Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

We can protect. Thank you. All right. Thank you. We also mentioned a CEO mentioned part of our remote work policy also does have sustainability components to us as well. I'm here in DeKalb County. We do have a new chief of sustainability and I'd love to welcome her if she'd like to give a few statements before we go into Q&A. Good morning.

My name is Lisa Milagro. I'm the first Chief Sustainability Officer for DeKalb County. Thank you Madam CEO for recognizing that resiliency and sustainability for county is of critical importance. As we work to develop our 2040 master plan, our goal is to reduce the food desert community. within the county so that food access is more available to the constituency. Additionally, we will be expanding our EV fleet transition. We will be reducing our impact on not only global warming, but on the great state of Georgia as we continue to look at addressing abrupt stressors and acute acute issues that impact our community as a whole. At the end of the day, sustainability and resiliency is really just a matter of operational efficiency. It's a matter of operating in a way that reduces our costs and improves our environment for the community. So that said, we are anxious to roll out our 2040 master plan, and we look forward to not only creating a resilient DeKalb, but in creating an environment for us to work together for a healthier DeKalb as well. Have a good day.

All right, thank you all. And now we will open up for questions. If you have a question, I would ask that you state your name and media outlet. Also, if you're directing your question to a specific person, please let us know who that question is for. We also have a mic being passed because we are live broadcasting. So once we acknowledge you, a mic will come over to you as well. Do we have any questions? Always a great sign that we were super thorough. Love it. One more opportunity. Any questions? You want to close out?

I would just like to say that I am encouraging other corporate entities, governmental entities, and employers across the state of Georgia who have the ability to allow individuals to work remotely during this time to seriously consider remote work, and diminishing our carbon footprint and emissions. What we're seeing here, and I know that Director Avery, Dr. Avery, did not speak to it specifically, but from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., we are generally experiencing 80 degree or higher heat. We may not understand this, the huge impact that emissions has on global warming. But during this time, it is really important that we begin to lean in to reduce that carbon footprint and keep people off the roads. It is, you know, for many individuals, we're very concerned, and this is a very serious matter. So I want to thank you all for coming out today to have the conversation, and hopefully it will... encourage others at this point to lean in and create a secondary plan as we continue to experience throughout this summer there are predictions of unprecedented and record-setting heat waves so thank you all so much

I'm blessed and humbled to be here today with the Queen family as we celebrate the naming of this street, the one that I pass through every day, Arthur J.

Queen Street. Today is very significant. Number one, it's my beloved late husband's heavenly birthday. And the gift that he's getting today is so befitting because we are renaming this street that our business is on after that wonderful man.

I am so excited to be here today and today this is about paying homage and respect to honestly one of DeKalb County's greatest business leaders, Mr. Arthur Jerome Queen. And he is one of what I call our founding fathers. His glass company has stood here in DeKalb County for well over 40 years. His daughter, Kelsey, has now taken on the business. His wife, Sandra, has been a pillar in the community.

Faithful to his work, devoted to his family, and committed to his community.

We wanted it to be celebratory, so that's why we have the parade. And we're going to have a good time celebrating him, celebrating legacy. And we appreciate all of our church members, our friends, like Mom said, our employees, for coming out and celebrating with us.

It's just a testament to his legacy, the legacy he's living through in his family and in his community. And the turnout today is just an amazing day for DeKalb County.

Well, it's all about legacy, right? There was a saying that says, it's not what you take when you leave, but it's what you leave behind. And that's Arthur Queen. He left a legacy. His sacrifices, his hard work ethic, his love that he has for God and for his people. That's what today is all about. It's not just the street name. It's legacy. It's what you can do after you put in the work. That's right.

This is more of what we need in our community so that we can support businesses, to support growth, and to support legacy. Right? Great day, great opportunity. Y'all happy? Yeah!

May this street always remain as a tribute to Arthur J. Queen.

Yes.

A man who truly, truly

Amazing.

Thank you.

We've been working on something. Something that's going to change the way you experience DeKalb County government. The way you connect with us. The way we show up for you. You told us the old way wasn't working. Too hard to navigate. Too hard to find what you needed. Too hard to reach us. We heard every word of it. So we went to work. And what we built, it's all for you. All of you. Whether you're paying a bill, watching a meeting, researching a service, or trying to reach one of our departments. It's coming, and it's going to be easier to find, easier to navigate, and easier to reach than ever before. This is what DeKalb Reimagined looks like. Same address, brand new experience. Visit www.dekalbcountyga.gov. Let us know what you think.

Get your front row seat to all things DeKalb County through your Emmy award winning station, DCTV.

Thank you.

good evening everybody and welcome to the thursday august 13th 2026 border commissioner zoning meeting i am your district 4 commissioner and presiding officer shakira johnson we do have a lot of items on the agenda tonight so let's get started if you'll read in the instructions please yes ma'am

Citizens may speak forward against an item that is considered by law to be a zoning ordinance, and each side will have 10 minutes to present its case. Citizens may also speak forward against an item that is placed on the public hearing agenda, but is not a zoning ordinance. In that case, each side will have five minutes to present its case. In the event there is more than one speaker per side, speakers must divide their time in order to complete their full presentation within the 10 minute time allotment. or the five-minute time allotment. When the buzzer sounds to indicate that time has run out, the speaker will be expected to immediately cease speaking and to leave the podium area. Prior to speaking, a speaker shall complete a speaker card and present it when approaching the podium. If a speaker has any documents for the commissioners, the speaker shall provide 10 copies when approaching the podium. Seven copies are for the commissioners and the remaining copies are for the planning director, the county attorney, and the clerk. In all zoning ordinances and traffic common cases, staff shall make their recommendations for action to the commission first allowed by applicants. Sorry, wait. Action to commission, excuse me, first followed by applicants or citizens speaking in favor of the item. Applicants in zoning ordinance cases shall have the right to reserve time for rebuttal. Opponents of a zoning ordinance item shall have no right to a rebuttal. For all other items placed on the public hearing agenda, applicants or citizens speaking in favor of the item shall speak first, followed by the opponents of the item. Once the citizens have finished speaking, staff shall make a recommendation for action to the opponents of the item.

For action to the commission, excuse me.

At this point, citizens are no longer allowed to speak unless called to the podium by the individual commissioner to answer questions or provide information. Speakers should always talk directly into the microphone and begin by stating their name, address, and the name of any organization they represent. Abusive, profane, or derogatory language will not be permitted. Holding up signs, clapping, yelling, standing, or laying in the aisles to show support for or opposition to a speaker will not be permitted. But a show of hands or quietly standing in place will be permitted to show support for or opposition to a speaker's position.

Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate that. Commissioner Davis-Johnson has a family obligation and has requested that we take her items out of order. So if there is no objections, we would take the following items out of order first, N1, N4, and N11. No objections to those? No objections. Thank you so much. It is N1, N4, N11, and then we'll start back at our normal printed agenda. All right, hearing no objections, I will read out N1. I need a motion.

Thank you, sir. Motion to take items N1, N4, and N11 first.

second thank you all right thank you all in favor It's unanimous. Thank you so much. Thank you. So for N1, it's in the middle of page 6, item 2026-0707, application of Virginia Seing and Manbar Seing for a special land use permit to allow a package store in the C2 zoning district in tier 1 of the Hidden Hills Overlake District at 5395 Covington Highway. Good evening, ma'am.

Good evening, commissioners. My name is Andrea Fulgry. I'm a senior planner with the current planning division. So as stated, 5395 Covington Highway, the request is for a special land use permit to allow a package store in the C2 zoning district. The parcel is also located in Tier 1 of the Hidden Hills overlay. Community Council has recommended denial, as did Planning Commission, and the staff recommendation is also for denials. Here you can see where the subject site lies. It lies at the intersection of Covington Highway and South Harrison Road. It is a C2 general commercial zoning district, and it's surrounded by a mix of zoning districts, and it's mostly commercial uses. Here's where it lies within the Hidden Hills Tier 1 overlay. And here you can see that it's also located in one of our neighborhood centers. The Hidden Hills area has two neighborhood centers within it. So when we're thinking of new development, infill development in these areas, we want to be really intentional with the types of uses that are encouraged by the community. Specifically in neighborhood center, we're looking for a mix of commercial uses, offices, residential, and public spaces. New development should incorporate accessible development, but also pedestrian-oriented development. A lot of this is usually incorporated through design. Here's an aerial shot of the subject site. When staff was assessing the application, we looked at the compatibility with a lot of the surrounding land uses and some of the potential impacts that could occur. Most significantly, we look at SLEP 6 establishments. SLEP 6 establishments consist of a lot of automobile heavy uses. They consist of package stores, pawn shops, Things that, when clustered, can actually cause negative impacts on neighborhood health and well-being. Here we've highlighted some of the other SLOP 6 that are directly within the vicinity of the subject site here. So you have a brake shop, you have an auto shop, you have two gas stations, an emission stations, and some auto-oriented drive-thru establishments. Here is the site plan that's been proposed. It is an existing building. It was previously a Walgreens. So the applicant would be occupying the existing building. They've also noted that there is a potential for a build out of a retail space. However, they have not been able to distinguish what that retail space would be. Part of reviewing this application includes the supplemental regulations for alcohol outlets. Our ordinance requires a distance requirement of 600 feet from any residence, church, school, school building, or grounds, educational facility, college campus, adult entertainment establishment. When we look at the subject site, it is within 600 feet of an educational facility, specifically Amazing Kingdom Christian Academy. This is a Bright from the Stars Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning. It's responsible for meeting child care needs, but also early education needs. It is a Georgia pre-K program. So they do offer daycare, but they also offer education services. Secondly, it's within the 600 feet distance of Solid Rock Missionary Baptist Church, which is a place of worship, so it falls within two of the supplemental regulation distance requirements. Oops. So staff is recommending denial consistent with Section 4.1, SLEP 6 uses, Section 746, compatibility of special land use criteria, Section 428, supplemental regulations, as well as the neighborhood center character area intent and goals. The recommendation is denial. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Now we will open the public hearing. Is there anyone in the audience here to speak in favor of this item? Or is the applicant here? I'm sorry, applicant. Good evening.

Yeah.

That's what it is.

Yeah.

All right. Good evening. My name is Manny Singh, and I'm here with my wife, Virginia Singh. Good evening. One second, sir.

Can we get the presentation back on our screens?

Okay.

Okay. Thank you. Go ahead, sir.

Yeah, once again, good evening, Chairman and Commissioners. My name is Manny Singh, and together with my wife, Virginia Singh, we are here for the proposed redevelopment of this location of the Walgreens on 5395 Covington Highway. I would like to make a few points. First, this is a redevelopment project. We are proposing to take an approximate 14,000 square feet former Walgreens and invest quite a bit of money to bring the property back into productive commercial use. This is an existing commercial property at an established commercial intersection, not new development, being introduced into a residential neighborhood where beer and wine was already being sold by Walgreens. We are proposing to use 10,000 to 11,000 for the package store and the balance for community use or for a multiple retail if possible. Second, we have listened to the community. We have made changes to the project, including enhanced security, lighting, operational controls, proposed community space, and continued community involvement. And we will be owner operating this property. It's not a leased location. So that way we are going to be able to maintain the property and not have any loitering or any other issues going on on the property. Third, we have also received 7,000 plus online petition signatures and approximately 250 physical signatures supporting the redevelopment of this property. We understand that there are opposing voices, but we respectfully ask that the substantial support for this project also be considered. Fourth, the primary issue raised by staff involves the nearby daycare. The zoning ordinance does not define the term educational facility. The facility next door, Amazing Kingdom, is licensed as a child care learning center. Fifth, before submitting our application, we hired a licensed Georgia surveying company to prepare the required facilities. survey separation and the distance separation. These distances are the exact ones that are on the DeKalb County application forms where we have to be 200 feet, I'm sorry, 200 yards from a school or a church or a home and if, I don't have the survey online here but it was submitted with the plans and we are all beyond that 200 yard distance. And also, after reviewing the property, the surveyor told us in writing, this is a child daycare and is not one of your requirements for the survey. We also had our pre-submittal meeting with the planning staff with the actual survey on March 16th and submitted our application on April 2nd. The daycare interpretation was not raised until months later after we had already made substantial investments in the project. We respectfully ask the board to consider this difference in interpretation before denying the application. Sixth, regarding neighborhood character and the 2050 plan, We understand the county's desire for pedestrian-friendly and community-oriented development. Because we are reusing an existing building, we are willing to work with the county on reasonable conditions, including landscaping, facade improvements, pedestrian enhancements, lighting, and security. Finally, the staff report references a A Georgia State University study, we respect that research, but we respectfully ask that our application be judged on its own facts, the specific property, the operator, the surrounding commercial environment, and the conditions we are willing to accept. We support the neighborhood center vision through responsible, adaptive, And I also like to make sure that the distances that are measured are not like a crow flies. It's driving distances or walking distances. Solid Rock Church is not within 200 yards, and that is certified on that survey that we have submitted. It's two pages on there. Commissioners, we're not asking you to ignore the concerns that have been raised. We are asking you to consider all of the evidence, the ordinance language, the survey's professional opinion, the development investment, our willingness to accept reasonable conditions, and the substantial community support. We respectfully request your approval of this slump. Thank you for your time and consideration, and I will request my business partner, Mr. Ralph Branch, to take a few minutes in this presentation. Thank you.

Thank you. Go ahead. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening to the chair, members of the board. Thank you in advance for your consideration. I would like to start out by thanking Mr. Thomas Ford from the Stonecrest Chamber of Commerce and editor for the South DeKalb Voice for his fair and impartial reporting that helped us reach over 7,000 online signatures. My name is Ralph Morgan Branch IV. I want to respectfully bring this discussion back to what it actually is before you tonight. Zoning. It's not simply a question about a package store. It's a question about this proposed use as it is supposed to be appropriate for this property. Whether it can be reasonably operated, whether this investment can help move an underutilized commercial corridor forward, I want to establish something that I believe is important. We have a track record of doing exactly that. Madam Commissioner Davis-Johnson, respectfully, my partner and I for many years owned and operated a Chevron in your neighborhood, where I had the privilege of meeting your husband and son there as customers. We didn't simply own a business in your neighborhood. We operated responsibly and without incident. We also built the shopping plaza at Covington Highway and DeKalb Medical Parkway, a development that remains standing and serving the community to this day. So when we talk about responsible ownership, investment, and giving back, these aren't things that we're promising for the first time. There is a record behind them. Today, we're prepared to make approximately a $6 million private investment into new construction, not new construction, but infill of an existing retail box. The building alone represents approximately a $3 to $4 million investment. The mortgage on that building is expected to be $32,000 to $38,000 every month before we can account for salaries, utilities, inventory, insurance, security, maintenance, and property taxes. The business anchor, therefore, has to generate substantial ongoing economic activity simply to sustain the investment before a meaningful return is even realized. This is a serious financial commitment, and this corridor needs investment. We've seen disinvestment, property vandalism, illegal dumping, unauthorized uses of our property. And we know that when investment leaves the corridor, blight has an opportunity to take its place. I want to help reverse that. I want a chance to give back. I want to help rebuild. That's why I've gone beyond simply asking for an approval. I've submitted a community service and public safety addendum. We proposed a community advisory table to create ongoing community accountability and assist in the selection of the multi-use retail infill. We propose civic, community, public safety space available free of charge at 50 to $125,000 per year donated to the county. And throughout this process, we have repeatedly been willing to modify, improve, reconsider the aspects of the proposal in an effort to address community concerns and build support. I never said that this is my plan, take it or leave it. We say, tell us what can make it better. I believe that matters in a zoning decision. Because good development isn't just about what happens inside the building, it's what happens around it. It can give surrounding property owners confidence. It can make the next restaurant possible. It can make the next investment possible. That's how corridors begin to change. And Georgia's numbers demonstrate that alcohol commerce generates legitimate economic activity and taxation. More than $200 million annually in state alcoholic beverage taxes. With Georgia's broader wine industry alone for fiscal year 2025, it shows that approximately $7.74 billion in economic activity and more than $1.15 billion in combined business and consumption taxes. I'm not claiming that this property will produce those statewide numbers, but it will contribute. I'm saying economic activity is real. We are prepared to put $6 million of our own capital at risk to participate in it. I have personally put my time, resources, reputation, and credibility on the line throughout this process. It's been a difficult journey because we believe in DeKalb. And tonight, I'm asking this board for something very simple. Give me a chance to give back. Give us a chance to invest. Give us a chance to rebuild. Judge us by our record. Judge this proposal by its conditions. Judge this property by what it can become. And most importantly, judge this application by the zoning standards and the evidence before you, not the assumptions made about what the business is called. Because revitalization does not begin by denying new developments. Sometimes it begins with one investor willing to go first. I'm willing to go first. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. That does exhaust the time for the applicant. At this time, is there anyone in opposition? Good morning, ma'am. Morning. Good evening, ma'am. I know. We're usually here in the morning. Go ahead. Just make sure the clock is on the screen before you start. And it's a collective 10 minutes.

Hi, good afternoon. I am in opposition of the package store and the liquor store. As mentioned earlier, there are two day cares and a church within a 600 foot radius. Within two mile radius, there's also five liquor stores or package stores. I am simply suggesting that we put something there that's already in place, like an urgent care for children, as the only children's urgent care we have is in Chamblee and in Stockbridge. If not children's, at least in urgent care. With the daycares around, the elementary schools, middle schools, and the pediatricians around, I think that we need something for after... the pediatrician's clothes, or even something that the kids don't have to go all the way to either downtown Atlanta, pass some, to get the care that they need. We have nothing in that area for children. Hillingdale doesn't do anything for the children. DeKalb Medical doesn't do anything for the children as well. So we need something in that area for children, and that's what I would like to suggest. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Next speaker.

