City Council - Regular Meeting

We'll call to order the Committee of the Whole for the May 19th Auburn City Council meeting. The City Council should have the minutes from the Committee of the Whole from the May 5th meeting. Are there any additions or corrections to those minutes? If not, is there a move to approve?

Yes, sir. We did receive an email from the City Manager that the minutes needed to be amended with the correct date on top of them, not April 21, but May 5. Is that correct?

That's correct. You were sent a copy of that. Your packets were printed before that was changed, and then we posted online the corrected minutes.

So I just move to adopt with the corrected minutes of May 5 instead of April 21.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the amended minutes are approved. Questions for tonight's agenda, city manager? Any questions from the... All right, Mr. Cummings, I know you have something for us.

I would like to call your attention to replacing the easement description for item 8D2 that is placed before you. I actually emailed it earlier today as well. There was a typo in the heading that said water easement. That should be drainage and utility easement. Since that was just a minor typo, you would not have to pull that from the consent agenda if you do not wish to do so.

All right. Any questions for Mr. Cummings? Okay. Is there a move to adjourn? So moved. All right, we are adjourned. We'll get started right at 6 o'clock. You are certainly free to continue to talk amongst yourselves. We'll call to order tonight's Auburn City Council meeting for May 19th, 2026. Welcome all of you that have joined us in the council chambers as well as they're listening on WA&I and watching through our streaming services. With the roll call, Lindsay.

Adams.

Here.

Koblentz. Here. Dawson. Here. Griswold. Moorman. Here. Parsons. Here. Taylor. Whitten. Here. Anders.

Here. Would you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for a moment of silence. of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please be seated. Earlier tonight, during the Committee of the Whole, there were no actions to be determined by the City Council The minutes were approved with one small date change. Under announcements tonight, I want to remind everyone of the Mayor's Memorial Day Breakfast. This is coming Monday at 8 o'clock at the AU Hotel and Conference Center. There are still tickets available. This is a very important and somber time for us as a community to remember those that have paid the ultimate price that allow us the freedom to even be here this evening and conduct a business. I certainly want to thank and acknowledge I'm very proud and thoughtful for Auburn University's Memorial Day observance that I attended this afternoon or during lunch. They did an excellent job at Cater Hall. The speakers were fantastic, and the flags, I believe, are going to stay in front of Cater Hall until after Memorial Day. I also want to thank our Korean delegation and our community for inviting me to participate in the Korean American Grassroots Conference this past Saturday. As we all know, the Asian population in Auburn and Lee County has really grown over the last 10 to 20 years, and they continue to look for opportunities and ways that they can participate in our community, and it was a good couple hours to spend with them. I want to say thank you to the Chamber of Commerce. Last week, they held the annual Small Business Award Ceremony at the top of the Rain Culinary Arts Center, and it was a great opportunity to thank those small business owners in our community who really do heavy lift in on behalf of our nonprofits, on behalf of our children, and on behalf of our community at large. They have a lot of jobs that they take care of and provide payroll for, and it was a good evening to recognize those that were voted as being excellent amongst their group. I look forward to participating with Special Olympics and their send-off as they go to the national competition next Friday at 10 o'clock at Duck Sanford. If you'd like to be a part of something that's special and will warm your heart for a few minutes, I encourage you to come out there and and join us as we send those athletes off to their national competition. And I just finished last week participating in Leadership Alabama. I was honored to represent my community as a part of that program. I was able and fortunate to meet outstanding individuals from all over the state of Alabama who are really trying hard to make their communities better and therefore making Alabama better. Great, honest conversations, a lot of peeks behind the curtain of what's going on in some of our larger cities. And it was a great, great opportunity. Anyone else have an announcement?

I have one.

Yes, ma'am.

I just would like to congratulate the class of 2026, one of which will be mine. Caroline will walk on Thursday, hopefully, if the weather cooperates, at number 759. So y'all can play that with us. But congrats to not only Auburn High School, but the other schools in our area who have graduates for 2026.

Good, good, good. And speaking of that, I forgot to mention today we went and filmed the recognition for both of Auburn High School's boys and girls soccer teams, which won the state championship recently. And you'll see that at the next meeting in June. And the Auburn High baseball team is playing in the state championship series starting Thursday of this week. And all the best to them. Okay. Auburn University Communications.

Good evening City Council and Mayor Anders. My name is Erin Mitchell and I serve as Auburn SGA's Assistant Vice President of External Affairs for this year. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight and to share a brief update on behalf of Auburn University. Camp War Eagle sessions officially begin this week and Auburn is excited to welcome incoming freshmen and their families to campus throughout the summer. Over 14,000 students and guests will be visiting Auburn and experiencing the community for the first time. Our counselors are eager to help incoming students feel at home and excited to begin their Auburn experience. Summer classes officially began yesterday with students returning to campus for classes, research, internships, and summer programs. Auburn University students recently won the AI Ethics Iron Bowl, which was a competition with the University of Alabama focused on real-world ethical issues involving artificial intelligence. The event challenged students to analyze emerging technology and its impact on responsibility and human connection, while also highlighting Auburn students' leadership in innovation and critical thinking. Auburn students are participating in study abroad programs across the globe this summer, with programs taking place in countries including Spain and Italy throughout colleges of engineering, business, and liberal arts. Historically, more than 1,000 Auburn students participate in Auburn Abroad experiences each summer, continuing the university's strong emphasis on global engagement and learning. Auburn SGA recently filmed a promotional video to help increase awareness and participation in the AU10 student discount program, an initiative in partnership with the Auburn Chamber of Commerce. The program allows Auburn students to show their Tiger ID at participating local businesses to receive 10% on select goods and services. We are working to boost engagement from both students and businesses and we appreciate Mayor Anders' support and commitment to strengthening this program to better support Auburn's local economy. Auburn Athletics continues to see success across multiple programs. Baseball is heading to the SEC tournament this week. Men's golf opened NCAA regional play as the number one team in the country, and Auburn recently hosted the SEC outdoor track and field championships. Auburn women's tennis also finished the season as the NCAA national runner-up, and Auburn football welcomed top recruits to campus during Big Cat weekend while preparing for the upcoming season. That's all from me tonight. Thank you so much, and War Eagle.

Thank you so much. We appreciate it. At this time, we'll open the floor for citizens' communications on items on tonight's agenda. If you'd like to speak to the council about an item on tonight's agenda, this would be the time for you to come forward. I would point to a number of items that we have on our agenda tonight, items 9B, 1 and 2, and items 9C, as well as under resolutions, items 10A, 1, 2, 3, and 4 all have public hearings attached. If you'd like to speak to the council about one of those items, please wait until the public hearing is open and then speak at that time. But if there's anything else on our agenda you'd like to speak to the council, please come forward and give us your name and address for the record, and you have five minutes to speak to the council. Okay. We'll move ahead with city manager's communications.

