Town Council - Regular Meeting

Stop. Good evening and welcome to the Smyrna Town Council January meeting. Before we um move into our agenda, we will have public comments. And um just so you all that are in the audience and at home watching know to be placed under the town uh Smyrna Town Council citizens comments, an individual must fill out the online form, call or email the town clerk's office before 4:30 on the business day before the council meeting and request to be placed under citizens comments. Provide his or her name, address, and telephone number and state the purpose of addressing the council. Tonight we have Amber. Where is it? Seven. Tonight we have seven people who have signed up under citizens comments and um we are really glad that people come to address our council because many times if we don't hear from somebody we just assume people are in favor of an item. The only thing that I ask is I ask that when someone's up to speak that we are all respectful. Um, that's something we really want to make sure that [cough] each one of us are here. And so we ask that there be no cheering, no clapping, no booing or any of that. Um, when someone is speaking, we know for many of you this may be the first time you've ever gotten up to speak in front of a group like this. So, we understand you may be a little bit nervous, but we ask that when you come up that you just state your name, your address, and if you live inside the city limits. Now, Amber right over there, she's the real

mean one and she will keep you to three minutes and she will come tackle you if you go over your three minutes. So, that's right. And so, if you will just make sure that you stay within your three minutes. But we'll go straight down the list and remember just name, address, and if you live inside the town limits. And first we have Kelly Butler. Wow, I love being first. Um, my name is Kelly Butler and my address is 2111 Trout Trail and I'm in Murphy'sboro, so not in city limits. Um, mayor, members of town council, and staff, I want to begin by sincerely thanking you. Even though some of us here tonight are not residents of the town of Smyrna, you've been consistently willing to listen, engage, and respond thoughtfully to community concerns over the past nine months. Is very clear that this council cares deeply about this community and wants what is best not only for its current residents, but future residents as well. With that in mind, I want to speak to the primary concern shared by residents. At this stage in planning, the largest concern is the delicate balance between longestablished families, generational land, and new industrial development. Thoughtful growth requires considerate blending, not simply placing 60-oot tall warehouses next to people's homes and lifetime investments. We believe this area is better suited for a true mixeduse environment. One that includes office, retail, service, industrial, parks, and residential uses, which is consistent with how Ratherford County has defied the future growth of this area. As currently written, this plan does not strike the balance. Instead of creating a thoughtful and welcoming

gateway into Smyrna, it presents an industrial identity as the community's first impression. Hillwood has met with residents and those conversations have been constructive. Agreements have been discussed and in some cases reached, but only on the western portion of this development where impacts are more limited. when similar protections are requested for the eastern portion where impacts are I'm sorry Hillwood has not been willing to put those commitments in writing at this time stating it's too early for that discussion in those same discussions this project is described as two separate phases yet in other situations it continues to be discussed as a unified project that makes it difficult to evaluate the western portion as a standalone project even though approval today would set the framework for everything that follows. Hillwood has also stated they are willing to invest approximately 40 million in utility infrastructure, which we know is important, knowing the eastern portion may not be improved. While that is their business decision, it creates concern for the future. When this project returns, not all current council members may be seated and future councils may feel pressure to approve the eastern section because so much has already been invested. That's not a fair position for future leadership or for this community. The concern is simple. Hillwood is asking the community and the town to annex this property now and trust that the remaining problems with the plan will be worked out later. Annexation is permanent and once it happens, the ability to meaningfully resolve those concerns is greatly reduced. For these reasons, I respectfully ask this council to vote no on this project is currently proposed. Thank you. Thank you, Kelly. Kay Reynolds.

Kay, how are you? Good. And yourself? Good. It is great to see you.

Likewise. Kay Reynolds. I live at 9806 Sunfish Court in Murphy'sboro and I am now outside of city limits. [clears throat] The uh mayor, council, good evening. Nice to see so many faces again and it feels like a homecoming of sorts. Uh when I bought my first house in Smyrna in 2004, I was attracted to Smyrna because of the small town feel and the charm that it had. And couple years later, I became an employee for the town of Smyrna. And as an employee for 14 years, I was privy to see how Smyrna was able to control that growth and maintain that charm that so many citizens have grown to love. And over time, [clears throat] I have now moved out of city limits and I am also a resident of Angller's Retreat. And what drew us to Anggo's retreat is the uh small town feel even though it's a neighborhood and that charm where everyone knows everyone. It feels like a uh Andy Griffith town. I think the biggest criminal activity we had was the uh the Armadillo [laughter] and that was a disaster. But overall we love our community that we have at Angller's Retreat and we have grown there. Everyone knows everyone. You can walk around safely. No, no harm or frustration or anything. And so we have grown to love it. And I just want to thank you very much for hearing me out and your consideration on this matter. Thank you.

Thanks, K Lori Delansancy.

Hi, my name is Lori Delansancy. I live at 1215 Sycamore Leaf Way in Murphy'sboro. It's part of the Cascade Falls neighborhood, not in Smyrna Town Central, whatever. [laughter] Sorry. That's okay. I'm a little nervous. You're good.

Um, so mayor and member of the town council, first I want to thank you. I want to thank you for listening to our community, for asking hard questions, and for continuing to engage on the real impacts of this project. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed. My comments tonight focus specifically on traffic and why the current information before you is not sufficient to support approval. First, there's no updated traffic study that includes the intersection of Mona Road and Jefferson Pike, and that omission is significant. The existing intersection is barely wide enough for cars and local trucks today. It's not designed to accommodate semi-truck traffic at any meaningful volume. In addition, it's a blind turn coming off a hill on Jefferson Pike. Limited sight distance combined with increased truck traffic is a serious safety concern and not a theoretical one. Council has not been given data showing how this intersection would function or fail under even modest industrial traffic. And without that analysis, you're being asked to accept unknown risk. Second, Mona Road itself is not equipped to handle the traffic this project will generate. It's an underdeveloped road with no shoulders, no street lights, and limited safety features. Increased industrial traffic will require upgrades, and those upgrades will fall to the town of Smyrna, not the developer. Once utilities are installed along Mona Road, development on that corridor will happen quickly. Traffic impacts will arrive faster than infrastructure can realistically be funded, designed, and built. It creates both safety risks and unplanned financial obligation for the town. Third, this project represents what many residents refer to as lollipop development. Growth that skips over established areas and lands abruptly on the fringe. That pattern increases

disruption. Road closures, detours, and construction traffic will repeatedly affect an area that's already heavily congested. Emergency access, school traffic, and daily commuting will all be impacted more often and more severely. A more natural progression of development from within Smyrna outward allows infrastructure to keep pace with growth and minimizes disruption to the existing neighborhoods. Traffic planning should be proactive, not reactive. And right now, the town is being asked to accept traffic impacts first and to solve the problems later when the cows are already out of the barn. Thank you again for listening and for your service to the community. [laughter]

Thank you. Sounds like somebody's been listening to some council members up here. Um, Brenda, is it Bonnedes? Yes. Great.

My name is Brenda Bonades. I live at 2079 Angller's Retreat Drive in Murphy'sboro. Mayor and members of the town council, thank you for the opportunity to speak. My comments focus solely on the economic impact plan submitted by Hillwood and why it should not be relied on for your decision. An economic impact plan should be conservative, current, grounded in reality, and this one is not. First, the plan does not reflect the project as it exists today. Over the past year, this proposal has changed significantly through discussions with council staff and utility providers. Phasing and infrastructure requirements have shifted. Yet, the e economic impl impact plan was not meaningfully updated. You are asked to vote using a financial document that no longer matches the project under construction. Second, the projected timeline for commercial tax revenue is unrealistic. The plan assumes that by 2028 there will be hotel, restaurants or retail generating sales tax, property tax, and hotel tax. However, utility providers have stated publicly that major utility infrastructure will take up to 5 years to complete. Without utilities, commercial development cannot proceed. And even after utilities are complete, commercial parcels must be sold, plans submitted and approved, financing secured, and construction completed. Based on the facts in the record, commercial tax revenue by 2028 is not achievable. Third, the plan assumes commercial demand that does not exist today. There is no surrounding commercial development along Tennessee Road 452. No established traffic base, no demonstrated market study explaining why a hotel or restaurant would even want to locate there. They're actually they're just speculative. Finally, the eastern portion of the project creates a

significant financial risk for the town. Hillwood's own plan states that this phase would not begin until 2033. To serve that area, Smyrna would need to construct a new fire station, purchase equipment, and staff it at significant upfront cost. There is no binding commitment that tax revenue would exist to offset those expenses. When reviewed as a whole, the economic impact plan overstates near-term revenue, understates long-term public costs, and shifts financial risks from the developer to the taxpayers of Smyrna. A no vote is not anti-growth. It is fiscally responsible and grounded in the facts before you. Thank you for your time and service.

Thank you, Hannah Gray. Gary. Hannah Gary.

Good evening. My name is Hannah Gary and I currently live at 1116 Tiger Woods Way, Murphy'sboro, Tennessee. And I am not within the Smarter City limits. In addition, I also own land at 10343 Pal Chapel Road. And like so many others in this room, I'm adamantly opposed to Hillwood's development along Tennessee 452 Mona Road and the annexation of the development into the town of Smyrna. Unlike so many others in this room, it is not because I recently purchased a home in this area in the past few years. You see, my great great great great grandfather bought the land that I own on Pow Chapel Road in 1811. Since that time, this land has been passed down from generation to generation. My family's been on this land for 215 years and counting. It's where I grew up. It's where my parents currently live. It's where I plan to build. It's where I plan to be buried right next to my ancestors. The land where I plan to build backs up to Fall Creek directly across from Angller's Retreat subdivision and where Hillwood Development is planning is proposing to build one of the warehouses. to build that warehouse on that piece of land. They need to change the topography to prevent flooding, which would alter the flood plan and flood my land. I've seen the maps, but they do not reflect the flooding that has occurred in this area over the last 25 years. Their proposed retention pond would be in the flood area and would do nothing to help stop flooding. In our last community meeting with Hillwood, they said that they may not actually build that building, but they've refused to put that in writing. As you can imagine, that makes me as well as others around me more than a bit apprehensive to trust them. In addition to the flooding concerns, the amount of traffic on our small two-lane country roads would be horrible. Ask the people in Glaville how traffic is working in their community. They will happily tell you all about the struggles they face with 18-wheelers running off of their narrow roads, shutting down their roadways multiple times a week, and also with the struggles they face with trucks going down roads that are not they're not supposed to be on at all. It is my

understanding that the T dot calendar is already backed up for several years out. So when would they even be able to widen our roads and make them safe. While talking to the people of Gladeville, also asked them about the empty warehouses they have that have been built and cannot be leased and that the businesses that are abandoning them in droves. With so many vacant warehouses just a few miles down I840, why is there a need to build more? I understand that Rutherford County wants more warehousing, but is now the right time? Have the current approved warehouses in Smyrna and Rutherford County started construction? And if so, are they rented? Because it's my understanding that these tenants, we don't have tenants for these proposed warehouses at this time. The people that live in this area are here for a way of life, a calm, quiet, relaxed way of life. Whether their families have lived here for generations or they moved here in the last few years, they did so for a reason. They want to continue to see herds of deer and flocks of wild turkeys wandering from field to field rather than being pushed out of their natural habitats and having nowhere to go. They don't want their starry skies replaced by the glare of fluorescent lights. They don't want the sounds of chirping crickets and bullfrogs replaced by beeping trucks in the middle of the night. They don't want their yards and homes flooded by Mayor.

Thank you. You're three minutes. Okay. I'm sorry. Thank you so much. Uhu. Um, Eric White.

Hello. My name is Eric White. I I live at uh 10494 Palace Chapel Road and I am not a resident of Smyrna. Thank you.

If you haven't visited our neighborhood, this is a beautiful and peaceful and currently zoned for residential and agriculture. I've written several emails to this council expressing my concerns and opposition to the planned developments by Hillwood. I understand the need for smart development and to support commerce where and when it makes sense for the community and its residents. However, the planned Hillwood development for warehouse and light industry is fraught with multiple challenges for the residents and for project challenges for the city of uh and town of Smyrna. This council has been upfront with the community in that this is the largest project undertaken by the town. It's complex and still has unanswered questions and concerns. The community needs addressed in the formal plan rather than verbal promises. Nearly all the residents in the proposed areas around the development are against the placement of these warehouses. I live at the bottom of the hill on Pal's Chapel and when built the character and the sightelines of the neighborhood will be miserable as we drive in and out of this industrial park from our homes. These massive warehouses will overtake the beautiful tree lines and no amount of obliscation will mitigate the fact that we will be surrounded and living inside an industrial park. the these these ma these massive warehouses will overtake uh our lives to a great degree and it the loss uh of uh these this important area uh and these massive structures structures uh will just ruin our our existing area. The development will certainly lower the quality of our lives and the value of our homes. It will create much unwanted noise and traffic challenges on local infrastructure that was never designed or built for these kinds of of pressures. I'm worried that we will be dodging even more truck traffic

and and the fact that these these uh locations don't have anything in on Pal's Chapel to mitigate this is going to be a significant challenge. The planned placement of these warehouses has not considered the 24-hour noise that will be created by these loading docks which are pointed directly in some cases at our bedrooms. The height of the proposed buildings and the lighting from parking lots will create considerable amount of light pollution and ne and negate the main reason that many of us move to this area. As you know, we were first here and foremost Hill and the Hillwood plan should take that into account. Little information on requested mitigations has been put in writing to address the local community concerns surrounding the plan development. This leaves the residents to bear the risk of being forced to coexist with large industry. In addition, I am extremely concerned about the amount of blasting as our houses are built on concrete slabs so close to the construction locations. Three minutes. Mayor,

thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Our last person under public comment is Eric Jackson.

Uh my name is Eric Jackson. I live at 11351 Palace Chapel Road, uh Lebanon, Tennessee on the opposite side of 452 going towards Wilson County. Um, everyone here has already pretty much said what a lot of y'all because I've been to the meet the past few meetings have questioned about and concerns that me and my family have raised. I'm going to hit more on like what Hannah was saying. Myself, Hannah and her family and most of the people in the front row right here have been families have been in this land for generations. [clears throat] I'm raising the fourth generation on the land. uh Paul has been very and Hill would have been very uh helpful to a point of listening to our demands and changing some things other than saying hey we don't want it and them just up and up and leaving. So I have no bad really on Hillwood [clears throat] but uh on our side is the east side development. We will end up surrounded by warehouses on both sides of Palace Chapel. It butts up to the back of my property and then directly on the other side of the road. It uh it's a great decision I know in a lot of our future lives of what's really going to happen. I've paused building a house for the last two years on my land for this because if it happens, you know, I'm I'm probably going to be leaving. But it is what it is. Uh, I just hope that y'all take this whole undertaking as a whole, not just one-sided development. And I've I've heard a bunch of y'all say that in the past meetings, and I very much appreciate that. So, thank y'all very much. God bless you.

Thank you. Okay, that ends our public comment uh phase. Um, just for those of you that did not get an agenda, we will be discussing this item under new business um quite a ways down. So you all will get to sit and hear our meeting which we're glad that you're here. So at this point I am going to call our meeting to order. And tonight our prayer is going to be done by Chaplain Tim York. Is Tim did he is he coming in? Scared.

Uh well poor Tim. It seems like every time Tim does the prayer, Tim, you must pray for public comment because every time you do, we have quite a few. Would that be accurate? I like a crowd. You like a So, they're really here for you. Is that it? That's [clears throat] it. Tim's going to be doing our prayer and our pledge will be done by our director of parks, Mike Moss. If you'll all stand with us, please.

Let's pray. Our father, we love you. We thank you for our town. We thank you for those who serve in every capacity. We pray for all the employees of this city that you would meet their needs, bless their families, protect those who serve as first responders. Father, we ask you to give our council wisdom. And may all of us be reminded you taught us to love you and to love one another. And may we follow that. We ask in your name. Amen.

Amen. flagges to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Tim. Thank you, Mike. Miss Amber, if you will do roll call for us. Councilman Dempsey, present. Councilwoman Peoples, here. Councilman Cole, yes, ma'am. Councilman Short here. Councilman Sullivan here. Vice Mayor Atkins here. Mayor Reed here.

