Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

commission meeting held at the municipal and safety building. It's Thursday, April 16th at 6:00. I'd like to call the meeting to order. Um, first I'd like to welcome Pastor Skylin Phillips with First Christian Church for the invocation and the pledge. If everybody stand.

Come on. Come on. My first time. Oh yeah. Thanks. Thanks for being here. Just um my understanding is I'm supposed to give stand here and give a prayer. So I would ask everyone to pray with me. Our father, we come to you humbly now um knowing that you asked us to uh pray for our city. And so we thank you for our leaders for this meeting and we just pray now that um this is fruitful, that is um your spirit is in this place and that we allow uh great ideas to continue to make Johnson City a great place for all people. We thank you and we praise you in your name. Amen.

Amen. I pledge algiance 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. Thank you, Mr. Stevens. Miss Miss Ball. Uh, mayor, the first order of business is consideration of the approval of the minutes for the regularly scheduled city commission meeting held on Thursday, April 9th. Move approval, sir. Miss Lass, we call the role. Commissioner gets, yes. Commissioner Weise, yes. Vice Mayor Brock, yes.

Mayor Cox, yes.

Commissioners, the next order of business is under proclamations, resolutions, and presentations. Item 4.1 is presentation of proclamation for forever ETSU. Accepting the proclamation is Desmond Pierce. Thanks guys for being here. I'd love to read this proclamation to you. Whereas Forever ETSU is a week dedicated to honoring the past, empowering the present, and building a brighter future for everyone connected to East Tennessee State University. And whereas Forever ETSU is a celebration of the lasting impact of every gri gift made to the university and highlights the meaningful contributions of its students, alumni, faculty, staff, and supporters. And whereas this year's Forever ETSU will take place April 20th to the 26th, serving as a full week of giving and engagement designed to strengthen the university's mission and broaden its impacts. And throughout the week, donors are invited to support any ETSU fund of their choosing, reinforcing a culture of philanthropy and shared investment in student success and community advancement. And whereas Forever ETSU showcases the deep sense of pride and connection that exists between the university and its supporters, featuring multiple days of programming, each with its own focus to celebrate the institution's lasting legacy and future promise. Now therefore, I, Greg Cox, mayor of the city of Johnson City, Tennessee, do hereby proclaim April 20th to 26 forever ETSU week in Johnson City, Tennessee, encourages our community to acknowledge and support the ongoing

mission of East Tennessee State University. With that, was there anything you'd like to say? Love to hear a couple words maybe about it or if there's any planned you've got to give me a mic. Well, we need to hear it. Very dangerous to give me a mic. No, thank you all for your time. We're I think one of the most important things we're doing this year is we're going to have Forever Fest which is on Friday. It's a free block party down at the Model Mill for the entire community. We would love to see everybody there. Um ETSU in this community, I think it means a lot, but we also want to be able to give something back uh to everyone in this city and in this region. So for those that support us, thank you. And if you don't want to learn more about us, please come by and and enjoy a good time with us. So thank you all for being here and thank you for this. We appreciate it.

Yeah. Just very quickly, um, ETSU has a very special place in my heart. It's what brought me home, uh, and gave me a lot of opportunities as a student as well. Um, but one thing I wanted to point out, um, that I think, uh, this team does really well also take an entire day to say thank you and talk about the partnership with the members of our community. So uh that is a 423 day uh where a day is totally devoted to saying thanks and the partnership between ETSU and the members of our community is strong. So I hope everything goes well for for every ETSU week and thank you for being such a huge part of our community. THANK YOU

MAYOR. The next proclamation is public safety telecommunicators week. We have um Greg Matherly, the Washington County 911 director here to accept this proclamation. Mr. Matherly, it's always good to see you. I'd love to read this proclamation to you.

Yes. Whereas everyday telecommunicators serve the city citizens of Johnson City by responding to requests for emergency aid from the for the public with professionalism, compassion, commitment to the pursuit of the goal of saving lives and property. And whereas the efforts and critical functions performed by telecommunicators to answer calls for help, gather essential information, and ensure appropriate assistance is crucial to the protection of life and property. And whereas telecommunicators are the vital link between citizens and the police officers, firefighters, and paramedics who are dependent upon the sharing of accurate information to all parties concerned and the monitoring of emergency activities. And whereas the public safety telecommunicators of the Washington County Emergency Communications District answer approximately, I'm going to get this right, 350, 911 calls. the 350 911 calls each day, contributing significantly to the apprehension of criminals, suppression of fires, and treatment of patients. And whereas the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, Inc. annually dedicates the second full week of April as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week to honor the thousands of men and women who respond to crisis calls for help dispatching emergency professionals and equipment to render life-saving assistance. Now therefore, I, Greg Cox, mayor of the city of Johnson City, Tennessee, do hereby proclaimed April 12th to the 18th, 2026 public safety telecommunicators week in Johnson City, Tennessee, and encourage all citizens to recognize the men and women who are the first line emergency responders. And love for you to speak a little bit about it. And I think just learning from you a little bit of the program and realizing what it takes to answer those calls day in and

day out and what they have to listen to. Um, and they get to help, but they also, you know, there's a lot that they have to deal with. And so really thankful for them and I'm thankful you've kind of shown us what that really looks like, but love for you to share a few words. Sure.

Thank you, mayor, commissioners. I appreciate the the opportunity to be here this evening. It gives me an opportunity to tell you what a great job our telecommunicators, our public safety telecommunicators are doing each day anymore. It takes a whole lot to be a public safety telecommunicator. About 18 months of training uh is where you start at. Uh they uh they're highly trained. They're um one of the requirements they have today is a lot of uh technology and uh being able to locate where the emergency is and being able to to pass along that information to our police and fire and our EMS. So, we uh we're honored to to be here and accept this. I know my my staff is e ecstatic that they have a proclamation this year and uh I just I know that they really appreciate being recognized. One thing about a uh telecommunicator of our public safety telecommunicators, you really hear from them, but you don't see them. And uh but they are the voice behind that line when you call 911. And this is an opportunity to recognize those folks that are are just a voice. and uh but uh they're there and they love this community, Mayor. Uh they put so much effort and pride in in what they do and uh I I'm just honored to work with them every day.

Well, they got a good leader. Well, I appreciate that.

Yeah. Thank you very much. Mayor, the next um the next item is item five, which is public comment on the agenda. We have one person signed up to speak under item 8.1 which is ordinance 4938-26. We have Stephen Crossweight of four Beachwood Circle.

Point of order just because it's a public hearing on that issue with Mr. Crossweight. Would you prefer to wait till when we're closer in the agenda so your comments are kind of right before we start deliberating? I mean, you're welcome to talk now, but we'll also have public hearing right before we vote on it. We're welcome to talk now. Okay. All right.

All right. Mr. Crossweight, as you come up, I'm just going to read just some of our guidelines on public comment. Um, and they've recently changed. There are two designated public comment periods. One for actionable agenda items and one for topics germanine to city business in general. Public comment is lift limited to 15 speakers. We're going to reserve 10 for agenda related comments. The rest would be for general comment. Um and that will be determined based on the order of receipt on the request form. So um our comments may not exceed three minutes. Time will be kept um and um it's a good time for you to communicate to us things that we need to hear and hear from you and um help us in our thought process. So Mr. Mr. Crossweight, thank you. I'm Steve Crossweight for Beachwood Circle and last meeting, Commissioner Fowler asked about why three commissioner bodies voted down uh former applications to to develop this land. Well, I um in 1979, Bula Rose or Ba Snder Rose made a a will and she said that when she died that this property would go into a foundation, a 501c3 foundation that could be used for charity, education, or religion. And a 501c3 is a nonprofit organization which means you cannot use that property for profit. So that means it cannot be developed on. So that's why

the previous commissioners were a it was so easy for them to vote down the request to reszone that property because by law they can't develop on it. Now on the on the Dresden side that's a different story. Now, there's going to be I've talked with all the people all around there and all the major concern is traffic. You're going to put 230 motored vehicles in that area and the only access they have is West Walnut or Antioch. And any given morning or evening, you get 230 vehicles in there with students and school buses. It's just a formula for a disaster. Even the firing marshall said that it would be difficult for them to respond to homes that were on fire and some of them are going to burn down. And you get medical people that need to go in there on an emergency, school buses and kids. It just creates an unsafe situation. So, and I I I know the history of this whole area for the last 41 years. And I can extend an offer to all of you commissioners or any of you if you wanted to spend lunch with me, I could give you a 41-year history of what's going on there and why it's happened. So, I appreciate you being here and thanking you for letting me speak. Thank you.

Commissioners, the next order of business is consideration of the consent agenda.

M Vice Mayor Brock, I'll start with you. Is there anything you'd like to pull? Well, we only have two items on the consent agenda tonight. And actually, I want to thank um city manager Ball that we are seeing more of these items uh on the other agenda so we can go through them. We don't have to pull them. So, that's very good. I'll just I'm I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda if no one wants to pull any of those. Second. Miss Laos, will you call the role? Commissioner Gats, yes. Commissioner Weise, yes. Vice Mayor Brock, yes. Mayor Cox, yes.

