City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I would like to welcome Billy Low, lead pastor with City Church, who will lead us in tonight's invocation. All right. Well, thank you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for another day. Lord, we are grateful. I'm grateful for the city council and like always we pray that you would give them wisdom and discernment that the decisions that they would make would honor you. God, we pray for the protection of our city, our first responders. Um and even this weekend with weather coming in, Lord, would you protect our city? So Lord, we love you. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. I would like to call the regular meeting of the Milton City Council for Wednesday, January 21st, 2026 to order. The city encourages you to review tonight's agenda carefully. Each citizen who chooses to participate in public comment must complete a comment card and submit it to the city clerk prior to the agenda item being called. While the Milton rules allow a speaker to turn in their comment card up until the clerk calls the agenda item. Once the agenda item is called, no more comment cards can be accepted. Susan will will please call the role and make general announcements. Good evening, mayor and council. I will be happy to call roll for the January 21st, 2026 regular city council [clears throat] meeting. I would like to remind those in attendance to please silence all cell phones at this time. As the mayor mentioned, if you would like to make a public comment, then you are required to complete a public com comment card before the agenda item is called. If you are representing an organization, a notorized affidavit is required stating you have the authority to speak on behalf of that organization. If you have not submitted your comment card, then please bring your cards to me now. Demonstration [clears throat] of any sort within the chamber is prohibited. Please refrain from any applause, cheering, booing, outbursts, or dialogue with any person speaking. Anyone in violation will be asked to leave. Mayor and council, as I call roll this evening, please confirm your attendance. Mayor Payton Jameson here. Council member Brian Dolan here. Council member Doug Haney

here. Council member Juliet Johnson here. Council member Carol Clickerley here. Council member Jan Jacobus, present. Council member Phil Kramer here. Mayor, you have a quorum. Would everyone please rise for the pledge of allegiance? [clears throat] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Steve, any executive session? There is not. Okay. With that, can I have a motion to approve the meeting agenda? Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve the meeting agenda as proposed. Second. Okay. I have a motion from I was a little quick there. A motion from Council Member Kramer and a second from Council Member Dolan. You say that second or Council Member. [laughter] Okay, we're going to go oldfashioned way. Uh so all in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? That is unanimous. Moving general public comment. We do, mayor. Okay. General public comment is a time for citizens to share information with the mayor and the city council and to provide input and opinions on any matter that is not scheduled for its own public hearing during today's meeting. Please remember that this is not a time to engage the mayor or members of the city council in conversation. When your name is called, please come forward and speak into the microphone stating your name, address, and organization for the record. If you will now, please call the first public comment. Thank you, mayor. As a reminder, general public comment lots that members of the public may speak for five minutes. I will announce when one minute remains and will notify you when the time has expired. Mayor, I invite Mr. Steven Kish to the podium. Good evening, Mayor Council. I'm Steven Kish. I live at 3373 Twin Rose Place in Milton. Um that's in the town home community that's bordered on Web Road,

Morris Road, and Deerfield Parkway. We have the oldfashioned barn that's in our property. I'm also the vice president treasurer of the homeowners association, but tonight I'm only speaking on behalf of as a private citizen. I'm a huge fan of this Big Creek connector. I've been following it for many years. I'm an avid cyclinger on the Big Creek Greenway and this gives me an opportunity to get on my bike at my house and get onto the Big Creek Greenway when it's completed. Um, one of the things I noticed, um, because I live right at the corner where that roundabout is, and it's a single lane roundabout today, and the pedestrian crossing is in that roundabout, and that roundabout's going to turn into a two-lane roundabout as the Morris Road is is expanded. And I fear that that pedestrian crossing, if it remains there, is going to be a danger to a lot of citizens. So, I'm only suggesting, and I know I'm probably premature, the planning team does a great job, is that potentially moving a pedestrian crosswalk further west of the roundabout on Web Road where potentially the new um retail development is going in as well with an electronic signal for people to cross safely. But today, it's dangerous crossing a single lane roundabout. And when it's two lanes each way, it could be dangerous. That's all I want to say. So, thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Uh, any other public comment? No. No, mayor. Thank you. Okay. With that, um, that is on our consent agenda tonight, and I think we'll have public works reach out as we go through the process. So, thank you. Okay. Uh, we'll now move on to consent agenda. Will the city clerk please sound the items? The first consent agenda item is approval of the January 5th regular city council meeting minutes. Agenda item number 26-033. B is approval of a services agreement with Stevens Gymnasiums to provide basketball court refinishing at Milsp Springs Academy, Northwestern Middle School, and Hopewell Middle School.

