Transcript

Event transcript
All right. Good evening. 00:00:06
And welcome to. 00:00:10
The dissent meeting of the Wattsville City Council. We have world and this is your call order and we'll start with Pledge of 00:00:12
Allegiance and we have so many young guests here tonight. I was hoping our Palm Fairy kids and others would stand up and lead us 00:00:16
in the Pledge of Allegiance. How about that guy? Stand up and let's hear. 00:00:21
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, 00:00:27
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:33
So when every crowd. 00:00:41
We're going to start with the gingerbread houses. 00:01:50
It's a joint. Assembled Ginger browsers arrive in every remarks. How great it tells it's a wonderful nutrition. That's what I 00:01:53
think is our set year. Is that right? Having the Red House at City Hall? I didn't. If you'd be willing to step forward, you'll 00:01:58
miss me and share a little bit about Project less and we will do some photos with. 00:02:02
Well, good evening. I've ever doing well this evening. My name is Lynn Shore and this is Becky. We're by teachers at Home Ferry 00:02:09
Elementary School and my ears become enough to allow us to share the hard work of these students for the last two years. So this 00:02:15
project began a few years ago with Mary and Check media specialist that time and she's a different position. And so Missy and I 00:02:22
have taken this on as a project we do each year. So I don't know if you're aware, the Colonery is a certified school and part of 00:02:28
that is in certification. 00:02:35
Requires or encourages us to do things called PLS which is project based learning. So this project started with a question and the 00:02:42
question was how can we as engineers create Gingerbread Watkins L to display at City Hall and that's where the students started. 00:02:49
They bring stores tons of questions that they would need to answer in order to accomplish this goal and then they researched SO. 00:02:56
Awesome, wonderful work and it means so much. I'll choose to after Wattsville and every year I'm just impressed with the 00:04:09
creativity. I know we had all the switches out there, we have a little tail swift reference someone, we have clothes hangers, we 00:04:14
have people landscape detailed on these things. When you really get up close to the the work that this instead becomes super 00:04:19
evidence. So we have a little bit in a minute everybody wants to check these things out close. For now why don't we get a picture 00:04:24
and we have a special gift for our team. 00:04:29
All right, now if you'll send by your house, I'm going around, we have just a few Wattsville Christmas tree and we have some for 00:05:07
our students this year. So those who haven't seen this is MA by local artist, so, so studio. So we're going to those of you who 00:05:15
are paragraphs are also going to get some of these special limits. 00:05:23
For those who couldn't be denied, we will send send. 00:05:32
We'll send up with teachers. 00:05:41
Real quick and then we'll if anyone wants to get a picture with us, they can, we'll. 00:05:50
So we have to formally that will order for them. We're grateful for this year's grand Marshall was Martin Nunley and we're 00:06:30
thankful for Marvin. He's a wonderful community. Leaders got a me dollar smile as you can see there and as long Tompkinsville 00:06:37
resident the department is so studious only hundred of those made every year. Julie Lewis and her team did a job here. 00:06:44
I think she's here, OK, and the sponsors and judges up there, so because I said earlier it takes a lot of people at the parade 00:06:51
together a year, we're grateful to everybody comes together and does that. 00:06:56
Aloft says reps up there, but tone cars were putting the putting the stage up with a great group of judges. Again, it takes takes 00:07:01
the entire community to pull it off and have all the thousands of people coming out of the city safely and have their time. So 00:07:06
grateful. Everybody who helped in our planning committee, we recognize them. 00:07:11
Sharon. 00:07:17
That's our planning committee and I mentioned our employees work on this. It's a great effort every year by them in the melody 00:07:20
Adams is our chief volunteer, so we're grateful for Melanie that will do the awards. 00:07:25
If you're here, I would call you up first up for use of themes Briarwood kids have anybody from? 00:07:31
Next up we have Children's Artistic. 00:07:48
And best flow for children's BSPAC? 00:08:03
All right, when are adults wasn't to auto best use of theme? 00:08:18
Thank you. 00:08:27
All right. 00:08:33
All right. 00:08:37
Literally, people say this could be amazing. 00:08:44
All right, adult, best load. I'm following up friends there in the blue. 00:08:48
To be Nathan around here, all right. 00:09:17
Best tractor is the Shot family. 00:09:29
Oh my gosh. 00:09:43
I. 00:09:48
All right, best easy car of any collision. 00:09:52
And this last award is and after maybe Mary Williams it's all award and Mary D the bridge was was shoveling for years to watch 00:10:18
them still married herself to take her to the first only Mary Williams hand and turn it into a turned into the iconic event that 00:10:23
is today. I'm really ejected a lot of energy and passionate and we're always grateful to Miss Mary for what we did to add a lot of 00:10:29
parade. So this big award. 00:10:35
Calhoun's Polar Express. 00:10:42
Yeah. 00:13:22
Yeah. 00:13:26
June. 00:15:37
Thank you. Thank you so much. 00:16:47
All right. 00:17:13
And when we go. 00:17:15
Should we get? I know you never put it down, right, So we're going to keep on. OK, Council, you've had the minutes and you've had 00:17:18
an opportunity to review them. I'll enter the motion. That's only for November 15th minutes. Please make a motion to approve the 00:17:21
number of minutes. 00:17:25
Do a second any. 00:17:29
Hearing none all in favor. 00:17:32
Any opposed motion carries unanimously. We'll move on to the approval agenda council the changes that like to make the agenda. 00:17:35
Hearing No entertainment to approve. 00:17:43
Also that we do have a public hearing or two on the agenda tonight. We'll have opportunities for public to specifically address 00:18:16
those matters at that point. With that we'll move on to the financial reports introduction. Please make your. 00:18:20
So everybody should have received all sheet. The general fund expense and revenues tracking with that should be around 40% and on 00:18:26
expenses were 38 and then revenues were 43. So we're doing fairly well on that on. 00:18:32
This last two port that report actually be looked out this month. He had a little bit of leftover from. 00:18:39
From interest and so we're using that money to close that. We had some expenses on the Petunka right fields will be closing that 00:18:46
out this month. So next month maybe we'll residual left there, but we will have that cleared out and then we'll down to just three 00:18:52
and three. Most of our senses on this right now are centered around park and the one improvements the green space at Thomas Farms 00:18:58
will be there that we use roads and then some signage updates in the city. 00:19:04
Just seeing this one at 8.63% of the Oakland County sales tax and we are about 4.4% over last year we're averaging. 00:19:11
We're averaging 80,000 a month on that. 00:19:20
On teeth lost, this one just started in April and it's at 7.77%, so a little bit less. We're averaging about 69,000. We do 00:19:25
anticipate by the time we do the five years of this, it will be closer to 78, hopefully more, which has been the the protection. 00:19:33
And then this is mostly sidewalks to the national sidewalk, the industrial Blvd. Sidewalk need it's encumbered and resurfacing and 00:19:40
parking on 2nd St. around rocket those defenses we had to date. 00:19:47
We will become four this next year with requests to use somewhere that money. We've got balance of just under 300,000. 00:19:55
You'll see that you can see it's a how it fluctuates depending on if we don't compare. Last year we didn't have it, but we're 00:20:03
doing pretty well. Any questions on slaughter? 00:20:07
All right. And in the last American Rescue Plan Act money that is certainly frozen because we have to do the in fiscal year. So we 00:20:12
trigger a little audit. We used a good that money for the purchase of 100 acre Thomas family farm. 00:20:19
And so council, I want you guys can start using that money again, correcting us to use it. 00:20:26
Any questions on those? 00:20:33
On economic development, we've got business. Lexus are coming in several. They've got renewals on alcohol licenses as well. 00:20:36
And then on SRS tax, I can remember the tax is selected. We don't get the previous month till the end of the month. So that's why 00:20:44
you see all that money in November yet. But those are tracking higher than what we did. So that's good. 00:20:49
And on building permits, we had we six points out five different projects. 00:20:56
Still some work going on over at Wire Park and some work there. 71 N Main is the is the instructional support Center for the 00:21:01
school. 00:21:05
Any questions? Only does. 00:21:10
All right. Member Tim Tucker would have an update on Downtown Development Authority. Yes. So as we have said, the City of 00:21:14
Wattsville, we see the rural zone ignition, which means we have access to our citizens and owners have access to some good tax 00:21:20
sensitives in order to help create more jobs in Watkinsville, which would include some investment property rehabilitation and 00:21:27
property or just tax credit if you start business that does have at least two employees. 00:21:34
Kate Patterson and I went to a train late November and so in January we are having some more informational meetings on that, what 00:21:42
that means, what it looks like and how it can just help spark some great things in our community. Also we head downtown bingo on a 00:21:49
Small Business Saturday and it was a great success. Business owners were said that they a lot more traffic and so we hope to 00:21:57
continue that trend and then so we have several new and or. 00:22:04
Parks in Wattsville. 00:22:12
We have this one by Eagle Town with new Adirondack chairs and so just as I don't know if with Waterville from Connect Me, we want 00:22:14
to have lots of gathering spaces for our community, our community members. So having these old pocket parks is another way to do 00:22:21
that. So there's this one here on Main Street and then also this one Main Street and this one was primarily funded by the grant 00:22:29
that we received that put on the the event at Rockfield in October that created a public art at UC there that the businesses. 00:22:36
Sponsored and so we hope that. 00:22:44
The committee will start using the space, so also thanks to Public Works for their hard work to get this set up and set in a way 00:22:46
that it's going to be easier to maintain and so I appreciate their attention to detail without that. 00:22:51
All right. Thank you, Mayor. It's Tim. And I think everybody probably notes point, but I think that last part you know with the 00:22:59
return of Debbie's due downtown and I will talk about that in Adobe's building. 00:23:05
Given the interest I think it'll be it'll be nice to have a space next to where people want outsider way they can can do that. So 00:23:12
Jack I know you'll enjoy having that there. Thank you for your leadership on getting that done. Christina team all right Police 00:23:17
Department report and while chief judgment comes forward come on up. 00:23:23
We want to make a few remarks and of gratitude Durham Sutterton, who stepped forward. 00:23:29
And our pretty chief Shambock was able to continue his duties and had to retire. 00:23:36
Chief led with I guess no. Just what I've been so impressed with is a real combination of. 00:23:41
Capacity to get things done, but just wonderful way treating everybody with dignity and respect. You know, if has long 00:23:48
conversations about challenging. 00:23:51
Challenging situations. And I guess what really stuck with me is how thoughtful you are about all the parties who were involved, 00:23:55
those who impact negatively, those who might make poor decisions. 00:23:59
And just your consideration. 00:24:04
Into the law. 00:24:08
They just blew me away. Some of those situations in the wishing with extra mile and another challenging situation find I'm fine. 00:24:09
So new is the best one again. 00:24:13
You didn't have to do that. You need to. You need to take those steps to go above and beyond, do what you had. But I could just 00:24:17
shows your heart for the people I can build, for your profession, for what you. 00:24:22
From the start, you embrace role strong leaders. 00:24:28
Manage the festival Miss Chris Braid Manage. 00:24:30
Trick or treat Main St. in everywhere situations. We had thousand people on foot, hundreds of people, hundreds of vehicles, all 00:24:34
kinds of opportunities for mishaps and wouldn't a single one. So it was doing all this bit of police work or biggest, biggest. 00:24:40
Events that we have in Watkinsville Minister Mall Exceptional. So I just want to say before you set back how grateful we are for 00:24:47
you and everything. You've got Watkinsville and for stepping up when we needed you and we appreciate you and we're thankful so. 00:24:54
Good evening, Mayor. Council, for what we're putting my last report in front of our foreseeable future, I'm going to tell you 00:25:10
about what we did throughout the month of December. 00:25:14
Inside packet first page the author activity we responded 19139 calls for service 30 period. Keep my some of the leads over into 00:25:18
the short period of time and number after your last meeting. 00:25:23
But it's 30 day. 00:25:28
We conducted all over 1200 security checks of homes or businesses within city prevent anything happening on the board. 00:25:30
And we issued 155 excitations. 00:25:37
On the transportation is a large portion of job officers who everybody knows become difficult at times, especially last. 00:25:40
Last Sunday we had an asset with a county and we round a lot of traffic Downing St. which prompted a lot of problems on Main 00:25:48
Street but also remember the street disease, over a million cars in each direction. 00:25:53
Over 1. 00:25:58
National cars 2 lane. 00:26:00
So on traffic 155. 00:26:02
Nature warnings. 00:26:05
Once being a citation, 61 warnings. Good. Mixed both I think. 00:26:07
And then on fixed out cameras we have money to open what it means. Dissertations an issue are unpaid at this time and 38 pitting 00:26:11
which are sections that have to be approved to be sent out. 00:26:16
On the second page. 00:26:22
There's a substantial battery and the last one was alerting and playing in a truck law enforcement officer and three of them were 00:26:54
criminal criminal. One of those was no driver's license. 00:26:58
The second was a novel driver's license. Generally this means as a person has never had a driver's license, they just drive that 00:27:02
one. They never bothered to take the test or have an issue not to confuse. Our third tread was a person who was driving after the 00:27:07
state of Georgia removed their villages by suspending revoking license. 00:27:12
So there's a cap the numbers underneath. 00:27:19
And your last age to the community as we. 00:27:22
We ended that in traffic checkpoints where we join our fellow officers for our train, a mule and a DUI checkpoint. We traveled. 00:27:25
How much do that? November 17th. 00:27:29
We had our first and cops it soups. We stood out 94 ice cream cones and I was funded by our 1C3 and we did that on a Saturday. 00:27:33
Look like we are and I apologize. I don't know what happened. 00:28:03
I didn't touch anything. 00:28:08
I do want to introduce that we're not going to do an official swearing in or anything for our new Chief, but Courtney Gale is is 00:28:12
here tonight. Give her just a brief moment. I know the Mayor may want to say something to you, but just to introduce her, she'll 00:28:18
be starting on January the 8th. She'll be sworn in on the 17th, so. 00:28:23
Courtney, welcome, welcome back to Oconee County. We're, we're glad to have you. Here's our Chief and I'm excited to continue the 00:28:30
work that Chief Brock and Chief Tetherton have done and just grateful to have you here in Watkinsville and part of our team 00:28:36
welcome home. 00:28:42
Yep, Yep, Yep. 00:28:49
OK. That's the Police Department. Next up on the agenda, we have consent. We don't vote on these individually, but I do want to 00:28:52
just touch on, just provide a little bit of context because there's some big numbers in there. 00:28:58
What that's about is we are just moving some money around from buckets to buckets. If you guys remember, we had encumbered funds 00:29:06
in several different ways. Item number seven, we had anticipated potentially utilizing AG dot. 00:29:12
TAP Grant to help us fund assignment and bridge sidewalk. As you recall, last month we decided that was not wise. We realized we 00:29:19
were going to have to probably invest just as much money. 00:29:23
As we would if we built it ourselves into a matching grant to the federal government that would take five to six years to get that 00:29:29
project done. So again, we're just moving that money back to where we can use it and where it's not in a match situation. 00:29:34
Item 8 is actually similar. We had that money allocated in case we won a state grant to kick off work at Harris Shoals. We did not 00:29:40
get that grant. I think we all agree we want to prioritize and emphasize getting the work started at Harris SHO. 00:29:47
So at this point we're going to move that money back, you know the reprogram that money so that we can get started on that work, 00:29:54
which I think will begin with some paving work, repaving the parking area and resetting some of that so we can do some of the 00:30:00
other work down there that we want to around the green spaces, the old ball field and all that kind of stuff get that improved. 00:30:05
Aligned with our master. 00:30:12
Item 9 is also similar. This is where we're going to reprogram. We're going to reprogram some T spots money once again, so we can 00:30:14
continue to potentially put funds towards the Simonton Bridge. 00:30:20
Mulberry St. Sidewalk Connection, which is going to be a complicated project, but we think it's really important. 00:30:27
Get the sidewalk to the new park and out on Simonton Bridge Rd. The other things is just to reappoint you to the library board and 00:30:32
the budget amendment for tourism art sponsorship. So hearing that, can I have an amendment, Excuse me, a motion to approve the 00:30:39
consent agenda. Make a motion to approve the consent agenda. All right and a second, second any discussion. 00:30:47
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. 00:30:54
Any opposed motion carries unanimously. 00:30:58
Now, time for public hearing. We have two items to variance request. One is at Simonton Bridge Rd. The other is at Jacob Drive. 00:31:02
The way these go, for those of you haven't been here before, 10 minutes per side. Per zoning procedures laws, comments should be 00:31:08
made only directly relating to these agenda items. Speak from the podium. 4 minutes per person. Refrain from debate. Argument. 00:31:14
Personal attacks are irrelevant. Discussion. 00:31:19
Address only the merits of the pending matter and address remarks directly to council, not to the audience. Council won't speak to 00:31:25
potential litigation, attorney-client privilege or personnel matters. First item up is variance, the variance for 51 and 55 00:31:33
Simonton Bridge Rd. Parcel WO 6021 JW York Properties. We'll start with the public hearing. We'll hear from both sides. 00:31:40
Request to reduce the side set back from the 30 foot code requirement to 10 feet. If you can go to the next slide to give you an 00:32:52
idea of where these you know. You may not know where 51 and 55 Simonton Bridge Rd. Are located because there's not structures 00:32:59
currently on those two undeveloped lots. So you can see there the properties at 61 Simonton Bridge Road and the properties at 47 00:33:07
Simonton Bridge Rd. that are on either side. So the subject property specifically where the variance is being requested. 00:33:14
JW has ownership of the two lots, but the one that was highlighted there. 00:33:23
The applicant also submitted a reference from Platbook. 00:33:28
In Oconee County. So anytime you see things on Platt, book one that has a little age to it that the date on this is 1947 and it 00:33:32
shows right in the middle of that page. There are lots, four and five would be the the subject lots that are before you tonight. 00:33:40
If you go to the next slide, so this is that same image that you have in front of you with a lot more information and some colors 00:33:49
I might add. These are some things you'd see in a in a CAD drawing or a CAD design as it was presented, but the the image you have 00:33:55
in front of you is actually. 00:34:01
The same house location, the same lot location, but probably a lot less information to be a lot more concise. Let me say it that 00:34:08
way. 00:34:12
Go back. 00:34:17
OK, so. 00:34:18
In this image. 00:34:21
They're showing Sept. 00:34:23
Correct, correct. 00:34:25
So behind the two proposed structures again will you know left and right 5155 there is, I believe that is the in blue. 00:34:30
A primary drain. 00:34:43
And then there's also room for a repair drain field in green. 00:34:45
It's the other way around, OK. I had a 5050 shot on that. So those are the lines and subject drain fields have to generally follow 00:34:49
the contour lines within a property and so that that's what you would see there's contour lines that. 00:34:56
If you will, around or behind that, those contour lines have the labels on those, but that is what is shown on that drawing. 00:35:03
Again, lot of information, they're there, soils information, there's other things. The request isn't specifically related to any 00:35:09
of that, that's just contextual information. The request is specifically. 00:35:15
For the lot line of what you see on the screen there for you the lot that would be on the left, it would be 51 Simonton Bridge Rd. 00:35:21
The 30 foot side set back that's interior to the lot at 55. That is again the reduction being requested from 30 feet to 10 feet. 00:35:30
Is that helpful? 00:35:39
Thank you. 00:35:41
Correct. 00:35:50
Subjects in the front yard, The primary, yes. And again, I apologize if I said it wrong the first time, so. 00:35:52
So that is the view of the property from Simonton Bridge Rd. That's kind of looking back West, away from the Creek back towards 00:36:00
Rocket Field downtown. 00:36:05
So this is again the request that's in front of you. The variance request is from Article 52-D. 00:36:10
To D1 and it says in there the size yard set back shall be a minimum of 30 feet. 00:36:17
And within the Simonton Bridge scenic Corridor and the applicant has reduced it that requested that that be reduced and they are 00:36:22
indicating on site septic system for the drain field. 00:36:29
Because they've indicated they do not have direct access to public sanitary sewer. 00:36:35
Be happy to answer any other questions you might have. 00:36:41
All right, we've heard from engineer Campbell, attorney Reitman, anything you want to add here? 00:36:44
OK. Thank you. 00:37:25
All right. Thank you. Because that does seem to have a factor with some of these setbacks. All right. Thank you. OK, We've heard 00:37:28
from the engineer. We've heard from the attorney. Now it's time to hear from the applicant. If you could step forward, give us 00:37:34
your name and address and and any additional context. My name is Gary Ray. I'm with Baseline Survey Engineering. I did the design 00:37:40
on this. 00:37:46
There's not a lot to say, Mark, I already said. 00:37:54
Applying for the set back, in order to adhere to the side entrance garage, we would need a wider house and that's what we're 00:37:56
needing a set back for. One thing I would add that Martin had is in doing the development of this, we're going to do Jared's going 00:38:03
to add sidewalks as well, which helps you with the scenic corridor sidewalks. 00:38:09
So we're gonna do that. 00:38:17
Yeah, I'm. I kind of laid it out pretty well for me, so. 00:38:20
OK, All right. Why don't you stay up there for a minute and see if council has any questions for you before we go to a public 00:38:26
hearing. 00:38:29
Before we invite other members. 00:38:33
Council questions for the applicant. I don't have any questions, but I do want to voice my concern when they start. 00:38:37
Bringing in large trucks of supplies, that's going to be dangerous on that section of that road. 00:38:46
OK. 00:38:54
So I'm wondering if your your need for this variance. I know some of it has to do with the you know the other codes that 00:38:59
Walkinsville has with the side entrance garage. 00:39:04
But also I know the intent is on the scenic corridor for it, for the homes to have a historic character. 00:39:10
And so. 00:39:21
It's hard, you know, we just have lines here. I don't know if y'all are at the phase where you actually kind of know what the 00:39:23
facades will look like, what the different things would look like, because I'm I'm wondering if a home has a historic character. 00:39:30
If you'd like to look at them. 00:39:38
So they haven't been adjusted yet because they haven't approved, but they'll be discount plan with a side entrance garage, so the 00:39:45
garage door should be there. 00:39:48
So it'll be the same House plan for both of them. So we're not actually, oh, that's right, that ones that just. 00:39:54
But the just so I'm clear, the variance would not apply to the setbacks on any of the other. 00:40:06
Borders other than the one that is central to the two lots that Mister York controls, correct? So you could not. 00:40:12
You couldn't get closer than 30 feet and Mark, this may be a question for you, They would. That set back is only impacting the set 00:40:18
back between the two homes, right? Not they couldn't get, they couldn't get closer than 30 feet. 00:40:25
To the home, to the north or to the West is right. So again, I appreciate manager Dickerson going back. So so they've actually not 00:40:32
requested any variances on the lot to the right, if you will. So it's only on the lot that's highlighted and I'll call that cyan 00:40:39
color on that aerial and it's only on what I would say is the right hand side of that lot. So if there's there's actually not a 00:40:47
