just put it out there and speak to it. But do speak into the 00:04:39
microphone, give us your address and your name before you speak because the public cannot hear you if you just comment from the 00:04:45
audience. So we would ask that you come forward. So our online. 00:04:51
Observers can see you. So we're going to start off tonight with a proclamation, one that's near and dear to us, and that is 00:04:58
recognizing our very own Julie Klein on Municipal Clerks Week. So I'm going to read this. 00:05:06
And it goes like this. 00:05:15
Whereas the office of professional municipal clerk, a time honored and vital part of local government, exists throughout the world 00:05:18
and whereas the office of professional municipal clerk is the oldest among public servants. 00:05:23
And whereas the office of the professional Municipal clerk provides the professional link between the citizens, local governing 00:05:28
bodies and agencies. 00:05:32
Where it is most appropriate that we recognize the accomplishments of the Office of Professional Municipal Court. 00:06:05
Now, therefore, I, Brian Broderick, Mayor of Watkinsville, do hereby recognize the week of May. 00:06:11
Through May 7th as Professional Municipal Court Week and further extend on behalf of myself, the City Council and City staff, 00:06:15
sincere appreciation to our professional Municipal Clerk, Julie Angel Klein, and to all professional municipal clerks for the 00:06:20
vital services they perform and their exemplary dedication to the communities they represent on this 20th day of April 2022. 00:06:25
Julie. 00:06:30
That is all well and good, and that's some big fancy language, but to be a little bit more down to earth about it. 00:06:36
You have been a rock for this community. 00:06:42
Gosh, more than two decades at this point? 00:06:45
You're tireless. You're incredibly professional. You're an asset to this group. 00:06:48
There's not much that gets done in this town that you don't have a hand in and we are deeply appreciative. 00:06:55
So on behalf of the City Council, on behalf of the citizens of Watkinsville, thanks so much for all you do. 00:07:00
I don't have a speech because I'll cry. Thank you. Thank you all. 00:07:18
Speech. Maybe Julie's worst nightmare in this scenario. He also Yeah, we will not ask that of her. 00:07:26
Umm. 00:07:32
But thank you, Julie. We do deeply, deeply appreciate you. 00:07:33
All right. With that, we will move on to Financial Reports Manager Dickerson. We're going to let you run us through our financial 00:07:38
position and how we're doing on all the Splice and Arpas and other acronyms, please. 00:07:43
You should have a copy of the balance sheet as well as the. 00:07:51
Revenues and expenditures, we are tracking actually less on the expenditures, a little bit more on the revenues than where we 00:07:56
should be at this point. So that's always good news. 00:08:01
If there any questions on that specific or not, I can take those now or later. 00:08:06
Have any questions about the balance sheet? 00:08:10
OK, SPLOST one report. So this is the 2009 SPLOST right now we have about 252,000 and some change in the in the account that money 00:08:13
is dedicated and designated and and appropriated for the sewer line, a project that is going through the industrial park. 00:08:21
Splash Two has ended as well at the 2015 there are funds in there for. 00:08:31
Hair shows part, Master plan, implement. 00:08:38
Specifically the 440,000 that is set aside for the playground that's going in as well as some other sort of landscape and whatnot 00:08:41
that's sort of being done. We also have Splash 3 monies that are being set aside for the Hair Shoals Park project out of SPLOST in 00:08:47
Spas 3. And then the other portion of this is the 904,000 and some change that will be added to the Splash One money for the sewer 00:08:53
line a project. 00:08:58
But both of these are not accepting any. There's no more money except for the interest we may get on those on those funds that are 00:09:04
in the bank. 00:09:07
This Bloss 3 project, this is our newest one, started last year in October. One I believe is our first. So I think yeah, it 00:09:11
started October 1. And so right now you have only spent a little bit more than $3000, but you have encumbered some funds. You've 00:09:19
encumbered monies for public safety personnel that was in last year's budget or in this current year's budget. 00:09:27
And you've also set aside some money for. 00:09:35
The fire truck, which I believe, we just think we just paid that check today. 00:09:39
For the I'm sorry, not for the fire truck, for the fire department, for Jaws of Life, a battery operated Jaws of Life unit. And 00:09:44
then it's not on here yet because we haven't spent any of the money yet, but we have encumbered $100,000 and I should have put it 00:09:49
on here for the recreational park and green space. 00:09:54
So that is on there as well or that is how these funds will be spent? 00:09:59
It's important to note that right now we're averaging about 71,000. 00:10:04
We typically when we budgeted for this project, we budgeted at 61,000 or about 62. So we're tracking about $10,000 more a month on 00:10:08
this which is obviously. 00:10:14
Good news. 00:10:19
Any questions on spots before I jump to American rescue? 00:10:21
And I know this is extremely small, but so the American rescue plan funds are the funds that were. 00:10:25
Approved. 00:10:31
The federal government in. 00:10:33
March or April of last year and distributed its city and they're going to be distributed in two tranches 1 tranche of. 00:10:35
$548,204.50 in July of this of this past year and another that same amount this this July. And these are funds that we'll talk. 00:10:40
Well, we're not going to talk about tonight too much, but I will tell you that on the consent agenda is a request that you 00:10:46
designate those funds for general government services. The final rule from the US Treasury was that those funds up to $10 million, 00:10:52
all governments can claim up to $10 million. If they got like I think Oconee County got 9 million, they can actually make a 00:10:58
designation to use a standard allowance. 00:11:04
