Boc Joint Planning & Zoning - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the joint planning and zoning board and board of commissioners meeting of February the 3rd, 2026. I am Greg Simmons, the planning and zoning chair. Prior to this meeting, announcements were posted and notices were sented to all board members, commissioners, staff, interested parties, and applications to participate in this meeting. I will now turn the meeting over to Dr. Ramona Jackson Jones to introduce and confirm the presence of the commissioners. Thank you so much, Chairman Simmons. Again, I'm Dr. for Ramona Jackson Jones, the chairwoman of the Douglas County Board of Commissioners, and I will certainly take role tonight. District 1, Commissioner Henry Mitchell III, present.

District 2, Commissioner Kenner Jones, present. District three, Commissioner Martin Raxton, present. And District 4 and Vice Chairman Mark Alcarez, present. All right. And again, I'm Dr. Ramona Jackson Jones and present. Uh, we do have an established quorum and I yield the floor back to you, Chairman Simmon. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Also present, we have members of the planning and zoning board. If you'd confirm your presence when I call your name. Uh Brandon Pinman, District 1, present. Oric Curry, District 2, present. Uh Melissa Payne Poke, District 4, present. Uh Rob Thomas, our District Three Representative and vice chair, is excused tonight. And Frank Payne, our atlarge member, present.

Uh Dr. Chris Small, our Douglas County School System representative, present. Thank you very much. We do have a quorum. Uh Allison Duncan, our planning and zoning chair, planning and zoning manager, excuse me. Will you introduce the uh staff president of the meeting tonight? Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh tonight we have with us Mary Mentor from our legal department. Uh we have our deputy director uh Travis McDonald. We have our chief code enforcement officer, Russell Tzone. Uh we have Bruce Mercer uh from our department of transportation. We have our planner, Melody Glenn. We have our zoning administrator, Austin Cronin. Uh, and always we appreciate our communications team and our sheriff's deputies for being with us tonight. Also, thank you.

Thank you very much. There's a reversionary clause that applies to each reszoning, and that is the applicant, the agent, or the property owner has 24 months to vest the zoning change after the board of commissioners grants an approval. As far as tonight's procedure goes, I will conduct the public hearings. Planning and zoning staff will announce each application followed by a full presentation. The applicant or the applicant's representative and members of the public will be able to present their information in favor of an application. They will have two minutes per person for a total allocated time of 15 minutes. Following that, a public that would be in opposition to a zoning would also have two minutes per person for an allocated time of 15 minutes to present any information that they would like for us to hear. After the opposition completes their uh input or the time has elapsed, public hearing will be closed. At that point, the staff will verify any points of the zoning case. If the staff is unable to verify or satisfy the board's questions, the board will then ask the applicant or the applicant's representative for points of clarification. And this is not a time for them to represent their case. The zoning planning and zoning board will then entertain a motion. Our first agenda item tonight is the approval of the minutes of January 6, 2026 joint planning and zoning board and board of commissioners meeting. Planning and zoning board members, you have seen copies of the minutes. Do you have any changes, questions, or comments? Hearing none, I'll call for a motion for approval.

This is Melissa Pulk. I make a motion of approval of the minutes from January 6, 2006, excuse me, 2026 meeting um for the planning and zoning meeting. Or Curry second. I have a uh motion and a second. Do we have any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of approving the minutes of January 6, 2026, please signify by raising your hand. Thank you very much. That's unanimous. Madam Chair, minutes from the January 6, 2026 meeting comes to you with a unanimous approval. Unanimous approval.

Thank you so much, Chairman Simmons. Board of Commissioners, you've had an opportunity to review the minutes from January 6, 2026. Are there any additions, revisions, or deletions that need to be made? Being none, do we have a motion to approve the minutes from January 6, 2026? So move. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion board? We have a motion and second. All in favor, please indicate by raising your right hand. We have a 50 unanimous vote in the motion carry. And I yield the floor back to you, Chairman Simmons. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. Our first agenda item tonight, uh, Miss Duncan.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The first item that we have on the agenda is a special use permit for Big Power Development 5 LLC. This item was deferred at our January meeting. Um, in communication with the applicant uh in the neighborhood, um, they have indicated a willingness to, uh, ask for this to be deferred to, um, continue to try to work together um to, uh, reconcile some of the concerns about the use. Uh, so staff has no objection. I don't know if anybody from the um applicant wishes to speak um further about the request to defer um but again if if it is the will of the planning and zoning board and the board of commissioners to defer this that would be to the March 3rd uh 2026 regular planning and zoning board meeting. So that is the first item

March what March 3rd 2026 planning and zoning board um if it is the will of the board to defer if it's not the will of the board to defer then we are as always prepared to move forward. Okay. Thank you very much. Planning and zoning board. Do I have a motion? Brandon Pinman. I make a motion to defer application S2025-13 to our March 3rd planning zoning board meeting. Frank Payne, I second.

I have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All in favor of approving the uh deferment until March the 3rd, 2026, please signify by raising your hand. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. Uh, S2025-13 comes to the board with a recommendation for deferral until March 3rd, 2026. Okay. Thank Thank you so much, Chairman Simmons, board of commissioners. Certainly uh there I received notification that uh the planning and zoning um board has um agreed to defer certainly, but the board has the final decision. Uh, do we have a motion to defer S2025-13?

Madam Chair, I make a motion to def defer agenda item S2025-13 to the March 6, 2026 um joint uh planning and zoning and board of commissions meeting. Sorry, that's March 3rd. Oh, March 3rd. I apologize. March 3rd. Okay. Do we have a second? Okay, we have we have a motion and a second. Any discussion, board? We have a motion and a second. Please indicate by raising your right hand if you are in favor of deferring. We have a five or unanimous voting. Motion carry. I yield the floor back to you, Chairman Simmons. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Our next agenda item Z2026-07.

Mr. Cronis.

Yes, sir. Good evening boards. So, our next item is E2026-07. This is a request for a reasonzoning from residential low density, heavy commercial, general commercial, and light industrial to residential high density for a town home community at 97 lots. This is uh 13.4 acres in commission district number one. Sites vacant with cleared areas and mostly wooded. Code enforcement cited the property owner of violations regarding heavy park heavy truck parking, paving without permits, asphalt milling sales, litter and vehicle sales without authorization. The applicant was heard previously in 2025. uh was denied for 101 units. So the applicant has returned. The main point of contention was the access off of Boyd Street. The applicant since since revised the plan to have the access off of Veterans Memorial Highway proper. Um the Lithia Spring area plan contemplates satellite higher density res residential uses near its town center mixeduse node at Veterans Memorial and Sweetwater. The project is located within close proximity to an existing shopping center. The intent of the mixed use corridor is not adversely affected since the site may contemplate integration with the existing shopping center at some point or another. We've looked at the zoning criteria. You can see on the zoning map it's residential low density, light industrial, general commercial, and heavy commercial. It's mostly wooded, some cleared. The applicants are proposing 97 lots here, town home development. And they've provided an amenity plan as well and elevations. These elevations are not compliant with appendix A of the unified development code. However, those are generally worked out at a later stage if the project is approved. They've provided floor plans as well. It's in the mixeduse corridor, future land use, and historic Lthia Springs character area. Staff's recommending approval with conditions of the resoning based upon the findings. Number one, the proposed use would not modify the comprehensive plan or the intent, purpose, or spirit of the unified development code. Number two, the proposed use would not modify or not adversely affect the public health, safety, or welfare. Number three, the proposed use would provide a transition from commercial and

industrial by right uses that may generate un unanticipated off-site impacts. Staff's recommending the following condition. Number one, the approval shall be for town home development only. A change in the type of housing units offered from town home to another housing type would require resubmission of a site plan for review and approval before the board of commissioners. That concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Cronin. At this time, I'll open the public hearing on this matter. Anyone wishing to sp speak in favor of this application, including the applicant or the applicant's representative, please approach the podium, you have two minutes per person for a total allocated time of 15 minutes. If you would uh state your name and address for the record, sir.

Absolutely. Good evening. My name is Henry Bailey, council for the applicant. My address is 3630 Peach Street Road Northeast, um Sweet 7000 at Clark Hill PLC. Um, as Austin stated, this is a request to reszone this property um to accommodate the redevelopment of this largely vacant site uh with a 97 unit town home u subdivision. This is this is as Austin has stated this is a a proposal a similar proposal to what you have seen before. Uh previously the the point of contention was the access point at least the primary point of contention was the access point. We heard that and we uh made an adjustment to that to move the loan access to Veterans Memorial. Um obviously we would have to deal with and go through G DOT to obtain the right to put a curb cut there, but that's ongoing process and will be and will be uh handled. Um the applicant is absolutely fine with uh the condition as proposed by staff and we ask that the planning and zoning board and the board of commissioners um make a make a motion for approval in alignment with staff's recommendation of approval of conditions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bailey. Anyone else wishing to speak in favor of this application, please approach the podium. Seeing no one moving, I will close the public hearing in favor and open the public hearing in opposition. Anyone wishing to speak in opposition to this application, please approach the podium. Okay, seeing no one moving, I'll close the public hearing on this matter. Planning and zoning board, do you have any questions of the applicant or of staff? Uh,

it's questions for staff. Um, and if you'll just verify, uh, according to the impact statement, there's, uh, been multiple, um, code violations, um, on this vacant property prior to today, and they currently have pending violations. Yes, sir. And our chief code enforcement officer, Russell Tzone, is here to speak to those particular violations if you'd like to hear. Beautiful. Mr. to zone, if you would just come up for a moment, kind of give us a little bit of what your impact statement says and what your experience has been with this vacant lot um within their last vesting period. Good evening. I wait for a question or just start speaking.

Yeah, just you can just tell us what you've experienced. Tell us what's been going on. Tell us what you experienced, please.

There's been a lot going on on those lots as a whole. Uh we'll we'll just go backwards and was I say for the last two years just to kind of round it off to an even number. Uh multiple violations of asphalt millings being brought in from various other projects both in and out of the county um for sale illegally off of that property with signage advertising said illegal sales. Um some of those asphalt millings being put down as paving on the property. Uh trees being removed uh between the commercial and residential uh required buffers on those properties. Uh litter violations. some there was actually a plumbing company that was storing some of their stuff out there on one of the adjacent vacant parcels that's as part of this that was brought to our department's attention and whomever I was speaking with that's over that particular property. Um again the signage out there was actually located in the public ride ofway of Veterans Memorial Highway. After repeated requests um our department had to remove the signs themselves. me personally actually is the one that removed the sign. It's about an 8 foot tall sign, 48 to 64 square foot in size. Pretty good size sign. Was definitely causing a safety issue coming and going off of that property just because of the topography of the of the roadway. Definitely a safety issue. Um just and then with contact from our department, uh there were limited compliance but never full compliance. Uh there was never positive feedback from our to our department when these violations were addressed with various entities associated with this property. Um property has never been in full compliance since our department has had a footprint out there trying to get this full compliance.

That in a in a nutshell should give you the general overview of what's going on out there. Just for record sake, could you give me a roundabout number of how many visits you guys have had to make out there? I I myself, so for the department as a whole, I don't have that number. I myself have been out there, I would probably say a dozen, maybe maybe 14 times in in a 14 or 16month period. Okay. And in your professional opinion, do you feel like would it be fair to say that there was just seemed like a continuous disregard for the code and the ordinances? I would say that's extremely accurate. Yes. Okay. Um, I think that'll do it for me for you. If I could get staff, let's see if anybody else has any question. Oh, anybody else have any questions for code? No,

I think you answered it. Okay, perfect. Can I speak to staff? Thank you, Russ, please. Thank you. Yes, sir. Um so the the co the uh conditions that you guys have so far are just ensuring that it does um develop as town homes. Yes sir. Um is it possible for you guys to put any type of conditions and maybe this is for legal. Um, is it possible you guys put any conditions that within the 24 month vesting period there should be should there be any type of violation or code violation that it would return to the board or

Yes, sir. I feel like that would be apt if you would like to propose that condition and we can um put something together if you'd like. Uh for instance, uh the property shall not have any active code of enforcement violations within 24 months from the state of approval or the request for reasoning shall be brought before the board of commissioners for reconsideration. Okay. For a show cause hearing.

One other item to just put on the table. Um, I had discussed this with legal as well. And if if it is the will of the board to put a condition on about kind of any violations or future violations, it is probably best to defer this until March 6th and let legal work out the language. And I apologize. I have not communicated that to Austin um before he got up here to present to you, you know, but we have talked about that possibility given the information in the impact statement and concerns about the ongoing um violations on the property. Um there is a point to be considered here about whether transitioning the use to something um similar to what the applicant is asking for would in and of itself ameliate the condition of violations, right? And perhaps encourage this property to redevelop um into a better use in that corridor. But that being said, if it's the will of the board to try to address the ongoing conditions through this, it would probably be our request to defer this to the March 3rd meeting and give us time to work with legal to get to something that they're comfortable with rather than try to condition it at the podium. Is that fair?

That's perfect. Legal, you'll be in agreement with that, too. Okay, that that'll do it for me. Thank you. Any other questions? I have a I have a question for staff. So So how many times has this property came up before the board? again to reiterate so that we will know when we doing this so that we will understand that this has been a ongoing process. Could you kind of reiterate on that?

Yes sir. For this particular town home development they appeared before the boards in 2025 and then before that in 1992 and 1997 they were the different pieces of the assemblage were considered for different zoning categories. But the 2025 they came before us for town homes or something different. Yes sir. Town homes 101 lots at that time. Okay. And it was denied for what reason? So staff's recommendation was based on the access from Boyd Street. Okay. So now they changed it. So now we're looking at conditions. Okay. I think it's some things we need to look at. Okay. We'll just get with legal on that. Thank you. Yes sir. Any other questions? Planning and zoning.

Yes. This is Melissa Pulk. I have a quick question. um in regard to the conditions since they've changed the entrance of that property if I'm okay to ask that question now that in when deference is in consideration is that okay so I guess my question would be that from the original exiting and entering site um now we're transitioning to Veterans Memorial is that correct that's the that's the change is there anyone here that can speak to anything in regard to trafficking in regard to that like maybe DOT or someone here that can talk about um what that looks like as far as a trafficking report. Yes, ma'am. Representative from DOT is approaching the podium. Mr. Mercer is coming up. Thank you.

Hey, good evening. Um to address the uh entrance itself, it was our uh recommendation to have the entrance relocated from Boyd Street uh to Veterans Memorial. Um the path from Boyd Street uh offered several um obstacles, some some narrow roads, um a little bit um difficult for for vehicles that wanted to travel south. uh some of the road networking in that area was rather narrow and it was um our decision that we felt like it was a better option to go out on veterans which is a larger route and and we felt like that was the best.

Okay. Um and in your recommendation for that as far as the applicant, you know, making that transition from entrance away, would they have to do any additional um I guess reconstructions or anything in regard to being able to have that as their entrance way on to veterans? like would they have to comply with making any changes or anything that would be suitable to the Veterans Memorial? Yeah, they they will still have to follow the code recommendations for the access along veterans. Yes. So, there'll be uh deceleration lanes and left turn lanes that are required um along veterans and and G dot will have the ultimate approval for that. But those are the code recommendations. Understood. Thank you. I have no further questions. Just

one final question for Mr. Bailey for council, please.

Mr. Bailey, uh, considering all the violations, um, is your, uh, this applicant first, are they aware of all these violations? And then, just kind of tell me where you guys stand in regards to all these violations and the and the actual property itself. Sure. Sure. So, my the applicant, my client has not been aware of these of these violations. That's the first thing. The second thing is to the extent anyone is on the property using the property in any regard. It is a rogue use of the property not permitted by the applicant. The applicant has not permitted anyone to be on the property. Hasn't signed a lease for anyone to be on the property or anything in that regard and has not to this day received any actual notice of violations and he can come up and speak to this himself. Is your applicant the owner?

Yes, he is. Okay. Can we speak to you please? Your name and address for record. And I'm going to need your name and address for the record. And and before you speak, I just want to really make a statement honestly. Um with it being your property and you being made aware of what's been going on. Um just want you to consider it. Um okay.

Because it's it's super important for us u because it speaks a lot to the character of the property. Um with all those things that are happening on it and with it being yours, we just want you to take that in consideration. And then also just want to hear your heart in regards to it. Michael Forlaw, 8665 Baldwin Parkway, Douglasville, Georgia 30134. Uh, I'm trying to remember. I think I've owned the property for uh at least 18 months, maybe two years, and I have not received any correspondence from Douglas County code enforcement of any violations. Um, tonight's the first that I've heard of that. There is clearly evidence that some millings have been stored. um plan right uh on the east side of that building. Um I imagine that that happened um before I was involved. I have not leased this to anybody. I am aware that several months ago there were some trucks that were illegal illegally parked on the property that we had towed. Um, but that is the only thing that is uh familiar with anything that was said earlier by uh by code enforcement. I haven't had any communication with him.

That would be my that would be my encouragement today is that you make I'd be happy to. I mean, I'd be happy to um communicate with him, hear what the concerns are, and look, we'll address anything like we we what we want to do is a good project. So if there are any concerns or any violations, I'd be happy to to deal with it. So my last question for you, would you be amicable to the deferring to next month um for for a legal to be able to write up conditions for us to to keep an eye on it within the 24-month vesting period? Um yes. I don't Maybe I can ask for a little more clarification. Legal needs a month. Yeah, because

would it be appropriate for me to explain this? I can Well, well, you say yes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. A month is month is just fine. Um the we understand that there's a notice period that must be obtained. They also understand that u that the the legal needs actual time to do it and you would not be available to come back until uh the next month. So, a 30-day deferral is appropriate in this case and we're willing to do so. Thank you. No further questions. Any other questions? Planning? Yes. I have a couple questions for the applicant. Um, I wanted to talk a little bit about the the townhouse themselves. Sure. Uh, will they be for rent or or purchase? Purchase.