request for a set back variance on what I'll call 55 Simonton Bridge Rd. that's not highlighted. 00:40:54
But they do have a House plan shown for context where that would be that meets the set back variances. But their request is for. 00:41:01
Besides, set back between what is proposed at 51 and what is proposed at 55, but only on the 51 side if that makes sense. And 00:41:09
what's the distance of the structure to the property line on 51. So what he's showing on the plan currently is approximately, I'll 00:41:17
say 13 feet. It may have a fractional number there, 13 point 113.7, but they have requested the variance down to 10 feet. 00:41:24
That's in case of an error in building. If we don't want to overlap the building, set back line. 00:41:35
OK, the other questions for the applicant. 00:41:44
Question about the sidewalks. 00:41:48
Would they be in line with what we're going to be looking to do? I actually spoke with Miss Sharon and Jared and we discussed and 00:41:50
he he agreed to put in sidewalks as approval of the variance. Well, he's required to put in the sidewalks for our transportation 00:41:56
plan. So it's not he's not agreeing to put him in, he's got to put him in, I mean per the per the code. 00:42:02
Yeah. Now I appreciate the appreciate him doing it, but it's it's required. 00:42:11
Any other questions before the applicant? If not, we may have him back up depending on what questions or comments we get from. 00:42:17
The public. So if we want to reserve that time, remind me again of your name. I apologize, OK. If you want to just have a seat, we 00:42:23
may have you come back up. We have any members of the public who would like to speak to this. I will. 00:42:30
Remind council we've received e-mail opposition from Missus Garrett, Miss Purcell, and from Kane Cruz and his wife, who are both 00:42:36
adjacent. Everybody should have read those but. 00:42:44
Mr. Purcell or Miss Garrett, if you want to offer any further comments, feel free. 00:42:52
Hi, I'm Samantha Purcell and I live on 47 Simonton Bridge Rd. which is to the left of the green rectangle. 00:42:59
So I don't think we have enough information in front of us to give them a variance. I read their hardship. 00:43:11
Application and the only thing in their hardship application said the property is too narrow. 00:43:19
So if I'm buying a piece of property and I read the ordinances and I, you know, know what I'm purchasing. 00:43:25
Then the properties too narrow is really not very good argument for me. I think as a retired teacher you your habitats you have to 00:43:33
pass the test here that here's your rubric. 00:43:41
And you have to build a house. It's a blank slate, so you can do whatever you want. There are lots of plans for houses that are 00:43:48
narrow, that can fit into those two little rectangles. 00:43:54
You could have the garage in the back. 00:44:00
There are lots of creative things you can do. We really want to see a small footprint and I think lessen the environmental impact. 00:44:03
Not everyone wants to live in a Mcmansion or a big house if you look at the square footage of the houses around. 00:44:11
It's small. We lived in a 900 square foot house for 20 something years and added on and we had a big hardship. We had a sewer 00:44:19
easement going through the back of our property so we couldn't build back which we would have. 00:44:26
But we had to build out to the side because that was a real hardship. But for this property, it's a blank slate. 00:44:34
To me, if I'm buying a property and I'm an architect, a builder, I would look at that and say, OK, I'm going to have to go by 00:44:42
their ordinances. That's why you have them. That's where they're in place. 00:44:48
For a reason. So I think if you look at it, not know how much you guys studied this, but Kane Cruz, the other person that wrote 00:44:55
your letter, he and I went out and measured. 00:45:00
And I think there's 50 something feet wide. 00:45:05
For the house to be and if that's pretty darn wide for a house and. 00:45:09
So I think you can be creative and build a nice home that would not be, you know, this is a big footprint. 00:45:16
And and I think that's 10 feet they're asking, but that's five on each property, right? 00:45:25
Fight or. It's. 00:45:32
On each property or. 00:45:35
I think it. I think it was 5 on each. 00:45:37
I was confused about the same thing, but it sounds like there's you know that it'll be a. Basically they'll be 17. 00:45:41
Feet closer to the right side of the property, but there'll be no impact on the side. 00:45:47
Towards you, you and Mr. Cruz, Right. So they would. 00:45:51
It would be. They'd be closer together and squished in and the the plans they gave, it doesn't show what kind of house it's going 00:45:55
to be. I mean it. 00:46:00
We didn't get to see that. 00:46:06
So but. 00:46:08
We would really like to see something more cottage. 00:46:10
And. 00:46:13
Something creative that you could, I mean, you have green space around the house and not put a big old footprint on the property. 00:46:15
So we're real concerned and like Mark Campbell said, you haven't seen anything developed because there's no land. 00:46:25
There, in the scenic corridor, they did build a house a long time ago, but that would be on the in the historic district. They put 00:46:35
their garage in the back next to Connie. 00:46:40
So it can. 00:46:46
And Kane? He sent me a floor plan of something that was narrow. 00:46:49
And looked really good. You can just punch in house, you know, and pop this one up on the Internet. So I think if you're buying a 00:46:56
piece of property and such a great spot, real important, that corridor is like you're coming into Watkinsville. I just don't want 00:47:03
to see. 00:47:09
Like these two houses close together and then you need some space and and then maybe they wouldn't cut us down. Down as many 00:47:17
trees. Smaller house. Not everyone needs to live in a gigantic home. 00:47:23
Nowadays. And then the other thing you guys really need to read is their height requirements. 00:47:30
If you look at the property, it slopes from the road up and it's there's a lot of drainage that goes across that property. 00:47:35
But there are height requirements for. 00:47:44
And I don't know if the builders have looked at that, but. 00:47:47
From the sidewalk, I think, or the road if you look, there's a real specific pipe requirement, so. 00:47:50
That's another thing to consider. So that's all I have to say. Thank you for our consideration. Thank you. 00:47:58
Any other members of the public. 00:48:07
Wish to address the matter and. 00:48:10
All right. I'm going to close the public hearing and bring it back to council for any further questions or discussion. We can 00:48:13
certainly ask questions of the engineer. We can bring the applicant back. Sounds like the applicant wants to come forward again. 00:48:17
You have time left. Go ahead. 00:48:22
Thank you Miss Purcell. She was talking of the building set back but her house is over the 30 foot building set back and she has a 00:48:28
front facing garage. 00:48:33
So her house would be 60 foot away from the proposed home if they they weren't encroaching on the property line. 00:48:38
So that. 00:48:46
Kind of on her. And then secondly, I actually did a site plan with a long, narrow house, but with the nature of the garage having 00:48:47
to be in the rear. She'd walk out her back door and see a garage. 00:48:53
So really the variance is to also help her. It'll keep the houses in line. It'll make it where her backyard, she can still see 00:48:59
those trees in the rear instead of cutting them down for a garage. Well, I think what you may need to think about then, and I 00:49:04
appreciate that, but what may be a healthy conversation would be. 00:49:10
If Mr. York hasn't already to have that sort of conversation with Miss Purcell and Miss Garrett around, if if he's willing to have 00:49:17
that sort of conversation, I think it could be healthy. So, but thank you for pointing that out. We did. 00:49:23
Miss Purcell, Miss Garrett did go through the variance process several years ago and we've walked through that. So and we we did 00:49:30
feel locate her house and show approximately how far over it is. So we're not asking for anything more than they already have. I 00:49:34
understand. OK, let's, let's. 00:49:39
Let's come back behind the rail. You have any questions? Anybody have questions for the applicant? 00:49:44
I have. 00:49:48
Kind of a more of a statement I guess. 00:49:50
I don't see the hardship as far as need. 00:49:55
For the variance, I think if you build a narrower house you reference 17 Simonton Bridge that was built in 2008. 00:49:58
That you would have no idea. It was built in 2008, driving by it. And that's the beauty of it. I looked at the houses. 00:50:07
All the houses around there 1920191519331920190919561922 and 2008. Those are the ages of the houses all around these two lots. 00:50:15
I I think it's great to build a couple houses on these lots. I'm for that. 00:50:30
I'm all I also love 17 Simonton Bridge because it blends into this, all these. 00:50:34
Historic homes that are. 00:50:41
100 years old that the. 00:50:43
And it's a fantastic thing for a builder to do and it enhances our community. 00:50:45
I think if you were to build two homes. 00:50:51
That looked like they were built in 20. 00:50:54
For I think. 00:50:57
Takes away from that stretch of historic. 00:51:00
I think 17 Simonton Bridge did a fantastic job. It improved Watkinsville, the Moores on South Main when they built their house. 00:51:03
It looks like it was built in 1920. It enhances our community. 00:51:13
I think the houses that JW York built on Colin Ferry are all nice, they go together. But I think if you take two of those homes 00:51:17
and pop them, if you will, on these two lots, that style home does not fit that historic stretch of homes. 00:51:25
That's my opinion. I mean, you do great work. I would love to see the extra effort. 00:51:34
Taken to build something that blends in and 17 Simonton Bridge is a perfect example. Look at they put a garage in the back, it's a 00:51:40
narrow lot. 00:51:45
You know, that's that's my opinion. 00:51:50
I say. 00:51:54
Other comments. 00:51:56
And and I will note, I mean you know we don't see a lot of building in this district, but there are some specific, there is 00:51:59
specific guidance in the code as to how the homes should look. 00:52:04
And how they should be treated and there's a reason that there's an overlay. When we did the land use project years ago and it was 00:52:08
because eventually. 00:52:12
Even though not much is built, there's four or five lots, even that was before that house. There were there's four or five lots 00:52:15
along that quarter that eventually we knew would be built on. And we do want the design to be responsive to the history of our 00:52:22
community. And that was our citizens demanded that just like they did on South Main and just like they have around Rocket Field. 00:52:28
That's what the overlay is for, so I haven't seen the design. 00:52:34
Of the homes, I don't think we need to get into the design tonight. 00:52:38
But. 00:52:41
I think my thought is that we may need to table this conversation until we can. 00:52:44
Have a deeper look. 00:52:49
At the design and what's going on with that, But again, that's council's determination. 00:52:52
In terms of where you all want to go, but that's my thinking at this point based on the conversation and because we had a set of 00:52:57
plans dropped in front of two of us tonight and that's bound to affect how people feel about this. And the rest of council has not 00:53:01
had an opportunity to look at those. 00:53:05
Yeah, I agree. 00:53:10
Can I go ahead and make a motion to table it? I make a motion to table. 00:53:12
To next month. 00:53:17
Any further discussion? 00:53:19
All in favor, aye. Any opposed? 00:53:21
All right, motion to table carries. 00:53:25
Thank you for coming in. 00:53:27
All right. 00:53:30
All right. We're going to follow the, we're going to follow the same process for. 00:53:37
For the next one that's coming up, that's Mr. Raleigh Garrett. That's 1181 Jacob Dr. Parcel, BO6LO2D. 00:53:43
We will have same process. Engineer Campbell. Engineer Campbell will OfferUp the staff, report Attorney Reitman for an illegal. 00:54:01
And then we'll have the applicant step forward and then we'll have the public hearing. 00:54:10
Engineer Campbell, Thank you, Mayor. So this is a variance request at. 00:54:13
I'll say 1181 Jacob Drive, this is within the Christian Lake subdivision and so the the lot is a corner lot, it's a little bit 00:54:18
less than an acre and it is zoned detached residential. And so the proposed request it's two variances, it's for an encroachment 00:54:25
into the 10 foot side set back. 00:54:33
I said 10 foot not 30 foot because this is not seven to bridge city corridor so that the code requires a 10 foot side set back. 00:54:41
They're asking for an encroachment and then for a front facing garage. 00:54:46
So again if you see there and that includes topography, hopefully those additional lines from the from the tax assessor are not 00:54:53
confusing. But it it shows the the house as it sits currently is on what I would consider the higher portion of the lot as you 00:55:01
move towards Felton and away from the existing house you go to the South and then that's at a lower elevation if you will. 00:55:10
So again, here's a reference to a plat that would have been recorded back in 2002 as part of phase one of the Christian Lake 00:55:20
subdivision. You can see the the subject partial that's highlighted there in yellow that was at the edge of that particular sheet 00:55:25
that was from Platbook 34. 00:55:29
And here's a view of the existing driveway in that existing structure there at 1181 Jacob Drive. And so the the proposed variance 00:55:36
request would be for a garage that is front facing at that location and then it would be within 5 feet of what it would be on the 00:55:44
right hand side of that picture of the property line. That's not flagged or marked, but it kind of gives you an idea instead of at 00:55:52
least 10 feet away from that. So there's currently a garage with this house that is attached. 00:56:00
That is not front facing its access to via this concrete driveway. The request is for a detached front facing garage. Hopefully 00:56:08
that's helpful. 00:56:12
Again, it's the next slide. There's there's two code sections, they're they're both within 502, but there's different letters and 00:56:18
numbers associated with those on this as you can see. 00:56:22
There's a lot of information about garages in Watkinsville if you've been to enough meetings. We've talked about garages before, 00:56:27
but the the details of what those specific code sections are are included and again the side set back variance that's being 00:56:34
requested as well. The applicants also indicated that the existing septic facilities. 00:56:41
Do create a hardship on this lot. Again, a portion of Christian Lake is not on septic, but this portion was and I believe the 00:56:49
applicant also submitted information from the Department of Public Health related to the existing septic facilities. 00:56:57
Be happy to answer any questions. 00:57:07
Thank you, Engineer Campbell, Attorney Reitman. Any further comments, Again, same criteria apply as we discussed in the previous 00:57:10
one, just to confirm. 00:57:14
This is detached residential and there is no overlay district. Is that correct for example? Thank you Sir. 00:57:19
Thank you. Do we have any pictures of where the garage is going on the lot? 00:57:26
That would have been part of your application package, but unfortunately the quality of those pictures was not very good at all. 00:57:36
They were not color pictures. 00:57:40
So. 00:57:45
Yeah, I tried looking on my yeah, it was it was a box, right? So it was a black box on a black and white. 00:57:46
Picture. So unfortunately it was not an engineer drawing, but it's a why don't we let Mr. Garrett come forward at this point and 00:57:53
maybe go back to the picture showing the front view of the house And then between the maybe Mr. Garrett, if you want to come up, 00:58:00
introduce yourself tell us your address tell us a little bit about. 00:58:07
Your need for the structure and how it's going to fit. 00:58:14
You know both and why both variances are necessary in your opinion. Yeah. Thanks so much, Mayor. So I'm Raleigh Garrett. I live at 00:58:19
1181 Jacob Drive. My wife and I and our little daughter have lived there since 2016. We have a little boy that will be here in 00:58:27
March. And so we are asking for a variance to build an additional garage for storage space. We may use a portion of a space above 00:58:34
for an office because the baby boy is getting my current Home Office. I work from home a day or so a week. 00:58:41
The current location where we're wanting to put it, so there's a parking pad at the end of that driveway right there before the 00:58:50
fence that you can kind of see and I apologize for black and white picture, but so there's a fence that's about. 00:58:56
12 feet past the concrete. What we're wanting to do is put that garage from the fence. 00:59:05
To where that concrete pad currently locates. So we're adding about an additional 12 feet of concrete onto our existing driveway 00:59:11
and then putting the garage there. So the garage would be 10 feet off of the house and then it's about 8.9 feet from the property 00:59:17
line. We're asking for five feet just like that. They kind of mentioned the building error or a overhang or anything that we're 00:59:23
not positive on, so. 00:59:29
And Lisa, the neighbor next door, I spoke with her. I have a text that was in the application that she said I have no 00:59:36
reservations. I fully I'm OK with you doing this as well. 00:59:41
The like structure of the house to you. I can show some kind of rough things that we're thinking of doing, but it will match the 00:59:51
roof line of the current garage. 00:59:54
Colors on mad shutters will match. They'll be gasoline. There's more than likely I'll let it to match the front door I. 00:59:59
Peculiar about wanting it to look like it's always been. 01:00:06
Council. 01:00:12
Yes, at this point we open a public hearing unless council has any questions for the applicant. 01:00:15
All right, public hearing is open. Anyone want to speak in favor or in opposition to the variance request? 01:00:21
All right, we'll close the public hearing council questions for staff or for the applicant. 01:00:29
I don't know if this is so much a question. 01:00:36
I think for me where I'm really struggling with this is not only is it a set back issue but it is also the front facing. 01:00:41
Garage. 01:00:48
Which again, there's reasons why we have these different. 01:00:51
Ordinances I I do understand. 01:00:56
I mean, looking at the overview of your lot, you have a lot of. Most of your lot is on one side of your property and I understand 01:00:59
not wanting to add a bunch of concrete. 01:01:03
Over there I'm guessing. And then when it's a corner lot to like, then what's front facing, what side fit, you know, all of those 01:01:08
things. 01:01:12
That, that is our backup drain field over there. Yeah, I'm sorry, hang on. You need to get the, you need to get the mic. That's 01:01:17
all so people can hear. Thank you. So we looked at putting it on that side because there is a ton of green space over there and 01:01:22
like you mentioned, we would have to obviously disturb a ton of that with a driveway and then all of our utilities currently come 01:01:28
in on that side of the house. So the cost. 01:01:34
Hardship would be extreme. To move every gas power, all the HVAC would have to move. 01:01:40
And then like you mentioned is what's faced its front facing the Felton at that point. 01:01:46
But the main thing is in that letter from the Department of Health is that is our backup drain field. Our septic tank is currently 01:01:52
in our backyard with field. 01:01:56
The backup failure field. 01:02:01
Is what we would cover. 01:02:03
So so a thought that I have because. 01:02:06
You know, every time we allow a variance, it continues opening up a door. 01:02:10
Erodes our codes when I'm hearing your need. I understand you have a growing family. You work more from home. I mean things that 01:02:15
have changed since 2016 when you bought the property. I'm sure you want to hold on to your current interest rate as well. 01:02:23
But I'm wondering if. 01:02:32
Some kind of an addition that isn't a garage. 01:02:34
Might be something that would meet your needs without having to have a variance, and so I met with two builders about that. 01:02:38
And the cost would be? 01:02:49
Considerably higher and from what they're saying it would add the addition would need to be on that. 01:02:53
Felt inside so all utilities would move. We would have to demo a current bathroom to then add that way. 01:03:00
But would there be anything? And I asked. I'm staring at Engineer Campbell here as I asked this. Or whoever might have, you know, 01:03:09
thoroughly studied our codes to have a Is it against our code to have a free standing structure that doesn't have to be as large 01:03:15
as a garage? 01:03:21
That essentially you could have the downstairs be storage, so not fully finished out, have an upstairs office, just not having a 01:03:28
garage door to the front and not having it so big. I mean you're so close to the set back that if it was a slightly smaller not A2 01:03:34
car garage size. 01:03:40
I I don't see how that expense would be more. 01:03:47
Then I mean, I understand if you're like attaching it and you have to move doors and windows and all of that, but couldn't have 01:03:50
did, I mean do we have, are we, do we allow we, I think we allow detached. 01:03:56
Accessory we do allow, but I think one of the challenges, it looks like you're going to be blocking the entrance to your current 01:04:01
garage with the new structure, right? Potentially so it won't block the current entrance, we will not will. It will still remain a 01:04:06
garage. There has been a discussion that we may shrink the door from 16 to 12 to put a walkout door so that door doesn't have to 01:04:11
come each time. 01:04:16
But no, it will still be accessible for coming in. It will OK so that one with the black box then. 01:04:22
That's not accurate. Then it should because there's a there's a lot of house. The garage is not at the back corner. 35 feet of 01:04:28
house past the garage, I see OK. 01:04:32
All right. 01:04:37
So the garage then will not be all the way. It will not be parallel with the front. The front. 01:04:42
Of the house. 01:04:49
Interesting. OK. 01:04:51
Right, Council, other questions. 01:04:53
Would a, let's say, single car wide? 01:04:57
For the single car wide structure. 01:05:02
With an upstairs. 01:05:06
Suit your needs if you said you're not using it for a garage. 01:05:08
OK, I thought you said storage. 01:05:12
Upstairs and storage. 01:05:18
So I just want to speak as the former HOA president of the neighborhood. I do want to speak to the the sewers, especially so all 01:05:29
of Jacob has septic tanks in the back lot in the backyard and half of the yards. 01:05:37
Now are going through remodels because all the septic tanks. 01:05:45
Failing in down through Jacob just just for y'all consideration. Whoever installed them didn't do them correctly. The tanks are 01:05:51
too small, the drain lines are too small, and so they are failing, and so I know of at least eight that are have had to be redone 01:05:56
in the last. 01:06:02
It's a few years just for y'all. 01:06:09
Knowledge. 01:06:11
Then Brett, don't bring up what the HL, I've submitted all this to HOA and they've they have no questions they said because this 01:06:15
would be the only front facing garage in Christian Lake. Correct. So that's I'm actually looking at the first one on the right, 01:06:20
the Connolly's or second one on the right The Connolly's have one. 01:06:24
Adrian Adrian Connelly, when you come in off. 01:06:31
Article she. 01:06:36
No issues with the HOA. They've approved this. 01:06:38
Council, this is with you. I'm, I'm. I've never been a big. 01:06:51
Front facing garages, as you guys know and yeah. 01:06:55
But this is a pretty. 01:07:00
Set of circumstances here that I don't know, I totally understood until Mr. Garrett explained them to me in terms of what's going 01:07:02
on here, so. 01:07:05
You. 01:07:09
I don't vote so. 01:07:10
Yeah, I struggle with it because we have ordinances. 01:07:14
You know, for a reason. 01:07:17
And I thought, well, when I first was reading, I didn't know the location of the building. I thought, well, if it's set way back. 01:07:21
Then you know, seeing the garage isn't going to be as right there, but it's. 01:07:28
Parallel with the back of the house, it sounds like. 01:07:34
From the rear. From the rear, the back of the garage will be at the same depth as the house coming forward, so it's Rd. 01:07:38
Close to the existing garage or other garage door will be. 01:07:45
It's like somebody I could look at the plan. I think it's, yeah, it's probably 8 to 10 feet back from the current garage door. 01:07:49
That's just what I struggle with. But then I'm also like, well, if the the homeowners association doesn't have a problem with. 01:07:56
And there it's like I'm on the Q public right now. There are three other This would be the third home in the neighborhood. 01:08:04
Now, but with those others that have a front, are they the only garage? 01:08:15
Councilman Thomas, make sure you use your mic, please. No, they're not. They're additional garages. 01:08:21
Are they all double? 01:08:28
They are. 01:08:29
I think that yes. I think the question then becomes. 01:08:32
You know, and there's two sides to it, right? You know, like accessory structures. 01:08:38
It's a way to keep things affordable. It's a way to have an affordable secondary housing opportunity, garage apartments, things 01:08:43
like that, and our. 01:08:46
Anticipated those, but just the design of Christian Lake in the home, a lot of the homes there is. 01:08:50
This will not be the last of these that we get. 01:08:55
Now so codes there for a reason. 01:08:59
Good reason, but we kind of have a little bit of a conflict in terms of priorities here because there's these do create some other 01:09:02
opportunities in terms of. 01:09:05
In terms of housing, property value appreciation and other things, so you know, but not everyone, I don't think it's going to be 01:09:09
nearly as constrained as what Mr. Garrett's situation is here. So there. I don't know that this is a viable option, but there's 01:09:14
part of me that wants. 01:09:20