Agenda item number 26-034. C is approval of a construction agreement between Georgia Department of Transportation and the City of Milton for Big Creek Greenway Connector PI00001578. Agenda item number 26-035. The final consent agenda item is D. Approval of a janitorial services agreement between the city of Milton and American Facility Services, Inc. for janitorial services at city facilities. Agenda item number 26-036. Mayor Jameson. Thank you. Do I have a motion on the consent agenda? Mr. Mayor, I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda as read. Second. Okay, I have a motion from council cookerly and a second from councelor Haney to approve the consent agenda as read. All in favor, please say I. I. Any oppose? That is unanimous. We will now move on to first presentation. Will you please stay on the item? The first presentation item is consideration of U25-03 and VC25-01 located at 1310 Morris Road and tax parcels 22544 01150423 225441150456 zoned T6 dear Deerfield form-based code by Deerfield CC Delaware LLC to request a use permit for multifamily section 8.3.1I of the UDC in order to accommodate a mixeduse development on 24.92 acres to develop multifamily residential units, townhouse units, loft apartments, and retail space along with two existing

six-story buildings and a concurrent variance to reduce the number of parking spaces required by section 9.2 I'm sorry 9.1.2 of the UDC. It's agenda item number 26-037. Mayor Jameson. Thank you. Do I have a motion on the first presentation item? I make a motion to approve agenda item number 26-037. Second. Okay. I have a motion from councelor Jacobus and a second from councelor uh Dolan to approve the first presentation item. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? That is unanimous. We will now move on to the public hearing. Will the city clerk please sound the item? The public hearing item is commencement of five-year update to Milton's comprehensive plan per the Department of Community Affairs Regulations. Agenda item number 26-038. Principal planner Miss Schuba Jangum. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um, I'm Shua Jangam, principal planner for the city and I'm joined uh by uh our consulting partner from Kimy Horn here and we are going we are going to begin the five-year update to our comprehensive plan this year. So today we are here to give you an overview of this project. Now this presentation is under public hearing because it is one of the requirement of Georgia's uh department of community affairs and um with this public hearing we request the mayor and council to officially um commence the comprehensive plan update. Uh today we'll go over the what is included in this interval. Please stop us anytime if you have questions.

So let me start with what is a comprehensive plan and how it is used. Um a comprehensive plan is a u living document uh that outlines Milton's vision for the future. Um it does not constitute zoning um but rather establishes uh long-term goals for uh in terms of housing, land use, economic development, transportation and so on. Um the last comprehensive plan was adopted in 2021. In terms of use, the comprehensive plan is used as a guide uh for zoning and land use policies as well as um in infrastructure investments throughout the city. So why are we updating this plan? Well uh for one uh it is uh it is required by state law to update this plan and second it just makes sense to uh check on the progress we have made in last five years incorporate into it into the plan uh and take the future actions as as you know this is a long-term plan. Um this is just a highlight of what is in our comprehensive plan. Uh our comprehensive plan includes uh Milton's vision priorities. It has uh demographic data, market trends um and uh maps as you see here is one of the map is character areas. It's it's showing eight character areas here. Uh Milton's comprehensive plan also talks about land use, economic development, placemaking, branding, transportation, smart cities, and sustainability. And um the five-year update is not going to be a brand new plan. It is going to