Good evening. My name is Phyllis Frierson. I live at 1528 Hidden Hills Parkway in Stone Mountain. And I am also the president of the Greater Hidden Hills Community Development Corporation. Our organization was founded in 2011 to support the Hidden Hills Over Lake Hogue, which was adopted in 2011 to encourage a variety of desirable businesses, such as sit-down restaurants, cafes, high-end grocery stores, medical offices, a variety of retail options, entertainment venues, and professional services. We encourage developers to consider the demand for higher end businesses in our area. They could capture the dollars we spend in Decatur, Avondale, Estates, Tucker, and North DeKalb. We discourage undesirable businesses such as liquor stores, pawn shops, check cashing establishments, convenience stores, gas stations, fast food restaurants, and auto repair shops because they lower property values and cause more crime according to a study commissioned by DeKalb County and conducted by the Georgia State University Department of Criminal Justice and Criminality. There are 22 liquor stores within five miles of this location. There are more than 100 other places in this zone where you can buy beer, wine, and premixed drinks. There are two daycare centers, one middle school, and a church within 1,000 feet of the location. The community does not want a liquor store near these youth and faith facilities. In response to the applicant's petition, note that we agree with the overall objective that people want investment. They want safer, cleaner, and more vibrant commercial corridors. Liquor stores do not meet these goals. The community has met with the applicant. We listened carefully. He did not change our commitment to improving the business environment in this part of DeKalb County. More than 1,200 people have signed the petition in opposition, and dozens of people attended three protests of the application. We respectfully request that you deny this application. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good evening. My name is Charles Pigler. I've been a community activist in DeKalb County for over 25 years. If you're all familiar with the public projects there where that Walgreen is, there was some conditions put on that whole corner there. No liquor stores, no peep shows. Back then, it was 1996 that we went through the same thing that we're going through now. Liquor stores bring no value to my property. I live in Kings Ridge, and i have not seen millions of dollars of improvement to that building and i pass it every day so maybe seeing something that i'm not seeing but the thing about it is that we have enough liquor stores for enough gas stations and all you can bring me is a liquor store and a gas station That's just ruined my real estate. I really have respectfully that y'all decline and deny that project. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good afternoon, commissioners. Appreciate you all listening. I'm going to be pretty short. The area I am pastor of, Solid Rock Missionary Baptist Church, the church that is in question, it is indeed within their outside community. And also the daycares. I don't know why they get up here and force numbers, but it's already been shot down one time, and we hope that you all shoot it down again because it is something that we don't want in our community. I am also... a resident of Latonia for 31 years, over 31 years, so I come down Covington Highway all the time. I worked at the VA, so my main route was always up and down Covington Highway. We just ask that you all go ahead and deny them, make this the last call for alcohol. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Yeah, good evening, commissioners. I'm Rod Frierson, president of the Hidden Hill Civic Association. We live in the center part of this community and the center part of Central DeKalb. I speak on behalf of 1,640 residents who ebb and flow in this space. Partnerships are critical as we strive to create a community that we all inspire to see. Following our meetings with Mr. Singh and his partner, we discussed our vision for enhancing our community and the commitment to supporting businesses that contribute positively. It is clear that Mr. Singh's primary focus is on his business and the revenue that it generates. Our goal is to shape the future of Central DeKalb, and we need to avoid being limited by just another package store. We have 22 liquor stores in five miles. That says enough.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Commissioners. My name is Joel Edwards. I live at 2129 Tudor Castle Way in Kings Ridge Subdivision, about a half a mile away from the proposed so-called liquor store. Bottom line, we do not need liquor stores in the predominant black neighborhood anymore. Anymore.

Please keep your clapping down. No family restaurants.

We need family restaurants. We don't get that. We want you all to oppose this. Let's restore a project because we do not need it in our neighborhood. And I am not only speaking for myself, I'm speaking for the residents of Kings Ridge, Southern Virginia, Hidden Hills, all the neighborhoods in that particular area. Now, my man that came up before me and is in favor of it, I mean, hey, he gives us a song and dance, but he sounds like Donald Trump to me. You know? So my thing is that, please, no liquor store. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

I'm going to try and make this as quick as possible. My name is Samson Burrell. I live in the 5th District. I heard the advocate address Commissioner Marita Davis-Johnson. I'm going to address Commissioner Marita Davis-Johnson and every commissioner on this board. This is what we have in District 3, 4, and 5. As of today, we have 118 liquor stores between District 3, 4, and 5. 118. In District 1 and 2, we have 42 liquor stores. In District 3, 4, and 5, we have 138 gas stations, only 52 in District 1 and 2. In District 3, 4, and 5, we have 152 auto places, car lots, tire zones, auto zones, O'Reilly's, Advance Auto's, car repair shops, 58 storage units. Listen, let me make this clear, and this is to the people of DeKalb County and to this board. No more of these liquor stores, gas stations, family dollars, dollar generals, tire shop. If it ain't bringing money to the community, we don't want it. And since he addressed Marina Davis Johnson, you've been selling this boy for 11 years. And in 11 years, the 5th District has been dumped. It is the worst in the state of Georgia. So I'm going to say this now, any commissioner that vote for businesses that do not uplift the community expect to lose in the primary because we're coming for you. Thank you.

We have 30 seconds left.

30 seconds. I moved to this neighborhood 35 years ago and I come out of that, my driveway in inside of hidden Hills, 21 Wedgwood drive stone mountain. And I, saw that Walgreens there, that store has only been closed less than a year. So we have not had time to have blight and to hear this gentleman say, that's what would happen. There are 22 liquor stores in our area. My property value. I've watched my property decline. We're just within the last year.

Thank you, ma'am. Your time is exhausted.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. If staff to come back and restate their recommendations, please. Staff recommendation is for denial. Thank you. This is in District 5, induced super. District 7, is there a motion?

Yes, I have a motion and a comment. I vote for denial of this item, and I have a comment.

Please hit the button to request to speak. Second. Commissioner Bolton has seconded. Go ahead, Commissioner Davis-Johnson, you have the floor. First opportunity to speak.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, first of all, if you all had- Let me get the time, thank you, go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Yeah, first of all, if you had contacted my office and talked to me about it, we could have had, I think, a respectful discussion of it. Secondly of all, yeah, I've been on this board for 11 years. DeKalb County has been established since the early 80s. Policies were made originally in DeKalb County that affects not only you, but affects me as well. Because guess what? I live in South DeKalb, and I live in the 5th District. And my district and the place that I live is not a dump. We have Arabia Mountain, we have Hillandale Hospital, we have Two Casa Parentes, we have Publix, we have Arabia Mountain, and I can go on and on. And if you think that you're gonna bring any type of development to your district, calling it a dump, think again. You know, so I live in South DeKalb. My values, my home values are contingent upon what is put in South DeKalb. But I'm proud just in the 11 years that I've been here, what I've brought, what I have brought to our community. You know, we getting ready to build Arabian, I mean, Lucia Sanders. It hadn't been a center, a youth center for the youth in East DeKalb since the 80s. My children played at Lucia Sanders when they were five and six, and now they're 30-something. No one has ever brought... a community center to East DeKalb. We're building a $7.5 million Lucius Sanders Center in the fifth district, East DeKalb. Did the same thing for our seniors. This is what I initiated. Doing the same thing for our seniors. at Bruce Street, so I don't have to be lectured about what I do not do, because I try to enhance the quality of life for our youth, for our seniors, and for our citizens. And so if anyone had called, and some did call and talk to me, including the applicants, because I talk to everyone, I listen, I get information. I don't try to rouse up people for my own personal political reasons. I talk to them, and I'm respectful for them, but do believe what everything that I do It's for the 5th District and the benefit of DeKalb County. And once again, I will close by saying the 5th District is far from a dump. If I want to sell my house, you think I'm going to put for sale? Please buy my dump? No, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to put my first foot forward, my best foot forward. And that's what I do for not only South DeKalb and my district, But for DeKalb County as a whole, because I live here, I have the choice to live any place that I would like to live in DeKalb County. And I chose, and I choose South DeKalb County. So thank you, and I yield back.

Thank you, Commissioner Davis-Johnson. Commissioner Bolton, you have the floor for your first opportunity.

Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer. I did just want to take a brief moment to address the applicant, because you did mention that you guys put in the effort for plan modifications. You talked about adaptive reuse, and you also mentioned your community engagement, which is all things that we want. The concern is the anchor. So what I would like to do is give you an opportunity to withdraw and propose a different anchor. If you consider that within two miles, well, over two miles is the nearest grocery. We had community members mention some things that they would like in this area. They talked to me about it. They talked to you about it. And- Just interested in knowing if you considered some of those things. There's no neighborhood market, no neighborhood grocery, no food mart. We talked about making this space more walkable. So putting things in place that the community wants and can walk to with a different anchor that community members want. So considering that we don't want the liquor store, the package store, are you willing to withdraw?

Thank you for your questions and concerns. At this juncture, we are not going to withdraw. If the commissioners would like to deny us, that's fine. But I'd like to make one comment, if that's okay. on the survey that was done is by a Georgia certified surveying company. And this is a form that is on DeKalb County's website, how distances are measured. They're not in a straight line. The straight line from the Solid Rock Church door to the Walgreens door is 700 feet, which is more than 200 yards. But if you go with this survey, Based on the driving and the walking distance, it's 332 yards. This was not even brought up before. I'm surprised it's being brought up today. Thank you.

And what was shown by staff today, they showed driving distance. They didn't show a straight line. They did show driving distance in their presentation. And so that's what we're going to go with as the Board of Commissioners, what was presented by staff regarding the project. And with that, I yield back.

Commissioner Bolton, if I may, one second. Is there a way that we could probably work through any?

We can't work through anything with a denial. Okay, I got you. Yeah.

Thank you.

All right, Commissioner Bolton, you've yielded your time. Commissioner Davis-Johnson, would you like to speak again?

Just briefly, and when I spoke with the applicants, I did, in fact, ask them if they wanted, if they would want to withdraw, we would consider that, and they never got back with me on that. So that's my motion for denial, and I hope my second stands.

Second stands. Thank you so much. Seeing no further requests to speak, please open the machine for the vote. Motion to deny carries. So now we're going to move to page 7, item N4, item 2026-0710, Commission District 5, Super District 7, application of Love Bugs Learning Home, care of John View, for a special land use permit to allow a child daycare facility for up to six children in the R100 zoning district at 3319 Tarragon Drive. Good evening.

Good evening. The applicant has requested withdrawal without prejudice, and the staff supports that.

Thank you so much. We still have to go through the public hearing process. So is anyone here to speak in favor of this item? Is this the applicant or anyone? OK, you guys are not getting up to speak. All right. Final call. Anyone in favor of this item? All right. Anyone in opposition? Anyone in opposition of this item? All right. Seeing no one, ma'am, if you'll come back and restate staff recommendation.

Staff recommendation is withdrawal without prejudice.

Thank you. Is there a motion?

I make a motion to withdraw without prejudice.

Second. Motion and a second. I'm seeing no request to speak. Please open the machine for the vote. Motion to withdraw without prejudice carries. And so now we're back going to N11, which is the last item on page 9. Item 2026-0713, Commission Districts 4. Wait. Law, can I get a clarification? It also is District 4. Do I need to hand the gavel for this one?

Yes. Commissioner Messiah, could you handle this one for us? Of course.

Yes, I'm passing the gavel to Commissioner Messiah. Thank you.

That is N112026-0713, TA261248095, Greater Hidden Hills Overlay District, Commission District 45, and Super District 7. Application of the Director of Planning Sustainability to amend Chapter 27-3.37, Division 37 of the DeKalb County Code of Ordinances. This application is for the amendment of Greater Hidden Hills Overlay District to align with the vision and the goals of the community for the future development of the area. Great evening. How are you doing today?

Hi, good evening commissioners. Um, yes. So, uh, the greater hidden Hills overlay update, uh, text amendment, um, uh, this is for the, um, to update the greater hidden Hills overlay district to align with the vision and goals of the community. Um, it received unanimous approval, uh, from the community councils four and five, um, approval from the planning commission and staff's recommendation is for approval.

Thank you so much. So we are the applicant. Is there anyone else here to speak in favor?

Well, I do have some slides for a brief summary. Fantastic. So this is the zoning map of the Greater Hidden Hills Overlay District, or the tier map. So we have Tier 1 is along Covington Highway and South Harrison Road. Tier 2 is up in that northwest corner along Redan Road and South Harrison Road, as well as along Redan Road and Panola Road, and then down on Yonge Road as well. There are also Tiers 3 and 4, which are conservation tiers, and Tier 5, which is in the center of the community. And here is the future land use map. There is a neighborhood center in tiers one and two, again, at Redan Road and South Harrison Road, as well as Covington Highway and South Harrison. So this was brought to the attention of the planning staff by the community. As you heard earlier, the Greater Hidden Hills Overlay District was adopted in 2011 with the goal of attracting higher density, walkable, mixed use development. Again, a community-led effort, which was very progressive at the time. However, as development trends have changed and the community has not seen the types of development they originally wanted, They approached staff with the prospect of updating the overlay to better align with current development trends and see what the sticking points were. So throughout the process, we conducted a community survey as well as some public meetings. Residents responded very well to mixed-use development types, reaffirming the original goal of the overlay. And while low density single family homes were the preferred detached housing type, there was a strong interest in cottage homes. So the priority changes are in tiers one and two, which I will go through. Again, this was very much a collaborative effort with the community, and I would like to give a brief thank you to the very dedicated community members who helped guide this effort. So briefly, these are the mixed use standards in DeKalb's zoning code. And the existing overlay requires 30% of any new residential development to include a commercial use. So that would be a 70% residential, 30% commercial split. This is not aligned with county standards or current development trends. Other mixed use zones in the county only require a minimum of 20% commercial. even at the highest allowed density and intensity. So just wanted to give that as a example. So with Tier 1s, these are the proposed changes. Raising the maximum dwelling units per acre in order to comply with the underlying future land use. So previously, Tier 1 only allowed a maximum density of 30 dwelling units an acre, while the underlying future land use of neighborhood center allowed up to 40. So we adjusted that for the neighborhood center node at that intersection. It remained at 30 dwelling units an acre along that CRC commercial redevelopment corridor section in the remainder of Tier 1. So it will comply with the underlying future land use. So that 40 is just for that intersection at Covington Highway and South Harrison Road. We also lowered the mixed use requirement to 20% commercial, again, in alignment with the DeKalb zoning code. And we added cottage homes as a permitted use. Again, this was something that received strong support from the community. We added drive-thrus as a separate use requiring a special land use permit. Again, the community wanted to, prefers those walkable and non-auto oriented uses. And we reduced the open space requirement to 10% because it exceeded the zoning code. It was about 20% and that created a real sticking point when it came to reaching the desired density. If you have most of your property taken up by, or a larger portion taken up by open space, it affects the overall density that you're able to achieve. So we lowered that just slightly to 10% in alignment with other developments and the zoning code. Next, at Tier 2, we increased the allowable density to 30 dwelling units an acre in the neighborhood center. This is slightly lower because the original intention of Tier 2 was meant to be less dense and less intense than Tier 1, mostly in regards to roadway capacities and such. So we maintained that intention. And then the other changes were similar to Tier 1, so lowering the mixed use requirement, adding cottage homes, adding drive-throughs as a special land use permit and reducing open space requirement so for tiers three and four because these are mainly floodplain and meant for conservation no changes were recommended and with tier five no changes were recommended as there's really only one developable parcel and it currently has a land disturbance permit so no changes were recommended And then finally, we've heard a lot this evening about what the community does not want to see. And a lot of the discussion surrounded how do we get what the community does want to see. And to address that, we made adjustments to the floor area ratio. This is an interesting zoning tool that we don't see a lot in our code of ordinances, but it is in the Greater Hidden Hills Overlay District. Previously, the baseline floor area ratios and bonuses were not possible to achieve with the required lot coverage and height limitations. The FARs for tiers one and two were increased and additional bonuses were added to attract the types of uses most desired by the community in the survey. So in that survey, some of the more desired uses were restaurants and cafes, high quality restaurants and cafes, outdoor dining and outdoor seating at these establishments, grocery stores, and medical office, again, very much preferred by the community, and retail. So we adjusted some of these bonuses in order to incentivize development. So any new developments that come in, may get a density bonus if they include these development types. So that is all I have for you, and staff's recommendation is for approval.

Thank you so much. Next, we're going to call for anyone that would speak in favor of this agenda item.

Good evening again. My name is Phyllis Fryerson. I'm sorry.

Give me one second. Can we make sure that we are starting the clock? Thank you. Go ahead.

Okay. Again, my name is Phyllis Fryerson. I am a resident of the Hidden Hills Community. I'm also the president of the Greater Hidden Hills Community Development Corporation. We're a nonprofit focused on achieving the goals of the Overlay District. I was one of hundreds of community residents who helped draft the Overlay Code in 2011. We began requesting revisions in 2019. After several starts and delays, the update process gained momentum in fall of 2024. Excuse me. We are pleased that the proposed amendments are now moving forward and are eager to see the code updated. Although the overlay has helped limit the concentration of undesirable businesses and protect green space, These are important provisions that will remain in place. It has not, as you know, generated the level of redevelopment and economic growth that we had hoped to see as a community. The underused commercial areas, including the shopping centers near the intersections at Hairston Road and Redan Road and near Covington Highway and Hairston, offer significant opportunities for reinvestment and revitalization. We support the proposed mix of 80% residential and density bonuses for including uses that meet community needs such as restaurants and cafes, grocery stores, medical offices, retail businesses, and expanded public space. We believe the revised code will preserve the overlay's important protections while creating greater opportunities for thoughtful redevelopment, new investment, and community-focused growth. We wish to express our appreciation to Tricia Prevost and her staff for their hard work and dedication, and we would appreciate your support of this text amendment. Thank you. Thank you. The next in favor?

Yes, I am the husband of Mrs. Frierson. 1528 Hidden Hills Parkway, president of the Hidden Hills Civic Association. We started this journey years ago, trying to shape the boundaries of our community for a place that we can be able to have development that we could direct and that we can encourage. The overlay district did that for us. And here we are as we move forward in that journey. We're trying to make sure that we attract healthy businesses surrounding Hidden Hills, as well as housing development that's being planned in Hidden Hills. And yes, college homes are being considered in Hidden Hills because we want to be able to find products that we can deliver to people who are in need of it, all right? And so we are trying to create a vision for this community that might be quite different for other communities, but we think it is important for us in this part of central DeKalb County. And so I am in favor of the tax amendment as we begin to shape the boundaries of Hidden Hills. as we begin to impact the future of Central DeKalb, and as we begin to offer a place where people can live, love, and grow in a node that's close to where we all enjoy. And that's District 5. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Thank you so much. Is there anyone else? We have just roughly over six minutes and 30 seconds left. Anyone else in favor? Seeing none, is there anyone in opposition? Is there anyone in opposition that would like to speak? Seeing none, if you wouldn't mind, just repeat the recommendation of staff.

Staff's recommendation is for approval.

Thank you so much. We have a first and we have a second. Can we open the machines for a vote? I'm sorry. You're absolutely right. I'm ready for the motion, please. I'm sorry. Uh-huh.

Well, I'll tell you, I got both of the Francis teaming up on me tonight, so I make a motion to approve this item.

Second. Thank you. Seeing a proper first and a second, we have Madam Peel would like to speak.