We'll move on to item four, which is approval or corrections of the minutes uh the December 9th, 2025 regular meeting and the January 6, 2026 workshop and special called meetings of the town council. Jeff, are these in order? They are in order. Approved to form unless you have any uh additions you'd like to make. Council, any additions or corrections that need to be made? Make a motion to approve the minutes. Mayor a [snorts] motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Minutes pass. Tonight we have a couple of awards and recognitions. Our um first is Smyrna Rutherford County Airport Executive Director Evan Lester um has um a really exciting award. Evan, do you want to come up? Great. and bring your crew with you. Absolutely. Don't be shy. [laughter]

Mayor, council, thank you very much for this opportunity to be here today. I have with us our vice chairman, Mr. Paul Lamb, our commissioner, Steve Harrison, and also Commissioner Ben Weatherford. Uh Ben and Steve are the Rutherford County Commissioners, and then Paul obviously is with the town. Uh our chairman, Mike Woods, couldn't be here today due to prior obligations um along with Graham Coats, who's the Lever representative. Uh but we're very honored to receive this prestigious award. Uh it was presented to us by the uh US Navy Blue Angels as we won the 2025 civilian air show of the year from the Blue Angels. Um and really it's not just an airport award. It's really a community award. Uh because it takes so many people to put on the air show. uh from the town, the county, from the city of Leverne, our airport boards and staff, uh all the organizations and volunteers that contribute to this award. Um and so it just exemplifies just the excellence in our air show that's been going on for several decades now. Uh and I would be remiss if I didn't also say what a great contribution that our former executive director John Black also gave us. Uh he really set the stage uh for this award and and we couldn't do it without him. Um, I also want to mention that our Blue Angel liaison, Nikki Dipier, also won the Blue Angel civilian uh of the year award, liazison of the year award. Uh, so the great Tennessee Air Show swept the awards with the Blue Angels this year for 2025 and we're very proud of that. So we want to say thank you uh as well for all your time, efforts, and support with your staff as well. They were tremendous

and that you can clap for. [applause] So, would you mind if y'all come up front and we stand behind and we get a quick picture? Absolutely. Great. That's a Hall of Fame group right there. That is a Hall of Fame group. [clears throat] So, we'll let y'all face Miss Heather that way. Come on, Steve.

Steve's driving. [laughter] Thank you. Oh, wait. I'm sorry. Great. Thank you. Thank you. So,

uh, we are going to move that up right after awards and recognitions if you want to stay, but that's totally up to you. Yeah, I am going to move that up. So, yeah, Steve is like, yeah. So, I just have a couple more. Let me say this about the Blue Angels. They've been flying here since the 70s. And I always say they're they don't they don't live here. They're not stationed here, but they are absolutely part of the fabric of our community. I think we all get excited when we hear those engines and when we hear them come in and get to see them. So, this was an award I was so excited when Evan posted that we had won that they recognized us as being the best air show that they were at in the whole for the whole year. So, I think as much as they have a place in our hearts, I think the town of Smyrna has a place in their hearts, too. So, um, Evan, we're really excited about that award. Okay. Next, um, Jeff Craig, our HR director, is going to come talking about another award that we've won.

Mayor Council, uh, good evening. I am excited to announce that the town of Smyrna has been has gotten the award of the 2025 Wellness Alliance Wellplace Bronze Level. So I want to explain a little bit about what that is. So the wellness alliance is the most recognized and influential professional o organization in the wellness industry. You may have remembered a couple years ago we came and we have been recognized by the state for the things that we do for wellness for our employees. This is a national award. Uh so this last year 47 organizations across the whole United States got this award. So we're one of 47 organizations. We're the only one in Tennessee with a designation from the Wellness Alliance. So that's pretty impressive. So I'm really excited about that. And obviously when we take care of our employees and their health, they're able to give great service back to the community. So that's one of the reasons why we do what we do. I do want to take just a minute to introduce our wellness team who did all the hard work to get recognized for this award. Come on up. So we have JJ Dolan who is our uh wellness coordinator. He provides the strategic vision and direction for the programs that we do. We have Lisa Winters, our health coach, and she works one-on-one with our employees and family members to reach their personal wellness goals. And then a new addition to our team is Mackenzie Alorn. She's a counselor and she ensures that mental health is prioritized as a core part of our culture. So they do a fantastic job here. This is a huge award. This is very difficult to get. We have applied for this probably three or four times in the last five or 10 years. So finally got it. It's a big deal. So very quickly, tell a little bit so people here in the audience and people at home know what we do in regards to wellness for our employees and for their families.

Sure. So we prioritize wellness for our employees and their family members. We have a fitness center downstairs in the basement that is fully function. Uh it is repurposed equipment from when we had the public facility uh a couple of years ago at the event center at the parks department. And so employees can go to the fitness center and use the facilities. We have programs. So we have exercise programs, weight loss programs, nutritional programs for our employees. Uh we have classes. Uh so we have workout classes, we have one-on-one personal training sessions. And so in addition, we also have counseling for our police and fire uh members and their employees. So it's uh really total total wellness approach to uh what we do for employees. So, the paychecks are important for what we do for our employees, but also their physical and mental health is something that's important, too. So, thank you to the wellness team. Um, I know you can work us over pretty good sometimes. I'm pro I have proof of that. So, but we appreciate what you all do each and every day to make our employees healthier so they can go out and serve the residents of our community. So, thank you all and kudos. Great job. It's always nice being recognized. [applause]

Mike Moss, tonight is awards night. Come on down. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Um, proud of those people before me. Evan and I are from the same hometown, but we're in a different age group. I did not know him growing up, but I met him here. Um, so I'm proud of them. I'm proud of Jeff and his team as well. Um we uh in October were at the Tennessee Recreation and Parks Association u conference and we uh had applied. We got a lot of people here. You do. We need name tags. Come on in. [clears throat]

Um like Jeff and his crew, uh we had applied for a four-star award uh several times over the years and never won. Although we thought we should win and uh just like everyone else did. Uh but this year it happened and uh the four-star award um we were in the the category of the 500,000 uh plus project category. And uh you can see on the slide it was Cedarstone Park tennis and pickleball courts. Um and six tennis courts uh six pickle ball courts and state-of-the-art LED lighting. uh perimeter walkway, the 88 access, benches that match, colors that match the nearby school complex, and also uh the park itself. It was a $2 million project uh partially funded by local parks and recreation uh fund grant and parks impact fees. So, that made up the the um uh the construction costs there and the funding as well. Um the one thing I want to say, anything we get coming our way as far as an accolade or award is a team effort. not only with this team that's with me here tonight. It starts here and all the directors behind us and our partners and uh it is a group effort and I want to make sure people understand that it's uh it's our parks advisory board. It's our legal team. Um it's all of our finance people that paid the bills and reimbursements, that type of thing. Uh utilities helps us out a lot when we're having to move lines. A lot of times they don't you you see what's on top of the ground here, but what's under the ground uh has to be moved sometimes. Um, our PIO helps us out, got the word out. Other departments did that uh as well. Um, public meeting. We had a public meeting because that was a grant project. The one thing I heard out there loud and clear is separate the pickle ball from the tennis courts. We had them as combination courts and uh and several of those people said they need to be separate. So, we went back to Thomas and Hutton. They separated them

for us and we we made a made up the same footprint almost as what we had originally. Another thing I'm very proud of is the design team from Thomas and Hutton. Uh we kind of recognize them when we had the ribbon cutting. They are local firm. Uh I know they're in Merboro now, but they were local then, but they're still uh local to us. And uh Beach Construction, who was also a local firm out on Huntley Industrial Drive. They won that bid and uh very proud of them. So it was a good connection for us. Uh we're very proud of the award and um this one right here said we're going to win it and she did a lot of the the line share there but Jimmy and athletics maintenance the southside team did a lot of the project oversight um and the rest of the team is just supporting wherever they can whether it's a ribbon cutting or a program or whatever. We feel we got a good project. We're very proud of it and we're proud to present that uh to our town council and the citizens tonight.

Great. Well, um, you know, parks is something Smyrna has always been known for and you all just continue the tradition and I think Morton Lane Park is one that we are all so proud of. And if you have not had a chance to go out to Morton Lane to see the park, go check it out um and do it quickly because it's going to be added on to um in the not tooistant future. But it's one we're really really proud of. So, um, we appreciate all the hard work that you all have put in to, um, make a better quality of life for the citizens of the town of Smyrna. So, we appreciate it. Yep. We appreciate the opportunity. I think we'll need a picture. Yes. Jump up here. Oh, I forgot to do that with the wellness. Y'all want to come up here?

Yes. Oh, they're going to be mad. Did they leave? I know. The workout's going to be really bad now. That's right. Everybody

and if you'd be so kind. Thank you very much. Great. Thank you. [applause] Is JJ and them still out there, Scott? No. No, they they shot out. They I understand. Um Heather, can we make sure because I don't Is Heather right there? It must be downstairs.

Will Well, but we also make sure that we get it shared on social media because I don't think that we've done that for any of those items yet. I think we wanted to do that here. Perfect. Okay. Um, council, would you all be opposed to um, since the board for the airport is here, would you all be opposed to moving the resolution, which is 8F up, so that we can go ahead and vote on 8F? Would you be okay with that? Okay. So, we'll move to 8F, which is consideration of a resolution in support of a new air traffic control tower at Smyrna Airport. Jeff, are you or Dave, could you take a motion on that for me, please? Oh, do you want me to get a motion? Do can I have a motion on moving? Thank you. So move. Have a motion. Second. Any discussion?

All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes to move this item. Thanks for keeping me straight. Um, so the item is I'll read it again. Consideration of a resolution in support of a new air traffic control tower at the Smyrna airport. Dave, you taking this? Jeff, you taking this? Do you want me to take? I'd be happy to. I know we have the airport folks here if they want to talk further about or you want to hear from them but um Sure. Evan, do you want to or Paul or who wants to talk a little bit about the importance of it? Sure.

Thank you for having me twice. Mayor and council, thank you again for your support of this. U the Smarty airport has an air traffic control tower that's 72 years old. It was built in 1953 uh during the Korean War and um the structure is not adequate enough to be able to facilitate future growth and development needs at the airport. Um it has no elevator. You have to climb seven stories just to get to the cab and it's also about a third of the size of a normal air traffic control tower. Um so the airport's uh in real need of that to continue to improve the growth and development of the airport along with improved safety and efficiency of our air traffic uh management services. So, u we appreciate the opportunity to speak with you on that today.

Any questions for Evan on this? I think we all know I think we're all of us there when we went up to visit the tower. So, um I think we know the importance especially with looking at the growth that we're probably going to see at the airport over the next couple of years. So, do I have a motion? Have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in [clears throat] favor say I. I. Any opposed? Thank you all. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, council.

Okay, we'll now move on to our consent agenda. These are items that are determined by the town manager to be routine matters and not necessarily needing individual discussion. I do like to read these items individually, so those in the audience and those at home know exactly what we are voting on. These are ones that um we really work on getting answers to during our workshops or call in directors, but if there is something that needs to be pulled off, we can do that and vote on it separately. Our first item under the consent agenda is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a contract amendment with Thomas and Hutton for permitting services relative to Cedarstone Park phase 2. Item B is approval of the terms of and authorization for the mayor to execute a rental agreement for the from here to there exhibit for the Smyrna Outdoor Adventure Center. Item C is approval of the terms of and authorization for the mayor to execute an agreement with CBRE relative to the Stewarts Creek gravity sewer project reappraisals. Item D is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute an agreement with the city of Leverne for the Blair Road gas relocation project. Item E is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute an agreement with James N. Bush Construction Incorporated relative to the Enan Springs Road Waterline Replacement Project. Item F is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute an agreement with Jarrett Builders Incorporated relative to the golf course waterline extension connection. Item G is approval of the fire department administrative policies and procedures manual. Item H is approval of the terms of and authorization for the mayor to execute a federal contract with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD for fiscal year 2025 CDBG entitlement funds for a new playground at Hilltop Rosenwall Park. Item I is approval of the terms of and authorization for the mayor to execute amendment number two with energy land

and infrastructure relative to the Lee Road phase one. Item J is approval of the terms of an authorization for the mayor to execute a contract with SNW Contracting Company LLC for construction of pedestrian buttons at the intersection of Old Nashville Highway and Hazlewood Drive. Item K is approval of the terms approval of the terms of and authorization for the mayor to execute a quote with CDWG for a three-year renewal of the Google Workspace Agreement. And item L is approval of the terms of and authorization of a list of items to be auctioned through online surplus sale with go deals. These are our items under the consent agenda. Do I have a motion? Move to approve the consent agenda. Have a motion. Do we have a second?

Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Consent agenda passes. We have two items of old business tonight that are public hearings. The first is the consideration of an ordinance relative to the reasonzoning of tax map 28J group A parcel 1.00 to go from R3 to C4. It's requested by Tracy Mayola. The property requested to be reszoned contains approximately 71100s of an acre and is located at 1191 Rock Springs Road. Hey Kevin. Evening mayor and council. You got your haircut? Yes ma'am. I sure did. I don't like it very much but I did get a haircut. You don't like it? I feel My wife doesn't like it either, so it's going to have to She doesn't like it. Well, if she doesn't like it, you won't be getting that.

I won't be getting it again. No. Or you're not going home early tonight. [laughter] That's right. Uh yes. Uh this is a resoning request on 1191 Rock Springs Road about 950 ft east of the intersection with Spring Hill Drive. Uh land use plan would support the for this area is the Sam Ridley character area. So this request is consistent with our land use plan for this area. The surrounding zoning is a mix of R3, C2, and C4. The planning commission did review this request and did uh recommend approval unanimously. Staff would also recommend approval.

Council, we've had quite a bit of discussion about this and actually approved last month the house next door for the same thing. Or is there any questions that you have for Kevin on this before we go to the public hearing? Okay, seeing none, we'll go to the public to see if there's anyone here to speak for or against this item. Seeing no one, close public hearing. Go to council for a motion. Motion to approve. Have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Our next public hearing is a consideration of an ordinance amending title one general administration section 1-104 order of business of the municipal code relative to the public comment at meetings. Amber. Yes ma'am.

Uh nothing has changed from this uh from first to second reading. Essentially what this does is it changes title one uh which is the order of business of our regular meetings that we're in right now. The public comment period that was held at the beginning of the meeting will now take place after new business um to allow us to get through the agenda items. If someone signs up to speak relative to something that's on the agenda, they will speak right before that agenda item is considered. Um if it's if they're wanted to speak on a general topic topic that's not listed on the agenda, they will fall under that general public comment period after new business. So it allows people a little more time to get here maybe from their workday if they want to make public comment and also just kind of keeps it it coincides so you're hearing the comments right before you're considering the items.

So for instance tonight all the ones were in regards to the Hillwood project. So they would have spoken if this passes right before we discuss and vote on the Hillwood project. Yes ma'am. Got it. Um, if it is an item that is up for second reading, I don't know that we've talked about this. If it's an item that's up for second reading, because there is a public hearing, they will not be allowed two times to speak. Will they will it be public comment and for public hearing or only one?

Well, it's two separate uh, you know, one is public comment, one's public hearing. So they can still do both or will they be told that they will have the opportunity under public hearing? That can be up to this body if you want. But this does not address that. Um so they're kind of seeing as two different two different types of of speech for being here. Is that something that when they call in to ask do you all see what I'm talking about? Is that something that Amber could have a discussion with them when they call that they will already be given an opportunity?

And I think also the policy will stay in place for them to sign up at least 24 hours in advance. So typically what I will do is if it's up for a public hearing I will offer them to speak under public hearing um to kind of not deter them but give them all opportunities that are available to them. So, um, yes, with with your, um, wishes, I would [clears throat] still communicate to them that this is up for a public hearing. So, you can stand up and speak at that time. Um, and go ahead,

mayor. I think just so we um, rephrase it. Uh what we're trying to do is give the opportunity to the public to speak right before we consider that item rather than speaking upfront and then all those thoughts and conversation get lost before we consider the item. Yeah. Okay. Um any questions or other comments for Amber before we go to the public hearing? So if they have more So sometimes people go over their three minutes. Can they use the other three minutes to finish whatever it was they were saying? Well, it's actually you have to think of it as two separate, right?

Two separate types. So, you couldn't combine the two. [clears throat] So, if they wanted to speak in public comment for three minutes, but you haven't opened up the public hearing yet at that point. So, they sat back down and wait for public hearing to be called and then they could get back up. That's right. So, that's what I'm trying to get clarification. Yeah. They just they just couldn't put them together. public comment up front which is basically generic I would say before business and the public hearing would be more specific to that item. Okay.

So essentially I'll give them the opportunity to sign up for both if they choose to do so. But I will let them know if it's up for a public hearing that they can go ahead and make their comments then and then but if they want the opportunity to speak at both they will still have to sign up for the public comment period as well. And that won't be right before we vote on it. That would be at the beginning of new business. Yes ma'am. Or after new business. After Yeah. We try to make this convenient for people to come during the topic. But there will be people that want to speak and go. Correct. You know that they'll they'll want they'll have another appointment or whatever. So uh I think they could choose one or both.