be an update to these uh uh these elements. Uh finally uh it the comp plan also talks about priority projects also known as short-term work program u uh which is essentially a list of projects uh you know compiled by CPAC in 2021. Um [snorts] now these are some of the projects uh from the short-term work program. This is just a visual representation of the projects. The actual list is pretty long, multiple pages. Uh Milton has done a great job accomplishing the short-term work program and you know if you have any questions about this one, now would be a good time because I've covered what is in uh the comp plan and we will be moving into how we are going to update it and I'm going to invite John Tulle from Kimhan to go over it. John, evening, mayor and council. John Tulie, uh, community planner with, uh, Kimley Horn. It's good to be with you all. We're excited to be working with your staff again. Prior to join joining Kimy Horn, I actually worked at the Atlanta Regional Commission for a number of years. So, I've known your your staff for a good while now. It's good to good to be with uh with you all again. So, should we give a good intro on the plan update? Again, emphasis on update. Kind of some some thought on on what we're doing this go around is it's more of a status check. Let's check in on how we're doing on implementation. Things have changed over the last five years in the city, in the metro area, uh, in in in the region. Uh, and so, are there any things we need to kind of tweak or revisit? Maybe there's some new priorities that we've come across and we want to dig in on a little bit. This is not really the moment where we're looking for large wholesale change. There's a lot of really good policy, a lot of really good direction from the last plan that we're kind of just checking in on and to see if there need to be any uh course corrections or or realignments. Uh, Schuba mentioned this uh briefly. Um, uh, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, DCA, sets out

guidelines for updates to comprehensive plans, kind of lists out the things you need to do. Now, they don't really necessarily care about the exact policies. Those are your choices and your community's choices, but are there certain elements that are included? Have you checked certain boxes that they want to make sure you checked and including things like uh engagement uh, and work program items. For this update, as Shuba mentioned, we're really going to just be looking at, okay, let's take a look at the demographics and the trends and the market and things that have that have changed over the years. Let's incorporate those plans like Deerfield uh that have been uh accomplished recently and see where we need to make some targeted updates and some tweaks to that. Specifically, really, let's look at the work program and see, okay, here are the things we've achieved. Are there other things we need to now put on the list? Are there new things that have come up that we want to focus on that weren't a focus before? And so, that's really going to kind of be uh the focus of this. So, don't think of this as we're kind of taking the old plan and wiping it clean. We're really taking it forward and sort of flipping through and seeing where do we need to make some some targeted adjustments. This is meant to be just a simple graphic showing you uh the timeline. We got started off in earnest in December kind of a staff just getting ourselves uh lined up, but really here in January is when we're kicking things off. Um you can see there's kind of three main phases that we'll be moving through over the next several months. targeting coming back before you all in uh in September um so that we can move toward final adoption. DC's requirement is that the plan is adopted by the end of October. So, we're planning on wrapping up a little uh before then. The other items below the kind of flowchart just show some of the engagement items which I'm going to cover here in just a minute. One thing I want to just draw your attention to is at the very end on the bottom left, ARC and DCA review. Again, as a reminder, they're just doing a check to make sure that you've checked the boxes that they have in their minimum standards. They don't really comment on the specific policies that you all uh include in there. This is really maybe the the the main slide we want to end on. This is my last slide. Wanted to really list out some of the engagement items here both for you all tonight, but then for for folks to

review later. Um there is the CPAC has been reconstituted. They'll be meeting five times throughout the process. Those meetings are open to the public. So there's an opportunity for the public to participate and and uh comment uh during those and during other um moments during the plan. There will be a public openhouse near the end of the plan. Um but the main thing I want to draw your attention to is city staff has set up a project website on the city's web page um to go to. You see the QR code there folks can take a picture of, but then also a fairly simple uh URL that people can can check out. That'll there'll be updates on schedule, meeting materials, um draft documents as we get to that point and other ways for folks to get involved and stay uh in involved in the process as it moves ahead. Um so wanted to just provide a brief brief update. Again, appreciate y'all uh providing some time tonight for us to um to speak with y'all. Happy to answer any questions um from you all or uh others. Any questions? Not yet. They'll be there. Thank you very much. Do we have any public comment on that? No, sir. We do not. Okay. So, that's our public hearing. We will not have a vote on this. So, we will now move on to new business. Please sound the item. Mayor, the first new business item is consideration of a blanket rightofway acquisition approval for Cox Road at Ebenezer Road roundabout project. Agenda item number 26-039. Deputy Director of Public Works, Mr. Rob Del Ross. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Excuse me. Uh first item tonight for you is an update on one of our projects. Uh this is the roundabout at Cox Road and Ebenezer and Rus. So this is a T-splas 2 project uh designed to improve operations and safety at this intersection by constructing a single