Purchase. Purchase. Yes. Okay. Two, three, four bedrooms. Tell me a little bit about it. There might be some business for you. Yeah. Three bedroom. Threebedroom. Three bedroom. Yes, sir. How about pricing? 300. Starting at 300. 300 plus. Okay. All right. Okay. That's that one. Any other questions? Planning and zoning board?

Yes, this is Melissa Pulk. I have a quick question. Um, may code enforcement come back up and can you speak to the the efforts that have been put forth to to um contact the owner of the property in regard to the violations? So again, uh, as stated earlier, you know, multiple telephone calls were made with a there was a telephone number on the for sale milling sign that was out there by the roadway. That number was called repeatedly. I don't know if it went directly to Mr. Forlaw. I have spoken with him on the phone. I He is familiar to me. He is familiar to our department. Uh, I'm probably not going to use this podium to go back and forth about that, but he he is familiar to my department and to me. Conversations have been had with multiple people associated with this property. Not everyone with Mr. Forlaw, but with people out there, the lack of knowledge of those violations being out there being foreign to Mr. Forlaw is surprising to me to hear that.

Understood. Thank you. I have no further questions. No problem. Any other questions? Planning and zoning board hearing? None. Madam Chairman, I'll throw to the board of commissioners for whatever questions you folks may have. All right. Thank you so much, Chairman Simmons. For the commissioners, are there any questions? Commissioner Mitchell, you have the floor. This is interesting. Um, we'll we'll start with Yes. Yes. We we'll start there. Good afternoon. Good evening. and and good evening. So, I guess what I'm trying to wrap my head around, there are multiple violations, multiple I don't know how long it's been, and you've only owned the property for 18 months if I heard you correctly.

That's correct. And none of these conversations got to the actual owner, I guess. Correct. And I guess the only other part about this that's kind of confusing is that owning a piece of property like this in 18 months and these violations were being done and the owner, I'm assuming, didn't visit, come by, see, or get any notification to say, "Oh, there's some millings or whatever it is that's there." Didn't Didn't that either Did that ever happen or did we So, as my as my client stated earlier, they he did understand that there was some illegal truck parking going on on the property. Okay.

And when he discovered the illegal truck parking going on the property, and this is following a visit to the property, he had those trucks towed. So, but he didn't see the milling and all the other stuff. I don't know if you s Did you see the milling when you went out to the property? Evidence. There's evidence of it, but there was no never a actual violation correspondence received such that he would be on notice that it is a violation. And I guess reason I'm asking too though, and I apologize for interrupting you like that because there was a sign supposedly that said that that's how Russell came about with a number to call somebody to say, "Hey, you can't do this." Mhm. And that number wasn't That's not him.

That's not him. So, so again, whomever is using the property in whatever fashion they're using the property in is using the property without his permission or has been using the property without his permission, does not have a lease on record for anybody, has not entered into a verbal lease with anybody or anything along those lines. But within the 18 months or 6 months when when that was when you noticed this, I'm assuming you never even noticed that that was there. And you noticed the the trucks, but you didn't notice anything like that were there. Let him you can let him speak if he would please. If you went out there today, you could see evidence that there there has been millings there in the past. So that is noticeable if that answers your question.

Right. Right. Right. I I get it. What I'm trying to get to sign I I don't recall seeing the sign. Right. Because because there was a sign that that I was alluding to that Russell called and said, "Hey, you know, this is illegal on based off of our codes and blah blah blah and here we are now trying to figure out like, okay, that's not me." But did did your client do anything in reference to that? Got rid of the trucks if I heard that correctly. That's correct. But in in reference to the milling and anything else that was in violation? Well, again, you would have unless unless you receive a under normal circumstances, if unless you receive a notice

notice of violation that something is a violation, you have no real reason to go and say, "I should inspect this." Now, under also under normal circumstances, a normal property owner, you're going to go by and check on your property on a regular basis. I get that and understand that. Okay. Completely say, no, understand that completely. Would not make the argument that he should not have gone by and checked on the property. But at the same time, but he did though because he said he had notice of something. Absolutely. And then here we are. We didn't do anything other than just let the violations pile up if I'm hearing Russell correctly. And now we're in trouble with violations. Well, again, not him because you know, but he was put on notice by what he saw

that. Am I correct? I don't know. And I'm not trying to I'm just trying to understand that you know you saw the trucks that was in violation. Yep. Got rid of those. Yep. The milling or any other violations that may have occurred kind of just said, "Well, that's not me." Well, that could be the case or it could be that I'm going to let him answer. Okay. Right. He want to speak though. I don't want to, you know. Yeah. Got you. I just wanted to remind everybody that we've been working on this for about 18 months to two years. So, Got it. So there has been a thought of, hey, we're getting trying to get to a point to where the site can get cleaned up, right?

So it wasn't just wasn't just ignoring what it looks like, but no, I never saw any active operations out there. What it looks like now is what it looked like when I bought it. Okay. Um, but to to to what you're saying about potentially ignoring it, we were working towards this and I know I'm using ignore, not ignore. You don't have to. I'm just only trying to, you know, wrap my head around. No, no, no, no. Don't Don't finish. Finish up. Don't Don't stop. Go ahead. I'm listening. So, that's it. Yes, sir.

Oh. Oh, okay. I thought you was adding something to that. Okay. It It just I don't know. I I I I do understand my colleagues uh on the planning and zoning side of that of of trying to was it defer or was it Oh, okay. defer it for a moment to get cuz it's kind of interesting to to hear the situation only to find that you had no knowledge of it. So you shouldn't be at fault. Is that what Yeah. Right. Right. So, but somebody if I'm owning the property, just using common sense, if I own the property and I unless I didn't go in 18 months and watch and see my property, then I wouldn't have never known.

Yeah. I don't want to bring Russell back up, but I I just cuz I think he's it just as you can see. Oh, I understand. And the reality of it is this. whether he was aware of them then or and and beingware aware of them now as the owner of the property, he understands and stipulates the fact that his responsibility to make sure responsibility. So that's not an argument at all and we certainly accept the deferral situation such that now that we are aware of them unfortunately made aware of them in this form we can fix whatever those issues are and ensure that those issues don't occur in the future. Uh oh. Okay, staff is running up and I don't want to

just one quick clarification. I want to just make it clear that everything that Russell had shared is a matter of public record through the impact statement that was submitted as a part of the staff report. So to the extent that it is just being heard in this forum, I would suggest that this was something that anytime there is a concern from one of our reviewing departments in their impact statements, we make sure that that person is here to speak directly to it. So that is why code enforcement is here tonight. But in terms of just being made aware of it, this is all in writing in the staff report which is posted one week in advance. And I do believe the applicant is shaking her his head that they do have the staff report on this case. All right. So, just wanted to clarify that. Thank you.

And and and just to further clarify, when I say being made aware, I'm talking about these specific violation notices that you would normally get in a situation where I've got a piece of property and my fence is too high or whatever the case. I got vines growing up. We we've never received a notice that we violated such and such section of the code and we need to fix it by this date because you wasn't aware of it and you didn't know it. So you wasn't out there for 18 months and you don't you don't know. So no I mean like we never received I'll just make it up. I was just No, I'm just kidding. Okay. Okay. I I'll yield back, Madam Chair, but I'll yield. Okay. Thank you so much. Uh Commissioner Mitchell, Commissioner Braxton. All right. You have the floor.

All right. Thank you, Russell. If you could approach the podium, please. Greatly appreciate that. So, thank you again. And you and I, we spend time in the community and understand what the code enforcement process looks like. Yes. So there is a citation or there's information that's written up. The landlord has reached out to and communicated with and from my understanding from I don't say testimony but from your statement and your impact you have documented when those communications and those conversations have occurred with the property owner. Is that a correct assessment?

Correct. And our department has multiple instances of photographs of the property showing the asphalt millings, some of them in piles taller than me. Mhm. And not quite as wide as the citizens hall, but probably fill up half the volume of citizens hall. Multiple piles of that. Um, so there are if if this is going to be deferred till March, there will be additional stuff put on put in the case file. So the milling is I'm sorry.

So the millings are present currently like in this moment they are currently present on the property. Our department checked the property. I I believe this came I believe this particular case was last month also.

Yes sir. So, we we did a spot check of the property the the day of or within plus or minus a day or two of the the initial hearing last month. Um what we found out there at this point were the asphalt millings that were laid down as asphalt topping or a driveway or or paving, whatever you want to call it. Um the the large piles of asphalt millings were not on the property. The the only thing at the point at this point there were there were some litter violations and I say some only simply because there are some failed trees in and around the property which is technically a violation of the litter ordinance. But when I was out there last month and when I say our department I was out there to do the checking on it. When I was out there last month the property again still not never has been in full compliance before or after this particular owner. um most especially in the last 18 months, 24 months. Um never been in full compliance, but when I was out last month, that's the cleanest and closest to compliance that the property's been since I've had a presence out there and my department over the last 24 months. So the the asphalt milling piles are gone as of a month ago. Um junk vehicles, you know, some of the outdoor storage that is all been removed. Now, what course of time it's been removed since my visit and the previous visit, which was months and months prior to that, that I don't know.

Thank you. But no worries. So, I guess my question is, well, how would someone know to remove it then? That's an excellent question, Commissioner. Okay. Uh, next question is, I'm surprised this didn't go to the next level as far as being heard in front of a judge. And I just want to kind of get an idea of Yes, sir. You know, why did that I guess not happen? just thinking through the normal course.

The reasoning for that, sir, is that no one no one was ever there there were requests from our department for someone associated with the property, whomever that may be as as a legal representative or entity to meet at the property at if if that meeting would have been handled, then that individual, whoever he or she may have been, was going to receive a summon for the property. as of I mean it technically as of right now a summon still can and should be issued for the prior violations on the property.

Um so it it has not been in front of the judge because no one has been served a summon to appear because the noticees of violation and the time periods have come and gone. So it technically is still an open case for our department to do a summons. Okay. All right. And then I know there was mention of illegal tree removal. Can someone speak to that? I can give you with my knowledge of the ordinance if that's okay with planning and zoning.

My my my knowledge of it when you have commercial or industrial property that abut residential property there is a required buffer depth of I want to say 25 ft. I'm pretty sure I'm on with that 25 feet. um over the course of however many months or the last couple years. It may not not this particular case, not saying you know this particular owner did it, but the the trees that should be up for buffers between the um non-compatible zonings have have been removed. Um so that that particular the buffer requirement maybe not completely throughout the property but there there are areas of the property where the required buffer between non-residential and residential are no longer existing.

Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Yes sir. All right. This question is to the applicant and I'm curious as I know before we had 101 units now it's down to 97. So, I'm trying to get an idea of what does what has been the savings or from a density standpoint, what have what's been the change there? Someone can speak to that.

I think it's the biggest change is really just the entrance location. I can't remember the particulars of how that reoriented the the buildings themselves, but there's really only been one layout change from the last time that you guys looked at this, and that was changing the roads and the entrance. So I guess that in turn had a ripple effect in how the units were laid out. It's fewer units with this version that you're looking at right now. Fewer. Okay. So no change to the the density of the units. It's just that because we went from Boyd Road to Veterans Memorial, it reduced four units. Is that correct standing? Yes, sir. Okay. 101 to 97. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. And then my last question is to traffic um engineering and I just was curious, do we need to is will there be a traffic light that will be put out and placed out on Veterans Memorial or is that TBD?

Yes, sir. Concerning a potential traffic signal, um 97 homes will never trigger um a traffic signal on on this particular roadway. You you use a combination of of uh homes that are exiting a development. In this case, um you're you're talking about 43 and 53 cars in the AM and PM hour. That's not a lot of vehicles compared to some other uh development sizes. Uh the current volumes along veterans range from 154 to about 157 uh cars per day and it's just not going to uh warrant a signal.

Okay. All right. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. I yield the floor back to you. All right. Thank you so much. Commissioner Mitchell, you have the floor. Um Allison. So the the buffering the buffer uh uh requirement for this development and now disturbed from my understanding based on code violations. What where are we what happens there with that at least or is that part of the some of the conditions and all that good stuff? Okay.

Sure. So Austin's going to help me on this, but you can kind of make out the periphery of the property, right? Um what I think is going to be a buffer on there. And are they doing the 50 foot or the They're providing an 8ft structural wall. So they're they've reduced the buffer to 25 24 feet at the south and the east. So we've reduced it to 25 or you I'm I'm who who reduced it with the if you provide a structural zoning buffer typically a fence or a wall that's 8t high and opaque you can reduce the buffer by 30%. So in this case that'd be 24 ft. Oh got you got you so so if I'm hearing you correctly there there's going to be a fence and an additional 25 or so natural 24. Yes sir.

Okay. Yes sir. and but that code violation how does that come into play that that happened with that? So

yeah so again I just want to reiterate one of the things that I had said previously is I think it is a fair thing to consider that transitioning the zoning to a new use um does give us a path forward for uh all intents and purposes remediating some of the violations on the property. Okay. Um, right. So, kind of y'all have heard me say this before, but just briefly, the difference between law enforcement and code enforcement is that our first goal with code enforcement is to come into compliance. So, again, our our hope would be um that this property would uh fairly soon move forward to its land disturbance permit and to ultimately developing at which point the redevelopment of the site would have to meet all applicable standards of the code. Right. Um I think the the concern about some of the ongoing violations and some of the feedback that we've gotten from folks is that well what if this resoning happens and then it still just kind of hangs around you know for a minute. So I think that that was kind of the seeing if we could figure out something you know within the vesting period to make sure that that doesn't happen was our ultimate goal. But I think the way we would address any outstanding violations would be to make sure that whatever their new plan is is completely compatible with all the requirements of the code. And as Austin said, the the reduction in the buffer is allowable use under the UDC if they put the structural barrier there. Um, and then we kind of move forward based on the assumption that when they develop this, it would be compliant with all the current standards of the UDC.

I understand. Understand. So that's why we're asking based off planning and zoning to defer that to that March 3rd to give us a little time to work through all of this. Again, if you are concerned, now the planning and zoning department recommendation is going to be um to approve with the condition. Um so that is still our recommendation. If for whatever reason the planning and zoning board, the board of commissioners would like us to take an additional step to address any outstanding violations, it is the recommendation of legal that we defer to March 3rd to be able to do that. um planning and zoning is comfortable to move forward with uh approval with the condition um as indicated by staff. But if you want more time to work on that, legal has said we might need to take a minute. I

I I hear you. But I I think just listening to um planning and zoning about the potential deferment and these guys looking to okay that particular recommendation. Maybe that'll give us a little time to digest this because Russell looks at me really with serious eyes about all of this. though. Um, but no, I I um I would just definitely say that will probably be the the recommendation for this, but we'll decide as to what that looks like. Madam Chair, I'll defer. Thank you. I mean, excuse me. I I'm going defer. What am I doing? I'm done. I yield back. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Okay. All right. Vice Chair, look up your way. Okay. I yield the floor back to you, Chairman Simmons. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Planning and zoning board, you've heard the discussion. Uh, do I have a motion on Z2026-07? This is Brandon Pen. I make a motion to defer application Z2026-07 to our March 3rd planning zoning board meeting to allow legal time to create um proper conditions concerning the code violations within the 24month vesting period. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Or Curry second? I

have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion? hearing. None. I'll call for a vote. All in favor of deferring Z2026-07 to the March the 3 meeting, please signify by raising your hand. All opposed. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. Z2026-07 comes to you with a unanimous recommendation for deferment till March the 3rd, 2026. Thank you so much, Chairman Simmons. Uh, board of commissioners certainly has come to my attention that Z2026-07 is on the table for deferment. Do we have a motion?

