Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Hello, everyone. I'd like to welcome everyone to the regular scheduled City Commission meeting for Johnson City. It's Thursday, July 16th at 6 o'clock, held at the Municipal and Safety Building. Call the meeting to order. For the first order of business, I'd like to invite Minister Georgita Washington from Thankful Baptist Church to come up for the invocation and the pledge. Thanks for being here for everybody to stand.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to invite our Lord into this place in this space this evening. Maybe bow our heads. Dear Heavenly Father, we are so, so grateful for yet another day of your grace and your mercy. We are thankful that we are able to come into this place. and take care of business according to your will and your wishes. We just ask, Lord, that you inhabit this place, that you send your presence to this place, that you open all hearts and minds to the business at hand and help everyone see you and everyone else so that we can take care of the business of this city in decency and in order and according to your will. We thank you for your love and your mercy, and we ask your continued guidance and protection on all that happens in this place today, this evening. It's in Jesus' name that I pray. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Mayor, the first order of business is to consider approval of the minutes for the regularly scheduled City Commission meeting held on Thursday, July the 2nd, 2026.

I would make a motion to approve. Second. Ms. Lass?

Commissioner Fowler?

Yes.

Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Wise?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox?

Yes.

Next order of business is proclamations, resolutions, and presentations. We have one presentation of proclamation for a national night out. Accepting this proclamation is the Johnson City Police Department representatives.

Hey guys. Chief. It's good to see you again. I'd love to read this proclamation to you guys. Whereas the National Association of Town Watch sponsors a national community building campaign on Tuesday, August 4th, 2026, known as National Night Out. And whereas the National Night Out campaign provides an opportunity for neighbors in Johnson City to join over 38 million people across 17,000 communities from all 50 states, U.S. territories, and military bases worldwide. And whereas National Night Out is an annual community building campaign that promotes strong police community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, more caring places to live and work. And whereas neighbors in Johnson City assist the local law enforcement agency through joint community building efforts and support National Night Out 2026. And whereas it is essential that all neighbors of Johnson City come together with police and work together to build a safer, more caring community. Now, therefore, I, Mayor of the City of Johnson City, Tennessee, do hereby proclaim August 4th, 2026 National Night Out in Johnson City, Tennessee, and encourage all our citizens to participate in the event and join me in the worthy observance. So thank you. Do you guys have anything to share?

Thank you everyone for being here and thank you Mayor for proclaiming August 4th as National Night Out in Johnson City. The Johnson City Police Department is excited to bring a National Night Out to our community. This event is about bringing our neighbors, our families, law enforcement and community members together to promote our safety and strengthen our relationships with our community. We invite everyone to join us August 4th from 4 to 8 at the Pavilion Founders Park. We are lucky and fortunate enough to have incredible donations from our community. And this event is completely free. There'll be games, giveaways, safety education. There'll be food, music, and fun for all the family. We also will have our canine buck there. You'll get to meet members of the Johnson City Police Department, as well as other first responders. And you will get the opportunity to dunk some of our SROs in the dunk tank. So we hope everyone will join us for this community event and what makes Johnson City special. Please remember to come out August 4th for National Night Out from 4 to 8 p.m. at the pavilion at Founders Park. Thank you.

I think if you need more volunteers for the dunk tank. I think the mayor would probably really want to do that.

I'm not heavy enough to push it down over there. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you all a lot.

Commission, the next item on the agenda is the consideration for approval of appointments to volunteer boards.

Yes. The commission met in two separate work sessions and reviewed I think roughly 55 applications. And again, it's a testament to the community that we had that many applicants and so many qualified applicants for appointment. As we reviewed the open seats, not every board or commission had a term coming up in this cycle or had somebody who was eligible for reappointment. So if you applied and don't hear your name read this time, please don't let that discourage you from applying again in the future. And so rather than do them individually, I'll read down the list collectively and then make it in the form of a motion. And in a couple cases, I'll call out some distinctions. So we're making three appointments to the Board of Building Codes. To qualify for this appointment, you need to be a licensed contractor, a plumbing contractor, residential building contractor, or a mechanical and gas contractor. We have three seats. We're appointing, we would be making by way of a motion, Ernest Campbell for a three-year term as the residential building contractor. Andy Allen, as you pick which one he ends up being based on who else might apply, he's a mechanical and gas contractor, but also a plumbing contractor. Right now, we're putting him in as the plumbing and gas, but we do have a vacancy for which we need another applicant. That's building codes. Board of Zoning Appeals, we have two spots. One is a two and a half year term and James Grady would be the appointment. and one is a one and a half year term, and that would be Jennifer Heider. Then we have the Brightridge Board of Directors, and the appointment would be John Hunter. Then we have two appointments on the Convention and Visitors Bureau, one of which needs to be related to the lodging industry. And so that would be a three-year term to Joel Dahlhauser. And then an at-large seat, which is not tied to the lodging business, would be Heather Watson from the Hands-On Museum. Then we have two spots on the Health and Education Facilities Committee. Those are both six year terms and one would be Taylor Maines and the second would be Katie Wilt. Then we have a term, a 4.5 year term on the Historic Zoning Commission. The appointment would be Peter Tomlin. Then for Housing and Community Development Advisory Board, we have four Appointments to three-year terms each, and those names are Richard Church, Dave Adams, Zakela Kitt, and Catherine Parks. Then on the Johnson City Development Authority, we have two three-year terms, and these would both be reappointments to a second term. Daniel Tackling and Chris Heider, but we also have two vacancies with one year each remaining, and those appointments would be to the JCDA, Daryl Carter and Andrew McElroy. We have three appointments to the Johnson City Public Library Board, each for a three-year term. I want to acknowledge that our invocator this morning is finishing up her service on our library board, Georgita, and she was term limited, but we want to thank her for her service and then acknowledge three names, Mary Hart, Melissa Nipper, and Rob Davis. We have the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, two three-year terms, Sam Davis and Kathy Whitaker. And then on public art, there are five appointments. I don't think this reflects the names we talked about. Yeah, okay. Yeah, so the names we have for public art, these are each three-year terms. Joe Smith, Katie Murphy, Akina Toyo, Akina Toby, Cora Hopland, and Matthew Holtmeyer. Thank you. And then... the Washington County Board of Equalization. This is an interim appointment, so it's fulfilling the balance of a term. Maria Lovelady. And then lastly, we would be addressing the Johnson City Regional Planning Commission and reappointing for a term Chris Dagenhart. So I would make that in total as a motion.