Well, thank you, mayor and councils. Always a pleasure and honor to stand or sit in for the city manager. So the only thing I have is to remind you that we did have a corrected easement for item 8D2. That's been included for your reference. But you do not have to pull that from the agenda if you do not want to.

Let's move ahead with the consent agenda.

Moving ahead with the consent agenda, would anyone like to remove anything to consider it separately?

Yes, thank you. I'd like to remove item 8, Charlie 2.

Anyone else? Okay. I'll do 8, Charlie 3. Okay.

All right. 8C2. Okay. Item 8C2 is a request to authorize the city manager to execute a contract with Photokite US LLC to purchase a tethered drone system for use by the public safety department in the amount of $48,676. Move approval. Second.

Motion to second. Mr. Moorman.

Thank you. This item, this drone, is much, much less expensive than the last drone. drones that we bought. But it's very capable. And so I was hoping that the Director of Public Safety would say a word or two about the capability of this and the use.

So the police chief is out tonight. So what this tethered drone works, it works with our mobile command center. And if you've seen a mobile command center before, you've observed a tower. It's usually a telescoping tower or something like that that would actually raise up and it would have a camera at the top. This would actually fly as a drone. It could fly a little bit higher. It gives you a lot more range as far as being more visual. Since it has a cable attached to it, it has a more high-definition camera, so it gives you better observation from a 360-degree angle. I don't know if Greg may have a little bit more from that. Our chief information officer who knows all about these things.

The right application for this type of drone, for situational awareness and things like that.

What I think I know, and I'll toot his horn a little bit since he's not here to help me out, but I think it goes 150 feet in the air and can stay there two days. That's what he told me, I believe. Yes. It can be tethered either to the mobile command vehicle or it can be tethered to, I don't know, a wall plug. I'm not sure because you can use it with or without the mobile command vehicle. Right. I'm gathering it's an electric motor or a solar motor or something motor that you can just plug in on the other end of it 150 feet away for it to run for two days. Two days? Two days. It's what I think I know. So I just wanted to verify that. uh, is it battery?

So, well, no, I mean, it's, it's, it's actually what the, the device is tethered to is actually providing the power. I'm sorry.

I meant electric. I'm sorry.

So whether it be through the, um, you know, through the vehicle, it's, you know, it's to the mobile command center or, you know, to whatever it may be transferred to is whatever's providing that power sources actually being, would be conveyed to, to the drone.

And is it self power piloted or is it, piloted by somebody or could it be either or both?

It's piloted once it goes up like I say since it's tethered it don't have much lateral movement so it just goes up and just kind of hangs there for but yeah somebody can watch the controls but it generally stays in that same location.

It just gives a 360 of what's below.

Yes, you can look 360 degrees around where you are. So, you know, like I say, it basically replaces and gives us better range for, you know, than what normally see at a mobile command center tower arrangement.

Well, I think Will Matthews would have done a great job. Much better than me. Yeah, well, me too. All right, well, thank you for that information.

Yes, sir.

Any other questions, comments?

All right. We have motion second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the motion carries. All right. Okay.

Item 8C3 is a request to authorize the city manager to execute an infrastructure development agreement with Holland Homes LLC doing business as College Crossing Development LLC for infrastructure improvements to support the Hillcroft residential subdivision. The city and College Crossing Development have negotiated an agreement by which the developer will contribute $81,000 as a provider share for costs to perform improvements at the West Longleaf Drive and South College Street intersection.

Move for approval.

Second. All right. Got a motion and a second. Mr. Adams? All right. Scott, when I was looking over this weekend, thought to myself, I don't remember a Hillcroft development. So I asked you to fill me in on that, and you provided some very helpful information that I'd like to get out in the public.

Yes, sir. That's good. This name has changed a few times, but I think it's settling on Hillcroft. So, no, the Hillcroft subdivision is actually part of – The College Crossing PDD, which was approved in February of 2002. So the PDD itself goes way back. Initially had, I think, a neighborhood of 1,800 to 1,900 units approved with that. There's about 600 and something remaining that have not been built, and of that, 449 residential units are a part of this residential subdivision, as we know as Hillcroft.

So as this has been built out over the years, the original PDD was put in place, and then they'll just come to us or... The council's involvement at that point since 2002 is that we would periodically receive these development agreements as different portions of it are constructed.

As needed, this particular subdivision kicked in a large... amount of the balance of lots. And so as we did the traffic analysis, which is we normally would do after something has sat in, you know, this long, you know, it identified some, you know, pro ada share of impacts on that college street intersection on Longleaf. So this property is actually off of Downs Way, which would be south of Longleaf Drive. But, yes, so normally we would just see a preliminary and final plat through the planning commission because it's an approved PDD. They're not changing any of the uses, so they're using the uses that were approved with the initial PDD. So you are correct that unless there was a development agreement, the council would not see anything concerning this. All right. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Any other questions, comments? Yes. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the motion carries. Do I have a move to approve the balance of the consent agenda? So moved. Motion to second. Any further questions? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the motion carries. All right. Ordinances.

Under ordinances, item 9A is a request for City Council to authorize the annexation of approximately two acres on a remnant of property not previously annexed on the Owens family property, which is located at the northeast corner of the Shook Jordan Parkway and North Donahue Drive intersection. The Planning Commission recommended approval of this annexation. Unanimous consent is necessary.

I'll introduce the ordinance and ask for unanimous consent.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Does anyone on the council have a problem moving forward with a vote on this this evening? Seeing and hearing none, are there any questions, comments?

Okay. The original, I guess the two acres that were overlooked, that action was not taken in 1960. Am I reading that right?

Or is it 84? 84.

This is kind of old news, but, I mean, this is a long time ago. Two acres were not annexed in.

I think it was just a legal discrepancy when the initial annexation occurred. I don't think there was any intent to remove that. I know the planning director may be able to add a little more light to that.

The radio can't hear you, though.

Can you step up to the podium, please?

All right. You're all dressed up. You might as well come on up.

That's not working either.

