City Council - Regular Meeting

And I'm calling this regularly scheduled meeting of the Dunwoody City Council on July 27th to order unless there is an objection. Seeing none, the meeting is called to order. Councilman Hennigan, can you please lead us in the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance?

Please rise if you are able. At this meeting, help us to make decisions which keep us faithful to our mission and reflect our values. Give us strength to hold to our purpose, wisdom to guide us, and a keen perception to lead us. And above all, keep us charitable as we deliberate. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Sergeant Sela, if you will join us at the podium, please.

Check. All right. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm Sergeant Anwar Sila, and I'm here to recognize the Dunwoody Teen Police Academy Class of 2026 and their commitment to this outstanding program that we've been doing for the last six years. The Teen Police Academy is a free five-day course for teenagers ages 14 to 19, and it's designed to give participants an inside look at local law enforcement operations and the challenges of modern policing. This year we welcome 14 students who received behind-the-scenes experiences of what it's like to be a police officer through fun, interactive, and hands-on learning. They were able to tour our police department. They explored several areas of policing, including traffic stop scenarios, our firearm simulator, where they made split-second decisions, just like officers do, our crime scene unit, among many. They also visited several partnering public safety agencies, such as the GBI, the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office at the jail, CHECOM 911. They toured the DeKalb police helicopter. And this year, we even allowed them to tour a DeKalb County fire station, even though we're still trying to convince them that law enforcement is clearly the coolest career path. The firefighters did do a good job, but might be a little bit too good. They did spark some interest there, but we're just happy to be able to allow them to experience so many things in public safety. Each student should be recognized for their dedication throughout the academy. They asked thoughtful questions. They stayed engaged. they proved to be very inquisitive and a great motivated group many expressed interest in public safety careers and several has already signed up for our ongoing public safety cadets program I'd like to thank all of our instructors, our partnering agencies, and the local businesses who supported the academy. Some of the businesses helped provide lunch and breakfast. Mr. Ali Mubad from Choice Bank, Darren Bender from Chipitos, Christine from Chick-fil-A on Hammond Drive, and Vintage Pizza, they all helped with lunch and breakfast. Their generosity made this program a great success. We do have a few students here that joined us this year. A lot of them are getting ready for school. So some of them are doing football practice and other things. So we don't have all the students here. But I did want to invite Mr. Bennett to come up and express his how he felt about the academy and share with everyone. Come on up. His experiences this year.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Bennett Boudet. I'm 17 years old and a few weeks ago I had the privilege and honor of attending the Dunwoody Teen Police Academy. Law enforcement officers play an essential role in our communities by maintaining order and providing safety and peace of mind for each and every citizen. However, public opinions of law enforcement are often shaped by what people see in the media without a full understanding of the situations officers face or the decisions they must make. I entered the academy hoping to learn more about law enforcement, how it works, and what goes into officers' everyday decision making. I walked in, I walked away with a much greater understanding and appreciation for their responsibilities. Throughout the week, we learned traffic enforcement, vehicle pursuit procedures, crash scene investigations, crime scene investigations, and many other areas of police work. We also toured the DeKalb County Police Department, DeKalb County Fire Station, the county jail, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. One of the most impactful lessons that I walked away with was the use of force training led by Sergeant Cheek. We learned about what officers must consider when making split-second decisions. We also used a simulator that placed us in different scenarios and required us to determine whether the use of force was necessary. It gave me a much better understanding of how difficult and serious those decisions can be. I especially enjoyed the canine segment, where we learned about the different jobs performed by police dogs and their handlers. I did not know exactly what to expect when the week began, but I left the Dunwoody Team Police Academy with a deeper understanding of law enforcement, the challenges officers face, and the many people and departments involved in keeping our community safe. I'm grateful to the Dunwoody Police Department and everyone who made this experience possible. Thank you.

Sergeant, are you going to call the students that are here up?

Yes. Thank you, Bennett. The students that are present, if you could come up, we'll take a photo here. Bennett, come back.

So if you're part of the academy, if you'll come up, if you participated, if you'll come up to take a picture.

You should go down. Everybody on the phone? MC3? Thank you. Thank you.

So before everyone leaves while they're leaving, I want to give a big recognition to Sergeant Sela because we are indebted to him for creating this program. No one asked him to do it a few years ago. He came up with it on his own. He spends a tremendous amount of his personal time and energy developing a curriculum that each year gets more impressive. And it's our goal to encourage young people to enter public safety as a career. But even if they're not choosing that as a career pathway, they are learning so much about how and what a police officer does, how to interact with them, and they can share that information with their friends and their family. And this program really is invaluable. And we are so pleased and thrilled that we can offer it. So if you know a teen or a person that will be a teen next year between 14 and 19, it really is a series, five days of really unique opportunities. opportunities, even if they have no desire to serve in public service, there are opportunities they will never get again. And so thank you, Sergeant Sela, and to your team that helped you and to the community that supported you. You deserve a round of applause.

Thank you.

We have a packed room. If you're looking for a seat, there may be some empty seats somewhere. I think there are over by the way, I can't see, I'm too short. So, but feel free to walk in and take a look. Our animal, our dog that was going to be here, we've had to reschedule because his handler was not available. So we will reschedule that for another meeting. What? Yeah, he got adopted. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. But unfortunately, there's probably 500 more they could bring. And before public comments, Council, I'd like to take a moment of privilege to ask Richard McLeod to come up and say a few words. And I'm going to preface this by saying that over the weekend, someone placed... well-intentioned information in people's mailboxes in my neighborhood. It happened to include me. I don't know if they knew I live there. And while I am all about civic participation, I'm really about it and I'm thrilled that everyone is here. Unfortunately, there was an error, a mistake in the maps that in the Georgetown plan. And so I've asked Richard McLeod, I know many of you are here to speak about that, and I still want you to speak, but I just want to have the correct information. So Richard, if you'll take a second to explain what happened and how we've rectified it.

Good evening. There was one map.

And I didn't explain who you were, I'm sorry. Richard McLeod is the director of community development, which oversees planning and zoning for the city of Dunwoody. All right, now go ahead.

So there was a map that was in the, I think it was page 41. It showed the school property on Chamblee-Dunwoody as being houses. We had met earlier. You had taken that out. It's out in the rest of the package. but it is not in that map. So we corrected it. It's now out. But this has nothing to do with rezoning our property. We're not rezoning anything. It's a map for the future.

That map did not reflect what the report says, correct?

Correct.

Okay, thank you. Okay, that's fine.

Okay, Richard, come back.

So the plan itself leaves the school property is R100, correct? Correct. In the previous iteration of the plan, there was a version that had it recommended a very dense residential development on that property, correct? Yes. And a road through it. Are either of those in the current plan? No.

Okay.

Okay. So we took the feedback we got from the public and we made changes. Unfortunately, because it's a lot of documents in the book or in the plan, a map that should not have been in there, that doesn't reflect the current plan, was left in there.

Correct. Correct.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Public comment. You'll have three minutes. We do up to 30 minutes. And if you don't get to speak, I have a lot of cards. If you don't get to speak, we do another session of public comment at the end of the meeting. David Mann. Approach the microphone, please, and introduce yourself. Denny Shortle, you are next.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. Thank you for the time this evening and for your service to our community. I appreciate the opportunity to speak again. I first learned about the Kroger proposal two weeks ago at the last city council meeting where I spoke during public comment about the proposed truck delivery hours. I was surprised to hear that the planning committee recommended extending the hours beyond what was established for Walmart. Since then, I've taken some time to review the city's comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance so I could better understand how projects like this are evaluated. I have a few questions that I hope will help me and my neighbors better understand the city's review of the project. First, I wanna be clear that I support Kroger by bringing them into the former Walmart site. My comments are simply about understanding how the project will operate next to an established residential neighborhood. My first question is whether the city has evaluated how the truck traffic for the grocery store compares to the former Walmart, specifically how many tractor trailers and DSD deliveries are anticipated each day, what time of the day, and how that compares to the historical operations. Since many nearby residences remember the loading dock activity from the former store and want to understand if the traffic's expected to increase, decrease, it would be useful context. Second, with the residential properties located approximately 120 feet from the loading dock, did the city request or review a noise study that specifically evaluates truck loading operations at nearby residences? So that would include noises such as truck idling, backup alarms, lift gates, dock plate impacts, refrigeration units, and trailer coupling. Both are critical in determining recommendations for receiving hours and noise mitigation to the neighbors. As it relates to this specific development, I'd like to reference the city's comprehensive plan on page 84 of the plan. I printed a picture. It'll probably be hard to see. At key locations, like the former Walmart shopping center neighborhood serving commercial. and mixed use are encouraged but should include buffers to protect the adjacent neighborhoods. So it calls out this specific development. My question is what specific buffers does the city believe satisfies that policy in this case and how did the city determine that those buffers are appropriate given the proximity of the loading dock to the homes? and the frequency of truck traffic. Finally, I'd like to reference Chapter 27 of the City's Zoning Ordinance, which recognizes that amplified drive-through speakers may require noise mitigation to protect adjacent residential properties. That suggests that the city has already acknowledged that certain commercial activities near homes may require additional consideration. A commercial loading dock typically includes multiple sources and noise like the ones I described with truck engines, backup alarms, et cetera, which are different in character than a drive-through speaker. Given that cities- Thanks, Mr. Mann.

Thank you. Denny Shortall and then Colin Kelly, you are up.

Good evening, Mayor and Council and fellow citizens. I'm Denny Shorter, I live at 2011 Woodland Way, Dunwoody. The bird told me that vaping shops have been discussed by the Council. I'm against that. I'll give you a couple statistics. Here's one from the American College of Cardiologists. They have people that have a 56% higher chance to get heart attacks, 30% higher chance to have strokes. They also have a 51% higher percentage to going into heavy drugs versus the general population. We don't need any more temptations to our citizens and especially our youth here in the city. So I hope you put a stop to that idea of vape shops. The other thing I want to talk about is apartments. I've seen a couple of things that mentioned that there's people applying for apartments. I don't have anything against apartments, but we've got plenty of apartments here in the city. And when we went for the city, that was one of the biggest things that people came up against. Why are all apartments are in there? And there's high streets, that's approved, I understand that. But we don't need any more apartments. During my tenure, we had three townhome developments. all of them are very high successful they got a low crime rate uh unlike uh apartments if you don't believe that just get the crime statistics out for the apartments around town and you'll see that they're considerably higher than the uh than the town homes or the single family homes so that's what i've got to say thanks a lot for all you do have a good evening thank you uh colin kelly

And then Ali, you're next. I know you're here. I saw you. Go ahead.

You have three minutes, sir.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor, city council members and city staff. My name is Colin Kelly, and I've been a proud resident of Dunwoody since 2014. And I currently live in the Madison Square neighborhood. I'm here tonight to share my strong support for the Georgetown small area plan. I'm especially excited about the vision for the missing middle housing and small lot single family homes. For my partner, Josh and me, this plan is about more than just smart urban design. It represents our ability to stay in the community that we love. In 2021, Josh suffered a traumatic brain injury. That life altering event changed how we navigate the world and it created new physical limits on our daily lives. We deeply want to stay in Georgetown, but our current housing options are falling short. A multi-story condo is no longer practical for us. And a traditional townhome simply won't work because it would require massive expense of adding a residential elevator. We look at the local housing market and we feel stuck. On one end, we see dense, smaller apartments, and on the other end, we see massive homes with well over 3,000 square feet. For residents like us, there's just a huge gap in the middle. The type of home we're looking for, a modest ground-level single-family house, is the core of the American dream that families have enjoyed for decades. It is a dream that feels increasingly out of reach when the missing middle is truly missing. Our goal is simple. Since Josh's injury, I promised him a dog to bring some new joy to our lives. I made this promise to him five years ago in the Grady ICU. If he'd wake up, I'd get him a dog, but I cannot fulfill that promise until we have a small, safe private yard for the pup to run around. The plan's vision for small lot single family homes like the ones proposed in Dunwoody Green build out or the Dunwoody Park area is exactly what we need. It provides a blueprint for accessible housing that allows residents to adapt to unexpected life changes. I strongly encourage the council to support this vision. Please advance the zoning updates needed to help builders fill this critical housing gap. Thank you all for your time.

Thank you. Ali and then Mr. Wintermantle. You're next, sir.

