City Council - Regular Meeting

in prayer and then stand and cite our pledge of allegiance. So dear God, you said it was good. Man has corrupted these things, dear God, but we come tonight believing that when we look unto the hills from whence cometh our help, that our help will come from you. We say thank you, God, for our staff. We say thank you for this council. We say thank you for the citizens of this great city. We ask dear God that you would continue to allow us to see the vision, the vision that you have for this city to move forward in a progressive manner. We thank you for the service of Councilman Scott Stacy and Councilman's Rich Hoffman as this is the last meeting before they transition. And we ask, dear God, that you would continue to bless their service, dear God. Come bless their family. Bless each and every one of us. Bless the proceedings of this meeting, dear God. allow everything that we do to be pleasing in your sight and allow us to be on one accord. In the matchless name of your son, our savior Jesus the Christ, we pray. Amen. Please stand and cite our pledge of allegiance.

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. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. We have prepared an agenda for tonight and the agenda is available not only on the screen, but we have hard copies with our city clerk, Miss Chelsea Steven, if you wish to have a hard copy. At this time, uh, council members, what is your pleasure with the agenda that has been provided?

Move to approve the agenda as is with the exception of tableabling items number 12 and 13. uh so we can have a uh town hall to discuss the plan and issues with the community. Second. Properly moved and seconded. The motion is that we approve the agenda with the exception of tableabling item number 12 um number 256 and 13 and 13. Amen. 36. All right. At this time, uh is there any unreiness? Call for the vote. Council members, all those in favor signify by saying I. I.

Any opposes? Name. Approval of the minutes of the November the 20 25 regular city council meeting. What is your pleasure? Move to go ahead. Move to approve. Second. Properly moved and second. Any unreadiness? Call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposers? Nay. Approval of the minutes of the December 2nd, 2025 city council call to meeting. Move to approve. Second. Proper booth and second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposers name. Approval of the minutes of the December 2nd, 2025 city council call meeting for the 6:30 p.m. meeting. Move to approve. Second.

Properly moved and second. Any unreiness? Call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I and one obstainer Councilman Clark and the approval of the minutes of the December the 9th city council calls meeting. What is your pleasure? Move to approve. Second. Proudly moved and second. Any unreiness? Call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

Any opposers? Nay. Ladies and gentlemen, we always proud of the recognitions and the accomplishments of our staff and presentations. And so tonight we have several items for uh recognition and presentation. The first one is telling our story. It's a video series where we're going presented by our director of economic development, Miss Lori Thunderwhite.

Good evening, mayor and council. It's a pleasure to be with here with you here again tonight um to premiere this last video of our 10-p part video series telling our Fateville story. So over the last 10 videos we've released since late summer, we've highlighted Fyville's story through the eyes of our community and business leaders, talking about who we are, what the shared vision is for the community, and highlighting our businesses, their investment, and our success stories in Fyville. So tonight, with the video entitled Where Going, we're bringing this 10-part series to a close by looking ahead. From the beginning, this series has shown how Fateville turns vision into measurable progress by aligning public investment, private enterprise, and community priorities. This final chapter captures a city in motion. Our plans for expanded trails that connect people and places. Catalytic projects opening soon, including the US Soccer National Training Center in Trilith Live, investments we're making as a city in a revitalized downtown, and highlighting the entrepreneurs and businesses who truly drive our local economy. Fagville's success is built alongside its businesses through strong partnerships and a shared commitment to smart long-term growth. This the entire video series I wanted to mention is also available on the city's website as well as on our all of our social media channels and I do invite everybody to check them out and see how Fagatville is creating the conditions where investment can grow and deliver lasting returns for the community. With that, I would like to thank Melody Green of my staff in economic development for managing this video project and also our communications team for helping us publicize these videos far and wide. And finally, I would like uh to thank the mayor and city council for thank you for

participating in this video series, helping to tell our story and your vision for the community and to explain why we are the very best place for b for business. So with that, please roll the tape. What excites me the most is the opportunity. There are some mega projects that would not even have been dreamed of 20 years ago. First, Trillith, which is a game changer. We have just now adopted a new economic development strategy for Fagatville, which includes target industries. We've been pretty good about getting the right fits for our community.

We have projects like 38 acres. That's going to be a mixeduse project that brings in some multifamily guests and but also open space, restaurants and retail, potentially a hotel to revitalize our downtown area. That right there will add so much value and extend our city center park out a little bit more to where it's it's much more usable.

One of the other exciting things that the city is working on is developing pathways and trails throughout the city of Fyville. I think part of the reason that they're coming here, aside from airport access, access to downtown, access to the interstates, is because we've got land. We have tremendous opportunity here with US Soccer coming in with the National Training Center, with Trillith Live. We have development that's happening already, and we're looking for investors to come in and help us continue to grow in a smart way. Our partnership with the community is more than just the brick and mortar. It's the resources, the talent, and the education that we bring to the community as well.

The beauty of our city is that I look around and I see all the new adventures, the new projects. Main Street has just been magnificent.

The possibilities are just endless and crazy of what we could get into this area. All right, let us congratulate our staff on such an incredible video once again in the series. Again, uh Miss Funwife to you, the communications department, and your staff. I think the series really highlights and showcases what we're trying to accomplish and what we are accomplishing. And so hopefully citizens will view it, embrace it, and uh understand what's going on. So thank you com comments from council. Moving on to item six, the fire department recognitions presented by our fire chief uh Chief Linda Black. Chief, you have the floor. Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Good evening, Chief.

Um, I come before you tonight, um, I'm proud to recognize a major milestone for the city of Felville Fire Department. uh one that directly strengthens emergency medical care for our residents and reflects our commitment to professional excellence, physical responsibility, and strategic growth. Over the past year, 12 of our firefighters have successfully completed paramedic training, fulfilling all requirements of a $78,000 federal grant that we received. Um this is to support advanced EMS education. Paramedic school is a demanding and intensive process requiring more than a year of classroom instruction, clinical rotations, field internships, and national testing, often completed while continuing full duty shifts. Seven of our personnel completed a 14-month program through Clayton County Fire and Emergency Services. I will call them by name and the ones that are here will come forward. Um Brad Partridge, Dustin Samples, Justin Armistad, Justin Evans, Matt Null, Ryan Hyde, and Sam Hopper. Five the five additional uh personnel completed a 13-month program through Effect County Fire and Emergency Services. They are Aiden Hill, Brandon Tha, Devin Morris, Matthew Moore, and Trevor Wright. Each of these individuals demonstrated dedic dedication, resilience, and professionalism, and their successful completion of paramedic school marks a significant investment in the safety and well-being of our community. In addition to this achievement, the department was also recently awarded a $247,960 assistance to firefighters grant for the

purchase of four uh advanced life support cardiac monitors. So we now have a total of five of those. Um this equipment is critical to our continued transition from basic life support to full advanced life support services so that we can better um assist FET county uh fire and emergency services, the agency that does our transports for us. Um together these accomplishments represent a major advancement in how we deliver emergency medical services, ensuring that Feltville residents receive faster, more advanced, and more comprehensive care when it matters the most. On behalf of the city of Felville Fire Department, I would like to congratulate our 12 newly certified paramedics and thank the council for your continued support of public safety initiatives and that directly impact our community. Thank y'all very much.

Thank you, Chief. We're going to ask if all of the fire personnel that were identified would come down. We're going to come down as a council. But I do want to make a comment. I am so glad that we have so many citizens here tonight so that they can see and hear what the city of Fedville is doing with our uh public safety department, not only our fire department, but our police department. We expect our uh personnel to achieve the highest level of uh qualification as they possibly can and it really pays big dividend not only in the quality of personnel that we have but also the quality of service that they provide. So I hope the citizens here tonight will recognize these accomplishments of these uh gentlemen and uh know that the city of Fedville public safety department is always always ready to respond uh when needed. So we're going to come down and congratulate you gentlemen.