That's not working either. Oh, man. Hello? There we go, perfect. Okay, so it was not a discrepancy. So that was an old section line that got annexed. And so section lines had to really kind of, Helena separated kind of the really, really large tracks. That larger section was then annexed, but then that is a remnant piece where there was development around it that eventually the legal descriptions that carved out the school's piece, the founder's piece, all of those things ended up leaving a two acre remnant that never got annexed in on the initial annexation. And then when that massive section came in and those other ones just left that piece out. So, so whether it would have been intentional or just someone did not describe the entirety of it, ended up leaving that two acres out. That is what happened.

Very much. Thank you for that clarification.

All right. Any other questions? Okay, roll call, Lindsay.

Adams. Yes. Koblentz. Yes, ma'am. Dawson.

Yes, ma'am.

Mormon. Yes, ma'am. Parsons. Yes. Whitten. Yes. Anders.

Yes.

Okay, move on to item 8 or 9B, 1. is request to rezone the previously annexed Owens family property remnant. More specifically, the request is to rezone the approximately two acres from rural to comprehensive development district, CDD. The property is located northeast of the intersection of North Donahue Drive and Chug Durden Parkway. The Planning Commission recommended approval of this rezoning. Unanimous consent is necessary and a public hearing is required.

I'll introduce the ordinance and ask for unanimous consent. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Does anyone on the council have a problem moving forward with a vote on this this evening? Seeing or hearing none, we'll open the public hearing. If you'd like to address the council, please come forward and give us your name and address for the record. And you have five minutes to speak to the council.

Evening, Lee Tharp, Cadre Engineering representing the applicant. I appreciate Justice leaving the podium down for me and not raising it up because I couldn't have got it back down if I wanted to. I think the meat of the discussion might come at a later agenda item, but I just wanted to point out, you know, typically when we talk about rezoning disease to CDD, I think this is more to enable the, uh, following agenda item, um, felt like the appropriate thing with the rest of the larger parcel being CDD currently, but just wanted to stand up here. So if y'all had any other questions, feel free to let me know.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else?

Okay, we'll close the public hearing.

Anyone on the council have a question, comment?

Just to piggyback on what he said, this is an interim measure. It's going to ultimately go, we're going to look at it again with the aim to make it PDD. Some of this, I think, is DDH, and we're making this CDD, and this is way over my pay grade. But just to point out that this is a complicated issue for the average layman, Why CDD? I mean, is there some reason that it goes to CDD and then ultimately goes to PDD when some of the rest of the parcel is not CDD, if I'm reading this right?

I don't know that it necessarily matters. It just ties in with the current CDD rezoning there. The DDH will all be rolled up into the PDD with the unconditional uses eventually that you will consider later.

Why did we pick CDD? Was there a good reason for that that I might be able to grasp here in the next 30 seconds?

Justice, can you add a little more to that?

So the future land use is what informs a rezoner request. So the future land use at that location was master plan mixed use intensity two. And so normally that would be really kind of mixed use of kind of high intensity development, really kind of focusing on commercial developments and then also with a skewing towards some residential. And so CDD is currently the only zoner district outside of our urban core, outside of our urban area. That really kind of allows for that. So CDD was kind of the obvious choice for the rezoning, and then also kind of with it being accompanied with the PDD, there really wasn't a threat of them, you know, introducing by right single-family housing here. So that really wasn't a part of it. So staff didn't really look at CDD to normally be. I know sometimes we're a little apprehensive with it, but that was not the case with this one, with this being at a high-intensity corner where we planned for these kind of uses and also with the accompanying PDD that would eventually bind it from a use standpoint and also density and everything, so.

Okay, thank you much.

And that is a good point. We are pretty careful to recommend rezoning the CDD that would be followed by either a PDD or a PUD to overlay that.

Any other questions? Okay. Lindsay with a roll call. Yes, ma'am.

Dawson. Yes, ma'am. Foreman.

Yes, ma'am.

Parsons. Yes. Whitten. Yes. Adams. Yes. Anders.

Yes.

So now that we have the two acres in, item 9B2 speaks to the entirety of the lot, the parcel. It's a request to rezone approximately 58.92 acres of the Owens family property from Comprehensive Development District, CDD, and Development District Housing, DDH, to apply plan development district for the Suge Jordan Commercial PDD. Okay. This is where the conditions noted in the ordinance and unanimous consent is necessary and a public hearing is required.

I'll introduce the ordinance and ask for unanimous consent.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Seeing none, we'll open the public hearing. If you'd like to address the council, please give us your name and address for the record. Please come forward. You'll have five minutes to speak.

Even again, lethal art cadre engineering representing the applicant. Um, a lot of material on this one, obviously it's pretty large project, like going on there. Um, so I'll attempt to. speak to the high points. And then if we need to have some additional discussion with some questions that y'all might have, just please let me know. Um, I'll say this, you know, when we talked about this, uh, at planning commission, um, there are obviously some conditions of approval in here. Number one, being, uh, some things that are going to be excluded from the PDD explicitly. I know there's a, a later agenda item that speaks to certain conditional uses that would be approved versus by right stuff in the PDD. Um, but I did want to point to all the conditions that were listed from planning commission that you guys have in your packet for the PDD, no issues from the developer on those certain conditions. Um, I know single family, residential, short-term rentals, homestays being prohibited is probably a big thing that we'd like to get codified and we're in total agreement on, on all of that. Um, mostly about the project. So the, the project kind of be broken up into three. major pieces, you got the Kroger and the anchor commercial with all the out parcels on the west side, uh, kind of on the sugar Jordan, North Donahue corner, um, centrally located to the development. Um, there is a, there's a existing Creek that we're going to kind of be bordering there, but we're intended to install a public street with the PDD. Um, that's also listed in here as well. That will connect the new road, the Arbor farms extension to the north. That's being built by the school. Um, and connect down to show Jordan, um, for some additional connectivity. There's also some public utility infrastructure associated with that. And I think it's also outlined, um, in your documents as well. Um, and then on the east side, there's the, um, 55 plus age restricted housing. That's about 200 units. And that's the other reason for the PDD. Whereas we could have done most of this just with regular straight zoning. The PDD kind of locks us in to a maximum residential density and locates it on that particular piece of the property. So that was, that was kind of the onus for going PDD on this one. Whereas if that wasn't a part of, we might could have done it straight zoning, but, um, it made sense for the development where it was. and the apparent need for some of that here in town that we thought it would make a ton of sense with the PDD. There's also some, there's obviously a lot of moving parts with the school being constructed to the north. We've also, we're all aware of the pending roadway improvements to North Donahue, to the west. Um, and so there's, there's a lot going on in this corner and it's exciting and we're excited about it and we hope y'all are too. But again, if you got any questions, feel free to talk about the green space real quick.

Sure.