Hello, City Council. This is Ali. I'm going to be speaking about something I've already spoken about several times, but just to reiterate, not a problem unique to Dunwoody, but we're starting to see a lot of homelessness around the area. Again, this is non-Dunwoody residents. A lot of this is initiated from the World Cup. A lot of people kind of get pushed out of Atlanta and then found themselves in Sandy Springs, Brookhaven. as well as Dunwoody. Again, I walk a lot, so I kind of see what's on the foot traffic more than people who could just drive by and see people on the benches. It is causing a little bit of an issue. There have been, you know, unfortunately, some of these people, not to lack compassion, you know, we are trying to do what we can do with resources and money and different things to help these people, but allowing them to stay in Dunwoody when there are laws and different things that do not allow them to is not one of them. It is a little bit of an issue, especially around the mall area. Again, when driving by, you might just see them on a bench, but it's more than that. We had this one lady in the evening walk in front of vehicles and cause them to swerve and honk. We have other people trying to hold up signs. I had an issue from two years ago, actually, different, that were there were It had to be the one weekend. My friend from New York came into town and there's a homeless person sleeping in front of our community. And he will never let me go for that one and continuously brings it up. Bad look on Dunwoody. We had one over the weekend where, again, didn't bother anyone, didn't say anything, but then started going to Target, looking into the trash. And what was really concerning was then he found themselves towards the residential neighborhood. Then he was walking, so I don't know what his intentions, his goals, going through residents' trash. Again, we have communities that have children out there, different things that could cause issues. We had this one woman, unfortunately, again, from a standard of driving, you can't necessarily recognize any issues. But then this person decided randomly to start yelling and screaming with profanities and just kind of losing her mind next to the Velvet Taco. um so causing quite the public disturbance i was on the other side of the street so i called it in to chat com um which is actually the second point of concern as you guys know if i ever come and complain about anything it's about chat com um i know we've got some contract coming forward but we really do need to expect a little bit more from them uh when i call that in so they can send an officer we did have a dunwoody officer by the way respond very quickly to just kind of you know reaffirm for the public make sure people felt safe when someone was doing these things but chat com kept on asking for the address like five times to the point where it like they just couldn't figure it out the one velvet taco and dunwoody so i finally just pulled out my phone as i was talking to them and and gave them the address again these are things that probably could be resolved with ai or different investments chat com could be putting into its services that they're not that we need to pressure them for but coming full circle because i know we have a full crowd i would ask that we kind of make it intentional now and focus a little bit more on a little bit of the homeless problem especially as it's not dunwoody residents to see what we need to do to

kind of enforce our laws in play and and kind of get rid of people who are causing public disturbances thank you mr winter mantle the personal microphone sir introduce yourself and you'll have three minutes and then carrie smith you are up next well i live in the neighborhood right around shallford school and i'm not sure that i fully understand what uh

Richard just communicated, there is no application for rezoning for that property at the present time. Is that correct? Okay, good. I'm not here to comment on that. There are other people who will. What I'd like to do is express my prior concerns. I've been here on previous occasions. I'm just going to read it. A short note that I texted to the new arborist that we have here in Dunwoody. Seems like a very nice guy, David Ham. I said, my experience is that the arborist has no authority. I stand by that. Trees are routinely clear-cut on redevelopment lots because there is no code addressing this. Specimen trees are simply removed, not planned around. Whole woodland habitats are gone and more will go as the Dunwoody Council simply will not address the issue. I've been here over the last couple of years on several occasions, speaking to the very fact that we need an ordinance, a tree ordinance that is responsible and reasonable and does not give developers the right to just come in and clear cut a piece of property so they can start from ground zero. By way of example, I have a lot right next door to me, maybe 500, $550,000 lot. It was already elevated above my property by about 8 or 10 feet. The developer came in, removed all the trees, 36 large trees, specimen trees, 80, 100 years old, and then dug out a basement and took all that dirt and piled it up and then built the house on top of that. So he actually... He violated the spirit of the building code, in my view, by raising the elevation of the property about 12 feet and then built a 35-foot-high house, and he could still meet the code. That house is like, for my property, I'm looking up, it's like, they're great neighbors, it's a very nice house, a great builder, but not very appealing in this situation. So I'm just saying... We need to have an ordinance that speaks to trees and not give these builders the right to go in there and just abuse the property and serve their own particular interests. Thank you.

Thank you. Carrie Smith, you are next. You'll have three minutes. And Bridgette, I cannot actually read your last name, but I'm guessing you're the only Bridgette here. You'll be next. Go ahead, Carrie.

Hello. Well, my comments were just going to be about the field, which is, I think they said earlier that it's not on the plan, but that is in our neighborhood and right across the street from a lot of us. And it's been vacant for a long time and people use it every day for walking their dogs, playing with their dogs, hitting golf, playing soccer, hitting golf balls. I mean, people use that all the time. So I hope in the future, maybe you'd, Think about it being green space, perhaps, or at least if you do develop it, maybe not have some high density development there because people do really use it and like that green space. And that was all my comments. Thank you.

Thank you. Bridget, Bridget, I cannot. Thank you, Bridget. I'm giving you a French accent. And then Larry, my neighbor, you're next after that. Go ahead.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council members. Just have a quick brief comment. Also, like my neighbor on Ashford Club Drive regarding the Kroger proposed Kroger loading hours off of Ashford Dunwoody. Just ask that careful consideration is given to the impact of nearby residents, especially in the apartment complexes nearby, which are very close, as well as our neighborhood, Ashford Chase. We've kind of been through this before. It really is disruptive to have the noise of loading. even during daytime hours, which is reasonable. It is kind of an all-day thing and that's reasonable. Totally support the Kroger, but to preserve our property values and most importantly, just our quality of life and sleep, I would just ask that you minimize those hours. Thank you.

Thank you, Larry. Approach the microphone, sir. You will have three minutes and then Tom Siebold We'll have three, you're next.

Okay, thank you. I appreciate the time for you giving to, appreciate you giving me the time to speak. I'm just calling to comment on the Georgetown small area plan. on the property of the former middle school there. Page 48 in the vision concept, it does show multifamily dwellings. And I think we've already talked about this. I think the people in my neighborhood in North Springs would probably agree with me. We don't need any more apartments on that property. and uh i'd like to um keep that zoning r100 and also we don't need any new ingress into the north or north spring subdivision excuse me um and i would i wanted to know if it's possible for the council to um make a resolution to keep this property zoned r100 is that anything that you all can do can you comment on Okay, okay. All right. Just wanted to see. But anyway, I'd like to request that you guys make a resolution to keep that property, which is the former middle school properly zoned 100. If you guys could consider doing that, I think the people in North Spring subdivision would be very happy. So that's all I wanted to comment on. Thank you.

Thank you. Next is Tom Seibold for Patty, and then Cynthia Pierce, you are next.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, city council members. Good evening. My name's Tom Seibold. I have brief comments regarding the Georgetown small area plan. I did notice the map on page 48, which seems to show high density development there. I'm in support of retaining the current character of the lots and development along Kellogg Circle Drive. I will say I realize there'd be pressure to develop along Chantley-Dunwoody Road, higher density units, apartments across the street there already. And I would support retaining as much green space as possible. As has been mentioned, it's a It's a nice little park right now. So thank you so much for your attention.

Thank you. Cynthia Pierce, approach the microphone. You'll have three minutes. And Chantel Spector, you are next.

Good evening. Thank you for having me. I'm Cynthia Pierce, and I reside in Ashford Chase and have since the subdivision was built, 1995. In addition to being a resident, and I echo everything my neighbors have already said, and I think I just want to say what he said, because he has all the facts and figures. But the unique thing that I have is the advantage of 40 years in real estate. And that piece of enjoying your peaceful existence in your home is super important. One of the first things I look at when I'm working with clients is what are the negatives around your home? What do you back up to? You have floodplain, all the things. This is a huge impact into our property values and obviously the enjoyment of our neighbors. I back up directly to the former Walmart property, totally support Kroger, just as they've said, but we Really hope that the hours will be greatly reduced from what the proposal is, because we will hear all of this going on already all day. We're happy with that. But in the early morning, six o'clock, and you're saying 11 o'clock at night, I need sleep too. So just really echoing and strengthening our case for reducing the hours. And we fully support that. So thank you for listening.

Thank you. Chantel, you'll approach the microphone and you'll have three minutes.

Hi, good evening, Mayor and City Councilors. I'm also a resident of Ashford Chase and also represent the HOA. And while our residents are looking forward to the Kroger, we are also very concerned about the noise. As all of my neighbors have said, we really want everyone to understand that it is quite loud and quite disruptive to young babies that are sleeping and trying to go to bed at night, and also to our older neighbors, to everyone as well. So we request more reasonable hours, no earlier than 8 a.m., no later than 9 p.m., and anything we can do to lessen the noise. I also want to echo everyone else's previous comments, especially David Mann. Thank you.

Thank you. Steve Ellett. Sharon, how are we doing on time? Okay, it's fine. Steve Ellett, approach the microphone and you will have three minutes, sir.

Great, thank you very much. Thank you for all that you do, appreciate it. I've actually was just counting it up and I've lived in the Georgetown area for 28 years, so it's a hard number to come up with, but it's been a while. And thank you and prior councils for all the work, not just in Georgetown, but all over, but Georgetown area has improved greatly. I was on the sounding board I think it was 15 years ago that a lot of it has been built now. There's amazing trails and a sign and lots of street lights that have nice decorations on them sometimes of the year. It's really a big improvement. And so my main question, I think, has been addressed. I was going to advocate for to keep the R100 frontage on the neighborhood side of Kellogg Circle and whatever we need to do on the other side. rather it stay the same, but certainly it might have to be a higher density, understood. But the neighborhood side and the road that cut through, it sounds like those were mistakes in the report, which is nice to hear. But since I have another minute, since that's already resolved, I would like to ask for your help also in the Georgetown area, the former Georgetown pool site, DeKalb is not cooperating and enforcing its health codes that require demolition and filling into that pool that's no longer in existence. It has not been demoed. It is there. It still has some water in it to get from all the rain. it's a drowning risk. It's certainly mosquito risk, uh, and an eyesore. And we would ask anything you can do to spur the cab health department on into enforcing their code that says that an abandoned pool needs to be, uh, filled in and demolished and returned to, you know, filled in with clean earth and all the things that it says. So we're trying, we're, we're talking to them, but, uh, not a lot of action out of those, out of the owners or the cabin requiring the owners to do what they're supposed to do. So thank you very much. Appreciate all that you do.

Thank you. Elizabeth Pittman, approach the microphone and you'll have three minutes.

Hello, I'm also from North Springs. Thank you for listening to all of us. I think it would have been helpful if the plan was correct. Maybe we could have not taken up so much of your time, but we would like to hear some strong clarification. about what you're doing with the zoning, what your plan is, and especially, will there be a cut through into our neighborhood? Our neighborhood is a huge walking neighborhood. We already have a raceway on the backside where people cut through Heathwood, North Springs, and Chateau to cut off the traffic in the afternoons. Every day, I almost get run over on that back curve. So I'd like to know when I'm on the front curve, I'm not gonna also get run over. So if we could just get some strong clarification you're not looking at rezoning and you're not looking at cutting indoor neighborhood, that would be great.

Thank you. Sharon, are there more cards? Okay. Tom Siebold, but you went, right? Okay. Joanne Climack? If you'll approach the microphone, you'll have three minutes, ma'am.

Okay. All right. Good evening, Mayor and members of City Council. This question is directed to Councilman Lambert. Okay. My street, Dunwoody Hollow Drive, is 26 feet wide. A typical fire truck needs 20 feet to pass. There are 12 houses on my street, two on the right and 10 on the left. of this cul-de-sac. I would like a street sign be erected for one-sided parking on Dunwoody Hollow Drive so that a fire truck could easily pass on this S-curve street. The second house on the right always has a car parked in front of the house. It's not in my intention for this person to get in trouble, okay? This is not where I'm bringing this. The owner of the vehicle is the father of the daughter who lives there, but he does not live in on my street. Typically there are one to three cars parked on the opposite side of the street. Cars that are parked on both sides barely allow my car to pass, let alone a fire truck. So I believe the people who actually live on this street should be able to park on the street, but only park on the more populated side where all the homes are. The opposite side is mostly trees anyways. So, and I do think that when the fire trucks come down my street and if this car is sitting here and there's two cars there, first of all, it can get through. Second of all, it has to jag to the right and jag to the left and jag to the right. That's just too much. Straight is fast. Quick, get to the fire quick. Okay, eight houses could not be serviced quickly in an emergency. The house on my street was on fire because this particular vehicle is blocking all access for a fire truck. So this is why I'm requesting that a one-sided street sign be erected. Many homes like mine might be grandfathered in as far as their electrical panels. We have been examining our electrical panel recently and have had an inspector examine our panel. It has been on the forefront of my mind, so this is why this car blocking the road has come to my attention. I have pictures of his car and his license plate number. However, it is not my intention that he should be penalized unless he chooses to continue to block access for a fire truck. I'm only concerned about the safety of the residents on the back end of the street. That could be literally their homes could burn down. I mean, I don't think anybody would appreciate that. So this is why I really, really would appreciate that. And maybe there's a lot of streets in Dunwoody like this. I have no clue. But I would really appreciate this because as we looked at our electrical panel and it's spaghetti wiring, I'm like, yikes, this is getting a little too scary. So, and when I did, you know, okay.

Thank you.