Commissioners, then the first item under other, which is item 7.1, is an owner consent annexation for Fox annexation to consider a request to proceed with the annexation of approximately 13.82 acres for two parcels at 135 Hopper Road and Zero Hopper Road. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners. I'm Riley Putney, development coordinator with the planning division, and I will be presenting on the request to proceed in front of you tonight. Just to remind the commission on the request for tonight and the timeline of the annexation. Tonight, we are just looking at the request to proceed, which allows staff and departments to examine and study the annexation request further. Um if moved forward tonight, we would take the plan of services and zoning assignment to planning commission where they would make a recommendation to city commission and have three readings on that as well. The commission may be familiar with the site. The property was brought forth in 2025 for an annexation request of RP3 for 105 town homes. The city commission referred back to the planning commission at the preliminary uh resolution resolution stage due to a concern in density and compatibility of the surrounding area. The applicant withdrew at that time and has since resubmitted with an R2C uh zoning designation which is the annexation request that you will see. So again that request is for Z uh zero Hop Road and 135 Hopper Road. It's two parcels that would equate to 13.82 acres. It's contiguous to city limits and the zoning assignment the applicant is seeking is R2C which is low density residential. If the property is annexed, a minor subdivision plat would be

required to combine the properties into one and a concept plan would be required in binding. The request to proceed the plan of services would include the following departments that would pro will study and provide comments for the plan of services. So these are the items that would be studied and looked at for planning commission in the further city commission meetings. While not binding as of yet, this is a preliminary concept plan that the applicant and developer has proposed. Um they are proposing 37 single family lots. The R2C has that minimum lot size requirement and they are exceeding that of 7,200 ft for a minimum lot size with open space and so forth. One connecting uh road to Hopper Road. Staff would recommend approval for the request to proceed due to the property meeting um the requirements of annexation being in the urban grow urban growth boundary and contiguous to city limits. and I'm here for any questions.

Might be worth reviewing for people how this is a little bit of a different wrinkle in the last couple years, what we're doing here. So, I think there have been some folks that have asked how did it get to a commission vote and it hasn't had the planning commission and so forth. So, it may be worth just acknowledging the change in annexation laws.

Absolutely. So, the very first step tonight is to bring it to the city commission. That would allow staff to study it. Um, after tonight, we will send out, if it moves forward, we'll send out letters and post the property um and informing the public of the formal meetings um for planning commission and then the public hearings at the city commission stage. I would make a motion to approve just because I think the applicant has the right to make a proposal and have it be heard and and I think we want staff to be authorized to at least take it to the next step. So it's a motion to approve. Tell me again how many units would go in there?

Conceptually, right now it is they're proposing 37 single family homes. Okay. And it's on how many acres? 13.82. We've got a motion. We got a motion. Um is there a second? I'm I'm happy to second that. sit on planning and uh that information will be brought to us so we'll be prepared to receive that information. Any other discussion?

Um and I think I think since it's in the growth boundary, it's important to kind of have the ability to dive into all these requests and see what it takes. And it's kind of good for us to even know and kind of hear updated cost and different things as far as sewer and water just because we haven't gone through this exercise in a little while too. Um, so I look forward to hearing that, seeing the process. Um, would like to know how many units could be in that zoning, so not necessarily what's proposed, but I know you will get that to us as things move forward with that. Miss La, will you call the role? Commissioner Gats, yes. Commissioner Weise, yes. Vice Mayor Brock, yes. Mayor Cox, yes. Thank you.

Commissioners, item 7.2 Two is to consider approval of a bond resolution for the issuance of general obligation refunding bonds for the city of Johnson City.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, city managers. I'm Stephanie La. I'm finance director and what I have before you today is resolution authorizing the issuance of general obligation refunding bonds. Um so first refunding is the same as refinancing. It's just the term that's used in the municipal and governmental term. Um so we would basically be refinancing this debt. Um this resolution authorizes up to $18 million to refund variable rate debt that we currently have sitting in the educational facilities trust fund which is also the PEP. Uh this debt was originally issued in 2010. uh it is scheduled to fully mature in 2020 in 2034 and this refunding would not extend the term. We would still have the same it would still fall off of the city's books in 2034. Um there would be no excess funds available from this issuance. It is strictly to cover the cost of closing and the refunding or um paying off of the other debt. The reason we're looking to do this is twofold. Um the very fir the first reason the main reason is uh this would make our city debt 96% fixed rate which is a much lower risk. Uh and we are looking at going to the market um later in 2026 to get the rest of the money for town acres and at that time we will have a ratings update and the ratings agencies look much more favorably on fixed rate debt. So getting us to 96% fixed is a good thing. The other thing uh is there is a potential for savings and interest on this. Not guaranteed because we don't know what the variable rate market is going to do, but we are this debt will change to a different index this year. And so this is a good time for us to get this refunded and get the savings. We our municipal financial adviser has said that we probably looking at a.3 to 5% uh savings on interest potentially. Um so the plan of debt refunding is has to be filed with the comprollers's office and be approved. We received that approval

yesterday and I think that's in your packets. So, we plan to sell the bonds in early May and then we'll have the debt refunded and paid off hopefully by late May. So, um we also have from Cumberland Securities, John Warner, our uh municipal adviser if you have any questions about that and I'm available if you have any questions. You you may not have the answer to this because we had financed this way before you came to me. Are you going to ask me what it was for? No. No. I'm just asking, you know, over the time that we've had it variable rate, um how many times the rate has has increased

because it's variable. This 2010 issuance that we're refunding actually refunded some 1997 and I think 2000 debt that was variable rate. Um I don't know about the previous years but I know that since I've been here which is was three years in January it has just continued to go up. Yeah. So this locks us in and protects us from the unknown. Yes. It it takes that risk factor down significantly.

Any other questions? I may have just a couple for our securities advisor just to kind of understand I mean there's a lot of moving parts with bonds and I'm somewhat new to the mun bond world but one is just how often did do you see variable rate bonds issued and that be the choice of the municipality and I understand there might be some upside when it goes down but

back during the housing financial crisis in 2008 we saw an awful a lot of variable rated debt because the because of the influx from central banks and the Fed really altered the market and pushed interest rates close to zero. So a lot of people were issuing zero I mean almost practically zero rated debt. Uh since March of 2016 we started to see that that changed. We saw again because of the market distortions of the you know federal government and you know the the the larger banks actually rates flipped where fix was cheaper than variable and now we're getting back to where markets are normal. Now to answer your question directly in today's market we do see some variable rated debt. They are generally from uh clients of ours that have extraordinarily strong uh fund balances cash in the bank. So that they are able actually have uh a natural hedge against market fluctuations given you know what we have experienced here recently with the cash position for Johnson City. uh given the incredible volatility in the marketplace because the world events and that sort of thing uh and then just given this opportunity where actually fixed rates might turn out to be a little bit less expensive than the reset on the variable. It makes sense to do fixed rate. This is not to say that variable rated debt is bad. It's very applicable at the right time. Uh and at this particular point, we just think it's in the invest uh best interest of our client to not take advantage of this market reset with the variable rate of debt program, but actually fix those rates in long term.

Thank you. Any other move to approve? Thank you. Thank you, John. Second.

Sorry. I know. I'm not I'm I'm waiting patiently to

let you get that, Miss House. Will you call the role when you're ready? Commissioner gets. Yes. Commissioner Wise. Yes. Vice Mayor Brock. Yes. Mayor Cox. Yes. And I just appreciate our securities advisor and staff kind of staying on top of these. We've got a lot of bonds that have issued over time and it's nice to look for any way to have

the next order of business is to consider approval of the T dot contract for the 5310 capital assistance grant. Good evening, commissioners, mayor, vice mayor, city attorney, and city managers. My name is Kimberly and Kraco and I work for the Johnson City Transit. In June of 2025, the commission approved for Johnson City Transit to submit an application for FTA 5310 fund grant. It's a competitive grant purchase and it was for uh purchasing one ADA minivan and two ADA cutaway 10 and two buses which is 10 passengers and two pair uh two wheelchairs for our paratransit um section of our operation. The grant is an 801010 grant which means that the funds are 80% federal, 10% state and 10% local. We've gotten the contract and now we're requesting the mayor's signature. We applied for the grant nearly a year ago and the new statewide contract hadn't been issued yet. The statewide contract is um something that states put together to ensure competitive pricing on capital items. We anticipated the new statewide contract to have an increase of four to 5% and as a result we anticipated the replacement cost of our vehicles to be $342,337 and the grant amount that's the amount that we requested. The T DOT only approved us for 271,774, but as it turns out, the statewide contract only changed about $1,000 for the 10 and2 bus, and it didn't change at all for the ADA minivan. That means that the contract amount that they

gave us will be enough to complete the purchase. There are no new funds needed for this purchase as these particular pair of transit vehicles were already approved in the current budget. Did you say that um how many buses altogether? Three. Three. And they all will be used in the pair transit program.

