City Council - Regular Meeting

GEORGE ALLEN: Have your attention please. It is now 5:45, and I will now call our work session for January 2026 to order. We have two presentations, one by Joe Davis and one by David Andrews. Are Joe Davis with us from Good News Rapid Rehousing Director? You come forward, please. JOE DAVIS: Yes, sir. Good evening, everyone, and thank you again for your time. My name is Joe Davis, and I'm on staff with Auburn United Methodist Church. And as of October 2025, I serve as the Director of our Good News Rapid Rehousing Program. And so, I wanted to share a little bit about what that is. I provided a packet there with some slides that I wanna speak to just really briefly. Before I do that, I do wanna say a special thank you. I saw him as I came in, but Chief Healey, I wanted to say thank you for your leadership with the Opelika Police Department and wish you the best in your retirement. Really appreciate your work with the department and the social services development, with the Arby Coon and your participation with the One Voice Coalition. I really appreciated that, so thank you. So, I wanted to briefly share about the context of the reality that brought us to starting this ministry for Lee County residents based at AUMC. And that's the first slide that says reality of homelessness. And these are some recent data from ARCH. That's Alabama Rural Coalition for the Homeless. They're based in Montgomery, but they are the non-profit agency tasked by HUD as the lead continuum of care agency for Lee County and for 36 other counties. And so, these statistics that you see show about 40

calls for assistance per month from Lee County. And this, again, is mostly 2025 data. 37% of those were people couch surfing, doubled up. 17% were people self-paying a hotel room. 16% were sleeping in a car or outside. And 6% were facing eviction within 14 days. This is probably the best data that we have access to. HUD does an annual point in time count to survey homelessness. It's actually supposed to be coming up next, a week from today. And in the past, those numbers tend to be very underreported, especially for more rural and small cities like Opelika, like Auburn. But I think this is probably some of the best data that we have available. And then it goes on to talk about how this reality of homelessness is really out of sight. It's not necessarily people out on the street or in front of a store, although that does happen as well time to time. A lot of this is folks living out of vehicles, living out of hotels, and again, doubled up or tripled up. And so, it's very much, I think, mostly an out-of-sight challenge. And then the next slide talks about not enough tools in our tool belt. As many of you know, we don't have any emergency shelters in Lee County. I am very grateful for the work of the One Voice organization and Ms Jean Causey and the transitional home for women or women with small children that is available. And we have our Domestic Violence Intervention Center, which has a small emergency shelter. With it, there's his place in Hosanna Home, located in Lafette, which are more focused on substance abuse and recovery, but are willing to take in men or women who are single when

they have availability. And then the City of Auburn and the City of Opelika, as well, do receive HUD's Community Development Block Grant funds, and a small portion of those funds are able to be used for things like rent assistance, utility assistance, and I think, at times, hotel assistance. I know for the City of Auburn, I'm a little more familiar with their program, and their CDBG funding tends to only last about two months out of a year. And then it has been utilized. So it speaks to the need that's there. So Good News Rapid Rehousing, what does that mean? This is a new ministry that's a part of Auburn United Methodist Church. It's federally funded through HUD's Continuum of Care program, CoC. And right now, our funding is through August 31, 2026. We are hopeful that it will be renewed for a second year. And this is in direct partnership with ARCH, Alabama Rural Coalition for the Homeless, again, which is that lead agency for the CoC program for Lee County, and 36 other much more rural counties than Lee County. So Rapid Rehousing, if you're not familiar with that term, it's an approach to ending homelessness that combines three elements. It's personalized case management, ongoing landlord engagement, and then move in and rent assistance. And so we've been able to hire a full-time case manager, someone part-time to do housing search, to be looking for available apartments or rental homes, building relationships with property managers and landlords in the community. The case manager works one-on-one with the families as they're going through this process, and we put together a budget housing plan and try to do our best to connect people with the supportive services that they need to remain stable in their housing. And that's over the course of several months.

And then the move in and rental assistance is the financial assistance that's needed to pay the first month's rent and security deposit. That can sometimes be $1,500, $2,000, $2,500 that folks just don't have. And so, it can step in to provide that funding and fill that gap. One thing I've had to explain to people is that Rapid is not too rapid. It's rapid, but there is a process, and it's rapid within like 30 days is our target from the day we start working with someone to when they get housed. But that can vary greatly depending on the availability of units at the time, their income, their credit score, their rental history, all of that factors in. I've got a picture there of our team. But then who's eligible for this Rapid Rehousing assistance? We have to follow HUD's guidelines here around two categories. Number one is literally homeless, and that means you are sleeping outside or in a vehicle. Or you're staying in emergency shelter. But since we don't have emergency shelter, what that means for us is you're staying in a hotel that's been provided by another organization, by a hotel voucher. Another category that qualifies you or makes you eligible is if you are at imminent risk of housing loss within 14 days. So this might be a family with an eviction, a final order for eviction. And if you are self-paying at a hotel, there are some ways we can, with extra documentation, try to show that you don't have ability to continue to pay that hotel fee and are therefore at risk of losing your housing. But the next slide talks about who's not eligible, and this leaves out a lot of people who would describe themselves as homeless. If you're self-paying at a hotel, HUD does not consider you homeless or eligible.