Thank you. Here we go. And I also want to acknowledge not only do our personnel invest in their qualifications and certification, we invest in them coming from the taxpayers's dollars. So your taxpayer dollars allow them to achieve the uh maximum qualification they can. So thank you all and congratulations to those we've recognized today. At this time, item number seven, communications department update, presented by our director of communications, Miss Glanetta Griffin.

Good evening, mayor and council. Good evening, Glennetta.

So, for the past six months, almost seven, we have been rebuilding our communications team. We do a lot in the community. We work evenings, overnight shoots, weekends, holidays. This is a good opportunity to not only show you guys but to also show the citizens who is running our communications team. So when you see the beautiful photos online, when you see beautiful videos that are recapping events, even if you couldn't make it, we want you to make want to make you feel like you did or you want to be at the next one. But I want you to meet those people. So this is our communications team. Danny Harrison could not be with us this evening. He was a little bit under the weather. However, he is our public information officer. He has been with the city of Fagatville for nine years this month. He's our journalist. His primary duties include handling media relations, writing articles and press releases, and web maintenance. He's tasked with archiving our written material, and he's co-managing our website redesign and new city app. The next person is Lindsay Blunt, our communications specialist. If you will come up, Lindsay. Lindsay has been with the city for three months. She is our lead photographer and our social media manager. Her primary duties include managing social media, capturing photos at events, and spearheading our ribbon cutting ceremonies. Tasked with archiving our photography, past, present, and future. She is also co-managing our website redesign and new city app. She's a Fatville resident and she lives here with her husband and three beautiful children. What people don't know about her is she's also an Emmy nominated producer with a crossover of communications and production. She attended Georgia State University earning a bachelor of arts degree in communications and English. And another thing people don't know about her, she attended college on a golf scholarship. So at our next golf tournament, I'm

rooting for the women's team. We got a ringer. All right.

All right. Next is Ronaldo Angola Hernandez, our multimedia content producer. If you would come up, Ronaldo. He's been with the city for three months this month. He is our lead graphic designer and videographer. We like to call him our story architect. Tasked with archiving all videos past, present, and future in less than three months. He has upgraded our equipment, shot, edited, and produced over 25 videos, quality videos, all inhouse without being contracted out. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree. Oo, right. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in film, television, and theater. He is bilingual, speaking fluent Spanish. And what most people don't know about him, he was saludiatoran of his high school class. So, please give it up for what I call our dream team. You guys can have a seat. We are grateful to have you both on our team. So, really quickly, I just wanted to give you a few other updates. Now, at our retreat, you will get a full update with stats. Our communications team is fully staffed. Um, we are consistent with our ongoing efforts. Uh, city news email update. You will receive an email from us every single Monday. If you are not on that email list, that QR code that's right there, go ahead and scan it right now and it will add you to our database. City Lens is our video news recap. We are now recapping once a month all of our events for the entire month. City news publication. It went down for a little while. When it's back up, you receive a quarterly update and digital publication. Now, if you walked in and saw those monitors all over city hall, those are now branded Fedville Government Television, which we like to call FGTV. There are 15 monitors all

over the city. We have also kicked off our website redesign. So in 2026 you will see a facelift um taking us to the next level so that we can get that information out to our citizens a lot quicker. Uh city vision podcast has been reinvented for 2026 um with all new equipment already in place. And we are also releasing a new city app that is in the final developments right now that we like to call Goville. Am I saying that right? Goville. Go. Okay. Go.

We also are releasing our strategic communications plan and storytelling strategy. You guys will get a copy of that at the retreat. And we are releasing Fatville story. And I like to call it never missing a headline. This is our multimedia storytelling hub. This is where we're archiving all of our stories, press releases, articles, photos, history, everything about the city. You will never miss another story because it'll all be compiled and archived in one location. And we're building stronger media relationships. If you are watching Fox 5 in the evenings or anytime during the day, you may just see some beautiful shots of Fateville circulating that's saying thanks for watching Fatville. We are now airing on Fox 5. And last but not least, um, thanks to Lori Funwhite and Caitlyn Perkins with our economic development office and Main Street program bringing the holidays to the city. We were able to recap that and make you feel like you're a part of it. But hopefully you were there. If not, we'll get you next year. But please watch our recap of the holiday season.

3 2 1 Merry Christmas. Ladies and gentlemen, let's give our communication department a round of applause. defer my remarks to the council members if anybody have anything you want to comment on this item.

Yeah, I'd like to comment. um the communications team, they help run our ribbon cutting process and every time I go out, I mean, such a professional job and you know, it's very noticeable and so I just wanted to commend them on the job they do when we go out to a ribbon cutting and it's very professionally presented and uh they do a good job of representing Fyville, making Fyville look good. So, thank you for your efforts. Any other council members comments? I want to say thank you to our city manager. Uh city manager recognized as we have embraced upon the the thinking of to tell our story that we couldn't properly tell our story if we didn't have the right staff to do it. And we had one person running our entire communication department. But he was visionary enough to recognize we needed to bring a robust team on. And he did just that. And I want to commend Miss Glennetta Griffin for her leadership in bringing on others to make sure that our team is being able to expose Fedville to the broader metro Atlanta area and let people know that we're just as good as Alpharetta or any other part of Atlanta that's growing. So Glennetta and your team, let me say thank you. At this time, ladies and gentlemen, we're moving on to public hearings. Public hearing number eight, consider ordinance number 2531, amendments to the villages at Lafayette development agreement to allow a five-story hotel increase the maximum number of hotel rooms from 208 to 310. Presented by our senior planner, Miss Marissa Jackson.

Good evening. So, the villages at Lafayette was originally approved in 2000 as a plan community district PCD. Um, as you know, PCD zoning districts have development agreements with them that have conditions of how they are to be developed. The development agreement for the villages has gone through a number of amendments over the last couple of years. And the amendment we're talking about today is regarding this parcel here, which is one of the last undeveloped which is the last undeveloped area um of the villages. So in more detail, the amendment today would allow a third hotel, a standalone restaurant. It would increase the number of hotel rooms from 28 to 310. And it would allow the third hotel to be five stories in height. And it will also allow radiant heat warming eyes in each guest room. Here's a quick overview of the site plan. There are some town homes here to the north. This hotel here, the Hampton Inn, was approved in 2004. It's been built for many years. This hotel here, the home to suit is five stories. It was approved in 2023. The site plan shows a restaurant here that is intended to be two stories with a rooftop like dining area. And then the hotel, which is the main item we're talking about tonight, would go here. Um it would be as proposed five stories tall. Regarding the um radiant heat warming eyes, essentially it's like a mini stove that would go inside of the counter of

each hotel room. These are the proposed elevation showing five stories. They do meet the requirements in the development agreement in the UDO for building materials. And to summarize the this item did go before the planning commission in November. The planning commission voted 3 to one to recommend um that it go to city council with a favorable recommendation. There was also a concept plan on the agenda in November for the hotel and staff recommended a condition to the concept plan that would require the planting area to the north between the town homes and the hotels to have some extra trees and foilage. This is a photo that I took of this site. Um, it is on Meeting Place Drive and it will be if if you're on Meeting Place Drive in this place, it will be facing the front of the hotel and you can see kind of the proximity between the proposed hotel and the town homes. And that concludes my report.

Thank you, Miss Jackson. Appreciate it. Council members, do you have any questions for Miss Jackson on this item? that we're voting on this as an entire package of what the amendments are.