And and that is such a good program that you know for seniors or for people who are disabled or wheelchair bound that they can, you know, get transportation. Um they sign up, they call in when they have an appointment and they go to their door to pick them up. Um I have some friends who have used that and it's just been a real lifesaver. Um so thank y'all for continuing to upgrade the equipment um that is used in that program. Absolutely. I will move for approval. Second. Miss Lassy need discussion. Miss Lass, we call the role. Commissioner gets. Yes. Commissioner Weise? Yes. Vice Mayor Brock. Yes. Mayor Cox, yes. Thank you.

Commissioners, the next order of business is item 7.4 4, which is to consider approval of an infrastructure agreement for the Brush Creek development project. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, commission. I'm Nick G, assistant city manager. Um the item we have before us right now is a consideration of instructor agreement for the Burlington Mills uh Brush Creek multi-use development mixeduse development. The purpose of this is to clearly define um responsibilities and cost sharing between the city and the developer on this project. Uh it's a it's also an opportunity us for clearly defined and commit to quality design and construction standards as we go forward. So, it's just a document to formalize both sides and understanding of what we're going to do, what the developer is going to do for this project. Key components of this agreement are twofold. Um, infrastructure upgrades and public access features. For the infrastructure upgrades, State of Franklin intersection at West Walnut, widening of West Walnut Street, a bridge replacement on West Walnut, increased flood plane capacity, and realignment of McKinley Road, including the railroad crossing. Under the public access features, we're going to integrate a pedestrianfriendly design of a park amenity for a storm water retention fund uh pond on this site and connect the site to the um frontier trail which will be coming between Jonesboro and city of Johnson City. This map color codes and lays out those responsibilities. Um so we'll start with the city's responsibilities. That first bullet is to improve the state of Franklin West Walnut intersection, which is this orange section here. we will um be responsible the city is responsible

for the design and construction of this phase of the the road widening project. Also included in that is the construction of a uh bridge at the the edge here of where the green and the orange intersect. Um that would be design and build responsibilities of the city. Uh also, um the the green section here, the city of Johnson City is responsible for the design and the developer is responsible for the build. That'll be noted on the on the next slide, but we do have responsibility in the design portion of that phase of the project. The city is also responsible for the northern edge that is coded in red. Um it's a T dot. We are working with T dot to do the railroad crossing. It will be at grade railroad crossing to replace the existing railroad crossing that's currently at McKenley Road. So we're going to straighten the alignment and do work with DOT T DOT to get that alignment redone and handle that crossing. T DOT has agreed to fund that portion of the project, but should there be any run between what T dot budgeted and what it comes in at, the city would be responsible for any remaining gap to make that happen. And then there's some yellow to the north side of the project that indicates future projects that the city of Johnson City is designing and going to do for increased flow for traffic and for pedestrians in the future. The developer obligations um again from the same same schematic same drawing um for the green portion indicated here the city's responsible for doing the design. the developer is responsible to reimburse the city or to pay for the design or the construction of the green um area. The reason it's either or if we have capacity in our our schedule, we we may agree to do that with our public works crews and they the developer would reimburse us for all expenses incurred on that. The next portion that they have is that to design and construct site

improvements to relocation McKinley Road. So McKinley Road's currently off to the east. it kind of snakes through the property currently. Uh this project's going to re uh re realign that and create Antioch Road cutting straight through indicated in blue there. So that that responsibility is both on the design and construction of the developer. And then as part of this agreement, we talk about on the east end of the property um far into your right, there's going to be a storm water park here. Um so the the developer is responsible for making it pedestrian friendly with some amenities, some benches and some areas for us to um allow the public to come and enjoy this this storm water attraction. Very similar to other ones that we have in the city. And then of the final requirement would be to connect the property to the frontier trail, first front trail when it comes through this which is the connector from Jonesboro. Um one of the things you see noted on here is the hydraulic analysis. the developer will be responsible to justify or certify what's called a no rise certification, which basically means that because this is taking place in a flood zone that any development done on this will create no rise in the 100red-year flood base. So, it'll have no impact on that. They they have to get that certification. So, here is just a preliminary project timeline to show you the coordination and how we are working with the developer um to kind of time our our pieces with their pieces to make sure the project moves forward as efficiently as possible. Uh the key takeaway from from this is just that we're going to be uh it's a phase project. There's six phases to this project over about an 8-year period with the timeline ending uh hard drop dead date for this project to be done is December 31st uh 2034. So this is preliminary. It will change but we're going to be working on this to keep the developer moving um to get our

pieces done as necessary to keep the project advancing. So the community impact and benefits of this project um sustainable um housing availability will create nearly 100 or a thousand new homes from this project. It will improve access both our transportation network for vehicles as well as pedestrians. Um economic vitality by creating 100,000 square feet of retail space for additional job creation and taxes. And then it aligns with our growth objectives to support Johnson City strategic vision for responsible and sustainable growth. So staff recommends approval of the infrastructure agreement with Rush Creek Development LLC and to authorize the mayor to execute any necessary documents. Happy to answer any questions.

I got 20 2034 on the timeline. When is actual physical work going to start on that project?

Site work has already begun. There's been some demo taking place already. So as far as it is well it has started um we are timing up mid 20 towards the end of the year we should have some some more progress on the site. Good. And for the public, um, if you know where the old Burlington Mill project, uh, property is, uh, and like many things in early Johnson City, it was built over the top of a creek also as as was downtown. And so, uh, this is a multi-use, um, project that's going to bring a lot of, um, um, housing and retail. and um the the creek once it's exposed will be kind of a a key feature to the development as well. There are two things that really make me happy that we'll be doing from an infrastructure standpoint and that's working on the intersection up at State of Franklin. Uh that has we've done one such improvement several years ago. I can't remember when it was Joe, but that helped a lot. So, continuing to improve that intersection will be great. And the other is is uh getting across the railroad tracks there. The the um whoever designed that many many years ago with that big curve and then you cut back to the left to get across the railroad tracks and trying to figure out if your head's going to turn far enough so you can see um that that those are tremendous improvements that regardless of this um uh project, you know, need to be done. So, um, I appreciate that as well.

Any other comments? I'll entertain them. I'd move approval. Second. I'll second. Miss LaS, will you call the role? Commissioner Gats? Yes. Commissioner Weise? Yes. Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox? Yes. The next item is item 7.5, which is item number 6898, Preston Construction Company. It's Indian Trail Middle School front foyer repairs.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners. Brian Ross, building services director. So earlier this year, pardon me, early this year, we a vehicle struck the front entrance of Indian Trail Middle School. And that's uh indicated in the top right picture of the what's on the screen. Um after that scene was cleared by responders, school staff cleaned up the debris and stabilized it into the basically into the condition that you see there in the top middle picture. And we did this with some guidance from a structural engineer and and other professionals. So over the next few weeks, we developed the scope of work that you see in this document as well. Um and I'll just call your attention to the that left column, the two areas that are in uh the red clouds or the extent of the work area. So um this was uh with the help of risk management. This was processed through our insurance provider. Um we did solicit for contractor bids. We received only one from Preston Construction which is before you for approval tonight. Uh that's in the amount of $123,000. It includes two contingencies. One is a $10,000 general contingency which we just asked for to cover any unforeseen circumstances that might arise. The other is a $20,000 allowance and that is to cover the doors and hardware that we have already ordered from a local supplier. And we did that because it had an exceptionally long lead time. And so by ordering it weeks ago, we should have it within the next couple of weeks and be prepared to begin work. So the contractor is ready um to upon approval to order the remaining materials uh begin and conclude the work during summer break. Um I think that's all I have. I'm happy to answer any questions.

When did the accident happen? Do you January? So it was after Christmas. Thank you. Will it be returned to as is um the way it was or are we adding any other security features to it?

So this project is to restore that wall to its previous condition. uh school staff is currently working evaluating actually doing a district-wide assessment for traffic barriers as part of their annual security plan that they um uh work with Tennessee Department of Homeland Security with every year. So, I expect in the next few months um they've already asked that that I help them evaluate that and kind of develop specifications and and work towards their capital planning for the future. But this project does not include any uh any sort of upgrade to that effect. And I want to commend uh the city staff, schools, everyone involved in moving quickly uh to try to get this project in front of us to minimize the disruption to students. Um so I I appreciate your all's work.

I'll move for approval. Second for and and I think you kind of mentioned it and but just looking at it um our bolsters pretty Do other schools have bolsters as far as like traffic? Ballards. Ballards. Um, other schools in our district. Yes. So, a lot of the or you know, I don't I don't I can't think of all of them right now, but I do know for a fact that some of them were included with some of the upgrades that have occurred over the last, you know, five or six years. Okay. Miss call the role. Commissioner Gets. Yes. Commissioner Weise? Yes. Vice Mayor Brock. Yes. Mayor Cox.