Thank you so much, and I would like to third that motion. I would really want to take the time to applaud the community for being proactive in 2011, 2019, and all the way through. And this is a great example of how you are proactive and you work with our staff to try and get what you want in your community. So I do applaud you all for that. And I'm also grateful that the Friarsons agree on this because I'd hate to see what life at home would be like if you did not agree. Thank you again so much.

Thank you so much, Madam Pio. Thank you, Madam Pio. Commissioner Davis-Johnson.

Yeah, I did not commend the community. And I tell you, the Hidden Hills community is one of the many homeowners association that works very diligently with DeKalb County for the benefit of their community. They've done so for the 11 years that I've been on the commission. And then I'm sure for years prior to me coming on the commission, they're a beautiful, beautiful community. And they're very dedicated. community and working together for the benefit of the community. And one thing that I didn't mention earlier was the beautification grants. that Hidden Hills took advantage of. And I want to say that to all of the community people out here that feel that your neighborhood may be a dump, that we have up to $5,000 in beautification grants that you can apply to my district if you live in District 5 because it's a District 5 grant to beautify the entrance of your community. And so I want to thank you again, Rod, and now have your wife coming forth, which is a good thing, and taking the effort, because it is effort, to work for the community, and you all have done so, and we appreciate you so. So thank you. And you all can call. I don't hold grudges. So anybody out there that want to beautify your community and you live in District 5, we offer up to $5,000 in beautification grants. So thank you. Oh, I didn't mean to do that.

Thank you so much. Commissioner Terry.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Frierson, for sharing your support for the plan. Great work, Tricia, on working with the community to envision what they would like to see in the future. I definitely support... the inclusion of the cottage homes. I think that's a very, you know, practical, missing middle housing type that I think if we gave folks more options to, you know, pick the product size about, you know, that fits with their lifestyle and where they're at in their particular point in life creates well-rounded housing options for first-time home buyers, you know, starting out families and then maybe, you know, folks who want to downsize and retire with a little Smaller footprint, maybe a smaller power bill, because I know cottage developments tend to be a little smaller square footage houses. So maybe a little less upkeep, lower power bill, more flexibility, maybe a more neighborly type of feeling. So I think that approach is really great. Just like I would applaud the residents and the commissioners who represent District 4, 5, and 7 to see the vision of their constituents come true, especially when it relates to those missing middle housing types. I would also hope that you'll be supporting us over in District 2, 3, and 6. when they want to see similar housing types, whether it's smaller square footage, cottages. That's something that I think we should share broadly with all the districts. And so I applaud you all for supporting this very progressive housing approach, and I look forward to seeing more of that in the other parts of DeKalb.

Thank you, Commissioner Terry. Commissioner Bolton.

Thank you. And not to beat a dead horse, but I did want to iterate. Considering that I represent the entire eastern half of the county, Hidden Hills is one of the communities that works very well with commissioners, with staff, and lets us know what it is that they want. They use the tools in the code to their advantage. Actually, a couple months ago when we met and they first told me they were interested in a special service district, I said, well, did you consider how it affects your taxes? They said, we looked at everything. We measured the progress or lack thereof over the years. We know what we want. We know the measure of meeting, whatever that stipulation is. It's not what we want. So, yes, we're asking for this tool specifically to be implemented. And I was so impressed with it, I told them I'm going to use this as a model for what we do across District 7. And so we do have regular meetings every couple of weeks with Hidden Hills to help with the development of that area. And this is definitely going to help with our pollination in progress project that we have been piloting in that area. I do commend you again for the work that you're doing, and thank you for being a model community throughout District 7. Thank you so much. I yield back.

Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments? Seeing none, can we open the machine up for a vote? Congratulations, that passed. Passing the gavel back.

Thank you so much. And congratulations on passing that item. So now we are back to the beginning of the agenda. We are on page two, item D1. So these are under deferred cases. Item 2025-0970, Commission Districts 3 and 6, application of PCC, DeKalb LLC, care of Stephen L. Jones, Taylor Duma LLC for a special land use permit to allow utility structures for the transmission or distribution of services in the RSM and MU1 zoning districts, the Boulder Crest Overlay District, Tier 5, and the Slopestone Historic District, 4-2-8-0 and 4-3-5-8 Loveless Place and 2-2-8-1 Pine View Trail. Good evening, sir.

Good evening, commissioners. John Reed, senior advisor, plane department. This is a... As you mentioned, a request for a slop and tier five for utility structure, um, the, uh, uh, loveless place 42 80 and 43 58, and also 22 81 Pine view trail. Uh, the community council recommended a two cycle deferral. The planning commission recommended denial and the staff recommendation is denial. Uh, the property, uh, the application is for utility structure. There is no data center land use category. in the code or the overlay. However, their site plan, the applicant's site plan does indicate approximately a million square foot data center and electrical substation on 95 acres. And the access would be through Clayton County via Old Field Road. It is zoned in tier five of the Boulder Crest overlay. It's also in the suburban character area, which of course calls for the preservation of residential neighborhoods, and also promoting small-scale infill cottage development that you were just talking about. This is the aerial. Just a couple other sidebars here. There's no data center land use. The closest land use that staff believes that we have is Electric Transformer Station, which is not similar to a data center. It's actually only allowed in heavy industrial zoning in the zoning code. And also, office and accessory storage, that's also not allowed in Tier 5. While utility structure is allowed as a slough, which is before you now, given the staff doesn't believe this is your typical utility structure, given the proposed planned data center site plan of a million square feet, which has a large footprint, And in addition to that, it consumes much larger strain on community resources such as electricity and water than a typical utility structure would. Staff further finds that the applicant has not provided sufficient information to demonstrate the proposed buffers, open space, and operational measures would adequately mitigate impacts of residential properties. Per Section 7.4.6, staff finds the proposed land use does not satisfy applicable standards for approval of a special land use permit, specifically the proposed 1 million square foot A data center campus is not compatible with adjacent and nearby residential properties. Property falls within a suburban character area, calling for protection of established subdivisions. And in addition, the properties fall within tier five of the Boulder Crest overlay, which is a predominantly single family area and does not satisfy the purpose and intent of the overlay district to protect residential areas from encroachment of incompatible uses. So finally, based on the information I just mentioned, staff finds the application does not appear to comply with suburban character area of the 2050 comp plan or the purpose intent of tier five of the Boulder Crest overlay. Specifically, it does not satisfy the requirements of section 7.4.6, subsection A regarding adequacy of the site for the proposed use, subsection B regarding compatibility with adjacent and surrounding properties, Subsection C, regarding adequacy of public services. Subsection G, regarding consistency with the requirements of the zoning district classification in which the use is proposed. And subsection H, regarding consistency with the policies of the comprehensive plan. So the staff recommendation would be for denial.

Thank you so much. Now we will open the public hearing. Is there anyone here? Or is the applicant here? I'm sorry. Good evening, sir.

Presiding Officer, Commissioners, my name is Steven Jones with the law firm McKagan Jones here today on behalf of the property owner and the applicant. The applicant is requesting a deferral for at least 60 days. We understand that the county is continuing to refine and continuing to draft its data center ordinance we'd like the additional time to evaluate those drafts and evaluate although this application would not be subject to any subsequent legislation evaluate the extent and to the greatest extent that the application and this development can comply with those evolving and continuing to be drafted standards We do have a presentation, presiding officer and commissioners. It's the same presentation that we've reviewed during previous meetings. Out of respect for your time, I can go through it. But again, I don't want to rehash that presentation again as you've seen it before. So we would ask for that 60-day deferral so that the applicant can continue to evaluate the evolving drafts of the ordinance and attempt to comply with provisions voluntarily, even though that subsequent legislation would not be applicable to this development. Thank you so much. If you do have any questions for me or the applicant, we'd be happy to address those at this time.

Thank you. We can't ask you the questions at this time, but if the commissioners, when they're deliberating, have questions, they can call you up.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Is there anyone else to speak in favor of this application? Anyone to speak in favor of this application? All right, anyone in opposition of the application? And please don't run over each other.

Good evening, commissioners. Good evening. My name is Pat Culp and I reside at 3577 Boulder Crest Road. I'm a resident of the Cedar Grove Neighborhood Association and the president of the association. I'm asking that you deny this application. We want a denial. I mean, we've been going through this quite a bit, and I don't see why we should not have a denial at this point. Our community has consistently said that we do not want a massive data center campus located in the middle of our residential community neighborhoods. We support all development that's appropriate and that will be further compatible to what we are doing within our own community. We're in the process of developing a small area plan that's going to help us and benefit the economic growth that we need in this area. We are very focused on moving forward. For years, our community has fought to protect our quality of life. We have dealt with landfills and all the odor that comes with those. We've dealt with airplanes dumping all of them on our roofs. We've dealt with a lot of things. And we are surrounded by industrial, which causes us to have not the quality of air that we need for our communities. We are surrounded by a lot of things that is not compatible to our neighborhood. Recently, we've been told that the Cedar Grove High School, Cedar Grove Middle School, and Cedar Grove Elementary School may not even be operable in terms of being in our community anymore. We need development that's going to bring families together, our schools together, and grow together. And we do not need a massive data center in our community. We are asking you at this time to consider us. How would you feel if someone wanted to put a massive campus in the middle of your community? It doesn't bring us quality of life. We can grow. We can grow with development that's that we would need to help us encourage to be going forward in our community. We have young people that we have to look forward to making things better in the community. We have senior citizens who don't want to sell their homes, but right now they're afraid. And I have talked with them. They do not want this massive data center in their community. Who speaks for them, commissioners? Who speaks for them? We need your help. Please protect our quality of life. Please help us respectfully deny this application.

Thank you. Next speaker. You have just over seven minutes left.

Gina Mangum. I live in South DeKalb, and I'll be brief. What I'd like to see is consistency in the process. You just passed an overlay for Hidden Hills. There's an overlay. in the Cedar Grove, Boulder Crest community. We have a lot of nos in South DeKalb. In fact, we need T-shirts on the back of my T-shirt. It's going to be no more dollar stores, no more liquor stores, no more gas stations, no more auto parts places, no more data centers, okay? No, no, no, no, no. We really do want better economic development, not industrial development. And we've said all of this all along. But I've just watched you vote for denial on recommendations for denial on these other projects. We have had denials all this time, and you refuse to deny the project. Why are we keeping it alive? These folks want a nice community. They want to be able to sell their homes. And there is data now. Real estate agents are actually saying, when you buy a home or sell a home, you need to factor in whether it's near a data center. And if it is, you need to deduct 10% to 20% of the selling or buying price. So now it's real. So please, protect the residents of South DeKalb. Take the recommendations of both the Planning Commission and the Planning Department. And you know, how about just do the right thing? Thank you.

Next speaker. Hey, Jan Dunaway, District 4 and DeKalb Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor. And I grew up in this area, but in Clayton County. You all know that. I have sent you all a screenshot for the PCC presentation showing that the water comes from Clayton County, which is not given permission. And they also confirmed that it's a two million square foot data center because it's two stories Now that alone is enough because they don't match their plans That's enough alone to deny this and I certainly hope that you will Support the planning department's great work deny it.

Thank you Thank you next speaker

My name is Franklin. I'm an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation and a resident of DeKalb County Districts 5 and 7 where we don't have any bus stops. I am glad to be here with you, but more importantly, no, we don't want your data center. We have told you no, that we don't want your data center and we don't want big tech devastation in our backyards where our water will be polluted in the country, in the state, and in the county where our bills are already too high. You don't care. And we know you don't care because we have told you no and yet you persist. But the people of DeKalb keep fighting you. We keep coming back and showing you that we are serious. We demand you vote to deny the Ellenwood application because according to recent reports, the people of DeKalb look to be footing the bill for your false promises to a company without the community's input, consent, or knowledge. For something that will endanger the health, safety, and welfare of the residents of DeKalb County. We will fight back and we will win. You have been ignoring the demands of the people because you have made a false promise and accepted $30 million investment without the input of us, and now you face a threat of a $230 million lawsuit. We don't know where that money was spent, but you claim that the property value of that area has dropped by $200 million, and you expect us to foot that bill. Land is valuable when it's being used to support the people. All over the country, people are fighting against data centers, and they are proving that it's not just unprofitable to invest in data centers, but that bubble is quickly bursting, leaving us with nothing. We need the billionaires and their corporations, the Board of Commissioners, Trump and the Democrats and the Republicans to understand that when the people say no, we mean no, and our demands are to be respected. We have billionaires and corporations like IBM, Apple, Microsoft, Flock, Google, and X trying to build AI data centers in our backyards so they can make good on an investment while we drink dirty water and live off crumbling infrastructure. Sending up massive surveillance networks through AI cameras all throughout the country and this county that racially profile people and have been misused by law enforcement. It's a shame that the Board of Commissioners and other elected officials across this country, and here predominantly black South DeKalb, are striking deals with corporations and billionaires to build data centers instead of meeting the community's needs. You want to build data centers while closing our schools here in South DeKalb. We don't need or want a data campus in an area that needs more schools and teachers, more access to food and jobs that pay well. Why are our elected officials, our representatives striking deals to build data citizens instead of striking deals to rebuild our aged, overwhelmed water, sewage, and electricity infrastructure? The people of DeKalb County have wonderful ideas for the future of DeKalb. It has never been more important that we continue to organize as a community, Because us winning this struggle is a victory for DeKalb County. And us coming together, building solidarity through a struggle to maintain our dignity and welfare is a victory for the people, for our children, for our future, and for our planet. Deny the data center slump and invest in DeKalb. Thank you.

Thank you. We've got about a minute and a half left.

Hi, I'm JC. I'm also an organizer for the Party of Socialism and Liberation. This fight against hyperscale data centers is such an important one because it's an amalgamation of many struggles, including big tech companies, AI-fueled job loss, and environmental devastation and institutional racism, which are all some of the biggest contradictions that we face in today's society. We have touched on the undemocratic methods that we have to deal with every two to three months coming back here. Are you just hoping we're not going to show up? Also, do y'all have NDAs with this company? Why are we continuing this struggle over and over and over? The community... has said very clearly we do not want a data center near residential area we don't want data centers in the cab this needs to be not only denied but also we just need an outright ban on data centers uh let me just skip over this huge chunk of how bad data centers are for our health uh Yeah, we need an outright ban. I'm just gonna leave it there.

You go ahead. 20 seconds, 20 seconds.

Hi, Jordan with Atlanta DSA. Five years ago, DeKalb County exchanged its land with Shadowbacks Corporation, and they were supposed to build us a park. That park, of course, does not exist yet. We are here giving them land for data centers now. When are we going to learn not to take deals with these people because they only take from us? That's it.

Thank you, sir. You can ask if that's appropriate to do that. So at this time we have exhausted the time to speak from the public if our staff would come back up and give their recommendation.

Staff recommends denial.

Staff recommends denial. Thank you so much. This is in District 3 and Super District 6. Is there a motion? Commissioner Terry, I'll let you make the motion.

Okay.

All right. Thank you.

Yes. Hold on. Technicality should offer rebuttal time just in case they want to. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes.

Would the applicant like to have rebuttaled? They did have time left on their clock.

No.

No rebuttal? Okay, thank you. Is there a motion?

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. At this time, I move to deny this application on the grounds that it fails to satisfy the special land use permit criteria contained in subsections A, B, C, G, and H of section 27-7.4.6 of the county zoning ordinance. Additionally, the application is inconsistent with the county's comprehensive plan and the goals of the Boulder Crest Overlay District.

Is there a second? I have second. Is anyone requesting to speak on this item? I see no requesting to speak. Please open machine for the vote. I'm missing Commissioner Long-Spears. Motion to deny carries. Thank you so much. And I would like to thank the audience for being very respectful during this process tonight. I know you guys are very passionate, and our rules can be annoying to you, but I do appreciate you adhering to them tonight. So thank you for that.

just just briefly I'm just going to say thank you so much just briefly I'm going to say to the community that you know people believe lies without evidence and it takes twice as much information to believe the truth I want you to remain engaged sometimes the loudest people are not the people that are fighting necessarily for what you want in the community but I employ you to keep engaged keep involved and I look forward to more truths coming out thank you

Thank you, Commissioner Mosiah. We are now moving to D2, which is page 3, item 2026-0139, Commission District 1, Super District 7, Application of Urban View Apartments, Care of Battle Law, P.C., to rezone properties from OI Zoning District to MR1 Zoning District to allow a townhome community at 3003 Shambly Tucker Road and 2936 Mercer University Drive. Welcome back to the podium. Thank you.

Sorry, I'm just trying to locate the clicker. Good evening. So as stated, this is a request for rezoning from OI to MR1 to allow for a townhome community. The community council recommendation was approval with one condition. Planning commission was approval with a condition. And the staff recommendation is for denial. This application has been deferred from the March Planning Commission meeting or Board of Commissioners meeting to now to allow the applicant to revise their site plan. Here you can see that it's located in an OI zoning district. Surrounding zoning districts include R100 and NS, which is neighborhood shopping. A lot of parcels in this vicinity have actually been rezoned specifically along Northeast Expressway, much of which have been rezoned to HRs and MRs, which is high and medium density residential and mixed-use housing. It's located in a regional center. As we know, our regional centers prioritize high-intensity walkability mixed-use development. Specifically for infill, we think of interconnected street networks, interconnected between parcels, and interconnectivity actually on the site. So a strong pedestrian network. staff believes that the proposed site plan even from the deferral does not achieve the urban form that is envisioned by our regional center Here you can see the aerial view. The site is compromised by a stream buffer as well as a 30-foot transitional buffer to the rear property line. While staff does acknowledge some of those aspects to be hardships to develop the site, one of the site's greatest assets, which is the North Fork Peachtree Creek Greenway, which you can see here runs along the front of the site, essentially has not been treated as a future public amenity So the proposal misses the opportunity for placemaking and pedestrian connectivity. Specifically, when we're thinking of infill development, we're thinking about what exists there, how it is compatible with existing there, as well as what's going to be there in the future. Here is the proposed site plan. The applicant did make some minor adjustments, specifically the hammerhead entrance. They've revised to now... just have the trash on one side of the entranceway. But essentially, it remains quite similar to what they had initially proposed to staff. As proposed, it appears to be more of a conventional residential subdivision and not so much something that staff and what our comprehensive plan was envisioning for this area. staff did meet with the applicant and Discussed the types of design elements that we were hoping to be included in the site plan some of which you can see here on the screen specifically the recreational and green space Again, when we're thinking of interconnectivity, that's not just sidewalks throughout a site plan. That's considering parcels surrounding the site plan. That's considering the Peachtree Creek Greenway that is proposed there and how you can incorporate that proposed development to be within your site design. Another aspect that we continue to struggle with in our regional centers is getting mixed-use development. A way that we can bridge that is by having live-work units, specifically when we're talking about parcels that are on our arterial and collector streets. Not always having mixed use available, staff can understand. The economy right now makes that somewhat difficult. But the population in this area, specifically the student population, having live work units, studio, flex spaces would be probably a good thing to offer. Staff did continue to show that you can have the townhouse development in the rear of the property. This lower density provides a good transitional buffer between again those busier streets at the front of the property and the single family housing that's at the rear of the property. Here's just an overview. We're remaining to have that stream buffer acknowledged at the front of the property, but you can see here that there's a bit of a plaza design that incorporates the green space that's going to be at the front of the property to actually connect to where people are going to live, specifically introducing multifamily housing, which meets the requirements of the regional center, MR2, to have a mixture of housing types, not one just single housing type. and actually incorporating the future greenway into the design. Staff believes an alternative site design would better utilize the future greenway, as well as meet and align with the comprehensive plan and the rezone criteria, specifically the rezone criteria of section 7.4.5 A, B, and E, and therefore staff is recommending denial.