We are voting on it as an entire package of what the amendments are. Some of the residents at the public hearing had some comments suggesting that the height of the hotel was reduced to three or four stories. If the city council has other questions or amendments or things they want to change, we can make amendments to what is proposed. So, it doesn't have to be all or nothing, but we can make changes.

Well, I do know those residents there. Uh, I mean, a five-story hotel is going to look right into their bedrooms there. I live in the villages. I don't live in that portion. I have talked to those residents. They're concerned about it. You could even see with the picture there, even with the buffer. I mean, we see where those people live and they'll have a commercial property booked right on the front step. So, do you have a motion, Councilman Clark? Uh, our recommendation. Uh, well, I'd like to make a recommendation that we limit the height of the story to four stories for the hotel. Noted. I would like to Mayor, can I ask a question, too?

Yes, sir. Um, Marissa, what exactly is going to be the vegetation we're asking for? like I are we leaving it open-ended or what what exactly is going to be put up? The condition from the planning commission didn't specify a specific tree, but it did say that it was to be planted, but we can add a condition recommending evergreen trees or something. When we leave it open-ended, I just get concerned that there's no checks and balances.

Yeah. Okay, we'll come back for further comments. At this time, I'm going to open it up for any citizens who have any questions on this. This is a public hearing. Anybody have anything that you want to comment on this item, please come forward. And again, please consider yourselves uh uh informed. Uh we allow you three minutes to uh make your comments unless you're the developer, of course, in representing developer. Uh we uh ask that uh you would please make sure if you're a resident you sign in to make sure that uh you are resident of the city of Fedville. Yes sir. Go ahead.

Um so Councilman Clark um has shared a little bit of the concern that we had at planning commission from a couple of the neighbors that came that night. Just the logic behind the height of the hotel. Remember under the old UDO you were at a parking maximum but that has now been changed and you were at a parking minimum again. And so as a result this is a Marriott branded hotel is Marriott Town Place Suites. And so to make the the the parking work we had to go up instead of out and that was the overall reasoning for this. So what we had agreed to do was we will plant an enhanced buffer. We can work with staff. Ray, I would think we would be looking at something like Leland Cyprus, something that's that's a bigger tree and they could do a double row. So it will, you know, will help with the coverage and eventually those things will grow 60 70 feet tall which will completely block it out. It's not to your concern, Councilman Clark, it's not going to do it initially, but it it will get there. Um, also, so we're agreeable to the conditions that the city has requested, including the enhanced buffer. We're also agreeable to the uh stipulation that council has asked for on the restaurant that it be COed or operating at the time that they build and co the final hotel. And so we're agreeable to that condition also. Um, and I'm here to answer any questions you might have. Is there a way that we can in for parking there? Do you have room to add more parking space to reduce that one one story?

Again, I think that's a a question for the city and a question for Marriott and Andy Patel. I'm I'm not saying that it couldn't happen. Um there's a a minimum number of rooms required whether it goes four stories or five stories. Again, I think in the end with appropriate buffer, I think that will take care of the concern. Again, initially, it's going to take two to three years before uh you get enough height even if we plant mature trees, which I think they're willing to do and we plan a double row. Um but I mean, I'm not sure how the city would handle that. I mean because even if you go to a lesser parking you still have Marriott's requirement for number of spaces per room and then they have a number of of room required for that brand. So I mean we we've worked with staff pretty closely on this. I'm I'm not saying we couldn't do anything. That would have to go back to Marriott and go back to the go back to um Andy.

Darl, the site as a whole though, Julie, you may want to answer this. The site as a whole, can we not get all the parking in that site as a whole without it actually being on the Marriott piece, but can be elsewhere? Shared parking

because we're going to get a lot of ashall out there. Well, we're we're sharing the parking. I mean, we have to park individually per the city. Each one has to park. And again, we have a bigger issue here in that every brand has their own parking requirement per room. So, when you get into a situation, just like a restaurant when we did 85 North, there was some talk, can we do shared parking? Well, not really because we're already under the parking requirements that they ask us for. And if you ever go to sell those lots individually, they have to self park. So you start getting yourself into a situation, and I'm not saying I don't think Andy has any any desire ever to sell these three hotels, but you never know. And I mean to to sell it to an institutional user, you would have to it would have to self park per the brand. There is another area here that is a future development that's undeveloped. We could add additional parking there if we had to. if the applicant was available to it since it hasn't been planned for anything yet.

They had additional town houses planned for that site, but the city wasn't real keen on that. So, we removed them for future development potential. And again, I'm not saying that Andy would not do that. Um, that would be a question, you know, for him. Unfortunately, he's not here tonight. Okay. Are there any citizens who have any questions, comments on this item? Please come forward. Ma'am, give us your name. Speak at the microphone, please, ma'am, so we can hear you.

My concern is of the traffic. My name is Linda Cornnegie and I live at uh 125 Willow Court. Um my concern is the traffic, the traffic ingress, egress for a hotel, restaurant, uh multiple people, lots of traffic going in and out. How does that impact? I can't tell by the schematic of everything up there. Where would that impact 54 85? Lissa, would you? Yes.

So the there is an entrance here on I believe this is Tiger Trail. Uhhuh. And then there's another shared entrance all the way over here um that shared with the villages, the town homes, um the active adult senior living area. So there is a shared entrance on 54, but there's also another but that's the high school. You don't want to impact the traffic from the high to have hotel traffic coming in and out and the high school and everything. And then the people that live there too. Yeah. The high school is um a little bit farther north. I know where Tiger Trail is. It's a little two-lane road.

Yes, ma'am. And it doesn't it doesn't have a very high speed limit and it's it could be a problem with traffic jams. It goes on to Hood Avenue at one end and the 54 on the other end.

Um ma'am, if my understanding is that as you look at Tiger Trail, while Tiger Trail is access to the school, it's only uh encumbered 8:00 in the morning to the school uh at the beginning of school and at the end of school. And you're also talking about varied times in occupancy in the hotel. So, I do not anticipate and uh Julia uh Marissa if you all have anything to add that we've done the traffic study that it would be a major impact unless

then you have Hood Avenue and there's another school there and then you have the roundabout and then you have another proposal coming here to build condos there on Ginger Cake that's right at the stop sign. So, I'm just saying all of that ends up being co-mingled with a lot of traffic.

Well, again, um I think our staff has done an extensive study along with the uh the developer and may it means of you're not going to stop development because you're going to increase a little traffic. No, I'm just asking because that information has not been made to us. Has not been given to us. We're just given the sites of what's there and the numbers, but we haven't been told anything about how that traffic impacts. Do we have any traffic counts on this project for the staff? Do we have any

I mean, if it's a Marriott, you're going to have a lot of conferences and things like that, and all of that's great and good for the for the city and for growth and everything, but again, you've got participants and traffic going in and out to something that's five stories and and a five at a twotory restaurant. Ma'am, I don't think there'll be conferences there because there's not going to be much conference space there to have a larger conference. I I don't know. See, none of the been given. Yeah. Um, so but my question to staff is typically we look at some counts. Marissa, do you have those?