Those funds for general government services, so you're no longer required to use them for sewer, water, broadband, essential pay 00:11:10
for employees where they want to, They encourage you to do that. But you have other government services that you may want to use 00:11:16
the funds for. And so although we have, we started out that way because that was the inner rule, the interim rule, the final rule 00:11:23
did not come into play until January of this year. So we had almost a full year of. 00:11:29
General government services and then you will have free rent on how you want to use those, so. 00:12:09
Any. 00:12:13
All right. Just a little bit of a follow up and I don't know if the mayor will want to try to address this now or not, but we do 00:12:16
have a schedule for the budget. 00:12:20
That's rolling out. Tonight will be the first public hearing on the budget. There is no budget to be seen yet, but if you have 00:12:24
input, the public has input on how they would like to see the government. 00:12:29
The funds in the upcoming fiscal year, that's the information that will be provided, that can be provided tonight to council. 00:12:34
The mayor and I will get together 1st of next week and go through his revisions and then we'll provide that to the council on May 00:12:40
2nd. 00:12:43
There are public hearings for the mileage rate and budget work sessions coming up in May. We may be moving. I guess I'll leave 00:12:47
that to the mayors request. The June meeting may move to the 14th, depending on y'all desire. And if so, we'll you know, we'll 00:12:53
publicize that. We'll have plenty of time to publicize that change, but. 00:12:58
But that's sort of what you're looking at. It's going to be fast and furious once we hit May 2nd and hopefully. 00:13:04
Be good opportunity to spend the. 00:13:09
To make this community even better. 00:13:13
Any questions? 00:13:15
Did you want to ask about the budget, about the about the date or anything yet? I think we'll nail that down. We'll nail that down 00:13:24
offline and see if we can. If we need to make that adjustment, we'll let everybody know in the next few days. 00:13:29
OK. 00:13:35
And move on, Yep. So business licenses, so we've had 39 business licenses in the month of March. 00:13:36
No alcohol licenses. 00:13:42
You probably see a lot of names, those that can read that small and got them in your packet, but and then we had on on economic 00:13:46
development building permits, we had 14 building permits for 9 projects. You'll see several that are over there in the in the wire 00:13:50
park. 00:13:55
Develop. 00:13:59
Any questions on any of that? 00:14:01
All right, seeing none, I will pass it on to that command. All right, Chief, think it's your turn. 00:14:05
What haven't you been up to is probably the better question, but we will, we'll go on from there, so. 00:14:12
Good evening, Mayor and Council. Always a pleasure to be here in front of you to talk about good things Watkinsville. 00:14:18
Umm. 00:14:25
I submitted a report last week. I was missing the front page data that I normally have to provide to you because a. 00:14:26
An update to my record management system caused a crash in the database and didn't get that fixed until today, but I did get a 00:14:33
copy of it done today. 00:14:37
And I submitted it to you at the dyess this evening if you have any questions over any of that or any of the traffic statistic 00:14:41
data that I have provided. 00:14:46
In the back. 00:14:51
Councilman Garrett, I appreciate those comments about the sign that's in. 00:14:53
On South Main, heading South. 00:14:57
Capturing the drivers, slowing down and your observance of that, that's good. 00:15:01
What? They're what they're meant. 00:15:07
Well, if you have no, no other questions and no other commentary. 00:15:09
Well, we had a little bit of fun over the weekend. 00:15:15
We had an Easter Bunny come in and hide 10,000 eggs. 00:15:20
And then that happened. 00:15:24
It was, it was quite the challenge to be on the receiving end of those kids. 00:15:30
And holding them back. 00:15:36
So that was a good time. The rain, you know, the rain rained early that morning and it it stopped exactly like I had predicted it 00:15:39
to do. 00:15:43
Meteorologically. 00:15:48
9:00 and we were able to get the eggs out on the ground and get everybody up there. 00:15:50
And happy. 00:15:55
All right, the next event we have coming up is Cops and Bobbers May 7th, 2022. The registration was open for 2 1/2 days. It filled 00:15:58
up completely. It is closed. 00:16:03
May have to back up and reevaluate having another one. 00:16:10
Because it filled up so quickly, but that's the way it was for me in Saint Mary's I I had a bunch of larger pond there and I was 00:16:14
able to accommodate well over 300 kids. 00:16:19
Annually and that would fill out in about 2 1/2 days. Three days so. 00:16:24
We're holding holding true to that, that standard, but. 00:16:30
Everybody's excited about fishing with cops, so hey, I. 00:16:33
All right. 00:16:38
Chief, do you have all the local partners that you need for prizes and such for that, or are you still looking for local 00:16:39
businesses to support that event? 00:16:44
Make sure they get recognized and. 00:16:55
Acknowledgement on social media and I know we don't have room for more kids, but if if you have some, is there an opportunity for 00:16:58
anybody to volunteer to help or support you guys or do you have all the help that you need? There's always. 00:17:04
Always plenty to do out there. I have fishing measuring stations and and recording stations that have to be manned. I have some 00:17:10
cooking that needs to be done, you know, helping here and there. You know she'll have to show kids how to help cook worms stuff. 00:17:16
There's there's plenty of work to do, so anybody wants to volunteer, just reach out to me. I'd be happy to try to find something 00:17:24
to do for you. 00:17:27
Thank you. 00:17:31
All right. That it for you, chief. OK, all right. Unless we have any discussion that we need to have on the consent agenda, I'll 00:17:40
entertain a motion to approve. 00:17:45
I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. 00:17:55