A second.

Any discussion? Seeing none, I'll call the roll. Ms. Laos?

Commissioner Fowler? Yes. Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Wise?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox?

Yes.

The next item on the agenda is public comment on the agenda. We have no one signed up tonight to speak on that item. The next item is the consent agenda for your consideration.

Nobody's had a chance to look at it. I'll start to my right, see if there's anything to pull. Commissioner Fowler.

I have nothing.

Vice Mayor.

I'll pull 7.2.2. Okay. And 7.3.3. Sorry. All right.

Commissioner Wise. I don't have anything to pull. Commissioner Getz. Thank you. Ms. Ball, will you...

Yes, thank you. Item 7.2.2 is Universal Solutions USA's hydrofluoric acid contract. And we have our water and sewer director, John Lane, here to answer any questions that you may have.

Mr. Lane, I thought it would just be good for the public to understand what this product is and how you use it in the water system.

Yes, ma'am. So John Lane, water and sewer services director. So good evening, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners. This is hydrofluorosilicylic acid or fluoride. So we've been treating with fluoride in our drinking water system since the 1960s. That was originally adopted by resolution and ordinance at that point. So we treat it as one of the very last steps in the drinking water product. It's recommended by the American Pediatrics Association and the American Dental Association and the World Health Organization. So we treat at 0.7 milligrams per liter. So that's kind of the recommended standard and that's going out and obviously that helps on cavity protection against for all of our community.

Good. Thank you. But you follow all their guidelines?

Yes, ma'am. We do. And so that's part of the process. And then this is a three-year contract. So we have a renewable annually for three years for the product for fluoride.

On another note, how have things been in water sewer with all the rain we've been having?

We've been very fortunate. So it's been juggling back and forth between very hot days, which is obviously a task on the drinking water side, and then very wet days on the wastewater side. But we have a fantastic staff, so we're in good shape. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

The next item, 7.3.3, is a contract with OpenGov for cartography work, asset management system. And we have David Idson, our IT director, here to answer any questions that you may have about this item.

That's just another one of those things, if you can kind of explain to the public what this is and how we use it here in the city.

Yeah, it's mostly used by Public Works and Water Sewer. It's inventory. It's a work ticketing system that those departments use.

And we file work orders through this as well? Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

Any other questions? Thank you. Thanks, Ms. Rodson. I think that was...

I would make a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Ms. Lausch, you call the roll.

Commissioner Fowler?

Yes.

Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Wise? Yes.

Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox?

Yes.

Commissioners, the next item for consideration is under other business. This is item 8.1, which is to consider approval of a resolution authorizing the use of PEP or the People's Education Plan funds under the related purpose clause for the repair of the Freedom Hall pool.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, Ms. Ball. I'm Steve Willis, Deputy City Manager. If I can get into the right mode here. Here we go. Perfect. So you may recall that earlier in June that we had put out RFP for the repair processes for Freedom Hall Pool. The structural aspects of the pool we received bids on in June, and we'll talk about those a little later here. But this week on Tuesday, we received the plumbing bids back on the plumbing portion of that repair project. So we wanted to go over those with you this evening and then talk with you as well about the availability of funds from the People's Education Plan to potentially fund this project. So we received three bids on Tuesday, the low bid being Langley and Taylor LLC, located out of Nashville. Their total bid with the optional pump and filter replacement, which we would certainly recommend that we do that, is $519,250. You can see a wide range in the bids there with the Most expensive bid being from Earthadelic Enterprises for $939,000. But I would point out that Langley and Taylor made two visits, two Freedom Hall site visits. So we as staff feel as though they have a good grasp of this project and they will be able to execute the bid that they have submitted. Just as I mentioned earlier, the structural portion of the bid, the low bidder there that came in in the month of June was Burwell Construction at 344,000. So that makes the total cost to fund the repair project $863,250. So in the agenda summary, I rounded that up to 864. You probably picked up on that when you read your packet. So the availability of PEP funds to the finance department, kudos to Ms. Louse and her staff. They went back to July of 2025 and allocated the funds that Mr. Seeley had indicated in his memo dated back in April. that could be used for this related purpose. And through March of 2026, there's approximately $1.1 million available in that category that could be used under that related purpose clause. Now, recognizing that sales tax trails by about two months, or close to three, actually, we're projecting to have about $1.8 million available once we get all the sales tax in through the month of June of this year. So more than enough to cover this project without affecting other things. The PEP fund generates in total annually somewhere between $5.8 and $6 million annually of that quarter cent of the sales tax. And we have about $3.9 million dedicated for debt service. So there is a span there. that would enable us to do this project. So this resolution before you this evening, you would be approving use of those funds, recognizing that it also would require approval by the Board of Education before we could actually execute the project using that funding source. And I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

And for the purposes of understanding that repair, what is the expected additional useful life established in making this repair?