Um, I don't have a specific traffic count at this time. Traffic is normally um looked at by the city of engineer. Yeah. And during the development stage, if there are additional traffic mitigation, are necessary. The city engineer will recommend those to make sure that we have a good level of service and that everyone is safe. Everything pretty much at this point, all of this stuff that we're talking about tonight is dumping into 54. That's four lane. All right. Then you got the data center that's down. I don't know if you've been on 54 highway around through it, ma'am. that data center the the the traffic from that is temporary

you know so that's not going to be there you know forever once they get that place built out that's going to go from 2400 to maybe 300 deal with today and I don't know that I haven't heard anything that there is a solution to that coming in the future they have 6800 employees working on that site right now is where you're seeing most of that traffic from well you see what I'm And a lot of information just hasn't come to us. So we question, you know, when we get out there every day, how this impacts our lives. Well, one thing we have

the growth is wonderful, but it needs to be managed. One thing we want to make plain to the citizens is that you know when we when we did our planning which was done by citizen involvement and they asked for certain things for the city and what we're trying to do is provide those things for the city and as we provide that there there's going to be some traffic temporarily as the building is going on. We got the employees coming in to build to build. So, there's going to be temporary uh it's like grow growing pains, but it's not going to be there all the time. It's just a temporary inconvenience that will go back to pretty much where it was before once they complete the project.

Well, I'm just like I said, my only question is all of these things that we're considering this evening all have an impact on Highway 54. and I live on Highway 54 and I haven't experienced any real traffic. Then you need to come back down to the ginger other than the people from Clayton and and Henry County going to Petri City to work in the mornings and the people coming back through in the afternoons. Most of the time there isn't any traffic and I go in and out of that area all the time. And honestly,

I don't see it at a real problem. And if I did, I said I live in the same area you do. So, and I've lived there for a long time. Julie staff member has comment.

I just want to clarify for this particular project a traffic study if required the city engineer when he gets the development plans. We're not at that stage. At the development plan stage, the five departments that review the plans are building, fire, water and sewer engineering, planning, and zoning. If tra traffic traffic mitigation measures are needed, the city engineer puts those requirements in place at the development plan stage. Every project that comes into the city is reviewed by the city engineer. So each project like ginger cake, all the different projects that people are mentioning will each have their own recommendation by the city engineer. Thank you.

Thank you, Julie, for explaining. Are there any other citizens who wish to come and ask questions or make comments on this project? Seeing and hearing none, com council members, what is your pleasure with ordinance 2531? Move to approve as as presented with the conditions with the condition that they investigate to see if they investigate traffic study etc. Yes. Any other conditions? Yes. Well, is that are you asking for a traffic study or to investigate about doing a tra like I think

I think Julie what are we talking about when we're asking for Chris a traffic study to be completed. Is that a I think that's the question here and the concern here. So I think we need to address it. So, I don't think this would require a full traffic study. The G dot highway 54 G dot would require intersection uh specific intersection studies for those the impact of this these hotels on those specific intersections. It's not a full-blown traffic study, though. Um, you could require it. I'm not saying that you couldn't, but typically we would not require a full-blown traffic study for a hotel.

And we'll uh once we go through that process, this starts to be constructed.

We need to let the residents know exactly the the plan the movement of uh construction vehicles throughout the area so they're they're aware of that so they know because I think that's been been a big part of the issue with QTS is making sure that we notify the residents of the traffic patterns that are happening. Right now, I I could say that we could limit the traffic flow on Laf Lafayette or Tiger Trail up to a certain point or keep them out of the villages, the residential area, but they're going to want to migrate to Highway 54. It's easier to get in and get out. So, I mean, they're not going to try to I wouldn't think the only only reason why I would go up Tiger Trail if I was trying to get to concrete supply. Other than that, I would use the uh highways. But,

point of order, there's a motion on the floor also. Could we add the condition to limit it to a four-story hotel? Councilman Hoffman, you made the motion to approve. Do you wish to amend your motion? No. Okay. At this time, staying unreadiness, further unreadiness. Did you second? No. I thought you did. Uh, no. I do second it though.

Okay. The motion is on the floor that we approve with ordinance number 2531 with the uh recommendations of the planning of the buffer that will allow the um the visibility to be decreased into the villages and to work with the developer. At this time, is there any questions? Call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposes? Nay. Nay. Nay.

Okay. Three to two. This time, ladies and gentlemen, we're moving on to ordinance number 2532, reszoning request from Cornerstone West and Associated Development for proposed development at Highway 54 West and Veterans Parkway number 070437. Presented once again by senior planner, Miss Marissa Jackson. Getting a lot of play time, huh?

Yes. So this next agenda item is a resoning for a new PCD plan community development. This one is at the intersection of Highway 54 and Veterans. It has a mixture of uses. It has five commercial out parcels, a medical office building, um a proposed hotel, and another office institutional building that could end up being any of the allowed uses in the development agreement. And then in the northern portion of the parcel, they're proposing a active adult living units for adults that are 55 and older. It also has over three acres of green space and there is a proposed walking trail um that goes around the storm water management area. This is a map showing the connectivity plan. The development agreement is proposing a 12-oot path on veterans and 54 along the edge of the development. um a six-foot walking paved walking trail here and internal sidewalks that are five feet that connect the different uses there. There's an entrance here on 54 and then there's another entrance here on veterans. This proposed development does align well with our comprehensive plan and our strategic plan. It is located in the medical activity center. Um and the recommended zonings are mixed use um for medical offices, higher density

residential, hotels, restaurants, retail. And it also does al align with our strategic plan goals to encourage good quality development and recruit quality businesses to the city. These are some proposed elevations for the medical office building and um one of the commercial buildings. It's a mixture of stone, brick, and glass. And then these are some proposed elevations for the active adult 55 and older um units. There are a few cottage style homes and then also some attached homes. Staff is recommending approval of this plan with two conditions. It is a plan community development but we are recommending a condition that each individual use comes to planning commission for its own concept plan and development plan so that the different departments can really get in there and evaluate the plans and make sure they meet our UDO requirements and of course since it's a PCD it has to be adopted along with the development agreement that you have as a condition of zoning. The planning commission did vote to recommend approval of this agenda item. Anything else, Marissa?

That concludes my report. Okay. Council members, questions for Miss Jackson on this item. Seeing hearing none, I'd understand the developer is here. If the developer would come forward if you anything you want to add to Mrs. Jackson's report.

Good evening. Melissa Griffith with Horn and Griffith. On behalf of the developer, I have Chuck Ogot Tree and Jason Walls with Fyet Land Partners in South Tree and Mr. Jefferson Brown is the architect for the project uh with the beautiful renderings that you all saw. I do want to make sure that our resoning application and all the uh materials including our profer conditions, our standard constitutional letter, our development summary report are all made of part of the record for tonight's meeting. Staff has worked very diligently with us on this project. over six to seven months ago. Um the ideas began and have have come to fruition with what you all see tonight and what planning commission has recommended approval on. Um you know Fyet land partners they want to positively impact the community that they live in and work in. This subject property is approximately 27.85 acres at 1347 Veterans Parkway. It is zoned PO for professional office and is vacant with the request to reszone to PCD for planned community development. As Miss Jackson said, it's for a mix of uses including a medical office, commercial, which will include restaurant and retail, hotels, and active adult community. The medical office component will include 60,000 square feet of medical office building. And the project is is designed for 106 active adult units within field commercial and hospitality spaces. The current zoning actually already allows for medical office building, but to make this plan all together and consistent and for it to be a true mixed use, we're reszoning um it all in one piece so that so we can have the connectivity um that is in the comprehensive plan. uh as noted in your most recent comprehensive plan, this is an activity node which is found on page 89 of your plan. And then on page hundred of that comprehensive plan, it actually goes into great detail from pages 98 to 99. And we believe that the

key implementation um ideas are met with our plan. First, it's a permit a mix of land uses and we have that in the plan before you tonight. It's to support the future growth of health care and healthcare related businesses. And again, we do that with our medical office buildings. For new mixeduse developments, streets should be included, landscaping, pedestrian scale lighting, and street furniture. And in the additional um renderings that we have submitted, they include all of those elements as well. It's also support the growth, stability, and diversity of the residential communities by ensuring a continued mix of housing types. And as you saw with the connectivity, people can they don't have to move their cars to go within. They can walk on a walking trail, excuse me, or they can go on a sidewalk. Um or they can simply, you know, walk, run, be in the same neighborhood and not have to move their car to go to the doctor uh or to use any of the commercial uh options that will be there in the future. Uh we do accept the two conditions as outlined by Miss Jackson. And I would like to allow Mr. Chuck Ogalry to go through the project in more detail. I would like to reserve time um if there is any for any rebuttal. Uh Mr. Mayor,

most certainly. Thank you, Mr. Ogatree. Good evening, mayor and council. Good evening, sir.