Um, so the green space would be a city park and I think I failed to mention that I got too caught up in the road. I'm sorry about that. It's all good. The central we're I'm calling it the central park area. I'm sure Alison's got a much better name for what that would be in the future. The intent there is to work with obviously the city on some kind of structure of a development agreement to be able to figure out exactly the best way to convey that at the completion of the project. But the intent is it would be a public park for public use. And the final how that looks is TBD. And we're going to work with Allison and the rest of the folks on staff to see exactly what that's going to look like. But we're pretty excited about how that plays into the development. How large is that area? We need to fully structure how that's going to be defined, and that will be handled in the development agreement as well. But it could be anywhere from three to, I believe, eight acres on that. It kind of borders between the creek that's centrally located in the new road.

Can you explain why there's a, um, no connectivity from the first entrance? There's a road to the first set of out parcels, and then, um, it doesn't connect over to the entrance that would come off as show Jordan Parkway.

Let me flip my plan out real quick. So you're talking about the first entry off of North Donahue kind of to the south and it doesn't fully connect over to.

Is that over to Shook Jordan Parkway? Is there a reason for that? It looks like there might be some. Is that rock or something?

There is rock out there, definitely. No, the main reason for that, and not showed it on the current site plan, obviously that could change. But all those streets internal outside of the, obviously the stuff at North Donahue, Yarborough Farms of the North, Shook, and then the new road, connecting the roundabout to Shook Jordan. All those are going to be privately owned and maintained internal driveways. We did not show a connection at this point to the new road that comes down to Shook Jordan purely based on spacing from that connection to Shook Jordan. If there is a way that we can make that access and make it flow more freely as we kind of develop a plan, I think that would probably be a smart thing to do, but with the current layout and how we, we feel like it's gonna end up in the final, um, access right there seemed like it might be a little tight to that connection to sugar. And there's also going to be a fair amount of topography and grade change along the alignment of that road right there. And y'all, um, y'all could tell by when the high school site was cleared, how, I mean, that whole area is pretty up and down. So, um, there might be some topography challenges there when we really dive into it for connection to that point.

I have a question about the out parcels.

Okay. How many out parcels are there going to be on here? We've got 12, I believe is the total.

Right. Now parcels, I think the build out on that's not until 2035. That's right. That's the anticipated build out. So I would, I would imagine that you guys will have to go and you'll do all the earthwork for the roads and you'll clear that property. A lot of the property for the school was cleared. Yes, sir. And then we're going to have on this main corridor, we're going to have these 12 out parcels that will be cleared out there for a fairly significant amount of time. What will... What sort of land cover will be put on that? This may be a staff question as well. Do we have the ability to require those parcels to be kept up in a certain way?

I can speak to that first, and then if you want to. dive in from a city perspective, feel free. I'll say that. So, and this kind of goes to the overall comprehensive plan of how we would like to do the development. It's like I mentioned, there's a lot of topography out there. We're going to be doing a lot of mass grading work to be able to accomplish this. And we're what you saw on the high school site to the North as such, we're going to, we would develop the entire parcel with the site work at one time. And then everything would kind of trigger immediately off of that. So the Kroger is intended to be open by fall of 28. And then the out parcels, obviously, they would be working to sell those to commercial developments as soon as we break ground. Absolutely. So that's kind of an anticipated timeline. They could build out quicker than that. But with respect to how it would be left, at a minimum, a job like this and the size of this job, it's obviously going to be over an acre. So we're going to have to pull permits from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management to be able to do the site work and manage the stormwater construction. And part of that permit, they've got some relatively stringent permits stabilization requirements that the contractor is going to be held to by the state of Alabama. And that would be making sure obviously they'd have to control any stormwater runoff sedimentation or erosion issues. But as part of that, they would have to leave it grassed, um, to prevent any kind of erosion coming off of it from that perspective. So you should see if there's out parcels that sit there for any amount of time, their permit would require them to grass it if it's going to be left more than 13 days. without being worked. So at that point, if you're going to see out parcels, at a minimum, they would be grassed and green.

And there's property maintenance requirements that would apply to that too, so they would have to maintain that grassed and looking nice and well kept.

That's correct. That would be part of the corridor overlay requirements in the zoning ordinance. Does that sufficiently answer your question? Does I did my best? No.

Thank you.

Any other questions? Yeah. Question around. So Jordan, that is that part is controlled by our dot through there. Is that, has this been reviewed by our dot yet? As far as this ingress?

Yes, sir. They've seen it at one point we had, we had looked at a couple of different access options with them in a concept plan phase. We're still going to have to permit everything. None of this is permitted through them yet, but we've, we've spoken with them. Um, the city, uh, city engineer's office has spoken with them previously. Um, so they're aware that this is coming and the, the, it's shown as a right in, right out configuration at the moment due to proximity to the intersection at Donahue.

So, um, they're, they're aware that this is coming and this is right in and right out only was what we're proposing or we expect it to be at the moment. Yes, sir. Okay. Is that, Lee, well, I guess there was not really a stacking issue there then from that light there at Donahue. Does that create an issue? No, sir.

We'll have a right turn lane that's going to be, especially with the speed limit at Jordan Parkway, it's going to be sufficiently long and it'll taper in. What you're seeing right now is schematic. It is probably, and I don't have the dimension off the top of my head, but it may wind up being longer than what we're showing on the current plan now, especially if the traffic study requires that.

So the project, though, the founder project, is that to the east of that?

That's to the east of us, back towards North College.

That had two proposed ones come in, if I remember right, in the same stretch of road.

That seems right. I'm struggling to recall that site plan off the top of my head. I know they've got one on Suge, but that sounds right.

Maybe just one.

Just one.

Who is it?

Okay. It's a couple thousand feet away from this one, I think. It's much closer to North College.

That would be a signalized intersection possibly, right, or do we know? We don't know yet. Don't know yet. Okay. Okay. Just a heavily trafficked area through here, just concerning about traffic stacks and what's going on through here. I don't drive it that often. I just know it's a very, very significant. I know we've pushed for L-DOT control, pushed L-DOT for hopefully getting control over this section right here. So I would hope with further development we could continue to do that so that we could control, like Ron said, speed limits through there and whatnot.

Also, Scott, what does it remind me of a time timeline again on, on the foundry, the getting the roads and stuff set up for bridge built on that.

I mean, the plan is within, within the next two years to, you know, to get that design and constructed. So to your point, I think it brings up a, you know, consideration of, of this, this Yarborough farms or Boulevard extension being a, a, redundant conduit to get to this development so that it pulls people off of should for more clean, clear, safer access to the, to the development, you know, not having to deal with the speeds of sugar and Parkway.