Yes. Commissioners, the next item for consideration is item 8.1. This is ordinance number 4938-26. This is the second reading and the public hearing for an ordinance for the reszoning of Zero Antioch Road from A1 to RP2. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners. My name is Keith Martin. I'm planner one, the planning division. Uh I'll be reading this uh presentation this evening. The first reading was done by Riley Pudney who filled in for me. Um so I'll be picking up where she left off for the second reading. Uh because it's a public hearing, some of the slides were left in for this presentation as well as some additional information added based upon some of the feedback we received in the first reading to help answer those questions and provide some additional information for consideration. At present with staff, we'd have representatives from other departments in the city as well as uh the applicant himself. So again, we are at the second reading of the public hearing and after this, if it is approved, it'll go to the third and final reading. Just as a refresh, this is through zone one parcel of just under 25 acres. It is uh currently A1 request to reszone to RP2 and it's to accommodate a development of a proposed 48 single family home subdivision. This is an area view just to back out for perspective of where it lies between Antioch Road and Walnut Street. There's Dresden Avenue. That will be the secondary access coming from the north. Current zoning around the property is residential with the exception of one lot to the east which is agriculture site is currently vacant and wooded and

um yeah that sorry this side this slide was added uh based on some of the feedback from the first reading here. So we wanted to provide GIS overlays that detailed a few more characteristics of the site itself. So in this site you can see the blue line which dictates the tributary to Bruce Creek on the north. Uh there is no flood plane in this area where you'd see that blue shading. So this shows that there is no flood zone in this area and there aren't any significant sink holes on the property itself. That's the red the depressions or sink holes. And you can see on that parcel there's one maybe the edge of two on the site and the one on the north side would actually be in the um storm water collection area of the site itself. uh for site development. This site was annexed in 1989 to the city and there are no prior resoning applications on file electronically or in hard copy from the city site. It's a concept plan. It does meet the standards for RP2. It does meet standards for open space and active spaces. There are two entrances. Primary entrance off Antioch Road to the south. secondary entrance off of Dresden Avenue to the north. And you see with density comparisons proposed is 48 units and for RP2 the maximum will be 83. So it's much lower than the maximum for this zoning district. Just another refresh of the existing residential density in the area surrounding the Antioch development. And if you average out the eight development surrounding the site itself, um, Antioch road development actually comes in at the average of the of of the densities around it.

Yes, ma'am. Oh, sorry. I am interested in I am interested in the number of properties in each of these um subdivisions. Okay, thank you.

This is a slide that was in the first reading, but wanted we wanted to add were the school bus stops. So, there's some questions about school bus stops. So, we spoke with school transit and the ones in yellow are the ones that are existing. So, for Woodill subdivision, they would be walking north to West Walnut for the bus stop. Woodland Grove would be walking to the west off of Huffine and Antioch Road's new bus stop, which is dictated in the red star, would be to the south at the Antioch Road exit. So, children from this new development group would be walking south, not north Dresdston, to that West Walnut bus stop. Speaking to the Dresden extension in the ride ofway, um wanted to add a little bit information about response to the area to speak with fire officials. And with the addition of the Dresden rideway to this subdivision, it would would significantly improve fire and EMS response by approximately 2 minutes to this area. The next few slides are from our engineering department. They wanted to provide like an overlay sideby-side comparison between the two developments in this immediate area. One being Antioch Road in a pinkish color and uh Woodland Grove being in the blue. So you can see where they actually would overlay by streets and lots over the satellite imagery itself. And this is for Antioch Road itself. And this is where engineering presented a representation of road options. So in the middle is going to be where the within the 50oot rideway is the um standard 24T width road with sixoot grass strip and sidewalks. To the right is with a twoft strip of gas strips on both sides. The one ultimately decided upon was the one with no sidewalks on the left hand side which is just the road itself in the center of that

driveway. And I have a bigger picture of that here which hopefully better depicts and represents to you all what that rottaway is widthwise and as well as where that road would begin getting end without sidewalks in this area leading to the development from north to the south. So this is right away are the stub area that was created back in 1957. Is that correct? Your thing. And so it comes off of Woodhill Road at kind of a 90 degree angle, but then turns back toward the west, I guess. Southwest, I'd say. Yeah. Okay. A little bit.

Um, and I think they were going to do the distance to the two houses here.

Right. So, we have a slide. Um, I can bring that back up over here. We kept that in our back pocket there. So still approximate to the rideway on GIS overlay to the edge of what we can define as a structure from from overhead. We show the 20 feet. So if you have a 24 foot road in the middle of a 50ft width, you've got the difference of that without having the sidewalks there before you even start the setbacks in that lot for the home is from that. So with the R2, it's 10 ft side setback. And I believe the house on the west side is approximately 20 ft from the edge of the structure to the property line. That's the closer one. The one on the right is a little bit a little bit further away. 24 25 ft

to the property line or from their property line to the edge of the road. How far is that? Is that what you're saying? Just an estimate here be 20 ft. And if you're looking at 24 ft being in the middle uh with curbing two foot curbing both sides about 28 feet do the math real fast like probably make 30 feet. 47. And that's the house on the left, correct? The one on the west side. And how about the one on the I would add four feet or five feet to that number at 35. Okay. So there's further distance to the one on the right. It's a little bit further away. Their house is a little bit further away from the property line.

And I' I've thought about this one a good bit in the last really last week. But um what makes this one now I think when we are approving a new subdivision plan we make the developer build the stub out from what I understand. So I think in this case 50 years ago they said well you got to leave the space for future growth but they didn't make them build out this tub out where now is that the case right and we leave if it's not going into the city there's like a 5ft buffer that at some point um and so I just kind of want to clarify typically now this happens this is more common than we think it's just usually the stubs built I think okay you don't speak to I don't know if that's a question, but yes, that is that is a common practice nowadays.

Okay. Is it a requirement? There's a requirement to to if you have a stub to stub and then we ask we look at it logically of where other stubs can be based on um whether it is a need for a secondary or third access or just to provide um future connectivity as we look at a big scheme of how we're getting people through our city and um protecting our assets of some of our roads. Mhm.

Well, at least if they're built out, people who purchase the homes next to them can see that a clear stub. Um I think over on Sunundale with the apartments that were built behind those were there. So, um the neighbors on both sides of those stubs, you know, understood, you know, clearly um how they would be developed. And I'm not I'm not totally sure that they did, but there were stubs beside their house, but I think there was still pretty strong opinion. Oh. Um, yeah.

And I use that just as a point. We have had several instances where we've connected stubs. I think there's one up on handover. It's not actually handover, but cross. There's several that those stubs have been there since the 70s. So, it's, you know, kind of surprising. But anyway, we need to have a public hearing. So, um, and then then last one, is there is there a topography concern on this one at all as a road is built out that would affect the neighboring property? Can can somebody do what they need to do on the public rideway without touching private property?

For that question, I want to bring up engineer to answer that question as far as how to build the road surface up and what that may be, what they need in addition to the asphalt. So, So, so the road will have to be about an 11% grade coming up through there, but but the topography is such that they can get the road in there without any trouble. Okay. Without touching Okay. Yes, that is perfect. Thank you. Okay. With any other questions for staff before I open public hearing? just

um there was a comment and I I don't in the earlier public comment about the fire marshall indicating it would be difficult to respond and I don't know if that was the earlier request. Is there any concern from any of our departments I guess public safety first but anybody else about providing services to the subdivision if approved? Good afternoon, commissioners. Uh David Bell, fire chief. Uh we don't have any concern with this going in. Uh it wouldn't require the second entrance on Dresden, but it would increase our response time dramatically. Minute 52 seconds to respond into that. And it adds about a 1.1 mile if we have to go around to Antioch. And minutes count in our line of work. So that's what we'd say with that.

Yeah. Thank Yeah. Thank you. Um, and one thing just before public hearing point out is it does look like these the average lot size in this one is larger than a lot of the most recent kind of resoning requests that we've seen. Um, so with that, I'll open public hearing and with that if anybody wishes to speak for or against, come on up. State your name. Dennis Francis. With that, we'll speak in the mic and we've got um three minutes. And

Francis, I'm here to talk against the proposal on Antioch Road. The traffic on Enoch Road is terrible. We can't handle it. We can't handle more traffic on that road. I'm a person that likes to drive and back into my driveway every time that I can. It's impossible for me to back in my driveway. So much traffic. Now, if you go ahead and build more houses on there, you're going to have more uh problems. You're going to have more traffic, and you're also right now having speeders through there, motorcycles, and uh that needs to be addressed. But anyway, this proposal on Antioch Road to build new houses on there does not need to happen. It's a problem getting ready to get worse.

So, thanks for your time. Thank you, Mr. Francis. Yeah. That that you don't care to state your name? Do I need to move that or no? Nope. Oh, he'll he'll take he'll Yeah, thank you. I didn't touch it. Uh Cindy Humphrey, 3102 Vixsburg Road, Johnson City, um less than a mile from the proposed location, and I'm talking against um as everybody else has said, the traffic on Antioch Road is atrocious,

and adding any more is going to be it. It's crazy. It takes forever just to get from Antioch to West Walnut. And then you add in the one we just saw, the Brush Creek, Burlington, you're going to add a thousand homes there. Are we going to hopefully have a light at Antioch and West Walnut when we add all this stuff plus all the extra houses for the 48 houses you want to put in there? I mean, it's I also have a question about the process because I live less than a mile away. I had no idea this was even happening until I saw it in the newspaper after last week first reading and I read through here that it says that signs were placed on January 16th for a couple of weeks. Well, January 16th when you drive to work and it's dark and you drive home and it's dark, how do you see those signs? because you know there's you can't see. And then they sent letters to people that are 200 ft away. My property is on every one of these maps that are showing for the land use, but I wasn't close enough to get a letter to tell me to go to those meetings that I didn't even know about until I read it in this PDF. So, a little bit of maybe better possibility of your processes and transparency for the people in the area because the people that are right next to it, they absolutely know, but the rest of us that were less than 3/4 of a mile away had no clue, never saw the signs, never saw anything until it was in this packet. So, maybe just a little bit more of reaching out um to the community more than just 200 feet. I think 200 feet is a is ludicrous when it happens with Antioch Road is it's a nightmare.