I'm Chuck Ogleree. I am with uh South Tree Commercial Development. We are the developer of this 28 acre track on 54 and um in Veterans Parkway. We have been working with the uh the city staff, the planning commission and the community and economic development committee for the last you know six months or so on this site. And the plan you see before you is the uh the result of that collaboration and and feedback. Um this is a commercial mixeduse development anchored by medical, hospitality, retail and an active adult community. And it's designed to function really as a as a cohesive campus as opposed to some type of individual parcels. And um the site was designed and if we could pull the site plan back up if you don't mind. The site was designed to have um the most intense uses along Highway 54, those those uh five out parcels that you see there. And then the quieter uses as you go north and into uh the property towards Veterans Parkway. And uh I'd planned on walking you through the site and um and talking about each parcel, but Miss Jackson did a great job of that walking through it. So I don't have a whole lot to to add to that that point. I will say that um we made every effort to to meet the intent of the medical medical activity center future land use and the PCD zoning while developing one of the most visible uh gateway or most visible sites that's a gateway to the to the city. And this plan reflects collaboration, flexibility, and it's a long-term investment. And I am I am a local developer. I live, you know, probably three or four miles from this site. And um and this is a long-term investment for us. and I wanted to do something that's very impactful to the uh to the community. So, with that being said, I'm happy to address any questions that you might have.

Any questions from Mr. Ogle Tree from the council? Hearing none, are there any citizens who wish to come and address the council on this item? Seeing hearing none, council members, what is your pleasure for ordinance 2532? Move to approve ordinance number 25-32 resoning request from Cornerstone West and Associated Development Agreement to uh for the resoning. Second. Properly moved and second. Any unreadiness? Call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

Any opposers? Name. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Item number 10, consider ordinance number 2533, the amendment of the future land use map uh for QTS East Campus prevent presented by our director of planning and zoning, Miss Julie Brown. Good evening, mayor and council. Good evening, Julie.

So, the request before you tonight is for a future land use map amendment and a resoning. Quality Technology Services LLC operates the existing QTS data center located at 1435 Highway 54, which is Whoops. These parcels here shown in red. The project was originally approved in January 2023 for 15 buildings totaling 7 million square feet on approximately 615 acres. After the Trillith Studios expansion project failed to move forward. The applicant acquired three abuing parcels shown here, one, two, and three. Two of those parcels are currently zone PCD and one is zone BP, which is the current zoning of QTS's other properties. So, the request is for the two parcels shown in the gray area, although the third parcel is included in the overall project. The requests for the amendment to the future land use map and the reasonzoning are only for the two parcels shown in gray. Excuse me. All three parcels have um frontage on Veterans Parkway shown here and they're all adjacent to the existing data center property. So to ensure that the zoning designation is consistent with the use proposed which is expansion of the data center and also the additional of a possible institutional use in the future. The applicant is requesting to reszone those two parcels shown with the stars from PCD to BP business park and then to amend the future land use

MAC from the current activity center innovation mixeduse center to business park. So the proposed expansion would include four new buildings shown here and those two buildings there. This is all existing. So those two buildings and those two buildings would be the expansion on the new property. It would be four buildings totaling 2,5,000 square ft. Again, there is a possible future right here is currently parking. This is a parking lot for the construction uh of the existing data center currently. But once the data center is built, they would remove that parking and possibly put an institutional use there. Right now, they're looking for possibly a trade school that would go there in the future. And that would be developed by a third party in the future should that move forward. Again, access three curb cuts on Veterans Parkway. They also are planning interconnectivity between the two areas. The parking required for the new buildings would be 1,934 spaces. That is provided on the plan. And although although the overall area of land would increase from 615 acres to 900, there's a net building reduction of two buildings. originally I said approved in 2023 for 15 buildings. They have reduced or combined some of the other buildings. So it's now a total of 13 buildings and the square footage went from 7 million square ft to 6,181,400 square ft over the 900 acres.

So, with our strategic plan, this expansion definitely aligns with several of our goals. Quality of life. As you know, QTS has already installed a beautiful path along the frontage on 54 that they're at their current entrance. They would continue to add down Veterans Parkway if this project moves forward. Under economic vitality goals, it definitely creates uh new business investment. uh with the infrastructure design of the West Fagetville business park sewer line. This project would have a huge impact in Fagatville. QTS will be one of the largest tax single taxpayers in Faget County within the next 10 years may exceed $40 million annually. They're also a great community partner. QTS has sponsored many events. They put their money back into the community. These are just some of the uh organizations that they support. So, they are a great partner. And then one of the things that has been very controversial about data centers is water use. They currently are on a closed loop system. The new buildings would also be on a closedus system. So there's some numbers up here. A typical person uses 80 gallons of water a day. A family 300. The old data centers a million gallons a day. QTS is 2,000 gallons a day. So there's a huge difference when a closed loop water system is required and used. So, the planning commission voted unanimously to forward this to city

council with a favorable recommendation. Again, the request is to amend the future land use map from activity center innovation mixed use to business park for the two parcels that were shown in gray and the request to reszone those same two parcels from plan community district to business park. Staff is recommending approval. Um on the resoning, we're recommending that the applicant shall work with staff to refine the development agreement with the understanding that upon completion of a DRRI review, any final recommendations from Greta would be incorporated into that development agreement and presented to city council for approval. And then also that the applicant shall not be issued a building permit until the DRRI review is completed and the development agreement has been approved by city council. And that completes my

Thank you very much, Miss Julie Brown. Appreciate it. Point of order for our city attorney. Um, both these items, can we be taken uh uh together or do they have to be addressed separately? I think you can address one public hearing but two separate votes. Okay. Thank you very much. All right, ladies and gentlemen, at this time, um, I understand we have representatives from QTS here. Do you wish to come forward and make any additional comments? Please do so and then we will open it up for public comments.

Good evening, mayor, members of council. My name is Jessica Hill. My business address is 600 Peach Tree Street and I represent QTS. I'm joined behind me by John Mansour um who heads up the Southeast for QTS and development. Um I do have a presentation. I'm not sure if it'll come up, but Miss Brown did a wonderful job. Oh, it will come up. Wonderful. Ah, that's okay. My Well, thank you all for complimenting Miss Brown and Miss Jackson. They all do a wonderful job in detail. So,