Oh, okay. I thought you going to get the rest of it up. March 3rd, 2027 as a defer. That's my motion to kind of take item Z2026-07. Okay. Do we have a second? Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion board? We have a motion and a second for deferment. Please indicate by raising your right hand if you are in favor. We have a 50 unanimous vote and the motion carries for deferment. So I'll yield the floor back to you. Thank you very much, Mr. Bailey. Mr. Farlo, we'll see you next month. All right, next agenda item, please. Mr. Glenn,

this is excuse me, case S2026-03. This is a request for a special use permit to allow truck and trailer parking on Veterans Memorial Highway. The lot is approximately 5 acres in Commission District 1. The property is located on the north side of Veterans Memorial Highway adjacent to the railroad rightway. The property is currently vacant and densely wooded. The property is zoned as light industrial with conditions in the highway corridor overlay. The applicant is proposing to develop the property as a heavy truck and trailer parking lot. The applicant proposes to include at least 50 parking spaces. Here are the relevant code sections. Okay. There is a long history of prior zoning actions for this property. In 2007, an applicant who was different from Miss Tracy Payne came in to reszone the property from RA to LI for an interotal truck facility. This use was denied in 2007. This same applicant, who is not the current applicant, asked to reszone the property to LI with conditions with no proposed end use. This use was approved in September of 2020. Now, in 2021, Miss Tracy Payne came before the board to ask for a special use permit to allow truck parking facility at the same location. This use was denied in 2021. In 2022, the applicant came back for the same special use permit to allow truck parking in facility. It was, excuse me, truck parking facility. It was approved in 22 2022, but the applicant never vested. Four previous zoning requests from 2007, 2020, 2021, and 2022 have been presented to the board of commissioners for resoning of the parcel and special use permit for truck and trailer parking. The applicant attended meetings for the development review committee in August

of 2022 and March of 2023, but failed to vest the use after approval in March of 2022. The applicant has not proposed any substantial changes to the condition of the property and proposed development since previously approved. Several citizens were concerned about the proximity of the proposed development to the Sunrise Gardens of Memory Cemetery located south of the subject parcel. Here are the relevant criteria analysis. Here's a zoning map. Here's a site aerial. Here's a site survey provided by the applicant. Here are the future land use and character area maps. Staff is recommending approval with conditions based on the following findings. The proposed special use permit would not modify the intent, purpose, or spirit of the comprehensive plan. The proposed special use permit would not adversely affect the public health, safety, and welfare. If the board is inclined to approve, staff recommends the following conditions. The proposed use of the LI zone parcel will increase truck and trailer traffic considerably along Veterans Memorial Highway to a point that improvements of a right turn deceleration lane for the proposed driveway as shown as well as an eastbound left turn lane are required to comply with UDC code. These turn lanes are a direct impact due to demand concentrated at the proposed entrance to prevent excessive truck turning, wait times, and excessive delays to vehicles blocked from through traffic movement. The proposed driveway entrance shall be shifted to a line opposite the excuse me, the proposed driveway entrance shall be shifted to a line opposite the existing driveway of Sunrise Gardens of Memory Cemetery. A minimum of 5 foot wide sidewalk with a 4 foot sided median is required along the entire property footage with G dot approval. Provide the

applicant must provide curb and gutter with appropriate drainage structures along the entire property frontage with G dot approval. Additional requirements may be implemented by G dot upon plan submitt. A copy of the G dot permit is required for a work for all work within the right ofway. To satisfy the desired requirements of the UDC, the applicant will meet the requirements of article 3, section 331E for a 20-oot landscape strip with three canopy trees, three understory trees, two evergreen coniferous trees, 18 shrubs per 100 ft of linear frontage, and the requirement for three row fence with brick supporting columns in article 4, division 4, section 4.23 235A. The property will comply with all fencing and lighting requirements of the Douglas County Unified Development Code. Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Glenn. At this point in time, I'll open the public hearing on this matter. Anyone including the applicant, applicant's representative wishing to speak in favor, please approach the podium. You have two minutes per person for a total allocated time of 15 minutes. you state your name and address for the record then two minutes.

I'm Tracy Payne. My address is 3745 Rifflewood Way in Douglasville, Georgia 30135. Um, good evening board of commissioners, planning and zoning board members and staff. Um, again, I'm Tracy Payne, um, single mother of two, cyber security manager and owner of the said property. And yes, we um did receive approval back in March of 2022. Um but there were delays in getting G DOT's approval and all the other approvals that we needed before we can actually apply for a land disturbance permit. I would just like to say that one of the most prevailent issues facing truck drivers daily is parking shortage. Um truckers are constantly faced with the dilemma of parking. So as the need for truck drivers increase, so do um the number of trucks on the road. And I would like to iterate that this is not a truck stop or a rest stop. This is simply a parking lot. The drivers will be obligated to park and go. So I would like to address some of the um concerns that I've have heard from um some of the residents and other business owners. So I would like to first address the security features that we will have 24/7 um camera surveillance and security guard lightning um posted signs no trespassing no soliciting no lording etc. Um we will have perimeter fixing as one of the conditions electronic entry gate. Um some of the environmental concerns for truck idling. Um in the summer and spring we will let them idle for approximately 10 minutes because they do need to warm up and let the pressure build up in the trucks. In the fall and winter they need approximately 20 minutes for the same. And we will have signings posted um around the parking lot enforcing that. Um, so another concern was human trafficking,

prostitution, solicitation. I am a mother of a 11-year-old daughter. Um, this is a major concern of mine. Every time she leaves the home with me and without me and I'm getting a little emotional cuz this is a topic for me, but this is why I want to implement the security features. That's your two minutes. Oh, okay. If you stand by, I'm sure we'll have some more questions. Okay. Oh, before you go. Yes, sir. This is not part of your two minutes. Uh the eight conditions that were read in, are you in agreement with those should this pass? Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

Anyone else wishing to speak in favor of this application? Seeing no one approaching, I'll close the public hearing in favor and open the public hearing in opposition. Anyone wishing to speak in opposition to this application, please approach the podium. You two have two minutes per person for an allocated time of 15 minutes. Uh if you would state your name and address for the record and then two minutes.

I'm Karen Adams. I live at 3483 Lumpin Court, Douglasville, Georgia 30134. I've been a pastor's wife for over 33 years and I've attended a multitude of funerals. Some which my husband officiated and some which of family and friends. I stood with those grieving behind their loved ones caskets and I cried with them and tried to comfort them and even use those famous cliches. You know, they're in the presence of the Lord or this is part of life. However, I never totally understood the pain or the emptiness of those words until after months of watching the ugly grip of dementia still my husband's mind to the point that he was no longer able to form words and eventually where he even forgot how to breathe. He finally passed away six months ago on August 22nd, 2025. As I stood beside my husband's casket, I numbly watched family and friends trying to cover me with the exact same words I had done over the years. And I was devastated because he was my husband. He was my lover, my prayer partner, my confident, my best friend. And now he's gone. It's hard watching him to be stripped away from me. And even though he could no longer respond, I could at least hold his hand and tell him how my day was or how it's gone and how much I loved him or shower him with kisses. But now I stood there knowing that the following day he would be placed in the ground and I would never again be able to look at him and hold him or kiss him. My parents lived with me in an apartment and my husband and I had built in our home in the lower lever so that they could we could be there for their golden years. My dad was 96, my mom 93, and both were aging but still were independent and had their right mind. Sunday morning, October 26, my dad complained of feeling a little confused and and it continued throughout the day. And by that evening, he was in the ER. On November 3rd, my father passed away just two and a half months after my husband. Once again, I stood in the exact same room at the exact same funeral home and basically the same people, except this time it was in front

of my dad's casket. I hadn't had time to grieve the loss of my husband, and now I was faced with the grief of the loss of my dad. With my dad gone, we were concerned about my mother staying alone in the house all day while my son and I were at work. So on December 22nd, she was your two minutes. Okay. Please don't. If you'd state your name and address for the record, then you have two minutes.

My name is Noah Stockton, 11221 Veterans Memorial Highway. Um, my biggest concerns with this is I being right there in Venice Memorial, I've already seen countless big rigs kill uh drivers on that road trying to turn in and out of already existing truck parking. Nothing I've seen addresses how they're going to prevent that from happening while there's funeral processions going in and out of that uh cemetery. Nothing about that. There's no kind of traffic, no no discussions of lighting being put up there. That road is already too small and there's already too much traffic in that area. With my grandmother up there at the top of that cemetery, I would hate for her to have to look down and watch more people die on that road because of this. I'm all for truck parking, but I think there's better places for it. I don't think it's here.

Thank you very much. Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition? State your name and address. Good evening. Carmen Williams, 106 Center Point Road, Breamman, Georgia, 30110. And you ask why somebody here from Breeman? Well, I represent probably about 30 of my closest relatives that's buried in the cemetery. So, I frequent it a lot. not just only going to visit with them, but um helping out or uh delivering flowers sometimes to other folks. So, like I said, I'm in and out of the cemetery a good bit. And numerous times when you're pulling out of the cemetery already, there is a lot of traffic coming both ways. And you know, rush hour traffic, um, around 4, 5:00, 6, you have to sit there a long time and then you just have to hurry, you know, and hope you don't get hit. Adding trucks to the mix is just already adding to a difficult situation. Um, I'm all for the truckers having a safe place to park and I hope, you know, this will happen somewhere, but in that already congested area, I don't think this is the proper place and thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments. Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition? Name and address for the record. Hello, my name is Brandy. B R A N D I Rampley R A M P L E Y. My address is 6965 Shannon Drive in Lithia Springs, Georgia. I actually live right over the hill from where this is going being proposed to be at. Um my issues with this and I will tell you I come from a background where my father was 20 plus years a driver. He drove a big rig. Um enjoyed it. Um, and I have no doubt that there were times he needed someplace to park. Unfortunately, I think he would be in agreement with me this would not be a good place due to the traffic that is on Veterans Memorial already. Um, my issues are there are within a 1 and a half mile distance right here of this area where it's being proposed at. There are already three truck parking areas. One being at the corner of Ben Hill and Veterans Memorial, the other being at I believe the address is 11151 Veterans Memorial. And then there's one between Plantation Estates and Protune Care Care. Also, we have businesses within that one and a half miles that already have big trucks on that area. one being trucks that are coming and going, bringing things to the SA recycling area that is right across from Trail Parking or excuse me, Trail Lane, which goes into the neighborhood where I live. Then there is AmsCo Associates, which has big rigs parked on their lot. I believe it recently changed names, though. And then there is also the um pre-cast um concrete that is right down the road

beside a gas station there. Um these have trucks going all day all day. Um the cement has things with them, the concrete preformed things. Um I will tell you that this um highway area right there. Okay. Thank you. two minutes. Thank you. Thank you very much. Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition? You'd approach the podium, please.

State your name and address for the record and then you get two minutes. Hello, my name is Dale Spencer and I live at 773 Bearden Road in Douglasville, Georgia. And I just want to say um one of the things that brings Douglas County together in my opinion is the respect we show for each other. And we're very we're very proud of that. And one of the one of my concerns is that being in this place there are protocols or there's there's just maybe it's not a Georgia thing, maybe it's just a Douglas County thing. I'm not sure. But when we have funerals, we pull over. Yes,

we pull over. It doesn't matter who it is, when it is, where it is. We show respect and love for each other. If we invite truckers into this parking lot, we're selling them a bill of goods that really isn't what they're going to get. Because how are they going to pull out in the middle of a funeral procession when you have sheriff's deputies blocking the way? Time is money for these people. When they're in the truck, they need to be driving, moving, making money. And I respect that. And I respect that enough to be concerned for them to park their vehicles here because they may be delayed 30 minutes. I have been to many first responders funerals as well as other funerals that go on for miles and it's just a small road. It's a great opportunity for the parking lot. It's just not the right location. I think everybody's in agreement with that and I'd like to speak on behalf of the truckers who haven't parked there yet and on behalf of the community who uses that area for laying their their loved ones to rest. That's my concern.

Okay. Thank you very much, Miss Spencer. Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition? You would approach the podium. name and address and in two minutes.

Hi, my name is Gail Hellboy. At one time I also sat on this board, so I understand the things that y'all are faced with, but however, this has come to my attention is not uh something that needs to be in this location. Um, if you're familiar with the road going from Douglasville, you've got a hill on the other end coming from Lithia, you've got the curb. I grew up in Lithia Springs. Later I raised five children in Winston. So I'm familiar with that whole strip on 78. That's the road I traveled. I have grandparents, a previous husband who was a lieutenant with the sheriff's department for 25 years right here for Douglas County. I have cousins, friends, and it's we often go there and we shouldn't have to put up with, you know, dealing with trucks coming in and out. And like she said, even going to a funeral, you've got such a small drive getting in and out, it is a problem. Um, I've got a friend that couldn't make the meeting, but if by some chance that y'all do table this or or go forward with it, either one, please make them have a safety and congestion study done and also stick with the conditions that you've already took time to list. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition? Go ahead. How much time we got left? Five minutes. Five minutes. Okay. Okay. State your name and address.

My name is Dale Arrington. I live at 6427 Arthur Drive in Lithia Springs. I'm also concerned about the truck parking and the trucks pulling out into the into the Veterans Memorial Highway. My husband is Wayne Arrington who was our former fire chief our founding fire chief of Douglas County Fire Department. Wayne is now in Sunrise Cemetery as well as other members of my family. My concern is for the fire department and for the sheriff's department when they are going on emergency calls that some trucks are pulling out into that into the street. Maybe don't look when they pull out. So, it's very concerning to me that our employees of the of the county could possibly be endangered each time they get into a piece of equipment because of a truck pulling out. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition? I'm Roseanne Kanger. I'm at 663 Little Road in Douglasville on the other side of the cemetery. And um my husband's a retired truck driver. I've got a daughter and a son, a truck driver. And I'm the owner of the cemetery. I've listened to many of calls about the truck parking and their concerns about the noise from the train from the trucks pulling out in the highway and me pulling a truck and a trailer pulling into the highway and a semi can't hit the gas and speed up and a car be just right up on the truck and then they get over and hit another car head on. Now, there has been an accident and it was Fourth of July weekend or week of Fourth of July right there at Georgia portable buildings. A car was passing another car going westbound. A car was coming eastbound and somebody lost their life right there and we ran from the cemetery up there, but we couldn't do nothing. So, with these trucks pulling in and out, it's going to be like that. Um, we're going to hear brakes hitting, sliding, and trying to not miss them because they're going too fast. And the speed limit is 45, but cars is going faster than 45 going down Veterans Memorial Highway. So, just consider all the families at the cemetery. And I know we getting close to the 15 minutes and there's more families that's here to speak on behalf of the families that's laying at rest at sunrise.

Thank you very much for your comments. Next person, please.

My name is Thomas Fur. I live at 5020 Pool Mill Road in Douglasville. I'm a retired firefighter EMT for Douglas County and I worked at both uh Lithia Springs and the Bula Fire Stations. I worked dozens and dozens of wrecks in that in that area between those two areas. I think this is a not a really good location for this. And people ask me all the time, do I know where people can have truck parking? But I don't think this is good because of that curve and the way people fly up and down Bankhead Highway when there's not lights coming up real close. So, and that's all I got to share.

Thank you, Mr. Fur. Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition?

Hello. My name is Victoria Kanger, 112 South Street, Dallas, Georgia. I am an employee at Sunrise Memorial Garden Cemetery. I on a daily basis have to come in and out of that cemetery pulling in. People are flying up on me coming down that hill because I come in from the um midway area coming in from Dallas. People almost hit me going in trying to come out, taking a left turn going on to veterans. You almost get hit constantly between that curve and the downhill. We have seen a number of accidents occur. Families coming in just buried a loved one. You're going to be distraught. You're not going to be thinking clearly. Pull out, they get hit by a car coming down that hill. What's going to happen when it's a semi? What's going to be the end result of something like this? I know that it was said that G dot approved. I've also spoke to G dot. I have emails confirming that the only thing that it was approved was a driveway. Nothing about deceleration or acceleration lanes to help. As Roseanne said, my father, my sister, my brother, myself, we've all drove semis. The football fields that it takes for one to stop needs to be thought about in this scenario. What happens when they cannot stop quick enough for pedestrians trafficking? What happens when there's a funeral trying to come in and that semi's coming out? These are all things that we really want to be thought about. I, as a truck driving family, agree we do need truck driver parking. What about off of Lee Road where the truck stop is where Burger King is and stuff over there? There's plenty of wooded area that could

be changed into a light industrial. put it somewhere where it's going to be actually convenient for a truck driver to come off the highway and go right into the parking. My apologies. I heard the 15 minutes. That's our 15 minutes. At this point in time, I'll close the public hearing on this matter. Planning and zoning board. Do you have any questions of the applicant or of staff?

Barman, I have uh questions for staff. Well, really, this would be more for DOT. Sorry. Okay. Yes, sir. Yes. If you could just give us uh overview on the safety um and congestion um in that area considering this possible development. Um what are your what's your take on it? Um have you been down veterans lately? Yes. Okay. Very familiar.

Well, different um driving along different corridors, you get a different feel. And I didn't ask that in a derogatory way, but Veterans um carries about 12,400 cars a day on an average. So, if you've driven down there or any of us that have, you'll get the feel of that's what the volume is spread out. um combining over a 24-hour period. This uh site is shown to be a 42 uh truck uh parking facility with 13 cars. If I read that correctly, it was kind of small. um with a total of 55 uh total parking spaces. We are um required to follow a trip generation calculation that kind of gives us some ideas of how many times that that vehicles will go in and out of a specific development. And in this particular one, it appears that uh the calculation would equate to um approximately 84 trips a day is what it would um compute to. Now that would be 10 trips in the morning, 12 trips in the afternoon, meaning within within an hour's period, 10 vehicles would enter or exit in the morning. So, um that being said, it's it's not a um the site itself is not a busy site, you know, per se to talk about volume. Uh however, you start talking about the mix of larger vehicles. Um that that changes the scope a little. But I will say um as a typical history, you don't find many of the um drivers uh that that are going to park or use the facility will not use it during peak hour

periods. They know the roads are busy during that time. That's why your trip numbers are are a little bit low. Okay, I think that answers my questions. Thank you. Um if I can speak to the applicant or if the applicant's engineer that actually developed the properties here, that would be think be a little better. Can you give me your name and address for the record, please? Good evening. I'm Shay Strippling, applicants engineer. Okay. Can you give me your address, please? Uh 298 Arbor Run. Okay, got it. Um

there it is. Thank you. Um, give me a little bit about your your rendering and how you've considered the volume of traffic and uh trucks being able to pull in and pull out safely. Just talk to me about about how you developed that.

Absolutely. Yes. So, um, originally we had the site designed with a concept plan that staff recommended the driveway be realigned to across the Sunrise Memorial um, cemetery. So we have abided by that recommendation and moved our driveway. We also have um submitted our plans to G DOT and received approval for the driveway um and as well as a deceleration and acceleration lane to the site. So we will be providing over 300 feet 400 feet of deceleration into the site for truckers to pull off of Veterans Memorial to decelerate before they make their turn onto the site. Um, we also have a about 30 foot setback from the road where the trucks will stop and have sight distances in each direction that have been approved by the um the city planning that they will have over 700 ft of sight distance in either direction for the oncoming traffic. Um, we also have provided the 20 foot landscape buffer that has been requested by the city so that the visual from the road will not just be an empty parking lot of trucks or if somebody is at the cemetery, they won't look across the street and just see a pile of trucks parked. That we will have a significant landscape buffer and visual um buffer between the road and the parking lot. Perfect. And u my next question you may or may not have answers to, but are you familiar with the amount of time that it takes on average for somebody to be able to key in their information and actually get a a full semi into the actual parking lot? Um, we have not done a study that takes the time to do that, but um, Miss Payne is planning on having a key card or a PIN number situation where you will just be at the kiosk for approximately 1 minute

before you pull in. And the driveway entrance provides depth for idling in that space while you are entering the gated area. Beautiful. Last question. How many full-size truck and trailers could fit within your del lane? Like for instance, if you have five trucks that are coming into the parking space at the same time, how many could fit in your del lane? I believe if we have a truck sitting at the keypad that there will be at least space for three trucks behind them in the diesel lane.