Thank you. Before you sit down, I don't know if Michael, I can't see because is Michael Smith in here? Yes? No? Eric? Eric, is Michael Smith in here? Jay Venicki. Okay, that's fine. Mr. Venicki in the back, our assistant city manager, will get your contact information and someone will reach out to you.

Perfect. Thank you.

He's right there in the white shirt. Thank you. Next. Oh, thank you all. That was pretty phenomenal. We got through a lot of speakers in 30 minutes. That's great job. All right. Presentation of Georgetown small area plan. Richard, are you kicking us off?

Yes, I am. So I'm going to introduce the new Georgetown smaller area plan that just revived. Allison has joined us. Allison has left TSW and she's now a member of DeKalb, or excuse me, Gwinnett County's Long Range Planning, but she did us a favor and came back to present this site.

So

All right, good evening, thank you everyone, I do hope that this presentation tonight will clear up some of the questions that y'all have in the audience and provide that clarity that y'all are looking for. All right, so got about five to six minutes of slides what we're going to do tonight we're going to do a very brief project overview we're going to talk about the vision and concepts and then we're going to end with implementation and next steps. So one of the questions we got early on in the process is, hey, why are we planning for Georgetown? You know, there's nothing wrong with it. So the reason we were planning for Georgetown is that it's the largest and one of the best located of all the cities for local centers. But some other things that we heard was, you know, it's a great place, but we don't really have that strong identity. That's how Dunwoody Village has. We don't have sort of a community center gathering spot. Traffic's really difficult. We want more ways to get around. And there's really no clear, compelling vision for the future. So we dove in and we looked at some of the existing conditions, some of those key needs and opportunities that bubbled up or that need for a true central gathering space. There are some aging commercial buildings that could spark some redevelopment opportunities. In particular, there's some development interest already at Dunwoody Park and Lofts. We did hear a lot about a real desire to expand green space, expand connections. People really love the trails, the enhanced streetscape that's gone in. and to keep expanding the diversity of housing, particularly the missing middle housing. We heard a lot about transportation. Specifically, there aren't a lot of great local roadways that connect, so it forces folks onto Shanley-Dunwoody Road and Shaliford Road. We heard a lot about wanting to be able to walk more, expanding the system of paths and trails. We got a lot of questions about the Top End project and some of the impacts that that will have to the area. But really what we heard too is that we want to improve that connectivity two points south of 285 and to Perimeter. We did look at the comprehensive plan guidance. So this was guidance that was already adopted a while ago. What we did hear throughout this process was that most folks really wanted that core intensity to go down quite a bit in Georgetown. And so when we looked at, you know, okay, what could the vision for this area be? It is largely built out, but what are some of those improvements we can make? There's really four things that really came to the surface for us. So one thing we heard very clearly from the community was, you know, we don't want apartments. We want people scaled buildings. We want that green space. We want those premium streetscapes to be expanded in order to try to get more connectivity. There aren't a lot of opportunities for new roadway connections, but can we look at connecting people by bike and by foot through plazas and passages? And can we really enhance that connectivity to nature? So this is the revised concept. So what y'all will see is, I think the parcel in question, we are showing there's no development on that. We are showing that as it is today. I do wanna note, we had a public workshop, I believe in early February of this year. At that workshop, we shared six different concepts. We heard very clearly that two of them people were not at all interested in, so those two have gone away, and that school site was one of them. So the school site is now no longer part of the vision concept, nor is the one at the Bank of America site a little further south on Chamblee-Dunwoody Road. i do want to share what those four remaining concepts are so the first one is looking at dunwoody park so again this is sort of the the large commercial area right now this is a rich mix of housing types a lot of small lot single family houses house scale plexus some town homes Really envisioning an interconnected system of green common spaces in courtyards and passages. There is some higher intensity mixed use near I-285 and Cotillion Drive. But really the emphasis is on having these people scale blocks that provide new roadway connections and includes a link to the city annex property to the east. The images that I'm showing here are just sample character imagery. We also looked at Dunwoody Green. This has been a site that's sort of been on folks' minds for a long time, but really looking to complete the build-out of Georgetown Park with appropriately scaled homes, some new mobility links, house-scale plexes. That new commercial use on the corner, we know folks really want a coffee shop or a great local restaurant there, so that's what we're showing. So it's 15 new small-lot single-family homes that really match the scale of the existing housing in the area. I mentioned the city annex property. So right now the city owns quite a bit of property. There are some pretty significant topography challenges here, but we do see this as an opportunity to really expand your local roadway network, provide people with a few more route options. And there is already some plans in place for some parking on this facility. Our last concept was really further down on Chamblee Dunwoody Road, closer to 285. This is really just sort of a very long range concept for some high quality mixed use redevelopment. The bulk of the site we're showing would be mixed use and multifamily, showing breaking up the superblock. But again, this is really only if that property owner were ever to be interested in redevelopment in the future. For the transportation concept, we've really again focused on creating some of those smaller links, really trying to look at new ways for pedestrians and cyclists to get around and expanding that premium streetscape that y'all have already started implementing. So we looked at a couple of new roadway links, for example, through the annex property and as larger sites redevelop, there's an opportunity to add multiple local roadway connections, but not on the former school district property. We're also looking at some key intersection improvements as well to help with traffic flow. Other specific projects include extending the Dunwoody Trailway, and then also some more focused sidewalks and trails. Y'all have done a great job with really getting that network in the ground, but really just filling in those last few gaps there. In terms of implementation and next steps, I know there were a lot of questions tonight about what was happening to zoning in this area. This plan does not rezone anybody's property. The only thing about this plan that has anything to do with your code is really looking at, right now you're looking at updating your UDO, So one opportunity through the code is to say, okay, if we like this plan and we like those smaller blocks, can we do some of those kind of design features, right? Can you have urban design standards? Can you make it so that new development has to provide accessible open space, newer widened streetscapes, multi-use trails? One option, too, is to create new zoning districts that allow a mix of uses, especially combining residential and commercial where appropriate, primarily closer to 285, considering whether some scales of redevelopment should be required to provide that mix of uses so that you don't just get a big apartment building, expanding the types of residential uses, particularly for that middle-scale housing, and really trying to mitigate the negative impacts of certain commercial uses like gas stations and self-storage facilities. In terms of your next steps, looking at advancing projects on your public lands, the land that the city already owns, such as the annex property, looking to get that new roadway in there. And also, again, advancing those projects for Dunwoody Green and really completing that development. And coordinating with private developers. Dunwoody Park is already owned by a developer who's very interested in developing a great community here in Georgetown. And then longer term, again, thinking about the Chamblee Dunway Shopping Center redevelopment. In terms of transportation, we do think it's very important that y'all continue to really coordinate with GDOT on the top end projects, really trying to make sure y'all squeeze as much benefit as you can from this huge project. Specifically, you know, prioritizing your pedestrian, bicycle missing links, filling in your sidewalk gaps, improving some of those key intersections, and considering how access management, so basically the number of driveways that are coming off of arterials, are really impacting the traffic flow. And with that, that is a summary of the plan, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you'll have.

Okay. I'm sure we have some discussion. Who wants to go first? You, Catherine. Okay.

I have a question on the city-owned property. It has a parking lot, but you've moved the parking lot to the back, but we've talked about a swap facility there. I don't understand what that, can you explain?

Yeah, the parking area is where the swap building will go.

In the front toward Shaliford? I think, are you mixing up two properties? Are you mixing up the Annex and Delway Green or no? Okay, sorry.

I thought it was behind as well.

Yeah.

It seems to have a new parking lot.

Yeah, the parking lot is where the SWAT builder will go.

That doesn't seem to be the parking lot. I mean, I guess... That's the parking for the SWAT building.

Yeah, it's not a public parking lot.

I understand. I don't see the SWAT building on here.

Because when we did this, the SWAT building was still being designed.

Okay, okay. So...

all right thank you that was uh rob these aren't really questions i think more just comments just because i know there are so many people here that have an interest in this plan um to understand the purpose of this is to kind of lay out a map for the future so i know for example you mentioned the dunwoody park property has been acquired by a new owner in the future if they want to do something this gives them an idea in our city what do we think is appropriate for that so This doesn't change zoning, but you also mentioned the UDO. And I have to imagine that now that we have this plan, that the UDO will be adjusted to reflect that. So this itself doesn't change zoning, but it will influence changes in zoning. So just so folks are aware that something later on may occur as a result of this. The other thing I want to point out is just a reminder that the the parcel that seems to be of most question tonight is owned by the school district. I'm not aware they're planning to sell it anytime soon. So it's more just if they do in the future sell it, what do we think is appropriate for that area? And so I think that's important feedback to share so that we know if it does sell in the future, you know, what can go there. Let's see if I have any other notes. Well, the only other thought I would have is, you know, I know there were some concerns with road access through there. But what about pedestrian access? I think it would be good to get some feedback, you know, just to connect from that neighborhood to the sidewalk. So if people wanted to walk down to Waffle House, it would be easy. I would be interested in that kind of feedback.

It could exist anyway. Thank you. John.

Yeah, thank you for the presentation. I echo the comments earlier. This is not a rezoning. If there's anything that needs to be done, it's going to come back and go through the process. The planning commission is going to talk about it. It's going to come to us and we will hear lots of feedback. So thank you for clarifying that. There's a couple of other city properties, Dunwoody Green, for example. Richard, what is the parcel, the commercial zoned area? What is that now? Is it

Nothing. We haven't had any buyers.

Well, I know there's nothing there, but what is it zoned? Is it zoned commercial? That whole block, is it all commercial? Is it-

It was intended to be commercial, but Michael Starling and I discussed and we're backing off.

You're backing off the commercial. So in other words, that parcel also need to go through a rezoning. So that will need to go through a rezoning and the residents that live there will have full feedback and give us input of what they want, the scale, the impact, etc. I wasn't sure there's two road accesses that look like they're new going on either side of the commercial. And I'm not sure how that's going to be working. So with the intersections are so close to other intersections. I question it and I'll question it again. If it ever comes back to me, I'm just trying to make sure that I look at it from those perspectives. And though the annex, um, Really, that's just a city property that we are putting a road on. We're not really rezoning that per se. That was purchased many years ago as five acres of green space in order to connect Peachford all the way up to Dunwoody Park when it were to be developed. So the city has owned that for many years with that goal of putting that road through. So I'm very happy to see that going through. um as an idea if it can be developed and again i fully support support the the dunwoody park aspect of going commercial or going residential to a certain extent if that's what the city needs in that area to make it more vibrant um again i'm seeing uh some multi-family and uh as a public commenter mentioned we don't have much single level living and owner-occupied single-level living. And the thing that I've been pushing for for many years is actually condos, single-level, elevator up, so that someday I can sell my big old house and some young couple can come in and I can not worry about the stairs. That's not just me, but that's 90% of my community, my neighbors, are all basically trapped with golden handcuffs whereby we have the big old houses and someday we may not want that big old house but yet we want to live in dunwoody so single level living i'm not sure i would love to have single level living on small parcels of land i just don't know how that's economically feasible for anybody for single level living on ground level i'd love to see it i'm just not sure where that to make sense for so for me the single level living on condos But we're not mentioning condos in any of this. This plan doesn't mention owner-occupied versus commercial versus rental. To me, I just think it's a long-term failure of this community in the sense of not providing that missing middle that we don't have control over because that's what the banks are pushing, apartments versus condos. So again... Those things seem to be missing. I do like many aspects of the plan and look forward to more discussions on it. So thank you.

Joe. Thank you for your words, John. I'm 100% on that. I'm going to ask also, we have free market. And I want to let the folks here in the audience understand we have free market economic forces where we can do zoning. But what else could we do? And if the citizens are so desirable of certain things, there's economic forces, right? How much is that land worth? It's $2 million an acre in Dunwoody Village. And what if we just say it's R100? That means that's a big, tall, tall house on a huge, big lot. So we talk about the submitting middle, but we talk about what is the cost per acre? What is the cost to build? What is the economic viability? And in this plan, what I'd like to hear from are actual people that do this and have had these things come to fruition and how they've had it happen. So a roadmap to achieving this plan, right? So next, how do we do that? So what do we do? We have what's called a development authority here in Dunwoody. And many cities use that. It's a separate authority. Sandy Springs, they use their development authority to build their own city center without raising taxes a penny on their citizens. That was a development authority, downtown Alpharetta. They used the development authority to buy land. They assembled it. They became the property developer and they said what they wanted there. And they said, we want some green space set aside. So I would like the citizens of Dunwoody to understand that if you want us to be more proactive and not just be free market, we need to leverage all the tools in our toolboxes. And we need to hear from you to say, yes, we would support those things. Because some of those people, some people just like free market, have as many banks as you want, and whatever else. Because that's free market. We don't own a public inch of land in Dunwoody Village, but we aspire to. So it goes back to that lot over in the former school property. It's on R100, right? So the school could sell it. The school district could sell it, and then they could just put R100 there and it would never come to council. The cool schools that sell today, and it could be our 100, never come to council. Just let you know that's what it's currently zoned for. No green space, nothing walkable, nothing there for anybody to use. So please pay attention and say, you know, we have what's called a development authority. If we want to start buying land using our development authority, we need some funding. We'll talk about our revenue sources and streams, but we could do these things here. I love the single level condos. Let's leverage our development authority to do these things. Thank you.