If you're staying at the One-Voice Shelter with Ms Jean Causey, you're a transitional housing resident and not eligible. Couch surfing or staying with family or friends, that was the biggest category of calls the arts received, and unfortunately, HUD does not consider you homeless in that scenario. Or if you're in an apartment or a rental home and it's not being kept up to standard and your landlord is refusing to make repairs, at that moment, you still have housing and HUD does not consider you homeless. So there are some, this is one tool for approaching or trying to solve a housing crisis. It doesn't work for every family. We've had nine families so far get moved in. We have nine families in progress, and we have three that we hope to get moved in within the next week to ten days. Our grant was only designed to serve 20 families total over the course of 12 months, so we're already making good progress towards that goal. I know I'm running short on time, and so I wanted to skip down to the very last slide, which says HUD ESG funding. ESG stands for Emergency Solutions Grant. This is a totally separate set of HUD funding, and I've had some discussions with the City of Auburn about this funding as well because it would open up more opportunities to serve people through outreach, street outreach like the Opelika Police Department is doing, through emergency shelter funds, through homelessness prevention funds, Rapid Rehousing funds, or transitional housing. It is a competitive application that's administered by ADECA, and you're able to, as a city, work with other municipalities and work with other nonprofits to form a kind of a coalition group to operate an ESG program. So I wanted to bring that to your attention.

There's a lot more detail to go into there, but thank you again just for your time and for being willing to listen. GEORGE ALLEN: I'd like to let you know that I did have an opportunity to watch that segment on Sunday morning, I believe. JOE DAVIS: CBS Sunday morning. GEORGE ALLEN: CBS, yes. JOE DAVIS: Yeah. GEORGE ALLEN: Very real, very touching. JOE DAVIS: Yeah. GEORGE ALLEN: But I also wanna let you know that we here in Opelika realize the effect that homelessness and poverty plays on the city, but we are constantly working with organizations like you to try to eliminate this crisis, and we're willing to work with you as well. So we appreciate your presentation, and we look forward to working with you in the future. JOE DAVIS: Thank you, Mr Allen. Thank you, everyone. GEORGE ALLEN: OK, now we have David Andrews, and we're gonna allow Russell to introduce him. RUSSELL: I asked David to come speak to you guys. I know some of you are new, obviously. This is dealing with the request for a special permit. That's about cell towers, telecommunications. He is our consultant that the city pays to do that for us. So when we have existing towers, or in the case of like Floral Park, last year, we had a new tower, he is the guy, OK? So I just wanted to put a name on the face so y'all would know this is who we're having work on all that and just let him introduce himself to you guys. DAVID ANDREWS: Yeah, brief introduction. Thank you for having me, Council Mayor. David Andrews with CMS. Just a brief introduction. CMS has been working with the City of Opelika since the late 90s. What we do when we go into a community or when we contract with a community, first we provide the ordinance for the sitting of telecommunication towers and the rules

and regulations that pertain to those towers and modifying those towers in the future. Then we stay on staff with the city and we do all the technical reviews, we do all the structural analysis reviews, the safety reviews to make sure that the towers within the city remain in compliance with the federal regulations as well as your local building code that you've adopted. So that's basically in a nutshell what we do. Where you will see us is several times a year you'll see these special use permits come across your desk as resolutions where they're modifying or upgrading cell sites. We vet those applications before they come to you. So we do all of our reviews and when they meet your ordinance then we make recommendation in the form of a resolution which comes to you for approval. Then the applicant, whether it's AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile, they go out and they modify the site and there's improved service from that site. Now where we'll have much more correspondence is when we have or if we have a new tower. Like Russell said in the deal with the Floral Park, we're much more involved with the council and with the legal department when it comes to the ordinance and them complying with the ordinance and the federal regulations. So we have public hearings in association with new towers where we don't when we modify a tower like we're doing tonight. So you'll see me much more involved and I'll be much more of a part of it. But regardless, we always usually have a representative here at the council meeting. Anytime there's a special use permit, we'll be in the crowd. So if you ever have any questions about any of the cell towers or the coverage or what they're doing, we're always available to answer any question you have on. So just as an example for this one tonight, Tower Street is