Okay, that's that's important. Okay. Uh I think that does it for me. Thank you so much. Any other questions? Yes, I have a question for the applicant. Could you come back up? Uh u I'm pretty familiar with that area. I live in that area. And uh are you going to coming out uh you have a small two-lane? Will they be going to the left or turning to the right to because most of the trucks will probably uh be going to try to get on the major highway. Uh, so which way will they be going? Um, the trucks will have the ability to leave the site in both directions. In both directions.

Yes, sir. We have I know if you go to the right, the next major uh in intersect right there is is Burnt Hickory and which do not allow trucks. Uh so you would have to go all the way down almost to downtown Douglasville to to try to get to the highway on that way. Uh but uh there's a lot of lot of traffic there and I I have a major concern about that. Yes, we've had a traffic study um completed and submitted to G DOT that has been um accepted. Okay. But you know on Burn Hickor is a bridge so you can't go across that bridge.

Correct. And the parking lot will be providing uh space for 13 uh standard cars. So we are providing the Okay. exit for any type of vehicle. All right. Thank you. Any other questions? Planning and zoning? Yes, you you can stay right there. Um, will it have a We talked about lighting. I think some of the other issues that they talked about was sound. Uh, because when you know uh you listen to a truck when it starts up, it makes a lot of noise. Correct. So, how is going to, you know,

are they what time are they going to be coming in? How, you know, is going to be how the operation's going to run? I know during the day is gonna probably be your biggest complaints that you're going to get because that's most of the time when somebody either going to the cemetery or just traveling down that road. So, what is your hours of operations that you're looking at, they're going to be able to come in? Oh, I'll let Miss Payne speak to hours of operation. Um, most drivers that I have spoken with have said that they leave either first thing in the morning or later that evening coming in and going. It's rarely that you will see truckers coming in and out to go on their runs um in midday.

So you basically early in the morning is what time early? I mean well it's going to be a 247 parking lot. Okay. But you know based on my my studies that I've done with truck drivers that I know personally, that's what was stated to me. So it's going to be a 24-hour operation. So that means they can come in and out whenever they feel like 24 hours. Yes. Okay. All right. I have no other questions. Any other questions? Hearing none, Madam Chairman, I'll throw it to the board of commissioners for questions you folks may have. Thank you so much, Chairman Simmons. Board of Commissioners, we have any questions? Commissioner Mitchell, you have the floor.

Yes. Oh, yes. To the applicant, I'm sorry.

So, so that I'm clear though. So, coming out of that There will be most of your truckers will go west and crossing Burnt Hickory all the way through downtown Douglasville and going I mean I'm just I know 78 is a a traffic um it it's not it's going to get better designed uh but G dot and and and and all those that there's a plan to widen 78 but That conversation's been going on now for 20 plus years. Don't know when it's going to happen, but if I'm hearing you correctly, coming out of that your your drive, it's a right turn going toward Burnt Hickory going in that direction or west or is it

Yes, there would be a right turn acceleration lane that is the west based on the the picture we just saw. But as stated by planning and zoning at Burnt Hickory, you can't get to 20 there. You got to go all the way through though. Correct. Crossing over Burnt Hickory. No. Uh, possibly. I believe so. That's with states. But you're saying your traffic study stated that that's okay because you can't go left on Burnt Hickory. Then you got to cross the bridge. Um, our traffic study was based on the daily trips generated from our project. It was not um stating that the trucks would be allowed to go on certain roads,

right? And I don't think you can go on Burnt Hickory, though. I don't think you can make that left turn if I if I'm correct in that statement. Um maybe I I'm really trying to make sure I understand how the the the truck patterns kind of what because they're trying to get to the interstate and I understand the parking because there's up and down 78. There's several and and by the way that's my district so I know exactly where you are and what you talk I'm just trying to figure out how that portion of that would work for you guys leaving from your establishment going to get to the interstate you have two options you have you can make a left or a right coming out parking lot

I was just doing the right turn first if you do make a right the nearest I know burnt hickory is not an option that's correct the next one is I believe highway 92 so you'll go all the way up through and almost through downtown Douglasfield to get to to 92. But that would be before it'll be right before You're right. You're right. You're right. A little left before you get all the way downtown. Right. Right. They That's right. They re they redid the the bypass. You're right. So it doesn't have to go all the way. You couldn't go all the way in through downtown Douglasville and going to the left out of your establishment. That'll take you all the way down to Thornton, I guess. Or Well, you can make a right on Sweet. I believe that's Sweet Water. Yes, that is Sweet Water to get to Lee to get to Lee. Yes. Yep.

Okay. One of the So, so how many parking stalls we're speaking of? You got trucks for There's a total of 55 with cars and trucks. What's Give me that number again of trucks and cars. It would be uh 42 uh tractor trailer spots and 13 standard car spots. And are these overnight stays what we speaking of or are these basically park it in your car or go kind of because you live near or kind of how how is that part of it? So when a trucker comes to retrieve his truck apparent he would come in his car. So that's why we created the 13 parking spaces so he can park his car

crank up the truck and and leave. And then when that trucker returns he can park his truck, get in his car and leave. So that would be the same scenario for all the drivers. And in the study we did, only 13 spaces were needed to accommodate the goings and comingings of the 42 drivers. And and is there any reason why you guys are lining up uh with the cemetery on the other side the opposite side of the street? Is that something that G dot required or something that um G dot required that? Okay. Okay. Can we can we speak to that and say why? I mean, I'm just I'm trying to understand.

Um, that was a condition for our first special use permit was the

Yes. What you want to do when you have um developments on each side of the road, you want to line your center line of your driveways up so that your left turns can turn simultaneously if if available. Got you. If you stagger them, you can stagger them in one direction. it works well, but if you stagger it in the opposite direction, now they're conflicting and you don't really know who's going first. So, you always try to align your driveways or streets uh opposite each other. It's a safety factor. Safety so won't create an accident, you know, and unintentionally based on the mere fact of them being staggered like that. Yeah. A lot of times you're, you know, when we drive, we we're concerned about looking at the main road and may not be looking across the street. Mhm.

So if you if you did turn left and you and you had slightly altered alignment, you're not really looking at the car um across the street as much which could cause the conflict.

And can you talk to about this staggered and uh conjunction? What was that? Somebody said something earlier about Oh god. And I and I didn't my my doctoring handwriting. I just can't read my writing here. So, um, okay. Don't don't worry about it. It was some kind of study or or somebody mentioned one of the the um the citizens on in that in that area, the traffic study in in that area for this type of parking. Did you guys come up with anything that's good, bad, or indifferent with with that?

No. Again, the um the the traffic study that I think he's referring to is really just a trip generation that defines um what the projected number of trips that will be going in and out. Like I mentioned earlier, um the one thing that if I was just looking um at the site itself, uh I would probably say 35 or 40% of the traffic would would want to travel west and head toward 92, right? and probably the ballots would would travel uh east to go to Thornton. And then from Thornon, you decide if you go south toward I20 or north toward uh Hyum the Hyum area.

But I I guess I was just thinking earlier they might hit the le side of this, but okay. I I can see that. I can see that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um I guess staff I guess one last question. I'm going to leave it alone. Um What did she know?

Okay. So, you you went through a couple of moments when this was approved and disapproved and reapproved and the last I got was uh approval in 2022. Yeah. Yeah. Um, were there any conditions through all throughout those approvals and disapproval and then getting down to 2022 of March? Sure. Um, is there a particular case that you like me to share the conditions for or would you want me to go through all? I would just Well, we can start with for right now would be March of 20 March 1st of 2022. Okay. I'm going to have to pull that up. Oh, gotcha. Gotcha. Is that okay?

Uh, If I understand your question, you're asking about the conditions that were approved in 2022. Yes. I believe those are the same conditions that we are proposing here. Correct me if I'm wrong about that. Right. Would that be the the same? So again, the planning and zoning department's perspective is from a land use um perspective on this property. There really hasn't been anything that's changed since 2022. So our recommendation is primarily the same. Right? So the conditions that we have here that were read into the record, those are the same conditions um that we are recommending because from our perspective, nothing has substantially changed in the area or with the site. Um so if I understand your question correctly, no, but you that's exactly where I'm going.

Yeah, we so again we just we carried over the previous conditions of approval in 2022 to now. Basically everything in our report and our recommendation is the same as it was in 22. Got it. And we don't and maybe the applicant can probably speak this but we don't have any reasoning as to why and and I think I heard because of G dot and a few others were getting your permits or getting things of that caliber to to and what's that one the 24 months or how many months that Sure. So, under article 12 of our code, you have 24 months to vest um an approval. And again, the code further elaborates that uh for a non-residential project that is obtaining a land disturbance permit,

right? And G dot took you that long to kind of get there, I guess, cuz I'm just trying to get the rationale as to why we back here again, you know. Yes. So G dot was one of the agencies that we had to get approval from. The long the longest lead item here was the Douglas County Water and Sewer Authority. Um we went through about seven or eight reviews with them to get our storm water system and uh water quality system up to their standards and approved there. So that was the long lead item there getting this approved and that was the the main reason why this project was not vested within the 24-month period.

Got it. And was that shared with planning and zoning with Allison and those guys? Was that shared with planning and zoning? Yes. Yes. Um Douglas Water and Sewer Authority is works and with um planning and zoning and that was just the last approval we needed in order to get the final land disturbance permit. Right. And I guess Allison for your team was I'm just trying to verify. So again, I'm going to defer to Director McDonald on that because once you're done with zoning, you go to development review committee, right? So those are all the various reviewing departments. I think I'm sorry for being out of order.

Well, no. I think he's better suited to speak to that. Um because one thing I would say is that yes, in in talking with Director McDonald, the determination was made that they didn't vest. When we looked at the language of the code, the determination was made that we didn't vest. I think um Travis is better suited than I am to speak to kind of the length of time for a typical review. Um because again, we have a number of projects that are on state routes. All of them have to meet the G do or excuse me, the WSA requirements. Um, so he is better positioned than I am to speak to whether or not this was an appropriate amount of time to wait. Right. And you see why I'm asking though is because I'm trying to make sure did they have enough time? I mean, you know, if they did, fine. If they didn't, maybe we need to adjust on our end with the timing. So,

right. So, McDonald, uh, the last time that plans were submitted to Douglas County versus Water and Sewer Authority was, I think, uh, in March of 2023 or thereabouts. So, we hadn't seen plans come for our review since that date, and it felt like an extraordinary amount of time to allow the special use permit to uh extend all the way into 2026. U let make sure I heard you right. saying that so we should give them more time based off of or or not or I would say no because uh it's

I would say that every other project that has the same requirements generally can meet the two-year period. So we feel the two-year period is s you know sufficient for to get through the permitting process. Right. So our our requirements are reasonable. Yes. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Sure. All right. I

Okay. Any other questions? Forward. Okay. I just had a question for um DOT. Mr. Mercer, thank you so much. Certainly as we pay homage and respect uh from sunrise to sunset, our responsibility is to make sure that our citizens during a funeral procession are not inconvenience because they already the family is bererieved. And I just have a question regarding traffic congestion. the study that you provided the numbers 12,400 cars per day that that include uh traffic congestion related to funeral processions because I know exactly where that area is located and sometimes it can become I'm just asking out of respect for bereieve families.

Yeah. Um either it was either our count or a G dot count. G dot does um their own ADT counts as a 24-hour period and puts them on their website. Um I would say it was more than likely a G dot count in that specific area, but it would capture in a true 24-hour period how many cars passed a specific point and it's just it's just clicking them as they go. And we both know during those processions, cars are mainly you just have they're at a standstill point until they can get in and then of course um the clicker may not even click when they leave perhaps. Yeah, the the the volume itself will not determine um possibly the speed

uh that someone I mean that's a that's a different study and you would have to specifically um have an attempt to to capture speed, but if there was multiple um funerals within the you know at at the um cemetery area then it would capture every car entering and exiting um that particular area if the count was done immediately. Now when we say um counts along veterans it's generally it may not be immediately in front of this particular site may be a half a mile down the road because they're they scatter them every so many miles and we we pick the closest one to the site so we can try to get as as accurate information as possible.

Okay. uh during those funeral processions and you may not know this. I'm just wondering the sheriff's office or someone that particularly are they directing traffic? What happens in that area? Do do we have anyone that has an understanding if you Oh, well the one of the Yeah. So again, I don't know that it is appropriate to take um feedback from the community, right? The public hearing is closed. Um, we don't have any uh information submitted to us by the sheriff's department that um indicated that there was uh anything associated with this use that was a concern to the DCSO.

So you okay because I just want to make sure I'm addressing the safety um portion of the problem that we're discussing here or the concern. I am concerned uh about that particular area if there's some congestion doing a funeral procession. I don't know if you've been in one before, but I've been in a procession and it, you know, there's uh cadence there, you have the motorcycles, you have everything. So, I'm just a little concerned, but I I'll just kind of let it be. I'll let it rest for this moment, but you certainly have the floor manager.

Well, I would just like to clarify, and Bruce can correct me if I'm wrong. I think that congestion during a funeral procession may be sort of a hyperspecific consideration that I don't know if there's any traffic study that would capture that specific instance and I don't know if it would even be possible to study that or ask for that. So, I hear your concern. I'm going to defer to Bruce if he feels differently, but but my my question would be whether we could actually get an accurate answer to that specific concern. Right. I think you look at traffic counts writ large um you know on the road. I don't know that something specific to a funeral procession or the days and times that funeral processions happen, we could get an accurate count on that unless you feel differently. Okay.

Um no ma'am, I'm not aware of any anything specific to that. Um, you know, what what we see as citizens that that drive around would be um the courtesy that, you know, our drivers are are aware when there is a a funeral or a procession nearby. Um, typically lower speeds or even, you know, people stop along the road. Um, but I don't I'm not aware of any studies that would give me any numbers. Okay. Thank you so much, U, Mr. Mercer. All right. I don't have any further questions. I yield the floor back to you, chairman.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Planning and zoning. Uh, you've heard the discussions. Uh, do I have a motion on S2026-03, please? Yes. Uh, this is Frank Payne. Uh, I recommend denial of S2026-3, a request for special use permit to allow trucks and trailer parking located at Veteran Memorial in Lithia Spring. I have a motion. Do I have a second? It's Melissa Pulk. I second. I have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion? It's

Brandon P. I do have discussion just for statement wise. Um, for the record, one thing I would like to consider, um, from both perspectives is understanding the concern of those at the funeral home and, uh, the congestion there. But I'm also a huge proponent of of land rights where you have the right to do on your land um, what is zoned to be able to do. Another consideration that I have when considering this case that I just have to take in personally is there's a desire for there to not be able to be business done on the the the side that's considered today of the street, but that consideration wasn't made when there was business done on the very opposite side of the street where traffic comes out every single day. Um, and so in in my opinion, I just believe that there should be here. I don't even know if fairity is a word, but I believe this should be fair here that business should be able to be done on both sides of the street. The other part um that I want to make for the for the record is is there any way that there could be a maybe a flashing light um a flashing traffic light that could indicate when trucks are coming out just to make um people who are driving more aware. Not sure if that's something that can be answered, but I just wanted to make sure I uh said that for the record before we um take up the motion. I'll yield.

Any other discussion? Planning and zoning. Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All in favor of the motion to deny S2026-03, please signify by raising your hand. All opposed time. Okay. Madame Chairman, S2026-03 comes to you without a recommendation from Planning and Zoning Board. Okay. Thank you so much, Chairman Simmons. Board of Commissioners, you've heard all the questions and answers. Do we have a motion?

This is interesting. And the question is again, I too are concerned with property rights and not violating that. So, I'm just want to make sure that that's not the case. And my other concern is how it managed to get through and on and off and on and off and back. Here we are four or five years later and and asking for this again to be so let me just make a motion. That's what I'll do. Um, I would like to make a motion to approve item S2026-03 and put that in the form of a motion to approve with all the said conditions that's been uh vetted by staff and um that'll be my motion currently.

Second. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Board, I just have one thing, Madam Chair. You have the floor. Commissioner Kendall Jones,

I think it's I get why everybody is on the fence and split. Um, especially as a grandchild of someone who was a truck driver for 40 years, they're necessary. They have to have somewhere to go. And we're trying to balance. I think my district probably has the second most impact by this decision because people are going to leave out of that way and they're going to come down Thornton Road um either to get to 20 or they're going to come further down to get to Fulton Industrial. We already have an extreme um safety hazard going on on Riverside in my district um where the trucks are parking in the center lane um and on both shoulders overnight every single day. I just drove through there um two nights ago and we passed I think at the last count there was 11 um counting the ones parked on the shoulders and in the center. But I am concerned about the ingress and egress in that area because it's already so tight and it's so congested. I don't want to make an already dire situation worse while also respecting that you do have um land owner rights. And so I get that. So, I just want to state that for the record that it's not it's definitely not an easy decision, but I I don't know if this board is the appropriate place and this maybe is a question for legal in a separate forum, but if there is a way that we can get some sort of consortium agreement going between the county and these warehouses, it's my understanding there's over 200,000 square foot of unused, unoccupied space, warehouse space in Douglas County that has never been occupied. by any tenant. Um, if some of those locations that already have direct access to the highway or are already situated on roads that are four lanes or just have better access and controls to

keep all of our residents safe and give truck drivers that are trying to make a living for their family and property owners who are trying to make the best use of their lands some form of of agreement because that space is being wasted. Um, and of course as a a government, we can't tell people what to do with their property, but if there's some way to come up um with a lease agreement or something so that these truckers have somewhere safe to park, somewhere that's well lit, somewhere that's meeting their needs, but also keeping our residents safe. I I would just ask the board to join me in trying to figure out some way to to resolve that issue. Madam Chair, I yield back.