Yeah. Okay. So this also is a public hearing. Is there anyone here to speak for or against this item? Seeing no one will close public hearing. Go to council for a motion. Make a motion. Do a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. Any opposed? Motion passes. We'll now move on to our new business under the planning commission report. Our first one is consideration of an ordinance relative to annexation and PID zoning of property on tax map 35 part of parcel 81.04. It's requested by Sunny Patel containing 3.54 acres. The property is located at 8216 Florence Road. Kevin,

yes, mayor and council. This is a request for annexation of a piece of property um that is directly across from Lisa Lane there on Florence Road. The land use plan would support medium density single family residential in this area. The surrounding zoning is C2 in town and RM in Rutherford County. Uh the town would be providing all services to this area upon annexation. There is an existing single family house um on this property. Um, this proposed uh PID or planned industrial development would allow for 35,400 square ft of conventional self- storage and covered outdoor storage in nine public buildings or nine buildings uh and for the existing house on the property to be converted to an office uh for the storage build business as well as some additional rental spaces in there for storage. uh four of the buildings um totaling about 13,700 ft² would be the conventional self- storage buildings with the remaining five of 21,700 in those five buildings would be covered storage for boats and RVs and things of that nature. Uh this property is bordered on the west and north by the US Army Corps of Engineer property. Uh and there's a vacant privately owned wooded track to the east. Um, as a part of the review, the planning commission did require uh that the developer preserve 20 ft of the existing vegetation along that eastern property line were feasible. At any location that's not feasible or doesn't exist, a type D buffer would be required to be constructed. Um, the access to the development would be through the C2 zoned area which is all one track of land. uh this it was just a portion that's still C2 that had been requested for annexation before this uh which is developed uh with a convenience store gas station as well as other businesses. Uh the majority of this track does lie within the 500year flood plane but that does not add any additional regulatory

requirements for development of the property. Uh the planning commission did review this request and did recommend um did recommend approval unanimously. So, um, Steve or Mark, anything from planning that you want to add? Go first. What? Go ahead.

Yeah. So, um, we we kind of talked about this quite a bit the first couple times we've seen it. Uh, there were a lot of adjustments. We had them, uh, uh, make drive aisles bigger. We had them move buildings around, make some stuff smaller, add buffer to the property that's privately owned behind it. um will will probably develop someday and may be residential. Um so we wanted to make sure there was a buffer there on this side of the property. So there's a buffer there. The the the road frontage on Florence is all that's all that strip is core property. So it would remain. So they pretty much can't see this from Florence Road and it's core all the way to the I guess the north side as well. So, um, this is about as secluded or hidden of a spot as you're going to get for outdoor mini storage. Um, so that was kind of and they honestly the the develop or Mr. Patel here, they they pretty much bent and gave us everything we asked for. So, uh, everything we identified or everything we had a concern with, they addressed. We did have originally some very narrow uh spaces between the buildings and to Steve's point, we asked them to come back and widen all that for the ratios turning. You know, when you get vehicles inside of a place like that, it gets a little tight. And the fire department, we had them revisit it, make sure that their turn ratios with their apparatuses would work, and they blessed it. So,

I just think about going in and out of a commercial business to get back to that. But if he's the owner of that and that's what he wants to do with his property, then yeah, he does he does own the gas station as well. So he's not um asking for access, right? He owns the control of the access and and honestly what's back there right now is kind of an eyesore. So this is a whole lot better than what's being stored there right now. And not all that is uh in interior. There's some canopy covers in in there as well. So yeah, there is some RV parking. There is some just covered parking for like RVs and storage. It's not all rollup door storage. So, we do have the buffer on the RM

zoning. Is that to the east? Yeah. And what about the south? Yeah, that that's all one piece. Okay. Kind of wraps around. Yeah. Yeah. You have the commercial property that's abuing this part of the development, but but yeah, the property to the south is also RM. It's all one track of land. Um In regards to the brick that I saw, which ones are going to be required to be is that going to be all the ones that face Florence?

Well, the the the um the buildings that are on that plan that are red, highlighted in red are the enclosed buildings. The the yellow ones are open canopies. They're where you'll be storing, like I said, boats and RVs and that sort of thing. It would be those would apply to all the buildings though as far as the brick piece of that and they were I believe they were all brick. Okay. Yeah, they were brick other than the side that's where the doors are. Where the doors are, right? Which are interior. Any other discussion about the additional [snorts] space behind the parking? U seems like a big area. [clears throat and cough] Are you talking about He's talking about the undeveloped area. This area here. Yeah. Look at that new Look at the new laser. [laughter] I know.

I think it's a little easier to use than the other one. Um Oh, but now we have no now we have no monitor. [laughter] You should have killed it. Um you got to get one of those for your three minutes. I I think that was some detention area here if I remember right on the concept. I'm not 100% sure on that. Okay. Yeah, the first one had that orange building had their like office space kind of repositioned differently and they moved it in the second one and I think part of that was because of runoff or detention or something there. But the office area was the house that's currently there.

That's the existing house. There's there's another building in that area too. I think they're going to remove kind of in this area down in here as well. Um but I I I don't know. I mean there is a pond shown here so I may be mistaken on that this is detention. I don't that but [clears throat] that's kind of they're leaving it alone, leaving it open for questions on this. Kevin, I know you don't know the answer to this, but could you speculate for me on why the core left that spot right there? I mean, that's such an odd one. I mean, looking at the topo, I see it goes down to 502, but where it shows 502 is pretty well onto this parcel of property.

Yeah. Yeah. I I I don't I don't know. I really don't. I know that the road itself I mean on the other side of Florence Road is also that's core property as well right here and and the road that portion of the Florence Road is on core easement. Technically we don't own the rideway. We have an easement across core property is what they tell us. So um all of this is just like it's in the 500 to 100 flood plane. Is it possible that I I assumed it was related to the floodway a flood plane when they initially carved up this land that that land was probably in a different plane

potentially. I mean those maps do change over time. The map the flood maps do. Um it's in the this portion of the property is in the 500 year there most of that core a lot of the core property is in 100 year flood plan. Yeah. They bought they bought 300 ft for Kevin there could be I mean we'll have to look at that if if this is approved the site plan we'll have to evaluate that but it's part of the site plan okay other questions um do we have a motion motion to approve motion do we have a Second.

Second. Second. Um, all in favor or any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Before we move on to item two, Todd, can you help us a little bit with the air? It is freezing in here. Just a little bit. Item two is consideration of an ordinance relative to the amendment of the existing PRD of property located on tax map 55, partial 31.00 00 owned by Charter owned by Charter Commercial LLC containing 25 acres. This request is from M2 Group on behalf of the property owners and is located at the end of Antique Avenue.

Yes, mayor and council. This is a request to amend the existing approved PRD um on called Derby Run. This is what it's known as. Um this [clears throat] portion of the property abuts Antique Avenue which is an existing county road. Uh the land use plan would support medium density single family in this area. Surrounding zoning is uh is PRD which is the the remainder of this PRD the Derby run as well as Aton Cedar Hills in town in RM and Rutherford County. Uh the existing PRD for Der Derby Run was approved in August 2019 for up to 204 single family homes on 68.6 66 acres. This PRD was amended in 20 July 2020 to reduce the number of lots to 202 and to amend the road layout a little bit. Uh the original PRD did require the houses to be at least 1,600 square ft and be constructed of brick, stone, and fiber cement sighting. Uh the amended PRD from July 2020 uh does is provides 29.35 acres of total open space with 4.75 acres of improved open space. The request, this requested amendment would add four houses. So there' be a total of 206. Um these four lots would be accessed via an extension of Antique Avenue, which is an existing county road. This so they would not be connected to Antique Avenue would not be connected to the existing PRD at all. It would just be those four homes. Um the lots would range in size from 610 of an acre to 1.85 acres. The total open space remaining would be 21.2 acres with still the 4.75 acres of improved space. This is in excess of the requirement of 10.3 acres of open space and 3.09 of improved space. A 20- foot buffer is shown for the properties boundaries which do abut uh the county zoning of RM which is um

primarily to the south but also a little bit to the east there which is consistent with the new PRD requirements. Um the planning commission did review this request did recommend approval and staff would also recommend it to you. Steve, anything with this?

Yeah, this one's kind of pretty simple, right? It's 5 acres and four houses. We don't get a lot of request for that level or lack of density there. With this 5 acres, if they had stayed consistent with the [snorts] development density rate, this could have been as many as 12 or 14 houses, right? So, uh even 15 three per acre if it was R3, right? So, um we felt like, you know, four four lots, the smallest one being 6 and the biggest one being 1.8, eight. It was kind of a nice fit. I did talk to the developer a little bit afterwards about how the HOA would work and that and there it would be part of the Derby Run HOA. However, there would be a little bit of a kind of like a special overlay for this section because the housing requirements would be larger in these lots uh most likely um because of the size of the lots, but but it would be part of the Derby Run HOA.

Got a question. How do we this initially came in and had x amount of acres of open space. How do we feel when they start bringing back these puds to amend it to take away open space and you know put in new homes even though like Steve said these are larger lots which I really don't have an issue with. I guess my question is when we start bringing pudge back in to do [clears throat] away with the open space, how do we look at that as a whole?

I I looked at that too and um I don't have it right here, but Kevin, they still were even with this, they were still exceeding what they had to have for open space by quite a bit. They're still they're still meeting or exceeding our requirements. So that that's the that's kind of the first thing that I look at. Um but it was approved with X amount. It it was it was and this this is why they have to come back to you all to amend it. Not something that that obviously I could have could approve administratively. Um this this area of open space what they're not eliminating anything that was really an amenity other than just the fact that it was open. You know there's no

uh so there was no walking trail. There's no walking trails or anything like that in this area. It was really just just the area that was left open. There is kind of a uh in this immediate area here, there is kind of a jurisdictional type stream or whatever which they've got the buffer around and that sort of thing. Um there's also power lines across the back. There's some power lines through it. Sure. So part of the original concern was those T across the back. Yeah. and how they what Jerome's getting at is that when we approve a particular [clears throat] PRD or anything what we're talking about is what's X density of it here's the density of it

and now this changes what that density is and and not that it's a problem with this one because I don't see that it is a problem with this one but you know it's a precedent that's setting that you know could be misconstrued in other areas. Sure. They're going from 21 acres of open space down to 10 acres. No, they're going they're going from about 29.3 down to about 21.2 six acres 10 is what they're required to have. Okay. The requirement of 10. They're double the requirement. They're dropping about eight acres. Eight acres. Okay. But it changes the overall density. It does. It does. Now marginally

the other qu was there discussion about connection to this road with the county or or am I confusing this with another I think you're confusing that with the Drew Street that we were talking there is that we're going to be discussing that with the county. Okay. Yeah. I I did reach out to the county and did confirm this. I had asked this developer to connect with them and they have done so and they are working through the county has seen their plans and they're aware of it and that sort of thing and I don't I didn't get the impression there was any concern from them because they're actually going to have to build a piece of the the the county when they built this road whoever this developer was

40 years ago or whatever didn't build it all the way to the property line. They're going to have to actually go in and extend a piece of the county road before they can start the city street portion of the street. Those are all septic houses also. That's correct. Yes. And the not these four. We're talking about the county. That one's on antique. Yes.

Yep. Okay. Um, other questions for Kevin and and I agree with what Jerome and and HG have both said. I don't think we want this to be a precedence in coming back to change PRDs. Um, if it's going to make a significant I think this one is a is a kind of unique situation that we don't we rarely see. So, I've got no issue with this. is just coming in and saying you got x amount of density, x amount of open space, then coming back in and changing all that, asking to reconsider that approach.

Yeah, I think we we denied one on Rock Springs Road maybe a few months ago that was very similar, right? They were trying to take some open space and add a few more lots and it changed the density significantly. Man, I'm not working on this one in my line of work, but I did some work on Derby Run, but because I did some work on Derby Run some years ago, I'm just going to stay out of this conversation, this vote, because it's titled as a Derby Run project. So, okay. Do I have a motion? Motion to approve the motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. You might might look at that thermos. I know it's getting a little warm now. Todd, is the heat on? Todd, stand there close. [laughter] Um, item three from 68 to 78. [laughter]

Item three is consideration of an ordinance amending the text of the Smyrna municipal zoning ordinance, article 4, section 4.010 uh.4A. Article 5, section 5.052.2 and 5.052.7 and adding article 7 section 7.061.21 regarding climate controlled storage facility requirements in the C2 and C5 districts. Um council, the next four items are the ones that we have discussed in the joint planning council meetings um of things that had been brought to code's attention or to our attention that we wanted to discuss. So um Kevin, item three.

Yes. Um this first item is something we talked about in those joint meetings. would uh uh add climate control storage as a use allowed via special exception in the C2 and C5 districts. Um the um basically there's article five that piece of it is what would added as a use allowed as a special exception in those two districts. The article 7 portion of this change would add, this is new to the ordinance, and would add uh conditions that the an application would have to meet as a part of the review by the board of zoning appeals. And article 4 would just be an amendment to add uh to create a parking requirement for this type of development. We currently don't have that. Uh and and this is something we've talked about um even in areas where this has already allowed uh that we need us to revise our parking requirement to be more in line with what's what's appropriate. So um so that's would add that parking requirement in to it. The planning commission did review this and did recommend approval unanimously. [clears throat]

So um questions for Kevin. It looks like they had taken the items that we had discussed in our joint meeting and I know they had to come through you guys at planning. Is there any are there any questions that you have about the changes that we're making to this? So is is this just special exception use or is this blanket C2 use just just as a special exception review by the board zone appeals. Okay. and would have to meet those those conditions that

and the re reason I asked that you know we have the large storage units that came in on Lowry Street as you come under Nissan Drive there and um um I had concern about fourstory or whatever they were in that district and I just wanted to make sure that there's some kind of check and balance on where we locate those and it sounds like if this is special exception then we do have that checking balance to go through. Yeah. Okay. Other questions?

So, the sizes that you have on here were based on what you had brought to us in the meeting like it uh the maximum size of the individual storage unit shall be 600 square f feet. Those were just a compilation of what we talked about. That that's correct. Yeah. that the the acre two acre size, lot size, u you know, the the architectural requirements, all those things were things that we talked about. Okay. And also on here, E, you can't have the outdoor self storage with the climate control. They can't be located on the same in the C in the C2 district, C2 or C5 district. That's correct. They still have to be industrial. That's correct. [snorts]

Other questions or comments? Do we have a motion? Move to approve. A motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Our next item, item four, is consideration of an ordinance amending the text of the Smyrna Municipal [clears throat] Zoning Ordinance Article 2 section 2.020 regarding solid waste services. This was not something that we discussed at the meeting, but it's something that um has come up with a new with a business in town. So,

yeah, this is one that we as a staff brought forward um to because there's our zoning ordinance is currently silent on this and so we wanted to address it so we could move forward appropriately. Um, solid wave services such as storage of rolloff dumpsters, a trash hauling business, that type of use is really not [clears throat] addressed in any way in our ordinance. A business recently opened on a C2 zone lot without any approvals from anyone, but they did open up. Um, staff does not believe this district is an appropriate location for this type of use, but because of the lack of clarity, uh, found it difficult to provide clear direction to the business, you know, where they could go. And so this the we brought these amendments forward. These would define solid waste services and place them in the activity type of warehousing, goods, transport and storage which would have the effect of allowing this use in the industrial districts as well as the A1 district because it was largely an industrial and commercial district. Um it it does I do want to point out uh this is only the storage of trucks, containers, equipment would not use in the solid waste industry would not be a landfill or other storage of trash or anything like that. um as that use is already contemplated um as allowed in an I3 uh district um via review by the BCA. So um again basically we're amending one section 2.02 which to create the definition as well as to to to add that they're the activity type that they're allowed in. So and planning commission did review this did recommend approval. We would also recommend approval.

Questions on this? Yeah, [clears throat] I've got one question. The A1 district, um, where where do we have A1? That's just the airport property. Okay. and and it's only be allowed there just because the A1 district was used is basically the I3 district with some commercial uses added that we created probably 20 years ago now for the airport to allow for some [clears throat] wider variety of uses on the airport more retail you know things of that nature that you might have at a a terminal and things of that nature. Um have we talked to the airport about this? I I have not talked to

See, what I envision is do we get a place out there and it's just strictly dumpster hauling, you know, to bring in the empty dumpsters and store there or the full dumpsters until they can be unloaded at the landfill. Yeah. And and this I mean they couldn't bring that wouldn't be allowed, would it? They wouldn't be able to bring full ones. They can't do any on-site unloading, sorting, processing, storage of waste material. So even if they said overnight that would be storage just the dumpster. It'd [snorts] be just a rolloff dumpster. Patrol whether it's full or empty.