Five to seven years. Okay. The reason that we certainly recommend that optional piece that we talked about earlier on the plumbing side, the filtration system there, we cannot buy parts for. Now, it was operational when we closed the pool. However, if we have maintenance issues, we'd be forced to close the pool because we can't get parts for those filters any longer. So it would only make sense to do the full repair if we choose to go down this path.

And while this would get the Freedom Hall pool back in operation, it's a short-term fix. It is not a long-term.

Yes, sir. And the estimated time of completing the project... in talking both with the structural engineers and the folks who made the site visits would be about six to nine months. And I would hedge that closer to nine months versus six. Just my personal opinion.

Do we have a possible starting date if this gets okayed by both groups?

Both groups would be able to mobilize quickly once we got contracts completed with them.

How much could they concurrently? Are they going to have to be staying out of each other's way, or can they kind of be working?

They can work in parallel. There will be some structural aspects that will have to be completed first, but once we get to a certain point, they'll be able to work in parallel. Yes, sir.

I think I'm going to make a motion here in just a minute, but Mr. Willis, this may be a good time to let our citizens know what PEP is. We throw the terminology around, but sometimes the boards that sit up here years, even years ago, make bold moves. And so they established this PEP fund, which is a quarter cent of our sales tax that would automatically go into the PEP fund. And the use of those funds is for capital. for education.

That's correct, and I believe it was established in 1993 through a referendum vote, and it has funded the vast majority of schools' projects. Now, I will point out the PEP is not funding the Town Acres project. That was funded through the tax increase that was passed a couple of years ago, but HVAC change-outs, turf at Kermit Tipton Stadium, some things like that. The PEP funds have been used for it. Obviously, it covers a lot of debt service, as I mentioned earlier. But, yeah, it was a great move at that time to set aside those dollars because, as we know, roofs, HVAC systems cost a lot of money, and the costs just continue to go up. So that gives us a great opportunity to use those funds to give the schools what they need to be successful.

I think the PEP fund is probably most responsible for the great schools that we have. And if people want to take a tour of our schools and look at the conditions herein, we have some of the finest facilities anywhere. So, colleagues, I want to officially thank the commission of 1993 for being bold. And people probably thought they were crazy to do it. But look what it has done. And so oftentimes when people leave the commission's the work that they've done leave with them, but we can take time to thank them for sure because it benefits us today. So with that, I'm going to make a motion to approve the repair of the Freedom Hall pool as presented using the PEP funds, and we'll continue to work with the school board to finalize this.

Second. Is there any discussion? Ms. Louse, do you call the roll?

Commissioner Fowler? Yes. Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Wise? Yes. Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox? Yes.

Commissioners, the next item is item 9.1. This is ordinance number 4950-26. This is the first reading and public hearing of an ordinance to establish a local jurisdiction property tax relief program to benefit the elderly, low-income taxpayer, totally and permanently disabled taxpayer disabled veteran taxpayer, and widowers of disabled veterans taxpayers.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, and city administration. My name is Stephanie Laus. I'm finance director, and the ordinance I'm presenting tonight, 495026, is to establish this local property tax relief program. So just a little bit of history about the state program that is mandated by the state. Every locality participates in the state program. They implemented the program in the 1970s with a constitutional amendment. It provides relief for elderly disabled veterans and surviving spouses. In 2025, they had 152,000 applicants that totaled more than $43 million. Currently, the application is completed either at your city or your county tax official's office. The state does some eligibility verification, notifies the locality, through an online portal of approval. Then the taxpayer pays their taxes and they either get reimbursed directly to the individual if they pay their full amount or we can apply a voucher and then the payment comes directly to the locality. The TCA also provides for localities to establish a local program and currently the counties, cities and towns listed there already have a program established. The proposed ordinance in front of you today would amend Title V of Chapter 2 of the City Code. It establishes the local relief program. It sets that we will use the state eligibility determination, so there will be no additional eligibility, no additional application. Everything will still be done through that state application. We'll accept their decision on the eligibility of the individuals. So there will be no additional burden to the taxpayer to qualify. What we will do, what we'll recommend is that we'll set the local relief amount annually by resolution that we'll bring sometime during the year before the taxes are due. The anticipated impact, hopefully the resolution will be brought to the commission sometime in August after the relief amounts are set, which typically happens in late July. We'll bring the resolution with our recommended amount. Like I said, we'll recommend setting ours equal to the amount established by the state for the elderly and disabled. However, the relief will be applicable to all individuals that are eligible for the program. So that will include elderly, disabled veterans and surviving spouses of disabled veterans. We just will set it at the elderly and disabled rate. So what's next tonight is the first reading and the public hearing. We'll have a second reading on August 6th, third reading on August 20th, and hopefully adoption. And then provided that we have the amounts by the state, we will bring the resolution to you to set the amount for the 2026 tax year. And so if you have any questions for me, I'm happy to answer or we can open.