off of Morris Avenue close to the middle school and Verizon's not providing service from this tower right now. So what they're wanting to do is put their antennas on the existing tower there beside the water tank. There's a 158-foot monopole, which is like a metal telephone pole that's already got T-Mobile and AT&T on it. So Verizon's going to co-locate their antennas on that tower to provide a new service point, which is gonna increase coverage and capacity for the middle school, Opelika High School, Southern Union, as well as the residential to the west and to the north of that site. So this will be a good thing for the city of Opelika. And they have met the city ordinance requirements. So we recommend it so you guys get a resolution presented to you tonight. One good thing about CMS, we've been working with you since the late 90s. The federal regulations allow cities to pass an ordinance to pay for any expert assistance with a tower. So we've been working for you guys for the 90s, and we've been completely free for all these years. So the city requires an escrow to be put in place and that pays for any services that we have. And at the end of the project, that money is sent back to the applicant. So basically, we're free for the city. At any time, if you all have any questions, I'm always available, and I'll answer any questions that you guys may have. GEORGE ALLEN: I'd like to say thank you, David. As I went through Ward Four, they asked me about how to improve Verizon's cell service, and I've been praying about how that was gonna work out. So we appreciate you. DAVID ANDREWS: Yes, sir. GEORGE ALLEN: We struggle over there. DAVID ANDREWS: Yes, sir. GEORGE ALLEN: Others? No. Well, 'cause of the time we would end this work session

and go directly into our regular meeting, and then 6:00, I recall, our regular meeting to order. And our invocation, it was, I'm sorry, let's call the roll. SPEAKER: Ms Holmes. HOLMES: Here. SPEAKER: Ms Whatley. WHATLEY: Here. SPEAKER: Mr Beams. BEAMS: Here. SPEAKER: Mr Rauch. RAUCH: Here. SPEAKER: Mr Allen. GEORGE ALLEN: Here. SPEAKER: You're all here. GEORGE ALLEN: Yeah, the reason I was, I don't see Daryl, so. So therefore, I guess our invocation will be done by George Allen. SPEAKER: Alright. GEORGE ALLEN: Followed by our Pledge of Allegiance by Bruce Heath and Harley Ponds from Jeter Primary School. Let us all stand. Let's bow our heads. Gracious Father, we come to you, thank you for your multitude of blessings. Lord, we're so thankful for what you've done for us, you're doing for us and what you will do for us. Lord, we just come thanking you for the opportunities that you put and challenges that you put before us. Lord, we just ask that you let us handle them in ways that will be pleasing unto you. Lord, we just ask you to be with our mayor, our council, and all of our department heads, so that we can continue to do the work that we know our city needs, and we're asking that you allow us to do it in ways that will be pleasing unto you. These and all of the blessings rest of us, so in Jesus' name, amen. SPEAKER: Amen. SPEAKER: One second. Y'all can take pictures and come up here. Hey, stay right there. Stay right there. Stay right there. Alright, y'all ready? One, two, three.

SPEAKER: 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. SPEAKER: Awesome, y'all. Thank you. GEORGE ALLEN: At this time, we have an adoption of the agenda. Are there any items that need to be added to remove from a change in the order that was presented, agenda that was presented? SPEAKER: I would like to pull. GEORGE ALLEN: We'll do that at a different time, yeah. SPEAKER: OK. GEORGE ALLEN: Any changes? Having none, I'll entertain a motion for approval. SPEAKER: So moved. SPEAKER: Second. GEORGE ALLEN: Any discussion? Having none, call the roll, Mr Jones. JONES: Ms Holmes. HOLMES: Aye. JONES: Ms Whatley. JONES: Aye. JONES: Mr Beams. BEAMS: Aye. JONES: Mr Rauch. RAUCH: Aye. JONES: Mr Allen. GEORGE ALLEN: Aye. JONES: All voted aye to adopt the agenda. GEORGE ALLEN: And, Council Members, you received a copy of the minutes as well from our last meeting of January 6, 2026. Is there a motion for approval? SPEAKER: So moved. GEORGE ALLEN: Second. SPEAKER: Second. GEORGE ALLEN: Are there any corrections, deletions, or additions? If not, the minutes will stand approved as presented. Any unfinished business. Mayor comments. Mr Mayor.

MAYOR EDDIE SMITH: Yes, thank you, Mr President. You all have received a copy of the city's financial summary report for December 2025. If you have any questions, feel free to call myself or Cindy Boyd or Joy Motley. You also have received a copy of the 2025 December monthly building report. If you have any questions about that, you can also call myself or Joy, and we'll go over it. And I would like to invite the Character Council for Excellence Character along with Mr Leroy Dexter Hughley to come to the front. GEORGE ALLEN: Mr Mayor, the fellows I've chosen for the Character Council character trait of the month is this young man right here. And to let you know what a great fellow he has a cheering squad with him as well. We're gonna ask him to come up as well. (APPLAUSE) GEORGE ALLEN: And of course, Miss Hubler, will you come up as well? Outstanding group of people here.