Stacey, sorry. I just have a couple questions. First of all, I drove around Georgetown for the past week kind of knowing. And what I think is really cool about Georgetown is there already is a variety. You can buy really a million dollar house and then you have some lower, well, $1,300 for one bedroom. I don't know how low that rent is, but I was really struck by there already is a variety. But To the speaker's point, the missing middle with the smaller, what do we call it, the cottages?

Missing middle housing.

Yeah, the cottage courts, which I think is a really cool word. Two questions for you. Number one, since there's so many people here from the area, what is going on with that development next to Georgetown on Chamblee-Dominion Road that's fenced off?

It's being converted into an office building. They got held up for a long time because of a violation.

Are they back on track?

I believe they're getting close to being back on track.

Okay, so that is just a small... How many stories do you remember? I'm sorry. I think it's... Okay, so small three-story office building. Okay, then my next question is, I was kind of excited to learn of the change in property ownership of Dunwoody Park. I've been on council long enough. I've seen a lot of plans. I've seen a lot of pretty pictures. And I know some development companies just buy property and sit on them forever. How... eager are they to redevelop that property? Like, where are they? Are they just still, well, we have it. It's great. Or no, we're waiting to see what this plan, because we want to go. Where are we in those two?

So one of the gentlemen is here tonight. He is, he participated in the study. He's been to every meeting. He's very interested in, he wanted to hear you all's thoughts, public's thoughts about, they could do they're a great company uh i'm familiar with them from atlanta um so as soon as this passes uh they'll probably make an appointment with me and i also sorry i just want to say um i'm really pleased with the plan overall like i think i think you guys did a really good job thank you um

Yeah, thank you. I just want to begin, first of all, by thanking everyone that participated in this process. We had a lot of participation from the community in this, going back to, as was mentioned, the public meetings and the surveys. What I was really encouraged by at that public meeting that we had back in February, it wasn't just residents. There were business owners. So people were really engaged. And I think that's a very encouraging sign. And just kind of echo some of the things that are in this report, and it's already been said by some. The bones are there that Georgetown's got. I mean, it's, it's nice now, but man, the potential there is really unlimited. So it's exciting to kind of put that vision out there. And, and yeah, you know take one step closer to making it a rally a lot of things i have some small things i'm going to send you later i'm not going to bother with it right now um and some of the other points are raised one thing i do want to just talk a little bit more about is is the uh uh the annex property and the road going through there because i do think that's going to be a a critical thing for the future as john mentioned that was actually what that property was originally purchased for by the city um and if If, and when moves forward with their plans with to make those 1 ways that East West connection is going to be critical, I think, for the city and for traffic. So, and alleviating congestion in the area. So I bring that up not just because it's part of the presentation, but we have. a a project in the works uh and um with with the swat facility in the parking lot back there so not knowing who specifically is in charge of what i'll just direct it at eric i just want to make sure that whatever we do moving forward with that project for the swat facility that we're not precluding or doubling the cost of eventually putting a road through this area um i think there's things that probably need to be addressed with a road in mind now and if that means maybe tap in the brakes a little bit to make sure we get it right. I would strongly encourage that because what I'd hate for us to do is put the facility up there and then find out we've kind of put a roadblock into putting that road through because I do think that road's going to be important. So just want to emphasize that. Thank you.

Me. So as someone who lives in Georgetown, six doors down from the empty school property or so, to be exact, I'm excited about this vision. I think Georgetown, we've done a lot of investing already in Georgetown, and I think it's going to be a great, it already is a great area. And I think some of these plans, addressing the missing middle housing is really important to us as a council and And to me, additionally, while you may not get perfect one level living, you can get two stories with enough on the first floor, a bedroom on the first floor that you can make the economics work. And so I'm excited about the potential of seeing some of that development. And let's talk about the school property, okay? So DeKalb Schools has zero intention of selling property, not just that property, all their empty property. It bothers me. I don't think it's, as a taxpayer, I don't think it's economically a good decision. But at the moment, and not just at the moment, but I would say historically for decades, that has been their MO. just in case they ever need it. It is, in my opinion, not big enough property for a school. It's down to about seven, seven and a half acres because they had to give some to the DeKalb watershed management to put a water facility on there. It was only about nine acres to begin with. There will be no road through this property. It was, I don't particularly think it was necessarily well thought out. If you put a road through the property, you lose all development value. There'll be no room for more than just a handful of anything. And it's not a needed connectivity. Our neighborhood is one of the best neighborhoods in Dunwoody in terms of access. You have at least four ways, maybe five in and out, which is really unusual. Maybe it's a little more common in Dunwoody, but it's not that common. And across Metro Atlanta, it is really unusual to have a neighborhood with that much access. but also considered best practices across the world for subdivision development. So 50 or 60 years ago, someone really knew what they were doing. And so that's what I can tell you about that property. If someone comes in, if the school system changes its mind, um and sells it whoever buys it if they're not just going to build single-family homes will have to come to city council or the go through the zoning process and the community will have just as you heard your neighbors talking about things related to the rezoning of kroger you will have the opportunity to advocate for your vision and what you want again i think it's really unlikely that that property will be sold anytime soon um And that may or may not be a good thing. And if you have ideas, send them to me and we can talk about them. Unfortunately, the Development Authority in Georgia cannot be used for ownership property. And so while there are tools in the toolbox for rental, it's a little harder for local governments to influence an ownership product. However, Can you put up the Georgetown Green, Dunwoody Green project, please? Yeah, that one. So what's interesting about this piece of property is that the city actually used a redevelopment, an urban redevelopment authority, which involved us declaring it blight. It was blight. I don't know if anybody lived here before, but it was pipe farm. It was during the recession. It was meant to be actually condominiums like everything else like that during the recession. It went belly up. And so they left. the blue pipes the city acquired the property uh then ended up through a process working with john wieland to develop we held back three acres for commercial property it has been on and off the market for a long time at this point uh we've had a few proposals that the neighbor that weren't great and the neighbors didn't like and uh we find ourselves uh or the redevelopment authority for which is a semi-independent body from us, finds themselves at a point at which maybe some new decisions need to be made. And so I look forward to those discussions. I think this is an opportunity to get some new, different, maybe hot housing stock ideas in Dunwoody, as well as what's gonna happen across the street over time in Dunwoody Park. And so I think there's a lot of potential. I desperately want condominiums. I think we need to offer people choices that they may not feel like they have right now. Yeah, well, Cottage Court too. I want that too. Yes, a variety of housing. So... But thank you. And also, I think that it's important to note that we listened to the feedback we got in February. You know, we put out proposed plans to get that feedback, right? If we didn't want feedback, and there are some places that don't, we wouldn't have shared them. They would have just brought it to council to vote. So we took the feedback. We've made the changes. Unfortunately, something didn't get caught, but we fixed it we would have fixed it anyway but it's fixed and we heard what y'all had to say and I for one look forward to you know what's going to happen over the next however many years it's not going to happen overnight as we see what's to come in Georgetown anybody else thank you very much all right Richard Plateau, The Audit.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm here tonight to share or introduce, actually, Josh Carroll. He's a partner with Malden & Jenkins, the firm that does our external audit. And he is here to go over brief slides about the results of our audit for fiscal year 2025. So I'll turn it over to Josh. Thank you.

Thank you, Richard, and thanks to the Mayor and Council for having me. As Richard said, I'm Josh Carroll. I'm a partner with Mulder & Jenkins, and we do the city's external audit, and 2025 is wrapped up and issued and filed with the state and the GFOA, and I'm going to go over the results. This slide, if you're not familiar, Mulligan Jenkins has been around over 100 years now. We spend a lot of time and energy investing in state and local government audits. I spend my entire year doing nothing but counties and cities and state agencies and development authorities. I don't do any tax work, and everyone that works on your audit is in the same position. We spend our whole year doing nothing but government audits. Jay Patel is with me. He's a senior manager with the firm. He Kind of managed the day-to-day audit with Richard and the finance team and all the departments at the city. So kind of introducing him to the city council tonight. And I had Meredith Lipson. She's been a partner for over 30 years, and she did the quality control review. She kind of comes behind me and looks at a high level to make sure we didn't miss anything or things we should have thought about maybe we didn't. And I try to get a different partner to do that every year so we have kind of fresh eyes looking at things every year. The statements are the responsibility of the city's management. Our objective is your external auditors to express an opinion. We followed all the generally accepted auditing standards and government auditing standards, and we issued an unmodified or clean opinion, which is what you'd hope to receive from your audit. So as far as we're concerned, the financial report that is issued and filed and published is materially correct. We also issue a report on compliance and control, kind of come in and we look at all your cycles. We look at how you receive cash, how you disperse cash, how you process credit card transactions, onboarding employee, terminated employee, entering the contracts with vendors. We kind of look at a sample of all those, and we look at how everything flows, how the cash is received at it. the front desk or in the mail, and then how does it ultimately get to the bank and get reconciled? And you have good segregation of duties, good controls. You have a clean opinion there. We also looked at your federal grants. You have a lot of Georgia DOT projects going on on some roads. We looked at a sample expenses for those that we spent them on the right projects, and they were allowable costs. We did all the reporting that goes along with receiving that federal money, and we kind of administered those programs really well. So clean opinion overall. This slide, if I was on council, I think I want to know, do we have anything strange, unusual, or aggressive in your accounting policies or maybe your estimates and your statements? Your policies are disclosed in the notes. They're very similar of a city in Georgia of your size. Most of your neighbors have very similar accounting policies. They're pretty standard. And your estimates are really just your useful life or your capital assets. How long do we think this building is going to last or a police car? And we depreciate those over those useful lives. They seem very reasonable to us. We have some allowances for maybe we think we might not collect a receivable. We kind of estimate maybe we won't get our property tax collections. We kind of have an allowance for that, and we feel pretty good about it. So nothing really unusual or aggressive. We have a good relationship with management. We come in, we ask for a lot of information. It's not just the auditors doing our thing. It's a big project on Richard and his team and all departments. We visit the police department. Nothing seems hidden or covered up. We get everything we need. So the city works with us to get the audit done and file it timely. So we appreciate y'all continuing to put forth your team and your time and effort to help us get it done. We are independent. We don't close the books. We don't reconcile bank accounts. We don't do any accounting work. We just do the audit. So the opinion that you had is not influenced by us kind of closing the books and maybe turning around and sort of auditing our own work. We just do the audit. Richard does the accounting and his team. And we didn't have any adjustments either. We get a trial balance from Richard and his team. We audit it. We do our thing. We didn't have any adjustments. So Richard and his group do a great job maintaining the finances for the city. It's always clean. And that's really nice for us as auditors. This is my one financial trend. This is your general fund. This is kind of your liquidity. It's your unassigned fund balance compared to your expenditures for an annual year. The GFOA is the standard-setting body for local government. They recommend two to three months at a minimum, which is 16% to 25%. We're well above that, so we have a pretty healthy fund balance. The big 129% there in 2022, most of that is ARPA money, the COVID money that came through. We were able to use that money for our operating costs. That money is gone now. Hopefully we don't have another pandemic ever again. And so we've kind of leveled back off to a more, you know, reasonable and realistic number. And I see that almost everywhere. All my clients and Gwinnett, you know, DeKalb, Fulton, everywhere, Forsyth, they all kind of have the same trend. They defrayed our operating costs with that money. And now we're kind of leveled back off. But you have a healthy fund balance. And we didn't have any findings. You know, I said, you got a clean report. We look at controls and segregation of duties. We didn't have any adjustments to numbers. We look at P cards, checks, invoices, nothing, just a really clean audit. So no, there's no separate management letter that we issued of. Things that need to be corrected. So it's a clean report. We are a full service EPA firm. We have a governmental advisory services group, and I know I've mentioned this before, but they do a lot of niche projects for local government. It's just kind of a reminder. They do a lot of operational strategy projects. They look at how we're operating, whether it's a city wide scope, or maybe it's just the finance group, or maybe it's the police department or. Any department, why are we doing what we're doing? Are we following our own policies and maybe best practices? And how do we compare to our neighbors maybe? And ultimately, how can we operate more efficiently and deliver better services to the citizens of Dunwoody? So Richard and Jay Finicky have met with that group. They're kind of familiar with that. But if something ever pops up, don't hesitate to let us know. And this is cybersecurity. We have a group that does that as well. They look kind of a gap analysis and penetration. What information do we have and how are we protecting it and covering it up? But I really use this slide just kind of as a reminder. I work with a lot of governments and governments have a lot of information and no one's too big or too small. I have some of the tiniest cities in the world that get ransomware and even the big boys and Dunwoody is kind of in the middle there. So we just want to make sure we're training our employees and RIT group to continue to stay abreast of all the you know cyber security and tech world changes um change all the time and I see it you know almost every week so just a reminder and uh Gatsby's always busy Richard and I will implement those standards as they come along um we've had a lot of them lately we kind of got a break the last year or two there's nothing really huge on the horizon that's going to affect the city and we do continue to provide free CPE to all of our clients um they're They're virtual. They're quarterly sessions. Richard and his team attend those. We appreciate them attending. They are heavy on governmental accounting and what's going to impact the city's financial report going forward. But anybody at the city is welcome to attend. It is free, and I don't see us ever stopping that. And that's really it. Like I said, it was a clean opinion, and we appreciate the city partnering with us to get the audit done. If there's questions, I'm happy to answer them.