And the reason we're having public hearing on first reading is because it's related to budget. Yes, sir. Thank you.

How difficult will it be for them to apply for the state eligibility? Will they be able to come down here and do it or online?

There will be no change to the way that they apply. Right now they do have to do it on site with either the city or the county tax collecting official. We have a tax specialist in the finance department who does this with our citizens. The state actually sends us forms already pre-filled out for anyone who was approved in the prior year. And then it's just a matter of verifying, getting any additional documentation and signatures. If it's a new person coming in for the program, there's a little more documentation required. But it's not a hard process, and my team walks them through from start to finish. And we will just go from what the state does. We won't require anything additional.

Now, do we know the approximate number? I mean, because now veterans, disabled, and low-income seniors, there's one other category. I forget what it is. Surviving spouses of veterans. Surviving spouses. Do we know approximately what the number is in Johnson City?

So in 2025, we processed and had 986 applications approved across the board for all of those categories of people.

Okay. Thank you.

You're welcome. Miss Loss, thank you so much for bringing this presentation. This is something that during our budget discussions, you know, I was very intrigued about and glad to see that it was included. How do you think this looks for your staff from a process perspective? I know that they are very involved with the state process now, but will this be something they can very easily absorb, or what would this look like from a staff perspective?

I believe it'll be a fairly simple implementation for my team. We already have the system set up to apply the state voucher so that when they come in to pay their taxes, they're not paying in full. We're applying that relief amount to their taxes so they're not having to pay extra. We will just, I may oversimplify it, but it should be as easy as setting up another voucher system in our tax system.

Thank you.

Any other questions before I open public hearing? Seeing none, I will open the public hearing. Anyone here to speak for or against the ordinance, please come forward and state your name.

Hi. I'm Trisha Carade. I'm the sitting chair of the Washington County Board of Equalization, and we are the body that property owners come before when they appeal their property values. Even though we don't deal with taxes, it's that very short line, property values times a tax rate equals a tax bill. On behalf of all the vulnerable people who are going to benefit from this, I want to say thank you. It is incredibly hard to sit as a body, look at data, and based on those parameters of being fair and equal to everybody, have to go with the data and say no, which means a property tax bill isn't going to go down. This helps people do what we're not able to do and still be fair to everybody. So thank you and please pass this.

Thank you. Anyone else to speak for or against? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing.

Move approval. Second.

Commissioner Fowler?

Yes.

Commissioner Getz? Yes. Commissioner Wise? Yes. Vice Mayor Brock?

Yes.

Yes.

And this one is a, the tax conversation obviously is stressful and intense. This is a tool. I'm really glad that we were able to, take advantage and have a commission that wants to take advantage of it. And just as Ms. Craig said, even if you know neighbors that can qualify, sometimes it's hard to get out there and encourage people to apply. And I've seen it just in real estate. So when you come across anybody in need, it's a good thing to remind them that they may qualify for as far as community goes. So thanks.

The next item is item 9.2, ordinance number 4951-26. This is the first reading and public hearing of an ordinance adopting the tax rate for the 2026 tax year.