They do so much for Opelika. Mr Mayor, the character trait of the month is responsibility. And responsibility is the duty and willingness to make thoughtful choices, taking ownership of one's actions and fulfilling obligations in a way that benefits oneself and others. Leroy Dexter Hughley is the epitome of this definition. Upon completing high school in his home of Apopka, Florida, he embarked on his responsibility to his country and joined the US Army where he served for six years. After completing his responsibility to his country, he relocated here in Opelika, thank you, Alabama, where he connected with a big part of his family. Realizing that family is an important part of one's support system, Dexter expanded his local family by marrying Ruby Cook Hughley, his wife of 17 years. By showing respect, care, and understanding, Dexter continued to exhibit his responsibility to family. Finally, he realized we have a responsibility to our community. Dexter knows that a community thrives when its members help one another, respect differences, and work together for the common good. To better prepare himself to work for the common good of this community, he developed an interest in the Opelika Police Department and their responsibilities. This led him to join the police academy. There he learned how to be a bridge between the law enforcement and his community.

To put what he learned into action, he became a vital part of the Opelika liaison and continued to show acts of kindness, volunteering, and standing up for what is right. When we show responsibility to our country, to our family, and to our community, we become good citizens. Leroy Dexter Hughley is a good citizen. (APPLAUSE) SPEAKER: If I may, Leroy Dexter Hughley, Community of Character Person of the Month, is with great pleasure that we acknowledge you for your outstanding character within the City of Opelika. Your good will towards mankind and our city has not gone unnoticed. We hope that others will see your good works and model your actions. Please be encouraged to continue making a difference in the City of Opelika and throughout the world. Presented this month of January 2026. I am by myself and the President, George Allen. (APPLAUSE) SPEAKER: Couple of y'all can come over here on this side and then deal with you can see me. I can see you. So alright. Ready, everybody? I think I can see y'all. Ready? One, two, three. SPEAKER: And one, two, three.

Thank you. SPEAKER: You made a good choice. SPEAKER: Good job. SPEAKER: That's OK. GEORGE ALLEN: Public hearing, Mr Jones. JONES: Mr President. First item under public hearings is to amend the zoning ordinance and map at 2001 Cunningham Drive, it's 5.1 acres from R-4 to PUD. GEORGE ALLEN: I declare this public hearing open. If anyone wants to speak for or against this issue, please come to the podium to my left and state your name and address. And remember, you have three minutes to speak. Having none, I declare this public hearing closed. JONES: Second, final public hearing is to amend the zoning ordinance and map and rezone 1300 block of Crawford Road, 73.3 acres from R-1 to PUD. GEORGE ALLEN: I declare this public hearing open. If anyone wants to speak for or against this issue, please come to the podium to my left and state your name and address. And remember, you have three minutes to speak. SPEAKER: Is this regarding.

SPEAKER: Yes, sir. ALAN GARNER: Thank you for being here. I want you to vote against this. If we're talking about accepting what I've seen as the map for development at 1300 law. And that is to say, because it's a dangerous road to start with. And if you vote against this, you're adding 342 cars. That is, by my calculation, times each lot two times these lots. You're adding traffic to an area that's already very busy with traffic and already has seven, ten driveways in that same area. So there's a confluence of traffic. It's we cannot help. Of course, if people use this road coming for you, follow down from East Alabama. But you can help resist making things more difficult. There are going to be people turning out into a very thickened area of traffic flow that are already there. These are houses. These are residential houses. These are single family houses, whatever the designation is for development. That's what we have there. And so, you know, the reasons we have a dangerous road there, right? You know that it's a very steep incline. It's at the bottom of the hill. You know, this is to prevent sight line to some degree and reduces your time to get out into the road.

Why can I say these things? Because I drive out in it every day. This is where I live. 1304 Crawford Road. I'm Alan Garner, by the way. So we have speedsters that like to drive faster than 55 miles per hour. We have heavy traffic during those usual hours, morning eat, morning, lunch and supper time, quitting time. When people are anxious, that's really the worst time. And so we have a lot of commercial traffic, big diesel trucks that drive that road. And they cannot stop easily. It takes them somewhere between maybe 500 feet, 516 feet to stop. If they're driving 65 miles per hour, it's my research. So it's already dangerous. There's no pullover. There's no side road to this area. And when you get what there is in the way of a foot, it's very steep to fall there. So we got a very dangerous area. And now we're gonna add traffic to that area. 342 cars at least going, as I said, in the morning at lunch and end of the day coming home. So the bottom line of my thinking is we really don't need any more development along the stretch of 169, our Crawford Road from the point of 51 intersection down to the point of the south funeral intersection. If you if you know this, if you've driven that road, you already know a lot of this. So I'm repetitious. But until we get serious improvements to this section