To basically throw this back into the Christian Lake Homeowners Association and say I mean. 01:09:25
I'm just speaking off the cup here because I don't want. 01:09:33
I don't want to open up variances. I mean, what's a hardship? I mean, do you need to park your car? But you know, in the scope of 01:09:38
life, no, that is not a hardship. And you have a two car garage. 01:09:44
I We have very few actual neighborhoods in our. 01:09:53
City, I mean not very few, but we don't have, we have the scenic corridors. We have kind of the historic communities and then we 01:09:59
have a smattering of neighborhoods and there's part of me that thinks if a neighborhood as it's being built and if we I don't know 01:10:05
what I'm even saying here. 01:10:12
I just, I don't want to open up a can of worms, not only. 01:10:21
For the city of Watkinsville, but also for Christian Lake, because. 01:10:26
It's not a neighborhood that was built for everyone to have three and four car garages. That isn't what this neighborhood is and. 01:10:31
So I don't know. I'm I'm, I'm torn. I understand where you're coming from. I understand your need and desire for more space. But I 01:10:41
think there. 01:10:46
A creative way, and I understand why you can't use half of your yard like I get all of that, but I'm not real excited about saying 01:10:51
yes to a front. 01:10:56
Facing garage, Two car garage that is not only a front facing garage. 01:11:00
But also is messing with the. 01:11:06
The set back. 01:11:10
So I am inclined. 01:11:13
To I'm inclined to say no, or to table it, to go back to the drawing board to get more input, maybe for more community members. I 01:11:16
don't know it, you know, it's it's hard for me when we have people who specifically say. 01:11:24
We are affected by this. We live next door to this. We do not want this and this is a code. 01:11:33
That definitely inclines me to hear that. 01:11:40
And we're not hearing that in your case, but we haven't heard from the across the street neighbor honestly that might affect them 01:11:45
as much as it's going to affect the person next door, so. 01:11:49
Other people's thoughts here. 01:11:55
All right, Council, we can have thoughts or we can have a motion and we can go a lot of directions here. So we've got four of you. 01:11:58
We we, we know Christine's position. 01:12:02
But happy to, happy to have a motion in a conversation at this point. Unless you have other questions for applicant. But again, 01:12:07
once you make a motion in a second, then we can dive into deeper conversation. How about that? 01:12:13
So the only my counter argument I guess would be that there are there is already a precedence in the neighborhood. 01:12:21
And to to have been approved at some point. 01:12:31
And and I get. I don't know if we could go back and search when that was, but. 01:12:37
I have the addresses, but two have been approved at some point. They built without permits. 01:12:41
All right, let's we're that we're going to run a rabbit there come with this meeting in a decent hour tonight. Can we have 01:12:47
somebody make a motion, somebody make a second, we'll have some more conversation. Otherwise we're going to move on down the road. 01:12:53
I'll make a motion. We approve. All right, We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? We have a second. 01:13:02
All right, discussion. Any further discussion? 01:13:07
All right. I don't have any further discussion. I'm just concerned it's 2 variances. 01:13:12
Versus some of them have just been one variance request we got the side yard set back which. 01:13:18
I was not excited about the other person who came before. 01:13:26
However many months ago that. 01:13:31
Because even though the neighbors OK with it, I'm thinking well down the road. Boy that I've got this big two car garage real 01:13:34
close to my property line. 01:13:38
So it's it's that variance which. 01:13:43
Not happy, excited about. And then the second variance is a is a forward facing garage, so it's asking for. 01:13:46
And does it meet all the? 01:13:55
The hardship and everything else I don't. 01:13:57
All right. So Jeff's concerned about that. That's good. Any further discussion, legal counsel is going to have. Legal counsel 01:14:00
going to have some thoughts in a second. But Connie, let's get you well. If they have a homeowners association, they should talk 01:14:06
with them and they should talk with all the neighbors and get their approval. 01:14:11
Before we. 01:14:17
All right. Mr. Garrett, have you talked to any other neighbors besides the one directly affected by the? 01:14:19
I've talked to the one to the rear judge on. 01:14:24
OK, so Judge Hun Singer at rear somebody else to the right across the street is the I think we. 01:14:28
Miser's major TMS. I've not spoken to Imagine. Yeah, OK Could I ask a question if could the homeowners association change their 01:14:37
bylaws saying that we're going to allow this if the city of Watkinsville will allow us? 01:14:46
To allow. 01:14:55
Four, facing garages in our community only. So I can speak to that also because I did rewrite the bylaws, but I first took over as 01:14:58
HOA president and it does take quite a it's quite an undertaking to rewrite the bylaws. We have to have a 70% vote. I have 149 01:15:05
homes inside of that in there and trying to get. 01:15:12
70% of the vote is incredibly difficult. 01:15:20
But I would, I would actually say that first if if this precedent is being set. 01:15:25
Then I think it would need to be a 70% vote in the neighborhood. So I'm going to make a motion. If there's already a motion, 01:15:31
there's a motion on the floor and there's a second, so we've got to stop. Can I? 01:15:37
Can I ask you to withdraw the motion? Let's hear from the attorney and then we can see if we want to withdraw, if we want to vote. 01:15:45
If the vote fails, then you know we'll come back with the other. But let's hear from the attorney and see what he has to see 01:15:51
earlier. A reference to applicable standards and criteria, one of them states specifically in granting A variance. Mayor and 01:15:57
council may impose any other conditions necessary to further the goals of this ordinance. So as always, you have the option to 01:16:03
approve, deny or table. 01:16:09
So I think my recommendation would probably be to at least have a discussion about whether somebody wants to make a motion to 01:16:52
table. 01:16:55
So we have a motion on the floor. We have a second. We've had discussion. 01:16:59
Is there any inclination to withdraw the motion with potential consideration for a table? 01:17:04
That's your call, Mr. Thomas. 01:17:10
Sure, absolutely. I would draw my motion right. The motion is withdrawn. Is there interest in somebody making a motion to table? I 01:17:12
make a motion that we table. 01:17:16
Before we make, before we vote on that, I want to ask Mr. Garrett is there is a is a one month delay potentially going to impact 01:17:22
you in a material way? 01:17:25
Pretty severely. OK, why don't you tell us about that? Our babies do the end of March and so we're trying to have this completed 01:17:29
before we have a newborn. 01:17:33
We have. 01:17:38
That could potentially said they could finish this in three months and so about delaying it a month, it does severely change our 01:17:39
timeline. 01:17:43
Let me ask another question, Mr. Garrett the. 01:17:48
You what if the? 01:17:51
Could the structure be moved further back to the edge of your concrete where your fence is shown? 01:17:54
It so it's already there. It's touching the fence now and so it's it's could the front be at the fence is what I'm asking. That's 01:18:00
on top of the septic tank that is where the septic tank is. So it's back in the fence. OK. At the end of the fence, OK. All right. 01:18:05
Thank you. We've had other front facing garages that are further or not garages but there. 01:18:11
They have doors, but they're not. It's not garage doors and they're further back, OK? 01:18:17
I do not know. So we are 10 feet from the house at this point. I mean if and I think from where we are measured and look at it, 01:18:22
we're something Farca is going to require us to be. 01:18:27
But so then I guess the only point there would be to have to shrink the actual width of the garage. 01:18:33
So it's to me. 01:18:40
And I want, I want as much for the city to be beautiful. We love this neighborhood and we want to continue to increase and look 01:18:42
beautiful. We want to be a prize of the city. 01:18:47
So the only thing is, if we go to shrinking the garage, we. 01:18:55
Be more likely to have to. 01:18:59
Single garage door. Whereas if we can leave it at the width where we're at now, it does allow us to have that dressed up look that 01:19:01
looks. 01:19:05
Beautiful versus just a flat wall and that's that's our intention is that it's not going to be a flat wall and look. 01:19:09
Look like an eyesore, right? 01:19:16
OK. All right. So it sounds like Mr. Garrett would like a vote tonight one way or another. Is that accurate? 01:19:19
So I mean, that's a dangerous question I guess. I don't know if it is denied. Is there another option? 01:19:27
That point. 01:19:34
So can I think, I think you have to wait six months, don't you if you get done denial unless the new request is for something 01:19:37
different IE you alluded earlier to the accessory structure option. I did research very recently for another client, their 01:19:45
ordinance said up to an 800 foot accessory structure kind of like a mother-in-law situation that may serve your needs of storage 01:19:52
plus Home Office but not necessarily automobile parking. 01:19:59
That is an option you could come back with if they deny tonight, but again, that may not suit your needs. So, and I don't recall 01:20:07
specifically what Howard it says about accessory structures. I don't want to speak out of term. 01:20:13
This is by the Department of Health. This is going to be an attached structure. The foundations will connect so that if we wanted 01:20:21
to add a connected to the septic field, that is a possibility. So they said it needs to be connected via. 01:20:29
A extension of the extension, correct. So that extension of the crawlspace. OK, yeah, if I can interject two things. First of all, 01:20:38
we didn't get a second that I know of on this table. I didn't hear Julie and. 01:20:44
Wait here a second. So we're having a discussion without a second. So we need to probably have a second for her. Well, let's 01:20:50
motion draw the table for a second. Let's just draw the table. Let's just keep talking. And you know, again, sometimes given the 01:20:56
timing here, I'm not a big fan of trying to solve problems at a meeting. But given all the things tonight, we're going to try to 01:21:01
do that. So thought. So it looks like you got something you want to say. It looks like it looks like you already have a. 01:21:07
Kind of A1 car sucks. I mean it's hard to tell from a picture on Q Public, but where is this and what is that is in our that's in 01:21:13
the backyard and that's my wife's office. 01:21:19
OK, so you already do have OK, that to me that's relevant information that you already have an accessory structure. 01:21:25
On the property. So that's not shown in this aerial or is it behind the house? I don't it's hard to see anything, I just have the 01:21:32
picture. 01:21:37
So is that like a? Is that a garage with roll up door? Is that a? 01:21:48
More like a child's Playhouse. OK, So what? This picture is not accurate. 01:21:53
Mayor, just to answer Joe's question, so. 01:22:00
It looks like you can have an attached or detached dwelling with 12 minimum for Arab 1200 square feet. 01:22:04
If you're doing a detached or attached. 01:22:11
That's where the dwelling not structure, and this is not a dwelling, right? We're not trying to change the septic or add anything 01:22:14
else. 01:22:17
OK. And so this is we are deep diving to try to, I mean I think if so, if we want to try to do you have a bonus room? 01:22:23
It is above the garage as a playroom, yes. So you do have a the finished space Someone's heart sell from Cuba like so finished 01:22:32
room. There's no closet bathroom. OK, so you do have a finished. 01:22:37
Room there. That is a playroom, yes. 01:22:42
And you have one daughter, so you have 3 bedrooms, bonus room, it looks like just under 2000 square feet. Your wife already has a 01:22:45
detached office. 01:22:49
I totally understand the desire and you, you know, you've got the ball rolling. 01:22:55
But. 01:23:01
I just think we've got to do this well and right. I mean, I have. 01:23:04
Still hold? 01:23:09
The tabling of this, but I'm not making a motion because we're still discussing but. 01:23:13
Discuss. 01:23:18
All right. Any other comments from council? 01:23:21
All right, well, let's play the motion game again and see where we get so. 01:23:26
Open to entertain wherever people want to take this. 01:23:30
I make a motion to table. 01:23:34
Right. Christine has a motion to table. Do we have a second? 01:23:36
We have a second from Councilman Campbell all in any discussion of the table. 01:23:40
We understand. 01:23:45
Until January, we understand, you know, Mr. Garrett. 01:23:47
Situation. 01:23:50
But we do have a motion to table and we have a second so. 01:23:52
No further discussion. All in favor of the table. Say aye. 01:23:55
All right. Let's say by voice, because I only heard a couple, is that we have Christine. 01:23:59
Jeff Connie. 01:24:04
Chuck no. Right now, Motion to Table carries 3. 01:24:06
OK. Thank you. 01:24:10
Definitely check with all the neighbors. Yeah. There's like, there's something that, you know, like we're to be discussed or we 01:24:13
can talk after the meeting. Well, if you don't, yeah. If you you're welcome to wait around and talk after the meeting might be 01:24:19
helpful. If you understand if you have other commitments. If you need to, then you can certainly reach out to the council members 01:24:25
individually or contact the manager or me. And we're happy to talk with you. We're happy to try to figure it out, OK. 01:24:31
All right. Thanks everyone for that. We're up to appearances and we have urban forest plan and wastewater capacity allocation 01:24:39
request for. 01:24:44
1080 Experiment Station Road. I think that's you, Mr. Bars. So we will have Councilman Thomas, our engineer Campbell, do the staff 01:24:50
report on the urban forest plan, Manager Dickerson on wastewater, and then we'll have you come up Mr. Bars, OK. 01:24:57
So who's taking care of Urban Forest? I got it. OK. Am I still on? Yes. All right, so. 01:25:06
1080 Experiment Station Rd. 01:25:12
Has to All larger projects have to go before the Urban Forestry Board. We did meet and and so our ordinance does require that 01:25:16
specific guidelines be met to meet the green area associated with this project and you must maintain a 25 unit per acre. 01:25:24
The guidelines do allow for the remaining of trees, which it looks like you existing of 87 units existing. 01:25:33
And that can be qualified exceeded and a unit capacity. We give them the size of the trees, diameter, height. So it is a. 01:25:41
You total area was 2 1/2, two and a quarter acres. 01:25:50
The site density requirement was 25 units an acre. 01:25:54
The existing density factor was 87 units. 01:25:59
Umm, And. 01:26:02
The replacement density factor was 18 units, so for a total site density of 78 units. So the Urban Forest board did approve. 01:26:05
Does recommended approval? We did have some. 01:26:17
Recommendations though there were four of them, the first one being try to get a shade tree on the South side of the townhomes. 01:26:22
The second was take out both China berries as they are noxious trees. 01:26:30
Third was a plan later that shows the existing tree locations. 01:26:36
The IT didn't didn't really look like we had exact tree locations for for that and then work with the Board of Education to plant 01:26:42
more shade trees on the West side. 01:26:47
So those are the recommendations from the Urban Forest Board. But council, we did recommend approval this. 01:26:52
All right. So that. 01:27:01
Do we need to take this one at a time? We don't usually do urban forests and wastewater together, so I guess what I would note is 01:27:03
our recommendation, say try to on #1. 01:27:08
#4 that's a probably a try to as well or #2 and three requirements to move it forward. Do we need they are not requirements. So 01:27:13
the China Berry trees were on our list of noxious trees that we when we updated the course board. So it is. 01:27:21
An undesirable tree. All right. OK. Mr. Bars, if you want to come on up and just let us know. I think obviously the BOE, you know, 01:27:29
I think it would probably fall to us to make that request to see if they might consider. 01:27:35
Doing anything with their plans, and we're happy to do that. Unless you want to, unless you want to speak to someone. If you do, 01:27:41
that's fine. 01:27:44
That's number four. 01:27:49
#2 Would you be fine taking down China Berry trees? Yeah, I'm good with it. Played with them as a youngster. I'm very familiar 01:27:52
with them and we can take them down. I'm I'm a little confused on the West side. 01:27:58
Are they referring to the West side of the Board of Education's space? Yes, So, so the common line is that that what that's the 01:28:04
question. 01:28:08
Just trying to put a barrier between the BOE. 01:28:14
And I have to reflect to the site plan, see how much space is in between there, you know? 01:28:18
Yeah. My recollection is we probably have to ask the beat you've got. I think you've got. 01:28:25
Conifers. Buffering. If not conifers. Evergreen plants buffering. Sound on the South side next to a small house that's existing in 01:28:29
between US and the Board of Education, but OK. 01:28:35
OK, Yeah. All right. So these are requests, not requirements. Mr. Barr, is there anything else you want to add about? 01:28:41
Urban forest. 01:28:48
Well, I'm a forester by trade. 01:28:50
At, you know, trees and. 01:28:53
That, you know, landscape is very important to us and it is our. 01:28:55
If we see something that's unhealthy or we don't feel. 01:28:59
Can maintain the shade and the comfort of the area and the aesthetics that we would like the opportunity to replace that with an 01:29:02
equal or better. 01:29:06
Specimen. So yeah, we absolutely, it's a focus of ours in the development to have plenty of trees. 01:29:10
And plenty of thoughtful landscaping in condition with the neighbors, yeah. 01:29:17
OK. 01:29:23
All right, Council. 01:29:25
Comments on the Urban forest? I'll entertain a motion. 01:29:26
Mr. Thomas, I'll make a motion. We approve. We have a motion. 01:29:32
Mr. Thomas and his committee, I mean, again, there's recommendations. Mr. Thomas made it clear those aren't requirements. Mr. 01:29:35
Bars, if you could take those under advisement and we'd appreciate it. 01:29:40
Honor those. But since they weren't requirements, they are recommendations. And do we have a second? All right, we have a second. 01:29:47
Any discussion hearing? None. All in favor? Say aye. All right, We'll move to wastewater capacity. Mr. Bars, You may just want to 01:29:54
stay there. Manager Dickerson. 01:29:58
Not going to try to make Y'all's eyes hurt tonight, but I have a pretty large master tracking worksheet for our wastewater 01:30:04
capacity. Just a little background. Remember that we amended in 2019 the 1991 Water and sewer agreement with Oconee County, which 01:30:12
in in that amendment granted the city 100,000 gallons per day of wastewater capacity up to the at the current. 01:30:20
Facility capacity that the the county has when they expand to 3,000,000 gallons, the city will receive another 100,000 gallons per 01:30:30
day which we anticipate based on what they've told us could be January, February of 2025. With that said, what you see in front of 01:30:39
you is the latter part of the of the larger worksheet which you should have had in your packet and so to date the council has has. 01:30:47
Granted capacity. 01:30:57
Of a little bit more than. 01:30:59
90,000. 01:31:01
Of wastewater capacity. This is not just commercial, but residential. 01:31:03
And. 01:31:06
The current site, the current old library site, the Oconee Water resources granted 260 gallons per day of credit because they're 01:31:08
currently you know on sewer. And so the difference that the that this development needs is around 2080 gallons per day. And so if 01:31:17
you look at and then like I said it's really small, But the allocation that if you approve this allocation you would end up with a 01:31:26
total capacity granted for all of the uses to date of 93,408 gallons per day. 01:31:34
Which leaves you with a balance of 6592. I mean it's you know at this point I'm not sure what 6592 would you know do other than 01:31:43
maybe a couple of houses or maybe a small small retail, but so. 01:31:50
I I don't know that it's significant to deny or you know deny this because you're only talking 2000 gallons a day. It's certainly 01:31:58
something you can you can manage. I think larger projects are going to be coming down the pipe are going to be a little more 01:32:03
challenging for Y'all to to discuss because we don't have that other capacity. But this is certainly something that you know you 01:32:07
can manage. 01:32:12
All right, you've heard the report from the manager. Any questions for her? 01:32:18
Mr. Bars, anything you want to? 01:32:25
No Sir, OK. 01:32:27
Miss Tucker. 01:32:30
I just want to make sure and this would be a question for you Joe, that as I look through the checklist of all the things. 01:32:32
It is OK that they have not yet closed, right. Even like that was one of the checklist items. But it doesn't say close. It just 01:32:40
says in it was kind of a nebulous term that it could be under contract for. And I just want to make sure that we're fine with 01:32:46
granting it to someone who's assuming they do have it under contract. They're a stakeholder, so to speak. And it would have 01:32:52
standing to make the request. Yes. Thank you. 01:32:59
All right. Other questions from council, just for clarification, I know we just, we've seen this a few times. So it was here for 01:33:06
rezoning, it was here for a site plan. But the current owner of the property is the Board of Commissioners and we, the city did 01:33:11
receive a document from John Daniel indicating that this applicant is is scheduled to close on the property. So we do have that 01:33:16
documentation. 01:33:21
Thank you, engineer. 01:33:27
Other quest? 01:33:29
Any other comments? 01:33:31
All right, here. None. I'll entertain a motion. I make a motion to approve. Do we have a second? 01:33:33
All right, Councilman Campbell, any further? 01:33:38
Discussion. 01:33:42
Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 01:33:43
Motion Carries 50 Thank You Mr. Bars, when we see you again. Or is it off to the races at this point? 01:33:48
Is that the fight? Is this the final? 01:33:53
Meeting for Mr. Bars. OK. Right. All right. Good. Happy New Year. Merry Christmas. Thank you. OK. 01:33:55
All right. We have 1260 Greensboro Highway. The Bishop family has a site development plan. Engineer Campbell will give us the 01:34:02
report on that and then we will move to hearing from the applicant. 01:34:08
OK. So this property currently has an address of 1260 Greensboro Highway, but that may be subject to change based on some of the 01:34:17
new buildings that are proposed here. But that's what you would know it as. The total acreage is about 4.3. The proposed disturbed 01:34:24
area for both phases of what the applicant has submitted and that's what the city asked them to do, was to submit everything that 01:34:31
they were trying to do so that we could see that in totality as a little over 3 acres, the existing zoning is corridor commercial. 01:34:38
The area that is subject to this is currently undeveloped with the exception of the the access from Hwy. 15 to some of the rear 01:34:46
properties where there's existing structures or existing properties. The site development plan does indicate 2 phases of 01:34:52
development. We can get into that a little bit more, but again it is zoned corridor commercial so this is the the location of the 01:34:58
property. So if you're familiar with the classic City Eats or or maybe a former Fastenal building, this would be just to the north 01:35:04
and West of that it's across from. 01:35:10
The, the green building, green roofed building of the County Annex, so that is the, the location you can see as it relates to to 01:35:17
Hwy. 15 and Morrison St. Industrial Blvd. some of those things there. And then this is, this is the view of that. One of the 01:35:25
tenants I think existing is Core Blend, which would be a kind of workout facility. Go to the next slide, you can see one of the 01:35:32
features on this existing property. Is there an existing existing pond. So you may have had to stop on Hwy. 15 before with geese. 01:35:40
Traveling between ponds from from the South side to the Northside. 01:35:47
Of Hwy. 15, but that is an existing feature. Again, you can see in the background back right of that picture the existing Classic 01:35:52
city eats. 01:35:55
Location, so site plan, again there are a lot of lines on the plan. To give you an idea, a phase one shows a proposed building 01:35:59
that does meet the 30 foot minimum build to line is actually much closer than that 30 feet that's required by code. So there's not 01:36:07
a variance with associated with that because the code encourages building closer to Hwy. 15 as is shown on the plan that is a 01:36:15
proposed 2 story building and phase one with associated access and parking there. 01:36:23
Phase two would include additional construction around the pond area and they've submitted plans that would include. 01:36:31
Site plan. 01:37:11
So this was originally discussed in 2008 as the warehouse district as as the Bishop family indicated. So it is back before you 01:37:13
again in a very different format. But this is a project that's been going on for quite some time and in some ways explain the 01:37:19
differences there between phase one and phase two, again that the phase one building would be between the existing, what I'll call 01:37:25
the core Blend building. 01:37:32
And Hwy. 15. 01:37:38
Those existing structures will stay. Access to those existing structures will stay that the applicants included that as part of 01:37:41
their detailed plans. 01:37:46
There will be utility modifications needed for these new buildings. We provided some comments related to some of those details. 01:37:51
On the on the plans and again it's more than one acre Disturbed does have water and sewer associated with it. So again there are 01:37:59