Thank you, ma'am. Is the applicant present? Good evening, ma'am.

Good evening, Michelle Battle with Battle Law, 3562 Haversham at North Lake, Tucker, Georgia, 30084. I'm going to try and move through quickly my presentation, because I really want to address some stuff that staff has just indicated in their presentation. So when we first started with this property quite a few years ago, we came with a plan. My client came with a plan to keep the existing building and add some additional townhomes off to the side to allow for the existing building to be converted into multifamily housing. and unfortunately with some of the changes in the economy as well as once they started digging into many of the changes that would be needed in order to do the conversion they realized that the pricing of it just simply no longer penciled out and so that led us to come back in order to try and request the modifications that you see here today now what i think is so interesting because It's wonderful to have pretty pictures, but if you can't actually make those pretty pictures comply with the land development code, then you have nothing but a pretty picture. And so while I appreciate what staff has put together, I think you can look at this site plan and ask I don't even know where you would put all the things that staff just suggested could be on this property. It doesn't seem to be scaled at the size of this particular piece of property. Additionally, we know that we only have one point of access. And with that one point of access, we have to also have parking on the site. If you put the parking on the site and the buildings, as staff showed, it appears to me that we would be encroaching into the stream buffer. We can't put buildings across the stream buffer. Additionally, the code indicates that you cannot have more than 75 units on a property without having two points of entry, and trust me, Chief Lobby and I go around and around, and that is one of the hardest men to get past in DeKalb County these days because he is sticking straight to that code with regards to entrance points and how we are able to maneuver for fire and safety. So what we have proposed on our particular plan is what we believe is a plan that allows us not to maximize the site because we are also on the edge of the regional center designation, which means that we are actually supposed to be down zoning in terms of the amount of density that we have along the perimeter of the site. We've met with the Stanton, I think it's called Stantondale community that's right behind. They were not at all excited about having the density initially on the site. We were pushing closer into them. We came back with the 30-foot buffer that they requested along with fencing along that line. But they were very concerned about putting an overabundance of density on this site right adjacent to that single family detached R100 residential community. So what we have done is tried to bridge that gap in between by not increasing the density from what we originally had proposed. We are actually slightly less than the total number of units that we started with. So we're looking at 41 units of The site plan, we believe, does in fact bring this community into alignment with the path that is coming. We have no problem connecting into that path. We have shown improvements and green space along the frontage of the project. The units that we are showing are the other side of the stream. In fact, the area where we were proposing the dog park, there was some concern during the planning commission that some of the excrement that might occur from, well, not might occur, but would occur from the dog park may actually negatively impact the stream. So we were asked to kind of not have a dog park in that area. We know that within that stream buffer, we cannot actually remove any of the existing foliage and shrubs and trees within there that is not allowed under the county code. And so therefore, we really can't do anything other than leave that as kind of green space and allow for people to kind of picnic and be in that space on their own. Behind that, we're talking about the town homes, and those are 41 town homes. We've added additional green space, particularly between the buildings there that you see closest to in the middle in order to give more of a sense of community with sidewalks through the interior there. And we believe that that will be a very nice space for people to come and gather and enjoy the greenery as well as hopefully those who are walking along through that path they being able to connect into that path as well so we believe that we've done all that we can to be able to support the overall vision not only in consistency with the regional center land use designation but with all of the conversations that we have had with the community we had such a productive conversation I was so impressed with the individuals on the district one community council. It was a mixture of a multi-generational conversation about what would happen on this property. They recommended unanimously approval of the site. And additionally, unlike some of the communities that we go into, they did not want to overly restrict the ability to have rentals on this property. And so they actually proposed the 20, I think it's RENTAL RESTRICTION BECAUSE THEY WANTED PEOPLE TO ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO EITHER RENT SOME OF THESE UNITS OR LIVE. AND THAT WAS REALLY THE MULTIGENERATIONAL CONVERSATION THAT PURSUED WITHIN THAT COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING, WHICH WAS JUST AMAZING TO SEE. SO WE ARE HERE ASKING FOR APPROVAL OF THIS APPLICATION. WE'VE WORKED VERY HARD. in order to come up with a site plan that we believe is reasonable and that does meet the vision that the overall community has for this project. We also have provided some elevations with regards to what the units will look like, and I believe that With the balconies and also some changes, which we are required to do anyway, under Article 5 of the zoning regulations, that we will have some differentiation in the facades, that this will be a beautiful complex and one that will very much honor my client. who very unfortunately passed a couple of weeks ago. And so we are here trying to honor the vision that he had for this property. And we are hopeful that we can get an approval this evening based on the conditions that were proposed by community council. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else in favor? Come to the microphone. If we can pause the clock. All right. Start the clock back. Thank you.

Hi. My name is Angela Gelso. I didn't plan to speak on this today. Just came to hear the drama about the data centers and just happened to stay. Sorry. But I am on Community Council 1, and we did review this. Thank you, Michelle. We did review this, and we did have what we called a multi-generational discourse about the concept of rental properties versus you know, uh, these, uh, beautiful single, uh, family town homes. Um, and between, uh, our members, you know, there was a divide between, um, those of us who, who could envision a luxury rental property space on this parcel. And, and the majority could not, uh, the majority felt pretty strongly that, um, they did not want to see a large number of rental properties on, um, this parcel, so we actually asked them to pare down. So while I think the proposed changes to the plans are really beautiful, I think in practice it's not necessarily what the community wants at this time.

So are you in favor of the application?

I'm in favor of the application, yes. OK, thank you. Not in favor of the changes to the application.

Of the changes. OK, thank you. I just wanted to make sure we were all clear.

Yes. Yes. So anyways, that's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.

Anyone else in favor? All right. Is there anyone in opposition who would like to speak to this item? And there's about a minute left of the in favor. Anyone in opposition? All right. Seeing no one in opposition, if staff could come forward again and give their recommendation. Staff recommendation is for denial. Thank you so much. Is there a motion?

Yes, Madam Presenting Officer, thank you. I'd like to make a motion to defer for 30 days, and then I do have some follow-up questions for that.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Commissioner Patrick, you have the floor.

Okay. Attorney Battle, good to see you. Good to see you. So some of the basic questions I have, how is trash going to be picked up on the property? Is the idea that everyone takes their trash to a central receptacle, or will the garbage trucks come in and pick them up?

There will be a, what do you call it, a company that will come around that will do the trash. I think there's going to be sitting out the trash cans and picking them up. I think, what do they call it, concierge trash pickup.

And just to be clear, does that mean that Concierge Trash is going to collect everything and drop it at a central location?

I will have to ask that question, but that is my understanding.

OK. And just because we have the finest sanitation department in America.

Solid waste.

I want to make a pitch for our guys. Absolutely. Solid waste. But I do want to encourage that. I guess my rationale for asking that is I would really not want to see the central collection area at the front. Oh, definitely not. Got it. Understood. And so if you're able during these 30 days to sort of indicate specifically where the sanitation collection point would be located, maybe a little bit of understanding of how it's going to be screened. Okay. That would be helpful. Okay. And I will note that this Board of Commissioners adopted an ordinance that says essentially a ratio of you've got this many units and we anticipate this much volume of trash to make sure that there is capacity on site to handle that versus overflow and agitating the good folks at Stanton Dale.

Okay.

Absolutely. When it comes to parking spaces, and this is something that I've seen throughout my career, particularly on multifamily developments like this, who is responsible for the allocation of parking spaces? How many parking spaces go to each unit? How are you addressing the idea of parking in general? And then when company comes over, Where are they parking? Gotcha.

So each unit will have a two-car garage with a two-car parking pad to the front. Let me go back. Well, I can't go back because I can't see the plan. I can't remember. Can I get back to the plan?

Can we get the presentation back?

We're running short on time, so if you can just, I'll go with your word.

Okay, no problem. So that's what we are looking at now with the two parking spaces in front. And then I believe at the kiosk, we will have a few parking spaces. But if you're asking if we have like a parking lot area for guests, we do not. We don't. OK. All right. Now, I will say we could ask. the office building next door because i believe that their hours are pretty much over by five or six whether or not we might be able to do some shared parking or parking overflow within their parking lot okay all right uh if you could look into that would be great okay um there was a statement made uh fire safety requires two entrance points for 75 units

And this property only has a single entry point. Can staff look into that or just verify that for us by the time we get back? That's in the land development code. Article 14. And then if you could just clarify where exactly the trail will be located. Okay. And the documents you had were nice, but they kind of got a little fuzzy as you started to zoom in.

So with regards to the trail, we are happy to put in a condition that we will connect into it. Quite honestly, we have asked for the trail information. I have not seen exactly where they are. I know that they're out there building the trail now.

So my assumption is it really should not be in the stream buffer. We don't have money to build it, so they're not building it right now until we show it. Well, there you have it. They're staking it out, though. Okay. Wherever it's staked, that's where we'll be. Understood. So I guess part of my ask, since my time is running out, I suspect my colleague is going to have some questions. If staff, if we could get together with you with some other conditions before we come back for the 30-day. Absolutely. And then if you could just, we'll have those formalized. And one final question. On the diagram that staff did on 05, again, if you guys could show where that location of the trail would be in context to the facade of the multifamily, I think that would be very appropriate. And as we had mentioned, since you're talking about balconies, as you've got right there, just from experience, a good five-foot depth balcony times the width of your garage right there is an ideal open space, gathering space. And then depending on where the sun sets during the year, perhaps some type of an awning product might be appropriate for that as well.

Okay.

Okay.

Not a problem. Thank you.

That's 14 years of planning, my friends.

Got you.

Thank you, Commissioner Patrick. Commissioner Bolton.

Thank you, Madam Peel. And thank you, Commissioner Patrick, for asking those questions. Some of those, not all of it, are things I was considering. First, I did want to just mention to staff, I would like to meet with you guys because I kind of want to talk through what you suggested versus how it contradicted with what Ms. Battle suggested. spoke about today, because some of it I was excited about. So that brings me to my question for you, Ms. Battle. Was it the extent to what was being suggested, or are you indicating that no mixed use is a possibility here? And what did that conversation look like when it was brought to community members?

So we looked at whether or not we could add an additional building onto the site that would be multifamily. Adding that multifamily building, we felt, did not really add anything to the community. When we were looking at it, it wouldn't have been more than, I guess, looking at the fact that we are capped at 75. We had actually... looked at a plan and I think the commissioner can say this. We had gone out to another site, looked at a different version of town homes where we could double the number of units. But doing that really caused challenges with the site layout and also we were not going to be able to meet the two entry requirement that would be required by the county. So we went back to look at how we could best utilize the site provide the green space that is required because we are supposed to preserve green space and all of the stream buffer does not count towards that preservation. So when we're looking at trying to meet all the code requirements as well as all of the compliance with the entrance point but also all the internal things that the fire chief and others look at, we were not able to put in that additional building. That being said, when we went to community council, and I think this is what the young lady was trying to say, there was not huge support for any multifamily on this project. I'm sure that you all know, and I was not involved in it, but from the project that's on the access road off of 85, I think there was an effort to ramp down the amount of multifamily. These folks feel like this is a better area for a fee simple type unit. But that multi-generational conversation said, but hey, if they're going to put these town homes here, and we would prefer to have some type of ownership product, we still want to have the possibility of having some rentals within that context. But I promise you, if I had come to that board with a big multi-family building there along with those town homes, I would not be standing here saying that I got a recommendation of approval. Because there were some folks on there that were vehemently opposed to having any type of big multi-family type product on the property. So I think that it lays out well the way that it is shown currently. While it doesn't have the diversity of product, I think that it makes sense as a suitable transition between the multifamily around that perimeter of Mercer. We worked on the project that Mercer did with the dorms that they brought in. There's a lot of multifamily around the circle I happen to go that way often. I think that's Flowers Road. Down Flowers Road, there's a number of multifamily uses as well as when you're going down Mercer University. There's plenty of multifamily in the area. What there's not are townhomes and particularly fee-simple townhomes. And so we feel like we're bringing diversity into an area that has been fairly saturated with multifamily-type product.

Okay. Thank you, ma'am. And I yield back.

Thank you so much. Commissioner Patrick, your second opportunity.

Thank you, Madam Presenting Officer. One final question, Attorney Battle. I think you said the community was okay with up to 20% rental. Is that correct?

It should have been in the staff recommendation, but I believe it was 20% rental. Okay.

I just wanted to confirm that.

Yeah, because they definitely did not want the 5% because they felt that was too low. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you much. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Patrick. Seeing no further requests to speak, please open the machine for the vote. Motion to defer carries. We are now on case D3, which is item.

Commissioner, was that for decision only? Oh, I'm sorry. Was that for public hearing?

For decision only. Thank you. I missed that.

Do we need to restate the motion? Restate the motion.

Motion to defer for 30 days to decision only. And according to this document right here, 30 days gets us to September 8th.

Beautiful. Thank you. Second stands.

Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. Do we need to re-vote, or is that clear? All right, thank you, sir. All right, Case D3, Item 2026-0143, Commission District 3, Super District 6, Application of TK Investments, LLC, Care of Battle Law, PC, to rezone properties from R75 Zoning District to MR1 Zoning District to allow for a mixed residential community at 2674, 2682, and 2690 Gresham Road. Good evening.

all right good evening commissioners i'm going to keep this very brief out of respect for everybody's time we've had some discussion with the applicant about some minor site plan changes and also due to reasons that were mentioned at the tail end of that staff report planning staff is recommending that this case be deferred to the september 24th board of commissioners meeting thank you thank you is there any is the applicant here of course the applicant is here welcome back

Again, Michelle Battle with Battle Law 3562 Habersham at North Lake Tucker, Georgia 30084. We are fine with the deferral, not full cycle, sorry, deferral to the BOC zoning hearing next month. Thank you.

And to be clear, this is for a public hearing?

Yes. Correct. Okay, thank you.

Is there anyone else wanting to speak in favor of this item? Seeing no one, is there anyone here to speak in opposition?

anyone to speak in opposition all right if staff can come and give the record one we have one opposition this is tommy travis with the south cap coalition this is my neighborhood one second let's make sure we get the clock on the screen all right go ahead this is tommy travel south cap coalition and this is my neighborhood and i just want to officially say we're speaking in opposition i was talking to mr battle and it's just need for more community time to talk to the neighborhood and and let the plans be really flushed out because initially most of us in our neighborhood we're still thinking of the trial level apartments which they originally submitted and she just told me that that changed so we just need more time to flush it out but officially we're against it okay thank you sir anyone else in opposition all righty please restate the recommendation and again our recommendation is a deferral to the september 24th boc meeting

for public hearing. Is there a motion? Motion to defer to the September 24th BOC with public hearing.

Thank you. Commissioner Terry has seconded. I am seeing no request to speak. Please open the machine for the vote.

24th. 22nd, 24th.

24th. 24th.

22nd.

I'm sorry, 22nd.

I thought it was the 24th.

Let's see.

Yeah, our cheat sheet says 22nd, but let's confirm.

That might be for the BOC. I think that's BOC, but I think the zoning is the 24th.

Well, are we going for the BOC or are we going for the zoning meeting? Yeah, that would... Yeah, because, no, it can't be the 22nd.

September 24th will be your evening Board of Commissioners zoning meeting. So that's why it's a deferral to September 24th. Perfect. Unfortunately, I got the date wrong on the previous item, so we will have to reconsider that item. We'll give it a third try.

One more try. All right. Mine is correct in September 24th, though. That stands. September 24th is the date for this. Thank you. Thank you.

What will the date be for the other one?

We'll just finish this one, and we'll go back to that one, ma'am. Please open the machine for the vote. Motion to defer carries. So I'm going to go back to D3. I'm going to reread the item.

Do I need to do the motion to reconsider?

Oh, yes. I'm sorry.

Yes. Motion to reconsider item D3. Or D2. I'm sorry. D2. 2026-0139. 2026-0139. Second. Hit your buttons. Please open the machine for that vote.

The date for that one would be September 15th.

All right. Hello.

So that's the third Tuesday?

You guys can get your vote in for me real quick, Commissioner Terry. Commissioner Terry, can you vote for the reconsider, please? Thank you. All right. So now I'm going to read the item, and we'll start over. Great. Item 2026-0139, Commission District 1, Super District 7, application of Urban View Apartments Care About a Law PC to rezone properties from OI Zoning District to MR1 Zoning District to allow a townhome community at 3003 Chamblee Tucker Road and 2936 Mercer University Drive. Yes, Commissioner Patrick, we're just clarifying the meeting date.

So, yeah, I apologize. Your deferral sheets are wrong. It has the incorrect date. There's not actually a meeting on the September 8th. The September 15th would be the AM meeting that would be approximately 30 days from today.

So if you can restate your motion with that date, Commissioner Patrick.

Just for clarity, we are meeting September 24th.

Yes, yes, there is a nighttime zoning meeting on September 24th. Okay.

Then I would move to move it to the September 24th nighttime meeting for decision only. You can do it as decision only. Okay. And, again, I apologize to everybody. The rationale is I'm actually going to be at regional leadership training on the 15th. And so the 8th would have been a better day, but it is what it is.

Thank you. Okay.

And, again, that was for decision only.

Great. Decision only. Thank you so much. If you'll hit your button. Second.

September 24th for decision only. Yes.

Thank you. And if we can open the machine for the vote. Thank y'all so much, and thank y'all for keeping us on track.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. On to page four for... Case D4, item 2026-0150, District 3 and Super District 6, application of Eisenhower Services Incorporated care of Tracy Swearington Sr. to amend the character area from light industrial to suburban character area to allow a single family residential development at 1680 and 1700 Henrico Road. Welcome back.