2nd. 00:18:02
All right. We have a motion in a second. Any discussion hearing? None. All in favor? Say aye. 00:18:03
Any. 00:18:08
Motion carries 5 O. 00:18:10
All right. At this point, we have a public hearing. 00:18:13
And I believe this is on their first public hearing related to the budget, correct Manager Dickerson. 00:18:18
So the purpose of this hearing and manager Dickerson, feel free to to jump in if you want to add anything. 00:18:25
This is we don't have. 00:18:32
We have not finalized the budget draft, so members of the public or members of the council, if you want to share some input on 00:18:35
what you would want to see in the budget, what's important to you, what your priorities are, we want to hear about it and this is 00:18:39
the time. 00:18:43
For you to do that, the speakers, as I said earlier, if you come up, state your name, state your address. 00:18:47
You know, we don't want to have any attacks. I don't think we will in the budget, I hope. But we would not want to have personal 00:18:54
debate, argument attacks or irrelevant discussion. We want you to address the merits of the matter that's before us, and in this 00:18:59
case it is the FY23. 00:19:04
Budget. You should speak to Council, not to each. 00:19:09
And obviously we can't speak to litigation or personnel matters, so the podium is open if anyone cares to come forward. And if the 00:19:12
attorney is satisfied with my description of how to handle public comment, all right. 00:19:19
Does anyone care to come and offer any any feedback or suggestions? 00:19:26
For the FY23 city of Watkinsville. 00:19:31
Now we have some local property owners, business owners. 00:19:37
Young citizens. 00:19:40
Our fearless leader of Oconee County, Chairman Daniel, thank you for being. 00:19:42
What? 00:19:47
I. 00:19:50
All right. I'm not seeing any comments there at the podium. So we will consider that matter close. We'll bring it back behind the 00:19:52
Rail council. I know we've had planning meetings or other things at this point. 00:19:57
Do you have anything else that you want to share with the manager or maybe related to the budget? 00:20:02
All right. Well, I know you've all been very active already in that process and thank you for that. And we'll have two more 00:20:09
opportunities, correct? 00:20:12
Have those kind of conversations in our next meeting, obviously there'll be something to react to. 00:20:16
Three more. OK. All right. OK. So that is our budget. Now we'll move on to appearances. We do have a 10 minute time limit for 00:20:22
appearances per the guidance of the state zoning law. And tonight on the agenda we have Waters Walk, which is an age restricted 00:20:28
independent living retirement community at Durham and Water streets has been proposed. 00:20:35
Mr. Campbell, our city engineer, I think we're going to start with a report from you, please. 00:20:43
Thank you, Mayor. So hopefully you were familiar with this project. You've seen it about a year ago when it went through the 00:20:48
rezoning process, which is the development agreement that was worked out over a couple months time period if you will recall about 00:20:55
this time last year. So just to jog everyone's memory, the location of the project known as Waters Walk is on the southern side of 00:21:02
the intersection there of of Water St. and Durham St. The majority of the development is not. 00:21:09
On the western side, which kind of goes down to the Creek, but it is up near the the corner of those two Main St. frontages. 00:21:17
It's a combination of a multiple parcels. 00:21:24
If you can go to the next slide, so that's that's the view of the corner facing South, so whether you knew the names of the 00:21:28
streets or not and as you were traveling there in that area somewhat paralleling Main St. 00:21:35
That is, there's a number of existing structures on that parcel as well, which is part of this application for construction 00:21:42
documents Site improvement, Next slide. 00:21:46
Again, so, so there's three primary structures there. That is the structure of the only of the primary structures that has 00:21:53
frontage on Durham St. so that is 40 Durham St. And then the other two structures are along along Water St. 00:22:00
You. 00:22:08
So that's the structure that's on Water St. that's closest. 00:22:10
To Durham. If you if you think about the the backside, if you will, of Oconee State Bank property, if you're heading towards the 00:22:15
courthouse, this would be on your right. 00:22:19
And then that is the, the third structure that is part of this, this area that's being developed for the Waters Walk project. 00:22:24
Hopefully that provides some clarification on on what is there as you would see it today. So the the next slide shows that from a 00:22:30
a plan view that it was presented by the design professional. You can kind of see there the orientation on the right hand side of 00:22:36
the page that's Water St. 00:22:42
And then? 00:22:49
You can see those existing structures as it orients back. 00:22:50
Again on the left hand side of the page would be down gradient or towards this stream? 00:22:55
And then that is the proposed site plan. So that structure there is a multiple story structure, the footprint as it was 00:23:03
represented on the plans. 00:23:06
About 22,000 square feet, so it is not quite half an acre. 00:23:11
In footprint. So as you can imagine, that's a great deal of surface area. One of the points I want to bring up, if you do not 00:23:16
remember, is that the portion of the property that is closest to the courthouse is not being developed, so that will remain in its 00:23:23
current state with the exception of the improvements that are being shown. 00:23:30
Curb and gutter, sidewalk, those types of things along the the street frontage if you are not familiar or the plan in its original 00:23:37
state and the plan in its current state, the very thick. 00:23:43
Serpentine line somewhat front and center on that is would be a retaining wall, so the building will in some ways be. 00:23:49
The parking area that's behind the building will be at a higher elevation than the existing grade and then there is a retaining 00:23:58