Thank you. Tom, anybody, questions? John?

Well, thank you for the report, giving us a clean audit. That's always great to hear. Can you tell me, we have a public audit committee of citizens that are raising issues and working with staff. Did you happen to work with them or how does our audit committee work with you and our staff? Do you have any interaction?

Not really. No, I was not aware that you had established. Is it a formal audit committee or is it just a committee of citizens?

It's existed forever.

So it's an internal audit committee. So we actually, so this is Josh representing the internal audit firm. The audit committee works with our internal auditor to decide quarterly what audits that they would perform. While they do financial audits, they also do operational audits and things that audit some of our partners and things like that. So that audit committee works hand in hand with our internal auditor.

No, much appreciated. I just wondered if there was any talking between the two, the formal city auditors and our volunteers that are raising things on a quarterly basis. It might make sense to have some sort of interaction at least once a year or some aspect of a conversation. I just like the idea of making sure that our citizens are being, our citizen volunteers are being listened to not only by staff, but for the audit committee that we're paying, you know, big money for. Sure. Which is a great service. So thank you.

We send the, I personally send to the internal or the audit committee, the financial statements and get feedback from them on our financial statements. And if they had any questions or anything, I would get them in touch with the external auditor if needed. Yes, absolutely. But I do share the financial statements with the audit committee.

I just want to make sure that we're communicating on every level. And it just seems like maybe there's a way for improvement if so needed. So thank you. Appreciate it. Nothing else.

The advisory group that I mentioned, they do work with audit committees and internal audit a lot. They do risk assessment projects. And sometimes that work they do helps drive what the internal audit group, what their projects are. So we do communicate with them.

Thank you again for the report. Yeah, I go to these classes in Georgia Municipal Association and, you know, we hear about some cities that don't get a clean audit and they have a lot of issues. So thank you very much. And thank you, Richard Platt on team for that. And Eric, I'll just continue to encourage that on our, you offer cybersecurity audits and so on. So I'm seeking to get independent third-party audit of all of our IT systems, given the stay and age. So I'm hoping that we'll be doing something like that. And I'm not involved with procurement. So that'll be up to staff and so on.

But yeah, that's exactly what they do. And it is everything we have is also it's also government specific. So they're not out doing cybersecurity for, you know, some other industry. Everything we have is solely geared towards what governments do and how can we help to protect that information. So, yeah, you know, it's. It's out of my realm, but they do it and I'm happy to connect Richard or anybody at the city with that group. I'll leave that to Eric and staff. Thank you.

Anybody else? Can you talk a little bit just for my edification? I mean, I've been doing this for like 15 years, but the timing. So is it generally months after the books are closed that this process happens?

Yes, ma'am. Okay. That's what I thought. I mean, we could move it up, but it's, it's really dependent on the Donovan.

Well, we don't get, the problem is, is we don't get all our funds for the year before. I mean, Georgia power gives us a multimillion check every year for the previous year at the end of February. So I get why it's complicated, but yeah. Okay. Anybody else have questions? Uh, thank you. Yeah. Thanks for having me. And I know there are people like waiting. There are some seats. We've had some people leave. If people are looking for seats, there are seats inside. Okay. I'm just making that offer. Um, all right. Next is consent agenda.

Move to approve.

Move by John. Second by Rob. Any questions or comments?

Just one quick comment. I saw Thomas O'Brien is being appointed to the ZBA. I was with him on planning commission. He's a great guy. I'm glad to see that he's found another opportunity to serve the city.

Right. He's moving from planning to zoning, which is good because we're getting ready anyway to appoint a member of the ZBA. And so the vacancy exists. All right. There's a motion on the floor. Are there any further questions or comments about the consent agenda? Seeing none, I call the question all in favor, say aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that passes unanimously. And before we move on, I want to thank Artie Mastin because he was original on the ZBA and he served on there for, I don't know what, how many years did that make, John? A lot, 17, 18. And we so appreciate, and we also appreciate your willingness to serve as a judge.

He was an interim city council.

Yes, and he was an interim city council person too.

I'm pretty sure that nobody else has served in four different capacities in the city of Dunwoody. That's an overreach there, Artie. Right.

Overachiever. All right. With that, I believe it is time for me to swear in some judges. Oh, we have to approve. I thought I voted. Did I forget to call the question? What? All in favor, say aye. Any opposed, that passes unanimously. We might have voted twice. So the administration of the oath of oath to our municipal court judges. We don't vote on that.

You don't, Madam Mayor, but you may want to just announce who they are.

Okay. Hold on one second. Get back to my agenda. Our new chief municipal court judge is, drum roll, I'm sorry, I'm not as, Michael Hawkins.

Thank you.

Oh, I see, hold on. A new judge is Artie Bastion. You want to stand up? A new judge is Patrick Hall. Welcome. And a returning judge is Tanya Shai. Congratulations. Now I'm going to swear them in.

however you want okay um if you want to be on camera you'll need to be uh farther back that way but we don't have okay like maybe line up this way like when I do a lot of people come closer All right, please raise your right hand.

I state your name.

Do solemnly swear or affirm.

Do solemnly swear or affirm.

That I will faithfully execute the office of municipal court judge of the city of Dudley.

And I will faithfully execute the office of municipal court judge of the city of Dunwoody.

And will to the best of my ability. And will to the best of my ability. Support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution of Georgia.

The Constitution of Georgia.

The charter ordinances and regulations of the city of Dunwoody.

in the charter or other instances and regulations of the city of Delaware.

I am not the holder of any unaccounted for public money.

I am not the holder of any unaccounted for public money.

Legitimate stay for any political subdivision or authority thereof.

Legitimate stay for any political subdivision or authority thereof.

I am not the holder of any office of trust Any other state or any foreign state which I, by the laws of the state of Georgia, am prohibited from holding, I am otherwise qualified to hold said office.

perform the duties of my office in the best interest of the city of Dundee, with the best of my ability, without fear, favor, affection, reward, or expectation thereof. What's that? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

That was a good one.

To all the judges, before you leave, we just want to thank you for your service. We so appreciate it. And congratulations again. We're going to get this meeting back in order in one minute as people leave. Let's go. I don't have a quorum sitting. I do now. Okay. If everyone could kind of exit quietly, that would be great. All right, we lost Councilman Harris, but that's okay. All right, Madeline, I think you might be here, but I can't see. Oh, Allegra. Yeah, I'm filling in for Madeline tonight. Good evening. Okay, one second. Would someone do me a favor and clear the foyer, please? I hate to make anybody be the bad guy. In or out, and if you're in, quiet. Quiet. You may go whenever you're ready.

I'll provide the second read.

Oh, sorry. You cannot go. That's okay. Go ahead, Sharon.

In order to amend the zoning conditions of land lot parcel number 18350-0167, in consideration of zoning case RZ26-01 for 4725 Ashford-Dunwoody Road, to authorize concurrent variances from chapter 27, section 98B6, section 98D7, section 98D8, and section 209 of the zoning ordinance.

Okay. And are we presenting the way we did last time with all three at the same time? Yes. Okay. But we'll vote on each one separately. Okay. Okay.

All right, good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm presenting for the second read of Kroger this evening. There's a rezoning and a special land use permit on the table in front of you and then a major master sign plan. Madeline was presenting the rezoning and the SLEP last time, but I'm doing all three this time. And so there are a couple updates to the rezoning and the SLEP since the last meeting. And so the Number one big change is that they are proposing allowable delivery hours from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. And so just as a quick note, that's actually more restrictive than Walmart because Walmart allowed delivery starting at 7 a.m. on weekdays. So that's something that the applicant has worked on in the last two weeks. They've also finalized the trail easement language with Michael Smith. The use of the drive-thru will be limited to serving a pharmacy, and then all of the crosswalks need to have decorative pavers. So those are the changes since the last time you all saw this. There are no changes to the major master sign plan since the last time it came before you all. I would like to issue a quick point of clarification. I misspoke at the last meeting. There was a question regarding monument signage for the property and whether other tenants could install individual monument signs. The answer to that question is yes. I said no at the last meeting, but it's yes. Individual tenants can install monument signs. There's a total of 10 for the property as a whole. And so there's already a couple out there, but just wanted to make that point of clarification.

Seth. it yeah that's that's what we have okay so um so i think the hours are good i think that's an improvement over even what walmart did so i appreciate the applicants uh working with us all on that i also believe they're going to fix the fence is that correct richard

Yes, that's right.

The rear fence, it's a wooden fence. It's kind of broken and dislocated, so they're going to repair it.

Okay. Questions or comments? Catherine?

Were any accommodations made to limit the sound, adding sound barriers, anything like that?

No, they realized that the hours were probably the best bet. So that's why they came back with that. Thanks.

Questions, Sean?

Yeah, I wasn't at the last meeting, so I have a few couple questions. There's two docs back to back, correct? So I'm trying to understand, I guess, the adjacent tenants not up for rezoning, but in some reality needs to be discussed at the same time. So you have two docs back to back. and there's a black, cinder black wall, and that should contain some of the noise you would think.

Correct. My guess, and this is unprofessional, is the beeping of the trucks backing up. Okay. I've discussed it with Laurel about raising that wall. She said there was a foundational issue, but also because the trucks have to pull in

going west past the entrance then they back up into that closed off area so we couldn't extend the wall any further out so basically the beeping is happening before the wall starts so I get that I was just wondering if that wall was constructed if it's hollow cinder block you could fill it with concrete which would make it a little bit more noise containing I'm just trying to think of ideas the fence line being wood could we extend it to being I don't want highway grade noise deadening but you know is there anything that can be done from that perspective because again you are now pretty close to those apartments and based on the comp plan and other discussions that we've had that what are we doing to protect those residents for the minimal distance there I'm just looking for a little bit of improvement and I don't know what that is

Again, I'm not a noise ordnance specialist. I had gone out there, the wall to block the sound does not go as high as the building. So I suggested with Laurel, David and I to raise that. And she has issues of why they could not do that.

Well, maybe the applicant will talk about that in a few minutes. A couple other things. I was just looking at the flow of the property, and I was trying to understand, looking at the fuel center, there seems to be a road right above the fuel center, and it seems almost dead end into a green area towards Hobby Lobby. Is the entrance into Hobby Lobby... past the fuel area is it the same diameter the same distance is there anything that looks like to me it's impending the flow of traffic a little bit right there so on the map on the right where the drive-through enters that you could actually come out the other end um and Yeah, off to the right. I guess I'm just wanting to make sure that we're not impeding the flow of traffic to Hobby Lobby. I know you can go up across the front of Kroger, which would be really slow, and you could probably go on the other side of the detention pond if that's all you wanted to do. I mean, I get that. I'm just making sure the traffic flow is not impeded near the fuel aspects.

So the only reason that they closed off the southern – curb cut was because it did dead end and it would make the intersection less safe by having that there.

Okay. Let's talk about the fuel center. I don't see a requirement in the conditions, but I would like to add, maybe the applicant's already going to do this. I would like to know if you're welcoming or could add 12-foot hoses, much like you would see at Costco, so that you could fill from either side. I want to make sure that people get into that facility and out of that facility as fast as possible to make sure that there's no impeding of traffic flow. Has that been thought of or discussed? Sure. Please come. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, it's a question directly to you.

Thank you. So Kroger has a prototype that it uses for its fuel centers. OK, so they've been thoroughly vetted. In fact, I got gas at my Kroger yesterday and the circulation works great because you can have cars coming in from either direction, depending on which side of the car your gas tank is on.

Well, that's the point. I wanted to make sure. I've been to some large retailer that I might have to use a card to get access to where you can fill from either side because their hoses are long enough. So no matter which way you pull in... That would be nice. And again, that's... That major retailer that sells gasoline about a mile away from where you're located has 12-foot hoses, and I would like to see 12-foot hoses on the Kroger just to make sure for traffic flow reasons. Again, just a suggestion on my point with this.

Well, there's several representatives in Kroger here, so they'll take that suggestion away. And if I could just mention, is this the connection that you were talking about, Councilmember?

I'm looking at the far right of the Kroger Fuel Center laying top towards Hobby Lobby. And it just, to me, it looks like there's a green buffer there.