of 169, our Crawford Road, then we don't need to develop these huge projects. We need to put the brakes on that and get the road improved first. That might mean a lot of things. Traffic lights, roundabouts, reduction in speed limits. I'd love to see a 45 mile per hour speed limit. And I know that we've talked about this some and it's a state road, but it's inside our city limits. And your citizens live along that road facing that road. And in this particular point, it's going to make, as I say, a confluence of danger with cars pulling out, pulling to the left, even with this proposal that I see of a single end de-acceleration lane. SPEAKER: We've got three minutes. ALAN GARNER: So that's it. GEORGE ALLEN: Yeah, we appreciate you. Thank you very much. ALAN GARNER: Alright. Well, thank you. And a lot of other concerns. GEORGE ALLEN: Thank you so very much. ALAN GARNER: I want to say quickly, three minutes is not enough. If you're really here to listen. GEORGE ALLEN: Alright. Thank you. ALAN GARNER: You need more. GEORGE ALLEN: Thank you. ALAN GARNER: Thank you, sir. DEMETRIUS EDWARDS: Good evening, Demetrius Edwards. I'm in the same area. I'm at 2305, Alabama Highway 169, Crawford Road, whatever you wanna call it. I'm also the same way as him against it, because it's so much traffic already in that area going, like he said, people going from Eufaula and coming, going to Florida and going out 169 or kind of the best way to go to 280. And then you're coming back to Opelika. And in the morning time, it's already backed up past what is it was road. I think that's right there. It's already backed up past that where you can get out with the cars trynna go to the left in the school right there.

So it's already congested. Ain't no room for all the way. I see is if you build something else over there, it need to be four lanes, at least four lanes where people can get off and get on. It need to be a traffic light at the end of 169 where people can get out and get on. So the traffic, it just started backing up and adding on to it. It's just gonna keep backing up more and more. It's already congested. And so, traffic right now is so much going and coming. And without a city growing so much more at the time, we're congesting everything in small areas and it's making the roads way more congested. And so, I mean, I'm not for it. But if they is for it, they need to cut a road to go across the 51 from over that way somewhere or a road that comes, I mean, four lane or something to get the road more expanded so more people can travel 'cause traffic backed up every day. It's not a day of the week through the week where traffic is not backed up. And as I say, sometimes it's way past it was road, but most of the time it's to it was road. But then when you get up close enough, you can go to the right. If you all know the area, you can go to the right right there, the Mackenzie Mark, and you can get around sometimes and go to the right. But otherwise, if somebody trynna turn left or big truck, like he said, commercial trynna turn left, traffic backed up, you can't move until these cars that are going coming back, I guess that'll be northbound to turn left. So it's just real congested. I'm not for it. I mean, I love people moving here, you know, but for them and the houses right there and not making more room for us to travel every day and then making more congested and a lot of houses gonna make it more congested. So that's all I had to say on it. GEORGE ALLEN: And others. DAVID GREEN: Council members, Mr Mayor, thank you for letting me be here and speak.

I'm David Green at 2140 Lester Court. To keep things interesting, I'll speak on the other side of things. So I'm here to speak in favor of this development when I'm representing the developer. When we took this through Planning Commission, we worked with Mr Moseley and we did talk to many of the residents in the area and Global Impact Church and what we heard from them as the two previous speakers have already alluded to, that safety was one of the big concerns up and down Crawford Road. And what we've done, done two things to address that. We think we worked with ALDOT already. We've had a traffic study completed and what we're proposing and what we're prepared to do as developers is to put two right in turn lanes and one left in turn lane. And I actually think that some of the safety concerns that residents have and that neighbors have will actually be improved by these turn lanes. I think it'll calm traffic. And I know school buses are a big issue right now. They have to sit dead in the road when they either pick up children or drop children off in the morning or the evening. And with the turn lanes, they'll have a dedicated place to pull over, which I think will improve safety in that regard. And then density was another concern. When we first started this project, we were approximately 3.4 units to the acre. We've since then drastically reduced our density down to 2.3 units per acre. We've increased our lot sizes from 50 and 60-foot lots to 60 and 70-foot lots, which we believe will just fit better with the surrounding area. And then finally, privacy was a concern for some of the other residents that weren't here and didn't speak tonight. So what we've done there is we've created buffers between where our properties or our development would start, where adjacent neighbors are, and we've put a 25-foot buffer in between our development and those existing homeowners.