entities outside the city of Watkinsville that would also be required to approve these plans. I'm happy to answer. 01:38:06
Any additional questions you might have? 01:38:13
All right. Any questions for Mr. Campbell as the we'll go ahead and call Mr. Mr. Rear, are you speaking on behalf of the 01:38:18
applicant? We'll have you come on up, but any questions for Engineer Campbell while Mr. Greer comes forward or do we want to hear 01:38:22
from him first? 01:38:26
All right, Mr. Greer. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Justin Greer, Pitman, Greer Engineering. Appreciate Mark for such a. 01:38:32
Utilize the pond is kind of the Gray changes there. 01:39:44
We have not submitted to county, county, water resources yet. We'll kind of get through this. 01:40:50
Part of the process and then reach out to them. We've had discussions with the city about sewer capacity and things and some. 01:40:55
Of capacity that the bishops have in some other places. 01:41:03
Some agreements in there. So I don't think that'll be taken from your allocation at this time. We're still working through that. 01:41:07
And I think that's about all I have. I'd be happy to answer any questions. 01:41:15
Yeah, keep that up. So this looks very different than the other plan. And I mean I like the look of this a lot. This is great, but 01:41:21
it isn't what the plan was. So please speak to this. Yeah. So they, this was an original concept plan that was done. Luke worked 01:41:29
with an architect to have this and this was. So that plan kind of morphed into what you see before you tonight. That's a one that 01:41:37
we were trying to get renderings done of what this would be and it was going to take too long to get before council. 01:41:45
Timeline with Christmas and holidays were just really short to have them turn that around the building the up front kind of the 01:41:54
core Blend building is. 01:41:57
That was our original plan, but we've kind of changed the shape of that. And then the original thought was and this is kind of how 01:42:01
the the kind of a concrete area was to have a building up front and then some basically some smaller shops. 01:42:09
For some artists and stuff and that's not off the table. We're still you know as we kind of progress through this we may that's 01:42:17
that concrete space is is. 01:42:21
We're holding it for that. I don't want to, I didn't want to commit to that tonight. But but I think in in our discussions and 01:42:26
talks we thought that might be a good place to have some smaller shops for. You know, as people are using this outdoor place, 01:42:32
outdoor spaces and these two spaces are connected, that's another place people could come and shop and as they eat, spend a little 01:42:37
time there. 01:42:42
Yeah, I really like this. Make it this pretty please, but yours. But compared to this, you'd have an additional. You'd have an 01:42:48
additional structure on the top right of the rendering and an additional structure at the. Yeah, so basically. 01:42:55
This building here. 01:43:02
Yeah, yeah. 01:43:04
Yeah. So yeah, the building here is is we've made it a little bigger here just just to. 01:43:09
Kind of incorporate a little bit more of this area and made the made. 01:43:15
Basically, that wooden deck is comes out a little bit more. Yes, they'll be a building that sits here in a future phase, and then 01:43:20
that top building will be two stories. 01:43:24
Would be two stories. Is that correct? 01:43:29
OK. All right. Yeah, it's a little taller than what's shown here. And that's for having that second story office space. 01:43:33
And I think we included renderings and kind of what that ball brick, so it kind of matches that warehouse district. 01:43:44
Kind of make it a kind of a cohesive development and you said, I noticed the plan had trees fronting 15 the whole way. And would 01:43:51
you anticipate sidewalks connecting this to Classic City that you're just not showing it? Yeah, what we talked about, we talked 01:43:56
about two different. 01:44:00
I'm sorry, you need to take it the mic with you if you're going to just pinch pinch it, pinch it on one side and pull it out. 01:44:05
There you go. Thank you. Got people listening. Yes, we talked about two different locations either through kind of meandering 01:44:11
through this kind of green space because that's what we anticipate and you see the trees on our plan. 01:44:17
Fronting, there's a sewer easement that runs up 15, so we'll do some smaller trees on that side, bigger trees on the inside, and 01:44:24
whether that sidewalk meanders through here or connects back on this side. 01:44:30
We're going to try to connect at one of the two places and maybe both. 01:44:38
Hold that. 01:44:42
All right, so council, we've got a site development plan here. 01:44:47
For the bishops sounds like. 01:44:52
Other things are thinking about adding to the site plan, so Mark, walk us through. 01:44:56
Would we give a conditional approval tonight with you know? 01:45:01
You know plans to be submitted that show the sidewalks and the other things or what are what are sort of paths forward here 01:45:06
tonight. Yes. So I think I'll maybe summarize a little bit. I think it would be an approval with conditions because we do have 01:45:11
some some details like I said and some other things to workout but. 01:45:17
Most of the question marks, in my opinion, are on phase two. 01:45:22
So I don't think that there's any red flags tonight in general terms there. There's a few details to work out, but there wouldn't 01:45:28
be anything that would hinder the construction or moving forward specifically with Phase one and the infrastructure that would be 01:45:34
needed to be constructed as part of Phase one. 01:45:39
While they work out the details within phase two, hopefully I've made that clear. You cannot speak that I think that's exactly 01:45:46
what we would want. And I think that that works best for us as as user, as our end users, we figure that out. And as people, you 01:45:52
know, as we talk to different people, the Bishop talks to different people that want to come as you know they're expanding. 01:45:59
That will be the driver of some of the you know, the amenities that are provided as part of that design and. 01:46:06
I think it would be best to come back before you with a modified site plan as that changes, rather than a full set of plans as you 01:46:12
know you're talking about. 01:46:16
So, Mayor Council, I think we also need to point out. 01:46:20
Depending on what the use is. So they're intending, I think to move. Corbin may move to the front building. So there may be a wash 01:46:23
on their quote their wastewater, but. 01:46:27
You know, we don't yet know what their needs are. What I can speak to is that they do have an agreement to guarantee a guaranteed 01:46:33
50,000 gallons per day from Oconee. We have a letter that Mister Bishop had given to us a couple years ago. And so you just have 01:46:39
to keep in mind that I don't know if they're talking about a restaurant. It could be 25 or 30,000 gallons a day. And then what's 01:46:46
the remainder going to be used on? So you're not really. 01:46:52
You do need to keep in mind that they're going to need wastewater capacity. At some point. They may exceed what they've got 01:46:59
depending on what they put there. So you just have to keep that in mind because normally you'd have a site plan and you'd have 01:47:05
like 1080 came back tonight, you'd have the urban forest and the wastewater. On the heels of that, the next meeting doesn't sound 01:47:10
like we're going to be in that position. So you need to keep in mind as this comes forward as it as it evolves. 01:47:15
All right. But Mr. Bishop was here, Mr. Greer, and they kind of know what they've got to work with on wastewater. 01:47:21
In terms of you got 50 and if you get lucky and you get 2 restaurants and some heavy users and you you know then you're going to 01:47:26
have to you know that may we may not be able to help you for a while there. 01:47:31
If you know so OK, any let's see where are. 01:47:37
We need to move it on down the road. OK, so any further discussion from council? I feel like we haven't talked a lot about this, 01:47:42
but I like the. 01:47:45
Potentially phase one site plan approval. 01:47:50
And then coming back for a phase two, yeah, OK. 01:47:52
So I make a motion that we approve phase one with conditions. 01:47:56
OK, we've got a motion to approve phase one with conditions 2nd, 2nd. 01:48:03
All right. Applicants, that's what you that's OK with you guys, right? Not putting any handcuffs on you, right. OK. All right. Any 01:48:08
further discussion? 01:48:12
All right, all in favor. Say aye. Any opposed motion carries 5. 01:48:17
All right. Looks like we've lost Mr. 01:48:25
Land as we move on to the pouring beer, wine, spirits license. I don't know that we need him here to approve that he he 01:48:29
apologized. He sent me a text that he had to go make a delivery to the UJ basketball team. 01:48:35
Food is a post game meal. Maybe men's or women, I don't know. He had to go deliver. 01:48:43
Food. And he apologized for not being here. OK, outstanding. Well, I don't know if they won, but I heard at least one guy got a. 01:48:47
Season high end points. So that's. 01:48:54
All right, so we are all excited that Wing House is coming back to Watkins for at least the vast mass of the public is. So what do 01:48:59
we need to do here? We've got the beer and wine distilled licenses, everything in order, Clerk. 01:49:05
Yes, Sir. The only thing we're waiting for are the fingerprinting, but that's because it's a new program that they've implemented 01:49:12
and everything's been submitted. We're just waiting for them to give him the go ahead to go over there. So I would need it with 01:49:18
condition of looking for a conditional approving, conditional approval of the BM wine and distilled spirits license for Wing House 01:49:24
Grill LLC. So moved. 01:49:29
2nd. 01:49:36
All right. Any discussion? 01:49:38
Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 01:49:40
Motion carries 5 O. We have no old business under New Business. 01:49:44
We've got a couple items we're going to work to keep these, keep these pretty quick, so manager Dickerson, if you could tackle the 01:49:50
first one. 01:49:53
Thank you. 01:49:57
So we're asking tonight to submit our FY24 local maintenance improvement grant application to include a school St. which you may 01:49:58
recall was on this year's but we couldn't do because we didn't have enough money and Simonson way that is going to require all of 01:50:05
our element funding, our match as well as about $40,000 in Tea Sloss money. I'll walk you through it fairly quickly. You may 01:50:11
recall that a couple years ago. 01:50:18
We. We. 01:50:26
Let's see what else you need to know. Those those are things all right. So the top 6 streets following the top 6 streets that are 01:51:03
on the list are Durham and then calls. Creek has 2. Simonson Way, Niagara and Stone Shoals. Durham Street is. 01:51:10
A whole different animal. Obviously, we have a new development that's going to be going in. It's going to require basically an 01:51:19
entire construction. This is probably not a good estimate. I have no idea what what that's going to run. But at the time, the full 01:51:25
depth reconstruction of that site of that road was going to be around 1/4 of $1,000,000. 01:51:31
So that's not something we can really tackle right now. We probably need to give an opportunity for Water St. and the development 01:51:39
of Water St. to start developing and we can work together with them to maybe get that in the next. 01:51:45
You know, as soon as that, as soon as that development occurs, so. 01:51:51
To get to be able to use this money, we need to move forward within the next year on a project. So Calls Creek Circle and Calls 01:51:56
Creek Dr. are both. 01:52:00
At some point you're just going to have to, you know. 01:52:39
Ahead and start paving these it'd be it'd be great if we could pave all the roads and signs in place all the roads and you know 01:52:41
Bishops Vineyard it's not going to happen. We we don't have that kind of money So my my recommendation is we go ahead and add 01:52:46
Simonson way and like I said we're not going to have enough money just with the Elmig money or the match from SPLOST. So we're 01:52:50
going to need a. 01:52:55
And it's crazy, it's going to cost that much, but we're going to need another 40,000 or so I'm estimating and I I use this year's 01:53:01
numbers and bump them about two and a half 3% just to get a number. We won't know for sure and we'll have to come back to you for 01:53:06
those awards of contracts. But I'd like to go ahead and get approval to submit this. Hopefully the state will approve it will will 01:53:11
then go out for request for proposal and come back with the and ask for the award of those contracts. Hopefully we'll be able to 01:53:16
do both of these. 01:53:21
With the project, you know with the monies that are allotted so. 01:53:28
Again request is to submit for school St. Simonson Way and appropriate the LMG funding from the state the 19,000 squashed match 01:53:31
and 40,000 from T SPLOST. 01:53:37
All right, you've heard the heard the report from the manager. Any questions? 01:53:45
For her. 01:53:49
School St. we would Will we be able to adjust some of the water, water flow and and retain all the parking on School St. 01:53:52
Yes, thank you. She wanted to be sure. 01:54:01
All right. Entertain a motion. 01:54:06
I can't make it. 01:54:13
Garden Associates is is doing a great job. You can see flooring is in, lighting is in. 01:54:47
What I would consider the fun part of the project which can also be challenging, which is that part in the last 10% or so that is 01:54:54
near the end. But but everybody's been great. Duke Gibbs has been great to work with at Wire Park. There's some coordination items 01:55:00
that are some responsibilities that are outside the walls of of the library itself. But then there's some outdoor areas the 01:55:06
libraries order some outdoor furniture. There's some some things that are behind that lovely chain link fence with the the vinyl 01:55:12
screening on it that are going to. 01:55:19
To allow that to continue to be a cohesive space. So if you're not aware since the last time that this council met, the existing 01:55:25
facility is closed. 01:55:30
And I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. 01:56:15
Questions. 01:56:20
For the chair of the library board. 01:56:22
Can you tell us what we're seeing like where? Absolutely. So I will do my best in the upper left hand corner. That's actually some 01:56:24
areas that you won't visit as much, but you will see because that's kind of a transition to where some staff area are and it's, 01:56:31
it's open and it's also where that staff would be able to to interact with with the public as as you consider there. So that back 01:56:39
wall, that back window you see there, it actually kind of opens up to the what's considered now the alley space between. 01:56:46
Where the library structure is and the yard structure is and and while parks actually working to try to beautify some of that 01:56:54
space as well because they're encouraged by some of the things the library is doing on the upper right hand portion those are some 01:57:00
study rooms which is always important. Even though a library is is a semi quiet space, sometimes it's important to have a little 01:57:06
bit more quiet space. We do have glass in those rooms because we want them to be study rooms and not too private in nature with 01:57:12
maybe some teenagers or teen adults. 01:57:18
The the lower left hand is the meeting room space and one of the things you'll notice there's a big header, there's a big it's a 01:57:25
piece of steel because there's a divider that's going in that meeting room space to make it multifunctional so that it can be 01:57:30
divided into two meeting room spaces if you don't need the entirety of that. That was one of the ad alternates that the library 01:57:36
was able to provide based on additional funding that was provided through the state and some of those other things and then again 01:57:42
that that lower right hand picture. 01:57:48
I believe is. I was trying not to get too much construction information there in some of those pictures, but that's that's leading 01:57:54
out to the windows. 01:57:58
That that face towards Barnett Shoals Rd. 01:58:03
Thank you. 01:58:34
Looks really great. I'm excited to see it to come to fruition. 01:58:36
All right, we're going to let Mr. Campbell put his other hat on and give us our stormwater update. 01:58:41
Stormwater safely along our roadways and and through the city public property. Again, I'm happy to answer any questions you might 02:00:33
have. 02:00:38
Questions on storm water? 02:00:43
All right. Thank you, Sir. 02:00:47
All right, you're in bonuses for city employees manager Dickerson. 02:00:51
Thank you, Mayor. 02:00:55
So for the last at least five years I've been here, the city has done a year in bonus for city employees. 02:00:58
That equals one week's pay. And so in November I submitted a report to the chair and Co chair of the Personnel and Finance 02:01:03
Committee asking that they consider doing that again. That would be excluding me. Only those employees that have employed, been 02:01:10
employed full time for the for at least 12 months will be eligible. Those that are not have been struck through on that, and so 02:01:16
the request is for $14,659.70. 02:01:23
All right, you've heard the recommendation from the manager. Does the committee have anything it wants to add? 02:01:31
I would like to, let's see, let us hear from the committee. I think, I think that's is that Connie and Chuck, is that the 02:01:40
personnel and personnel committee, is that correct? That's correct. Thank you. 02:01:45
We have talked to everybody and we think that everybody should get a bonus, including. 02:01:52
Miss Dickerson. 02:02:00
OK, so were you suggesting the same? 02:02:04
The same, the same, the same ratio there. One week salad, one week's pay. Is that correct? 02:02:08
OK. And then you said everybody, would there be anything for people who have not been employed for a year? Well, I think that we 02:02:14
should show our appreciation for the good work they have done and maybe we should give them. 02:02:20
$50 and tell them to take their self out to lunch or dinner. 02:02:28
OK, we've had. We've got a. 02:02:36
Recommendation from is that a committee recommendation, Chuck? So we've got a committee recommendation that we would include. 02:02:38
Miss Dickerson at the same same ratio there with the one week pay as well as folks who haven't been here. 02:02:44
For a year to have a $50.50 dollar discretionary bonus, it sounds like any other. 02:02:54
Any other thoughts? 02:03:02
Manager Dickerson Can we accommodate those additions in the budget? 02:03:06
I believe so. I mean this will this requires because this isn't budgeted this is this requires a general fund and then you know 02:03:10
amendment from the fund balance. 02:03:14
We don't budget for. 02:03:18
So. 02:03:20
All right, Council, any further discussion, comments? 02:03:24
As a reminder, because we're taking all this into account together, we aren't required to go into executive session, nor are we 02:03:28
discussing anybody's individual performance. We are merely making recommendations for the year end bonuses for city employees. 02:03:34
Can I? 02:03:40
Suggest that we modify for the employees who've been here less than a year $100 instead of 50. Is that? 02:03:42
Does that, I mean, that's an extra Connie, are you OK modifying your motion? 02:03:50
Yes, I'm fine with that. All right. And Chuck, fine with that. All right. So that's 100 for the folks who've been here for less 02:03:55
than a year. 02:03:58
So we have that as a motion to 2nd. A suggestion. 02:04:02
The motion is amended. 02:04:05
Any further discussions or suggestions? 02:04:07
Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 02:04:11
All right. Motion carries 50. Thank you. 02:04:15
All right, public comments. 02:04:19
For all those who have bravely waited. 02:04:21
Any member of the public have anything to say? 02:04:25
Anything submitted in writing Court, Klein? Yes, Sir. All right then. We're going to move quickly through council reports and the 02:04:29
mayor's report. 02:04:32
Just far away here. OK Oconee schools if you haven't been by there lately. Very impressive structure going up quickly. Interior 02:04:37
framing is nearing completion. Roofing. 02:04:42
Is underway and the brick is progressing. So they're they're moving quickly. I think their goal is to be in. 02:04:47
I think by the start of the next school year, as I recall, Is that right, Mark? So they're moving quickly. 02:04:54
Welcome back, Wing House. We talked about that, but a lot of excitement around having Wing House back in Watkinsville and having 02:05:01
all of our dining spaces full again. But there's a lot of a lot of excited folks in the community. 02:05:08
Because Wing House is back, and it'll be a great welcome addition to the dining scene in Watkinsville. 02:05:16
We opened up the officially opened up our patok area on Saturday. That was a lot of fun. Connie, thanks for coming out and. 02:05:22
There could not be a more French looking guy than the guy in that green. Look at that green sweater. 02:05:33
But, but it was actually a lot of fun and I learned a lot. My son joined and my daughter joined and we had we had a fun time out 02:05:39
there with people who are experts and we had several people. 02:05:44
I think we had 20 to 25 people, several who had never played before and just came and. 02:05:50
Learned about the sport and the people who were experts really were complimentary of how nice our facility was compared to some of 02:05:54
the parking lots and other places they've been using. So it's nice to see folks out there. 02:05:59
Scoreboard is up at Rocket Field and looks great. Saint Mary's made that contribution and made that possible. We're grateful for 02:06:06
that. 02:06:09
Net Climber installation is. 02:06:13
I think this week, so that should be up by our next meeting. Christmas at Wire Park was two nights this year. 02:06:17
Another great success. Always excited to see the progress of Wire Park with Christmas Tree recycling available at the locations 02:06:25
outlined there, including Hair Shoals Park on Saturday, January 6th. 02:06:30
Just a reminder that we have a lot of great retailers in Watkinsville and would really encourage, encourage folks it's too late to 02:06:37
get stuff online at this point. So if you're like me and you've waited till the last minute, go shop locally, OK? There's a lot of 02:06:43
great choices in Watkinsville and Oconee County. 02:06:48
We did have Water St. shut all week last week and we had some folks who are hustling out there. 02:06:56
Mysterious utilities emerge. All kinds of challenges happen when you open up a really Old Street and they opened up a really Old 02:07:03
Street. And I can't tell you how impressed I'm with our staff and with our contractor for managing to get all that, you know, 98% 02:07:09
done by Saturday afternoon and then wrapped it up. It looked like Monday morning. Mark is that accurate? And and it looks good 02:07:15
over there. They had to remove a few trees in order to put in that new drain pipe. But we've been. 02:07:21
Battling. 02:07:28
From Simonton Bridge to Main Street and out of Water St. and we're hopeful that this will resolve, resolve that challenge. 02:07:29
City staff did some entry landscaping and dressed up our new signs. As you know, winter is the time for planting, so you have to 02:07:36
water much less. 02:07:40
The rest of the year. So thank you to Mark and team for doing that. That looks great. 02:07:45
And then just an update on Thomas, the Thomas Farm property January 4th will have a meeting of our steering committee. The 02:07:49
public's invited to that. 02:07:53
We'll share out that plan, hope to make any revisions over the next two weeks, and then have a have a refined concept plan for 02:07:58
council's comments, review and hopefully approval. 02:08:03
And on January 17th at our meeting then. 02:08:09
Many thanks to Councilman Campbell and Mayor Pro Tem Tucker for leaning in and doing that work. 02:08:12
And just a reminder that on New Year's Day at Bethel Baptist, they're having their annual Emancipation Proclamation observance. 02:08:18
It's always an inspiring event. They're focused on the arts this year. 02:08:23
The community is invited and I just want to make sure everybody was aware of that on Monday, January 1st before the football 02:08:29
begins. Go celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation in the Pioneer Awards. Always a great event. 02:08:37
That's all I have and we will move on to Chuck Garrett. Anything to report. 02:08:45
County Massey Anything? 02:08:50
But Thomas, I just want to remind everybody how blessed we are to live in such a wonderful community and just go out and enjoy the 02:08:52
Christmas time. So it is a wonderful time to reflect on how wonderful of a community, absolutely. 02:08:59
Mayor Pro Tem Tucker. 02:09:07
Art walk update so. 02:09:11
Here are the it's getting close. We have one of our sculptures is Outback. I don't know if any of y'all have played around with 02:09:17
the. 02:09:21
Learning about some of our natural flora and fauna in a really beautiful and interesting way. And then these, this is what you can 02:09:27
see in the back of the turtle. It's not as done but these are the two other pieces that are going to be going on the pathway 02:09:35
between the playground of possibilities and then down to the main part of Paris Shoals Park and so. 02:09:43
The goal was to have some interesting structures that honor our. 02:09:52
Local flora and fauna that children can interact with or adults so very excited and the artists are really excited too, so. 02:09:59
And then also. 02:10:09
Contractors and work with us to make sure while they're there to go ahead and get that stuff out as well. So hopefully the weather 02:10:45
permits will be able to maybe see some paving in January. Just have to wait and see. 02:10:51
All right, Councilman Campbell. 02:11:03
Nothing, nothing to report. And so I don't think we have a need for an executive session. 02:11:05
So with that, I will say I make a motion to adjourn. I will say happy holidays, Merry Christmas, and I will entertain a motion to 02:11:12
adjourn. Second. All right, we have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. All right. 02:11:17