You actually, and the scale on this is obviously very difficult, but you would drive down that aisle and actually turn, or I guess more veer left to go down that parking aisle, which takes you to the Hobby Lobby.

Okay, again, I just wondered if it was reviewed thoroughly. To me, it looks like there's a... sort of an impasse there, but maybe it's on purpose and maybe it's not to me. I was just wondering if I want to make sure that the traffic flow in and out of your fuel center area is not congested for any reason. And that was a small little thing I saw.

Yeah, I appreciate that. And that is, I mean, part of the reason for having that slight turn is for traffic calming as well. And you would appreciate this. So can you see my cursor on here?

I'm looking.

Yeah, I can.

Lower right. I'm seeing it now. Yes, I see it now. I've got my readers on it.

Okay. That is where the fuel tanks are. If you look just to plan north of where the fuel tanks are, there's a hashed area. I know it's very small. Yes, I see it. That is for the fuel trucks to pull over so they're not impeding traffic while they're loading.

Yeah, right. Well, thank you. Again, those were the only questions I had. I'm looking forward to the development coming forward. So thank you. But again, we did hear a number of comments regarding loading, unloading in the back. And I'm just wondering if there's any improvements that can be done there based on the conversations that you've heard tonight in council. Again, the walls, you got the cinder blocks. I'm not sure what else can be done, but it's something I'm thinking about.

Appreciate that. And Kroger did hear the neighborhood's concerns, which is why it went for more restrictive hours than actually any grocery store in the city of Dunwoody. I think they are the only grocery store in the city that restricts delivery.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Tom.

Yeah. Sorry. We're doing all three together. We're doing the sign plan now. Whatever. I think. Yeah.

We're going to vote separately. Are you planning on talking about them separately or you've talked about them?

We've talked a little bit about it.

There is no change to the master sign plan on Kroger's end, so staff's recommendation remains the same, that we recommend approval of the master sign plan minus that one monument sign, and I can flip to that if that would be helpful.

Yeah, because the monument sign is still in there. I mean, to me, you know, we have a – Here's my issue is, I mean, I'll be honest, I don't really love the LED signs on the canopy. I think they're the only ones we'd have in the city. But I understand also that the pricing needs to be there in a unique situation. My feeling is give them either the monument or the canopy pricing, but not both. I mean, I think that's overkill. And what I'm mostly concerned is we have a standard price. without a compelling reason to waive that standard we're opening up pandora's box for every other gas station in the city to come to us with a new you know that would be able to apply for a sign plan and put signage all over their canopies as well and and change so that that is my concern if there's a compelling reason but i haven't heard it yet and also last week when we were talking um I know that you said when I was asking questions about the, I mean, this is a minor issue, but on the left elevation, the signage on the canopy wasn't supposed to be there. That was supposed to be removed, but it still shows.

um yeah that was my mistake um we had what seven drafts I think of the master sign plan and um there was a draft originally where the cart was taken off and um then it ended up being put back on um I do have a presentation to explain why the monument sign is needed that um it's the other one right first time yeah okay You got it? Okay. So this is, we had RLR do some renderings. So if I'm driving down Meadow Lane, I want to take a left turn in to get to the Kroger. You can see, you can't see the field pricers on the canopy at all. If you go to the next, get a little bit closer, you still can't see them. get to the intersection and you can see them there. You can also see them if you're coming from the south, looking straight at the fuel center. But if you're coming from the south, looking straight at the fuel center, you can't see the monument sign. So there at various aspects, you can also see the fuel center sign as you're coming up Meadow Lane from the other way. That's a much less trafficked direction though, where people travel. But again, the monument sign, which would be in this corner, pretty much near where the pole is for the traffic light, actually provides the visibility that is needed so people can actually see how much the gas costs.

Okay. Well, thank you for explaining that. For me, and I'm just one of seven, I mean, I would say monument sign... Or canopy signs, not both. I think it's overkill. I have no problem with the monument sign if the canopy LEDs are removed. Again, I'm worried about establishing a precedent and changing the look of gas stations all across the city if we approve this.

Is that sign there, that big sign? That's an existing condition?

Yeah, it doesn't quite look like that. But it is there. There's two signs like that for the shopping center. The other one's on Ashford and Woody. Those are existing legal non-conforming signs.

And there's no way to incorporate?

We can't change the non-conformity.

Oh, because it's non-conforming.

Yeah, so you can change the text, but you can't add LED. Okay. That was the first question, of course.

Oh, John, I'm sorry, go ahead.

I'm looking real quick at Google Maps, trying to understand what's across the street. We have a gas station there, the QT. There's a monument there that has lights, and I'm trying to understand the issue. I'm getting up to speed on this. So the issue is either you have the monument sign with the lights, and the thing that then should be removed is on the canopy. There's a sign there. The QT, as far as I can tell across the street, also has a QT up on the canopy there. So I'm... So there's two price signs.

Yeah, our sign code allows one sign per street-facing side on the canopy. Right. What this sign plan is asking for is signs on all four, and on the long sides, Meadow Lane and Kroger Elevation, actually two signs. One branded sign, and then one LED price sign.

Okay.

Given the circumstance that it's in a parking lot, it's kind of off the road, I... I think there's justification for that, but that and the monument sign to me is overkill. I would say... Let the Kroger choose which one they prefer, if that is what the rest of the council agrees with. But what I'm concerned is if we approve this, then QT comes to us next week with a new sign plan, putting signs all over their canopy.

Again, I'm just trying to understand what QT has. It's the latest development. It's across the street.

They have one face sign on the building that faces Ashford Dunwoody. They have a small QT sign on the street-facing portion of the canopy, and that's it. Correct. That's what I'm seeing.

Madam Mayor, if that is a request, we would need to hear from Laurel and her client.

They're working on it. They're speaking to each other right now. All right. Rob, while they're talking.

I was just going to say, I tend to give some faith to our staff. And if they have a recommendation here, that influences me. So just sharing that I appreciate their input. They're the experts on this.

I'm with Rob and follow the staff recommendation as well.

Yes, Laurel. I would concur with that too.

Um, Kroger would be willing to take the, uh, fuel pricer off the metal lane elevation. And I guess exchange for being allowed to have the monument sign, um, the fuel pricer on the Kroger store elevation, and we've got the elevation for you. Um, that's the only place where you can see what the gas costs.

I'm good with that. I just want to make sure I understand all the others.

I'm good with that. Okay. Seems reasonable. A nice compromise. Thank you. Okay. I have a question. Oh, go ahead, Stacey. Have the compromise. Does everybody hear it out? We'll get to it in a minute. Okay. That's a third motion. I have a question. Is somebody from Kimco here? Not this evening.

No, he had a conflict.

Okay. I really appreciate the change in hours. I do. I wish we could figure out something else on the noise.

This is Taylor Jensen.

Thank you for being here again. And I'm so grateful for the change in hours because like you said, it's really unusual for y'all. It's more restrictive than what was there. My question really is for Kimco because I think Kimco should add some soundproofing because it's really there. You know, this is kind of weird. I'm just telling staff that Eric... Richard, that the property owner isn't here. Like you're the applicant. Usually you're the applicant for the property owner. And so, but we want to make this happen. So remember the language we use for the JCC, Richard? Yeah. Yes, we have. Okay. So can we suggest, have you talked to them about it?

No.

Okay. Do you want to share it with them?

How far does this extend? Is it all back in the other part of that shopping center?

I think everybody else loads in the front. Really? No, maybe not. Right. That's true. I mean, the whole shopping center.

The other side is all loading docks already. So, I don't know. I think so. Right. Right. The language at least that Allegra has shared apparently is not the language that JCCC used.

But it was a suggestion by Madeline, which was too much.

Okay, that's fine. I understand. Okay.

All right.

Anybody have questions or comments? Go ahead, Joe.

I also just, again, I thank the applicant for being here and thank you for your investment so far in getting us to the stage here. Like everyone else, the mayor, the Kimco, et cetera. My also is about, and thank you for the noise abatement, the hours, delivery time. I went back there last week and drove around the backside and that fence is, is like falling apart and it looks really, you know, is it structurally sound? I don't know. The closest analogy we have is, you know, Publix here in the Dunwoody Village, they're right above a bait residential, but they've got a big, you know, couple hundred foot buffer etc woods but um i would i would go for anything you can to try to do a noise abatement i don't know if that means raising the height of the existing fence does that do anything for noise um other noise abatement measures just from loading dock um that would be appreciated if there could be some type of further noise abatement efforts?

I'll talk to them, and I think that, of course, he was here at the last meeting, so he's heard the questions about noise abatement loud and clear. But when you talk about buffer, I think, although, again, these plans are, when you look at them, the scale is deceiving. So even at the closest residential neighborhood lot is about 65 feet from where the loading dock is. The house is over 100 feet from where the actual loading dock is. And that's a buffer with trees. The neighbors were here and we're talking about the noise. No, I understand that. But yeah. What is interesting is that if the buffer is working at that other shopping center you were talking about, for whatever reason, it's not working here.

I just pulled up Google just to look, and there's actually a house closer at Publix. The difference with that site is the neighborhood is elevated, and the shopping center is lower. Here, the shopping center is elevated, and the neighborhood is lower. And I have to think that that plays with how the sound travels from those two problems. Right.

Stacey? Yeah. Sorry.

No, I'm sorry. Just one other little point. I was looking at the map. I'm trying to figure out, tell me about your Kroger pickup spaces. I don't know a whole lot about that, but what I did do a quick search on, I saw that DoorDash has Kroger. You have a whole DoorDash Kroger aspect. Does that include DoorDash or is it Uber or is it just a Kroger pick up your groceries at a certain time? Tell me how it all works.

So basically what you're saying is that servicing our customers in multiple areas, however they prefer to use it, the pickup system and the dedicated parking is strictly internal with Kroger. The DoorDash that we use a lot of times is some of the meal kits. and floral deliveries that is just like you do DoorDash, where they would park in normal parking spaces, come in and grab the items for their customers and go back out. They don't park on the curb. Pickup is dedicated to a grocery delivery through our system, through our website or our app. So they kind of, they differ, just like Instacart is different than the pickup. So if you order online, and you choose a pickup to come by and get those, then that's that venue. But you can also choose Instacart, which might be faster within an hour, and they'll deliver to your house, as well as DoorDash or Floral. But the DoorDash and the FTD-type service with DoorDash, they are kind of unique, and they're growing in more of the meal kit and additional items that they add in, like you see on the Uber app. But the parking there is dedicated towards our pickup customers in terms of that.

And that's my concern in the sense I go to grocery stores and see cars parked all along the front. And I've seen DoorDash's come into restaurants and other places where their cars are spewing around the front. So you're explaining to me that your dedicated Kroger pickup spaces really are not for the DoorDash or the Ubers. No, they're not. So how do you fix that problem that I've seen?

Surprisingly, we don't have a lot of that problem. Occasionally you'll see, um, you know, some short term. And then we do kind of work through that where there's a money pick, like an armored car. But we, with the design that we changed, and you weren't here before, but just to kind of share, we're using that secondary entrance as our pickup to get a quick return. And it won't really be conducive for parking in those areas. With the drive-thru pharmacy, it also is not going to be as conducive. And honestly, we're one of the areas, and a lot of grocery stores don't have the same kind of problems as some of the restaurants do, because we do have a lot of, fire trucks in our parking lots on a regular basis. in terms of getting responsiveness. If people are illegally parked in those lanes, we tend to have the ability to get those moved through and not have as much of that. But we coach our teams for that type of item and we work through it to make sure that it's not generally as much of a challenge for us. I can see where it might be with smaller restaurants, but that's not one of the things that we see a lot of. I think the design works to support some of your concerns.

And then, as you just mentioned, the pickup entrance There's really no handicap parking at that aspect.

It's not an entrance. It's an exit only. It's just for our pickup associates. Some of that was part of the design where there was concerns about security. So all of our customers are on the side of the main entrance. If you're using the Walmart one, the secondary entrance will be part of our pickup exit only. So that's why it's striped as pickup to allow our associates to safely cross over, deliver to the customers and cross back and go back into the dedicated entrance. There is some emergency exit on the side there, but it's not for customer entrance, which is why you don't see the handicap parking it there.

Again, I was just also seeing that there's more Kroger pickup spaces and there are handicapped. I was trying to understand that, but okay.

Is it more the pace to turn it over a little bit faster and make sure that there's no queuing issues?

All right. Thank you.

Anybody else? Yeah, just one point. And this is kind of for staff. You added in point 16, the approved, I don't know, 15. Property owner shall inspect and repair fence that the rear property line is needed. Kimco's agreed to that, right? Because that's not Kroger. That is Kimco. Okay. Okay. Sorry. I came in late for something. Okay. And I also want to say also thank you to Reducing the Hours and this woman who represented the HOA pretty much matched what they were asking for as well. So it's kind of a win-win. That's better. Okay. These are actions. Move to approve with all the staff conditions. Wait, first? The first one, yeah.