she steals all of my thunder, so I will try not to uh try not to repeat too many things. Um, you can see the property outlined in red. As it mentioned, it is immediately adjacent to the campus that QTS has under construction. At one point, QTS does own all of the property that's under consideration. It's not under contract. It is they they own all three tracks. Um, you know, zoning requests we've already discussed, it is just over 300 acres. Um, something that Miss Brown mentioned, but I just want to give the numbers again. The current QTS campus that is entitled and under construction was entitled for 15 data center buildings. Only nine are being constructed. It's entitled for 7 million square feet of data center use. Just over four million's being constructed. So, we don't see this as any sort of expansion. It is basically moving the entitlements onto the adjacent property. And again with an overall reduction in two buildings um and just over 800,000 square feet. Um as you all are aware this property was zoned for the Trillis Studios which was going to have about 2.7 million square feet on this property alone. Um so from a community impact perspective we think this is significantly less. Um site plan just some points 2 million square feet of 2 million plus or minus square feet of data center use for data center buildings. Um there's about 35 acres that fronts on Veterans Parkway in the center which is being reserved for what we're just calling non-residential use. Um we would love to have a trade school or some sort of institutional use there, but I know QTS is happy to work with uh FA uh city of Fyville to determine what the best use is there and what's most accreative. Um and one thing that has come up there are the power design for the site does not require any sort of off-site transmission lines. So that I know that's a salient point for everybody. Um, this just shows the site plan with the future data center area reserved. Some nice aerial views taken from Veterans Parkway. I think they took a little bit of liberty with some of the landscaping and greenery, but um, uh, this shows a potential landscape

thing. And one thing that has not been mentioned um, in this presentation yet um, is there is a pathway going back to the intention of Fagetville to have pathways and trails throughout. Um, this project does include a pathway through it to get from Sandy Creek Road to Veterans Parkway. Uh, the portion that you see on this map in red is offsite through a Georgia Power easement. Um, and the portion that you see extending uh from east from west to east rather um to Veterans Parkway in orange will run through the site and QTS will be implementing that. Um, we are amendable to the staff's recommendations um and conditions and we ask that you support their application request. Um, and I'll reserve any remaining time for rebuttal. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Appreciate you here. At this time, ladies and gentlemen, we open up the floor for discussion. And keep in mind that we are entertaining discussions on items uh 2533 and 2534. There are any citizens who wish to come and address the council on these items, please come forward, give us your name, and state what's on your mind. Seeing and hearing none, council members, uh, item number 10, consider ordinance 2533. What is your pleasure? Move to approve. Second. Properly moved and second. Any unreadiness? Call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying I.

I. Any opposers? Name. And ordinance number 2534 reszoning request. Move to approve. Second. Is that with the stated conditions? With the extended conditions. Correct. Right. On both. Okay. Excuse. All right. I call for vote at this time. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposers name? Ladies and gentlemen, items number 12 and 13 have been tabled. We're moving on to items number 14. Consider resolution 25R71. Step two, industrial way property disposal. Presented by our city attorney, Mr. for Patrick Jocksteader.

Good evening. Thank you all for the opportunity to be here. You may recall um back in September 2025 um this board considered and adopted a resolution determining that this portion of Industrial Boulevard no longer served a public purpose. And the reason he did that is in order to abandon rightway, Georgia law has a two-step process. Step one is the governing authority being you must determine that the right of way no longer serves a public purpose. Step two, which is why we're here tonight, is for you to consider formally abandoning the right of way. So, before you tonight is resolution 25R71. Having already determined that this small portion of Industrial Boulevard does not serve a public purpose, you're being asked to consider whether or not to formally abandon that portion of Industrial Boulevard. It's important to note that that Industrial Boulevard only exists on paper. It does not appear that it has ever been improved or put to public use. But because it exists on paper and it shows it's right away, in order to return it to the marketplace and allow it to be used, you must formally adopt it. And if you approve the resolution, you will abandon that portion of right away. Now, I would let you all know um if you this is the rightway you'll be abandoning. And if you see, and the the bubble's too big, but if you see where the arrow is, there is a sanitary sewer easement that crosses

the right of way. We will be retaining that sanitary sewer easement. So, what will happen is if you approve resolution 25R71, that property will no longer be public right away. We will then offer to convey it to the adjoining land owners and we will reserve the sanitary sewer of the property. If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. I'm just going to pop through. That's the last one. So, um otherwise, if you have any questions, I'll answer them. Otherwise, it's to you to make a determination. Council members, questions for Mr. Jocksteader.

Hearing none. Are there any citizens who have any questions uh on this item or any comments? Again hearing and seeing none, council members, it is your pleasure with resolution 25 R71. Move to approve. Second. Properly moved and second that we approve. Any unreadiness? U mayor and councel, can I uh just make a quick reference to items 12 and 13? No, sir. We may take a motion on item number 14. If you be patient, we'll come back doing public hearings. Okay,

thank you. Been properly moved and seconded on on number 25 R71. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposers? Name.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to go on to consent agenda items. Consent agenda item 25R42, the amended maintenance agreement with Southern Conservation Trust for Dixon Property Ridge Nature Area. 25 R69 supporting the submission in the approval by the Georgia legislature of the proposed Micromobility Traffic Safety Act. 25 R72 board appointments for terms beginning January the 1st, 2026, 25R73, City of Fagville loan agreement with Fagville Downtown Development Authority and the Roundtown Holdings LLC and 25R75 appointment of city representatives for the Faget County Transportation Committee. Council members, what is your pleasure with this consent agenda items? Move

to approve. Second. properly moved and second that we approve the consent agenda items. Any unreiness call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposes name? At this time, ladies and gentlemen, we will go into uh uh city reports and comments. City manager, you have anything to report on staff?

Yeah, thank you, mayor. Uh first of all, I want to um do a heartfelt thank you to council members Scott Stacy and Rich Hoffman for your public service, your great public service over the years. I know I speak for all of staff as well as we extend our sincere gratitude to you both for your dedication and your leadership. Uh your commitment to the city and to enhancing its quality of life has made a lasting impact on our community. And personally, I thank you for your support and and just all the great things you've done and helped us do here in the city. And I just want to say thank you and wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year and thank staff and council for a very productive 2025. Um some challenging moments during 2025 but um very productive and I look forward to 2026.

Thank you very much. City manager, city council members, anything you want to make comments on?

I also I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, I'd like to comment on um uh Scott Stacy and and Rich Hoffman. This city's gone through a a very significant transition from the time that they came on the city council, and they've done significant improvements and and uh updates to the city. So, I want to commend you on the job that you have done in transforming this city into a city that the citizens have uh claimed and and have voted on that they wanted. So, thank you for your service. It was an excellent pleasure serving with you and um you know, we'll miss you, man.

Yeah. I I want to go that too. When I when I was first elected, both of you were already here. Uh, and I was able to work with both of you on everything we ever did. And we never there's never been a cross word that happens with this council. And these two individuals always did what they thought was best for this city. And I agree with you. So, thank you, Rich. Thank you, Scott, for all the support that you did for this city. I definitely appreciate it because eight years and 12 years of service to this council, folks. woman.

I just want to say thank you for your service and all that you've done thus far.

Well, I would like to thank the citizens of Fyville for trusting me to represent them for the past eight years. I lean knowing that with the help of my fellow council members, much has been accomplished. Not only is the city in the best financial position it has ever experienced, but we have built a solid foundation for years to come. I encourage future council members to put aside personal agendas and do what is best for both the citizens and the city. Once again, thank you and may God bless the citizens, the city, all future councils, and finally, may God bless America. Councilman Stacy,

you know, there's there's a lot of times that I'm not serious and you probably can tell. Um, but this is this is serious. The police in here and the fire in here and the staff, that's why I did it. I serve the citizens, but I served you first. Thank you. And I I'll also say that I'm not done. Uh I I will also say that what we are leaving this new council that's coming on. We've been a part of a team that have made a difference not just for 5 10 years. We have made a difference in this community that's going to last for decades. Many many decades. And that took work, dedication, and focus. And it only could have been done with this team right here and with the staff. That is something to be proud of for this this community. Why not everybody might agree with that? It comes to the community first and that's what we served. Now you can clap. Are you done now? Again, ladies and gentlemen, is if it is not intuitively obvious, both these gentlemen have served this city with passion, commitment, and dedication. We always did not agree on everything, but one thing I loved about serving with them as the chair of this council is that we always were willing to sit down and have conversation, discussion, and often times, as they say, you find out when you have discussion that you're not that far apart on the issues. And I found with these gentlemen that they are really committed to the city and I know

that we're going to have to uh probably take the key away from them because they'll probably show up at all of our meetings. But uh you're welcome to as a as a private citizen, but we want you to know we are thankful for your service to the city of Fedville. So again, we applaud you. We commend you and we say thank you for your service to the city of Fedville. At this time, ladies and gentlemen, yes, you can go ahead and give them a not to me. At this time, ladies and gentlemen, we open the floor for public comments. Believe the gentleman wanted to come and address uh the tableabling of items 12. Yeah. Can I Oh, Chelsea, I Yes, Miss Clerk.