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Transcript

Event transcript
All right. Good evening. 00:00:06
And welcome to. 00:00:10
The dissent meeting of the Wattsville City Council. We have world and this is your call order and we'll start with Pledge of 00:00:12
Allegiance and we have so many young guests here tonight. I was hoping our Palm Fairy kids and others would stand up and lead us 00:00:16
in the Pledge of Allegiance. How about that guy? Stand up and let's hear. 00:00:21
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, 00:00:27
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:33
So when every crowd. 00:00:41
We're going to start with the gingerbread houses. 00:01:50
It's a joint. Assembled Ginger browsers arrive in every remarks. How great it tells it's a wonderful nutrition. That's what I 00:01:53
think is our set year. Is that right? Having the Red House at City Hall? I didn't. If you'd be willing to step forward, you'll 00:01:58
miss me and share a little bit about Project less and we will do some photos with. 00:02:02
Well, good evening. I've ever doing well this evening. My name is Lynn Shore and this is Becky. We're by teachers at Home Ferry 00:02:09
Elementary School and my ears become enough to allow us to share the hard work of these students for the last two years. So this 00:02:15
project began a few years ago with Mary and Check media specialist that time and she's a different position. And so Missy and I 00:02:22
have taken this on as a project we do each year. So I don't know if you're aware, the Colonery is a certified school and part of 00:02:28
that is in certification. 00:02:35
Requires or encourages us to do things called PLS which is project based learning. So this project started with a question and the 00:02:42
question was how can we as engineers create Gingerbread Watkins L to display at City Hall and that's where the students started. 00:02:49
They bring stores tons of questions that they would need to answer in order to accomplish this goal and then they researched SO. 00:02:56
Awesome, wonderful work and it means so much. I'll choose to after Wattsville and every year I'm just impressed with the 00:04:09
creativity. I know we had all the switches out there, we have a little tail swift reference someone, we have clothes hangers, we 00:04:14
have people landscape detailed on these things. When you really get up close to the the work that this instead becomes super 00:04:19
evidence. So we have a little bit in a minute everybody wants to check these things out close. For now why don't we get a picture 00:04:24
and we have a special gift for our team. 00:04:29
All right, now if you'll send by your house, I'm going around, we have just a few Wattsville Christmas tree and we have some for 00:05:07
our students this year. So those who haven't seen this is MA by local artist, so, so studio. So we're going to those of you who 00:05:15
are paragraphs are also going to get some of these special limits. 00:05:23
For those who couldn't be denied, we will send send. 00:05:32
We'll send up with teachers. 00:05:41
Real quick and then we'll if anyone wants to get a picture with us, they can, we'll. 00:05:50
So we have to formally that will order for them. We're grateful for this year's grand Marshall was Martin Nunley and we're 00:06:30
thankful for Marvin. He's a wonderful community. Leaders got a me dollar smile as you can see there and as long Tompkinsville 00:06:37
resident the department is so studious only hundred of those made every year. Julie Lewis and her team did a job here. 00:06:44
I think she's here, OK, and the sponsors and judges up there, so because I said earlier it takes a lot of people at the parade 00:06:51
together a year, we're grateful to everybody comes together and does that. 00:06:56
Aloft says reps up there, but tone cars were putting the putting the stage up with a great group of judges. Again, it takes takes 00:07:01
the entire community to pull it off and have all the thousands of people coming out of the city safely and have their time. So 00:07:06
grateful. Everybody who helped in our planning committee, we recognize them. 00:07:11
Sharon. 00:07:17
That's our planning committee and I mentioned our employees work on this. It's a great effort every year by them in the melody 00:07:20
Adams is our chief volunteer, so we're grateful for Melanie that will do the awards. 00:07:25
If you're here, I would call you up first up for use of themes Briarwood kids have anybody from? 00:07:31
Next up we have Children's Artistic. 00:07:48
And best flow for children's BSPAC? 00:08:03
All right, when are adults wasn't to auto best use of theme? 00:08:18
Thank you. 00:08:27
All right. 00:08:33
All right. 00:08:37
Literally, people say this could be amazing. 00:08:44
All right, adult, best load. I'm following up friends there in the blue. 00:08:48
To be Nathan around here, all right. 00:09:17
Best tractor is the Shot family. 00:09:29
Oh my gosh. 00:09:43
I. 00:09:48
All right, best easy car of any collision. 00:09:52
And this last award is and after maybe Mary Williams it's all award and Mary D the bridge was was shoveling for years to watch 00:10:18
them still married herself to take her to the first only Mary Williams hand and turn it into a turned into the iconic event that 00:10:23
is today. I'm really ejected a lot of energy and passionate and we're always grateful to Miss Mary for what we did to add a lot of 00:10:29
parade. So this big award. 00:10:35
Calhoun's Polar Express. 00:10:42
Yeah. 00:13:22
Yeah. 00:13:26
June. 00:15:37
Thank you. Thank you so much. 00:16:47
All right. 00:17:13
And when we go. 00:17:15
Should we get? I know you never put it down, right, So we're going to keep on. OK, Council, you've had the minutes and you've had 00:17:18
an opportunity to review them. I'll enter the motion. That's only for November 15th minutes. Please make a motion to approve the 00:17:21
number of minutes. 00:17:25
Do a second any. 00:17:29
Hearing none all in favor. 00:17:32
Any opposed motion carries unanimously. We'll move on to the approval agenda council the changes that like to make the agenda. 00:17:35
Hearing No entertainment to approve. 00:17:43
Also that we do have a public hearing or two on the agenda tonight. We'll have opportunities for public to specifically address 00:18:16
those matters at that point. With that we'll move on to the financial reports introduction. Please make your. 00:18:20
So everybody should have received all sheet. The general fund expense and revenues tracking with that should be around 40% and on 00:18:26
expenses were 38 and then revenues were 43. So we're doing fairly well on that on. 00:18:32
This last two port that report actually be looked out this month. He had a little bit of leftover from. 00:18:39
From interest and so we're using that money to close that. We had some expenses on the Petunka right fields will be closing that 00:18:46
out this month. So next month maybe we'll residual left there, but we will have that cleared out and then we'll down to just three 00:18:52
and three. Most of our senses on this right now are centered around park and the one improvements the green space at Thomas Farms 00:18:58
will be there that we use roads and then some signage updates in the city. 00:19:04
Just seeing this one at 8.63% of the Oakland County sales tax and we are about 4.4% over last year we're averaging. 00:19:11
We're averaging 80,000 a month on that. 00:19:20
On teeth lost, this one just started in April and it's at 7.77%, so a little bit less. We're averaging about 69,000. We do 00:19:25
anticipate by the time we do the five years of this, it will be closer to 78, hopefully more, which has been the the protection. 00:19:33
And then this is mostly sidewalks to the national sidewalk, the industrial Blvd. Sidewalk need it's encumbered and resurfacing and 00:19:40
parking on 2nd St. around rocket those defenses we had to date. 00:19:47
We will become four this next year with requests to use somewhere that money. We've got balance of just under 300,000. 00:19:55
You'll see that you can see it's a how it fluctuates depending on if we don't compare. Last year we didn't have it, but we're 00:20:03
doing pretty well. Any questions on slaughter? 00:20:07
All right. And in the last American Rescue Plan Act money that is certainly frozen because we have to do the in fiscal year. So we 00:20:12
trigger a little audit. We used a good that money for the purchase of 100 acre Thomas family farm. 00:20:19
And so council, I want you guys can start using that money again, correcting us to use it. 00:20:26
Any questions on those? 00:20:33
On economic development, we've got business. Lexus are coming in several. They've got renewals on alcohol licenses as well. 00:20:36
And then on SRS tax, I can remember the tax is selected. We don't get the previous month till the end of the month. So that's why 00:20:44
you see all that money in November yet. But those are tracking higher than what we did. So that's good. 00:20:49
And on building permits, we had we six points out five different projects. 00:20:56
Still some work going on over at Wire Park and some work there. 71 N Main is the is the instructional support Center for the 00:21:01
school. 00:21:05
Any questions? Only does. 00:21:10
All right. Member Tim Tucker would have an update on Downtown Development Authority. Yes. So as we have said, the City of 00:21:14
Wattsville, we see the rural zone ignition, which means we have access to our citizens and owners have access to some good tax 00:21:20
sensitives in order to help create more jobs in Watkinsville, which would include some investment property rehabilitation and 00:21:27
property or just tax credit if you start business that does have at least two employees. 00:21:34
Kate Patterson and I went to a train late November and so in January we are having some more informational meetings on that, what 00:21:42
that means, what it looks like and how it can just help spark some great things in our community. Also we head downtown bingo on a 00:21:49
Small Business Saturday and it was a great success. Business owners were said that they a lot more traffic and so we hope to 00:21:57
continue that trend and then so we have several new and or. 00:22:04
Parks in Wattsville. 00:22:12
We have this one by Eagle Town with new Adirondack chairs and so just as I don't know if with Waterville from Connect Me, we want 00:22:14
to have lots of gathering spaces for our community, our community members. So having these old pocket parks is another way to do 00:22:21
that. So there's this one here on Main Street and then also this one Main Street and this one was primarily funded by the grant 00:22:29
that we received that put on the the event at Rockfield in October that created a public art at UC there that the businesses. 00:22:36
Sponsored and so we hope that. 00:22:44
The committee will start using the space, so also thanks to Public Works for their hard work to get this set up and set in a way 00:22:46
that it's going to be easier to maintain and so I appreciate their attention to detail without that. 00:22:51
All right. Thank you, Mayor. It's Tim. And I think everybody probably notes point, but I think that last part you know with the 00:22:59
return of Debbie's due downtown and I will talk about that in Adobe's building. 00:23:05
Given the interest I think it'll be it'll be nice to have a space next to where people want outsider way they can can do that. So 00:23:12
Jack I know you'll enjoy having that there. Thank you for your leadership on getting that done. Christina team all right Police 00:23:17
Department report and while chief judgment comes forward come on up. 00:23:23
We want to make a few remarks and of gratitude Durham Sutterton, who stepped forward. 00:23:29
And our pretty chief Shambock was able to continue his duties and had to retire. 00:23:36
Chief led with I guess no. Just what I've been so impressed with is a real combination of. 00:23:41
Capacity to get things done, but just wonderful way treating everybody with dignity and respect. You know, if has long 00:23:48
conversations about challenging. 00:23:51
Challenging situations. And I guess what really stuck with me is how thoughtful you are about all the parties who were involved, 00:23:55
those who impact negatively, those who might make poor decisions. 00:23:59
And just your consideration. 00:24:04
Into the law. 00:24:08
They just blew me away. Some of those situations in the wishing with extra mile and another challenging situation find I'm fine. 00:24:09
So new is the best one again. 00:24:13
You didn't have to do that. You need to. You need to take those steps to go above and beyond, do what you had. But I could just 00:24:17
shows your heart for the people I can build, for your profession, for what you. 00:24:22
From the start, you embrace role strong leaders. 00:24:28
Manage the festival Miss Chris Braid Manage. 00:24:30
Trick or treat Main St. in everywhere situations. We had thousand people on foot, hundreds of people, hundreds of vehicles, all 00:24:34
kinds of opportunities for mishaps and wouldn't a single one. So it was doing all this bit of police work or biggest, biggest. 00:24:40
Events that we have in Watkinsville Minister Mall Exceptional. So I just want to say before you set back how grateful we are for 00:24:47
you and everything. You've got Watkinsville and for stepping up when we needed you and we appreciate you and we're thankful so. 00:24:54
Good evening, Mayor. Council, for what we're putting my last report in front of our foreseeable future, I'm going to tell you 00:25:10
about what we did throughout the month of December. 00:25:14
Inside packet first page the author activity we responded 19139 calls for service 30 period. Keep my some of the leads over into 00:25:18
the short period of time and number after your last meeting. 00:25:23
But it's 30 day. 00:25:28
We conducted all over 1200 security checks of homes or businesses within city prevent anything happening on the board. 00:25:30
And we issued 155 excitations. 00:25:37
On the transportation is a large portion of job officers who everybody knows become difficult at times, especially last. 00:25:40
Last Sunday we had an asset with a county and we round a lot of traffic Downing St. which prompted a lot of problems on Main 00:25:48
Street but also remember the street disease, over a million cars in each direction. 00:25:53
Over 1. 00:25:58
National cars 2 lane. 00:26:00
So on traffic 155. 00:26:02
Nature warnings. 00:26:05
Once being a citation, 61 warnings. Good. Mixed both I think. 00:26:07
And then on fixed out cameras we have money to open what it means. Dissertations an issue are unpaid at this time and 38 pitting 00:26:11
which are sections that have to be approved to be sent out. 00:26:16
On the second page. 00:26:22
There's a substantial battery and the last one was alerting and playing in a truck law enforcement officer and three of them were 00:26:54
criminal criminal. One of those was no driver's license. 00:26:58
The second was a novel driver's license. Generally this means as a person has never had a driver's license, they just drive that 00:27:02
one. They never bothered to take the test or have an issue not to confuse. Our third tread was a person who was driving after the 00:27:07
state of Georgia removed their villages by suspending revoking license. 00:27:12
So there's a cap the numbers underneath. 00:27:19
And your last age to the community as we. 00:27:22
We ended that in traffic checkpoints where we join our fellow officers for our train, a mule and a DUI checkpoint. We traveled. 00:27:25
How much do that? November 17th. 00:27:29
We had our first and cops it soups. We stood out 94 ice cream cones and I was funded by our 1C3 and we did that on a Saturday. 00:27:33
Look like we are and I apologize. I don't know what happened. 00:28:03
I didn't touch anything. 00:28:08
I do want to introduce that we're not going to do an official swearing in or anything for our new Chief, but Courtney Gale is is 00:28:12
here tonight. Give her just a brief moment. I know the Mayor may want to say something to you, but just to introduce her, she'll 00:28:18
be starting on January the 8th. She'll be sworn in on the 17th, so. 00:28:23
Courtney, welcome, welcome back to Oconee County. We're, we're glad to have you. Here's our Chief and I'm excited to continue the 00:28:30
work that Chief Brock and Chief Tetherton have done and just grateful to have you here in Watkinsville and part of our team 00:28:36
welcome home. 00:28:42
Yep, Yep, Yep. 00:28:49
OK. That's the Police Department. Next up on the agenda, we have consent. We don't vote on these individually, but I do want to 00:28:52
just touch on, just provide a little bit of context because there's some big numbers in there. 00:28:58
What that's about is we are just moving some money around from buckets to buckets. If you guys remember, we had encumbered funds 00:29:06
in several different ways. Item number seven, we had anticipated potentially utilizing AG dot. 00:29:12
TAP Grant to help us fund assignment and bridge sidewalk. As you recall, last month we decided that was not wise. We realized we 00:29:19
were going to have to probably invest just as much money. 00:29:23
As we would if we built it ourselves into a matching grant to the federal government that would take five to six years to get that 00:29:29
project done. So again, we're just moving that money back to where we can use it and where it's not in a match situation. 00:29:34
Item 8 is actually similar. We had that money allocated in case we won a state grant to kick off work at Harris Shoals. We did not 00:29:40
get that grant. I think we all agree we want to prioritize and emphasize getting the work started at Harris SHO. 00:29:47
So at this point we're going to move that money back, you know the reprogram that money so that we can get started on that work, 00:29:54
which I think will begin with some paving work, repaving the parking area and resetting some of that so we can do some of the 00:30:00
other work down there that we want to around the green spaces, the old ball field and all that kind of stuff get that improved. 00:30:05
Aligned with our master. 00:30:12
Item 9 is also similar. This is where we're going to reprogram. We're going to reprogram some T spots money once again, so we can 00:30:14
continue to potentially put funds towards the Simonton Bridge. 00:30:20
Mulberry St. Sidewalk Connection, which is going to be a complicated project, but we think it's really important. 00:30:27
Get the sidewalk to the new park and out on Simonton Bridge Rd. The other things is just to reappoint you to the library board and 00:30:32
the budget amendment for tourism art sponsorship. So hearing that, can I have an amendment, Excuse me, a motion to approve the 00:30:39
consent agenda. Make a motion to approve the consent agenda. All right and a second, second any discussion. 00:30:47
Hearing none all in favor, say aye. 00:30:54
Any opposed motion carries unanimously. 00:30:58
Now, time for public hearing. We have two items to variance request. One is at Simonton Bridge Rd. The other is at Jacob Drive. 00:31:02
The way these go, for those of you haven't been here before, 10 minutes per side. Per zoning procedures laws, comments should be 00:31:08
made only directly relating to these agenda items. Speak from the podium. 4 minutes per person. Refrain from debate. Argument. 00:31:14
Personal attacks are irrelevant. Discussion. 00:31:19
Address only the merits of the pending matter and address remarks directly to council, not to the audience. Council won't speak to 00:31:25
potential litigation, attorney-client privilege or personnel matters. First item up is variance, the variance for 51 and 55 00:31:33
Simonton Bridge Rd. Parcel WO 6021 JW York Properties. We'll start with the public hearing. We'll hear from both sides. 00:31:40
Request to reduce the side set back from the 30 foot code requirement to 10 feet. If you can go to the next slide to give you an 00:32:52
idea of where these you know. You may not know where 51 and 55 Simonton Bridge Rd. Are located because there's not structures 00:32:59
currently on those two undeveloped lots. So you can see there the properties at 61 Simonton Bridge Road and the properties at 47 00:33:07
Simonton Bridge Rd. that are on either side. So the subject property specifically where the variance is being requested. 00:33:14
JW has ownership of the two lots, but the one that was highlighted there. 00:33:23
The applicant also submitted a reference from Platbook. 00:33:28
In Oconee County. So anytime you see things on Platt, book one that has a little age to it that the date on this is 1947 and it 00:33:32
shows right in the middle of that page. There are lots, four and five would be the the subject lots that are before you tonight. 00:33:40
If you go to the next slide, so this is that same image that you have in front of you with a lot more information and some colors 00:33:49
I might add. These are some things you'd see in a in a CAD drawing or a CAD design as it was presented, but the the image you have 00:33:55
in front of you is actually. 00:34:01
The same house location, the same lot location, but probably a lot less information to be a lot more concise. Let me say it that 00:34:08
way. 00:34:12
Go back. 00:34:17
OK, so. 00:34:18
In this image. 00:34:21
They're showing Sept. 00:34:23
Correct, correct. 00:34:25
So behind the two proposed structures again will you know left and right 5155 there is, I believe that is the in blue. 00:34:30
A primary drain. 00:34:43
And then there's also room for a repair drain field in green. 00:34:45
It's the other way around, OK. I had a 5050 shot on that. So those are the lines and subject drain fields have to generally follow 00:34:49
the contour lines within a property and so that that's what you would see there's contour lines that. 00:34:56
If you will, around or behind that, those contour lines have the labels on those, but that is what is shown on that drawing. 00:35:03
Again, lot of information, they're there, soils information, there's other things. The request isn't specifically related to any 00:35:09
of that, that's just contextual information. The request is specifically. 00:35:15
For the lot line of what you see on the screen there for you the lot that would be on the left, it would be 51 Simonton Bridge Rd. 00:35:21
The 30 foot side set back that's interior to the lot at 55. That is again the reduction being requested from 30 feet to 10 feet. 00:35:30
Is that helpful? 00:35:39
Thank you. 00:35:41
Correct. 00:35:50
Subjects in the front yard, The primary, yes. And again, I apologize if I said it wrong the first time, so. 00:35:52
So that is the view of the property from Simonton Bridge Rd. That's kind of looking back West, away from the Creek back towards 00:36:00
Rocket Field downtown. 00:36:05
So this is again the request that's in front of you. The variance request is from Article 52-D. 00:36:10
To D1 and it says in there the size yard set back shall be a minimum of 30 feet. 00:36:17
And within the Simonton Bridge scenic Corridor and the applicant has reduced it that requested that that be reduced and they are 00:36:22
indicating on site septic system for the drain field. 00:36:29
Because they've indicated they do not have direct access to public sanitary sewer. 00:36:35
Be happy to answer any other questions you might have. 00:36:41
All right, we've heard from engineer Campbell, attorney Reitman, anything you want to add here? 00:36:44
OK. Thank you. 00:37:25
All right. Thank you. Because that does seem to have a factor with some of these setbacks. All right. Thank you. OK, We've heard 00:37:28
from the engineer. We've heard from the attorney. Now it's time to hear from the applicant. If you could step forward, give us 00:37:34
your name and address and and any additional context. My name is Gary Ray. I'm with Baseline Survey Engineering. I did the design 00:37:40
on this. 00:37:46
There's not a lot to say, Mark, I already said. 00:37:54
Applying for the set back, in order to adhere to the side entrance garage, we would need a wider house and that's what we're 00:37:56
needing a set back for. One thing I would add that Martin had is in doing the development of this, we're going to do Jared's going 00:38:03
to add sidewalks as well, which helps you with the scenic corridor sidewalks. 00:38:09
So we're gonna do that. 00:38:17
Yeah, I'm. I kind of laid it out pretty well for me, so. 00:38:20
OK, All right. Why don't you stay up there for a minute and see if council has any questions for you before we go to a public 00:38:26
hearing. 00:38:29
Before we invite other members. 00:38:33
Council questions for the applicant. I don't have any questions, but I do want to voice my concern when they start. 00:38:37
Bringing in large trucks of supplies, that's going to be dangerous on that section of that road. 00:38:46
OK. 00:38:54
So I'm wondering if your your need for this variance. I know some of it has to do with the you know the other codes that 00:38:59
Walkinsville has with the side entrance garage. 00:39:04
But also I know the intent is on the scenic corridor for it, for the homes to have a historic character. 00:39:10
And so. 00:39:21
It's hard, you know, we just have lines here. I don't know if y'all are at the phase where you actually kind of know what the 00:39:23
facades will look like, what the different things would look like, because I'm I'm wondering if a home has a historic character. 00:39:30
If you'd like to look at them. 00:39:38
So they haven't been adjusted yet because they haven't approved, but they'll be discount plan with a side entrance garage, so the 00:39:45
garage door should be there. 00:39:48
So it'll be the same House plan for both of them. So we're not actually, oh, that's right, that ones that just. 00:39:54
But the just so I'm clear, the variance would not apply to the setbacks on any of the other. 00:40:06
Borders other than the one that is central to the two lots that Mister York controls, correct? So you could not. 00:40:12
You couldn't get closer than 30 feet and Mark, this may be a question for you, They would. That set back is only impacting the set 00:40:18
back between the two homes, right? Not they couldn't get, they couldn't get closer than 30 feet. 00:40:25
To the home, to the north or to the West is right. So again, I appreciate manager Dickerson going back. So so they've actually not 00:40:32
requested any variances on the lot to the right, if you will. So it's only on the lot that's highlighted and I'll call that cyan 00:40:39
color on that aerial and it's only on what I would say is the right hand side of that lot. So if there's there's actually not a 00:40:47