Well, I mean that's if they're it would be in violation of the zoning ordinance at that point and it would be a zoning enforcement case that we would have to address. Yeah, I would only recommend maybe talking to the airport. Well, the only property that zoned airport in that zone is the property that they own. So, they would have to lease it to someone uh for that use to be there. That's I was going to say we don't have any A1 that's privately owned, right? That's correct. Right. So, it's all owned by the airport. All A1. Well, how did A1 get in here? We created it. Why did it get in here? Because the airport could potentially lease that property if they wanted to. I mean, giving them that option, but they would have to approve.

The use of warehousing, [clears throat] good transport storage is an allowed use at the airport. Um because it's again that property when I was first came here the property the airport itself was zoned heavy industrial I3 um and again probably 20 years or maybe even longer than that now John Black came and said hey especially moving over to the west side and everything what we're going to do now we want to add some additional uses and so we created a new district which we basically took I3 and added some new things to it and and that's what the council at that time adopted. Um, and it hasn't really changed since it was adopted other than we changed some of the building setback requirements a year or two ago. Um, so [clears throat] that's this use category is allowed in that zone. So, um,

I think it gives them more options and they would have they would have to choose whether they want to lease it because they're the ones who lease the property. They're the only property owner in that district. Yeah. You know, we to me it kept all the industrial uses together. If we carved out A1 at this point, then we would have three that had everything except added dumpster and then one that had everything but the dumpster. It just kept it all together. I mean, we could [snorts] Yeah. I mean, we to do I would to do it, we would probably need to come in and amend A1 to carve this use out. That would be the thing to do. and I can reach out to the airport and see if they have a concern and bring it back to you if that's something.

I would have concerns if the airport authority board didn't weren't the ones who were leasing those spaces and then they could come in without the airport having no say. So, yeah. I think it's important though. I mean, almost all the land around the airport that is privately owned is I1, I2 or I3, right? So the only only other land around the airport that would potentially have these are allowed anyway. Well, I'd feel better if we ran it across them just to if they're fine with it, I'm fine with it. But, you know, is all the property at the airport labeled or zoned A1 owned by the airport. You know, if it's A1, it is. It is. Yeah.

But I I will be happy to reach out to Evan and and and get to a second reading anyway. Yeah. Yeah. So, I guess if we can do that by second reading, we're good. Yeah, I'd be happy to do that. I can do that. This was um there was two instances recently where somebody's tried to do this and one was in a residential area and one was in the C2 and Sure. Um I think both Mayor Esther and I both probably called Kevin about this one as soon as we b saw it pop up and uh that's kind of we figured out it really wasn't called out anywhere. So that's kind of what Kevin, you'll check with the airport before workshop. Correct. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Okay. So, do we have a motion? Motion to approve. Do we have a second? Okay. Motion is second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? No. Motion passes. Item five is consideration of an ordinance amending the text of the Smyrna Municipal Zoning Ordinance Article 4 section 4.03. 030F regarding temporary use regulations of outdoor sales of food or retail merchandise. This does not include food trucks. That's correct. I just want to make that clear.

Yes. Um as again, this is another one we've talked about in our joint meetings council and planning commission together. Um this would basically modify regulations placed on transient vendors conducting sales within town. There's al there was a disconnect between the zoning ordinance and the municipal code in this. And so this would kind of help rectify those to so that they're there's consistency between the two. Uh this amendment would create a better definition of merchandise to meet any consumer item that is represented to be new or use and also removes the stipulation that these vendors shall be reviewed by the board of zoning appeals and better aligning the zoning ordinance with the municipal code. Text has been added to the zoning ordinance clarifying any vendor shall obtain a transit vendor permit prior to conducting sales. A separate permit would be required to be attained by the property owner for which sales are to be conducted by that vendor. So the owner as well as the vendor property owner as well as the vendor would be required to get the permit. U the owners or on-site employee may be cited for failure to comply with any zoning ordinance and municipal code requirements. Uh again as you stated mayor this amendment would not affect mobile food vendors as these vendors have separate regulations detail and that those are food trucks and food trailers that type of thing. Um there's a separate u permitting setup already for those uh businesses. Um nonprofit entities uh events conducted on town owned property and private events with with no um sales for the general public are also exempt. So, if you had an event like the hospital has occasionally or um there's a nonprofit, you know, Girl Scout cookies, selling cookies, we brought up the other night, those type of things would not be uh required uh to get those permits. So, um the planning commission did review this, did recommend approval, and we would recommend approval as well. So, for those in the audience and those at

[clears throat] home, we're talking about these tents that you see set up on the weekends or people selling t-shirts around town. What else did we kind of I can't remember what the other ones that we um that they have to have a permit. Um let's talk through a little bit about enforcement. Is this one enforced by codes? I think Christiey's out in the hall. Or is this one enforced by the police department? Jeff, do you know

codes? Now, the police department can also, but you know, they're usually not equipped to to be able to go do that. So, you usually it's going to be the codes officials that will will go around and do this. So, there's a stipulation in this one though that kind of helps police department. So, they can they can by having this permit now displayed in the window. Let's say this is a weekend, a Saturday or Sunday, no codes enforcement's working. There's a call, a complaint, whatever. PD can go by and see 10 in the parking lot, no permit in the window. Clearly, they're in violation. Yeah.

Right. It's that simple. They don't have to actually go in, talk to people, you know, investigate the code. It's kind of obvious. They've got it set up in the parking lot. There should be a plaque uh should be something displayed in the window. And that was I think that was intentional to help PD correct with enforcement, correct? So that they didn't have to get into these codes conversations. [clears throat] And I just want to make sure that we are going to be able to enforce whether it's with our new codes person that'll be here working weekends because I mean I think we all agree especially during the summer it's a lot more after hours or on the weekends. So Okay. Yeah. I think the other piece that was kind of key to this is that they are supposed to pack up and leave

every night. Leave it every night doing that. The ones we kind of intend this for and it's not just pack up some of the stuff it's pack up everything and has to go. I guess the one I give question to just nonprofit entities uh are exempt from this. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. Tim was definitely worried about his Girl Scout cookies. Say that again. Tim was worried about his Girl Scout cookies. He's He's worried about senior citizens.

I'm worried about Jerome making up a nonprofit just for for himself. [laughter] I don't need the money. Um that must be um Do I have a motion? Move to approve. Have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Item six is consideration of an ordinance amending the text of the Smyrna municipal co zoning ordinance article 2 section 2.020 and adding article 4 section 4.030H regarding yard signs. [clears throat] Yard sales. Yard sales. Yard sales. Yard sales.

Yeah. This is another one that we've talked about and basically we don't really define yard sales or anything like that in in our ordinance. And um these amendments basically would create that definition which would be any type of you know garage sale, tag sale, anything like that. Um and basically uh we create and also then that was the definition 2.02 4.030H 1030 would create specific provisions uh applicable to yard sales and basically allowing up to four per year per address. Uh it can't exceed three consecutive days or two consecutive weekends. We're not looking to require permits for yard sales or anything of that nature. Uh it's really just to to limit the the few folks that we have in town that have a yard sale

every weekend every weekend for multiple days. and they're really not a yard sale. They're they're a business that's running out of a residential area. So, um so that's that's why again four per year uh again per address is still quite a few folks could test out quite a few yard sales if they wanted to. Um the planning commission did review this and did recommend approval. Staff would also recommend this. Questions on the yard sales. This doesn't address placement of signs and when you can put the signs out. That's in the sign ordinance. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And it would not change anything in that. All I'm seeing is down on my corner Ryan Homes and a bunch of other signs every weekend. And uh just curious. I might

Yeah. speak with you. Yeah. We're we're having a meeting with builders tomorrow on various things. That's one of talking about. Sure. Other questions? Do we have a motion? I'll make the motion to approve. Jerry, will you second? Jerry seconds. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. We'll now move on to item 8B, consideration of an ordinance relative to the annexation and PUD zoning of property [clears throat] on tax map 11, parcel 5.00, requested by Fall Creek Commerce LLC containing 225.25 acres. The properties located on Mona Road east of I840. Kevin.

Yes, Mayor and Council. Uh this is a piece of property we've talked about quite a bit over the last several months. Uh is on Mona Road immediately east of I840. It's about 6/10 of a mile south of the state route 452 Bill France Boulevard intersection of Mona Road. Uh Lage plan is the 840 gateway character area which would support a mix of hospitality, retail, restaurant, high density residential and industrial warehousing uses. Uh surrounding zoning is RM in Rutherford County. Uh the town would be providing all services to this area upon annexation except for water which would be provided by consolidate utility district. Uh the proposed zoning for this request is PUD with approximately 34.3 acres designated for to be developed utilizing the C2 district and the remaining 190.95 acres to be designated to be developed utilizing the I2 district guidelines. The request has been revised uh based on discussion at the standalone workshop that was held back in September as well as other discussion even since then. Um but for the area to be developed with C2 standards, all provisions of the C2 district would apply [clears throat] except for the specific prohibition of of several uses including specialized tobacco or smoke shop including a vape shop. any business that devotes more than 25% of its floor space to the sale of tobacco products, self- storage facilities, adult-oriented establishments, auto towing services, mobile home parks, and residential activities uses uh with the exception of those allowed by rider special exception which in that district or things of that sed facilities and things of that nature, not typical residential living. Uh the maximum square footage allowed within this area would be 350,000 square feet. uh in that 34 acres. Uh for the area to be developed with I2 standards, all provisions would apply with the request

that the height limit be 60 ft in L of 50 ft as typically allowed in I2 and the uses of airports, air cargo terminals, helports and aircraft dealers would not be allowed. Maximum square footage in the I2 area is 2 and a half million. Uh no pole signs will be allowed within the development. Uh the major thoroughfare plan does show a future minor arterial connecting Bill France Boulevard to Hickory Grove Road and eventually to West Jefferson Pike. Uh construction of the portion of this roadway which crosses this parcel would be required as a part of the development and it is shown on the concept plan as an extension of an existing county road culter court. Uh, as a part of this annexation, staff did recommend annexation of approximately one mile of the existing rideway of State Route 266 Jefferson Pike and approximately 4.2 miles of the existing rideway of Mona Road to allow for the annexation to be contiguous to the existing town limits. Uh, sewer would be provided per a separate agreement between the town and the developer, but would not be extended to serve any properties outside of Rutherford County. Uh the developer has proposed donation of land for a potential fire station on the site which would need to be evaluated and uh by our fire department as far as the actual location. Um we als we did prepare a more in-depth look in the provision of services uh and we did include that with your agenda materials. Um that deeper look does include the possibility of additional property that has the same ownership which could be contemplated for annexation in the future if this parcel is annex. So we looked at just to serve this property as well as the additional property as well as well as the maps that do show that additional property which could be considered in for annexation and zoning in the future. U also attached the traffic study which we received and that has I know there's been a lot of discussion about that. I

think we did get some re revisions over the weekend on some of that. Um the planning commission did re review this request, the original request and did recommend approval. Uh this revised request that was sent back to them uh was heard at the November meeting. Uh they did recommend approval at that time with three conditions. No truck traffic shall enter Mona Road south of the development. the interior roadway parallel to I840 and roadway uh providing access off of Mona Road within the development is to be completed prior to obtaining permits for phase three so that those two roads would connect together and would provide access for trucks not onto Mon Road on that northern from this site northward and then adding a landscape buffer of 100 ft along the edges of the property for any boundary for an existing residence is within 1,000 ft of the property boundary. I believe the revised PUD does address um some of those conditions that we had received since the that November meeting. That's also what's in your packet. Um staff does recommend approval, but staff does have concerns about the timing of future potential annexation of the eastern parts that are under the same ownership due to the increased cost of provision of services for those parcels and to uh ensure contiguous annexation.

That's what we got. Okay. Thanks, Kevin. Um couple of items. Jeff, I know you said last time that we have gotten the signed agreement between CUD and the developer as well as us. Yes, we do.

Okay. Um, one of the things we deferred um we deferred the vote last month because we had asked for the their traffic study for a presentation to be done and that was not done at the workshop. I would like to allow them to give the presentation for the um for the traffic study so that we can we can go into this vote having all the information. Are you all would someone Jeff? Do we need to get a motion on that? You made me get a motion on the other before.

Um I don't think so. No, you're this you're on the agenda item. So I think Okay. So, are you all okay with letting them present their traffic study so that we can have all information? I'm I'm fine with it, but personally, I would have liked more time to digest it. When When did we get it? Yesterday. And well, and we got updates today. Yeah. Well, and I think that was our whole reason for wanting it at the workshop was to be able to was to be able to have the even if it was a week, I know it was a little bit shorter time. So, I've got questions. So, I'd like for it be presented and and me be able to ask those questions.

Okay. So, um is there someone prepared to do a presentation at this time? And if you will state your name, address, and if you live in the town limits for Miss Amber so she doesn't have to chase you down. Yes, ma'am. Mayor and council. Thank you. Paul Ranky [snorts] with Hillwood, 6410 Popular Avenue.

And my name is Kurt Nelson. I'm also with Hillwood, 6410 Popular Avenue. And Paul and I are going to tag team this a little bit to make sure we cover it well. Um, I'm glad to be here. Glad to hear so much about the airport tonight because uh I was fortunate enough to work with John Black over 10 years ago when we started our development at the airport and uh so it's great to be back in Smyrna. I appreciate it. Um so we're going to we're going to tag team it. Um I'm going to kind of go higher level conclusions and then he's going to get more into the counts and detail engineering piece of it first. So, what the study says is that all these intersections perform very well when this 225 acres is fully developed, which will take a long time. And he'll go through the intersections and the counts. For those of us who aren't engineers, it's kind of intuitive because Bill France is is a super robust road and that prevents a lot of issues. but he'll go through each of the of the traffic counts and the intersections. Um, second, um, I meant to say before, I apologize that we didn't bring you the full study last week. We [clears throat] just misunderstood. We were not trying to keep anything from you. We want to be transparent. We wholeheartedly believe that this is actually a really good fit in this location. And so, we want to be transparent with you and and give you all the information you want on it.

[cough and clears throat] Next point. Um, Councilman Cole has become somewhat famous for his cows out of the barn comment. I have more colorful antidotes if you'd like to hear them. [laughter] I don't know. Do say no. Say no. I'm telling you, say no.

Um, and I and I understand I I just said I believe that the traffic makes sense, but I totally understand why he and you all would ask these questions. And I think the point of your comment last week was, "Hey, we're worried we're going to approve something and then wake up five years, three years, seven years, whatever later, and realize we have a problem. The cows have left the barn right at that point." And I understand that. I think one of the great things that we've all done here and staff staff pushed us as the developer was to do a planned development. And that's harder for us. And that's okay. It's harder for us because it gives the town a lot of control and that includes traffic. So your hand is firmly on that door, not just now, but through the entire development. And I know the council understands this, but just for the community. So what what happens here? Let's say you hear this tonight and you you appreciate what we say about the traffic study and you you approve the annexation and zoning. At that point, we have the right to build nothing. We cannot do anything. And whether it's a year later or two years later, we come back and we say, "Okay, we want to build a building or we want to build two." And the town says, "You have to give us new traffic counts, new traffic study that we get to review to make sure it's okay." And notice what I said there is one building, maybe we get aggressive and build two buildings. So what's going to happen at that point is maybe 15% of the acreage and maybe 15% of the traffic gets added at that point at which case the staff will say okay we've looked at your new counts your new traffic study which includes anything else that might have happened in the area that is not part of your development and we think yes it works or we think no hillwood you got to add a five lane intersection at Mona and Bill France whatever it is you

have your hand firmly on that door and then we're going to drip out that 15% of the new traffic and before we do anything else we got to come back again and the town's going to say here we need a new traffic study right show it show us what the counts are now and what your projections look like so I I just think your hand is firmly on that control because it's a plan development um last thing I'll say um I mentioned that I worked with John Black for a long time here. Um, John and others that we worked with would tell you that we're men and women of our word. I'm still here. We're a family-owned company. We're going to be here. We want this to be successful for the community. And I pledge to all of you that we will be by your side the whole time trying to do that.