Good evening. Stephanie Lause again, your finance director, presenting ordinance 4951 to adopt the tax rates for the 2026 tax year. So here you see, this is the ordinance to establish the rates that are necessary to fund the FY27 budget that was adopted in June. You see here we have a comparison of our certified tax rates and our proposed tax rates. We're going to talk a little bit about what the certified tax rate is because I know that's a very confusing concept and I want to make sure that everybody understands how we come to that. And then the requirement for why we're doing it this way, why we didn't adopt a tax rate with the budget. So the certified tax rate is calculated by the comptroller annually. It's mandated by the State Board of Equalization. They came up with the method to do this. And it is essentially a no tax increase rate. It is to keep the city's total property tax revenue at the same level as it was the previous year, regardless of appraisal changes. And it happens anytime there's a reappraisal in a locality. The state describes it as preventing a governing body from sneaking in a tax increase just from appraisal values raising without having any public input. So to put it very simply, if your appraised values go up, your certified tax rate decreases so that your property tax revenue stays the same the next year. And if you noticed, we have three certified tax rates. That's because we're a multi-jurisdictional city. We exist in Carter, Sullivan and Washington counties. None of our three counties reappraise at the same time. They're all on a different schedule and they will, I think it's only about every 20 years that they will all line up together. So what that means is that all three of our localities, all three of our counties, their appraisals are not at 100% of market value ever at the same time. So the way that this affects the certified tax rate is the comptroller and the state board of equalization, they calculate an appraisal ratio. And what they're doing is trying to determine for each locality, so for each county, how close is their appraisal to what market value would be for that year? So the more recent that your appraisal has been, the closer to a 1.0 appraisal ratio you're going to have because you're going to be at the market value. The longer it's been, the lower your appraisal ratio is going to be because your appraisal rates are assumed to be lower than what the current market would be. So if you see here, Carter and Sullivan, both Sullivan reappraised last year, Carter reappraised this year. They're both set at a 1.0, so they're assumed to be at the market rate. Washington County reappraised two years ago, so the state has determined that they believe that Washington County's appraisal rates right now are about 90% of what market value would be. Then using that as a complicated calculation, they come up with an equalized rate. And that equalized rate is what we would need to charge if we were going to collect exactly the same amount of money and everybody was appraised the same. The equalized rate for us was calculated at $1,2557 this year. Then they take it another step further to make it more complicated, and they apply that appraisal ratio to that equalized rate. And so again, if you've been appraised more recently, you're going to pay that certified rate. That's going to be your tax rate because you're at a 1.0. If you've been appraised a longer time ago, your rate's going to go higher because your appraised values are assumed to be lower. And the reason that they do this is to make sure that all three counties are taxed equally that their actual tax dollars is not affected by the fact that their appraisal has not been redone more recently. So why we're doing this differently this year, why we're here separately after the budget has been passed, is anytime that you want to exceed the certified tax rate, the State Board of Equalization throws in some additional law and additional requirements that we have to meet in order to adopt that rate. We are required to publish in the newspaper a public notice. We published in the Johnson City Press and the Kingsport Time News on July 6th. We had to post that we intended to exceed the certified tax rate. We had to say what the certified tax rate was and what we were proposing for each county. And then we also had to notice that we were going to have a public hearing on those proposed rates. Then we also have to do this separate ordinance, which requires three readings. We couldn't do it with the budget. And then at the end of this process, once the tax rate is set, we have to then file affidavits with the State Board of Equalization and showing and certifying that we followed all of their rules and we met all of the additional requirements to make sure that we had public input and had notice to the public. And you can see that in that little blurb at the bottom, that is our notice that was published. So what this means, the proposed tax rates here that you see are the tax rates that would be necessary to fund the FY27 budget as it was passed on June 25th in order to fund that entire expense and revenues. And then here's our city comparison to see where we are at compared to the other localities near us. You'll notice that we're still well below the majority of the cities that we compare to. So again, same as the previous ordinance, July 16th, first reading and public hearing. This public hearing will satisfy both the State Board of Equalization requirement as well as our ordinance public hearing requirement. Then on August 6th, we'll do second reading and August 20th, hopefully third reading and adoption. And I'm available for any questions.

Any questions for staff? Just kind of parent this back a little bit, the Certified tax rate is set by the comptroller's office, the state of Tennessee. So we have nothing to do with that except what we've passed to fund our budget. Yes, ma'am.

And your explanation of the age of appraisals, like last year, I think it was last year, the tax rate in Carter County for Johnson City was like really, really high. And that was because they were running on effectively the oldest appraisals they could. It was the fifth year. Do you have any idea how much the total appraised value in the city in Carter County, I mean, not a specific number, but like, do you have some sense of how much the appraised value for Carter County, Johnson City changed?

I have that number. I don't have it with me because that is one of the factors that goes into that calculation. So I could get that to you at some point, but I don't have it.

I would just be curious because it wouldn't surprise me if it nearly doubled, you know, based on, well, probably not quite doubled, but enough to feel like it doubled.

So Carter County's appraisal ratio last year was about 57%. So, I mean, I would agree that they probably came close to doubling.

And that ratio kind of changes, too, depending on the commercial rates and the residential rates. You know, so residential grows more in value than commercial does. It changes that percent. Any other questions for SNAP?

I move for approval.

I need to do a public hearing. Oh, sorry. Sorry. I'm going to open a public hearing. Anyone to speak for or against the new certified rate? If you don't care to restate your name.

Do you agree to abide by the rules? Yeah.

I agree to stay within my three minutes. I'm Tricia Craig. Because the tax rate needs to pass and the tax rate funds the budget, ergo everything that's built into the tax rate is still open for discussion until the tax rate passes on three readings, including the $37 million investment for new aquatics facility. I want to be really clear. I fully support our swim teams having safe and appropriate facilities. As a mom of a competitive swimmer who fell in love with swimming, fell in love with coaching, and is now a division one strength coach for football, I understand what a disciplined swim program offers to athletes. My objections about the bigger financial picture. I'm concerned about the financial trajectory that the city is gonna place itself on if we continue to add cost burdensome assets without offsetting or relieving any of that obligation. I appreciate the focus on budget to keep us flat as much as possible year over year. A flat budget year on year is not the only indicator of financial health instability. By continuing to increase the portion of our spend that is obligated to cover assets that are used for public good isn't necessarily good for the public. All that does is squeeze the amount of money we have to pay for other things. So I'm here tonight as I was before, and I promise I will be here again on second and third reading to advocate for the same two things. Either a slowdown in the financial decision to spend $37 million until an alternate arrangement can be thought through and put in place. a public-private partnership that's mutually beneficial. Or a plan that defines how to take one of our other large assets, and you know Freedom Hall is one of the easy ones that I point to, and figure out how to flip that to something that's not cost burdensome for the taxpayers. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Anyone else here to speak for or against? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. Any motions?

For a motion, I just wanted to say I know that this is reflective of the implementation of the budget that this body passed, but for consistency of the concerns that I raised during the budget vote on 13, my vote will be reflective of those concerns.

Move for approval. Second.

I'm going to take a second chance at this. Yeah, okay.

Stephanie will let me. Mayor Cox.

Okay. Commissioner Fowler?

Yes.

Commissioner Goetz? No. Commissioner Wise? Yes. Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox?

Yes.