Thank you. And there's also a companion, D5 is a companion case for the rezoning of the same.

Yes, sir. Item 2026-0150, Commission District 3, Super District 6, application of Eisenhower Services, Inc., care of Tracy Swearington Sr. to rezone property from Tier 4A of the Boulder Crest Overlay District within the Soapstone Historic District with underlying... M Industrial Zoning District to Tier 5 of the Boulder Cross Overlay District within the Soapstone Historic District with the underlying R100 Zoning District to allow for a single family residential development at 1680, 1690, and 1700 Henrico Road. Yes, thank you.

And so these are, as we mentioned, two companion cases, D4 and D5 for 1680, 1690, and 1700 Henrico Road to allow the change from character area from a light industrial to suburban and also for a rezoning from the industrial Tier 4A boulder crest to Tier 5 single family boulder crest. And the community council recommended a full cycle deferral. The planning commission recommended now. And the staff recommendation is approval with one condition. This is the land use map that shows the three properties from light industrial to suburban. And the properties on the north side of Henrico Road, it's also bounded by 285 and 675. There's also a single family to the northeast. That subdivision's in pretty good condition. And of course Henrico Road is a collector road. And then here's the zoning map. The applicant is proposing 33 lots. There is, on either side of the entrance to his plan, there is truck parking as well that's actually in illegal use that's not allowed in the Boulder Crest Overlay. And here's another color version of the plan. Here are some proposed elevations. Staff is recommending approval given the housing goals of the 2050 comprehensive plan. The 12 year absence of any industrial development on the subject properties. the desired compatibility of the proposed use with the established neighborhood to the northeast, and the site's demonstrated ability to meet the Tier 5 overlay standards. So staff is recommending approval with one condition, the condition being development shall not exceed 33 single-family detached lots. I know that in your packet we had 11 conditions, but all of those are mainly just already required anyway by the zoning code, so we're just trying to simplify the conditions. So our recommendation is approval with conditions.

Thank you, sir. Is the applicant here with us today? Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members.

Tracy Swearingen of Eisenhower Services on behalf of Seven Stone Capital. In line with what staff recommendation is, we would be requesting approval this time. We've been back before the committee previously. On the same issue, we did make some revisions that were in accordance with DeKalb regulations and in conjunction with our working with staff. We assure you we would not exceed the 33 units that have been proposed in this and would ask that staff, hopefully, not staff, excuse me, committee would vote for it tonight in favor. And if I have any other time, I'd like to reserve it for rebuttal if need be.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, ma'am.

Anyone else here in favor of the item? Anyone else in favor? All right, thank you. Anyone in opposition? Good evening.

Good evening.

One second. There's the clock. Okay, go ahead.

Thank you. Larry Kaiser, Executive Director of the Metro South Community Improvement District. We represent approximately 225 business owners. We have been opposed to this from day one. We have offered at least one letter, if not two, to the commission. indicating our displeasure with this rezoning, as well as the staff's recommendation to rezone single family across the street from this particular parcel. A couple items I want to bring to the commission's attention. One is, this is an overstating, overarching comment, that is, we as a business community do not want to lose any footprint of any industrial property, pure and simple. That's an overarching comment across anything that is attempted to be rezoned, something other than light industrial, heavy industrial, or commercial in this area. Let me go through a couple of the comments from staff in their report. Number one, staff talks about traffic along the corridor. And the fact that there is residential along the corridor, and there is. That residential on the northeast side of the particular parcel, that was built, I would say, most probably 15 to 20 years after the industrial was set up and developed in the 1960s in this area of the Boulder Crest Connelly area. So the residential came in afterwards, just a side comment. Second comment is there was also a comment about residential traffic along the corridor. And there's also some comments, I think, about the industrial freight movements along the corridor. Well, if you've been out there, you will note that Copper's Road is within 100 feet, 200 feet of this property. Copper's Road and Copper's Court has several very large industrial freight parking locations along that corridor. They're not exactly filled now, but they're there for a reason. And the reason is to accommodate truck parking. I can only imagine more homes on this rezoning and then across the street when staff wants to rezone those parcels to be consistent with what's across the street that's trying to be rezoned. That makes no sense. Why would we put more homes? Why would we try to rezone industrial property residential on Henrico Road, right next to Copper's Court and Copper's Road? Makes no sense. Another comment from staff. And I have to read this. This one really makes us, as a board, really makes us smile a little bit. And we're trying to work with staff on this one, so we appreciate Mr. Reed and staff working with us on this. But number five, it talks about no industrial development has occurred on the subject property since the BOD was originally established in 2013, calling in question the viability of industrial uses in this location. Do you know why that is? The overlay district, pure and simple. I have five case histories that, or three I should say, that I've given John, two others, of why we have not had growth of industrial properties, industrial development in this district. It's the overlay district, pure and simple. And so we're trying to work on that right now. So I don't think that's very viable at all. So I do not – I mean, we also have the small area study, small plan studies being done. From my perspective, from the board's perspective, from the perspective of I would imagine a majority of the business owners, we do oppose this rezoning as well as any staff recommendation to rezone the industrial properties across the street. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else in opposition? Good evening, ma'am.

Hi, good evening. My name is Margaret Mohammed. This is my husband, Roderick Mohammed. We are the home that you are referring to across the street. We have been there for 30 years before any subdivision was ever built. We are zone manufacturing. We are here today to stand with this gentleman here. We would like to keep our home as zone manufacturing. We're the second one on the list after you, sir.

We were grandfathered in when we bought our property in 1979. We haven't break our stability when it comes to occupying, pay our taxes. We've been established a business license.

We were zoned in and we were licensed 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026. Then we get in 2026, someone says we were given the license in error. We have discontinued our business, we have shut down our business, and we are here to stand for our right under Article 8 to retain our zone manufacturing. Please and thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Is there anyone else here to speak in opposition? Anyone else in opposition? All right. Um, there is some time for rebuttal left if you would like to have rebuttal, sir.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much again. Um, I'd like to start maybe in reverse on rebuttal with a couple. I'm not for sure, but the zoning in the area that we're looking to redevelop or to develop has been there for approximately over 12 years since the comprehensive plan was done, the 2050 study. This is in alignment with the goals of the community in DeKalb County for that area. And that would be for suburban land use consistent with the 2050 comprehensive plan. Their property does not lie within the area that is under the ownership of my client. And I don't think it would negatively affect any of their standing within the boundaries of their property. In addition, Mr. Kaiser brought up, again, the traffic study. And I can appreciate his comments, but I think they were being a little bit cherry picked from the staff report. Staff decided to condense it down to one, but I'm sure everyone probably has a copy or one available to them on the committee regarding this. But in specific, it goes into addressing the truck routes. And I'll read directly from the report that the properties fronting Henrico Road abutting the east and west side of one of the subject properties, 1680 Henrico Road, currently contains truck parking. And that is currently deemed as the illegal truck parking that staff mentioned earlier. if approved residents of the new single family project will be accessing a heavy truck route and may encounter potential visual traffic and noise impacts from adjacent industrial uses, which Mr. Kaiser is pushing for. However, the existing neighborhood would have similar or or more intense impacts in the future if these parcels were developed as currently entitled under the Tier 4A. So, again, we would ask for approval from the committee. I also would like to say that we, again, are willing to meet all conditions as they've been set. And as staff reported, most of those conditions outside of that 33 unit limit are already a part of the zoning regulations of DeKalb County. So there wouldn't be an argument there regardless. There is no appearance that approving or requesting the zoning change to Tier 5 would adversely affect the viability of the remaining Tier 4A properties in the area, and definitely it would not also affect the Boulder Crest overlay. That being said, if there are no other questions of me, I will rest and ask that the board either approve or, in the absence of that, my client and I are requesting a denial rather than an additional deferral. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. If staff will come up and give the recommendation again.

Staff recommendation is for approval with conditions.

Bless you. All right. Thank you, sir. Is there a motion? And we'll do these separate. So first is item 2026-0150. Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second.

Second for purposes of discussion.

All right. Thank you, Commissioner Terry. Commissioner Messiah has the floor.

Thank you so much. There are a number of considerations I'll tell you here as a commissioner that I am keeping in mind. One is the illegal truck parking that continues to run rampant and terrorize not just the commercial community, but also the residential community as well. Not to boot that it's illegal continues to create a challenge. I will also read just a couple of points that stood out for me in preparation even before hearing today that I agree wholeheartedly with staff and I have has been supported by the residents in the area and that it is the policy that is currently written is essentially to protect the residential and commercial areas from the impact of the light industrial uses. It also supports the broader planning principle that residential and industrial land use should be arranged in appropriate and separation transitions and bufferings. This is helping to achieve that. The next page, another line, that protecting existing residents from future industrial development on the subject property may be more important at this time, and I agree wholeheartedly. Also, that new and diverse housing types, and this is something my colleague to the left here should appreciate, new and diverse housing types will help the county meet market demand and support continued development. Growth and that this development is expected to bring that with that being said again.

My motion stands to approve Thank You, Commissioner Terry Yes, thank you madam chair can staff pull back up their presentation Please And John you go back to the site plan Yeah, start right there. So If y'all would like to see it, I can see it, but if y'all, if you can put it on their screens, please. So I think the biggest issue that we have with this particular area is these two parcels that are on either side of this, basically what sort of appeals like a flag lot. And I do think the concern of having the exit at Henrico Road right across from the truck exit point will – might face some transportation department challenges. So, John, did the transportation department review any of these plans? What is their comments?

They commented on right-of-way dedication.

So a secondary turn-off lane, I guess?

Oh, okay. Adam's going to comment on that.

commissioner terry um actually in the in the case of something like this the transportation department would generally actually favor a direct entrance to a development opposite an existing curb cut we do there are certain distance requirements in our land development code for new streets that are created they can't be too close to existing street cutouts or curb cuts based off of the speed limit of the particular route of way

Is it a staggered intersection from Copper's Court, or is the alignment exactly as an intersection?

Is there another statement?

Let me see. Maybe go one slide forward. You can't really see it. Okay. So I think that right, just this issue right here, I think does warrant further discussion with planning staff and the transportation department. I think it would be more, and go back to the previous slide, John. So that's just one like safety issue that I think we haven't resolved here. The other is that if you look at these three parcels combined, the opportunity to create something that might be a little more of a live-work, mixed-use type development, I think, would... be really interesting, in my opinion. What we've talked about in other zoning cases is the idea of live work. In the past, we've discussed on this board an artist colony, a maker space, something that basically would be sort of a way for people to live and have studios. And there's a whole variety of business types that can be allowed in a light industrial. And so I think what the CID is looking for is some sort of business aspect, right? But if you sort of chop these two parcels in half, what you're doing really, in my opinion, is you're making it much more difficult to redevelop those other two parcels. And so I think because we're working on a small area plan on the Boulder Crest overlay district that's looking at several of these sort of multiple parcels that are a little bit disjointed. They've developed over different times. But if you looked at a satellite map of those two lots, I mean, it kind of looks like a junkyard, to be honest. And so there's still not the alleviation of the concern that we're putting houses on either side of two. But if you go out to the site, and I have, it's basically just a bunch of trucks in the yard. and debris and trash. And as you said, there's two illegally operating businesses there. So I just think that this warrants a little bit more time. If you develop this site, which is, to be quite frank, it's not anything, I wouldn't really call it new or diverse housing. It really is just a cookie cul-de-sac subdivision. There's nothing special about it. But the overlay district really wants to see more walkability, more mixed product types, more opportunity for live work. And I think this actually could be a good compromise, Mr. Reid. So with that, I would withdraw my second and make a substitute motion to defer this for two cycles to allow for the small area plan process to continue and for us to meet with the CID, with the neighbors to get a further grasp of what this particular area could develop into in the future.

you thank you commissioner terry if we can get the voting portion back on our screens please All right, Commissioner Terry, you made a substitute motion. Is there a second for his substitute motion? Second. Seconded by Commissioner Long-Spears. So if we can reflect that in the machines. And now, Commissioner Asai, you have requested to speak for the second time.

Thank you so much. I mean, again, one of the things that staff even suggested is this would allow for a diversity. There are certain neighborhoods that just don't lend itself to to having some of the ideas that my colleague has here. But I'm going specifically to one of the documents in Department of Planning Sustainability, and that's the Public Works Traffic Engineering Zoning Comments Forum. And the comment specifically says, after review, no traffic concerns are identified with the proposed rezoning and special land use permit modification. So it is specifically addressing the issues related to the traffic rezoning of this. To the extent that we have illegal truck parking, I don't think that that should be the catalyst for disallowing a change in zoning that is consistent with what I have heard specifically from the community in terms of what they have sought here. As it relates to additional plannings that are taking place those will come and will address things then but at this point to hold up a viable option for the community that will address a pervasive issue to be quite frank that has not been done prior to this and has not been met as much bigger before my predecessor left or as much emphasis in infiltration I would argue prior to then I am focusing on what the community has shared that they want. We are addressing and there is no concerns related to traffic and to the extent that this is a viable option and opportunity for the community then that is what I support as the district commissioner. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Terry, your second opportunity.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Before you start, I wanted to clarify your motion again for me, sir?

Two-cycle deferral.

Two-cycle deferral. Okay, thank you.

Yes, which would be... Public hearing? Yes. Well, yeah, just to go back through the cycle. Oh, that's true.

Thank you.

So it would be the November 19th meeting, zoning meeting. So I still want to work with Commissioner Messiah on this agenda item. I've I think that there's an opportunity for us to put our heads together, get with the CID, which is a stakeholder, but also the nearby neighbors and I think the planning department to figure out if we can work out something that would get us to an approval or at least a consensus. I would just ask my colleagues just to give us a little bit of time to work out the differences. I feel confident that we can have meetings over the next few months, try to iron out some of these details, and hopefully reach consensus when we come back in November. Thank you.

All right, thank you so much. Please open the machine for the vote. Wait, Commissioner Patrick, you jumped in at the last second there to request to speak.

So as you know, I represent District 1, and I'm going to talk about District 1. So way back in the day, in the 1940s, it was way back in the day before most of us were born. But there was this notion of develop, get it done. And so Plantation Pipeline came along, and GM came along. And at the time, I guess there was this notion of living close to work. We didn't have 285, and we just wanted to get to work quickly, I guess. But between the tank farm and GM, they built a neighborhood that I lived in. And with the neighborhood, they built a school, and there was always the concerns of tanker trucks going down woodwind, hitting Tilly Mill, and then having to make a right-hand turn. They've done a lot of things to... try and work around the difficulties of a school and a tank trucker location. But it is always something to be cautious about, the way things were done in the past versus how we have our residents who are much more activists these days. And so we always want to be cautious about, in District 1 at least, the idea of maybe heavy industrial activities next to residential activities. Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer.

Machines are open for the vote. You guys are kidding me. Deferral carries for this first item. Next we have item 2026-0151, which was the companion item. Is there a motion?

Motion to approve, same idea.

Is there a second? Your motion fails for lack of second. Is there a substitute motion?

Yes, motion to defer for two cycles to the November 19th meeting for public hearing.

Thank you. If we can clear the board so he can hit the button. And is there a second for his motion? Michelle, can I get a second? All right. Okay. Seconded by Commissioner Bolton. Commissioner Masai, you are requesting to speak, correct?

Yes. Okay. I just want to say that plain and simple, what's going to happen is the residential potential properties in here is going to end up being an issue. So there used to be, and I also want to make sure it's abundantly clear, something called a work courtesy in our particular district to the community. You realize that that's not necessarily the case. in all instances into the community that has sought for residential and to be able to have buffers particularly where we have illegally parked illegal trucking and we're allowing that to continue along with other plans that have not been completely disclosed to the public at large, which will come out more in the wash. This is going against the idea of us actually doing what the community is asking for. And ensuring that we're having the transitions in trying to eradicate things like illegal or unlawful truck parking in this particular community. Not every community is meant to have the same categorization, particularly as we do get in more of the suburban areas. This is one of those that butts against Clayton County and active, I would argue, is some of the properties that are in the city of Atlanta. With that, I yield back.

Thank you, Commissioner Messiah. Commissioner Terry.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, so I am committed to working with Commissioner Messiah.

Thank you, the time is correct.

Go ahead. The planning department and Mr. Swearington and the CID. I think it would be good if we can take the next couple of months and come together and figure out something that I think both Commissioner Messiah and I can support. I think we actually are pretty close. I really would like to keep us focused. on seeing a positive development for the overlay district i do support more housing in the overlay district in general and i'm hoping that we'll have an opportunity to reach that consensus in the next few months so i'm committed to that commissioner messiah we will reach out to your office and you know through planning and we'll get together and so appreciate the opportunity for us to work on that thank you

Thank you, Commissioner Terry. Seeing no further requests to speak, please open the machine for the vote. Motion to defer. Two full cycles carries. Thank you. Now, bottom of page five, item case D6, item 2026-0453, all commission districts, application of the Director of Planning and Sustainability for a text amendment relating to residential entertainment in RE, OI, OIT, M, M2 zoning districts, and for other purposes. Good evening, ma'am.

Good evening, Commissioners. I'm Yvonne Tramiel, Special Projects Coordinator, Current Planning. And I would like to ask if D7 could also be presented with D6.

OK.

I know. She was talking commission districts, too.

I'm confused by that.

Yes, I will read out case D7. I was like, I didn't call out D6. It's okay. I'm all right. Item 2026-0629, all commission districts, application of the director of planning and sustainability for a text amendment to identify repeated nuisance properties for and establish pathways for notice, corrective action, and related administrative fees. This text amendment is countywide. Thank you, ma'am.

D6, the CC recommendations were as follows. CC1 did not have a quorum. CC2, 3, and 4 did recommend approval, and CC5 recommended a deferral. The Planning Commission for Residential Entertainment did recommend approval with the condition that there would be two parties allowed or two events allowed in the RE district. And then the staff recommendation is a two-cycle deferral, and that is to allow for clarity of definitions to work on the mapping processes, continuing to do research with the legal department and other county departments. And for D7, which is the chronic nuisance, the CCs recommended there was no quorum for CC1. CCs 2, 3, and 4 did recommend approval. CC5 recommended a deferral. And then the Planning Commission did recommend approval. And then for staff recommendation, it is a two-cycle deferral. And that is to allow for the clarity of definitions, to allow for mapping processes, continuing research with the law department and other county departments.

Thank you, ma'am. Is there anyone here to speak in favor of these items? Anyone to speak in favor of these items? Seeing no one, is there anyone here to speak in opposition?

Is there a camera?