Okay. So, at the beginning of the meeting, mayor and council made a motion to table items 12 and 13. Um, they would like to host a town hall meeting for this. So, I will start a list up there if you would like to leave your name, your email address, and your address so that we can make sure that you are notified when we have those details finalized.

Um, I would just like to thank uh my name is Rick Moses. I live and uh the build is at Ginger Cake and uh I'd like to thank the people that came out uh specifically for uh talking about the proposed building on Ginger Cake Road in Highway 54. Um uh I consider it uh you know a real nightmare and that it should be uh the project should be ended uh quickly but um we'll continue to fight and we'll accept the uh the town hall and uh uh we'll you'll hear more from us then. Thank you. Thank you sir for your comments. Appreciate it.

Thank you for your service. uh councilmen who are retiring and leaving. Thank you so much, mayor. My name is Tony Houston. I live at Ginger Cake Villas also. And I'm just curious, um what I heard you say was there would be a town hall scheduled. Is that something that would be scheduled in January? Um we don't have any details for the town hall yet. So, we'll work with the team and as soon as we have something on the books, we will push it out for everyone to be notified. Okay. And are they typically done in the daytime or in the evening like this meeting is? We typically have them in the evening. Okay. Yeah. We'll we'll aim for the middle of January. Okay. And make sure it's in the evening.

Thank you. I was just curious if you're here because you're interested in this. If you would stand up so that the council would know how many of you came out to address this. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. Bring bring some more of your friends for the town hall, too. Well, again, ladies and gentlemen, we uh thank you all. If there any other citizens who wish to come forward and make comments, ma'am, please come to the microphone. Give us your name. We're still in in session. Ladies and gentlemen, please maintain the coral.

Hello, my name is Edith Underwood and I am on Raobus Way and every time I talk to people in Fagetville, I think the main con one of the main concerns is the traffic. So I mean and I'm just saying for whatever if you could do a traffic study I think that would ease some of this tension because

ma'am every project that we undertake we consider traffic if it is a requirement to do a traffic study we do that and even if it does not require a traffic study our staff and engineers always look at traffic and the impact on the community. Rest assured, we do not just overlook traffic when we doing developments. Okay. Thank you. Mayor, if I could add on that. There's also I've noticed in the city there's been I've talked to Chris Heyman, um the assistant city manager, there's some timing issues, I believe, with some of the signals

and we need to really look closely at those to make sure that those are operating the way they should be to allow traffic to flow more effectively. So, we'll we'll be looking at that as well. My name is Judith Bosch and I actually represent Executive Office Park which is across from the villas and so I just want to say something about the traffic that I am concerned about. when I looked at your plan, this plan is going to one of the um entrances and exits from this uh development is going to be directly across from Executive Office Park, which we already have difficulty leaving and entering. And I just want to add that this needs to be looked at at the same time because you're going to have people coming from that area making right-hand turns onto Ginger Cake to get to 54. And at the same time, you're going to have people from Executive Office Park making right-hand turns or lefthand turns to get on to 54 to reach the highway because this is an office park and it's been established for quite some time. Thank you.

Let me ask a question. When you're talking about the traffic when you're trying to leave there, is it all day long or is it specific time?

It is all day long. There has also been several accidents at 54 and Ginger Cake. And when there are accidents, they have to be rec re uh diverted either through Walgreens or through my office complex and we can't get out. Unfortunately, whenever the executive office park was designed, they only had one entrance and one exit. and it's the same one. So, I I am very concerned about this. I've been an awner for over 17 years and I have been a member and and lived in this county for over 45 years. So, this is a concern and I thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, before uh others come up and talk about the issue of traffic, please understand that's one of the reasons why we s considered tableabling uh these items for further discussion in the town halls. We want to hear everything that you have to say and that will be considered during these town halls. So, please please do what you're doing here tonight. Be present at the town hall, okay? so that we can hear your opposition, your points of uh value that we think need to be considered when we move forward with this development, if we move forward with this development. So, we thank you for being here tonight. It really uh really helped uh not only being able to see the citizens who are committed but also to have you here to see your council as well as our staff continuing to do the best they can to make sure that this city is run efficiently and effectively in the midst of the progress we're trying to establish for all of the citizens to improve the quality of life here in the city of Fedville.

Are there any other citizens who wish to come? Yes. Okay. Not trying to rush you, but if you can be prepared to come up immediately. My name is Don Kirkley. I live on Ginger Cake Road. Rich, how you doing, buddy?

Uh, just want you to know I'm not a member of the city of Fateville. I live in the county and what you guys do here impacts me on a daily basis. And to hear say somebody, it's there's no traffic. There is traffic on 54. And everything I've heard here tonight has impacted 54 traffic. All these developments and I don't see you guys coming up with a solution. I hear these developments rolling on and being approved. But at the same time, I've heard three tonight approved that are going to impact our 54 traffic. And that's what all of us are here tonight. We're we're like I say, we're not uh in the city. We're a county and you guys have annexed us in and what you do are impacting our way of life.

Okay, sir. we heard what you have to say and I just want you to know that everything that we do we uh do consideration with regards to traffic by communicating with G do by working with our county board of commissioners to make sure that everyone knows that whatever development we're doing in the city if it has impact outside of the city that everyone is aware of it again avail yourself of the information by coming to commission meetings come to council meetings and staying informed by our website this is the fourth time I've been here to oppose this development on Ginger Cake Road and that's why that's why we have further discussion on it. We have not approved it.

Um Mr. Mayor, council, um my name's Ellen Shell House. I live at 265 Rahobath and Ginger Cake. Um we've only lived here for a year and I spent my career running operations and working with city governments and things. And I want to say that I really appreciate the communication team that you showed us here tonight. And I've heard you say and all of you about listening for the thing. I think the thing that I have observed over the past several months with this new development coming next door to us is the lack of communication about traffic and the study and trying to find out when the hearings were. And you have such an excellent newsletter. I've never lived in a city that had such a wonderful newsletter full of news. But I think maybe some of the things you need to look putting in that newsletter are maybe some of the tidbits about the things I knew nothing and I read the newsletter every week about the developments that were passed here tonight. Some of them I think are good, some of them a little questionable. Um, but I think that there's better ways for you to communicate with the citizens and get this information out that you've told several people about tonight. if we did this or if we did that. We're not all able to come to council meetings in Ginger Cake. A lot of the people, a lot of residents are elderly. They don't come out at night. So, town hall meetings during the daytime actually would work out probably better for us, but it might not work out for the business community. But just something to think about is to push out more communication about the topics so that at least we can get in touch with maybe um the wonderful people who presented here tonight about the developments. I had no idea who their names were and maybe, you know, if you have a question, you could contact this email or that email. So, thank you all very much for your service. Congratulations on your retirement. May you get a little bit of hot coffee and some fun.

Well, you know, we're not voluntarily retiring, right? I was trying to be as polite as I possibly could be. Who's up here? You didn't. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate it.