The next item up is items 10.1. This is ordinance number 4946-26. This is the second reading and public hearing of an ordinance for the rezoning of 0.33 acres from R4 to B1 to allow for the additional business signage of an existing childcare center.

Sorry, I was trying to find it. Good evening, everyone. I am Amanda Rose, a planner two in the city's planning division, and speaking tonight for the second reading and public hearing for a request for rezoning for a childcare center located at 1012 Knopf Creek Road. So the first Planning Commission meeting for the item was in June. We had our first reading here on July 2nd and we're now at public reading or second reading public hearing this evening. The item did have a neighborhood meeting which took place on June 3rd with no attendees and letters were sent out to property owners within the vicinity. To acclimate you to the location, the subject property is located here. It's immediately behind the CVS on West Market Street at the intersection of Knob Creek Road. Kiwanis Park is across the street and Clark Street Baptist Church is nearby. As Ms. Ball stated, the request is to rezone the parcel from R4, which is medium density residential, to B1, neighborhood business district, in order to accommodate additional signage for the child care center. The applicant not only offers child care services, but wants additional signage in order to advertise additional services, such as occupational therapy. The rezoning would allow for up to 64 square feet of signage as opposed to the existing zoning, which would allow for 32. The land use nearby would demonstrate that there are zones that are R4, RO1, Planned Business District, and R2C. adjacent uses are mainly residential to the north and to the west and more commercial to the south and east as you would imagine along the West Market Street corridor.

Can you go back to the slide you were just on?

Absolutely.

What is the orange color kind of diagonally above the subject property? Is that the R2C?

That is multifamily residential land use. I can't recall.

That single parcel floating in the middle there? Yes. Okay. Okay. I've just been trying to figure out. Okay. Thank you. Oh, you're very welcome. Context.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

So every rezoning requires a concept plan. And so the applicant in this particular situation is not planning on admitting the building footprint in any way. So the concept plan demonstrates the location of the existing structures on site as well as the proposed signage at the intersection. Because it is at an intersection of an arterial and a minor street, staff advised the applicant that a site distance compliance would be necessary. So I have provided to you this evening the site distance triangle for that arterial collector with the minor street. As you can see, there is a requirement for the sign setback line to be set 10 feet from the property line corner. This would ensure that there is a safe sight line distance for vehicular traffic as people are making turns or folks are crossing the street at that intersection. The city's future land use plan, Horizon 2045, demonstrates this area is within the downtown connected place type, and that place type seeks to respect the character of the existing residential neighborhoods, but also supports small-scale locally serving uses that integrate with the existing nearby residential uses, such as childcare. So with that, staff recommends approval based on the rationale that the B-1 zoning district is compatible with the surrounding zoning and land uses. It serves as an appropriate transition between adjacent residential and commercial properties. The request is consistent with the land use plan for downtown connected place type. The rezoning would not increase the intensity of the development on the site as no building expansions or any changes to that existing child care center are proposed. And the planning commission did recommend approval at its June 9th meeting. The applicant's also here in attendance this evening if you have any questions for him. Thank you.

Any questions for staff or the applicant?

I would just say to the applicant, that is a long-term, yeah. I'm assuming you bought it from the original owner and that is a long-term facility there.

Yeah, that is a pretty iconic child care facility in Johnson City. Janice Hayes, she opened that in 1979 with her mother's home up as collateral and JCPenney stock as the down payment. So yeah, there's a whole story behind that for sure.

Well, it's very exciting though. You're going to add physical therapy?

So, yeah. Um, of course I know Greg, I've been, I've been a realtor for 20 years. Um, and now I have two childcare facilities and, uh, the first one came about, uh, I was trying to sell it and then I met the children and, uh, purchased it. So, uh, yeah, as, and as Greg knows, you, you come across pretty much everybody in all walks of life in real estate. And, um, client of mine that I sold a home to last year is a retired speech pathologist. It's occupational therapy. We have some grant money that we're getting Nikki Total, an occupational therapist in Kingsport, to come every Wednesday. But on a long-term basis, Miss Elizabeth Dodd, who's got a heart bigger than this room, is a retired speech pathologist. And, uh, post closing, I was leaving her house and said, Hey, you know, if you decide to get recredentialed and recertified, I've got 29 kids who could sure use your intervention. And she pulled me back into her living room and we sat down and we agreed on a price that is way lower than what I could ever afford or, agreed on a price that is much lower than what she is worth as I know I couldn't afford her. And we were one of the only independent childcare, I won't say facility since there's two now, childcare centers to offer in-house speech therapy intervention for children that need that at really no additional cost. Again, I'm still a full-time real estate agent and fortunately we don't need the the revenue from the centers. And so we're just trying to pour hearts and assets and collaboration into these centers to try to get ahead of a lot of the things that we see happening down the road with some of these kids and be part of that foundational component.

Well, you know, there's a real shortage of childcare in all communities. Many have closed, you know, because of one reason or another. So I would encourage you to come back before us sometime in the remainder of this year with your third one.

Yeah, sure. We'll have that discussion. If I can handle anymore. I joke with my wife all the time. I think I'm the first man in history to have a vasectomy and 70 children after it. That's a very specific claim. I'm not fact-checked, but I think I'm the only person, the only man in the world.

By the way, you're on TV. Okay.

Well, you're seeing a modern medical miracle right now.

Thank you all very much. I appreciate it. Thanks for being here.