Anyone here to speak in opposition? All right, seeing no one. Ma'am, if you will come back up.

The staff recommendation for D6 and for D7 is a two-cycle deferral to allow for additional clarity of the definitions and to allow for additional research with the law department and county departments.

Thank you so much. So we'll start with case D6, which is item 2026-0453. Is there a motion?

I move to defer for two cycles.

Thank you. Is there a second?

Madam Presiding Officer, you can take both of those together.

Okay, so for 2026-0453 and 2026-0629, does your motion stand?

Motion stands, two cycle deferral for both. Second. And you second that.

Seeing no request to speak, please open the machine for a vote. Two cycle deferral carries, thank you. All right. So that exhausts our deferred cases. Now we're on to new cases. We've already done N1, so now we're on N2, which is bottom of page six. Item 2026-0708, District 3, Super District 7, application of Jamila Brown to rezone property from R75 in Tier 2 of the I-20 Overlay District to C1 Zoning District in Tier 2 of the I-20 Overlay District at 2570 McAfee Road. Welcome back.

Good evening. Yes, as stated, it's a rezoning from R75 to C1 local commercial. It will remain in the Tier 2 overlay, Tier 2 of the I-20 overlay. Community Council voted for approval. Planning Commission was approval with conditions, and the staff recommendation is also approval with conditions. Here is the zoning map. You can see the subject site is the remaining outlier of the R75 zoning district along Candler Road. By rezoning it to see one that is still a permitted zoning district in the suburban land use, which is shown here. It's slightly lighter yellow here. It's tough to see. Otherwise, everything else is within the commercial redevelopment corridor. Staff does recognize that the zoning and land use inconsistency exists here and is something that can be evaluated during the comprehensive plan update. But at this time, we will be remaining the parcel as sub. The proposed office use is a good transition between the commercial corridor of Candler Road and the traditional neighborhood, suburban neighborhood that are also just adjacent to this. Here's an aerial shot of the subject site. It's in between an auto repair shop and the dialysis center. The primary use, again, will be the administrative office operations where the accessory storage will only support off-site production activities. So it is compatible with both the dialysis center and the auto repair shop just next to it as well. Here is the site plan. Because it's in the I-20 overlay district, there are strict design requirements that it will have to meet. It's not conditioned on this site plan just to account for any changes that might occur, but it generally meets the requirements, specifically the landscaping, the pedestrian-oriented design. It requires a significant portion of the sidewalk to be enhanced and the building placements. Here are the elevations of the site plan or the site plan as it relates to the existing building just next door is compatible in size and height. Here is also a conceptual elevation. Because it is a transition parcel between a corridor and existing single-family houses, the applicant did take time to have the facade kind of blend in and make a bridge between those two types of designs. And here are staff's proposed conditions. Again, staff recommendation is approval with conditions. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Is the applicant with us this evening? Good evening.

Good evening.

She'll get it from you. Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. There's not much to say. I think it was pretty well said. If we could get her clock on the screen, please. Thank you. Who needs a clock? By law, you do. I think the rezone is relatively simple. I'd like to start with the design. And this is all new to me. And this clicker is fancy. So bear with me for one second. The green button moves you forward. OK. What moves me back? This one? The red one, yes, ma'am. All right. Let's start right here. The rezone is simple. We are asking to move from a residential to a commercial so that we're in compliance with the area. The owner has gone through great, has taken great effort to make sure he is being intentional with the transition of this building from the community. bear with me, to the commercial. So this was intentional design. This is a headquarters for a production company, and I want to bring that up because it makes a difference. This particular owner, who's standing behind me, is a resident of DeKalb County, a Morehouse graduate, and a former DeKalb County educator. All of these things matter because when he was looking for home for his headquarters, he wanted to come back to DeKalb County. I won't take the time to go over these conditions because I think we mentioned it here that Black Ops is a production company. It's a business to business production and the model is not a storage or it's not for storage. So the opportunities are very low for there to be any warehousing. What is stored in the back of the building, going back one more time, The rear part of this building here is where their equipment will be stored, but they took great efforts. It's very difficult to make a warehouse pretty, but the front-facing is extremely attractive because the warehouse is where they're storing their equipment. There's also the equipment. What came up in one of the hearings was that would this equipment be... I'm sorry, would there be the switching out of equipment during the evening, or would it be in front of the building? And we wanted to speak to that since condition number three is there. These are lighting equipment, very expensive equipment that would not be outside at any given period. There is an overhang in the design that allows for them to load and unload. And it is this company's SOP that they do not unload or load equipment in the evenings and rarely on weekends. The other thing we wanted to bring up is that they've been very intentional about the traffic patterns that came up during our meetings. The staff will be leaving work when the community is coming home. So they'll be working against each other. And I just want to talk a little bit about Black Ops and who they are and what they do so that you know that what's coming here is promised not only to be a benefit to DeKalb County, but there is the opportunity for internships for students in the area. And that is something that Warren and his team is looking forward to. And since it was brought up that this photo is mainly women, this is just a stock photo. They are not going to focus on just guys. And there will be young women who are in this. Warren really wanted to make sure that there was an opportunity for students and individuals, young people in the DeKalb County to learn about AV and the opportunity to do productions on a larger scale. I'm going to yield there and let Warren take the last five minutes. Is that OK? Yes, ma'am.

I'm typically long-winded, but I don't think I'll need five minutes. Thank you for the time this evening. We've worked really hard to establish something that we feel like we can be a pillar of the community. And we're very proud about the prospect of calling our new home for our production company. potentially on 25th Street and McAfee. Currently, we are located at 4818 Fulton Industrial, and we're seeking to establish more of a business professional office that is closer to my home, which is off of Third Avenue in DeKalb County, right across from Drew Charter School. Just one correction. I technically was not an educator in DeKalb County. I was technically Atlanta Public Schools, but still a former educator nonetheless. Don't attack me, Commissioner. I still love DeKalb County. But as Jamila mentioned, really interested in continuing that relationship that we have with all the school districts, especially those within the community in District 3. to support the development of learning how to become a producer, whether that's audio-visual technology and or general production. So I think that we've covered everything for the most part. Yeah, that's all I got. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Is there anyone else who would like to speak in favor of this project? Anyone else in favor? All right, seeing no one. Is anyone in opposition? Is there anyone in opposition of this zoning case? Seeing no one in opposition, staff, if you can come up and restate your recommendation. Staff recommendation is approval with conditions. Thank you so much. Is there a motion? Motion to approve with conditions. Thank you. Second. Thank you so much. And Commissioner Masai has requested to speak. You have the floor, ma'am.

Just thank you for the presentation you put together. I heard from planning, and we were able to go through part of the presentation you put together. And my understanding is that you guys did an amazing job at organizing, structuring, and presenting it to make it easier for people our staff to support and thank you for bringing it into our community and into the district. There's nothing wrong with being a city of Atlanta educator. I'll tell you, both of my children, one of which I've got to go in a moment to go support moving into LSU, but graduated from city of Atlanta. I've always said, even though I've been demonized in certain ways for this, that I'm a proud city of Atlanta, DeKalb County. So thank you for bringing this into the community. I look forward to what you're going to do to further support us. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Messiah. Commissioner Bolton.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think you did your due diligence in describing what a great program that you will be bringing to DeKalb. I think you did a better job in our meeting, and you're leaving everybody in the room wanting to know more. But I'll leave that up to you to take time to share. I will say McAfee is not in the city. It's in unincorporated. And we want to make sure that you do invite our schools that are not. in the city of Atlanta, but our DeKalb County schools to come and be a part of some of your programming and be able to participate in your internships and other opportunities that you have. But I just want to say thank you for headquartering in DeKalb County, and congratulations on this new project. I yield back.

Thank you so much. I see no other requests to speak. Please open the machine for a vote. Motion to approve with conditions carries.

Motion to take agenda items out of order N7 through N10.

Is there a second? N7 through N10?

So I can get out of here.

Just confirm it, N7 through N10? Yes, ma'am. Yes. Commissioner Terry has seconded. All right, so just by show of hands, all in favor?

I got one vote.

We got the votes.

She has the votes. Motion carries.

Denied. I have one more.

Look, y'all all can't leave. I need at least four up here.

Okay. I'm out of here. All right.

Case N7, page 8. You don't have to keep me track on where we are. Item 2026-0824, District 3, Super District 6, application of the Director of Planning and Sustainability to amend the land use plan from light industrial character area to suburban character area at 1670 Henrico Road. Didn't we just do that one?

Yeah, this is adjacent to the one we just did.

Because they think it should be more.

And then 734 is on the other side. So it's actually four cases.

Are we taking them together or separately? Together. OK, that helps. So item 2026-0825. District 3, Super District 6, application of Director of Planning and Sustainability to rezone property from Tier 4A of the Boulder Crest Overlay District within the Slope Stone Historic District with an underlying M Industrial Zoning District to Tier 5 of the Boulder Crest Overlay District within the Slope Stone Historic District with an underlying R100 Zoning District at 1670 Henrico Road. And then in nine as well. Okay. Item 2026-0826, Commission District 3, Super District 6, application of Director of Planning and Sustainability to amend the land use plan from light industrial character area to suburban character area at 1734 Henrico Road. And then in 10, item 2026-0827, District 3, Super District 6, application of Director of Planning and Sustainability to rezone property from Tier 4A of the Boulder Crest Overlay District within the Soapstone Historic District with the underlying M Industrial Zoning District to Tier 5 of the Boulder Crest Overlay District within the Soapstone Historic District with the underlying R100 Zoning District at 1734 Henrico

Yes, sir.

All right. So those four cases you just mentioned, on the map here, you've got 1670 Henrico. And then on the other side of the project we just dealt with a little while ago, have 1734 henrico those are the currently truck truck parking lots and their request is to for both of those to amend the language plan from light industrial to suburban and from the zoning from industrial tier 4a to single family tier 5 the boulder crest overlay district And, of course, this was the county-initiated, Planning Department county-initiated rezoning for these two parcels. And why did we include those? One of the reasons was when we looked to the south, where you do have a lot of that truck parking, Off Copper's Court, there's been a lot of land use impacts to the neighboring residential Tocumto Trail neighborhood over the past many years. And we were trying to eliminate any land use impacts on this side, on the north side of Enrico Road. So given the community-led planning initiatives currently underway, It is a recommendation of the planning director that the rezone applications be withdrawn. However, we have supported an approval from staff for the past cycles that this has been on. So we would be, our recommendation would either be withdrawal or approval for all four.

And would that approval have conditions?

No.

Not from the planning department. OK. Thank you so much. Is there anyone here to speak in favor of this item? These items? In favor of these items? Anyone to speak in favor of the rezone of these parcels? All right. Seeing no one in favor, now is there anyone in opposition? If you're in opposition, you can now step to the mic. Thank you. Thank you.

Hello. My name is Margaret Mohammed. This is my husband, Roderick Mohammed.

Good afternoon, my husband.

Good afternoon. Good evening, members of the board and commission. We are here tonight regarding our 7.66 acre property located at 1734 Henrico Road. We are respectfully requesting the full recognition and retention of our zone M manufacturing classification along with all associated county codes. We base this request on non-confirming use protections established under Article 8. To provide context, we have lived at 1734 Henrico Road for 30 years. Over three decades, we invested our life savings into purchasing and developing this property to establish a commercial vehicle parking lease operation as the foundation of our retirement plan. From day one, we pursued every required administrative channel to ensure complete legal compliance. We worked directly with county officials who reviewed, approved, and issued official business license to operate for four consecutive years, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026. We operated fully in the open in direct reliance on those county approvals. In 2026, county officials notified us that those four years of license after paying taxes every year had been issued in error. Upon receiving this notice, we immediately demonstrated our good faith by discontinuing all business operations on said property. We voluntarily shut down our operation to address this matter through the proper legal channels at significant personal expense while maintaining complete respect for county authority. Hardship. First, vested rights under Article 8, having operated continuously and invested heavily in direct reliance on four years of official county approvals. Our operation qualifies for grandfathered status under Article 8. An administrative error by the county should not negate these vested rights. Second, economic hardship. Stripping our commercial zoning status after decades of residence and financial investment unfairly destroys our life savings and retirement security. Third, practical retention. We are simply asking to maintain our zone M classification. In conclusion, we respectfully ask the board to acknowledge our grandfathered protections under Article 8, affirm the Zone M classification for 1734 Henrico Road, and allow us to proceed under the county guidelines. Thank you for your time and fair consideration. I'm available for any questions now.

Thank you, ma'am. Anyone else here speak in opposition? Anyone else to speak in opposition of this item? All right, I am seeing no one. Sir, if you'll come back up and restate staff recommendation.

Staff recommendation is withdrawal, but we would be supportive of approval.

All right. Is there a motion?

Motion to approve.

Motion to approve. Is there a second?

Second for purposes of discussion.

Seconded by Commissioner Tarrick. Commissioner Masai, you've requested to speak. You have four minutes.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it, Madam Peo. As shared, this is around and adjacent to the previous item that we dealt with. And it was thought and a forethinking of planning department to consider the transition from the industrial that we have now to residential and some of the challenges that are happening in the residential community and in the industrial. This is very much to try to create a separation and a delineation between where there's residential and where there is industrial. With that being said, to encompass a specific area that is residential and then a specific area where it is industrial. The planning department, not a specific applicant, but it was the planning department that actually, again, had the foresight and realized that this need existed through conversation. I'm sorry, I can't get around people's motivations in terms of development and their development driving factors and forces, the promises they've made to other people and working with other people as to what they would like to see in and around this district. But I will say specifically as the district commissioner, I have been listening continuously to the concerns of the community. And there has to be an eradication and clear delineation. between the residential and the commercial property. Staff has shared, they've come before us related to this on occasions and supported a approval. And so now, I guess the rationale is based on a small area plan. And I'll remind you that a small area plan started while there was not a district three commissioner sitting in that seat. It was started by the super commissioner. I came on board. It was not initially made a part of. And then, as I found out that he was doing a small area plan, then said, okay, well, then I need to be able to do one after the call of the community to ask for something different, realizing some of the challenges and the focus thereafter. I am willing and I am certain that with any small area plan that is being put together by any planners that they are working with our planning department and it would be consistent with the recommendations that the planning department is making and will not impede that in any way. For that to be the sole reason and rationale is not supported because as any planner developer, they have to work within the confines of our plan and our planning department. Again, I appeal to my colleagues and be in consideration purely focusing on the people, not the politics, not the pluses, and not any benefit to myself, but the concerns of the constituents and their needs that you support what the planning department

not even a developer but planning department has put forth here and actually approve it thank you thank you commissioner messiah commissioner terry thank you madam chair um john can you pull up the the map again please and um if the county attorneys could also come up please have a question for y'all as well give them a second and they'll get it back on the screen There we go. Okay. Do you have the satellite map? Okay. So when you – and, John, I know you were in these conversations going back a year because as we were discussing the Boulder Cross Overlay District and some of the long-range plans, you all indicated that you wanted to really try to – all these parcels – try to have them tie together with sort of a similar character area. So I think that's why you're proposing suburban. Of course, earlier we saw that the middle parcel was looking to do a suburban character area. So I think the main issue that I'm wanting to point out is that because we have two different parcels here, there's also this land to the east that if you look at them all in totality, there's an opportunity for the developer from the previous application to potentially work with planning, district commissioners, the existing property owners to figure out something that actually might be more of an assemblage of parcels so that we can look at doing something a little bit more expansive. And so when I was talking earlier about, you know, maker spaces or like a live work light industrial, the concern I have is if you sort of individually develop these parcels, it doesn't really lend itself to a cohesion or a site plan that would provide the best opportunity for that type of product. So I do want to just ask that we I think we should defer this item because I'm not opposed to changing the land use. I do think that the suburban area might box us out from doing some of that live work. I'm not 100% sure on the ratios or how much square footage you could have in a live work in suburban. So I would like more time for us to just work out the plan. I think if we... you know, pause this until November, we could probably potentially come back with, you know, a plan, right? And it doesn't have to be necessarily one developer, but just something that ties everything together so that we have some community cohesion. So I just wanted to raise that issue. That's why I was advocating earlier for the deferral, just to give us time to work it out as it relates to these two parcels. But John, just because we have the owner of 1734 Henrico Road here, And they seem to express that I don't know if it's that there's a grandfather issue or at the end of the day, this is the county recommending a rezone of private property. And so has the law department provided any feedback or advice to the commissioners on the implications of, in particular, the person who's here today who is concerned that their business potentially would be I guess ended if we make this change we have not been asked about that Commissioner okay okay how long would it take for y'all to just just to look into that issue and just make sure we're not I'd love to just give it an opportunity for y'all to review it and come back with a recommendation just from a legal perspective I mean we would certainly need more facts and it's tough to gauge how much time would be necessary but I certainly can't answer that

here from the dais.

Would 30 days be enough time? Stop. I mean.

I would expect so.

OK. All right. So commissioners, that would be my request is if just, and I think we can certainly talk about the merits of this application. But if it's possible for the law department to provide just I guess a memo, basically, on the implications of this land use change on existing businesses.

Whitney's indicating that she has some background on this situation.

May I, Commissioner Whitney Fuller, Planning and Zoning Administrator? The issue of, in particular, the house has already been established as a legal non-conforming use. We've had a hearing with the Zoning Board of Appeals just recently. last month or in June. I'm getting the day wrong, but it was recent. And that appeal decision was already made. So the issue of them operating their business, which is the truck parking, is illegal, and they have an expiration period at the end of this year to comply.

You've exhausted your time, Commissioner Terry. If we can get our voting screens back up so I can see if there's anyone else requesting to speak. All right. Commissioner Bolton has requested to speak.

You have the floor for your first opportunity. And please excuse me if you already communicated this while I stepped out, but was the four applications from planning, were these already underway or were these proposed as a result of the previous applications that we saw earlier in the meetings?

yeah they were motivated by the other previous applications so you're basically taking the whole quadrant of north of henrico and east of the interstate so the idea was to if you could have all of it residential there wouldn't be any land use impacts between industrial or single family okay

And prior to did the, I think the CID president has left, did they propose anything prior to you guys coming up with this strategy that you've presented before us today? Because he seemed to have strong feelings about the other project earlier. Just curious if they proposed anything else prior to.

Okay, when you say they, are you talking about the?

CID.

The CID? No, I think, I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I think he was just opposed to any residential rezones in that industrial, existing industrial property.

Okay, thank you. I yield back. Thank you so much. Clarification, Commissioner Terry, are you requesting a second opportunity, or that's a hangover from your first one?

Yeah, I think Commissioner Masato is next.

Well, technically, you're next because we're now on our second round, so you can go ahead and go.