Thanks, Kurt. Um, Amber, do you mind teeing up our slides or can I do that? Yes. Is this the dangerous laser pointer that fried the screen earlier? Let's see if I can do this. Look at that. So, um, you didn't even know you had

Oh, man. Don't tell my wife. Um, so look, I guess first and foremost, I appreciate Kurt being here because you guys are probably sick and tired of seeing me and hearing from me, but it's nice to have a break. But again, thank you for the opportunity [cough and clears throat] to make right where we misstep last week. So, I I want to address two things and then we're going to boil this thing down into its details. Two things that I've heard over the last several meetings. One is the concern about what is going to happen at Mona and Jefferson Pike. You were real clear that we needed to study that. We've done that. We got counts as fresh as yesterday, which again, apologies for the late minute updates, but it doesn't get any more current than those counts. So, we're going to present that to you here shortly, but we heard you and we've done that. Secondly, is what kind of impact does this project potentially have on future growth out here? Right, the comments about lollipopping and and popcorn. Like Kurt said, we're not here for one or two buildings. We're here for partnership with Smyrna. So, we're going to do everything in our power to partner with you to manage that growth. And there are a lot of things that I'm going to cover here tonight that will demonstrate how we're doing that. But let's get into it. So, this first slide is a summary of the areas that have been studied. Those intersections are circled in white. Then there's a summary of the outcomes. So, what kind of improve were improvements triggered by the study itself? And then the last column there is a summary of all of our projected improvements and our commitments to you. So, let's get right into it. And and I'm going to go back a second actually on that. You'll notice that in all instances, no improvements were triggered except for one intersection, but there's a host of commitments there that demonstrate

how we're going to be partners with Smyrna here every step of the way. This slide and the next four or so slides are all formatted the same. So, I'm going to take a quick second to just orient everybody. The left hand left half, excuse me, side of the slide is an aerial photo. Below that are current and projected trip counts. On the right half of the screen is a summary of kind of the key metrics that traffic studies typically analyze. And below that is a list of our commitments and the recommended improvements at that intersection. Those key metrics that every traffic study looks at, they study signal analysis. Is a signal warranted at this intersection? They study intersection conditions and they study roadway capacity. And those are both measured in level of service, which I know this council is very well verssed in what level of service is. But maybe just real quickly for the broader audience, I'll explain what that means. In in traffic engineering terms, level of service is the grading scale of how they measure capacity and delay timing at intersections and roadways. Then that's graded on a scale from A being the best to F being, hey, you're failing. E is deemed to be at capacity. So everything from E up is deemed acceptable in the traffic engineering world. So let's talk specifically about this intersection. Like I mentioned, we've got counts on this as fresh as yesterday. And what we decided to do was to say, let's figure out an aggressive approach, an assumption of distribution of our traffic to send to this intersection to intersection to see when it triggers the need for improvements. And what those counts told us that we got last night is something you probably

already know, right? It's like Jefferson Pike is a busy road. It is. Um, but what we did was we said, "Let's assume 10% of our traffic goes down to this intersection." Realistically, we only think 5% of our traffic is going to go to this intersection. We've had conversations, our engineers have had conversations with staff on that assumption to to confirm and agree that yes, that's a fair assumption primarily because our [clears throat] site is so close to Bill France and like Kurt mentioned, Bill France is so well built out. drivers, we're going to find the path of least resistance, right? And it's going to be leaving our site going to Bill, France, not heading south five miles down to Jefferson Pike primarily. So, we believe in 5%. We said, let's double that and see what results come out of that. The findings were that it's a level of service of A and B currently at that intersection. Our improvements with that 10% assumption, take it to an A and C. Roadway capacity as you can see is A on Mona E on Jefferson Pike and that and those barely our our 10% distribution of traffic here makes a little to negligible impact on this intersection. That's the key takeaway here. But we're not dismissing the fact that council and the community have concern about this intersection. So to demonstrate that we're being good partners with you guys on this, we're committing to adding no truck traffic signs here. We're going to install a roundabout at our entrance on Mona Road. And I'm going to describe that in detail here in a later slide. But also, as Kurt mentioned, as we do the traffic study updates, when our traffic triggers the need for a signal or an additional turn lane at this intersection, working

with town and T do DOT, we will install that. That's our obligation. Just like Kurt mentioned, anytime those recommendations come forward with a traffic study that your engineers and T do DOT review and bless, that's a commitment for us that we have to fulfill before buildings become operational. Before the traffic that comes with those operational buildings hit these roads, these improvements are made. See, this is nice, Amber. I don't have to like prompt like for like next slide, please. I practiced that, too. No, [laughter] I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I just got to work up more of a sweat now doing this. No, that's kidding. All right. So, this slide and the next four are the rest of the intersections on Bill France, which are probably less of interest for this panel, but I'm going to cover them anyways. And if I go a little quickly over them, feel free to stop me. 8:40 in Bill, France operates very well. It's it's m it's it's enormous, right? We know how many turn lanes are there and the traffic signal is there. What we've heard is that that signalization currently is giving community members heartburn and there's a little bit of concern there. I mean, there's some crash data associated with that that we've seen. So, our commitment here is that the the fix is to adjust that signalization based on our pending additional traffic. And we'll work obviously we'll work closely with T Dot and Charles and Tom and his team to make sure that we get that signalization correct. Coulter Court and Bill France. So like I mentioned on the summary page, this is the one intersection that definitely needs some improvements. And it's no surprise, right? I mean, Cter Cord is a small two-lane road today that that dead ends. And this is the front door to what will be the retail and commercial access

point for our property when it's fully built out. So the commitment here is to say when this property is fully built out with the retail and commercial, it needs a traffic signal. So we'll do that in the interim time. Though of course, like was mentioned by Kevin earlier, we accelerated the timeline of our internal road to colle connect to Culture Court, which likely gets built before all of the retail and commercial come online. So, we know that when that connection point occurs, we need to add a dedicated left turn lane for traffic to get onto Bill France. So, we'll add a dedicated left turn lane and then when the project is fully built built out, a traffic signal installed. Again though, what I'm saying by that is prior to the full operation of the project, these improvements are being made so that before that traffic with that buildout hits the roads, these improvements are already done. Mona and Bill France, again, very similar to some of this other discussion, well-built out intersection. There's a dedicated left, a through lane, a right. There's a couple lanes going south on Mona before it merges into one. So, lot of capacity here. What we think needs to happen is that we will monitor or no, excuse me, we will lengthen the north and southbound Q lanes as well as install a traffic signal here as soon as our trip counts warrant and dictate that that needs to happen. And again, that's all working closely through the traffic studies with your town engineers and T dot. Additionally, as I think Councilman Dempsey brought up on in some prior meetings, we're committing to adding two foot wide shoulders here. And and I think that was rightfully brought up, right? Let's make sure that traffic can safely pass on Mona [clears throat] Road. So adding the shoulders is a direct response to what we've heard before.

You're talking about on Mona Road, correct?

That's correct. Between our entrance and Bill France, two foot wide shoulders. Yes, sir. Highway 231. Bill France again operates very well and that's predominantly due to the fact of how built out Bill France is. High level of service flows well. Our commitment here is that again as soon as our traffic triggers the need for it and warrants it, we install a traffic signal at this location as well. So let's let's talk about that roundabout I've mentioned a couple times. What's on the screen here is a proven concept. We've done this before. We've had city engineers, mayors, and others tell us that when we do this in the past, it works. So, we have full confidence that this solution will absolutely keep truck traffic from going south on Mona Road. The way that works is the geometry of that roundabout is built in such a way that trucks can enter the roundabout. If for some crazy reason they miss the entrance to our park, they can just circle right back around that roundabout and get it when they circle around. What it does allow for though is the flow of every other traffic. So, a pickup truck pulling a bass boat, a ladder truck, fire truck, all of those can navigate this roundabout safely and exit out of the south of the roundabout [clears throat] and head south on Mona Road. [cough] The we're not naive enough to know that like the geometry and curbing of roundabouts is sufficient, right, to keep trucks from popping curbs. That's not realistic. So the orangeish brownish brown brownish line on the screen there represents a decorative concrete wall and maybe that's also in conjunction with some

huge landscape boulders, right? And also with no truck traffic signs, but all of that paired with the geometry of the roundabout absolutely makes it physically impossible for tractor trailers to head south on Mona Road. Um, we didn't forget the location of the fire station as we were designing this. So, as you can see, there's still out there's still plenty of land there allocated. If in fact that ends up being the final location of the fire station, I know there's still maybe some discussion or further consideration for that, but there's access to the fire station lot there south of the roundabout as well as access to it within our property on our main interior roads. [clears throat] Um,

is that is that access south of the roundabout large enough for trucks to come in and out? That's a great question. So, for fire trucks, yes. Um, but I think we would need Yes. Yes, that's Yes. Um, my point is if fire truck had to go south on a road, they would not have to navigate the roundabout. Oh, that's that's correct. That's right. Yep. [snorts] Um, okay. So, just to recap some of the other commitments we talked about earlier, we talked about Mona Road and Jefferson Pike with the signage, the signal, the turn lane. We talked about adding shoulders on Mona. What we haven't really talked in detail about is the acceleration of the internal road, the timing of that.

Before you get to that, has our fire department looked at that? I know we don't know for sure that that's where the fire station is going to get, but have they looked at that for how they feel about being able for our ladder trucks and stuff to access that? Do you know? Good question. I know Charles and Tom have reviewed this. I'm not sure if they've shared that with the fire department. We have not yet. I It's just It's all very fresh. But

it's Cameron here. We at this point we have not evaluated whether or not the roundabout would allow for an apparatus to go uh to head south down Mona Road, but that is something that we would do through the uh through the review process if if this was approved. And I I will add that our engineers have had conversations with Charles and Tom about this concept and everybody's in agreement that yes, that will work. But to Mr. Sanui's point, OB further engineering is needed just to confirm. So, u why I'm confused. Why would the fire truck be navigating it?

I'm more worried about the fire truck coming out and making that where it's showing them coming down Mona Road. Right. That's what I'm talking about. Why would they do that? Why would the fire truck have to get out of the fire station and go down Mona Road? Yeah, there's an exit right there. Chief G has stepped into the room over here. I just want to make sure that we can make that turn that I'm saying they should not go through the roundabout. That's correct. That's what I'm saying. Will can they make I'm not talking about the roundabout. I'm talking about can they get out of of here? No, she's I'm talking about down below. Yes. Oh, here. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I thought [clears throat] you were saying because I heard roundabout and I was like they shouldn't even be entering the roundabout. Agreed. [clears throat]

And this this allows for them to avoid that if they want to. So, Chief, if this moves forward, we just want to make sure that you would have a comfort level with what they're recommending in regards to a roundabout. Yeah, absolutely. Um, James Lawrence has been attached to this program since the beginning. And as far as the roundabout, there's there are actually formulas to make those calculations. So, we would be heavily involved throughout. Great.

All right. Um, so where did [clears throat] I leave off? Oh, the internal road. So the timing of that, the importance of that is, and I think it was said earlier in Kevin's summary, is that that needs to be completed before phase three permitting occurs. That completes the connection from Mona through our property to Culture Court. And the reason why that's good that that's being accelerated, right, is that it gives traffic an option to not use Mona and get to Coulter Court and Bill France. So that's beneficial to help redistribute prop traffic back up to Bill France. And then Kurt mentioned the updated traffic studies with each iteration of this. I think he did a good job summarizing that. But again, the the punchline on that is that we are not putting traffic on the roads that we have not already made improvements for. Those traffic studies will dictate what improvements are triggered and needed. Those are requirements and guarantees commitments that we have to perform on before buildings come online and put traffic on those roads. Okay, I'm gonna I'm going to wrap up. I promise this last slide. So to try and kind of put a summary on this, the the traffic discussion that we just had along with all the other aspects of this project demonstrate and represent a project that is built on preparation, predictability, and fiscal responsibility. I'm not going to read everything on this screen, but I do want to highlight a few points. First is Mr. Sanuchi and Mr. Dr. Riggsby have done a great job of putting together a thorough plan of services. That is your roadmap of what to expect associated with this project. Those plan of services have been taken into account with the economic impact of this project which is which delivers $1.6 million annually of net new revenue to the town

of Smyrna. factoring in the plan of services. That's when this project starts delivering some buildings and annually gets rolling. So those that additional revenue is there to support the local tax base, capital improvement, road projects, things of that nature beyond what we are already committing to. I want to also mention the utility agreement. So at mayor, as you asked earlier, yes, that is fully fully vetted. signatures are on the page. What it does though, it it affords it gives the town a ton of checkpoints, deliberate checkpoints that control how this project progresses. One of the main ones is we can't come forward with annexation on the east until you, the town, say you're ready. And I and I think what that really means is you guys are going to look to us or this council is going to look to us and say, [laughter] "Paul, have you finished your community collaboration with the folks in this room? Because if you haven't, you're not ready. We're not ready for you." Paul, have you finished your traffic analysis for the Eastern Impact? Because if you haven't, you're not ready. Right. Paul, have you figured out what the appropriate mix and placement of uses are so that buildings are placed where they should be and there's proper setbacks? All of that has to be in place before you guys say you're ready for us. Approval of this plan tonight does not forfeit that right. The other thing I'll mention is that as Kurt mentioned earlier, we have a master plan PUD here. So we are we are people of our word. We honor our word and commitments. If we say we're going to do it, we're going to do it. You don't have to believe me on that. It's in writing in that PUD. All those commitments and guarantees that we've talked about today are in that PUD, which has been shaped by community feedback, right? We've added that additional setback for houses that are

within a thousand feet. That was a direct response to the community. We've added we've controlled our building heights. That's a direct direct response to the community. The last thing I'll mention is on the traffic. Again, we talked about the up that is an evolving process. Those studies evolve with the project. So, let me let me let me close. Um, we we've listened to the town and the community and and we have delivered a project to you that we believe is based on preparedness, predictability, and fiscal responsibility. There are so many checkpoints in this in this project that you should have confidence in supporting this project tonight. Uh approving this project is a decision that is based on preparation, accountability, and confidence in a proven and trusted partner. We want to be your partners as we manage this growth together. Thank you.

Thank you, council. Questions for Well, let me ask this Dave or Jeff. Anything you want to add at this point before we get into questions? No, I'm happy to answer any questions that the council may have of myself or staff. Okay. [clears throat] Do um Jerome, I know you said you had specific questions related [clears throat] to this and I think other council might have a whole laundry list of comments and questions, but first I want to concentrate on the traffic impact study before I go into any further conversation. On your first slide, Paul. Yes, sir.

Um study outcomes, no improvements needed. No improvements needed. No improvements needed. No improvements needed. Um, I've got concern about that. The second slide assumption of 10% of Fall Creek traffic is going to come back down Mono Road. Your traffic engineer at the work session says we can make any kind of assumption an engineer wants to make. So, you know, you mentioned 5%. How how did you create those numbers? Are they just assumptions or are they hard data from other facilities?

Yeah, I may may ask actually if my engineer engineer could come up here, you probably could explain that better than I like the word assumption, you know. Oh, understood. You know, if we're assuming, we can assume it's 25%. Right. Hi. Good evening, mayor and council. Um Matt Baky with GM Civil um put together the traffic study for for Hillwood on this. So if I understand your question is how did we come up with the the five or the 10%. Yes. The assumption

the assumption it like you said it is an assumption. Um what we're doing is using the IT trip generation which is the standard manual that's used to come up with uh trip counts for any land use that any development could could build. Um and there's a um a table in our original study prepared in July that has the full west phase of development with all the trip counts for each land use. I believe the total uh was approximately 12,000 vehicles a day and it's also broken into uh peak hour counts as well. We applied that 10% to that data.

But you just pulled the 10% out of the air. Yes, sir. Okay.

It's it's an assumption. We when we did the original study back in July, um we met with um the counties with the town, had a discussion on what the scope of the TIA should be, what you know, direction we should assume traffic should go. At that time, it was discussed it was going to be 0% to the south on Mona. Um we've listened and and heard the concerns about that. And so we've said, okay, let's say that there is going to be some traffic. We're putting in a a roundabout to eliminate trucks, but let's say there's there's cars that could still go south. Um 5% I think is still a pretty high number just because of what's been discussed um previously tonight about the capacity at Bill France. So we took that 5% said just just to be safe, let's double it. And it is an assumption, but it's applying that to a count

and and and staff was comfortable with that assumption. So, our staff, uh, Charles and Tom [clears throat] were comfortable with that assumption. Dave, I have both Tom and Charles here. They probably would be better to address address that if if you'd like to hear from them.

The um the other thing is that no improvements at Mona Road or Jefferson Pike. So, we've addressed coming out of the facility down Mona Road, but we really haven't addressed coming up Jefferson Pike on Mona Road. So, I guess that's some of my question. How do we prevent that? And Charles Charles is here.