Amen. And it's not just like the other gentleman said, speeders and all that and motorcycles, but we also have a bicycle riding group that has 15 or 20 people that ride on that road every day. And you know, and I'm talking about bicycles, not motorcycles. So, there's a lot of traffic on there. And I'm not even talking about the school buses and everything else. So I would appreciate it if you would take into consideration and vote no. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Humphrey.

All right, come on up if you don't care to state your name.

Sure. Joe Martin, uh 2835 Woodhill Road. And so I own the two acres that border north of this development and um so I guess I'm against the development although I'm not against the developer who seems like pretty nice guy and um I'm not even against building houses. I realize that houses are going to be built in Johnson City but I am against the road the Dresden Road. We've already approved what I call the mud pit at Woodland Grove, which is going to between Woodland Grove and this project here is going to dump almost 2,000 car trips a day onto this little stub of road on Dresden Avenue. I thought about not coming tonight because I was out of town last week, but I watched the commission meeting and I heard some commissioners raise what are significant concerns about this. Um the everybody's saying, "Oh, the Dresden Road is a secondary access." I mean, let's not fool ourselves. Anybody who's tried to make a left-hand turn onto Antioch Road is going to go up through Dresden Road and make a right-hand turn onto Walnut. That's just the reality of it. Nobody's going to try to cross Antioch when it's backing up on Sundays and things like that. Um, nobody wants this road out there. None of my neighbors. Nobody wants this road. Not even the developer wants the road. And we talk about building houses that people can afford. Well, how does it make it more affordable when the developer has to add half a million dollars to his costs to build a spur road that nobody wants and nobody needs? I read through the the subdivision requirements. We don't have to have this second entrance here. We don't have to have this stub. People are saying, "Oh, the stub's been there for 50 years." No, it's been there for 70 years. It's essentially abandoned. If this was a railroad, it would have just reverted to the property owners because nobody's ever used it. So, I'm not really against the house, per se. I mean, I'm I'm not crazy about seeing 48 houses in my backyard, but be it as it may, we're going to build houses. So be it. Um, but the road doesn't need to happen. It's just going to be a nightmare for the people who live there. Um, the last thing I want to say, we're talking about building houses is that we are changing what this place looks like. I've been here for 35 years. You can tell I ain't here from originally, but

I've been here for a long time. I've been here for a good portion of my life. I didn't want to move to Knoxville when I moved here 35 years ago. I wanted to move to Johnson City, which is a nice country town. Okay? And we're going to turn this place into Knoxville. It's not inevitable. What we're doing is bringing people here. We're not going to sell these houses to people who live in Elizabeth and the Ponty Flats or staying in an apartment. We're going to sell these houses to people from New Jersey and New York and California and Florida and those places because their houses cost 600,000. And they're say, "Hey, Johnson City is a great place to go because it's really cheap." and we're just going to be bringing more people here until this place becomes unrecognizable and none of us are going to want to live here.

So, that's what I get I guess what I have to say. Again, I'm not against the developer. I think he's a pretty nice guy. I understand he wants to develop his property. I'm not even against the houses, per se, but I think we really need to think about what this town is going to become. So, that's what I got to say. Thank you. All right.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. I am Donald Crossweight. I live at Fort Beachwood Circle. We've lived there for 41 years. And this proposal is to put 48 houses in our backyard. Um, we have a couple of neighbors. One is no longer living and the other one has moved away. However, they both pursued acquiring some of this property to expand their yard. And they were told that this would never be developed. They could not sell it because of the will. Abula Snyder Rose. My husband did get a copy of the will and he handed it to attorney Celely tonight. So he can see that it says right in the will that um the property is not to be developed. Is to be used for charitable, educational or religious religious purposes. At the time of her death, it was to become a 501c3 nonprofit. Joseph Snyder was to be the trustee and if unable to appoint uh if unable to do it, he was to appoint three others to replace him. And I understand maybe not correctly, but I had heard that he is the one that wants the property developed. So I am not a lawyer. Um so I don't know if that's still something. Maybe we're just talking about something that can't be pursued. Uh again, I did not know about uh Burlington until tonight and they're going to put another thousand houses in there with the traffic problem that we already anticipate having there. Um thank you, Miss Brock, for going out and looking at the property. I don't know if the rest of you have. Um but I recommend that you do that before you vote. This isn't an empty lot on the side of a road and it's on an open field. It's got a

gazillion trees. And just from my own perspective, as we're approaching our 80s, do not want to spend the next couple of years listening to them taking down those gazillion trees. The power saws and the building is going to be not pleasant for us in our golden years. So, that's just personal. Um, but I just thank you for your time and I pray that you would just go look at it. Um, like I said, Grace Fellowship Church, they're just a few feet away from that their driveway from where the street is proposed to go through. Thank you.

Thanks, Miss Crossweight. Hi there. If you don't mind, state your name. Hi, I'm Trisha Cade, 415 West Pine Street. Given the size of the property and the reference that it's agriculture, I looked up the property tax card. The classification for the property is 10, noted as farmland. I believe that may open up the fact that it's green belt property. It doesn't say specifically on the card. If it's green belt property, I would pose the question whether there are some additional considerations to the zoning, the reszoning, excuse me, the development of the property. And if it is green belt, that has offered the property owners some very significant benefits from a property tax perspective. And if that's the case, is there any vested interest that the city, the county may want to consider as far as clawback of property? I know it's green belt is governed by the state, but it's worth a question if this moves forward as to whether or not there's any property taxes that the city and the county are owed based on the change.

Great question. Thank you. Is there anyone else to speak for or against? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. Um I will I have a question for Mr. Celely. There were a couple different topics introduced. One being the will and stipulating the transition to a 501c3. Did did such a 501c3 come to be established that you're aware of?

I was just handed the will tonight. I looked at it and again, but it does discuss the residuary of the deedence estate. And so again, I would not know if that includes the real estate or not. That's what it again, it references, the residuary of the estate, but I've not had an opportunity to research that issue. I Google it today. it is a 5013C and as as from from our perspective we're being asked to make a land use decision which if if somebody tries to sell the property and it can't be developed that doesn't really impact the land use decision. Correct.

That's correct. What's before the commission tonight is the reasoning of the property. And so again, the development of the property, what the owner can and can't do will be an issue that they will have to deal with later, but that's not really properly before the commission. It is the reasonzoning issue, and that's what's before the commission. Is it the property owner who has to request the reszoning? Joseph Snyder has requested that, right? the zoning ordinance. There are three entities that can request. It's either the property owner or a someone who is under contract with the property owner, the planning commission, and the city commission.

Thank you. Any other questions for staff? Keith, I had a question. Um, from your presentation, I don't know if it's accessible that you could pull it up quickly, but there was an image uh of the different stars with the school bus stops. Um, would you mind to pull that up because I know that was something that was brought up during comments when we saw this last time.

Move the timer. We can get it. It's okay.

Okay. Thank you. So the red is where the families that live in this development, that's the school bus stop that they would go to. So Dresden is at the north of that and these these families would go to the red side. So for this for this development, they would go south to this new one in red. Okay. And existing Woodhill residents would go north. Okay. And it's been a while since we've navigated buses personally. Does the family have uh a choice or are they told this is the bus stop that you will go to? I don't know if I can answer that question. I don't know if there's anyone could answer that question.

Okay. Just just wondering with you know there were some concerns about students navigating Dresden to get to a bus stop. So knowing that there's one on Antioch or that's where the majority of their neighbors would be going, I guess that kind of answers that. It's the same schools, it's just different bus stops. Different bus stops. Okay. Thank you. So if they went out in Dresden, they would have to wait on Huffine Road or West Walnut. If if they live in Woodlink Road, they would go west to the bus stop of Huffine. If they live in Foothill, they would go north to the one on West Walnut. That's what we were told. I'm trying with no sidewalks. No sidewalks. See if they're currently doing that now. Yes. U the You mean the people in Woodill?

Yes, ma'am. Okay. Um, and Huffan has no sidewalks. Well, the new development would have sidewalks to that area when it's developed.

Someone brought up um that it was not a requirement to have to build out the stub. Whitney or whoever, can you answer that? There's a policy in the subdivision regulations in section or article 4 that um when there's a stub that you will connect to the stub. When it comes to whether that meets appendix D for the 50 units, this does not meet that, but the it meets it it is needed for the subdivision. Now, that is a separate ordinance um than the resoning, but we like to bring that forth because we know that is coming and it's part of that concept plan. So, this one does have a concept plan associated with it.