wall that will transition down. 00:24:02
To the stormwater management facility that's somewhat on the left hand side of the page as you see it there. 00:24:06
Hopefully I've done a fair job of describing that. So this is, this is what we're, you know, talking about. Again, the the 00:24:13
property itself is much larger than the 3.2 acres being disturbed because the disturbance is being concentrated in that corridor, 00:24:18
if you will, along that main. 00:24:23
Corner where the street frontage is located and there's a stormwater management facility and retaining walls that are part of the 00:24:29
site development plans. So the plans were submitted in March, those plans were were reviewed, there were comments associated with 00:24:35
the site improvement plans. We actually had a meeting here in this room on April 1st and went over those comments. The design 00:24:41
professional applicant has responded to those. You should have seen that in your package. So the progress of the plans has been 00:24:47
great and. 00:24:52
Something that doesn't normally happen prior to this meeting is approval by the Georgia Storm Water, Soil and Water Conservation 00:24:59
Commission for disturbance over one acre. The city can approve that it has to go through the state and and typically that's a 00:25:04
pretty long process but that's approvals already occurred. So this this project already has state approval from an erosion control 00:25:09
standpoint. So that's. 00:25:14
That's a check mark there, so. 00:25:20
There is still some things that are outside. The city did approve wastewater allocation as part of the rezoning process a year 00:25:24
ago, but ultimately the the water and sewer are controlled by Oconee County Water Resources. So that is a separate item that would 00:25:29
be need to be a condition of approval and then as the process that you're familiar with the urban forest will not be part of the 00:25:35
reviewer discussion tonight. Should this project move forward that would likely be on the next month's agenda. Be happy to answer 00:25:40
any questions. 00:25:45
Council, it probably makes sense to go ahead and hear from the applicant and then we can kind of circle back on our question. So 00:26:00
gentlemen or gentlemen, if you want to come up and state your name and give us an overview, that would be great. Thank you, Mr. 00:26:04
Mayor. 00:26:09
My name is Scott Haynes. I work for Washington Engineering. I reside at 2081 Clock Filter Rd. 00:26:14
Here tonight with Mr. David Russell. He was the Director of Development for the Beverly J Searles Group. 00:26:19
Thank you, Mr. Campbell, for a really great presentation. I'm trying not to be too redundant, cover a lot of good stuff. 00:26:27
We're here tonight for the second part of what we started. 00:26:35
Last year. 00:26:38
Tonight here to ask for approval for the site Development Improvement Plans and also the associated demolition. 00:26:39
Permit that will be needed to develop this. 00:26:46
As mentioned, this is on the corner of Water and Durham St. on the South. 00:26:50
Western side. 00:26:53
It will be an age restricted community and it has taken advantage of the DCA. 00:26:54
Granting of 9% tax credits to be rewarded back in November. If you'll remember back to the rezone that was the critical piece for 00:27:00
this and. 00:27:04
Who were very excited to receive notification of that granting under those. 00:27:08
With those tax credits comes rules about the affordability and the breakdown of what has to be done with the. 00:27:14
Rents and things of that nature and. 00:27:20
Mr. Russell can speak to that a little more clearly if you'll have questions about. 00:27:23
This is an 8.7 approximately acre parcel right now. 00:27:28
As we talked about during the rezoning development agreement. 00:27:32
A large portion of that will be donated back to the city. I believe it's a year after. 00:27:36
To be used for hopefully the future connection of a trail system down there. It's primarily environmental area, floodplain and 00:27:42
such. This is just below the site, I think it totals around 6 acres. 00:27:47
There are currently 3 old houses, as were shown in the staff's presentation. 00:27:55
These will need to be removed some fashion or for this project to go forward. I know there may be some questions or discussion on 00:28:00
this topic. We're happy to talk about those. If there are, just know that those are always part of the plan to be somehow. 00:28:07
Removed from this property even you know as part of the zoning approval. 00:28:15
As far as the building goes, this really is the plan and the building itself are very close to what we showed you in the rezone 00:28:19
process. It's still a 3/4 split, three stories on the front of streets and four in the parking lot side. 00:28:25
Still an L, still showing the connections to the street, although we have eliminated a few because of grades and really large 00:28:31
massings of stairs, but still keeping a good bit of those direct connections that were part of the conversation during the rezone. 00:28:37
Sure. 00:28:47
The building is still a mixture of one and two-bedroom units. Unit count still remain the same and we still are providing the same 00:28:55
parking count as was provided was proposed during the rezone. It's 48 spaces. You'll remember we asked for reduction in parking 00:29:00
spaces. This is going to be. 00:29:05
Very non auto centric type development taking advantage of being downtown Watkinsville and the nature of the. 00:29:11
Folks that will be living here, So we feel that's that's still very appropriate. 00:29:17
Umm. 00:29:22
All in all, I'd really like to say very heartfelt thanks to staff. They've done a wonderful job to help shepherd us through this, 00:29:24
this project and giving us comments and we've done our best to address those. As Mr. Campbell mentioned, we have received the 00:29:30
storm water, excuse me, the soil residence sediment control approval from the state already. 00:29:35
We still have some submission to do to Oconee County for the water and sewer connections that should be forthcoming pretty soon. 00:29:42
Also, if approved tonight, we'd like to continue to move forward as quickly as possible, so we are prepared to submit our forest 00:29:50