Thank you so much, Commissioner Kenner Jones. Any other discussion, board? All right. All in favor, please indicate by raising your right hand. All oppose. We have a 3-2 vote and the motion carries uh to deny. You know, we were going to approve but to deny. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. Our next agenda item, please. Yes. May I just clarify? It was a motion to approve and a second and that was a two to three. So, the motion actually failed.

Yeah. So, do we want to make another motion or do I understand it's the will of the board to just say that because the motion to approve failed that that is inherently a denial? I want to make sure that's okay with legal. It was it was three four. It was three to approve. Oh, it was three to two. Approve, three to deny. It was two to It was two that voted with the motion. Oh, I apologize. to deny and it was Kenner Jones, Alcarez and the chairman to approve. Sorry, it was the other way around. The other way around Mitchell to approve, Kenner Jones, Alcarez and the chairman to not vote with the motion to approve. Right.

So the motion to approve did not obtain a majority. So therefore it failed. That doesn't necessarily mean that it was I will call a motion to but I just so that I want to make sure that we're okay with Right. Okay. I'll call another motion. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much. Board of Commissioners, do we have a motion to deny? And let me get back to it again. Um, 20263 S 202603. Do we have a motion to deny? Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion to deny S2026-03. Do we have a second? Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion, board? We have a motion and a second. All in favor of denial, please indicate by raising your right hand. All opposed to the denial, raise your hand. We have a 32 vote and the motion carries to deny. Okay. Sorry about that. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. We give uh folks a second to get out. Uh, that sounds bad, but

to ex give you a second to exit the room. That is

so much more. Okay, Miss Glenn, our next item, please.

Thank you. Agenda item Z 2026-14 and S2026-08. The applicant is requesting a reszoning from CHC, heavy commercial with conditions to heavy commercial without conditions and a special use permit to allow a self- storage facility at 13595 Veterans Memorial Highway. The property is approximately 5 acres in Commission District 4. The subject parcel is currently vacant. The applicant proposes the use of the property for a mini warehouse self-s storage facility. The proposed building is three stories which requires a special use permit for approval. The approval will require the continuation of the special use permit that allows for the applicant to exceed the 25% impervious surface limit on the property. Here are the relevant code sections. So, this property has came before the board three times. It came in 2008 for a reasonzoning to heavy commercial

for the construction of many warehouses and a special use permit to increase the impervious surface allocation from 25% to 50% in the Dog River secondary watershed basin. This was approved in 2008. The applicant returned in 2020 for the same request. It was approved again in February 2020. The applicant came back again for the same request in 2025 which was denied in February of 2025. Three previous zoning requests from 2008, 2020, and 2025 have been presented to the board of commissioners for development of mini warehouse of a mini warehouse self storage and or to increase the impervious surface allocation in the Dog River secondary basin watershed basin, excuse me. Here are the relevant criteria analysis. Here's a zoning map. Here's a site aerial. The applicant has um provided an updated site plan. Here are the future land use map and character area. Staff is recommending approval with condition based on the following findings. The proposed reasonzoning and special use permit would not modify the intent, purpose, or spirit of the comprehensive plan. The proposed reasonzoning and special use permit would not adversely affect the public health, safety, and welfare. The conditions read as follows. The applicant is required to attend the development review committee if the board of commissioners are inclined to approve the use. The applicant is required to apply for the land disturbance permit within a year of approval. The applicant is conditioned to the site plan dated January the 20th, 2026 and included in the file for this application. This includes the site and architectural plan depicted therein. And I'm going to go back to the site plan. Thank you. Was there was there a fourth condition?

Oh, thank you. Number four. Unless otherwise determined by the county arborist, the project shall be required to install 20 foot landscape strip with three canopy trees, three understory trees, two evergreen coniferous trees and 18 shrubs per 100 ft of linear frontage, and the requirement for all for three rail fence with brick supporting columns in article 4, division 4, section 4.23 58. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Glenn. At this point in time, I'll open the public hearing on this matter. Anyone, including any applicant, that wishes to speak in favor of this application, please approach the podium. You have two minutes per person for allocated time of 15 minutes. If you'd state your name and address for the record, sir.

Terry Boomer, LJA Engineering, 13 Main Street, Canton, Georgia. I appreciate the opportunity to present our case again. Sort of kind of. Uh, you all don't get paid enough and I really appreciate what you do. After going through that last one, I'm going to be short and brief. Um, we're not looking for a reduction of imperous area at all. We'll stick to the 25%. We're not looking to for any we're in agreement with any of the conditions. It was conveyed to us that we had to go back to the 2008 zoning. That was before our time. and the owner didn't own it at that time. The owner did not look at a piece of property and say, "Hey, I want to do um storage here." The owner found a piece of property that was previously zoned and previously conditioned to allow for the um self storage. We're not doing many warehouses. We're doing one what I consider a nice beautiful brick building. He's he three stories brick and we're going to all of the loading will be interior. It's self storage climate control. It's not the mini warehouses. We've we did come back as staff said with a new um uh site plan that adheres to the 25% impervious coverage and we want to go back to the 2008 zoning with conditions. Some of those conditions we can't do anymore. There was a house from that era that was supposed to be renovated. Well, from 2008 till now, that house is worm dirt. It's termites. It's gone. But we will take care of that and clean that up. We We're not proposing any outdoor storage, boats, trailers, traffic uh or excuse me, uh of any kind outside. Everything

will be interior. We're going to access Veterans Memorial. We've had preliminary discussions with the Georgia Department of Transportation and we feel that this use is a nice quiet use. It doesn't put a burden on traffic, doesn't put a burden on the school system, doesn't put a burden on the infrastructure, the water, the sewer um um elements. There's no uh adverse to the to the um power grid. It's just a nice quiet use. We're not going all the way back into the residential neighbors. Thank you. That's your two minutes. If you would stand by. I'm sure we go have some questions. Anyone else wishing to speak in favor of this application?

Seeing no one moving, I'll close the public hearing in favor and open the public hearing in opposition. Anyone wishing to speak in opposition, please approach the podium. You also have two minutes per person for total allocated time of 15 minutes. you state your name and address.

Thank you for taking my um speaking. Sabina Kelly, Box 536, Winston, Georgia. And I love the property. there is a house there that has to be destroyed. But instead of condition number four and them having to spend money to do all that stuff, maybe they could just not clear all those trees that are in that property because it's beautiful property and build their little restory warehouses in between there. But my other concern was Black Horse LLC. The only place I found that was in New York, New Jersey, and K Connecticut. So, I'm wondering who is going to be running the warehouse to make sure there aren't any trucks or boats or anything else coming into the area. And since it's part of Dog River secondary water thing, I'm real concerned about no chemicals or anything weird going in there. Thanks.

Great. Thank you very much for your concerns and your comments. Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition? Seeing no one moving, I'll close the public hearing in opposition. Planning and Zoning Board. Do you have any questions of staff or Mr. Miller? Mr. Miller, I got a question for you. Oh, not Mr. Miller. Oh, yes, Mr. Miller. Okay. I thought thought you were coming to the pod. Got it. Call me whatever you want. Just not late for dinner. I'm sorry. It's not late for dinner. Okay. Um, could you give us a little background on Black Horse?

It's a It's a private uh LLC. The owner of Black Horse LLC is here if you wish to speak with him. Um, as far as a history is concerned, my history with this owner, I've been his engineer of record for 5 years on other developments. Um, one of the best payers I have, if that counts for anything, but um, decent guy, very reputable, brought me back some baklava from Turkey just recently. So, I like him. And if y'all want like some baklava, we can we can figure that out. But but as far as the history is concerned, he's in the development business and very reputable. He has different LLC's for each property as many developers do and and should uh liability reasons. Absolutely.

Right. Okay. Uh I think that was really it for me. Okay. I had a question. Uh there's two parcels here and we're talking about the parcel in the front which abuts uh Veterans Memorial. Are there any plans for that parcel in the back? We're going to recombi the parcel was split in 2020

that they this was before my involvement in 2020 the they um they had an attorney present and they came through with the uh reasonzoning special use to eliminate the conditions from the 2008 resoning. In that uh elimination, they decided to split the tracks and thus they applied for the variance for the 50% 25 to 50% um impervious area coverage. And now with our proposal, we're going to recombine it for all five acres. We're and it's it's it and it's on your your the staff write up for five acres, but the um on the agenda item I saw was still five acres. And so we'll recombine it and we'll just um do 25% of the five acres. And to the to the concerned citizens point, we're going to leave the rest treed and vegetated and wooded with the natural woods that are out there today and not clear those.

Okay. Is that staff? Is that uh I was thinking that when we discussed this in the uh information there's two parcels there and we were only talking about the front parcel.

Okay. So, great job paying attention. Let me try to say this a different way from what Mr. Boomer had shared. This parcel when originally zoned was onetracked, right? So when it came through previously in 2020, we cleaned up the old conditions on the rear, right? So if you look at the site plan, um sorry, site plan is here. If you look at the site plan, what they're showing is that the majority of the development will be on the front piece of the property. But the problem you get into if you go back to this is the front piece of the property has conditions the back piece doesn't. So, we're trying to do a couple of things with this, right? We're trying to clean up those old zoning conditions um and get rid of that on the front piece so that they can be recombined for the larger tract. Right? So, this is still looks like it's showing it as two separate tracks, but the point is we are conditioning it to that site plan so that anything that you see that is not developed, correct me if I'm wrong, Terry, is not proposed to be developed. Right. So this uh previously Terry will have to remind me of the square footage. Um what they're doing now is going to 108,000 square foot threetory. Am I right about that?

Just under we're just under a 100,000 at three stories. Yes.

Right. So they are rather than having a singlestory low uh project that takes up most of the rear portion which is what y'all saw previously was something that was just going to be on the rear portion. And I believe it was the intent to leave the front parcel for some kind of future redevelopment. Now they're wanting to put the entire thing back together, develop on the front portion, but again, they're going to need the entire thing to meet the 25% impervious. The tradeoff, you know, for what they're proposing is that we get a larger building, yes, but a building where they are agreeing to meet the architectural requirements that they've shown in the rendering, the additional enhanced landscape. Uh to the point made uh by the public, part of the reason that we wrote condition number four to sort of say at the discretion of the county arborist, that would be Travis. Um if he looks at the property and thinks that it is a better use of that site to retain vegetation on site, that is typically our preference is to retain the vegetation that's there. But we all want we also want to make sure that in doing so, we're providing something that's aesthetically attractive from the road. So, I am not certain if I just made everything more confusing on that. This is a confusing case. So, big picture, what we're trying to do, clean up all the old zoning that's been hanging around out there for a minute, put this property back together in one piece so that essentially what you would see is going to be what you substantially see there in that picture. So, you

if they if they decide to do something with the back part, will they have to come back to us? So again, we are conditioning it to that site plan. That I believe is condition number three. Right. Right. So condition to the site plan that is submitted in the application. So if they're building something that is not that site plan, then the condition is going to require it to come back to the board of commission. Okay. That's what I thought. Thank you. Are we on the same page? Planning is only board. Do you have any other questions of the applicant or staff hearing? None. Madam Chairman, I'll throw it to Board of Commissioners for any questions you folks may have. Okay. Thank you. Board of Commissioners, any questions? Vice Chair.

Yeah. Uh Allison, isn't isn't that a residential road, campground road down there? And a house just as soon as you turn down there immediately just past the church on the right. And then so, sorry, go ahead.

And then there's quite a few houses. Just go a little bit further down. There's about six or seven more houses right there on the left. So again, with DOT in the room, I'm going to refer to Campground Road as a local road as opposed to a residential road. I don't know if he would like to add anything different about the road. Um, part of the concerns previously was about the proposal to come onto campground. So with the revised site plan, um, this is going to go out on veterans as opposed to campground. Um, I don't know the exact number of houses that are further down the street. I do know that there is residential development further down the street immediately across campground road to the west. I think you have a let's call a light industrial well there's a kind of a warehouse use. I think there is also a church in proximity but further down campground road I think you get into um

some more residential uses. Okay.

Okay. This would be back for the applicant. I'm just curious why you chose this location because, you know, a half a mile back towards Highway 5, there's four storage buildings right there on right there at Highway 5 in 78. And if you go just a another few miles down the road, you got Liberty Road who has two two large storage bins. So, what why why choose right there near the elementary school and all that area right there? Well, and and again, I don't believe that this is an adverse use and and the owner didn't buy the property and bring the use to the property. He looked for properties that were previously zoned with that use approved. That came to us. We didn't go shopping for it. The location had already been through the board three times, approved three times. And so in in him being a good neighbor and a steward of of development code, he chose the property based on its already previous use and approval. And I think the revised plan keeps us out of the neighborhood group. You got a major corridor there. You've got heavy commercial zoning already. there. I've got a book of 31 pages of approved uses for heavy commercial and they they bring with it noise. They bring with it other heavy trips, traffic, transportation. This is a nice quiet use that we're going to tuck in and maintain the vegetation and then landscape the front. It's not a use that I need to see while we're driving by. And so I feel that the use and the property came to us and we didn't necessarily choose it. It had already

been chosen retro 2008. Why did we Allison, do you know why we denied it in 2025? Was in terms of was there a specific reason given?

Uh so in 2025 the staff recommendation was again to approve. Um the board chose at the time uh to not vote with the staff recommendation and to deny the use. I don't recall that there was a specific reason articulated. Um again there were some concerns that the staff had with that previous plan in regard to uh the septic tank um the the water and sewer authority right specifically the storm water and things of that nature. Um, and so I think since that time, now again, what I would say is zoning, you're looking particularly at the use and then if the board was favorable to it, we would kick it over to DRC and they would deal with all of those site design details, right? Because regardless of whether the use is approved, you still got to meet all the requirements of the code in terms of DOT, water, sewer, all that kind of stuff. So, there were definitely some technical site issues at the time that I recall that we had raised. Um, the revised site plan, I think, does substantially address all that. I'm going to look at Travis and he can tell me if I'm wrong, but Travis is shaking his head. Yes, that they've gone back. They've redesigned it to address all of the major concerns. This site plan has been back to DRC. So, things that I remember were technical issues at the time it came forward in 2025. This revised site plan addresses most of those. Don't know if there's an answer to your question in there, but that's the best I can do in terms of recalling what most of the conversation was about at the time.

You did well. All right. This is back to the applicant. Is this going to be a 24-hour access storage building? It will be 24-hour uh and that's due to shift work. You've got um people that work shift from 4 to midnight and if they need to move or locate or store, they can come in. However, if the board and legal agree and you have conditions on hours of operation, we can implement that into a key card and and simply mandate that. That was my concern is for those residents down at road hours of access any time of night, you know, coming in and out of there. U that was one of my concerns.

Yeah. And and recall we're not going down campground road. All of the the loading will be from the front and it's interior loading. There's no overhead doors and and many warehouses anymore. So, um, but that's that's a valid concern. I appreciate it. Okay. All right. I yield back. Madam Chair, any other questions for Commissioner Kenner Jones?

Have you all done any studies to see how much more need there actually is in this area for this particular use? They have a market study and would you like to have it um provided? Yes, please. Okay. We have a market study and we can provide it. I don't have it with me on me, so it won't be at tonight's agenda. I yield back. Thank you. Any other questions for it? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. Planning and zoning board, you've heard the uh discussions and comments. Uh we have two items here to approve. We have a resoning and we have a special use permit. I would like to have a motion on the resoning C206-14, please. This is Melissa Pulk. I make a motion to deny Z2026-14. I have a motion. Do I have a second?

Okay, motion dies for a lack of second. Do I have another motion? or Curry. I make a motion that we approve Z2026-14 request for reszoning for C SAS H-C heavy commercial with conditions to heavy uh CH heavy commercial and a special that's it. That's it. Yep. With conditions. Do I have a second with conditions?

I'll second it. I have a motion in a second. Do we have any discussion? Planning and zoning board. I mean, we've uh as far as I'm concerned, we've we've heard this a number of times. I I think this is probably a a good plan looking at the area, but that's that's my opinion. Anybody else have anything? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All in favor of approving Z2026-14 as read into the record, please signify by raising your hand.

Thank you very much. All opposed. Thank you. Board of Commissioners, C2026-14 comes to you with a recommendation for approval with the conditions that were read in. Thank you so much. Board of Commissioners, you've heard all the questions and answers. Do we have a motion? Yes, Madam Chair. Make a motion to deny Z2026-14. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion, board?

I I will just say I would have liked to see your market analysis um in making this decision to see if this is a continued needed use. Um, I think in in Douglasville, Lithia Springs, the counties, Marcus, there's already like 20 between 24 and 30 self storage units already. Um, that's a little bit concerning to me. I would I would like to have known what the capacity or the actual need um for this ongoing would be. And if there is a need, Douglas County residents, please get rid of some of your stuff if we're storing this much. we have an ongoing problem. Um, but with that, I yield back.