First one. RZ, maybe say move to approve RZ 2601.

Second.

Except I'm not making the motion.

Move to approve RZ 2601 with the staff conditions as listed.

Now you have second. All right. Any further? John?

I'd like to make a motion to add an extra condition of 12-foot hoses in the fuel area to allow fueling on both sides.

So that's an amendment, right?

Yes. It's not added in there, and I'd like that added.

Right. All right. So there's an amendment. It needs a second. Oh.

Second it for discussion purposes.

Okay.

Well, that changes the whole thing, yeah.

No, it doesn't change anything.

No, the applicant.

No, we're going to discuss amongst ourselves.

No, no one wants to hear from the applicant to see if they're willing. Is it something that they do? You have to answer at the microphone. Sorry. Okay.

I am not sure that that's something that we do and as a standard, because safety and the protocol and pull throughs and the way things rip off and stuff like that, I would not be in a position to be able to say that right now. I can try and see if I can get an answer. I don't think that any of our programs have that length. I also don't know if it's a standard in the fuel industry or something that they may be testing. So I would hate to speak out of line on something that I may not have the ability to grant that for you. I'll certainly try to see, but I really don't want to speak to something that is unusual and not a standard for the 180 fuel centers that we have.

Thank you for your comment. I just know that it's very standard in another facility, and it works well.

If I can comment on that, their throughput is one way, whereas most other gas stations, you have an opportunity to come from either direction. So if it's the storm I'm thinking of, all the traffic comes from the same direction. And so you don't have often a choice of which side you go to. You just get shunted to the negative. Right. That's why they have to have them. Which is why they have to have the longer hoses.

All right. There's an amendment on the floor. Unless there's an objection, I'll call the question. All in favor of the amendment to the RZ 2601, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay.

Nay.

Thank you. That fails one yay, six nays, I think. Thank you. All right. So now we're back to the original motion. Are there any further discussion or questions, comments on the original motion? Seeing none, I call the question. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that passes unanimously. Now we are onto the SLUP. Are there any questions or comments about the SLUP?

Last time we talked about the- Sorry. I just need to do this.

You have to read it, sorry.

In ordinance to allow a drive-through facility at lot parcel number 18350-01167 in consideration of special land use permit case SLUB 26-01 for 4725 Ashford-Dunwoody Road. Okay.

Now, are there any questions, Rob?

Just confirming that we addressed the size of the openings on either side. We did. They've been expanded and then we're going to shrink them back. Right. they were shrunk back. That's what I thought. I just wanted to make sure. Thank you.

Any further questions or comments on this? Seeing none, I call the question all in favor of... We've not made a motion yet. Move to approve. Moved by John. Come on, people. Second by Stacey. Oh, wait. Moved by John with the conditions. Second by Stacey. Any further questions or comments? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that, oh, Joe, were you no on the slop? Okay. So it was yays, six, Joe was no. Does that help you? Sharon, is that good? Y'all got it over there? Okay. Sharon has to read the next one when you're ready. No rush.

Number 18 is MSSP-26-01 for 4725 Ashford-Dunway Road, parcel ID 18350-01-167 for a major master sign plan.

Mayor, before you consider a motion, can we do one thing? Can we have Laurel and Richard come up and repeat the concession that was made as being consented to so that the record is correct? Because I don't think it's correct.

Are we talking about the extra condition that we were talking about?

Yeah, time, concession.

So I would suggest that the recommendation would be approval without staff conditions, but with a condition to remove the fuel pricer on Meadow Lane, on the canopy. Yep.

Yep.

Okay.

Also on sign H on the left elevation.

Sign. Tom, you got to speak in the microphone.

Yeah, that's so sign K is the LED pricer on the metal lane elevation and then sign H would be the left elevation.

Whoever you want from the property can come up and answer questions.

This was trying to see that.

That's a little shopping cart facing Hobby Lobby.

No, Hobby Lobby is this one. It's the other one.

The left elevation faces Hobby Lobby, right, Rick?

No. Yes.

The right elevation faces the entrance.

So it's an internal...

But Hobby Lobby was on the right.

It depends on which way you're looking at it.

Gotcha. Okay, so the left elevation on the H we could easily remove. Yeah.

We could actually, instead of worrying about the letters, we could use words. Because you could say where they are. You could say that we approve. You could work it differently. We approve the LED lights facing Kroger. No. And on the monument sign. But go ahead.

I was thinking of just making an amendment because if we approve the monuments in the submission, so the amendment would be to remove sign K from metal lane elevation and sign H from left elevation.

I think it would really be a new condition because there's no motion on the table right now. You're just trying to make a suggestion to that item by including it, correct, as a condition.

So what you're saying is, is when he makes the motion, if he makes the motion to pass it, he can include it as a condition of rezoning as opposed to an amendment.

Yeah, I just want to make sure everybody's clear about what you're asking and what they're agreeing to, because I'm not.

And just to be clear, too, because the staff recommendation was to remove M, would we have to address that in the amendment or because it's part of the original submission? We do not have to.

I would suggest that the recommendation be to approve without staff condition.

Because that was the only condition and that was the only condition.

Yeah, I would just recommend approval of the master sign plan as a whole and then just the ones that you don't want in there. But if, if.

Okay, so, Tom.

No, you don't need to make an amendment.

You make the motion. Okay.

With conditions?

With the condition of.

Instated condition.

Right. I move to approve MMSP 2601 with the added condition that sign K on the metal lane elevation is removed and sign H on the left elevation is removed.

Laurel, is that acceptable before they say?

Yes, thank you. All right, I need a second. I'll second that. That's moved by Tom, second by Rob. Any further questions or discussion? Hearing none, I call the question. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? So that was six to one. Catherine voted against it.

Thank you so much, everybody. Thank you.

We look forward to having Kroger. Get it done.

Appreciate that. Also wanted to thank staff again. They've been, I mean, we can just imagine seven drafts of the sign plan. You can imagine how many times we've gone back and forth on drafts and things. They've been very patient and appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you. Next time, bring the property owner. Okay. Next. You have to read this.

amendment to the city attorney's uh contract mayor and council good evening what i have before you is an amendment amended agreement between the city of dunwoody and sherrod and bernard pc for appointment as city attorney and professional legal services The action that we're asking for is to authorize the mayor, city manager, or designee to execute all documents necessary and proper for an amended contract agreement in the amount of $300,000 with Sherrod and Bernard PC for all legal services as contract city attorneys. The summary is that the city attorney designates such attorneys from Sherrod and Bernard. It determines to be necessary to serve as assistant or deputy city attorneys for the city of Dunwoody. All attorneys assigned to perform approved city business at all times while this agreement is in effect and that their sole cost and expense to be fully qualified, licensed to practice law in the state of Georgia, and before all appointed courts and other administrative bodies of said state. The details is the only change in the amended contract is the increase in the annual sum charged to $300,000 versus $240,000, payable in equally monthly installments of $25,000 versus $20,000 in the original agreement. All scope of services, and litigation service fees remain the same. The recommendation is authorized the mayor, city manager, or designee to execute all documents necessary and proper for the amended contract agreement in the amount of $300,000 which Rod and Bernard PC for appointed as city attorney and professional legal services effective September 1, 2026.

All right, so Mr. Gates presented what was my motion. So when we hired the law firm in 2022, I know we're using the annual total, but it's $20,000 a month retainer. By giving them an increase of $5,000 a month, we essentially are giving them $20,000. Well, that's what $20,000 in today's dollars is about $25,000. It's about $24,000 to be exact. I did a little research. on our neighboring cities. And we spend far less, even per capita, for legal. Just as an example, Brookhaven, which is probably the city that's the closest to size of us in Georgia, spends $6 spent $672,000. That was their budget for 26, but I think they also did $150,000 increase amendment. I saw that somewhere. Peachtree Corners, which is 10,000 people smaller than us, spends $861,000 on their legal budget. I should tell you that this will bring our legal budget up to $535,000. That includes everything we spend. Peachtree Corners, which is 10,000 people smaller, is spending $300,000 more than we are. I have other numbers. If you're interested, Sandy Springs, which is double our population, is spending $1.4 million in their 26th budget on legal. So I think we're getting a really good value from the services we've received from ken bernard and his team um he's always looking to keep us under budget and as we know we unfortunately have some complex complicated and extended legal situations and so i just thought it was time so thank you for humoring this anybody have any questions or comments rob i'm just going to point out this is um

The initial contract was one of the very first things I voted on on council four and a half years ago. So this is the first increase for these services in four and a half years. And if you think about the amount of inflation in the last four and a half years, this to me seems like a very reasonable adjustment.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Joe.

Thank you, Mr. Gates. I appreciate your response. I started reading the contract first, but I like the staff memo I should have read first because you answered my question in your staff memo that I sent you an email about this morning about nothing's changed except for the rate. and so that's that was my bottom line quick question same services same thing same interaction same reports and so on and so forth um just for the greater public of course we have a city charter and we have a about three people in our charter three positions that report to the mayor and council collectively that is the city manager that is the clerk that is the city attorney and then we could hire potentially one-off consultants one-on-one occasionally but we've never done that so I do note that we have the city attorney and it will in the contract says reports to the mayor and city manager but in fact they work we work all together you know and it's a collaboration so anyway thank you very much appreciate it any further comments or discussion I need someone to make a motion Move to approve.

Second.

Move by Tom, second by Joe. Any further discussion? Seeing none, I call the question. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that motion carries. Thank you. I can do discussion, right? Richard McLeod. Options for expansion of entertainment districts.

Cardi.

All right. Good evening. This is a request from Council Member Price.

Your presentation has not shown up. You're on. We're still on sign.

We're still on Kroger.

All right.

All right, this is a councilman price asked us to bring this for discussion on the entertainment districts staff has prepared 3 scenarios. I know. Expansion scenario spur to amongst city council. Staff will prepare an ordinance as your direction as you tell us. The no-change scenario. Currently, Dunwoody has two entertainment districts, the Village and Perimeter Center. The districts allow customers to take one 16-ounce clear plastic cup of alcoholic beverages outside the business. The city of Dunwoody requires a sticker on the plastic cups. No consumption allowed without the consent of the property owner. So there are people who do not want the alcohol, so they can have a sign, or they just... Tell people to leave if they have alcohol. And this is our current areas there is in red. Snared to the expansion parcel by parcel. Approach a similar current perimeter center district, including. Include parcels that are either consumption on premise. Revenues are part of a larger larger centers. only include areas that are expressing interest to be included, project adjacent areas at all costs. So this includes the areas of Georgetown and the area of- Wooder's Chapel? Yes, no. Perry, Jeff Perry. So, expansion district wide, so this is going to explain the districts kind of in their entirety and not just by parcels. It's similar to the Dunwoody village district includes parcels that form the perimeter of a recognizable district, rely on property owners to opt out to prevent alcohol consumption on their property. and recognize the district for customers, including the walk home or to the hotels. And this is what this one would look like. And the 4th, 1. Is an entertainment district. Allow open containers citywide. No open containers allowed to be vehicles. Or this is currently available in Pennsylvania. Good river, Oregon and New Orleans, Louisiana. Such a new civil right to allow you to. Drink we want and that's the district.

The work of art. Okay, so discussion. Rob, would you like to?

Yes. Since I requested this, I thought I would at least share why I requested it and then maybe give you a couple of my thoughts. So earlier this year, I attended a meeting in Georgetown with some Georgetown merchants and with Rosemary from Create Dunwoody and with Fernanda from our Economic Development Department. And the discussion was just kind of what could we do to kind of encourage economic development in that area. And I raised the idea of entertainment districts because we had them in place already in the village and in the perimeter. My understanding is we haven't had any problems or issues with that.

I sat down with the police chief and he said there were no issues.

My thought was this is something the city could do to help spur some economic activity in those areas. It would make it more in line with with more uniformly for all of our commercial areas. Um, so I asked also that jet ferry be included. The winter's chap layer to me was a little bit too confusing because we changed jurisdictions so much. So I wasn't, my thought was, let's not worry about that one right now. Let's see how this expansion goes. Um, So, and I just asked them, give us some options, which is why you see a full range of options, including one where the whole city becomes open container. My personal preference is scenario three. I think that's the most intuitive. It does raise some questions. There are some parks. So how are city parks going to be handled? You know, Will it be clear and easy for property owners that don't want to be involved and how they can handle it? So anyways, that's just kind of the background of why. I raised this just as a way to kind of help with economic development and make it easier to host events in the Jet Ferry and in the Georgetown area, which my understanding is there is some interest both on the part of Create Dunwoody and our economic development team and on the part of some of the merchants in those areas.

It's fine with me. Go ahead, John.