lane roundabout. Uh the current intersection is always stop controlled. It is also a joint project with the city of Roswell. Uh 10 crashes at this intersection over a 5-year period. So it is a safety concern for us and an operational concern. Uh when we typically grade operations in delay, we use a term called level of service. Uh when you hear me say level of service, think back to uh report card in elementary school. So our level of service is an F uh based on uh average delay per vehicle for seconds that it takes you to get through the intersection. Uh without improvements, that delay uh you would expect to get worse over time. Uh this agenda item tonight for you uh is the final step in our pre-acquisition uh standard operating procedure that you saw several years ago and adopted. Uh our staff has applied an administrative negotiation factor uh to all parcels uh based on their fair market value within the city limits. We've added them together and we're presenting that to you tonight for blanket rightaway approval. Uh this agenda item serves as the final review for the project location and design. uh the the project as it is right now you see on the screen. Uh this agenda item also authorizes staff in the city attorney's office to close parcels uh that do not exceed our fair market value and that administrative negotiation. Uh any parcels that exceed that value would come before you in executive session. Specific to this roundabout, uh the one of the unique parts uh is the red lines you see on the page. The red lines are actually the city limit boundaries. And you're probably wondering how in the world an intersection can look like that with city limit boundaries as I've shown. Uh I'm going to zoom in a little bit. So let me make [clears throat] this a little clearer for you. Parcels one and three are in Milton. So

par that makes parcels 2, four, five, six, and seven in Roswell. So we're uh responsible for one and three. They're responsible for they're responsible for the other five. The other unique thing you may have noticed about this roundabout is the shape. So roundabouts in Milton up to this point have been circles. Uh we're going with an oval this time. Uh because of two reasons. One, uh you'll notice that this isn't a typical kind of 90° squared off intersection. We're dealing with some side streets that come off at weird angles. That oval helps us adjust to those. The other thing the oval does for us is it allows us to minimize impacts to parcel 3. Uh parcel 3 is the driving range. Uh we have been in uh discussion with the owner of the driving range uh for many months now. Uh he is aware of the project. Uh we are trying to minimize our impact to his operations best we can. The amount before you tonight, if I can get back, [snorts] uh the sum for parcels one and three is $44,500. That is the amount we we'd like to uh see you approved for tonight. And that concludes my presentation. Any questions for Rob? Well, I like the process, so [clears throat] All right. Any public comment? No, sir. There is not. Okay. I will close public comment and if there's no other questions, I'll open it for a motion. Mayor, I make a motion we approve agenda item number 26-039. Second. Okay. I have a motion from council member Cookerly and a second from council member Johnson to approve agenda item number 26-039. All in favor, please say I. Any oppose? That is unanimous. Thank you. We will now say on the next item, please. That item is consideration of a resolution of the city of Milton supporting an application to the Atlanta