And this extension piece that would go over the Creek is mostly going to be their city's responsibility. If I remember that from the founder discussions as well, is that correct?

That's correct.

But there are some development contributions. from the foundry in this one, or is the foundry the only building it up to that point? Is that the only contribution they're making?

The foundry is building up to where we will take over and cross the creek, and we will connect to what the school is building as part of the school's project.

Okay.

Thank you. Okay. Sonny, did you have a question?

I did. I was squirming over here. My wife's very interested in the gas station. There is going to be a gas station, right?

Yes, sir.

And it's coming off of, I see it there, off of North Donahue.

Yes, sir.

All right. Great. Great to hear.

You're not the first person I've heard that's said that, so we're excited about it. All right. Any other?

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Thornton. Thank you all. Would anyone else like to speak? Public hearing is open.

Okay. We'll close the public hearing.

Any further questions or comments from the dais?

One last question. On this Donahue expansion of that intersection, how does that time out with this development as well?

Well, there's some details to be worked out. I mean, we're on schedule to bid our project. There's probably going to be some overlap with some of the work that they're going to be proposing with this development that we've got to work in and consider with how we, you know, pair that out so we don't have contractors tripping over each other and things of that nature. But there could be some, you know, some opportunities there for us to share through a development agreement how we may perform some of that work.

Yeah, that was my question too, Max. just to make sure that we're not duplicating efforts.

Absolutely. We've, we've, we've had those discussions internally and with the, uh, engineer.

And is it necessary? I know for the out parcels, but is it necessary to have with the addition of the Arbor farms extension to have three, um, curb cuts off of North Donahue for this development?

So one of those, in addition to Yarbrough's farm, Yarbrough farms may be, um, is anticipated to be a signalized intersection. The other two would, would be right in, right out. Yes.

Okay. And I appreciate that. However, we have that situation at the public security Creek and it's not enforced and there's no enforcement because it's a private property. So how are we going to enforce that at this juncture, this area?

Well, there's some ways we can look at that. I think this is our street. We'll be able to take more precautions into place that we couldn't on Aldox right away. I think that's what you're referring to is the one on College Street. So we would definitely, with this being our street, we'll be able to take some additional precautions if that becomes an issue.

Yeah, it's a daily occurrence that people make a left turn.

I understand.

Yeah.

I can answer a little bit to that but currently right now in our current plan we have raised islands in the current scenario but as this development comes on board as you mentioned we don't want to make duplicative efforts when they come in and at the same time we may be under construction we'll include that signalized intersection that could possibly go there but still have those raised islands to prevent those errant movements that are across those five lanes. So that's our plan for right now.

Thank you.

Anyone else? Around the park piece, is this something that will be maintained by the city staff, Parks and Rec staff, or will this be maintained within the development at HOA?

Is that TBD?

Well, I think the discussion has been that the developer has interest of conveying this to the city. Should the city accept that conveyance and whatever form that plays out, then yes, the city would be responsible for the maintenance of that. We've had a lot of discussions about that and what it potentially could be. Um, we've met with a developer and looked at some examples of this and, and it's very similar to what they're proposing here. They've done it other places where they're promoting, providing a, you know, a central park amenity type part of with their development. But the anticipation has been, um, you know, through most of the discussions is that would likely be conveyed to the city. But again, we've got to continue those discussions and see how that pans out. And, and, and should we be successful or happy with it, we'll make that recommendation to you.

Anyone else? All right, Lindsay with the roll call.

Dawson?

Yes, ma'am.

Mormon?

Yes, ma'am.

Parsons? Yes. Whitten? Yes. Adams? Yes. Koblentz?

Yes, ma'am. Anders? Yes.

Okay. Moving on to item 9C is a request to approve zoning ordinance text and table amendments to establish regulations for retailers of consumable hemp products. The Planning Commission recommended approval of this item. Unanimous consent is necessary and a public hearing is required.

I'll introduce the ordinance and ask for unanimous consent. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Does anyone on the council have a problem moving forward with a vote on this? I see a hearing no. We'll open the public hearing. If you'd like to address the council, please come forward and give us your name and address for the record. You have five minutes to speak to the council. Seeing no one, we'll close the public hearing. Any comments or questions from the dais?

I have a question and a comment. Please. This essentially codifies what we did on 17 March at the council meeting. The intent is to codify what we voted on 17 March.

So on the 17th of March, you established some certain criteria as far as going ahead and establishing the distance that a consumer hemp product could be sold within proximity to other establishments like churches and schools and things of this nature. This actually provides more design standards of what the expectations are of those. I'll ask the planning director to elaborate further on that.

All right. Uh, so, so this actually went a little further. Uh, I think the initial one that y'all, there we go. Okay. All right. So this actually went a little further and this established actual zoning districts that tied it to it, that tied to the zoning district. So we'd been hearing these under all other uses and we didn't have any regulations and y'all, y'all established the buffer zone, just kind of around churches, playgrounds, and other common interest areas that he has established or identified. And then this looked at excluding these from predominantly residential areas. So all the zoning districts that this is allowed in are kind of our not heavy, high intensity, but mixed use zone in districts that already have commercial and other retail uses at varying scales. And so our exclusively residential districts, just kind of like DDH, NC areas, LLRD, those areas, it is a prohibited use. I think LLD is the only one where it's allowed in a neighborhood shopping center. And so those are very specific, very niche, and so not something that'll be pervasive, really just, like I said, only allowed in areas where we already had existing kind of commercial corridors that are already entertaining those makes abuses.

Thank you. Even though I appreciate the restrictions that the state of Alabama put on these products, I believe the passage of any hemp ordinance or consumable hemp product to be a mistake. If we pass this, we're legalizing the sale of consumable hemp products with the mistaken belief that they are safe and good for our community. And I do not believe that's true. And I'll be voting no.

We need some clarification on that because we aren't approving the sale. We're a text amendment of it. The state has given that authority and we are demonstrating or stating where it can and can't take place.

That's correct. That's what this zoning ordinance permits is establishing the zones of which, zoning districts of which these could be placed. You've already restricted the proximity by which they have to be away from certain establishments. And so this just provides more codification to where they can actually be considered.

And then if a business were to want to open, a hemp consumable hemp product retail store, um, they would still be required to come for conditional approval in front of this body based off of these tax amendments.

That's correct. And, and previously you approved one that was under all other uses, which did, you know, was, was much more loosely defined than this. This provides more, more definitive, um, It pretty much puts more in a box of where this could be applied.