protection plan just as soon as we were able. 00:29:54
All in all. 00:29:59
It'll be a good plan, quite a bit of protection considering the limited amount of disturbance on this parcel overall. 00:30:00
Just thank you again for all of your work both back last year to help this project and tonight we look forward to your comments if 00:30:08
you have any questions, we're more than happy to answer those. Thank you. 00:30:13
All right. Thank you. Mr. Haynes. I think if you and Mr. Russell just want to come on up here, I imagine we'll have some questions 00:30:20
and that'll save. 00:30:23
Save you guys some up and down South. I'd suggest y'all come on up, Mr. Russell, Reintroduce yourself to this group and then 00:30:26
council. I'll let y'all. 00:30:30
Much. I'll start asking questions. 00:30:34
Good evening. It's good to see you all again. My name is David Russell. I live at 115 Braxton Way, Roswell, GA. 00:30:36
Director of Development for the Beverly J Charles. 00:30:42
All right, we have Mr. Haynes and Mr. Russell. 00:30:46
Well, thank you all. 00:30:49
I remember the very lengthy conversations and looking at plans. 00:30:52
When y'all were here before. 00:30:58
So you highlighted, Scott, some of the things that are staying the same. 00:31:01
What is different from what we were presented other than? And by that I mean big picture, not small engineering matters that will 00:31:05
go right over my head. 00:31:11
Sure. Well, this is really very, very similar to the zoning plan convention. If what we can start with is the elevation is up, 00:31:17
like I mentioned, there's a couple of, I think 2 on either side of the building. 00:31:22
Direct access points that were eliminated. 00:31:27
Is again primarily for grade. 00:31:31
Large sets of. 00:31:33
Umm. 00:31:35
He thought those were best kept to be internal. 00:31:36
There is. There was a slight reconfiguration of the parking lot. It's really in. 00:31:41
Just to work out with the engineering of the wall. 00:31:46
Relocation or location of a dumpster. 00:31:52
That'll be up near the building screen from the. 00:31:55
But All in all, I mean that's. 00:31:58
It's really very close to what you saw back in the zoning. 00:31:59
Pretty hard pressed to point out any large differences. 00:32:03
And Scott at that point, remind me, it looks like you've brought the facade of the building up to grade at the corner of. 00:32:08
Water in Durham, so there's not kind of you originally had it kind of sunk down, but is that an accurate assessment of the design 00:32:15
at this point? This section is not showing that in the in the top corner. It's still depressed, I think 3 feet to balance it out. 00:32:20
It's 3 feet in the ground on that corner side. 00:32:25
And it's. 00:32:31
Probably 7 or 8 on the on the. 00:32:33
That was a balancing act with the. 00:32:35
Constraints of the site exactly the same as we presented it during the zoning. We have not moved that this. This drawing does 00:32:39
represent it as being on the corner, but what's not showing is the actual section line up to the corner. 00:32:44
Which would be probably right through about the first third of those front doors. 00:32:52
So they'll have to step down, step down into a Plaza, a couple steps, but just three. You said 3 feet. 00:32:57
That's, that's correct. And where's the 78 feet, is that further down, is that further down Durham and water, is that what you're 00:33:04
referring to? 00:33:07
Falls away pretty sharply. The building will be out of the ground there and then, not as much but some on the. 00:33:13
OK. 00:33:22
So I don't know if this is the time that we. 00:33:25
We're talking about what's happening on the inside and the amenities. Are all of those still the same, the library and the, you 00:33:28
know, the different? 00:33:32
Facilities for the opposites, yes, everything we committed to in the in the agreements is in the in the plan. So we could have 00:33:36
actually we're ready to then two weeks off full architectural is ready to submit but reflect all of the all the amenities that we 00:33:42
promised in our development agreement. 00:33:48
Pretty much the. 00:33:57
Council. 00:34:02
Brett. 00:34:05
Just curious what's what's all approval is done, what do you think completion timeframe is? So that's really going to depend on 00:34:09
when we start, we're right now projecting. 00:34:14
Shovels in the ground and. 00:34:20
Let's call it July 1st and it's a 15 month construction month construction process approximately depending on. 00:34:23
Where we are with with. 00:34:30
Things so long enough you never know if you get a two-month rain delay or you know you're fine. So our goal is to be done in 15 00:34:33
months from July. Next question and this is a little selfish how how are y'all going to try to keep it where people from 00:34:39
Watkinsville and Oconee. So that's that's the same thing that we talked about all throughout the process. We will this this 00:34:45
building will. 00:34:50
Knock on wood, I may not be concerned. It'll lease up within a month of us. 00:34:57
And 90 high, high percentage of people who will find this building or local residents, our marketing is going to be a sign on the 00:35:02
construction site. It's going to be in these meetings. People have already come up and say how do we on this list And so we 00:35:07
started to take names. 00:35:13
And that's that's really what it's going to be, so. 00:35:18
Know about it. They might read about it in a clipping and be able to contact it might be someone's mom or grandmother that hey, 00:35:22
mom can come over and check this out. So those people might be out of community, but it'll primarily the the. 00:35:28
Circular Trust is pretty much here in Watkinsville. People. People here know about the building going. 00:35:36
So we can't, we can't control who this is, obviously. 00:35:41
As far as our marketing radius, it's it's walking. 00:35:46
So if I have heard from several citizens who are interested in getting on a list of waiting list or a list For more information. 00:35:49
Can they do that now or is there a? Do they need to watch your website? What do I need to share with them? 00:35:56