And yeah, that's all I have to share. Thank you, guys. GEORGE ALLEN: And others? Having none, I declare this public hearing closed. Agenda-related public comments. Mr Jones? JONES: If there's anything else on the agenda you'd like to speak about for the mayor and the council, please come to the podium to my left. If you speak, again, state your name and your address. Please keep it to three minutes or less. If you have not, sign in the sign-in sheet for your contact information. Thanks. SPEAKER: Mr Jones, I think we can continue to talk again. JONES: Well, this isn't the public hearing, but you can speak about anything that's on the agenda. Yes, sir. You have three minutes. ALLY RAUCH: Hello, everyone. Ally Rauch, 2240 Lakeview Drive in Opelika. Today, I am coming to speak to you on behalf of the Opelika Chamber. You have in front of you a proposal to approve our 2026 Food Truck Friday dates. There are 12 dates on the calendar. We have done a lot of work kind of assessing what we love about Food Truck Friday and what we would like to make better about it for the new year. We have adjusted those dates, so we will actually kick off the year pending your approval in March and continue through November. So there's a few months that will have numerous dates to allow us to take advantage of the best weather to drive the largest crowds. We have found that when it's great weather and the businesses that are near where those food trucks are parked, you tend to have a lot of overflow into the businesses to support those. And so our hope is that by drawing a larger crowd, that's when you see more of an impact of people choosing to not wait in lines and instead go shop or visit

the restaurants or breweries or things that are downtown. And so with the recent closure of a few, we find it even more important to support those that are down there and open. And so, some of the ways that we're trying to make 2026 even better, we are currently pursuing some grant funds to help us potentially bring larger music acts so that we can have that big crowd, also adding movie screenings. Those are some fun opportunities where you can draw a crowd and get them to stay longer, which will again drive more of an economic impact for our businesses. So I'm just here tonight to make sure that we have spoken to all the businesses impacted. The only street closures that you will see on there is that one block of First Avenue and that one block between First Avenue and Railroad, but Railroad and all other streets around will remain open and available for parking. We've received all the signatures for those businesses, and we are really working to have strong partnerships this year to continue to make it even better, and we would love your support and your yes vote to allow us to move forward with our 2026 planning. Thank you so much. GEORGE ALLEN: And others? ALAN GARNER: There are other concerns. Disruption of road frontage of other properties that are existing. I don't believe the map or the drawing that you've seen and I've seen, which is a pretty picture, but it doesn't actually reveal definitively what's happening. You need more engineering type drawing to show that the disruption, meaning the spillover of dirt that we'll have to take away from each side of the road. And it looks like they're actually drawn a little thinner

than what they should be. So that's just my visual. I tried to scale it and look at it that way, and I look at where children would be dropped off at these places, you know, for them to be just dropped off there, then they've gotta walk another three or four or five blocks into this development to get home. I see that happening up at the Waterford place. And the Waterford place, by the way, they had a long stretch of no driveways. They had no driveways there. Maybe one, but maybe none. I can't really remember, but I don't see them. Lot sizes are bothering me. I don't really believe it's the best interest for people to be squeezed into a nice home on a small lot. It does look like they're trying to build nice homes, but the lot size leaves a little yard. And as far as the traffic study, I am very skeptical. I did not see anybody studying any traffic. I didn't see any line checked across the road to number the cars and see what the traffic would actually be. I did not believe a thorough traffic study was made. I'm sorry to say that, but it's true. Thank you so much. GEORGE ALLEN: Moving right along. Does it, considering the consent agenda, does any council member wish to remove any item or item from the consent agenda and address it as part of our regular agenda? SPEAKER: Yes, sir, President Allen. Resolution number six. GEORGE ALLEN: OK. We will remove our resolution number six

and make it resolution number one on our regular agenda. SPEAKER: Thank you. SPEAKER: Mr President, I'd like to remove number 12. GEORGE ALLEN: We will remove number 12 and make it number two under our regular resolutions. Any others? Now, I will now entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda with the exclusion of number six and number 12. SPEAKER: So moved. GEORGE ALLEN: Is there a second? SPEAKER: Second. GEORGE ALLEN: And the discussion. SPEAKER: Oh, about number one. GEORGE ALLEN: No. SPEAKER: OK, go ahead. GEORGE ALLEN: And the discussion. Having none, call the roll, Mr Jones. JONES: Ms Holmes. HOLMES: Aye. JONES: Ms Whatley. WHATLEY: Aye. JONES: Mr Beams. BEAMS: Aye. JONES: Mr Rauch. RAUCH: Aye. JONES: Mr Allen. GEORGE ALLEN: Aye. JONES: All voted aye to approve the amended consent agenda. GEORGE ALLEN: OK. General business, the only thing we had was included in the consent agenda and no bids, so we've now moved to resolutions, Mr Treece. TREECE: Thank you, Mr President. My pleasure. Resolution number one is a project agreement with the City Board of Education for improvements to Fox Run School, which consists of $20 million to basically meet them halfway for construction costs up to $20 million. If it's less, the city's share would be less. SPEAKER: Yes, sir. So I just wanna thank you for that. So we are aware of what it is and what we're supposed to be doing, but just for the sake of transparency for the people, I know that is a big amount that we're looking at doing, and individuals may not know or see what it is. So just the explanation to the people in the body of what we're doing and the citizens of Opelika, so that's just why