And if the concept plan was amended significantly, it would have to come back before the body, right? Correct. Um also, the current zoning is A1. It's about 25 acres. Um h what's the number of units as it sits right now? Would somebody have to have approval to build on that stub and build it out for a one usage? I think you have eight.

It's it's three if I if I recall correctly it's three one house per three acres. So the density is 33. Now it would be depend on how they wanted to navigate that subdivision. So whether they try to do those lots with the existing road frontage, which is what often happens with um kind of A1 development because of because of those larger lots and the cost to build roads. Um they could use that stub as part of their road frontage, but they'd have to build that road in order to use it. But would they have to have approval from a body to build that stub? They they would yes they would have to have engineering approval to build that stub

but not necessarily the commission. If there was no reasonzoning um and they wanted to use that stub, they would have to get re they would have to get um engineering approval for that like a like a regular construction plan. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. Just trying to clarify that the stub could be built out as it sits under the zoning if the developer chose to do that. Okay. So, how steep is 11%. The chief back there, you said it was no problem. But it's pretty steep road, isn't it?

Whitney, I have another question for you, too.

And when you stand and look at it, it kind of drops off the the back there. Yeah. So, uh, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, and city managers, Steve Alexander, the fire marshall, um, a little bit confused by the earlier comment, but to answer your question, um, code allows for 10% grade. That's what we'd like to see. There are areas in the city where we travel much further than a 10% grade. It's really the transitions. And so, we work with engineering to do vertical curves so that we can still get our apparatus where they need to go. So, we travel across greater than 11% every day. So coming coming up out of that property and I'm sorry it's mainly for the people going to be using it every day.

Correct. Um it it's a climb out of there. Is that correct? Is that a correct statement? Yeah. Certainly not flat. Um the best way I can do 10% is one foot of rise for every 10 feet of run. Yeah. Um I think not an engineer but um yeah. So it's it's not flat for sure. So okay. So did we answer the question? You you still have to I mean that's what the subdivision rags say unless it's challenged and this body would approve it. Yes, that would be the case.

Okay. And that would also be inconsistent with prior precedent in that we have as a matter of policy in earlier land use documents indicated a preference toward interconnectivity and the presence of stubb right away certainly is part of facilitating that. What for it or against it that's what we've done. I would ask an unrelated well related but a different question. Miss Humphrey alluded to not receiving notice and the 200 feet of the property. Where where do we come up with that particular number? How did we settle on 200 ft?

If if I am correct on this one, um I believe that that that stems from state statute. I don't believe that we are over state statute in that one. Um there are some cases where we do go a little bit above but that one we we are in line with what is consistent throughout the state. Okay. Remember my other question I always ask this one and I don't want to put you on the spot. You can just kind of give me some examples but um this is zone A1 right now. What other uses could be whatever uh could be put there that could be built without ever coming before the planning commission or the city commission?

A lot of them are agricultural based uses. So, um that could include any type of and I don't want to make it sound more noxious, but it could it could include anything of um kind of industrial farming um to residential. That's the broad sense that I have. I think there's some others in there, but I'm also confusing what's in the county. Um, so I don't want to speak out of ter without a book. I think there are some that are quite um uh active to like an airport and yes, I believe the airport is one of them. Yeah, a feed lot seems unlikely with the particular grades that we're talking about, but but those are things that could be done right now, right?

Yes. Without having to come here. Yeah. Um, okay. Thanks. Would anyone like to make a motion or does there any other questions for staff?

Well, I I guess I would say I would be interested in looking at the 200 ft just as a side note. Um because I think depending on how a property might sit, you can be awfully close and if your property line just happens to land at the right place, you might be three houses down the street but 204 ft outside of the radius. And I think you would be relevantly interested and so we probably should revisit that. Um, the thing that I saw on the earlier map. Can we go back to the one that had the zone colors on it?

Yeah, I think it was like Wait, you went past it. There it is. When I look at that map, um, one one of the things that I guess I would say I understand when this is happening in your backyard, I it's happened in my backyard that there's some level of apprehension and and disruption and I've also lived in the middle of active construction and understand that's downsides. When I look at this map, I see an awful lot with the exception of the other triangular A1. It's all various flavors of R2 and RP. You know, it it's in this category of single family residential. And I've sat here now and made enough of these decisions to appreciate that sometimes the requests the developer is bringing is even worse um than than more single family homes that are akin to the yellow that's all around it of single family homes. We have as a body in the last several years had folks come and with a request just like this as close to houses like yours and they're asking for town homes and condos and apartments and far more intensive uses and then we're left kind of trying to to balance that because as much as I wish we could just make this stop as a matter of land use and zoning um we can't tell a property owner they can't do something with their property. And and in fact, fun little fact, there's legislation going on in Nashville right now that would make us financially liable to somebody for a zoning request that would negatively impact them. And so I say that to say I'm supportive of it because

it is actually one of the more harmonious requests that we've gotten in relation to what's around it. Is it going to look exactly like what's around it? No. But the question was, what could it be as A1? Would would three houses on 4 acre lots make more sense? I mean, I guess I I understand how the traffic would be more appealing, but um I think it makes sense as R2 um P I guess it was R2P um RP2 rather. So, I'm I would make a motion to approve.

I still have a couple of more questions. Uh, was there a traffic study done? Um, I travel Antioch often myself uh because I live off of U Lo and come cut through that way um early late. But where I get on Antioch, it it's never really a problem. I don't I wouldn't say compared to some other streets that that you know you you can't get out on Antioch. I come down Simol and turn right. But has this require traffic study? It did it when it was conducted. Yes, it it was conducted. It was conducted. Is it in the packet or anything that for us to

there's no no change in background patterns and it was and also encompass the traffic study from the Woodland Grove subdivision as well. Okay. Okay. Um, so one other thing I'm going to I would like to say, um, because we have had a lot of these, um, and it dawned on me one day as I was talking to some some neighborhoods close by to a project that was getting ready to go on that at one point in time, the neighborhood I live in presented the same problems to the people who already live there that we've heard tonight. And when you look at this map, there are neighborhoods all around it. And so when the neighborhood on the um even I'm losing my directionality here, uh but on the upper side went in. I'm sure the people close to that neighborhood didn't want it there either. So, it really presents an issue with who gets pushed back that can't be there when your neighborhood could be there. It's a part of development and we have to try to mitigate as much as possible any disruptions in an area. Um I have to pull out on Cherokee Road almost every day and um it's it's one of those one of those things that I've lived out there for a number of years. traffic has increased and we as a city have to really um uh

try to keep up with it and and um work with the infrastructure um as as we go along. Uh Joe made a good point just a minute ago um that um what you get with 48 houses and you know that's going to be there. You can count on that you're going to have 48 houses in there versus some projects that have 300 houses in there that you know what it's going to be. is going to be fixed and you're not going to be wondering what could possibly go there in the future. So, that that's kind of a given. Um, the part I don't like is the stub going in on the the top side of of Dresden or Woodill. Um, and where the kids have to walk, you know, to catch their buses. So um these are the challenges that we have and but we we do have to make a decision.

We have a motion on the floor. So if somebody like second then we can have some more discussion. I'm comfortable with the second.

Okay. If does anybody have any other I I do have a couple little things just to kind of follow with those because I think um land use is really what we're talking about and if you look at the map the one that is out of place is A1 and the one that cause could potentially cause the most impact to the neighbors is uses in A1. Um, you could have eight fraternity houses in there and not have to come back for reasoning requests. You could have fraternal organizations. You can have I mean there's a lot of feed lots. Um, you can get special exceptions for dog kennels and you know agriculture leaves a lot of flexibility in it for the purpose of it's meant to be in rural areas and not right inside of a city center. One of the reason I ask is if this is binding to a concept plan is this particular developer's got the density about half of what it could be um from what it looks like to me. And there's also some comfort if he makes a major change it has to come back for the body. But seeing um the uses around it, seeing the number of requests for R4 that we've received, seeing the small lot size for a lot of requests we see, I do feel more comfortable about this one than most because the lot sizes aren't as small. The stub does concern me, but I'm also a believer of connectivity. I think um that's something that we can talk about before the next meeting.

Yeah. I guess I just would echo to the neighbors, I hear you. I understand what you're asking for. Um, and if if I could give that to you as a land use decision, I would. Um, I from from my perspective, this this is one I actually look at and think that that does fit. It's going to be single family adjacent to single family. And so, you know, compared to some that we've been asked to consider, um, this one is is on the better half of the list.

And I think we have, uh, further clarification on my question from earlier about safety with school bus stops from

Yes. So to respond to Commissioner Gat's question regarding the school bus stop, the red star in in Heath's presentation is a new stop that would be established for that development and the students within that development would be required to use that stop. They would not have the option of going to one of the yellow starred, if you will, stops. uh when transit looks at those, they look at the closest safe proximity to that development for the safety of the students. So, it wouldn't be prudent to for them to allow students to travel much further to one of those other stops. Plus, it would create issues with capacities for the buses. That particular development would be zoned uh Cherokee Elementary and of course Liberty Bell Middle School and Science Hill High School.