We're really going to start that process once construction starts. Once construction starts, we'll have a while we're marketing 00:36:07
our leasing sign up. 00:36:11
We'll have leasing staff ready to start taking numbers. So part of it is as Scott mentioned this. 00:36:16
It's income driven. So you have to qualify to get in and it's it's a, it's a portion of the people who qualify to get it have to 00:36:23
make a certain amount of money. So there's a way to qualify our residents. So that's. 00:36:28
Really kind of. We have a very professional leasing and marketing staff that's equipped to. 00:36:34
To qualify those as residents. 00:36:40
I what I will do. 00:36:43
And you can certainly have that. 00:36:45
My numbers support my cell phone number. 00:36:48
Be careful. 00:36:52
I would say that just wait. There's really no there. You're not going to be losing your place in line if you wait till the 00:36:54
construction starts and then the sign goes up. 00:36:58
There's a couple people who found a. 00:37:04
You're not gonna lose your place if you if you get. 00:37:08
OK. 00:37:11
Any other questions? 00:37:14
I do have a few. One of the things that was mentioned to me was that we're making the sidewalks wide enough so that vehicles or 00:37:16
ambulances could use those that more quickly access the site on the front we're going to do. 00:37:22
Greater density, type of concrete or do some other things to ensure that should we have vehicles on those sidewalks, it's not, 00:37:29
they're not going to get broken up or anything. 00:37:33
I think that that was one of the comments that we received from fire that we were just a little bit curious about. What is the 00:37:41
sidewalks, they are 6 foot sidewalks I believe on the on the image there. 00:37:45
You know, I don't see an issue. 00:37:52
It's probably a little more base is what, right some fiber mesh. So we can certainly look at that in the front. Are you suggesting 00:37:55
that at some point if golf carts are allowed, people are going to use golf carts? No. Like you know I think what was mentioned and 00:38:01
it was something about emergency vehicles and access perhaps to the front of the site. We given the size of the parking lot in the 00:38:07
back that I just want to be sure if you were creating that opportunity that we had. 00:38:13
You know that we had the right density of concrete or greater base to make. 00:38:21
Should that happen or should there be a moving truck or something that's accessing from the front that they? 00:38:25
Crush the sidewalk. 00:38:29
You know, then the city is, I'm assuming, the sidewalks. 00:38:31
Will they be deeded to the city or will you guys take care of the right of way and we are dedicating additional right away to? 00:38:34
Right. As far as emergency vehicles in the front, I mean the projects really set up to access those types? 00:38:42
Equipment Infrastructure from the RE. 00:38:50
Where they're successful ways and ramps and things. 00:38:52
So, I mean, we're happy to. 00:38:56
Discuss with the. 00:38:58
Let's put four in the sidewalk spec. I don't think that's if you just talked with the engineer about that. We don't need to solve 00:39:00
the problem tonight, but I think that would be good. I just want to be sure if we're going to be in charge of maintaining those 00:39:03
sidewalks. 00:39:06
You know, we if there's an idea from the emergency services that they may be pulling a wheel up on those that we aren't dealing 00:39:10
with crack sidewalks later on, sure. 00:39:14
Can you remind me on the green spaces at approximately 5 acres coming back to the city, is that what your plan is? So then deed 00:39:22
that back to the city? 00:39:27
OK. It's between 5:00 and 6:00 acres. 00:39:32
All right. And then Scott, was the parcel closest to the courthouse part of the rezone or was did that remain detached residential 00:39:36
or that? 00:39:39
Umm. 00:39:44
It was not part of the rezone we excluded. 00:39:45
For the discussion we had back then desire to leave that to potentially still allow for some commercial on that street or office 00:39:49
that's right, because it's downtown or mixed-use office there, right. OK. But what we have done is. 00:39:55
I mean in addition to providing improvements for sidewalks and curves along that stretch to that's how you connect to courthouse 00:40:01
in downtown corridor. So it's important that we added and provided that you've also stubbed out a connection for storm water and 00:40:08
looked at sizing the pond for this development for whatever might come for that future. 00:40:14
Because the parcel is limited. 00:40:21
More options to develop in the future and. 00:40:24
Ready. 00:40:28
Connection. 00:40:29
OK. 00:40:32
All right, Council, any other questions? 00:40:35
All right, well, it looks like we need a motion for. 00:40:41
To approve the site improvement construction documents and then the associated demolition permits for the older structures, which 00:40:44
I believe are going to be offered to move before they're demolished, correct? 00:40:49
Someone wants to move those structures that's that's correct. So there's there's there's three structures that will be potentially 00:40:54
moved or demolished. 00:40:58
And we have the, we have the sellers here and they've grown up on the property, so lots of sentimental value and. 00:41:03
There there are special places to people in the audience. 00:41:10
From the The decision to move them will be whether there's a market for someone who wants to come with them. There's asbestos in 00:41:13
the building. Some of the buildings literally can't like 1 cinder block. 00:41:18
Can't be moved, so we will. 00:41:24
We'll take care of it to move them if there's a market, if there's some some value in doing that. 00:41:27
OK. All right. What's that, Jeff? 00:41:34
Is there a timeline for how long they'd be available? Do we know that yet? So we would potentially. 00:41:37
Making that call. 00:41:46
August 1st. Ish. Midsummer. 00:41:48
Right. What we will do. So there's there's we've already started reaching out. There's a local. So I've reached out to a person I 00:41:52