I wanted it to be pulled out so we'll understand the $20 million for grades five and six going into Fox Run School for the addition between the Board of Education and us. Thank you. TREECE: Yes, ma'am. Resolution number two is, I'm sorry. SPEAKER: We got to approve it. SPEAKER: Yeah, you do. Thank you. SPEAKER: Further discussion. Mr Treece, did you say that, explain that this is a partnership in $20 million from the City of Opelika and also $20 million from Opelika City Schools? TREECE: That's correct. It could be more for their share, but the city has obligated itself to no more than $20 million. SPEAKER: So, can you explain a little bit the need for this? TREECE: Well, the board camp, well, citywide has experienced an increase in the students, a 10% increase since 2021. And particularly at Fox Run School, they would like to increase their capacity from 410 students and 28 classrooms to 1,200 students in 59 classrooms. As the council knows, you've all seen, you've been here, that the city has been growing rapidly, lots of development, lots of residential development. And the idea would be to combine the fifth and sixth grade classes at a single campus as well. So it represents a tremendous opportunity and an investment in, of course, education for the children of Opelika. SPEAKER: I appreciate it. When can we expect the start and end date for this? TREECE: I think some of the original work has been done, so it should come pretty quickly. But everything is estimated now, and I'm not really certain as to beginning or end dates.

I think that it would be completed by some point in 2028, if I'm not mistaken, if memory serves. SPEAKER: Can you explain any further about where the money this is coming in from the city and where we're taking it from and how we're paying for it? TREECE: It's from the investments that the city has made over the years, the investments fund. And like I said, if for some reason it's less, which we all know in construction, sure, the cap is set at what it set in light of what those investments have been. So it represents a substantial amount of money, clearly, but the city's got that money invested and earmarked now, at least for this project. SPEAKER: Thank you. TREECE: Yes, sir. SPEAKER: I have a question. TREECE: Yes, ma'am. SPEAKER: How, since the school is about three years old, have we done our due diligence? How do we make that mistake three years ago? We're already here. That's my big concern, to make sure we're doing the right thing presently. How, I don't have the projection. TREECE: Yeah, I don't have an answer to that question. I don't know that anybody could predict the level of growth in the city in such a relatively short period of time, but that would be probably a better question directed to the board. SPEAKER: OK. And so just for clarity, we'll have the intermediate schools will now be grades three and four, and then fifth and sixth. So we'll have K through second, third and fourth grade, then we'll have our fifth and sixth, and then our seventh and eighth will be at the middle school, and then our ninth and twelfth will be at the high school. TREECE: That's my understanding. Yes, ma'am. SPEAKER: Yes. Thank you. SPEAKER: Can I make a comment? Absolutely. I will say this just because I was there for nine years. There were at least two occasions where we, that

I vividly remember, that we did population studies as we looked at, you know, growing. And usually when those reports are presented, the consultant who's doing it, they would provide us a kind of a low, medium, and high projection, and that low, medium, and high projection would be based at, say, year three, five, and ten. And so, in the two situations that I remember in both instances, when we got to the year that they were projecting to, we overshot the high number both times. And so that is a challenge, you know, as you deal with the growth that we've seen. And so, you know, in hindsight, could we wish we would have built that school bigger? Absolutely. But I can tell you that the design was built so that we could easily go on to the side without disrupting the sixth grade that's already there. So it's unusual that I would know that, but that's kind of the deal there. So a lot of things happen. GEORGE ALLEN: Any other discussion? Having none, call the roll, Mr Jones. SPEAKER: Are we there? SPEAKER: Did we get a motion and a second? GEORGE ALLEN: Yeah, I thought we did. SPEAKER: Who motioned? Who seconded? I don't have a motion and a second. SPEAKER: So moved. SPEAKER: We did. SPEAKER: I'm sorry. I apologize. I didn't have a motion to second. GEORGE ALLEN: Well, we did. OK, no problem. SPEAKER: Aye. JONES: Ms Whatley. WHATLEY: Abstain. JONES: Mr Beams. BEAMS: Aye. JONES: Mr Rauch. RAUCH: Aye. JONES: Mr Allen. GEORGE ALLEN: Aye. JONES: Four ayes, one abstained. SPEAKER: Who was the second on that, Mr Clerk? SPEAKER: I second.