So, again, this is not approving the sale of hemp products throughout the city of Auburn. This is just amending the zoning text ordinance to state where and kind of the rules of engagement, and it still requires conditional use approval by this body for each time someone wants to operate or chooses to come before this body.

That's correct. The state has already established the legalization of the sale of the products. You're establishing boundaries to where it can be applied.

Thank you.

Wouldn't it, if we did not do this, take away some of the authority in the future to regulate it?

people could bring forth, um, I'll look at my planning director and make sure, but it is, is my understanding. Um, they could bring forth a request for any zone zoning district. Um, and it, you know, could be applied as a conditional use for all others.

Yeah, that is correct. And so, so, so the biggest change here, like I said, I think this is a more restrictive approach than what we've already done. And so this also established it as a conditional use, uh, and it's not permitted by right anywhere. And like I said, in the, the one that was already approved was all of the uses, which is kind of universal throughout the city could go anywhere. It could be considered, um, like I said, on smaller roads, bigger, it really didn't matter. This, this was, a step to kind of make it make sense in our zoning ordinance, provide for an explicit use of kind of how to treat it, apply special development standards that were specific to it, and not just kind of out of context trying to make our best guess with each and kind of treating it case by case. This would allow us to have a standard procedure of how we would treat them all across the city.

So isn't it fair to say this gives us more authority in enforcing this stuff? Yes. Thank you.

Up until now, the retailer of consumable hemp products hasn't even been a definition, correct?

Has not been a definition. So those are really murky waters when we get uses that we do not have a definition for, that we don't have special development standards associated with it or prescribed buffers associated with it either. Like I said, this was done through a collaborative effort with staff, not just kind of with the planning department, but across all departments who were impacted by it. So legal, public safety, and also finance as well, just kind of from a revenue standpoint. So thank you.

We also are responsible for approving the actual ABC license for these as well. Correct.

They all have to get an ABC license to come through just like a retail liquor. Yeah.

There's a checkpoint there and a checkpoint with this conditional use as well.

That's correct.

Yeah. And so there, you'll notice there are three different sections where there's the consumable hemp, where it can be standalone consumable hemp within a pharmacy. And then, and then there's just the, I think there's another one as well.

Retail food.

Yep, there we go. So the retail food as well. So this breaks them all out, really kind of categorizes and makes them distinct. And there's also state regulations associated with each of those as well. So this provides a lot more clarity than I think what we were operating under in the past for the past few months.

Do we have any that are in existence today that would not fall under the parameters that we're creating here today?

We do not. The one that was approved is the only one, and there are several moving its way through planning commission right now. We have had to turn a few away because of the city code that was passed recently. Thank you.

That would include the prior stores like 101 Smoke Shop on South College and the other one across from the Wing Place there, 1100 Block of South College?

Yeah, that is correct. Those businesses will need to re-up and become current.

Yep, got it.

Thank you. Thank you, Justice.

Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, Lindsay with the roll call.

Orman?

No, ma'am.

Parsons? Yes. Bitton? Yes. Adams? Yes. Oblentz? Yes, ma'am. Dawson?

Yes, ma'am.

Anders?

Yes.

Resolutions. Okay, move on to resolutions. Item 10A1 is a request for conditional use approval for performance residential use, a multi-unit development on property located at 527 Temple Street. The Planning Commission recommended approval of this conditional use with conditions. A public hearing is required.

Move for approval.

Second.

A motion and a second. I'd like to make a motion that we postpone this item until the first City Council meeting in June. Do I have a second?

Can we get the date certain for that read into the minutes? Have you got the date?

I think it's the 3rd of June.

June 2nd. June 2nd.

We have a motion and a second to postpone this item until June 2nd.

We have comments? Yeah, go ahead. The reason that I brought this motion is that we are minus two of our council members, one of whom this item is in their ward, and I think both would like the opportunity to deliberate on this item. Okay, all right.

So we would not have the public hearing this evening, but it would move with the item?

That would be my recommendation, whatever the council wishes.

That was my question.

Okay.

Well, we got some folks here for it. I hate to not give them have their say tonight.

What if they had the opportunity to speak at the end of the meeting? Tommy, would that be okay? During citizens communications?

That'd be all right.

Do it.

Then the public hearing can still travel opportunity just because they may not be able to come back next time.

Is that okay? Would you like to speak at the end and then you can still speak again in two weeks? You'll just wait until June 2nd? Okay. Okay. All right. We have a motion and a second to postpone until June 2nd. All right. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. And that motion carries, and we'll hear this again in our next meeting on June 2nd. All right.

Okay. Item 10A2 is a request for conditional use approval for commercial and entertainment use contractor buildings on property located at 1009 Country Club Drive. The Planning Commission recommended approval. of this conditional use with conditions, a public hearing is required.

Move for approval.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. At this time, we'll open the public hearing. If you'd like to address the city council, please come forward and give us your name and address for the record.

You have five minutes to speak to the council.

All right. We'll close the public hearing.

Any comments or questions from the council?

This is almost an acre and a half, just rough pacing it off. It's a big chunk of ground. And the outside neighbor is the CSX Railroad. I mean, that's going to be the border on one side. But would there be any buffering requirements besides that? I mean, I don't know that there needs to be a lot.

Planning Director, would you like to address that? Thank you.

So there will be buffering requirements, but just kind of as you noted, it is CRDS is one of our more permissive zones, and everything kind of down on Country Club Drive is really, It's really just kind of kind of smattering of uses. I mean there is total company down there. There's residences down there We have approved mixed use on the other side the buffer and so just for everybody audience buffering is derived from the land use intensities of existing land uses and So if it's determined that it's not that not that intense to not that different from its neighbor the buffering will not be that intense and I have to check the staff report. I think when we talked about it in the pre-op meeting, I think there's going to be some averaging probably down to five in some places and ten in others. This is not out of place at all where this is what would be perceived as an intense use next to a residential where it would need to be 20 feet of buffering or anything. It's not too much of a concern from staff's point of view.

Do you think that this use is consistent with the neighborhood? Do we strive to get commercial use in here that we strive to get mixed use. Do we strive to get more residential?