And there's another fellow realtor, too, that a lot of time spent loving on the community. So thank you so much. Yeah. Thanks, Greg. Appreciate it. Thank you all.

I was also going to reiterate my thanks. I don't know that I can properly convey it after that comment, but I'm sure in your line of work, you see families wanting to relocate to our area and just finding that great challenge. So thank you for finding a need, meeting a need, and loving on these families and doing it with a bit of humor as well. So thank you for what you do.

Yeah, we enjoy it. Thank you all. Appreciate you. Thank you.

open a public hearing to anybody here to speak for or against the ordinance for the rezoning. Seeing none, I'll close the public meeting. Move approval.

Second.

Ms. Lause, you call the roll.

Commissioner Fowler. Yes. Commissioner Goetz. Yes. Commissioner Wise. Yes. Vice Mayor Brock. Yes. Mayor Cox.

Yes.

Commissioners, the next order of business is item 10.2, which is an ordinance 4947-26. This is the second reading and public hearing of an ordinance to amend article 6 and article 11 regarding parking standards for B3 and WWD districts.

And sorry, that is the West Walnut District. We often talk in acronyms. My name is Whitney Hodges. I'm your planning manager. And today, I'm going to finish up some work that one of our planners had started around parking in our downtown connected areas. Just to give you an idea of the timeline, this is where we are. And yes, I brought back some animation. So we are at second reading. It is a text amendment, so the only thing that was required to be noticed was in the paper, and that notification for this public hearing was made. To kind of explain the request, so oftentimes what you see are text amendments that are brought to you by staff. It is okay for an entity or a group to bring a text amendment, especially when staff isn't fully staffed and they want their process to go on through. So we allow that. And so Christ Community Church recognized a need in their neighborhood, and that need was they are in an area where there is a parking requirement. Now, as you know, in the B2 district, which is our downtown core, we don't require parking for pretty much any use. So we worked with them to kind of come up with a text amendment that would be beneficial to the community and one of the things with their site is all of their parking is off-site and it's at the copy net lot that the city ends and then they're planning an addition which means they would be required to provide on on-site parking you can see here in their building which I think I have lost somewhere here that they don't have any space for their parking. And in these districts, you would need a special exception that's granted by the Board of Zoning Appeals for 50% of your parking could be offsite. They are at 100%. So they're looking for a way to comply and be good neighbors and for their other neighbors to comply and be good neighbors. So where the zones, and I meant to change this, but did not have time because I know that color is really hard to see. And we are going to distinguish between red and Salmon and peach.

Is that a French reference?

So we'll still make noise in there. So but what we're doing is looking at those salmon and peach references and areas on this map. and that's where this would apply. The red is where parking already is. It already has been exempt. So what we're looking at is reducing the residential parking because one of the things that we hear through the community and especially our downtown community is that conflict between residential and business and being able to provide some of that. So since these are the downtown connected area, let's keep some parking for residential. With single family and two family, it's one space per unit is what we're proposing. For multifamily, it is a half a space per unit. We are proposing to eliminate non-residential parking except for when you have overnight stay. There is no way to get to Johnson City than by a car, so we're gonna need to place a car somewhere. But we're also making that one space per unit. And these are all minimums. If somebody wants to provide more than this, that is totally okay. Because we need to let the market decide some things. And so we just need to establish some minimum thresholds. And if a use needs something else, then they can provide that. So if you have it on your property and you can provide some parking and you're not required, we're certainly not going to prohibit you from doing that. So to give you some intent, this is a slide just to show you some intent of what these districts are meant to do. And I kind of want to bring this up because we've done a lot of work in the West Walnut District. We've made a commitment and an investment and it's a beautiful road. So kind of looking at that and as we're looking at What can we do with with that investment to encourage people to also invest in their buildings? One of the ways is to kind of look at parking and see where we can see where we can find some relief, so to speak. Because if you think about it, let's talk about the copy net lot. And we've put out a request for proposals for that.

If a let's say a.

apartment with some commercial on the bottom were to go into that building they would have a certain number of required spots if they were to do structured parking and let's just say that they're in their residential required spots if they had a hundred hypothetically a hundred units this is just their residential because their retail is going to be a little bit different and I'm doing half, and this could be completely different, half one bedrooms, half two bedrooms, they're going to need to provide by our ordinance 175 spaces. That's required. So if we wanted to use more spaces in that, that would be things that they would have to kind of put on that site. The other that I want to point out is the Burlington, and that redevelopment is also B3. And so that site has 100, sorry, not 100, 1,049 units is what they're approved for. Again, applying that math of half one bedrooms, half two bedrooms, because that's how our ordinance is set up currently, they're looking at approximately 1,835 parking spaces. for something that they are trying to design to be very innovative and walkable. So what this would allow them to do, so if we applied that to the site and applied this ordinance to that site, they would have a minimum of 525 parking spaces. They certainly can provide more, but what we're saying is this is what we think as far as the investments that you're putting in, some parking that you need to do. Um, and part of the reason that this is really crucial is that this is still an area where we have no side setbacks. Um, we have existing buildings that didn't really have to, um, apply for parking when they were built. So we've got some constraints here. And so this is providing some relief to those constraints. Um, the off it's the off street off off street, not option off site parking. in the special exception that's really kind of driving this because you can't vary at this point. And that's one thing to note. Staff recommends approval of the text amendment as well as planning commission recommended approval. And they held a workshop around it and then recommended approval on June 9th. This is a public hearing. I'm here for any questions.