Sir Mike Loper with the Villas at Ginger Cake. Just a quick comment. Could you guide us through kind of we're going to have a town hall meeting there's going to be a lot of folks attend that. What will be the next steps to where a vote is taken for approval or disapproval? Uh well that will become as a result of the town hall meeting whatever we discover in the town hall. We will then work with the developer and see where there's potential give and take compromise on the adjustments on the development uh to satisfy some of the concerns from the citizens and then we will keep you all informed again when it's going before the planning zoning commission and then uh when it's going to come before the council. Julie, we got anything else you want to add? I just wanted to add Glennetta and the communications team do do a great job of getting the newsletter out and social media, but for the residents, I just want to make sure they know if they go on the city website, we do have a portal to all of the development projects. There's a map you can click on whatever area you want. It brings up the project and any information that the applicant has submitted, whether it's a site plan, elevations, project narrative, all of that is on the website available for the citizens to review prior to us posting our packet for the agenda, which also has it's posted one week before the meeting. And then all that same information is in the packets for both planning and zoning and city council. or you can stop by and ask me to show it to you and I'll be happy to review it with you.

And Julie, we also have the HOA meetings. Yes. Quarterly HOA meetings. Quarterly HOA meetings where share a lot of information about what's going on and that that's a good time to have that discussion about traffic and transportation issues.

Good evening, council and uh mayor. My name is Keith Larson, a bikewalk fa community advocate and I want to congratulate you and thank you for your support of the micromobility traffic safety act. Uh we you heard a lot your residents about traffic tonight. This is the other type of traffic. Mayor, you might might recall you and I uh elbowto elbow with a comprehensive planning town hall years ago and the number one request of your residents was better communications for pedestrians and bicycles. And you're that getting there. The rest of the council may not be aware, but Fagatville is in the top 20 best comm connected communities in the state of Georgia for low-speed traffic. That's great news, but we got room to grow and we're going to continue to work uh with city staff, residents on providing public input requesting that the Microommobility Traffic Safety Act is a bottoms up approach to address gaps in the Georgia code that presently exist. All the little things that you see people riding on sidewalks and on the streets that don't look like a bicycle, but they're moving. None of them are required by the Georgia code to follow any traffic law. And that's a problem. We have a lot of residents that are complaining about their pedestrian safety sense. And so this would this bill if passed by the legislature would require all those devices to follow bicycle law. That means they got to stop at the traffic lights. They got to respect the pedestrians and those with disabilities, but it's for the future growth. You, some of your projects tonight talked about path connectivity. So, this would give you means to regulate the speeds on those paths as well. So, it's enabling

legislation. So, this is a bottom approach starting in Faget County. So, Fagetville tonight. This is the fourth community in Faget County to pass such a resolution of support. Our rep state representative Josh Bonner is sponsoring it in the House. We're reaching out this month to communities across the state asking for their support. This has already been presented to the Georgia Municipal Association planning team. They're going to support. So, we are hopeful that we're going to have some new tools that will enable city staff to recommend to the council updates of ordinances to address your pedestrian needs and concerns. So, thank you again for your vision and moving forward. Fateville.

Thank you, Mr. Lawson. You have a comment. Councilman evening council. Um, not to beat any dead horses, but time of the ginger cake. Your name, please. I'm sorry. JC Waterhouse 310 Braar Road. Um, in terms of the Ginger Cake, um, um, 54 intersection.

Peach Tree City was able to reduce speed limits in their area of 54. I'm curious if that could happen at that intersection. That's a pretty dangerous intersection. Both sides coming up at the peak of the hill. it's very difficult to see oncoming traffic. Uh maybe a lowered speed limit right around Frank's Old Mill instead of down by the uh urgent care might be a little more effective. Um and then I was here about a month ago and we discussed the uh Mr. Gibson, you you touched on earlier, the traffic lights not really working, the intersections not working well. So that's all.

Again, thank you very much. Appreciate it. That's the uh hopefully the outcome will be of the town hall meetings to get all these inputs and uh impact and hopefully make some adjustments as necessary.

I do want to say that it may look sometimes like we don't know what we're doing. We really do. Uh for instance, on the Ginger Cake Highway 54, we have had several meetings with someone who's a I want to call him an expert on storm water and runoff. and we I introduced him to Ray Gibson and he subsequently has had several meetings with with us because we're concerned just like you about everything. So, we do do our homework although sometimes it looks like we just sit up here and vote. Believe me, we do put in the hours. I think it's important to note too that these bigger projects like QTS there's the de development of regional impact and you may not see any road work being done right now but part of that approval from the original uh development was to have road improvements and those are those will start those are required to be done. So you'll start to see some of those road improvements um being constructed over the next couple years as they meet those requirements. You may not see it now but it's going to happen.

Okay. Any other guess? We will make time for any citizens. I was running a little bit late, so if GSP comes through the door, I'm running out that door. You did it.

I drove up here from noon and um I just felt like I had to be here for you two. Um I know on behalf of me and our staff, we do appreciate y'all's support um showing up to all of our events. Um, and I've never seen somebody put on so much suntan lotion at a dragon boat race. That was Scott Stacy. Uh, he participated in that. Just your your dry sense of humor and your jokes and just continued support for the PD and, uh, we really appreciate it. So, I hope you continue to support us and we're just a phone call away. So, thank y'all for the job that you do.

Thank you, Chief. Ladies and gentlemen, For the citizens who do not know, that's our exceptional uh chief of police, Robert. Just don't wear that hat in city hall again. Go dogs and our exceptional police department. Okay. At this time, ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to ask our city attorney if you got anything. We sometimes overlook you, but we want you to know you

I am happy to be overlooked, but I will say something tonight. Um, I have worked in local government law for 30 years. And I know that's a surprise. I'm I was only 12 when I started, right? Um, and I am very gratified when people get up and thank their city councilmen or elected officials for the service they do. And thank you both for the service you've given. It always strikes me as odd that the only time we express that gratitude is when they're leaving. And as someone who has worked with hundreds of elected officials, I will say this, and I'd like to remind everybody of this. These men and women that are serving now and that will be serving, they voluntarily subject themselves to the position they serve. They are asked to make impossible, difficult decisions week after week after week. And they in doing so, they get criticized. They get second guessed. They get challenged at every turn. But these two gentlemen that are leaving office did that and they kept coming back for more. And I know people think, you know, all the most cynical and bad things about people who take public office, but the truth of it is you don't do it unless you truly care about your community. And I can tell you from my time with the city, um, Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Stacy truly care about this community. And I appreciate the work they've done and and I hope everyone will take a moment when you're angry at your councilman and you're angry at your mayor and you're angry at your commissioner to remember that the decisions they're asked to make are asked to make are not easy. The job this they are volunteering to do and to subject themselves to the to the really sometimes nasty criticism.

they they know that's part of the cost of doing the job and they still do it anyway. So, I would urge you while I think it's appropriate to express our gratitude to the to the councilmen that are leaving, take a moment every once in a while and express it to the ones that are serving because it is a really difficult job. Thank you both for doing it. Thank you all for doing it and and I it's I just wanted to kind of paint that perspective a little bit. So, thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Chuck. I guess I owe you five bucks now, right? If there are no other comments to come before the council tonight, I think our work is done. We have no executive session.

No executive session tonight. So again, as the mayor, let me say uh wish each and every one of you a blessed uh Christmas holiday, merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Quanza, and enjoy your new year and come back in January so we can be engaged and continue to move this city forward in the progressive manner that it should be. God bless each and every one of you. If this me if there's nothing else, I will entertain a motion to adjourn this meeting. So move second properly moved and second. Any unreiness call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposes say. Thank you ladies ladies and gentlemen for being here tonight. Got a lot of