SPEAKER: Yeah, I've got Mr Rauch and Ms Holmes. Questions? SPEAKER: Alright. Resolution number two is the annual appropriation contract between the City and East Alabama Health Care Authority for $632,194. GEORGE ALLEN: Is there a motion for approval? SPEAKER: So moved. SPEAKER: Second. GEORGE ALLEN: Any discussion? We removed that. SPEAKER: Yeah, I just asked for it to be removed. I am employed by this health care authority in my other life, so I'm gonna abstain. GEORGE ALLEN: OK. SPEAKER: Mr Attorney, can you explain this a little bit more? SPEAKER: It is as it is. This is the annual appropriation contract with East Alabama Health Care Authority that covers East Alabama Medical Center. Obviously, they are expanding and experience the same kind of growing pains that lots of the other city services are having, and this would represent the city's contribution to their efforts. SPEAKER: This was also in the budget. SPEAKER: Yes, EMS service. GEORGE ALLEN: But it would be hard for us to live without those services. SPEAKER: Yeah. SPEAKER: And this is strictly the EMS. SPEAKER: Yeah. This is just the EMS service. It's a contract with Auburn, Opelika, and the county. GEORGE ALLEN: Any other discussion? If not, call the roll Mr Jones. JONES: Ms Holmes. HOLMES: Aye. JONES: Ms Whatley. WHATLEY: Aye. JONES: Mr Beams. BEAMS: Abstain. JONES: Mr Rauch. RAUCH: Aye. JONES: Mr Allen. GEORGE ALLEN: Aye. JONES: Four ayes. One abstained. GEORGE ALLEN: Ordinance is Mr Treece. TREECE: Thank you, Mr President. Ordinance is on tonight's agenda. Ordinance number one is to amend the development plan for the Wyndham Planned Use Development, or PUD,

15.04 acres at 3150 Wyndham Industrial Drive. This is the second reading. GEORGE ALLEN: Is there a motion for approval? SPEAKER: So moved. GEORGE ALLEN: Is there a second? SPEAKER: Second. GEORGE ALLEN: Any discussion? Having none, call the roll, Mr Jones. JONES: Ms Holmes. HOLMES: Aye. JONES: Ms Whatley. WHATLEY: Aye. JONES: Mr Beams. BEAMS: Aye. JONES: Mr Rauch. RAUCH: Aye. JONES: Mr Allen. GEORGE ALLEN: Aye. JONES: All voted aye. TREECE: Ordinance number two is to amend the text of the zoning ordinance, section 7.3A, minimum lot width in the area requirements table for the C-1 zoning district from 60 feet to nothing. This is the second reading. GEORGE ALLEN: Is there a motion for approval? SPEAKER: So moved. GEORGE ALLEN: Is there a second. SPEAKER: Second. GEORGE ALLEN: Any discussion? Having none, call the roll, Mr Jones. JONES: Ms Holmes. HOLMES: Aye. JONES: Ms Whatley. WHATLEY: Aye. JONES: Mr Beams. BEAMS: Aye. JONES: Mr Rauch. RAUCH: Aye. JONES: Mr Allen. GEORGE ALLEN: Aye. JONES: All voted aye. TREECE: Ordinance number three is to amend the zoning ordinance and map involving 2209 Lafayette Parkway, 6.1 acres from M1 GCP to a C3 GCP. This is the second reading. GEORGE ALLEN: Is there a motion for approval? SPEAKER: So moved. GEORGE ALLEN: Second. SPEAKER: Second. GEORGE ALLEN: Any discussion? Having none, call the roll, Mr Jones. JONES: Ms Holmes. HOLMES: Aye. JONES: Ms Whatley. WHATLEY: Aye. JONES: Mr Beams. BEAMS: Aye. JONES: Mr Rauch. RAUCH: Aye. JONES: Mr Allen. GEORGE ALLEN: Aye. JONES: All voted aye. TREECE: Ordinance number four is to amend the zoning ordinance and map for 2001 Cunningham Drive, consisting of 5.1 acres from an R4 to a PUD. This is the first reading. GEORGE ALLEN: I would like to ask a member of the council to introduce this as ordinances for the first reading. SPEAKER: My pleasure. GEORGE ALLEN: Thank you.

TREECE: Ordinance number five is to amend the zoning ordinance and map at the 1300 block of Crawford Road, consisting of 73.3 acres from an R1 to a PUD. This is the first reading. GEORGE ALLEN: I would like to ask a member of the council to introduce this too as a first reading. SPEAKER: My pleasure. GEORGE ALLEN: Thank you. Second roster of public comments, Mr Jones. JONES: Alright. Now, if you'd like to speak about anything else, please come to the podium to my left. Please sign the sign-in sheet. Please state your name and your address. Please give it three minutes or less. GEORGE ALLEN: Having none, our character trait of the month is responsibility, the quality of state of being responsible, such as a moral, legal, or mental accountability. And at this time, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. SPEAKER: So moved. SPEAKER: Second. GEORGE ALLEN: Any