Before open public hearing any questions, I have one. The off-site parking, the off-premise parking requirements, do you happen to have that language? And is it the same for all of our zoning, or does the West Walnut District have its own off-site parking language?

West Walnut was almost copied verbatim from B3.

I've got a... It's got some language in there that says it can't be across.

Yes, there's some language about how close it needs to be.

And I did, I would like to get some clarity. I mean, now I don't want to necessarily look to amend unless it was appropriate. But is Walnut Street labeled as an arterial street?

I will look into that and provide additional information at third reading before you make final, if you choose to.

I actually don't think it is because State of Franklin is the arterial, and I think Knob Creek, Buffalo, and Rhone might be the collector, whatever the status of it.

I just want to double check with what we've done.

One of those is Buffalo. And it's just, as I've looked at how this will get redeveloped and parking, I mean, some parking solutions would be on the other side of maybe Buffalo Street. And I understand you don't want pedestrians going back and forth across a busy street.

So this really removes that and removes the need for that is by saying, yes.

Unless there was like. a hotel that was going on the corner that was like, I could buy that piece of land right there and get my parking. And it just happens to be across Buffalo. So if you could just maybe have that language, just to see, um, I believe we have the, um, just kind of the, that's just that little, but I'll have the exact language because it just, um, I've always had heartburn with it. Now that this is, the community's brought this before us, that there's, it might be good to just look at that. So thank you. Okay, well, no questions. I'll open public hearing. Anybody to speak for or against amending the ordinance? Seeing none, we'll close public hearing. Move approval. Second. Slash, we call the roll.

Commissioner Fowler? Yes. Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Wise? Yes. Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox?

Yes.

The next item for consideration is item 11.1. This is ordinance 4940-26. This is the third reading. It's an ordinance to revise the code of Johnson City to reference purchasing authority thresholds in the relevant portions of the Johnson City Purchasing Policy Manual by amending Title 5 of Chapter 1 of the Code of the City of Johnson City, Tennessee.

Good evening, Mayor Cox, Vice Mayor Brock, Commissioners, City Administration. My name is Blake Watson. I'm the Senior Staff Attorney for the City. There have been no changes to the ordinance as proposed during first and second reading. Legal staff still recommends approval. Pending your questions.

There been any changes? No, Mayor. Move approval. Second. Ms. Leffs?

Commissioner Fowler? Yes. Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Wise? Yes. Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox?

Yes.

Thank you.

That is the end of the formal meeting from a staff perspective.

We just have one public comment on other items. So with those, we do have a section towards the end of the meeting for public comments.

Excuse me. Thank you, Mayor, for catching that.

For people in the community to speak about something germane to the city. I think we have one, Mr. Dave Adams. If you don't care to come up, state your name. And just a reminder, we've got three minutes for public comment. And your counter will start when you start speaking.

Mayor Cox and Commission, I know this is the first time we've ever met or interacted. It's nice to meet all of you. I'm Dave Adams, 3 Coventry Court. Earlier today, I listened to the data center presentation during the commission workshop. There's a quote that really stood out to me from that meeting. We want to be as risk averse as possible. Commissioner Wise, you had a good question today. Why does the setback distance matter if we have a good noise ordinance? And in principle, that's how it should work. But there's an old adage that comes to mind. When crossing a one-way street, a smart man looks one way and a wise man looks both. Setbacks are the equivalent of looking both ways. They're there to catch things that shouldn't happen, but sometimes do. Six months ago, I participated in a sound study for the limestone mine before it shut down, and no matter how precise you get on your measurements, nature was always a confounding variable. Temperature, foliage, and just unknown unknowns that can't be fully accounted for, that might cause 2 AM weird sounds that escape methodical capture, or vibrations that are just barely okay. There's no exact science for a magic number, it exists as a grab bag to mitigate future unforeseen risk. Throughout this process, our goal is and has been to mitigate as many unknowns as we can with as defensible of a framework as we can. On another note, in the community survey that we commissioned, out of 6,000 responses, 86% are extremely concerned, the survey's own words, not mine, about data centers with strong support for location controls. As you may have heard, I'm a bit vocal on this subject, After three months of attempting to collaborate with the city on data analysis, I recently completed my own. I found that the city could defensively support a 500-foot separation by using a more standard methodology, protecting thousands of more households from unnecessary risk while preserving real buildable sites in the heart of industrial corridors. I would love to share that data with you from a short analysis. I can already identify parcels staff classified as eligible that do not appear to meet the ordinance's own criteria. I'll have it in your emails by this weekend, as well as my best thesis about what the city may have missed in its analysis process. Although the presentation today called the zoning ordinance complete, we still have a punch list of concerns that staff originally agreed to address. So as community representatives, I humbly ask you to familiarize yourselves with that punch list before closing out this chapter. There are practical refinements that address issues staff previously agreed warranted further review. So I think we've got a good thing going on here. Let's make sure we stay focused and get the strongest defensible protections we can. I know I'm in a boxed-in timer here, but I will make myself available to discuss these concerns after the meeting or any other time. And you know how to reach me. Thanks.

I think that was the only public comment request.

I will close out, see if there's anything you guys have to wrap up.

Thank you.

Then I will adjourn our meeting.