Any other discussion? Certainly, we have a quick point of clarification. As a reminder, if this is denied, then there will be a six-month prohibition from bringing this back to the board of commissioners. So, if there is a preference to defer to see a market study, I just wanted to make sure that I had outlined that option. I'm not in any way suggesting how the board of commissioners should vote on this one. But just as a reminder, if there's additional information, it may be better to defer, bring it back, and see if you wanted to vote on that time. That's what I want to say.

I will yield that decision to the district commissioner, but I I know that that would be helpful for my decision to to have that additional information. Madam Chair, I'd like to retract my motion and make a motion to defer until our March 3rd meeting and so that we can see that analysis. Okay. Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second on the floor in the discussion board. We have a motion and a second. All in favor of deferring until March 3rd, please indicate by raising your right hand. We have a 50 unanimous vote and the motion carries to defer until March 3rd.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. We'll see y'all uh next month. Next agenda item, please. Miss Glenn, you're up again.

Okay. Agenda item S 2026-10. Applicant is requesting a special use permit to allow an education program from the home at 6560 Cedar Mountain Road. The lot is approximately 12.6 6 acres in commission district 4. The subject property includes a single family home and several accessory structures. The subject parcel totals nearly 12.6 acres. There's a creek along the north northern and western sides of the parcel. The applicant proposes the use of one accessory structure to be used as a classroom for the educational program on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The applicant proposes to host 20 to 25 students with appropriate supervision from four to five adult educators. The program caters to homeschooled students from grades K through 12. The educational program is proposed to combine academic education with outdoor experimental learning focused on agriculture, wildlife, and environmental stewardship. Agricultural gardening and geological creek study are proposed lessons for students. There are livestock such as chickens and sheep along with honeybees to be included in the curriculum plan. Here are the relevant code sections. There are no prior zoning actions for this property. The applicant proposes the use of one accessory structure to be used as a classroom for educational programming on a limited schedule. Here are the special use criteria analysis. Here's the zoning map of the property and you can see the parcel on the rear and the side property line. Excuse me. You can see the creek on the rear and the side property line of the parcel. Here's the site aerial. Here's a site survey. Here is a future land use map and character area. Staff is recommending approval with

conditions based on the following findings. The proposed special use permit will not modify the intent, purpose, or spirit of the comprehensive plan. The proposed special use permit would not adversely affect the public health, safety, and welfare. The applicant is subject to any requirements of the Douglas County Development Review Committee prior to obtaining occupational tax certification. Applicant is responsible for obtaining appropriate lensure from the state regarding educational programming. Any structures or renovation of of existing accessory structures associated with approval shall be required to meet commercial building permit standards unless otherwise allowed by the chief building officials. The special use permit must be renewed in one year from the date of approval if approved. Um on this date, February the 3rd, 2026. No more conditions. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Glenn. At this point in time, I'll open the public hearing on this. Anyone including the applicant applicant's representative that would like to speak in favor of this, please approach the podium. You have two minutes. you state your name and address for the record, sir, and then two minutes.

Yes, sir. Hello, everybody. My name is Craig Nehemiah Ray. I'm located at 6560 Cedar Mountain Road. Um, and one of the things that I would like to do for the community, I'm a biologist. I have studied nature. I'm a naturalist, geology. Um, and what I really want to do is bring education. uh especially not just education of nature but one of the things I'm really big on is principles for the mind as well as skills for the hands and I think it's something that is really important is that not just knowing what happens in nature but there are a lot of life principles for success and uh we have a nature education center that is away from the home it's not close to the home at all and it will be dedicated just for that uh if this is approved for the times that are there um on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Um I think that's all that I really have.

All right. So before you go, are you in agreement with the conditions that were proposed? I did have a couple questions because I'm not sure about some of the language just to be honest with you. Um if we could Can I click on here? All right. Perfect. It was Nope. When it says applicant is responsible for obtaining appropriate lure from the state regarding educational programming, what does that mean? If there Oh, Miss Duncan's going to take care of that.

Well, yeah. So, I mean, at the end of the day, we we can certainly clarify the conditions as we go or if you would prefer to get done with the public hearing and then we can go back and we can clarify any questions about the conditions during the Q&A period. Okay. We'll get to that when we close the public hearing. Okay. Don't go anywhere. Yes, sir. Would you like to say anything else? Nope.

Okay. If you just take a seat there, I think we'll get back to you pretty quick. Anyone else wishing to speak in favor? Hearing no one. Seeing no one moving. Anyone wishing to speak in opposition. Again, seeing no one moving, I will close the public hearing on this matter. Now, we're back. Planning and zoning board. Do you have any questions of the applicant or of staff? Yes. So, so could you repeat what you did previously? What you're doing previously? Um, yes. So, I've been a educator. I've been a youth pastor and I've also done um speaking engagements.

Okay. So, so you're pretty much familiar with the, you know, I first of all, I want to commend you for for taking this on because, you know, as a kid growing up in Tennessee from the country, you know, I had the opportunity to do certain things that most kids in the city didn't have an opportunity to do and, you know, slop some hogs and, you know, raise some chickens and do some other things like that. So, so I understand that. And so just to bring this out now, I know that you're seeing the conditions and I know we have some questions on that. So yes, sir. Um, so you're saying your hours of operation is going to be from 9:00 to 1 Wednesday and Saturday? Yes sir.

So those only time frames that you going to um that is what was recommended to me by the fire chief I believe. Okay. So you he said there was conditional hours while it may not be specifically set on Wednesdays. Saturdays is specific, but Wednesdays would be the m most likely day that we would have another program. Okay. So you just So it's only going to be two days out of the out of a seven-day work out of seven day week. Correct. Okay. And how many kids are you expecting to have there? Between 20 to 25. Are you going to be the only one? is going to be assisting with the kids be having that many amount of kids.

No sir. Uh we'll have a 1 to5 ratio and then as well everybody will have background checks. Seemed like you did your studies. All right. I'm going to pass it on to somebody else. Yes sir. Uh this Brandon Hemer just quick question. I know that um one thing is probably going to come up on um from multiple of us. just talk to me a little bit about um your safety precautions considering how close your property is to the river um with with you know that large amount of kids just safety pro protocols please. Yes. And do you mean with it being in a flood zone or just in the river in general? Well, is isn't there like a river or lake that runs along?

Yeah, it's a there there's a small creek uh that flows through. I mean it's barely to be honest with you like knee high deep. We would utilize the creek for different pH studies just to show the kids, but they would all have on waiters and so we would have like those waiter type um one piece waiters that they can wear in there. It wouldn't be any necess necessary for anything like life jackets or anything like that though because it it only goes knee deep. Okay. Beautiful. And then is this a curriculum that you've created yourself? Yes, this is. Okay. I think that that kind of ties into the u the obtaining the appropriate lure um from the state. Okay.

And then I guess would this be appropriate time for me to ask you guys for more clarification of what you mean by the lure for the state? If I could speak to staff, please.

Sure. So I encourage Melody to jump in uh and correct anything that I say that's wrong. But condition number one, I think is self-explanatory. if there are any um reasons that this property needs to go to DRC, right? They have to kind of get everything squared away with, you know, parking, um access, fire marshall, that sort of stuff. Number two, uh the appropriate lure from the state. When this application first came in, we looked at it and we said, okay, this is a home school. It is not in fact a home school. So then we started to look at it, is it more like a daycare, right? Didn't feel exactly like a daycare either. Um so the activity that we put it under in our code is this um special events from the home, right? It's something that we have under article 3 of our code that allows for agra business and agra tourism type uses. So we felt like this most appropriately fit in with the folks that come forward and ask to do things like farm weddings, um the alpaca farms, things like that where the use on the property is their principal residence, but they wanted to do a little bit of value added that's all based in sort of the nature tourism agurism of their property. That being said, if there are requirements for the um having the children on the property, um so like a camp requirement, a daycare requirement, anything like that, a lot of that is going to have to be licensed through the state potentially. And so alls we're saying is that as Mr. Ray moves forward with this use. If you are inclined to approve, we are going to put the burden on him to make sure that he is dealing appropriately with um groups such as right from the start, the department of a for keeping any sort of animals or having the kids engage with the animals, things like that. Um I don't know what all of those are going to be given the nature of the use is a little not specific at this point. So we're just wanting to make it clear that the burden is on the applicant to get appropriately lensure on that. Um, in regard to condition number three, any new structures or renovation of existing structures, you're going to have to meet those commercial permit standards. Right? So, again, even though the primary function of the uh property is staying as a principal residence, this is very similar to something like a

personal care home where you're going to have otherwise potentially vulnerable populations in instances where they are going to be changing the occupancy of the structure. So, we want to make sure that um should there be any consideration about that that those buildings if they are changed or renovated come into compliance with things like ADA, any requirements for public safety, you know, lighting, fire extinguisher, things of that nature. So, that's what condition number three is. Again, we're going to leave that up to the discretion of the chief building official. Um and then number four we had put in place uh and again the staff is flexible on this but because there were certain aspects of this use we still had questions about we decided to put in our condition that y'all have seen us used in the past um so that the applicant has the green light to get started but then they may need to come back to us within a year just to make sure that everything is going in a way that would meet the expectation of the board and I believe those are all the conditions that we put in place on this. So Allison, would it be safe to say that uh condition one, two, and really even number three would all be taken care of in in DRC?

Uh in in DRC or any kind of administrative approval subsequent to having this board decide whether the use is appropriate, right? So we're focusing on use. We haven't asked the applicant to do a whole lot of due diligence up front until we get the green light from this board to have him move forward with the the use. But once we understand it is the will of the board, if it is in fact the will of the board to allow him to do this use, then he's going to have to work with all of the appropriate departments um to make sure that any changes that are required are handled. Beautiful. Thank you. I yield. Any other questions? Planning and zoning board.

I have a question. Um Mr. Ray, you you spoke about the the curriculum that you created and just obviously working for the school system. I'm just a little curious if you could speak a little bit more to like what what does a lesson look like? You talked about you have a a staff, five more people, you know, background checks, you know, just, you know, talk about who you're bringing on to to help with this program.

Yes, great question. Um, I'll start with your first question that you asked about the curriculum. So, we have different workshops. So, we work with different organizations already where we do things like tree planting classes, we do workshops on beekeeping, uh, seven principles that for success that we've learned from bees, um, workshops from chickens, workshops on birds, um, wild edibles, um, when it comes to composting, we do a lot of composting, uh, soil science, uh, agriculture of the those type of things are what we have workshops and classes on. For example, just an interesting fact, right? Um, chickens. I love chickens. Everybody in here probably likes chickens and eggs, right? Amen. All right. One of the things that I've noticed from chickens is the ear is often times the same color as the egg majority of the time. So, what is the principle and lesson behind that? Well, what you intake is what you outtake. And so we will use those type of things really like what you listen to is important to what you produce on the back end, right? And so we'll use principles and things like that and have whole lessons on ensuring that you're hearing the proper things in order to be successful. Uh the type of people that we have on board with us. Um my sister is an assistant principal at Kip um Kip Middle School and so she's on board with us. uh as well as we have other uh youth director uh from a church that's on board with us and youth leaders. Um we have we have volunteers from different church organizations that would be volunteering with us. So we don't have any paid staff as of yet everything is just kind of volunteer even for myself. I mean obviously pending approval you know you know moving you know thinking you know forward thinking you know just being in the community having opportunities for for all students to experience something like that. So you've just talked about like homeschool and I I realize that you're just in the

beginning stages of this you know so you've got some other things to think about as far as safety and things like that too but so it's just just home homeschool students that you That was our initial thought um just because my kids are homeschooled. We have a lot of friends that are homeschooled and different homesooled groups that have wanted to use our facilities before. Um, so that's why we said homeschool. Now, hindsight, like maybe I shouldn't put myself in a box, you know, or maybe that could be one of the amendments when we come back for number four. I'm not sure if that is possible or not, but yeah, I think you're right. Great thought.

Just to clarify, we are not conditioning this to any type of student Mr. Ray has to that is a level of granularity beyond what we have the ability to enforce. So it can be homeschool or not homeschool or you know kids in private schools or traditional schools. We are not getting into that level of detail. Thank you sir. Yes. This is Melissa P. Have a question for yourself. Um again as the gentleman stated that any type any form of education I commend. Right. Um but I do have a couple of questions in regard to I know you've addressed the curriculum. um these curriculums that you have, you yourself have experienced these programs, meaning where did this birth from?

To be honest with you, it's something that I've had a I'm I'm a biology major. I do a lot of teaching. Please excuse me on that. It's my bedtime alarm. No, I'm just kidding. Um uh I'm a biology major and so that's something that I studied. Um specifically when it comes to plants, that's something that I have a real interest in. And so since I was a youth pastor, I have a lot of uh I did a lot of teaching and and honestly just like sermons and all of my stuff came from nature-based things which is really yeah it came from me, my wife and uh George Washington Carver. So,

okay. Um, and nothing against the question I'm about to ask. Believe you me when I ask this question and persons who know me privately in this room know that this question is this a ministry or is this an educational program? It's a educational program. It's a STEMbased educational program, but I'm not going to hide and say that there's no ministry involved with it though. Okay. Um, and so I just I'm trying to get a little more graphing and so the things that you're going to be having there, animals will be involved. Yes.

Okay. and um you you're aware of the the protocols that are in place for you to have animals around children and things of that nature. Any form if you have animals that require vaccinations and things like this, bees, we have allergies like all of those things as far as a health first aid safety perspective. Um do you have anyone that's a part of your staff that is trained to address those issues? Um, no, we don't have anyone that is part of the staff right now that is trained in those issues. Um, we do have, you know, proper epipens and things like that. A lot of the vaccinations that we use. We do have a vetting. We do have a vet that is uh a volunteer with us. However, we don't really use vaccinations. All of our stuff is organic and um we don't actually it's survival of the fittest. So, we breed good genes and then let the ones who don't have good genes.

Okay. And my last question I want to ask you is that you had stated that you all are volunteer based, right? So no one's getting paid. So the supplies um that you use in these curriculum lessons and stuff, where do those come from? Do you purchase those? Are they like given to you? Donated. So we we do purchase them. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Yes. Okay. I I yield questions. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? Planning and zoning board. I have one question. Yes. So will there be a fee to attend? Oh, yes. Yes, sir. There will be. Okay. So, that was how you get your revenue. That's all I have. Yep. Hey, no other questions, Madam Chairman. I went with the board of commissioners for questions. Okay.

Do we have any Okay. Any questions forward? I'm just going to make this quick. Okay. Vice chair. I'm just uh I love your vision what you have. I am glad that you're getting kids out from behind the TVs and Xboxes and getting them back out in the nature. I grew up that's all I did all day. We didn't sit inside, right? So, I appreciate your vision on this. I just say as you grow, you got some fantastic schools. Mirror Lake Elementary, Winston Elementary, South Douglas, all that just right there close to you in that Cedar Mountain area, right? So, you know, as you grow. Yes, sir. Reach out to them. Reach out to them. That's it, Madam Chair. Okay. Any other remarks? Commissioner Rexton, you have the floor.

All right. Good evening. So just a couple quick questions um in regards to um and this is for staff first of all conditions one and two is one year enough time for those conditions to be met to go through the certifications and um compliances. I'm sorry could you repeat the question? Conditions one and two is one year enough time for them to meet that just from a timing standpoint for the different reviews um tax certificates and the um licenses.

Sure. So I'm going to be honest with you. I don't actually know what would be involved. Um, so it is hard for me to say whether one year is enough or not enough. Um, one year is typically the amount of time that we would check in to see, hey, have you gotten this use going or not? It is also an opportunity to return to this board and give a status update if there are things that you're concerned about. Now, quite honestly, if you're not concerned and you don't want to see this come back, then you do not have to have that condition for the one year. Um, but if there are some things that you wanted to keep an eye on, we will do our administrative check at one year. If you would prefer to make that a two-year timeline or something along those lines, we are flexible on the timeline. Um, but again, I think for a use such as this, which is part aspirational, you know, part thought through. We want to give them the benefit of the doubt to see if they can make progress, but also want to kind of be mindful that there may be some public safety concerns that we want to keep an eye on um and make sure that that we are doing our due diligence and protecting the community. So, that's where we landed on the one year.

Okay. And I guess you know if let's say conditions one and two aren't met and they come back in a year, then do we need to make a determination on to an extended for another period of time? I guess is the next question. So, what we've seen with this use in the past, and I'm going to use some of the alpaca farms that have come before you, um, is that there are certain public health things particularly that may take longer, um, depending on the specific use. So, they really just come back and they give you a reason to check in and give a status update. If you feel like good progress is being made, if there's no outstanding code violations or any other concerns from the reviewing departments, it would most likely be a recommendation to allow them to continue, right? But if for any reason um they are not making progress or if we're getting complaints or if there's been an incident, it also provides a specific timeline for us to revisit the special use permit because as a reminder, special use permit may be appropriate in certain circumstances, but not all circumstances. And the board of commissioners does have the ability to revert that um at a show cause hearing if there are findings that the use is not um meeting the expectations of the board.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Yes, sir. All right. And this is for the applicant. Um just curious in regards to um like currently uh I know that you have volunteers that will be working and I'm just curious like parking. How much parking um availability do you currently have on the on the Yes. Um so it's a 12 acre property. If we could let me see here. So if you see this is the building that will be used with the mouse that is over it. M all of this area uh is kind of open and that already had a gravelized kind of lot that was there. It's a little overgrown right now, but it was already a gravel lot that was there.

As well as in front of this area, there's a gravel lot. And then along this area as well, so parking shouldn't be a problem. And then as well, this road right here almost is a roundabout where they can where pe where cars can drop off and then come back around. M but also we've also kind of made a mulch road that connects these two together in case it needs to be more uh pass through of people going through. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yes, sir.