request for a set back variance on what I'll call 55 Simonton Bridge Rd. that's not highlighted. 00:40:54
But they do have a House plan shown for context where that would be that meets the set back variances. But their request is for. 00:41:01
Besides, set back between what is proposed at 51 and what is proposed at 55, but only on the 51 side if that makes sense. And 00:41:09
what's the distance of the structure to the property line on 51. So what he's showing on the plan currently is approximately, I'll 00:41:17
say 13 feet. It may have a fractional number there, 13 point 113.7, but they have requested the variance down to 10 feet. 00:41:24
That's in case of an error in building. If we don't want to overlap the building, set back line. 00:41:35
OK, the other questions for the applicant. 00:41:44
Question about the sidewalks. 00:41:48
Would they be in line with what we're going to be looking to do? I actually spoke with Miss Sharon and Jared and we discussed and 00:41:50
he he agreed to put in sidewalks as approval of the variance. Well, he's required to put in the sidewalks for our transportation 00:41:56
plan. So it's not he's not agreeing to put him in, he's got to put him in, I mean per the per the code. 00:42:02
Yeah. Now I appreciate the appreciate him doing it, but it's it's required. 00:42:11
Any other questions before the applicant? If not, we may have him back up depending on what questions or comments we get from. 00:42:17
The public. So if we want to reserve that time, remind me again of your name. I apologize, OK. If you want to just have a seat, we 00:42:23
may have you come back up. We have any members of the public who would like to speak to this. I will. 00:42:30
Remind council we've received e-mail opposition from Missus Garrett, Miss Purcell, and from Kane Cruz and his wife, who are both 00:42:36
adjacent. Everybody should have read those but. 00:42:44
Mr. Purcell or Miss Garrett, if you want to offer any further comments, feel free. 00:42:52
Hi, I'm Samantha Purcell and I live on 47 Simonton Bridge Rd. which is to the left of the green rectangle. 00:42:59
So I don't think we have enough information in front of us to give them a variance. I read their hardship. 00:43:11
Application and the only thing in their hardship application said the property is too narrow. 00:43:19
So if I'm buying a piece of property and I read the ordinances and I, you know, know what I'm purchasing. 00:43:25
Then the properties too narrow is really not very good argument for me. I think as a retired teacher you your habitats you have to 00:43:33
pass the test here that here's your rubric. 00:43:41
And you have to build a house. It's a blank slate, so you can do whatever you want. There are lots of plans for houses that are 00:43:48
narrow, that can fit into those two little rectangles. 00:43:54
You could have the garage in the back. 00:44:00
There are lots of creative things you can do. We really want to see a small footprint and I think lessen the environmental impact. 00:44:03
Not everyone wants to live in a Mcmansion or a big house if you look at the square footage of the houses around. 00:44:11
It's small. We lived in a 900 square foot house for 20 something years and added on and we had a big hardship. We had a sewer 00:44:19
easement going through the back of our property so we couldn't build back which we would have. 00:44:26
But we had to build out to the side because that was a real hardship. But for this property, it's a blank slate. 00:44:34
To me, if I'm buying a property and I'm an architect, a builder, I would look at that and say, OK, I'm going to have to go by 00:44:42
their ordinances. That's why you have them. That's where they're in place. 00:44:48
For a reason. So I think if you look at it, not know how much you guys studied this, but Kane Cruz, the other person that wrote 00:44:55
your letter, he and I went out and measured. 00:45:00
And I think there's 50 something feet wide. 00:45:05
For the house to be and if that's pretty darn wide for a house and. 00:45:09
So I think you can be creative and build a nice home that would not be, you know, this is a big footprint. 00:45:16
And and I think that's 10 feet they're asking, but that's five on each property, right? 00:45:25
Fight or. It's. 00:45:32
On each property or. 00:45:35
I think it. I think it was 5 on each. 00:45:37
I was confused about the same thing, but it sounds like there's you know that it'll be a. Basically they'll be 17. 00:45:41
Feet closer to the right side of the property, but there'll be no impact on the side. 00:45:47
Towards you, you and Mr. Cruz, Right. So they would. 00:45:51
It would be. They'd be closer together and squished in and the the plans they gave, it doesn't show what kind of house it's going 00:45:55
to be. I mean it. 00:46:00
We didn't get to see that. 00:46:06
So but. 00:46:08
We would really like to see something more cottage. 00:46:10
And. 00:46:13
Something creative that you could, I mean, you have green space around the house and not put a big old footprint on the property. 00:46:15
So we're real concerned and like Mark Campbell said, you haven't seen anything developed because there's no land. 00:46:25
There, in the scenic corridor, they did build a house a long time ago, but that would be on the in the historic district. They put 00:46:35
their garage in the back next to Connie. 00:46:40
So it can. 00:46:46
And Kane? He sent me a floor plan of something that was narrow. 00:46:49
And looked really good. You can just punch in house, you know, and pop this one up on the Internet. So I think if you're buying a 00:46:56
piece of property and such a great spot, real important, that corridor is like you're coming into Watkinsville. I just don't want 00:47:03
to see. 00:47:09
Like these two houses close together and then you need some space and and then maybe they wouldn't cut us down. Down as many 00:47:17
trees. Smaller house. Not everyone needs to live in a gigantic home. 00:47:23
Nowadays. And then the other thing you guys really need to read is their height requirements. 00:47:30
If you look at the property, it slopes from the road up and it's there's a lot of drainage that goes across that property. 00:47:35
But there are height requirements for. 00:47:44
And I don't know if the builders have looked at that, but. 00:47:47
From the sidewalk, I think, or the road if you look, there's a real specific pipe requirement, so. 00:47:50
That's another thing to consider. So that's all I have to say. Thank you for our consideration. Thank you. 00:47:58
Any other members of the public. 00:48:07
Wish to address the matter and. 00:48:10
All right. I'm going to close the public hearing and bring it back to council for any further questions or discussion. We can 00:48:13
certainly ask questions of the engineer. We can bring the applicant back. Sounds like the applicant wants to come forward again. 00:48:17
You have time left. Go ahead. 00:48:22
Thank you Miss Purcell. She was talking of the building set back but her house is over the 30 foot building set back and she has a 00:48:28
front facing garage. 00:48:33
So her house would be 60 foot away from the proposed home if they they weren't encroaching on the property line. 00:48:38
So that. 00:48:46
Kind of on her. And then secondly, I actually did a site plan with a long, narrow house, but with the nature of the garage having 00:48:47
to be in the rear. She'd walk out her back door and see a garage. 00:48:53
So really the variance is to also help her. It'll keep the houses in line. It'll make it where her backyard, she can still see 00:48:59
those trees in the rear instead of cutting them down for a garage. Well, I think what you may need to think about then, and I 00:49:04
appreciate that, but what may be a healthy conversation would be. 00:49:10
If Mr. York hasn't already to have that sort of conversation with Miss Purcell and Miss Garrett around, if if he's willing to have 00:49:17
that sort of conversation, I think it could be healthy. So, but thank you for pointing that out. We did. 00:49:23
Miss Purcell, Miss Garrett did go through the variance process several years ago and we've walked through that. So and we we did 00:49:30
feel locate her house and show approximately how far over it is. So we're not asking for anything more than they already have. I 00:49:34
understand. OK, let's, let's. 00:49:39
Let's come back behind the rail. You have any questions? Anybody have questions for the applicant? 00:49:44
I have. 00:49:48
Kind of a more of a statement I guess. 00:49:50
I don't see the hardship as far as need. 00:49:55
For the variance, I think if you build a narrower house you reference 17 Simonton Bridge that was built in 2008. 00:49:58
That you would have no idea. It was built in 2008, driving by it. And that's the beauty of it. I looked at the houses. 00:50:07
All the houses around there 1920191519331920190919561922 and 2008. Those are the ages of the houses all around these two lots. 00:50:15
I I think it's great to build a couple houses on these lots. I'm for that. 00:50:30
I'm all I also love 17 Simonton Bridge because it blends into this, all these. 00:50:34
Historic homes that are. 00:50:41
100 years old that the. 00:50:43
And it's a fantastic thing for a builder to do and it enhances our community. 00:50:45
I think if you were to build two homes. 00:50:51
That looked like they were built in 20. 00:50:54
For I think. 00:50:57
Takes away from that stretch of historic. 00:51:00
I think 17 Simonton Bridge did a fantastic job. It improved Watkinsville, the Moores on South Main when they built their house. 00:51:03
It looks like it was built in 1920. It enhances our community. 00:51:13
I think the houses that JW York built on Colin Ferry are all nice, they go together. But I think if you take two of those homes 00:51:17
and pop them, if you will, on these two lots, that style home does not fit that historic stretch of homes. 00:51:25
That's my opinion. I mean, you do great work. I would love to see the extra effort. 00:51:34
Taken to build something that blends in and 17 Simonton Bridge is a perfect example. Look at they put a garage in the back, it's a 00:51:40
narrow lot. 00:51:45
You know, that's that's my opinion. 00:51:50
I say. 00:51:54
Other comments. 00:51:56
And and I will note, I mean you know we don't see a lot of building in this district, but there are some specific, there is 00:51:59
specific guidance in the code as to how the homes should look. 00:52:04
And how they should be treated and there's a reason that there's an overlay. When we did the land use project years ago and it was 00:52:08
because eventually. 00:52:12
Even though not much is built, there's four or five lots, even that was before that house. There were there's four or five lots 00:52:15
along that quarter that eventually we knew would be built on. And we do want the design to be responsive to the history of our 00:52:22
community. And that was our citizens demanded that just like they did on South Main and just like they have around Rocket Field. 00:52:28
That's what the overlay is for, so I haven't seen the design. 00:52:34
Of the homes, I don't think we need to get into the design tonight. 00:52:38
But. 00:52:41
I think my thought is that we may need to table this conversation until we can. 00:52:44
Have a deeper look. 00:52:49
At the design and what's going on with that, But again, that's council's determination. 00:52:52
In terms of where you all want to go, but that's my thinking at this point based on the conversation and because we had a set of 00:52:57
plans dropped in front of two of us tonight and that's bound to affect how people feel about this. And the rest of council has not 00:53:01
had an opportunity to look at those. 00:53:05
Yeah, I agree. 00:53:10
Can I go ahead and make a motion to table it? I make a motion to table. 00:53:12
To next month. 00:53:17
Any further discussion? 00:53:19
All in favor, aye. Any opposed? 00:53:21
All right, motion to table carries. 00:53:25
Thank you for coming in. 00:53:27
All right. 00:53:30
All right. We're going to follow the, we're going to follow the same process for. 00:53:37
For the next one that's coming up, that's Mr. Raleigh Garrett. That's 1181 Jacob Dr. Parcel, BO6LO2D. 00:53:43
We will have same process. Engineer Campbell. Engineer Campbell will OfferUp the staff, report Attorney Reitman for an illegal. 00:54:01
And then we'll have the applicant step forward and then we'll have the public hearing. 00:54:10
Engineer Campbell, Thank you, Mayor. So this is a variance request at. 00:54:13
I'll say 1181 Jacob Drive, this is within the Christian Lake subdivision and so the the lot is a corner lot, it's a little bit 00:54:18
less than an acre and it is zoned detached residential. And so the proposed request it's two variances, it's for an encroachment 00:54:25
into the 10 foot side set back. 00:54:33
I said 10 foot not 30 foot because this is not seven to bridge city corridor so that the code requires a 10 foot side set back. 00:54:41
They're asking for an encroachment and then for a front facing garage. 00:54:46
So again if you see there and that includes topography, hopefully those additional lines from the from the tax assessor are not 00:54:53
confusing. But it it shows the the house as it sits currently is on what I would consider the higher portion of the lot as you 00:55:01
move towards Felton and away from the existing house you go to the South and then that's at a lower elevation if you will. 00:55:10
So again, here's a reference to a plat that would have been recorded back in 2002 as part of phase one of the Christian Lake 00:55:20
subdivision. You can see the the subject partial that's highlighted there in yellow that was at the edge of that particular sheet 00:55:25
that was from Platbook 34. 00:55:29
And here's a view of the existing driveway in that existing structure there at 1181 Jacob Drive. And so the the proposed variance 00:55:36
request would be for a garage that is front facing at that location and then it would be within 5 feet of what it would be on the 00:55:44
right hand side of that picture of the property line. That's not flagged or marked, but it kind of gives you an idea instead of at 00:55:52
least 10 feet away from that. So there's currently a garage with this house that is attached. 00:56:00
That is not front facing its access to via this concrete driveway. The request is for a detached front facing garage. Hopefully 00:56:08
that's helpful. 00:56:12
Again, it's the next slide. There's there's two code sections, they're they're both within 502, but there's different letters and 00:56:18
numbers associated with those on this as you can see. 00:56:22
There's a lot of information about garages in Watkinsville if you've been to enough meetings. We've talked about garages before, 00:56:27
but the the details of what those specific code sections are are included and again the side set back variance that's being 00:56:34
requested as well. The applicants also indicated that the existing septic facilities. 00:56:41
Do create a hardship on this lot. Again, a portion of Christian Lake is not on septic, but this portion was and I believe the 00:56:49
applicant also submitted information from the Department of Public Health related to the existing septic facilities. 00:56:57
Be happy to answer any questions. 00:57:07
Thank you, Engineer Campbell, Attorney Reitman. Any further comments, Again, same criteria apply as we discussed in the previous 00:57:10
one, just to confirm. 00:57:14
This is detached residential and there is no overlay district. Is that correct for example? Thank you Sir. 00:57:19
Thank you. Do we have any pictures of where the garage is going on the lot? 00:57:26
That would have been part of your application package, but unfortunately the quality of those pictures was not very good at all. 00:57:36
They were not color pictures. 00:57:40
So. 00:57:45
Yeah, I tried looking on my yeah, it was it was a box, right? So it was a black box on a black and white. 00:57:46
Picture. So unfortunately it was not an engineer drawing, but it's a why don't we let Mr. Garrett come forward at this point and 00:57:53
maybe go back to the picture showing the front view of the house And then between the maybe Mr. Garrett, if you want to come up, 00:58:00
introduce yourself tell us your address tell us a little bit about. 00:58:07
Your need for the structure and how it's going to fit. 00:58:14
You know both and why both variances are necessary in your opinion. Yeah. Thanks so much, Mayor. So I'm Raleigh Garrett. I live at 00:58:19
1181 Jacob Drive. My wife and I and our little daughter have lived there since 2016. We have a little boy that will be here in 00:58:27
March. And so we are asking for a variance to build an additional garage for storage space. We may use a portion of a space above 00:58:34
for an office because the baby boy is getting my current Home Office. I work from home a day or so a week. 00:58:41
The current location where we're wanting to put it, so there's a parking pad at the end of that driveway right there before the 00:58:50
fence that you can kind of see and I apologize for black and white picture, but so there's a fence that's about. 00:58:56
12 feet past the concrete. What we're wanting to do is put that garage from the fence. 00:59:05
To where that concrete pad currently locates. So we're adding about an additional 12 feet of concrete onto our existing driveway 00:59:11
and then putting the garage there. So the garage would be 10 feet off of the house and then it's about 8.9 feet from the property 00:59:17
line. We're asking for five feet just like that. They kind of mentioned the building error or a overhang or anything that we're 00:59:23
not positive on, so. 00:59:29
And Lisa, the neighbor next door, I spoke with her. I have a text that was in the application that she said I have no 00:59:36
reservations. I fully I'm OK with you doing this as well. 00:59:41
The like structure of the house to you. I can show some kind of rough things that we're thinking of doing, but it will match the 00:59:51
roof line of the current garage. 00:59:54
Colors on mad shutters will match. They'll be gasoline. There's more than likely I'll let it to match the front door I. 00:59:59
Peculiar about wanting it to look like it's always been. 01:00:06
Council. 01:00:12
Yes, at this point we open a public hearing unless council has any questions for the applicant. 01:00:15
All right, public hearing is open. Anyone want to speak in favor or in opposition to the variance request? 01:00:21
All right, we'll close the public hearing council questions for staff or for the applicant. 01:00:29
I don't know if this is so much a question. 01:00:36
I think for me where I'm really struggling with this is not only is it a set back issue but it is also the front facing. 01:00:41
Garage. 01:00:48
Which again, there's reasons why we have these different. 01:00:51
Ordinances I I do understand. 01:00:56
I mean, looking at the overview of your lot, you have a lot of. Most of your lot is on one side of your property and I understand 01:00:59
not wanting to add a bunch of concrete. 01:01:03
Over there I'm guessing. And then when it's a corner lot to like, then what's front facing, what side fit, you know, all of those 01:01:08
things. 01:01:12
That, that is our backup drain field over there. Yeah, I'm sorry, hang on. You need to get the, you need to get the mic. That's 01:01:17
all so people can hear. Thank you. So we looked at putting it on that side because there is a ton of green space over there and 01:01:22
like you mentioned, we would have to obviously disturb a ton of that with a driveway and then all of our utilities currently come 01:01:28
in on that side of the house. So the cost. 01:01:34
Hardship would be extreme. To move every gas power, all the HVAC would have to move. 01:01:40
And then like you mentioned is what's faced its front facing the Felton at that point. 01:01:46
But the main thing is in that letter from the Department of Health is that is our backup drain field. Our septic tank is currently 01:01:52
in our backyard with field. 01:01:56
The backup failure field. 01:02:01
Is what we would cover. 01:02:03
So so a thought that I have because. 01:02:06
You know, every time we allow a variance, it continues opening up a door. 01:02:10
Erodes our codes when I'm hearing your need. I understand you have a growing family. You work more from home. I mean things that 01:02:15
have changed since 2016 when you bought the property. I'm sure you want to hold on to your current interest rate as well. 01:02:23
But I'm wondering if. 01:02:32
Some kind of an addition that isn't a garage. 01:02:34
Might be something that would meet your needs without having to have a variance, and so I met with two builders about that. 01:02:38
And the cost would be? 01:02:49
Considerably higher and from what they're saying it would add the addition would need to be on that. 01:02:53
Felt inside so all utilities would move. We would have to demo a current bathroom to then add that way. 01:03:00
But would there be anything? And I asked. I'm staring at Engineer Campbell here as I asked this. Or whoever might have, you know, 01:03:09
thoroughly studied our codes to have a Is it against our code to have a free standing structure that doesn't have to be as large 01:03:15
as a garage? 01:03:21
That essentially you could have the downstairs be storage, so not fully finished out, have an upstairs office, just not having a 01:03:28
garage door to the front and not having it so big. I mean you're so close to the set back that if it was a slightly smaller not A2 01:03:34
car garage size. 01:03:40
I I don't see how that expense would be more. 01:03:47
Then I mean, I understand if you're like attaching it and you have to move doors and windows and all of that, but couldn't have 01:03:50
did, I mean do we have, are we, do we allow we, I think we allow detached. 01:03:56
Accessory we do allow, but I think one of the challenges, it looks like you're going to be blocking the entrance to your current 01:04:01
garage with the new structure, right? Potentially so it won't block the current entrance, we will not will. It will still remain a 01:04:06
garage. There has been a discussion that we may shrink the door from 16 to 12 to put a walkout door so that door doesn't have to 01:04:11
come each time. 01:04:16
But no, it will still be accessible for coming in. It will OK so that one with the black box then. 01:04:22
That's not accurate. Then it should because there's a there's a lot of house. The garage is not at the back corner. 35 feet of 01:04:28
house past the garage, I see OK. 01:04:32
All right. 01:04:37
So the garage then will not be all the way. It will not be parallel with the front. The front. 01:04:42
Of the house. 01:04:49
Interesting. OK. 01:04:51
Right, Council, other questions. 01:04:53
Would a, let's say, single car wide? 01:04:57
For the single car wide structure. 01:05:02
With an upstairs. 01:05:06
Suit your needs if you said you're not using it for a garage. 01:05:08
OK, I thought you said storage. 01:05:12
Upstairs and storage. 01:05:18
So I just want to speak as the former HOA president of the neighborhood. I do want to speak to the the sewers, especially so all 01:05:29
of Jacob has septic tanks in the back lot in the backyard and half of the yards. 01:05:37
Now are going through remodels because all the septic tanks. 01:05:45
Failing in down through Jacob just just for y'all consideration. Whoever installed them didn't do them correctly. The tanks are 01:05:51
too small, the drain lines are too small, and so they are failing, and so I know of at least eight that are have had to be redone 01:05:56
in the last. 01:06:02
It's a few years just for y'all. 01:06:09
Knowledge. 01:06:11
Then Brett, don't bring up what the HL, I've submitted all this to HOA and they've they have no questions they said because this 01:06:15
would be the only front facing garage in Christian Lake. Correct. So that's I'm actually looking at the first one on the right, 01:06:20
the Connolly's or second one on the right The Connolly's have one. 01:06:24
Adrian Adrian Connelly, when you come in off. 01:06:31
Article she. 01:06:36
No issues with the HOA. They've approved this. 01:06:38
Council, this is with you. I'm, I'm. I've never been a big. 01:06:51
Front facing garages, as you guys know and yeah. 01:06:55
But this is a pretty. 01:07:00
Set of circumstances here that I don't know, I totally understood until Mr. Garrett explained them to me in terms of what's going 01:07:02
on here, so. 01:07:05
You. 01:07:09
I don't vote so. 01:07:10
Yeah, I struggle with it because we have ordinances. 01:07:14
You know, for a reason. 01:07:17
And I thought, well, when I first was reading, I didn't know the location of the building. I thought, well, if it's set way back. 01:07:21
Then you know, seeing the garage isn't going to be as right there, but it's. 01:07:28
Parallel with the back of the house, it sounds like. 01:07:34
From the rear. From the rear, the back of the garage will be at the same depth as the house coming forward, so it's Rd. 01:07:38
Close to the existing garage or other garage door will be. 01:07:45
It's like somebody I could look at the plan. I think it's, yeah, it's probably 8 to 10 feet back from the current garage door. 01:07:49
That's just what I struggle with. But then I'm also like, well, if the the homeowners association doesn't have a problem with. 01:07:56
And there it's like I'm on the Q public right now. There are three other This would be the third home in the neighborhood. 01:08:04
Now, but with those others that have a front, are they the only garage? 01:08:15
Councilman Thomas, make sure you use your mic, please. No, they're not. They're additional garages. 01:08:21
Are they all double? 01:08:28
They are. 01:08:29
I think that yes. I think the question then becomes. 01:08:32
You know, and there's two sides to it, right? You know, like accessory structures. 01:08:38
It's a way to keep things affordable. It's a way to have an affordable secondary housing opportunity, garage apartments, things 01:08:43
like that, and our. 01:08:46
Anticipated those, but just the design of Christian Lake in the home, a lot of the homes there is. 01:08:50
This will not be the last of these that we get. 01:08:55
Now so codes there for a reason. 01:08:59
Good reason, but we kind of have a little bit of a conflict in terms of priorities here because there's these do create some other 01:09:02
opportunities in terms of. 01:09:05
In terms of housing, property value appreciation and other things, so you know, but not everyone, I don't think it's going to be 01:09:09
nearly as constrained as what Mr. Garrett's situation is here. So there. I don't know that this is a viable option, but there's 01:09:14
part of me that wants. 01:09:20