Okay, great. Thank you. So, Whitney, you're saying that y'all have already looked into the existing business, and it's like y'all have already sent them a letter?

That is correct. They've been notified by planning as well as the Code Enforcement Department. So we've been in communication.

Okay. Gotcha. Um, so what are in, in the suburban character area are, is there allowances for any light industrial or we'll just call it non, you know, intensive industries like an artist studio or a maker space or something that might be like, you know, I guess light manufacturing, I guess that's the lightest we have, but suburban basically just is just housing, right?

That is correct.

Okay. Is there any live work in suburban?

There is not. And that's the very issue with the application or not the application. The owners at 1734 is they have a live work operation. It is not allowed in the overlay.

Right. Right. And so we're doing the small area plan to. update the overlay and I think that the reason why this property I think is are these parcels are interesting is because the industrial is to the west is directly to the south and then of course there's the single family suburban to the east and the northeast and so to me this was an opportunity to hopefully reach some consensus where there might be some I'll just call it very light industrial. And maybe it's a live work, right? Maybe it's something that's maybe an MR or RSM maybe or MU1. And I don't know what character area that might fall into, but it could be. neighborhood center, town center. But I think the opportunity commissioners is potentially some commercial or, you know, work type environment. And my only concern is that if we do these parcels and then the other one, you know, doesn't, you know, gets developed separately, then we have sort of something right in the middle, kind of jammed in the middle. And then the two other ones might not be large enough to be viable for another suburban development, right? Because I think, you know, the The concept of the suburban tract housing is you have to get a certain number of density. And these two parcels remaining, it would be really hard to kind of squeeze them in as simple one-off projects. But if you added them all together, then you actually have the potential to do more with it. And so do you see why I'm thinking we should just talk about all these parcels together in one conversation?

Certainly understand the perspective would just add the clarity that that will require updating the overlay all together.

That's right, and we're working on a small area plan, or we hope to be working on an official small area plan to update that overlay.

Understood.

Yes, thank you. I'm going to withdraw my second because I do believe we should give this a little more time and context with the other application. Thank you.

All right. Is there a second for the motion to approve? Commissioners, is there a second for the motion to approve? Seeing no second, it does. I'm going to fail for lack of second, but I would like to continue the conversation because Commissioner Messiah has requested to speak.

We can do a motion for reconsideration on the other one.

Yes, thank you so much for still allowing me to speak. Again, it just goes back to what I shared about the D4 and D5 in terms of the necessity. Thank you so much, Commissioner Bolton. The necessity to have a clear delineation between the residential and the commercial. Well, at this point, I'm just commercial, industrial. Staff had the foresight and saw where the challenge was being presented and They have also been hearing some of the concerns of the community and realized there's an opportunity here to be able to have a clear delineation.

One second, Commissioner. This is our second opportunity, if we can correct the clock.

Thank you. And with that, being able to support that, there are illegal operations that are taking place throughout. and an effort to resolve that issue and to create more of a buffer and a safety line for the community. We have what is proposed by planning, but then we also had the other request, which I am happy to have a motion for reconsideration and be able to have that delineation for. I can't get around, and I'm really... challenge with some of the motivations behind some of what's going on when the residents are being told that the small area plan is being modified for their benefit. However, it's clearly some of what's happening is trying to be a focus on the commercial. And I believe wholeheartedly an advocate of residential and companies that they can co-exist in communities safely and with proper respect and consideration. And so that is in part our responsibility, our obligation, and we have to pay attention when there is an encroachment on that thing. So there is nothing wrong with certain areas of our plan. It's just we know that a lot of it, particularly in certain areas of DeKalb, have not been worked. And so it's not necessarily that there needs to be a change all the time. Sometimes we just have to work the plan and pay attention to the people that are involved and make the suggestions that they do who are doing it for no other reason other than to support the community and to do their jobs. So with that, I respectfully ask that we approve this, not giving it cycle deferrals so that... Commissioner Terry can bring his former employee and candidate in this seat to do something different, but we actually move forward to do what needs to get done for the benefit of the people. With that, I yield.

Thank you, Commissioner Messiah. I see no further requests to speak. Please open the machine for a vote. Commissioner Bolton has requested to speak.

Can you guys just restate what the recommendation was from Planning Commission and Community Council?

They put it together in the first place. That's why it was.

Yeah, the Planning Department recommendation is withdrawal and we'd also support approval. As far as what the Community Council did, Let me back up. No, it's not.

I'm sorry, you said a withdrawal and what now?

A withdrawal or we would support an approval. Okay, and then the community? And the community council and the planning commission was a recommendation of deferral.

Okay, both planning commission and community council. All righty, thank you.

Machines are open.

Sorry. Yes, sir. Madam Presiding Officer, just to clarify, Commissioner Bolton, you seconded Commissioner Messiah's motion to approve, correct? That's where we stand?

You did second, ma'am.

I just didn't hear that announced publicly, so I just want to make sure for the record.

Yes. Yes, Commissioner Bolton, you hit the second button.

Yes, my second stands. Second stands. And again, this is for N7, N8, N9, and N10.

Do I need to take these separate or they're good together in a vote?

They're all read out.

They're all.

That's fine. Okay, thank you. I did read N10, yeah. So do I have all my? You're remissioning you, Commissioner Bolton.

Come on now.

I did, but I didn't realize there was a request for a deferral. All right.

Motion to approve carries. Thank you. Motion to reconsider with the other one.

Motion to reconsider D4 and D5.

I just want to say you owe me because I had one item.

Fair enough. Is there a second on her motion to reconsider? Do you need me to ask the law department? The law team, the question is who can make the motion to reconsider an item?

I think that's why we're asking.

And also part of the question is, can we reconsider in a zoning situation?

If you'll bear with us one minute, we're going to take a look at the rules.

So could I please move to the next one while they do the research?

Thank you. Thank you. So now we're going back to, and y'all keep me honest if I missed one. I think we're on N3, which is on page 7. Item 2026-0709, District 2, Super District 6, application of Muhammad Alwana, I feel like I did not say that correctly, so I apologize, to rezone property from OI Zoning District to C1 Zoning District to allow salon suites at 3040 Briarcliff Road. Good evening, sir.

Good evening. Greetings, Commissioner. I'm Lucas Carter, planner for DeKalb County, and we're hearing 3040 Briarcliff Road. This is where we're rezoning from OI office institution to C1 local commercial to allow salon suites. Community Council recommended approval with our conditions. Planning Commission also recommended approval. I don't know why that says pending. Staff also recommends approval with our conditions. Here's the zoning map. Now we see that there is a variety of zonings in this area. including HR2 to the west and HR3 to the east, and a mix of commercial and different varieties of residential. Here's a land use map showing that the entire area is a neighborhood center land use. And here's an area which I best believe tells the story of this lot. It is a strip mall, has a few different OI uses in it. The applicant is looking just to operate in suite C of it. But we noticed that it's relatively small compared to some of the other OI uses. or parcels, I should say, with parking in the front and the rear. Now, if this was a special land use permit, this would be a lot easier. But with the rezoning, especially to see one for a site like this that's along a pretty traffic heavy corridor and pretty close to a big intersection, what needs to be considered in rezoning is what OBINT is the other uses allowed. So we came up with these three conditions. The first one, I'm just going to paraphrase these, but these can be found in the staff report dated June 26. The first one allows the continuance of OI uses. at this parcel. The second one, which I'm going to explain a little more in depth here in a bit, prohibits very specific C1 uses. And you might notice, just glancing through the list, you might notice a common theme that these are all uses that are too intense, whereas a lot that small. And a third one just clarifies that the use proposed here is only limited to the building itself. So to explain this condition, why this condition? What makes this so different from other rezonings? And I'm going to explain this in three different levels. The first one is explaining like your five. So think of a C1 to C2, that would be an upzoning. That would be like asking a tadpole to become a frog. We know how that works. as nature intended. But in this case, we're asking for an OI to a C1. That would be a side zone. That's not even a word. That would be like asking a tadpole to become a giraffe. So now to explain more like a taxpayer. OI uses are typically appointment based, they have low outdoor impacts, they have predictable traffic, and they mostly have a parking baseline of one space to 500 square feet. Whereas C1 opens up a whole can of worms, they would open up a door to auto-oriented uses, outdoor sales and uses, high turnover retail and service uses, so think like a laundromat that has a lot of people coming in and out, and a variety of parking baselines. So the intent of that condition is to allow the proposed salon personal service use while keeping the site at an office institution compatible intensity. So in order to filter these uses, we didn't just go off vibes. We used very specific criteria here. We first looked at what's allowed in C1, what's already allowed in OI. Does it exceed that parking baseline, which is one space for every 500 square feet? And does that miss any obvious impacts, such as drive-throughs, auto-orientation, outdoor use, large gatherings is a big one, and high turnover operations, as I already highlighted. So after using these filters, we've considered over 150 uses, and we filtered them in one big, beautiful spreadsheet, and we were left with 76 C1 uses prohibited, which are all listed in that condition. 58 OI uses preserved, and 14 C1 uses allowed should this be approved. And all 14 of those uses are variations of specialty shops, so things like hobby stores, like a sports store, pet shop, and so on. And staff is recommending approval with conditions. That's all I have to say.

I always appreciate your levity in your reports. Thank you. Thank you. Is the applicant with us this evening? Good evening, sir.

Good evening, commissioners. My name's Mohammed Alana. I'm the applicant and agent for the property owner, Iha Investments, a resident and a small-time business owner at 3040 Briarcliff Road. I'm here to request a rezoning from OI to C1 to allow salon suites within Unit C of the existing building. This is a modest request. We are converting one vacant unit C inside an existing single-story building into eight private salon suites for independently licensed cosmetology professionals. The medical tenants unit A and B stay exactly as they are. There is no new construction, no new expansion, and no change to the building footprint. The business is an appointment-based model only, Monday through Saturday, 8 AM to 7 PM, with roughly 3 to 10 people on site at any given time. And we've accepted, fully accept all three of the conditions recommended by planning staff. Those conditions confined to use of unit C, prohibit every higher intensity C1 use from this property, and bar any expansion beyond the existing building. At this stage of review, this application has earned unanimous support from the Community Council 9-0 with conditions, the Planning Commission 8-0 with conditions per staff's recommendation. Planning staff recommends approval. Traffic engineering found no concerns at this location. Public works found no floodplain wetland impacts and no expected impact to roads or drainage. I wanted to walk through the parking numbers directly because I know it's been a concern and people care most about. The property has 30 on-site parking spaces, and here's how they break down across all three units, full capacity. There's 21 in the front, nine in the rear for whatever, for mainly tenants. Unit A is an urgent care, one provider practice, appointment-based, so even patients scheduled back-to-back will generate two cars at any given time. Unit B is a small chiropractor. We couldn't get the exact number, so at full booking, he'll take up around a few parking spaces. And that leaves around 25 parking spaces available for Unit C, the salon suites. We have eight suites, so every suite is booked simultaneously with a professional and their client. That is 16 cars. That leaves roughly nine parking spaces cushioned on the property at its absolute peak. And that peak is largely theoretical because the salon suite model is an appointment and staggered based. You rarely have all eight suites turning clients at the same time. Parking was also reviewed by staff under the county's own standard, one space per 500 square feet. The salon suite use does not increase minimum parking demand over the existing office and medical baseline. At the previous meeting, the Riviera Terrace community raised concerns about parking. Since then, we've met with their HOA representative in person and have discussed these concerns directly. Here's what we're willing to provide. First, restriping the parking lot to gain additional spaces. Moved up during the interior construction phase to build in the suites. So it's done before a problem arises with parking. Second, signage on our property stating Parking is only allowed for 30, 40 bike lift patrons only on this property, with unauthorized vehicles subject to tow at their own expense. Signage will be installed and maintained by us at 3040 Briarcliff Road, and if signage is not enough, we would like to coordinate with Riviera Terrace's current towing company so all unauthorized vehicles are removed promptly and accurately. We've also gone beyond our own property line to plan for overflow. My client and I have stopped at the outlet church across the street and the adjacent Georgia Nurses Foundation to begin these conversations in person. These places, we were referred by them to their property manager and we're awaiting responses. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but the conversations have started in good faith. And any arrangement that comes out of them will be additive. It would sit on top of the 30 parking spaces we already have, not in place of them. What I've described, the restriping, the signage, the towing coordination, and the overflow outreach is what we're prepared to give. Commissioners, this proposal takes a unit that has sat vacant, puts it to work for eight local licensed small business owners in exactly the kind of neighborhood serving comprehensive plan in this neighborhood. In exactly the kind of neighborhood serving use the comprehensive plan calls for in this neighborhood center. It carries unanimous recommendations from your community council planning commission. and your planning staff. I respectfully ask that you allow my client's dream to come true, to own her own salon suite, and I'm happy to answer any questions. I'd like to give the rest of the time to my client so she could speak. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening.

Good evening, my name is Winshet Balcha. I'm the owner of 3040 Brightcliff Road and then owner of Bahel Ethiopian Restaurant a few feet away from the property and I'm living in DeKalb County and a proud wife and for a child of mother and I'm cosmetologist and I have a dream to do an hair salon for more than a decade but now my dream is coming true. Hopefully, you approved our request, and then thank you for everything.

Thank you, ma'am. Anyone else to speak in favor, or did the applicant want to come back up? OK, good. Anyone else in favor? All right. Anyone in opposition of this item? If you're in opposition, please step to the microphone up here, ma'am. Thank you for being with us.

Thank you. I am sorry if my voice is shaking. I am not feeling well. Well, thank you for being here. I'm also not contagious. I want to first say that I wouldn't call myself or my community that I'm representing right now.

And can you give your name, please?

Oh, I'm sorry, yes. My name is Kim Fasone. I'm speaking on behalf of the entire Riviera Terrace residential community directly next to 3040 Briarcliff. And I believe Mohammed mentioned that it was approved with conditions. One of the conditions, I think, was that they wanted him to meet with us so we could work things out. And so I will start by saying that we've had a very positive initial meeting and some ongoing communications. We are really glad to have made that connection, and we want to continue to build the relationship, and we really are rooting for the owner's proposed business to be successful. She told us a lovely story about how she opened a salon in the past, had to close it because she was too busy being a mother, and She misses it, and I want that. We want that for her. That's lovely. We just still have some significant concerns about the parking issues, and that's the reason why we would ask for it to be deferred so that we have enough time to work those out to where it is concrete, no confusion, everyone's on the same page. We would like it essentially to be an actually assigned agreement. Essentially, I'm a little bit confused because the numbers that Mohammed just said about 21 spaces in the front and nine in the rear, I have never heard that before. The application paperwork says approximately 18 spaces with some additional in the back. And so that's the information I have been working off of up until now. just this moment really. So essentially what I've prepared is based on those numbers that are in the documents and in the application. Our conversations that we've had so far have been like we're very close to on the same page. And like working through have the same ideas on things, we just haven't been able to get anything on paper to make it official. So regarding our parking concerns, the application proposes eight salon suites in Unit C. The application states there will be three to ten people on site at any given time. But there are other things in the application that make us wonder how realistic that is. Other statements include that the owner will be on site along with staff, terms of business, suite renters, and clients. Well, anyone who opens a business wants it to be successful. And in a salon, that means for it to be very busy and full. Full capacity, we're counting one owner, two staff, eight suite renters, and then eight clients. That's 19 people for only C. We haven't thought of anybody for A or B yet, the other two units. And I think we're all aware that when hairstylists are working, they may take you, put color on, let you sit while they cut someone else's hair. That doesn't mean they always only have one client. But for argument's sake, let's just stick with the 19 that we're kind of sure about. The application, the paperwork says 18 parking spots in the lot. And the survey on the application shows three of those spots to be accessible spots. And I personally know that accessible spots are often empty and no one can really always use them. So that would be 15 usable spots for 19 people for just unit C. And so where do those four people go? Where do they put their vehicles? Okay, well, the application says there's some behind the building. And that's great. We love that. But we would really like to know exactly how many. And up until this moment, we did not. And I've personally kind of... driven by it so many times. The area to get in the back is very thin. The area in the back is very small. We just want assurances that there will truly be enough for everybody. Because in our experience, when there isn't enough with a neighboring business near us, They take our parking. And we don't have very much parking. And then we don't have anywhere to park. And it's not that the business owners want the clients to do this. You can't always control your clients. So we're wanting to make sure that things are set in stone. like signage. We love the idea of restriping the lot. We are actually the ones who gave them the idea to talk to the church and talk to the nursing organization because we are familiar. We've been there. We know that they are like nice and cooperative businesses and we thought that they could build that relationship to hopefully fix the problem. So we are truly on the same side. We think there's absolutely a way to make this work. We just don't think it's set in stone yet in a way that truly protects our community. And that's why we would like for a bit of a deferral. We understand that according to the minimum parking requirements, it is met. But that doesn't mean that we imagine, I don't know for sure, but I imagine the development on the other side of us also had the minimum parking requirements met. And we are constantly trying to win our own parking on our own property back from those customers. And we're a small community, and we've really experienced some negative and challenging side effects from this in the past. We didn't know better. We had a handshake agreement. We were working with the people. We thought it would be absolutely fine. it felt good. It felt just like these interactions where we're building and we're happy and making relationships. But we learned the hard way that you really need things written down on paper and agreed to. And so I do want to say that the community feels that the planning staff has addressed some things so well, like how the salon suites could only be unit C. And all of the uses that can't be used in the situation. We love that. We think it was very wise. But we are asking for time to make sure that we are officially protected. and have solutions in place should there be problems. We learned our lesson last time to do it ahead of time instead of trying to work with busy business owners, and that stresses everyone out. So we respectfully ask that you defer it. Please set our longstanding small community up for success. so that we can feel very confident and speak for this and 100% support this. Because that's what we want, and we're on the way to doing that. We just need a little bit more time.

Thank you, ma'am. Is there anyone else here to speak in opposition of the application? Anyone else to speak in opposition?

I represent 44 different units, just so you know.

Thank you, ma'am. All right. Seeing no one else requesting to speak in opposition, applicant, you do have some time for rebuttal.