And you're talking about truck traffic going up, not car traffic. You're talking more truck traffic. So with the study that we've prepared, that accounts for both directions. That's not just traffic departing the the facility. It's also traffic entering the facility. So when you look at your your future volumes here, um the 10% of traffic that our site is is generating, it's coming and going. So those you're saying it's also going to come up Mona Road as the assumption that we prepared in the study

and the I know at one time we had talked about some kind of improvements at that intersection to prevent any truck traffic from entering off of um Jefferson on Deona and um so I'd just like to hear from Charles and um Tom about the 10% % assumption of truck traffic going south on

you know they have like I said they have the roundabout on the northern end but on the southern end coming from Jefferson up Mona yeah that would have to be something to try to uh do the same thing that they're doing on the north side to keep truck traffic from entering uh Mona Road. So that will be have to be some would have to be addressed if because like I said most truck law truck traffic now is just using their phone GPS and not using a truck GPS. Shouldn't that have been discussed originally then? I mean right

if we uh if we're we're just now hearing this traffic report right we just got it fresh yesterday and today. So, I guess to to Jerome's point, we never would have gotten this had we not asked for it. And so, uh I think Mona and Jefferson originally were just really left off the table as far as planning goes originally. So, we asked for it. Of course, you guys have been good, Paul, and your team to to bring us this information. But I guess I'm sitting here going, "Well, here's our staff that you said you met with or talked to about it, that's telling us we may need something like a roundabout there on the south end like we did on the north end." But this is the first we're hearing of it. So, if you talked to staff and they were comfortable with it, I'm kind of hearing something different here. Well, like I said, mainly we were concerned with truck traffic leaving the facility more than entering, but you could have the same thing like we have at Nissan.

That's what I was going to say that I think we've gotten burned with Florence Road, right? And and a lot of it, let's be honest, a lot of it there is because of Google that Google won't change the traffic route. They tell them they can send them that way, right? So, we just have to deal with that consistently. And so is there an option for Jefferson Pike and Mona? Because obviously I don't think you want to put a roundabout on Jefferson Pike at Mona. I think that would be [laughter] I think we would be run out of town. So what option is it? My other thought was you also I don't think you'd want to eliminate truck traffic altogether. There's a lot of land there

that people might want to deliver a backhoe to the golf course. There might be people that want to develop their land. This is too far from the development to eliminate all truck traffic and in my opinion because you're cutting off a lot of land and a lot of op options. I mean there may be farmers delivering hay, right? We're we got to my dad does that with his 40 foot of dovetail. And I mean it'd be hard to navigate that if you start eliminating truck traffic, right? So that's so that's why we mainly was looking at the north side keeping traffic and truck traffic from leaving there and going down but not as much coming from Jefferson on.

I I've been on that road probably as long as anybody. Um even when it was a gravel road and I was not in horse and buggy but I was talking. You were walking [laughter] gliding pig trails there. To me, the least, if this project was to go through, would need a turning lane there. The least. Um, there really needs to be one there now anyway. But, um, there's it stops. There's been a lot of wrecks [clears throat] there. I've seen them. Actually has son involved in one there. You're talking about left turn on. Left turn into Mona. That's correct. Left turn on

coming off of Jefferson Pike, turning on to Mona Road. Um but u you're coming up that hill and again that's only assuming if this project goes through. Sure.

But I uh I I do think and I don't know with it being a state road you guys would have to work with with with T dot to [clears throat] get approval. I think a lot of that land on this side I don't know how far it is to the core but I don't know if for some reason I'm thinking core owns where that where all those trees are. And uh so if you're if you're going to get an extra lane, it's going to have to be on that other side where uh I'm not sure if Mr. Seat still owns that property or [clears throat] or Mike owns it. I'm not sure. But uh you would you'd have to get obviously get approval from T DOT if they'd let you have it.

I I think that's a fair point, Councilman Short. But I can promise you that our engineers come up with a proper solution working with Charles and Tom that there's a solution there to address that concern. I I agree. I think wholly restricting truck from Well, I think right now what you're proposing is no truck traffic signs as as well as adding a turn lane or a traffic sign. I mean at that location during this conversation but on your presentation it was just at no truck traffic signs.

Okay. If I if I didn't state I thought I stated that when I covered this slide but if I didn't I apologize but our commitment as so show so show so show so show so show so show so show so show so show so show so there is that and I've got a couple more questions. Well okay

let's finish up Jefferson Pike and Mona. Guess for me, my concern is there's still a lot of things that sound like they may [snorts] need to be worked out for Jefferson and Pike and Mona. And I think from the very first time that we all sat down and met in the big conference room when we that was one of the things that we were adamant about, we have concerns about Bill France and all that, but that road is kind of um already been widened already. You I think you even said we all know it's got multiple lanes and but for us this is a major concern and I just I also have concerns and I understand you say you'll do the signal but are there other things that we need to be looking at that need to be done there and have we done enough discussion with staff with that

assuming the state would grant the signal but you don't know if you don't ask right right

or the turning lane There are maybe what I'll I'll piggyback on mayor to that point is as we dive into the next phase of this project and start finalizing our site plans of course right there paralleled in conjunction with that right is a further in-depth traffic analysis and that's working with these fellas fine fellas behind me here T DOT everybody that needs to be there to lock us in on commitments And so then a site plan is never approved even for our first phase that's four miles away from this intersection without that being in place.

And I'm assuming moving forward with those things, we would be using our third party traffic to review the traffic studies. So it wasn't not saying that your people would not be telling the truth, but that we would make sure that we also had review by third party, right? We can bring them back in on this just as the county did using their third party. Okay.

Yeah. I think that's part of what gives me some of the I guess comfort with the project because we're talking about zoning at this point. We're not we still have the opportunity to develop the site plan to develop more uh further pieces of it's part of the process and even the commitments of traffic study we have now may not even be what's required when by the time they start building and that's what the process is designed to make sure we cover with the changes we've made adding third parties and stuff honestly I kind of discount everything he's got for us a plan right now because it's not really going to be relevant in two years.

Yeah. And it's it's estimates and assumptions based on what we think, but in two years we're going to have reality and we'll have a third party, not theirs, who can help us look at that and tell us what's going on. Um I I still don't think I think his estimates for 5 to 10% of his traffic based on 12,000 count is reasonable. I just I don't see a lot of What are you basing that off? Well, knowing the roads out there, who's You're just saying that assumption is going to work. No, I didn't say that. And I said, "I agree with it." And I have a right to agree with it. Just cuz you don't. Don't attack me for just saying I agree with it. I'm not attacking you. I'm just saying, "Well, okay, I'm attacking." Okay. I think it should be data driven and not just, "Okay, I think it'll be okay."

We're two years ahead of time. We just said premature. We can't data driven something that's premature. And if we don't analyze it right now, then we're, as HG said, the cow's out of the barn. That but it's not. That's actually wrong. That's what I'm saying. The cow's not out of the barn because we still have an opportunity to review it in the future and to make decision. I disagree with you. Well, why do you disagree? You're just making an arbitrary decision. You just asked me that same question. I disagree with that. You agree with an assumption. I didn't say I agree. I said I think it's a reasonable assumption. It is a reasonable assumption. Do Do you have you drove Bill France? Oh, absolutely.

Okay. So, that road is so large every road. Why would someone come out of their development and go down Monae? Give me a reason. Um GIS ways because ways sent them that way. Yes. Okay. So you think how many people are going to leave there and not know where they're going? We don't know. Yeah, that's exactly right. But you also you're assuming they're going to, but I'm assuming they may not. Did you hear what I asked him? Do we have any data on other facilities similar to this that we could use which we will h we can ask for with our third party engineer when development starts

with a you've got one opinion I've got another and we're entitled to that you know I'm glad to hear you say that because that was my point all along was I'm entitled to my opinion y and that was where we started y can I finish my questions that I initially started [clears throat] I'm not finished with Yeah.

Okay. Um slide two where we're talking about roadway capacity. Uh we've got the level of service has E. Um, and are we do we have a comfort level with level of service E on U Mona Road and Jefferson at those locations? But isn't E Jefferson Pike, A is A is Mona and E is Jefferson? Besides you being an engineer, how would any of us have the wherewithal to argue with the engineer study of Jefferson Pike?

To me, that's not a reasonable question for us to consider. you maybe you because you're an engineer but none how would we say this engineer is picking up something that we don't know if it's true or not. How do we make that determination? Who do we trust if we don't trust an engineer? You're you're aware of level services, aren't you? Sure. Okay. So, how do we decide E is not right? Well, E is right above F. I understand where it's at in the range, but how did you how do we decide E is not right? I don't have a comfort level with it. What do you think it is? You think it's F? No. So, you're not you're not questioning the level. You're questioning are we comfortable that it is already at E. Right.

Okay. So, he's not questioning the level. He's questioning are we comfortable that it's at E. And I would say none of us are comfortable that it's with at that it's at E, but it's a it's a state road and T DOT is gonna have to make that decision for Jefferson Pike.

Well, not for that's not our choice or decision at this point. And this developer shouldn't have the obligation to go from E to A because he's happens to be the first one coming. It's E now. He's not adding more to it. He's not making it an F, so he's not making it worse. That's why I'm okay with that rating because the rating's not decreasing. If it went from E to F, then he would have to make some some changes. So, at a level of service of E, putting truck traffic on Mon on Mona Road at that intersection, you you have a you're okay with.

It is currently at a level section of E and there's already truck traffic on Jefferson Pike. He's not going to make it more enough to bring it down to an F. Okay. All right. What's your next question? Well, the next question is on Culture Road. Um, the extension of that that's that aligned with our traffic or our land use plan or their fair plan. Is Kevin still in the room? Correct. Yeah, that's right. Okay. And it's going to be designed to those standards. Correct. Yeah. Okay. That's my last comment. Thank you guys. Do you mind if I add to that?

Yes. I think that's I think it's a really good point and I I should have mentioned that earlier, but but because I guess it's so far out in the future

when that culture court is extended and then is eventually connected south of our property as part of the major thoroughfare plan that then becomes another alternate route to Mona Road, alleviating some of the traffic concerns you might have. [snorts] Other questions or comments about the traffic study? Okay, Jeff, I have um a couple of questions for you. some of the things that they have put in their slides. Talk about some of the commitments that they're willing to make for for um this with the traffic study such as the light once warranted when it's warranted by um TOT or the town. those sort of things. Are those things that we if it moved forward that we would need to add here or would we just wait until it comes back to planning for it to be done then?

I think out of abundance of caution, I think you could add it in now or at least at the second read if you have a second read, right? Uh as part of the part of the uh pud. Kevin, you in here? Where is he? Kevin, [clears throat] that's you don't have to come up, but I'm just saying that there's no reason why you couldn't do both both that way. You get it on the record for for the PUD that that we're doing this with these staff comments. Did you hear what my question was?

Yeah, you could add as as part of a motion probably since it's not part of the motion that the planning commission recommended. Just add it as a condition. Have y'all had a chance, and I guess y'all means you, Tom, and Charles, had a chance to look at their proposed commitments slashimprovements and do you feel like those are enough or do you feel like there needs to be others that would need to be added to the motion? As from a traffic standpoint, I don't know. I don't know if they have anything. I don't know that I have anything else on the traffic side. I'll let if they have something to say, they can pop. I think the biggest part is there anything we need to include now,

right? So that when we come back with site plan later, we're not in a situation where we forgot something, right? If if it's something that's going to be covered through the normal site plan process, then we already have a process in place to cover that, right? Yeah. I mean, I just want to make sure we don't miss it. Yeah, I think I think where I'm at if it's going to move forward.

Yeah. And I think you can you could add it all their commitments they're committing to. You could add that as that could be the condition, you know, what they're telling you. Um you could also commit to or they're already committing to having a traffic study basically every building they do anyway, a revised traffic study. So I mean I think anything that that would those would create that those studies would come back and say hey now you need to do A B and C you would already have that ability because part of this also you know if you remember we talked about they're site plans are not just coming back to planning they're coming to you all as well. So you all or this council will be seeing everything that they do

u in addition which was agreed upon in the agreement right that we all signed. So um all right this this some of this council might not be here based on the length of the correct but it would give any other council that's sitting in our spot the ability for them if it went forward. Yeah. And that that's the case with probably half of what we approve, right? Because every development there's many developments we approve that won't get started before our terms may be up, right? So, that's always going to be the case.

Um, uh, [clears throat] I I've forgotten what I was going to ask, I guess. Sorry. I'm kind of

Mayor, I've got a comment. is whether we put them in there or not, you know, to be considered in the future by planning and another council or us. Um, I still hadn't heard any commitment to other than maybe turn lanes and everything to Mona and Jefferson. And and I get Steve's point about, you know, not limiting access to people's property up there, but my concern is still, you know, the truck traffic, you know, accidentally getting off at Jefferson Pike and going on up on the road.

Yeah, I I I agree with you. I think my my whole conditions of even potentially approving this is based on they're going to come back with future traffic studies through each phase. So, if that's not automatic, then I think we need to include that in our our any motion because uh that's that I'm I'm basing all of this on the precursor that we're going to get future opportunities that are more relevant to the moment that they're building to be able to make sure we've got things covered.

And I agree with that. But I mean, I think right now it is somewhat of a somewhat of a guess as to what it looks like. I mean, and as we get closer, those studies would become more relevant. I don't disagree, Jeff. If they have a study done and we have our third party do the study and they're in disagreement and ours is more stringent as to what has to be done. Is it just we don't approve it unless they do those things or is there anything that requires them to use what our what the third parties recommended? Do you see where I'm asking?

I think so. But I mean basically planning and you are going to approve whether those improvements are right. So, you're going to accept which one you like really and then they'll be required to do that one or it doesn't pass. Correct. They basically can't move forward with a site plan unless we approve it. That's right. If it doesn't include things we like, then it doesn't move forward. So, now they've got zone property they can't develop. And I would give you the example of a recent uh application that we received on industrial where there were a few things to include traffic study information that we didn't agree with. Yeah. Right.

Which we did not. And there is the double layer of planning and then us too, which we normally don't get unless there's an amendment that's being made to the PRD. You know, for the past several years at our budget retreat, most everybody, I think Jerome's maybe not heard it yet from the chamber members, but Paul the tour with the chamber has told us, uh, we do need to make sure that we build on our industrial product from a revenue perspective. That doesn't mean it has to go here or there, but the chamber recommends [clears throat] that to us. Um, you know, one of the things I think about is, and I'm not saying I'm forward again. I'm still pondering this to be honest with you. But one of the things I want to tell you guys is if it's not this, this is on our urban growth area. It is going to develop at some point this property out your way. And maybe you're some of the benefactors of from of that from having a large track of land. I don't know. That's up to you. But at some point, it will. And if it's not this, what is it? And that's what I would just challenge everybody to kind of think through a little bit. U you know, mixed uses, high density, all those things cause some of the same issues that we're hearing tonight, too. So, I just kind of want to put that out there. Um it's not easy to sit up here and hear the pluses and the minuses of both. And uh but we're tasked to do that and we do it with the most information we can get. So, as we process through this, this has been a long arduous process. I think Kellyy's somewhere in here. Kelly and I have talked a few times on the phone and um

she's probably been as many. Well, and if she lived in the city, we'd probably get her to run for council or something like that.

But uh to Kelly's point, you know, she sat down with this. There was a lot of neighbors that came together and met on this. And uh to your point, there was a time I know I talked to you about it that you felt comfortable with it, right? So I don't know what's changed or not. Miss, I'm gonna get your name right because Miss Delansancy, when you talked about lollipop annexing a while ago, I wrote that down. And I don't know if if you guys understand what the annexation laws are these days, but probably 15 or 20 years ago, our state representatives made the decision that we could no longer come out and grab you. We can't come out and annex you against the law. You'd have to come to us and request it, which is kind of what's taking place tonight. That said, it creates exactly what you just said, M. Delissy. It's it creates lollipop annexing and we don't really get to fix that because of the laws that are proposed against us now from an annexation standpoint. It'd be the best thing that we could probably do as a council would be to crawl out towards 840 slowly with services and police and fire. But we don't have that benefit anymore. It's been taken away from us. So when we consider annexation, especially anything this size, we have to look at it as yes, it's lollipopping in a way, but uh that's the cards we're dealt. So I just want everybody to kind of know these are the things we deal with that you may or may not understand. You're here tonight. You may not follow what we do from planning and zoning and annexations and all that, but that's the cards we're dealt. So I just kind of want to put that out there so everybody would have an understanding of the way we have to process it. Thank you for those that I've talked to. Thank you for those that I've emailed back. I hope you've heard me when I've had a time. I've emailed some of you back. And thank you for being cordial with your emails. That to me means more than anything. You guys have sent emails and you've been kind. You voiced your opinions. And I think we've all gotten those emails.