Interesting concept. I'm not sure if this is successful. I don't know enough. I've never drank out of a plastic cup with a sticker on it. I've never walked from the tavern to the Mexican restaurant. I guess I can see myself doing it there. To me, no blood, no foul. I don't understand the need. I don't understand it. It's a beer walking two doors down. I don't know. Is it really needed? It seems to overkill to me. I just don't know, has this really been successful?

Yes. I think it's probably not the example you gave, but you should see, I know that you should see it at Ashford Lane, and you should see it at High Street to some extent, and you should see it on the post office side of the village. It is... It is, I think, very successful. Plus it allows the privately operated public space pops, my favorite little word, to have events.

I'm great with events. I mean, I get all.

So I don't disagree with the thing with Georgetown because like where, where in Jeff Ferry, like what does that look like on the one hand? On the other hand, I don't think it much matters. I mean, I think we, I think it's sort of no, to me, no harm, no foul. But it has been extremely useful to the businesses. And I know on the breadwinner side of the village, the shops at Dunwoody, they're getting ready to have an event where you can drink from restaurant to restaurant.

Wow. Again, there's a need. I'm good with that. I'm good with district through the expansion of scenario three. I mean, the whole city, I'm trying to understand that concept. I see my house there, so I'm not sure if I get a stack of bills.

Because I said, please present a full range of options. And so to me, that means no change to a full range so we can discuss. Do I think that citywide is a reasonable choice? I don't even think our planning department thinks that's a reasonable choice. But it's up so that we can talk about it and decide amongst ourselves.

Again, it sounds like it's beneficial in a number of places. It sounds like it's desired in a couple places. Again, I'm not sure it works everywhere, but I don't think this is going to be heavily enforced. There's been no problems because there's been no problems and there's no really Whatever. Thank you.

Remind me that Georgetown Green where we have the bocce. Is that city property? Is that a park or is that?

Yes, it is a city park. We're not supposed to, they're not supposed to drink, but. Okay.

No, we sell, well, anyway. I mean, what, go ahead, Tom.

Yeah. No, I was just going to kind of echo a little bit what the mayor said. This has been extremely successful in the city. There's been a lot of private investment into creating these public spaces that wouldn't have been possible legally without the entertainment districts. And it's obviously been very popular with the residents as well because it's creating those public gathering spaces. So I think it's been great. I think it would be – I mean, it's kind of – kind of appropriate to be discussing this tonight, specifically for Georgetown after, you know, looking at the small area plan and really trying to catalyze some positive change there into public spaces. And I think this would dovetail nicely with that. I would kind of, I think option three would probably be the easiest for enforcement because I would hate to create these kind of jigsaw puzzle maps that not only would I mean, again, we haven't had problems, but that might be problematic for the police to enforce. And quite honestly, it might be very confusing for the public to understand. Like, you know, there could be very unintentional. I thought I was in the entertainment district. So if you do it larger, my only concern with that would be to make sure that we are very intentional. for areas um that we need to black out if you will like for example uh in the perimeter area marta does not allow alcohol in their stations so we would have to make sure that that's very clear that that is uh not included in the entertainment district i'm sure there might be other examples within each character area but uh that was just the one that popped to mind but i i i'm kind of with rob i think district option three would be the uh um my preferred

Yeah, this map, which is the current map and perimeter, it's very helter-skelter. So literally, you have to be on a particular crosswalk across the street. It'll be a little easier with the districts.

Also, people aren't going to walk that far. I mean, there will be some. My vision is you can get a drink at Campus 244 and go get ice cream at Jenny's and walk. And there will be some. But for the most part, people are going to... drink in the public or the you know the public spaces uh they just might go from restaurant to restaurant um go ahead joe sorry hey richard what what do they do in roswell do you know on canton street is that open at all do they remind remind me i don't know yes i think it's open um we did it in woodstock and we did it in alpharetta so i think

As far as I'm leaning toward option three, but I also would consider how we're leading by the business asking for it, where they're coming and we have a majority. And not only just the individual merchant or person that's renting or leasing the space, but the owner of the property, like where George Sean Kruger is. Is that owner of the property going to do anything at all like shops at Dunwoody or Ashford Lane? I'd like to kind of see how do we engage with the businesses and the property owner and see if there's enough momentum to do that. And if they're just going to be out in the middle of a parking lot and there's cars driving all around and everything else, is that even a safe thing for them to do? So I'm more for just making sure we're asking for the local businesses to have a buy-in, not like we have a neighborhood traffic calming policy where we have to have 65% of the owners, you know, but still, how are we checking in before we move forward on this? I would go for three, but, you know, what do we, who do we talk to and say, okay, you know, what would be the next steps to do that?

Yeah. Why don't maybe you get with Fernanda or Michael and just see what's logistically practical. And then there's no time limit to bring this back. And the only thing I would say is to Joe's point is how are they going to use it? Like practically, if there's no real gathering space, what does that look like in a space with only one or two businesses that are participating? So thank you. Awesome. Tiffany, I'm so sorry.

Hello.

For the presentations. Can you see the screen?

Yes, we can see the screen.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm here to discuss the contract amendment for the final design of the Womack Road sidewalk project from Cambridge Drive to Vermac Road. The map here shows existing current infrastructure in the project area. In the blue line work is the project being presented for final design. The yellow is existing sidewalk that the city inherited from DeKalb County. Orange is the line work for planned future projects and green is the I think is the project we built ourselves as a city. And then the dashed black lines is existing bike infrastructure. So just kind of want to show you kind of what we have out there, what we're proposing and kind of how this project can connect with what we have. So the project details. So this is a six foot sidewalk on the south side of Womack Road from Cambridge Drive to Vermac Road. This project basically will just construct a gap in our current sidewalk network and will connect to the school and it will be a safe route to school connection. So this is the concept, which you can see, hopefully you can see. It's posted on the city website. So the typical section is a four-foot buffer and a six-foot sidewalk that ties into the existing curb and gutter on the road. So no changes in the road. This project includes nine driveway easements, two temporary construction easements, and a sidewalk with meander around the utility poles. All proposed improvements fit within the existing right-of-way. Here's what the typical section looks like. Basically just a four-foot buffer, six-foot sidewalk. And the trail master plan recommends protected bike lanes on Womack Road in the future. And so our concept has accounted for that in the future. So no rework needs to be done if that project moves forward. So we held a virtual public comic period in February of this year. We received 46 comments. We had a lot of good feedback and the majority of the comments were supportive for this project. A lot of the supportive comments focused around safety improvement for children and walking to school. Another project in this area that has been presented to city council before is the vermax sidewalk project, and we do not have full funding for that project, but we thought we would put a portion of that project in this project. So that that is what you're seeing here is the vermax sidewalk project from Womack to Parliament, and that is constructing bike lanes on both sides of the road and a 6 foot sidewalk on both sides of the road. Um, uh, and the typical section you can see, um, it's 11 foot lanes. Um, the sidewalk is six feet, the buffers, four feet, two foot curb and gutter and four foot widening on both sides for the bike lane. Um, we do recommend modifying this, uh, typical section to meet FHAW guidelines and make a protected bike lane. And that can be accommodated with the typical section that's already been provided. We would just suggest instead of a four-foot buffer, there'd be a two-foot buffer and the two additional feet go on the road for buffering the bikes. Another project we wanted to lump in with this project is a bulb-out project. Basically, this is just a curb extension at the northeast corner of Wormack and Wommack Road. This is a safety project that I think was identified by different measures, and it just makes sense to add with this project because it does need design, and our designer could do this very easily. It's already in the area, it's already surveyed. And this basically will just shorten the crossing for pedestrians and it should slow traffic down with pushing out the curb. To recap, so the deliverables for this project include, the design deliverables include a sidewalk on the south side of Womack Road from Cambridge to Vermac. On the Vermac part, it would be sidewalk and bicycle lane widening on both sides and with a crosswalk improvement at Parliament. And on Womack at Vermac bulb out would just be a curb extension and improvement to ADA. the current ramp does not meet 8 compliance. We would also receive a hydrology analysis for stormwater, and then we would also get an updated cost for the construction of the project. Here you can see the budget that we have current, the current capital budget. Our designer submitted a cost proposal to do all this design work for $118,000. We have the budget to support this, and we recommend moving forward. Thank you.

All right. Questions, comments? Rob?

Just a comment that this is – a sidewalk that would help students that want to walk to either the high school or Delaney Elementary School. This serves most of those areas. So I'm definitely in favor of moving forward.

John, sorry.

Thank you for the presentation. I too am very supportive of this sidewalk plan, filling in the gap, typical six foot sidewalk with all the buffering. It's great. I do see that about a quarter of the comments were in opposition. How was the plan modified or what was the opposition? You really didn't talk about. That's our position.

I mean, a majority of the comments that were not in favor of this project was around not either not wanting a sidewalk or not wanting a sidewalk. They're not thinking that there was a reason to install it. And then the width of the sidewalk a lot like there was people who conditionally like supported the project, but they didn't like the six foot sidewalk.

Was there anything, I saw there's some topography and some drop-offs and some various things. Was there anything in specific, I guess, to make the designer aware of, or I'm just trying to think of what the opposition was. I want to make sure.

Someone did mention, you know, they were concerned about the stormwater. There is a, you know, a ditch, the water runs off into a creek, but we are going to be evaluating stormwater as part of the project. So any additional runoff we'll address. Great.

Thank you so much.

Thanks. A few questions. Do you have to move any of the existing curb on the roadway on Womack to do that south sidewalk? Or will that curb just stay as is?

It's going to stay as is.

Okay. What is the timeline for best case to see these things come to fruition, to have this contract come up for a bit and construction start? What year would that be? When would that look like?

Possibly the end of next year. We have design and construction. I don't know exactly how.

Possibly the end of 2027 to start to potentially see it up for a bid for construction. So then maybe construction in 2028. So. So, 2028, if we want to just be a little bit conservative, then there's construction associated with the project. So, I know, I mean, everything's well, you're going to have to get construction easements, but everything you said is within the existing right away, which is good utility movements. You'll find out more about that. The next phase, right?

To the relocation.

You mentioned also the vermic sidewalk project is not fully funded. That's what you said, right? I'm just 1 of 7. Waiting to hear, Cap, we've got 10 months reserve I just was presented on. So I'm ready to staff this, fund this fully, and I'm ready to accelerate it, whatever it takes, critical path. I know we had a draft agenda to have a presentation by our, on Safe Streets. I know Jonathan DeGioia left our Safe Streets program manager last June. I know we had a fatality at the intersection of Parliament and Vermac, and I would love to see something happen sooner than 2028. On that intersection, Eight years later, after someone passed away, maybe we're doing something. We can do quick builds. We can do tactical urbanisms. I'd like to see what we can do. I'm also waiting to hear about that flashing light for oncoming vehicles on Leeds Court and Vernon Oaks Drive. I met with the residents there. So this area, very prime for it. But I'm all for whatever it takes to move forward and seeing things happen, whether it's a full build-out or there's some interim projects that can be for pedestrian safety as well. Thank you. All right.

I just want to say thank you for your presentation. I really liked your summary sheet of the deliverables. That was A-plus. Thank you. A-plus-plus.

I was going to say the same thing. Anybody else consent? Yes. Thank you, Tiffany. Mr. Gates, you're back, sir.

Mayor and council, I'm asking, the subject is approval of contracts with Ascension Program Management, Comprehensive Program Services, Vanderbilt Management, and Skanska USA Building for on-call management support, program support. I want to authorize the mayor, city manager, or designee to execute all documents necessary and proper for contracts with Ascension Program Management, Comprehensive Program Management, Family Build Management, and Casco USA Building for on-call program management support. Over the past year, the city has entered into multiple agreements with comprehensive program services to support management for capital city projects. To expand available capacity and improve responsiveness, the city solicited bids from multiple forums for program management support. The city has an ongoing need for program management support related to capital asset projects. By establishing multiple funds on the unit price, on-call contracts will allow the city to obtain services on short notice as project needs arise. These four firms submitted bids for the most common work activities typically required. The proposed term for each agreement is two years with one additional one-year renewal option. Again, the recommendation is authorized the mayor, city manager, or designee to execute all documents necessary and proper for contracts with Ascension Program Management, Comprehensive Program Management, Vanderbilt Management, and CASCAR USA for on-call program management support.

All right. Does anybody have any questions or comments about this? Consent? Yes, thank you. All right, public comments. Sharon, do you have any cards? No cards. We made it through the cards last time. City manager comments.

No additional comments, Mayor. We do not need an executive session.

Council comments, anybody? Okay. Move to, what? Go ahead, Stacey.

School starts on Monday. Welcome back to school. Good luck to everyone. Everybody slow down, have patience as you go through the school zones. Slow down, have patience as you go through school zones. Pack your patience, people.

It gets better. It just takes a couple of weeks. Anybody else?

I cannot believe school starts. It's too early.

All right. I need a motion to adjourn.

Move to adjourn.

Move by Rob. Y'all must want to stay. Second by Catherine. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, we stand adjourned. Thank you all.

Good meeting.