To basically throw this back into the Christian Lake Homeowners Association and say I mean. 01:09:25
I'm just speaking off the cup here because I don't want. 01:09:33
I don't want to open up variances. I mean, what's a hardship? I mean, do you need to park your car? But you know, in the scope of 01:09:38
life, no, that is not a hardship. And you have a two car garage. 01:09:44
I We have very few actual neighborhoods in our. 01:09:53
City, I mean not very few, but we don't have, we have the scenic corridors. We have kind of the historic communities and then we 01:09:59
have a smattering of neighborhoods and there's part of me that thinks if a neighborhood as it's being built and if we I don't know 01:10:05
what I'm even saying here. 01:10:12
I just, I don't want to open up a can of worms, not only. 01:10:21
For the city of Watkinsville, but also for Christian Lake, because. 01:10:26
It's not a neighborhood that was built for everyone to have three and four car garages. That isn't what this neighborhood is and. 01:10:31
So I don't know. I'm I'm, I'm torn. I understand where you're coming from. I understand your need and desire for more space. But I 01:10:41
think there. 01:10:46
A creative way, and I understand why you can't use half of your yard like I get all of that, but I'm not real excited about saying 01:10:51
yes to a front. 01:10:56
Facing garage, Two car garage that is not only a front facing garage. 01:11:00
But also is messing with the. 01:11:06
The set back. 01:11:10
So I am inclined. 01:11:13
To I'm inclined to say no, or to table it, to go back to the drawing board to get more input, maybe for more community members. I 01:11:16
don't know it, you know, it's it's hard for me when we have people who specifically say. 01:11:24
We are affected by this. We live next door to this. We do not want this and this is a code. 01:11:33
That definitely inclines me to hear that. 01:11:40
And we're not hearing that in your case, but we haven't heard from the across the street neighbor honestly that might affect them 01:11:45
as much as it's going to affect the person next door, so. 01:11:49
Other people's thoughts here. 01:11:55
All right, Council, we can have thoughts or we can have a motion and we can go a lot of directions here. So we've got four of you. 01:11:58
We we, we know Christine's position. 01:12:02
But happy to, happy to have a motion in a conversation at this point. Unless you have other questions for applicant. But again, 01:12:07
once you make a motion in a second, then we can dive into deeper conversation. How about that? 01:12:13
So the only my counter argument I guess would be that there are there is already a precedence in the neighborhood. 01:12:21
And to to have been approved at some point. 01:12:31
And and I get. I don't know if we could go back and search when that was, but. 01:12:37
I have the addresses, but two have been approved at some point. They built without permits. 01:12:41
All right, let's we're that we're going to run a rabbit there come with this meeting in a decent hour tonight. Can we have 01:12:47
somebody make a motion, somebody make a second, we'll have some more conversation. Otherwise we're going to move on down the road. 01:12:53
I'll make a motion. We approve. All right, We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? We have a second. 01:13:02
All right, discussion. Any further discussion? 01:13:07
All right. I don't have any further discussion. I'm just concerned it's 2 variances. 01:13:12
Versus some of them have just been one variance request we got the side yard set back which. 01:13:18
I was not excited about the other person who came before. 01:13:26
However many months ago that. 01:13:31
Because even though the neighbors OK with it, I'm thinking well down the road. Boy that I've got this big two car garage real 01:13:34
close to my property line. 01:13:38
So it's it's that variance which. 01:13:43
Not happy, excited about. And then the second variance is a is a forward facing garage, so it's asking for. 01:13:46
And does it meet all the? 01:13:55
The hardship and everything else I don't. 01:13:57
All right. So Jeff's concerned about that. That's good. Any further discussion, legal counsel is going to have. Legal counsel 01:14:00
going to have some thoughts in a second. But Connie, let's get you well. If they have a homeowners association, they should talk 01:14:06
with them and they should talk with all the neighbors and get their approval. 01:14:11
Before we. 01:14:17
All right. Mr. Garrett, have you talked to any other neighbors besides the one directly affected by the? 01:14:19
I've talked to the one to the rear judge on. 01:14:24
OK, so Judge Hun Singer at rear somebody else to the right across the street is the I think we. 01:14:28
Miser's major TMS. I've not spoken to Imagine. Yeah, OK Could I ask a question if could the homeowners association change their 01:14:37
bylaws saying that we're going to allow this if the city of Watkinsville will allow us? 01:14:46
To allow. 01:14:55
Four, facing garages in our community only. So I can speak to that also because I did rewrite the bylaws, but I first took over as 01:14:58
HOA president and it does take quite a it's quite an undertaking to rewrite the bylaws. We have to have a 70% vote. I have 149 01:15:05
homes inside of that in there and trying to get. 01:15:12
70% of the vote is incredibly difficult. 01:15:20
But I would, I would actually say that first if if this precedent is being set. 01:15:25
Then I think it would need to be a 70% vote in the neighborhood. So I'm going to make a motion. If there's already a motion, 01:15:31
there's a motion on the floor and there's a second, so we've got to stop. Can I? 01:15:37
Can I ask you to withdraw the motion? Let's hear from the attorney and then we can see if we want to withdraw, if we want to vote. 01:15:45
If the vote fails, then you know we'll come back with the other. But let's hear from the attorney and see what he has to see 01:15:51
earlier. A reference to applicable standards and criteria, one of them states specifically in granting A variance. Mayor and 01:15:57
council may impose any other conditions necessary to further the goals of this ordinance. So as always, you have the option to 01:16:03
approve, deny or table. 01:16:09
So I think my recommendation would probably be to at least have a discussion about whether somebody wants to make a motion to 01:16:52
table. 01:16:55
So we have a motion on the floor. We have a second. We've had discussion. 01:16:59
Is there any inclination to withdraw the motion with potential consideration for a table? 01:17:04
That's your call, Mr. Thomas. 01:17:10
Sure, absolutely. I would draw my motion right. The motion is withdrawn. Is there interest in somebody making a motion to table? I 01:17:12
make a motion that we table. 01:17:16
Before we make, before we vote on that, I want to ask Mr. Garrett is there is a is a one month delay potentially going to impact 01:17:22
you in a material way? 01:17:25
Pretty severely. OK, why don't you tell us about that? Our babies do the end of March and so we're trying to have this completed 01:17:29
before we have a newborn. 01:17:33
We have. 01:17:38
That could potentially said they could finish this in three months and so about delaying it a month, it does severely change our 01:17:39
timeline. 01:17:43
Let me ask another question, Mr. Garrett the. 01:17:48
You what if the? 01:17:51
Could the structure be moved further back to the edge of your concrete where your fence is shown? 01:17:54
It so it's already there. It's touching the fence now and so it's it's could the front be at the fence is what I'm asking. That's 01:18:00
on top of the septic tank that is where the septic tank is. So it's back in the fence. OK. At the end of the fence, OK. All right. 01:18:05
Thank you. We've had other front facing garages that are further or not garages but there. 01:18:11
They have doors, but they're not. It's not garage doors and they're further back, OK? 01:18:17
I do not know. So we are 10 feet from the house at this point. I mean if and I think from where we are measured and look at it, 01:18:22
we're something Farca is going to require us to be. 01:18:27
But so then I guess the only point there would be to have to shrink the actual width of the garage. 01:18:33
So it's to me. 01:18:40
And I want, I want as much for the city to be beautiful. We love this neighborhood and we want to continue to increase and look 01:18:42
beautiful. We want to be a prize of the city. 01:18:47
So the only thing is, if we go to shrinking the garage, we. 01:18:55
Be more likely to have to. 01:18:59
Single garage door. Whereas if we can leave it at the width where we're at now, it does allow us to have that dressed up look that 01:19:01
looks. 01:19:05
Beautiful versus just a flat wall and that's that's our intention is that it's not going to be a flat wall and look. 01:19:09
Look like an eyesore, right? 01:19:16
OK. All right. So it sounds like Mr. Garrett would like a vote tonight one way or another. Is that accurate? 01:19:19
So I mean, that's a dangerous question I guess. I don't know if it is denied. Is there another option? 01:19:27
That point. 01:19:34
So can I think, I think you have to wait six months, don't you if you get done denial unless the new request is for something 01:19:37
different IE you alluded earlier to the accessory structure option. I did research very recently for another client, their 01:19:45
ordinance said up to an 800 foot accessory structure kind of like a mother-in-law situation that may serve your needs of storage 01:19:52
plus Home Office but not necessarily automobile parking. 01:19:59
That is an option you could come back with if they deny tonight, but again, that may not suit your needs. So, and I don't recall 01:20:07
specifically what Howard it says about accessory structures. I don't want to speak out of term. 01:20:13
This is by the Department of Health. This is going to be an attached structure. The foundations will connect so that if we wanted 01:20:21
to add a connected to the septic field, that is a possibility. So they said it needs to be connected via. 01:20:29
A extension of the extension, correct. So that extension of the crawlspace. OK, yeah, if I can interject two things. First of all, 01:20:38
we didn't get a second that I know of on this table. I didn't hear Julie and. 01:20:44
Wait here a second. So we're having a discussion without a second. So we need to probably have a second for her. Well, let's 01:20:50
motion draw the table for a second. Let's just draw the table. Let's just keep talking. And you know, again, sometimes given the 01:20:56
timing here, I'm not a big fan of trying to solve problems at a meeting. But given all the things tonight, we're going to try to 01:21:01
do that. So thought. So it looks like you got something you want to say. It looks like it looks like you already have a. 01:21:07
Kind of A1 car sucks. I mean it's hard to tell from a picture on Q Public, but where is this and what is that is in our that's in 01:21:13
the backyard and that's my wife's office. 01:21:19
OK, so you already do have OK, that to me that's relevant information that you already have an accessory structure. 01:21:25
On the property. So that's not shown in this aerial or is it behind the house? I don't it's hard to see anything, I just have the 01:21:32
picture. 01:21:37
So is that like a? Is that a garage with roll up door? Is that a? 01:21:48
More like a child's Playhouse. OK, So what? This picture is not accurate. 01:21:53
Mayor, just to answer Joe's question, so. 01:22:00
It looks like you can have an attached or detached dwelling with 12 minimum for Arab 1200 square feet. 01:22:04
If you're doing a detached or attached. 01:22:11
That's where the dwelling not structure, and this is not a dwelling, right? We're not trying to change the septic or add anything 01:22:14
else. 01:22:17
OK. And so this is we are deep diving to try to, I mean I think if so, if we want to try to do you have a bonus room? 01:22:23
It is above the garage as a playroom, yes. So you do have a the finished space Someone's heart sell from Cuba like so finished 01:22:32
room. There's no closet bathroom. OK, so you do have a finished. 01:22:37
Room there. That is a playroom, yes. 01:22:42
And you have one daughter, so you have 3 bedrooms, bonus room, it looks like just under 2000 square feet. Your wife already has a 01:22:45
detached office. 01:22:49
I totally understand the desire and you, you know, you've got the ball rolling. 01:22:55
But. 01:23:01
I just think we've got to do this well and right. I mean, I have. 01:23:04
Still hold? 01:23:09
The tabling of this, but I'm not making a motion because we're still discussing but. 01:23:13
Discuss. 01:23:18
All right. Any other comments from council? 01:23:21
All right, well, let's play the motion game again and see where we get so. 01:23:26
Open to entertain wherever people want to take this. 01:23:30
I make a motion to table. 01:23:34
Right. Christine has a motion to table. Do we have a second? 01:23:36
We have a second from Councilman Campbell all in any discussion of the table. 01:23:40
We understand. 01:23:45
Until January, we understand, you know, Mr. Garrett. 01:23:47
Situation. 01:23:50
But we do have a motion to table and we have a second so. 01:23:52
No further discussion. All in favor of the table. Say aye. 01:23:55
All right. Let's say by voice, because I only heard a couple, is that we have Christine. 01:23:59
Jeff Connie. 01:24:04
Chuck no. Right now, Motion to Table carries 3. 01:24:06
OK. Thank you. 01:24:10
Definitely check with all the neighbors. Yeah. There's like, there's something that, you know, like we're to be discussed or we 01:24:13
can talk after the meeting. Well, if you don't, yeah. If you you're welcome to wait around and talk after the meeting might be 01:24:19
helpful. If you understand if you have other commitments. If you need to, then you can certainly reach out to the council members 01:24:25
individually or contact the manager or me. And we're happy to talk with you. We're happy to try to figure it out, OK. 01:24:31
All right. Thanks everyone for that. We're up to appearances and we have urban forest plan and wastewater capacity allocation 01:24:39
request for. 01:24:44
1080 Experiment Station Road. I think that's you, Mr. Bars. So we will have Councilman Thomas, our engineer Campbell, do the staff 01:24:50
report on the urban forest plan, Manager Dickerson on wastewater, and then we'll have you come up Mr. Bars, OK. 01:24:57
So who's taking care of Urban Forest? I got it. OK. Am I still on? Yes. All right, so. 01:25:06
1080 Experiment Station Rd. 01:25:12
Has to All larger projects have to go before the Urban Forestry Board. We did meet and and so our ordinance does require that 01:25:16
specific guidelines be met to meet the green area associated with this project and you must maintain a 25 unit per acre. 01:25:24
The guidelines do allow for the remaining of trees, which it looks like you existing of 87 units existing. 01:25:33
And that can be qualified exceeded and a unit capacity. We give them the size of the trees, diameter, height. So it is a. 01:25:41
You total area was 2 1/2, two and a quarter acres. 01:25:50
The site density requirement was 25 units an acre. 01:25:54
The existing density factor was 87 units. 01:25:59
Umm, And. 01:26:02
The replacement density factor was 18 units, so for a total site density of 78 units. So the Urban Forest board did approve. 01:26:05
Does recommended approval? We did have some. 01:26:17
Recommendations though there were four of them, the first one being try to get a shade tree on the South side of the townhomes. 01:26:22
The second was take out both China berries as they are noxious trees. 01:26:30
Third was a plan later that shows the existing tree locations. 01:26:36
The IT didn't didn't really look like we had exact tree locations for for that and then work with the Board of Education to plant 01:26:42
more shade trees on the West side. 01:26:47
So those are the recommendations from the Urban Forest Board. But council, we did recommend approval this. 01:26:52
All right. So that. 01:27:01
Do we need to take this one at a time? We don't usually do urban forests and wastewater together, so I guess what I would note is 01:27:03
our recommendation, say try to on #1. 01:27:08
#4 that's a probably a try to as well or #2 and three requirements to move it forward. Do we need they are not requirements. So 01:27:13
the China Berry trees were on our list of noxious trees that we when we updated the course board. So it is. 01:27:21
An undesirable tree. All right. OK. Mr. Bars, if you want to come on up and just let us know. I think obviously the BOE, you know, 01:27:29
I think it would probably fall to us to make that request to see if they might consider. 01:27:35
Doing anything with their plans, and we're happy to do that. Unless you want to, unless you want to speak to someone. If you do, 01:27:41
that's fine. 01:27:44
That's number four. 01:27:49
#2 Would you be fine taking down China Berry trees? Yeah, I'm good with it. Played with them as a youngster. I'm very familiar 01:27:52
with them and we can take them down. I'm I'm a little confused on the West side. 01:27:58
Are they referring to the West side of the Board of Education's space? Yes, So, so the common line is that that what that's the 01:28:04
question. 01:28:08
Just trying to put a barrier between the BOE. 01:28:14
And I have to reflect to the site plan, see how much space is in between there, you know? 01:28:18
Yeah. My recollection is we probably have to ask the beat you've got. I think you've got. 01:28:25
Conifers. Buffering. If not conifers. Evergreen plants buffering. Sound on the South side next to a small house that's existing in 01:28:29
between US and the Board of Education, but OK. 01:28:35
OK, Yeah. All right. So these are requests, not requirements. Mr. Barr, is there anything else you want to add about? 01:28:41
Urban forest. 01:28:48
Well, I'm a forester by trade. 01:28:50
At, you know, trees and. 01:28:53
That, you know, landscape is very important to us and it is our. 01:28:55
If we see something that's unhealthy or we don't feel. 01:28:59
Can maintain the shade and the comfort of the area and the aesthetics that we would like the opportunity to replace that with an 01:29:02
equal or better. 01:29:06
Specimen. So yeah, we absolutely, it's a focus of ours in the development to have plenty of trees. 01:29:10
And plenty of thoughtful landscaping in condition with the neighbors, yeah. 01:29:17
OK. 01:29:23
All right, Council. 01:29:25
Comments on the Urban forest? I'll entertain a motion. 01:29:26
Mr. Thomas, I'll make a motion. We approve. We have a motion. 01:29:32
Mr. Thomas and his committee, I mean, again, there's recommendations. Mr. Thomas made it clear those aren't requirements. Mr. 01:29:35
Bars, if you could take those under advisement and we'd appreciate it. 01:29:40
Honor those. But since they weren't requirements, they are recommendations. And do we have a second? All right, we have a second. 01:29:47
Any discussion hearing? None. All in favor? Say aye. All right, We'll move to wastewater capacity. Mr. Bars, You may just want to 01:29:54
stay there. Manager Dickerson. 01:29:58
Not going to try to make Y'all's eyes hurt tonight, but I have a pretty large master tracking worksheet for our wastewater 01:30:04
capacity. Just a little background. Remember that we amended in 2019 the 1991 Water and sewer agreement with Oconee County, which 01:30:12
in in that amendment granted the city 100,000 gallons per day of wastewater capacity up to the at the current. 01:30:20
Facility capacity that the the county has when they expand to 3,000,000 gallons, the city will receive another 100,000 gallons per 01:30:30
day which we anticipate based on what they've told us could be January, February of 2025. With that said, what you see in front of 01:30:39
you is the latter part of the of the larger worksheet which you should have had in your packet and so to date the council has has. 01:30:47
Granted capacity. 01:30:57
Of a little bit more than. 01:30:59
90,000. 01:31:01
Of wastewater capacity. This is not just commercial, but residential. 01:31:03
And. 01:31:06
The current site, the current old library site, the Oconee Water resources granted 260 gallons per day of credit because they're 01:31:08
currently you know on sewer. And so the difference that the that this development needs is around 2080 gallons per day. And so if 01:31:17
you look at and then like I said it's really small, But the allocation that if you approve this allocation you would end up with a 01:31:26
total capacity granted for all of the uses to date of 93,408 gallons per day. 01:31:34
Which leaves you with a balance of 6592. I mean it's you know at this point I'm not sure what 6592 would you know do other than 01:31:43
maybe a couple of houses or maybe a small small retail, but so. 01:31:50
I I don't know that it's significant to deny or you know deny this because you're only talking 2000 gallons a day. It's certainly 01:31:58
something you can you can manage. I think larger projects are going to be coming down the pipe are going to be a little more 01:32:03
challenging for Y'all to to discuss because we don't have that other capacity. But this is certainly something that you know you 01:32:07
can manage. 01:32:12
All right, you've heard the report from the manager. Any questions for her? 01:32:18
Mr. Bars, anything you want to? 01:32:25
No Sir, OK. 01:32:27
Miss Tucker. 01:32:30
I just want to make sure and this would be a question for you Joe, that as I look through the checklist of all the things. 01:32:32
It is OK that they have not yet closed, right. Even like that was one of the checklist items. But it doesn't say close. It just 01:32:40
says in it was kind of a nebulous term that it could be under contract for. And I just want to make sure that we're fine with 01:32:46
granting it to someone who's assuming they do have it under contract. They're a stakeholder, so to speak. And it would have 01:32:52
standing to make the request. Yes. Thank you. 01:32:59
All right. Other questions from council, just for clarification, I know we just, we've seen this a few times. So it was here for 01:33:06
rezoning, it was here for a site plan. But the current owner of the property is the Board of Commissioners and we, the city did 01:33:11
receive a document from John Daniel indicating that this applicant is is scheduled to close on the property. So we do have that 01:33:16
documentation. 01:33:21
Thank you, engineer. 01:33:27
Other quest? 01:33:29
Any other comments? 01:33:31
All right, here. None. I'll entertain a motion. I make a motion to approve. Do we have a second? 01:33:33
All right, Councilman Campbell, any further? 01:33:38
Discussion. 01:33:42
Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 01:33:43
Motion Carries 50 Thank You Mr. Bars, when we see you again. Or is it off to the races at this point? 01:33:48
Is that the fight? Is this the final? 01:33:53
Meeting for Mr. Bars. OK. Right. All right. Good. Happy New Year. Merry Christmas. Thank you. OK. 01:33:55
All right. We have 1260 Greensboro Highway. The Bishop family has a site development plan. Engineer Campbell will give us the 01:34:02
report on that and then we will move to hearing from the applicant. 01:34:08
OK. So this property currently has an address of 1260 Greensboro Highway, but that may be subject to change based on some of the 01:34:17
new buildings that are proposed here. But that's what you would know it as. The total acreage is about 4.3. The proposed disturbed 01:34:24
area for both phases of what the applicant has submitted and that's what the city asked them to do, was to submit everything that 01:34:31
they were trying to do so that we could see that in totality as a little over 3 acres, the existing zoning is corridor commercial. 01:34:38
The area that is subject to this is currently undeveloped with the exception of the the access from Hwy. 15 to some of the rear 01:34:46
properties where there's existing structures or existing properties. The site development plan does indicate 2 phases of 01:34:52
development. We can get into that a little bit more, but again it is zoned corridor commercial so this is the the location of the 01:34:58
property. So if you're familiar with the classic City Eats or or maybe a former Fastenal building, this would be just to the north 01:35:04
and West of that it's across from. 01:35:10
The, the green building, green roofed building of the County Annex, so that is the, the location you can see as it relates to to 01:35:17
Hwy. 15 and Morrison St. Industrial Blvd. some of those things there. And then this is, this is the view of that. One of the 01:35:25
tenants I think existing is Core Blend, which would be a kind of workout facility. Go to the next slide, you can see one of the 01:35:32
features on this existing property. Is there an existing existing pond. So you may have had to stop on Hwy. 15 before with geese. 01:35:40
Traveling between ponds from from the South side to the Northside. 01:35:47
Of Hwy. 15, but that is an existing feature. Again, you can see in the background back right of that picture the existing Classic 01:35:52
city eats. 01:35:55
Location, so site plan, again there are a lot of lines on the plan. To give you an idea, a phase one shows a proposed building 01:35:59
that does meet the 30 foot minimum build to line is actually much closer than that 30 feet that's required by code. So there's not 01:36:07
a variance with associated with that because the code encourages building closer to Hwy. 15 as is shown on the plan that is a 01:36:15
proposed 2 story building and phase one with associated access and parking there. 01:36:23
Phase two would include additional construction around the pond area and they've submitted plans that would include. 01:36:31
Site plan. 01:37:11
So this was originally discussed in 2008 as the warehouse district as as the Bishop family indicated. So it is back before you 01:37:13
again in a very different format. But this is a project that's been going on for quite some time and in some ways explain the 01:37:19
differences there between phase one and phase two, again that the phase one building would be between the existing, what I'll call 01:37:25
the core Blend building. 01:37:32
And Hwy. 15. 01:37:38
Those existing structures will stay. Access to those existing structures will stay that the applicants included that as part of 01:37:41
their detailed plans. 01:37:46
There will be utility modifications needed for these new buildings. We provided some comments related to some of those details. 01:37:51
On the on the plans and again it's more than one acre Disturbed does have water and sewer associated with it. So again there are 01:37:59