And then I guess my last question just similar to students, I was just curious as how are you marketing and promoting this to students in the community and are there other community- based organizations that have students different programs that they work with youth that can also get referred and to work with your organization?

Yes. Uh, great question. So, before we moved here to Douglas County, me and my wife worked with a lot of other nonprofits and so Teen Community Coalition, Georgia Cyber Academy, um, and some other homeschool groups that we worked with previously. Uh, we didn't have a facility, so we would just take them out to, you know, different parks and things like that. Um, but we also have a um, uh, I guess a a large following um, on social media where we're able to kind of reach out and put it out there for people as well. Um, but those are our main avenues. We will work with I'm sorry, my apologies. We will work with uh, local churches as well um, for those type of kids because a lot of churches that we're involved in, they have homeschool groups and school groups. So that's how we would go about it.

All right. All right. Thank you. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. All right, madam chair. give you the floor back to you. All right. Thank you, Commissioner Maxton. Vice Chair, you have the floor. Just one quick, um, would you be willing to have like certifications, make sure that you have certifications for all your volunteers in regards to any type of, uh, small medical response like a lot of churches do, you know. Yes. Yes, that's a great idea. Um I did not think about that before but yes we could you know would be able to provide that you know as we do it our oneyear look back in regards to your for your special education that you have those applications avail or certifications available for us.

Yes. And then as well just you just reminded me that I am CPR certified as well which I totally forgot about until right now but yes we can definitely have those certifications. Okay. All right. I yield back madam chair. Okay. Thank you so much. Mr. Ray, I would certainly like to commend you for expanding learning opportunities for our youth here in Douglas County. And you mentioned something that sparked my interest about the creek. You said that you would be, I guess, sampling based on the PH balances. What can you tell me a little bit about that because I didn't know if you were going to involve water and sewer authority, you know, with that creek?

Oh, um, that's a good question. No. Um, not really so much like water and sewer authority, but when it comes to the soil, like pH is important. something being alkaline, something being acidic, and so it would just be neutral. Yes. And neutral. Yeah. Look at you. Okay. Don't be in my swim lane. That's And so we would use it just for uh just for the pH type of lessons as well. Just just you have little instruments that you see once you some samples of the water something creek. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Correct. Interested in. And then last but not least, you you mentioned bees and me and bees don't get along well. I was going to ask you, do you have EpiP? You I think you mentioned EP.

We do have EpiPens um that we will have available. Uh to be honest with you, I'm allergic to honeybees myself. Um but I still deal with them often. I don't have like a deathly, you know, but uh if I get stung enough, I will. So, we do take the proper precautions because both of well, one of my sons is allergic as well and so we do take those precautions. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. I yield the floor back to you. Thank you. You can have a seat, sir. All right. Planning and zoning board, you've heard the uh comments and discussions. Do I have a motion on S2026-10?

Brandon P. I make a motion to approve application S2026-10, a request for a special use permit to allow an educational program for for a home located at 6560 Cedarman Road with conditions with the conditions as read in by staff. I have a motion to have a second. Frank Payne second. I have a motion and a second. Planning and zoning. Do we have any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. All in favor of approving S2026-10 as read into the record, please signify by raising your hand. Thank you very much. That's unanimous. Okay, Madam Chair, S2026-10 comes to you with a unanimous recommendation for approval as read into the record with condition.

Thank you so much, Chairman Simmons, Board of Commissioners. We've heard all the questions and answers. Do we have a motion? Yes, Madam Chair. I'd like to make a motion to approve S2026-10. And Allison, am I allowed to with to add on to the conditions the uh CPR certified? Yes, sir. If do you have a specific if if you have a specific certification you would like, it would be great if you could say that into the record. We would make that a condition prior to the issuance of occupational tax certification. Um, if that is something that you would like to see before this use gets underway. How this CPR certified? Yeah. Would be first aid. And first aid. First CPR certified and first aid added to the conditions that are read in by staff. Understood. Yes, sir. All right.

Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion board? We have a motion and a second. All in favor of approval, please indicate by raising your right hand. We have a 50 unanimous vote and the motion carries for approval. Thank you, Mr. Ray, for expanding opportunities for our youth. Thank you, Mr. Ray. Best of luck to you. Uh, next agenda item, please. Oh, Mr. Cron, it's my turn. Yes, sir.

All right. So, our last agenda item is Z2026-11 and S2026-12. This is a reasonzoning from residential load density to CH heavy commercial and a special use permit to allow a rage room. And we will go over what that means in quite a few seconds. The lot is 1 acre. This is in commission district number four. A 1,770 ft residential structure is cited. The applicants proposing to use the existing residential structure as administrative office use and then a 280 ft shed at the rear for the rage room activities. We've taken a look at the relevant code sections. In 1993, this property was reszoned for from commercial to residential to continue a residential use. So, the conversion of the zoning from a residential zoning district to a commercial zone zoning district is not discouraged. However, the zoning district necessary to suit the proposed use may permit uses not encouraged along this corridor unless conditions were authorized to limit the permitted uses. The use of the existing residential structure and a shed to the rear does not represent an orderly pattern of commercial development. A total redevelopment of the site is more appropriate. The comprehensive plan does not anticipate the transition of sites within this corridor to a commercial district unless part of a larger mixeduse project. We're taking a look at the zoning criteria and special use permit criteria. It's residential load density. It's right next to the store quest self storage. Uh that's what you see to the north. The site plan depicts the residential structure to remain with uh parking spaces outfitted on the site and a entrance to Highway 5 and the 280 foot shed is at the rear of the property. It's in the transitional corridor feature land use and the Highway 5 transitional corridor character area. Staff's recommending denial of the reszoning and special use permit based upon the following findings. Number one, the use will modify the intent, purpose, or spirit of the comprehensive plan. Number two, the use does not represent orderly commercial development without being a part of a larger mixeduse project or as a total redevelopment of the site to best suit the use and assure mitigation of off-site impacts. Number three, the use will adversely affect the

public health, safety, and welfare. If the board of commissioners is inclined to approve, staff recommending following findings and conditions. The findings to begin, number one, the use will not modify the intent, purpose, or spirit of the comprehensive plan. Number two, the redevelopment of the site represents an orderly commercial development. And number three, the use will not adversely affect the public health, safety, or welfare. That condition being number one, the applicant shall provide a redevelopment plan to the site that adequately addresses the agency impact statement submitted as a part of the staff report dated February 3rd, 2026 to provide adequate structures, driveways, vehicular circulation routes, parking, and storm water detention infrastructure to outfit the use. No rage room activity shall take place in non-principal structures. And that concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Cronin. At this point in time, I'll open the public hearing on this matter. Anyone wishing to speak in favor of this application, including the applicant or the applicant representative, please approach the podium. You have two minutes per person for a total allocated time of 15 minutes. Good evening. State your uh name and address for the record, sir. Dion Holmes, 3497 Highway 5, Douglasville, Georgia. Um, and what would you like to say to this board?

Humbling, humbling path. Um, I started the business as a uh passion that my daughter took me to to a rag room for Father's Day. We uh expressed the emphasis of experiences, not necessarily spending money. So the engagement of a family is what has brought me to start a social interaction experiment or activity business. Total rage room is an appointed um appointment based indoor recreational facility providing supervised rage room sessions within a contained and controlled environment. Participants safely break approved non-hazardous materials inside the uh designated enclosed structure um with uh under staff supervision. Operations are structured to ensure compat uh compatibility with surrounding uses. sessions are scheduled in advance with controlled uh occupancy and staff oversight throughout the activities. Um waste handling and environmental compliance is a absolute must. Um we do not store hazardous uh materials within the facility, paints etc. Um we don't use uh we don't smash TVs, we don't do light bulbs, we don't do components that are potentially hazardous to explode on impact. Uh we emphasize heavily on recycling. All materials, electronics, wires, u metals of such are handled, separate, separated and put in a uh recycling bin and is taken to Douglas County recycling off of Ben Memorial. Um every bit that can be recycled is definitely recycled. Um we um the community has come out to express the need to express themselves and I consider Total Rage ATL as a safe space a safe haven for those to come express themselves however they like not in a control in a controlled environment where they're able to express themselves the way they like for whatever reason whether it's for loss of a loved one loss of a job

divorce an activity but I'm not here to suggest what That's your two minutes. Stand by. Let's finish the public hearing and then we'll get back. Yes. Yes. Uh, anyone else wishing to speak in favor of this application? Do I have another two minutes? Name and address.

Good evening. My name is L Holmes and I'm a partner with Dion Holmes. All right. So, um, with Total Rage, what we are, we are a, um, recreational facility. We're currently located in Powder Springs, Georgia. To date, we've served over 3,500 unique individuals. Um, and that's through different rage sessions, whether it's individual experiences, group experiences, or corporate or partnership uh, programs that we have. We've been doing team building with corporations like UPS, with organizations like the Wounded Warriors, Girls, Inc., um Thomas drugs.

Yeah. Lots lots of different people. So, it's a way that you can express yourself whether you're coming in where there's a happy couple coming in just to celebrate, you know, 5 years of an anniversary or whe there's somebody, of course, like you said, who maybe experienced the loss of a loved one. And so, that's basically what we do. Um until this time, um we're looking to expand. Uh we purchased the the property that's at 3497 um Highway 5 so that we could expand because right now we're running out of space. We've partnered with Pluto TV with uh Paramount to be able to provide these same experiences across the board and people are coming as far as Virginia to come and be a part of what we're doing. So we just want to be able to do it here. So thank you.

Okay. Thank you. And uh uh before you go probably a redundant question, your address. Oh, 3497 Highway 5. That's what I thought. But thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak in favor of this application? Name and address in two minutes. Thank you. My name is Kimberly Stalworth. That says 650 Gladial Way in OEL. Hold the mic. Hold the mic. I'm sorry. Can you hear me now? Yeah. Do I need to repeat it? No.

Okay. Um, I love Total Rage. I've been there before. Um, I've seen patrons there before. You go in and you smash whatever is on your mind, whatever has been done to you. I've seen people come out and celebrate um, ringing a bell for cancer. Um, I personally went in there because I broke up with my boyfriend, but but these people are very professional. They love what they do. They cater to their um, clientele. Um, Total Rage is a fun environment. You go in there and you release whatever you need to release it, whether it's happy, sad, or whatever. Like she said, people come from all over the states to come and experience that. Um, we have a lot of council members um in Powder Springs that have encouraged um have that that actually have been there that love the business that uh will probably talk highly of these professionals that run the business in Powder Springs. Um, I've seen like, like I said, many people come through to express themselves. Um, many of the, um, things that they have going on in there are just wonderful. It's a stress reliever, especially in the world that we in today. Sometimes you need to relieve some stress. You know, it's better than going to jail. So, you go in there, you smash whatever you need to do, you get it off your chest, you get it off your mind, and when you come out, you're just new again. So, that's all I had. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Anyone else wishing to speak in favor? Seeing no one move, I'll close the public hearing in favor and open the public hearing in opposition. Anyone wishing to speak in opposition? You have two minutes and 15 total.

Hi, Sabina Kelly, 536 Winston, Georgia. Um, I'm kind of new to this. I'm sorry I didn't find your website for Powder Springs. The only thing I found was for a rage room in Nunan. And that was kind of weird. I mean, they talk about um axe your ex. Uh they have birthday parties, but they kids have to wear special suits because they use high-powered pellet rifles, hollow tipped ammunition, crossbow pistols, woodcraft uh woodcutting axes, movie themed weapons, and more. We're con they come up with all sorts of new weapons. Um, I'm glad you said no TVs because they were talking about TVs and um, smashing furniture. And hang on, I didn't go reading right that like I was supposed to. Um, it just got really angry type rage. uh baseball bats, golf clubs, industrial pipe wrenches, claw hammers, crowbars, and we got enough violence in Douglas County, US and whatever. What it reminded me of people playing video games or something. And I don't know if all of y'all remember that we're here in Douglas County of the young man that had a sword hanging on his wall in the living room and he took that sword off of the wall and

killed his mother and grandmother. One of them in the house and the other one ran out of the house. It was in the Sentinel newspaper and on national news. Okay. Um that's your two minutes. Thank you. I'm not for it because Douglas County has enough problems. Thank you very much for your comments. Anyone else wishing to speak in opposition? Seeing no one moving, I'll close the public hearing on this matter and we'll get back to our question and answer planning and zoning board. Do you have any questions for staff or Mr. Holmes? Uh yes, this is Melissa Pulk. I have a question for Mr. Holmes. Yes.

Hi. Um can you walk me through the process? Right. um meaning do I do reservations? Do I you know um like what does that look and when I'd heard like things that whatever it is that you want to celebrate and they talked about whether you just got married and so when she was talking about smashing and all that good stuff. So, uh, I I I just want to make sure I understand this isn't just for let me get out of my frustration because I'm angry situation, right? Like, what does my day look like and how do I come about? How much does it cost me? And does that range on what item I'm smashing? Um, how how does all of that look and and how late are you open?

Love it. Love the question. I I'm I'm excited. So, when people show up, right, they are showing up because they've priorly booked a reservation for an appointment. That's how I'm able to control parking. Um um um um how many people are there at a time, right? Um I have a cap of the number of attendees per group, whether it's a 45 minute session, um an hour and 10-minute session or longer. Um and for the but for the record, I am totally rajl. She was speaking of another rage room that is since down moved to Nunan. And I do not have uh pipe wrenches. I do not have sledgehammers. I do not do um um swords. I do not do um um Pelican. Um that that was that is not my business as she spoke of by any stretch of the measure. I do not have TVs as well. Um so yes, so people booking in advance. Um they show up, I greet them. Um I advise them where the bathrooms are. I advise them about additional accessories that they may need to take off. Watches, rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets. Simply they don't want to lose accessories while they're in there and don't realize it. Right. Once they step in, they are to put on um uh uh thick sold rubber boots with puncture proof inserts that are already pluged into the boot. The thick onesie they put on that covers them up to their wrists. And they put on a helmet with face shield and ear protection. Right. The back of the helmet has a tensioner that tighten up the helmet so the helmet does not slide off while they're in there. Okay. Two persons at a time are to be within the room where they're expressing themselves. Right? So, when I say express themselves, I say um whether it's a a VCR, whether it's plates, bottles that they're breaking, um they have a golf club, a bat, 2x4, or pipe. Golf club 2x4. That's it. Um where this is two of them in the room, right? There's a petition wall where they are the the other guests

the capacity of the building that's been fire marshal occupancy seeded is three behind a petition wall where they're safely protected from the ones that are in the other side of the room. Um there is a Bluetooth sound system where they're able to go in and listen to music to their choice. They Bluetooth they pair their phone to the sound system to play their playlist. Um let me see here. Um um pricing pricing um ranges from um 130 up to however big of a package they want to come out and with their group, right? I've had two people come out with a large package and I've had five people come out with this with the smallest package. um they are able to curate um often times the items that they want versus me telling them what. But I do have packets package that are already put together. They're already in the room. Um they're when they arrive, their pack is ready to go.

Um um I'm sorry, what was your other question, please? Just I was just wanting to be walk through my day, right? And then um while I'm walking through my day and you're helping me with that, can you tell me any age restrictions?

Yes. So the without a parental minor consent form is 18, right? Up until the age of 14, they must be accompanied by a legal guardian. The parent will must sign a parental minor consent form for that child and that parent must be in the room um in the room in the building at all times with that 14 to 17 year old child, right? So it's not, oh, we want to do a birthday party. No. Do you want to do a structured activity where you're responsible and watching over your child of from the age of 14 to 17 and you show them how to properly um express themselves or to break things within the confined space, right? Um oh well, my nine-year-old wants to come break some stuff because he's frustrated. No. Well, my 13-year-old wants to have a birthday party and I want to sit in the car. No. Right. If you are a responsible parent, you're not going to I would not want my child to be in there from 14 to 17 without me being in there. Regardless what's taking place, you go to the bouncy house, they're jumping around, bouncing around. They can anything can happen and how well they monitored. The parent must be in the room in the facility with them, watching them, showing them exactly how to hold the instruments, hold the bat, pipe, golf club 2x4 while they're in there. Um um yes. So would you say they they're coming out to express themselves, right? It does not have to be an angry people. They they um skydive for a rush, right? They they they speed. They shouldn't, but they do it for a rush, right? Some people come just to wow, I had a good time. I had a good day. I had a bad day. I blow up some steam, right? I had many, many alcohol anonymous companies uh groups come out. They have sought out the the the to to to stop drinking but they still have built up tension. Am I suggesting that they should come out to

express themselves for the breakthroughs? No. Am I suggesting it's safe haven and safe space for you to come express yourselves however you all like? Yes. Right. So for to answer your question or maybe your other questions are why do they come out? It does not have to be for anger. It doesn't have to be for madness. It it could be just okay. I'm all right. All right. But I'd rather them in a controlled environment, right? Again, two persons at a time, partition wall, you've got the onlookers watching and they're rotating in with the others. Again, I reiterate, safe uh thick rubber boots, puncture proof inserts, thick onesies, leather gloves, helmet, face shield, ear protection at all given times. Okay.

I have a first aid kit inside the building. I show them where it is. Um, and I've had a couple of drops of blood and they usually realize that once they come out, um, if you look on Google, I have 728 five-star reviews. I have various persons that have come out for various reasons. Some have been for cancer. Some have been for love loss of loved ones. Some have just because they're they just a date night, something different, something unusual, but they want to feel safe, right? Um, I have the century building, right? It's an accessory building that has been fire marshally approved with the CEO of occupancy. I've been approved by uh Powder Springs uh planning the zoning on a third time recently renewed October September 15th for all approved of a yes and city council with the mayor approving yes for total rage ATL to participate in Powder Springs. Um I have no violations. I have no issues. are completely compliant and I'm just simp simply to expand where I currently am to Douglasville um to offer recreational activities. People are expressing relief. They're they're coming because they're just wanting to unwind, but they're not wanting to go to the bar. And as one example uh of of drinking um aggravation and I have had so many testimonies, you kept me from going to jail night. All I did was provide a safe space, a safe haven for you to come express yourselves. And that's all I will ever suggest, a safe space, a safe haven for you to express yourselves.