Most of us, if not all, you have voiced your opinions. And uh we respect that. We try to listen to all sides in every argument. We got to try to get the best product we can. Okay. Other questions for staff or comments that you want to make? Some comments I'd like to read off and there they're a few so be patient.

Um I've repeated this time again. The from the summary we have the total improvement cost to the town was 38 million. I know mayor you referenced the other track as well. of these improvements being included, the fireh hall, the the um police, the staff, and I think that was summarized in one of the emails we got from staff um several months ago. Um all the citizens I've spoken with are concerned that we're overextending ourselves on infrastructure requirements. Uh, like I said, we've annexed five plus miles beyond the town limits, current town limits down to Lynwood along Emmaville Road. And if we head to the norththeast, we're extending another five miles. So, I guess the citizens I've spoke with and my concerns are we're having a hard time keeping up with internal infrastructure plus the westerly infrastructure. Now, we're considering this annexation on the east side of 840. That's only going to add to us trying to keep up with infrastructure. Um, those concerns are are felt by citizens I've spoke with as well. Um the annexation submittal exhibits they're referencing 819 acres. We have throughout the several months of discussion even though we are just considering 225 acres now only 32 of that proposed as commercial then the remaining is proposed as industrial warehouses. Again the trucks will be a strain on the roadways.

uh consideration should be given to the middle track not being discussed but surely will follow to be annexed u which is the panaton track you know we kind of we've discussed it some but once this westerly track comes in um the easternly track is probably going to come in then a panaton track's going to come in that's enormous amount of acreage that we're annexing in and serving. I have concerns that annexations are are also overextending our fire and police coverages. Um the fire response will be in excess of 8 minutes until we get a fire station built. Uh this will require an additional fire station, additional personnel and equipment as well as police officers and equipment at a significant cost to the taxpayers. have concerns about extending sewer utilizing two more lift stations which would total five lift stations and a raw water lift station at the plant. This is going to present anorobic conditions producing hydrogen sulfides and odors which will require additional treatment at lift stations and possibly the wastewater plant. In addition, we're utilizing our existing capacity of the wastewater treatment plant. Even though it is going to be minimum impact from uh warehouses, uh this development will have a permanent impact on the rural community of this area. Whether it be light pollution, noise pollution, air pollution, environmental impact, storm water runoff concerns, increased traffic, constant truck traffic, and the basic issue that we talk about a lot,

quality of life that we speak about preserving. We are about to vote on an annexation that will change the whole landscape of this corridor and be responsibility of the taxpayers to improve and maintain the infrastructure. Even though the financial analysis shows that we'll be gaining uh tax tax base from that. Um the traffic impact study kind of leaves me with more questions about what is expected in the future or what will take place in the future has those submitts come in uh before planning and before us. Um, so Mark, you had mentioned lollipop annexation, and you're right. Before state law was changed, we basically prohibited from doing lollipop annexation, which was annexing a track of land and the right way out to it. But with changes of law, now we we um have to wait on property owners to come to us and request it. And this property is out on the outer extents of our uh urban growth boundary which disconnects the existing city limits to that development. And we're going to be responsible for what we annex in between the infrastructure, the roadways. Um my opinion, this is kind of irresponsible annexation. I appreciate the development. I don't appreciate the impact it's going to have on the community. And um there was one email that was sent to all of us that just kind of struck home with me and I'd just like to read a few few uh paragraphs

from that. I'd uh the lady was Miss Young, Mary Young. I'd like to talk about the difference between natural development and what can feel like accelerated or projectdriven development. Natural development occurs when infrastructure utilities and land use expand expand together as growth naturally moves in a certain direction. Roads are built because they are needed and utilities are installed at the same time minimizing disruption and long-term cost. So that kind of tells me, you know, she had a good point and it kind of drove home to me. Are we overextending ourel? And I know we've talked about the tool that we're developing, the infield development tool, which basically tells us what's an optimum area that we should be annexing and can still properly serve without putting a strain on infrastructure uh emergency response services. So with all that th those are concerns I have and and I'm Paul and his group I know is going to do the right thing whenever the development if it is approved. I I've got confidence that they'll do the right thing. But I don't have a comfort level of us reaching way out there and only doing warehouses when maybe sometime in the future it could be so much more than warehouses. That's that's all I've got to say.

Thank you. Other comments or questions? I would like to ask staff um police, fire, utilities. I know they're all out in the lobby.

Were they sleeping out there? Yeah. Having dinner? about 30 seconds. Yeah. Door Dash came in. Pizza delivery. Yeah. Come on in. That's right.

That's right. They're They're on the couch out there. I know what they're doing. So, police and fire, if y'all don't mind making your way. I'm going to put y'all on the spot first. Looking at this plan and seeing the phased approach and it's 25 years out before it's totally built out. What concerns do you have at this point in regards to policing and fire and and response time with annexing the roads out there and then eventually those buildings or do you have a concern at this point? I think Chief Goss is putting you up. He's making you go first. That's fine. The fire hours do it to police. [laughter]

I think as I've talked to Dave about this, um, as long as we keep adding to our ranks and keep, um, looking to the f future as far as adding personnel and equipment to the police department, we will be able to do what we need to do to service any area that we take in in the town, in my opinion. But [clears throat] with that said, it's one of those things where we have to plan ahead and make sure that we're adding people as we go along each year and we don't fall behind as far as the area we're taking in and be able to service it with the the response time that we need to maintain. So, okay, Chief. Yeah, they always always go in first and secure the scene for us. [laughter] We're in stage for you to do the work.

Yeah, exactly. Thank you. [gasps] Um yeah, we we've looked at this and I think we provided and and evaluated drive time maps and um I don't see a tremendous impact from this one property. We have property set aside for a fire station, but in looking at the ISO model, uh it evaluates built upon areas. So really, if we if they're looking at being, you know, 10, 15, 20 years out to fully develop this, it could be a decade before we would need fire protection out there. And of course the needs of the community in that time period are going to change with or without this. So um it it's not something that's going to be dropped in our lap tomorrow and I think that we can plan accordingly and we'll we'll have to do that

either way.

Okay. So Dave, coming back to you regard regarding budget and that sort of thing and and having to add personnel concerns from you regarding the amount of personnel, the having to keep up with the roads. Are there concerns that you have with us looking at going out to this area? Well, the, you know, there've been some commitments from the um from the developer as it relates to to Mona Road, which I think are are helpful. We've done a uh we we've done our PCI analysis on the the asphalt [clears throat] itself. So, that that's in good shape. Does it need shoulders? Will it eventually need wid widening? Probably. um the fact that the any traffic impact studies as the development occurs out there would um we'd have to analyze that and any improvements would be that were born upon that development would be the responsibility of that developer are helpful as well. Um I think to uh both chief's points, you know, we've got a plan for for the growth no matter what uh the outcome of this evening is and um we'll continue to do that. We're in a good we're in a good shape right now with the amount of officers we have on the road. Um, but we know that based off of growth projections and typically we're probably looking more at like population growth projections and and when it comes to industrial development, you're not adding that to uh to our population, but just looking at population growth um predictions, we're going to have to keep up with that as we go on. And we have a plan for that. So, uh the fact that we have land set aside for a fire station when that area develops is good. And to Chief Goss's point, we're going to need to uh plan for the the infrastructure development of a fire station at some point as [clears throat] we continue to monitor and watch what growth occurs in that area. It's no different than securing the fire the fire u land out uh on the

other side of town. We'll have to watch and monitor as growth um develops out in that area and and plan accordingly. It's just it's just part of what we have to do as a growing community. We've already looked at the water and sewer analysis as it relates to uh our our our capacity at our plants. Um and you've we've had several presentations on that. And so we believe that we have a good plan ahead of us in terms of when we'll need to look at our wastewater treatment plant. Looking at about currently five to six years, maybe a little bit sooner when we're going to have to start into into design. Um and the water plant looks really good in terms of its capacity. So,

so with this project specifically, it's more in regards to overall growth rather than this specific project when it comes to police, fire, and sewer. That's correct. And I' I've emphasized that the plan of services document that we've done really kind of looks at overall growth in that area of what that built out environment would look like, the resources, and the financial impact that it would have to us. So, it's not just this development or it could be any other development on that land. That that is what the the impact would look like to the town when that area is built out. Okay. [snorts]

We spoke to sewer capacities and I know we've talked about this in a lot of discussions. Um you've probably all read or heard about Spring Hills issues right now. They've got capacity issues and so we don't want to go there. We want to make sure whatever we do, whatever we approve or not, we're not meeting those same issues that's taking place right now over in Spring Hill. So, we do all of our hard work now in order to make informed decisions. Um, Mike, with that nasty old tie, come on in here.

Ah, yeah. Yeah. Um, sewer. Um the gentleman I can't is it Ryan with Thomas and Hutton? Yes ma'am. Came and talked about capacity and was this project included in with that in looking at development? Yep. So Ryan did the analysis when when he talked to you guys and it was included but the impact is minimal because of the time frame. You know this is not all going to hit day one. So and and Dave kind of described it perfectly. you know, in the next 5 years or so, we'll be starting the process to increase the wastewater plant.

And not because this project's coming on, but just because of the growth we're seeing across the board. I mean, when you're looking at 3% and I think I'm being on the low end of growth each year um for a community our size, I mean, we're going to have to increase those things. So,

yeah. and we're looking at it at the number of equivalent residential units that we add. So, we've got a a real count and you know, we're not basing it on a percentage. We're actually looking at it from a that perspective. Um, also, I know Jerome brought up odor control that Mark would have to address that within the design process with their engineer to make sure everything is how we want it to be. Um, he would handle that with them. So, you know, for the increase of the plant, well, no, I'm talking about the adding the several lift stations. Okay. Uh there is some on Jefferson Pike. So, you know, odor will be an issue. We'll have to do odor control there to make sure that that everything's the right way,

which we're having to do at our other lift stations currently at some. Yes. Like Metalbrook. Yeah. But he would address that during design with their engineers. So, they would they would get all that worked out. Okay. Okay. Um, okay. Perfect. Thank you, sir. Yes, ma'am.

Other questions or comments. Um, I hope the public at home and those that are here can see for the past nine months, we have we have tried to study this issue. No matter what way the vote comes out tonight, um, we want to do what is best for the town as a whole. And and I will tell you this has been a tough project because I mean you look at somebody that's willing to come in and put in $40 million of infrastructure that the citizens don't have to do. But then you also look at do we have the capacity to do that? Do we is it the right time for that? So those are the things that I think all of us sitting up here have been weighing. So is there any other comments before we move to

my my only comment is you know um when we look at capacity growth or plan for the future we always consider the entire urban growth boundary that's been set by previous councils before us and was kind of already here when most of us got here save HG probably um uh so colorful incident so so we We have to cows in the barn thing again.

We have to include that in all of our design and plan. This area is part of that. It It's already land that we have considered and have always known is going to be annexed at some point. We have comprehensive plans that we work on periodically and modify and update as things develop to make sure that we have a plan for what we want an area to look like, what fits in a particular area, where residential fits, where commercial fits, where industrial fits. And this development fits our comprehensive plan. Before we even knew Hillwood was coming, we set a line. We set what we wanted out in that area and what fit for that area. And this fits that design and plan. Again, before several of us were even up here. That was the plan. Um, you know, um, Jerome's mentioned a lot of stuff about capacity and planning and and making sure that we're accounting for certain things, and he's absolutely right. We got to make sure we're accounting for those. But I'm choosing to trust the staff and the experts that we have. And when they're telling me, when I have the fire chief, the police chief, the sewer treatment plant, the water plant, all of them telling me that we've accounted for this. We've got this covered. We can develop this over the course of the next 10 years and it's not it's going to have a minimal impact. I feel like I have to trust that. I can't what other option do I have? I could argue and say, "Well, I don't believe you." But I don't have any basis for that. They're the experts. This is what they do. And so I'm trusting that they're doing that. I get it. We're having to trust. I'm also trusting that future councils are go are going to hold this developer accountable in the event we're not here. But that's what previous councils did for when they set our comprehensive plan and when they set urban growth boundaries. They trusted that we were going to do the right thing when it came time. Um, so for all of those reasons, I feel like this developer has done nine months worth of study with us. I can't I can't even

begin to tell you how many things we've gone back to this developer and said, "If you want this, you have to do X." We've told them they had to change the change locations of buildings, reduce size of buildings, change the the height of the buildings, add buffering. uh we made them connect that internal road before they finished building three. We've asked them for the turn the the the roundabout with restricted turn. Uh we've asked them for traffic studies and commitments for improvements at all the intersections which they have given. Um, I I feel like that that there's we're not going to get another developer that's going to come in and be willing to work with this this much and consider the impact and the cost that they're going to spend. If we had developed this out from 840 gradually, like several people mentioned, organic growth, we don't have the ability or the knowledge of what's coming after that next piece of property. So, it's harder for us. It's harder for me to envision the plan for way out into the future when we do one development at a time and not have something like this where we're able to say, you know, if you develop this, we need more capacity. So, the water and the sewer treatment plants are going to be larger than this development needs because we know everything between us is going to develop. Um, so I think there's a lot of that that has been considered and been discussed. And then the last piece is you have the f the Rollins family's property rights as well. They have a right to develop and sell their property. And and um if it's not this, what's it going to be? Is it going to be a highdensity housing development, which honestly would be much more of an impact on the community than what this is going to be? [clears throat]

Um yeah, it's housing, but uh there's a lot of options that could come along. And to me, this fits better. residential actually doesn't fit our comprehensive plan [clears throat] for this area. That's not what we said fit that area because of all the industrial already there. Uh Wilson County has kind of already started that process and it's right up next door to us now. Um so putting residential within hundreds of feet of existing Amazon warehouses or existing buildings that are in Wilson County isn't isn't good development on our part either. So I I just to me I nothing else makes sense. This makes sense for that area. We've got a partner in Hillwood that we have experience working with. They were very good partners with us at the airport property and continue to be. So how do we h I I just don't feel like we're going to get a better option or maybe we will but this is a good option.

Other comments? Well, one other uh you mentioned this mayor. um this is something they're willing to put the money in for for the infrastructure and if we don't have that then we have to put the burden of that tax later on our citizens to make sure they foot the bill for it. So in a way we're getting a lot of free stuff that we don't have to burden our taxpayer with. That doesn't mean we have to vote for it or against it but we also have to think that way for our taxpaying citizens. you know, we're keeping a burden of a lot of that infrastructure off of their wallets.

Well, that's how at least five of us on this council, that's how we got the AAA bond rating over the last few years. That's saving tax. We've been focusing on the health and this and the and the and the planning of this town. I've been on the council for nine years. I think at least five of us have been on here for nine plus years. And so this is it's been a long-term plan and a long-term commitment. And we've we've shown [clears throat] that we've been able to do that by getting a AAA bond rating, by putting the town in a position where we can absorb these kind of developments without tremendous impact because we planned for them.

Other comments or questions?