Yeah. So, so CRDS is a quarter redevelopment suburban. And like I said, it's really akin to CDD, just kind of really a step below industrial. So this is, this is really kind of the perfect area for it. I would say another area in town that kind of mirrors this area on country club drive would be a lot of the uses over on mall Boulevard. We have a lot of people who were kind of working on detailing shops, a lot of internal workshops, things like that, just another wide variety and array of uses. A lot of things are permitted by right over there. Just kind of due to, one, the access. It's slammed up against the railroad, and there's not a lot of connectivity opportunities over there. And so this is a good use for it. This is going to be people working who have work trucks, who may not have an office at their house, who do not want to work in their neighborhood or in their driveway. This gives them a place to work. Like I said, whatever business they are pursuing, the applicant himself has a lot of stringent regulations for his tenants. There is just a condition about this cannot be used for residential or anything, but like I said, this is the area that it would be, like I said, akin to Mall Boulevard, right up against the railroad is where we'd see these type of uses and would encourage them to go.

I feel like this is an appropriate use. It's a good project, and I'm happy to see this area redevelop in this way.

Any other comments, questions? Okay, we have a motion to second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, the motion carries.

Okay, item 10A3 is a request for conditional use approval for a performance residential use townhomes for the Harris Avenue townhomes on property located at 424 Harris Avenue. The Planning Commission recommended approval of this item with conditions. Public hearing is required.

Any for approval? Second. Motion second this time we'll open the public here if you'd like to address the council Please come forward and give us your name and address for the record You have five minutes to speak Any comments questions Okay all in favor, please say aye aye any opposed and the motion carries I

Okay, item 10A4 is a request for conditional use approval for a mixed-use development for the proposed Suge Jordan commercial PDD, which you previously approved tonight, on property located northeast of the intersection of North Donahue Drive and Suge Jordan Parkway. This item would apply conditional use approval to specific uses for the PDD previously approved in item 9B2. The Planning Commission recommended approval of this conditional use. A public hearing is required.

For approval. Second. Motion is second. This time we'll open to public hearing. If you'd like to address the council, please come forward and give us your name and address for the record. You have five minutes to speak to the council.

Raise the podium up. Lee Tharp, Cadre Engineering, representing the applicant. I'll be more brief on this one. There's a lot of staff recommended uses in the report. There's a lot of stuff that would be by right versus conditional. And there were also some explicitly prohibited uses. I believe all that was defined in the PDD, no objections from the development or the developer. on those that were listed. I think it was pretty comprehensive. I know most of these, some of them can sound kind of obscure, but those were pulled straight out of the zoning ordinance to make sure that all that was kind of locked in with this. So any questions you got, feel free to let me know.

Just to clarify, the request is much more vast than the staff recommended uses and what we would be approving would just be the staff recommended uses?

That's correct. That's what the Planning Commission recommended and forwarded to you with their recommendation.

And we don't need to specify that it's staff requested uses only?

They're defined in the ordinance that you would approve should you approve this.

Thank you.

Is the housing for the 55 plus crowd, my crowd, is it for rent or sale?

I believe it's for rent, but I don't really want you to quote me on that because I don't know 100%. They're in talks with a developer who will work with them to build that out, but I am not 100% sure on how their model is set up.

Right. This isn't like an assisted living or retirement community.

No, sir. That's scratched. No, sir. It's... I'm trying to think of a good comparison. It's basically no kids.

Robert Trent Jones.

That's a good example. Was that inappropriate? I don't know.

Where Justice lives, I'm sure.

Justice got kids. He's in it for the long haul.

The Robert Trent Jones thing where my aunt lives, it works really good. I think it's a very pleasant place to live. I'm just curious about whether they would own these things as they do at RTJ.

I think they're talking, because it's going to be set up and built out more like an apartment style. It may be condominium ownership. They're going to be a little bit higher end. Some of them will have covered parking spaces and things like that. A lot of amenities associated with it, but I don't know right now if it's going to be for rent or condominium ownership. I know they will have on-site management and things like that.

While we've got your clock stopped there, it makes a comment on page three of five under the description here. Back to the park, just a minute. The park was a request of staff to have an activated green space that flowed. with, uh, the high intensity uses of the community shopping. So what is meant by activated?

I'll let justice answer that one. Just, I don't, I don't want to misinterpret the language.

It uses that word twice in the same paragraph.

All right.

Uh, good, good observation. So activated is more kind of a centrally focused park. that would kind of be a focal point of the development. So whenever you've gone anywhere and there's kind of been, town square's not really correct, because I mean that's almost like an institutional presence, but really kind of making the park, if on the site plan that there's several pads just kind of that, kind of on the periphery of it, that would kind of be focused and centered on this park space, that way people can kind of move freely in between them. There have been places where they kind of have the park as the main attraction, and it's coupled with the development. So it's a recent development out in, I don't want to give one that's really far away, like in Utah, but there was one where there was a skating rink coupled with a baseball field, but then there were restaurants, bowling alleys all around it, and then the park was the center attraction of it. And so that was really kind of the ambition of staff. We talked about different places in Alpharetta, Georgia, places down in Prattville that also kind of mirrored this development, but that's why there are these restaurant pads. There's three on the site plan that show next to it where people can kind of come and go, hang out. And the park is a part of that. So that's what it means for it to be an activated space that is going to be coupled with the development as a part of it, not just where it's going to be just kind of this independent thing, not really mirrored or a part of the development. It's meant to work with it. We showed, I guess we looked at other things where there were slides incorporated to it to really kind of work with the topography. So there's all different options and variations to make it work, but it is really just meant to make the park be a part of the fabric of the development and those businesses really kind of, not really kind of as flow with the development, I guess. It's kind of places where it's retail, kind of a lounge space and a place for people to recreate with the development.

And just for clarification on that, the paths would cross that creek to the out parcels, correct?

Yeah, so there's one creek that you guys are showing. I think that one might be, I'm not an engineer, so I might be getting out of my skis, but that might be an ephemeral stream. So the actual, the greenway is on the far eastern side, like a far, far eastern side over by east of the multifamily development kind of over there. So the location of it is something that we're still talking talking about and working with the public works and parks and rec. But the that is something that must be dedicated as a condition. And there will be pedestrian connectivity throughout the development. So people will be able to go from the retail to the multi unit development to the trail. That is the ambition that was kind of the point of that we had, that was the point of those conditions and the point of really kind of that entire area in that corridor with the foundry, you know, kind of those eight foot sidewalks in different areas. We really did want to maximize pedestrian and bike connectivity for people to be able to travel freely in between all the developments between College and Donahue. Thank you.

This is not the foundry. Not the foundry. So is there a name for this development?

That would be a question for Lee.

Not yet. Mr. Thorpe? Not yet. Not yet. All right. Good. Okay. All right. Thank you, Justice.

Thank you. The concept of the activated park is, I think, a really great concept and a much-needed idea that I think it's very welcome to see that. So I'm very supportive of that for sure. I like those activated parts myself. Yeah. You're an expert in that. Yeah.