know in Atlanta whether if there's you know, some market to do those, there's a local person that we have reached out to that 00:41:57
specializes in moving houses. It's not. 00:42:03
It's not that you can't go Google that person. There's a very small world that is doing that. So we've we've started that process 00:42:09
and trying to find that guy. The other constraints are where the Billings can be moved. Is the asbestos too much of an issue and 00:42:13
then is. 00:42:18
Physically room to move those houses down that little. 00:42:24
So those are the types of things we need to figure out, OK? 00:42:28
Just thinking about that, you coming down Water St. that's a pretty big dip into Experiment Station. I hate service. 00:42:32
Long void truck. 00:42:40
Yeah, yeah. All right. We'll let y'all work that, work that detail out with staff and. 00:42:51
The appropriate amount of advertisement for all that. All right, so we've got that's what we're looking for though is a motion to 00:42:57
approve the site improvement, construction documents and the demolition permit. 00:43:01
We can just do that together, Joe. Sharon, is that fine? OK. 00:43:06
So moved. 00:43:12
Do we have? 00:43:14
All right. Any further comments? Conversation here? None. All in favor, say aye. 00:43:17
Any opposed motion carries 5. 00:43:22
All right. Thank you. 00:43:26
All right. We have under old business. We had tabled a matter related to 41 Barnet Shoals Rd. a demolition permit. Manager 00:43:29
Dickerson, if you could provide us with an update on that? 00:43:34
Sure. 00:43:39
So the applicant has requested to maybe handle this a little differently. There were some suggestions at the last council meeting 00:43:41
and they've decided to now pursue an administrative option which is trying to give away the home, have the house moved? 00:43:48
Obviously they understand that the council would prefer the house be moved and stay within the city limits but there's no way to 00:43:57
you know, require that and I do believe they have advertised there is a sign up on the property. I don't know if it made if it 00:44:03
makes paper will be in tomorrow's paper, I would imagine and we gave them, I think. 00:44:08
Joe, do you remember how many days we owe? 90 days, 90 days? So we'll have an update. 00:44:15
Somebody may have to. 00:44:20
Yeah. But we gave them 90 days. So we'll know we'll have a status update in 90 days. We essentially give giving them six months, 00:44:24
but we'll know I think within 90 days whether or not this. 00:44:31
Going to happen or not, So we'll provide a status that to y'all. The July meeting is the plan, if not before. 00:44:37
All right. 00:44:45
Council, any questions on? 00:44:48
OK. Then we will move to our new business item which is Lael Lane. 00:44:50
Even though it says none, we know that we had an emergent issue with the pipe on Oil Lane. 00:44:55
We are meeting about that tomorrow with the county Chairman Daniel. I want to thank you for your team being willing to. 00:45:00
Lean in and make your expertise available to us. We're going to talk about materials and some different things tomorrow and see if 00:45:08
we. 00:45:12
Make sure that we're aligned. This is somewhat of an emergency situation. So we're very hopeful that you guys will be able to help 00:45:16
on that pretty quick. John, I know you'll have a full schedule, but we are a little concerned about that road, so, so but. 00:45:23
Mr. Campbell and Mrs. Dickerson and everything, Councilman Garrett and Councilman Thomas, everybody who helped out in that 00:45:32
situation, we got. 00:45:35
A. 00:45:40
You know, we got some really crazy pricing on that right out of the gate and decided we work hard to drive that pricing down. 00:45:41
What I'd ask you to do tonight would be to approve up to $50,000 for those improvements. We don't anticipate it being that much, 00:45:48
but I don't want to have to come back to this group. I'd like to authorize the manager. 00:45:54
Up to $50,000 to take care of that. I think the county estimate sharing round numbers came in at. 00:46:01
35. 00:46:09
That doesn't include asphalt repaving. So we're going to have to do some repaving tomorrow. We'll talk about the, you know whether 00:46:12
it's possible. We also sourced some other pipes, whether it's potentially possible for you to them to use some of that at a lower. 00:46:19
Although Mr. Weathers indicated he's kind of got away, he wants to do it and I understand that, so we'll so we'll work through 00:46:28
that tomorrow. 00:46:32
But I would ask you all if you would be able to authorize up to 50 it would be a split of probably our remaining L make funds. 00:46:36
Sadly and are and then some splash three money most likely is how we would find that but I'd request that you guys approve up to 00:46:42
$50,000 authorized for. 00:46:48
For the emergency repairs on the way, Elaine, if possible. 00:46:55
I make a motion that we will prove up to $50,000 for the necessary repairs. 00:47:00
I'll second. 00:47:06
Any further discussion all in favor. 00:47:07
Any. 00:47:12
Now we have our regular public comment period. We're down to just three. If anyone wants to come forward, the same rules apply. 00:47:16
Come forward, state your name and make any public comment that you have for the City Council. 00:47:21
And were any comments received prior to the meeting via e-mail? 00:47:31
We had none. OK, I'm going to close the public comments. We'll move on to the mayor's report. I'll be short and sweet. Wanted to 00:47:35
mention that we continue to get some great reviews for what's happening in Watkinsville, Georgia. Trend did a brief write up on 00:47:41
Wire Park and what's happening at Wire Park. That was nice to see. 00:47:47
Miracle League Project is in probably, I'd say rounding third base, maybe on its way home. 00:47:53
They poured concrete last Friday out there. I think there's a 28 day cure period before they can lay down the turf. On top of 00:48:01
that, they're making great progress on the landscaping. I think that's close to being wrapped up. It looks beautiful out there now 00:48:07
and then. They were working on the turf on the playground today as well. Manager Dickerson has communicated with ESP to get all 00:48:12