Yeah, so I think the first mistake that there was was the mistake on the application itself. On the application, it says 18. We've walked it today, and also on the survey on the application, there are 21 parking spots in the front, and there are nine parking spots in the rear. We were supposed to meet with our re-striper today, because when he re-striped the parking lot initially, he made them larger than they actually could be. And so we're thinking we can add a minimum of around four to five parking spots. That's the first thing. And the salon suites are an appointment-based thing. We lease them out, and the leasee gets to choose their hours of operation. So they could be closed on certain dates. and open on certain dates. So we think, even with the current standing parking spaces, we have enough for parking in the rear for employees and then parking in the front for guests and clienteles. Unit A, or Unit B, excuse me, again, is a one-man show. No one else working there. It's just him. One patient at a time. Next door is a chiropractor. Very similar thing. small family run businesses around two to three people that work there, not booked at all. The amount of times I've driven by that lot, it's been very empty from what I've seen. Not too many cars. I don't think there will be an issue from unit a and B unit C. Like I said before, a maximum, let's say 16 people, 16, 17 people. There still will be enough at minimum. We've heard there, there, um, unfortunate scenarios with next next door with lumen lumen has 250 plus units in there that are not all one bedrooms so i mean that's all we really have to say for now and yeah thank you very much thank you sir if staff will come forward and restate your recommendation staff recommendation is approval with conditions

Thank you so much. Is there a motion? Motion to defer this item for 30 days for decision only. I believe that date would be the Tuesday, September 15 BOC business meeting, which begins at 9 AM.

Is there a second? Seconded by Commissioner Terry. She was thinking.

Go ahead, Commissioner Long-Spears. Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer. Thank you for both of y'all for being with us tonight. My office will be reaching out to set up some time to chat. Thank you so much. I yield back.

Thank you, Commissioner Long-Spears. I see no further requests to speak. Please open the machine for the vote. Motion to defer carries. Our law department, did we have a ruling on the request?

Yes. So, um, the person who makes a motion to reconsider has to have been on the prevailing side of the ultimate motion that passed. So I think in, in four and in five, both of those ultimately were deferred for two cycles, if I recall correctly. So it has to be somebody who voted for the motion to defer.

Okay. Understood. With that being said, does anybody on the prevailing side want to make the motion to reconsider? Hearing no motion, we will move forward in the agenda. So we are now on N5 and N6. So N5 and N6 both have me as District 4, but also District 6 and District 7. I don't think so, ma'am. So Commissioner Long-Spears, could I pass the gavel to you, ma'am?

I would gladly accept the gavel. metaphorical go. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer. We are in the middle of page 7 in 5, 2026-0711, Commission Districts 4 and 6, application of Claudette Pyle for a special land use permit renewal to allow personal care home for up to six clients in the R85 Zoning District, 4293 Hamburg Way. And welcome to the podium, Lucas, for the recommendation.

check you're good all right um as mentioned is 442 93 hamburg way uh community council recommended approval with conditions planning commission did the same and staff is also recommending approval with conditions as mentioned there's a special land use permit specifically this is a renewal to allow child daycare for up to six clients uh this comes from a case that was her two years ago and did pass with the sunset clause to come back in two years. Here's a zoning map showing its R-85 in character. Here's a land use map showing that it is suburban. And here's an arrow showing more of the character of it. And in this case, no news is good news. So we have nothing to say. All police reports were checked. We went through code compliance. No neighbors said anything. So we are recommending approval with conditions.

Thank you so much, sir. Is the applicant present with us today? If so, welcome to the podium. Please state your name and address, and you have.

Good evening, my name is Claudette Pyle. I resign at 4293 Hamburg Road. I'm here with my daughter, who is my second, and we're here to just continue doing what we are, my dreams are.

And please note you have roughly 10 minutes left. Sorry, I've been up since 4 a.m. because it's her birthday today. Happy birthday. Good evening, commissioners, committee members, staff, neighbors, and fellow members of the public. Thank you all for allowing us to speak in support of renewing the permit for Claudia Kears to continue operating a personal care home. I just want to make a quick note. Just now staff said child care, but it's elderly, not child. This home is more than a business, it is a place built on love, patience, dignity, and a deep commitment to serving our elderly. Personal care homes are meant to provide a safe, humane, comfortable, and supportive environment for adults who need care, and we at Clawdee Cares strive every day to honor that responsibility with compassion and respect. My mom Claudette has been caring for the elderly since she was 14, beginning with her grandparents and continuing throughout her life by caring for others with the same tenderness she has given her grandparents and mother who raised her. I was along with her on many of those journeys, passing her water, washcloths, and now helping her manage this business. Our hearts for service did not begin with a permit or a facility. It began at home with love, sacrifice, and the understanding that aging loved ones deserve patience, protection, and kindness. That personal story is what makes Clawdee Cares special. The residents are not treated like numbers or obligation. They are treated like mothers, fathers, grandparents, and valued members of our community. Just a few statistics up on the screen. shorten them for time. There's a growing need for residents, elderlies to be close to home. There's about 20% of Georgians who will be 65 or older by 2020, and that's up 13% since 2010. There are about 55,000 residents that are served across Georgia's licensed personal care settings, and there are about 2,900 or so licensed personal care homes that keep Georgians close to the communities they love. We currently, our current census, we have five residents that we currently care for, ranging from the age of 71 to 88. When you think about it, the average individual does not think about getting old, nor do we plan for being old. It is not something that our society teaches. We do not think about the burden we put on our children while they have to take care of their children and support their families. When it comes to track record and safety, as staff previously stated, we do not have any violations in the time that we've been open. Personal care homes are expected to be at the same level to some extent as assisted living facilities. We are inspected unannounced. We are held to the standards of personal care homes, meaning safety, staffing, physical and requirements. We are also required to have documentations of medication handling, emergency preparedness, and individual care plans for each of our residents. Our staff are vetted, go through background checks, and go through the long-term care background check program, whoever comes in to help assist us. Staying on the topic of safety and the environment, it is important to us. Our home offers 24-hour surveillance around the entire outside perimeter. Every resident's room has cameras for safety, and the resident's room doors have alarms for nighttime exiting to alert staff. I'll just browse over this quickly. Personal care homes provided 24-7 care for everyone that's within their care. And as far as staff to residence ratio, my mom and I exceed that in most other facilities or care homes like us. There's usually one staff, two resident. In our facility, there's always two persons on site. And just to give a few of the words from some of the people we've cared for that has left us and some that are still with us. We're known as the Black Mary Poppins. One of our residents' daughters call us that. We have a resident every day who says to us, you guys are so amazing. My niece went to other personal care homes and she knew this one was the best one for me. A son of one of the residents always reminds when we have little events or things at the house, he says, I know God put us in this place for my mom to get the love and care that she needs. Just a little more feedback. We've gotten people that have come in and said we've given them peace of mind back. They can now focus on their household. We have one resident who said that we've saved his marriage because he's now able to focus on that because we care for his mother. We have visiting family members, friends, and professional services that have said, oh, she looks so much better than where she was before. The place is so clean. I can feel the love in the atmosphere. And we also have a previous state worker who has visited us and said, just walking in and seeing the smiles on residents' faces and them waving at me, I know they are cared for. So we ask, renew a home that DeKalb County can count on, safe and compliant, close for neighboring residents in the area. And at this time, we'll just show a picture of the home and We just want to say that we're constantly ensuring our home is well maintained. We have new boilers installed, new HVAC system. We also have a whole home generator, a fire sprinkler system, and monitored fire panel. As well, we also maintain our annual inspections for stair lift that we have in the home, fire extinguishers, fire alarm panels, and plumbing. This is just a picture of Christmas, the holidays, and what's missing here, and we could have had 20 million of the pictures, but we celebrate every moment we can with them. What's missing is the photos of them receiving gifts from us, the dancing that we do in the morning times when we enter their rooms, the birthday decorations that we put up in their room in their favorite colors, as well as families meeting on our deck or in the living room to celebrate their birthdays. And lastly, well not lastly, I'm sorry. These are just a photo of the activities that we do in the home. And if you looked at the video, you would see my mom here dancing with them and making them laugh. And this is our current community with their friends, family, and us. We had a little celebration at the home. And we'll just end by saying that we come before you with a sincere and grateful heart to respectfully ask that you renew the permit for Claudia Kears. This home is more than a place of care. It is a place where our elders are seen, heard, respected. and treated with the dignity they deserve. Every day we strive to offer kindness in the smallest amounts, comfort when it is needed most, and the care that comes not only from our hands, but from our hearts and the grace of God. Clawdee Cares is personal, emotional, dependable, and rooted in love. Renewing our permit will allow us to continue providing a home where elders are valued, loved, cared for like family. Thank you for your time, your consideration, and the opportunity to continue serving our seniors with compassion.

Thank you very much for your presentation and being with us this evening. Anybody else here to speak in support of this item? If so, please come to the podium. Anyone present to speak in opposition of this item? Please come forward to the podium. State your name and address, please. Reminder that you have 10 minutes total for the opposition. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Wanda Manigault. I live at 4310 Hamburg Way. I'm across the street from the personal care home. I'm not opposing them having it. I just am opposing of them parking, blocking my driveway. That's the only thing I have. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Anyone else here present to speak in opposition or against this item? Going once, going twice. All right, if the applicant would like to come back to the podium, you have roughly a minute left.

We're a bit confused about that. We will work to address that. We do ask residents, family members, and visitors when they come, they are told they have to schedule time with us. So we do have scheduled times that they come in. We do tell them to park inside the driveway, which about six cars can fit. About nine? Yeah. If they're not staying very long, they will park on the outer street, but we hardly have visitors. But if it is an event, like we had the birthday party for a resident, we will do better to properly inform the neighbors. As I said, we were unaware that there was a parking blocking issue as stated.

We always say hi to our neighbor, and I'm really kind of confused that, you know, because, I don't know, confused. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much. Staff, please come back to the podium to restate your recommendation.

Staff recommendation is approval with conditions.

Thank you so much. Commissioners, do we have a motion? Yes, ma'am. I move to approve with conditions. Second. Thank you for your motion. Hit the buttons, please. All right. Commissioner Johnson has requested to speak. You have the floor, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you. So in light of, if the applicants would come forward, in light of the neighbor's statement, could you just kind of give an idea of how you might be able to address the parking issue in the future?

Well, like I said, we'll make sure that when visitors come, we'll just make everyone park inside. Like I said, we try to keep the hours of visitation throughout the regular day time so that it doesn't affect the evening time when they're home. And we do, if someone is parked on the roadside, we do ask them to move closer to our mailbox. Again, we were unaware that there was an issue because there's really not that many visitors at said time. The only thing I could think of, like I said, is when we have celebrations For the resident, we recently had someone celebrate their 81st birthday. So there was a few people there, and that might have been the day, cuz all their family members that showed up were all of age 80. We even had to tell one of them not to park up the hill, that they could come back down and park in the driveway. So again, we would just do a better job of being traffic police when the guests do show up.

And then sometimes when the visitors come who doesn't really know that they can park in there, which is elderly, older friends of our clients, they do park outside. And sometimes we are in there just taking care of patients and doesn't see them right away. And to turn them back, to go back to bring the car in, because sometimes they don't stay very long. So that could be, but most of the time we definitely doesn't have anyone really parked in.

And then you have the professionals that come into, which are PT for some of the residents. They have PT or OT services or nurses. So when those people come, they'll initially park on the street because they don't want to get blocked in when it's time to leave. But like I said, we can do a better job of policing that so it doesn't become a problem.

Thank you for that. I think that would be key to make sure that you're paying attention to where people are parking, communicating with anyone coming to the property, but also communicating with your neighbors. So there's open dialogue as the issue continues. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I see. Thank you.

Thank you very much. All right. Seeing no one else requesting to speak, please open the machines for a vote. That motion passes. Moving on to case N6-2026-0712, Commission Districts 4 and 7, application of Rooted in Christ Academy, LLC, care of Chiquita Stokes for a special land use permit for a child daycare facility for up to six children in the R100 Zoning District 6706, Princeton Park Trail. And welcome back, Lucas. Thank you so much.

Thank you. This is for a child daycare facility, up to six children, and staff is recommending a denial on this one. Here's a zoning map showing the R100 character. Here's a land use map showing it's suburban. And here's an aerial map that shows the nature of the character area. Now, this application does meet all requirements except one. Otherwise, we would be recommending approval, and that would be the separation requirement. Less than 300 feet away is 1020 Princeton Park Drive, which does host a child daycare facility. Now, that daycare facility is state-registered. However, it does not have a county license. However, we are still interpreting that as failing the distance requirement. And that is all I have to say.

Thank you. All right. That was brief. We appreciate that at 9.22 at night. All right. Is the applicant present? Thank you so much. Please come to the podium. State your name and address. You do have a total of 10 minutes. I only have four copies.

Good evening, Commissioner. So I have provided for evidence package for my case. My name is Chiquita Stoltz, and I am the owner of Rooted in Christ Academy, located at 6706 Princeton Park Trail. I am before you tonight requesting approval for a special land use permit to operate a small six-child family child care learning home. Rooted in Christ Academy was created to provide a safe, high-quality, and faith-based early learning environment where young children can grow both academically and spiritually. Our mission is to prepare children for kindergarten through early literacy and structural learning while instilling core spiritual values, strong character, and kindness in a small, low-ratio home setting where working families know their children are truly nurtured. Recognizing a positive impact this facility will bring to local families, our local community council voted unanimously 70-0 in support of my application. Before I begin, I want to briefly address the previous planning commission meeting. I was actively logged in virtually and waited over three hours, but when my connection unfortunately dropped right before my case was called, I immediately called back in and sat on the line for over 14 minutes waiting to be reconnected. So I just had a time shot photo just to show you all that I deeply respect your time and this process, and I'm grateful to present my case in person tonight. So I am requesting your approval based on the three facts established right in official county record. One, public works and land development found zero safety or traffic issues. DeKalb County traffic engineer officially reviewed my application and signed off with the comment, did not find any traffic issue or concern at this location. Furthermore, land development confirmed my facility will have no adverse impact on county roads or drainage, and staff noted zero substantive opposition at my community meeting. second the location fulfilled the true intent of the 1 000 foot buffer rule i am here tonight specifically to address the technical 1 000 foot buffer rule reference in the staff report that ordinance exists primarily to prevent commercial saturation on a single street avoid traffic congestion and eliminate street parking hazards in my case while the staff measure 300 feet The Parson map shows that it is strictly as the crows fly, so it's a straight line drawn over roofs, trees, and three separate intervening residential lots. On the ground, my home sits in a quiet cul-de-sac on Princeton Park Trail, while the other home faces Princeton Park Drive. To travel driveway to driveway requires driving over 1,000 feet around a neighborhood loop, and that's in a parcel map as well, because our driveway face entirely separate streets. Our travel would never overlap our cross path, which aligns perfectly with the true intent of the ordinance. In this unique case, approval does not undermine the buffer rule because the actual driving and street distance between our entries is over 1,000 feet. With three homes separating us, you will regret an approval based on the fact that zero street level overlap or commercial saturating occurs, which again, aligns perfectly with the purpose of the code. And my third fact, administrative fairness and full compliance. On page two of the staff analysis explicitly acknowledged that while the neighboring facility holds a state license, it is not registered with DeKalb County. I have spent planning, preparing, meeting, taking classes, paying county fees, and following every local rule to do this the right way. Denying a full compliant law-abiding constituent to protect a buffer for a facility operating without local permits penalizes proper county compliance. Furthermore, the standard operating condition for a six child care home care facility, such as enrollment caps, daytime only hours like 630 a.m. to 530 p.m., off-street driveway parking, and privacy fences are conditions I am already set up to meet and fully required to follow anyway. I gladly welcome having those standard conditions make an informal part of your approval tonight. I respectfully ask for your vote of approval tonight so I can serve local families safely, faithfully, and legally. Thank you, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you so much. Is anyone else here in support of this item? Seeing no one. Anyone present to speak in opposition or against this item? Going once, going twice. The applicant would like to come back to the podium. You're welcome. You do have a little bit of time left. You're good? Okay. All right. Staff, please come back to the front podium and restate your recommendation.

Staff is recommending denial.

Thank you very much. All right, commissioners, do we have a motion?

Yes, ma'am. At this time, I move to defer for two weeks for decision only.

Could you state the date of the next meeting? Which would be August 25th. Thank you. Second. Thank you. We have a proper first, a proper second. Commissioner Johnson has requested to speak. You have the floor, ma'am.

Yes, I did have a question. I just wanted to make sure I had clarification on the distance requirement. Is the distance a travel distance, or so to speak, as the crow flies?

Yes, I believe our ordinance specifies as the crow flies. Okay.

All right, I yield. Did you have any? Okay.

Thank you.

Commissioner Johnson, Commissioner Bolton.

My question is for the applicant. You can come to the microphone, to the podium. I just wanted to clarify whether you currently have any children in your daycare, or would this be a new establishment for you?

So this would be a new establishment for my home. I have previously worked with kids in DeKalb County Public School, so this would be a first time in my home. Okay. Okay.

Is this your primary domicile? Do you live there? Oh, yes. I live here. Okay. Can staff come to the podium and just reiterate what that maximum number is that's allowable without necessarily having a slip in place?

Three.

So, Ms. Stokes, were you aware that you could have up to three students, up to three children in your daycare without having a special land use permit? No, I was not aware of that. Okay. And is that something that you would consider starting with the three and then coming back and requesting up to, I think you said six today is what you're looking for?

Are you, just to clarify, you mean like going through the whole process of the application fees and all?

Well, if you just want to have your three, you don't have to do anything. You're allowed to do that by right. Right. I'm saying to do the six, I would have to do this whole process again?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, you would need to come back for the slut process to get your six.

And pay all those fees and such. I would really recommend to get the six. Since given that the distance is not even that protects the ordinance because it's a 300 feet straight line, there's no way that we would even encounter each other. So it's like... It's not even breaking the rule, in a sense, because it's not a driving distance. It's only the straight line. So the ordinance is in place to protect the traffic, and which is already covered, because it would not be any traffic flow coming from aisle two units.

OK. Our planning staff just communicated it is not a driving distance. Is that correct? It's not the driving distance. It's proximity, so the straight line is allowable.

So I was saying that, but I understand what you're saying, but I'm saying that, given that it's not going to overflow with traffic, what I thought was just 1,000 feet of driving, because it's supposed to stay in there from traffic. And the traffic control is already controlled by, it's not even, it's the backyard of it. It's not even connecting to each other.

Understood. Those are my questions. I yield back.

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you very much, Commissioner Bolton. Seeing no other requests to speak, please open the machines for a vote. All right. That motion passes, and I am passing the gavel back to our esteemed presiding officer. Thank you, ma'am. To adjourn us.

I know. For the most important item of the night. But we did cover everything. We were back and forth. I want to make sure we covered all the cases. I didn't skip anything, right? All right, perfect. If I can get a motion to adjourn, please.

So moved.

So moved. All in favor?

Aye.

Somebody hit some buttons, though, for me.

There we go.

All in favor? Yeah. Thank you, everybody.

Thank you.