Regional Commission for funding preliminary preliminary engineering phase of State Route 372 Crab Apple Road at Green Road. Agenda item number 26-040. Once again, Deputy Director of Public Works, Mr. Rob Del Ross. Thanks, Susan. Uh, mayor and council, the intersection of State Route 372 and Green Road has been our radar on our radar, needing improvements uh, for a number of years. As you may know, uh, Georgia DOT installed Median Islands to improve operations and safety around 2021 uh, that were not in place for very long. They received some negative input from the public. Uh, there were some crashes and they decided to revert back to the previous configuration of the intersection as part of their resurfacing work on 372. Uh since that time, public works has been coordinating with District 7 closely on short-term improvements for this intersection and decided to proceed with a traffic signal. Uh those agreements have been brought forward for you several times over the years. Very happy to report that uh we are expecting work to start on the traffic signal in the next couple of weeks. Uh we're hearing early February right now. Uh there was some lead time for manufacturing uh but we're excited about that coming online here very shortly. That construction work was funded 100% uh by Georgia DOT with some local funding going towards the design and the permitting process. The long-term recommendation for this intersection has been a multi-lane roundabout uh very similar to the one we have just up the road uh at the subdivision in Alpharetta. We're near the Nest and Six Bridges. Uh this roundabout would reduce crash frequency severity and improve operations at the intersection with green uh particularly for the vehicles making the left turn off of Green Road. Uh which is very dangerous if you've ever done it. Uh we see a definite crash pattern there. Uh that's obvious when we look at the data.

Uh in addition to those benefits, uh staff's opinion is a roundabout could serve as a good gateway feature into the city at that location. uh encouraging reduced travel speeds and reinforcing that transition in character from the 140 corridor in Roswell and Alpharetta entering into Milton. Uh so the item authorizes staff to submit a federal funding request to ARC uh for federal funding towards that project to begin the process. Uh we're asking for a million dollars. Uh the funds require a 20% local match which would come from already uh set aside Teslas funding towards that intersection. And that concludes the presentation. Any questions for Rob? Any public comment? You got questions? Long overdue. Do we need any tips on how to write that application? Because there might be somebody who needs to work with ARC that could help us. We have many friends at ARC, believe it or not. Uh I'll talk with him as as soon as I can because our application is due Friday, I think. Oh, that's soon. Okay. Yes. Well, thank you. Yeah. And as someone that passes and traverses that every day, it's well needed. So I'm glad we're getting to a resolution on this. Thank you. Thank you. Public comment. I'll close public comment and open it for a motion. Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve agenda item number 26-040. Second. Okay. Have a motion from councelor Haney, a second from councelor Jacobus to approve agenda item number 26-040. All in favor, please say I. I. [clears throat] Any opposed? That is unanimous. Um, council have anything to report on that? I know Steve has something to report on. Steve? Uh, just real quick, mayor and council, I just wanted to give you a brief update on where we are with our weather planning, uh, for this weekend. Our emergency management division has been keeping close tabs on this all week. We had our first briefing on it uh today

and um without getting into all the details, we are well positioned to be able to deal with whatever this storm dishes out. We are potentially uh going to experience significant ice uh some winds which of course ice on trees and wind combination is going to bring down trees which also cuts electricity. Uh we are planning for that possibility also dealing with our some of our more at risk population to ensure that they are covered should we run into that that that possibility. We are coordinating with these with our neighboring cities, counties and and G dot to make sure we are we're coordinated and we'll keep you uh apprised of of how this continues and the public of course of how this continues to uh play out. Unfortunately, following the weather event that's that's coming this weekend, we're going to have some ridiculously cold weather coming in where I think the low either Sunday or Monday night is going to be in the single digits and we might not get above freezing until about Wednesday. So, it says 16. Mhm. I stand corrected. [laughter] Maybe the weather's getting better. Meteorologist cooked early [laughter] on here. I mean, checking the poor guy when he's trying to give a [laughter] present. It's two degrees in North Carolina. We'll be fine. We'll be fine. [laughter] Check. I was a lot of drama for a cold day. Come on. [laughter] It'll be over before. All joking aside, we are prepared for what may be coming. Well, hallelujah. Y'all always are. Public works and police and fire do a great job. Okay. Absolutely. Uh, with that, a motion to adjourn and well well done tonight. Thank you for filling in and the shortest consent agenda ever. We're going to have to throw you in there on a good meeting. She's out here in 30 minutes. It's pretty amazing. Get you a couple curve balls. Okay. Okay. We're doing a thing on it.

Okay. All right. With that, I have a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Okay. Tren Mur and Haney. And in favor say I. I. Oppose. That's unanimous.