entities outside the city of Watkinsville that would also be required to approve these plans. I'm happy to answer. 01:38:06
Any additional questions you might have? 01:38:13
All right. Any questions for Mr. Campbell as the we'll go ahead and call Mr. Mr. Rear, are you speaking on behalf of the 01:38:18
applicant? We'll have you come on up, but any questions for Engineer Campbell while Mr. Greer comes forward or do we want to hear 01:38:22
from him first? 01:38:26
All right, Mr. Greer. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Justin Greer, Pitman, Greer Engineering. Appreciate Mark for such a. 01:38:32
Utilize the pond is kind of the Gray changes there. 01:39:44
We have not submitted to county, county, water resources yet. We'll kind of get through this. 01:40:50
Part of the process and then reach out to them. We've had discussions with the city about sewer capacity and things and some. 01:40:55
Of capacity that the bishops have in some other places. 01:41:03
Some agreements in there. So I don't think that'll be taken from your allocation at this time. We're still working through that. 01:41:07
And I think that's about all I have. I'd be happy to answer any questions. 01:41:15
Yeah, keep that up. So this looks very different than the other plan. And I mean I like the look of this a lot. This is great, but 01:41:21
it isn't what the plan was. So please speak to this. Yeah. So they, this was an original concept plan that was done. Luke worked 01:41:29
with an architect to have this and this was. So that plan kind of morphed into what you see before you tonight. That's a one that 01:41:37
we were trying to get renderings done of what this would be and it was going to take too long to get before council. 01:41:45
Timeline with Christmas and holidays were just really short to have them turn that around the building the up front kind of the 01:41:54
core Blend building is. 01:41:57
That was our original plan, but we've kind of changed the shape of that. And then the original thought was and this is kind of how 01:42:01
the the kind of a concrete area was to have a building up front and then some basically some smaller shops. 01:42:09
For some artists and stuff and that's not off the table. We're still you know as we kind of progress through this we may that's 01:42:17
that concrete space is is. 01:42:21
We're holding it for that. I don't want to, I didn't want to commit to that tonight. But but I think in in our discussions and 01:42:26
talks we thought that might be a good place to have some smaller shops for. You know, as people are using this outdoor place, 01:42:32
outdoor spaces and these two spaces are connected, that's another place people could come and shop and as they eat, spend a little 01:42:37
time there. 01:42:42
Yeah, I really like this. Make it this pretty please, but yours. But compared to this, you'd have an additional. You'd have an 01:42:48
additional structure on the top right of the rendering and an additional structure at the. Yeah, so basically. 01:42:55
This building here. 01:43:02
Yeah, yeah. 01:43:04
Yeah. So yeah, the building here is is we've made it a little bigger here just just to. 01:43:09
Kind of incorporate a little bit more of this area and made the made. 01:43:15
Basically, that wooden deck is comes out a little bit more. Yes, they'll be a building that sits here in a future phase, and then 01:43:20
that top building will be two stories. 01:43:24
Would be two stories. Is that correct? 01:43:29
OK. All right. Yeah, it's a little taller than what's shown here. And that's for having that second story office space. 01:43:33
And I think we included renderings and kind of what that ball brick, so it kind of matches that warehouse district. 01:43:44
Kind of make it a kind of a cohesive development and you said, I noticed the plan had trees fronting 15 the whole way. And would 01:43:51
you anticipate sidewalks connecting this to Classic City that you're just not showing it? Yeah, what we talked about, we talked 01:43:56
about two different. 01:44:00
I'm sorry, you need to take it the mic with you if you're going to just pinch pinch it, pinch it on one side and pull it out. 01:44:05
There you go. Thank you. Got people listening. Yes, we talked about two different locations either through kind of meandering 01:44:11
through this kind of green space because that's what we anticipate and you see the trees on our plan. 01:44:17
Fronting, there's a sewer easement that runs up 15, so we'll do some smaller trees on that side, bigger trees on the inside, and 01:44:24
whether that sidewalk meanders through here or connects back on this side. 01:44:30
We're going to try to connect at one of the two places and maybe both. 01:44:38
Hold that. 01:44:42
All right, so council, we've got a site development plan here. 01:44:47
For the bishops sounds like. 01:44:52
Other things are thinking about adding to the site plan, so Mark, walk us through. 01:44:56
Would we give a conditional approval tonight with you know? 01:45:01
You know plans to be submitted that show the sidewalks and the other things or what are what are sort of paths forward here 01:45:06
tonight. Yes. So I think I'll maybe summarize a little bit. I think it would be an approval with conditions because we do have 01:45:11
some some details like I said and some other things to workout but. 01:45:17
Most of the question marks, in my opinion, are on phase two. 01:45:22
So I don't think that there's any red flags tonight in general terms there. There's a few details to work out, but there wouldn't 01:45:28
be anything that would hinder the construction or moving forward specifically with Phase one and the infrastructure that would be 01:45:34
needed to be constructed as part of Phase one. 01:45:39
While they work out the details within phase two, hopefully I've made that clear. You cannot speak that I think that's exactly 01:45:46
what we would want. And I think that that works best for us as as user, as our end users, we figure that out. And as people, you 01:45:52
know, as we talk to different people, the Bishop talks to different people that want to come as you know they're expanding. 01:45:59
That will be the driver of some of the you know, the amenities that are provided as part of that design and. 01:46:06
I think it would be best to come back before you with a modified site plan as that changes, rather than a full set of plans as you 01:46:12
know you're talking about. 01:46:16
So, Mayor Council, I think we also need to point out. 01:46:20
Depending on what the use is. So they're intending, I think to move. Corbin may move to the front building. So there may be a wash 01:46:23
on their quote their wastewater, but. 01:46:27
You know, we don't yet know what their needs are. What I can speak to is that they do have an agreement to guarantee a guaranteed 01:46:33
50,000 gallons per day from Oconee. We have a letter that Mister Bishop had given to us a couple years ago. And so you just have 01:46:39
to keep in mind that I don't know if they're talking about a restaurant. It could be 25 or 30,000 gallons a day. And then what's 01:46:46
the remainder going to be used on? So you're not really. 01:46:52
You do need to keep in mind that they're going to need wastewater capacity. At some point. They may exceed what they've got 01:46:59
depending on what they put there. So you just have to keep that in mind because normally you'd have a site plan and you'd have 01:47:05
like 1080 came back tonight, you'd have the urban forest and the wastewater. On the heels of that, the next meeting doesn't sound 01:47:10
like we're going to be in that position. So you need to keep in mind as this comes forward as it as it evolves. 01:47:15
All right. But Mr. Bishop was here, Mr. Greer, and they kind of know what they've got to work with on wastewater. 01:47:21
In terms of you got 50 and if you get lucky and you get 2 restaurants and some heavy users and you you know then you're going to 01:47:26
have to you know that may we may not be able to help you for a while there. 01:47:31
If you know so OK, any let's see where are. 01:47:37
We need to move it on down the road. OK, so any further discussion from council? I feel like we haven't talked a lot about this, 01:47:42
but I like the. 01:47:45
Potentially phase one site plan approval. 01:47:50
And then coming back for a phase two, yeah, OK. 01:47:52
So I make a motion that we approve phase one with conditions. 01:47:56
OK, we've got a motion to approve phase one with conditions 2nd, 2nd. 01:48:03
All right. Applicants, that's what you that's OK with you guys, right? Not putting any handcuffs on you, right. OK. All right. Any 01:48:08
further discussion? 01:48:12
All right, all in favor. Say aye. Any opposed motion carries 5. 01:48:17
All right. Looks like we've lost Mr. 01:48:25
Land as we move on to the pouring beer, wine, spirits license. I don't know that we need him here to approve that he he 01:48:29
apologized. He sent me a text that he had to go make a delivery to the UJ basketball team. 01:48:35
Food is a post game meal. Maybe men's or women, I don't know. He had to go deliver. 01:48:43
Food. And he apologized for not being here. OK, outstanding. Well, I don't know if they won, but I heard at least one guy got a. 01:48:47
Season high end points. So that's. 01:48:54
All right, so we are all excited that Wing House is coming back to Watkins for at least the vast mass of the public is. So what do 01:48:59
we need to do here? We've got the beer and wine distilled licenses, everything in order, Clerk. 01:49:05
Yes, Sir. The only thing we're waiting for are the fingerprinting, but that's because it's a new program that they've implemented 01:49:12
and everything's been submitted. We're just waiting for them to give him the go ahead to go over there. So I would need it with 01:49:18
condition of looking for a conditional approving, conditional approval of the BM wine and distilled spirits license for Wing House 01:49:24
Grill LLC. So moved. 01:49:29
2nd. 01:49:36
All right. Any discussion? 01:49:38
Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 01:49:40
Motion carries 5 O. We have no old business under New Business. 01:49:44
We've got a couple items we're going to work to keep these, keep these pretty quick, so manager Dickerson, if you could tackle the 01:49:50
first one. 01:49:53
Thank you. 01:49:57
So we're asking tonight to submit our FY24 local maintenance improvement grant application to include a school St. which you may 01:49:58
recall was on this year's but we couldn't do because we didn't have enough money and Simonson way that is going to require all of 01:50:05
our element funding, our match as well as about $40,000 in Tea Sloss money. I'll walk you through it fairly quickly. You may 01:50:11
recall that a couple years ago. 01:50:18
We. We. 01:50:26
Let's see what else you need to know. Those those are things all right. So the top 6 streets following the top 6 streets that are 01:51:03
on the list are Durham and then calls. Creek has 2. Simonson Way, Niagara and Stone Shoals. Durham Street is. 01:51:10
A whole different animal. Obviously, we have a new development that's going to be going in. It's going to require basically an 01:51:19
entire construction. This is probably not a good estimate. I have no idea what what that's going to run. But at the time, the full 01:51:25
depth reconstruction of that site of that road was going to be around 1/4 of $1,000,000. 01:51:31
So that's not something we can really tackle right now. We probably need to give an opportunity for Water St. and the development 01:51:39
of Water St. to start developing and we can work together with them to maybe get that in the next. 01:51:45
You know, as soon as that, as soon as that development occurs, so. 01:51:51
To get to be able to use this money, we need to move forward within the next year on a project. So Calls Creek Circle and Calls 01:51:56
Creek Dr. are both. 01:52:00
At some point you're just going to have to, you know. 01:52:39
Ahead and start paving these it'd be it'd be great if we could pave all the roads and signs in place all the roads and you know 01:52:41
Bishops Vineyard it's not going to happen. We we don't have that kind of money So my my recommendation is we go ahead and add 01:52:46
Simonson way and like I said we're not going to have enough money just with the Elmig money or the match from SPLOST. So we're 01:52:50
going to need a. 01:52:55
And it's crazy, it's going to cost that much, but we're going to need another 40,000 or so I'm estimating and I I use this year's 01:53:01
numbers and bump them about two and a half 3% just to get a number. We won't know for sure and we'll have to come back to you for 01:53:06
those awards of contracts. But I'd like to go ahead and get approval to submit this. Hopefully the state will approve it will will 01:53:11
then go out for request for proposal and come back with the and ask for the award of those contracts. Hopefully we'll be able to 01:53:16
do both of these. 01:53:21
With the project, you know with the monies that are allotted so. 01:53:28
Again request is to submit for school St. Simonson Way and appropriate the LMG funding from the state the 19,000 squashed match 01:53:31
and 40,000 from T SPLOST. 01:53:37
All right, you've heard the heard the report from the manager. Any questions? 01:53:45
For her. 01:53:49
School St. we would Will we be able to adjust some of the water, water flow and and retain all the parking on School St. 01:53:52
Yes, thank you. She wanted to be sure. 01:54:01
All right. Entertain a motion. 01:54:06
I can't make it. 01:54:13
Garden Associates is is doing a great job. You can see flooring is in, lighting is in. 01:54:47
What I would consider the fun part of the project which can also be challenging, which is that part in the last 10% or so that is 01:54:54
near the end. But but everybody's been great. Duke Gibbs has been great to work with at Wire Park. There's some coordination items 01:55:00
that are some responsibilities that are outside the walls of of the library itself. But then there's some outdoor areas the 01:55:06
libraries order some outdoor furniture. There's some some things that are behind that lovely chain link fence with the the vinyl 01:55:12
screening on it that are going to. 01:55:19
To allow that to continue to be a cohesive space. So if you're not aware since the last time that this council met, the existing 01:55:25
facility is closed. 01:55:30
And I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. 01:56:15
Questions. 01:56:20
For the chair of the library board. 01:56:22
Can you tell us what we're seeing like where? Absolutely. So I will do my best in the upper left hand corner. That's actually some 01:56:24
areas that you won't visit as much, but you will see because that's kind of a transition to where some staff area are and it's, 01:56:31
it's open and it's also where that staff would be able to to interact with with the public as as you consider there. So that back 01:56:39
wall, that back window you see there, it actually kind of opens up to the what's considered now the alley space between. 01:56:46
Where the library structure is and the yard structure is and and while parks actually working to try to beautify some of that 01:56:54
space as well because they're encouraged by some of the things the library is doing on the upper right hand portion those are some 01:57:00
study rooms which is always important. Even though a library is is a semi quiet space, sometimes it's important to have a little 01:57:06
bit more quiet space. We do have glass in those rooms because we want them to be study rooms and not too private in nature with 01:57:12
maybe some teenagers or teen adults. 01:57:18
The the lower left hand is the meeting room space and one of the things you'll notice there's a big header, there's a big it's a 01:57:25
piece of steel because there's a divider that's going in that meeting room space to make it multifunctional so that it can be 01:57:30
divided into two meeting room spaces if you don't need the entirety of that. That was one of the ad alternates that the library 01:57:36
was able to provide based on additional funding that was provided through the state and some of those other things and then again 01:57:42
that that lower right hand picture. 01:57:48
I believe is. I was trying not to get too much construction information there in some of those pictures, but that's that's leading 01:57:54
out to the windows. 01:57:58
That that face towards Barnett Shoals Rd. 01:58:03
Thank you. 01:58:34
Looks really great. I'm excited to see it to come to fruition. 01:58:36
All right, we're going to let Mr. Campbell put his other hat on and give us our stormwater update. 01:58:41
Stormwater safely along our roadways and and through the city public property. Again, I'm happy to answer any questions you might 02:00:33
have. 02:00:38
Questions on storm water? 02:00:43
All right. Thank you, Sir. 02:00:47
All right, you're in bonuses for city employees manager Dickerson. 02:00:51
Thank you, Mayor. 02:00:55
So for the last at least five years I've been here, the city has done a year in bonus for city employees. 02:00:58
That equals one week's pay. And so in November I submitted a report to the chair and Co chair of the Personnel and Finance 02:01:03
Committee asking that they consider doing that again. That would be excluding me. Only those employees that have employed, been 02:01:10
employed full time for the for at least 12 months will be eligible. Those that are not have been struck through on that, and so 02:01:16
the request is for $14,659.70. 02:01:23
All right, you've heard the recommendation from the manager. Does the committee have anything it wants to add? 02:01:31
I would like to, let's see, let us hear from the committee. I think, I think that's is that Connie and Chuck, is that the 02:01:40
personnel and personnel committee, is that correct? That's correct. Thank you. 02:01:45
We have talked to everybody and we think that everybody should get a bonus, including. 02:01:52
Miss Dickerson. 02:02:00
OK, so were you suggesting the same? 02:02:04
The same, the same, the same ratio there. One week salad, one week's pay. Is that correct? 02:02:08
OK. And then you said everybody, would there be anything for people who have not been employed for a year? Well, I think that we 02:02:14
should show our appreciation for the good work they have done and maybe we should give them. 02:02:20
$50 and tell them to take their self out to lunch or dinner. 02:02:28
OK, we've had. We've got a. 02:02:36
Recommendation from is that a committee recommendation, Chuck? So we've got a committee recommendation that we would include. 02:02:38
Miss Dickerson at the same same ratio there with the one week pay as well as folks who haven't been here. 02:02:44
For a year to have a $50.50 dollar discretionary bonus, it sounds like any other. 02:02:54
Any other thoughts? 02:03:02
Manager Dickerson Can we accommodate those additions in the budget? 02:03:06
I believe so. I mean this will this requires because this isn't budgeted this is this requires a general fund and then you know 02:03:10
amendment from the fund balance. 02:03:14
We don't budget for. 02:03:18
So. 02:03:20
All right, Council, any further discussion, comments? 02:03:24
As a reminder, because we're taking all this into account together, we aren't required to go into executive session, nor are we 02:03:28
discussing anybody's individual performance. We are merely making recommendations for the year end bonuses for city employees. 02:03:34
Can I? 02:03:40
Suggest that we modify for the employees who've been here less than a year $100 instead of 50. Is that? 02:03:42
Does that, I mean, that's an extra Connie, are you OK modifying your motion? 02:03:50
Yes, I'm fine with that. All right. And Chuck, fine with that. All right. So that's 100 for the folks who've been here for less 02:03:55
than a year. 02:03:58
So we have that as a motion to 2nd. A suggestion. 02:04:02
The motion is amended. 02:04:05
Any further discussions or suggestions? 02:04:07
Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? 02:04:11
All right. Motion carries 50. Thank you. 02:04:15
All right, public comments. 02:04:19
For all those who have bravely waited. 02:04:21
Any member of the public have anything to say? 02:04:25
Anything submitted in writing Court, Klein? Yes, Sir. All right then. We're going to move quickly through council reports and the 02:04:29
mayor's report. 02:04:32
Just far away here. OK Oconee schools if you haven't been by there lately. Very impressive structure going up quickly. Interior 02:04:37
framing is nearing completion. Roofing. 02:04:42
Is underway and the brick is progressing. So they're they're moving quickly. I think their goal is to be in. 02:04:47
I think by the start of the next school year, as I recall, Is that right, Mark? So they're moving quickly. 02:04:54
Welcome back, Wing House. We talked about that, but a lot of excitement around having Wing House back in Watkinsville and having 02:05:01
all of our dining spaces full again. But there's a lot of a lot of excited folks in the community. 02:05:08
Because Wing House is back, and it'll be a great welcome addition to the dining scene in Watkinsville. 02:05:16
We opened up the officially opened up our patok area on Saturday. That was a lot of fun. Connie, thanks for coming out and. 02:05:22
There could not be a more French looking guy than the guy in that green. Look at that green sweater. 02:05:33
But, but it was actually a lot of fun and I learned a lot. My son joined and my daughter joined and we had we had a fun time out 02:05:39
there with people who are experts and we had several people. 02:05:44
I think we had 20 to 25 people, several who had never played before and just came and. 02:05:50
Learned about the sport and the people who were experts really were complimentary of how nice our facility was compared to some of 02:05:54
the parking lots and other places they've been using. So it's nice to see folks out there. 02:05:59
Scoreboard is up at Rocket Field and looks great. Saint Mary's made that contribution and made that possible. We're grateful for 02:06:06
that. 02:06:09
Net Climber installation is. 02:06:13
I think this week, so that should be up by our next meeting. Christmas at Wire Park was two nights this year. 02:06:17
Another great success. Always excited to see the progress of Wire Park with Christmas Tree recycling available at the locations 02:06:25
outlined there, including Hair Shoals Park on Saturday, January 6th. 02:06:30
Just a reminder that we have a lot of great retailers in Watkinsville and would really encourage, encourage folks it's too late to 02:06:37
get stuff online at this point. So if you're like me and you've waited till the last minute, go shop locally, OK? There's a lot of 02:06:43
great choices in Watkinsville and Oconee County. 02:06:48
We did have Water St. shut all week last week and we had some folks who are hustling out there. 02:06:56
Mysterious utilities emerge. All kinds of challenges happen when you open up a really Old Street and they opened up a really Old 02:07:03
Street. And I can't tell you how impressed I'm with our staff and with our contractor for managing to get all that, you know, 98% 02:07:09
done by Saturday afternoon and then wrapped it up. It looked like Monday morning. Mark is that accurate? And and it looks good 02:07:15
over there. They had to remove a few trees in order to put in that new drain pipe. But we've been. 02:07:21
Battling. 02:07:28
From Simonton Bridge to Main Street and out of Water St. and we're hopeful that this will resolve, resolve that challenge. 02:07:29
City staff did some entry landscaping and dressed up our new signs. As you know, winter is the time for planting, so you have to 02:07:36
water much less. 02:07:40
The rest of the year. So thank you to Mark and team for doing that. That looks great. 02:07:45
And then just an update on Thomas, the Thomas Farm property January 4th will have a meeting of our steering committee. The 02:07:49
public's invited to that. 02:07:53
We'll share out that plan, hope to make any revisions over the next two weeks, and then have a have a refined concept plan for 02:07:58
council's comments, review and hopefully approval. 02:08:03
And on January 17th at our meeting then. 02:08:09
Many thanks to Councilman Campbell and Mayor Pro Tem Tucker for leaning in and doing that work. 02:08:12
And just a reminder that on New Year's Day at Bethel Baptist, they're having their annual Emancipation Proclamation observance. 02:08:18
It's always an inspiring event. They're focused on the arts this year. 02:08:23
The community is invited and I just want to make sure everybody was aware of that on Monday, January 1st before the football 02:08:29
begins. Go celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation in the Pioneer Awards. Always a great event. 02:08:37
That's all I have and we will move on to Chuck Garrett. Anything to report. 02:08:45
County Massey Anything? 02:08:50
But Thomas, I just want to remind everybody how blessed we are to live in such a wonderful community and just go out and enjoy the 02:08:52
Christmas time. So it is a wonderful time to reflect on how wonderful of a community, absolutely. 02:08:59
Mayor Pro Tem Tucker. 02:09:07
Art walk update so. 02:09:11
Here are the it's getting close. We have one of our sculptures is Outback. I don't know if any of y'all have played around with 02:09:17
the. 02:09:21
Learning about some of our natural flora and fauna in a really beautiful and interesting way. And then these, this is what you can 02:09:27
see in the back of the turtle. It's not as done but these are the two other pieces that are going to be going on the pathway 02:09:35
between the playground of possibilities and then down to the main part of Paris Shoals Park and so. 02:09:43
The goal was to have some interesting structures that honor our. 02:09:52
Local flora and fauna that children can interact with or adults so very excited and the artists are really excited too, so. 02:09:59
And then also. 02:10:09
Contractors and work with us to make sure while they're there to go ahead and get that stuff out as well. So hopefully the weather 02:10:45
permits will be able to maybe see some paving in January. Just have to wait and see. 02:10:51
All right, Councilman Campbell. 02:11:03
Nothing, nothing to report. And so I don't think we have a need for an executive session. 02:11:05
So with that, I will say I make a motion to adjourn. I will say happy holidays, Merry Christmas, and I will entertain a motion to 02:11:12
adjourn. Second. All right, we have a motion. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. All right. 02:11:17