On the public hearing.

A lot of activation in Cox Road, isn't it?

It is.

Okay. Any other comments, questions?

Can we close the public hearing?

Yeah. Can we close the public hearing? Let's close the public hearing. All right. Any other comments, questions?

I have just a couple questions I just want to clarify. Please. In this portion of the uses that we're looking to approve, I just wanna be clear that because it says multi-unit development, that that is strictly to the 55 plus, is there, can we, somehow clarify that just to ensure that that's not down the road. Somebody goes, oh, but the uses for these out parcels, we could throw some more multi-unit development.

No, yeah, great question. So PDDs are not just binding by the ordinance. The site plans themselves are also binding. And so if someone were to submit that they wanted to put apartments on those out parcels, I would deem that a major deviation and that they would have to file a PDD amendment that would go through planning commission and council for them to then for them to act upon that. So that is not something that somebody would be able to do by right. That is something they can request to do, and like I said, that would be under the highest scrutiny of the ordinance, and that would be a PDD amendment.

That is at your discretion, at the planning director's.

Yes, and it's also kind of codified in the ordinance, but site plans and master development plans are binding with PDDs. And so if any rearrangement, like if they suddenly came back and were like, hey, I want Kroger to front Donahue and Suge, I could say, no, you can't do that. Like you must, like what you've submitted must stay. Just kind of, I guess it's, there's, Leniency, I guess, kind of an interpretation, but something that is a major deviation from the original site plan cannot just, it's not just uses. You are bound by what you submit.

Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure that that was just for the 55 plus. That's why that's in there.

Yes, and the resolution for the conditional use and the ordinance both reference the 200 unit MUD for 55 and up.

Okay, thank you. What happens if market conditions shift and no one 55 and older wants to live there? Would they come back and ask for an amendment? They would have to. Okay, thank you.

Anyone else? Okay, we have motion second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the motion carries.

Okay, move on to item 10B, and this item is a request for the City Council to concur with the Industrial Development Board to utilize IDB resources to provide a package of incentives to Kettenwolf Incorporated for a new facility to be constructed at 3101 Haygood Court, that is Lot 1, in the Auburn Technology Park West Annex 2.

Move for approval.

Second. Motion, second. Comments, questions? Excited about Kettenwolf being a part of our community.

All right. Okay.

All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And the motion carries.

And that's all items we have on the agenda tonight.

Okay. At this time, we'll open the forum. We'll open up for Citizens Open Forum. Excuse me. If you'd like to speak to the City Council about anything, please come forward and give us your name and address for the record, and you'll have three minutes to speak to the City Council. Three minutes. Yes, sir.

Brian O'Neill, 1509 Dartmouth Drive. I'm here today in my capacity as the chairman of the Parks and Rec Advisory Board. Recently, you guys approved the advanced design of Richland Park. Thank you very much. But today, I want to share the advisory board's thought process and how we came about the master plan, worked with staff, and expressed the need for funding for this project. This is very much a community infrastructure need. As many of you recall, when the five mill tax was reallocated towards the city school system, we went in about a nine year halt on any parks and rec facility development. Since joining the advisory board in November of 2020, we've made it a major focus to get our facilities back up to snuff and meet the growing demands of our citizens, both young, middle-aged, and seniors. That's included the Wire Road Indoor and additional soccer fields, like Wilmore Phase 1 and 2, the Pickleball Court conversions, the inclusive park off of Wright's Mill, the two passive parks, Denius and Pearson, and then the current projects, Boykin and the turf upgrades at the softball conference, which are currently under construction. The reality is, is that we're still dealing with nine plus years of backlog in need of, of facilities. Um, statistically, uh, we get the numbers on a regular basis from Alison and her wonderful staff, um, between 2021 and 2025, we've seen a 31% increase in participation in athletic programs. Our summer camps, I believe it was last summer, they filled up in less than an hour and were waitlisted. This year, I believe they filled up in about a day's time. Thanks to the Boys and Girls Club for Overflow and their programs, most of our citizens are being able to service, but we still have waitlists. And I don't think that that's the vision and the mindset of this council, much less its citizens. Where nationally athletic participation is going down, we're seeing 20 and 30 and 40 and even 70% increases, particularly in volleyball, flag football, female sports that are rapidly growing across our state. Spring soccer and summer soccer is up almost 50% over that four-year period. And basketball, thanks to our previous coach at Auburn University, is up 45% in that four-year period. So our families are utilizing our facilities, unfortunately, because we have great facilities, but we don't have adequate facilities. Our teams are sharing courts. They're sharing fields. And we've addressed some of that with some of the most recent developments, but it's still we're still working towards meeting the existing needs. Northwest Auburn is also our fastest growing area part of town, and it's underserved by our parks and rec facilities. And in really many ways, we're maxed out. The design has been a four year process since going back to 2021, in which we have focused on what are the needs of staff, what are the needs of our residents and what are the future needs going to partake Require of this council. So with that I implore you as we move through the design process.

We need to be thinking about Thank You mr. O'Neill funding this project Thank You mr. O'Neill appreciate your service to the city who'll be next Okay, we'll close citizens open forum I Just want to mention quickly Seven years ago on this date was one of the saddest days in our city's history. For the first time ever, we lost a police officer in the line of duty. Will Buechner was killed on the night of May the 19th, 2019. Certainly for those of us that were serving at that time, we'll never forget that night. We'll never forget being at the emergency room. We'll never forget his family. I'll also never forget how this community rallied around that family and recognized the sacrifice of that family to have a funeral that was conducted in the Auburn Arena, and that building was almost full. And then the lineup of our citizens as he was taken from the arena to Town Creek Cemetery was – Wow, it was moving to see how many people stopped what they were doing to be on that street to pay him respect. So we've got a lot of blessings in this community. Mr. O'Neill just talked about the things we need because so many of our children and families are moving in Auburn. We are very fortunate, but certainly we don't want to forget about the difficult times that we've gone through and the people that have made the sacrifice to make Auburn a safe place to live, and Will Buechner was one of those people. All right. Anyone else?

Very well said, Mayor.

Appreciate that. Thank you, Chief. All right. So we're moved to adjourn?

So moved. All right.

We're adjourned. Department stayed busy, issued more than 4,500 permits and performing nearly 24,000 inspections. Parks and Recreation had over 6,000 participants in its youth athletic programs and hosted almost 1,000 teams in tournaments. Nearly 20,000 people attended Parks and Rec special events. Auburn Public Library patrons checked out 460,000 items and nearly 20,000 people also attended.