Thank you, Steve. You're welcome. With that, I do have one more. I'm sorry, M. Haj or I'm sorry. Um, what percent of the development would have to remain as green space? 15%. Okay. All right. So, not all the trees would have to be cut down, right? No. Okay. Thank you, Miss Laos, you call the role. Commissioner Gets. Yes. Commissioner Weise? Yes. Vice Mayor Brock. Yes, Mayor Coxus. Yes.

Commissioners, the next item on the agenda is the is an ordinance for third reading. It's ordinance number 4937-26. It's an ordinance for the reszoning of 259 2590 People Street from R3 to MS1. Have there been any changes? Okay. what we await here in

um there has been one change um when the property um adjacent to it at the um the hotel uh they with water and sewer they would need to place that that water and sewer line at the front of the property so the condition is removed so that's the only change so a question mark got taken out yes I would make a motion to approve second you call the role commissioner gets yes commissioner Mayor Wise. Yes. Vice Mayor Brock. Yes. Mayor Cox. Yes.

The final item that we have um just not for a vote, but just forformational purposes is an update from Parks and Recreation on their summer camps. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. Thank you all for allowing me to be here this evening to give you the city manager report on our parks and recreation summer camps. Um it's that time of year. We've started our registration for those. Um we started those on April the 6th in an online registration and in person registration. Um and many of our camps were full full in less than four minutes. Um that's a record for us this year um of of filling those are especially our full day camps. Conniey's nature camps always seem to go in that record time. So, um this year our full day camps went just as fast. So, our camps are offered anywhere from ages three um to 15 years old. Um and scholarships are available for those camps. Just uh we have 26 various camps that we run throughout the city. So, just to give you a brief overview of those, our full day camps are um held at Memorial Park Community Center. That's our jump start camp. And we have the Carver Recreation Center camps that are run out of there as well. So those camps are for ages 6:00 to 12. And with early and late drop off, they range from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Those camps include weekly field trips, um swimming at Legion Retreat Pool twice a week, and educational programming. We aim to give our um participants the best summer experience they can have. Then we go into our nature camps. Connie Degan runs those for us. She is our part naturalist. Um those are also full day camps and have age ranges from 7 years old to 12 years old and those are

actually ran out of our winged or park nature nature facility area. Um we've moved that location and so Connie actually has an indoor space when she has rain. So it's been a great opportunity for her. Is that the big white house?

It is. Yes. We moved our admin house. Um, we moved our administrative offices and now we're working on that to make it a nature space. Um, so this year she has Bug Quest, Nature Adventure, Odyssey, Pond and Stream, Critter Safari, a reptile amphibian roundup, wilderness survival camp, and then she her last week is devoted to our teens. So that's a teen adventure quest. They get to do a lot of different fun activities um such as white water rafting and ropes course and stuff like that. It's a really great opportunity. And then we move into our half-day camps um through our athletic camps. Um those are some of those are new this year. Um we used to just have an intro to sports camp where we introduced a sport every day and we felt like we needed to give a little bit more to that. So, um, those range anywhere from 5 to 12 years old, and that is a half day camp from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. And you can see we have variety of sports there from basketball, soccer, softball, volleyball, football, cheer, and tennis camp. Our halfday esports steam camps, um, those again range anywhere from age 9 to 12, and those are again 9 uh 9:00 p.m. to 12:00 p.m. And those are all held at our Memorial Park Community Center. Um, that's 3D modeling camp. We partner with ETSU uh for an esports camp, Lego STEM camp, and Minecraft educational camps. These camps are new to us. In the past couple years, bringing on a program coordinator, Kevin Mast. He does an amazing job of running these camps for us and and bringing a different approach to summer camp. Then we get into our sprouts all out. That's for our little guys, anywhere from 3 to 5 years old. Um those camps are now held at the Quanis uh park recreation facility. We recently rehabbed that facility and that's where we've held our Sprouts AllOut camp for the last two years. So it's there adjacent to our Blue Cross Shield Healthy Place playground. Um and the

kids have a really great time there. So we have story time playground fund. Um we also partner with our uh Johnson City Police Department and Fire Department. they come and have um educational um time with both our sprouts all out and our full day camps as well. Then we our fitness camps this year we have our summer fitness camp that's new to us as well. Yoga and mindfulness camp that's also a new one and then learn to ride bike camp. Um that was one of the ones that filled up in four minutes. So our Roy Oakley and Kevin Mass do a really great job of that as well. So then our half day specialty camp. Those are held at Langston um our audio video boot camp that was new to us last year. Um that's more for our teen audience. So anywhere from 13 to 18 can enjoy that camp. And then this year they're bringing in the Langston Healthc Care Awareness Camp. Um and that's for our rising seventh and eighth graders. And then we also offer therapeutic recreation camps at Memorial Park on Mondays from 9 to 12. And those aes range from anywhere from 16 to 40. So that gives um our therapeutic recreation program is for all abilities. Um we do require a caregiver to come on site with them, but we work through things such as swimming, arts and crafts, and games. So we have saw growth in our need for summer camps. Um over the last three years, uh we've gone from hosting 19 camps up to 26 camps. and we've been able to accommodate almost 100 more. We'll actually exceed that. We these numbers are very early in our registration process. So, we still had some half-day camps that hadn't filled. The thing that makes me feel a lot better is that we have a lot less people on the waiting list this year and we're continuously looking for ways to open up more capacity. So, we do rely on our transit department to help us with field

trips and such. Um, and they also were trying to run a summer school at the same time and we're very grateful for those partnerships. Um, we also are seeking additional camp locations by using Bon Hall that we've recently renovated that as well to maybe be able to hold a camp there and maybe go back to some summer playground type camps where you might spend all day at a park as long as we have a indoor facility adjacent to that. So um and then we do like to maintain that 10 to one child to staff ratio just to be for an safety aspect and our camp policies and pro procedures call for that. So, our impact on the community with our summer camp, we support working families. Um, we just are working on our fees and charges policy to bring forward um in July and have done that study to look at how we line up with our sister cities and cities, 28 cities across the state. Um, we do have the lowest cost for our summer camps. So what we c what we charge our families is very low especially for our all day camps that gives more opportunity for families to be at working families to be able to afford those. Um we are promoting health and wellness. We're strengthening the community connection. We build trust with our first responders because they interact with our campers too. And those are some of the most fun days that our campers have is getting to play in the fire trucks and the police cars and getting to know them as well. So the diverse programming is helping to build skills for life and it opportunities for every age and ability. So our vision with our summer camps is each summer our camps provide thousands of safe structured hours for youth that build confidence, supports working families and strengthens the future of Johnson City. And we are always looking for camp counselors. So, we uh hire close to 20 seasonal positions for our camp counselors to work throughout our

various camps. This is a fun summer job. You get to play alongside the kids and get to know them. A lot of our counselors and kids have a hard time at the end of the summer saying goodbye to each other, but it's just goodbye for the school year and then they're back again. Um so then we have we offer a very two-day camp counselor training and mentorship opportunities for those camp counselors as well. I'd have to say this is one of the best parts of my job is getting to watch my team, they're amazing, put together all of these camps each year to be able to provide such a great opportunity for kids to have a great summer in Johnson City. So, I'll entertain any questions that you have. Um,

I just want to say thank you. My goodness. Um, you know, it's just reinforcement that Johnson City is a a familyfriendly place to Yes. for families to grow up. Um, so we talked about camps. Tell us how many sporting tournaments you have scheduled this summer.

So our just so with the addition of the Ellis Complex, um, our tournaments now run year round. So we started tournaments in January and we will end tournaments in December. Um we have a tournament every weekend. So we will have um you know 40 to 50 tournaments that will occur this year. When you when you talk about camps and filling up so quickly suggests to me there's a whole lot more need than there is supply. Um what are the factors that limit If you could fix one thing, what would the one thing be to allow for more capacity?

Uh, to allow for more capacity, of course, that calls for more staffing. Um, we're very gracious to have been able to be able to rehab Bon Hall, to have that space, to have Fairmont Gym as a space, to be able to utilize Keystone Gym as a space. So, there is, we feel like we have adequate space. It's just bringing on the additional staff for that. And one of the key things that's occurred over the last year is the loss of Girls Inc. So all of those children were displaced and kind of lost their home for after school programming and for summer programming. So um and it's just affordability. A lot of a lot of summer camps cost families quite a lot of money. So we try to keep those as low cost as possible. Well, and it kind of touches a little bit on I think child care is a problem for finding that for all families is tough and I think this could be a great solution for families that are trying to figure out how to do stuff in the summer and I think there's a lot of uh lost wages. you know, you have moms that it doesn't make sense to work just because the cost of child care and um and I know parks and wreck has nothing to to do with other facilities around that there's a way to even get camps at Rocky Mount or some way to be like, okay, state of Tennessee, we've got Typton Hannes, Rocky Mount. Can we get some of those day camps? Because a week here or there can really help parents, too. I know you got to take staff, but it it could be a bigger conversation, too, because what you've done kind of opens up a lot of thoughts and ideas with how that could help in a lot of different ways.