Yeah, you all make good um good I'll say arguments. That's probably not the best term, but uh good reason for the way you each each of you feel on this. And I think it kind of comes down to what all of us kind of feel as a as a group. Um I think Wilson County has kind of sent us in the direction of of warehouses over there. Um especially from the racetrack up to about 109 I think it is. That's pretty much all we've got is uh is warehouses through there. Um you know, I met with with Paul and his group, talked with a lot of of the people in here, and I appreciate uh Mark made the comment. Uh the the way you handled yourself is very admirable. uh just uh the way you um you know you talked issues, you know, and not uh um we didn't get out there and get into um heated discussions, that type of thing. It was issues and that's what that's what you do and I appreciate that. Um as I said earlier, I have spent a lot of time in that area. I still do spend a lot of time in that area. I go to church at Pal's Chapel, so I spent a lot have always gone there. So, I know the area quite well. Um, and you know, when you think about it, what what kind of fits? Yeah. Where does this kind of fit over there? However, for me, um, I've just, we don't get, and I've said it before, we don't get an opportunity very often to have a gateway. Now this issue the gateway is going away from the town but it's still a gateway. It's a we don't get those very often. We

got one at Sam Ridley. We got one at Amble Road. We got one at Jefferson Pike. And I just I I have an issue with that whole area just being one thing. Um whether it be all houses or whether it be all commercial. Um, I'm I'm I'm kind of like Mark. It's going to develop at some point, I'm sure. Uh, I I like seeing development from inside out. Uh, that's what I like. Now, there's certain situations we can't do that. Uh, Jefferson Pike was one uh one uh example. You know, the core owned a lot of property there between um down at Gills all the way out to 840. So, um, we couldn't just develop that all the way out. Um, so we annexed out there by, uh, by Jefferson Pike. And when working with that, we got certain things. Yeah, there's going to be some warehouses there. There's going to be some, uh, um, commercial there. From what I'm hearing, that the residential is going to be on the other side. And for me, I just I want to see all of it. Uh I'd like to see a little bit of everything. And I told this to the group uh Paul and his group when I met with them. Uh I just I would like to see us see more mixed whether it be office, commercial, residential, or any of those. Now, is it going to happen right now? No. I may never see it if we if we develop inside out. uh cuz there's four to five miles of uh of land that's got to go out there and it's going to cost us a lot to do it. Uh yeah, we've got somebody out here that that's willing to do that and I

appreciate that. But um I you know we we're doing a lot of work uh really on the south side of the town and if we ever get our uh exit on the interstate there it's going to cost us some money there. Uh I don't want to see us extend oursel too much. U I think it's going to cost us some money to to do the emergency services. I'm glad to to see our chiefs talk about that. We've still got to build um a um firehouse and all that for them to uh to be in. So, um somebody mentioned the uh the flooding. I've seen the flooding. I've seen the water over the bridge out there. Um now, whether this is going to have an effect on that, I don't know. Um, but one of the things that that I that I saw uh in my past life, uh the company I worked for, I used to have to go to a lot of um areas uh at an interstate and look at buildings and look at and certain things there. And the longer it was there, the ones that had been there a long time, um, it really made to me, I was like, I would sure hate to have to live around this because the older it got, the more rundown it got. Now, I do believe that this group that we're talking to, if it goes through, is going to do a good job with that. I probably won't see it to that uh for it to get down that bad. I'll probably be gone by that time. But um I just I think we have an opportunity out there to do something more. Uh and do I see it happening soon? No, it's not going to happen soon. But I do think we've got an opportunity. And and for that reason, I I just I can't support it right now.

Okay.

Anybody else? Go ahead. One of the emails that I received has one line. It says, "As a community, we understand there will be development, but this is not the right one at this time." So, I mean, everybody realizes that yes, this is going to happen. [clears throat] I mean, we as a council have looked out there and known that this was coming. And um you know to be honest with you, I wish that we had run the sewer out Jefferson Pike many many years ago. But essentially what we were waiting for was uh um for the state to put in the road so that we didn't have to do it twice essentially. And um had we done that, I think that probably we would have got warehouses out there before some of y'all even got there, you know. But that's not what happened. And here we are today. And there's a lot of things that are on my mind about this development. And and I do appreciate the guys who have have been bringing it to us and and uh you know have been have tried to be responsive to everything that we asked for. But one of the things that um concerns me obviously y'all know I like to use a little analogies. Okay. And it's uh reaching for [laughter]

Huh. That concerns us too.

Yeah. Okay. Very good. Very good. But it's uh it's reaching for the shiny object and um having somebody else pay for the sewer and and you know, here it is and everything's going to develop around it. And um you know, it's a terrific thing. You know, um uh use other people's money. That's the way to get ahead in business sometimes. sometimes, but um we did it one time before and uh it was about 15 years ago actually and it's taken it's just now coming into fruition and uh you know I think sometimes things may seem too good to be true but um you know I I I like what's going to happen there. I mean, I'm I'm sorry, but I mean, you look up and down Jefferson Pike right there and there's going to be warehouses. That's just all there is to it. That's what's going in there. But there can be other things and it can be done tastefully. It can be put together in a manner which uh is conducive to step downs to the residential areas that are there. Um there's no doubt in my mind that you know there is a lot of property in there that and it's like we see in all other development in the midstate area which is which is you know so prolific is that people have had property and it's been in their family for many many years and you know then they're ready to retire they're ready to move on to something else and they want to cash in and I think that you know some of that will happen out there too as It already is. I mean, really and truly, it already is. That's that's the the catalyst for a lot of this that's that's going on. But, um, you know, the, uh, uh, some of the bigger things that bother me, Mona Road, I mean, um, I've always talked about how

so many of our roads in this uh, in this area are um, old Buffalo Trail. you know, the buffaloos went down them and then you have the uh Indians that followed them and then the people on the horses and then they pulled the wagon through. You know, there's there's there's roads in town that I can remember when they used to tar and chip it. And I remember the very first time they ran a asphalt uh machine down it and that's not that long ago. I may look old, but I'm not really that old, you know. But um uh Mona Road has not really been improved a whole lot since then. Probably the the upside of Mona Road is it's all built on top of a rock out there. So it's got a foundation, you know. Thank you all for being so patient and so kind. It's all I've got. There's a lot that's already been said. So, and I've said several things over the course of the meetings that we've already had. So, I won't belabor this discussion. Okay.

Um, so we have talked for the last nine months. We have heard from the developer. We have heard from citizens. We have received the studies. So, at this point, I will open the floor for a motion. [clears throat] I motion that we approve the request with the staff comments and with the caveat that all future phases will come will include traffic studies.

Okay, we have a motion. Do we have a second? Any second? Okay. So, your motion dies for lack of a second. So, I will open the floor back up for another motion. Okay. I'll make the motion that we deny. And you'll have to have a reason for the denial. Okay. For me, it is um I would like to see mixed use out there.

Okay. So, there's a motion for a denial. So that there would be Jeff is that you good? [snorts] Yes, I think you put it on there. Zoning is I guess what? [clears throat] So we have a motion. Do we have a second? I'll second down the floor. Second discussion. Seeing no discussion, Amber, if you'll do a roll call vote. What? And the motion is for denial because of zoning. Correct. That's what was made. Councilman Dempsey, yes on denial. Councilwoman Peebles,

yes on denial. Councilman Cole, yes. Councilman Shore, yes. Councilman Sullivan, I [clears throat] I'm going to vote yes, which is against my previous motion, mostly because the council has already voted four nos, which fails the motion. The council is saying they don't want it and I support the council's motion. Vice Mayor Atkins, yes on the denial. Mayor Reed,

yes on denial. So motion is denied. Um, we appreciate your patience in this. I will tell you there will probably be something else at some point that will will come around. I will also tell you we will give it the same amount of consideration that we have this and we encourage you to continue to have discussion with us. You may not live in our town limits but you are absolutely our neighbors and we take that into consideration. You are more than welcome to stay for the remainder of our meeting if you would like to. But if you would not if you do not I would just ask that you quietly go out so we can finish our meeting. Thank you. Okay. Item 8 C is consideration of an ordinance relative to a budget amendment for fiscal year 2026. Sierra, you following up at the end of the line?

I am. I'm getting in that line, too. [laughter] I'm surprised HD's not already been in that line to make his way out. All right, go ahead. Budget amendments. Okay, good evening, Mayor Mary and council. Um, this is our midyear budget amendments. Um, we have calculated and analyzed the information that's in your packet. The bulk of these amendments are police vehicles and the completion of some IT projects. Um, these increases in expenses are offset by either decreases in other expenses or increases in estimated revenue.

We had discussion about this at the workshop. Are there any other questions? Come on in. There's plenty of seats now. Uh, any other questions about this then? Do I have a motion? Have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Item D is consideration of an ordinance amending the Smyrna Municipal Code Title 5, Chapter 2, relative to the privilege and business tax. Hey Ben.

Yes, ma'am. Again, this this ordinance would uh allow us to begin assessing late penalties on the uh delinquent privilege and business taxes that are collected by the municipality. Questions for Ben on this? We had discussion about this one and the next item pretty significantly at our workshop. Seeing none, then do we have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve. Okay, we have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. Our next item applies to the one we just voted on, but this is a consideration of an ordinance amending the 2025 2026 fiscal year fee schedule to add a late penalty for delinquent business privilege taxes. It is and it's a companion and this actually implements the late fee that the previous one authorized. Okay, questions on this then? Do I have a motion? Motion to approve. Have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Second. Motion and second. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. Item F, we move to the front while the airport uh authority people were here. So, we've already voted on that one. We'll move on to item G, which is consideration of an amendment to the bylaws of the sister city relations committee. Um, we had quite a bit of discussion. Jerry, you even talked about this. Are there other questions for Jerry or Dave on the amendment to these bylaws? [snorts] Make a motion to approve. Have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. Um Amber or Dave, anything under other tonight? No, ma'am.

Okay. Um status report. Sierra. Okay. Um sales tax numbers are in. For state share tax, we received um 772,000. And for the next slide, for local sales tax, we received 1.8 million, which is pretty much right on track with budgeted estimates. I hope you all had a chance to read the document that was attached to our weekly talking about budget and what we what's forecasted for what we think is going to happen with um the economy over [snorts] the next couple of years and um I think we all know and that finance is always on the conservative side which I think has benefited us um and we appreciate that. So, thanks for adding that. I'm assuming you added that in.

Yeah. Yes. I was going to say Rex taught me well. That's right. That's right. Um, did anybody have questions for Sierra on this? HG, anything you want to, you know, that's a a direct result of shopping local? Agreed. I would encourage the community to continue to shop local so that Sierra's numbers can come to fruition and their property taxes can stay low. Absolutely. Okay. Um, any correspondence or announcements, Amber? Okay. Um, Dave, anything tonight? Uh, nothing this evening. I do have a slide.

All right. Thank you. Um, so, uh, when I got here, one of the thing initiatives I had was to, um, get out into the community a little bit more and get, um, our our staff and and and you all out into the community a little bit more outside of of town hall. Uh, so here we go with our very first, uh, town hall road show. Um, we're going to host this at Steuart's Creek Middle School on February 12th, and uh, we'll have uh, mayor, town council, and administration out there. very excited to bring you some town updates directly related to the community. Um so we're going to take this show on the road. We're going to give updates on um public safety, infrastructure and transportation, talk about community uh growth and development, parks and recreation. We're going to uh also ensure that we have uh our direct staff there to address questions before and after the event. uh we'll do kind of a little tabletop out there so we can get uh questions answered and and issues addressed. We'll also have a Q&A session there as well. Uh looking forward to this opportunity to engage with the community in a different way. That's all I have.

Great. Jeff, for me Jerome.

Um yes, I have a uh public service announcement. Yes. Town of Smyrna board and committee openings. Uh the town of Smyrna is seeking residents interested in serving on various boards and committees. These volunteer positions play a vital role in shaping policies, programs, and the future of our community. If you are passionate about making a difference, we encourage you to apply. Learn more at the town's website, www.townsrna.org. And some of those uh committees are um sister city, Smyrna Housing Authority, Planning Commission, historic zoning, BZA, Beer Board, project assistance, package liquors, storm water advisory, industrial development board and adjustment and appeals. And I'd just like to follow up on the nine months of discussion we've we've had. First, I want to thank Paul and his group for bringing this and and I think he's kind of heard what the community is saying. Second, I want to thank the council and Steve, if you took it, I was attacking you. I apologize. I didn't mean to attack you if that's the way you took it. Um, I get excited sometimes when I get passionate and um, so there it is. Okay, Raquel,

I have a slide. The My Smyrna app. The My Smrna app is your direct connection to the town. You can report issues anytime, track their updates, and see your feedback in action. Learn more in the video, or visit town of Smyrna.org um to find out more about the MySrna app. And the app is available through the Apple store as well as Google. I think that is all I have there. She

I have a slide. [sighs] Love where you live. Keep spurn litter free for 2026. Um, and also accompanying that actually is, um, if you have not taken down your Christmas tree by now, then you can still do that through January 19th or just leave it up all year. Yes. There's nothing wrong with somebody that does that. You do. Oh, that's right. You do, don't you? Yeah. It's not a live tree, but it's Christmas every day at her house. Every day. Well, they won't take it your fake tree. They want live trees and they're they're grinding them and and putting them on the trails I believe.

But be sure to remove all ornaments, tinsel, and decorations from the trees before dropping off. The tree lot drop off is located in the parking lot. But um you know uh let's all do our part to keep the town litter free. Um, recycling is a big part that we've got to contribute to also because our trash is becoming a bigger and bigger problem every year. And also that would include be kind and shop local. Thank y'all. Jerry.

Okay. Spring sports, that's there they are, are right around the corner. Uh if you've got a a child that wants to play or an adult that wants to play, uh sign up your athlete today for fast pitch softball, baseball, soccer, adult league soccer, and flag football. Uh for more information, uh just uh visit the parks and recck page at ww.townsa.org org to learn more and to register or if you want you can call the parks department at 6154599773. That's all I have on that. Uh I've got a son Tyler's got a birthday in two days. So happy birthday to Tyler. That's it.

Steve, I've also got a slide. Um I was uh honored to participate in a leadership Rutherford's uh planning and zoning session last week. Um we had planning members from Murrisboro, Leverne and the county and Smyrna all together on a panel uh for the leadership Rutherford um uh class for I guess 2025 I guess is which one it is. uh they they were they had the opportunity to ask us some questions about how and why we make the decisions we make and and what's the logic or what's our mentality behind some of the the I guess directions that we go. Uh it was it was actually quite a bit of fun and I found out that um even though the the four of us on that commission were from four different uh jurisdictions essentially, we all pretty much had a lot of the same problems and we all pretty much saw the problems the same way. So, uh, it it was kind of nice to sit on a a panel with those guys. Um, leadership Rulesburg group is a great group and there's some really good folks coming through that program. Um, there was, uh, um, it was a lot of fun and I appreciated I appreciate the invite and I enjoyed doing it. Um, I don't have anything else personally, Jerome, I I appreciate the apology. I also apologize for getting uh, so emotional about it as well. Um, you know, I think we have to be able to disagree and move forward and um, you know, I don't hold grudges or anything. So, even if me and you, we can go play golf tomorrow, I'm good. Um, but um, you know, that I think that's important though that, um, there's lots of times that we're not going to all agree with each other and we got to be able to do that respectfully and move forward. And, um, you know, I I did I did feel like you were attacking me a little bit, but um, maybe it was just my emotions and not yours. So, I appreciate that. I thought I was going to have to put you both in timeout after my teaching kindergarten.

Maybe we need a timeout, too. I thought the four of us were going to have to get involved right here. [laughter] I'm I'm glad that you both are passionate about the community because that's what it boils down to.

That's it's it's processing decisions and I think it's healthy. So uh I have a slide and uh talking about leadership Rutherford um Todd and some others and Dave you all have decided to formulate a program called citizens government academy uh now accepting applications. So, one of the things you'll learn in here, I'll read some ideas to you. Uh, what you'll learn, participants will gain insight into town operations, including planning, finance, public works, and public safety. Program also includes tours of the town facilities and opportunities to engage directly with town officials. I know that the council will be meeting those applicants on the very first meeting and then they'll move out into the systems of our government and learn a lot more about some of the things we do. Um, if you sat in here tonight, you want to uh learn more about getting involved and going back and forth and deliberating, uh, this is a good class to take. So, we need future leaders and these are going to be young people that might want to have an opportunity to do this when we're gone. So, we welcome that. The dates are Monday, March the 2nd through April 27th. It begins at 6 PM. It's an 8-week program and there's no class on March 30th. The ones that can apply are any Smyrna residents 18 years of age or older. That's all I have.

Couple of items. Um last week I was um excited to meet with the Patels who are owners and instructors of the new Kum Kuman Math and Reading Center in Smyrna. Um it is an educational resource opportunity for the community for kids who may need a little extra help or even ones that are accelerated. They said that they will be doing a ribbon cutting with the chamber soon and wanted to invite all of us out for that. Second, Steve, you talked about leadership Rutherford. We always have a mayor's panel right at the beginning of the year and had the pleasure of talking to the leadership Rutherford class. Um, unless a mayor is sick, usually all of us are there every year and um it gives those uh people in the class the opportunity to pretty much ask us anything they want. So, um we enjoy being together. We don't always agree, but we do enjoy kind of riding each other a little bit and and giving each other a hard time. So, I do appreciate the other mayors in the community. Last but not least, I would just like to offer condolences to the MCI family. Um, Dr. McI with MTSU lost his wife unexpectedly um this past week and funeral home was tonight and tomorrow is the funeral. Um, a lot of people don't know that Liz was an educator here in Rutherford County and taught quite a few kids, but she was huge in giving back to the community through nonprofits and organizations. As a matter of fact, um, I I talked to Joyce Taylor and Joyce, the day that she died, Liz was planning an event and she was planning a fundraiser and Joyce said, "Well, we'll just cancel the meeting for today." And Liz was like, "Absolutely not. you're not going to cancel the meeting. This event's got to

continue on. So, even in her toughest times, she was thinking about others and people who needed more in the community. So, Liz will be missed and um I just want to tell Dr. McY and his children how sorry that we are for that. So, council, anything else? So we we're getting out earlier than we did last time by about so what only three and a half hours tonight. So if there's nothing else then we are adjourned. [music]