the warranties and details on the playground equipment so that we can set aside. 00:48:18
Appropriate funds for maintenance and repair over. 00:48:24
As well. So I would think you know at some point in May or early June, we'll be having a celebration out there, but I don't think 00:48:28
ESP has finalized a date for that yet. So stay tuned for more. 00:48:32
I'm sure we'll be invited to that. And then the last thing I want to call out and Christine may or may not have more to say on 00:48:37
this, we're seeing, as you would expect, continued pressure on our historic assets in Watkinsville we have. 00:48:44
You know, homes being advertised to be moved, we're starting to see demolition permits again. 00:48:51
We're going to need to take a fresh look at historic preservation and historic preservation ordinances. We've done that before. We 00:48:57
decided at that point they were a little bit wonky and. 00:49:01
And they are wonky. But the government, the law is very specific in terms of how you can govern historic preservation. But. 00:49:07
Christine and I are taking a look at that and we'll probably come back to you guys with some thoughts and recommendations in the 00:49:13
next few months on what we may need to do to ensure that. 00:49:17
Limited supply of historic buildings and structures are preserved. 00:49:21
Preserved in Watkinsville are given every opportunity to be preserved as we move forward. 00:49:26
Down the road. So not a lot of specifics there, but just stay tuned for more and if you have thoughts on that, we're all yours on. 00:49:31
You know your perspective on that. That's all I have. 00:49:37
Actually, we have one more thing, chief. 00:49:42
Y'all gonna have to help me because we had we had an exciting thing. Y'all ready. 00:49:46
The mayor is a birthday boy. The birthday brother is the birthday boy all day long. 00:49:52
Everybody gets embarrassed, though. OK, All right. Special Watkinsville birthday song? Feel deeply honored. 00:50:02
Yeah, yeah. 00:50:09
OK, All right. Can't do it like everybody else can. 00:50:12
Thank you all. You know, 47 and feeling fine. All right. Councilmember Garrett will turn it over to you. What you got, Sir? 00:50:16
All right, Chuck's keeping it brief. Councilwoman Massey. What? 00:50:25
Keeping it brief as well, Councilman Thomas, I just want to thank. 00:50:29
Chief and the Police Department you know for that outstanding presentation with the with the. 00:50:33
Easter I know there was not as many kids this year as last year, but I think they had just as much fun. 00:50:41
And the weather was perfect. So I thank you for continuing to be a light in the community and and making sure that the kids and 00:50:49
the citizens realize that the Police Department and the city of Wattsville is a great place to live. 00:50:56
Councilwoman Tuck. 00:51:06
So we're continuing to make progress on Harris Hills Park, it's not quite as. 00:51:07
Quick as probably everyone would like, but continuing to meet, continuing to try to get quotes, which is a little challenging in 00:51:13
these times. 00:51:17
We are continuing on and. 00:51:23
Do you want to talk about Madison? 00:51:26
And we are continuing. 00:51:30
To look at other surrounding communities and what they're doing with their downtown development authorities and Main Street 00:51:34
programs. And Jeff and I went to Madison in the past month and met with them, a wealth of knowledge. And so we are excited to 00:51:40
continue. 00:51:45
Gathering information. 00:51:52
How it can benefit the city of Watkinsville. So more on that soon. 00:51:54
All right, Councilman Camp. 00:52:01
Yeah, we had a good meeting with Madison and I think we mentioned. 00:52:05
Before, but Christine is going to the. 00:52:09
The meeting end of June in Savannah. For that I will not be able to make it, but I did sign up to take the DDA online. 00:52:12
Course, so I'll start doing that to learn a little bit more. But yeah, medicine was eye opening. 00:52:21
And they made it clear that we can lean on them. 00:52:29
For the questions we have as to what to do, then another bit of. 00:52:33
Another announcement. I guess we have another state champion. 00:52:39
In middle school and not only in the 3200 and not only A state champion but also state record holder now and. 00:52:45
So Aaron Roderick is continues. 00:52:54
In track and field across country, so congratulations. 00:52:58
I know the one day early birthday present, but it's a wonderful birthday present. 00:53:02
Thank you, Jeff. I'm proud of Aaron. He's worked hard. 00:53:06
Anyway. 00:53:10
Did the work and he thankfully was rewarded for it. So thank you. 00:53:11
All right. I think that may be all that we have. I do want to thank, I forgot to mention one thing about the Chief. The new sign I 00:53:16
think is a great asset. I think it was wonderful in terms of advertising the Easter egg hunt and then to be able to deploy that to 00:53:22
different locations as you have on Hardin Hill and other spaces to remind people about speeds and to have the flexibility to drop 00:53:27
that trailer is really nice and to have some. 00:53:32
Clever messages on it to get people's attention. I think it's also nice. So that's a. 00:53:38
That's been a nice addition. May want to look at figuring out how we can find a few more of those overtime. So glad to have them. 00:53:42
Anything else for the good of the order. 00:53:47
Then we're going to have a brief executive session. I'll we'll do a, let's do a let's, we'll do that motion to go in and then 00:53:52
we'll do a quick two or three minute recess in case anyone needs to say goodbye to anybody or. 00:53:58
Hit the restroom real quick and we'll come back, but I will entertain a motion to go into executive. 00:54:05
For threatened and pending litigation. 00:54:09
I make a motion to go into executive session. Excuse me, not pending potential, but yeah, threatened and potential. We have a 00:54:12
motion. Do we have a second? 00:54:15
All right. We have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All right. We will come back at 7:20. 00:54:19
We have started reporting this. I make a motion to. 00:54:27
Do we have a second all in favor? Say aye. 00:54:33
Meetings. 00:54:37