And we're very appreciative of all the support that we've been given over the past two years to be able to increase the capacity of the camps that we currently have. And I have been in talks with staff this week about can we just add 10 more kids off of that waiting list. And I think we're going to be able to do that. So we'll see some of them come off and maybe offer them other opportunities. So going into a half day camp here or there. And to your point, we did have scholarships this year where parents were going to have to one of them were not going to have be able to work because and that would be an impact on their family if we weren't able to offer them a scholarship. So we're very grateful for all of that. We we still have the foundation.

We do. Yes, we have our parks and recreation foundation. Um, and we take donations into that. We had a healthy fund there for scholarship opportunities. So, we continue to feed into that as we get those donations. Now, do some of the camps you take them to different activities that requires transportation?

Yes. So, we try to take every each one of our full day camps on a field trip a week. Um, so, um, at with our nature camps, Connie actually has a CDL and she drives that bus and that that but that limits her to 28 passengers because we have a 28 passenger bus that she has access to. So, her camps are limited to that 28 number for that. And then Eldana and her team are very gracious to work with us to provide us with the number of kids that we have in our camp now requires two buses for each camp for Carver and for MPCC camp. So she allows us four buses and four drivers to take us wherever we would like to go for that day. So

last question on particularly on the all day camps, but even on the others, do you serve like lunch? Do they get a lunch meal or snacks and all that? At our full day camps um as long as the program continues um with we allowed state the state helps us with our lunches for that. When I first came in, the kids did have to pack their lunch and stuff, but we always bought food to kind of supplement that because we would have children who may show up without a lunch um or maybe not the healthiest of lunches. And so we would always have supplemental food for them, but we've been able to get lunch provided to us for the last two years, which has been a great help.

Miss Norris, all that they have said and more. This is uh something that is near and dear to my heart. I think as any working parent or parents have had to try to navigate summer care, it's a big load. It's pretty stressful and for the city to offer highquality, safe, enriching fun. Um that looks like some activities that uh that I would even like to participate in. But something that you said that I don't hear with uh some of the other uh camps in the area is having offerings for really young kids. That's a tough spot um because you know a lot of the programming um is not available for three to five year olds. Um so I know those numbers for state standards have to be pretty low. But thank you for including really really young families um because it's just as much a challenge. My husband and I always call it the jingga of the summer fitting all the the weeks together. So, thank you and your team um cheering you all along in in creating really neat really really neat programming for our families. Thank you all so much.

Thank you. Yes, excuse me. The last um item is public comment under other and the first um speaker is Mary Nice. if you don't care to come up and state your name.

Mary Nice. I live at 156 Heather Lane. Uh thank you for giving me time to talk a little bit about the pool facilities decision. Um first having served in town here on the public art committee and my daughter works in uh Baltimore County as a project manager. So, I know a little bit about what's involved in making public decisions, the the sweat and the tears that goes on preparation before and then decisions afterwards. So, thank you to every one of you for what you're doing to serve the public. Um, I wrote to the commissioners about the need for a comprehensive upgrade in the public pool options in town. Uh Johnson City has been behind the eightball on this issue for years and we all know that the Legion Park pool and Freedom Hall pools are aging. Um we don't need any more engineering studies on that. We need both action immediately for the short term and for the longer term. I agreed in my letter to you that Freedom Hall the closure was necessary. uh saying that I felt that repair monies would be better used and spent toward a new facility. However, the time it will take to get that new facility up and running means that the kids who have been benefiting so much from the swim programs at Science Hill and also the Barracuda Swim Club uh will fall off immediately. The skills, the confidence building, the lifelong discipline that they gain from the rigors of swim competition are invaluable. I know this because I was one of those kids. I swam competitively in both high school and college. And if the pool in my town had been suddenly shut down during that that valuable short window of time, the benefit would have been unreoverable. Uh and and so I am urging you commissioners to realize that you have a

crucial decision to make both for short-term fixes for Freedom Hall, but also for a longerterm investment into city facilities that will better serve our growing city. I want to add a personal note. I swim in the Masters Group and I'm thankful that we can continue at Memorial thanks to the the accommodation of the city and parks and wreck. Um, even though we're walking on wet grass at 5:50 a.m. in the morning to get around to the back of that building, um, the city is is helping us out with that, at least for the masters group. But I'm not sure that you realize what we have in the valuable staff we have in town who support these groups of younger swimmers. After I retired, a friend of mine who is a swim coach in Michigan told me that I needed to check out the M's coach uh, that we have here in Johnson City. Coach Chris Kuraj Kurajio said not to make any of these decisions about him. But I think it's if if I lived in Johnson City 17 years and didn't even know that there was such a valuable program here, then I I'm guessing that some of you don't realize the value of what we have in this coach. I guess I just lost my time. Please make decisions to get Freedom Hall usable soon and set in motion a plan for its replacement. Thanks. Thank Thanks,

M. The next speaker is Susan Rollins. If you don't care to come up and state your name, the mic just stays there. Yeah, sorry. I know for

my name is Susan Rollins, 167 Anderson Road. My husband and I moved to Johnson City in 1990 to practice medicine. We raised our two children here, both of whom swam and participated in other aquatic sports. Over the years, my husband and I have swam in the M's program. Like Mary, I'm now asking you, city commissioners and Mayor Cox, to help us citizens and the school board to solve a very real and growing problem in a timely manner. As a short-term solution, let us work together to repair Freedom Hall. Long-term solution to work together and build a state-of-the-art regional aquatic facility. Tonight, I'm asking for a clear and constructive next step. Have a firm itemized quote and timeline from a qualified structural engineering firm for repairs needed to make the pool usable again. Meeting Freedom Hall. Right now, there are many perspectives, but not enough shared facts. What we need is simple. Clear numbers, a defined scope, and a realistic timeline. Because in the meantime, our community is already feeling the impact. And our kids are losing. Our kids are losing learning essential water skills, safety skills, swim lesson opportunities, swim practice venues, and competition venues. And this issue is bigger than just one pool. Johnson City sits in what is best described as an aquatics desert. from north of Rowan Oak down to Atlanta, from Knoxville to Charlotte, there are very few regional competition ready aquatics facilities. Actually, I'm not sure that there are any in that area, but since I didn't know that fact, I'm not going to bring it up or if it is. Yes, there is a pool in Kingsport, but one facility cannot meet the needs of an entire region. It cannot absorb school programs, recreational swimmers, lessons, seniors, and competitive events. demand exceeds capacity.

This issue does not have to divide us. There's a real willingness from citizens and the school board to work in partnership with the city. So the question becomes, how can we help? Short-term, repair freedom hall is a practical, reasonable option that deserves full and transparent resolution or evaluation. Longterm, we have an opportunity to think bigger or faster. Now like Greensboro Aquatic Center and TR and Triangle Aquatic Center. These facilities just don't meet local needs. They can become a destination. In the long term, a regional aquatics facility would meet our current needs. But if we plan wisely together, we can build something that grows into a destination, not just a solution. Facilities like these can generate 1 to3 million annually in revenues through meets, events, and tourism. So while strengthening our and so this would also strengthen our community attracting new families and news businesses. But if we need facts, get a firm quote, get a timeline, share the information with the public. Let's move forward together with clarity, collaboration, and a shared commitment to doing what is best for Johnson City.

Perfect timing. You got it. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I know. I was like, yeah. Yeah. Thank you. And yeah. Yeah. We'll wrap up public comment and Steve, maybe just a a small quick update of just next steps. I know we have a conversation in a couple weeks on pool, but just information just so the public knows what you've been working on parks and rec.

So yesterday, uh, parks and recreation staff and I met with Kane Rash and West and the structural engineer that did the original evaluation report. We've asked them to look at some additional options for us in terms of the repair of the pool and we expect to have some data back from them next week. City staff also visited Freedom Hall yesterday, some folks who had not been there to uh take a look at what I had tried to describe in our joint work session with the with the school board. Uh we also have asked and have received back from Los uh design who did our aquatic study on what a timeline might look like for a new aquatics facility and they have provided that to us. They are experts in their field. They build these facilities. They looked at that from two different perspectives. One being a design bid more a traditional bid process. Their estimation was 31 31 months from start to completion. Using a design build uh strategy would shorten that timeline by about nine months or that would get us down to about 22 I believe. So that was just one point that the commission had interest in that we asked them to follow up and have provided that data. So we're in process. I know that we have a work session scheduled two weeks from today where parks and rec are actually going to present their budget and we plan to have the u pool discussion during that work session.

Thank thank you. Is there an opportunity as the engineer or potential contractors look at it to do some more invasive assessment of the pool now that there's not water in I mean one of the caveats on the comments from Steve Wilson assumes how much do we have to do to get to rebar and get to the substrate to to repair off of and so you can hope that it's going to be very quick

but you could also imagine you just keep chinking and then the next thing you know the whole pool wall is missing. And so it' just be I think helpful to know how that holds up under some stress. Um because that may shed a lot of light on what the actual cost is

and and that is very possible. And should the commission decide to move forward with a with a true bid process, we would require site visits by by any potential vendor who wish to submit uh to conduct those repairs because given the fact the pool is empty now, it's a much more safer environment to get down there to do exactly what you described, Commissioner, to give us a better better feel and get some true costs. Thank you for that. I think that'll wrap anything up. Unless you guys have something specific to bring up, I will adjourn the meeting.