Okay. Um, so as you were talking and so let me just clarify, you're saying the youngest that you allow in your facility to to partake in this part is 14. Yes. Okay. And a parent has to be pregnant. That type thing. Yes, ma'am. And then as you were talking um and I and I'm bringing this up because I'm healthcare um and so I heard you say drops of blood um and so you have training on how to properly clean that up, right? Um and then you said first aid first. So you said you show them where that's at, but you all who are maintaining that space have training in first aid because why you said drops of blood. Have you experienced a moment where all this breaking and everything where there's been a serious injury no to a person?

I have not. the the extent that I've had has been maybe a couple of shards. Um, and oftentimes they don't notice until they come out. Right? I'm I'm So I'm I brought that up on purpose suggesting that I'm not saying it's perfect. I'm not going to claim to you and suggest that no business, no activity, you could be walking on the sidewalk and twist your ankle and and what happened, right? So here am I going to say that it's a perfect 100% no incidences? No.

But do I have the first aid kit? Are are we trained and prepared? Do we have the equipment there to uh address issues on hand? Um I always carry bottled waters. People get in there, they they overexert themselves. I have water. Often times they get I give them water once I I check in on them. Hey you guys, everybody good? I need a water. Everybody good? Carry on. Right. Mhm. Um, so for those that are concerned about who's monitoring this or whose activity is this, um, but again, I'm not going to say that there has not been a couple of drops of blood.

I'm not going to say that we are a perfect establishment. You can go to the bar and and cut yourself on a on a bottle that that's that's broken on chipped on a on a restaurant and cut yourself. Um, and I've had so so few. Um, I think maybe I've had three or four instances where the couple of drops of blood. Um, but I know I do stress 14 to 17 months have a parental minor consent form and the parent must be in the room. Um, and often times I insist that that parent is in there with them in that child for the first G goaround to make sure that they're comfortable with what's going on. And if not, I I advise them. And often times some, oh yeah, yeah, I'm good, good, good. They get in there, oh no, this is not good for me. No, I don't want my child in there. And I I'm more than happy to give a full refund.

If they get in there and they realize that it's not safe or they're not comfortable with their child being in there, I'm more than happy to give a full refund because oh yeah, they can do that. Oh, no, no, no, no. And I I should refund because you most people don't know what it's like to express themselves in a free nature, right? But with all the protective gear, um, how cow height cow high gloves, the straps, the puncture of inserts, um, helmet, face shield, ear protection. I go all you Google number one, number one emphasis is that we emphasize on safety, right?

Safety, safety, safety. And recycling, recycling, recycling. We do not like to um um put hazard we do not do any hazardous materials but anything wires metal electric components get recycled. Yes. Okay. Um my last question I'm going to y I know probably this they're like stop it but just because

I've expressed my background. So people come there because they're frustrated they're hurt they're angry they're happy they want to whatever right so that's all emotion right? Are you have you ever had to deal with someone say for instance that goes a little too far and they cannot collect themselves from after smashing everything and now they are completely outside of themselves. What do you do in that situation? Do you have training in that? Do you have I mean that's a great question because yes it is. Some people will get into that freedom and then just realize they've tapped into something that they can't control anymore. I have yet to have that incident. Okay.

I have yet to have that. I have had people run out with just just woo just of excitement. I've had people come out just like whoa that I didn't know I didn't know I experienced that. Mhm.

They're they're exhausted. They're tired. Um the air conditioning units are inside. It keeps them cool. Um they come out. They take a breather. They walk around. I have had a many uh um just overwhelming uh um expressions of wow, I didn't know that was in me. That felt great. Right? So again, I do not and will not express anything other than a safe haven, a safe space for them to come express themselves however they like. I do not believe in having cameras in there. They're coming to express themselves, right? I do check on them from time to time to the window. Everybody good? Everybody good? Right. Um but no, I've I've I've been just overwhelmingly tickled with how well people are just overjoyed. Um once they they'll go in frustrated, they'll go in solemn solemnfaced. Um they've come out and expressed I I just got custody of my two kids, my I gave my wife the house. I gave her the car. And I'm starting a new beginning and I want to let it go. Thank you so much. I yield.

Any other questions? Planning and zoning question. Yes. Yes, sir. How long have you been doing this? Sound like you pretty experienced.

Um I just re I'm within a couple of weeks of getting my third business license from Powder Springs. Um again, I I love the social interaction, social engagement, the social uh encounter that people have. Then that's why it's appointment based only. They're coming with a group of people that they want to come with. They're not interle intermingle with bunch of strangers who they don't want to be in there with. Right? If they're signing the waiverss, they're doing a booking, they're doing an appointment is with those that they're coming with, right? Um how long I've been um I've had close to 3,500 c waivers signed coming through total JTL. Um I grew up camping Boy Scout um we

we went camping all over the country. So whenever I went somewhere, we always had to say by our parents, go play, right? Go interact and go have fun and go do things because camping for us was a way to relieve ourselves, get out of the city, get out of the school system, get out of whatever and just have a a safe space to go out and enjoy ourselves and that's that's exactly what I'm I'm excited about offering. Great. Thank you very much. Stand by, Madam Chairman. I'll throw it to the board of commissioners for any questions you may have. Any questions? Board of Commissioners. Yes, Madam Chair. Okay, we have the floor. Vice chair. So, maybe I missed this, but what were your hours of operation?

Oh, yes. I do apologize. I did not answer that. Um, currently, um, my first appointment is 11:00 a.m. Typically, um, uh, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Um, my last appointment currently is 11:00 p.m. Um, I don't know that there are, um, um, um, stipulations on ours. Um, I do like to be able to offer possibly midnight, right? But but whether the space that I'm in where I'm located with the storage unit to my to north of me and 13 acres of undeveloped land storage unit directly behind me is a retention pond that's probably the biggest building right here. Um, and then past that we've got I don't know it's it's probably eight acres till the first house. So, to answer your question, as far as hours operation, um I would love to open up as early as 8:00 a.m., right, to offer those that want to come out um various times earlier prior to um um but again, everything is done within the uh fire marshall approved um accessory building um where the activities are happening within that space. Um so, I I don't have the direct answer with the hours operation. I would love to go from 8:00 a.m. to midnight um if if uh planning and zoning or um do you all allow

appointment but it's yes it would all be appointment based so people would not just be driving by and showing up. I am not um open to the public per se other than by appointment based only which allows me to control my parking my parking spaces um and the crowd space on the property. Um, if there's a group of 25 that shows up, I would restrict the next available appointment to a smaller group so that I can accommodate for parking. Um, uh, I where I currently am, I've had a school bus with, uh, nurses. The Grady Hospital has sought and is trying to plan a 50 nurse um, activity where I currently am. I would not be able to do that where I'm looking to locate to, but I've had large groups come out um at that particular location because I had I've had I had 50 parking spaces. But just to answer your question, I'm appointment only. So, I'm able to control the amount of uh cars there, number of people are there. And when I have large groups, I'm able to downsize uh two to three hours of appointments to smaller groups to allow for traffic flow in and out.

And how many how many people are you going to be able to have at your location at one time? the parking spots. How many people are actually going to park your location?

Um we have uh slated for nine parking spaces um including handicap parking um or handicap assistance parking. Um um but so uh ride share or not ride share um car pooling is it will be heavily encouraged. Um that's why my cap is at 30, right? So with large groups they will be advised in advance. Parking is limited. So, uh, car pooling is um heavily or almost required, mandated or recommended for parking spaces. Um, it is an acre property, but the designated parking will be in the front of the front of the primary and then the activities will all take place in the back.

Okay. And you mentioned about connected to a Bluetooth system. Explain that to me. Is it like big speakers or what is it? It's a soundar. It's a a speaker this size and a soundbar that's within the room where they're able to pair to be be able to play their own music versus me controlling the music and telling them what they have to listen to.

Only only reason I'm asking is I know that the storage build is between you and the subdivision over there. But I get complaints all the time in regards to people going in and out of that storage building place and playing their music and those residents behind them. It's just it's it's constant. So that's that's a concern of mine because I get that complaint all the time from those residents. So the activities the activities that take place as you can see are all within the accessory building. All right. So it's a a 6-in subwoofer in a box no bigger than this little area right here and a soundbar that sits on top. And there's there's minimal noise that's able to travel outside of the the the building. um is a um prefab uh pre-structured stick build um insulation um 3/4 in drywall all the way around um which which um has been allowed to be approved by the fire marshall for occupancy. Um but as far as uh noise litigation outside, it's very very minimal outside of the actual inside space. So, as far as that being a concern, as far as loudness, it's from from there to there, you probably wouldn't you no, you would not hear. It's very very minimal as far as noise. It's all contained within the room.

Okay. Yes, sir. Just my only concern about that is because I I where I live, I have a neighbor all the way at the end of another street and it's inside their own home and I can hear it when they crank it up. So, I'm thinking how many rooms that you have people? One room. Yes, sir. That's it. So one person can go in at a time. So no. Well, I'm sorry. So one accessory building where the rage room will take the activity take place. Two persons will be in the actual room where they're breaking and then the person behind the partition wall which is a clear divider um for offering protection um will be the other group. How many rage rooms do you have in just one? That's it. So I have one assess I have one building. Okay. One assessor building where the activities will take place.

Okay. So, so that's why you're scheduling on certain times for people to get there's appointment based on it. So, if if there's appointment from 12:00 to 1:00, 1 to 2, two to three. I mean, there's there's 45 minute gaps sessions, right? But they're appointment B. So, as they come, they go, they come and they go. Reason I was asking is because you were talking about partitions, but then you were saying earlier, you said you go up to the windows and look in and make sure everybody's okay. So, you said windows, so that's telling me that there's multiple rooms. No, sir. So just looking at may approach. Sure. Because I don't have my glasses with me.

So with the the double pane window door, I'm able to check on the church. Yeah, you can take that back. Yes, sir. So within within that room um

so yes I approach um oh okay so in this picture right here you can see the partition wall where they're actually uh the others onlookers are behind the partition where they're able to onlook and watch while the others are in in the other side. Okay. Yes, sir. Okay. And the where I want where I'm asking the building to be positioned will the speaker will actually be facing the storage unit, not facing the the the the back the the neighborhood. Okay. Cuz I mean just looking at that it looks like a utility shed just building. Yes sir.

That you're going to go in there and just bust stuff up just like a little small utility shed. Yes sir. Okay. Yes sir. Fire Marshall signed off on that um as an commercial accessory building. Yes sir. Or we're in Cobb County. Okay. Yes sir. Yes sir. And at your other facility. Do you have more than how do you where do you have the same the same setup? You have a a utility shed or do you actually have a building with rooms? No sir. That That's my That's my That's my rage room right there. In Powder Springs. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. And all all activities take place in that accessory building. Yes, sir. Okay. I yield back, Madam Chair. Okay. Any other Can we just make sure?

I don't have anything. I just want to make sure that the pages that were given to us to look at make it to staff so that it's included in the record. Yes. Okay. You said no more questions. I know it's a little late commissions, but I just have just a few. Yes, ma'am. Rage rooms are new to me. I'm accustomed to therapists, but that's okay. Um, just had a couple of questions around who clean up all this glass when it's over with. I do. Me and my staff. Yes, ma'am. You and your staff? Yes, ma'am.

Okay. Uh, we talked about age, you know, beginning age of 14. you have any limitations on age like 65 70 you know because of course if you go in a rage blood pressure goes up uh you know adrenaline goes up do you have oxygen on this you know in case they need to have some oxygen at the end or I'm just asking

Sure sure no that's that's a great that's a great question um I have not come to the point where that has been a concern again I've had um close to 3500 waivers signed um the extent or the the the most has been offering a water and they calm down. Right? So, and that is spec it's designed specifically where the sessions are capped at 45 minutes andor a larger session would prefer a larger group so be it or even a larger time slot which allows them to have more breaks in between so they're not rushing to get through in a short time frame. Right? So um the the point being is that they don't get too much that they exert themselves too much

okay without being able to take a break. Okay. Um and answer to your reason for as a therapist I have had many of therapists therapists recommending their therapists to come out. Um again I'm not involved with that. Okay. Right. I am not suggesting they're saying we're simply wanting to come out. And I say it's what whatever you like. Okay. But I've had many counselors or therapists actually bring their guests. Okay. Okay. I'm sorry.

You answered my question. No, you're fine. You answered my question. And last but not least is blood. You mentioned blood. Sometimes you said, you know, there may be little nicks. My infection control nurse would love you because we deal with bloodborne pathogens. How do you how do you clean that blood up? What can you talk? Do you just let it go or what happens? If there's blood on the uniform, I throw them away cuz it's bodily fluids. Yes. If there's blood in the boots, I throw them away. If there's blood in the in the gloves, I throw them away. Um if anyone ever gets cut, um that particular um uh suits um you th you So from head to toe is thrown away. Okay.

The bats, the pipes, the golf clubs, they get thrown away. Um we we um if it's not in my voice enough, safety Yeah. safety is I I tell people I'm not necessarily in business to make money. I'm in business to offer experiences. Yes. I'm not just, oh yeah, bring your 13-year-old kids and go let them go party and then you go sit in the car. No, that's not going to happen. Well, you don't want my money. I know. I don't want your money. I want you I want experiences with safety. Um and you structurally showing them how to express themselves or enjoy themselves in a proper manner. Okay. Well, you answered my question about the disposable. So that's great. So I I'll give yield the floor back to you, vice chair.

Okay. Just All right. So a quick question. You say you throw them away. How do you dispose of them? Um in those red bags. Okay. So you use a biohazard biohazard bags. Tie them up um and take them to the proper proper facilities for disposal. Yes, sir. Okay. And then my last question is you said you clean up all the glass. Is that in between every single session? Yes. Wow. Okay. Yes. Okay. All right. every single session um gets cleaned up as a clean slate, clean floor.

Um oh, when there's a large group halfway through, I will go in and do a sweep, right? So, if they're breaking stuff and and they've got a large package, I would go in and do a semi clean so that the the floors are safe for for stepping, not stumbling, um I I'm very big about once they've broken stuff and things are all over and it becomes a a trip hazard, that's why I do my checks, right? If it's a large group, I check, hold on, there five minute break. I need to go in and, you know, sweep to the side, sweep to the corner so that there is no trip hazard. Um, and and I was happily drilled by Powder Springs, uh, code enforcement, um, city council and plan of zoning on precautions of safety, and I've adhered to those for for the third year applying for a business license and with approval. Um, once again,

I have nothing else. M. Okay. Thank you. I have nothing else. I yield the floor to you. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Simmons, planning and zoning board, you can have a seat. Planning and zoning board, you've heard the discussions and the comments. Uh, do I have a We have two items, zoning and special use. First, we'll take the zoning Z 2022-11. Do I have a motion? SPM, I gladly make a motion to approve application Z2026-11, a request for reszoning from RLD to C H with condition. With the conditions as read in by staff. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Or Curry. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of approving Z2026-11, uh, please signify by raising your hand. Thank you very much. That's unanimous. Madam Chair, Z 20226-11 comes to you with a unanimous recommendation for approval. Thank you so much, Chairman Simmons. Board of Commissioners, you've heard all the questions and answers. Do we have a motion? Yes, Madam Chair. I'd like to make a motion to approve Z2026-11. Okay. Do we have a second with the conditions read in by staff? Okay. Second.

Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion, board? There's a motion and second on the floor. All in favor, please indicate by raising your right hand. We have a we have a 50 unanimous vote and the motion carries to approve. Thank you. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. Okay. The second item here is a special use permit to allow the rage room uh S2026-12. Do I have a recommendation or a motion?

Mr. I make a motion that we appro approve S20 26-12 um special use permit to allow a rage room located at 39 3497 Highway 5 in Douglasville. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of approving S2026-12, please signify by raising your hand. Thank you very much. That's also unanimous. Madam Chair, Zs 20226-12 comes to you with a unanimous recommendation for approval.

All right. Thank you so much, Chairman Simmons, Board of Commissioners. You've heard all the questions and answers. Do we have a motion? Yes, madam chair. I'd like to make a motion to approve S2026-12. Okay. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion and a second on the floor. Any discussion, board? Yes, Madam Chair. Okay. Don't be surprised if you don't see this group. at your Hey, there's a reason why the P uh Powder Springs City Council comes there. So, don't be surprised if we're not there. Well, you'll back, Madam Chair.

Okay, we have a motion in a second. All in favor, please indicate by raising your right hand. We have a 50 unanimous vote and the motion carries for approval. Thank you. Best of luck to you, Mr. Holmes. Uh, yes, Miss Duncan. Quick announcement. Um, just a reminder on February 16th, that's going to be Monday at 5:00 PM, we will have a special called joint planning and zoning and board of commissioners meeting. That will be specifically to hear text amendments. We will not have any cases, right? Thank you. Policy policy UDC amendments. We will not have any cases, but it will allow us ample time to review a series of text amendments. Um, we will have those in your dropbox on Monday the 9th. But I just wanted to remind you of that. Thank you. Okay.

Thank you very much. Having nothing else to come before the planning and zoning board, I declare our meeting adjourned. Board of Commissioners, do we have a motion to adjurnn? So move. Second. Okay, we have a motion second. All in favor, please indicate by raising your right hand. We have a 50 unanimous vote and the motion carries. Thank you.